Forge_of_Foes_v1.0

TEOS ABADÍA • SCOTT FITZGERALD GRAY • MICHAEL E. SHEA TOOLS AND GUIDES TO BUILD, CUSTOMIZE, AND RUN FANTASTIC MONSTERS IN YOUR 5E FANTASY GAMES

by Teos Abadía, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, and Michael E. Shea Design by Teos Abadía, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, and Michael E. Shea Mechanical Development by Teos Abadía and Michael E. Shea Editing by Scott Fitzgerald Gray Cultural Consulting by James Mendez Hodes Cover art by Jack Kaiser Interior Art by Zoe Badini, Allie Briggs, Nikki Dawes, Carlos Eulefí, Jack Kaiser, Víctor Leza, Matt Morrow, Jackie Musto, Fabian Parente, Brian Patterson, Danny Pavlov Logo and Page design by Rich Lescouflair Layout by Scott Fitzgerald Gray Thanks to Our Kickstarter backers for supporting this project! Copyright © 2023 by Teos Abadía, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, and Michael E. Shea Art copyright © 2023 by the individual artists This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS MONSTER TOOLKITS Building a Quick Monster...........................................4 General-Use Combat Stat Blocks.......................... 13 Monster Powers........................................................... 15 Monster Roles.............................................................. 22 Monster Difficulty Dials............................................ 27 Building and Running Legendary Monsters............................................. 28 Building and Running Boss Monsters................. 31 Building Spellcasting Monsters............................. 34 Creating Lair Actions................................................. 36 MONSTER TIPS AND TRICKS Lazy Tricks for Running Monsters......................... 38 Running Monsters for New Game Masters......................................................... 40 Understanding the Action Economy................... 42 Lightning Rods............................................................ 44 Modifying Monsters Before and During Play............................................................... 45 Running Monsters in the Theater of the Mind .............................................. 47 Roleplaying Monsters............................................... 48 Reskinning Monsters................................................. 50 The Relative Weakness of High-CR Monsters.................................................. 53 Running Minions and Hordes................................ 54 Running Spellcasting Monsters............................. 58 Using NPC Stat Blocks............................................... 60 Bosses and Minions................................................... 61 Evolving Monsters...................................................... 62 BUILDING ENCOUNTERS The Combat Encounter Checklist......................... 65 Monster Combinations for a Hard Challenge....................................................... 67 The Lazy Encounter Benchmark............................ 70 Monsters by Adventure Location ......................... 72 Monsters and the Tiers of Play............................... 74 Building Engaging Encounters.............................. 76 Building Engaging Environments......................... 79 Assessing a Published Encounter......................... 83 Building Challenging High-Level Encounters............................................................... 86 Exit Strategies.............................................................. 91 On Encounters Per Day............................................. 93 MONSTER DISCUSSION AND PHILOSOPHY The History of Challenge ......................................... 97 What Are Challenge Ratings?................................. 99 What Makes a Great Monster? .............................100 Reading the Monster Stat Block..........................102 Defining Challenge Level.......................................105 Balancing Mechanics and Story ..........................109 Building the Story to Fit the Monster................110 Choosing Monsters Based on the Story ...........113 Romancing Monsters..............................................115 There Be Monsters....................................................117 Anticolonial Play .......................................................119 Running Easy Monsters..........................................124 On Morale and Running Away.............................125 DIFFERENT PATHS This book has been crafted and shaped as a collaboration between Teos, Scott, and Mike, with each acting as lead on specific sections that all three of us then workshopped and refined over more than a year of design and development. This creative partnership approach means that Forge of Foes generally doesn’t offer only single viewpoints. Rather, you’ll find a range of choices in these pages—different paths you can take as you concept, create, modify, and run monsters in your games. In the many places in the book where two approaches offer different advice on the same issue, that’s a feature, not a bug. Think about and try out whichever approaches appeal to you, determine which ones work well for you and your group, and set aside those that don’t.

3 INTRODUCTION Thousands of years before anyone ever rolled a twentysided die, monsters fueled people’s imaginations and filled us with tales of high adventure. Nearly every culture known to humanity has its own stories of creatures fantastic and horrifying, and of the heroes who face them. We love monsters. We love them because they exist outside our world and yet feel real to us. We love how strange they can be. We love the sense of danger that arises when we talk about them. We love how they live in our imaginations. And when monsters come to life in our imaginations, we love to face and defeat them. We battle dragons and demons and undead—and conquer them in tales we’ll remember all our lives. Within the Forge of Foes, we build these monsters. Here in the forge, we’ll modify creatures, giving them new attacks and strange new abilities. We’ll harden their scales and sharpen their claws. We’ll create entirely new creatures from our endless collective imagination, then watch them crawl into the stories of high adventure we share with our friends. We’ll also talk about monsters, including how to run boss monsters, how to run hordes of monsters, and how to choose the right monsters for our adventures and for the fun of our gaming group. Let us delve into deep caves, beneath rotted and forgotten crypts, and into unholy temple chambers sweet with the iron scent of blood to see what monsters lie within. WHAT IS A FOE? Within the context of this book, a foe is any physically hostile creature. It might be an inanimate statue guarding an undiscovered tomb. It might be a knight challenging the characters to a duel. It might be cultists seeking victims for a terrible ritual. It might be the dragon of the frozen mountains, newly awakened and now seeking the treasures acquired by neighboring miners. Not all foes are monsters, however, and we need to take care throwing around that label lest we apply it to those undeserving of the title. Many beings and creatures commonly labeled as “monsters” can ultimately be dealt with through negotiation, even as many normal-looking NPCs might be secret—or not-so-secret—monsters in their own lives. The cultists cited above might not be monsters at all in their own minds, but only a secluded sect pushed to usher in a new age of enlightenment. That awakened dragon might be driven to violence by suffering—and might ask the characters to help solve their woes. Forge of Foes often uses the words “foe,” “creature,” and “monster” synonymously. But it does so with the understanding that there might be many ways to deal with these foes outside of straight-up combat, and that some apparent monsters might be anything but. ABOUT THIS BOOK Created by Teos Abadía, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, and Mike Shea (see “About the Authors” on page 128), this book isn’t a typical collection of foes. There are already many wonderful books of predesigned monsters GMs can use for D&D and other fifth edition fantasy roleplaying games. Instead, this book gives you the tools to build your own foes and modify foes from other sources. Forge of Foes works alongside your other books of monsters, but it also works well on its own to help you make the monsters you need for your games. Though part of the Lazy DM series, this book stands on its own. Forge of Foes focuses on monsters—how to make them, how to modify them, and how to run them. Although the concepts presented here work hand-in-hand with those found in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, The Lazy DM’s Workbook, and The Lazy DM’s Companion, you don’t need those books to get value out of this one. Like the other books from the Lazy DM series, this book aims to help you more easily run great games. You’re busy. You have friends coming to your table tonight. You have monsters you need to throw into your game right now. Forge of Foes can help you build or modify those monsters quickly and easily, with all the details, tactics, and flavor you desire. WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR? This book assumes you’re familiar with the core rules of Dungeons & Dragons or another 5e RPG. You don’t need significant experience running 5e games to make use of this book, but the more experience you have, the more value you’ll get out of it. This book isn’t a substitute for reading any set of 5e core books, however. Take the time to read and absorb the material found in those books to make the most use out of this book and improve your games. HOW TO USE THIS BOOK This book can serve you in three ways. First, you can use Forge of Foes to quickly build monsters from scratch, and to make those monsters as simple or as complex as you want. Starting with baseline statistics, you can add on templates and features to fill out a monster’s mechanics as you desire, and as best fits the story of the monster. Second, you can use the statistics, templates, and features in this book to modify existing monsters. Doing so can provide you with endless variants of monsters from products you already own. Third, you can absorb the advice and discussions in this book to think differently about how you prepare and run monsters in your own games. So whether you run monsters straight from your favorite monster book, customize published monsters yourself, or build monsters from scratch, Forge of Foes has you covered.

4 BUILDING A QUICK MONSTER Sometimes you need a monster right now but you don’t have the right one handy. Maybe the creature you’re imagining doesn’t exist in any given book of published monsters, or you simply don’t have the time to look it up. Maybe you’re in the middle of your game and want some quick statistics for a creature you didn’t think you’d need. For all these problems, this section offers solutions. The core tool for building a quick monster for a 5e game is the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table, which offers you a set of statistics that can be used to build and run a quick monster of any challenge rating (CR). You then have two paths for customizing a monster built from these baseline statistics—with flavor and description during the game, or with a refinement of the creature’s mechanics. It’s worth your time to review and understand how this table works before you start using it in your game. Read the column descriptions. Understand the relationship between a monster’s challenge rating and equivalent character level. Once you’ve internalized how this table works, you can use it in seconds to build a monster and throw that foe into your game. This table works hand-in-hand with Forge of Foes’ options for building encounters, including “Monster Combinations for a Hard Challenge” (page 67) and “Building Challenging High-Level Encounters” (page 86). It also works alongside further customization options such as the monster type templates and powers presented later in this section, and the additional powers in “Monster Powers” (page 15) and “Monster Roles” (page 22), letting you make your chosen creature more tactically interesting or a better fit for their place in the story and the game. COLUMN DESCRIPTIONS The table includes the following columns, which will become more familiar to you as you build your monsters. Monster CR. The challenge ratings presented in the CR column are the baseline measure to determine the relative difficulty of a monster in combat. You’ll almost always reference this column first when building a quick monster. Equivalent Character Level. This column describes the roughly equivalent level of a single character facing a single monster of this challenge rating in a hard encounter. This gives you a quick way to determine how difficult this monster will be when facing characters of a particular level. As you can see from the table, matching character level to challenge rating isn’t a simple mathematical process. There are a number of character levels missing from the table where certain challenge ratings represent a large jump in how tough a monster is. AC/DC. This column indicates the typical Armor Class of a monster of the indicated challenge rating. It also describes the typical Difficulty Class if this monster uses a DC for any of their attacks or other features. Hit Points. This column offers the baseline hit points of a monster of a given challenge rating. Feel free to add or subtract hit points within the suggested range based on the monster’s in-world features or physiology, or the pacing you want to maintain during a battle. Proficient Ability Bonus. This column gives the expected bonus for abilities with which the monster is proficient, adding the monster’s ability score modifier and proficiency bonus together. This number can be used as an attack bonus, or as a bonus for proficient saving throws and ability checks. (Ability-based modifiers without proficiency are fixed values between −2 and +4, based on the monster’s story.) Damage per Round. This column contains the total expected damage that a monster can deal in a round. Higher-CR monsters typically split this total damage among a number of attacks instead of doing one big attack that either deals a tremendous amount of damage or misses completely. If a single effect targets two or more characters, such as a fiery breath weapon, the damage for that effect should be half the indicated number. Number of Attacks. This column notes the number of attacks a monster of a particular challenge rating typically makes per round. The damage per round from the previous column is divided among these multiple attacks in the following column. Damage per Attack. This column shows the baseline amount of damage a monster deals per attack when using the default number of attacks in the previous column. It includes both average damage and a dice equation. Example Monsters. This column offers example monsters for each challenge rating. This can help you gauge where your monster fits among existing 5e monsters. BUILDING A MONSTER With the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table at hand, you can use the following quick steps to build a custom monster from scratch. The first four steps alone let you easily create a monster ready to run in your game. The optional steps that follow then let you fill out the monster’s details and custom mechanics as desired. STEP 1: DETERMINE CHALLENGE RATING Begin by determining the challenge rating for your quick monster based on that creature’s fiction in the world. When considering the challenge rating of a custom monster, you might compare them to existing creatures on the table, so that if the in-world power of your monster compares well to a skeleton, the monster might have a challenge rating of 1/4. If they’re more like a fire giant, they might have a challenge rating of 9. Look at the list of example monsters and ask yourself which monster makes

5 the best comparison to yours. Then assign your creature that monster’s challenge rating. ALTERNATIVELY, WHAT CHALLENGE RATING DO YOU NEED? You might also want to choose a challenge rating based on the level of the characters, using the Equivalent Character Level column of the table. If you want an encounter with four monsters who are roughly equal in power to four characters, this column lets you figure out those monsters’ statistics. It also helps you build NPCs intended to match a particular character level, such as a knight, a wizard, or a rogue. STEP 2: WRITE DOWN THE BASELINE STATISTICS Once you’ve determined a challenge rating for your monster, write down their statistics. You might jot them on an index card, in a text editor on your computer, or wherever you keep notes for your adventures and campaigns. You might end up customizing those statistics, though, so be ready to change them. STEP 3: DETERMINE PROFICIENT ABILITIES Next, determine which abilities—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma—a monster is proficient in, using the Proficient Ability Bonus column on the table. This sets up the bonus a monster has when using any ability with which they’re proficient, and is largely based on the monster’s story. A big, beefy monster might be proficient in skills or saving throws involving Strength and Constitution. A smart mastermind monster might be proficient in Wisdom- and Intelligencebased skills and saving throws. A fast monster might be proficient in Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks and Dexterity saving throws, while an otherworldly monster might be proficient in Charisma-based skills and saves. The bonus indicated in the table is what the monster uses for saving throws and ability checks with those proficient abilities. Just remember that the number on the table already includes a monster’s proficiency bonus in addition to their ability score modifier. STEP 4: DETERMINE REMAINING ABILITIES Next, you can determine the modifier (either a penalty or a bonus) that a monster uses for their nonproficient abilities. This is for all the ability checks and saving throws a monster isn’t great at, and can be determined by asking yourself how strong a monster feels in those abilities. The bonus can range anywhere from −2 to +4, and is independent of a monster’s challenge rating. Even a high-challenge monster might have a lousy Dexterity saving throw. When in doubt, or to speed things up, use a modifier of +0 for these nonproficient abilities. You can always change this during the game if a higher or lower number makes sense. A creature’s Dexterity modifier is also used to determine their initiative modifier. Or you can skip your improvised creature’s initiative roll and use a static initiative of 12. YOU’RE READY TO GO At this point, you have enough information on hand to run your monster in a game, with little else needed. However, you can also continue with a few more quick steps to further customize your monster, making them more distinct. OPTIONAL STEP: CONSIDER ARMOR CLASS Though the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table offers a value for Armor Class that increases with challenge rating, you can modify a monster’s Armor Class further based on their story. A big beefy titan set up as a CR 16 monster might still be easy to hit—maybe with an Armor Class of 14. It’s easiest to think of Armor Class on a 10 to 20 scale, with 10 being the equivalent of an unarmored opponent with no Dexterity bonus, and 20 being an opponent wearing plate armor with a shield. (Armor Class can go above 20 or below 10, though.) Keep in mind that missing an opponent isn’t much fun for a player. Lower-AC opponents, even those with more hit points, are often more fun to fight than high-AC opponents with fewer hit points. OPTIONAL STEP: CUSTOMIZE ATTACKS The table includes a recommended number of attacks for a monster, an attack bonus, and the amount of damage those attacks should deal. If desired, tailor this damage to fit the monster’s story. Choose a creature’s damage type, such as fire for a flaming Greatsword attack or necrotic for a death blast. You can also mix up multiple damage types, so that a CR 10 hell knight might have a Longsword attack dealing both slashing and fire damage. Consider the ranged attacks a monster might have as well. You can use the same attack bonus, number of attacks, and damage, or give a creature weaker ranged attacks (attacking once instead of twice, for example). Depending on the creature’s story, the flavor of those attacks might be physical (hurling javelins or rocks) or arcane (firing energy blasts). To further customize a monster, you can divide up their total damage per round into a different number of attacks than indicated on the table, if that makes sense for the monster’s story. (As noted above, for attacks that target two or more opponents, use half the indicated damage.) OPTIONAL STEP: FURTHER MODIFY STATISTICS Depending on the story of your monster, you can make general adjustments to their baseline statistics however you see fit. For example, you might lower a monster’s hit points and increase the damage they deal to create a dangerous foe who drops out of the fight quickly.

6 MONSTER STATISTICS BY CHALLENGE RATING CR Equivalent Character Level AC/ DC Hit Points Proficient Ability Bonus Damage Per Round Number of Attacks Damage Per Attack Example 5e Monsters 0 < 1 10 3 (2–4) +2 2 1 2 (1d4) Commoner, rat, spider 1/8 < 1 11 9 (7–11) +3 3 1 4 (1d6 + 1) Bandit, cultist, giant rat 1/4 1 11 13 (10–16) +3 5 1 5 (1d6 + 2) Acolyte, skeleton, wolf 1/2 2 12 22 (17–28) +4 8 2 4 (1d4 + 2) Black bear, scout, shadow 1 3 12 33 (25–41) +5 12 2 6 (1d8 + 2) Dire wolf, specter, spy 2 5 13 45 (34–56) +5 17 2 9 (2d6 + 2) Ghast, ogre, priest 3 7 13 65 (49–81) +5 23 2 12 (2d8 + 3) Knight, mummy, werewolf 4 9 14 84 (64–106) +6 28 2 14 (3d8 + 1) Ettin, ghost 5 10 15 95 (71–119) +7 35 3 12 (3d6 + 2) Elemental, gladiator, vampire spawn 6 11 15 112 (84–140) +7 41 3 14 (3d6 + 4) Mage, medusa, wyvern 7 12 15 130 (98–162) +7 47 3 16 (3d8 + 3) Stone giant, young black dragon 8 13 15 136 (102–170) +7 53 3 18 (3d10 + 2) Assassin, frost giant 9 15 16 145 (109–181) +8 59 3 22 (3d12 + 3) Bone devil, fire giant, young blue dragon 10 16 17 155 (116–194) +9 65 4 16 (3d8 + 3) Stone golem, young red dragon 11 17 17 165 (124–206) +9 71 4 18 (3d10 + 2) Djinni, efreeti, horned devil 12 18 17 175 (131–219) +9 77 4 19 (3d10 + 3) Archmage, erinyes 13 19 18 184 (138–230) +10 83 4 21 (4d8 + 3) Adult white dragon, storm giant, vampire 14 20 19 196 (147–245) +11 89 4 22 (4d10) Adult black dragon, ice devil 15 > 20 19 210 (158–263) +11 95 5 19 (3d10 + 3) Adult green dragon, mummy lord, purple worm 16 > 20 19 229 (172–286) +11 101 5 22 (3d12 + 3) Adult blue dragon, iron golem, marilith 17 > 20 20 246 (185–308) +12 107 5 21 (4d8 + 3) Adult red dragon 18 > 20 21 266 (200–333) +13 113 5 23 (4d10 + 1) Demilich 19 > 20 21 285 (214–356) +13 119 5 24 (4d10 + 2) Balor 20 > 20 21 300 (225–375) +13 132 5 26 (4d12) Ancient white dragon, pit fiend 21 > 20 22 325 (244–406) +14 150 5 30 (4d12 + 4) Ancient black dragon, lich, solar 22 > 20 23 350 (263–438) +15 168 5 34 (4d12 + 8) Ancient green dragon 23 > 20 23 375 (281–469) +15 186 5 37 (6d10 + 4) Ancient blue dragon, kraken 24 > 20 23 400 (300–500) +15 204 5 41 (6d10 + 8) Ancient red dragon 25 > 20 24 430 (323–538) +16 222 5 44 (6d10 + 11) 26 > 20 25 460 (345–575) +17 240 5 48 (6d10 + 15) 27 > 20 25 490 (368–613) +17 258 5 52 (6d10 + 19) 28 > 20 25 540 (405–675) +17 276 5 55 (6d10 + 22) 29 > 20 26 600 (450–750) +18 294 5 59 (6d10 + 26) 30 > 20 27 666 (500–833) +19 312 5 62 (6d10 + 29) Tarrasque However, always consider whether such changes make a combat encounter more fun to play. It might make sense to create a monster with high hit points and a higher Armor Class who deals less damage, thinking that those two things balance out. But fighting such a monster can easily become a slog. Likewise, a monster with significantly fewer hit points that deals high damage might end up being inadvertently deadly if too many characters roll low on attacks, or could feel pointless if the monster is killed too quickly. OPTIONAL STEP: ADD QUICK TYPES AND FEATURES The “Common Monster Type Templates” section includes a number of monster types you can apply when creating a quick monster. Each monster type includes the most important features of that type, whether corporeal undead, elemental, fiend, and so forth. That section also includes a number of useful monster powers you can add to a foe, or you can select from additional features, traits, and attacks in “Monster Powers” (page 15) and “Monster Roles” (page 22). USING THE TABLE WITH PUBLISHED MONSTERS While the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table is intended to build monsters from scratch, it can easily be used as a reference to better understand how a published monster might act in combat. If a published CR 4 monster has 30 hit points but deals 35 damage per round, you can see from the table that their hit points are low but their

BRIAN PATTERSON 7 damage is high compared to the creature’s baseline challenge rating. Such a monster hits hard for their challenge rating, but goes down fast when hit themself. COMMON MONSTER TYPE TEMPLATES This section offers a sampling of monster type templates whose traits you can apply to your quick-build monster, new powers tied specific monster types (including actions, bonus actions, reactions, and additional traits), and advice on how to use those powers. Some templates use the challenge rating of the creature you’re creating to calculate saving throw DCs, damage, and other variables. You can find additional monster type templates and guidance for using them in “Monster Powers” on page 15, and still more templates and powers in “Monster Roles” on page 22. ABERRATION Aberrations generally have high Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores, as well as darkvision with either a 60- or 120-foot range. An aberration speaks a language such as Deep Speech or communicates telepathically. Senses darkvision 120 ft. Languages Deep Speech, telepathy 120 ft. You can further represent an aberration’s nature by giving them any of the following powers. Grasping Tentacles (Reaction). When this creature hits with an attack, they sprout a tentacle that grasps the target. In addition to the attack’s normal effects, the target is grappled (escape DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) and restrained. Until the grapple ends, this creature can’t use the grappling tentacle against another target. This creature can sprout 1d4 tentacles. This reaction is a fun way to surprise your players. Describe how the tentacles emerge from the foe’s limb or body to grasp a character. You can roll for the number of tentacles or choose a number that reflects the creature’s desired challenge rating. Dominating Gaze (Action, Recharge 4–6). If this creature has the multiattack action, Dominating Gaze can take the place of one of the attacks used in that action. This creature chooses a target they can see within 60 feet of them. The target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw (DC = 12 + 1/2 CR) or be forced to immediately make their most effective weapon attack or at-will spell or magical attack against a target chosen by this creature. This action communicates the foe’s otherworldly nature. The momentary domination could come in the form of mind control, changing what the target sees, or confusing them. Describing horrid whispers of the beauty of the stars waking to devour the world is optional. BEAST Beasts might have low ability scores if they are mundane creatures, with their strongest scores in either Strength or Dexterity. They might also have medium to high Constitution or Wisdom to represent hardiness and cunning. Beasts typically have darkvision with a 60-foot range, and they don’t speak a language. Beasts often have the ability to climb, swim, or fly, and they might be proficient in the Athletics, Perception, or Survival skills. You can customize a quick-build beast using one of the powers below, or a power from the “Monstrosity” section. Hit and Run (Action). As part of this action, this creature first takes one of their other actions. After that action completes, this creature can move 30 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. If the creature ends their movement behind cover or in an obscured area, they can make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide. This action allows a beast to act as a predator, attacking and repositioning themself for maximum effect. Empowered by Carnage (Reaction). When this creature hits another creature with a melee attack and the damage from the attack reduces the target below half its hit points or to 0 hit points, this creature can immediately move up to their speed and repeat the melee attack against another target. This reaction captures the ferocious nature of the beast, motivated by seeing prey take a grievous wound or meet their end. CELESTIAL As divine beings of the Outer Planes, celestials have high ability scores. Charisma is often especially high to represent a celestial’s leadership qualities, eloquence, and beauty. Celestials often have resistance to radiant damage, and they might also have resistance to damage from nonmagical attacks and immunity to the charmed, exhaustion, and frightened conditions. The mightiest celestials possess truesight with a range of 120 feet,

