And just like PCs monsters also have a Reaction and a Bonus Action that they may use, if they have a way of doing so.įormally expressed actions use certain common elements to standardize documentation, though some actions may omit almost all of these components. Just like PCs each monster can move and take one Action on its turn. Monsters are subject to the same action economy as player characters, although some monsters are able to extend this action economy in ways that PCs cannot - most notably Legendary Creatures. From here we consider how we Build Attack Actions so that we can complete the stat block of our Example Monster.
We will start with a general Overview of the different actions - Move, Action, Reaction and Bonus Action. I originally intended to include the Attack Bonus analysis in this instalment, however I've decided to post this part on its own and continue working on Attack Bonus as its own separate article. Some of these articles seem to take on a life of their own and grow longer in the writing. Surf continues on into the final parts of the monster stat block.
D&D 5e Monsters: Part 8: Construction: Actions