Brainstorm the Design
Seek inspiration. Inspiration can come from many different places, but sometimes it can take a while for a great idea to blossom. Make sure you are actually feeling inspired and excited to start creating before you begin. Lack of interest always shows, but if you feel truly invested in your idea, others will be able to tell! If you're stuck, try one of these: Listen to a music genre you're not familiar with Read descriptions or stories from other fantasy settings Take inspiration from a creature that already exists (either in real life or in fiction) Look up images you find impressive, like places or objects. Think about what kinds of creatures might be associated with these things, and why. Draw some random shapes! Sometimes inspiration can strike from the most unassuming origins, and you might suddenly come across a shape that looks exactly like a fearsome monstrosity or another bright idea.
Decide your creature's lore, ecology, and abilities. Your goal in this stage is to answer the following questions: Where did my creature come from? Why does it look the way it does? What role does it play in its ecosystem (if any)? Is it an animal or an intelligent being? How does this creature interact with other creatures, and why? What is this creature capable of? Does it make for a fun combat encounter? Is this creature unique? (There are two ways to answer this question. First, it might be unique if it covers a combat or interactive niche that no other creature does in a satisfying way. Second, even if it doesn't do that, it might still be unique if it just looks really cool and unusual).
(Optional) Illustrate your creature. You don't have to be an artist to complete this step; all you need is to be willing to try. Even a simple sketch will do, just enough to help you visualize the basics of your creature. For example, you don't need to draw an entire chimera to communicate the idea of wings, a feline body, three heads, and a stinger. Alternatively, you might try to find some art resembling your creature online. There are countless art websites out there, each with their own unique communities, so it can be hard to find exactly what you're looking for, but Google Images is always a good start. Lastly, there are AI-powered image generators out there that can be used to generate art, and there are a number of free ones as well. If you choose to use one of these, be careful how you use the resulting images, as legal ownership of them is still unclear and may get you into trouble if you intend to publish or sell your work.
Create the Stat Block
Decide how you will format your stat block. Since this is the purely technical representation of your creature that will enable GMs (such as yourself, perhaps) to run it during a session, it is important that you follow Wizards of the Coast's established terminology and organizing conventions. Luckily, there are numerous online tools that allow you to create stat blocks using a more straightforward approach. Some useful ones are: DnDBeyond Homebrew Monster Creator. This is the "official" tool for creating stat blocks, and was designed by DnDBeyond's website team. It can be somewhat unintuitive, but it makes things relatively easy to set up and adjust. It can be rather limiting and does not allow significant deviations from the usual format of a D&D 5e stat block, and it also does not allow the inclusion of custom monster languages. However, it's still a solid option; it provides all the necessary formatting tools to create elegant, readable stat blocks and isn't hard to use with a bit of practice. D&D 5e Statblock Generator (TetraCube). This generator is much the same as the first one, though notable differences include its faster update speed and its somewhat greater range of customizability. It is a little less intuitive, however, requiring abilities (technically called "traits"), actions, bonus actions, and reactions to be entered via the same input field. The Homebrewery. This tool is less of a generator and more of a formatter that takes raw text and converts it using Markdown to a format that closely resembles stat blocks from the Monster Manual. This tool is substantially more complicated to use due to working with raw text and having to understand how the Markdown system works, but it is also far more customizable than the previous two tools. It allows total control over the content of the stat block, and allows any part of it to be changed. You can, for example, re-format the hit points of a creature or remove any number of ability scores from it. In addition, the website comes with stat block templates you can paste into your project, which you can edit to suit your creature's design rather than writing one from scratch.
Decide your creature's CR (Challenge Rating). This is the most important step of creating your creature, because it will affect the numerical stats of everything that comes afterward. Challenge Rating is a number that displays at what level a party of 4-5 individuals should expect to be able to comfortably face the creature. For example, a CR 10 creature should be a Medium-difficulty encounter for a party of four or five level 10 characters. CR thus communicates to Dungeon Masters (including yourself) when your creature is best used over the course of the campaign. Challenge Rating ranges from 0 to 30, and since characters can only attain a maximum of 20 levels, a CR higher than that indicates that the creature is potentially too powerful to be fought directly and might require careful planning or a strategy that doesn't involve dealing damage.
