The GM controls the monsters during combat. Monsters do not use Heroic Actions/Reactions. They can move, use the actions listed on their stat block, and their turn ends. Monsters die when they reach 0 HP.

Monster Armor

While most monsters are unarmored, some creatures are tougher to take down:

• Medium Armor: Just the Dice. Monsters with Medium Armor (M) ignore all damage modifiers from stats and other effects, taking damage from the sum of the dice only.
• Heavy Armor: Half the Dice. Monsters with Heavy Armor (H) ignore damage modifiers and take half the sum of the dice (rounding up).

Tell Your Players! When a monster has armor, it shouldn’t be a secret. Regular goblins are unarmored. That goblin? He’s holding a shield; he has Medium Armor. A golem that’s completely made out of metal? Heavy Armor.

Dealing With Armor? Heroes’ critical hits, some spells, and damage type vulnerabilities ignore monster armor altogether. This means certain weapons and spells are better or worse against armored foes! This is also a great opportunity to remind your players about the Assess action.

Default Monster Stats

Unless otherwise noted, assume that monsters are medium-sized, unarmored, have speed 6 (can replace an attack to move again, or replace either one of those to retry a save), attacks have Reach 1, and roll 1d20 for all saves (though some monsters may have advantaged / disadvantaged saves or checks when appropriate).