hmm, if it weren't for the obvious lag reducing capabilities, I'd say no for sure, but for multiple similar objects that are cross-level, showimgs would be much nicer than npcs (i.e. those blasted lights people keep making, even though that has nothing to do with setshape
). But just for having different layers of shapes on one object, put your setshape and block/dontblock in a timeout and change them as the player's interaction with the npc changes (see attachment). You don't need to layer showimgs to do such things.