Favorite "monster grunts"

[kengar]

The question is, as DM, what "grunt" do you like to use against the party and why? These are usually low-level encounters I know, but sometimes the most fun. Or, as a player, what do have the most fun fighting or just think is the coolest?

My pick is gnolls. I just love those vicious hyenas! A 1st-level party can handle a few, but even a 3rd-5th level group has to be a little careful v. a whole band of them. Add a couple levels of barbarian, that's good fun!

 

[Always_a_DM]

My favourite grunts are orcs. They are evil but also organised. And when I have orcs found away from their camp, they will all be (at minimum), 2nd lvl fighters because they are are raiding party.

I do this to
1) put the fear of DM into the players
2) stop meta-gaming.

PC: I hit AC 17 for 12 points of damage. OK I have cleave so I swing at the next orc...
Me: nope, the orc grunts from the blow but doesn't drop. He swings back....

The look on the PC's face was wonderful.

Then when the PC's finally made it to the orc camp, they went in guns blazing (so to speak) and encountered the weaker orcs. Heh, the girl gamers in the group were more blood thirsty than the guys.

 

[alsih2o]

it is all about INT, for really good baddie, nothing beats a really nefarious human with no morals

 

[mikebr99]

I'll vote for Orcs also...
Though I tend to add a warrior level or two to the MM entry for any out and about. Some percentage of a raiding party will also be barbarians on top of the above. And the leaders are usually multi-classed Barbarian/somethings...

 

[Hand of Evil]

Orcs closely followed by Kobold. Orcs are used as a catch all, the destroy, rape, burn and take everything in their path. Kobold are more of a pest.

 

[Lazybones]

Kobolds. Read Rel's story hour for a great recounting of how leveled kobolds on their own turf can make life hell for even a mid-level party.

A dozen Sor1/Rog1 kobolds with a Sor4 leader can take on a fairly high level party, if played with cunning. Don't forget to set lots of traps and snares, and put in a lot of side-tunnels just big enough for the kobolds to move through easily. I'd put in a few pets as well; a boar or some badgers. Perhaps one of the kobolds could be a low-level evil druid...

Once Polyhedron's kobold models are ready for insertion into Neverwinter Nights, I think I'll make a kobold complex to bedevil my players...

YAP! YAP!

 

[Yuan-Ti]

My all-time favorite monster grunt is the Doppleganger in Baldur's Gate: "Your time is done, primate!"

Second are the bandits from BG: "So I kicked him in the head 'til he was dead. Hahahahaha!"

 

[Harlock]

Kobolds are king! Okay, but they sure are cute! And, players always laugh when they face kobolds until they find out they are all level 15. I insterted a band of 3 kobold adventurers in tRttToEE. Cleric15, Sorc15, and Barbarian15. It was a riot because the Sorc was already improved invisible when the party found them and the cleric started flame striking while the barbarian raged and got buffed by the unseen sorc. My players beat them and I think next time I say "You see a kobold quickly duck behind a doorway" the players may not smile and say "Heh, we go after him."

 

[Xarlen]

Kobolds pests? Pshaw! Never. They have a 10 int. That's as good as your average human, and that's an average human. Traps, Spells, and Cunning is what a Kobold is all about.

Thank you, my fellow Kobold supporters, for defending them. I havn't ever used Grunts, but I'll eventually have a group go after a Kobold lair. They better be 6th level+, otherwise, they will be torn apart. I have *plans*.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I go with Goblinoids when I need something like that. HObgoblin leaders, Bugbear muscle and Goblin mooks.