I took a page from Flee Mortals and use actions instead of spells for NPC combatants.
https://shop.mcdmproductions.com/collections/flee-mortals-the-mcdm-monster-book
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I took a page from Flee Mortals and use actions instead of spells for NPC combatants.
https://shop.mcdmproductions.com/collections/flee-mortals-the-mcdm-monster-book
for what its worth, the new (2024/2025) monster manual supposedly has spellcasting monsters with more "magical" actions built in. While they do still have a list of spells, they have more built in tailored "magic action" type things they would be using instead of spell casting in most scenarios, like having a "magic bolt" type attack for a mage or something. We don't exactly know how extensive this is yet, since we've only seen previews so far, but it could make running spellcasting creatures a bit easier.