TOOLS AND GUIDES TO BUILD, CUSTOMIZE, AND RUN
FANTASTIC MONSTERS IN YOUR 5E FANTASY GAMES
´ • SCOTT FITZGERALD GRAY • MICHAEL E. SHEA
TEOS ABADIA
by Teos Abadía, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, and Michael E. Shea
Design by Teos Abadía, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, and Michael E. Shea
Mechanical Development by Teos Abadía and Michael E. Shea
Editing by Scott Fitzgerald Gray
Proofreading by Marcie Wood, Christine J. Cabalo, Aaron Houillon
Cultural Consulting by James Mendez Hodes
Front and Back Cover Art by Jack Kaiser
Interior Art by Zoe Badini, Allie Briggs, Nikki Dawes, Carlos Eulefí,
Jack Kaiser, Víctor Leza, Matt Morrow, Jackie Musto,
Fabian Parente, Brian Patterson, Danny Pavlov
Logo and Page Design by Rich Lescouflair
Layout by Scott Fitzgerald Gray
Thanks to our Kickstarter backers
for supporting this project!
Copyright © 2023 by Teos Abadía, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, and Michael E. Shea
Art copyright © 2022–2023 by the individual artists
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by
Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document.
The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide,
and Monster Manual are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC
ISBN 979-8-9859421-3-2
Printed in Canada
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MONSTER TOOLKITS
Building a Quick Monster............................................4
Monsters and the Tiers of Play................................ 74
General-Use Combat Stat Blocks........................... 13
Building Engaging Encounters............................... 76
Monster Powers............................................................ 15
Building Engaging Environments.......................... 79
Monster Roles............................................................... 22
Assessing a Published Encounter.......................... 83
Monster Difficulty Dials............................................. 27
Building Challenging High-Level
Encounters................................................................ 86
Building and Running
Legendary Monsters.............................................. 28
Building and Running Boss Monsters.................. 31
Building Spellcasting Monsters.............................. 34
Creating Lair Actions.................................................. 36
MONSTER TIPS AND TRICKS
On Encounters per Day............................................. 93
MONSTER DISCUSSION AND
PHILOSOPHY
The History of Challenge.......................................... 97
Lazy Tricks for Running Monsters.......................... 38
What Are Challenge Ratings?.................................. 99
Running Monsters for New
Gamemasters........................................................... 40
What Makes a Great Monster?..............................100
Understanding the Action Economy.................... 42
Defining Challenge Level........................................105
Lightning Rods............................................................. 44
Balancing Mechanics and Story...........................109
Modifying Monsters Before and
During Play................................................................ 45
Building the Story to Fit the Monster.................110
Running Monsters in the
Theater of the Mind............................................... 47
Romancing Monsters...............................................115
Reading the Monster Stat Block...........................102
Choosing Monsters Based on the Story............113
Roleplaying Monsters................................................ 48
There Be Monsters.....................................................117
Reskinning Monsters.................................................. 50
Anticolonial Play........................................................119
The Relative Weakness of
High-CR Monsters................................................... 53
Running Easy Monsters...........................................124
Running Minions and Hordes................................. 54
Running Spellcasting Monsters.............................. 58
Using NPC Stat Blocks................................................ 60
Bosses and Minions.................................................... 61
Evolving Monsters....................................................... 62
BUILDING ENCOUNTERS
The Combat Encounter Checklist.......................... 65
Monster Combinations for a
Hard Challenge........................................................ 67
The Lazy Encounter Benchmark............................. 70
Monsters by Adventure Location.......................... 72
2
Exit Strategies............................................................... 91
On Morale and Running Away..............................125
DIFFERENT PATHS
This book has been crafted and shaped as a collaboration
between Teos, Scott, and Mike, with each acting as lead on
specific sections that all three of us then workshopped and
refined over more than a year of design and development.
This creative partnership approach means that Forge of Foes
generally doesn’t offer only single viewpoints. Rather, you’ll
find a range of choices in these pages—different paths you can
take as you conceptualize, create, modify, and run monsters in
your games.
In the many places in the book where two approaches offer
different advice on the same issue, that’s a feature, not a bug.
Think about and try out whichever approaches appeal to you,
determine which ones work well for you and your group, and
set aside those that don’t.
INTRODUCTION
Thousands of years before anyone ever rolled a twentysided die, monsters fueled people’s imaginations and
filled us with tales of high adventure. Nearly every culture
known to humanity has its own stories of creatures
fantastic and horrifying, and of the heroes who face them.
We love monsters. We love them because they exist
outside our world and yet feel real to us. We love how
strange they can be. We love the sense of danger that
arises when we talk about them. We love how they live in
our imaginations.
And when monsters come to life in our imaginations,
we love to face and defeat them. We battle dragons and
demons and undead—and conquer them in tales we’ll
remember all our lives.
Within the Forge of Foes, we build these monsters.
Here in the forge, we’ll modify creatures, giving them
new attacks and strange new abilities. We’ll harden their
scales and sharpen their claws. We’ll create entirely new
creatures from our boundless collective imagination, then
watch them crawl into the stories of high adventure we
share with our friends.
We’ll also talk about monsters, including how to run
boss monsters, how to run hordes of monsters, and how
to choose the right monsters for our adventures and for
the fun of our gaming groups.
Let us delve into deep caves, beneath rotted and
forgotten crypts, and into unholy temple chambers sweet
with the iron scent of blood to see what monsters lie
within.
WHAT IS A FOE?
Within the context of this book, a foe is any physically
hostile creature. It might be a statue ready to magically
animate where it guards an undiscovered tomb. It might
be a knight challenging the characters to a duel. It might
be cultists seeking victims for a terrible ritual. It might
be the dragon of the frozen mountains, newly awakened
and now seeking the treasures acquired by neighboring
miners.
Not all foes are monsters, however, and we need to take
care while throwing around that label lest we apply it to
those undeserving of the title. Many beings and creatures
commonly labeled as “monsters” can ultimately be dealt
with through negotiation, even as many normal-looking
NPCs might be secret—or not-so-secret—monsters in
their own lives. The cultists cited above might not be
monsters at all in their own minds, but only a secluded
sect pushed to usher in a new age of enlightenment. That
awakened dragon might have been driven to violence by
suffering—with the characters potentially asked to help
solve the dragon’s woes.
Forge of Foes often uses the words “foe,” “creature,”
and “monster” synonymously. But it does so with the
understanding that there might be many ways to deal with
these foes outside of straight-up combat, and that some
apparent monsters might be anything but.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Created by Teos Abadía, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, and
Mike Shea (see “About the Authors” on page 128), this
book isn’t a typical collection of foes. There are already
many wonderful books of predesigned monsters that
Gamemasters can use for D&D and other fifth edition
fantasy roleplaying games. Instead, this book gives GMs
the tools to build their own foes and modify foes from
other sources. Forge of Foes works alongside your other
books of 5e monsters, but it also works well on its own to
help you make the monsters you need for your games.
Though part of the Lazy Dungeon Master series,
this book stands on its own. Forge of Foes focuses on
monsters—how to make them, how to modify them, and
how to run them. The concepts presented here work with
those found in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, The
Lazy DM’s Workbook, and The Lazy DM’s Companion, but
you don’t need those books to get value out of this one.
Like the other books from the Lazy Dungeon Master
series, this book aims to help you more easily run great
games. You’re busy. You have friends coming to your
table tonight. You have monsters you need to throw into
your game right now. Forge of Foes can help you build or
modify those monsters quickly and easily, with all the
details, tactics, and flavor you desire.
WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?
This book assumes you’re familiar with the core rules of
Dungeons & Dragons or another 5e RPG. You don’t need
significant experience running 5e games to make use of
this book. But the more experience you have, the more
value you’ll get out of it.
This book isn’t a substitute for reading any set of 5e core
books, however. Take the time to read and absorb the
material found in those books to get the most use out of
this book and improve your games.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book can serve you in three ways.
First, you can use Forge of Foes to quickly build
monsters from scratch, and to make those monsters as
simple or as complex as you want. Starting with baseline
statistics, you can add on templates and features to fill out
a monster’s mechanics as you desire, and as best fits the
story of the monster.
Second, you can use the statistics, templates, and
features in this book to modify existing monsters. Doing
so can provide you with endless variants of monsters from
products you already own.
Third, you can absorb the advice and discussions in this
book to think differently about how you prepare and run
monsters in your own games.
So whether you run monsters straight from your
favorite monster book, customize published monsters
yourself, or build monsters from scratch, Forge of Foes has
you covered.
3
BUILDING A QUICK MONSTER
Sometimes you need a monster right now but you don’t
have the right one handy. Maybe the creature you’re
imagining doesn’t exist in any given book of published
monsters, or you simply don’t have the time to look it up.
Maybe you’re in the middle of your game and want some
quick statistics for a creature you didn’t think you’d need.
For all these problems, this section offers solutions.
The core tool for building a quick monster for a 5e
game is the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table
on page 6, which offers you a set of statistics that can
be used to build and run a quick monster of any challenge
rating (CR). You then have two paths for customizing a
monster built from these baseline statistics—with flavor
and description during the game, or with a refinement of
the creature’s mechanics.
It’s worth your time to review and understand how this
table works before you start using it in your game. Read
the column descriptions. Understand the relationship
between a monster’s challenge rating and equivalent
character level. Once you’ve internalized how this table
works, you can use it in seconds to build a monster and
throw that foe into your game.
This table works hand-in-hand with Forge of Foes’
options for building encounters, including “Monster
Combinations for a Hard Challenge” (page 67) and
“Building Challenging High-Level Encounters” (page
86). It also works alongside further customization
options, such as the monster type templates and powers
presented later in this section, and the additional powers
in “Monster Powers” (page 15) and “Monster Roles”
(page 22), letting you make your chosen creature more
tactically interesting or a better fit for their place in the
story and the game.
COLUMN DESCRIPTIONS
The table includes the following columns, which will
become more familiar to you as you build your monsters.
Monster CR. The challenge ratings presented in the
CR column are the baseline measure to determine the
relative difficulty of a monster in combat. You’ll almost
always reference this column first when building a quick
monster.
Equivalent Character Level. This column describes
the roughly equivalent level of a single character facing
a single monster of this challenge rating in a hard
encounter. This gives you a quick way to determine how
difficult this monster will be when facing characters of a
particular level.
As you can see from the table, matching character level
to challenge rating isn’t a simple mathematical process.
