Some dragons seek to defy death, becoming undead dragon liches. Such a dragon channels its inherent magical nature into an arcane spark that grants it a semblance of life beyond death. Scales and flesh slough off the dragon lich, eventually leaving nothing but a skeletal dragon brooding over moldering treasure.

In order to become a dragon lich, a dragon must imbue its spirit into a soul vessel. The vessel is usually some treasured item from the dragon’s hoard, such as a particularly valuable gem or piece of jewelry. The dragon can’t bear to be apart from its soul vessel and keeps it close among its hoard. The only way to permanently defeat a dragon lich is to destroy both the dragon and the soul vessel.

Any adult or older dragon with spellcasting ability may become a dragon lich. Chromatic dragons most often become dragon liches. A dragon lich retains all the statistics of the original dragon except as noted below.

Type. The dragon’s type is Undead (dragon).

Breath Weapon. When the dragon uses a breath weapon that deals damage, half of its damage is the original damage type and half is necrotic damage.

Expanded Spell List. The dragon can cast animate dead  with no material components three times per day. An ancient or older dragon can cast create undead with no material components three times per day.

Immunities. The dragon gains immunity to necrotic and poison damage. It can’t be charmed , fatigued ,  frightened , paralyzed , or poisoned .

The dragon lich’s Legendary Resistance trait is replaced with the following:

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). When the dragon fails a saving throw , it can choose to succeed instead. When it does, it loses its Undead Telepathy trait until the end of its next turn. Until the end of its next turn, undead creatures under its control are incapacitated .

The dragon lich gains the following traits:

Rejuvenation. If it has a soul vessel, a destroyed dragon lich gains a new body in 1d10 days, regaining all its hit points. The new body forms within 10 feet of the soul vessel.

Turn Resistance. The dragon lich has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead.

Undead Nature. A dragon lich doesn’t require air, sustenance, or sleep.

Undead Telepathy. The dragon lich can communicate telepathically with undead creatures within 120 feet.

In a world filled with magic, even the most mundane object might be more than it appears. Animated objects can sit motionless for years, only to spring to life at their master’s command. Though animated objects do not normally possess personalities of their own, some mirror the traits of their creator, their environment, or the creatures they interact with regularly.

Tireless Guardians. Their innocuous appearance makes animated objects the perfect guardians for those looking to catch intruders by surprise. Because they do not eat or rest, such objects can remain at their posts for centuries, long after their original owners have moved on.

Endless Variety. With potent enough magic, nearly any object can be granted the semblance of life. Creators of animated objects might weave other magic into their handiwork, such as the ability to sense falsehoods spoken in the item’s presence, immunity to a certain element or spell, or a curse that befalls whoever destroys the object.

Angels are the immortal servants of the gods and the extensions of divine power. They aid mortals, battle fiends, and further their deity’s causes. While most angels are good, some evil deities are served by evil angels. All angels hold their god’s divine laws as sacred.

Angels appear as awe-inspiring, winged humanoids of unearthly beauty and strength.

No Possessions. To angels, the physical world is not as real as their native realm of divine energy. Angels own no physical objects of their own, though they may sometimes safeguard another being’s treasure. Even an angel’s garments and weapons are made of astral energy and are changeable according to the angel’s needs.

Angels of Chaos. Legends tell of angels of chaotic alignment that travel the astral realm alone, unaffiliated with any god. They claim that angels existed before gods, and that the “fall of angels” was when most angels forsook their independence to become servants of the gods.

Aligned. An angel radiates a Lawful aura. Most angels also radiate a Good aura, and a few radiate Evil.

Celestial Dissolution. When an angel dies, its body and equipment dissolve into motes of light.

Detect Alignment. An angel knows the alignment, if any, of each creature within 30 feet that it can see.

Immortal Nature. An angel doesn’t require air, sustenance, or sleep.

This appendix contains statistics for many of the humanoids who inhabit the game world. These nonplayer characters (NPCs) may act as allies or adversaries during the characters’ adventures. An NPC may be of any humanoid ancestry: for instance, an archmage could be a human , a gnome , an orc , or even a merfolk or gnoll .

You can alter an NPC stat block in order to better represent a specific individual in your campaign. Most such changes do not require a change to the NPC’s Challenge Rating.

