User:Quincy/Playing as a Monster (5e Variant Rule)

Perhaps you've grown tired of the standard humanoid characters, playing normally in a society, even if differing races may have some added bonuses. Perhaps you desire to try and play something a bit more... strange. These optional rules can allow you to play as a monster or animal character instead of a humanoid. It is unadvised to use these rules to play as a humanoid monster, because of that could simply be made into a player race and not carry the downsides of playing a monster.

The current form of these rules requires a good grasp of D&D 5e mechanics. Thus, these rules are not recommended for new players.

Character Creation

When playing as a monster, follow all rules of character creation, but take the following racial traits and class features:

Racial Traits

As a monster, you gain the following racial features:

Ability Score Increase. At first level, you gain an ability score increase equal to (TODO). See Calculating Ability Scores for details.
Age. Your lifespan depends on the monster. It is assumed that, as you gain experience, you are progressing through the monster's natural life cycle. A first tier (level 1-4) monster is a child, a second tier (level 5-10) monster is an adolescent, a third tier (level 11-16) monster is an adult, and a fourth tier (level 17-20) monster is an elder. This may require liberal interpretation: an ooze's, construct's, or elemental's character progression may represent its natural evolution, a plant's progression may represent the monster growing over time, a fiend's progression may represent it absorbing energies from the Lower Planes, and so on.
Alignment. You may pick any alignment. Take note of the alignment specified in the monster's stat block, but do not assume that you must play that alignment.
Size. Your monster will grow through its progression. At first level, your monster's size is equal to (TODO). See Monster Growth for details.
Speed. Your base speed is as listed in the monster's stat block.
Features. You gain certain features as listed in the monster's stat block. See Adapting Monster Features.
Actions, Reactions, and Legendary Actions. You gain certain actions and reactions as listed in the monster's stat block. See Adapting Monster Actions.
Senses. You gain all senses listed in the monster's stat block; however, their strength is subject to character progression. At first level, your senses are equal to (TODO). See Monstrous Senses.
Damage Resistances, Immunities, and Vulnerabilities. You gain all resistances and vulnerabilities list in the monster's stat block. Damage immunities listed in the monster's stat block function as damage resistances until you reach 10th level, at which point they become full immunities.
Condition Immunities. You gain all condition immunities listed in the monster's stat block.
Languages. Your languages are the same as listed in the monster's stat block. If desired, you may add the ability to speak and/or understand Common.

Class Features

As a monster, you gain the following class features:

Hit Points

Your hit die and hit points depend on your size:

Size	Hit Die	Hit Points at First Level	Hit Points at Higher Levels
Tiny	d4	4 + your Constitution modifier	1d4 (or 3) + your Constitution modifier per level after 1st
Small	d6	6 + your Constitution modifier	1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per level after 1st
Medium	d8	8 + your Constitution modifier	1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per level after 1st
Large	d10	10 + your Constitution modifier	1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per level after 1st
Huge	d12	12 + your Constitution modifier	1d12 (or 7) + your Constitution modifier per level after 1st
Gargantuan	d20	20 + your Constitution modifier	1d20 (or 11) + your Constitution modifier per level after 1st

Your hit die and hit point maximum will change as you grow through the size categories. See Monster Growth for details.

Proficiencies

Armor: Any armor seen in the monster's stat block. If the monster is wearing light armor, assume its proficient in light armor. If the monster is wearing medium armor, assume its proficient in medium armor, light armor, and shields. If the monster is wearing heavy armor, assume its proficient in all armor (including shields.
Weapons: Any weapons seen in the monster's stat block. If the monster has a simple weapon in its stat block, you are proficient in all simple weapons. If the monster has a martial melee weapon in its stat block, assume you are proficient in all martial melee weapons and simple weapons. If the monster has a martial ranged weapon in its stat block, assume you are proficient in all martial ranged weapons and simple weapons.
Tools: If, for some reason, the monster is stated as having proficiency in a set of tools, you gain proficiency in that set of tools.
Saves: Choose two. If the monster has any saves listed in its stat block, you gain them at first level.
Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Athletics, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival. If the monster is naturally proficient in a skill, you gain proficiency in it at first level.

Equipment

You start with the following equipment:

• If the monster carries a weapon that could be found in the Player's Handbook or D&D Wiki's mundane weapons list, and it is not oversized as per the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide pp. 277-278 (section Step 11. Damage: Base the Damage on a Weapon), you can pick a weapon of your choice that is worth 75 gp or less. Likewise, if the monster has armor that is not natural, you may choose one set of armor that is worth 75 gp or less.
• If the monster carriers any other miscellaneous equipment, you receive it at first level.
• If the monster has natural armor, you gain it at first level. See Natural Armor for details.
• If the monster has natural weapons, you gain them at first level. See Adapting Monster Actions for details.

