5e Monsters Don't Work

The paid backer poll I ran a few weeks back showed monster math as the top subject for content. Before I can talk about the math, though, we need to talk about the elephant in the room. D&D's action economy doesn't work for monsters.

The action economy - action, bonus action, move, reaction - works well enough for players. It creates four buckets with a clear structure.

Your action is the key thing you do each round. It typically is your chance to hurl DPR at the monsters, whether raw damage or a condition.

Your bonus action allows you to modify or complement your primary DPR output. A cleric can healing word and strike with a mace. A monk can decide to use flurry of blows for a damage boost.

Movement is an enabler. It lets you engage or position without any cost in actions.

Reactions enable opportunity attacks and damage mitigation or control effects (you do X, I do Y).

This structure is terrible for monsters. The DM has to manage multiple monsters at once. Monsters have little to no resource management of consequence (the orc shaman doesn't worry about saving her hold person for the boss fight). Most bonus action + action combos can simply be handled by placing the bonus action effect inside the action.

Moreover, the default is four characters against one monster. By a simple comparison, we can see that the single DM needs a much different action structure than the four players on the opposite side of the screen.

So, I am testing out a new type of action that is made exclusively for monsters and allocated by creature rating.

Dregs are minions from 4e or Flee, Mortals!. They get a move and an action. That's it. No reactions or bonus actions. Because they appear in large numbers, they do their thing and the DM forgets about them. They counteract the party's actions through weight of numbers.

Regulars are just normal monsters. One regular appears per PC. They get a move, an action, and a reaction. Since they are equal to the PCs, they get an equal slate of actions. There's no bonus action, so we'll just bake any benefits into their actions.

Elites are boss monsters, equivalent to solos and meant to take on a party of four or more opponents. They get a move, an action, a bonus action, a reaction, and a new type of action, counters.

The elite gets one counter per turn, including monster turns. A counter features the following design guidelines:

• It can only target the creature taking its current turn.

• It can include movement, but the elite is still restricted to moving up to its speed per round. It needs to save movement from its turn for counters.

• The counter takes place at the end of the turn.

• Counters can buff allies or harm enemies. Some elites do both, most pick a lane and stay in it.

• A counter can also be used to repeat saving throws against ongoing spells.

This structure allows us to give DMs a more regular flow of actions at the table and a simpler scheme for actions that allows monsters to build on each other. It replaces legendary actions and avoids compatibility issues with effects that shut down reactions.

Some elites also get start of round effects used to signal their intentions. For example, a cyclops might pick a target at the start of each round. It gets a big damage bonus against that chosen target.

I think this approach makes the game more fun for DMs while also solving the action economy issue. I've been using a variant on it for about three years now, and have found it to work well. Over the next few weeks, I'll use Wednesdays to show off some of my design.