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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 3084377" data-attributes="member: 3649">Use at least one monster in a way I have not beforeAn example: ghouls. I love ghouls for many reasons, not the least being that they are not mindless. The normal ghoul encounter is to find them in some dank tomb, scurrying out to see if there is any fresh food about. This time, I used a group of recently-turned ghouls as an encounter. The party is camping for the night. It is cold and dank, a grim night to be out and about. A group of knights coming down the road hails them and begs to share their fire. They chat with the knights, who are mostly quiet and reserved. Then one perceptive soul notices that though they breathe, their breath does not plume in the dank cold air.... The knights were simply waiting for them to drift on off to sleep, and then would feed. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I wanted to go for the disturbing, though, so if they had not noticed this, I was going to have a raven fly down and land on a knight's shoulder. Then casually lean over and pull off a part of his ear. He wouldn't notice or mind. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Use an aspect of a monster that the others probably don't know about.Did you know winter wolves talk? They speak Common, and Giant. None of my players knew this, until they were laid up in a hunter's cabin miles from nowhere, already badly hurt from a previous fight. Snow was howling outside. A scratch comes at the door. "Please help, we've been attacked.. let us in.." says the gruff voice from outside. "We're so hungry.."The cabin's windows were shut tight but one guy manages a peek outside. Eight winter wolves are silently prowling around the place, with one scratching at the door and talking. It was toying with them, trying to get them to be the cause of their own doom. Freaked them out completely.Remind the players that not all evil comes from the Dark Lord of Death MountainAt least once in a campaign, they will follow a trail of evil and death back to it's source, and discover not some plotting wizard or insane abberation, but just some normal person who is greedy, stupid, selfish, or insane. Just to remind them that evil can stem from normal sources as well.Find a way for them to interact in an interesting way with a monster they normally would kill.Use a monster in an unusual way.Adding class level to things made this very much easier. A pair of intelligent troll rogues. A vampire assassin with potions to mimic magical effects. Just.. something weird.</blockquote>

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