defends instead are building

Glabbagool

Monsters Out of the Abyss

the Underdark has granted Glabbagool sentience and awareness. The ooze is genuinely curious about other creatures and wants to learn more about the world. It defends itself if attacked, but doesn't

otherwise try to harm the characters, instead asking who they are, where they come from, and why they have come to the temple.

Feather of Diatryma Summoning

Magic Items Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

’t be used again until 7 days have passed. The diatryma uses the statistics of an axe beak, except that its beak deals piercing damage instead of slashing damage. The creature is friendly to you

and your companions, and it can be used as a mount. It understands your languages and obeys your spoken commands. If you issue no commands, the diatryma defends itself but takes no other actions.

Baba Lysaga's Creeping Hut

Monsters Curse of Strahd

attacks with its flailing and stomping roots. It can also use its roots to fling large rocks. Hut Interior. The hut is a 15-foot-square, ramshackle wooden building with a gently sloping thatch roof. Its

perverted its magic, using it instead to animate her wooden hut. Removing the gem from the hut renders the hut incapacitated. That task is easier said than done, however. The glowing green gem is

Alustriel Silverhand

Monsters Vecna: Eve of Ruin

Resistance (3/Day). If Alustriel fails a saving throw, she can choose to succeed instead. Special Equipment. Alustriel carries a magic staff known as the Staff of Silverymoon. In the hands of anyone other

are to spread kindness, reward virtue, and promote a culture of compassion throughout the multiverse. She is good at building alliances and quick to intervene when she senses a threat to the forces of

Conjure Elemental Legacy

Spells Basic Rules (2014)

that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to the elemental, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions. If your concentration is

broken, the elemental doesn't disappear. Instead, you lose control of the elemental, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An uncontrolled elemental can't be dismissed by

Conjure Fey Legacy

Spells Basic Rules (2014)

defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions. If your concentration is broken, the fey creature doesn't disappear. Instead, you lose control of the fey creature, it becomes

Animate Objects Legacy

Spells Basic Rules (2014)

particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete

appendages it can use for locomotion, it instead has a flying speed of 30 feet and can hover. If the object is securely attached to a surface or a larger object, such as a chain bolted to a wall, its

Ankylosaurus

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual (2014)

Ankylosaurus Thick armor plating covers the body of the plant-eating ankylosaurus, which defends itself against predators with a knobbed tail that delivers a devastating strike. Some varieties of

ankylosaurus have spiked tails that deal piercing damage instead of bludgeoning damage. Ankylosaurus Huge beast, unaligned Armor Class 15 (natural armor) Hit Points 68 (8d12 + 16) Speed 30 ft

Ancient Deep Dragon Legacy

monsters Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

, they use local settlements—and any competent visitors—as pawns in their struggle. 4 An ancient deep dragon has put the folk of a city to work building the dragon a metropolis to rule

share the same basic structure as the sapphire dragon lair shown on map 5.12, but instead of being formed from stone, it might consist of chambers hollowed out within a fungus network growing near an

Conjure Fey

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player's Handbook (2014)

action required by you), as long as they don’t violate its alignment. If you don’t issue any commands to the fey creature, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions. If

your concentration is broken, the fey creature doesn’t disappear. Instead, you lose control of the fey creature, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An uncontrolled

Feather of Diatryma Summoning

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

damage instead of slashing damage. The creature is friendly to you and your companions, and it can be used as a mount. It understands your languages and obeys your spoken commands. If you issue no commands, the diatryma defends itself but takes no other actions.

