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<blockquote data-quote="Keldryn" data-source="post: 5920442" data-attributes="member: 11999">Definitely not the only one.&nbsp; This was one of the things that made DMing 4e a real chore for me.&nbsp; After playing D&amp;D since 1987 and hundreds of hours playing the AD&amp;D Gold Box computer games, the Baldur's Gate series, and the Eye of the Beholder series, I know what the majority of low- and mid-level spells do (even if not every single detail).&nbsp; I never set out to memorize them, I just learned them through repeated use.I really liked all of the unique monster powers in 4e before I actually tried running the game.&nbsp; I was never able to keep it all straight during the game without slowing things down considerably to review the stat blocks throughout the encounter.&nbsp; Even then, I still kept missing things.I think the best compromise is to stick to standard spells as much as possible and include a brief summary in the statblock:&nbsp; Fireball: Range 100'; 5d6 damage in a 20' radius; Dex save for half damage.That's enough to handle 90% of the cases that the monster will use the ability.&nbsp; The rare time that I need to know more details, I can look it up.&nbsp; If I have the basic details of Fireball memorized already, I can skip over that part of the entry.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Keldryn, post: 5920442, member: 11999"] Definitely not the only one. This was one of the things that made DMing 4e a real chore for me. After playing D&D since 1987 and hundreds of hours playing the AD&D Gold Box computer games, the Baldur's Gate series, and the Eye of the Beholder series, I know what the majority of low- and mid-level spells do (even if not every single detail). I never set out to memorize them, I just learned them through repeated use. I really liked all of the unique monster powers in 4e before I actually tried running the game. I was never able to keep it all straight during the game without slowing things down considerably to review the stat blocks throughout the encounter. Even then, I still kept missing things. I think the best compromise is to stick to standard spells as much as possible [I]and[/I] include a brief summary in the statblock: [B] Fireball[/B]: Range 100'; 5d6 damage in a 20' radius; Dex save for half damage. That's enough to handle 90% of the cases that the monster will use the ability. The rare time that I need to know more details, I can look it up. If I have the basic details of Fireball memorized already, I can skip over that part of the entry. [/QUOTE]

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