Calculating the damage an enemy does with a manufactured weapon like a sword, club or bow is easy. Small and medium creatures calculate the damage done with a normal weapon the same way a player does, large creature double the damage dice compared to a medium creature, huge creatures triple it and gargantuan ones quadruple it (Depite the fact almost no gargantuan creatures actually use swords). A Berserker deals 1d12 + 3 (9)damage with their greataxe, a minotaur does 2d12 + 4 (17) damage with their greataxe and a Frost Giant does 3d12 + 6 (25) damage with theirs, nice and simple.
There are some exceptions: certain abilities, such as the Brute ability (As used by Bugbear and Gladiator) grant an extra damage die, one of the means to make medium martial creatures still a threat to higher level character; shapechangers who change size (Werebear etc) are also highly unlikely to have weapons that change size with them on their person. It's also worth pointing out the damage is determined by the size of the weapon, not the wielder. An ogre who picks up a hobgoblin's longsword and attacks someone with it will only do 1d10+4 (9)slashing damage with it, a hobgoblin who picks up an ogres greatclub and attacks with it will 2d8+1 (10) bludgeoning damage on a hit, but they will have disadvantage on the attack due to the increased size (Medium creatures wielding large weapons is something the DMG says creatures (and possibly players) can do by the way). Also of interest, the module Storm King's Thunder says a player can wield a Giant's dagger as a 2 handed weapon and deal 3d4+str damage on a hit.
Then there are some cases where creatures have very few damage dice in their weapon attacks for seemingly no reason (mostly in newer modules/source books) such as with poor, Huge Yeenoghu whose flail does a measly 1d12+9 (15), his rival, the also Huge Baphomet fares slightly better with his battleaxes 2d10+10 (21).
Now surely this applies to natural weapons like claws and bite attacks. Lets take a look at the beasts; a Medium Goat does 1d4+1(3) damage with its hooves, so its Large cousin, the Giant Goat must do... 2d4+3 (8), yes that makes sense. Lets have another go; a Medium Wolf does 2d4+2 (7) with its bite, therefore the Large Dire Wolf must do 4d... oh wait it does 2d6+3 (10), ah but there's also the Huge Guardian Wolf and that does... 1d10+6 (11), that's only 1 more average damage than the Dire Wolf's Bite!
Okay lets ignore the beasts and focus on something cooler... like dragons. They also come in 4 different sizes so the piercing damage from their claw attacks must also increase massively as they grow. Lets see, a Large Young Red Dragon does 2d6+6 (13)damage with their claws, so the Huge Adult Red Dragon must deal 3d... oh wait, 2d6+8 (15)... no change in the number of or type of damage dice... that's fine, I'm sure the Ancient Red Dragon fixes this, 2d6+10 (17)... So wait, a young dragon waits 800 years, their claws are 64x (roughly) in volume than they were 800 years ago and that just leads to an extra 4 damage. All their bite attacks do 2d10+str (17/19/21) as well, at least the amount of fire damage dealt by it doubles with each size difference. Hang on, what if we compare this to the Medium Red Abishai? After all, an Abishai is more or less just a medium sized, bipedal, fiendish dragon; and as a medium sized dragon(ish) creature it probably does 2d10 piercing when biting as well... 3d10+6 (22) piercing as well as 7d10 (37) fire! Tiamat's done her children dirty... wait a minute, Tiamat's red dragon head does 4d10+10 (32) slashing damage (Yes, it actually does deal slashing instead of piercing) and 4d6(14) fire damage. That's 46 total damage from Tiamat's bite attack compared to the Red Abishai's 59 total damage, how did she even create that thing!?!
What poor creature gets screwed over most by the damage of their natural weapons, that would be our old friend Yeenoghu whose bite attack does 1d10+9 (14). To those who think "So what? That +9 modifier still makes it a decent attack" I respond with that according to the DMG an unarmed attack by a Huge Creature without natural weapons does 3d4+str bludgeoning damage, which means were Yeenoghu to punch instead of bite, he would actually deal 3d4+9 (16) bludgeoning damage, 2 more on average than what his fangs deal.
Okay, if I asked you what creature you think does the most pure physical damage (Bludgeoning, Piercing or Slashing) in one attack, which creature do you think it would be. I mean, it's the Tarrasque surely? It has 30 strength, it's gargantuan and it has 30CR and looking at it... yeah, its bite attack does 4d12+10 (36). Surely there's nothing better than that. Oh wait, there's the Huge Goristro, this creatures Gore attack does 7d10+7 (45) piercing damage, if the Gore attack is made after moving 15ft in a straight line it instead does 14d10+7 (83) piercing damage. I'm fairly certain it's the strongest single physical attack a monster has if you don't count a creature attacking with a vorpal sword. I'm sure there's some cheesy strat involving giving 20 class levels to a Tarrasque that could beat it. A Tarrasque with 20 levels in Rogue and a Gargantuan Rapier who had advantage on its attack could deal 4d8+10d6+10 (63) piercing damage in one hit for example.
And this has been my Ted Talk/Rant on the damage of natural weapons, if you know of any unusual amounts of damage dealt by creatures attacks, why not comment below. For those who want to know what section of the DMG I got the rules from, they are all from the create a monster section. Also I apologise for my horrendous grammar/syntax.
Mostly damage is scaled so they get whatever CR they are after; dragon damage for Huge and Gargantuan dragons is low because they're getting enough CR from gaining legendary actions at Adult.
Huh this is an interesting read. I never took a close look at any of this before. Makes me dislike 5e adult dragons even more, just need to homebrew damage scaling as well as spells.