There are a number of character levels missing from the
table where certain challenge ratings represent a large
jump in how tough a monster is.
AC/DC. This column indicates the typical Armor Class
of a monster of the indicated challenge rating. It also
4
describes the typical Difficulty Class if this monster uses a
DC for any of their attacks or other features.
Hit Points. This column offers the baseline hit points
of a monster of a given challenge rating. Feel free to add
or subtract hit points within the suggested range based
on the monster’s in-world features or physiology, or the
pacing you want to maintain during a battle.
Proficient Ability Bonus. This column gives the
expected bonus for abilities with which the monster is
proficient, adding the monster’s ability score modifier and
proficiency bonus together. This number can be used as
an attack bonus, or as a bonus for proficient saving throws
and ability checks. (Ability-based modifiers without
proficiency are fixed values between −2 and +4, based on
the monster’s story.)
Damage per Round. This column contains the total
expected damage that a monster can deal in a round.
Higher-CR monsters typically split this total damage
among a number of attacks, instead of doing one big
attack that either deals a tremendous amount of damage
or misses completely. If a single effect targets two or more
characters, such as a fiery breath weapon, the damage for
that effect should be half the indicated number.
Number of Attacks. This column notes the number of
attacks a monster of a particular challenge rating typically
makes per round. The damage per round from the
previous column is divided among these multiple attacks
in the following column.
Damage per Attack. This column shows the baseline
amount of damage a monster deals per attack when using
the default number of attacks in the previous column. It
includes both average damage and a dice equation.
Example Monsters. This column offers example
monsters for each challenge rating. This can help you
gauge where your monster fits among a sampling of
existing 5e monsters.
BUILDING A MONSTER
With the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table at
hand, you can use the following quick steps to build a
custom monster from scratch. The first four steps alone
let you easily create a monster ready to run in your game.
The optional steps that follow then let you fill out the
monster’s details and custom mechanics as desired.
STEP 1: DETERMINE CHALLENGE
RATING
Begin by determining the challenge rating for your quick
monster based on that creature’s fiction in the world.
When considering the challenge rating of a custom
monster, you might compare them to existing creatures
on the table. If the in-world power of your monster
compares well to a skeleton, the monster might have a
challenge rating of 1/4. If they’re more like a fire giant,
they might have a challenge rating of 9. Look at the list of
example monsters and ask yourself which monster makes
the best comparison to yours. Then assign your creature
that monster’s challenge rating.
ALTERNATIVELY, WHAT CHALLENGE
RATING DO YOU NEED?
You might also want to choose a challenge rating based on
the level of the characters, using the Equivalent Character
Level column of the table. If you want an encounter with
four monsters who are roughly equal in power to four
characters, this column lets you figure out those monsters’
statistics. It also helps you build NPCs—knights, mages,
thieves, and so forth—intended to be a match for
characters of a particular level.
STEP 2: WRITE DOWN THE
BASELINE STATISTICS
Once you’ve determined a challenge rating for your
monster, write down their statistics. You might jot them
on an index card, in a text editor on your computer,
or wherever you keep notes for your adventures and
campaigns. You might end up customizing those statistics,
though, so be ready to change them.
STEP 3: DETERMINE PROFICIENT
ABILITIES
Next, determine which abilities—Strength, Dexterity,
Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma—a
monster is proficient in, using the Proficient Ability Bonus
column on the table. This sets up the bonus a monster
has when using any ability with which they’re proficient,
and is largely based on the monster’s story. A big, beefy
monster might be proficient in skills or saving throws
involving Strength and Constitution. A mastermind
monster might be proficient in Wisdom- and Intelligencebased skills and saving throws. A fast monster might be
proficient in Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks and Dexterity
saving throws, while an otherworldly monster might be
proficient in Charisma-based skills and saves.
The bonus indicated in the table is what the monster
uses to make saving throws and ability checks with those
proficient abilities. Just remember that the number on the
table already includes a monster’s proficiency bonus, in
addition to their ability score modifier.
STEP 4: DETERMINE
REMAINING ABILITIES
Next, you can determine the modifier (either a penalty
or a bonus) that a monster uses for their nonproficient
abilities. This is for all the ability checks and saving
throws a monster isn’t great at, and can be determined
by asking yourself how strong a monster feels in those
abilities. The bonus can range anywhere from −2 to +4,
and is independent of a monster’s challenge rating. Even
a high-challenge monster might have a lousy Dexterity
saving throw. When in doubt, or to speed things up, use
a modifier of +0 for these nonproficient abilities. You can
always change this during the game if a higher or lower
number makes sense.
A creature’s Dexterity modifier is also used to determine
their initiative modifier. Or you can skip your improvised
creature’s initiative roll and use a static initiative of 12.
YOU’RE READY TO GO
At this point, you have enough information on hand
to run your monster in a game, with little else needed.
However, you can also continue with a few more quick
steps to further customize your monster, making them
more distinct.
OPTIONAL STEP: CONSIDER
ARMOR CLASS
Though the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating
table offers a value for Armor Class that increases with
challenge rating, you can modify a monster’s Armor Class
further based on their story. A big beefy titan set up as a
CR 16 monster might still be easy to hit—maybe with an
Armor Class of 14.
It’s easiest to think of Armor Class on a scale of 10 to 20,
with 10 being the equivalent of an unarmored opponent
with no Dexterity bonus, and 20 being an opponent
wearing plate armor with a shield. (Armor Class can go
above 20 or below 10, though.)
Keep in mind that missing an opponent isn’t much
fun for a player. Lower-AC opponents, even those with
more hit points, are often more fun to fight than high-AC
opponents with fewer hit points.
OPTIONAL STEP: CUSTOMIZE
ATTACKS
The table includes a recommended number of attacks for
a monster, an attack bonus, and the amount of damage
those attacks should deal. If desired, tailor this damage to
fit the monster’s story. Choose a creature’s damage type,
such as fire for a flaming Greatsword attack, or necrotic
for a Death Blast attack. You can also mix up multiple
damage types, so that a CR 10 hell knight might have a
Longsword attack dealing both slashing and fire damage.
Consider the ranged attacks a monster might have
as well. You can use the same attack bonus, number of
attacks, and damage. Or you could give a creature weaker
ranged attacks (attacking once instead of twice, for
example). Depending on the creature’s story, the flavor of
those attacks might be physical (hurling javelins or rocks)
or arcane (firing energy blasts).
To further customize a monster, you can divide up their
total damage per round into a different number of attacks
than indicated on the table, if that makes sense for the
monster’s story. (As noted above, for attacks that target
two or more opponents, use half the indicated damage.)
OPTIONAL STEP: FURTHER MODIFY
STATISTICS
Depending on the story of your monster, you can make
general adjustments to their baseline statistics however
you see fit. For example, you might lower a monster’s
hit points and increase the damage they deal to create
a dangerous foe who drops out of the fight quickly.
5
MONSTER STATISTICS BY CHALLENGE RATING
CR
Equivalent
Character
Level
AC/
DC
Hit Points
Proficient
Ability
Damage
Bonus
per Round
Damage per
Attack
Example 5e Monsters
0
<1
10
3 (2–4)
+2
2
1
2 (1d4)
Commoner, rat, spider
1/8
<1
11
9 (7–11)
+3
3
1
4 (1d6 + 1)
Bandit, cultist, giant rat
1/4
1
11
13 (10–16)
+3
5
1
5 (1d6 + 2)
Acolyte, skeleton, wolf
1/2
2
12
22 (17–28)
+4
8
2
4 (1d4 + 2)
Black bear, scout, shadow
1
3
12
33 (25–41)
+5
12
2
6 (1d8 + 2)
Dire wolf, specter, spy
2
5
13
45 (34–56)
+5
17
2
9 (2d6 + 2)
Ghast, ogre, priest
3
7
13
65 (49–81)
+5
23
2
12 (2d8 + 3)
Knight, mummy, werewolf
4
9
14
84 (64–106)
+6
28
2
14 (3d8 + 1)
Ettin, ghost
5
10
15
95 (71–119)
+7
35
3
12 (3d6 + 2)
Elemental, gladiator, vampire spawn
6
11
15
112 (84–140)
+7
41
3
14 (3d6 + 4)
Mage, medusa, wyvern
7
12
15
130 (98–162)
+7
47
3
16 (3d8 + 3)
Stone giant, young black dragon
8
13
15
136 (102–170)
+7
53
3
18 (3d10 + 2)
Assassin, frost giant
9
15
16
145 (109–181)
+8
59
3
22 (3d12 + 3)
Bone devil, fire giant, young blue dragon
10
16
17
155 (116–194)
+9
65
4
16 (3d8 + 3)
Stone golem, young red dragon
11
17
17
165 (124–206)
+9
71
4
18 (3d10 + 2)
Djinni, efreeti, horned devil
12
18
17
175 (131–219)
+9
77
4
19 (3d10 + 3)
Archmage, erinyes
13
19
18
184 (138–230)
+10
83
4
21 (4d8 + 3)
Adult white dragon, storm giant, vampire
14
20
19
196 (147–245)
+11
89
4
22 (4d10)
15
> 20
19
210 (158–263)
+11
95
5
19 (3d10 + 3)
Adult green dragon, mummy lord, purple
worm
16
> 20
19
229 (172–286)
+11
101
5
21 (4d8 + 3)
Adult blue dragon, iron golem, marilith
17
> 20
20
246 (185–308)
+12
107
5
22 (3d12 + 3)
Adult red dragon
18
> 20
21
266 (200–333)
+13
113
5
23 (4d10 + 1)
Demilich
19
> 20
21
285 (214–356)
+13
119
5
24 (4d10 + 2)
Balor
20
> 20
21
300 (225–375)
+13
132
5
26 (4d12)
Ancient white dragon, pit fiend
21
> 20
22
325 (244–406)
+14
150
5
30 (4d12 + 4)
Ancient black dragon, lich, solar
22
> 20
23
350 (263–438)
+15
168
5
34 (4d12 + 8)
Ancient green dragon
23
> 20
23
375 (281–469)
+15
186
5
37 (6d10 + 4)
Ancient blue dragon, kraken
24
> 20
23
400 (300–500)
+15
204
5
41 (6d10 + 8)
Ancient red dragon
25
> 20
24
430 (323–538)
+16
222
5
44 (6d10 + 11)
26
> 20
25
460 (345–575)
+17
240
5
48 (6d10 + 15)
27
> 20
25
490 (368–613)
+17
258
5
52 (6d10 + 19)
28
> 20
25
540 (405–675)
+17
276
5
55 (6d10 + 22)
29
> 20
26
600 (450–750)
+18
294
5
59 (6d10 + 26)
30
> 20
27
666 (500–833)
+19
312
5
62 (6d10 + 29) Tarrasque
However, always consider whether such changes make
a combat encounter more fun to play. It might make
sense to create a monster with high hit points and a
higher Armor Class who deals less damage, thinking
that those two things balance out. But fighting such a
monster can easily become a slog. Likewise, a monster
with significantly fewer hit points that deals high damage
might end up being inadvertently deadly if too many
characters roll low on attacks, or could feel pointless if the
monster is killed too quickly.
