D&D 5E Encounters and NPC/Monster Strategy Thread

Have to agree with the tactics ideas. Brock the goblin and Grud the orc certainly have better things to do then get dead.

Don't forget that the critter abilities give you a pretty good idea of how the "bad guys" will act. If everything and it's mother has Pack tactics (like in the Tiamat campaign) then they should be bum-rushing the party to get to work all close and personal like on the regular.

Cover is huge, as are held actions from behind cover. Why stand in the open cranking off arrows/bolts/spells/etc when you can pop out for a second and hop back behind cover to do the same thing far more safely? If some yahoos are busting into your stronghold, why wouldn't you have a good idea to have an archer or three covering that side tunnel to the flank and immediately pincushion any invader that comes around that corner?

Standard military tactics point to 20% casualties is a pretty good time to start backing off. I use this a lot and keep in mind that the survivors not only join the next group, but they tell their homeboys what's coming so the next group can get set up for it.

The rogue has a mirror on a stick in their kit for a reason, after all. It's not your fault if the party runs into a funhouse of pain if the nominal scout doesn't use the dang thing. And don't forget that darkvision doesn't let you see in the dark that way as the mirror still relies upon reflected light.

"Cover is huge, as are held actions from behind cover. Why stand in the open cranking off arrows/bolts/spells/etc when you can pop out for a second and hop back behind cover to do the same thing far more safely? If some yahoos are busting into your stronghold, why wouldn't you have a good idea to have an archer or three covering that side tunnel to the flank and immediately pincushion any invader that comes around that corner?"

Amen. Move attack move is a terrific addition to the 5e rules that was largely missing in other versions of D&D. Now it is much more likely that snipers or ranged foes will move out and attack, then move back behind a wall or other obstacle to gain cover. This also makes the "Ready an Action" choice more valuable for PCs (and monsters if the players use the move attack move strategy to attack and take cover).

Thanks for adding, psychophipps.

My Enemy's Enemy!

Here's another encounter type that tends to work really well. I used it during D&D Next playtesting when I ran a short campaign using Caves of Chaos...and from what I've heard of Out of the Abyss, it is a part of that adventure path as well.

Have the PCs encounter prisoners of another race/species. Then, let them interact naturally. Perhaps the PCs could strike up an alliance with one or more of the prisoners and that will lead to further adventure. Or, the creatures can feign gratitude and then try to stab the party in the back when they get the chance.

In the Caves of Chaos there were an Orc and a Gnoll inside the prison/torture chamber of the Hobgoblin's cave. The Gnoll was completely insane and bloodthirsty, so he frothed at the mouth and was hell-bent on damaging anyone who tried to help it, but the Orc was a bit more reasonable. The PCs interacted with them both after defeating the Hobgoblin jailers and torturer, and they made a bargain with the Orc. Eventually, they escorted the Orc back to his side of the Caves and they found out that he came from a split tribe (the Bloody Hand Orcs and the Clenched Fist Orcs), and the chief of the other tribe (the Clenched Fist Orcs) was trying to unite and take over both tribes. It seemed that the chief of the Bloody Hand Orcs had lost a sacred totem that granted him the right to rule so the other chief was using that event to gain political control. The next night, when the Orc that the party rescued met with the party to repay them for the help, he told them that he believed that the Clenched Fist Orcs had stolen the sacred totem to instigate the entire political turmoil. I can't remember exactly how it happened, but the party decided to meet with the chief of the Bloody Hand Orcs to find out more.

Together, they devised a plan to hold a huge feast in which the Bloody Hand Orcs would invite the Clenched Fist Orcs to their caves to discuss the "Vote of No Confidence" and eventual status of the two tribes. While that was to take place, the party would sneak into the caves of the Clenched Fist Orcs to try to find the sacred totem.

All of this (a good 3-5 game sessions) came from the encounter with the Orc prisoner. It added a ton of flavor to our campaign, and it gave the PCs a chance to actually manipulate the world around them. We had a blast.

Fun with undead

I really love undead, but usually these guys only become effective once they get into close combat with the players. So that is why I often use ambush strategies to give my undead the necessary advantage. Here's a few ideas to get your undead into close combat.

Zombies breaking through a wall

Zombies can remain silently behind a breakable structure for as long as needed, until the players are close enough to attack. The structure may not look weak from a distance, until the players closely examine it. But by then it is obviously too late. You can even lure the players closer, by occasionally have a zombie scratch one of the walls. You inform the player that they hear a soft scratching sound, or a knocking sound, coming from the other side of the wall. Most players may attempt to communicate, by also knocking on the wall... and that is when you strike. You can even ambush them from two sides, by having them walk through a tight corridor with a breakable wall on either side.

