D&D General Dealing With Monsters Nonviolently (Weaknesses, Special Bribes, etc)?

[Hexmage-EN]

In the 4E Monster Manual 3, which introduced yetis to that edition, the lore for the creatures notes that the keen sense of smell that yetis possess also makes rotting meat utterly repulsive to them and can be enough to drive them from an area. While this bit on information about yetis is not mentioned in the 5E Monster Manual, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes notes that kruthiks will not approach areas where they can smell a number of their kind have died, which one could possibly exploit to move kruthik corpses to places under threat from a swarm.

An idea I've had recently related to ghouls is that perhaps those ghouls who have eaten recently are able to temporarily put on a more intelligent and civilized veneer. Luring a pack of ghouls towards some living enemies could result in a battle in which the relatively more sated ghouls might be more willing to talk first instead of attacking.

Is there any other lore about dealing with monsters nonviolently that is particularly interesting? Alternatively, what ways of avoiding combat with monsters have come up in games you've run or played in?

BTW, my primary intention with this thread isn't to find ways to reduce the frequency of combat in D&D, but to have ways for a party that is low on hit points and other resources to encounter monsters and not die.

 

[el-remmen]

In a module I recently ran I made a "generic" harpy into a specific cursed woman with a way to break the curse: giving her the marriage certificate that bound her to her former husband who transformed her for her to burn (rather than just have another monster based on ugly unruly women for them to kill - though if they PCs had not figured it out, they might have still had to fight and kill her - though her post-death transformation would have been a tragic element).

 

[toucanbuzz]

Running away is always a good way to non-violently deal with monsters.

But otherwise, hiding behind an illusionary wall, learning a few phrases of the local language before trying to impress the monsters, bribes, and most recently (taken from a Pathfinder adventure) to gain secrets of a centaur tribe, they learned of an oral precedent (oral history and law is big in our setting for the centaur tribes) where outsiders like them could be "reborn" and shed their outsider status. It was, in centaur oral history, done for a banished centaur who was given the outsider title like the PCs had, and he did a task for their shaman involving leaping inside a giant worm and cutting his way out to leave his sins symbolically in the worm. This created precedent for the PCs to do the same thing.

It was a huge pain in the ass for the PCs to take that road as it wasn't just that simple, but in the end it was a lot more satisfying than simply slaughtering the centaurs and beating the secrets out of them.

 

[Voadam]

On the PC side?

Flee.

Hide.

Diplomacy.

Flim Flam bluffing.

Intimidate your way out without actually fighting.

Keep your distance and don't engage.

 

[RobJN]

Running away is always a good way to non-violently deal with monsters.

But otherwise, hiding behind an illusionary wall, learning a few phrases of the local language before trying to impress the monsters

I hear "bree-yark" works to pacify goblins.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

5e doesn't really deal with that in most stat blocks, sadly. IMO, if a monster has a weakness to something, they should also fear it. A troll should have to make a Morale check if you wound it with fire - or it should allow you to use some kind of ability to keep it at bay.

The closest thing is 'turn undead' which allows a holy person to keep an undead at bay.

Vampires: putting garlic on your door or silver filings on the threshold of your door, should keep vampires away; iron filings across the threshold of a door should keep fairies out...etc...

Literally, there is no way for the common person to defend themselves against monsters in 5e. There may be a handful of exceptions. That's just left to the DM to do the heavy lifting and flesh those things out themselves.

It's too bad there wasn't a mechanic for it in the game.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Anecdotally, trying to reason with them on Internet forums has zero effect.

 

[J.Quondam]

On the PC side?

Flee.

Hide.

Diplomacy.

Flim Flam bluffing.

Intimidate your way out without actually fighting.

Keep your distance and don't engage.

Another classic one is to pay them off: Bribes, gifts, tolls, etc.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I feel like I remember an old 3.5 era Dragon Magazine article that had a number of charms and potions for use against various creatures. I'll have to see if I can dig that up later.

I also feel like I remember seeing an item somewhere that a swallowed creature could use to get a monster to spit them back up.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I played in a non-D&D campaign where weaknesses were well fleshed out. One of the players was playing a chef who knew every food or spice that could affect monsters.