Is there a specific reason that CMB and CMD are in the Statistics section of the statblock, rather than in the Offense and Defense sections (respectively)?
I thought the guiding principle of the statblock was that numbers actively rolled on the creature's turn (CMB) went in the Offense section, while numbers rolled or referenced on other turns (CMD) were in the Defense section. Statistics were usually for numbers that are important for derivations and recalculations, but aren't frequently rolled or referenced on their own (like Abilities and BAB).
I know a change is unlikely at this point, but I have to say I would prefer to have them in the "correct" sections unless there was a compelling reason to do otherwise. This came up when I was trying to explain to my players how to build a proper statblock, and each exception to the general guideline above only makes that explanation more complicated...
Creative Director
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They're where they are because they derive from a creature's Base Attack, I guess. And it's kinda nice having them both next to each other, rather than putting CMB on a line in Offense and CMD on a line in Defense. And since neither of those values really match well with established lines, they'd probably end up being alone on one line, which would expand the stat block by 2 lines which is not good.
So really, they're on the same line as BAB to save space.
Gotcha. Thanks for the quick response, James.
Are we going to see an expanded procedural method for building a Pathfinder statblock at some point? I've been cobbling together the info from 3.5 statblock instructions. Since I run adventure paths in maptool, the actual building algorithm would save me a lot of time putting NPCs into my campaign.