Add your creature's base stats. As determined by your challenge rating, write down what your creature is like in terms of its simplest characteristics, referring to any illustrations of your creature to help you remember. The required elements for the vast majority of creatures present in D&D 5e are these (in order of stat block presentation): Creature name Size, type, alignment Armor Class Hit Points Speed Ability Scores (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA) Saving throw proficiencies (if any) Damage vulnerabilities, resistances, and immunities (if any) Condition immunities (if any) Senses (always includes Passive Perception, may also include things like darkvision, etc) Languages (if any) Challenge Rating
Add traits and actions. This is the point at which you are most likely to need either an illustration or a strong memory and imagination, because you will refer to one of these to decide what your creature can do. Traits. These are passive effects that your creature has, like the lich's "Magic Resistance" trait or the green dragon's "Amphibious" trait. You can include multiple traits, and you can take traits that another creature already has or write your own. Often, trying to use traits already included in other stat blocks is helpful as it allows your creation to be consistent with other 5e creatures. Actions, Bonus Actions, Reactions. These are the things your creature may actively decide to do, like making an attack, hiding, or casting a spell. A common action for higher-CR creatures is "Multiattack", which describes which attacks the creature can make in their turn and how many. It might also include other actions it can use at the same time. The Actions section typically (but not always) includes at least one attack or some other method of actively dealing damage. The Bonus Actions section describes things that your creature can do as a bonus action, such as make an attack or move a certain distance. The reactions section describes what your creature can use their reaction for, and importantly, it also describes what circumstances trigger these effects. Keep in mind that your statblock does not need sections that are empty. Legendary Actions (Optional). Some particularly powerful creatures have legendary actions, which are actions that the creature can take at the end of another creature's turn. Usually they can use up to three legendary actions per round (though not all at once), and some legendary actions require multiple actions to use. Examples include a dragon's Wing Attack or a kraken's Lightning Storm. Mythic Actions (Optional). Mythic creatures were introduced in Mythic Odysseys of Theros, a campaign setting inspired by Greek mythology. Mythic creatures have a trait called a Mythic Trait, which activates when the creature is first reduced to 0 hit points. Usually, the creature does not immediately die, and the Mythic Trait changes the flow of the battle significantly. Mythic Actions are Legendary Actions that become available for the creature after its Mythic Trait has been activated.
Balance your creature. A very important part of creature design (and game design in general) is ensuring balance--ensuring that your creature is enjoyable to fight, enjoyable for you as the GM to run, and not under- or over-powered. To balance your creature, take a look at the CR again. Then, go over your creature's stats, traits, and actions. In particular, keep an eye on hit points and attacks. It's important to make sure that the damage your creature is capable of doing is substantial enough that it poses a threat to a party equalling its CR level, but not damaging enough that it's likely to cause a Total Party Kill. Do some research on the average hit points of a typical adventuring party of the desired level, and use that number to guage how dangerous your creature is in comparison. If your creature is too tanky or does too much damage per round, it's likely to feel unfair to players. If its attacks are too weak or it can't take much damage, it might die in just a couple rounds and leave the battle feeling anticlimactic.
Counterbalance. An important part of balancing is deciding the tactics you expect your creature to use, based on their intelligence and general behavior patterns which you likely established while brainstorming. Armed with the knowledge of your creature's tactics, you can adjust their stats to make them more fitting for their intended use. For example, some creatures are meant to be juggernauts who charge into battle, soak up damage, and deal a lot of it in return. However, they're often not as mobile or as smart, meaning spellcasters or ranged characters can be useful against then. Other creatures are intended to be played from the background. They often have fewer hit points or a lower armor class, but have spells or other effects that can do massive damage or affect multiple enemies at once.Ultimately the goal in this step is to make your creature unique, balanced, and fun by giving it specific tactical strengths and weaknesses.
Finished! You now have a creature that is unique, fun, and balanced, which should provide a great experience for both you and your players at your next session, or the next session of whoever uses your creature.
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