Damage rolls for monsters

[andylatham82]

Hi,

Another newbie question. When making an attack, a PC makes a damage roll specified in the details of the weapon used. I understand how that works, but I'm not sure what to do with monster attacks. Presumably the damage inflicted on the PC is something to do with the "Hit" instruction in the monster info. I don't understand what that info is saying though.

For example, for a goblin making a melee attack it says this:
Hit: 5 (ld6 + 2) slashing damage

Is the damage inflicted 1d + 2? What's the 5 all about?

Thanks!

[Ninja_Prawn]

For example, for a goblin making a melee attack it says this:
Hit: 5 (ld6 + 2) slashing damage

Is the damage inflicted 1d + 2? What's the 5 all about?

5 is the average (always rounded down) of 1d6+2. You can use either as the goblin's damage.

Some DMs prefer to have monsters always deal their average damage, for simplicity or whatever, though I suspect most prefer to roll because it's fun. It's also useful when you're homebrewing your own monsters, because CR is based on average damage output.

[Fredaintdead]

Okay, so, let's take the Goblin's melee attack:
Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage
In this case, what it's saying is that the Goblin's attack deals 1d6+2, with a rough average (rounded down) value of 5 (1d6 = 3, +2 Modifier). The DM can choose to either just roll, or take the "average" to speed up combat and make monster damage more consistent.

So, using rolling:
A hit from the Goblin deals 1d6+2 damage, a critical hit deals 2d6+2 damage.
Using the "average":
A hit from the Goblin deals 5 damage, a critical hit deals 8 damage (2d6 = 6, +2 Modifier).

Hope that clears things up.

[Rysto]

5 is the average damage of 1d6+2, rounded down (the precise average is 5.5). The DM can either roll for damage or always use the average, at their option. For example, if a high-level party is facing a large horde of low-CR creatures, the DM might opt to save time by taking average damage.

[andylatham82]

5 is the average (always rounded down) of 1d6+2. You can use either as the goblin's damage.

Some DMs prefer to have monsters always deal their average damage, for simplicity or whatever, though I suspect most prefer to roll because it's fun. It's also useful when you're homebrewing your own monsters, because CR is based on average damage output.

Of course! That makes perfect sense, thanks!

[andylatham82]

Okay, so, let's take the Goblin's melee attack:
Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage
In this case, what it's saying is that the Goblin's attack deals 1d6+2, with a rough average (rounded down) value of 5 (1d6 = 3, +2 Modifier). The DM can choose to either just roll, or take the "average" to speed up combat and make monster damage more consistent.

So, using rolling:
A hit from the Goblin deals 1d6+2 damage, a critical hit deals 2d6+2 damage.
Using the "average":
A hit from the Goblin deals 5 damage, a critical hit deals 8 damage (2d6 = 6, +2 Modifier).

Hope that clears things up.

Thanks very much for the detailed explanation, I understand how it works now :)