D&D 5E Spells in Stat Blocks are Terrible

[Obryn]

[MENTION=100714]Pentegarn[/MENTION],

Apropos of nothing, "Pillars" was easily one of my favorite D&D CYOA books when I was a kid. I must've run through it a few dozen times. Thanks for sparking the memory.

I still have a copy! By total coincidence, within arm's reach.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I still have a copy! By total coincidence, within arm's reach.

That one and--I forget the name, but you played an elf with a talking amulet, exploring your family's old ancestral castle--always struck me as being the most "feels like an actual D&D experience to me" entries in the series.

We probably ought to either get off this topic or start a new thread.

 

[Obryn]

That one and--I forget the name, but you played an elf with a talking amulet, exploring your family's old ancestral castle--always struck me as being the most "feels like an actual D&D experience to me" entries in the series.

We probably ought to either get off this topic or start a new thread.

My favorites were the Sagard books, honestly. But ... errr ... yeah.

 

[Pentegarn]

@Pentegarn ,

Apropos of nothing, "Pillars" was easily one of my favorite D&D CYOA books when I was a kid. I must've run through it a few dozen times. Thanks for sparking the memory.

LoL

Yeah, used to love those books. There was also "Spell of the Winter Wizard", Escape from..."Tenopia", and "the Kingdom of Frome". lol

I used to love the Lone Wolf and World of Lone Wolf books as well. Use to read CYOA along with more tradition fantasy books before I played my first game of D&D.

 

[KidSnide]

I like most things about the 5e monsters, but I agree that most combat spells should have a brief half-line summary to make DMing easier.

-KS

 

[fanboy2000]

So, I'm with you about the lack of detail in stat blocks. My biggest problem with undetailed spells in stat blocks is that tactically and thematically important spells had a tendency to get lost.

A second, minor, problem is that statblocks would be limited to spells in the PHB or detailed in whatever product they are printed in. That can be kind of limiting from an adventure perspective.

Most of the spells important information is easily and quickly summarized. If, for some reason, the DM needs a fuller description, the PHB can be consulted. But I prefer a reduction in the number of books consulted to run an NPC/monster.

I suspect this won't be a problem, but I hope that we don't go back to using spells to fill-out supernatural and extraordinary abilities. (i.e., this monster casts light as an extraordinary ability!)

Ugh.

 

[The Human Target]

Yes, yes they are.

 

[Agglomérante]

The solution is a digital document, not print, e.g., 1/4 of the DM reading space is a rules column displaying the related definition/description of any linked concept clicked in the adventure panel on the other 3/4 of the reading space.

We'll get there, eventually. And we'll find all these print era gaming problems quaint.

 

[fanboy2000]

The solution is a digital document, not print, e.g., 1/4 of the DM reading space is a rules column displaying the related definition/description of any linked concept clicked in the adventure panel on the other 3/4 of the reading space.

We'll get there, eventually. And we'll find all these print era gaming problems quaint.

You are likely on to something. For my 4e game last Saturday I didn't print out any of the monsters.

What I had been doing is cutting and pasting an image of the Adventure Tools monster statblock into a two-column word-processing document (Pages, if you're curious) and printing out the sheet. Fairly straight-forward. But this past Saturday, instead of printing the document out, I simply uploaded it to my iPad. Not having to waste ink, money, or time to print it out was great. If Project Morningstar can give us something like that, that would be great.

 

[E. Tallitnics]

As previously noted they've added 32 pages to the MM just to include all the monsters they've designed. By not raising the price WotC is already reducing their profit margin.

If you then add spell descriptions you're expanding the page count even more! Understand that the cost of paper is the single biggest expense in production.

I agree that it would be more convenient to have a short description listed with each spell in each monsters stat block. I'm absolutely sure I'd not be willing to pay 20 or 30 dollars more for a book that's already 50 dollars for such a minor convenience.