8 speak and understand all languages, and communicate telepathically. Damage Resistances radiant; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened Senses darkvision 120 ft. Languages all, telepathy 120 ft. You can also select one or both of the powers below to further enhance a creature’s celestial nature. Winged (Trait). This creature has a flying speed equal to their best other speed, and can hover. Glorious celestial wings might be shaped of feathers, ice, or radiant energy. You can increase the flying speed if you wish the celestial to have more mobility. Mirrored Judgment (Reaction). When this creature is the sole target of an attack or spell, they can choose another valid target to also be targeted by the attack or spell. A celestial might change their face or armor to become reflective like a mirror, so that an attacking creature can contemplate their actions. CONSTRUCT A construct’s strongest ability scores are usually Strength and Constitution, though a construct built for agility might also have a high Dexterity. Constructs typically also have either blindsight or darkvision, and a selection of damage immunities and condition immunities to reflect their nonliving nature. They usually can’t speak, but might understand one or more languages. Damage Immunities poison, psychic Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius) or darkvision 60 ft. Languages understands certain languages but can’t speak You can further enhance a construct with one of the following features. Armor Plating (Trait). This creature has a +2 bonus to Armor Class. Each time the creature’s hit points are reduced by one-quarter of their maximum value, this bonus decreases by 1, to a maximum penalty to Armor Class of −2. The high Armor Class of a construct might feel initially frustrating, but as you describe the pieces of armor plating being torn off, players will sense the tide turning. When the bonus to Armor Class becomes a penalty, describe how the rents in the armor allow characters access to the construct’s inner workings, speeding up the foe’s demise! Sentinel (Trait). This creature can make opportunity attacks without using a reaction. This simple feature really shines when you describe the construct’s sharp eyes zeroing in on the characters, or how the construct swivels part of their body to make an opportunity attack. DRAGON Draconic creatures have high Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores, as well as high Charisma scores. A dragon has immunity to any damage type used for their breath weapon, has blindsight and darkvision, and speaks Draconic. They often have proficiency in Perception, and in one or more other skills reflecting their interests or nature. Damage Immunities damage type associated with the dragon’s breath weapon Senses blindsight 60 ft., darkvision 120 ft. Languages Common, Draconic A true dragon or a closely related draconic creature has a breath weapon that is fearsome to behold. You can adjust the area of effect or damage depending on how powerful your draconic creature is meant to be. Dragon’s Breath (Action, Recharge 5–6). This creature breathes to deal poison, cold, or fire damage in a 30-foot cone, or breathes to deal acid or lightning damage in a 60-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a Dexterity saving throw against a line or a Constitution saving throw against a cone (DC = 12 + 1/2 CR), taking 4 × CR damage of the appropriate type on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. You might also wish to provide a dragon or draconic creature with an additional power to reflect their nature. Dragon’s Gaze (Bonus Action, Recharge 6). One creature within 60 feet of the dragon must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 13 + 1/2 CR) or become frightened of the dragon. While frightened in this way, each time the target takes damage, they take an extra 1/2 CR damage. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on themself on a success. Dragon’s Gaze puts the pressure on a character, and goes well with threats a dragon makes as they promise that the heroes are about to meet their doom.

BRIAN PATTERSON 9 Draconic Retaliation (Trait). When this creature is reduced to half their hit points or fewer, they can immediately use either their breath weapon or their Multiattack action. If the creature is incapacitated or otherwise unable to use this trait, they can use it when they are next able to. This trait showcases a dragon’s fury and might just as the characters appear to gain the upper hand. For a particularly fearsome foe—or particularly strong characters—you can use this trait again when the dragon is reduced to one quarter of their hit points or fewer. ELEMENTAL Elementals generally have strong physical ability scores. They have resistance to damage of the type they are associated with (acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder), and might have immunity to that damage if wholly created from elemental energy. An elemental usually has immunity to poison damage and certain conditions, depending on their nature. They have darkvision and speak the language associated with their element. Damage Resistances damage type the creature is associated with, if appropriate; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks Damage Immunities damage type the creature is associated with, if appropriate; poison Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious Senses darkvision 60 ft. An elemental can be further enhanced with one of the following features. Elemental Attacks (Trait). This creature’s weapons or limbs are infused with energy of the type they are associated with (acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder), dealing that damage type instead of their normal type. This is a basic feature to communicate the nature of an elemental monster. Reinforce this through roleplaying, describing the foe’s form and appearance. Are they a being of fire? Are they wielding weapons that they ignite with fire? Elemental Aura (Trait). This creature radiates an aura of elemental energy of the type they are associated with (acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder). Any creature who moves within 10 feet of this creature for the first time on a turn or starts their turn there takes 5 damage of the selected energy type (10 damage if this creature is CR 12 or higher). Does your elemental monster radiate extreme cold? Do sparks fly from them, or does a cloud of stones encircle them? An elemental aura communicates a creature’s nature clearly, and presents a tactical challenge for meleefocused characters. For an alternative approach, have this trait activate only when the creature drops below half their hit points, as their elemental essence leaks out of their body. FEY Fey creatures can vary greatly in their traits and actions, but often have high Charisma and Dexterity scores and moderate-to-high Wisdom scores. Fey usually speak Sylvan or Elvish in addition to Common, and many speak giant. Most fey have darkvision, and proficiency in the Deception, Perception, or Persuasion skills. Senses darkvision 60 ft. Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan A fey creature can be further enhanced with one of the following features. Teleporting Step (Bonus Action). This creature teleports a number of feet up to their walking speed to an unoccupied space they can see. This option makes a fey creature a master of mobility, which you can richly describe in a number of ways. Does the creature summon, then step through portals? Vanish into shadow? Move from one plant to another? Transform into wind and appear in another location? Beguiling Aura (Trait). An enemy of this creature who moves within 25 feet of them for the first time on a turn or starts their turn there must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or be charmed by this creature until the end of their turn. Representing the enigmatic and compelling nature of many fey, this aura can force a character to change their tactics during their turn. It’s especially effective on a foe you wish to protect, making it harder for melee characters to engage that foe, and incentivizing those characters to pick other targets first. You can vary the nature of the charm effect, whether the fey is adorned in the finest clothing, can change their appearance to look like a friend, or weaves ancient words to beguile their enemies. FIEND Ability scores for fiends favor their physical characteristics, though many also have moderate or higher Charisma scores. Devils hoping to entice mortals into deals also often have proficiency in the Deception skill. Fiends typically have resistance to nonmagical attacks, and might have one or more elemental resistances. Demons speak Abyssal, while devils speak Infernal. Both usually have telepathy up to 120 feet. Damage Resistances elemental resistances; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks Damage Immunities poison Condition Immunities poisoned Senses darkvision 120 ft. Languages Abyssal or Infernal, telepathy 120 ft. In addition, you can add any of the following features to enhance the fiendish capabilities of a foe. Empowered by Death (Trait). When a creature within 30 feet of this creature dies, this creature regains CR × 2 hit points. What makes this feature interesting is that the foe’s allies dying also triggers it. Give this trait to a fiendish boss so that they can gain hit points as their minions die. They might even kill one off just for fun. Relish Your Failure (Trait). When a creature within 50 feet of this creature fails a saving throw, this creature gains 1/2 CR temporary hit points. If this creature already has temporary

10 hit points, they instead regain 1/2 CR hit points, up to their hit point maximum. The fiend calls out any character’s failure, mocking them and drawing strength from their demise. This trait works best when your foes have actions or spells requiring saving throws. GIANT Giants have Strength and Constitution scores as formidable as their size, but their Dexterity scores are typically lower. Some giants only speak Giant, while others might speak Common, Goblin, or other languages. Forceful Blow (Reaction, Recharge 4–6). When this creature hits a target with a weapon attack, roll 1d4 + 1. The target is pushed 5 times that many feet away from this creature. You can alter the size of the die to reflect the type of giant, or assign a fixed value for the distance if you feel that would work better. Sending characters flying is rewarding. Try not to enjoy it too much. Shove Allies (Action). This creature can shove any allied creatures who are within 5 feet of this creature and are smaller in size. Each shoved ally moves up to 15 feet away from this creature, and can make a melee weapon attack if they end that movement and have a viable target within their reach. Roleplay the giant as they shove smaller creatures around them, forcing them to fight for their lives. Players might enjoy the tactical nature of this approach, since defeating enough of the giant’s smaller allies makes this trait less effective. HUMANOID Ability scores for humanoids can reflect both their role and their species. The wide variety of humanoid types and the range of standard NPC stat blocks that can represent humanoids makes it difficult to create templates for specifically humanoid features. Instead, you can select from the powers found in the “Common Monster Powers” section below, choosing those that enable your specific concept. MONSTROSITY Monstrosities often have high Constitution and either a high Strength or Dexterity. Their Intelligence and Charisma are often low. Many monstrosities lack a language, and might have skill proficiency in Athletics, Perception, or Stealth. A burrow, climb, or swim speed might be appropriate. The following powers can be used to show off a truly monstrous monstrosity. For monstrosities such as centaurs and doppelgangers who are decidedly less monstrous in their appearance and outlook, you can use the powers in the “Common Monster Powers” instead. Devour Ally (Bonus Action). This creature swallows an allied creature who is within 5 feet of this creature and is smaller. This creature regains CR × 3 hit points and the devoured ally is reduced to 0 hit points. This power works well for a massive monstrosity paired with smaller, weaker creatures who they can slay at will—or even swallow whole. This forces the characters to choose between focusing on the larger foe or killing off the weaker ones to prevent the boss from healing. Lingering Wound (Reaction, Recharge 6). When this creature hits a target with an attack and deals damage, the target takes a lingering wound. At the start of each of their turns, a target with a lingering wound takes the same damage dealt by the original attack. The target can attempt a DC 10 Constitution saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on themself on a success. A successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check made as an action by the target or a creature within 5 feet of them also ends the target’s lingering wound. The effect of this power can be described as blood loss from jagged fangs or claws, and can heighten a monstrosity’s terrible nature. OOZE Oozes almost always have low mental ability scores, and often have either low Strength or Dexterity scores based on their nature. Oozes might be proficient in the Stealth skill if they sneak up on opponents, or have transparent bodies or forms that blend into their environment. Oozes typically lack a language, and rely on blindsense to sense creatures in close proximity. They often have immunity to multiple conditions. Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, exhaustion, frightened, prone Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius) Many oozes have the ability to slip through small openings, which can be represented by the following trait. Malleable Form (Trait). This creature has advantage on checks to begin or escape a grapple, and can move through a space as if they were two sizes smaller than their size without squeezing. You can alter the malleable trait to reflect just how small a space an ooze creature can move through, with some oozes able to move through a space as small as 1 inch wide without squeezing. Additionally, you can choose any of the following powers to represent a creature’s ooze nature. Oozing Passage (Trait). This creature can move through the space of other creatures of their size or smaller without provoking opportunity attacks. When they do so, each creature whose space this creature moves through must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or be restrained until the end of their next turn. It can be fun to describe the moment when an ooze passes over and around a character. This can be a strong feature if the ooze moves through several characters, so you might alter tactics as needed to reflect the desired challenge rating. You can also remove the restrained effect to simply provide an interesting form of mobility. Elongating Limbs (Trait). This creature can increase the length of their limbs or other appendages at will, increasing their reach by 5 feet. A creature moving out of this creature’s reach or within their reach provokes an opportunity attack. This trait is the surprise that keeps surprising. A monster can lengthen a limb to attack a foe, then use

11 it later for a reaction attack. Describe the way the limb elongates in as grotesque a way as desired. PLANT Plant creatures have extremely low mental attributes and low Dexterity scores. Many are stationary, or might have a slow walking speed of anywhere from 5 to 20 feet. Some plant creatures have darkvision, while others have blindsight out to a range of 30 or 60 feet. Some have resistance to bludgeoning and piercing damage, some have resistance to cold, fire, or poison damage, and some have immunity to conditions such as blinded, deafened, exhaustion, and prone. A few plants have vulnerability to fire. You can add any of the following powers to a creature with a plant-like nature. Poison Thorns (Bonus Action, Recharge 5–6). The next time this creature hits a target with an attack and deals damage, the attack deals extra poison damage equal to half the damage originally dealt, and the target gains the poisoned condition until the end of their next turn. You can describe the thorns growing along the plant creature’s appendages when they take this bonus action. Those thorns might be a bold color such as bright red or blue, and could drip poison. Grasping Roots (Trait). When a creature attempts to leave a space within 5 feet of this creature, the moving creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC = 12 + 1/2 CR) or be restrained until the start of their next turn. You can surprise players with this power, which reveals itself as a network of roots surrounding the plant, hidden beneath the soil or spreading along the cracks of a stone floor. When a character attempts to move away from or around the plant, the roots emerge and try to hold them fast. UNDEAD Undead creatures typically have immunity to poison damage and the poisoned condition, and they do not need to eat or breathe. Some undead have immunity to the charmed and exhaustion conditions, and skeletal undead might have vulnerability to bludgeoning damage. Although some intelligent undead can speak, many undead lack the ability to speak even if they can understand language. Damage Immunities poison Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned Senses darkvision 60 ft. Languages understands all languages they knew in life but can’t speak You can also add any of the following powers to an undead creature. Undead Resilience (Trait). If damage reduces this creature to 0 hit points, they must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 2 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, this creature drops to 1 hit point instead. Add this trait to undead creatures who can withstand blows that would kill a living creature. Describe a successful save as the undead creature getting back up or refusing to fall, despite missing body parts or other terrible wounds. Stench of Death (Trait). Any creature who starts their turn within 10 feet of this creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or become poisoned until the start of their next turn. On a successful saving throw, the creature is immune to this creature’s stench for 24 hours. You can alter the effect’s radius based on the … uh, flavor you wish to impart. COMMON MONSTER POWERS This section offers a selection of common monster powers you can apply to any quick-build monster to give them a stronger mechanical flavor, make them more tactically interesting, or reinforce their behavior in the story of your game. Damaging Aura (Trait). Any creature who moves within 10 feet of this creature or who starts their turn there takes CR damage of a type appropriate for this creature. Reskin this aura to meet your needs based on the damage type. A fire elemental can radiate an aura of fire, while an undead might radiate necrotic damage. You can also describe this effect as a magical aura dealing force damage, a holy aura dealing radiant damage, or even have a many-armed creature wielding swords to create an aura of slashing damage. Damaging Weapon (Trait). This creature’s melee weapon attacks deal an extra CR damage of a type appropriate for the creature. As with Damaging Aura, this trait can be customized for many types of creatures by choosing a thematic damage type. A warrior might wield a greatsword that deals extra fire or lightning damage as a boon bestowed by their god. A mini-boss undead could deal necrotic or cold damage to represent their innate supernatural power. Defender (Reaction). When an ally within 5 feet of this creature is targeted by an attack or spell, this creature can make themself the intended target of the attack. This is an excellent feature for minions who can intercept damage intended for a boss, or for a high-hitpoint monster who can act as a defender of other more strategically important monsters. Delights in Suffering (Trait). When attacking a target whose current hit points are below half their hit point maximum, this creature has advantage on attack rolls and deals an extra CR damage when they hit. This trait makes a monster extremely dangerous in a tough fight, and encourages the characters to use healing resources. Frenzy (Trait). At the start of their turn, this creature can gain advantage on all melee weapon attack rolls made during this turn, but attack rolls against them have advantage until the start of their next turn.

12 In addition to providing a combat boost for a foe, this trait can help accelerate a fight that’s gone on long enough, by letting the characters hit the last remaining foes more often. Goes Down Fighting (Reaction). When this creature is reduced to 0 hit points, they can immediately make one melee or ranged weapon attack before they fall unconscious. Your monsters can get one last attack in when they have this trait. Improvised Ranged Attack (Action) This creature can make one or more ranged weapon attacks—firing a bow or crossbow, hurling a spear or javelin, throwing rocks, and so forth. These attacks have an attack modifier and damage appropriate for the creature’s challenge rating (see the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table), and a range of 45/90 feet or as appropriate to the weapon. With this attack, any melee combatant becomes an effective threat at range. Arcane Blast (Action) This creature can make one or more ranged spell attacks, dealing acid, cold, fire, force, lighting, necrotic, poison, psychic, or radiant damage as appropriate to the creature. These attacks have an attack modifier and damage appropriate for the creature’s challenge rating (see the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table), and a range of 60 or 120 feet. This attack lets you add a touch of arcane fury to any combatant. Lethal (Trait). This creature has a +CR bonus to damage rolls, and scores a critical hit on an unmodified attack roll of 18–20. This simple trait is a default you can use to increase the damage dealt by any monster. Mark the Target (Trait, Recharge 3–6). When this creature hits a target with a ranged attack, allies of this creature who can see the target have advantage on attack rolls against the target until the start of this creature’s next turn. Let a monster apply pressure to a specific target with this power, especially if that target is wounded or in a vulnerable position. Make the foe’s action obvious, so that the players know to react to it and can help the targeted character survive the ensuing focused fire. Not Dead Yet (Trait, 1/Day). When this creature is reduced to 0 hit points, they drop prone and are indistinguishable from a dead creature. At the start of their next turn, this creature stands up without using any movement and has 2 × CR hit points. They can then take their turn normally. This trait can represent a clever combatant playing dead, a warrior with incredible resolve, or a creature such as an undead or an ooze that refuses to die. Parry and Riposte (Reaction, Recharge 6). This creature adds +3 to their Armor Class against one melee attack that would hit them. If the attack misses, this creature can immediately make a weapon attack against the creature making the parried attack. This power works well for clever foes, especially those who are experts in the use of the weapons they wield. Quick Recovery (Trait). At the start of this creature’s turn, they can attempt a saving throw against any effect on them that can be ended by a successful saving throw. This power can protect vulnerable combatants and bosses from being shut down by spells. It can represent magical mastery, divine favor, luck, or a specific quality of the creature. As a variant, using this trait could require the foe to take 2 × CR damage if the new saving throw is successful, representing the exertion made to overcome the effect. Refuse to Surrender (Trait). When this creature’s current hit points are below half their hit point maximum, the creature deals CR extra damage with each of their attacks. This trait works best when used on a single important foe, and when you describe the monster’s refusal to surrender despite their many wounds. This lets the players know they can focus fire to finish the creature off, minimizing their damage potential. Reposition (Bonus Action, 1/Day). Each ally within 60 feet of this creature who can see and hear them can immediately move their speed without provoking opportunity attacks. Place this trait on a boss monster to allow their minions to quickly reposition, especially when it’s useful for those minions to move through characters ready to attack. Sneaky (Trait). This creature has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. Foes fighting in obscured areas or behind cover can benefit from this trait, which can represent natural camouflage or well-practiced skill. Spell Fuel (Reaction). When a target this creature can see (including themself) either succeeds or fails on a saving throw against a spell or other magical effect, this creature can expend a spell slot to force the target to reroll the saving throw. Appropriate for a powerful spellcaster, this power represents mastery over magical forces in its ability to enhance or weaken a spell’s effect. Telekinetic Grasp (Action). This creature chooses one creature they can see within 100 feet of them weighing less than 400 pounds. The target must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) or be pulled up to 80 feet directly toward this creature. When characters like to hang back from the action, this power can draw them right into the heart of combat. It can represent psionic ability, a spell, or mastery over wind and air. You can also adjust the power to be a teleportation effect if that fits a monster’s concept. Vanish (Bonus Action). This creature can use the Disengage action, then can hide if they have cover. Creatures accustomed to fighting from cover gain a formidable edge with this power. Consider pairing Vanish with the Sneaky trait (above) to create an unstoppable ambusher.

13 GENERAL-USE COMBAT STAT BLOCKS This section contains several general-use stat blocks specifically built for reskinning into whatever monsters you need for your combat encounters. Each is fully usable on its own, but you can improvise adjustments to them during play, or customize them with attacks and traits from “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster Powers” (page 15), or “Monster Roles” (page 22). Each stat block uses d8 Hit Dice, but can be used for creatures in a range of sizes. Each focuses on a primary ability score, but you can shift abilities as needed to better fit the story of the creature the stat block represents. Swap Strength and Intelligence to run a spellcaster instead of a melee combatant, or switch Dexterity and Strength to turn a shifty rogue into a powerful fighter. A stat block’s attack lets you choose the most appropriate type of damage for a creature, and you can easily increase an attack’s reach or range. Ranges for attacks are given as a single number indicating maximum range, but you can modify that range or replace it with the normal and long range of a specific weapon as you wish. The spread of challenge ratings of these stat blocks provides options for weak, moderate, and strong foes at any character level. Each stat block description includes comparisons between the stat block and characters of different levels, providing guidelines for when a stat block can serve as a boss, an elite foe (suitable for two characters against one creature), a one-on-one combatant, or in larger groups of two to four monsters per character. All these setups are geared toward a hard encounter (see “Defining Challenge Level” on page 105), but one that the characters should definitely be able to win. MINION (CR 1/8) The low-CR minions represented by this stat block might represent ravenous rats, weak skeletons, shifty bandits, or low-ranking cultists. A minion can serve as a one-on-one combatant against 1st-level characters, or can be deployed in large groups at 4th level or above. This stat block focuses on Dexterity as its primary ability. MINION Small or Medium Creature Armor Class 11 Hit Points 9 (2d8) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (+0) 12 (+1) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 12 (+1) 10 (+0) Senses passive Perception 11 Challenge 1/8 (25 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2 Actions Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) damage. SOLDIER (CR 1/2) Representing seasoned guards, trained soldiers, powerful bandits, murderous humanoids, or armed undead, the soldier stat block works well as a boss at 1st level, an elite foe for two 2nd-level characters, one-on-one combatants at 4th level, and in large groups at 6th level and above. Strength is this stat block’s primary ability. SOLDIER Medium Creature Armor Class 12 (leather armor or natural armor) Hit Points 22 (4d8 + 4) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 12 (+1) 12 (+1) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) Senses passive Perception 10 Challenge 1/2 (100 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2 ACTIONS Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d12 + 2) damage. BRUTE (CR 2) Heavy-hitting veterans, capable bodyguards, low-ranking demons or devils, dangerous monsters in the wild, and powerful humanoids can all be represented by this stat block. A brute can serve as a boss against 2nd-level characters, an elite foe against two 4th-level characters, a one-on-one opponent at 5th level, and in large groups at 10th level. This stat block relies on Strength. BRUTE Medium or Large Creature Armor Class 13 (studded leather or natural armor) Hit Points 45 (7d8 + 14) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 16 (+3) 12 (+1) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 8 (−1) Saving Throws Con +4 Skills Athletics +5 Senses passive Perception 10 Challenge 2 (450 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2 Actions Multiattack. The brute makes two attacks. Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d12 + 3) damage.

