Monsters are the life and definition of danger withinDungeons & Dragons.Whether pitiful goblins or horrifying Mind Flayers, monsters give a Dungeons & Dragons campaign uncertainty and excitement as your party traverses the wilderness.
Managing monsters as the Dungeon Master can be fun or daunting, depending on how prepared you are. Thankfully, there are entire books that discuss monsters and the lore behind them. However, if you are unfamiliar with reading the stat blocks, it can all look like one confusing mess. But once you understand what you are reading, you may be sure to employ the right monsters in the correct scenarios within your campaign!
Monster Stat Blocks Explained
Looking throughan official sourcebook like the Monster Manualcan be intimidating when you first look at pages for some of the most powerful monsters. Deciphering what each stat and block means can be tricky because they can have dozens of different abilities.
Thankfully,each monster stat block generally follows the same format.
General Monster Description
At the top of every stat sheet, you will find themonster’s name, size, type, and natural alignment. While the first three are self-explanatory, theirnatural alignment can be used to dictate how you should roleplaythem.
This description is followed by theirArmor Class(along with what kind of armor they naturally wear), their number of Hitpoints, and their speed.Like a Player Character, they are treated the same way regarding healing for a short rest or managing their movement.
Next to a monster’s Hitpoints is also theirhit dice.Depending on how a Dungeon Master manages their monsters, they may be permitted to spend Hit Dice during a Short Rest.
Each monsterwill also have an array of stats, which is handy for making general checks that aren’t dictated by other abilities. While most monsters will have extra bonuses for certain skills (detailed below),this will be used when making general checks for monsters.
Below the skills array, it will show theirSaving Throw bonuses, Skill bonuses, Senses, Languages, and Challenge Rating.For the Saving Throw and Skill bonuses, not every monster will have them, asthey show any additional bonusesthat a monster gets when doing a specific roll.
For example, if a Mind Flayer does a Perception check, you will need toadd the +6 Perception from their Skill bonuses section instead of adding their Wisdom modifierbecause it explicitly explains what their Perception is.
Another commonly used skill in this section is amonster’s Passive Perception. you’re able to think of this as an always active Perception check of the monster, where the Passive Perception dictates how alert they are to their general surroundings.
Challenge Rating is often used to determine how tough an encounteragainst your party will be. This involves further calculation and is only commonly used by experienced Dungeon Masters.
Racial Traits And Spellcasting Section
Below the general description, you will start to get into a monster’sresistances, vulnerabilities, and spellcasting abilities.
Monsters can be resistant or vulnerable to certain attacks. To keep things fair,be sure to monitor this sectionas your party performs certain actions, as this section is often forgotten about in the heat of combat.
Spellcasting is also treated as you would with Player Characters. Monsters will only have a certain number of slots between rests but can also cast certain spells at will (which will be explicitly stated in this section).
Actions Section
Finally, we havemonster attacks and abilities. This is where you will commonly look to see what a monster will do per turn to attack the party.
These can include simple weapons they have (treated the same as reading Weapon stats on a Player Character Sheet) orabilities that involve special rolls.
For each attack, you will see a Hit bonus and the range each attack can reach. You will also see theDamage type and the amount of damagethat is done.
While the damage for each attack is shown through the dice that are rolled, it will also havethe average amount of damage shown in parenthesis.As a Dungeon Master, if you find yourself rolling a bunch of dice for multiple creatures,you may consider skipping the process to roll for damage and instead using the average damage shown(you will only need to roll for each Attack Roll, and it will make combat go by much quicker).
For certain monsters, you may see an ability with a note similar to“Recharge 5-6.”Once you use this ability, you must roll a 1d6,recharging the monster’s ability when you roll a 5 or 6.
Some abilities will linger beyond a single round, such as area-of-effect abilities that lessen a player’s movement. Be sure to monitor these abilities to ensure the monsters are fighting to their full potential.
