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Originally Posted by Mark Skarr
Again, this is only an issue if you're generally an inconsistent person and don't take good notes. But, the only matter that "invested time" becomes relevant is if they're making a roll, otherwise, it's a role-playing issue and rolls only become relevant from the PCs perspective not the NPC's.
This is like stating that all enemies should be fully stated and their mechanics spelled out in game rules. When, the fact is, just writing down what they can do and a basic number for the roll is much more useful and relevant.
The issue you bring up, for stories, generally only comes from when you have multiple authors writing stories about the same characters and they have their own interpretation of their abilities.
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Did you respond to the right quote here? What you are writing here seems like a response to my earlier post about authors writing inconsistent stories (which you already responded to once before).
Giving every enemy full stats might be exessive, but that is because writing good stats take time. It is not because, having no stats is somehow better.
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If it's an incorporeal spirit, and within the context of the game there is nothing the PCs can ever do about it, then why are its stats relevant? Why would you bother figuring out what all of it's abilities are when you can just write down "incorporeal spirit, unaffected by anything" in your notes and move on?
My notes for Asmodeus are very basic:
Name: Asmodeus
Aliases: Devil on Two Sticks, Abraham Samuel Mo, II, esq.
Position: King of Hell, rules Limbo as well
Wants: [redacted]
Abilities: He's Asmodeus, duh.
Notes:
Usually interacts as a lawyer. Always wins cases (he's the Devil). Friendly and easy going. Terribly against violence as that's antithetical to pleasure. His "clients" can reach him on any phone ("stop calling me on bananas, Heaven!"). Currently holds one of the Terminus Cores, in Limbo, to keep it out of normal reality.
How would stating out one of the Kings of Hell matter? Considering that he's normally an ally of the party (the situations are much more complex than religion would lead you to believe), it's more important to just keep him in the background as a plot device. He doesn't need stats.
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Being an incoporeal spirit is part of the stats! Also, even if the PCs can't hurt it, many other part of its stats could still be important. Is it charismatic? Does it have any magical attacks? Is it good at chess? etc.
There are plenty of things those notes don't tell you about Asmodeus. Whether lacking those things is a significant detriment does of course depend on the particulars of your game.