So I am a fairly experienced dm, and I have run a few games and I’m really tired of fighting/ dming a fight with goblins, ghouls, orcs, skeletons, or cultists. I want to know if anyone has any thing I can use as soldiers/ bbeg support that everyone hasn’t run a billion times or if not ways to change them up a bit.
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbithole, and that means comfort.”
There are a million answers to this question! With D&DBeyond you can filter down to any creature type and spend a little time considering what appeals to you.
I tend to run campaigns as a series of mini adventures. So the PCs go here and fight this for a few levels, then go there and fight that for a few levels, and so on. This kind of relieves the problem you are talking about. Helps keep things from getting too stale.
You might try that yourself. An example might go something like this...the PCs agree to help a town fight off a group of bandits led by a wood elf wizard who in turn is being influenced by a night hag coven with appropriate fey underlings who are, in turn, serving a powerful infernal like Titivilus. So the players start by fighting more standard fare though early levels then move on to fighting mid level fey creatures and then graduate to higher level fiends.
So I am a fairly experienced dm, and I have run a few games and I’m really tired of fighting/ dming a fight with goblins, ghouls, orcs, skeletons, or cultists. I want to know if anyone has any thing I can use as soldiers/ bbeg support that everyone hasn’t run a billion times or if not ways to change them up a bit.
Maybe be a little more specific - for what challenge level? What type of adventure ie desert, dungeon, underwater etc What purpose ie cannon fodder, protection for the Villain, spell casters etc
Whenever I think this way, I always just thumb through the Monster Manual, Volo's, Fizban's, or Mordenkainen's, and mostly just look at the art and read the captions and see what monsters I'm more interested in, or had never given much attention before.
I included a (hopefully) cool yuan-ti plot hook in my pirate campaign that way, as well as a slaadi questline.
Basically, don't run a monster you're not interested in. Instead, figure out what monster interests you and make it work.
There's always Tucker's kobolds for an excellent example of how those "standard" enemies don't have to be boring - part of it might be that the fights become too samey if you don't add environment and variation.
Having said that, the list is nearly endless of possible variations - awakened animals with a dark druid ring, take them to sea and explore an underwater setting with different critters, have them walk through a fey or shadowfell portal - it sounds a little like you might be relying on a very "default" style of play.
People have already highlighted sources of inspiration - another could be to look through published modules but just pick out interesting parts to put into your own cmapaign (I've basically rarely run one of the WotC campaigns from start to finish, but rather drawn on them for ideas or locations to put into my own campaign).
Try using Young Kruthik for a "Zerg Hive" style adventure with the occasional Adult Kruthik or even a Kruthik Hive Lord as the end-boss. Set it up to where a large meteor slams into an area and cuts a deep canyon-like trench into the ground. It happened to have these strange alien monsters onboard and they are now making a home for themselves within the trench walls and starting to disrupt local villages and trade routes.
There's always Tucker's kobolds for an excellent example of how those "standard" enemies don't have to be boring . . .
Thanks for that! Years ago, I used kobolds, and other puny NPCs just like that person does/did. Players in my game adventures learned to assume that any encounter could quickly become deadly.
I remember running a short adventure for a group of high-single-digit, chaotic evil murder hobos (all players had at least a couple years of experience). This was all in fun; a level-zero introduction to my DM style, with throw-away PCs. The player's instructions and incentive? All had to stick together 'till the end, unless killed of course. Anyone who could make it to the stopping point on the map alive would earn a special item for their first created character, and everyone's new characters would hold all the other goodies that they had gathered here. After the PCs hacked, slayed, and pillaged their way through one, sleepy human village, and burned a few farmhouses, they made their way to the next town. Long story short, they were lured into the town's grain mill, where those who lured them in disappeared, and barricaded the PCs inside. A half-dozen or so zero-level townsfolk died from the PCs arrows and sling bullets, as they emptied sacks of flour down on the PCS from the building's rafters. The PCs were engulfed in a choking cloud of flour. All remaining NPCs then fell back a safe distance, and remotely dropped a few lanterns from above (Hung by long ropes. The other end held well outside). The resulting explosion destroyed the mill, set fire to what was left of it, and killed all but two PCs outright. Those two survived by slipping into the mill pond, near the water wheel, and swimming away.
Before one assumes that playing with this DM is a sure-fire way to kill off a beloved character, know that there was always a great deal of fairness involved. If a character or party failed to attempt negotiations with an overwhelming force of (?), then failed to run, or ran, but then decided to make an unsupportable stand, or then ran but failed to jump into the nearby river, (and cross it,) sometime before that river went over a 300' drop, then that character or party may find themselves cut to pieces, or turned to messy pincushions, or forced off a high cliff at the end of this trail. I reward intelligent play; the consequences of thoughtless play are predetermined, and waiting.
