Just wondered how other GM's handle amount of action cards for npc's and monsters.

Was brought, again, to my attention when reading Black Fire Pass adventure, and "Mydthroth" was allocated 1 action card, which is suggested to be "Throw into the Wall", 1 action card for a millinnia old creature? Is he stuck using "Throw into the Wall" and "Melee Strike"? According to the adventure anyway...

Zurgash is given 1 action (spell) card as well, but also says that he has the 3 included Whaarg spells, so does he have 3 or 4 spells??? And if you don't have Gathering Storm, or Creature Vault (can't remember if there's Whaarg spells included there), how are you going to give him an extra spell?

Also 4 action cards to a 20 year old creature, and 1 to a 2000 year old???

And don't get me started on Greater Demons, who gets 3 action cards...

So... do other GM's even bother with the action card symbols, or do they do (like I've been doing so far) allocate whatever they feel is appropriate to the npc's/monsters?

For the above example, I would equip Mydthroth with 4-5 action cards, so the PC's fight an epic foe, like a Shaggoth should be (even if he's weakened).

I ignore the action card numbers especially for important foes, I mean the fact a lord of change has three extra spells actions, plus Arcane blast is laughable, I would allow him any spells from the lore of tzeentch plus three spells from the colleges, and then one or two support cards, this is tons of actions to monitor but really how often do you face something like that, it should be the focus of that session.

I only use the symbols to give me an idea of the types of action a monster would have, and dish out what feels right. Some creatures make no sense to me, the Bloodthirster is far weaker than he should be, and with him I would actually struggle regarding which actions to give him. There really are not enough actions powerful enough to represent him.

In response to your post for basic monsters yes I use what they say, maybe mixing it up slightly, but for important foes not in the slightest.

I assign action cards based on what I think makes sense for the NPC/Creature + the encounter, with an eye towards making the encounter exciting or unique.

I also try to keep it streamlined with only 2-3 action cards detailed for key NPCs, and a simple single action for a mob group. I don't worry too much about the particulars of an experienced NPC only have a couple of actions since the players won't know the difference as long as I do a job in describing their actions and attacks.