Monster

So-called monsters are the creatures that ain't player characters. They includes many many from humans to beasts, undeads and dragons.

 Type

A creature's type speaks to its fundamental nature.

**Aberrations** are utterly alien beings. Many of them have innate magical abilities drawn from the creature's alien mind rather than the mystical forces of the world. The quintessential aberrations are nothics, and beholders.

**Beasts** are nonhumanoid creatures that are a natural part of the fantasy ecology. Some of them have magical powers, but most are unintelligent and lack any society or language. Beasts include all varieties of ordinary animals and giant versions of animals.

**Celestials** are creatures native to the Upper Planes. Many of them are the servants of deities, employed as messengers or agents in the mortal realm and throughout the planes. Celestials are good by nature, so the exceptional celestial who strays from a good alignment is a horrifying rarity. Celestials include angels, couatls, and pegasi.

**Constructs** are made, not born. Some are programmed by their creators to follow a simple set of instructions, while others are imbued with sentience and capable of independent thought. Golems are the iconic constructs.

**Dragons** are large reptilian creatures of ancient origin and tremendous power. True dragons, including the good metallic dragons and the evil chromatic dragons, are highly intelligent and have innate magic. Also in this category are creatures distantly related to true dragons, but less powerful, less intelligent, and less magical, such as wyverns and drakes.

**Elementals** are creatures native to the elemental planes. Some creatures of this type are little more than animate masses of their respective elements, including the creatures simply called elementals. Others have biological forms infused with elemental energy. The races of genies, including djinn and efreet, form the most important civilizations on the elemental planes. Other elemental creatures include gargoyles, salamanders, and phoenixes.

**Fey** are magical creatures closely tied to the forces of nature. They dwell in twilight groves and misty forests. In some worlds, they are closely tied to the Feywild, also called the Plane of Faerie. Some are also found in the Outer Planes. Fey include pixies, dryads, sylphs and undines.

**Fiends** are creatures of wickedness that are native to the Lower Planes. A few are the servants of deities, but many more labor under the leadership of archdevils and demon princes. Evil priests and mages sometimes summon fiends to the material world to do their bidding. If an evil celestial is a rarity, a good fiend is almost inconceivable. Fiends include demons, devils, hell hounds, succubi, and imps.

**Giants** tower over humans and their kind. The six varieties of true giant are hill giants, stone giants, frost giants, fire giants, cloud giants, and storm giants. Besides these, creatures such as ogres and trolls are giants.

**Humanoids** are the main peoples of a fantasy gaming world, both civilized and savage, including humans and a tremendous variety of other species. They have language and culture, few if any innate magical abilities (though most humanoids can learn spellcasting), and a bipedal form. Almost as numerous but far more savage and brutal, and almost uniformly evil, are the races of goblinoids (goblins, hobgoblins), orcs, gnolls, and kobolds.

**Monstrosities** are creatures in the strictest sense--frightening creatures that are not ordinary, not truly natural, and almost never benign. Some are the results of magical experimentation gone awry (such as owlbears), and others are the product of terrible curses (including minotaurs). They defy categorization, and in some sense serve as a catch-all category for creatures that don't fit into any other type.

**Oozes** are gelatinous creatures that rarely have a fixed shape. They are mostly subterranean, dwelling in caves and dungeons and feeding on refuse, carrion, or creatures unlucky enough to get in their way. Black puddings and gelatinous cubes are among the most recognizable oozes.

**Plants** in this context are vegetable creatures, not ordinary flora. Most of them are ambulatory, and some are carnivorous. The quintessential plants are the shambling mound and the treant. Fungal creatures such as the shrieker also fall into this category.

**Undead** are once-living creatures brought to a horrifying state of undeath through the practice of necromantic magic or some unholy curse. Undead include walking corpses, such as zombies and vampires, as well as bodiless spirits, such as ghosts and specters.

TAGS

A creature might have one or more tags appended to its type, in parentheses. For example, an orc has the humanoid (orc) type. The parenthetical tags provide additional categorization for certain creatures. The tags have no rules of their own, but something in the game, such as a magic item, might refer to them. For instance, a spear that is especially effective at fighting demons would work against any creature that has the demon tag.

## Size

A creature can be different size. It shows HP and how much space a creature of a particular size controls in combat.

A creature's CON modifier also affects the number of hit points it has. Its CON modifier is multiplied by the number of Hit Dice it possesses, and the result is added to its HP.

## Alignment

A creature's alignment provides a clue to its disposition and how it behaves in a roleplaying or combat situation. For example, a chaotic evil creature might be difficult to reason with and might attack characters on sight, whereas a neutral creature might be willing to negotiate.