Conjure Fey

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Basic Rules (2014)

action required by you), as long as they don’t violate its alignment. If you don’t issue any commands to the fey creature, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions. If

your concentration is broken, the fey creature doesn’t disappear. Instead, you lose control of the fey creature, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An uncontrolled

Mapping a Settlement

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)

Mapping a Settlement When you draw a map for a settlement in your game, don’t worry about the placement of every building, and concentrate instead on the major features. For a village, sketch out

Conjure Elemental

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player's Handbook (2014)

own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don’t issue any commands to the elemental, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes

no actions. If your concentration is broken, the elemental doesn’t disappear. Instead, you lose control of the elemental, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An

Conjure Elemental

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Basic Rules (2014)

own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don’t issue any commands to the elemental, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes

no actions. If your concentration is broken, the elemental doesn’t disappear. Instead, you lose control of the elemental, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An

3. Glabbagool

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Out of the Abyss

sentience and awareness. The ooze is genuinely curious about other creatures and wants to learn more about the world. It defends itself if attacked, but doesn’t otherwise try to harm the characters

, instead asking who they are, where they come from, and why they have come to the temple. Other oozes won’t attack Glabbagool, so it can block a passageway to help the adventurers fend them off. However

Goblin Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

traps, snares, and nets to catch the unwary, and when their hunting patrols encounter other beings, they always look for ways to capture their foes instead of killing them. Goblins that run up against

goblin tribe has to nobility is the caste of lashers — families of goblins trained in the ways of battle, and also possessed of key skills such as strategy, trap-building, beast taming, mining

Orc Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

, injury, or age) often join these cults instead of facing daily humiliation, exile, or death. Serving as the bridge between the two parts of the tribe are the priestesses of Luthic, the orc goddess who

fraught with tests of strength, fierce competition and nothing in the way of maternal or paternal love. From the time a child can wield a stick or a crude knife, it asserts itself and defends itself

Weapons

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player's Handbook (2014)

melee weapon that has the thrown property, such as a handaxe, can use your Strength modifier instead. BUILDING BRUENOR, STEP 5 Bob writes down the starting equipment from the fighter class and the

damage rolls. A weapon that has the finesse property, such as a rapier, can use your Dexterity modifier instead. For attacks with ranged weapons, use your Dexterity modifier for attack and damage rolls. A

Vault Guards

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Keys from the Golden Vault

guards are posted on the balcony and one guard patrols around the outside of the building at ground level. A character can avoid the notice of the exterior guards with a successful DC 12 Dexterity

” section, roll a d6 instead of a d4, reflecting their increased ability to avoid the guards. If the characters spend more than 10 minutes in any room that’s part of the guard rotation, a guard

Denizens of the Necropolis

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

anywhere in the necropolis. Mages who survived Ythryn’s fall but succumbed to the arcane blight (see “Magical Effects” below) became nothics that speak Loross instead of Undercommon (see the “Loross: The

of locations in the city. Random Encounters After each hour the characters spend exploring the city, or each time the characters conduct a thorough search of an unnumbered building on the map, roll

Goristro Raid

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Vecna: Eve of Ruin

Goristro Raid This encounter occurs only if the characters teamed up with the erinyes in the previous encounter. If the characters instead defeated the erinyes and claimed the Venatrix for themselves

palanquin to defeat the demons within while the characters slay the goristro. The goristro defends itself. If the vrocks see that the goristro is losing, they join the fight. The three erinyes easily dispatch

Dissecting the Adventure

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

Khorvaire, the Flotket Alps of Wildemount, or some other mountain range while preserving the plot elements. You can also strip out the story about an evil duergar building a dragon construct and have

the duergar doing something else instead. Alternatively, you could jettison everything but the map of the fortress, populating it with new creatures that better suit your campaign. Sometimes a good map is all a DM needs!

Scaling Lethality

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide

Scaling Lethality You can adjust the lethality of your campaign using the encounter-building guidelines in chapter 4. If your players enjoy games that test their characters to the utmost and are

your players agree to avoid character death in your game, you might consider an alternative: a character who would otherwise die is instead “defeated.” The following rules apply to a defeated character

Rookledust's Workshop

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

building bristles with steaming pipes and whirring devices, and it is currently under siege. Amid clanging metal contraptions, goblins try to breach the structure, impeded by gadgets that spin, snap

turn. The inventor Tatina Rookledust defends her home from Dragon Army goblins The goblins flee after half their number are defeated. The hobgoblin tries to make the goblins hold their ground but

