I don't really like the way statblocks are written in the official books, including sadly in the Definitive Edition. I think they're not designed for ease-of-use at the table.
I grant that this isn't very important, especially in our digital age. But I've been playing around with some options. Here is my current thinking:
What do you think? Is it an improvement? Do you have better ideas? Is the official format better? Is this a colossal waste of time?
My instinct is to swap Abilities and Combat - if I’m looking at a character or creature for the first time, what you’ve got under Abilities tells me more about them than the Combat section, which any given character (the local silversmith, a tricksy sylph, etc) may never be in. Depends on your playstyle though.
You may not want those headers to point at the next column.
The idea of the subheaders is nice, but as mentioned, they seem to point to the other column. Also, they seem to be the same size, or even slightly bigger than the creature’s name.
Yeah, that's definitely a matter of taste. For me, I'm thinking I first need the social-info as that's the first thing I reach for in an encounter, and then the combat thing if things go sour. If I need to get to the Abilities - this usually means we're deep into bargaining with it or something, and it's probably less urgent.