OPTIONAL STEP: ADD QUICK TYPES
AND FEATURES
6
Number
of Attacks
The “Common Monster Type Templates” section on the
following page includes a number of monster types you
can apply when creating a quick monster. Each monster
Adult black dragon, ice devil
type includes the most important features of that type,
whether corporeal undead, elemental, fiend, and so
forth. That section also includes a number of useful
monster powers you can add to a foe, or you can select
from additional features, traits, and attacks in “Monster
Powers” (page 15) and “Monster Roles” (page 22).
USING THE TABLE WITH
PUBLISHED MONSTERS
While the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table
is intended to let you build monsters from scratch, it can
easily be used as a reference to better understand how a
published monster might act in combat. If a published
CR 4 monster has 30 hit points but deals 35 damage per
round, you can see from the table that their hit points
are low but their damage is high compared to the
creature’s baseline challenge rating. Such a monster
hits hard for their challenge rating, but when
they’re hit in turn, they go down fast.
COMMON MONSTER
TYPE TEMPLATES
This section offers a sampling of monster
type templates whose traits you can apply to
your quick-build monster, new powers tied
to specific monster types (including actions,
bonus actions, reactions, and additional
traits), and advice on how to use those
powers. Some templates use the challenge
rating of the creature you’re creating to calculate
saving throw DCs, damage, and other variables.
You can find additional monster type templates and
guidance for using them in “Monster Powers” on
page 15, and still more templates and powers in
“Monster Roles” on page 22.
ABERRATION
Aberrations generally have high Intelligence, Wisdom,
and Charisma scores, as well as darkvision with either a
60- or 120-foot range. An aberration speaks a language
such as Deep Speech, or communicates telepathically.
Senses darkvision 120 ft.
Languages Deep Speech, telepathy 120 ft.
You can further represent an aberration’s nature by
giving them any of the following powers.
Grasping Tentacles (Reaction). When this creature hits with an
attack, they sprout a tentacle that grasps the target. In addition
to the attack’s normal effects, the target is grappled (escape
DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) and restrained. Until the grapple ends, this
creature can’t use the grappling tentacle against another
target. This creature can sprout 1d4 tentacles.
This reaction is a fun way to surprise your players.
Describe how the tentacles emerge from the foe’s limb or
body to grasp a character. You can roll for the number of
tentacles or choose a number that reflects the creature’s
desired challenge rating.
BRIAN PATTERSON
Dominating Gaze (Action, Recharge 4–6). If this creature has
the Multiattack action, Dominating Gaze can take the place of
one of the attacks used in that action. This creature chooses
a target they can see within 60 feet of them. The target must
succeed on a Charisma saving throw (DC = 12 + 1/2 CR) or be
forced to immediately use their most effective weapon attack,
magical attack, or at-will spell against another target chosen by
this creature.
This action communicates the foe’s otherworldly nature.
The momentary domination could come in the form of
mind control, changing what the target sees, or confusing
them. Describing horrid whispers of the beauty of the
stars waking to devour the world is optional.
BEAST
Beasts might have low ability scores if they are mundane
creatures, with their strongest scores in either Strength
or Dexterity. They might also have medium to high
Constitution or Wisdom to represent hardiness and
cunning. Beasts typically have darkvision with a 60-foot
range, and they don’t speak a language. Beasts often
have the ability to climb, swim, or fly, and they might be
proficient in the Athletics, Perception, or Survival skills.
You can customize a quick-build beast using one of the
powers below, or a power from the “Monstrosity” section.
Hit and Run (Action). As part of this action, this creature first
takes one of their other actions. After that action is completed,
this creature can move 30 feet without provoking opportunity
attacks. If the creature ends their movement behind cover
or in an obscured area, they can make a Dexterity (Stealth)
check to hide.
This action allows a beast to act as a predator, attacking
and repositioning themself for maximum effect.
Empowered by Carnage (Reaction). When this creature hits
another creature with a melee attack and the damage from the
attack either reduces the target to below half their hit point
maximum or reduces them to 0 hit points, this creature can
immediately move up to their speed and repeat the melee
attack against another target.
This reaction captures the ferocious nature of the beast,
motivated by seeing prey take a grievous wound or meet
their end.
CELESTIAL
As divine beings of the Outer Planes, celestials have
high ability scores. Charisma is usually especially high
to represent a celestial’s leadership qualities, eloquence,
and beauty. Celestials often have resistance to radiant
damage. They might also have resistance to damage from
nonmagical attacks, and immunity to the charmed and
frightened conditions, and to exhaustion. The mightiest
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celestials possess truesight with a range of 120 feet,
speak and understand all languages, and communicate
telepathically.
Damage Resistances radiant; bludgeoning, piercing, and
slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened
Senses darkvision 120 ft.
Languages all, telepathy 120 ft.
You can also select one or both of the powers below to
further enhance a creature’s celestial nature.
Winged (Trait). This creature has a flying speed equal to their
best speed, and can hover.
Glorious celestial wings might be shaped of feathers,
ice, or radiant energy. You can increase the flying speed if
you wish the celestial to have more mobility.
Mirrored Judgment (Reaction). When this creature is the
sole target of an attack or spell, they can choose another valid
target to also be targeted by the attack or spell.
A celestial might change their face or armor to become
reflective like a mirror, so that an attacking creature can
contemplate their actions.
CONSTRUCT
A construct’s strongest ability scores are usually Strength
and Constitution, though a construct built for agility
might also have a high Dexterity. Constructs typically also
have either blindsight or darkvision, and a selection of
damage immunities and condition immunities to reflect
their nonliving nature. They usually can’t speak, but might
understand one or more languages.
Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened,
exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius) or
darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands certain languages but can’t speak
You can further enhance a construct with
one of the following features.
Armor Plating (Trait). This creature has a +2
bonus to Armor Class. Each time the creature’s
hit points are reduced by one-quarter of their
maximum, this bonus decreases by 1, to a maximum
penalty to Armor Class of −2.
The high Armor Class of a construct
might feel initially frustrating, but
as you describe the pieces of armor
plating being torn off, players will sense
the tide turning. When the bonus to Armor Class
becomes a penalty, describe how the rents in the armor
allow characters access to the construct’s inner workings,
speeding up the foe’s demise!
Sentinel (Trait). This creature can make opportunity attacks
without using a reaction.
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This simple feature really shines when you describe the
construct’s sharp eyes zeroing in on the characters, or
how the construct swivels part of their body to make an
opportunity attack.
DRAGON
Draconic creatures have high Strength, Dexterity, and
Constitution scores, as well as high Charisma scores. A
dragon has immunity to any damage type used for their
breath weapon, has blindsight and darkvision, and speaks
Draconic. They often have proficiency in Perception, and
in one or more other skills reflecting their interests or
nature.
Damage Immunities damage type associated with the
dragon’s breath weapon
Senses blindsight 60 ft., darkvision 120 ft.
Languages Common, Draconic
A true dragon or a closely related draconic creature
has a breath weapon that is fearsome to behold. You can
adjust the damage or area of effect depending on how
powerful your draconic creature is meant to be.
Dragon’s Breath (Action, Recharge 5–6). This creature
breathes to deal poison, cold, or fire damage in a 30-foot cone,
or breathes to deal acid or lightning damage in a 60-foot line
that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in the area of the exhalation
must make a Dexterity saving throw against a line or a
Constitution saving throw against a cone (DC = 12 + 1/2 CR),
taking 4 × CR damage of the appropriate type on a failed save,
or half as much damage on a successful one.
You might also wish to provide a dragon or draconic
creature with an additional power to reflect their nature.
Dragon’s Gaze (Bonus Action, Recharge 6). One creature
within 60 feet of the dragon must make a Wisdom saving throw
(DC = 13 + 1/2 CR) or become frightened of the dragon. While
frightened in this way, each time the target takes damage, they
take an extra 1/2 CR damage. The target can repeat the saving
throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on
themself on a success.
Dragon’s Gaze puts the pressure on a character, and
goes well with threats a dragon makes as they promise
that the heroes are about to meet their doom.
Draconic Retaliation (Trait). When this creature is reduced to
half their hit points or fewer, they can immediately use either
their breath weapon or their Multiattack action. If the creature
is incapacitated or otherwise unable to use this trait, they can
use it when they are next able to.
This trait showcases a dragon’s might and fury, just
as the characters appear to gain the upper hand. For
a particularly fearsome foe—or particularly strong
characters—you can use this trait again when the dragon
is reduced to one quarter of their hit points or fewer.
ELEMENTAL
Elementals generally have strong physical ability scores.
They have resistance to damage of the type they are
associated with (acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning,
or thunder), and might have immunity to that damage
if wholly created from elemental energy. An elemental
usually has immunity to poison damage and certain
conditions, depending on their nature. They have
darkvision and speak the language associated with their
element.
Damage Resistances damage type the creature is associated
with, if appropriate; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from
nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities damage type the creature is associated
with, if appropriate; poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed,
petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
An elemental can be further enhanced with one of the
following features.
Elemental Attacks (Trait). This creature’s weapons or limbs are
infused with energy of the type they are associated with (acid,
bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder), dealing that
damage type instead of their normal type.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan
A fey creature can be further enhanced with one of the
following features.
Teleporting Step (Bonus Action). This creature teleports a
number of feet up to their walking speed to an unoccupied
space they can see.
This option makes a fey creature a master of mobility,
which you can richly describe in a number of ways. Does
the creature summon, then step through portals? Vanish
into shadow? Move from one plant to another? Transform
into wind and appear in another location?
