Stat Blocks (PSR Supplement)

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The statistics of an NPC are much like those of a protag, with only a few differences. There might never be a need for a player to understand NPC stat blocks, as they are generally under the preview of the narrator. The main exceptions are mounts and cohorts; it might be easier for a player to know the full stats of a creature when they decide its actions. Only a few important or non-obvious bits are highlighted below.

Size

Size	Space	Examples	Size Die
Tiny	2-foot square	Rat, sparrow, garden snake	d4
Small	5-foot square	Sheep, octopus, baboon	d6
Medium	5-foot square	Human, mule, gorilla	d8
Large	10-foot square	Horse, walrus, polar bear	d10
Huge	15-foot square	Elephant, killer whale	d12
Gargantuan	20-foot square	Tyrannosaurus tex, sperm whale	d20

A creature can be one of six sizes, or size categories. Each size takes up a different amount of size during an encounter, as detailed in the adjacent table. Some game effects vary depending on a creature’s size. Your narrator’s campaign might feature creatures of even lesser or greater size.

Rarely, an effect calls upon a creature's size die. The size of this die depends on the size of the creature, as shown in the preceding table.

Type

A monster's type speaks to its fundamental nature, and some game effects depend on a creature’s type. In brief the types are aberration, beast, celestial, construct, dragon, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, folk (or humanoids), monstrosities, oozes, plants, and undead. Protags are typically folks.

Creatures also sometimes have a subtype that appears adjacent to the creature’s type in parenthesis, such as aquatic, critter, titan, vehicle, or demon. For folks, the subtype usually specifies the creature’s race or species.

Alignment

Creatures usually have an alignment that broadly describes its moral code and its likely attitude.

Limited-Use Features

A few creatures have actions or traits with limited uses.

X/Day. This notation means the feature can only be used X number of times, and the creature regains all uses upon finishing a long rest—that is, camp or downtime. For example, "1/Day" means a special ability can be used once and that the monster must finish a long rest to use it again.

X/Rest. This notation means the feature can only be used X number of times, and the creature regains all uses upon finishing a break. Camping or downtime provides all the benefits of rest, including replenishing this feature.

Recharge 5-6. This notation means after the creature uses the feature, it can’t use that feature again, and the narrator rolls a d6 at the start of each of the creature’s turns. If the d6 lands on a 5 or 6, the feature recharges and can be used again. Some features instead have other notations such as Recharge 6 (only recharges on a 6), or Recharge 4-6. In any case this feature also recharges when the creature finishes a break.

Language

This section of the stat block details what language the creature knows. Unless specified otherwise the creature can read, write, and speak all of the listed languages.

Telepathy. A creature with Telepathy can telepathically communicate with all creatures out to the specified range. Telepathy can be used for clear communication even if the creature doesn’t share a language with the listener. While a creature is Incapacitated, it can’t communicate with telepathy. A creature without telepathy can receive and respond to telepathic messages but can't initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation.

Challenge Rating

A creature’s challenge rating (CR) estimates how much of a threat it would typically be in combat. While the challenge rating estimation in 5e is meticulous, it is not without flaws. The same CR calculations are used within this system reference and its subsidiary content, preserving compatibility.

Addressing CR Shortcomings

Although creature stat blocks aren't included within PSR itself, these guidelines should help to mitigate some CR-related problems in 5e-style stat blocks made for this system.

Deadly 1st Level. Any creature with a CR of 1 or lower that can deal 10 damage or more in a single round has a skull (💀) next to its CR. A 1st-level character will often have a little less than 10 hit points, making such a creature potentially deadly for a 1st-level party. Such a creature is still worth the normal amount of XP.

No Action Denial. Legendary monsters arguably don't work in 5e because players have options that deny the monster the ability to take actions, or force it to waste actions. To amend this, conditions like paralyzed have been removed completely from PSR. Furthermore it is recommended that such monsters be able to take multiple actions per turn instead of merely having multiattack. This can also provide more reason to cast spells or otherwise use more interesting actions than a lot of attack rolls.

Recurring Saves. PSR itself omits any effects or conditions that require an action to end them. For example the Grappled condition has a creature attempt a new save every turn automatically. This should be considered in all options given to player characters, such as the entangle spell.

No Combat Checks. In 5e, often a maximized protag will much stronger ability check bonuses, compared to attack rolls and saves. If checks are able to make meaningful impact in combat, this can end up with unintentionally overpowered options. PSR has omitted virtually all ability checks for combat actions, and it is recommended this carry through into content.

Actions & Attacks. With 5e homebrew, custom content often has to bend over backward to compensate for Extra Attack and Flurry of Blows. It is recommended that there is only ever one attack per Attack action, and it would generally be better to let a character take an extra Attack action than make multiple attacks per Attack action. (This can even be seen in some official 5e content, like the haste spell.) While monk's Flurry of Blows shares some of these problems, it also can snowball into overpowered territory with anything that empowers unarmed attacks.

Boss Mode

To further amend the potential weakness of legendary monsters, a narrator can optionally implement "boss mode." This can be brought out either at the start of an encounter, or after the monster's hit points have been reduced to make a more fearsome "second stage" of the fight.

While a legendary monster has a CR higher than any other monster in the encounter when it begins, the boss gains 3 benefits. These benefits will boost its power level over what its CR would suggest.

HP. If the boss's max hit points are below 100, hp doubles. Otherwise, its hp increases by 100.

Senses. The boss has advantage on Perception checks and on all d20 rolls made to decide turn order.

Boss Reactions. (This replaces legendary actions & legendary resistance.) The boss can take 3 boss reactions each round, replacing the usual 1 reaction per round. An effect that stops normal reactions, such as the ray of frost spell, does not stop boss reactions. A boss reaction can be used for (at least) the following:

• Breakout. At the end of any creature's turn, the boss makes a new save against every effect upon that regularly affords saves — such as the Grappled condition.
• Vigorous Resistance (3/Day). When the boss would fail a save, it can lose 30 hit points to succeed on the save instead. (If the boss started with less than 100 hp before boss mode, this feature instead takes ¹⁄₃ of whatever amount the creature started with.)
• An opportunity atack.
• Use any normal reaction the boss has.