Mummies lying underwater

Submerge your dungeon in knee-high murky water, and simply place your undead face down on the ground. The players wade through the water, until they reach the center of the room. Then have your mummies rise up, and your players are now surrounded. Watch them panic.

Fear the dreaded Bhuta!

One of the problems with undead, is that they usually aren't very intelligent, nor are they organized. Why not bring some more strategy into your zombie armies, by introducing a zombie overlord. The Bhuta is a ghost-like creature that creates zombies from corpses, and commands them. It basically feeds on the dead, and can animate any corpse into a vessel that will do its bidding. From a distance the Bhuta looks like a normal person dressed in long garments, and it can talk, and is very intelligent. There for it is the perfect monster to lead your army of zombies into battle, and ambush the players. You can take a normal ghost or wraith template, and modify its powers to transform it into a Bhuta. A Bhuta should at least have spell-like abilities, that allow it to cast the equivalent of an animate dead spell. It may or may not also have a blood drain ability, or in the case of the wraith template, the default wraith touch attacks will suffice.

A Bhuta is vengeful and clever. It can mimic the sound of a human in need of help, in order to lure unsuspecting adventurers closer. It will often be found near a place where it can easily find corpses to feed on and animate, such as a cemetery.

Undead can be really scary. Thanks for those ideas, Imaculata.

In the Princes of the Apocalypse campaign I'm running, I ran the Necromancer's Lair for just 2 3rd level PCs. When the PCs entered the caves, they saw a corpse on the ground about 60' ahead of them as the natural light faded into darkness. They moved up closer to inspect it, and as they neared, it came alive and grabbed one of the PC's leg. Just the narration scared the players. For some reason (probably because I had them find the Shallow Grave, but the bodies inside had been dragged out to a cave area) they thought that it was really just a dead body, not an undead creature. Not until a little later, after encountering more zombies, crawling hands and some skeletons did they realize that they were in a Necromancer's Lair.

As others have stated, I love using terrain to great advantage. Even creatures of below average cunning tend to choose terrain advantageous to their predations.

I usually attempt to discern the experience of the creature by asking questions. What would a tribe of gnolls, orcs, or kobolds pass from one generation to the next concerning fighting tactics? They've been battling humans and elves with magic for years to stay alive, what would they know about tactics to counter such capabilities? What would a five hundred year old dragon know about defending itself from adventurers or powerful enemies seeking their treasure? What would a five hundred year old dragon that had spent years killing other creatures and taking their valuables know about defeating them? I like to design tactics that I think the creature would be capable of employing, at least for key encounters.

One of the tactics I like to use with dragons is the grab and separate. I like to have dragons grab a party member and fly off with them to question and kill them. This was easier to do in Pathfinder, but I believe still possible in 5E. I haven't used a dragon on a party yet. I'm looking forward to trying the grab and separate tactic to see if it is still effective.

I have my own ideas about dragons, and how to run them in a campaign. I think dragons should be scary. Lots of DM's seem to throw dragons at players as if every color of dragon in the Monster Manual needs to be used. The word 'dragon' is in the title of the game after all. But this has diminished the scare factor of dragons some what. So bring the terror of dragons back into your game. Players should be terrified of a dragon. If you get into a fight with one, it will murder you and your party.

Dragon tactics

As mentioned above, dragons are cunning opponents. They have defeated many opponents already, and would thus require some really good tactics on the part of the players. Almost all dragons can fly, so the first thing it would do, is take to the air. If it is inside a cave or lair, it will leave the lair. This doesn't mean that the dragon is leaving its hoard undefended. Oh no, it is perfectly fine with making circles outside the lair, to wait for the players to come out.

Dragons have no reason to land. Because that puts them in range of sharp objects. Why give up your aerial advantage? A dragon should use its breath weapon from the air whenever able, and while it is recharging, it simply flies off, only to circle back shortly after. A dragon is not going to play fair, and it is not going to leave the players alone (especially if they touched its treasure, or ventured near its lair). It will follow them to what ever town or city they think of hiding in, and burn it to the ground. That is what dragons do. There is no place in the world where you can hide from a dragon. It will keep following you, and turn everything to ashes. Dragons have an extremely good sense of smell, and it will be able to track the players, even if they move to a different continent.

Some DM's may think that if the dragon doesn't land, then its not a very fair fight. Exactly! Your goal should not be to allow the players to defeat the dragon easily. Your goal should be to have the dragon attempt to obliterate the players. To utterly destroy them. If they manage to survive, good for them. And if they still manage to defeat the dragon, then the victory is truly earned.


