As a player, few things create unforgettable encounters more than the realization that monsters are reacting and adapting to your strategies, leading to a battle of wit as much as of brawn. As a Dungeon Master, creating these believable enemies is an excellent way to inspire more entertaining encounters.

In this article, we’ll examine some methods for fleshing out monster mindsets and giving them plausible and engaging behaviors!

• Tactical Tiers
• Getting Motivated
• Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
• It’s a Trap!
• Tools for Tactics

Roll From Monster Stat Blocks on Maps!

Maps is the official virtual tabletop of D&D. It's accessible for Master Tier subscribers and allows you to populate your digital playspace with tokens and maps from your D&D Beyond library. On top of Maps' fog of war, drawing, and overlay features, you can plan and run encounters using the built-in Initiative tracker!

Once your monsters have sprung their ambush and combat begins, you can track your monster's Hit Points and roll from their stat block, giving you an all-in-one solution so you don't have to keep switching between tabs!

Tactical Tiers

Artist: Irina Nordsol

I find it helpful to sort my monsters into four homebrewed tiers of tactical capability. These tiers very broadly describe what level of complexity a monster might employ when using tactics. These tiers are very high level in their approach and don’t rigidly describe what a monster will do. Instead, they exist to put you in the right mindset when considering the tactics a monster would employ.

When thinking about what level of tactical complexity a monster might engage in, it’s important not to fall into the trap of looking purely at ability scores. Tactics aren’t solely determined by a creature's Intelligence or Wisdom scores. Instead, the ability to act intelligently in combat is the product of the creature's full capabilities.

Tier 0 - Mindless

Tier 0 represents mindless, unthinking creatures such as Zombies, Skeletons, many lower-CR Oozes, and some Constructs. Typically, these are monsters summoned into existence to serve a simple purpose or are programmed to carry out their orders.

Tier 1 - Instinctual

This tier covers creatures that use their instincts to survive. Many Beasts fall into this category, along with more animalistic Monstrosities like Owlbears and Griffons. These creatures use rudimentary tactics like stealth, ambushes, and group attacks to take down their prey.

Tier 2 - Cunning

The cunning tier is the broadest category of creatures, representing creatures who can employ not just instinctual tactics, but can also plan and execute abstract approaches to solving a problem. When in doubt, most sapient creatures are likely to fall into this tier.

Tier 3 - Masterminds

Masterminds are monsters who possess exceptional intelligence, awareness, and insight, and their ability to plan goes far beyond the norm. Think adult dragons, Beholders, Liches, Mummy Lords, and Pit Fiends. These enemies can outthink all but the most prepared parties with multi-staged machinations.

Getting Motivated

One of the most important questions to ask yourself when setting up a combat encounter is, “Why are the creatures fighting the characters?”

Without a clear goal or motivation, combat encounters can feel aimless and disconnected from the reality of the game. Generally speaking, enemies won’t fight to the death unless they have a really good reason to, or in the case of mindless enemies, don’t care about their mortality. Figuring out your monster's motivations can help you figure out their tactics. Some motivations include:

Stop the Heroes. The heroes are getting too close to the enemies’ final plan and must be stopped, or at least stalled. This could involve mindless and instinctual creatures being dispatched to slow the characters down rather than kill them. This allows the mastermind behind the plan to accomplish a goal they are close to completing.

Assassination. A plotting villain wants the heroes dead at any cost and doesn’t care how many minions they need to throw at them. Enemies engaging the characters this way are likely to use reckless and very destructive tactics that don’t care about collateral damage against their allies or even themselves. They might ambush the party, set fire to the tavern the characters are sleeping in, or summon a massive horde of mindless Zombies.

Snatch and Grab. The characters have something the mastermind villain wants, so they’ve sent their cunning minions to get it. The goal isn’t to fight the characters but to figure out which one has the item, take them down, and escape with it. The assailants must be smart about targeting the party to avoid dragging the fight out. They may try to spread the party thin and isolate each hero so it’s easier to incapacitate them and loot their possessions.

Protect the Nest. Instinctual creatures can be very defensive of their young. If the party stumbles across a Owlbear who seems ready to charge, it might be because they are defending their eggs. Once the party has been chased out of the owlbear's den, it won't pursue unless it has a good reason to.

There are as many motivations as there are stories to tell, so always give a moment to think about why the monsters are fighting and how they’re likely to best achieve this. A pack of Wolves driven by hunger will fight very differently from a band of brigands looking to relieve the characters of their gold. The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide includes advice on monster behavior, which encompasses monster traits, personality, and tactics they may use and how they might defend themselves.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

When it comes to using monsters tactically, multiple monsters are worth more than the sum of their parts. Many monsters working together can accomplish more complex strategies that may be impossible for a single monster.