Character Progression

Here's the real meat of these rules. When playing as a monster, you gain experience as normal. Your abilities will become more powerful as you progress through the levels. By 20th level, your monster will have even surpassed their own stat block! It's advised you map out your character progression before play starts, to get all the math out of the way.

Proficiency Bonus

The proficiency bonus of monsters are slightly higher than adventurers of the same level, so as to ensure monsters become at least as powerful as their stat block. Take your proficiency from the table below:

Level	Proficiency Bonus		Level	Proficiency Bonus
1	+2		11	+6
2	+2		12	+6
3	+3		13	+7
4	+3		14	+7
5	+4		15	+7
6	+4		16	+8
7	+5		17	+8
8	+5		18	+8
9	+5		19	+9
10	+6		20	+9

Monster Growth

Playing Non-Standard Sizes

D&D Wiki has rules for playing sizes other than Small or Medium. Make sure you are familiar with these rule variations before playing a monster of a certain size:

• Rules for Tiny creatures.
• Rules for Large creatures.
• Rules for Huge creatures.
• Rules for Gargantuan creatures.

Adapting Monster Features

Multiattack

The Multiattack feature that some creatures have is instead replaced with either Extra Attack, like a player class, or, in the case of a creature that might get certain attacks to use multiple times but not all (e.g. a dragon can claw more than bite) it might have restrictions.

Natural Weapons

Your Natural Weapons (such as claws or bites) cannot deal damage without modifiers higher than 2 x your Proficiency bonus, with a maximum of the damage die of the regular stat blocks natural weapon. If the proficiency bonus is equal to the die so that it might loop (e.g. a proficiency bonus of +4 with a 1d4 natural weapon, a proficiency bonus of +6 with a natural weapon), then it will add another die to the damage. (1d4 to 2d4, 1d6 to 2d6)

Natural Armor

Determine the degree of the monster's natural armor, as seen in the monster's stat block. The natural armor degree is, unless otherwise specified in the stat block, equal to the monster's AC - 10 - DEX modifier.

You gain more natural armor as you grow in level. Match your natural armor degree to one of the following progression charts:

Armor Degree 1

Level	AC
1	11 + DEX modifier
10	12 + DEX modifier

Armor Degree 2

Level	AC
1	11 + DEX modifier
7	12 + DEX modifier
14	13 + DEX modifier

Armor Degree 3

Level	AC
1	11 + DEX modifier
6	12 + DEX modifier
12	13 + DEX modifier
18	14 + DEX modifier

Armor Degree 4

Level	AC
1	11 + DEX modifier
4	12 + DEX modifier
8	13 + DEX modifier
12	14 + DEX modifier
16	15 + DEX modifier
19	16 + DEX modifier

Armor Degree 5

Level	AC
1	11 + DEX modifier
4	12 + DEX modifier
7	13 + DEX modifier
10	14 + DEX modifier
14	15 + DEX modifier
17	16 + DEX modifier
20	17 + DEX modifier

Armor Degree 6

Level	AC
1	12 + DEX modifier
4	13 + DEX modifier
7	14 + DEX modifier
10	15 + DEX modifier
14	16 + DEX modifier
17	17 + DEX modifier
20	18 + DEX modifier

Armor Degree 7

Level	AC
1	13 + DEX modifier
3	14 + DEX modifier
6	15 + DEX modifier
9	16 + DEX modifier
12	17 + DEX modifier
15	18 + DEX modifier
18	19 + DEX modifier
20	20 + DEX modifier

Armor Degree 8

Level	AC
1	14 + DEX modifier
3	15 + DEX modifier
6	16 + DEX modifier
9	17 + DEX modifier
12	18 + DEX modifier
15	19 + DEX modifier
18	20 + DEX modifier
20	21 + DEX modifier

Armor Degree 9

Level	AC
1	14 + DEX modifier
3	15 + DEX modifier
5	16 + DEX modifier
8	17 + DEX modifier
11	18 + DEX modifier
14	19 + DEX modifier
16	20 + DEX modifier
18	21 + DEX modifier
20	22 + DEX modifier

Armor Degree 10

Level	AC
1	15 + DEX modifier
3	16 + DEX modifier
5	17 + DEX modifier
8	18 + DEX modifier
11	19 + DEX modifier
14	20 + DEX modifier
16	21 + DEX modifier
18	22 + DEX modifier
20	23 + DEX modifier

Armor Degree 11+

If the monster has 11 or more points of natural armor, you will need to modify the Armor Degree 10 table. For each Armor Degree above 10, add 1 to your AC.

Additional Rule Variants

These rules are designed specifically for monster progression. They are optional, but may help ease strain on the game system.

Experience Methods

Since Challenge Ratings are thrown out of wack by these rules, it's recommended you use an alternate experience method. The 5e Dungeon Master's Guide has some options on pages 260-261, section "Experience Points". Or you can use one of the methods below: