Hello, folks. I thought I should share some ideas of some monsters I liked to use when I used to be able to play this game. If this thread gets a lot of praise I might make some more ideas for you guys. Right now, here are a few to mention.
War Priest: CR 9 (Volo’s Guide to Monsters)
You can introduce a religious fanatic who believes the world is so full of sinners that the only way to cleanse it is to purge by fire. No one will be safe from this mad man’s rampage. It could be alone on its quest, or you can make it have some followers. The best thing about that is you don’t have to make its minions priests or paladins. Any humanoid creature can be persuaded (or brainwashed) to join the cult. They could have a church as their headquarters and you can even make them be an oppressive authority of a village for some extra difficulty of not being burned at the stake.
Regardless of the party being good or not, the war priest is evil by the ignorance of how it carries its faith. I suggest keeping all damage to radiant instead of necrotic as the book suggests because otherwise it would take away from the theme. Whether alone, or with a group of fanatical followers, it could make an interesting villain for the party.
Spawn of Kyuss: CR 5 (Volo’s Guide to Monsters)
Using this in a zombie horde adventure instead of your normal zombie could make a more frightening campaign. It’s ability shares the same effects of a typical zombie movie or game. Your zombie adventure will be a lot more exciting when your party has to worry about getting infected from just one of these walking undead horrors. Not to mention it can regenerate and only dies if it starts its turn with 0 hit points. This is a great way to get your party scared of dealing with a zombie if you’re looking to make that kind of a campaign.
Dinosaurs: CR 1/4 to 8 (Various)
In general, dinosaurs are just awesome no matter what, but hard to put in a campaign. Although there are living dinosaurs in Forgotten Realms Chult and other places, they are still quite rare, much to the dismay of your local druid. You can get around this by pulling off a Jurassic Park adventure. Just have some wizards do some resurrection magic on their fossils and a noble who purchased a lot of land to create a park and you’re good to go. It may be hard to find fossils, but screw the rules: the noble has money. Make this a survival adventure and you and the group could have a lot of fun with this, especially for the druid who can now transform into a t-rex.
Arch Druid: CR 12 (Volo’s Guide to Monsters)
Druids being all about nature usually doesn’t make them bad, but when towns and kingdoms have continuously destroyed the beauty of nature the druids have sworn to protect, whether it be for land expansion or greed, they will reach a breaking point, and prepare for war. Merchant caverns will be raided, buildings will burn, and people will die, all the while the sovereigns that caused this behavior remain ignorant. Aside from lesser druids, an Arch Druid can have any manner of beasts and plant creatures to join in the war against civilization through their connection with nature. The difficulty of this adventure isn’t actually the enemies, but how the party should handle such a delicate situation. If you’re looking to create something with a moral dilemma this could be the way to go.
Hello, folks. I thought I should share some ideas of some monsters I liked to use when I used to be able to play this game. If this thread gets a lot of praise I might make some more ideas for you guys. Right now, here are a few to mention.
War Priest: CR 9 (Volo’s Guide to Monsters)
You can introduce a religious fanatic who believes the world is so full of sinners that the only way to cleanse it is to purge by fire. No one will be safe from this mad man’s rampage. It could be alone on its quest, or you can make it have some followers. The best thing about that is you don’t have to make its minions priests or paladins. Any humanoid creature can be persuaded (or brainwashed) to join the cult. They could have a church as their headquarters and you can even make them be an oppressive authority of a village for some extra difficulty of not being burned at the stake.
Regardless of the party being good or not, the war priest is evil by the ignorance of how it carries its faith. I suggest keeping all damage to radiant instead of necrotic as the book suggests because otherwise it would take away from the theme. Whether alone, or with a group of fanatical followers, it could make an interesting villain for the party.
Spawn of Kyuss: CR 5 (Volo’s Guide to Monsters)
Using this in a zombie horde adventure instead of your normal zombie could make a more frightening campaign. It’s ability shares the same effects of a typical zombie movie or game. Your zombie adventure will be a lot more exciting when your party has to worry about getting infected from just one of these walking undead horrors. Not to mention it can regenerate and only dies if it starts its turn with 0 hit points. This is a great way to get your party scared of dealing with a zombie if you’re looking to make that kind of a campaign.
Dinosaurs: CR 1/4 to 8 (Various)
In general, dinosaurs are just awesome no matter what, but hard to put in a campaign. Although there are living dinosaurs in Forgotten Realms Chult and other places, they are still quite rare, much to the dismay of your local druid. You can get around this by pulling off a Jurassic Park adventure. Just have some wizards do some resurrection magic on their fossils and a noble who purchased a lot of land to create a park and you’re good to go. It may be hard to find fossils, but screw the rules: the noble has money. Make this a survival adventure and you and the group could have a lot of fun with this, especially for the druid who can now transform into a t-rex.
Arch Druid: CR 12 (Volo’s Guide to Monsters)
Druids being all about nature usually doesn’t make them bad, but when towns and kingdoms have continuously destroyed the beauty of nature the druids have sworn to protect, whether it be for land expansion or greed, they will reach a breaking point, and prepare for war. Merchant caverns will be raided, buildings will burn, and people will die, all the while the sovereigns that caused this behavior remain ignorant. Aside from lesser druids, an Arch Druid can have any manner of beasts and plant creatures to join in the war against civilization through their connection with nature. The difficulty of this adventure isn’t actually the enemies, but how the party should handle such a delicate situation. If you’re looking to create something with a moral dilemma this could be the way to go.
Jurassic park sounds fun for my group.