The alignment specified in a creature's stat block is the default. Feel free to depart from it and change a creature's alignment to suit the needs of your campaign. If you want a good-aligned green dragon or an evil storm giant, there's nothing stopping you.

Many creatures of low intelligence have no comprehension of law or chaos, good or evil. They don't make moral or ethical choices, but rather act on instinct. These creatures are unaligned, which means they don't have an alignment.

## Speed

A creature's speed tells you how far it can move on its turn.

All creatures have a walking speed, simply called the speed. Creatures that have no form of ground-based locomotion have a walking speed of 0 feet. Some creatures have one or more of the following additional movement modes.

### Burrow

A creature that has a burrowing speed can use that speed to move through sand, earth, mud, or ice. A creature can't burrow through solid rock unless it has a special trait that allows it to do so.

### Climb

A creature that has a climbing speed can use all or part of its movement to move on vertical surfaces. The creature doesn't need to spend extra movement to climb.

### Fly

A creature that has a flying speed can use all or part of its movement to fly. Some creatures have the ability to **hover**, which makes them hard to knock out of the air. Such a creature stops hovering when it dies.

### Swim

A creature that has a swimming speed doesn't need to spend extra movement to swim.

## Senses

The Senses entry notes a creature's passive WIS (Perception) score, as well as any special senses the creature might have. Special senses are described below.

### Blindsight

A creature with blindsight can perceive its surroundings without relying on sight, within a specific radius.

Creatures without eyes, such as grimlocks and gray oozes, typically have this special sense, as do creatures with echolocation or heightened senses, such as bats and true dragons.

If a creature is naturally blind, it has a parenthetical note to this effect, indicating that the radius of its blindsight defines the maximum range of its perception.

### Darkvision

A creature with darkvision can see in the dark within a specific radius. The creature can see in dim light within the radius as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. The creature can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. Many creatures that live underground have this special sense.

### Tremorsense

A creature with tremorsense can detect and pinpoint the origin of vibrations within a specific radius, provided that the creature and the source of the vibrations are in contact with the same ground or substance.

Tremorsense can't be used to detect flying or incorporeal creatures. Many burrowing creatures, such as ankhegs, have this special sense.

### Truesight

A creature with truesight can, out to a specific range, see in normal and magical darkness, see invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect visual illusions and succeed on saving throws against them, and perceive the original form of a shapechanger or a creature that is transformed by magic. Furthermore, the creature can see into the Ethereal Plane within the same range.

## Special Abilities

Special abilities are characteristics that are likely to be relevant in a combat encounter and that require some explanation.

### Multiattack

A creature that can make multiple attacks on its turn has the Multiattack action. A creature can't use Multiattack when making an opportunity attack, which must be a single melee attack.

### Limited Usage

**X/Day.** The notation "X/Day" means a special ability can be used X number of times and that a creature must finish a long rest to regain expended uses.

**Recharge X–Y.** The notation "Recharge X–Y" means a creature can use a special ability once and that the ability then has a random chance of recharging during each subsequent round of combat. At the start of each of the creature's turns, roll a d6. If the roll is one of the numbers in the recharge notation, the creature regains the use of the special ability. The ability also recharges when the creature finishes a short or long rest.

**Once.** This notation means that a monster can use a special ability once and then must finish a short or long rest to use it again.

## Legendary Creature

A legendary creature can do things that ordinary creatures can't. It can take special actions outside its turn, and it might exert magical influence for miles around.

If a creature assumes the form of a legendary creature, such as through a spell, it doesn't gain that form's legendary actions, lair actions, or regional effects.

### Legendary Actions

A legendary creature can take a certain number of special actions--called legendary actions--outside its turn. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. A creature regains its spent legendary actions at the start of its turn. It can forgo using them, and it can't use them while incapacitated or otherwise unable to take actions. If surprised, it can't use them until after its first turn in the combat.

### Lair Actions

A legendary creature might have a section describing its lair and the special effects it can create while there, either by act of will or simply by being present. Such a section applies only to a legendary creature that spends a great deal of time in its lair.

If a legendary creature has lair actions, it can use them to harness the ambient magic in its lair. On initiative count 20 (losing all initiative ties), it can use one of its lair action options. It can't do so while incapacitated or otherwise unable to take actions. If surprised, it can't use one until after its first turn in the combat.

### Regional Effects

The mere presence of a legendary creature can have strange and wondrous effects on its environment, as noted in this section. Regional effects end abruptly or dissipate over time when the legendary creature dies.