Enemy
A creature whose goals oppose yours; the prerequisite for opportunity attacks, sneak attack triggers, and many hostile-target effects.
An enemy is a creature you treat as adversarial — one whose goals oppose yours in the current scene. Mechanically, "enemy" is the inverse of Ally.
Common rules that key off enemy status:
- Opportunity attacks trigger when an enemy moves out of your reach
- Sneak Attack applies when you have an ally adjacent to your target and no enemy adjacent to you (one of the qualifying conditions)
- Flanking (optional) requires an ally on the opposite side of an enemy from you
- Many spells specify "a creature hostile to you" or "an enemy you can see"
Determining enemy status: The DM is the arbiter. A creature with an Attitude of Hostile is automatically an enemy. An Indifferent creature is not an enemy unless something specific happens (an attack, a betrayal). A charmed creature is not an enemy of its charmer for the duration of the charm.
Mid-scene changes: A creature can become an enemy mid-combat (an ally turning on the party, a betrayed NPC) and likewise can stop being one (a defeated foe begging for mercy who is then spared). The DM signals these transitions.
This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.