1) The optimal strategy is charge into the PCs on turn two, after poisoning the front PCs on turn one. Since the herzou is stupid, say that it’s a bully, and prefers to target the weakest, but first has to prove its own strength by fighting the front line.
2) Hezrou encounter: Have them fight it in a small room. As the room is small, they’ll have a hard time standing far enough to avoid being poisoned, and they’ll have a hard time keeping the spellcasters out of its reach.
3) Hezrou encounter: Have it attack them in a long, twisting hallway. Only the PC in front can fight the herzou, unless they can lead it past a room, after which a second PC can exit and attack from the other direction.
4)nHerzou encounter: Have it be busy (tearing a corpse apart) next to the door. If more than one PC is to fight, they’ll have to run through, taking an opportunity attack. (Not a big deal, except players are so reluctant to do this.)
5) Herzou encounter: If you can split them up, (maybe by giving a puzzle that needs moving around, and not telling them about the herzou), they’ll have to come to the rescue fast. Oh, and this is a monster that you don’t want to step near to. Good luck!
6) Herzou encounter: Give them goals that aren’t fighting. In fact, they can’t fight. (Low-level, too many encounters, time limit…) The herzou is a fun dumb monster to have to avoid while it runs after them, breaking furniture and causing mayhem.
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DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
1) Manes give off a horrid smell when they die. Logically, this should trigger an alarm. To give fair warning, let them kill a manes when it doesn’t matter, and make a show of describing the smell. Letting them know there are dogs around will also help.
2) You could have an NPC guide warn them not to kill the manes sentry, as the smell will set off the alarm. The challenge will be taking out the manes without killing it. Manes are stupid enough to walk into almost any trap.
3) Manes reform after dying, so if you can place a number of manes guarding an important location, the players will have to battle them each time. Increase the difficulty via terrain collapse, having to climb in, or pursuers, to keep it interesting.
4) Since manes are so low level, they work well as a constant slow stream of enemies that will keep emerging until the player find a way to close the summoning circle. I suggest a puzzle which will cause them to split up to pull different levers.
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DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
1) The maralith doesn’t get one parry a turn, it gets one reaction a turn. Given that it’s supposed to lead armies into battle, have it place itself between the PCs. As soon as they try to reposition, it can hit them, possibly with its tail attack [which grapples].
2) The maralith can use its teleport to teleport above their heads, landing among them and possibly knocking some of them to the floor. Logically, those PCs should count as grappled until the maralith stops standing on top of them.
3) The maralith is also deadly in the middle of a trap room, where the traps fire on predetermined spots every initiative 20. It can stand among them, use parry when it wants to leave them, and is resistant to common trap damage types.
4) Combat scenario: A room of platforms and rope bridges. The players have to throw several levers before they can defeat the maralith (to prevent rising waters). The maralith will block them, and can attack and take down bridges.
5) Combat scenario: The maralith has obtained important information. As killing it will send it to the Abyss, they have to capture it instead. They’ve been given a net trap they can trigger, but they have to disarm the maralith first. Six times.
6) Unusual combat scenario: (Because the maralith slithering toward the players is cool.) The malalith’s magic is out of whack, causing it to teleport to a random location each turn. As the fight proceeds, more random effects start to materialize.
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DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
Monster Manual. It's in the 2014 edition, so should also be in the 2024 edition.
Honestly, the Marilith is pretty boring. A lot of attacks does not a General make. I would add a few Wizard/Sorc spells to their arsenal, up to level 4. Stuff like Shield, Thunderstep, and Wall of Stone. Ranged attacks are a big glaring weakness that they should have ways to deal with besides spending their whole action to teleport.
Honestly, the Marilith is pretty boring. A lot of attacks does not a General make. I would add a few Wizard/Sorc spells to their arsenal, up to level 4. Stuff like Shield, Thunderstep, and Wall of Stone. Ranged attacks are a big glaring weakness that they should have ways to deal with besides spending their whole action to teleport.
I object to this. My point in my last list of 6 ways was that the maralith does not need to be boring, even without changing its rules. I'm not certain what will happen once 5.5e Monster Manual comes out, but the fact that it can take one reaction a turn is unique, and potentially powerful. (I have a website where I speak out the monsters at greater length than I do here. You can view it at https://dragonencounters.com/maralith-a-whirlwind-of-constant-attacks/
Moving on
6 Ways to Use… Nalfshnee
1) Roleplaying a nalfshnee: The nalfshnee will lead with dialogue, making a show of being cultured, while proposing ideas that are beyond revolting. For example, calling on them to surrender, so they can be tortured to death in a more dignified manner.
2) Have the nalfshnee walk into their midst, preferably while giving the impression that it’s bargaining with them, and then activate horror nimbus to force them all away from each other. Add enemies coming in from the sides.
3) The nalfshnee is sitting on a chair, only to teleport away as the PCs come near. The chair is connected to a rope, which runs through a pulley and connects to a rope trap. The nalfshnee’s weight was the thing keeping the net up.
4) In the middle of a battle, possibly involving allies [other] traps, the nalfshnee flies up and attacks one of the pillars. It turns out that that pillar was supporting the floor, which now gives way and dumps everybody but the nalfshnee into a pit.
5) If the nalfshnee starts losing, he’ll call a ceasefire so he can show the players that he has hostages, who will be killed if they don’t surrender immediately. If they do surrender, the PCs will be killed instead of the prisoners.
6) The nalfshnee is willing to die (outside of the Abyss) if it will have the moral victory. For example, attacking civilians. Even though this leaves it exposed to the PC attacks, it will accept the tradeoff if it will make the players miserable.
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DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
Honestly, the Marilith is pretty boring. A lot of attacks does not a General make. I would add a few Wizard/Sorc spells to their arsenal, up to level 4. Stuff like Shield, Thunderstep, and Wall of Stone. Ranged attacks are a big glaring weakness that they should have ways to deal with besides spending their whole action to teleport.
I object to this. My point in my last list of 6 ways was that the maralith does not need to be boring, even without changing its rules. I'm not certain what will happen once 5.5e Monster Manual comes out, but the fact that it can take one reaction a turn is unique, and potentially powerful. (I have a website where I speak out the monsters at greater length than I do here. You can view it at https://dragonencounters.com/maralith-a-whirlwind-of-constant-attacks/
Any creature without ranged attacks but very strong set of melee attacks will get sniped by PCs if they have that option. Unless they are fighting in a small room or other confined space, PCs (esp since Tasha's Cauldron) will generally have mobility options by the time they get to level 5 or 6 so that at least a few of them will be untouchable by Marilith. It's either that, or add several demons/summonables that specifically go after ranged foes. The other option is the homebrew a bit and make the Marilith's Teleportation ability a Bonus Action instead of an Action.
1) Quasit familiar: Personify a familiar by having it speak up occasionally, although not too often. The quasit’s will speak up to suggest violence, but will have a decent grasp on when it’s deserved. (If its suggestions are nonsense, it will be ignored.)
2) Whether as familiar or enemy, the quasit will take delight is scaring people. When attacking is out of the picture (if it’s a familiar, or because it will just get killed), perhaps in its animal form. Have it freak out an NPC in a way that affects the gme.
3) Have a hostile quasit spy on the adventurers, and keep sending monsters their way. They can find out about the spy when it steps on a shelf and knocks down items, and can catch it with dust, by watching the curtain’s movements, and in similar ways.
4) Give them a puzzle where they have to carry around various things, such as containers full of liquid, before enemies arrive. The quasit will use invisibility to ambush them, to get them to drop/spill the containers, trying to slow them.
5) In a scenerio where the players are trying to stay ahead of a pursuing force, have the quasit scare one of them, and then stand on a stature where it can’t easily be attacked. That players can’t move on while the quasit is there, because fear.
6) Combat encounter: The players are in a large room with a number of levers. Every round, one or more levers start flashing, and have to be pulled to prevent some kind of damage. There are a number of quasits flying around, making this challenging.
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DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
1) Place the shadow demons in a dark room, with doors/windows/skylights that can be opened to light up large parts of the room. They are locked/jammed/heigh-up/otherwise hard to reach.
2) Fighting an enemy that can’t be pinned down is frustrating. Consider giving the players a different objective, such as to reach a certain area. The shadow demons will be making ambush attacks, and trying to stop them moving forward.
