My players all know a lot about some of the most power full and fun to use monsters in the book like vampires or the beholder. What are some home brews that keep the cool narrative of these monsters that change how they work in and out of combat?
Look at the Curse of Strahd for some ways he is different.
Add a body guard for the vampire. In a game I'm going to run the vampire is going to have made a deal with a Raksasha. This means that any time the vampire is out he has his own personal body guard.
Adding player classes helps make a monster unique and different. The environment is a huge alteration that is seldom taken into consideration.
For example a vampire who is fighting the PCs on the third floor has his balcony door open. He runs towards the exit and surprises the PCs by jumping straight down turning to mist as he lands. You could have him land in a pool. The pool has an escape cave built into the bottom. It will probably take the PCs a couple of rounds to realize that a pool isn't running water.
Adding player class abilities is my favorite way of spicing up a classic monster.
One of the most memorable fights I've run involved a vampire who had some shadow monk abilities. Having a vampire who could teleport to and from any of the shadows in his ruined cathedral lair made for a very tense and dynamic fight.
That fight wouldn't have been nearly as engaging to my players if it was in an open field. Having an interesting and dynamic lair helps make fights more memorable. In a beholder fight for example, maybe after the players have done a certain amount of damage, the beholder becomes enraged and starts blasting away at pillars holding its lair together. This could provide the PCs with new problems like avoiding pieces of falling roof or limited movement due to difficult terrain.
There's always the tried and true method of adding an elemental influence to a creature. Maybe your party is tired of fighting bears. Well they hear about a rumor of a bear with an impenetrable hide, which turns out to be an earth elemental bear, or a stone bear. Give it a boost to AC, some abilities from the earth elemental, and you have a cool lead-in to a nature-gone-awry quest, where elemental influences are bleeding into the prime material plane.
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My players all know a lot about some of the most power full and fun to use monsters in the book like vampires or the beholder. What are some home brews that keep the cool narrative of these monsters that change how they work in and out of combat?
Look at the Curse of Strahd for some ways he is different.
Add a body guard for the vampire. In a game I'm going to run the vampire is going to have made a deal with a Raksasha. This means that any time the vampire is out he has his own personal body guard.
Adding player classes helps make a monster unique and different. The environment is a huge alteration that is seldom taken into consideration.
For example a vampire who is fighting the PCs on the third floor has his balcony door open. He runs towards the exit and surprises the PCs by jumping straight down turning to mist as he lands. You could have him land in a pool. The pool has an escape cave built into the bottom. It will probably take the PCs a couple of rounds to realize that a pool isn't running water.
Adding player class abilities is my favorite way of spicing up a classic monster.
One of the most memorable fights I've run involved a vampire who had some shadow monk abilities. Having a vampire who could teleport to and from any of the shadows in his ruined cathedral lair made for a very tense and dynamic fight.
That fight wouldn't have been nearly as engaging to my players if it was in an open field. Having an interesting and dynamic lair helps make fights more memorable. In a beholder fight for example, maybe after the players have done a certain amount of damage, the beholder becomes enraged and starts blasting away at pillars holding its lair together. This could provide the PCs with new problems like avoiding pieces of falling roof or limited movement due to difficult terrain.
Sheep in wolf's clothing
There's always the tried and true method of adding an elemental influence to a creature. Maybe your party is tired of fighting bears. Well they hear about a rumor of a bear with an impenetrable hide, which turns out to be an earth elemental bear, or a stone bear. Give it a boost to AC, some abilities from the earth elemental, and you have a cool lead-in to a nature-gone-awry quest, where elemental influences are bleeding into the prime material plane.