D&D Monsters

Monster stat blocks contain all the information you need to run a creature in combat.

Header Information:

• Name and Type: Creature type (aberration, beast, dragon, etc.) and size
• Alignment: Typical alignment (individual creatures may vary)
• Armor Class: Number attack rolls must meet or exceed to hit
• Hit Points: Average HP and the dice formula (e.g., 45 HP = 6d10+12)
• Speed: How far the creature moves (walking, flying, swimming, climbing, burrowing)

Ability Scores:
Six abilities just like player characters: STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA
Modifiers are shown in parentheses

Other Stats:

• Saving Throws: Only lists proficient saves
• Skills: Only lists proficient skills
• Damage Resistances/Immunities: Takes half damage or no damage from certain types
• Condition Immunities: Can't be affected by certain conditions
• Senses: Darkvision, blindsight, tremorsense, etc. Always includes passive Perception
• Languages: What the creature can speak and understand
• Challenge Rating (CR): Power level, determines XP reward

Special Traits:
Passive abilities always active (like Magic Resistance, Pack Tactics, Legendary Resistance)

Actions:
What the creature can do on its turn (attacks, spells, special abilities)

Reactions (if any):
Actions taken in response to triggers (like opportunity attacks or counterspell)

Legendary Actions (if any):
Powerful creatures get 3 legendary actions per round, used at the end of other turns

Lair Actions (if any):
Special environmental effects in the creature's lair, occur on initiative count 20

Challenge Rating represents a monster's difficulty and determines XP rewards.

What CR Means:
A CR X creature is a medium-difficulty encounter for a party of four X-level characters.

• CR 1 = appropriate for four 1st-level characters
• CR 5 = appropriate for four 5th-level characters
• CR 20 = appropriate for four 20th-level characters

CR and XP Rewards:

• CR 0 (10 XP) - CR 1/8 (25 XP) - CR 1/4 (50 XP) - CR 1/2 (100 XP)
• CR 1 (200 XP) - CR 2 (450 XP) - CR 3 (700 XP) - CR 4 (1,100 XP)
• CR 5 (1,800 XP) - CR 6 (2,300 XP) - CR 7 (2,900 XP) - CR 8 (3,900 XP)
• CR 9 (5,000 XP) - CR 10 (5,900 XP) - CR 11 (7,200 XP) - CR 12 (8,400 XP)
• CR 13 (10,000 XP) - CR 14 (11,500 XP) - CR 15 (13,000 XP) - CR 16 (15,000 XP)
• CR 17 (18,000 XP) - CR 18 (20,000 XP) - CR 19 (22,000 XP) - CR 20 (25,000 XP)
• CR 21 (33,000 XP) - CR 22 (41,000 XP) - CR 23 (50,000 XP) - CR 24 (62,000 XP)
• CR 25 (75,000 XP) - CR 26 (90,000 XP) - CR 27 (105,000 XP) - CR 28 (120,000 XP)
• CR 29 (135,000 XP) - CR 30 (155,000 XP)

Building Encounters by CR:
Use the encounter building rules in the DMG:
1. Determine XP thresholds for your party (based on character levels)
2. Total the XP of monsters you want to use
3. Apply multiplier based on number of monsters (more monsters = harder fight)
4. Compare to party thresholds (Easy, Medium, Hard, Deadly)

CR Isn't Perfect:

• Assumes average tactics and luck
• Doesn't account for magic items, rests, terrain
• Glass cannon monsters (high damage, low HP) are swingy
• Some CR ratings are notoriously wrong (shadows, intellect devourers)
• Party composition matters (all damage vs balanced)

Adjusting Difficulty:

• Lower-CR monsters in groups can overwhelm action economy
• Terrain and objectives change difficulty significantly
• Legendary creatures punch above their CR
• CR 1/4 and below are minions, die very quickly at mid-levels

Creatures are organized into types based on their nature:

Aberrations:
Utterly alien beings from beyond reality. Mind flayers, beholders, aboleths.

• Often have psychic abilities
• Resist or immune to charm
• Weird and unsettling tactics

Beasts:
Natural animals and mundane creatures. Wolves, bears, giant spiders.

• No special resistances usually
• Straightforward tactics
• Used for wilderness encounters

Celestials:
Good-aligned beings from the Upper Planes. Angels, pegasi, couatls.

• Often resist radiant and nonmagical weapons
• Healing and supportive abilities
• Fight fiends and undead

Constructs:
Animated objects and artificial beings. Golems, animated armor, modrons.

• Immune to poison and psychic usually
• Don't need to eat, sleep, or breathe
• Follow orders literally

Dragons:
Winged reptilian creatures of great power. Dragons are iconic D&D monsters.

• Breath weapons
• High intelligence (most of them)
• Lair actions and legendary actions for adults and older
• Chromatic (evil) and Metallic (good) varieties

Elementals:
Beings of pure elemental matter. Fire elementals, water elementals, air/earth elementals.

• Immune to poison and exhaustion
• Resist damage from their element
• Vulnerable to opposite element (sometimes)

Fey:
Magical creatures from the Feywild. Pixies, sprites, hags, satyrs.

• Tricky and unpredictable
• Magical abilities
• Love bargains and wordplay

Fiends:
Evil beings from the Lower Planes. Demons, devils, yugoloths.

• Resist fire and nonmagical weapons usually
• Corrupting influence
• Devils (lawful evil) vs Demons (chaotic evil)

Giants:
Huge humanoids of great strength. Storm giants, hill giants, frost giants.

• Simple but devastating attacks
• Rock throwing
• Based on environments (fire giants in volcanoes, etc.)

