Monster Types
Monster Types
There are 13 monster types, each with unique characteristics:
Aberration
An aberration has a bizarre anatomy, strange abilities, an alien mindset, or any combination of the three.
Animal
An animal is a living, nonhuman creature, usually a vertebrate with no magical abilities and no innate capacity for language or culture.
Construct
A construct is an animated object or artificially created creature.
Dragon
A dragon is a reptile-like creature, usually winged, with magical or unusual abilities.
Fey
A fey is a creature with supernatural abilities and connections to nature or to some other force or place. Fey are usually human-shaped.
Humanoid
A humanoid usually has two arms, two legs, and one head, or a human-like torso, arms, and a head. Humanoids have few or no supernatural or extraordinary abilities, but most can speak and usually have well-developed societies. They are usually Small or Medium (with the exception of giants). Every humanoid creature also has a specific subtype to match its race, such as human, giant, goblinoid, reptilian, or tengu.
Magical Beast
Magical beasts are similar to animals but can have Intelligence scores higher than 2 (in which case the magical beast knows at least one language, but can't necessarily speak). Magical beasts usually have supernatural or extraordinary abilities, but are sometimes merely bizarre in appearance or habits.
Monstrous Humanoid
Monstrous humanoids are similar to humanoids, but with monstrous or animalistic features. They often have magical abilities as well.
Ooze
An ooze is an amorphous or mutable creature, usually mindless.
Outsider
An outsider is at least partially composed of the essence (but not necessarily the material) of some plane other than the Material Plane. Some creatures start out as some other type and become outsiders when they attain a higher (or lower) state of spiritual existence.
Plant
This type comprises vegetable creatures. Note that regular plants, such as one finds growing in gardens and fields, lack Wisdom and Charisma scores and are not creatures, but objects, even though they are alive.
Undead
Undead are once-living creatures animated by spiritual or supernatural forces.
Vermin
This type includes insects, arachnids, other arthropods, worms, and similar invertebrates.