Here\u2019s a worked example of how I\u2019ve used the Creating a Monster guidelines in the 5e DMG to adjust a monster stat block to fit what I wanted for an encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The base monster I\u2019m using is the Ankheg (Monster Manual, page 21). It is rated Challenge 2. For my 5-character, 5th<\/sup>-level beginner-ish party I wanted a monster of Challenge 6 to finish off the small side-quest they were on (context in my last post<\/a>). I decided to boost the Ankheg stat block to represent an ankheg queen. I used the Creating a Monster section of the Dungeon Master\u2019s Guide (pages 273-279).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DMG provides a nice simple table of the key combat stats by Challenge Rating, and I\u2019ll just pick out two lines of it here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those are guidelines, and obviously not every monster precisely follows them. The base Ankheg has the following values, with the CR2 line repeated for comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you can see, the Ankheg has a slightly higher AC, partly offset by the lower value that applies if the creature is prone. It has much lower hit points: under half the guideline. Its attack bonus is high but damage slightly low. It looks as though the creature is overall under-powered, but it has a grapple effect on its bite preventing its target moving away and giving advantage on repeat bites against the same target, and an alternative area attack. It also has tremorsense, making it difficult to hide from. I infer that these special abilities balance the modest hit points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So let me aim to adjust the stats for the ankheg queen to give a similar profile relative to the Challenge 6 guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With those guidelines in mind, I will construct the queen stat block in a little more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The base Ankheg is Large so I will take the Queen up to Huge. This gives her a 15ft space. There\u2019s no reason to change the type from Monstrosity or the alignment (were I using it, which I\u2019m not anyway) from Unaligned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Increasing the natural armor to 16 seems reasonable. A larger monster would have a thicker exoskeleton and I don\u2019t propose to change Dex. I won\u2019t add to the lower AC of the vulnerable parts exposed when prone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The base ankheg gets 39 hp from 6 dice (d10s as a Large creature) and 6 times a Constitution bonus of +1. I want to more than double this, because I\u2019m not adding much except numerical stat increases and because I know this boss is going to be ganged up on at the end of a short day by 5 fifth-level characters with their shiny new Extra Attacks and level 3 spells and their freshly-increased Sneak Attacks and cantrips. I feel a Constitution bonus of +3 would not be amiss, and a Huge creature get d12s for hit points, or 6.5 on average. So that makes 9.5 hit points per die. Maybe 10 dice is right then, for hp: 95 (10d12+30)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The base Ankheg has walking speed 30ft and burrowing 10ft. I\u2019ll bump walking to 40ft for a larger creature, but not increase the burrowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strength<\/strong> I want the Attack bonus to increase from +5 to +8 while the proficiency bonus increases from +2 to +3, so I need the Strength bonus to increase from +3 to +5. Strength 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dexterity<\/strong> I don\u2019t think this needs to change. Dexterity 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Constitution<\/strong> I\u2019ve decided while establishing hit points that the bonus should be +3. Constitution 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Intelligence<\/strong> The base Ankheg has 1. As the leader this should be higher, but it\u2019s still fundamentally a bug. Intelligence 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wisdom<\/strong> The base ankheg has 13 and again I\u2019ll bump it up a little. Wisdom 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charisma<\/strong> The base ankheg has 6 and this should increase noticeably for a leader and scene climax boss. Charisma 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The base ankheg has no save or skill proficiencies and no language, and I don\u2019t think this should change for the queen. Note that this makes it relatively vulnerable to spells and special abilities from higher-level PCs, and is part of why I wanted to be a little generous with Constitution, Wisdom and Hit Points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The base ankheg has darkvision 60ft and tremorsense 60ft, which I think can be unchanged for the queen. Passive Perception improves with Wisdom modifier to 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m going to give the queen the same actions as the base ankheg, but uprate the numbers appropriately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the bite<\/strong>, we\u2019ve established that the hit bonus becomes +8. I\u2019m going to give reach 10ft rather than just 5ft, but still just one target. The total damage should at least double. For the base ankheg total damage is 4d6+3 (3d6 slashing, 1d6 acid, 3 Strength added to the slashing). So I\u2019ll say 9d6+5 and split it 6d6+5 for the bite and 3d6 acid. I\u2019m shifting the balance towards the acid because encountering the queen as a solo boss in the egg chamber is giving me an Aliens vibe rather than just giant ants*, and because the party\u2019s tanks can reduce slashing damage. The escape DC for the grapple is 13 which I think is based on Strength modifier and proficiency bonus, so I increase that to 16. The base ankheg can grapple a creature up to its own size category, so I will maintain that, which for the queen is Huge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n * I rather hope my 11-year-old players haven\u2019t seen Aliens, but I\u2019m doing this for my own satisfaction too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The base acid spray<\/strong> recharges on a 6, covers a 30ft by 5ft line and does 3d6 acid damage or half on a successful save (Dex DC 13). I\u2019ll improve the recharge to 5-6, otherwise as a solo it is very unlikely to get a second shot and as I said I do want to emphasise the acid. The area can increase to 50ft by 5ft, and the damage can double in line with the bite: 6d6 acid damage. The save DC looks to be Strength-based (or maybe Constitution-based with an arbitrary +2?) and so (either way) it should increase by 3 to 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, you may remember from my action menu post recently that I’ve given the Queen a Desperate Frenzy rule, allowing her to dash or bite as a bonus action if losing a battle badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the final stat block is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n ANKHEG QUEEN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Huge monstrosity, unaligned<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Armor Class<\/strong> 16 (natural armor), 11 while prone<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hit points<\/strong> 95 (10d12+30)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speed<\/strong> 40ft, burrow 10ft<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senses<\/strong> darkvision 60ft, tremorsense 60ft, passive Perception 12<\/p>\n\n\n\n Languages<\/strong> \u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n Challenge<\/strong> 6 (2,300xp)<\/p>\n\n\n\n ACTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bite. <\/strong>Melee Weapon Attack:<\/em> +8 to hit, reach 10ft, one target. Hit:<\/em> 26 (6d6+5) slashing damage plus 10 (3d6) acid damage. If the target is a Huge or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the queen can bite only the grappled creature and has advantage on attack rolls to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Acid Spray (Recharge 5-6). <\/strong>The queen spits acid in a line that is 50 feet long and 5 feet wide, provided that it has no creature grappled. Each creature in the line must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, taking 20 (6d6) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desperate Frenzy.<\/strong> If she has been injured 25hp or more in one round during the current combat, or has fewer than half her maximum hit points (and\/or at the GM’s discretion), the Ankheg Queen can bite or dash as a bonus action on each of her turns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do you think? Do you use this method of devising variant monsters? Does my ankheg queen feel like a Challenge 6 monster to you? Let us know in the comments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s a worked example of how I\u2019ve used the Creating a Monster guidelines in the 5e DMG to adjust a monster stat block to fit what I wanted for an encounter. The base monster I\u2019m using is the Ankheg (Monster Manual, page 21). It is rated Challenge 2. For my 5-character, 5th-level beginner-ish party I… Continue reading Upgrading a monster in DnD 5e<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,12],"tags":[53,56,51,57,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oakofhonor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oakofhonor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oakofhonor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakofhonor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakofhonor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakofhonor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":511,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakofhonor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oakofhonor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakofhonor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakofhonor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Guideline statistics<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
CR<\/td> Proficiency Bonus<\/td> Armor Class<\/td> Hit Points<\/td> Attack Bonus<\/td> Damage per Round<\/td> Save DC<\/td><\/tr> 2<\/td> +2<\/td> 13<\/td> 86-100<\/td> +3<\/td> 15-20<\/td> 13<\/td><\/tr> 6<\/td> +3<\/td> 15<\/td> 146-160<\/td> +6<\/td> 39-44<\/td> 15<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table> Creature<\/td> Prof<\/td> Armor Class<\/td> Hit Points<\/td> Attack Bonus<\/td> Damage per Round<\/td> Save DC<\/td><\/tr> CR2 Guideline<\/td> +2<\/td> 13<\/td> 86-100<\/td> +3<\/td> 15-20<\/td> 13<\/td><\/tr> Ankheg<\/td> +2<\/td> 14\/11<\/td> 39<\/td> +5<\/td> 13<\/td> 13<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table> Creature<\/td> Prof<\/td> Armor Class<\/td> Hit Points<\/td> Attack Bonus<\/td> Damage per Round<\/td> Save DC<\/td><\/tr> CR6 Guideline<\/td> +3<\/td> 15<\/td> 146-160<\/td> +6<\/td> 39-44<\/td> 15<\/td><\/tr> Ankheg Queen<\/td> +3<\/td> 16\/11<\/td> 80+<\/td> +8<\/td> 30+<\/td> ~15<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table> Filling out the stat block<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Size, type and alignment<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Armor Class<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Hit points<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Speed<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Ability scores<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Saving throws, skills, languages<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Senses<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Actions<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Str<\/strong><\/td> Dex<\/strong><\/td> Con<\/strong><\/td> Int<\/strong><\/td> Wis<\/strong><\/td> Cha<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> 20<\/td> 11<\/td> 17<\/td> 2<\/td> 15<\/td> 10<\/td><\/tr> +5<\/td> 0<\/td> +3<\/td> -4<\/td> +2<\/td> 0<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>