3) Keep track of hiding places. The shadow demons will use them to attack PCs from behind, and even if a hiding place is empty when the PCs check it, they can travel through the floor or walls to fill it afterwards.
4) A staircase, especially a spiral staircase, is a wonderful place for a shadow demon ambush. It can come at them through the stairs, either from above or below, and then retreat that same turn.
5) A locked door is a powerful obstacle to combine with a shadow demon. You can’t pick a lock when it keeps attacking you through the door, and ramming it generally means that you aren’t holding a weapon.
6) For max difficulty, it’s hard to beat a narrow ledge alongside a drop, with missing parts. The shadow demon can attack through the ledge, or could ready actions to attack PCs jumping missing gaps, which should give disadvantage on jumping.
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DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
Do you read The Monsters Know What They're Doing by Keith Amman? It's a really cool blog/book series about 5E, quite similar to this. Tbh between this and those articles you have everything you need to run a monster well.
Do you read The Monsters Know What They're Doing by Keith Amman? It's a really cool blog/book series about 5E, quite similar to this. Tbh between this and those articles you have everything you need to run a monster well.
Thank you. I got the idea for my blog (that these posts are based off of) from admiring his blog and wondering what I could do to add on to his idea.
6 Ways to Use… Vrock
1) Place the vrock on a high area. Every time its spores recharge, it will fly down and use them. If they climb up to it, it will wait for the last second and then stunning shriek will send them tumbling down.
2) Give them a heavy object to carry to a designated spot. It’s hard to do without bunching up, and exposing themselves to spores. Also, stunning screech might cause them to drop it, and let the vrock push it off a nearby cliff.
3) Have them be swimming or diving for something when a vrock arrives. They’re safe from it underwater, but I’d give them disadvantage fighting a flying enemy while swimming, and stunning screech will be lethal in water.
4) Use the vrock as the steed for a powerful villain with distance attacks, (such as a ringwraith). Normal methods of taking down the steed won’t work. The vrock has a lot of HP, fly spells will lose concentration due to spores, and screech is a special ace.
5) Vrocks collect treasure. Establish that when you kill a fiend, its belongings return to the Abyss with it in an earlier fight, then give the vrock(s) satchels. The players will have to remove them before they kill the vrock if they want the treasure.
6) As the players win a fight, several vrocks arrive and start grabbing the treasure. Watch your players panic! For extra challenge, the vrocks are too much for them, they’ll have to be careful to grab treasure without picking an impossible fight.
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DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
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6 Ways to Use… Hezrou
1) The optimal strategy is charge into the PCs on turn two, after poisoning the front PCs on turn one. Since the herzou is stupid, say that it’s a bully, and prefers to target the weakest, but first has to prove its own strength by fighting the front line.
2) Hezrou encounter: Have them fight it in a small room. As the room is small, they’ll have a hard time standing far enough to avoid being poisoned, and they’ll have a hard time keeping the spellcasters out of its reach.
3) Hezrou encounter: Have it attack them in a long, twisting hallway. Only the PC in front can fight the herzou, unless they can lead it past a room, after which a second PC can exit and attack from the other direction.
4)nHerzou encounter: Have it be busy (tearing a corpse apart) next to the door. If more than one PC is to fight, they’ll have to run through, taking an opportunity attack. (Not a big deal, except players are so reluctant to do this.)
5) Herzou encounter: If you can split them up, (maybe by giving a puzzle that needs moving around, and not telling them about the herzou), they’ll have to come to the rescue fast. Oh, and this is a monster that you don’t want to step near to. Good luck!
6) Herzou encounter: Give them goals that aren’t fighting. In fact, they can’t fight. (Low-level, too many encounters, time limit…) The herzou is a fun dumb monster to have to avoid while it runs after them, breaking furniture and causing mayhem.
DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
4 Ways to Use… Manes
1) Manes give off a horrid smell when they die. Logically, this should trigger an alarm. To give fair warning, let them kill a manes when it doesn’t matter, and make a show of describing the smell. Letting them know there are dogs around will also help.
