Mike Mearls Games
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Improved 5e: Monsters with Levels
🕑 Added 2025-09-28 14:28:55 +0000 UTCHey everyone!
For the past couple of weeks I've been working on a system for 5e monsters that uses level rather than CR. Each creature also has an XP value, so you can build encounters with the existing 5e encounter rules.
Each monster has an encounter role:
Minions are weaker monsters that attack in hordes. Pit four minions against the party per PC.
Troopers gang up on the party and are a bit more robust than minions, with two minions per PC making for a good fight.
Champions face the party in equal numbers.
An elite is worth two PCs.
A solo is worth four PCs.
In general, this math cuts down HP but boosts damage. Fights should be shorter but just as dangerous. In play, the monsters feel more dangerous because they tend to dish out more punishment. Even that last orc can pose a threat with a crit.
Creature design has also been streamlined. None of a monster's stats are derived from anything. Instead, they are assigned based on flavor and mechanical concept. Ability bonuses are meant to be used for all checks and saves.
Monster damage does not use any flat bonuses for two reasons:
Making damage pure die rolls adds a lot of variability to damage. In my experience, for monsters this makes encounters more exciting and tense.
It also makes critical hits a lot more painful, which has also made combat more intense.
The creatures in the PDF are for tier 1. A few have flavor text, and I'll update the file as I add more text to the mix.
Otherwise, this should be a fully playable monster roster with just these files.
The spreadsheet allows you to create new monsters and see the math that goes into making these critters work. If people want a breakdown on that, let me know and I'll make that another paid subs-only post later this week.
Comments
Mike Mearls Games
Great question! It's possible to remove attack rolls entirely, but I actually like missing as a mechanic. I think they make every roll dramatic, and as a DM misses make my turns go faster. However, moving over to a damage reduction system for armor would solve that by turning "misses" into non-damaging hits. All that said, I really like that approach but am not sure that D&D's scaling works for it. I think that at level 5+ your DR would need to be so high that the math becomes tedious.
Aidan Habedank
Love the monsters. The idea of clean categories where 1 monster is worth X PCs makes encounter building way less of a pain. Feels like choosing from a menu instead of doing calculus. What do you think about systems where the attack roll is skipped and damage is rolled ouright? Would that make it easier to design monsters for a given level since results are more consistent? Since this is an improvement on 5e I imagine attack rolls are sticking around from those rules, but is there a particular reason you stick with the attack roll in your own designs?
Michael Sixel
I just strongly disagree here. It's mythical anyone can account for the variety of magic items or feats across every combination. Every table. Every play style.
mAc Chaos
I like it! When you are refining this method, could you also add in how to account for magic items or feats? CR is not meant to take those into account, but most games use one or the other or both, so before you are even starting the game special accommodations have to be made for those. Maybe the presence of feats or magic items you means you count the PCs as one level higher than they are, or something else.
