| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Feats, skills, organization maybe ? I want to make shorter blocks
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Is this for your own game?
If it's, then there isn't much need to tell where each bonus comes from, since you know how you built the character... That means you remove the names and description if feats that do nothing but give you a constant numerical bonus (Improved Initiative, Iron Will, etc).
Take out? From a standard statblock, almost nothing. You might be able to get away with removing something like "SQ familiar", when you've got the familiar's statblock beside the master's. But by and large, almost everything else is essential at some point.
Add in? Absolutely. I superscript the saving throws for abilities and spells and auras right beside them. "channel energyW15(3d6)" with the W15 superscripted, for instance. Saves having to go find the description of every ability and calculate the save on the fly. With spells, it's not always 10+spell-level+casting-stat because of things like Spell Focus, or traits that increase specific types of spells (I have an inquisitor who gets +1 to DCs of language-dependent spells).
If the monster is designed for combat I'd leave out most skills save for Perception, Acrobatics, Escape Artist, Stealth, UMD, Spellcraft, and any build-specific skills such as Sleight of Hand, Sense Motive, and Bluff. Personally the statblocks aren't long enough, but that's just me.
|
I end up boiling down most stat blocks during prep. It's nice to have the full ones available, but I usually end up with:
Name (Initiative)
AC, HP, CMD, [DR]
Saves, [SR], [Resists]
Attack
[Special Attacks/Spells]
That's all I really need to run them in battle, so that's all I put in my notes for the session. It makes things run a lot more smoothly for me.
Cheers!
Landon
Determine what kind of encounter the creature in question is a part of:
You more or less have three types:
Combat (obvious)
Intrigue (social interactions, relations, influence, etc)
Economics (crafting, buying/selling, reward distribution)
For the most part, if the NPC/creature can be summed up to serve only one of these roles, then they only need relevant information to that role. If there is a chance they could cross over roles (i.e. if your players are Chaotic Neutral) then you should include the rest of the information.
Otherwise only include the information, stats, and feats relevant to their role in the story.