Beguiling Aura (Trait). An enemy of this creature who moves
within 25 feet of them for the first time on a turn or starts
their turn there must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC
= 10 + 1/2 CR) or be charmed by this creature until the end of
their turn.
Representing the enigmatic and compelling nature of
many fey, this aura can force a character to change their
tactics during their turn. It’s especially effective on a foe
you wish to protect, making it harder for melee characters
to engage that foe, and incentivizing those characters to
pick other targets first. You can vary the nature of the
charm effect, whether the fey is adorned in the finest
clothing, can change their appearance to look like a
friend, or weaves ancient words to beguile their enemies.
FIEND
This is a basic feature to communicate the nature of an
elemental monster. Reinforce this through roleplaying,
describing the foe’s form and appearance. Are they a being
of fire? Are they wielding weapons that they ignite with
fire?
Ability scores for fiends favor their physical
characteristics, though many also have moderate or
higher Charisma scores. Devils hoping to entice mortals
into deals also often have proficiency in the Deception
skill. Fiends typically have resistance to nonmagical
attacks, and might have one or more elemental
resistances. Demons speak Abyssal, while devils speak
Infernal. Both usually have telepathy up to 120 feet.
Elemental Aura (Trait). This creature radiates an aura of
elemental energy of the type they are associated with (acid,
bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder). Any creature
who moves within 10 feet of this creature for the first time on
a turn or starts their turn there takes 5 damage of the selected
energy type (10 damage if this creature is CR 12 or higher).
Damage Resistances elemental resistances; bludgeoning,
piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft.
Languages Abyssal or Infernal, telepathy 120 ft.
Does your elemental monster radiate extreme cold? Do
sparks fly from them, or does a cloud of stones encircle
them? An elemental aura communicates a creature’s
nature clearly, and presents a tactical challenge for meleefocused characters. For an alternative approach, have this
trait activate only when the creature drops below half
their hit points, as their elemental essence leaks out of
their body.
BRIAN PATTERSON
Sylvan or Elvish in addition to Common, and many speak
Giant. Most fey have darkvision, and proficiency in the
Deception, Perception, or Persuasion skills.
FEY
Fey creatures can vary greatly in their traits and actions,
but often have high Charisma and Dexterity scores and
moderate-to-high Wisdom scores. Fey usually speak
In addition, you can add any of the following features to
enhance the fiendish capabilities of a foe.
Empowered by Death (Trait). When a creature within 30 feet
of this creature dies, this creature regains 2 × CR hit points.
What makes this feature interesting is that the foe’s
allies dying also triggers it. Give this trait to a fiendish
boss so that they can gain hit points as their minions die.
They might even kill one off just for fun.
Relish Your Failure (Trait). When a creature within 50 feet
of this creature fails a saving throw, this creature gains 1/2 CR
temporary hit points. If this creature already has temporary
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hit points, they instead regain 1/2 CR hit points, up to their hit
point maximum.
The fiend calls out any character’s failure, mocking
them and drawing strength from their inadequacy.
This trait works best for foes who have actions or spells
requiring saving throws.
GIANT
Giants have Strength and Constitution scores as
formidable as their size, but their Dexterity scores are
typically lower. Some giants speak only Giant, while
others might speak Common, Goblin, or other languages.
Forceful Blow (Reaction, Recharge 4–6). When this creature
hits a target with a weapon attack, roll 1d4 + 1. The target is
pushed 5 times that many feet away from this creature.
You can alter the size of the die to reflect the type of
giant, or assign a fixed value for the distance if you feel
that would work better. Sending characters flying is
rewarding. Try not to enjoy it too much.
Shove Allies (Action). This creature can shove any allied
creatures who are within 5 feet of this creature and are smaller
in size. Each shoved ally moves up to 15 feet away from this
creature, and can make a melee weapon attack if they end that
movement and have a viable target within their reach.
Roleplay the giant as they shove smaller creatures
around them, forcing them to fight for their lives. Players
might enjoy the tactical nature of this approach, since
defeating enough of the giant’s smaller allies makes this
trait less effective.
HUMANOID
Ability scores for humanoids can reflect both their role
and their ancestry. The wide variety of humanoid types
and the range of standard NPC stat blocks that can
represent humanoids makes it difficult to create templates
for specifically humanoid features. Instead, you can select
from the powers found in the “Common Monster Powers”
section on the next page, choosing those that enable your
specific concept.
MONSTROSITY
Monstrosities often have high Constitution and either
high Strength or Dexterity. Their Intelligence and
Charisma are often low. Many monstrosities lack a
language, and they might have skill proficiency in
Athletics, Perception, or Stealth. A burrowing, climbing,
or swimming speed might be appropriate.
The following powers can be used to show off a
truly monstrous monstrosity. For monstrosities such
as centaurs and doppelgangers who are decidedly less
monstrous in their appearance and outlook, you can use
the powers in “Common Monster Powers” instead.
Devour Ally (Bonus Action). This creature swallows an allied
creature who is within 5 feet of this creature and is smaller.
This creature regains 3 × CR hit points and the devoured ally is
reduced to 0 hit points.
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This power works well for a massive monstrosity paired
with smaller, weaker creatures who they can slay at
will—or even swallow whole. This forces the characters
to choose between focusing on the larger foe or killing off
the weaker ones to prevent the boss from healing.
Lingering Wound (Reaction, Recharge 6). When this creature
hits a target with an attack and deals damage, the target takes
a lingering wound. At the start of each of their turns, a target
with a lingering wound takes the same damage dealt by the
original attack. The target can attempt a DC 10 Constitution
saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the
effect on themself on a success. A successful DC 10 Wisdom
(Medicine) check made as an action by the target or a creature
within 5 feet of them also ends the target’s lingering wound.
The effect of this power can be described as blood loss
from jagged fangs or claws, heightening a monstrosity’s
terrible nature.
OOZE
Oozes almost always have low mental ability scores, and
they often have either low Strength or Dexterity scores
based on their nature. Oozes might be proficient in the
Stealth skill if they sneak up on opponents, or if they
have transparent bodies or forms that blend into their
environment. Oozes typically lack a language, and rely
on blindsense to sense creatures in close proximity. They
often have immunity to multiple conditions.
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened,
exhaustion, frightened, prone
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius)
Many oozes have the ability to slip through small
openings, which can be represented by the following trait.
Malleable Form (Trait). This creature has advantage on checks
to begin or escape a grapple, and can move through a space as
if they were two sizes smaller than their size without squeezing.
You can alter the malleable trait to reflect just how small
a space an ooze creature can move through, with some
oozes able to move through a space as small as 1 inch
wide without squeezing.
Additionally, you can choose any of the following
powers to represent a creature’s ooze nature.
Oozing Passage (Trait). This creature can move through
the space of other creatures of their size or smaller without
provoking opportunity attacks. When they do so, each creature
whose space this creature moves through must succeed on a
Strength saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or be restrained until
the end of their next turn.
It can be fun to describe the moment when an ooze
passes over and around a character. This can be a strong
feature if the ooze moves through several characters, so
you might alter tactics as needed to reflect the desired
challenge rating. You can also remove the restrained effect
to simply provide an interesting form of mobility.
Elongating Limbs (Trait). This creature can increase the length
of their limbs or other appendages at will, increasing their
reach by 5 feet. A creature moving out of this creature’s reach
or within their reach provokes an opportunity attack.
This trait is the surprise that keeps surprising. A
monster can lengthen a limb to attack a character, then
use it later for a reaction attack. Describe the way the limb
elongates in as grotesque a way as desired.
PLANT
Plant creatures have extremely low mental attributes
and low Dexterity scores. Many are stationary, or might
have a slow walking speed of anywhere from 5 to 20
feet. Some plant creatures have darkvision, while others
have blindsight out to a range of 30 or 60 feet. Some
have resistance to bludgeoning and piercing damage,
or resistance to cold, fire, or poison damage. Some have
immunity to conditions such as blinded, deafened, and
prone, and to exhaustion. A few plants have vulnerability
to fire.
You can add any of the following powers to a creature
with a plantlike nature.
Poison Thorns (Bonus Action, Recharge 5–6). The next time
this creature hits a target with an attack and deals damage, the
attack deals extra poison damage equal to half the damage
originally dealt, and the target gains the poisoned condition
until the end of their next turn.
You can describe the thorns growing along the plant
creature’s appendages when they take this bonus action.
Those thorns might be a bold color such as bright red or
blue, and could drip poison.
Grasping Roots (Trait). When a creature attempts to leave a
space within 5 feet of this creature, the moving creature must
succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC = 12 + 1/2 CR) or be
restrained until the start of their next turn.
You can surprise players with this power, which reveals
itself as a network of roots surrounding the plant, hidden
beneath the soil or spreading along the cracks of a stone
floor. When a character attempts to move away from or
around the plant, the roots emerge and try to hold them
fast.
UNDEAD
Undead creatures typically have immunity to poison
damage and the poisoned condition, and they do not
need to eat or breathe. Some undead have immunity to
the charmed condition and to exhaustion, and skeletal
undead might have vulnerability to bludgeoning
damage. Although some intelligent undead can speak,
many undead lack the ability to speak even if they can
understand language.
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands all languages they knew in life but
can’t speak
You can also add any of the following powers to an
undead creature.
Undead Resilience (Trait). If damage reduces this creature to
0 hit points, they must make a Constitution saving throw with
a DC of 2 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant
or from a critical hit. On a success, this creature drops to 1 hit
point instead.
Add this trait to undead creatures who can withstand
blows that would kill a living creature. Describe a
successful save as the undead creature getting back up
or refusing to fall, despite missing body parts or other
terrible wounds.
Stench of Death (Trait). Any creature who starts their turn
within 10 feet of this creature must succeed on a Constitution
saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or become poisoned until
the start of their next turn. On a successful saving throw,
the targeted creature is immune to this creature’s stench
for 24 hours.
You can alter the effect’s radius based on the … uh,
flavor you wish to impart.
COMMON MONSTER POWERS
This section offers a selection of common monster powers
you can apply to any quick-build monster to give them
a stronger mechanical flavor, make them more tactically
interesting, or reinforce their behavior in the story of your
game.
Damaging Aura (Trait). Any creature who moves within 10
feet of this creature or who starts their turn there takes CR
damage of a type appropriate for this creature.