(The dragon in the 1981 movie Dragonslayer would be considered a 'wyvern' by the D&D definition, due to its two legs. But as a storyteller it is entirely up to you what a dragon in your campaign looks like. In Europe two-legged dragons are perfectly acceptable in various depictions and fairy tales. There is no need to restrict yourself to the narrow definition in the Monster Manual.)

Talking Dragons

Dragons in D&D can often talk, but again this is entirely up to you as a storyteller. Maybe your dragon only uses telepathy to communicate. Or maybe your dragon does not talk at all, and is basically just a big flying angry lizard that spits fire. I personally prefer the latter.

Attacking a city

Laying waste to cities and villages is what dragons love to do. Especially if their enemies consider themselves to be safe in there. Dragons can be extremely vengeful, and will gladly unleash their wrath on settlements, and reduce them to ashes. But of course not all settlements are so easily destroyed. A dragon would prioritize taking out siege weapons that could harm it, or simply stay out of range of such weapons. Aiming a siege weapon takes a while, and dragons are very mobile. So a dragon could simply stay on the move and circle around a city to take out the siege weapons one by one. If a dragon starts taking too much damage, it will not fight to the death. Instead it would retreat to recover, and then return as soon as its able to get its revenge. Dragons are not suicidal, and they are very patient.



The Lair

A dragon's lair is specially constructed to benefit the dragon, and put the treasure out of easy reach of nosy adventurers. The entrance would not be easy to reach. Coastal dragons would obviously place the entrance underwater, or inside a very high cliff, where there are no roads leading up to it. Keep in mind that dragons do not want visitors, and so they will have picked a location that is not easy to reach by unwanted visitors.

Lair terrain hazards

The lair will include various natural obstructions, that do not inconvenience the dragon in any way. Such as: Lava flows, acid and water. Difficult terrain in the form of rock debris, and cadavers, which slows the players down (but not the dragon). Darkness, because that is not going to bother a dragon either. And height differences, such as high ledges that the dragon can use while safely out of reach of the players, and deadly crevices and pits. The dragon prefers not to fight in an enclosed location, but if forced to, the lair should be a very dangerous place to fight in to the players.

There will probably be locations inside the lair, that the dragon can leap up to, to gain the advantage of higher ground. Keep in mind that the dragon will always prefer to use its breath weapon from afar, and not get into close combat with the players. It will also attempt to use the terrain against the players, and maybe collapse part of the lair on top of them. This is not a problem for a dragon, because with its massive claws it can easily dig out the lair later.

Multiple exits in lairs

The lair will also have plenty of space for the dragon to move around, and will most likely also have one or more secret exits, so that the players can't simply collapse the entrance and trap the dragon. There may be a vertical shaft that the dragon can fly up to, to crawl out of the lair in case of an emergency.

Lair protections

The lair will be protected with traps, minions, spells, and hazardous terrain. Illusion spells would hide parts of the lair from sight and keep visitors at bay. Magical symbols and traps could be all over the place. The lair may also have environmental effects, depending on the dragon type (you can find all about this in the Monster Manual), such as disease, decay and fear effects. Imagine a dark maze littered with the remains of everything a dragon eats. It would probably smell like a an abattoir mixed with the smell of sulfur. Not a nice place to be. Wandering into the lair of a dragon would probably send most visitors running for the hills long before they even catch sight of the dragon that lives there.

The Hoard

A dragon's treasure will be well guarded, and placed safely out of reach of adventurers. Its probably up somewhere high, so that anyone who can't fly will have a really difficult job getting to it. Or it may be hidden underwater, because why not? The treasure may even be protected with spells, because plenty of dragons are spell casters. And don't forget that there are probably traps near the treasure, and all over the lair.

Minions

While dragons usually are solitary creatures, its lair may contain young, which are also formidable foes. A group of these is already a big threat to the players, and if they kill any of the young, the adult is not going to rest until the players are destroyed.

A lair can also contain various scavengers and vermin, that are attracted to the piles of carcasses that litter the dragon's lair. The creatures attracted to the left overs are obviously lower on the food chain, and can sometimes safely live inside the lair. But they can still be formidable opponents in their own right, and sometimes a dragon deliberately keeps them around to protect the lair.

Celtavian said:

As others have stated, I love using terrain to great advantage. Even creatures of below average cunning tend to choose terrain advantageous to their predations.