2) You could have an NPC guide warn them not to kill the manes sentry, as the smell will set off the alarm. The challenge will be taking out the manes without killing it. Manes are stupid enough to walk into almost any trap.
3) Manes reform after dying, so if you can place a number of manes guarding an important location, the players will have to battle them each time. Increase the difficulty via terrain collapse, having to climb in, or pursuers, to keep it interesting.
4) Since manes are so low level, they work well as a constant slow stream of enemies that will keep emerging until the player find a way to close the summoning circle. I suggest a puzzle which will cause them to split up to pull different levers.
DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
6 Ways to Use… Maralith
1) The maralith doesn’t get one parry a turn, it gets one reaction a turn. Given that it’s supposed to lead armies into battle, have it place itself between the PCs. As soon as they try to reposition, it can hit them, possibly with its tail attack [which grapples].
2) The maralith can use its teleport to teleport above their heads, landing among them and possibly knocking some of them to the floor. Logically, those PCs should count as grappled until the maralith stops standing on top of them.
3) The maralith is also deadly in the middle of a trap room, where the traps fire on predetermined spots every initiative 20. It can stand among them, use parry when it wants to leave them, and is resistant to common trap damage types.
4) Combat scenario: A room of platforms and rope bridges. The players have to throw several levers before they can defeat the maralith (to prevent rising waters). The maralith will block them, and can attack and take down bridges.
5) Combat scenario: The maralith has obtained important information. As killing it will send it to the Abyss, they have to capture it instead. They’ve been given a net trap they can trigger, but they have to disarm the maralith first. Six times.
6) Unusual combat scenario: (Because the maralith slithering toward the players is cool.) The malalith’s magic is out of whack, causing it to teleport to a random location each turn. As the fight proceeds, more random effects start to materialize.
DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
Hold up, what book is the maralith in?
Monster Manual. It's in the 2014 edition, so should also be in the 2024 edition.
Honestly, the Marilith is pretty boring. A lot of attacks does not a General make. I would add a few Wizard/Sorc spells to their arsenal, up to level 4. Stuff like Shield, Thunderstep, and Wall of Stone. Ranged attacks are a big glaring weakness that they should have ways to deal with besides spending their whole action to teleport.
I object to this. My point in my last list of 6 ways was that the maralith does not need to be boring, even without changing its rules. I'm not certain what will happen once 5.5e Monster Manual comes out, but the fact that it can take one reaction a turn is unique, and potentially powerful. (I have a website where I speak out the monsters at greater length than I do here. You can view it at https://dragonencounters.com/maralith-a-whirlwind-of-constant-attacks/
Moving on
6 Ways to Use… Nalfshnee
1) Roleplaying a nalfshnee: The nalfshnee will lead with dialogue, making a show of being cultured, while proposing ideas that are beyond revolting. For example, calling on them to surrender, so they can be tortured to death in a more dignified manner.
2) Have the nalfshnee walk into their midst, preferably while giving the impression that it’s bargaining with them, and then activate horror nimbus to force them all away from each other. Add enemies coming in from the sides.
3) The nalfshnee is sitting on a chair, only to teleport away as the PCs come near. The chair is connected to a rope, which runs through a pulley and connects to a rope trap. The nalfshnee’s weight was the thing keeping the net up.
4) In the middle of a battle, possibly involving allies [other] traps, the nalfshnee flies up and attacks one of the pillars. It turns out that that pillar was supporting the floor, which now gives way and dumps everybody but the nalfshnee into a pit.
5) If the nalfshnee starts losing, he’ll call a ceasefire so he can show the players that he has hostages, who will be killed if they don’t surrender immediately. If they do surrender, the PCs will be killed instead of the prisoners.
6) The nalfshnee is willing to die (outside of the Abyss) if it will have the moral victory. For example, attacking civilians. Even though this leaves it exposed to the PC attacks, it will accept the tradeoff if it will make the players miserable.
DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
Any creature without ranged attacks but very strong set of melee attacks will get sniped by PCs if they have that option. Unless they are fighting in a small room or other confined space, PCs (esp since Tasha's Cauldron) will generally have mobility options by the time they get to level 5 or 6 so that at least a few of them will be untouchable by Marilith. It's either that, or add several demons/summonables that specifically go after ranged foes. The other option is the homebrew a bit and make the Marilith's Teleportation ability a Bonus Action instead of an Action.