Reskin this aura to meet your needs based on the
damage type. A fire elemental can radiate an aura of fire,
while an undead might radiate necrotic damage. You can
also describe this effect as a magical aura dealing force
damage or a holy aura dealing radiant damage, or even
have a many-armed creature wielding swords to create an
aura of slashing damage.
Damaging Weapon (Trait). This creature’s melee weapon
attacks deal an extra CR damage of a type appropriate for
the creature.
As with Damaging Aura, this trait can be customized
for many types of creatures by choosing a thematic
damage type. A warrior might wield a greatsword that
deals extra fire or lightning damage as a boon bestowed
by their god. A mini-boss undead could deal necrotic or
cold damage to represent their innate supernatural power.
Defender (Reaction). When an ally within 5 feet of this
creature is targeted by an attack or spell, this creature can
make themself the intended target of the attack.
This is an excellent feature for minions who can
intercept damage intended for a boss, or for a highhit-point monster who can act as a defender of more
strategically important monsters.
Delights in Suffering (Trait). When attacking a target whose
current hit points are below half their hit point maximum, this
creature has advantage on attack rolls and deals an extra CR
damage when they hit.
This trait makes a monster extremely dangerous in a
tough fight, and encourages the characters to use healing
resources.
Frenzy (Trait). At the start of their turn, this creature can gain
advantage on all melee weapon attack rolls made during this
turn, but attack rolls against them have advantage until the
start of their next turn.
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In addition to providing a combat boost for a foe, this
trait can help accelerate a fight that’s gone on long enough,
by letting the characters hit the last remaining foes more
often.
Goes Down Fighting (Reaction). When this creature is reduced
to 0 hit points, they can immediately make one melee or
ranged weapon attack before they fall unconscious.
Your monsters can get one last attack in when they have
this trait.
Improvised Ranged Attack (Action). This creature can
make one or more ranged weapon attacks—firing a bow or
crossbow, hurling a spear or javelin, throwing rocks, and so
forth. These attacks have an attack modifier and damage
appropriate for the creature’s challenge rating (see the Monster
Statistics by Challenge Rating table), and a range of 45/90 feet
or as appropriate to the weapon.
With this attack, any melee combatant becomes an
effective threat at range.
Arcane Blast (Action). This creature can make one or more
ranged spell attacks, dealing acid, cold, fire, force, lightning,
necrotic, poison, psychic, or radiant damage as appropriate
to the creature. These attacks have an attack modifier and
damage appropriate for the creature’s challenge rating (see the
Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table), and a range of 60
or 120 feet.
This attack lets you add a touch of arcane fury to any
combatant.
Lethal (Trait). This creature has a +CR bonus to damage rolls,
and scores a critical hit on an unmodified attack roll of 18–20.
This simple trait is a default you can use to increase the
damage dealt by any monster.
Mark the Target (Trait, Recharge 3–6). When this creature hits
a target with a ranged attack, allies of this creature who can
see the target have advantage on attack rolls against the target
until the start of this creature’s next turn.
Let a monster apply pressure to a specific target with
this power, especially if that target is wounded or in a
vulnerable position. Make the foe’s action obvious, so that
the players know to react to it and can help the targeted
character survive the ensuing focused fire.
Not Dead Yet (Trait, 1/Day). When this creature is reduced to
0 hit points, they drop prone and are indistinguishable from
a dead creature. At the start of their next turn, this creature
stands up without using any movement and has 2 × CR hit
points. They can then take their turn normally.
This trait can represent a clever combatant playing
dead, a warrior with incredible resolve, or a creature such
as an undead or an ooze who refuses to die.
Parry and Riposte (Reaction, Recharge 6). This creature adds
+3 to their Armor Class against one melee attack that would
hit them. If the attack misses, this creature can immediately
make a weapon attack against the creature making the
parried attack.
This power works well for clever foes, especially those
who are experts in the use of the weapons they wield.
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Quick Recovery (Trait). At the start of this creature’s turn, they
can attempt a saving throw against any effect on them that can
be ended by a successful saving throw.
This power can protect vulnerable combatants and
bosses from being shut down by spells. It can represent
magical mastery, divine favor, luck, or a specific quality
of the creature. As a variant, using this trait could require
the foe to take 2 × CR damage if the new saving throw is
successful, representing the exertion made to overcome
the effect.
Refuse to Surrender (Trait). When this creature’s current hit
points are below half their hit point maximum, the creature
deals CR extra damage with each of their attacks.
This trait works best when given to a single important
foe, and when you describe the monster’s refusal to
surrender despite their many wounds. This lets the
players know they can focus fire to finish the creature off,
minimizing their damage potential.
Reposition (Bonus Action, 1/Day). Each ally within 60 feet
of this creature who can see and hear them can immediately
move their speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Place this trait on a boss monster to allow their minions
to quickly reposition, especially when it’s useful for those
minions to move through characters ready to attack.
Sneaky (Trait). This creature has advantage on Dexterity
(Stealth) checks.
Foes fighting in obscured areas or behind cover can
benefit from this trait, which can represent natural
camouflage or well-practiced skill.
Spell Fuel (Reaction). When a target this creature can see
(including themself) either succeeds or fails on a saving throw
against a spell or other magical effect, this creature can expend
a spell slot to force the target to reroll the saving throw.
Appropriate for a powerful spellcaster, this power
represents mastery over magical forces in its ability to
enhance or weaken a spell’s effect.
Telekinetic Grasp (Action). This creature chooses one creature
they can see within 100 feet of them weighing less than 400
pounds. The target must succeed on a Strength saving throw
(DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) or be pulled up to 80 feet directly toward
this creature.
When characters like to hang back from the action,
this power can draw them right into the heart of combat.
It can represent psionic ability, a spell, or mastery over
wind and air. You can also adjust the power to be a
teleportation effect if that fits a monster’s concept.
Vanish (Bonus Action). This creature can use the Disengage
action, then can use the Hide action if they have cover (no
action required).
Creatures accustomed to fighting from cover gain a
formidable edge with this power. Consider pairing Vanish
with the Sneaky trait (above) to create an unstoppable
ambusher.
GENERAL-USE COMBAT
STAT BLOCKS
This section contains several general-use stat blocks
specifically built for reskinning into whatever monsters
you need for your combat encounters. Each is fully usable
on its own, but you can improvise adjustments to them
during play, or customize them with attacks and traits
from “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster
Powers” (page 15), or “Monster Roles” (page 22).
Each stat block uses d8 Hit Dice, but can be used for
creatures in a range of sizes. Each focuses on a primary
ability score, but you can shift abilities as needed to better
fit the story of the creature the stat block represents. Swap
Strength and Intelligence to run a spellcaster instead of
a melee combatant, or switch Dexterity and Strength to
turn a shifty rogue into a powerful fighter.
A stat block’s attack lets you choose the most
appropriate type of damage for a creature, and you can
easily increase an attack’s reach or range. Ranges for
attacks are given as a single number indicating maximum
range, but you can modify that range or replace it with the
normal and long range of a specific weapon as you wish.
The spread of challenge ratings of these stat blocks
provides options for weak, moderate, and strong foes at
any character level. Each stat block description includes
comparisons between the stat block and characters of
different levels, providing guidelines for when a stat block
can serve as a boss, an elite foe (suitable for two characters
against one creature), or a one-on-one combatant, or in
larger groups of two to four monsters per character. All
these setups are geared toward a hard encounter (see
“Defining Challenge Level” on page 105), but one that
the characters should definitely be able to win.
MINION (CR 1/8)
The low-CR minions represented by this stat block might
include ravenous rats, weak skeletons, shifty bandits, or
low-ranking cultists. A minion can serve as a one-on-one
combatant against 1st-level characters, or can be deployed
in large groups at 4th level or above. This stat block
focuses on Dexterity as its primary ability.
MINION
Armor Class 11
Hit Points 9 (2d8)
Speed 30 ft.
DEX
12 (+1)
Representing seasoned guards, trained soldiers, powerful
bandits, murderous humanoids, or armed undead, the
soldier stat block works well as a boss at 1st level, an
elite foe for two 2nd-level characters, or one-on-one
combatants at 4th level, or in large groups at 6th level and
above. Strength is this stat block’s primary ability.
SOLDIER
Medium Creature
Armor Class 12 (leather armor or natural armor)
Hit Points 22 (4d8 + 4)
Speed 30 ft.
STR
14 (+2)
DEX
12 (+1)
CON
12 (+1)
INT
10 (+0)
Senses passive Perception 10
Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
WIS
10 (+0)
CHA
10 (+0)
Proficiency Bonus +2
ACTIONS
Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or
range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d12 + 2) damage.
BRUTE (CR 2)
Heavy-hitting veterans, capable bodyguards, low-ranking
demons or devils, dangerous monsters in the wild, and
powerful humanoids can all be represented by this stat
block. A brute can serve as a boss against 2nd-level
characters, an elite foe against two 4th-level characters, or
a one-on-one opponent at 5th level, or in large groups at
10th level. This stat block relies on Strength.
BRUTE
Medium or Large Creature
Armor Class 13 (studded leather or natural armor)
Hit Points 45 (7d8 + 14)
Speed 30 ft.
STR
16 (+3)
DEX
12 (+1)
CON
14 (+2)
Saving Throws Con +4
Skills Athletics +5
Senses passive Perception 10
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Small or Medium Creature
STR
10 (+0)
SOLDIER (CR 1/2)
INT
10 (+0)
WIS
10 (+0)
CHA
8 (−1)
Proficiency Bonus +2
Actions
CON
10 (+0)
Senses passive Perception 11
Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)
INT
10 (+0)
WIS
12 (+1)
CHA
10 (+0)
Multiattack. The brute makes two attacks.
Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or
range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d12 + 3) damage.
Proficiency Bonus +2
Actions
Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft. or
range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) damage.
13
SPECIALIST (CR 4)
SENTINEL (CR 11)
This stat block can represent spies, assassins, hunters,
and trained elite forces. The specialist serves as a boss
for 4th-level characters, an elite opponent versus two
5th-level characters, or a one-on-one combatant for
10th-level characters, or in large groups against 16th-level
characters. Dexterity is this stat block’s primary ability.
This stat block is a good fit for strong, often-otherworldly
creatures such as demons, devils, impressive beings of the
Outer Planes, guardian constructs, or powerful undead.
The sentinel can serve as a boss for 7th-level characters,
an elite foe against two 12th-level characters, or can stand
one-on-one against 16th-level characters. This stat block
focuses on Strength.