I usually attempt to discern the experience of the creature by asking questions. What would a tribe of gnolls, orcs, or kobolds pass from one generation to the next concerning fighting tactics? They've been battling humans and elves with magic for years to stay alive, what would they know about tactics to counter such capabilities? What would a five hundred year old dragon know about defending itself from adventurers or powerful enemies seeking their treasure? What would a five hundred year old dragon that had spent years killing other creatures and taking their valuable? I like to design tactics that I think the creature would be capable of employing, at least for key encounters.

One of the tactics I like to use with dragons is the grab and separate. I like to have dragons grab a party member and fly off with them to question and kill them. This was easier to do in Pathfinder, but I believe still possible in 5E. I haven't used a dragon on a party yet. I'm looking forward to trying the grab and separate tactic to see if it is still effective.

Click to expand...

Yes..thanks for the ideas Celtavian. Divide and conquer or guerilla tactics where the foe just targets one of the easiest targets and then runs or better yet flies away with that PC is very powerful.

For some reason this also reminds me to take more advantage of the 3rd dimension of flight when possible. Flying creatures can also drop items on to PCs. They can pick up PCs (if the creature is strong enough) and drop them on to others. lol.

Interestingly, on a slight tangent, but still related to danger and complications in encounters, many people have argued that PC flight seems overpowered especially at lower levels. For example, the controversy over Aarakocra PCs. I see it differently. When PCs can fly, it actually makes combat even more dangerous. If the enemy targets the flying PC with ranged weapons or spells that hold, paralyze, turn to stone, polymorph, etc., that PC may plummet to his or her death depending on how high the fall is and how wounded the PC is prior to the fall.

Nice ideas about Dragons. I agree with you. Dragons should be terrifying, cunning and dangerous.

Interestingly though, if a dragon is too powerful and dangerous, there needs to be a way to justify why it doesn't appear in the world (town, city, etc.) more often to destroy and plunder whenever or wherever it likes.

In a way, 5e addresses this problem by using bounded accuracy so that even the most mighty of all dragons still fears vast numbers of foes, even lower level ones. Sure, dragonfear could help against 100s of minor foes, but even still, there is the chance that enough of the fearful peasants with bows or ballista, could hurt the dragon. I actually like how BA makes it so that most powerful creatures may still fear wandering too close to an organized society of humanoids or other less powerful creatures.

Another way to justify it could be that all of the most powerful dragons are generally lazy and covetous so they would much rather plan their raids and sit on their treasure hoards than actually go out and conquer. Perhaps Smaug was like this. He shined brightly during his attack on the Dwarves earlier in history, but was quite content to spend eons sleeping on his treasure.

Here's one inspired by some of what the others in the thread have mentioned.

Endanger an NPC rather than only the PCs.

Another interesting encounter type that can challenge any level group of PCs is the rescue or escort mission where the PCs have to protect others rather than just themselves. Or, when an NPC they know well falls victim to a horrible fate. If the PCs are particularly powerful and it is difficult to challenge them directly, the DM can always switch the focus of danger from them to the NPC/NPCs they have just rescued or are escorting. This one is used very often in computer RPGs and pre-written adventures, and it works especially well if the PCs can spend a little time bonding with the NPC/NPCs prior to the danger ensuing. It makes my players so mad when a friend (or innocent woman or child) falls because they were not in the right place at the right time, or they could not protect the NPC in question.

When I was a teen, I was playing in a campaign where our party had traveled into a desert. We found a tomb with the help of a guide who we got to know pretty well. Then, when we got to the tomb, the guide told us about a horrible swarm entity called “Nerve Runners”. They were incredibly small (nearly microscopic) creatures that moved in mass across the sands of the desert seeking life. They were like a group of army ants that would swarm over a creature and disrupt the nervous system, killing it painfully and dramatically in seconds. The entire time, we were getting more and more paranoid that we would encounter the Nerve Runners. Eventually, we heard the tell-tale sound of buzzing approach. The guide began freaking out and we got to watch as our guide became their victim. It scared us half to death and really made us want to get away from the tomb as fast as we could. The graphic death of the NPC worked to instill fear in our PCs and make use react authentically to the situation. (Honestly, a number of us players actually stood up on our chairs so that we would not be touching the ground while the DM described the Nerve Runners and the way they danced over the body of the guide).

Many years later, Doctor Who aired an episode called “Silence in the Library” that used a similar idea. A swarm of unseen entities, the Vashta Nerada, that travel in shadows of the Library would pick off NPCs one by one turning them into skeletal zombies – I guess it is also partly the fear inducing plot development used in Aliens as the alien skulks around the ship and kills NPCs one at a time while the hero toils to find a way to kill/escape it.