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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 9447211" data-attributes="member: 20323">EDIT: For a meatier example, I started tackling the Ancient Green Dragon on <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/radically-shrinking-stat-blocks.706400/page-5#post-9447882" target="_blank">page 5 of this thread</a>.[ATTACH=full]378251[/ATTACH]On the left is the <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/skeleton-entry-and-stat-blocks-from-new-monster-manual.705826/page-11" target="_blank">2024 5e skeleton</a>, marked up with my notes, and on the right is the stat block as I've rewritten it, reducing the size by at least one-third...and hopefully making it easier to read.I've reduced the stats to just one number (instead of three). This number is effectively their saving throw bonuses, but it pulls double duty as ability scores, and as initiative. For example, a monster with Dexterity saving throw proficiency would - in this writeup - also get a Dexterity bonus equal to that (e.g. for the purposes of escaping a grapple) and a boosted initiative roll. I could probably go further and omit &quot;initiative&quot; entirely from the rewritten statsI know that there's always short-hand versions of monster stats – whether in-line annotation like you'd see in an AD&amp;D module or personalized GM notes on a monster – but I wanted to explore how actual stats could be shrunken down. I've come to believe that the weightiness of monster stats contributes to draining my energy as a GM trying to keep track of everything. This is just a simple example. The real work comes in cutting down the wordiness of 5e monsters where the language just bogs down parsing what's intended.Anyhow, I'm curious about your thoughts. What are you doing to pare down monster stat blocks? Is stat block bloat a problem for you or do you embrace it? Are there certain ways you've seen stat blocks handled that you felt were easier to parse?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 9447211, member: 20323"] EDIT: For a meatier example, I started tackling the Ancient Green Dragon on [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/radically-shrinking-stat-blocks.706400/page-5#post-9447882']page 5 of this thread[/URL]. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screen Shot 2024-08-29 at 6.26.06 PM.png"]378251[/ATTACH] On the left is the [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/skeleton-entry-and-stat-blocks-from-new-monster-manual.705826/page-11']2024 5e skeleton[/URL], marked up with my notes, and on the right is the stat block as I've rewritten it, reducing the size by at least one-third...and hopefully making it easier to read. I've reduced the stats to just one number (instead of three). This number is effectively their saving throw bonuses, but it pulls double duty as ability scores, and as initiative. For example, a monster with Dexterity saving throw proficiency would - in this writeup - also get a Dexterity bonus equal to that (e.g. for the purposes of escaping a grapple) and a boosted initiative roll. I could probably go further and omit "initiative" entirely from the rewritten stats I know that there's always short-hand versions of monster stats – whether in-line annotation like you'd see in an AD&D module or personalized GM notes on a monster – but I wanted to explore how actual stats could be shrunken down. I've come to believe that the weightiness of monster stats contributes to draining my energy as a GM trying to keep track of everything. This is just a simple example. The real work comes in cutting down the wordiness of 5e monsters where the language just bogs down parsing what's intended. Anyhow, I'm curious about your thoughts. What are you doing to pare down monster stat blocks? Is stat block bloat a problem for you or do you embrace it? Are there certain ways you've seen stat blocks handled that you felt were easier to parse? [/QUOTE]

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