3

Assuming a creature with two genders (male / female), is said gender part of its game statistics block for the purposes of Polymorph effects?

In some species also the male has different statistics than the female. Such is the case of the androsphynx and gymnosphynx. Those are moot, so don't need to be considered for this question's scope.

SevenSidedDie
  • 243,609
  • 44
  • 785
  • 1,025
Mindwin Remember Monica
  • 24,044
  • 12
  • 88
  • 198
  • Is this question about how to read entries for setting information, or is it about Polymorph and related effects that use monster stats? – SevenSidedDie Sep 23 '16 at 19:00
  • Yes, for the effects like Polymorph where creature game statistics are mentioned. Is gender a game statistic for these kinds of effects? We could drop "block" from the question above, but the answers could be made invalid. – Mindwin Remember Monica Sep 23 '16 at 19:28
  • That looks like a clarification that can be made in-place. I've gone ahead and made the edit! – SevenSidedDie Sep 23 '16 at 19:30
  • 3
    What exactly are you trying to determine? Are you asking if you may choose a new gender for the creature that your target is being turned into with Polymorph? What impact are you concerned this will have? – GreedyRadish Sep 23 '16 at 20:04

4 Answers4

15

The Monster Manual has a section on Statistics. It starts on page 6 and runs till page 11, so I'm not going to quote it, but suffice to say, gender is not mentioned.

A little more empirically, no published monster includes gender within its stats block. Those that have a specific gender (such as drow or sphinxes) mention it in their lore sections. If it's not mentioned, you can probably assume the monster can be either gender.

Miniman
  • 144,275
  • 45
  • 644
  • 782
3

No

At least in general

Most monster stat blocks take the form of

Creature

Size, alignment

AC
Health
Speed

Stat Block

Senses
Languages
CR

Special Abilities

Actions

(Attacks)

There's not sex field in the standard stat block, nor is there indication that the stats for the creature should change depending on its sex.

Disclaimer: I don't have my MM or DMG to hand; this analysis is based off the blocks in the back of the PHB

UrhoKarila
  • 5,973
  • 3
  • 33
  • 56
1

Yes. Other race-like aspects like gender and ethnicity are inserted in the first line of the stat block, e.g.

(NE female Chondathan human)

Four guards (NG male and female Illuskan humans)

(LE male and female human bandits of various ethnicities)

(CG male and female wood elf scouts)

From the WotC 5e AG module "Storm King's Thunder: A Great Upheaval"

mxyzplk
  • 175,309
  • 30
  • 437
  • 660
-1

It doesn't really matter since Polymorph can change your gender along with the rest. If the caster wants to choose the gender then they can choose any gender they want, if they don't I would default it to the existing gender.

DAhrens
  • 107
  • 2