Spellcasting NPCs: Spell/Spell Level Organization

[MasterJena]

I've been playing and DMing D&D 5e in fantasy grounds for a good 3 years. And as much as I think the program and the ruleset are excellent, there is something that has been bothering me for a long time ... Spellcaster NPCs.

I don't really enjoy games at low levels, and enemy casters at higher levels have extensive spell lists in addition to spells with dense descriptions. The current organization system sucks at this stage of the game.

In addition to scrolling through the NPC to find the spells of interest to me, I also have to find where the magic is and its effects on the combat tracker's quick access. Writing down the enemy's spell list on a notebook sheet helps, but even with a lot of knowledge and knowing what each spell does, finding the effects on the CT / sheet slows down the game a lot. A CR 27 spellcaster has a kilometric NPC sheet, it's a nightmare.

If I could make a suggestion, I would advise a collapsible list with the spell levels, with a collapsible sublist with the name of the spells, to open its corresponding description, like the chapters in the reference manual. Something similar to what the interface FoundryVTT offers. I'll post a screenshot.

[LordEntrails]

Good idea, you should add it to the Wish List; https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/ and then put the link back in this thread.

I would vote on it.

[MasterJena]

Hey LordEntrails, tnx for the early response!
Here you go:

https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/proj/fg2app?ia=134293

This is something I've in mind for a while. I recently realized that I have a small bias towards monsters and npc's with martial skills and I have found that the organization of the spellcasters was probably a reason for me to have this bias.

[Kelrugem]

3.5e/Pf1 has an actions tab for NPCs like for characters which would probably help here a lot :) Wanted to drop that in, just in case someone here reads that and wants to write an extension for this, then that person could look into that ruleset for a coding example :)

EDIT: as a workaround: Do not parse all spells. Combats normally do not last long enough such that every spell gets used, just prepare the essential spells you are likely to use and keep the remaining slots as "placeholder" when you need to improvise :) (like choosing some random spell when it fits to the situation, players will never know that it wasn't prepared ;) ) This also reduces the time for preparations as DM in not a small amount :)

[MasterJena]

3.5e/Pf1 has an actions tab for NPCs like for characters which would probably help here a lot :)

I went into the PF2 Ruleset yesterday and my jaw dropped. That's exactly what I would like to have in 5E: Versatile, easy to set up and with spell slot control.

I'll post a suggested interface in which the spell slots that are marked on the collapsible level tab. Another suggestion would be to be able to distinguish between spellcasting, pact magic and innate spellcasting. AWESOME!

[Kelrugem]

I went into the PF2 Ruleset yesterday and my jaw dropped. That's exactly what I would like to have in 5E: Versatile, easy to set up and with spell slot control.

I'll post a suggested interface in which the spell slots that are marked on the collapsible level tab. Another suggestion would be to be able to distinguish between spellcasting, pact magic and innate spellcasting. AWESOME!

ah, yes, PF2 has that, too :D I am also fan of something like this, I personally do not like to mess with parsers :)