6 Ways to Use… Quasit
1) Quasit familiar: Personify a familiar by having it speak up occasionally, although not too often. The quasit’s will speak up to suggest violence, but will have a decent grasp on when it’s deserved. (If its suggestions are nonsense, it will be ignored.)
2) Whether as familiar or enemy, the quasit will take delight is scaring people. When attacking is out of the picture (if it’s a familiar, or because it will just get killed), perhaps in its animal form. Have it freak out an NPC in a way that affects the gme.
3) Have a hostile quasit spy on the adventurers, and keep sending monsters their way. They can find out about the spy when it steps on a shelf and knocks down items, and can catch it with dust, by watching the curtain’s movements, and in similar ways.
4) Give them a puzzle where they have to carry around various things, such as containers full of liquid, before enemies arrive. The quasit will use invisibility to ambush them, to get them to drop/spill the containers, trying to slow them.
5) In a scenerio where the players are trying to stay ahead of a pursuing force, have the quasit scare one of them, and then stand on a stature where it can’t easily be attacked. That players can’t move on while the quasit is there, because fear.
6) Combat encounter: The players are in a large room with a number of levers. Every round, one or more levers start flashing, and have to be pulled to prevent some kind of damage. There are a number of quasits flying around, making this challenging.
DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
6 Ways to Use… Shadow Demon
1) Place the shadow demons in a dark room, with doors/windows/skylights that can be opened to light up large parts of the room. They are locked/jammed/heigh-up/otherwise hard to reach.
2) Fighting an enemy that can’t be pinned down is frustrating. Consider giving the players a different objective, such as to reach a certain area. The shadow demons will be making ambush attacks, and trying to stop them moving forward.
3) Keep track of hiding places. The shadow demons will use them to attack PCs from behind, and even if a hiding place is empty when the PCs check it, they can travel through the floor or walls to fill it afterwards.
4) A staircase, especially a spiral staircase, is a wonderful place for a shadow demon ambush. It can come at them through the stairs, either from above or below, and then retreat that same turn.
5) A locked door is a powerful obstacle to combine with a shadow demon. You can’t pick a lock when it keeps attacking you through the door, and ramming it generally means that you aren’t holding a weapon.
6) For max difficulty, it’s hard to beat a narrow ledge alongside a drop, with missing parts. The shadow demon can attack through the ledge, or could ready actions to attack PCs jumping missing gaps, which should give disadvantage on jumping.
DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
Do you read The Monsters Know What They're Doing by Keith Amman? It's a really cool blog/book series about 5E, quite similar to this. Tbh between this and those articles you have everything you need to run a monster well.
Quote from MiscMiniMan >>
Thank you. I got the idea for my blog (that these posts are based off of) from admiring his blog and wondering what I could do to add on to his idea.
6 Ways to Use… Vrock
1) Place the vrock on a high area. Every time its spores recharge, it will fly down and use them. If they climb up to it, it will wait for the last second and then stunning shriek will send them tumbling down.
2) Give them a heavy object to carry to a designated spot. It’s hard to do without bunching up, and exposing themselves to spores. Also, stunning screech might cause them to drop it, and let the vrock push it off a nearby cliff.
3) Have them be swimming or diving for something when a vrock arrives. They’re safe from it underwater, but I’d give them disadvantage fighting a flying enemy while swimming, and stunning screech will be lethal in water.
4) Use the vrock as the steed for a powerful villain with distance attacks, (such as a ringwraith). Normal methods of taking down the steed won’t work. The vrock has a lot of HP, fly spells will lose concentration due to spores, and screech is a special ace.
5) Vrocks collect treasure. Establish that when you kill a fiend, its belongings return to the Abyss with it in an earlier fight, then give the vrock(s) satchels. The players will have to remove them before they kill the vrock if they want the treasure.
6) As the players win a fight, several vrocks arrive and start grabbing the treasure. Watch your players panic! For extra challenge, the vrocks are too much for them, they’ll have to be careful to grab treasure without picking an impossible fight.
DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)