14 SPECIALIST (CR 4) This stat block can represent spies, assassins, hunters, and trained elite forces. The specialist serves as a boss for 4th-level characters, an elite opponent versus two 5th-level characters, a one-on-one combatant for 10thlevel characters, and in large groups against 16th-level characters. Dexterity is the stat block’s primary ability. SPECIALIST Medium Creature Armor Class 14 Hit Points 84 (13d8 + 26) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 12 (+1) 18 (+4) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 14 (+2) 12 (+1) Saving Throws Dex +6, Wis +4 Skills Acrobatics +6, Perception +4, Stealth +6 Senses passive Perception 14 Challenge 4 (1,100 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2 Actions Multiattack. The specialist makes two attacks. Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) damage. MYRMIDON (CR 7) Powerful elite bodyguards, high priests, wizards, warlocks, sorcerers, demons, and devils can all be represented by this stat block. A myrmidon can serve as a boss monster for 5th-level characters, an elite combatant against two characters of 7th level, a one-on-one combatant against 10th-level characters, or in large groups against 20th-level characters. This stat block focuses on Intelligence. MYRMIDON Medium or Large creature Armor Class 15 (chain shirt or natural armor) Hit Points 130 (20d8 + 40) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (+0) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 18 (+4) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) Saving Throws Dex +5, Wis +5 Skills Perception +5 Senses passive Perception 15 Challenge 7 (2,900 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3 Actions Multiattack. The myrmidon makes three attacks. Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8 + 4) damage. SENTINEL (CR 11) This stat block is a good fit for strong, often-otherworldly creatures such as demons, devils, impressive beings of the Outer Planes, guardian constructs, or powerful undead. The sentinel can serve as a boss for 7th-level characters, an elite foe against two 12th-level characters, and can stand one-on-one against 16th-level characters. This stat block focuses on Strength. SENTINEL Medium, Large, or Huge Creature Armor Class 17 (natural armor or magical protection) Hit Points 165 (22d8 + 66) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 20 (+5) 16 (+3) 16 (+3) 10 (+0) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) Saving Throws Str +9, Dex +7 Skills Perception +6 Senses passive Perception 16 Challenge 11 (7,200 XP) Proficiency Bonus +4 Actions Multiattack. The sentinel makes four attacks. Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) damage. CHAMPION (CR 15) Representing greater demons, devils, vampires, liches, or powerful spellcasters, the champion serves as a boss for 11th-level characters, an elite foe for two 15th-level characters, or a one-on-one challenge against 17th-level characters. This stat block focuses on Charisma. CHAMPION Medium, Large, or Huge Creature Armor Class 19 (natural armor or magical protection) Hit Points 212 (25d8 + 100) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (+0) 12 (+1) 18 (+4) 12 (+1) 16 (+3) 22 (+6) Saving Throws Wis +8, Cha +11 Skills Perception +8 Senses passive Perception 18 Challenge 15 (13,000 XP) Proficiency Bonus +5 Actions Multiattack. The champion makes four attacks. Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 24 (4d8 + 6) damage.

15 MONSTER POWERS A monster power is a discrete trait or action that can be quickly assigned to a monster to give them an extra edge in combat. As a GM, you can pick from the nearly forty monster powers in this section, all of which are organized by theme, adding powers that fit the type of creature and the story you’re trying to convey. Additional monster powers can also be found in “Building a Quick Monster” on page 4, and “Monster Roles” on page 22. Adding new powers to existing monster stat blocks lets you improve upon creatures who feel too simple, or which might have become familiar to your players. A creature primarily focused on a single attack can be transformed into something far more evocative with a fiery weapon that burns its target, a pinning blow that restrains an enemy, and much more. Monster powers can also add features that a monster lacks, such as a ranged attack, a means of getting away from pesky heroes, or an aura to dissuade too many characters from surrounding a creature. Monster powers can let foes deal stronger damage, or can provide a more flexible means of dealing damage for an exciting encounter. ADDING MONSTER POWERS Monster powers function like any other trait or action a creature already has in their stat block, and are written up in much the same way as those existing traits and actions. POWERS BASED ON CHALLENGE RATING Monster powers sometimes make use of challenge rating to calculate attack bonuses, damage, saving throw DCs, or similar values. This requires some quick math, but allows powers to be used at almost any CR. The one small fix to keep in mind is that when using monsters below CR 1, any final result (such as a bonus to damage rolls) should have a minimum value of 1. It’s recommended that you note the final value for any monster power incorporating CR in your session notes. For example, to give a mummy (CR 3) the Poisonous Demise trait that has a DC of 10 + 1/2 CR and deals 2 + CR poison damage, you would note: “Mummy (Poisonous Demise = DC 11, 5 poison damage).” If you prefer, you can set the attack rolls, save DCs, or damage of monster powers according to the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table (page 6 in “Building a Quick Monster”). In some cases, this can give a monster power’s math greater accuracy. For example, the aberrant power Erase Memory has a DC of 13 + 1/2 CR, or DC 18 for a CR 10 creature. Looking up CR 10 on the table provides a suggested DC of 17. Regardless of what approach you use, final values for powers are always something you should feel free to change to fit your play style and your group’s capabilities. WHEN TO ADJUST CHALLENGE RATING In most cases, you’ll add monster powers because you want a creature to be stronger than a typical creature of the same challenge rating, and you don’t want to rebalance the encounter. If you’re deliberately making an encounter a bit stronger, don’t worry about adjusting CR. If you’re adding monster powers to make creatures more interesting but you don’t want the encounter to be harder, you’ll want to assess whether those powers significantly affect a creature’s CR. When a monster power offers an option a creature doesn’t have (for example, a ranged attack to a melee-focused foe) this generally won’t change challenge rating. But if a power grants a creature additional actions or no-action damage (for example, a damaging aura or a bonus-action attack), the increase in the creature’s overall damage can increase CR. Increasing a creature’s CR by 1 is generally sufficient, or you can use the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table to assess whether extra damage or a boost to AC changes the expected challenge rating. If you reward XP for defeating foes in your game, consider having a creature with one or more monster powers provide the XP of a monster with a challenge rating 1 higher than the baseline monster, to represent the lessons learned from fighting this interesting creature. HOW MANY POWERS IS TOO MANY? It’s generally recommended to choose one monster power for a normal creature you want to enhance. For creatures playing a particularly important role in the encounter, including boss and solo monsters, choose two or three powers. In combat, most foes will last 2 to 5 rounds before being defeated. Those who drop more quickly are usually weaker relative to other foes in the encounter, or might be important enough to attract the characters’ attention. Because of this, most monsters shouldn’t have more than three or four action options, including any added monster powers, unless the flexibility of many actions is needed. Features and actions tell a story. If you have too many, the story becomes muddled. You want characters to react to a creature’s fiery aura as they enter it, but the players might not even remember that aura if it’s part of a list of several other things that happen. You want to pick a few elements and make them important to the encounter. Likewise, the more features and actions your foes have, the harder they can be to run. Monster tactics are usually more effective if you focus on using a few capabilities well. GROUPS OF MONSTERS As a rule of thumb, an encounter is easier to manage when we assign a monster power to all creatures of the same name and type. In a fight with hobgoblin and goblin mercenaries, you might give one power to the hobgoblins to reinforce their role as leaders, even if you then reflavor how the power manifests in each individual. For example,

16 describing the same ranged monster power differently can establish the story of how each hobgoblin sergeant excels with a different weapon. Assigning the power to all hobgoblins is easier to remember than if some hobgoblins have the power and others don’t. An exception to this is when you want to make a single member of a group feel exceptional—for example, a trio of skeletons fighting the party, with one of them on fire. By choosing one creature to be different, you make it easy to make that creature memorable. Adding a different monster power to each of the skeletons would also be memorable, but harder to track. WHAT DO POWERS REPRESENT? It’s up to you to decide whether a monster power is magical (and thus can be shut down in an antimagic field, or dispelled with dispel magic if you treat it as a spell effect), or whether it is natural (representing physical capabilities or training). Thinking through the nature of the powers you add to creatures also helps you lean into the fiction when you use those powers. MONSTER POWERS BY THEME The rest of this section contains monster powers you can use to enhance foes. Powers are organized by themes or types, though each of those themes is merely a suggestion touching on the most obvious flavor associated with a group of powers. Reskinning monster powers is very much encouraged, so that you can use them on any type of creature. A power like Repulsion might represent a magical wave of force, a repulsive smell, a charm or fear effect, roots grabbing the characters, or anything else that fits a monster and the encounter they’re part of. ABERRANT Aberrant powers help to establish a creature as unimaginably alien or steeped in horror. Erase Memory (Bonus Action). The next time this creature hits a target with an attack, the attack’s damage becomes psychic damage and this creature becomes invisible to the target. The target can make an Intelligence saving throw (DC = 13 + 1/2 CR) as an action or at the end of each of their turns, ending the invisibility on a success. A target who succeeds on the saving throw is immune to this effect for 5 minutes. This power can easily be reskinned as an illusionary effect usable by spellcasters, fey, or other magical creatures. A foe can use this power to prevent a specific creature from being able to see them (and perhaps forget they ever existed), forcing the characters to change tactics. Repulsion (Action, 1/Encounter). This creature targets up to eight creatures they can see within 50 feet of them. Each target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw (DC = 13 + 1/2 CR) or immediately move their speed away from this creature, avoiding hazards or dangerous terrain if possible. On a failed save, a target creature can’t move closer to this creature. An affected target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on themself on a success. Repulsion is an excellent way to keep characters away from an otherwise vulnerable foe. Even if only a few characters fail their saving throws, the number of characters who can fight the foe in melee is reduced. This is a powerful action to add to a monster acting as a guardian to other vulnerable creatures. You can explicitly make this a fear effect and use the frightened condition if doing so fits the foe and the situation. Displace Enemies (Bonus Action). Each enemy within 30 feet of this creature must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw (DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) or be teleported up to 20 feet to an unoccupied space of this creature’s choice that this creature can see. As an alternative to Repulsion, this power can be used to move targets away from a vulnerable foe. But it can also be used to place heroes over pits (allowing a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw to grab the edge), move characters next to dangerous foes, lift them up and drop them, and explore other devious tactics. If you change the power to target all creatures or target allies instead of enemies, it could be used to move companion creatures out of danger (with those creatures allowed to intentionally fail their saving throws). Adhesive Skin (Trait). When this creature is hit by a melee weapon attack, the weapon becomes stuck to them. A creature can remove a stuck weapon with an action and a successful DC 14 Strength (Athletics) check. All items stuck to this creature become unstuck when the creature dies. Sure to surprise your players, this power should be used on a single creature to avoid frustration. It can lead to different tactics, or to characters drawing one weapon after another to keep attacking in melee. Enjoy describing the gross skin the monster has to enable this trait! BESTIAL Bestial powers underscore the ferocious and wild nature of beasts and other feral creatures. Earthshaking Demise (Trait). This creature must be size Huge or larger. When this creature dies, they topple to the ground, forcing each smaller creature within 20 feet of this creature to succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. This power reminds players of the considerable size and weight of creatures such as dinosaurs. It works best when several creatures all have this trait, so that as each one falls, the characters feel the effect impact the battle. Beyond bestial creatures, this trait works well for constructs, dragons, and other physically mighty foes. Retaliation (Reaction). When this creature is hit by a creature they can see, they can make an opportunity attack against the attacker. A beast that bites back feels feral and dangerous. This is also an effective power on other creature types, especially boss monsters who can benefit from an off-turn attack. It’s a great power to improvise, applying it to any foe when you want them to appear more dangerous and to surprise the characters. Some boss monsters might have multiple reactions, which also works well with this power.

17 CHARM OR FEY Compulsion powers wielded by fey creatures and others with a penchant for enchantment demonstrate a supernatural capability to influence characters. These powers should be used sparingly, so as to present an interesting challenge without becoming frustrating or repeatedly removing the sense of agency that players enjoy. Words of Treachery (Action). This creature speaks deceitful words at a target within 20 feet of them who can see and hear them. The target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw (DC = 12 + 1/2 CR) or immediately use their reaction to move up to 10 feet and make a melee or ranged weapon attack against a target of this creature’s choice. The compelled target uses an attack they would typically make against a foe. This power works well when you roleplay what the creature says, then have the player attempt their saving throw and roleplay the outcome. Turning a character into an ally in combat can be a powerful option for a foe, as many characters deal more damage with their actions than monsters do. You can alter the power to work without spending the target’s reaction if you feel that losing a reaction might lessen a player’s fun. You can also decide whether a creature immune to the charmed condition is immune to this effect, or if it channels a different type of compulsion. Charming Words (Action, Recharge 5–6). This creature chooses any number of targets within 60 feet of them who can hear them. Each target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw (DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) or be charmed by this creature until the end of their next turn. This area-of-effect compulsion can keep a monster alive by preventing some or all of the characters from attacking them. It’s best used when a fight has other potential targets, so characters can attack a different creature and stay engaged. CONSTRUCT Powers that suggest precision and programming work well for golems, clockwork creatures, and other constructs. Improved Critical Range (Trait). This creature’s attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 17–20. This power works particularly well on multiple lowthreat creatures, creating a better chance that one or more will score a crit. You can alter the critical hit range based on the story you’re telling. For example, low-CR constructs with a critical range of 15–20 could be a lot of fun, hitting surprisingly hard but dying quickly. You can also use this power with nearly any other creature type, representing preternatural acuity or battle training. Be careful with giving formidable foes this trait, and considering reducing the range if you do—especially at low levels of play where critical hits can have a big impact on play and easily result in character death. But, yes, a vorpal tyrannosaurus does sound awesome. Erratic Gears (Trait). At the start of each of this creature’s turns, roll a d6 to determine what they do: 1: The creature’s internal mechanism stops working and they do nothing this turn. 2: The creature acts normally. 3–5: The creature has a surge of power that causes them to deal an extra CR damage on each attack this turn. 6: The creature speeds up, letting them use two actions this turn. The chaotic nature of this power lends itself to constructs experiencing malfunctions or not under the direction of a creator. It works best if used on several creatures, so that on average, they will still be effective and engaging. This power is meant to be as much evocative as effective, but you can alter the effects to change that. DRACONIC Ancient and awe-inspiring creatures, dragons might grant powers to any other creatures who serve them. Creatures might also seek to steal a dragon’s essence or emulate their capabilities. The powers below are tied to specific dragon types, but can be easily reskinned by changing damage types or effects to represent other dragons. Acidic Weapon (Trait). The first time on a turn that this creature hits with a weapon attack, the attack deals an extra 2 + CR acid damage, and the target takes a cumulative –1 penalty to AC (to a maximum −3 penalty) until the end of the encounter. Armor of Frost (Reaction). When this creature is hit by a melee weapon attack, the attacking creature takes 4 + CR cold damage and their speed is halved until the end of their next turn. Electrified Armor (Reaction). When this creature is hit by a melee weapon attack, the attacking creature takes 4 + CR lightning damage and has disadvantage on their next attack roll. Flaming Weapon (Trait). The first time on a turn that this creature hits with a weapon attack, the attack deals an extra 4 + CR fire damage and the target’s armor or skin begins to smolder. While smoldering, the target has vulnerability to fire damage. The target can make a Constitution saving throw (DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on themself on a success. MAKE THESE POWERS YOURS Though all these monster powers can be used exactly as written, they’re meant to be starting points that you can alter to fit your particular needs. For example, Displace Enemies is a strong effect, allowing a creature to rearrange the battlefield as a bonus action each turn. But for some encounters, it might be appropriate to limit this power with a recharge so it comes up less frequently. A power such as Armor of Frost is a reaction by default, limiting it to being used once per round by a draconic creature. But if you decide that power would work well for an ice elemental, you can represent that creature’s icy nature by lowering the damage but making the power a trait that triggers every time the elemental is attacked. For an ice titan, you might keep the power as a reaction but increase the damage, to represent the titan’s elemental might.

18 Poison Strike (Trait). The first time on a turn this creature hits with a weapon attack, the attack deals an extra 2 + CR poison damage and the target takes 2 + CR poison damage at the start of each of their turns. The target can make a Constitution saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on themself on a success. These powers can be used on humanoids or other creatures serving dragons, or can be reskinned to work as elemental powers or to represent beasts or monstrosities tied to elemental forces. For example, a massive winter wolf might have a hide that radiates cold, represented by the Armor of Frost power. The Acidic Weapon power is assumed to harm armor in a way that is easily repaired. However, you might decide that the penalty lasts until the target can repair their armor during a short or long rest. ELEMENTAL The following powers can be modified to reflect a particular type of elemental creature. Adding these powers to elementals not only strengthens them, but can help better portray their elemental nature. These powers can also be used with other creature types, reflecting the creature’s association with an environment tied to a particular element or some other factor that has imbued them with elemental energy. Elemental Shroud (Reaction, 1/Encounter). When this creature is hit by a melee attack, their body is shrouded with energy of the type they are associated with (acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder) until the start of their next turn. While this creature is shrouded, any creature who touches this creature or hits them with a melee attack while within 5 feet of them (including the triggering attacker) takes 5 + CR damage of the associated type. Characters can choose to keep attacking a foe with this power, but will take damage when doing so. This can be an excellent way to convince characters to take other actions, such as interacting with important noncombat elements of an encounter. The short duration for this power makes it significantly different from similar shield auras, but it can deal a lot of damage while it lasts. You can raise the number of times per encounter the power can be used, or even tie its use to an object or mechanism in the encounter so that the characters can disable the mechanism to turn the power off. If you want the shroud to function as a shield and really dissuade characters from attacking, it could provide temporary hit points to the foe as well. Elemental Seepage (Trait). Whenever this creature is below half their hit point maximum, they radiate an aura of elemental energy of the type they are associated with (acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder). Any creature who moves within 10 feet of this creature for the first time on a turn or starts their turn there takes 5 damage (10 damage if this creature is CR 12 or higher) of the associated type. When present on several creatures in an encounter, this power encourages characters to focus fire so as to face fewer auras. You can contract or enlarge the aura to change its lethality and the number of characters who’ll be impacted tactically by it. The power’s relatively low damage means it works well on multiple creatures, but if used on only one or two creatures, the damage could be equal to CR or even 5 + CR. LEADERSHIP Leadership powers work best on a monster acting as a boss to other creatures, showcasing how they command or bolster their underlings. Commander (Trait). While this creature is at half their hit point maximum or above, each ally within 30 feet of them has a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls. Roleplay the instructions a creature with this trait gives out to underlings, directing their attacks and lifting their morale. Establishing that the commander looking healthy is inspiring their troops can clue the players in to the need to focus fire to end the benefit. For a stronger effect, the +2 attack bonus could be replaced with advantage. Fanaticism (Trait). While this creature is below half their hit point maximum, each ally within 30 feet of them has advantage on attack rolls. In addition, when this creature takes damage and an ally is within 5 feet of them, this creature takes half the damage and the chosen ally takes the remaining damage. This power paints a different story in combat than the Commander power, showing a leader whose desperation fuels the fury and devotion of their foolish followers.

BRIAN PATTERSON 19 Inspire Troops (Reaction). When this creature succeeds on a saving throw or when an attack roll against them misses, one ally who can see this creature gains 5 + 1/2 CR temporary hit points. You can make this power a trait if you want it to be the centerpiece of an encounter. Smart characters will attack other creatures instead, but that might also work in the leader’s favor. MAGIC Magic powers can represent spells and eldritch energy, but might also connect to divine blessings, magic items or artifacts, and the ability to tap into powerful sources of otherworldly energy. Many creature stat blocks feature attack options that resemble spells but aren’t explicitly called out as being so. The default intention in this section is that magic monster powers should work equally well with a spell or an attack that resembles a spell. So simply replace wording such as “casts a spell” with “casts a spell or uses an action that resembles a spell” to meet your intention. Similarly, some creatures have traditional spell slots, while others may have a number of uses of certain spells per day. This section considers those two approaches to spellcasting interchangeable, though you can adjust that to your preference. Careful Sorcery (Trait). When this creature casts a spell that forces one or more creatures to make a saving throw, they can choose up to three of those creatures. Each chosen creature is immune to the effects of the spell. Careful Sorcery allows a spellcaster to use powerful area-of-effect spells and exclude some or all of their companions. This can be a fun surprise during a combat in a small room. Dual Concentration (Trait). This creature can concentrate on up to two spells simultaneously. When making a concentration check, the creature makes a separate check for each spell upon which they are concentrating. Many spellcasting creatures have an abundance of spells requiring concentration. This lets you employ two of those spells at a time, which can be explained as an uncommonly powerful arcanist, the use of a magic item, or an expendable focus used to cast the second spell. Spell Shield (Reaction). When this creature is the target of an attack, they can expend a spell slot or one use of a spell or magical attack (other than an at-will magical attack) to add +4 to their AC until the start of their next turn. Many spellcasting creatures have more spell slots than they can use in a fight, so this power turns extra slots into a powerful asset. You can modify this power to instead grant a bonus to attack rolls or damage for 1 round if that better fits the monster concept. Quickening (Trait, 2/Day). When this creature casts a spell that has a casting time of 1 action, they can change the casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting. The creature can cast up to two spells this turn, including two spells that aren’t cantrips. Most spellcasting monsters and NPCs can cast only a few spells before being defeated, making them not much of a challenge. Allowing a spellcaster to have 2 rounds where they cast any two spells makes them far more challenging. You can roleplay or describe the effort a spellcasting foe makes to accomplish this, so the players know the creature can’t do so every single round. NECROMANTIC Wielding power over death adds an aspect of horror to any foes, or enables necromancers or undead to better showcase their capabilities. Aura of Demise (Trait). Each enemy within 30 feet of this creature who makes a death saving throw does so with disadvantage. Seeing any character drop to 0 hit points while near a creature with this power will have all the players on the edge of their seats. Aura of Destruction (Trait). Each creature who ends their turn within 5 feet of this creature (or within 10 feet of this creature if this creature is CR 12 or higher) must make a death saving throw, regardless of their current hit points. With three successes, a creature no longer needs to make death saves against this effect. With three failures, a creature dies. Having to make a death saving throw for standing next to a creature? Your players won’t expect that. Truly cruel GMs can combine this and Aura of Demise for a nailbiting challenge. Alternatively, you can soften this power by having three failures reduce an affected creature to 0 hit points—at which point they begin making death saves again as normal.