Just another way at looking at the common folk, and the common monsters of a game setting.
So I am a fairly experienced dm, and I have run a few games and I’m really tired of fighting/ dming a fight with goblins, ghouls, orcs, skeletons, or cultists. I want to know if anyone has any thing I can use as soldiers/ bbeg support that everyone hasn’t run a billion times or if not ways to change them up a bit.
Humans.
Just as we see in this world, devoid of the other races, humans with strange motivations are problematic. Just because you want to overthrow a kingdom doesn't mean you are a cultist. It may mean you dislike the policies on (insert reason here) that the current ruling family/faction enacts. This has been the cause of many a war/revolt/upheaval in e.g. Europe in medieval times
Porks! theyre just orcs but you make them look more pig like so they're pig people. Maybe throw in a wereboar.
Jokes aside there are lots of options to mix it up you might need to be more specific or there will basically be endless options.
Modifications
Some general modification ideas
Apply a player race
Apply a spell effect. For example I had demon that could cast absorb elements once a round
Give a generic npc stat block for example soldier to a human like monster such as an orc
Create a monster sequence. Have elementals split into smaller elementals or ghosts rise from corpses
Theme a monster around another monster type like fey, fiends, undead ect...
take small monsters and turn them into swarms
using feats to give monsters special combat roles for example by making polearm master sentinel soldiers
For example I really like the idea of combing undead with various extra planar creatures as a kind of corpse possessed by a demon type thing. Elementals, fey, fiends and even celestial can all work to that end you just take monster abilities or spell effects you think match.
For example I made water elemental zombies that are accompanied by a rain cloud. They regen 10 hp a turn when in the rain and corpses left in the rain raise as zombies as well. They gained the ice weakness of the water elemental and I gave them a ranged attack that spits water. Combined with a water mage as the necromancer it works pretty well. You could also reflavour the nosferatu into a boss version with it's blood disgorge being a water spray instead.
Other monsters
As for other types of monsters to use as general fighters
Mephits, swarms of small elementals can be terrifying
Thanks ! Is it odd that I now want to use porks ? ; )
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“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbithole, and that means comfort.”
If I may use examples from my own games, Blights were very well received when I ran them, especially when I leaned into them having a vampiric connection. Devils also saw good use in my games, and particularly when I paired them with old-west styled gunslingers. In my current game I'm using modified versions of the elemental cultists from Princes of the Apocalypse, and at some point I'd like to run Vampires reskinned in the form of Darkest Dungeon's Bloodsuckers.
I’m always a big fan of a BBE that uses the locals as a means of defense. For example, a BBE who holds up underground and uses a nest of ropers, piercers, and darkmantles as a screen of defense. Stuff like that.
Porks! theyre just orcs but you make them look more pig like so they're pig people. Maybe throw in a wereboar.
Jokes aside there are lots of options to mix it up you might need to be more specific or there will basically be endless options.
Modifications
Some general modification ideas
Apply a player race
Apply a spell effect. For example I had demon that could cast absorb elements once a round
Give a generic npc stat block for example soldier to a human like monster such as an orc...
Solarsyphon summed it up perfectly. Just being able to take those generic NPC blocks that have the (any race) tag and apply the racial abilities can really throw off even the most bitter metagaming player. They see a squad of orcs protecting a bigger orc only to find a bunch of orcknight protecting an orognecromancer will really change the encounter.
Another tip I learned from other, more experienced DMs, is to always include the fact that monsters have goals. If the knight engage and fall back while the necromancer is looking through a stack of books and not engaging, the party has some serious decisions to make. Even squads of low CR monster become scary if there's an mysterious goal in place.
Oh yeah, applying player races to monsters is always fun, and easy. I’m also a fan of adding a small handful of class levels onto a monster to really spice things up. An Orc war chief becomes a heck of a lot scarier with Action Surge and a couple of Maneuvers.
Oh yeah, applying player races to monsters is always fun, and easy. I’m also a fan of adding a small handful of class levels onto a monster to really spice things up. An Orc war chief becomes a heck of a lot scarier with Action Surge and a couple of Maneuvers.
Yeah, classes can work too I just find the generic npc stat block easier to port on to other monsters than full classes. I often use classes for bosses while a more common monster ill give just a feature.