Humanoids:
People! Humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, kobolds.

• Most common enemy type
• Use tactics and equipment
• Often organized in groups

Monstrosities:
Frightening creatures of unnatural origin. Chimeras, basilisks, owlbears.

• Grab bag category
• Often have special attacks (petrification, etc.)
• Varied and weird

Oozes:
Amorphous creatures that dissolve organic matter. Gelatinous cubes, black puddings.

• Immune to many conditions
• Split when hit by certain attacks
• Corrode equipment

Plants:
Animated vegetation. Shambling mounds, treants, awakened shrubs.

• Vulnerable to fire usually
• Blend in with environment
• Slow but durable

Undead:
Once-living creatures animated by dark magic. Zombies, skeletons, vampires, liches.

• Immune to poison
• Don't need to eat, sleep, or breathe
• Vulnerable to radiant damage and Turn Undead
• Intelligent undead are terrifying

Monster Tags:
Some monsters have additional tags:

• Shapechanger: Can change form
• Titan: Incredibly powerful and ancient

Bringing Monsters to Life:

Use Personality:

• Intelligent monsters have goals, fears, and tactics
• Beasts act on instinct (protect young, flee when wounded)
• Describe monsters' actions dramatically
• Give them catchphrases or mannerisms

Use Tactics:

• Intelligent enemies use cover and positioning
• They target vulnerable party members (casters)
• They flee, surrender, or call for help when losing
• They use terrain and environmental hazards

Vary Actions:

• Don't just use Multiattack every turn
• Use special abilities and traits
• Ready actions or take the Dodge/Disengage/Dash actions
• Legendary and lair actions make combat dynamic

Manage Action Economy:

• Multiple enemies get multiple turns
• Use legendary actions to balance boss fights
• Don't bog down combat with too many monsters

Track Resources:

• Monitor HP (describe bloodied state at half HP)
• Track limited-use abilities (recharge 5-6, per day abilities)
• Note conditions affecting monsters
• Use average damage for speed (or roll if you prefer)

Make Combat Interesting:

• Add objectives beyond "kill everything"
• Use terrain features (cover, elevation, hazards)
• Have enemies arrive in waves
• Environmental effects (collapsing ceiling, rising water)
• Time pressure (ritual completing, hostage in danger)

Retreat and Morale:

• Most creatures flee when reduced to 25% HP
• Mindless creatures fight to the death
• Intelligent creatures surrender if offered mercy
• Some fanatics never retreat

Adjusting on the Fly:

• If the fight is too easy, reinforcements arrive
• If it's too hard, enemies flee or make mistakes
• Fudge HP totals if needed for story (but don't make a habit of it)
• Let players' cool ideas succeed sometimes even if technically unlikely

Make It More Than Combat:

Give Monsters Context:

• Why are they here?
• What do they want?
• What happens if the party leaves them alone?
• How do they relate to the larger story?

Foreshadowing:

• Show signs of the monster before the encounter
• Claw marks, destroyed wagons, survivor testimonies
• Build tension before the reveal
• First appearance should be dramatic

Signature Monsters:

• Recurring enemies create investment
• The goblin who keeps escaping
• The villain's lieutenant who shows up repeatedly
• Building to a final confrontation

Environmental Storytelling:

• Monsters should fit their environment
• Lair tells story (bones, treasure, territorial marks)
• What do monsters eat? Where do they sleep?
• Make the lair a character in the fight

Monster Modifications:

• Add class levels to make unique enemies
• Give monsters magic items
• Reskin existing monsters for new creatures
• Create "elite" versions with more HP and abilities

Social Monsters:

• Not all monsters attack on sight
• Some can be negotiated with
• Monsters have communities and relationships
• Consider capture, bribery, or alliance

Legendary Encounters:

• True bosses need legendary actions and lair actions
• Multi-phase fights keep things fresh
• Minions or environmental hazards help
• Give bosses ways to control the battlefield

After the Encounter:

• What do the bodies tell the players?
• What can be harvested (monster parts, loot)?
• Who comes to investigate (monster's allies, scavengers)?
• How does the victory/defeat affect the world?

Official Monster Sources:

Monster Manual:

• Core monster book
• 350+ creatures from CR 0 to CR 30
• Essential for every DM

Volo's Guide to Monsters:

• Deep dives on specific monster types
• Mind flayers, beholders, hags, etc.
• Includes many new monsters

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes:

• Devils, demons, and other planar creatures
• Elves and dwarves (monsters and lore)
• High-CR monsters for epic campaigns

Other Official Books:

• Most adventure books include new monsters
• Settings books (Ravenloft, Eberron, etc.) have themed creatures
• Mythic Odysseys, Monsters of the Multiverse, etc.

Online Resources:

D&D Beyond:

• Searchable monster database
• Filter by CR, type, size, environment
• Requires purchase of digital books

Kobold Fight Club (KFC):

• Encounter building tool
• Calculates difficulty
• Filters and randomizes
• Free

Improved Initiative:

• Combat tracker
• Monster stats included
• Roll20 integration

The Monsters Know What They're Doing:

• Blog analyzing monster tactics
• How to run monsters intelligently
• Excellent for DM improvement

Homebrew Monsters:

• r/UnearthedArcana (Reddit)
• DM's Guild
• Homebrewery
• GM Binder

Creating Your Own:

• Use the DMG's monster creation guidelines
• Reskin existing monsters (fast and balanced)
• Adjust HP, damage, and abilities to fit your CR target
• Playtest with your group

Organized Storage:

• Note cards for common monsters
• Digital notes by environment/theme
• Bookmark frequently-used monsters
• Create custom encounter lists