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So I was going to get into D&D Before, but due to today's Wandering Monsters article, I feel the need to go back to a prior topic in which I have great interest: monster stat blocks.

James Wyatt asked for our opinion on the new stat block (see block below; click on it for a larger view).   Having given my opinion on stat block design four times before --  -- I feel that I wouldn't be able to give the appropriate response in a simple post or comment.



For me, design of a stat block needs to have several factors:
It needs to be complete.  It should not require you to look up powers or descriptions elsewhere in the books.

It needs to be concise.  It should be only as long as needs to be and no longer.  unwanted space, unneeded desription, and superfluous categorization...

For those of you who have been following my articles on the formatting for monster stat blocks an adventure blocks (read them here: ), you know that stat block formatting is something I have some definite opinions about.  There is some exciting news out of GenCon, which you can hear with your own ears at this podcast, thanks to the good folks at the Tome Show.

They recorded a GenCon panel called "D&D Next Panel: Monsters, Magic Items, and DM Mischief".  The panelists were Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, Chris Perkins, and James Wyatt.  The panel discussed many things, as one can see from the panel's title, and it's well worth the listen.  But buried in the middle there was the following exchange about stat blocks, which you can hear beginning at 22:55 through 25:05 in the...