To help Dungeon Narrators with monster special abilities, please refer to Dungeon Narrator Monster Workbook.
The workbook has 275 monster abilities so you can keep track of what you would like the ability to do. Just update fields to what you believe best works for your Open Dungeons world. Some are populated from this Monster Trove, but these are not absolute: some monsters may have these abilities, some may not - DN decision and to help minimize metagaming.
Fields that are populated you can edit and save.
Conditions and Mechanics
Open Dungeons™ intentionally leaves certain terms - Prone, Grappled, Concentration,
Reaction, Advantage, and similar - without fixed definitions. This is by design.
When these words appear in a monster stat block or magic item description, treat them as
narrative shorthand, not rules references. "Knock prone" means the target is on the ground.
What that costs them, how long it lasts, and what it takes to recover is your call. "Advantage on
checks" means the creature has a meaningful edge in that situation. Whether that's a reroll, a
flat bonus, or a narrative benefit, you decide.
Locking these into rigid definitions opens the door to metagaming. Players who memorize
condition tables start looking for loopholes. Players who trust their DN to make a fair call stay in
the story.
When one of these terms comes up, ask yourself: what makes sense here? What fits the
creature, the moment, the encounter? That's your ruling. Write it down, stay consistent, and it
becomes part of your table's physics.
The books give you the vocabulary. You give it meaning.