Hello, first time DM here! When doing a monster's attack on a successful attack, for a Goblin for example, when it says "HIT: 5 (1d6 + 2)" does that mean he does a flat 5 damage as IF he had rolled 1d6 + 2? Or does it mean he does 1d6+2+5? I'm assuming its the first one, but I just wanted to make sure.
It means he does 1d6+2. The 5 is the average. You can use the average to try to keep bad dice rolls from making an encounter too deadly or too easy if you like.
Hello, first time DM here! When doing a monster's attack on a successful attack, for a Goblin for example, when it says "HIT: 5 (1d6 + 2)" does that mean he does a flat 5 damage as IF he had rolled 1d6 + 2? Or does it mean he does 1d6+2+5? I'm assuming its the first one, but I just wanted to make sure.
It means he does 1d6+2. The 5 is the average. You can use the average to try to keep bad dice rolls from making an encounter too deadly or too easy if you like.
It is the first, in case you do not want to roll for damage. It is the arithmetic average of the random damage plus modifiers.