| Chapter 9: Monsters |
|---|
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| Monsters |
| Does This Belong in My Campaign? |
| Creatures in Battle |
| Intelligence · Alignment · Morale |
| Creature Types |
| Humanoid · Animal · Monster |
| Attack and Armor Types |
| Attacks · Armor |
A monster's claws and teeth can inflict critical hits just as a normal weapon can. A monster's natural defenses also help it resist attacks just as magical armor or a high Dexterity score does.
Attacks[]
To determine the type and severity of a critical hit inflicted by a monster, consult the table below:
| Form | Type | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Bite | P/S* | Same as Creature |
| Butt | B | Same as Creature |
| Claw | S | Creature –1** |
| Fist | B | Creature –1 |
| Horn | P | Same as Creature |
| Hoof | B | Creature –1 |
| Tail | B | Same as Creature |
| Sting | P | Creature –1 |
| Wing | B | Same as Creature |
Form: What the creature uses to deliver the attack.
Type: The kind of attack the creatures delivers. The three categories are the same as the categories for weapons—piercing (P), bludgeoning (B), and slashing (S).
Size: How large the weapon is for purposes of determining severity. Creature –1 means the attack is treated as one size class lower than the creature. For example, a claw attack from a bulette is treated as a Medium weapon for purposes of critical severity.
- *Treat as a slashing attack unless the target is immune to slashing weapons or only the creature's fangs are large enough to inflict damage. For example, snake and spider bites are piercing attacks.
- **Claw attacks from troll/ape type creatures are treated as the same size class as the creature for severity purposes.
Armor[]
A creature subjected to an attack that ignores armor, such as an overbearing attempt, a short-range shot from a crossbow, or a shot from a bombardment engine, might be entitled to an adjustment to its effective Armor Class of 10 due to Dexterity or magic.
Divide a creature's land movement rate by 9 or its flying or swimming movement rate by 12 to get its effective Dexterity bonus against such attacks. Drop fractions. If the creature is entitled to multiple Dexterity bonuses, it gets only the best one. For example, a light horse, MV 24, is entitled to a –2 Armor Class adjustment.
Any creature with an Armor Class of less than 0 is entitled to a magical Armor Class adjustment equal to its negative Armor Class. For example, a great wyrm red dragon has an Armor Class of –11. Its effective AC against a short-range crossbow shot or wrestling attack is –3 (there is a –11 magical adjustment and a –2 Dexterity adjustment).
For example, an aarakocra is a human-type creature. It uses the humanoid critical hit charts. Arm hits with a severity of 8 or more also make flying impossible and force a crash landing if the aarakocra is in flight. An aarakocra attacks with two claws, which are treated as small slashing weapons. The creature has an effective –3 Dexterity adjustment to Armor Class due to its flying speed.
A beholder is a radial type creature. It uses the monster critical hit charts. Generally, opponents must attack the creature's central body and must make called shots to affect the creature's eyestalks and central eye. However, foreleg/wing and hind leg critical hits strike the creature's eyestalks and head critical hits affect the creature's central eye. The creature's bite is treated as a size M slashing and piercing attack.
An adult copper dragon is a dragon-type creature. Frontal and rear attacks use the humanoid critical hit tables; flank attacks use the monster critical hit table. Because the dragon is Gargantuan, it is immune to special effects from critical hits inflicted by size M and smaller attacks. The dragon's bite is treated as a Gargantuan slashing/piecing attack. The dragon's claws and kicks are treated as Huge slashing attacks. The dragon's tail slap and wing buffets are treated as Gargantuan blunt attacks. The dragon has a combined magical and Dexterity adjustment to its AC of –5, –2 due to its flying movement rate and –3 due to its standard Armor Class.