D&D Monster Spotlight: Dinosaurs Can be Big Fantasy Fun
Cleaver girl… or not. Dinosaurs have been creatures that your character can encounter in D&D since 1E, but how challenging are they really?
The latest Jurassic Park movie is almost here. And I’m torn between asking “why?” and looking forward to a new dinosaur-filled action movie. Dinosaurs check all of the classic monster movies boxes: they’re big, they’re ugly, and they often want to eat you. And they’re in the monster manual! So why not add them to your next D&D session?
First Edition
First Edition has about twenty eight individual Dinosaurs listed, and every one they have art for looks just about this goofy. The Monster Manual attempts to explain why these long dead creatures would be alive in the era of your game. Mostly time is weird on some Planes. This explanation is a little unsatisfactory in a wibbly-wobbly Doctor Who sort of way, but this is also one of those instances where likely nobody cares. As a rule, Dinosaurs are “extremely stupid” and motivated primarily by hunger. They’re also aggressive and ferocious, but I just don’t see that for the Brachiosaurus, which is included in the Monster Manual. What would that encounter look like?
Second Edition
Tickle fight!
2E also has a wide variety in Dinosaurs to add to your campaign, but less with only nine options listed. But it’s probably most of the main one you’d think to include. The Monster Manual also tries to include some pseudo-science which is fun. Since Dinosaurs are generally cold blooded they may be “slow on a cold morning,” but “not as slow as your typical reptile.” In a game that’s just playing pretend at its core, any time these pages include a little flavor text for how the GM should play the monster, it’s sort of fun. 2E also says that while Dinosaurs can exist in most climates depending on the specific dino you’re looking at, you’ll probably only find them in “the lost lands.”
Third Edition
Since our real-life knowledge of Dinosaurs and specifically what they may have looked like is so lacking, it’s very fun to see how various editions of D&D describe them. Apparently the larger ones are more drab while smaller Dinosaurs have more vibrant colorings. They also now live in “rugged or isolated areas that humanoids rarely visit,” which makes sense since we don’t often see them in what our characters would consider modern day. Carnivorous Dinosaurs are your average slash and bite monsters, while herbivores rely more on trampling attacks. But why are the herbivores attacking your party at all? What did you do?! Also, the T-Rex has “improved grab” which is both a bite and grapple attack, and the idea of a T-Rex grappling anything with those tiny arms is very funny.
Fourth Edition
As far as I can tell, Dinosaurs are referred to as Behemoths in third edition. This is also more of a take on certain dinosaurs more than actually Dinos as we know them. But if a real-life creature has a spike tail, why wouldn’t you include that in your monster list. Ill tempered and mean, these guys will attack you for intruding on their lair, impaling you with their mace-tail.
Fifth Edition
Finding some middle ground between 1E’s nearly thirty dino options and 4E’s one, the Fifth Edition Monster Manual has six Dinosaurs to add to your next encounter. And with this most recent iteration of D&D I’m disappointed to see that not a single edition since Jurassic Park first came out has included the Velociraptor. Or the Hollywoodization version that we saw on the big screen. Nothing will ever be quite that scary and that’s the monster our adventurers deserve.
The 5E Dinosaurs that we do get have a lot of variety in sizes and danger levels. They’re all unaligned, making them about as malicious as your regular wild animal. But regular wild animals can – and do – kill people all of the time. They also have relatively few hit points compared to many of the other members of the Monster Manual. The T-Rex is easily the toughest of the six, and it has 135 HP. In short, Dinosaurs shouldn’t be anybody’s first monster encounter, but they’re definitely not meant to be TPK most adventurers with at least a few levels under their belts.
What’s your favorite Dinosaur and is it encounterable in D&D? What Dino would you and your character most like to see? Has you DM ever designed a Jurassic adventure for your party? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