SPECIALIST
SENTINEL
Medium Creature
Medium, Large, or Huge Creature
Armor Class 14
Hit Points 84 (13d8 + 26)
Speed 30 ft.
STR
12 (+1)
DEX
18 (+4)
CON
14 (+2)
INT
10 (+0)
WIS
14 (+2)
CHA
12 (+1)
Saving Throws Dex +6, Wis +4
Skills Acrobatics +6, Perception +4, Stealth +6
Senses passive Perception 14
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +2
Actions
Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. or
range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) damage.
MYRMIDON (CR 7)
Powerful elite bodyguards, high priests, wizards, warlocks,
sorcerers, demons, and devils can all be represented by
this stat block. A myrmidon can serve as a boss monster
for 5th-level characters, an elite combatant against two
characters of 7th level, or a one-on-one combatant against
14th-level characters, or in large groups against 20th-level
characters. This stat block focuses on Intelligence.
MYRMIDON
CON
16 (+3)
INT
10 (+0)
Saving Throws Str +9, Dex +7
Skills Perception +6
Senses passive Perception 16
Challenge 11 (7,200 XP)
WIS
14 (+2)
CHA
10 (+0)
Proficiency Bonus +4
Multiattack. The sentinel makes four attacks.
Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft. or
range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) damage.
CHAMPION (CR 15)
Representing greater demons, devils, vampires, liches,
or powerful spellcasters, the champion serves as a boss
for 11th-level characters, an elite foe for two 15th-level
characters, or a one-on-one challenge against 17th-level
characters. This stat block focuses on Charisma.
CHAMPION
Armor Class 19 (natural armor or magical protection)
Hit Points 212 (25d8 + 100)
Speed 30 ft.
Armor Class 15 (chain shirt or natural armor)
Hit Points 130 (20d8 + 40)
Speed 30 ft.
CON
14 (+2)
Saving Throws Dex +5, Wis +5
Skills Perception +5
Senses passive Perception 15
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
INT
18 (+4)
WIS
14 (+2)
CHA
10 (+0)
Proficiency Bonus +3
Actions
Multiattack. The myrmidon makes three attacks.
Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. or
range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8 + 4) damage.
14
DEX
16 (+3)
Medium, Large, or Huge Creature
Medium or Large creature
DEX
14 (+2)
STR
20 (+5)
Actions
Multiattack. The specialist makes two attacks.
STR
10 (+0)
Armor Class 17 (natural armor or magical protection)
Hit Points 165 (22d8 + 66)
Speed 30 ft.
STR
10 (+0)
DEX
12 (+1)
CON
18 (+4)
Saving Throws Wis +8, Cha +11
Skills Perception +8
Senses passive Perception 18
Challenge 15 (13,000 XP)
INT
12 (+1)
WIS
16 (+3)
CHA
22 (+6)
Proficiency Bonus +5
Actions
Multiattack. The champion makes four attacks.
Attack. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft. or
range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 24 (4d8 + 6) damage.
MONSTER POWERS
A monster power is a discrete trait or action that can be
quickly assigned to a monster to give them an extra edge
in combat. As a GM, you can pick from the nearly forty
monster powers in this section, all of which are organized
by theme, adding powers that fit the type of creature and
the story you’re trying to convey. Additional monster
powers can also be found in “Building a Quick Monster”
on page 4, and “Monster Roles” on page 22.
Adding new powers to existing monster stat blocks lets
you improve upon creatures who feel too simple, or who
might have become familiar to your players. A creature
primarily focused on a single attack can be transformed
into something far more evocative with a fiery weapon
that burns its target, a pinning blow that restrains an
enemy, or other exciting options.
Monster powers can also add features that a monster
lacks, such as a ranged attack, a means of getting away
from pesky heroes, or an aura to dissuade too many
characters from surrounding a creature. Monster powers
can let foes deal stronger damage, or can provide a
more flexible means of dealing damage for an exciting
encounter.
ADDING MONSTER POWERS
Monster powers function like any other trait or action a
creature already has in their stat block, and are written up
in much the same way as those existing traits and actions.
POWERS BASED ON CHALLENGE
RATING
Monster powers sometimes make use of challenge rating
to calculate attack bonuses, damage, saving throw DCs, or
similar values. This requires some quick math, but allows
powers to be used at almost any CR. The one small fix to
keep in mind is that when using monsters below CR 1,
any final result (such as a bonus to damage rolls) should
have a minimum value of 1.
It’s recommended that you note the final value for any
monster power incorporating CR in your session notes.
For example, to give a mummy (CR 3) the Poisonous
Demise trait that has a DC of 10 + 1/2 CR and deals 2 +
CR poison damage, you would note: “Mummy (Poisonous
Demise = DC 11, 5 poison damage).”
If you prefer, you can set the attack rolls, save DCs,
or damage of monster powers according to the Monster
Statistics by Challenge Rating table (page 6 in
“Building a Quick Monster”). In some cases, this can give
a monster power’s math greater accuracy. For example,
the aberrant power Erase Memory has a DC of 13 + 1/2
CR, or DC 18 for a CR 10 creature. Looking up CR 10
on the table provides a suggested DC of 17. Regardless of
what approach you use, final values for powers are always
something you should feel free to change to fit your play
style and your group’s capabilities.
WHEN TO ADJUST CHALLENGE
RATING
In most cases, you’ll add monster powers because you
want a creature to be stronger than a typical creature of
the same challenge rating, and you don’t want to rebalance
the encounter. If you’re deliberately making an encounter
a bit stronger, don’t worry about adjusting CR.
If you’re adding monster powers to make creatures
more interesting but you don’t want the encounter to
be harder, you’ll want to assess whether those powers
significantly affect a creature’s CR. When a monster power
offers an option a creature doesn’t have (for example, a
ranged attack to a melee-focused foe) this generally won’t
change challenge rating. But if a power grants a creature
additional actions or no-action damage (for example, a
damaging aura or a bonus-action attack), the increase in
the creature’s overall damage can increase CR. Increasing
a creature’s CR by 1 is generally sufficient, or you can
use the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table to
assess whether extra damage or a boost to AC changes the
expected challenge rating.
If you reward XP for defeating foes in your game,
consider having a creature with one or more monster
powers provide the XP of a monster with a challenge
rating 1 higher than the baseline monster, to represent the
lessons learned from fighting this interesting creature.
HOW MANY POWERS?
It’s generally recommended to choose one monster power
for a normal creature you want to enhance. For creatures
playing a particularly important role in the encounter,
including boss and solo monsters, choose two or three
powers.
In combat, most foes will last 2 to 5 rounds before
being defeated. The foes who drop most quickly are often
the weakest creatures in the encounter, but might also
be those foes important enough to attract the characters’
immediate attention. Because of this, most monsters
shouldn’t have more than three or four action options,
including any added monster powers, unless the flexibility
of many actions is needed.
Features and actions tell a story. If you have too many,
the story becomes muddled. You want characters to react
to a creature’s fiery aura as they enter it, but the players
might not even remember that aura if it’s part of a list of
several other things that happen. You want to pick a few
elements and make them important to the encounter.
Likewise, the more features and actions your foes have,
the harder they can be to run. Monster tactics are usually
more effective if you focus on using a few capabilities well.
GROUPS OF MONSTERS
As a rule of thumb, an encounter is easier to manage
when we assign a monster power to all creatures of the
same name and type. In a fight with hobgoblin and goblin
mercenaries, you might give one power to the hobgoblins
to reinforce their role as leaders, even if you then reflavor
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how the power manifests in each individual. For example,
describing the same ranged monster power differently
can establish the story of how each hobgoblin sergeant
excels with a different weapon. Assigning the power to all
hobgoblins is easier to remember than if some hobgoblins
have the power and others don’t.
An exception to this is when you want to make a single
member of a group feel exceptional—for example, a trio
of skeletons fighting the party, with one of them on fire.
By choosing one creature to be different, you make it
easy to make that creature memorable. Adding a different
monster power to each of the skeletons would also be
memorable, but harder to track.
WHAT DO POWERS REPRESENT?
It’s up to you to decide whether a monster power is
magical (and thus can be shut down in an antimagic field,
or dispelled with dispel magic if you treat it as a spell
effect), or whether it is natural (representing physical
capabilities or training). Thinking through the nature of
the powers you add to creatures also helps you lean into
the fiction when you use those powers.
MONSTER POWERS BY THEME
The rest of this section contains monster powers you can
use to enhance foes. Powers are organized by themes or
types, though each of those themes is merely a suggestion
touching on the most obvious flavor associated with a
group of powers. Reskinning monster powers is very
much encouraged, so that you can use them on any
type of creature. A power like Repulsion (below) might
represent a magical wave of force, a repulsive smell, a
charm or fear effect, roots grabbing the characters, or
anything else that fits a monster and the encounter they’re
part of.
ABERRANT
Aberrant powers help to establish a creature as
unimaginably alien or steeped in horror.
Erase Memory (Bonus Action). The next time this creature hits
a target with an attack, the attack’s damage becomes psychic
damage and this creature becomes invisible to the target. The
target can make an Intelligence saving throw (DC = 13 + 1/2
CR) as an action or at the end of each of their turns, ending the
invisibility on a success. A target who succeeds on the saving
throw is immune to this effect for 5 minutes.
This power can easily be reskinned as an illusionary
effect usable by spellcasters, fey, or other magical
creatures. A foe can use this power to prevent a specific
creature from being able to see them (and perhaps forget
they ever existed), forcing the characters to change tactics.
Repulsion (Action, 1/Encounter). This creature targets up to
eight creatures they can see within 50 feet of them. Each target
must succeed on a Charisma saving throw (DC = 13 + 1/2 CR)
or immediately move their speed away from this creature,
avoiding hazards or dangerous terrain if possible. On a failed
save, a target creature can’t move closer to this creature. An
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affected target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each
of their turns, ending the effect on themself on a success.
Repulsion is an excellent way to keep characters
away from an otherwise vulnerable foe. Even if only a
few characters fail their saving throws, the number of
characters who can fight the foe in melee is reduced.
This is a powerful action to add to a monster acting as a
guardian to other vulnerable creatures. You can explicitly
make this a fear effect and use the frightened condition if
doing so fits the foe and the situation.