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Calculating the damage an enemy does with a manufactured weapon like a sword, club or bow is easy. Small and medium creatures calculate the damage done with a normal weapon the same way a player does, large creature double the damage dice compared to a medium creature, huge creatures triple it and gargantuan ones quadruple it (Depite the fact almost no gargantuan creatures actually use swords). A Berserker deals 1d12 + 3 (9)damage with their greataxe, a minotaur does 2d12 + 4 (17) damage with their greataxe and a Frost Giant does 3d12 + 6 (25) damage with theirs, nice and simple.
There are some exceptions: certain abilities, such as the Brute ability (As used by Bugbear and Gladiator) grant an extra damage die, one of the means to make medium martial creatures still a threat to higher level character; shapechangers who change size (Werebear etc) are also highly unlikely to have weapons that change size with them on their person. It's also worth pointing out the damage is determined by the size of the weapon, not the wielder. An ogre who picks up a hobgoblin's longsword and attacks someone with it will only do 1d10+4 (9)slashing damage with it, a hobgoblin who picks up an ogres greatclub and attacks with it will 2d8+1 (10) bludgeoning damage on a hit, but they will have disadvantage on the attack due to the increased size (Medium creatures wielding large weapons is something the DMG says creatures (and possibly players) can do by the way). Also of interest, the module Storm King's Thunder says a player can wield a Giant's dagger as a 2 handed weapon and deal 3d4+str damage on a hit.
Then there are some cases where creatures have very few damage dice in their weapon attacks for seemingly no reason (mostly in newer modules/source books) such as with poor, Huge Yeenoghu whose flail does a measly 1d12+9 (15), his rival, the also Huge Baphomet fares slightly better with his battleaxes 2d10+10 (21).
Now surely this applies to natural weapons like claws and bite attacks. Lets take a look at the beasts; a Medium Goat does 1d4+1(3) damage with its hooves, so its Large cousin, the Giant Goat must do... 2d4+3 (8), yes that makes sense. Lets have another go; a Medium Wolf does 2d4+2 (7) with its bite, therefore the Large Dire Wolf must do 4d... oh wait it does 2d6+3 (10), ah but there's also the Huge Guardian Wolf and that does... 1d10+6 (11), that's only 1 more average damage than the Dire Wolf's Bite!
Okay lets ignore the beasts and focus on something cooler... like dragons. They also come in 4 different sizes so the piercing damage from their claw attacks must also increase massively as they grow. Lets see, a Large Young Red Dragon does 2d6+6 (13)damage with their claws, so the Huge Adult Red Dragon must deal 3d... oh wait, 2d6+8 (15)... no change in the number of or type of damage dice... that's fine, I'm sure the Ancient Red Dragon fixes this, 2d6+10 (17)... So wait, a young dragon waits 800 years, their claws are 64x (roughly) in volume than they were 800 years ago and that just leads to an extra 4 damage. All their bite attacks do 2d10+str (17/19/21) as well, at least the amount of fire damage dealt by it doubles with each size difference. Hang on, what if we compare this to the Medium Red Abishai? After all, an Abishai is more or less just a medium sized, bipedal, fiendish dragon; and as a medium sized dragon(ish) creature it probably does 2d10 piercing when biting as well... 3d10+6 (22) piercing as well as 7d10 (37) fire! Tiamat's done her children dirty... wait a minute, Tiamat's red dragon head does 4d10+10 (32) slashing damage (Yes, it actually does deal slashing instead of piercing) and 4d6(14) fire damage. That's 46 total damage from Tiamat's bite attack compared to the Red Abishai's 59 total damage, how did she even create that thing!?!
What poor creature gets screwed over most by the damage of their natural weapons, that would be our old friend Yeenoghu whose bite attack does 1d10+9 (14). To those who think "So what? That +9 modifier still makes it a decent attack" I respond with that according to the DMG an unarmed attack by a Huge Creature without natural weapons does 3d4+str bludgeoning damage, which means were Yeenoghu to punch instead of bite, he would actually deal 3d4+9 (16) bludgeoning damage, 2 more on average than what his fangs deal.
Okay, if I asked you what creature you think does the most pure physical damage (Bludgeoning, Piercing or Slashing) in one attack, which creature do you think it would be. I mean, it's the Tarrasque surely? It has 30 strength, it's gargantuan and it has 30CR and looking at it... yeah, its bite attack does 4d12+10 (36). Surely there's nothing better than that. Oh wait, there's the Huge Goristro, this creatures Gore attack does 7d10+7 (45) piercing damage, if the Gore attack is made after moving 15ft in a straight line it instead does 14d10+7 (83) piercing damage. I'm fairly certain it's the strongest single physical attack a monster has if you don't count a creature attacking with a vorpal sword. I'm sure there's some cheesy strat involving giving 20 class levels to a Tarrasque that could beat it. A Tarrasque with 20 levels in Rogue and a Gargantuan Rapier who had advantage on its attack could deal 4d8+10d6+10 (63) piercing damage in one hit for example.
And this has been my Ted Talk/Rant on the damage of natural weapons, if you know of any unusual amounts of damage dealt by creatures attacks, why not comment below. For those who want to know what section of the DMG I got the rules from, they are all from the create a monster section. Also I apologise for my horrendous grammar/syntax.
Mostly damage is scaled so they get whatever CR they are after; dragon damage for Huge and Gargantuan dragons is low because they're getting enough CR from gaining legendary actions at Adult.
Huh this is an interesting read. I never took a close look at any of this before. Makes me dislike 5e adult dragons even more, just need to homebrew damage scaling as well as spells.