High AC and encounters

[iserith]

A few minor mechanical differences that will have little impact overall. Some, like rampage versus aggression, are meant to reinforce/establish the racial tendencies in combat, but there are a lot of combats out there in a lot of games where the goblins, orcs, gnolls, hobgoblins and human bandits all feel pretty similar ... and other games where they feel worlds apart.

As long as the low-AC wizards gets what's coming to him, it's all good.

 

[BigBadDM]

I didn't read all the post points, but consider changing some of the adventure elements from time to time rather than fixing it in combat.

A boat adventure
A stealth segment (sneak into that bank/cave)
A desert/jungle segment (exhaustion rules)

Some encounter ideas:
Party attacked during long rest (no one sleeps in armor)
Possession (ghost)
Weight base traps
Give him fleas
falling through a wood ceiling/floor

 

[MNblockhead]

Give him fleas

Would that be a swarm?

Actually, this raises a good point, if the party encounters a swarm of insects, would heavy armor actually be worse? Wouldn't the bitting insects get into the armor and be harder to smash and swat off your body?

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

The aggressive orc rushes past the high-AC cleric to get at the low-AC wizard faster than a gnoll.

The rampaging gnoll, after ignoring the high-AC cleric and killing the low-AC wizard, has some extra movement and a bite attack for the next lowest AC character in range.

The orc gets to smack talk the characters in Common though. Nobody understands what the gnoll is on about.

At higher levels, the addition of a flind or two makes the gnolls feel very different. I ran an encounter with a bunch at high level (16th?) and the PCs didn't adequately focus on the flind, much to their detriment as the pack rolled over them. The base monsters are still just guys who beat on the PCs in slightly different ways but their upper tier monsters and tactics will differentiate them.

 

[iserith]

Would that be a swarm?

Actually, this raises a good point, if the party encounters a swarm of insects, would heavy armor actually be worse? Wouldn't the bitting insects get into the armor and be harder to smash and swat off your body?

I think it would be a fine trait to put on some insect swarms. The NPC guide warns the characters before they strike out into the jungle: "You there in the heavy armor, mind you don't step in any swarms of devil ants - you'll have the worst time of it."

Then create a trait that reads: They Go Everywhere. The swarm attacks creatures in heavy armor with advantage.

 

[iserith]

At higher levels, the addition of a flind or two makes the gnolls feel very different. I ran an encounter with a bunch at high level (16th?) and the PCs didn't adequately focus on the flind, much to their detriment as the pack rolled over them. The base monsters are still just guys who beat on the PCs in slightly different ways but their upper tier monsters and tactics will differentiate them.

For sure. The higher order gnolls are good like that. The orcs in Volo's are no slouches either.

 

[shadowoflameth]

As Skip Williams once put it, 'It isn't against the rules to be really good at something.' Foes with attacks that don't need a to hit will come up as will Heat Metal, Shocking Grasp and others. You could have the enemy spellcaster use Magic Missile. and you could have encounters where heavy armor is not ideal. This, the secret temple is long flooded and you have to swim to the armory.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

For sure. The higher order gnolls are good like that. The orcs in Volo's are no slouches either.

For sure. The higher order gnolls are good like that. The orcs in Volo's are no slouches either.

Or the hobgoblins. They have some nasty upgrades like the monk and caster. I tend to think of hobgoblins as the masters of the goblinoids, including goblins (servants, cannon fodder, and tinkerers/alchemists) and bugbears (unpredictable muscle/scouts). The others tend to get bullied around by the much more organized hobs, but of course they deeply resent them, too, so one of the keys to fighting them is to figure out those fractures. Hobgoblins have taken over entire countries.

Gnolls are a pack with pack rules. They never get that large due to their inherent chaotic natures.

Orcs are, for story reasons, no longer existing in my campaign world, although there are some half orcs. I guess I'd have to think how I'd differentiate them.

 

[iserith]

Or the hobgoblins. They have some nasty upgrades like the monk and caster. I tend to think of hobgoblins as the masters of the goblinoids, including goblins (servants, cannon fodder, and tinkerers/alchemists) and bugbears (unpredictable muscle/scouts). The others tend to get bullied around by the much more organized hobs, but of course they deeply resent them, too, so one of the keys to fighting them is to figure out those fractures. Hobgoblins have taken over entire countries.

Gnolls are a pack with pack rules. They never get that large due to their inherent chaotic natures.

Orcs are, for story reasons, no longer existing in my campaign world, although there are some half orcs. I guess I'd have to think how I'd differentiate them.

I'm fond of the hobgoblin monks. That was a good addition to the book. I rewrote Red Hand of Doom and ran that for my last campaign and it features goblins and hobgoblins heavily. I also had them in the campaign previous to that, The Delve, a town-to-dungeon campaign. Plus they're in one of my one-shots, Ruin of the Gorgon, and a looming phalanx of them is sort of an overarching menace and time constraint for the scenario.

In The Delve, I had it where the goblins were created out of tumors which grew into egg sacs that birthed more goblins. Capable goblins became hobgoblins or bugbears through a gory transmogrification ritual where they grow and peel off their skin. So when the PCs were exploring the goblin areas of the dungeon, it was full of disease and terrible pulsing egg sacs linked by green membranes with piles of sloughed off skin laying about.

I chucked a few nilbogs in each campaign as well. Those are really big pains in the butt.