I really like the idea of giving shadow sorcerer to a werewolf or loup garou as like a big boss monster on the same level of scheming as vampires. The combo of being able to summon shadow dogs, an incorporeal shadow monster form and spells to trick other people into thinking they're the werewolf is just too good a combo for me to pass up.
I also often give archer monsters an arcane shot from the arcane archer. Grasping shot on druid archers, beguiling or shadow shot on fey trickster archers and I also made a set of orc great bow man who could do the piercing shot. Similar modular abilities like spells, maneuvers and eldritch invocations also work well as once off abilities to put on monsters. Its a good chance to show off the flavorful but less used ones.
Oh, yeah, notice I gave the class levels to the war chief, not just the regular Orc. To jazz up some Orcs I would apply the Orc race to some bandits or something instead.
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbithole, and that means comfort.”
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So I am a fairly experienced dm, and I have run a few games and I’m really tired of fighting/ dming a fight with goblins, ghouls, orcs, skeletons, or cultists.
I want to know if anyone has any thing I can use as soldiers/ bbeg support that everyone hasn’t run a billion times or if not ways to change them up a bit.
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbithole, and that means comfort.”
There are a million answers to this question! With D&DBeyond you can filter down to any creature type and spend a little time considering what appeals to you.
I tend to run campaigns as a series of mini adventures. So the PCs go here and fight this for a few levels, then go there and fight that for a few levels, and so on. This kind of relieves the problem you are talking about. Helps keep things from getting too stale.
You might try that yourself. An example might go something like this...the PCs agree to help a town fight off a group of bandits led by a wood elf wizard who in turn is being influenced by a night hag coven with appropriate fey underlings who are, in turn, serving a powerful infernal like Titivilus. So the players start by fighting more standard fare though early levels then move on to fighting mid level fey creatures and then graduate to higher level fiends.
Just a suggestion. Good luck
Current Characters I am playing: Dr Konstantin van Wulf | Taegen Willowrun | Mad Magnar
Check out my homebrew: Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Feats
Maybe be a little more specific - for what challenge level? What type of adventure ie desert, dungeon, underwater etc What purpose ie cannon fodder, protection for the Villain, spell casters etc
Whenever I think this way, I always just thumb through the Monster Manual, Volo's, Fizban's, or Mordenkainen's, and mostly just look at the art and read the captions and see what monsters I'm more interested in, or had never given much attention before.
I included a (hopefully) cool yuan-ti plot hook in my pirate campaign that way, as well as a slaadi questline.
Basically, don't run a monster you're not interested in. Instead, figure out what monster interests you and make it work.
There's always Tucker's kobolds for an excellent example of how those "standard" enemies don't have to be boring - part of it might be that the fights become too samey if you don't add environment and variation.
Having said that, the list is nearly endless of possible variations - awakened animals with a dark druid ring, take them to sea and explore an underwater setting with different critters, have them walk through a fey or shadowfell portal - it sounds a little like you might be relying on a very "default" style of play.
People have already highlighted sources of inspiration - another could be to look through published modules but just pick out interesting parts to put into your own cmapaign (I've basically rarely run one of the WotC campaigns from start to finish, but rather drawn on them for ideas or locations to put into my own campaign).
Try using Young Kruthik for a "Zerg Hive" style adventure with the occasional Adult Kruthik or even a Kruthik Hive Lord as the end-boss. Set it up to where a large meteor slams into an area and cuts a deep canyon-like trench into the ground. It happened to have these strange alien monsters onboard and they are now making a home for themselves within the trench walls and starting to disrupt local villages and trade routes.
Thanks for that! Years ago, I used kobolds, and other puny NPCs just like that person does/did. Players in my game adventures learned to assume that any encounter could quickly become deadly.
I remember running a short adventure for a group of high-single-digit, chaotic evil murder hobos (all players had at least a couple years of experience). This was all in fun; a level-zero introduction to my DM style, with throw-away PCs. The player's instructions and incentive? All had to stick together 'till the end, unless killed of course. Anyone who could make it to the stopping point on the map alive would earn a special item for their first created character, and everyone's new characters would hold all the other goodies that they had gathered here. After the PCs hacked, slayed, and pillaged their way through one, sleepy human village, and burned a few farmhouses, they made their way to the next town. Long story short, they were lured into the town's grain mill, where those who lured them in disappeared, and barricaded the PCs inside. A half-dozen or so zero-level townsfolk died from the PCs arrows and sling bullets, as they emptied sacks of flour down on the PCS from the building's rafters. The PCs were engulfed in a choking cloud of flour. All remaining NPCs then fell back a safe distance, and remotely dropped a few lanterns from above (Hung by long ropes. The other end held well outside). The resulting explosion destroyed the mill, set fire to what was left of it, and killed all but two PCs outright. Those two survived by slipping into the mill pond, near the water wheel, and swimming away.