20 Undying Allies (Trait). When an ally who can see this creature is reduced to 0 hit points, that ally immediately becomes a zombie (retaining their original stat block but gaining the undead type), and stands up with 1 hit point. From that point on, if damage reduces the zombie to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the zombie drops to 1 hit point instead. Any ally who becomes an undead from this trait is destroyed if this creature dies or is destroyed. Roleplay the necromancer with this power urging their fallen allies to rise up and strike down the heroes. This places an urgency on defeating the necromancer rather than their allies, since killing allies only results in more undead. Withering Blow (Bonus Action, Recharge 4–6). The next time this creature hits with an attack, the target takes 5 + CR necrotic damage at the start of each of their turns. The target can make a Constitution saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on themself on a success. The effect also ends if this creature dies or is destroyed. For maximum effect, describe how this blow causes a character’s flesh to wither, shrivel, and take on the gray color of undead flesh. For even greater effect, you could have the extra damage from this power also reduce the target’s hit point maximum. But that’s probably too evil. Probably. PLANT AND POISON These powers work equally well for plant creatures, reptiles, and other foes who might be poisonous or venomous. Poisonous Demise (Trait). When this creature is reduced to 0 hit points, they release a spray of poison. Each creature within 30 feet of this creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or take 2 + CR poison damage. This trait can be reskinned for other types of creatures, such as elementals and undead, by changing the damage type. You can likewise change the area of effect to better reflect your monster or the desired challenge. The default distance is based on a single monster having this power. If multiple creatures in an encounter have it, reducing the distance to 5 or 10 feet works well. Virulent Poison (Trait). This creature’s attacks that deal poison damage ignore a target’s resistance to poison damage. If a target has immunity to poison damage, that target instead has resistance to poison damage against this creature’s attacks. Additionally, the first time each turn that this creature deals poison damage to a target, that target is poisoned until the end of their next turn. Poison is a common damage type for characters to resist, which can reduce the challenge of poisonous or venomous foes. You can simplify this power and reduce its potency by removing the poisoned condition, or you can strike a balance by providing a Constitution saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) against that condition. ROGUE Sneaky or skirmishing creatures can all benefit from these rogue-type powers. Impersonate (Bonus Action, Recharge 6). Until the start of their next turn, this creature changes their appearance to look exactly like another creature who is within 5 feet of them and is no more than one size smaller or larger than this creature. Other creatures must each make a Wisdom (Perception) check (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) each time they make an attack against this creature or the impersonated creature. On a failure, the attack is made against the wrong target. This power can be narratively rendered as shapeshifting ability, an illusion effect, beguiling words from a fey, or a confusing effect caused by an aberration. Nimble Reaction (Reaction, Recharge 4–6). When this creature is the only target of a melee attack, they can immediately move up to their speed without provoking opportunity attacks. If this movement leaves this creature outside the attacking creature’s reach, this creature avoids the attack. This reaction lets a foe avoid taking damage while also conveying the feel of a nimble combatant capable of escaping certain danger. You can alter the recharge to reflect just how nimble a creature is. SOLO Solo powers work well when a single creature is used in an encounter, or when one creature is the obvious target and needs to survive focused fire.

BRIAN PATTERSON 21 Bloody Legendary Resistance (Trait). If this creature fails a saving throw, they can choose to succeed instead. Each time they use this trait, this creature takes 4 + CR damage. This power provides an alternative to the Legendary Resistance trait, with the hit point cost making it more rewarding for characters to cast spells and use features that require a saving throw, knowing that having a foe succeed on those saves carries a different cost. At the same time, a monster can use this power more often than Legendary Resistance, protecting them from the repetitive uses of features that can hinder a solo creature’s ability to be effective. For an alternative approach, replace the damage dealt with the creature losing the ability to use one of their actions or traits until the end of their next turn. Magic Resistance (Trait). This monster has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. A great option when building solo monsters is to give them the ability to shrug off spells and magical effects, common in most legendary or highly magical monsters. Magic Resilience (Trait). Whenever this creature is subjected to a spell or other magical effect that does not grant a saving throw, the creature can make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw, avoiding the effect on a success. This trait lets you build an even more potent magicdefiant foe. You can change the ability score used for the saving throw to reflect the nature of a particular creature, or base it on the type of effect being avoided. Things will get interesting for the characters when a boss monster unexpectedly breaks the walls shaped by a forcecage spell or overcomes some equally powerful effect. Use this power sparingly, though—and don’t give your players our email addresses. Ultimate Resolve (Trait). If this creature takes damage while incapacitated, paralyzed, or stunned, they gain an extra attack the next time they use the Attack action. This trait can grant a maximum of one extra attack if the creature is CR 6 or lower, two extra attacks if they are from CR 7 to CR 12, and three extra attacks if they are CR 13 or above. This is an excellent power for boss or solo monsters likely to be denied actions by the characters’ tactics. That action denial still takes place, but the creature has a chance to make up for it. WARRIOR Warrior powers represent tactics and capabilities honed through battle. Challenge Foe (Bonus Action, Recharge 4–6). The next time this creature hits a target, in addition to the regular effect of the attack, that target is challenged. A challenged creature has disadvantage on attack rolls against any creature other than the challenging creature. At the end of each of their turns, a challenged creature can make a Charisma saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR), ending the challenge on themself on a success. Perfect for a monster with the defender role (see “Monster Roles” on page 22), this power incentivizes characters to engage with a formidable foe rather than go after weaker targets. Pack Tactics (Trait). This creature has advantage on an attack roll against a target if at least one of this creature’s allies is within 5 feet of this creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated. A superb trait, Pack Tactics allows monsters to work together in an obvious tactical fashion to gain advantage. This trait can be used for many types of monsters, representing the cunning tactics they employ. Pinning Shot (Trait). When this creature hits with a ranged weapon attack, the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC = 9 + 1/2 CR) or have their speed reduced to 0. An affected creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of their turn, ending the effect on themself on a success. Just one or two combatants with this trait can force the characters to adjust tactics as some of them are pinned in place. To make this power stronger, it can impose the restrained condition instead of just reducing speed. Either way, be careful not to overuse this power and frustrate the players.

22 MONSTER ROLES Thinking about the roles that creatures play in combat helps to create better encounters. A monster who has tons of hit points can stand up front, soaking up damage while the more vulnerable evil wizard launches devastating spells from behind cover. Skirmisher monsters can dart in from the sides and back away, forcing the characters to spread out and leaving them open to an ambusher foe. Foes of different roles complement each other, creating an effective team. Monsters in 5e don’t have defined roles with connections to specific mechanics and tactics, as the creatures in some fantasy RPGs do. However, many 5e foes either already fit a specific role or are flexible enough to allow us to assign roles to them. For example, a harpy is a highly effective controller, and a spy is an excellent skirmisher or ambusher. We can also modify monsters to enable them to play a role. By assigning a role to a foe, you enable a specific set of tactics that allow you to challenge the characters more effectively. DEFINING ROLES The following roles capture the most important tactical concepts in 5e combat, and cover virtually all the foes you might make use of in a 5e game. AMBUSHER Ambushers have special features that allow them to hide, dart out of danger, render targets senseless, or otherwise prevent characters from attacking them easily. An ambusher often deals more damage when hidden, and might engage in a pattern of hiding, attacking, and hiding again. Ambusher foes are often less effective when they can’t hide, which incentivizes characters to force them into the open. Many ambushers have low hit points. When to Use Them. Because ambushers can result in longer, drawn-out fights, you want to use them sparingly. However, they can be a good choice for a villain who needs to get away. Ambushers are likewise an excellent choice if a combat encounter is preceded by a freeform roleplaying or social encounter, with foes hiding in plain sight before the fight breaks out. Placement and Tactics. An ambusher is usually most effective when they start out hidden, revealing themself only when they attack. Some ambushers start out in the open, then disappear and reposition once characters have moved to them. Example Ambushers. Dust mephit, ghost, mimic, phase spider, spy ARTILLERY With a high attack bonus and dealing good damage at range, artillery often have lower hit points or AC than other foes. Sacrificing survivability can be fun, allowing these monsters to hit hard and die quickly. This creates tension and pressure early in an encounter, followed by increasing confidence as the heroes reach the artillery and quickly defeat them. Artillery creatures might strike at single targets or an area, and their high accuracy lets them deal consistent damage. Because they operate at range, you might focus the attacks of artillery foes on characters who usually stay out of trouble, using the flexibility of range to put them in peril. Alternatively, you can put their accuracy to use against the characters with the highest defenses. When to Use Them. Artillery creatures work well in most encounters. Because of their placement at range, they draw attention away from other important targets such as controllers, leaders, or bosses. Artillery foes encourage characters to use resources to reach them, finish them off, and heal from their long-range damage. Placement and Tactics. Artillery creatures seek cover and elevation from which to rain down destruction. They stand behind other monsters and blocking terrain so that characters can’t easily get to them. They might also be placed without cover and to the sides of the battle, forcing characters who want to attack them to spread out—so that ambushers or skirmishers can pick those characters apart. Place artillery closer to the action when you want them to be easy to reach and draw attention deliberately away from other foes. Artillery creatures like to focus fire and group up on one target when possible. However, you want to change up that tactic if you start rolling too well, which can make artillery creatures extremely dangerous even in relatively easy encounters. Make sure getting to artillery foes is fun and not frustrating. A good rule of thumb is that characters shouldn’t need to spend more than 1 round of movement to engage an artillery creature. Example Artillery. Hill giant, mage, manticore, scout, solar. Of all the roles, artillery creatures are generally the least represented in the 5e Monster Manual and other books, but you can easily build artillery with additional monster powers (see “Reinforcing Roles with Powers” below). BRUISER A bruiser foe deals higher-than-average melee damage, bringing the pain up close. But that focus on damage often comes with lower AC, lower attack accuracy, or lower hit points. Bruisers draw attention with their damage, and make fun opponents because they’re often easy to hit or die quickly. When a bruiser has low accuracy, a battle often feels swingy, with a sense of impending doom as each attack roll creates tension. Even when an attack misses, the players are usually watching that roll and wincing as they think about what would have happened if it hit. When to Use Them. Bruisers should be used in most encounters, surprising players with their impressive

DANNY PAVLOV 23 damage. However, they should be used in care in encounters against 1st-level characters, who are particularly susceptible to being dropped with a single lucky blow. Like artillery, bruisers can be used to draw attention away from other important targets such as controllers, leaders, and bosses. Bruisers encourage characters to use resources, first to finish off the bruiser more quickly, then to heal up in the aftermath. Placement and Tactics. Melee bruisers should be in the front lines, where they can deal damage as soon as possible. They might come out of side passages or otherwise surprise characters in the rear ranks, but bruisers seldom switch targets unless a different target is obviously easier to kill. Bruisers like to focus fire and group up on one target when possible, so keep an eye on their damage output to ensure that a few lucky attack rolls don’t push the challenge level of an encounter too high. Example Bruisers. Ettin, flesh golem, owlbear, shambling mound, wolf CONTROLLER Controller creatures use their attacks and features to impose conditions or otherwise impede characters from being their most effective. This role covers many different types of foes, and the extent of their control can vary. Some controller creatures grapple, swallow, or otherwise lock down targets, preventing movement. They might impose disadvantage on attacks through conditions such as poisoned or restrained, or use magic such as the confusion or hold person spells to limit actions. When to Use Them. Controllers create dilemmas for a party to contend with. How do the characters change tactics when the fighter is poisoned and the cleric is inside a creature’s gullet? These situations can be exciting and challenging, forcing characters to expend resources and think of clever solutions. However, used too often, too extensively, or too effectively, controller foes can feel like punishment. Be wary of a character rendered ineffective for several rounds, or of more than a couple of characters being ineffective for longer than 1 round. When a control effect feels clearly frustrating, try to change targets over the course of combat so that the same character isn’t being controlled round after round. Placement and Tactics. Controllers should be placed where they can’t be easily reached, but close to prospective targets based on the range of their powers. Spellcaster controllers might be careful to always start farther than 60 feet from the characters—beyond the range of counterspell. A controller pairs well with a defender whose job is to keep the controller safe, or with skirmishers who can easily move around controlled characters. Controllers usually have trouble defeating characters one on one, due to their lower damage, but they work well with bruisers and artillery who can deal high damage to controlled characters. Example Controllers. Black pudding, cockatrice, ettercap, harpy DEFENDER Defender foes soak up hits and damage. They might deal lower-than-average damage or be less accurate with attacks, but have higher AC, saving throws, and hit points. They often look big and imposing, drawing attention to themselves by issuing challenges and making threats. Some defenders have attacks or features that pin characters in place—often referred to as “sticky” features that make the defender hard to get away from once engaged. Stickiness can also take the form of imposing penalties to attack any creatures other than the defender, or similar features that help the defender soak up the heroes’ attacks. When to Use Them. Defenders should be used sparingly, as too many defenders in an encounter or too many encounters featuring defenders can make combats longer and less interesting. Use them in fights where other vulnerable foes need assistance to prevent being taken

24 down too quickly. Defenders work well with skirmishers or ambushers, who can surprise characters focused on the defender. They excel at protecting key villains, especially artillery or controller spellcasters. Placement and Tactics. Defenders are often placed in the front lines to tie down characters. However, you can also place them farther back, closer to another creature they defend. Make sure defenders won’t lock down all the characters at once, though. Combat works best when most characters can move around the encounter area and discover all it has to offer. You don’t want to design an amazing encounter and then have the characters spend all their time locked down in specific locations. Example Defenders. Animated armor, chuul, gelatinous cube, knight, shambling mound LEADER A leader has features that help other creatures. They might heal, boost statistics such as attack modifiers or saving throws, or move other creatures, and they often have lower-than-average hit points, damage output, or accuracy. When to Use Them. Leaders are most interesting when used sparingly, though they can be used more often when they are of different types. For example, a hobgoblin priest NPC focused on healing feels different from a duergar war priest who boosts their allies’ attacks. Placement and Tactics. Leaders can be placed according to the focus of their useful features, letting them help as many of their allies as possible. Because the characters often want to target them, leaders operate best in the center or slightly back from the center of the encounter area. Leaders make good bosses, or can act as lieutenants for bosses. Be careful when using them with skirmishers and ambushers, though, since characters moving to pursue those foes might go after the leader instead. A good default setup is to have one or two defenders protecting a leader. Example Leaders. Couatl, knight, priest SKIRMISHER Skirmishers dance around the battlefield, using high mobility to dart in for an attack and then get away. They might have lower AC or hit points than other foes, but possess features that let them evade blows, retreat, or counterattack. Skirmishers are usually accurate, having a high attack bonus, and their damage might be especially high when using their mobility features. When to Use Them. Use skirmishers to liven up battles. They can draw characters farther into an area of combat, making good use of areas that have dividing features such as interior walls, side chambers, or more than one level. Placement and Tactics. Skirmishers should usually start far enough from the characters to show off their ability to move in and then move back out, forcing characters to reposition themselves. Skirmishers with high speed or supernatural movement can avoid or surpass terrain that challenges pursuing characters, who might trigger traps or spread out so other foes can surround them. Example Skirmishers. Bulette, copper dragon, goblin, spy, wraith ADDITIONAL ROLES Beyond the broad categories that define a creature’s role in combat, many monsters also have a role shaped by how weak or tough they are relative to other foes. BOSS A boss monster stands out because they are clearly stronger than the creatures around them, most commonly because they have a higher challenge rating than those creatures. You can also make a boss stand out by providing them with either a high AC to make them harder to hit, or with high hit points to keep them in the fight right to the end. Adding a unique monster power (see below) can also help distinguish a boss, particularly if that power allows them to bolster or command a lieutenant and other monsters. Lieutenants can be thought of in much the same way as bosses, but have a lower CR and fewer features than a main boss. “Building and Running Boss Monsters” (page 31) and “Bosses and Minions” (page 61) has more thoughts on this topic. “Monster Combinations for a Hard Challenge” (page 67) offers up suggestions for how to build encounters with a boss. SOLO When a creature is the only foe in an encounter, they will be a higher challenge rating than most creatures the characters encounter. But because of the action economy of the game, CR alone isn’t enough to make a solo creature effective. Legendary actions and lair actions help a monster act more often, keeping the pressure high in combat and reducing the chance of a round where a solo foe accomplishes nothing. You can also add monster powers to help the creature stand out. “Building and Running Legendary Monsters” (page 28) and “Understanding the Action Economy” (page 42) offer guidance on solos. “Creating Lair Actions” (page 36) has additional tips for a solo creature who has a strong connection to their lair. MINIONS AND UNDERLINGS As talked about in “Bosses and Minions”, we sometimes want a boss or a main monster to be accompanied by several weak foes. These minions and underlings can swarm a party, but are fun for the characters to easily defeat. Low-CR creatures make good underlings, which you can run using the advice in “Running Minions and Hordes” (page 54). But you can also make use of the following quick minion concepts, built around the

25 minions of the 4e game who could survive only one solid hit. For these minions, you use all of a monster’s normal statistics, but you ignore their normal hit points and use one of the following mechanics instead. One-Quarter Health. A minion has one quarter of the hit points they would normally have, taking them out of the fight quickly. A minion of this sort is worth one sixth of their usual XP value if you use XP for encounter building. Save or Die. Each time a minion would take damage, they must attempt a DC 20 Constitution saving throw. On a success, the minion survives, and on a failure, they die. Each time a creature is hit after the first, the DC increases by 10. This allows for even creatures of high challenge rating to function as minions, with a failed save coming eventually. You can alter this DC or the increase to change a foe’s survivability. A minion of this sort is worth one quarter of their usual XP value for encounter building. Even Odds. Each time a minion would take damage, they must roll a die. If an even number is rolled, the minion dies. This is a variant of the save-or-die approach, with a flat 50 percent chance to survive with each hit, and making no adjustment for a monster’s CR. A minion of this sort is worth one quarter of their usual XP value for encounter building. One Hit Point. A minion has just 1 hit point, but is only affected by damaging effects that target that specific minion. The first time such minions are targeted by effects that deal damage to multiple creatures in an area, the minions are immune. But those minions die when targeted a second time with damaging area effects. This approach allows greater tactical choices for those using damaging spells or other effects that target an area. A minion of this sort is worth one sixth of their XP value for encounter building, though you can reduce this if the characters can easily target multiple minions. REINFORCING ROLES WITH POWERS In addition to determining what role a monster might play in combat based on their existing statistics and attacks, we can also treat roles as a template, adding features that reinforce a particular role. Any of the monster powers in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4) or “Monster Powers” (page 15) might help a creature fulfill a specific role, but this section presents additional powers specifically tied to each monster role, as well as advice for adjusting statistics to help a creature fulfill a role. “Monster Powers” talks in detail about the format and use of powers. AMBUSHER To build an ambusher, reduce AC by 2 or reduce hit points by 20 percent. An ambusher gains proficiency in Stealth and uses double their proficiency bonus for Dexterity (Stealth) checks. Then give the ambusher one or more of the following powers: Distracting Attack (Trait). When this creature hits with an attack, they can become invisible until the start of their next turn. Shadowy Movement (Trait). This creature can attempt to hide in dim light or lightly obscured terrain. When this creature moves, they can make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide as part of that movement. Elusive (Bonus Action). This creature takes the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action. Duck and Cover (Trait). When this creature hits a target with an attack and has advantage on the attack roll, they deal CR extra damage, or 2 × CR extra damage if the creature is CR 4 or lower. The Nimble Reaction power in “Monster Powers” is also a good fit for an ambusher foe. ARTILLERY To turn a stat block into an artillery foe, increase the creature’s attack bonuses by 2, or increase attack bonuses by 1 and increase the damage of all attack actions by 1 for each damage die rolled for the attack (so that 2d8 damage gains a +2, 3d6 damage gains a +3, and so on). Then either decrease hit points by 20 percent or decrease AC by 2. You can then give the creature any of the following powers: Ricochet (Reaction). When this creature misses with a ranged attack, they can reroll that attack. Quick Step (Reaction). When this creature would make a ranged attack, they can first move 5 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. CHOOSE TWO TYPES Mike has a simple hack for making combat encounters more engaging without getting too complicated in their design— choose just two types of monsters. Two types of monsters offer enough variance to make a combat encounter tactically interesting without forcing you to spend a lot of time thinking about monster roles overall. Ideally, these two types come from opposite ends of the monster spectrum. Melee bruisers paired with sneaky ambushers. Powerful defenders protecting weaker artillery. Controllers shaping the battlefield to the advantage of skirmishers. You can often simplify this concept down to “Big dudes up front and weaker damage dealers in the back.” It’s also worth remembering that not every battle needs to be a mix of different monster types. Sometimes the characters just want to blow up a horde of skeletons, and sometimes the pacing works best when five 7th-level heroes run into a pair of bandits throwing dice. (“Running Easy Monsters” on page 124 talks more on that topic.)