Varying Heritage

Heritage describes a creature’s innate, inherited abilities. You can add specificity to an NPC by assigning them signature following abilities and traits related to their heritage. This list is not exhaustive; most humanoid species can use an NPC stat block.

• Dragonborn: A dragonborn gains a breath weapon which they can use once per rest as an action. Each creature within either a 30-foot-long, 5-foot-wide line or a 15-foot cone (determined by draconic lineage) makes a Dexterity saving throw with a DC of 8 + Constitution modifier + proficiency bonus. On a failure, a creature takes acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder damage (determined by draconic lineage). The damage dealt is 3 (1d6) per point of the dragonborn’s Challenge Rating, with a minimum of 1d6 and a maximum of 6d6.
• Dwarf: A dwarf gains darkvision out to a distance of 60 feet. Their Speed is 25 feet.
• Elf: An elf gains darkvision out to a distance of 60 feet. They can’t be put to sleep by magic.
• Gnome: A gnome gains darkvision out to a distance of 60 feet. They are Small and their Speed is 25 feet. They know the minor illusion cantrip, using their choice of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as their spellcasting ability.
• Halfling: A halfling is Small and their Speed is 25 feet. When they roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, they can reroll the die and must use the new roll.
• Human: A human gains proficiency with one extra skill of their choice.
• Orc: An orc gains darkvision out to a distance of 60 feet. When they score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, they can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice an additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
• Planetouched: A planetouched creature gains darkvision out to a distance of 60 feet. Once per long rest , when they would be reduced to 0 hit points, they are reduced to 1 hit point instead.

Varying Culture

An NPC’s culture represents the society in which they were raised or trained, and may grant new traits or abilities. This appendix includes NPC variants that add cultural features, producing such variants as orcish wildling minstrels or cosmopolitan alchemists. While many cultures are associated with a particular heritage, any culture may include a person of any ancestry. For instance, a dragonborn may have been raised among shadow elves and have been trained as a shadow elf mage .

Varying Spells and Equipment

You can swap an NPC’s weapons or armor for others with which they are likely to be proficient. For spellcasting NPCs, you can swap out a spell for another spell of the same level on a spell list available to the NPC. If such a change increases a NPC’s Armor Class by 4 or more, or allows them to increase their maximum possible damage on one turn by 20 percent or more, then increase the monster’s Challenge Rating by one step (for instance, from 1/8 to 1/4 or from 5 to 6).

Legends and Lore

With a Culture or History check, characters can learn the following:

DC 10 The heritage and name of the NPC type (e.g. Archmage).

DC 15 The notable special abilities that the NPC type has.

DC 25 The name of this specific NPC.

Behavior

1  Going about their daily business.

2  Seeking somebody to help them with a quest or task.

3  Occupied in thought or concentrating on a solo activity. Will be irritated if disturbed.

4  Angry and looking for a fight.

5  Carousing, singing, or dancing.

6  Guarding something or someone.

7  Injured and nursing a wound.

8  On the run or hiding from somebody or something.

9  Lying in ambush.

10 Fighting a fierce creature.

Signs

1  A campfire or wagon.

2  A dropped trinket or minor piece of jewelry.

3  A trail of blood.

4  The sound of loud talking.

5  The sound of singing or music.

6  Smoke rising from just over a nearby hill or forest.

7  The sound of clashing blades and shouts of anger.

8  A backpack propped up against a tree.

9  A lone horse, saddled, but clearly separated from its rider.

10 The smell of delicious cooking.

The following entries from the Monstrous Menagerie are categories which include two or more individual monsters.

• Angels
• Animated Objects
• Ankhegs
• Azers
• Boggards
• Bugbears
• Clockworks
• Demons
• Devils
• Dinosaurs
• Dragons
• Faeries
• Genies
• Ghouls
• Giants
• Gnolls
• Goblins
• Gricks
• Guardians
• Hags
• Half-Dragons
• Hobgoblins
• Khalkoi
• Lizardfolk
• Lycanthropes
• Mephits
• Merfolk
• Minotaurs
• Mummies
• Nagas
• Ogres
• Oozes
• Remorphazes
• Salamanders
• Scarecrows
• Scorpionfolk
• Skeletons
• Titans
• Vampires
• Wraiths
• Zombies

• Beasts and Creatures
• Nonplayer Characters