D&D 5E (2014) Building a Better Ankheg

[Stalker0]

Honestly, the only thing I would do is....boost its burrow speed to 20.

With that...the ankheg already has everything it needs, because burrow is awesome. Remember the tunnler feature only is needed for solid rock, otherwise the Ankheg can just burrow under the ground with no trail left as normal for a burrow speed.

1) Grapple a target and pull it under. Congrats its now a 1 on 1 fight.

2) With its 60 ft tremorsense, it can move to an area the party is not, pop its head up, and release its acid. Party might get in some ranged attacks through readied actions, but feel free to give it solid cover for only popping its head up.

3) Perfect hit and run animal. With disengage + burrow, it should often get away. Combine it with some healing thing (perhaps an underground spring with healing powers) and the creature keeps coming back for more.

 

[TorgoTheWhite]

Boosting its speed and burrow speed would be a start, these things should be using ambush tactics, rising up to spit some acid and then burrowing away, but they don't have the speed to do so very effectively. The trickiest part of fighting them should be pinning them down before they retreat underground.

I've given some of my monsters "cunning action" to work the ambush then retreat angle. It worked decently...the movement speed came into effect in that battle due to deciding if the monsters had the movement to reach the tall grass and bonus action hide... or if they had to use bonus action to dash away

I would consider making them pretty spicy and using terrain similarly... so if your PC aren't dumbos, they could recognize a rocky patch to limit a potent burrowing action, or realize they could regroup at a raised watchtower or something... Come to think of it, I think I will use this

 

[Committed Hero]

I would consider making them pretty spicy

Mmmm ... ankheg.

 

[Reynard]

And moral of the story is that EVERYONE does better monsters than WotC -- including you yourself.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Honestly, the only thing I would do is....boost its burrow speed to 20.

With that...the ankheg already has everything it needs, because burrow is awesome. Remember the tunnler feature only is needed for solid rock, otherwise the Ankheg can just burrow under the ground with no trail left as normal for a burrow speed.

A burrow speed doesn't leave a useable tunnel. I was thinking this as well. However, the Monster Manual specifically indicates that ankhegs leave a tunnel behind when they borrow.

 

[MarkB]

A burrow speed doesn't leave a useable tunnel. I was thinking this as well. However, the Monster Manual specifically indicates that ankhegs leave a tunnel behind when they borrow.

Only when talking about it tunneling through solid rock, which is understandable. Through earth I'd tend to consider it optional.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

No, it doesn't say anything about solid rock. My book might be old.

 

[Sorinth]

In my games Ankhegs always came in a pack rather then being a solo monster. Something like a Bulette was the solo burrowing monster, Ankhegs were the wolf pack monsters using hit & run tactics.

The two main tactics were pop up outside of melee range of everyone, spit acid, and re-burrow, so the only actions players could really take is to ready a ranged attack. The second tactic was to pop up in melee range attack for the grapple and then re-burrow. When not in solid stone the burrowing doesn't leave a tunnel in the 2024 rules, though leaving behind an unstable tunnel that would collapse in 1d4 rounds when in regular soil can be fun and make the combat feel unique. Also making the collapsed tunnel difficult terrain after it collapses is worthwhile. If the grappled creature is still able to do some real damage to the Ankheg then they dive as deep as they can go with regular movement, spit them out underground, and Dash away leaving the PC buried as the Ankhegs wait for them to die and then eat them later.

A low burrow speed isn't actually a bad thing, it forces the DM to use the Dash action to reposition, which gives more time to get the recharge, and helps hide the true number of Ankhegs. And an unknown number of Ankhegs should be one of the goals of the combat as it can really drive up the tension. It also means the PCs just running is a viable tactic but the grapple attack makes it tense as well, and turn order can make for some interesting actions. Going up to 20ft of burrow speed is probably still fine but I don't think it's really needed, the PCs moving 30ft taking the ready action and being able to outrun the Ankhegs isn't actually a bad outcome because at the end of the day an Ankheg encounter ends with the PCs taking some damage and running away that's a success.

For the initiative, they will probably be rolling at advantage since they are unseen to start combat so if boosting their initiative I would keep it relatively small. Rolling initiative for each Ankheg is probably worth it since a spread of when they get to go helps the feel/tone of using hit and run tactics and if you boost their initiative value too much it risks them clumping together in the turn order.

 

[dave2008]

Let's ask some of our resident monster masters: @Nixlord, do you want to share an Ankheg from one of your books? @dave2008 have you made a properly designed solo version of an Ankheg?

I know that I've run them in terrifying encounters, but I may have added to them on the fly.

Absolutely! I haven't looked at these in a long time, so they could be a bit out of day (in fact I know they are as I haven't made a "champion" in years). Anyway, here are a series of Ankheg's I made some time ago.

• Ankheg Broodling (standard, CR 1/4)
• Ankheg Drone (standard, CR 1)
• Ankheg Queen (Champion, CR 5)
• Ankheg Soldier (standard, CR 3)

 

[Nixlord]

Let's ask some of our resident monster masters: @Nixlord, do you want to share an Ankheg from one of your books? @dave2008 have you made a properly designed solo version of an Ankheg?

I know that I've run them in terrifying encounters, but I may have added to them on the fly.

Sure, here you go: D&D General - Monster Manual Expanded 2024