26 BRUISER To build a bruiser, either decrease attack bonuses by 2, decrease hit points by 10 percent and attack bonuses by 1, or decrease AC by 2. Then increase the damage of all attack actions by 2 for each damage die rolled for the attack. You can alternatively let each attack deal an extra CR damage. (At low challenge ratings, for specific powerful actions, or to provide a higher challenge, this additional damage can be increased to 3 × CR.) You can then give the creature any of the following powers: Opportunist (Trait). This creature can make an opportunity attack when any creature moves within their reach, even if that movement would not normally trigger an opportunity attack. Offense over Defense (Bonus Action). Until the end of their turn, this creature deals an extra CR damage on attacks but reduces their AC by 2. You might also consider the Goes Down Fighting power in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4) or the Improved Critical Range power in “Monster Powers” (page 15) for a bruiser foe. CONTROLLER A controller creature reduces the damage of all attack actions by 1 for each damage die rolled for the attack, and increases the saving throw DCs for all their non-damagedealing attacks and features by 2. You can then give the creature any of the following powers: Controlling Attacks (Trait). When this creature hits a target with an attack, they impose one of the following conditions, based on the creature concept: blinded, charmed, frightened, grappled, poisoned, prone, or restrained. The condition lasts until the end of the target’s next turn. Controlling Spells (Trait). Choose up to two of the following spells: blindness/deafness, command, entangle, grease, gust of wind, hideous laughter, hold person, levitate, ray of enfeeblement, silence, suggestion, or web. This creature can cast any of the chosen spells as an action. If this creature does not yet have a spell save DC, the save DC for these spells is 10 + 1/2 CR. Once chosen, the spells cannot be changed for this creature. Advanced Controlling Spells (Trait). Choose one spell from the Controlling Spells trait that this creature can cast. This creature gains one of the following benefits: • The spell can be cast as a bonus action. • The spell can be cast as a reaction to taking damage from an enemy. • If the spell normally targets one creature, it can instead target two creatures within its normal range. For a ranged controller, consider the Pinning Shot power in “Monster Powers” (page 15). DEFENDER To make a creature into a defender, increase their AC by 3 or increase their hit points by 30 percent. Grant them a +2 bonus to saving throws, increasing to +5 at 11th level. Then decrease their attack roll bonuses by 2, or reduce their attack roll bonuses by 1 and reduce the damage of all attack actions by 1 for each damage die rolled for the attack. You can then give the creature any of the following powers: Stick with Me (Trait). When this creature hits with an attack, the target has disadvantage on attack rolls against any creature other than this one until the end of the target’s next turn. For a slightly more complex version of the Stick with Me power, see the Challenge Foe power in “Monster Powers” (page 15). Blocker (Trait). Any creature starting their turn next to this creature has their speed reduced by half until the end of the affected creature’s turn. You might also wish to consider the Defender power in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4). LEADER To turn a foe into a leader, either reduce that foe’s attack bonuses by 2, reduce their hit points by 20 percent, or reduce the damage of all attack actions by 1 for each damage die rolled for the attack. Then give the creature any of the following powers: Shout Orders (Bonus Action). This creature chooses up to six creatures who can see and hear them. Those creatures can immediately either move their speed or take an action. Heal Ally (Bonus Action). This creature can choose another creature they can see and hear within 50 feet of them. The chosen creature regains hit points equal to 25 percent of their hit point maximum. Lead by Example (Trait). When this creature hits a target with an attack, any ally of this creature who can see the target has advantage on attack rolls against the target until the start of this creature’s next turn. SKIRMISHER To create a skirmisher foe, reduce a creature’s AC by 2 or reduce their hit points by 20 percent. Each of the creature’s speeds increases by 20 feet. Then give the creature any of the following powers: Nimble (Trait). This creature ignores difficult terrain. Careful Steps (Bonus Action). This creature’s movement does not provoke opportunity attacks until the end of their turn. Knock Back (Trait). When this creature hits a target with an attack, they can choose to push the target 5 feet away from them. If this creature is CR 4 or higher, the target must also succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or be knocked prone. You might also wish to consider the Quick Step power found in the artillery section above.

27 MONSTER DIFFICULTY DIALS Balancing combat encounters is notoriously difficult. Different groups of characters can bring very different capabilities to each battle, even at the same level. However, because monsters as they are typically presented are the average of their type, you can adjust the averages to subtly or dramatically change the difficulty of a given monster or group of monsters. By turning these “difficulty dials” for monsters, you can easily shift the tone of combat even in the middle of a battle. “HIT POINT” DIAL Hit points given for monsters are the average of their Hit Dice. This means you can adjust hit points within the minimum and maximum of a monster’s Hit Dice formula based on the individual story for that particular monster, the current pacing of the battle, or both. For example, an average ogre has 59 hit points from 7d10 + 21 Hit Dice. This means a weak ogre might have as few as 28 hit points, while a particularly strong ogre might have 91. This lets you easily set up fights in which minion ogres might have fewer hit points while boss ogres have more. (As an even lazier rule of thumb, you can halve or double a monster’s average hit points to give you a weaker or stronger version of that monster.) You can turn this dial before a battle begins or even during the battle itself. If a battle drags, reduce the hit points of a monster to get it out of the fight earlier. If a battle feels as if it will be over too quickly, increase the monster’s hit points to make it hold up longer. Start with average hit points, and then turn the hit point dial one way or the other whenever doing so can make the game more fun. “NUMBER OF MONSTERS” DIAL The “number of monsters in a battle” dial alters combat challenge the most dramatically of all the dials—but because it’s so clearly visible to players, this dial is also sometimes difficult to change during a fight. If circumstances allow for it, some monsters might flee or automatically fall depending on the events of a fight. Undead might break if their necromancer master is killed, and many creatures know to flee a fight they can’t win. Other times, more monsters might enter the fray in a second wave if the first wave isn’t standing up to the characters. (“Building and Running Boss Monsters” on page 31 talks more about running monsters in waves.) When developing a combat encounter in which you think you might turn this dial, consider beforehand how monsters might leave the battle or how other monsters might join the fight as reinforcements in a realistic way. “DAMAGE” DIAL Increasing the amount of damage a monster deals on each attack increases the monster’s threat and can make a dull fight more fun. In the same way, decreasing monster damage can help prevent a fight from becoming overwhelming if the characters are having trouble. The static damage value noted in a monster’s stat block represents the average of the damage formula for the monster’s attack. If you use average damage, you can adjust the damage based on that formula. For example, an ogre deals 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage with their Greatclub attack, so you can set this damage at anywhere from 6 to 20 and still be within the range of what you might roll. If you’re a DM who rolls for damage, you can also turn the damage dial up by adding one or more additional damage dice. If you like, you can have an in-game reason for this increase. Perhaps an ogre sets its club on fire to deal an extra 4 (1d8) or 7 (2d6) fire damage. Or a particularly dangerous vampire with an unholy longsword might deal an extra 27 (6d8) necrotic damage if you so choose. Adding these kinds of effects to a monster’s attack is an excellent way of increasing a monster’s threat in a way the players can clearly understand—and it has no upper limit. “NUMBER OF ATTACKS” DIAL Increasing or decreasing the number of attacks a monster makes has a larger effect on its threat than increasing its damage. You can increase a monster’s number of attacks if it’s badly threatened by the characters, just as you can reduce its attacks if the characters are having an easy time. An angry ogre left alone after its friends have fallen to the heroes might start swinging its club twice per Attack action instead of once. Single creatures facing an entire party of adventurers often benefit from increasing their number of attacks. MIX AND MATCH You can turn any or all of these dials to tune a combat encounter and bring the most excitement to your game. Don’t turn the dials just to make every battle harder, though. Sometimes cutting through great swaths of easy monsters is exactly the sort of situation players love. Turning several dials together can change combat dramatically, helping to keep things feeling fresh. For example, a group of starving ogres might be weakened (lowering the hit point dial) but also frenzied in combat (turning up the attack dial). By adjusting these dials when designing encounters and during your game, you can keep the pacing of combat exciting and fun. (This section originally appeared in The Lazy DM’s Companion.)

28 BUILDING AND RUNNING LEGENDARY MONSTERS The overlap between legendary monsters and boss monsters (talked about in “Building and Running Boss Monsters,” page 31) is extensive. At anywhere above roughly challenge rating 10, legendary creatures become the most prominent bosses, able to defend themselves against any group of characters of higher than 5th level. This section provides tools for GMs to build or improvise legendary monsters, giving foes the ability to survive and thrive in battle against powerful characters. BEST ABOVE 5TH LEVEL Typically, legendary monsters aren’t needed when facing characters of 1st to 4th level. The capabilities of legendary foes only start to matter when characters get access to spells and features that can take out a creature with one failed saving throw, and that grant multiple attacks in a single turn. Against such higher-challenge foes, legendary monsters need extra off-turn actions and resistances to feel like a significant threat. CORE COMPONENTS OF A LEGENDARY MONSTER Legendary monsters typically have two components that separate them from normal monsters: the Legendary Resistance trait, and legendary actions. Legendary Resistance helps a creature avoid situations where a single failed saving throw takes them out of the fight. Legendary actions help a single monster better manage the action economy against multiple foes. (See “Understanding the Action Economy,” page 42, for more on that topic.) The sections below talk about ways to utilize Legendary Resistance and legendary actions. But you can use those ideas to build a quick and easy legendary monster in just two steps. First, give a creature one to three uses of Legendary Resistance: Legendary Resistance. If this creature fails a saving throw, they can choose to succeed instead. Second, give the creature three legendary actions. You can build legendary actions yourself (including advanced legendary actions, talked about below), borrow them from other legendary monsters, or use the following basic legendary actions: Quick Movement. This creature can move their speed without provoking opportunity attacks. Legendary Attack. This creature makes one melee or ranged attack using their lowest-damage attack option. Blast (Costs 2 Actions). This creature can target up to three creatures within a 20-foot radius, a 60-foot cone, or a 100-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each target must make a Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom saving throw (your choice; DC = 12 + 1/2 CR), taking 4 × CR damage of a type appropriate for this creature on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Any of these basic legendary actions can help a foe hit harder than they do with their regular stat block, letting them hold their own as a single combatant against a group of characters. LAIR ACTIONS AND REGIONAL EFFECTS Some legendary monsters also have lair actions they can use if fought in their lair, and might have regional effects they can use in the area around their lair. “Creating Lair Actions,” page 36, talks more about that topic, and regional effects can be easily improvised based on a particular monster’s story. LEGENDARY RESISTANCE The Legendary Resistance trait gives legendary monsters a way to deal with a single instance of a “save or suck” feature—any attack by a character that can take a foe out of a fight with a failed saving throw. Legendary Resistance is like a countdown timer for the players, who can pick away at that resistance by casting debilitating effects that force a foe to burn their resistance to avoid those effects. For this reason, making it clear how many uses of Legendary Resistance a creature has, and how many they’ve expended, can help the players see another path to victory other than purely beating down a foe’s hit points. Most legendary monsters have three uses of Legendary Resistance. Assuming that a creature has a 50/50 chance of succeeding on a saving throw, the characters might need to use four to eight spells or effects requiring a save before one lands with full effect. As such, if you want the characters to have a better chance of burning a legendary monster down, you might give that monster only one or two uses of Legendary Resistance. TRACKING LEGENDARY RESISTANCE Adding an in-world description that represents a creature’s ability to make use of Legendary Resistance can also be useful, as it lets the players easily track how many uses a foe has left. A powerful wizard might have three unique ioun stones floating around their head, which they can sacrifice one by one to succeed on a failed saving throw. A demon might have three fiery brands on their chest, each one losing its red-hot glow as the fiend expends their Legendary Resistance. If you want to make things a little more interesting, the devices channeling Legendary Resistance might be objects the characters can target. If a demon prince is protected by four pillars imbued with magical power, shattering those pillars removes those protections. This still reduces the risk of the characters burning down a boss in 1 round, even as it gives them clear actions they can take to break through the boss’s defenses.

ZOE BADINI 29 ALTERNATIVES TO LEGENDARY RESISTANCE If you’re not a fan of Legendary Resistance, you might instead allow a foe to take psychic damage to remove debilitating conditions and other effects—perhaps a number of d6s equal to the foe’s CR divided by 2. Alternatively, you can make the concept of Legendary Resistance more interesting by having each successful saving throw impose a cost on a creature. For example, each time a foe uses Legendary Resistance, they might lose one use of a legendary action in the current round. (The Bloody Legendary Resistance trait in “Monster Powers” on page 15 has a similar theme.) Just make sure it’s clear to the players what’s going on so they can see and understand the price the boss monster is paying for shaking off the characters’ attacks. WHAT LEGENDARY RESISTANCE DOESN’T PROTECT AGAINST Not all “save or suck” effects can be avoided with Legendary Resistance. Even legendary monsters might get physically pinned down by features and effects that don’t allow for a saving throw, or by effects that change the combat environment. Hindering the senses of a creature with spells such as darkness or fog cloud can make them much less effective in a fight. Other features like the force cage spell or the monk’s Stunning Strike attack can bypass or burn through Legendary Resistance quickly. It’s worth considering other ways that a legendary creature can deal with such features and magic. For example, a beholder relies on eye rays to target creatures with their formidable magic. So if a beholder is engulfed in magical darkness—or if the creatures they want to target with their eye rays are—they can’t use those potent attacks. To thwart this, a beholder might employ guards who don’t need to see to attack, whether they have the Blindsight trait or make use of magic. Movement is likewise a great defense against features and magic that can pin a legendary monster down. The monster might teleport (which has a chance to bypass forcecage) or move without provoking opportunity attacks. (As noted above, such movement works well as a legendary action.) FRIENDS ARE THE BEST DEFENSE Any single monster, legendary or not, finds themself at a disadvantage against a group of characters. As such, one of the best defenses for a legendary foe is the presence of other foes fighting the characters. If a legendary dragon gets taken out with a maze spell, for example, their stone golem servant can punch the caster of maze in the face until their concentration breaks. Good synergistic allies can help legendary monsters offensively as well, by locking down the characters or threatening backline attackers while their legendary leader finds a better position. Adding more monsters can complicate a fight, however, so be prepared for a longer battle the more creatures the battle involves. Adding more monsters is typically important when building encounters for five or more characters of higher levels. BALANCING LEGENDARY ACTIONS Legendary actions give a monster a boost in the action economy of a fight (see “Understanding the Action Economy” on page 42), letting them deal more consistent damage. Instead of acting only on their turn, a legendary monster can act up to three times between other creatures’ turns with specific legendary actions. Sometimes these actions are just single attacks. Other times, they involve movement or big area effects. By design, legendary monsters aren’t meant to deal more damage than their nonlegendary counterparts at the same challenge rating. The damage a legendary creature can do is divided up among the actions they take on their turn and their legendary actions, but it’s the same overall damage per round. But because legendary monsters are intended to be something special, doing just the appropriate damage for their challenge rating might not be enough. This is because even with legendary actions and Legendary Resistance, a single big boss monster is still at a disadvantage against a group of characters who pour their wrath out against that boss before targeting any other foes. If you’re designing or improvising a legendary monster, don’t worry if their overall damage output goes above the standard for their challenge rating—as they likely need the help. For example, you might want to create a legendary barbed devil, giving them three legendary

30 action Claw attacks built on their standard-action attack. Normally, you’d think about reducing the damage output for the Claw attack so that the devil’s overall damage per round stays the same. But you’re probably better off not worrying about rebalancing damage across all the creature’s actions and legendary actions. Your barbed devil boss’s damage output will go beyond their challenge rating, but that extra damage gives them a needed edge. ADVANCED LEGENDARY ACTIONS In addition to the legendary actions in the Monster Manual and other books that you can use or draw inspiration from, you can create and customize more advanced legendary actions that fit a foe’s theme and tactics. When default actions focused on simply moving and attacking might not fit the story of a monster, advanced legendary actions can focus on how a boss fight unfolds, factoring in how characters typically behave and how the situation escalates. Three of the following advanced legendary action setups are drawn from the “action-oriented monster” concepts introduced by Matt Colville on the YouTube channel “Running the Game,” and as seen in monsters published by MCDM Productions. Specific features suitable for some of the other setups here can be found in the monster powers presented in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster Powers” (page 15), and “Monster Roles” (page 22). AURA CONTROL As talked about in “Understanding the Action Economy,” page 42, auras are an incredibly powerful way to scale up any creature based on the number of opponents they face. Using legendary actions to alter and shift an aura is an excellent way to shake up a battle against a legendary creature. An aura might increase the amount of damage it deals at certain points in the fight, scaling up as the battle goes longer. A legendary creature might extend the effect of their aura, making it larger and threatening more characters as a result. Or a boss might change the shape of an aura, creating a donut-shaped ring that leaves characters at its center within the boss’s melee reach, and characters outside being shredded by the aura’s power. COMMANDING ALLIES A legendary monster who operates with minions can make great use of legendary actions that help those minions get into positions and make free attacks. Alternatively, a legendary boss might cause their minions to explode or make one final sacrificial blow. Commanding bosses are all about giving their minions a free move, a free attack, or both. EXPLODING Near the end of a fight, the characters often have the upper hand. The boss monster’s hit points are down. Their big attacks are spent. This is the perfect point to reveal a legendary monster’s final action—the explosion. The explosion is a single big damaging move. It might be a dragon recharging their breath weapon and getting to use it for free. It might be a mage hurling fire in a massive ring to burn everyone around them. It might be a fast and furious sword wielder making a final charge across the battlefield to score a big hit against every target they pass. The explosion is a legendary monster’s final, desperate blow. It’s their ticking time bomb. Often, this sort of final attack takes two or three legendary actions. INITIAL POSITIONING At the start of a fight, an advanced legendary action might help a monster move into an optimal initial position. Characters sometimes find ways to get into advantageous or defensive positions early in the battle, meaning a legendary monster likewise needs a boon when it comes to initial positioning. This might be the standard legendary action providing an extra move that doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks. Or it might be something more magical like teleportation. The key is that the action lets a foe get into a position where they can be effective at doing what they’re intended to do. Getting into position usually requires only one legendary action. REPOSITIONING Even if they have optimal initial positioning, a legendary monster eventually needs a way to reposition once a battle has commenced. In the middle of a fight, the characters might have a boss pinned down with melee attackers surrounding them and ranged attackers at a safe distance. The characters have the boss under control—but that isn’t much fun for a dynamic and dangerous fight. So you can give a legendary monster a way to circumvent that control in fun and dangerous ways. For example, a legendary monster might quickly shift to switch places with one of their minions. They might burrow beneath the ground, leaving a dangerous sinkhole behind. They might sweep their wings, knocking any nearby characters prone, then fly to a new position. They might teleport, leaving behind a fireball in their wake. A legendary action focused on repositioning should be more than the standard move without provoking opportunity attacks. It’s a move plus a kick to the face on the way out. This kind of repositioning should take one or two legendary actions. TRANSFORMATION When it makes sense for their story, some legendary monsters transform. A humanoid might take on their werewolf form at some point during a battle, then transform again into a huge wolf. A vampire might start off as a humanoid, become a swarm of bats, and finally take the form of a towering bat-like monstrosity. Each of these transformations can include new features and attacks based on the new form. “Evolving Monsters” on page 62 has more thoughts and ideas on this topic.

31 BUILDING AND RUNNING BOSS MONSTERS When thinking about combat against boss monsters, we often think about what we see in movies, read in books, or watch on TV. During staged climactic encounters, the tide of battle turns one way, then the other, then back again. The hero gets a strong start, then suddenly loses ground, then gains the upper hand, then loses it again. Suddenly they’re on their back, a sword at their throat, and it feels as though all is lost—until the protagonist gets that final surge, knocks the blade aside, and finishes off the villain with a masterful flourish. Tabletop RPGs seldom follow this model. Instead, characters see the boss monster, wait for about half a line of monologue, then unleash every single class feature, magic item, and spell they possess to destroy the boss as fast as possible. They use every “save or suck” spell they can cast. They use every single stunning strike they can inflict. Anything to get that boss down fast. Without careful planning on the GM’s part, these kinds of all-in attacks usually work. Sometimes this is great fun. The players love it, we laugh about it, and we move on. But sometimes such spiked victories feel hollow. They miss the pacing and feeling we’d hoped for. When you spend your entire campaign building up to the final encounter with the vampire mastermind, only for the characters to pin that mastermind down in a beam of sunlight and smite them to death without a single counterattack, it can feel as though all that work was for nothing. Even the players who chose to have their characters pin the boss down might feel as if they were robbed. As such, it’s worth paying attention to boss fights in your games, to ensure they meet the intention of the story and the pacing you want. THE ONE ENCOUNTER WORTH FULLY PREPARING As GMs, we can often get away without preparing individual combat encounters for most of an adventure or campaign, building our encounters during the game based on the locations and situation in an adventure. (“Choosing Monsters Based on the Story,” page 113, talks about one approach to this kind of encounter design). Boss fights, however, are worth the time and effort it takes to prepare them. Boss battles are often the final peak of an adventure, or of an entire campaign. We want our games to have those peaks and valleys—the upward and downward beats that make play interesting and fun. But without careful preparation, even legendary monsters can go down before they’ve had a chance to threaten the characters, turning what should be a major high point into something much flatter. RISING DIFFICULTY When thinking about getting the most out of boss monsters and boss battles in your 5e games, the first thing to understand is that protecting bosses typically only starts to be a problem at 5th level and above. From 1st to 4th level in 5e, characters rarely have the capability and resources to destroy or incapacitate bosses as quickly as they do at higher levels. The higher the level of the characters, the easier it is for them to pin down or destroy bosses with ease, negating the full challenge the boss is intended to represent. Though some of the following techniques might prove useful at all levels, GMs typically don’t need to worry about them when the characters are just starting out. RESOURCE ATTRITION Many GMs are used to the idea of running the characters through numerous battles before they face the boss, ensuring that they’ve burned down their spells, Hit Dice, and limited-use class features before the final battle. This approach can help ensure that the heroes don’t come into the fight fully ready to unleash their most powerful combat features in the first round. But it can also rob the players of enjoying the full range of their capabilities the one time they’d love to have everything on hand. As such, be careful not to weaken the characters so much that their favorite features are long gone before the climactic fight begins. RUNNING WAVES OF COMBATANTS Whenever a boss reveals themself, particularly if they make themself vulnerable at the start of combat, the characters most likely aim everything they have on the boss first. This can be easily prevented by ensuring that the boss simply isn’t there, or at least isn’t reachable when combat begins. Instead of starting a battle with the boss in combat, consider running waves of combatants before the boss shows up. Each of these waves might be a hard or even deadly encounter, with some overlap between the waves as befits the situation and the difficulty of the encounter as it plays out. For example, the first wave of a boss fight might involve several creatures roughly equivalent in number and power to the characters. This first wave gets the characters moving around, establishing positions, and using some of their resources to control or take out these “normal” foes. A second wave might involve huge numbers of weak monsters. A horde of fifty skeletons might charge a group of 8th-level heroes, firing arrows and swinging swords.