Before one assumes that playing with this DM is a sure-fire way to kill off a beloved character, know that there was always a great deal of fairness involved. If a character or party failed to attempt negotiations with an overwhelming force of (?), then failed to run, or ran, but then decided to make an unsupportable stand, or then ran but failed to jump into the nearby river, (and cross it,) sometime before that river went over a 300' drop, then that character or party may find themselves cut to pieces, or turned to messy pincushions, or forced off a high cliff at the end of this trail. I reward intelligent play; the consequences of thoughtless play are predetermined, and waiting.
Just another way at looking at the common folk, and the common monsters of a game setting.
Edit: added (and cross it,)
Humans.
Just as we see in this world, devoid of the other races, humans with strange motivations are problematic. Just because you want to overthrow a kingdom doesn't mean you are a cultist. It may mean you dislike the policies on (insert reason here) that the current ruling family/faction enacts. This has been the cause of many a war/revolt/upheaval in e.g. Europe in medieval times
Everyone else.
The bag guys can be anyone you can think of.
Porks! theyre just orcs but you make them look more pig like so they're pig people. Maybe throw in a wereboar.
Jokes aside there are lots of options to mix it up you might need to be more specific or there will basically be endless options.
Modifications
Some general modification ideas
For example I really like the idea of combing undead with various extra planar creatures as a kind of corpse possessed by a demon type thing. Elementals, fey, fiends and even celestial can all work to that end you just take monster abilities or spell effects you think match.
For example I made water elemental zombies that are accompanied by a rain cloud. They regen 10 hp a turn when in the rain and corpses left in the rain raise as zombies as well. They gained the ice weakness of the water elemental and I gave them a ranged attack that spits water. Combined with a water mage as the necromancer it works pretty well. You could also reflavour the nosferatu into a boss version with it's blood disgorge being a water spray instead.
Other monsters
As for other types of monsters to use as general fighters
Thanks ! Is it odd that I now want to use porks ? ; )
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbithole, and that means comfort.”
You should always use porks whenever applicable!😉
If I may use examples from my own games, Blights were very well received when I ran them, especially when I leaned into them having a vampiric connection. Devils also saw good use in my games, and particularly when I paired them with old-west styled gunslingers. In my current game I'm using modified versions of the elemental cultists from Princes of the Apocalypse, and at some point I'd like to run Vampires reskinned in the form of Darkest Dungeon's Bloodsuckers.
I’m always a big fan of a BBE that uses the locals as a means of defense. For example, a BBE who holds up underground and uses a nest of ropers, piercers, and darkmantles as a screen of defense. Stuff like that.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Solarsyphon summed it up perfectly. Just being able to take those generic NPC blocks that have the (any race) tag and apply the racial abilities can really throw off even the most bitter metagaming player. They see a squad of orcs protecting a bigger orc only to find a bunch of orc knight protecting an orog necromancer will really change the encounter.
Another tip I learned from other, more experienced DMs, is to always include the fact that monsters have goals. If the knight engage and fall back while the necromancer is looking through a stack of books and not engaging, the party has some serious decisions to make. Even squads of low CR monster become scary if there's an mysterious goal in place.
Oh yeah, applying player races to monsters is always fun, and easy. I’m also a fan of adding a small handful of class levels onto a monster to really spice things up. An Orc war chief becomes a heck of a lot scarier with Action Surge and a couple of Maneuvers.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Yeah, classes can work too I just find the generic npc stat block easier to port on to other monsters than full classes. I often use classes for bosses while a more common monster ill give just a feature.
I really like the idea of giving shadow sorcerer to a werewolf or loup garou as like a big boss monster on the same level of scheming as vampires. The combo of being able to summon shadow dogs, an incorporeal shadow monster form and spells to trick other people into thinking they're the werewolf is just too good a combo for me to pass up.
I also often give archer monsters an arcane shot from the arcane archer. Grasping shot on druid archers, beguiling or shadow shot on fey trickster archers and I also made a set of orc great bow man who could do the piercing shot. Similar modular abilities like spells, maneuvers and eldritch invocations also work well as once off abilities to put on monsters. Its a good chance to show off the flavorful but less used ones.
Oh, yeah, notice I gave the class levels to the war chief, not just the regular Orc. To jazz up some Orcs I would apply the Orc race to some bandits or something instead.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Here are some CR 1 to 3 suggestions.
Query1
Query1
Thx for the help!
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbithole, and that means comfort.”