A popular archetype for this approach is referred to as “Tucker’s Kobolds,” where you use a large number of weaker monsters employing ambushes, traps, misdirects, and other strategies to confuse and disorient the characters. The important thing to remember is that increasing the number of monsters in an encounter also increases the risk of dealing more damage to the party than expected. Try to avoid no more than two monsters per character, especially for your lower-level parties.

Misdirection

Misdirection is where you have a seemingly weak group of monsters attempting to lure the party into an unfavorable situation.

They could feign a retreat, attempt to raise the alarm, or pretend they haven’t noticed the party following them. The monsters then lure the party into an ambush, trap, or environment that gives the monster some advantage.

For example, a cunning creature with Immunity to Fire damage might try to lure the party into a room filled with bubbling pools of lava and then cut off their retreat.

Ambushes

An ambush can be a great way to add depth to your combat encounter, yet it is fairly simple in practice. An ambush can be positioned anywhere that the creatures would have reason to believe the characters will be, as long as there's suitable concealment. Then, at the opportune moment, they strike.

When running ambushes, it’s helpful to refer to the rules for surprise and hiding.

Reinforcements

Sometimes, a monster needs a little backup, which is where reinforcements come in. Reinforcements provide three benefits when running an encounter:

1. It makes the fight have a dynamic progression.
2. It allows you to add variety to the fight by bringing in different types of monsters.
3. It allows you, the DM, to fine-tune the encounter's difficulty on the fly.

The important thing to remember when employing reinforcements as a monster tactic is to ensure it doesn’t feel cheap or grueling. You don’t want too many waves; otherwise, the fight will drag on and lose momentum. You also want to signal to the players that reinforcements are coming so it doesn’t feel arbitrary.

A good way to do this is through some kind of magical summon, an alarm, or some other clear action an enemy takes to summon their allies. A Goblin Boss shouldn't just materialize a wave of Goblin archers to support her. Instead, she pulls out an engraved horn and blows on it, sending out a booming noise that is met by the rising cacophony of goblin cheers and cries.

A good rule of thumb is every wave of reinforcements should leave just enough time for the players to decide if they’re going to flee or brace themselves.

It’s a Trap!

A prepared enemy is a dangerous enemy, and there is no better way to prepare for an intruder than by setting traps. Cunning and mastermind creatures may place traps around their stronghold for would-be invaders to stumble into. If the defenders are alerted to the invader's presence, they could also use misdirection tactics to lead them into their prepared traps.

The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide includes several ready-made traps for your monsters to utilize.

When using traps, try to think about how and why the creatures would use them. Invaders can be directed into traps with the proverbial “stick and carrot” approach; there is either something driving them into the trap, the “stick,” or something luring them into it, the “carrot:”

Stick. The characters run into an ambush that has a seemingly simple way of escape. Unbeknownst to them, their egress is riddled with spiked pits. 

Carrot. The stronghold's inhabitants might place all their loot in a room that can only be accessed through a corridor lined with poisoned darts.

Tools for Tactics

Adding tactical depth to your encounters may involve more moving parts, so having the right tools can make things much easier. For the examples provided in this article, I have been using Maps, the official D&D VTT. Here are some ways I use Maps to help run more tactical encounters.

Draw Feature. The Draw feature lets you mark areas of the map, which is invaluable when you need to note down if a trap has been activated or an object has been moved to block a door. Remember that anything drawn with this feature is visible to your players.

Monster Tokens. Adding tokens to the map lets you visualize where your monsters begin the encounter. If fighting erupts in a separate room, you can move tokens around to position them for ambushes or send them into the room as reinforcements. You can use the Hide option to prevent players from seeing the tokens of hidden monsters, even when they are in areas not obscured behind fog of war.

Overlays. Overlays are a great way to track traps, hazards, and other elements of the environment. The tool has square, circle, cone, and line options, as well as a selection of colors and icons so you can clearly mark out lots of different encounter elements. This can be combined with the Hide option, allowing you to surprise your party when they stumble into a trap. 

Combat Encounters. Using Combat Encounters built directly into Maps, you can add monsters on the fly, perfect for when your cunning or mastermind villains call for reinforcements! You can also roll directly from a monster's stat blocks, so you can easily roll their Dexterity (Stealth) checks to see if their ambush is a success.

Now You’re Thinking with Tactics

Hopefully, this article will provide you with some inspiration on how to add more tactical depth to your combat encounters and get more bang for your buck with your monsters.

By approaching combat with mentality, motivation, and tactics in mind, you can bring depth to your encounters, which will help engage your players and lead to more fun in your sessions!

Davyd is a moderator for D&D Beyond. A Dungeon Master of over fifteen years, he enjoys Marvel movies, writing, and of course running D&D for his friends and family, including his daughter Willow (well, one day). The three of them live with their two cats Asker and Khatleesi in South of England.