Typical Monster Dexterity Scores

Initiative in the Holmes Basic rules is determined by dexterity. Holmes suggests rolling a monster's dexterity on the spot if it is not known. The Sample Dungeon does not include dexterity in the monster stats. However, in the original printing of the module B2 Keep on the Borderlands, Gary Gygax provided a dexterity score for most of the monsters. These can be used to extrapolate some typical monster dexterity scores as envisioned by Gygax:

Non-Humanoid (fastest to slowest):

Puma - DX 18

Adder - DX 15

Medusa - DX 14

Giant Centipede - DX 13

Spider, Large - DX 12

Gray Ooze - DX 11

Skeleton - DX 11

Owl Bear - DX 10

Stirge - DX 10

Huge Dog - DX 9

Fire Beetle - DX 9

Giant Rat - DX 8, 12 (l)

Wight - DX 7

Zombie - DX 6

Gelatinous Cube DX 5

Humanoid (smallest to largest):

Kobold - DX 13 (m), 10 (f), 12 (l)

Goblin - DX 11 (m), 10 (f), 13 (l)

Orc - DX 10 (m), 12 (f), 12 (l)

Hobgoblin - DX 10 (m), 12 (f), 15 (l)

Gnoll - DX 9 (m), 8 (f), 11 (l)

Lizardman - DX 10 (m), 9 (f)

Bugbear - DX 8 (m), 8 (f), 8 (l)

Ogre - DX 8

Minotaur - DX 12

Notes: (m) male, (f) female, (l) leader. Numbers represent predominate dexterity, rather than an average.

This topic originally posted here.