I would love an option to see my character stats at the top of the screen, probably above the message buffer.

[Edit: This may be a mostly ASCII issue, since noteye has a hp bar, and bubble animations coming.]

I recently realised that during intense combats, I constantly have to flicker my eyes from the very top to the very bottom of the screen to track both the combat messages and the changes to my HP. Once I became aware of this, it became increasingly annoying, and I realise that this has been slowing me up for years (or sometimes, leading me to not look closely at one or the other, rushing and getting killed). I expect many people who are used to the current display would like the option to retain it, but I also believe that the game would be much more pleasant and functional to play with the character stats adjacant to the message buffer.

I have attached an image of what the game would look like with the stats at the top of the screen. The white lines are a side-effect of my poor cut/pasting in paint, but I do sort-of like having a divide between the stats, the buffer, and the graphics - so perhaps that is something to consider as well?