32 This gives the characters a chance to go wild with areaeffect or crowd-control spells or features, blowing away huge swaths of their foes. Another wave might include a small number of big brutes. Individual crowd-control features might lock those foes down, or the characters can focus their high-damage attacks on them. Only then comes the boss—floating down from their shielded throne, flying in through a side passage, teleporting in, manifesting as a swarm of bats, or what have you. At this point, the characters are spread all over the battlefield. They’re wounded. They’ve expended resources. They’re not in an ideal situation to drop everything they have on the boss anymore. And depending on how difficult things appear, the boss might even arrive right in the middle of the previous wave, forcing the characters to either switch targets or to continue fighting the threat in front of them. Running waves of combatants, either one after the other or having them overlap, is a powerhouse tool to threaten even the most commanding of boss monsters. You don’t need to use waves for every boss battle, but the more powerful the characters become, the more that doing so can help you maximize those upward and downward beats in your final confrontations. MITIGATING DAMAGE SPIKES No matter how powerful they are, most bosses need protection to survive an encounter with the characters. Because they’re the most sought-after target in combat, they often need features or magic to help them survive a barrage of attacks long enough to do boss things. One great threat faced by bosses are huge spikes of damage, delivered by paladins with Divine Smite, fighters with Action Surge, and other characters with a knack for unloading tremendous amounts of damage in a single turn. Adding more hit points to a boss certainly helps with this problem, and is the easiest way to mitigate tremendous amounts of damage. But there are other ways. One trick is to give the boss the capability to transfer half the damage they take to willing allies—or even all the damage. A lich might shunt damage into the iron golems guarding them. A cult fanatic might transfer damage to her cultist minions. An ancient dragon might direct damage to his fire elemental servants. (The Fanaticism trait in “Monster Powers,” page 15, is an example of this approach.) It helps to have an in-world explanation for such a feature, with one example being the control amulet of a shield guardian. A blood-pact ritual undertaken by the cult fanatic might have the same effect. It also helps to telegraph this in-world connection to the players so they can make choices about how to respond. Taking out the minions first might be tactically advantageous, with their lower Armor Class and closer physical proximity. Clarify these advantageous tactics, and nudge players away from their instinctive drive to focus on the boss. USING LEGENDARY RESISTANCE Love it or hate it, Legendary Resistance is one of the strongest ways to protect boss monsters from “save or suck” spells, or effects that allow a single attack to shut down a boss’s actions for a round or more. Most 5e legendary monsters have Legendary Resistance, often usable three times per day. If you have a boss you want to protect, giving them Legendary Resistance covers 90 percent of the effects that might pin them down and prevent them from doing their cool boss things—a dragon’s breath weapon, a lich’s deadly magic, a vampire’s life-draining bite, and so on. Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If this creature fails a saving throw, they can choose to succeed instead. “Building and Running Legendary Monsters,” page 28, offers lots of thoughts on Legendary Resistance, including having a legendary boss manifest that trait physically so the players recognize how many uses are left. It also talks about ways to alter or fine-tune Legendary Resistance with additional effects. HANDLING THE MOST POWERFUL FEATURES Many features and attacks in 5e bypass Legendary Resistance. This includes features that force a creature to make an ability check instead of a saving throw, making grappling and pinning down smaller foes such as liches a common tactic. Likewise, high-level attacks such as the forcecage spell can easily pin down a boss and remove their ability to threaten the characters with no saving throw at all. And though features such as a monk’s Stunning Strike don’t bypass Legendary Resistance, being able to use such features on attack after attack means that a monk might burn out all of a boss monster’s uses of Legendary Resistance in a single turn. You can gauge if such situations are a problem in your game by running early boss monsters against the characters—even copies of the main boss. An evil wizard might create a simulacrum to harry the characters, or a lich might attack knowing while their phylactery remains intact, being destroyed is of no consequence. A vampire can test the characters, then simply return to their coffin if defeated. These preliminary boss test fights can tell you a lot about what the characters bring to the table when facing a boss. Sometimes you simply won’t worry about the party’s arsenal of irresistible effects, instead letting the characters take control of the situation with their cool class features and magic. But if you do feel as though these features get in the way of the boss fulfilling their duty to the story and their own place in the world, it’s worth considering how the boss can react to such situations. Do they have the magical means to escape a forcecage spell? Can they deal with multiple stunning strikes in a row? Can they escape a grapple with misty step used as a legendary action?

33 Be wary of giving a boss monster the ability to circumvent the characters’ powerful features just because you don’t want those features used. Be a fan of the characters and the cool stuff they can do. But you can have a boss monster bypass powerful features as long as doing so still leaves the game fun for the players. RUN MULTIPLE BOSSES Another common technique for protecting your boss monster is to have more than one. Three hags might work together in a single battle, benefiting from their coven magic, and even potentially sharing a pool of uses of Legendary Resistance. Likewise, a pair of twin black dragons makes for a much stronger encounter than just one. Spreading the hatred of a boss to more than one boss in a single encounter helps avoid the scenario of the characters focusing everything on a single target. As one boss works to protect themself, the other boss can come forward, unleashing their devastating attacks. Some bosses might be able to make multiple copies of themselves, using the simulacrum spell or similar magic. Other bosses might have unique power that lets them form three separate copies of themselves, perhaps sharing a single hit point pool but having multiple actions and multiple physical representations. CONDENSING LEGENDARY ACTIONS When running multiple bosses, avoid including more than one with legendary actions in a single battle. Legendary actions are intended to offset the problems with the action economy that arise from having multiple characters take on a single foe. (“Understanding the Action Economy,” page 42, has more on this topic.) If you have multiple bosses, those bosses often don’t need legendary actions to keep up with the characters, allowing you to instead compress those legendary actions down into normal actions. Because legendary actions are factored into a monster’s challenge rating, if you don’t want to add those legendary actions to a monster’s normal actions, you can instead increase the damage of their regular attacks. Taking an adult black dragon as an example, you can add a Tail attack and a Wing attack, or three Tail attacks, to their Multiattack action instead of taking those extra attacks as legendary actions. Or if you want a battle with fewer attack rolls, you might instead add 15 damage to the dragon’s Claw and Bite attacks (the same amount of damage dealt by three legendary action Tail attacks per round) to keep their damage output where it should be. ADDING ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION Most often, boss monsters battle in environments that serve their needs. A red dragon and their fire elemental servants don’t worry about fighting in a cavern filled with lava. Liches have no problem fighting in chambers filled with poison gas. As such, the environment of a boss’s sanctum can have a huge effect on the challenge they bring to a battle. Pools of lava, places to fly, statues to topple over, glyphs of warding—these kinds of features can easily turn the tide of a battle in favor of a boss. Bosses might have ways they can use the environment to shake up how the players think about the battle. For example, a powerful lich might use glyph-scribed obelisks in their lair that allow them to have more than one concentration spell active at a time. This powerful spellcaster might have one pillar letting them concentrate on greater invisibility, another pillar granting them a globe of invulnerability, another surrounding them in a cloudkill, and a fourth granting them flight with a fly spell. Each pillar might have an AC of 15 and 50 hit points, giving the characters multiple tactical goals as they decide whether to destroy the pillars so that the lich loses those spells. KEEPING YOUR HANDS ON THE DIALS “Monster Difficulty Dials” on page 27 talks about how to make useful modifications to monsters right in the middle of combat. Running boss battles is one of the best times to have your hands on those dials, letting you easily adjust the threat level to keep the characters and the players on their toes. When running waves of combatants, you have a firm hand on the “Number of Monsters” dial. When the second wave comes out, you can decide how many monsters join that wave based on the outcome of the first wave. Did the first wave take longer than expected and push the characters hard? Reduce the monsters in the second wave, or remove that wave completely. Did the characters steamroll the first wave? Add a few more foes. Turning the “Hit Point” dial likewise tunes the entire battle. When any of the monsters, including the boss, have overstayed their welcome, turn their hit points down and let them fall on the next hit. Did the characters mow through monsters faster than expected? Consider turning the hit point dial up, especially for the boss. Typically, you want a boss to stick around for at least three rounds. Less than that, and the players never get to see what the boss can do. But a battle that goes on forever can become boring.

34 JACKIE MUSTO BUILDING SPELLCASTING MONSTERS Magic is a cornerstone of most fantasy RPG campaigns, and nothing helps bring the magic of a world to life better than having foes pound the characters with spells and other magical attacks during combat. Many of the game’s creatures already pack a magical punch, but adding spellcasting to foes who don’t already have it can be great fun. However, the baseline power of spellcasting means that doing so requires some planning. A creature’s general level of challenge for a party can be assessed in many different ways. But when adding spellcasting to existing stat blocks, the mechanics to focus on are damage per round, followed by what conditions can be imposed by a spell. After you’ve chosen magic for a spellcasting creature, “Running Spellcasting Monsters” on page 58 has great advice for working with that magic. SPELL DAMAGE Alongside hit points, damage output per round is the most significant factor in determining the relative challenge of combat-focused creatures. (This can be seen in many NPC stat blocks, where spellcasters slinging high-damage evocation magic can have a higher challenge rating than diviners or enchanters, even when casting at the same level.) When building a spellcasting foe from an existing stat block, start by assessing the foe’s damage output (perhaps with reference to the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table on page 6 of “Building a Quick Monster”). Then think about how to best rework that output in spell form. DAMAGE AND TARGETING Every combat-focused creature deals a certain amount of damage per round with their best attacks—often the sum total of all attacks in the Multiattack action. When adding spellcasting to a creature, you want to focus on that total damage-per-round number, choosing spells that deal roughly that same amount of damage to all their targets. For example, a doppelganger’s Multiattack lets them deal an average of 14 damage with their Bite and Claw attacks, so giving them spellcasting that deals 14 damage makes a nice surprise for the characters and doesn’t change the doppelganger’s threat level. If a creature has only one primary attack per round or deals relatively low damage with Multiattack, a singletarget spell is a great fit. But if a creature’s damage-perround output is high and is spread out across multiple attacks, look for a spell that allows multiple targets or deals damage to creatures in an area. A CR 2 gargoyle dealing a relatively low 10 damage per round is equally fine with an area spell or a single-target spell dealing 10 damage. But a CR 2 centaur hits harder with 20 damage per round, so is better with an area-effect spell dealing that much damage in total to all its targets. Using a singletarget spell that deals the same damage as all of a highdamage creature’s weapon attacks can skew a monster’s effective challenge by making them more likely to drop a character with one attack. SAVE VS. ATTACK A key component to calculating creature challenge ratings is that attacks, spells, and special features are always assumed to deal full average damage. A monster’s attacks are always assumed to hit, and the characters are always assumed to fail their saving throws against a monster’s spells and special features. But one area where you want to keep an eye on this is spells that deal half as much damage on a successful saving throw. Replacing a creature’s weapon attacks with spells that deal partial damage on a failed save is akin to deciding that those weapon attacks deal partial damage on a miss. So be careful that dealing default damage round after round doesn’t make a creature a bit too sweet in combat. AREA EFFECTS For spells that deal damage in an area, assumptions need to be made about how many targets those area-affect spells will hit. A good general guideline is to assume that most areas of effect will target two creatures on average. Extra-large areas such as the 60-foot radius of a freezing sphere or sunburst spell will target three creatures. CHOOSING DAMAGE-DEALING SPELLS For characters, the damage output of spells can sometimes be a complex curve, tying into caster level and the level of the spell slot used to cast. When building spellcasting foes

35 for combat, you can usually focus on baseline damage—5 (1d10 damage) for eldritch blast or firebolt; 10 (3d6) for burning hands; 7 (2d6) for each scorching ray; 28 (8d6) for fireball or lightning bolt; and so on. That said, when trying to pick a spell appropriate to a creature’s normal damage output, don’t forget that adjusting that damage is just as easy as adding the spell in the first place. Want to build an inferno ettin who casts fireball? Look at the ettin’s normal damage output of 28 points, then make sure their fireball spell deals about 14 damage (4d6 or 3d8) to each of its two expected targets. SPELL CONDITIONS In most cases, conditions in combat make the creatures dishing them out more effective in a fight, by reducing the effectiveness of the characters while those conditions hinder them. Adding spells that impose conditions to existing stat blocks is thus a slightly less straightforward process than swapping weapon damage for magical damage. The effectiveness of a particular condition can vary drastically depending on what type of character it’s imposed on, and on how enemies might take advantage of the condition’s effects. A fighter who’s been poisoned takes a big hit in combat as disadvantage penalizes their attack rolls, even as their wizard ally casting spells that require saving throws can all but ignore the condition. Likewise, sleep is a 1st-level spell, and so might seem an easy option to add to any relatively low-CR creature. But a foe who casts sleep in order to run away from the characters is a very different threat than one who does so to let their melee-focused allies run in and start auto-critting unconscious foes. CONDITIONS AS THREAT When looking at spells that impose conditions, think about those conditions as a kind of sliding scale of threat, from least to most significant. For the purpose of this approach, ignore grappled as a condition of its own, focusing instead on the restrained condition that being grappled typically imposes. Also ignore exhaustion, which is a special-case condition that should generally not be imposed during combat. Charmed, Deafened, Poisoned, and Prone. These three weakest conditions are the easiest ones to make use of for spellcasting monsters. Each has the ability to take a fight in an unexpected direction by hindering characters, but none is powerful enough to upend a battle on its own because none can take a character completely out of the fight. Blinded, Frightened, and Restrained. These conditions are a stronger threat, representing a greater ability to hinder characters in combat. All can limit the actions or movement of characters, even as they also penalize combat rolls. Incapacitated, Paralyzed, Petrified, Stunned, and Unconscious. At the apex of the hierarchy of how badly conditions can mess with characters, these four stand alone. Each can take a character completely out of a fight, shifting the overall balance of an encounter for a number of rounds—or even for the entire battle. Conditions and Duration. When assessing any spell that imposes a condition, consider the different feel of spells that do so for 1 round or that allow a repeated saving throw to end the condition, as compared to spells whose imposed conditions have a long duration and no repeated save. Long-duration conditions with no automatic opportunity to end them can be vexing for players if they cause characters to sit out multiple turns. Even low-level spells such as charm person or sleep can feel quite different when it’s the characters using them to turn the tide against a mob of foes, and when it’s a single spellcasting monster using them to make multiple characters sit on the sidelines during a fight. CONDITIONS AS REVERSE BENEFITS The way combat changes across a broad range of character levels makes it impossible to come up with any hard-andfast rule for how much damage a particular condition is equivalent to in a fight. So instead, think about conditions imposed by spells as granting benefits to the enemy side akin to adjusting foes before combat. (“Monster Difficulty Dials” on page 27 talks about how to adjust encounters on the fly.) For example, conditions that impose penalties on characters’ attack rolls decrease their chances of hitting foes. So giving a creature a spell that imposes the frightened or poisoned condition is effectively the same as dialing up the Armor Class of the foes in an encounter. Conditions that limit characters’ actions have the same general effect on the action economy in a fight as giving the enemy side additional actions, so think of spells that impose the charmed or stunned condition as equivalent to adding extra attacks to the enemy side. At the high end of the condition hierarchy, being able to render characters incapacitated in any way can be thought of as akin to having more foes on the enemy side, working with the idea that a character taken out of the fight for a round is the same as a character spending that round fighting an additional “virtual foe.” CHECK SPELLCASTING ABILITY As a final step in building spellcasting creatures, have a look at a stat block’s spellcasting ability scores. The math underlying a creature’s relative challenge in combat makes the assumption that a creature is using one of their best abilities for their go-to attacks. So if you add spellcasting to a creature whose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma are all low compared to the Strength or Dexterity fueling their weapon attacks, bump up one of those mental abilities so the creature’s spell save DC and spell attack modifier aren’t lagging behind their other attacks. Alternatively, you can easily create a house rule stating that creatures known more for brawn than brains who channel spell magic innately can use Constitution as their spellcasting ability.

36 CREATING LAIR ACTIONS When a legendary creature inhabits a location, their presence can change the environment in which they live. After a hag moves into a forest, the trees become twisted, brambles grow, shadows darken, and the air becomes foul and oppressive. In the lair of a white dragon, bitter winds howl through icy tunnels, whose walls reflect the frozen visages of countless of the dragon’s victims. From a narrative perspective, lair actions allow us to tell the story of a formidable creature and their environment. The best lair actions capture the creature’s essence, and how that essence permeates and alters the world around them. From a mechanical perspective, lair actions provide GMs with an additional set of combat options, allowing greater flexibility in focusing on the characters and creating a higher challenge level. LEGENDARY IN NATURE In most cases, only exceptional creatures should have lair actions. This represents the fact that it takes a particularly powerful or special creature to alter their surroundings in such a formidable way. However, a good story can explain a lesser threat having access to lair actions, as with an alchemist in a workshop with potions brewing, each of which can explode each round to affect combatants. When a creature is legendary, take care to ensure that lair actions feel different from legendary actions. Legendary actions represent what a creature can do directly with their body and their inherent capabilities. Lair actions are external, representing the interplay between the creature and their surroundings. (“Building and Running Legendary Monsters” on page 28 has advice for creating legendary actions.) THE IMPORTANCE OF A LAIR Before you can add effective lair actions to a creature, take the time to understand the key aspects of that creature, and what kind of environment their lair should be. Thinking through the connection between creature and lair allows you to weave lair actions convincingly into a story. You can get lair ideas by reviewing a monster’s lore, the myths of similar creatures, and the larger story and setting of your campaign. Consider the following examples: • A fire elemental could live in a lava-filled cavern, but could also inhabit a burning forest. • A black dragon has transformed a valley into a fetid swamp, with all its former beauty turned to rot and undeath. • A treant lord has deep roots that influence all the plant life in an area. Even creatures living in the trees and soil obey this powerful leader. • A powerful giant has collected trophies in a vast museum, with the spirits of creatures they’ve conquered manifesting through each of those displays. • A legendary undead pirate captain dwells in a shipwreck upon a rocky coastline. Waves, sand, and rain all obey the pirate’s whims, even as their undead crew does battle. (“Building Engaging Environments” on page 79 also talks about the kinds of engaging elements that can factor into the design of lair actions.) USING LAIR ACTIONS When in their lair, a legendary creature can use one of their lair actions on initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties). They can’t use a lair action when incapacitated, or on their first turn of combat if they were surprised. TYPES OF LAIR ACTIONS Most creatures have three to four lair actions, which provide one of three types of benefits. When creating lair actions, choose the benefit type that fits what a creature needs in each round of combat. Damage. Lair actions might represent bursts of fire or other elemental energy, brambles tearing at heroes, spectral swords, or other effects. Damaging lair actions allow a GM to target the characters outside of a creature’s normal turn, keeping a higher level of pressure on the heroes. By lessening the impact of conditions or other effects (other than being incapacitated), damaging lair actions make a solo creature’s overall damage output more reliable. Control or Impede. A column of stone or a stalactite might deal damage as it falls, but its primary benefit is pinning a hero down and taking them out of the fight for a time. Fumes from a swamp or a pool of acid might poison heroes. Grasping skeletal hands or vines can grapple and restrain characters. These types of lair actions limit the characters’ effectiveness, allowing a creature to evade blows or to isolate and pick off foes more easily. Excessive control hurts fun, however, so limit your use of these types of lair actions to make them stand out as infrequent but significant challenges. Protection. Protective lair actions shield, heal, or enhance a creature, providing them with important survival capabilities they might otherwise lack. For example, an artificer’s lab might contain a clockworkgenerated shield that grants temporary hit points or heals wounds. A fire elemental might be able to teleport from one pool of fire to another to keep away from the characters. Obscuring gases or crashing waves can occlude a battlefield, imposing disadvantage on attack rolls. (“Building and Running Boss Monsters” on page 31 has thoughts on protecting important monsters that make great inspiration for lair actions.)

37 TACTICS When choosing which lair actions to use during combat, think about whether damage, control, or protection are more effective in any given round. Damage and control work particularly well early in combat, causing the players to adjust their plans and break out of typical attack routines. The heroes might be forced to expend resources or heal an ally rather than make an attack, or might have to contend with conditions that leave them unable to reach their target. Protection works well when a foe is pinned down in their lair, helping them make it through tough moments—or to escape those moments entirely. Such actions surprise the characters, showing the full range of their foe’s resources as the world around them bends to that foe’s will. CREATING LAIR ACTIONS When creating your own creatures with lair actions—or if you want to expand on the lair actions of an existing creature—you have several options. Regardless of which method you choose, it’s worth noting that the damage dealt by lair actions should be counted as part of a creature’s damage output for the purpose of calculating their CR. Thus, if you add lair actions to a creature, their CR may increase. However, because creatures with lair actions are typically high challenge, you can often not worry about this CR bump if you know the characters can handle the increased threat. RESKINNING You can quickly create lair actions by looking at the lair actions of published monsters, many of which can be easily reskinned to fit different environments. A falling stalactite can become a falling chandelier or a stack of crates toppling onto the heroes. A teleportation effect can be reproduced as a magical wind, movement through shadows, or temporarily stepping into the Ethereal Plane. Divine healing can be reskinned as a healing spring, an arcane device that knits flesh back together, or armor that repairs itself. MONSTER POWERS Many of the monster powers found in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster Powers” (page 15), and “Monster Roles” (page 22) can be set up as though their benefit is channeled from the environment rather than from a creature directly. A power that creates a damaging aura can become a zone of energy spreading around a specific point, while a power that grapples could originate from a tentacle emerging from a pool or a portal. As an example, consider the Telekinetic Grasp monster power: Telekinetic Grasp (Action). This creature chooses one creature they can see within 100 feet of them weighing less than 400 pounds. The target must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) or be pulled up to 80 feet directly toward this creature. Then consider how that might be turned into a lair action: Telekinetic Grasp. One creature in the lair weighing less than 400 pounds is grasped by a telekinetic force and must make a Strength saving throw (DC = 11 + 1/2 CR). On a failure, the target is pulled up to 80 feet directly toward a location chosen by the creature using this lair action. TEMPLATE LAIR ACTIONS The following lair actions can be used as templates by changing the exact nature of how the environment creates the indicated effect. The type of lair action is indicated in parentheses after the name. Elemental Damage (Damage). A blast of elemental energy targets one creature who the creature using this lair action can see within 100 feet of them. The target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or take 2 × CR damage of an appropriate elemental type. Falling Structure (Damage, Control). Part of a ceiling, wall, column, or some other part of the lair collapses onto one target who the creature using this lair action can see within 100 feet of them. The target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or take CR bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. The target is then restrained, and can be freed with a successful DC 10 Strength check made as an action by the target or a creature who can reach them. Obscuring Cloud (Control, Protection). The creature using this lair action chooses a point they can see within 60 feet of them. A cloud fills a 30-foot-radius area centered on that point. The creature using this lair action can see normally within and through the cloud, which is heavily obscured to all other creatures. The cloud lasts until the creature using this lair action does so again or is reduced to 0 hit points. It can also be dispersed by a wind of at least 20 miles per hour. Restorative Energy (Protection). Restorative energy is channeled from the environment into the creature using this lair action. The creature regains 2 × CR hit points and can attempt to end one condition or magical effect affecting them. If ending an effect normally requires a saving throw, the creature immediately makes the saving throw with advantage, ending the effect on themself on a success. BOSSES NEED THE HELP Mike maintains that the damage created by lair actions is often necessary, and shouldn’t be counted as part of a creature’s regular damage output in all cases. Boss monsters, by virtue of being an obvious single target with limited actions, are often underpowered for their challenge ratings. As such, having lair actions for damage, control, and protection is often vital to ensuring a fun boss encounter.