Displace Enemies (Bonus Action). Each enemy within 30
feet of this creature must succeed on an Intelligence saving
throw (DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) or be teleported up to 20 feet
to an unoccupied space of this creature’s choice that this
creature can see.
As an alternative to Repulsion, this power can be used
to move targets away from a vulnerable foe. But it can
also be used to place heroes over pits (allowing a DC 10
Dexterity saving throw to grab the edge), move characters
next to dangerous foes, lift them up and drop them, and
explore other devious tactics. If you change the power to
target all creatures or target allies instead of enemies, it
could be used to move companion creatures out of danger
(with those creatures allowed to intentionally fail their
saving throws).
Adhesive Skin (Trait). When this creature is hit by a melee
weapon attack, the weapon becomes stuck to them. A creature
can remove a stuck weapon with an action and a successful DC
14 Strength (Athletics) check. All items stuck to this creature
become unstuck when the creature dies.
Sure to surprise your players, this power should be
given only to a single creature to avoid frustration. It can
lead to different tactics, or to characters drawing one
weapon after another to keep attacking in melee. Enjoy
describing the gross skin the monster has to enable this
trait!
BESTIAL
Bestial powers underscore the ferocious and wild nature
of beasts and other feral creatures.
Earthshaking Demise (Trait). This creature must be size
Huge or larger. When this creature dies, they topple to the
ground, forcing each smaller creature within 20 feet of this
creature to succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be
knocked prone.
This power reminds players of the considerable size
and weight of creatures such as dinosaurs. It works
best when several creatures all have this trait, so that as
each one falls, the characters feel the effect impact the
battle. Beyond bestial creatures, this trait works well for
constructs, dragons, and other physically mighty foes.
Retaliation (Reaction). When this creature is hit by a creature
they can see, they can make an opportunity attack against
the attacker.
A beast that bites back feels feral and dangerous. This is
also an effective power for other creature types, especially
boss monsters who can benefit from an off-turn attack.
MAKE THESE POWERS YOURS
Though all these monster powers can be used exactly as
written, they’re meant to be starting points that you can alter
to fit your particular needs. For example, Displace Enemies is a
strong effect, allowing a creature to rearrange the battlefield as
a bonus action each turn. But for some encounters, it might be
appropriate to limit this power with a recharge so it comes up
less frequently. A power such as Armor of Frost is a reaction by
default, limiting it to being used once per round by a draconic
creature. But if you decide that power would work well for an
ice elemental, you can represent that creature’s icy nature by
lowering the damage but making the power a trait that triggers
every time the elemental is attacked. For an ice titan, you might
keep the power as a reaction but increase the damage, to
represent the titan’s elemental might.
It’s a great power to improvise, applying it to any foe when
you want them to appear more dangerous and to surprise
the characters. Some boss monsters might have multiple
reactions, which also works well with this power.
CHARM OR FEY
Compulsion powers wielded by fey creatures and
others with a penchant for enchantment demonstrate
a supernatural capability to influence characters. These
powers should be used sparingly, so as to present an
interesting challenge without becoming frustrating or
repeatedly removing the sense of agency that players
enjoy.
Words of Treachery (Action). This creature speaks deceitful
words at a target within 20 feet of them who can see and hear
them. The target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw (DC
= 12 + 1/2 CR) or immediately use their reaction to move up to
10 feet and make a melee or ranged weapon attack against a
target of this creature’s choice. The compelled target uses an
attack they would typically make against a foe.
This power works well when you roleplay what the
creature says, then have the player attempt their saving
throw and roleplay the outcome. Turning a character
into an ally in combat can be a powerful option for a
foe, as many characters deal more damage with their
actions than monsters do. You can alter the power to
work without spending the target’s reaction if you feel
that losing a reaction might lessen a player’s fun. You can
also decide whether a creature immune to the charmed
condition is immune to this effect, or if it channels a
different type of compulsion.
Charming Words (Action, Recharge 5–6). This creature
chooses any number of targets within 60 feet of them who can
hear them. Each target must succeed on a Charisma saving
throw (DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) or be charmed by this creature until
the end of their next turn.
This area-of-effect compulsion can keep a monster alive
by preventing some or all of the characters from attacking
them. It’s best used when a fight has other potential
targets, so characters can attack a different creature and
stay engaged.
CONSTRUCT
Powers that suggest precision and programming
work well for golems, clockwork creatures, and other
constructs.
Improved Critical Range (Trait). This creature’s attacks score a
critical hit on a roll of 17–20.
This power works particularly well for multiple lowthreat creatures, creating a better chance that one or
more will score a crit. You can alter the critical hit range
based on the story you’re telling. For example, low-CR
constructs with a critical range of 15–20 could be a lot of
fun, hitting surprisingly hard but dying quickly. You can
also use this power with nearly any other creature type,
representing preternatural acuity or battle training.
Be careful with giving formidable foes this trait, and
consider reducing the range if you do—especially at low
levels of play where critical hits can have a big impact on
play and easily result in character death. But, yes, a vorpal
tyrannosaurus does sound awesome.
Erratic Gears (Trait). At the start of each of this creature’s
turns, roll a d6 to determine what they do:
1: The creature’s internal mechanism stops working and they
do nothing this turn.
2: The creature acts normally.
3–5: The creature has a surge of power that causes them to
deal an extra CR damage on each attack this turn.
6: The creature speeds up, letting them use two actions
this turn.
The chaotic nature of this power lends itself to
constructs experiencing malfunctions or not under the
direction of a creator. It works best if given to several
creatures, so that on average, they will still be effective and
engaging. This power is meant to be as much evocative as
effective, but you can alter the effects to change that.
DRACONIC
Ancient and awe-inspiring creatures, dragons might grant
powers to any other creatures who serve them. Creatures
might also seek to steal a dragon’s essence or emulate their
capabilities. The powers below are tied to specific dragon
types, but can be easily reskinned by changing damage
types or effects to represent other dragons.
Acidic Weapon (Trait). The first time on a turn that this
creature hits with a weapon attack, the attack deals an extra
2 + CR acid damage, and the target takes a cumulative –1
penalty to AC (to a maximum −3 penalty) until the end of the
encounter.
Armor of Frost (Reaction). When this creature is hit by a
melee weapon attack, the attacking creature takes 4 + CR
cold damage and their speed is halved until the end of their
next turn.
Electrified Armor (Reaction). When this creature is hit by
a melee weapon attack, the attacking creature takes 4 +
CR lightning damage and has disadvantage on their next
attack roll.
Flaming Weapon (Trait). The first time on a turn that this
creature hits with a weapon attack, the attack deals an extra
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4 + CR fire damage and the target’s armor or skin begins to
smolder. While smoldering, the target has vulnerability to fire
damage. The target can make a Constitution saving throw
(DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) at the end of each of their turns, ending the
effect on themself on a success.
Poison Strike (Trait). The first time on a turn this creature hits
with a weapon attack, the attack deals an extra 2 + CR poison
damage and the target takes 2 + CR poison damage at the
start of each of their turns. The target can make a Constitution
saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) at the end of each of their
turns, ending the effect on themself on a success.
These powers can be given to humanoids or other
creatures serving dragons, or can be reskinned to work as
elemental powers or to represent beasts or monstrosities
tied to elemental forces. For example, a massive winter
wolf might have a hide that radiates cold, represented by
the Armor of Frost power.
The Acidic Weapon power is assumed to harm armor in
a way that is easily repaired. However, you might decide
that the penalty lasts until the target can repair their
armor during a short or long rest.
ELEMENTAL
The following powers can be modified to reflect a
particular type of elemental creature. Adding these
powers to elementals not only strengthens them, but can
help better portray their elemental nature. These powers
can also be used with other creature types, reflecting
the creature’s association with an environment tied to a
particular element or some other factor that has imbued
them with elemental energy.
Elemental Shroud (Reaction, 1/Encounter). When
this creature is hit by a melee attack, their body
is shrouded with energy of the type they are
associated with (acid, bludgeoning, cold,
fire, lightning, or thunder) until the start
of their next turn. While this creature is
shrouded, any creature who touches
this creature or hits them with
a melee attack while within 5
feet of them (including the
triggering attacker) takes
5 + CR damage of the
associated type.
Characters can choose to keep attacking a foe with
this power, but will take damage when doing so. This can
be an excellent way to convince characters to take other
actions, such as interacting with important noncombat
elements of an encounter.
The short duration for this power makes it significantly
different from similar shield auras, but it can deal a lot of
damage while it lasts. You can raise the number of times
per encounter the power can be used, or even tie its use
to an object or mechanism in the encounter so that the
characters can disable the mechanism to turn the power
off.
If you want the shroud to function as a shield and
really dissuade characters from attacking, it could provide
temporary hit points to the foe as well.
Elemental Seepage (Trait). Whenever this creature is below
half their hit point maximum, they radiate an aura of elemental
energy of the type they are associated with (acid, bludgeoning,
cold, fire, lightning, or thunder). Any creature who moves
within 10 feet of this creature for the first time on a turn or
starts their turn there takes 5 damage (10 damage if this
creature is CR 12 or higher) of the associated type.
When present on several creatures in an encounter,
this power encourages characters to focus fire so as to
face fewer auras. You can contract or enlarge the aura to
change its lethality and the number of characters who’ll
be impacted tactically by it. The power’s relatively low
damage means it works well for multiple creatures, but if
given to only one or two creatures, the damage could be
equal to CR or even 5 + CR.
LEADERSHIP
Leadership powers work best on a monster acting as a
boss to other creatures, showcasing how they command
or bolster their underlings.
Commander (Trait). While this creature is at half their hit point
maximum or above, each ally within 30 feet of them has a +2
bonus to attack and damage rolls.
Roleplay the instructions a creature with this trait gives
out to underlings, directing their attacks and lifting their
morale. Establishing that the commander looking healthy
is inspiring their troops can clue the players in to the need
to focus fire to end the benefit. For a stronger effect, the
+2 attack bonus could be replaced with advantage.
Fanaticism (Trait). While this creature is below half their hit
point maximum, whenever they take damage and an ally is
within 5 feet of them, this creature takes half the
damage and the chosen ally takes the remaining
damage. Additionally, while this creature is below
half their hit point maximum, each ally within 30
feet of them has advantage on attack rolls.
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This power paints a different story in combat than the
Commander power, showing a leader whose desperation
fuels the fury and devotion of their foolish followers.
