Spells for NPCs

About to start my first campaign for PF2 and wanted to understand a few things.

Am I right that to access an NPC spell list I will need to use the tab on the stat block and not the CT as I would normally do in 5e?

With a bit of playing I realised to access the magnifying glass and the details behind the spell I have to unlock the npc record, then , combat, prepared, and standard become available. There isn’t a way to do this with the record locked?

I found that a specific spell, Bane, had no effect button, just the cast option. Is this something coming in R18? I added it myself, but wanted to know if this is normal and need to check all creatures for missing coding?

I think it depends on the adventure you are running and where the NPC comes from. I think most of the spells do have automation and so do most of the NPCs. However prepared adventures may not have the most up to date copy of the NPC and the NPC may not have the most up to date spell.

I'm running extinction curse at the moment and the NPCs in that predate the automation in the bestiary. So I'm swapping them out of encounters where the same NPC has been updated with automation. Those that are unique to the adventure I'm adding the automation myself.

I think you are correct about the spells. NPC spells don't appear on the CT as they do in 5e but rather in the spells tab of the NPC. And yes, unlocking the NPC will enable you to add automation to the spells.

I did check the NPC in the AP against the Bestiary, and they were the same. I'm about to start the Abomination Vaults, which I know is a pretty new adventure, so I am supposing they would be updated. Anyway, thanks for the help, I will indeed go through all the encounters and just check. I noticed I was able to drop on the spells from the (SR-U) Drag_N_Drop.mod, which gave me the extra stuff needed. I have a few weeks before we start in earnest, so I'm hoping R18 is released before then.