38 VÍCTOR LEZA LAZY TRICKS FOR RUNNING MONSTERS This section presents a number of tricks and tips that can help you more easily prepare and run monsters during your games. We call them “lazy tricks” not because they’re about cheating or doing less work overall, but because they’re meant to let you quickly accomplish things when your game is in progress, and you don’t have a lot of extra time. Many of the concepts below are described in more detail in other sections of Forge of Foes. QUICK MONSTER STATISTICS “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4) provides great guidelines for creating a foe for your game in just a few minutes. But you can come up with an even quicker set of monster statistics using the following steps. First, choose a challenge rating for your monster, based on their perceived power in the encounter. When needed, compare your monster to existing monsters to find a suitable challenge rating. Then use the following guidelines to craft their baseline statistics: • Armor Class = 12 + 1/2 CR • Hit points = (15 × CR) + 15 • Proficient saving throws and skills = 4 + 1/2 CR • Nonproficient saving throws and abilities = −2 to +2, based on the monster’s story • Attack bonus = 4 + 1/2 CR • DC for saving throws = 12 + 1/2 CR • Total damage per round = (7 × CR) + 5 Start your monster out with one attack, then add one additional attack at CR 2, CR 7, CR 11, and CR 15. Split the total damage noted above across all attacks. With a solid set of combat statistics at hand, you can then use narrative descriptions to make your monster unique, interesting, and evocative. TEN USEFUL MONSTER FEATURES Give any custom monster impactful features and attacks that make sense for their place in the game. When a monster feature deals damage, choose a damage type appropriate to the creature’s physiology, theme, or story. A creature channeling magical power might deal acid, cold, fire, lightning, force, poison, psychic, necrotic, radiant, or thunder damage. A creature making use of spines, spikes, or projectiles might deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage. Damaging Blast. This creature has one or more single-target ranged attacks using the attack bonus and damage calculated above, and dealing damage of an appropriate type. Damage Reflection. Whenever a creature within 5 feet of this creature hits them with a melee attack, the attacker takes damage in return of a type appropriate to the creature. The damage dealt is equal to half the damage of one of this creature’s attacks. If you give a creature this feature, give them one less attack than normal. Misty Step. As a bonus action, this creature can teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space they can see. Knockdown. When this creature hits a target with a melee attack, the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. Restraining Grab. When this creature hits a target with a melee attack, the target is grappled (escape DC based on this creature’s Strength or Dexterity modifier). While grappled, the target is restrained. Damaging Burst. As an action, this creature can create a burst of energy, magic, spines, or some other effect in a 10-foot-radius sphere, either around themself or at a point within 120 feet. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom saving throw (your choice, based on the type of burst). On a failure, a target takes damage of an appropriate type equal to half this

39 creature’s total damage per round. On a success, a target takes half as much damage. Cunning Action. On each of their turns, this creature can use a bonus action to take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action. Damaging Aura. Each creature who starts their turn within 10 feet of this creature takes damage of a type appropriate to the creature. The damage dealt is equal to half the damage of one of this creature’s attacks. If you give a creature this feature, give them one less attack than normal. Energy Weapons. The creature’s weapon attacks deal extra damage of an appropriate type. You can add this damage on top of the creature’s regular damage output to give them a combat boost, or can replace some of the creature’s normal weapon damage with this energy damage. Damage Transference. When this creature takes damage, they can transfer half or all of that damage (your choice) to a willing creature within 30 or 60 feet of them. This feature is particularly good for boss monsters, as discussed in “Building and Running Boss Monsters” (page 31). USING AVERAGES By default, 5e monster stat blocks calculate the average damage for any attack’s dice expression, as with “13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage” for an ogre’s Greatclub attack. Using average damage for a monster’s attacks is one of the best ways to speed up combat. Sometimes, though, you need to roll damage for effects that aren’t in a stat block. When you do, you can use the following table to quickly look up the average value of various dice equations. Simply find the number of dice in the leftmost column, then go across to the appropriate die type. As can be seen in the table, you can add up averages to get an average value for higher numbers of dice—for example, adding the average of 2d10 and 6d10 to get the average of 8d10. You can use this approach to find the average for rolling more than twelve dice, so that if you need an average for 24d10, you can simply look at the 12d10 average and double it. # of dice d4 d6 d8 d10 d12 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 5 7 9 11 13 3 7 10 13 16 19 4 10 14 18 22 26 5 12 17 22 27 32 6 15 21 27 33 39 7 17 24 31 38 45 8 20 28 36 44 52 9 22 31 40 49 58 10 25 35 45 55 65 11 27 38 49 60 71 12 30 42 54 66 78 (The monster powers that appear in “Building a Quick Monster” on page 4, “Monster Powers” on page 15, and “Monster Roles” on page 22 often provide damage expressions such as “4 × CR.” If you’re a GM who loves to roll dice, you can use this table to convert those fixed damage values back into a dice-rolling expression by finding an average close to the fixed value.) You can also compute averages for dice expressions with simple equations you can keep in your head. The average of two dice is the maximum value of one of those dice + 1, so that the average of 2d12 is 13. Then double that number for multiples of two, so that the average of 2d8 is 9, the average of 4d8 is 18, and so forth. Likewise, the average of a single die is half the size of the die, so add that number to a two-dice average to get odd numbers. For example, the average of 4d6 is 14, so the average of 5d6 is 17. (The average of one die is actually half the size of the die plus 0.5, which is why the average of two dice is the maximum value of the die +1.) THE LAZY ENCOUNTER BENCHMARK Build encounters based on the story, the situation, and the location. When you want to check whether a particular encounter is too challenging for the characters, you can use a simple benchmark (detailed in “The Lazy Encounter Benchmark” on page 70) to see if the encounter might be inadvertently deadly. OTHER LAZY MONSTER TRICKS Once you’re in the middle of an encounter, you can make use of a number of other quick tricks to make running monsters easier, with more flexibility and greater speed. Try any of the following options at your table, and make use of any trick that helps your game: • Use fixed initiative for monsters equal to 10 + each monster’s Dexterity bonus. Even faster? Just have all monsters act on initiative count 12. • Reduce hit points on the fly to allow monsters to drop or surrender more quickly, or increase a monster’s number of attacks or damage if the characters are having too easy a time. (“Monster Difficulty Dials” on page 27 talks about these kinds of adjustments.) • Have foes flee or surrender when it makes sense to move the game forward. (“Exit Strategies” on page 91 and “On Morale and Running Away” on page 125 talk more about this.). • Have constructs and undead be destroyed when the creature controlling them dies. • Run multiple waves of monsters for big battles. (“Building and Running Boss Monsters” on page 31 talks more on this topic.) • Include creatures designed to eat “save or suck” attacks such as banishment or polymorph. (“Lightning Rods” on page 44 has more information on this.)

40 RUNNING MONSTERS FOR NEW GAMEMASTERS Forge of Foes contains numerous tips and tools to help GMs run monsters. But as with any collection of advice, some of what’s here can feel relatively advanced for GMs new to the game. This section offers tips to help relatively inexperienced GMs run monsters effectively—and can serve as a refresher for advanced GMs as well. 1ST-LEVEL = VULNERABLE Though it seems illogical, 1st level is the most dangerous and potentially lethal level in an adventurer’s career. With their low hit points making it easy for them to drop—and easy to be permanently dispatched if they take damage while dying—characters are significantly more likely to die at 1st level than at any other point in the game. Monsters matched up against 1st-level characters at a particular encounter difficulty are almost always more dangerous than monsters matched up against higher-level characters at the same difficulty. So when designing or running encounters for 1st-level characters, pay careful attention to how lethal those encounters might get. Run fewer monsters than characters, and ensure that the monsters are CR 1/4 or less. Even a CR 1/2 foe might prove deadly to a 1st-level character. Though you might expect CR 1 monsters to be a good match for characters of 1st level based on hit points and defenses, many such monsters can deal potentially deadly damage. A bugbear or a dire wolf, for example, can deal enough damage to easily kill a low-hit point character with one attack. A specter can easily kill a 1st-level fighter or barbarian with a single hit. So be nice when the characters are 1st level. You have nineteen more levels to turn up the heat. (“Monsters and the Tiers of Play” on page 74 also talks about the perils of 1st level.) MORE MONSTERS, MORE DANGER No matter whether the characters are fighting monsters of a challenge rating appropriate to their level, more monsters are almost always more dangerous than fewer monsters. Even if a creature is significantly more powerful than the characters, that creature is at a big disadvantage due to their lower number of actions as compared to the number of actions the characters can take. (This concept is called the “action economy,” and is talked about in “Understanding the Action Economy” on page 42.) When in doubt, keep the number of foes below the number of characters to make an easier fight. Whenever an encounter has more monsters than characters, the challenge goes up. THE 5TH-LEVEL POWER SURGE In the same way that the characters get much better at surviving when they reach 2nd level, 5e games have other leaps in character power at 5th, 11th, and 17th level. Starting at 5th level, you’ll see the characters pinning down powerful foes with a single failed saving throw. You’ll see huge hordes of monsters taken out of the fight with spells such as hypnotic pattern and fireball. You’ll watch fighters cleave through powerful opponents with ease, both from the increase to their attack modifier and damage, and their ability to dish out four attacks in a turn using Action Surge. Even though combat changes at 5th level in the characters’ favor, that doesn’t mean you have to make everything harder. But understanding and expecting the power jump at 5th level lets you think about different ways to handle that jump. Easy battles are still a lot of fun (as talked about in “Running Easy Monsters,” page 124). And you can learn what kinds of foes are the best challenge for the characters’ new capabilities in “Lightning Rods” (page 44) and “Monsters and the Tiers of Play” (page 74). READ THE WHOLE STAT BLOCK When running a monster, it’s easy to focus on their big combat statistics. You might look only at a creature’s hit points, Armor Class, and attacks while getting ready to run an encounter. However, many monsters have useful and critical capabilities described in their other statistics, such as resistances, immunities, senses, and proficiencies. A goblin’s +6 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks might be relevant to how you set up an encounter with goblin cultists, given the circumstances and situation. More complicated monsters often have important features noted as bonus actions or reactions, and it’s easy to miss these features when you’re in the heat of the game. Stat blocks also tell you the story of a monster. By looking at a creature’s ability scores and skill proficiencies, you can recognize how those numbers might feed in to that story. “Reading the Monster Stat Block,” page 102, has more details on this. While preparing your game, review any stat blocks you think you might run. Then review them again just before you run them, right at the table. By taking thirty seconds to remind yourself what a monster brings to an encounter, you’re less likely to forget a feature and miss an opportunity for a more memorable game. SANDWICH MECHANICS WITH FLAVOR It’s easy to lose track of the fiction going on in the world of your game when you’re focused on the mechanics of combat. So consider sandwiching mechanical descriptions

41 with the flavor of what’s happening around the characters. For example, rather than simply reporting the damage a character takes on a successful hit, you can say something like: “The cultists hisses at you and slashes with her jagged curved blade. It hits you for 6 slashing damage as the blade cuts through your leather armor and into your flesh.” Likewise, the mechanics of rolling damage and saving throws for a complicated spell can be made more interesting as part of a descriptive narrative. “Durrim, you hurl your fireball into the room full of unsuspecting ghouls, one of them turning your way just as the spell explodes in a roar of flame. Roll 8d6 damage. Two of the eight ghouls make their saving throws, but six of the eight burst into flames, leaving only two. They’re smoldering and burnt, but still fighting!” Even when crunching numbers, you can move the story along. Use those silly vocal sound effects you used to love in middle school, and don’t lose sight of the fiction happening during the game. MONSTERS DON’T HAVE TO BEHAVE OPTIMALLY A veteran might have three attacks at their disposal, but that doesn’t mean they have to take them. Sometimes the characters’ foes make poor choices and bad decisions. They might let ego get in the way of making decisions. They make tactical errors. An enemy spellcaster might hold back their most powerful spells, thinking that the characters are easy targets. A troll commander might toy with a hero, attacking only with a single claw. A gnoll outlaw in a position to finish off a dying cleric might turn their attention to the pesky fighter interrupting their finishing move. Whenever it increases the fun of the game for the players, let the monsters make mistakes. REDUCE HIT POINTS TO END BATTLES EARLY Proper pacing is one of the most important parts of keeping a game fun for both you and the players. Sometimes battles go on too long, threatening to end a fun encounter as a final slog. If this happens, just reduce the hit points of monsters to let the next hit take them out of the fight, letting you and the players move on to the next part of the story. Many monster statistics can be fine-tuned before or during the game, helping you focus on fun and helping the monsters play the part you want them to in the narrative. “Monster Difficulty Dials” on page 27 talks about the kinds of adjustments you can make on the fly to make a foe easier or harder in combat. These dials include a creature’s hit points, their number of attacks, and the damage they deal, as well as the overall number of foes in a battle. You can tweak all these dials to suit your story and its pacing, but reducing a monster’s hit points can be the most powerful dial for keeping your game fast and fun. UNDERSTANDING CHALLENGE RATINGS The concept of challenge rating as it defines a monster’s power level can be hard to grasp. “What Are Challenge Ratings?” on page 99 breaks down this measure of monster difficulty in detail, but you can keep a few simple rules in mind: • A challenge rating compares one monster to another. There isn’t a perfect comparison between character levels and monster challenge ratings. • A monster is a hard challenge for a single character if their challenge rating is roughly 1/4 of a character’s level, or 1/2 of a character’s level if the character is 5th level or higher. • A single creature might be particularly challenging to a group of characters if the creature’s challenge rating is greater than 1.5 × the average character level. • A battle might be more challenging then you want it to be if the sum total of monster challenge ratings is greater than 1/4 of the sum total of character levels, for characters of 1st to 4th level; or greater than 1/2 of total character levels if the characters are 5th level or higher. (The above comparisons are taken from “The Lazy Encounter Benchmark” on page 70, which explains them in more detail.) Challenge ratings are a rough gauge of monster power—not a perfect measurement. Challenge rating comparisons alone don’t determine the difficulty of a battle, as many other factors can come into play: • The specific situation • The combat environment • The experience of the players • How well the characters’ attacks and features work together • Whether most of the characters or most of the monsters come first in the initiative order • What kinds of magic items the characters possess As the GM, you’ll develop a much better sense for the capabilities of the characters and the potential difficulty of a battle as you gain more experience running games for your group. UNDERSTANDING A MONSTER’S ROLE Some monsters like to get up in front of the characters and hit them with clubs. Some work better while lurking in the shadows. Others want to be up on a ledge raining magic down upon their foes from a distance. When reading a stat block, consider what role and position a monster might prefer in combat. An evil mage can have a ton of powerful spells, but they might never get a chance to use them if they’re up front getting hit. A squad of veterans can be mighty opponents, but not if they’re stuck on the other side of a chasm. So always put the veterans up front and stick the mage in the back. (“Monster Roles” on page 22 talks more on this topic.)

42 MATT MORROW UNDERSTANDING THE ACTION ECONOMY Often, GMs look at the powers, actions, and statistics of characters and monsters and take those statistics at face value. A fireball spell creates a huge blast of flame. A paladin smites foes by channeling divine energy into their attack. A wizard’s power is measured by the number of spells they wield and the spell slots with which they cast them. But there’s an equally important element to the game that’s not as obvious—the action economy. The game’s action economy is the comparison of the number of actions the characters can take compared to the number of actions their foes can take. If these numbers of actions are imbalanced, one side has a distinct advantage over the other, regardless of how good their actions and attacks are, because one side can simply do more things. Understanding the action economy is critical when considering the challenge of an encounter. As you consider the characters and the foes they face, consider how the action economy is balanced—or imbalanced—between them. MORE MONSTERS! Perhaps the easiest way to balance the action economy is to include enough foes to roughly balance the actions of the characters. Beyond having more actions they can take, more monsters means more targets. It means the characters’ damage is often spread across multiple foes instead of focusing on one big threat. “Monster Difficulty Dials” on page 27 talks about how a GM can adjust encounters before or during play. This “number of monsters” dial is a powerful tool for tuning a battle’s difficulty. It’s perhaps the strongest dial you can turn, as it can affect both the challenge of a fight and the time it takes to complete it. LEGENDARY ACTIONS When a single foe faces a whole group of characters, that foe is at a distinct disadvantage with the action economy. In a typical party, four to six characters each have actions they can take in a round, while the poor monster might have only one. The iconic CR 15 purple worm can probably swallow a house. But with only two attacks, it’s possible that the worm might do nothing at all in a round if they miss both times. The purple worm is a powerhouse monster by virtue of how nasty their attacks are, but distinctly falls short in the action economy. They just don’t have a lot of actions they can take compared to the characters. By contrast, other creatures such as the adult red dragon can do lots of things. The designers of 5e knew that particular monsters often face groups of characters alone, putting them at an action economy disadvantage. For this reason, those creatures are given legendary actions—actions they take between other characters’ turns to make up for the lack of actions on their own turn. An adult red dragon can attack up to six times across a round—three on their turn and three times with legendary actions. Not bad. When you want to run a single nonlegendary creature against a group of characters, consider increasing that creature’s actions to account for the imbalance in the action economy. “Building and Running Legendary Monsters,” page 28, has more information on this topic. MODIFYING THE ACTION ECONOMY DURING A BATTLE Even without building out a full-blown legendary monster, you can change up a potential imbalance of actions by simply giving creatures more attacks as part of their Multiattack action (or giving them Multiattack if they don’t already have it). This is a significant threat boost to a creature, sometimes doubling the amount of damage they can deal in a turn, so take care. Giving a purple worm an additional tail sting attack represents a

43 significant jump in the danger that creature brings to an encounter. For something a bit less drastic, consider letting the monster attack a second time if they miss with their first attack. There’s little difference between this approach and granting a creature advantage on their attack rolls, except in how you describe the effect during the game. You might use this approach on a powerful creature who dishes out tremendous damage, allowing them to hit more reliably, but capping their damage lower than if they were hitting twice. For example, a frost giant who attacks again after a miss with their first attack has a greater chance of dealing their average 25 damage on a turn, but is still less likely to deal their full 50 damage per turn. THE ACTION ECONOMY AND SPELLCASTING Monster and NPC stat blocks sometimes feature long lists of castable spells presenting a wide range of combat options. But a spellcasting creature can cast only one spell per turn. Sometimes this is fine, as when a group of cult fanatics throw around inflict wounds spells one at a time just as the characters might. But noteworthy spellcasters, including boss monsters, can improve their standing in the action economy by casting spells as part of an existing Multiattack action, replacing one of their normal attacks with their spellcasting action. For creatures who don’t have the Multiattack action, you can give it to them, letting them cast a spell as well as attack on their turn. Giving NPC spellcasters the ability to cast more than one spell on a turn increases the threat they can bring to a battle, so keep that in mind. But for other monsters, casting spells alongside other attacks can help them keep up with the characters’ actions, even as it lets them reinforce their place as a dual melee-and-magic threat in the fiction of the game. (“Building Spellcasting Monsters,” page 34, and “Running Spellcasting Monsters,” page 58, both offer additional points of view on mixing monsters and magic.) SPELLS AND FEATURES THAT BALANCE THE ACTION ECONOMY Some spells and features scale particularly well with efforts to improve the action economy for monsters and other foes, becoming more powerful the more characters a foe faces. Spells such as fire shield directly affect enemies who hit the caster—every time. As such, it’s one of the few features in the game that becomes more effective as the caster becomes more outclassed in combat. A paladin who smites an adult black dragon protected by fire shield takes an average of 9 damage for each hit. A monk who strikes the dragon four times with a flurry of blows takes 27 damage! The balor’s Fire Aura trait scales in two different ways— damaging characters who happen to be next to the balor at the start of the balor’s turn, and characters who attack and hit the balor while next to them. The balor might get only two attacks on their turn, but their aura deals significant damage without expending any actions, and increases in threat as more characters move in close to attack. Damaging defensive effects and damaging auras, whether spells or innate abilities, are gifts that keep on giving when it comes to balancing the action economy. Whenever you’re creating or running a boss monster or some other creature likely to face the characters alone, these kinds of passive-damage features can help. The monster powers in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster Powers” (page 15), and “Monster Roles” (page 22) offer a number of such options, any of which can help a foe scale up their threat without requiring extra actions. You can also assign monster powers to terrain features, such as an altar that has the Damaging Aura power, or an arcane orb that targets a hero each round with the Telekinetic Grasp power. Setting the terrain features to activate on a specific initiative count, such as 20 or 15, gives you extra actions each round that can shift the action economy in your favor. You can then add simple ways for the characters to deactivate such features by using their own actions. THE ACTION ECONOMY AND SPELLCASTING Many spellcasters have a number of spells that enhance or protect them, but wasting a number of rounds to cast those spells during combat greatly reduces the caster’s effectiveness. Instead, consider having foes precast any such spells that last a long time and don’t require concentration, such as mage armor, fire shield, or true seeing. You can also select one long-duration concentration spell that a foe can cast before a fight if they suspect adventurers might be present, such as globe of invulnerability, fly, or invisibility. Precasting spells frees up a foe’s actions during the actual battle, allowing you to spend those actions on spells that target the heroes. The following table highlights a number of spells that are particularly good at balancing the action economy in favor of a creature making use of them. To further improve their value, consider letting foes cast some of these spells before combat begins, in addition to their personal protection spells. ACTION-BALANCING SPELLS Spell Level Spell Spell Level Spell 1 Fog cloud 3 Haste 1 Hellish rebuke 3 Slow 1 Shield 3 Spirit guardians 2 Blur 4 Fire shield 2 Darkness 4 Greater invisibility 2 Spiritual weapon 5 Antilife shell 3 Blink 5 Cloudkill 3 Fear 7 Divine word 3 Fly 9 Foresight

