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Dire Wolf for example only has Bite listed as Actions, not Attacks. If it is not a general attack, but a special type of Action, it can only be used on the Wolf's turn. So it can not make an Opportunity Attack, as no Reactions are listed.

If it is an Attack, just the terminology is wrong, than a Druid 2/Monk 5 character can Bite twice.

Which interpretation is right?

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3 Answers 3

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The Monster Manual specifically states (p. 9 I think) that the Actions in a stat block are additional OPTIONS to all the actions in the PHB. Therefore, a creature can always take the Attack action and use any of its attacks. If it has class features that grant extra attacks (e.g. A transformed PC) in an Attack action then it gets those.

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The second interpretation is correct.

For the wolf, Bite is listed under Actions, as it is a type of Action. The next keywords are the important part: Melee Weapon Attack.

For a Player Character using Extra Attack, it states that you can make multiple attacks whenever you take the Attack action. For the wolf, Bite is a type of attack. Thus, in the case of a player character in the form of a monster using the Extra Attack feature, they can use any of the monster's attacks. These are distinguished by the 'attack' keyword, which are listed under the Actions category.

This is further supported by the language in Multiattack on page 11 of the Monster Manual:

A creature can't use Multiattack when making an opportunity attack, which must be a single melee attack.

Thus, Bite can also be used as an opportunity attack.

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Dire Wolf, MM pg 321, lists Bite as an Action. I also see no other attacks listed for the creature, so in my game, this would be the melee attack it would make for an opportunity attack.

According to the "Extra Attack" section of the PHB (pg 79):

you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn

so I say that you could take the attack twice.

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