Deal Breakers

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Ghosts of Saltmarsh

, the lizardfolk and their allies remain suspicious of the characters. Building an alliance becomes much more difficult. Kill Queen Othokent. No amount of recompense can atone for their actions if the

the tribe from fracturing because of ideological differences (see “Politics Among the Lizardfolk” above). If the characters kill him instead of trying to communicate with him, they are set upon by the

Danger in the Streets

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Spelljammer: Adventures in Space->Light of Xaryxis

grabs the arm of a character and moans, “Those vines are everywhere! There’s nowhere safe! We’re all doomed!” Suddenly, a tremor causes a building to collapse, burying half of the crowd and scattering

tremors become full-blown earthquakes as the crystalline vines plunge their roots into the earth and reach hundreds of feet into the air. Characters who press on in this direction instead of heading back to the docks are eventually rescued (see “Emergency Airlift” below).

Knight of Solamnia

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

Solamnia provide you free, modest lodging and food at any of their fortresses or encampments. Building a Knight of Solamnia Character Any class that has martial prowess can be a good fit in the Knights

(perhaps adopting the Path of the Zealot from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything). Knight of Solamnia Trinkets. When you make your character, roll once on the Knight of Solamnia Trinkets table instead of

Cavemouth (Areas L10–L11)

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Keys from the Golden Vault

that tries to frighten them away with haunting moans. L10: Miners’ Guildhall Hanging above the open doorway of this large, gem-studded building is a stone sign depicting a pick and a hammer. The

sundry equipment scattered about. Guildmaster Deepdelve. A thorough search of the building reveals the corpse of a robed deep gnome named Schnella Deepdelve, the master of the town’s miners’ guild

5. Choose Equipment

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Basic Rules (2014)

instead. BUILDING BRUENOR, STEP 5 Bob writes down the starting equipment from the fighter class and the folk hero background. His starting equipment includes chain mail and a shield, which

such items are detailed in the Equipment section. Instead of taking the gear given to you by your class and background, you can purchase your starting equipment. You have a number of gold pieces (gp

Halfway Isle (Area L3)

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Keys from the Golden Vault

). Bridges connect Halfway Isle to the neighboring districts of Old Lockford and Turbine Heights. L3. Abbey of the Deep Brother Next to the road stands a squat stone building capped with a stone dome. The

this building. A character who examines the golden pick and succeeds on a DC 13 Intelligence (Religion) check recognizes it as the symbol of the Deep Brother, Callarduran Smoothhands, a god worshiped

Weretiger

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual

importance. Roll on or choose a result from the Weretiger Wards table to inspire what a weretiger defends. Weretiger Wards 1d4 The Weretiger Protects A... 1 Legendary weapon or symbol of

following effect. Constitution Saving Throw: DC 13. Failure: The target is cursed. If the cursed target drops to 0 Hit Points, it instead becomes a Weretiger under the DM’s control and has 10 Hit Points

Animate Objects

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Basic Rules (2014)

creature only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete. Animated Object Statistics Size HP AC Attack Str Dex Tiny 20

Charisma is 1. Its speed is 30 feet; if the object lacks legs or other appendages it can use for locomotion, it instead has a flying speed of 30 feet and can hover. If the object is securely attached to a

Sphinx of Valor

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual

their duty above mortal life. If threatened, a sphinx of valor defends its charge with its supernaturally empowered roar and fierce strikes. Sphinx of Valor Large Celestial, Lawful Neutral AC 17

, it can choose to succeed instead. Actions Multiattack. The sphinx makes two Claw attacks and uses Roar. Claw. Melee Attack Roll: +12, reach 5 ft. Hit: 20 (4d6 + 6) Slashing damage. Roar (3

Adult Bronze Dragon

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual

Adult Bronze Dragon Matt Stewart An adult bronze dragon defends the deep from a ravenous giant shark Adult bronze dragons often dwell near places they defend or where they help others work toward

, it can choose to succeed instead. Actions Multiattack. The dragon makes three Rend attacks. It can replace one attack with a use of (A) Repulsion Breath or (B) Spellcasting to cast Guiding Bolt

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