44 LIGHTNING RODS When characters rise above 4th level, their ability to deal with powerful foes takes a huge jump. But challenging characters of 5th level and higher isn’t just about making things hard. It’s easy for GMs to fall into the trap of thwarting the coolest things the heroes can do, by giving monsters immunities to certain conditions, increasing their hit points to offset the high damage a character can deal, or running monsters with tactics clearly built to bypass the characters’ best attacks. But thwarting the characters’ best features can be frustrating to the players, for obvious reasons. So instead of shutting down the characters, build your encounters around monsters specifically designed to show off—by eating up—the characters’ cool new capabilities as they rise in level. You can think of these monsters as “lightning rods”—intended victims ready to take the full effect of a character’s most powerful attacks and features. WATCH WHAT THE CHARACTERS BRING When running encounters challenging enough for the characters to use their top-tier features and attacks, pay attention to what they do. Does the wizard blast enemies with high-damage spells like fireball? Does the cleric make liberal use of Turn Undead when faced with those monsters? Do spells like polymorph or banishment come into play to get rid of bosses and elite threats? Note which features the players enjoy having their characters use, and think about how to build for those features in your next big battle. If you aren’t sure what features the characters have, ask the players. Each time the characters level, start the session by having the players talk about what new attacks, spells, and special abilities they’ve picked up. Then build encounters to show off those features, not avoid them. For example, at higher levels, a monk gains the ability to stun creatures with a single strike, effectively taking a monster out of the fight for a round or more. So when you know a player’s monk has this feature, add monsters into big battles that you specifically want the monk to stun. A smack-talking spellcaster with a low Constitution saving throw, and who only a monk can reach with their enhanced movement, is just begging to have a hero leap up and punch them in the face. RUN HORDES FOR AREA EFFECTS At 5th level and above, characters get access to spells and class features with large areas of effect, including hypnotic pattern, fireball, and Destroy Undead. When you know the characters have such features at their disposal, add hordes of low-CR creatures who can charge at them, all grouped up and ready to be blasted away. Ignore the fact that it might be more tactically appropriate for such creatures to spread out, instead thinking of yourself as the director of an action movie. What’s the coolest outcome for the scene—a group of careful zombies staying 20 feet away from one another, or a huge mob of undead in perfect position to be turned to ash or blown to pieces with a well-placed fireball? (“Running Minions and Hordes,” page 54, talks more about running large numbers of monsters in combat.) EXPENDABLE LIEUTENANTS Many legendary monsters can use Legendary Resistance to avoid being taken out with a single casting of banishment or polymorph, but their lieutenants have no such advantage. When the characters have access to such spells, add powerful monsters into your encounters specifically designed to be banished, polymorphed, or otherwise controlled or incapacitated. Monsters with the bruiser or defender role are often perfect targets for such spells (see “Monster Roles” on page 22), especially those with terrible Wisdom and Charisma saving throws. Keep in mind, though, that if you add one or two hardhitting foes to an encounter who don’t get controlled, things can go south for the characters quickly. FRAGILE DAMAGE-DEALERS For stunning-strike monks, hard-hitting paladins, sharpshooter rangers, or great-weapon fighters, fragile foes who deal a ton of damage make fantastic targets. These are creatures with a low Armor Class, low hit points, and a low Constitution saving throw, but who are deadly until taken out. (Creatures with the artillery or skirmisher role are great choices; see “Monster Roles.”) It’s extremely rewarding for a character to reach such a foe and cut them down with a single powerful attack. PLAY TO THE CHARACTERS’ STRENGTHS Players and their characters love to outsmart their foes. You can help with this by placing artillery in locations that the foes assume will be hard to reach, but which you know present just a minor challenge to characters who can climb, fly, or short-range teleport. Likewise, add hidden ambushers when you know that some of the characters will be able to easily perceive them. These sorts of setups let the characters show off, and reward the players for choosing those specific tactical capabilities. TELEGRAPHING LIGHTNING RODS Less tactically minded players might need help, or even direct advice, to recognize the danger of not dealing with lightning rods. If you intended for a fire giant bodyguard of the hobgoblin king to be banished and the characters don’t pick up on that, they might be in trouble when she starts pounding them into the ground like tent pegs. If the characters are focused on the boss while getting pelted by the fiery rays of flameskulls just begging to be stunned, blasted, or turned, be prepared to project or reveal outright to the players the dangers their characters face, and how they might deal with them.

45 MODIFYING MONSTERS BEFORE AND DURING PLAY As a GM, you have many ways to customize monsters to make them the best fit for a particular encounter. You might simply give them a few more hit points. Or you might revise them completely, changing their stats, adding new features, or modifying their existing features. Some of these modifications are quick and easy. You can often do them in your head while running the game. Other modifications require time and thought best suited for game prep. This section discusses which monster modifications work well before your game begins, and which modifications you might make during play. WHY MODIFY MONSTERS? Why modify a creature in the first place? Why not run with the default monster stat blocks? Most of the time, monsters run fine as written. With dozens of excellent books of foes to use, you can almost always find one befitting the scene and situation of an encounter. Even when reskinning an existing stat block into something new (see “Reskinning Monsters,” page 50), you likely don’t need to make many changes to the mechanics, letting the monster work as intended. Sometimes, though, the story of a creature in the world of the game and the mechanics you find in a published stat block don’t match. Sometimes, you know a monster just won’t hold up to the characters in your group. Sometimes an encounter promises to be less fun than you want if a monster doesn’t get a little something extra. CHANGING THE MECHANICS TO FIT THE STORY You might want to modify the statistics of a monster so that they better fit their place in the story and the world. Maybe the basilisk the characters face is no normal basilisk but a dire basilisk, twice the size of their kin. They have more hit points. Their attack bonuses and DCs are higher. Maybe they can make more attacks per round. In such a case, the standard basilisk stat block isn’t enough. So you might decide to use the young black dragon stat block instead, giving them the Petrifying Gaze trait of the normal basilisk, and losing the black dragon’s fly speed. This basilisk is new and different, but this sort of reskin works well because the modifications fit the story. When any of the following issues present themselves, you can think about changing the mechanics of a monster to fit the story: • When a creature you want to use needs to be significantly bigger than the baseline stat block. • When the monster of your story has a trait a published monster doesn’t have. • When a creature has unique skills, such as a dragon spellcaster or an undead knight. • When a monster needs to be more of a mini-boss version of their type—one who stands out among their peers. INCREASING THE CHALLENGE OF A MONSTER Increasing the challenge a monster provides in combat is another common reason to modify a stat block. Instead of coming at it from the story first, you might know that a party of 9th-level characters won’t be challenged facing CR 2 creatures. But the creatures still make sense for the situation, so you boost them mechanically, either reskinning a higher-CR stat block or increasing the creature’s baseline stats directly. It still helps to have an in-world reason for such changes, though. If a group of soldiers is much stronger than normal CR 1/8 guards, what makes them so formidable? If the evil queen’s bodyguard hits like a fire giant, what makes him so strong and powerful? Even if a monster’s story is a secondary consideration to their increase in challenge, it’s worth thinking about the narrative behind that increase. MAKING THE GAME MORE FUN Beyond story and mechanics, we modify monsters for the fun of the game. Reworking the baseline statistics of a foe can make combat more exciting, showcase the characters, enrich the story—and make it easier to get foes off stage when their time is done. WHEN NOT TO MODIFY MONSTERS Never modify monsters to punish the players. Don’t rebuild creatures specifically to circumvent the characters’ most powerful capabilities. And don’t modify monsters just to beat the characters into the ground. Just because one of the characters picked up the banishment spell doesn’t mean all monsters should suddenly become immune to banishment. (“Lightning Rods” on page 44 has more guidance on these topics.) Before modifying any creature, ask yourself why you’re modifying them. Is it to fit the story or make the game more fun? Are your modifications helping you keep up the right pace and beats to make your game exciting? Make sure your monster modifications enrich the game and don’t diminish it. MODIFYING MONSTERS BEFORE THE GAME When preparing adventures and selecting monsters, ask if the standard stat blocks for the creatures you select work well enough as is. Most of the time, they should. You can

46 FABIAN PARENTE always make a given creature unique in the flavor of your descriptions—for example, giving them a proper name and a few scars to show their history. But a chimera is a chimera, and if the standard chimera stat block works fine on its own, there’s no need to change it. If you don’t have the right monsters on hand, look at your toolbox of options and determine how to make the monster you need. Should you reskin an existing stat block? Should you build something from scratch? The crunchier the details you want to add to a creature, the more likely you’ll want to do this work ahead of time instead of at the table. (“Building a Quick Monster,” page 4, and “Reskinning Monsters,” page 50, provide guidance for both these approaches.) Often, you can make significant modifications or entirely new monsters on an index card or in whatever digital tool of choice you use to run your game. Don’t worry about the formality of these changes or matching the style of mechanical wording perfectly. You know what you mean. Likewise, don’t bother recalculating the challenge rating of a creature after you’ve modified them just to assess how they fight an encounter. Your own understanding of the characters, their capabilities, the environment of the encounter, and other potential factors paint a much more accurate picture of the potential challenge than any encounter-building tool or equation. If you find yourself needing to figure out a modified creature’s new challenge rating (for example, if you’re giving out experience points immediately after combat), you can do so by comparing the creature’s capabilities to the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table on page 6, or compare the creature to other monsters in your favorite monster book. Don’t sweat it too much, though. These modified monsters are just for you and your group. Quick guesses and scratchy notes are just fine. MODIFYING MONSTERS DURING THE GAME Sometimes, a creature needs modifications that are minor enough to make on the fly. To determine what changes work well when made during a game session, keep the following in mind. First, if you’re playing fast and loose, you can save time by modifying monsters as the need arises in a battle. “Reskinning Monsters” describes how to omit details when reskinning a creature unless and until you need them. If the story of your custom monster means that they have immunity to poison, just add that feature during the game when you need it, rather than worrying about it ahead of time. A skeletal frost giant is undead, so you know they’re subject to Turn Undead even if you didn’t bother to jot that down before they showed up in combat. Modifying monsters during play is also an excellent way to change the pacing and challenge of an encounter during the game. Some GMs oppose this idea, and it’s fine if that’s how you feel. Changing a creature’s statistics during an encounter can feel a bit like cheating. It’s moving the goal lines while the game plays out—but sometimes you don’t realize that you accidentally set the goal lines too far out to begin with. Decide for yourself if such changes are acceptable, and if so, when. “Monster Difficulty Dials” on page 27 offers lots of guidance for ways to modify monsters during play. LOWERING HIT POINTS TO END BATTLES EARLY Of all the topics discussed in “Monster Difficulty Dials,” few are as important and valuable as lowering hit points to speed up a dreary battle. Doing so is an incredibly useful tool for keeping the pace of your game moving forward. Even if you feel like changing damage, increasing hit points, and adjusting a creature’s number of attacks are a form of “cheating,” consider reducing a monster’s hit points to keep your game moving quickly and staying fun.

47 RUNNING MONSTERS IN THE THEATER OF THE MIND While many GMs run combat using a gridded battle map, online virtual tabletop, or other physical representation of positioning in combat, some prefer to use a purely narrative approach often called “theater of the mind.” Even if you run games this way only occasionally—or if you’re wanting to try theater of the mind—it’s good to recognize how this style of play works, and to discuss it with your players. In theater-of-the-mind combat, the GM describes the physical situation, the players describe what they want to do, and the GM arbitrates the results. On each player’s turn, the GM clarifies the current situation, and might offer some options for what a character can do. However, many monster features are described in ways that make it difficult to run purely descriptive combat. If a creature has a spell blasting all targets in a 20-foot radius, how does a GM decide which targets are in the blast and which are not? CHOOSING NUMBERS OF TARGETS One way to remove some of the uncertainty of descriptive combat is to make all creatures’ attacks less dependent on physical positioning. As an example, a monster who uses the lightning bolt spell needs to know how many characters are currently in a line. But instead of thinking that way, consider instead how many creatures an attack or feature feels likely to hit, and then target that number of creatures directly. Thus, instead of hitting each creature in a line with a lightning bolt spell, a foe’s Lightning Arc attack might target three creatures within 60 feet, reducing its range to fit the theme of the attack. When looking at monster attacks or offensive spells, you can gauge how many creatures such an effect might target based on its size, as shown on the following table. NUMBER OF TARGETS BY AREA OF EFFECT Area Shape and Size Number of Targets 5-foot-radius sphere 1 10-foot-radius sphere 3 20-foot-radius sphere 4 30-foot-radius sphere 12 30-foot-long, 5-foot-wide line 2 60-foot-long, 5-foot-wide line 3 90-foot-long, 10-foot-wide line 4 120-foot-long, 10-foot-wide line 6 15-foot cone 2 20-foot cone 3 30-foot cone 4 60-foot cone 6 Depending on the situation, you might decide that more or fewer creatures are caught in an area. For example, you can turn a monster’s use of a magical attack mimicking the fireball spell into a fiery blast targeting four creatures. If you want to add a fun negotiation when a character casts fireball, ask the players if they’re willing to add two more enemy targets into the blast—by being willing to include one of the characters in the area as well! ROLL RANDOMLY FOR THE UNAFFECTED In some situations, the flavor of a monster’s attack doesn’t lend itself to the pinpoint accuracy of choosing specific targets. An adult blue dragon’s lightning breath might fork out like chain lightning, hitting several specific targets instead of blasting out in a line, but a red dragon’s fire breath is almost certainly a big cone of flame. When arbitrating such large areas in the theater of the mind, consider letting the dice decide who’s in and who’s out of the blast. Assuming four of six characters are hit by a young red dragon’s fire breath (a 30-foot cone), assign each character a number from 1 through 6 (using either the initiative order or the order of the players around the table to make it easy). Then roll a d6 twice, rerolling duplicates, and the two characters whose numbers match the die rolls are considered to be outside the blast. Describe how this process works before the battle begins, and make these rolls in the open so players recognize that they’re not being picked on. If any players have good in-world reasons for their characters to not become targets of a large area of effect (“I was hiding behind the wall of force spell I cast last round!”), take that into consideration. Always lean in favor of the characters when you can, as doing so can help to build their trust of your approach to this narrative combat style. FOES BLASTING FOES Characters are often careful to not include their allies in the areas of their bigger spells. Monsters don’t need to be. It can be great fun for players to watch foes blow up some of their own allies with big damage. But remember that powerful monsters often have allies or servants with resistance or immunity to such damage. For example, an adult red dragon might have fire elemental or fire giant allies who take no damage from the dragon’s fire breath. Even if their allies don’t have immunity or resistance to their area-effect attacks, many foes might choose to blast those allies if doing so gives them the upper hand in the battle. Monsters can be jerks that way.

48 ROLEPLAYING MONSTERS For campaigns that are heavily into roleplaying, few things are as much fun as a GM getting to dig into the personality and idiosyncrasies of a monster while bringing them to life at the table. Trying to negotiate safe passage through a ruin claimed by an ogre or troll. Bargaining with a chuul in possession of important magical lore. Attempting to convince a bored green dragon that the characters have more worth to them as allies than as a light snack. These kinds of monstrous interactions can make for great roleplaying scenes. However, when it comes to monster design, the game focuses to a large degree on the rules of combat first and foremost—to the extent that monster stat blocks are built mostly around traits and actions related to combat, while largely relegating the other pillars of play to ability check modifiers and flavor text. As such, when running monsters, it becomes easy to all but ignore roleplaying in combat in favor of focusing on the minutiae of attack mechanics. But actively engaging in roleplaying during a fight scene can be a great way to create fights that go beyond the usual exchanges of attacks and damage, shaping a more memorable encounter. MONSTROUS MOTIVATIONS The first step in roleplaying a monster in combat is understanding the broad scope of what that monster wants in general, and the narrower scope of what they hope to attain in this particular fight. The narrative that accompanies the stat blocks of many monsters can provide good hooks touching on the creature’s overall goals, but the specifics of the adventure and the encounter as you’ve set them up are likely the more important baseline. If you’re the kind of GM who jots down notes on which attacks and effects you want a monster to make use of during a fight, add notes on the monster’s motivations as well. If you’re not a note taker, you can instead think about the monster as if they were a character in a work of fiction you were writing, asking: What does the monster want from the fight? What do they need? What obstacles and conflicts do they perceive as getting in the way of what they want and need? A creature’s role in an adventure shapes their wants and needs in a big way. Are they a guard obligated to take on the threat the characters represent? Are they simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when the party stumbles into their lair? Do they have something to prove, giving them a perfect excuse to step into combat when well-armed adventurers wander into their territory? Are they ravenously hungry and possessed of no moral compunction against having humanoids on the menu? Do they have young or other family members to defend? And should that provoke them to attack, or inspire them to leave the fight before being badly injured? Once you have a monster’s motivations noted, you can then look to two areas of information on the stat block. And just as you’ll use the rest of the stat block to guide the monster’s offensive and defensive behavior in the fight (as talked about in “Reading the Monster Stat Block” on page 102), you’ll use the monster’s creature type and mental ability scores to guide the way you roleplay those motivations while the fight unfolds. CREATURE TYPE The broad classification of creatures in the game into different types reflects biology and morphology, origin, access to magic, and other key details that are shared between different creatures. And just as creature type makes a useful shorthand for talking about different monsters’ abilities, traits, resistances, and other combat details, it can be used to collectively examine the behavior of creatures to suggest specific roleplaying tropes. Though specific creatures might have more detailed suggestions for roleplaying in the write-ups that accompany their stat blocks, you can use the following quick guidelines as inspiration for roleplaying hooks as needed: Aberration: Chaotic, ravenous, craves destruction for its own sake Beast: Territorial, cautious about combat, fights only if threatened, defends young Celestial: Accustomed to power, superiority complex, immediately forgiving or unforgiving with little middle ground Construct: Programmed, focused, unrelenting, unforgiving Dragon: Accustomed to power, haughty, superiority complex, expects adulation or fear from lesser creatures Elemental: Chaotic, capricious, treats destruction as the normal state of things Fey: Capricious, joyful or maniacal, flighty, distractible Fiend: Destructive, manipulative, fights for any reason, fearless Giant: Accustomed to power, dismissive of lesser creatures, jealous of equally powerful creatures Humanoid: Self-serving or altruistic, fight if threatened, fight to save face Monstrosity: Solitary, accustomed to not fitting in, like to show off special abilities Ooze: Mindless, driven to feed, fight in response to any provocation Plant: Mindless, fight in response to any threat Undead: Vicious, relentless, fight for the sake of fighting, driven to destroy life THINKING LIKE YOUR MONSTERS A creature’s overall intellect as defined by their mental abilities—Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma—make a

49 great go-to roleplaying hook. A creature’s scores in those three abilities shape the way in which that creature thinks about the world, their instinctual understanding of the world, and their sense of place and importance within the world. Monsters with high Intelligence or Charisma might love to focus on their own mental and emotional superiority, making them hard to negotiate with, just as monsters with high Wisdom are traditionally hard to dupe or trick. By contrast, monsters with low mental ability scores have more trouble engaging with the world, whether a low Intelligence that makes them easily confused or reluctant to embrace complex concepts, a low Wisdom that makes them naturally incautious, or a low Charisma making them easily manipulatable and standoffish. Creatures with high mental ability scores often have a strong sense of self, convincing them that everything they do is the right course. This can make intellectually superior creatures inclined to get into fights just for the sake of doing so—somewhat ironically, given that they’re in the best position to understand what’ll happen to them if the fight goes bad. This can also make such creatures disinclined to surrender or back down in combat, unless first offered some sort of overture or face-saving “out” by their opponents. By contrast, less intellectual monsters are focused mostly on the basic goals of food, shelter, and being left alone. They often won’t enter a fight unless directly threatened, and are quick to abandon the fight if it goes against them, but might be difficult to negotiate with if their lack of intellect makes it difficult to grasp complex terms of detente or surrender. THE FINE ART OF SUBOPTIMAL CHOICES Many of the most interesting roleplaying choices a monster can make in combat—fighting for no reason, attacking a clearly superior foe to prove a point, fleeing a fight if injured regardless of the state of their foes—are at odds with the assumed overarching goal of winning the fight. And that’s as it should be. Much combat time in the game revolves around the characters being given opportunities to assess, then counter the strengths of their foes, and roleplaying those foes provides great opportunities to reveal strengths and weaknesses. Creating a sense that monsters and NPCs have a stake in every fight beyond simply stepping up as bags of hit points—playing them as wary, or afraid, or desperate, or cocky in ways that benefit the characters—can help make those fights feel as real to the players as they do to the heroes. It can also help you use roleplaying to shorten fights where the characters are so far ahead that finishing a battle might feel tedious, or to find a different outcome for a fight that the characters will almost certainly lose if they stick it out to the bitter end. (“Exit Strategies” on page 91 and “On Morale and Running Away” on page 125 both dig into this topic.) The familiar hook of “These creatures fight to the death” is one straightforward and usually suboptimal roleplaying choice. But there are many other excellent and entertaining choices toward the bottom end of the spectrum of optimal combat tactics, and digging deeper into the intellectual boundaries of your monsters’ roleplaying can help you find them. HOOKS VS. STEREOTYPES When playing to a monster’s intellectual weaknesses in combat, be careful that your roleplaying doesn’t cross over into hurtful and offensive tropes or stereotyping. With the exception of creatures who can be thought of as “programmed” in some way (many constructs and undead; most oozes; some aberrations), creatures with a low Intelligence ability score might think differently than high-Intelligence creatures—but they’re still thinking, conscious creatures nonetheless. As such, when roleplaying creatures with a low Intelligence ability score, you want to establish those creatures as having a particular type of intellect, rather than playing them as mentally inferior, for laughs or otherwise. Most people who’ve lived around animals can imagine the conversations they might have with a dog or cat who somehow learned to talk, even with both having Intelligence 3 by the rules of the game. A talking dog might regale you with tales of how the world smells that you have no ability to understand. A talking cat might alternate between doting on you and suddenly forgetting you exist. So keep those kinds of ideas in mind when roleplaying creatures with a low Intelligence score, treating them as simply having a different intellectual focus and way of viewing the world, and avoiding ableist tropes such as pidgin speech, sluggish reasoning, and slurred words. ROLEPLAYING MONSTERS AS PREP “Put yourself in the place of your villain” is one of the best pieces of advice for making a villain truly come to life. Stepping into the metaphorical shoes of a boss foe and thinking about the world as they think about it can give you a much more realistic view of that foe, what they’re doing, what they want, and the steps they’re taking to get there. Such mental exercises are their own form of roleplaying—a kind of independent game you can play just in your head and as part of your prep. Putting yourself into your villain’s thoughts and mindset can guide you as you design your world and the adventures the characters are set to undertake within it. Perceiving the world as a boss monster does can tell you how they feel about the characters, what minions they might send out to do their bidding, what secrets the characters might learn about the boss, what locations they’re focusing on, what treasures they amass, what other allies the villains connect with, and so much more.