Monthly Archives: March 2025

D&D 5E Monster Stat Blocks

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When comparing AD&D with D&D5E adventures, I noticed something missing from 5E adventures: inline monster stat blocks. Sometimes, a 5E adventure might have new monster stat blocks in the adventure appendix, but as far as inline stat blocks for monsters in an encounter, they are sadly absent.

It is true that not all AD&D adventures have these inline stat blocks. For example, inline stat blocks are mostly absent from the G1-3: Against the Giants series, except for unique NPCs, and unique characteristics of monsters such as hit points:

But inline monster stat blocks do see use in other AD&D adventures. Here is an example of an inline monster stat block from S4: Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, one of my favorite AD&D adventures.

This stat block answers so many questions about this monster. What is its armor class? What is its movement speed? How many hit dice does it have? How many attacks does it perform? What does its breath weapon do? What are its immunities?

For me, stat blocks like this make running the adventure much easier, because they save me the trouble of looking up the monster in a separate book or online reference. The latter trouble is only compounded when an encounter has multiple different kinds of monsters.

Recently, I bought a very large 5E adventure. To my disappointment, it had no inline stat blocks. This had me thinking that if I were to publish more 5E adventures, I should also include inline stat blocks in them. But I had never seen such a thing in any published 5E adventure.

I searched for a condensed stat block format for 5E. But I was unable to find one. So I started working on one. I started with the first monster in the 5E Monster Manual: the aarakocra. Here is the MM entry:

I copied the relevant text and using some abbreviations:

Aarakocra. Medium humanoid, NG, AC 12, hp 13 (3d8), Spd 20 ft., fly 50 ft., Str 10 (+0), Dex 14 (+2), Con 10 (+0), Int 11 (+0), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 11 (+0); Skills: Perception +5; Senses: passive Perception 15; Languages: Auran; CR 1/4 (50 XP); Special: Dive attack, deal extra 3 (1d6) dmg w/ melee attack after flying at least 30 feet; Actions: Talon: melee weapon attack, +4 to hit, reach 5 ft, 1 target, 4 (1d4+2) slashing dmg; Javelin: melee or ranged weapon attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft or range 30/120 ft, 1 target, 5 (1d6+2) piercing dmg.

My first try was 545 characters long. This is far too long. Six lines of text. There is too much information to take in at a glance. And visually it is worse than the original stat block from the MM.

So I solicited help from Twitter (here), and after working through multiple iterations, we ended up with this:

Aarakocra. humanoid, M, NG, AC 12, hp 13 (3d8), Spd 20′, fly 50′, Dex +2, Wis +1; Perception +5; Lang: Auran; CR ¼ (50 XP); Dive attack, +1d6 (3) dmg w/ melee after flying ≥30′; Talon: melee, +4 to hit, 1d4+2 (4) S dmg; Javelin: melee or ranged (30′), +4 to hit, 1d6+2 (5) P dmg.

Three lines of text and a much more reasonable 277 characters. Short enough even to fit into a Twitter post!

Having stat blocks like this at my disposal would make me much more inclined to run a 5E adventure again, and when I publish another 5E adventure, I will be sure to include these condensed stat blocks.

Additionally, I am considering putting together an online reference for myself and others to use that would have condensed 5E monster stat blocks for use in our 5E adventures.

As a DM, here is what I like to see in a dungeon

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When I created the GPH series of adventures, I had in mind to create four modules that are easy for a DM to just pick up and run.

Here is an excerpt from one of the modules:

GPH1: Alabaster Palace of the Earth Genies, p. 8-9

From this excerpt, I note the following:

  1. One location entry per page or two.
  2. Location number and name at the top of the entry.
  3. Brief location description that can be read aloud to players.
  4. Occupants of the location, including full stat blocks and XP value.
  5. Other relevant details of the location, including treasure.
  6. Mini-map and expanded map location.

For the layout, I decided on one or two pages per dungeon location. Two page dungeon locations are presented as a 2-page spread so that the DM would not need to flip pages to read the whole entry. Everything is visible at a glance.

Map locations are numbered and named in the heading at the top of the page. Headings and subheadings are distinct from other text so that the DM can see at a glance all the information categories for this location.

Location descriptions can be helpful for a DM who would otherwise have to make up on the spot what the PCs see. They are not more than a paragraph; too much information at once and the players may forget details.

The occupants of the location and all of their relevant statistics are listed. This saves time for the DM because he does not need to flip through the monster manual, sometimes for multiple different monsters in a single location.

For other details, I try to picture myself in the location and look around in my mind and think like a PC. Can I climb up to that window? Is the door locked? What happens when I ring that bell? While all of the possibilities cannot be listed, at least the most important details are covered.

For each entry, I have also included a mini-map of the dungeon so that the DM does not need to flip to a different page to see where the PCs are in relation to the rest of the map. Also the expanded map helps with smaller details that might not be as apparent from the original map of the whole dungeon (furniture, traps, obstacles, etc.)

All of these together make the GPH modules easy for a DM to pick up and run.