Hey everyone, I'm back (trying) to be active on here again!

Recently I've been making some variant monsters for my campaign, and that includes a revamp of trolls which are quicker and more vicious than the regular trolls are in D&D. To achieve this, rather than adding more damage, I have added the ability to (instead of using claw damage) throw a creature which is smaller than them 30ft. away. The idea is to convey through the narrative that they are fast, vicious, and scary, and then emphasize it when the party tank is flung over their shoulder and they continue on to the rest of them!

I also recently created a set of hunter assassins who are equipped with abilities from other monsters, including one with umber hulk armour who can cause confusion if looked at, have the gloomstalker "invisible to darkvision" ability, and can teleport if no-one can see them. They're going to be tricky - first the players will want to be able to see them, then they will want to not see them, then they will not know what to do!

So, when you're homebrewing monsters, what abilities do you enjoy putting on them? What are your favourite combos? Anything you want to show off?

Hello, I've made some homebrew monsters, though I haven't really used them yet. However, I enjoy adding attacks that do more then simply damage the PCs. Ie, I have a monster that attacks with open palms, and since it is a large size, I have it so when it hits them, it slams them to the floor.

I like giving monsters the ability to shapeshift into a specific animal. Maybe all trolls can turn into toads or boars, a specific hag can transform into a beaver, ogres can disguise themselves as trees.

I also usually buff large fights by adding a hundred or so hp to their health points since most battles only seem to last a few rounds.

My current campaign involves some extradimensional goop that can take on various forms. In most circumstances where goop monsters appear, I just roll on a table of monster abilities to determine what each of them can do. Some of my favorites are the Tlincalli's Sting (moderate poison damage which Poisons on a failed save or Paralyzes on a severely failed save), the Boneclaw's Deadly Reach (make an attack as a reaction when a creature enters a space within 15 feet of the monster) and the Darkmantle's Darkness Aura (15ft of magical darkness that moves with the monster).

Recently though, my favorite trick has been giving the goop monsters class abilities. Nothing freaks out players like encountering an eldritch horror that can Action Surge, Sneak Attack, or (in my favorite case so far) Smite. Not only does this present a new gameplay challenge, it also implies the monsters are much smarter than the players realized.

It doesn't trigger much, but I love the idea of Dyrrn's "Alien Mind" feature. It's full of flavor, and I'm surprised it didn't show up in all aberration blocks.

I like to add more legendary actions. Five or seven leads to combats that produce greater attrition for the party. It's an imperfect solution, because attrition isn't compelling, but when you're trying to stretch two encounters into "six to eight per day" it can be significant.

I like adding Trample from 3.5 Edition to Huge or Gargantuan monsters.