Inspire Troops (Reaction). When this creature succeeds on
a saving throw or when an attack roll against them misses,
one ally who can see this creature gains 5 + 1/2 CR temporary
hit points.
You can make this power a trait if you want it to be the
centerpiece of an encounter. Smart characters will attack
other creatures instead, but that might also work in the
leader’s favor.
MAGIC
Magic powers can represent spells and eldritch energy,
but might also connect to divine blessings, magic items
or artifacts, and the ability to tap into powerful sources of
otherworldly energy.
Many creature stat blocks feature attack options that
resemble spells but aren’t explicitly called out as being so.
The default intention in this section is that magic monster
powers should work equally well with a spell or an attack
that resembles a spell. So simply replace wording such
as “casts a spell” with “casts a spell or uses an action that
resembles a spell” to meet your intention.
Similarly, some creatures have traditional spell slots,
while others may have a number of uses of certain spells
per day. This section considers those two approaches to
spellcasting interchangeable, though you can adjust that
to your preference.
Careful Sorcery (Trait). When this creature casts a spell that
forces one or more creatures to make a saving throw, they can
choose up to three of those creatures. Each chosen creature is
immune to the effects of the spell.
Careful Sorcery allows a spellcaster to use powerful
area-of-effect spells and exclude some or all of their
companions. This can be a fun surprise during a combat
in a small room.
Dual Concentration (Trait). This creature can concentrate on
up to two spells simultaneously. When making a concentration
check, the creature makes a separate check for each spell upon
which they are concentrating.
Many spellcasting creatures have an abundance of spells
requiring concentration. This lets such creatures employ
two of those spells at a time, which can be explained as
the creature being uncommonly powerful, by the use of a
magic item, or by an expendable focus being used to cast
the second spell.
BRIAN PATTERSON
Spell Shield (Reaction). When this creature is the target of
an attack, they can expend a spell slot or one use of a spell or
magical attack (other than an at-will magical attack) to add +4
to their AC until the start of their next turn.
Many spellcasting creatures have more spell slots than
they can use in a fight, so this power turns extra slots into
a powerful asset. You can modify this power to instead
grant a bonus to attack rolls or damage for 1 round if that
better fits the monster concept.
Quickening (Trait, 2/Day). When this creature casts a spell that
has a casting time of 1 action, they can change the casting time
to 1 bonus action for this casting. The creature can cast up to
two spells this turn, including two spells that aren’t cantrips.
Most spellcasting monsters and NPCs can cast only a
few spells before being defeated, making them not much
of a challenge. Allowing a spellcaster to have 2 rounds
where they cast any two spells makes them far more
challenging. You can roleplay or describe the effort a
spellcasting foe makes to accomplish this, so the players
know the creature can’t do so every single round.
NECROMANTIC
Wielding power over death adds an aspect of horror to
any foes, or enables necromancers or undead to better
showcase their capabilities.
Aura of Demise (Trait). Each enemy within 30 feet of this
creature who makes a death saving throw does so with
disadvantage.
Seeing any character drop to 0 hit points while near a
creature with this power will have all the players on the
edge of their seats.
Aura of Destruction (Trait). Each creature who ends their
turn within 5 feet of this creature (or within 10 feet of this
creature if this creature is CR 12 or higher) must make a death
saving throw, regardless of their current hit points. With three
successes, a creature no longer needs to make death saves
against this effect. With three failures, a creature dies.
Having to make a death saving throw for standing next
to a creature? Your players won’t expect that. Truly cruel
GMs can combine this and Aura of Demise for a nailbiting challenge. Alternatively, you can soften this power
by having three failures reduce an affected creature to 0
hit points—at which point they begin making death saves
again as normal.
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Undying Allies (Trait). When an ally who can see this creature
is reduced to 0 hit points, that ally immediately becomes a
zombie (retaining their original stat block but gaining the
undead type), and stands up with 1 hit point. From that point
on, if damage reduces the zombie to 0 hit points, they must
make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage
taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a
success, the zombie drops to 1 hit point instead. Any ally who
becomes an undead from this trait is destroyed if this creature
dies or is destroyed.
Roleplay the necromancer with this power
urging their fallen allies to rise up and strike
down the heroes. This places an urgency on
defeating the necromancer rather than their
allies, since killing allies only results in more
undead.
Withering Blow (Bonus Action, Recharge 4–6). The
next time this creature hits with an attack, the target
takes 5 + CR necrotic damage at the start of each of their
turns. The target can make a Constitution saving throw
(DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) at the end of each of their turns, ending
the effect on themself on a success. The effect also ends if this
creature dies or is destroyed.
For maximum effect, describe how this blow
causes a character’s flesh to wither, shrivel,
and take on the gray color of undead
flesh. For even greater effect, you could
have the extra damage from this power
also reduce the target’s hit point maximum. But that’s
probably too evil. Probably.
PLANT AND POISON
These powers work equally well for plant creatures,
reptiles, and other foes who might be poisonous or
venomous.
Poisonous Demise (Trait). When this creature is reduced to 0
hit points, they release a spray of poison. Each creature within
30 feet of this creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving
throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or take 2 + CR poison damage.
This trait can be reskinned for other types of creatures,
such as elementals and undead, by changing the damage
type. You can likewise change the area of effect to better
reflect your monster or the desired challenge. The default
distance is based on a single monster having this power.
If multiple creatures in an encounter have it, reducing the
distance to 5 or 10 feet works well.
Virulent Poison (Trait). This creature’s attacks that deal poison
damage ignore a target’s resistance to poison damage. If a
target has immunity to poison damage, that target instead has
resistance to poison damage against this creature’s attacks.
Additionally, the first time each turn that this creature deals
poison damage to a target, that target is poisoned until the
end of their next turn.
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Poison is a common damage type for characters to
resist, which can reduce the challenge of poisonous or
venomous foes. You can simplify this power and reduce
its potency by removing the poisoned condition, or you
can strike a balance by providing a Constitution saving
throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) against that condition.
ROGUE
Sneaky or skirmishing creatures can all benefit from these
rogue-type powers.
Impersonate (Bonus Action, Recharge 6). Until the start of
their next turn, this creature changes their appearance to look
exactly like another creature who is within 5 feet of them and
is no more than one size smaller or larger than this creature.
Other creatures must each make a Wisdom (Perception) check
(DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) each time they make an attack against this
creature or the impersonated creature. On a failure, the attack
is made against the wrong target.
This power can be narratively rendered as shapeshifting
ability, an illusion effect, beguiling words from a fey, or a
confusing effect caused by an aberration.
Nimble Reaction (Reaction, Recharge 4–6). When this
creature is the only target of a melee attack, they can
immediately move up to their speed without provoking
opportunity attacks. If this movement leaves this creature
outside the attacking creature’s reach, this creature avoids
the attack.
This reaction lets a foe avoid taking damage while
also conveying the feel of a nimble combatant capable
of escaping certain danger. You can alter the recharge to
reflect just how nimble a creature is.
SOLO
Solo powers work well when a single creature is used in
an encounter, or when one creature is the obvious target
and needs to survive focused fire.
Bloody Legendary Resistance (Trait). If this creature fails a
saving throw, they can choose to succeed instead. Each time
they use this trait, this creature takes 4 + CR damage.
This power provides an alternative to the Legendary
Resistance trait, with the hit point cost making it more
rewarding for characters to cast spells and use features
that require a saving throw, knowing that having a foe
succeed on those saves carries a different cost. At the
same time, a monster can use this power more often than
Legendary Resistance, protecting them from the repetitive
uses of features that can hinder a solo creature’s ability to
be effective.
For an alternative approach, replace the damage dealt
with the creature losing the ability to use one of their
actions or traits until the end of their next turn.
Magic Resistance (Trait). This monster has advantage on
saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
A great option when building solo monsters is to give
them the ability to shrug off spells and magical effects,
common in most legendary or highly magical monsters.
Magic Resilience (Trait). Whenever this creature is subjected
to a spell or other magical effect that does not grant a saving
throw, the creature can make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw,
avoiding the effect on a success.
This trait lets you build an even more potent magicdefiant foe. You can change the ability score used for the
saving throw to reflect the nature of a particular creature,
or base it on the type of effect being avoided. Things will
get interesting for the characters when a boss
monster unexpectedly breaks the walls
shaped by a forcecage spell or overcomes
some equally powerful effect. Use this
power sparingly, though—and don’t give
your players our email addresses.
challenged. A challenged creature has disadvantage on attack
rolls against any creature other than the challenging creature.
At the end of each of their turns, a challenged creature can
make a Charisma saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR), ending the
challenge on themself on a success.
Perfect for a monster with the defender role (see
“Monster Roles” on page 22), this power incentivizes
characters to engage with a formidable foe rather than go
after weaker targets.
Pack Tactics (Trait). This creature has advantage on an attack
roll against a target if at least one of this creature’s allies is
within 5 feet of this creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
A superb trait, Pack Tactics allows monsters to work
together in an obvious tactical fashion to gain advantage.
This trait can be used for many types of monsters,
representing the cunning tactics they employ.
Pinning Shot (Trait). When this creature hits with a ranged
weapon attack, the target must succeed on a Strength saving
throw (DC = 9 + 1/2 CR) or have their speed reduced to 0. An
affected creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of
each of their turns, ending the effect on themself on a success.
Just one or two combatants with this trait can force the
characters to adjust tactics as some of them are pinned
in place. To make this power stronger, it can impose the
restrained condition instead of just reducing speed. Either
way, be careful not to overuse this power and frustrate the
players.
Ultimate Resolve (Trait). If this creature takes
damage while incapacitated, paralyzed, or
stunned, they gain an extra attack the next time
they use the Attack action. This trait can grant a
maximum of one extra attack if the creature is CR
6 or lower, two extra attacks if they are from CR
7 to CR 12, and three extra attacks if they are CR
13 or above.
This is an excellent power for boss or solo
monsters likely to be denied actions by the
characters’ tactics. That action denial still takes
place, but the creature has a chance to make up
for it.
WARRIOR
BRIAN PATTERSON
Warrior powers represent tactics and
capabilities honed through battle.
Challenge Foe (Bonus Action, Recharge 4–6). The
next time this creature hits a target, in addition
to the regular effect of the attack, that target is
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MONSTER ROLES
Thinking about the roles that creatures play in combat
helps to create better encounters. A monster who has tons
of hit points can stand up front, soaking up damage while
the more vulnerable evil wizard launches devastating
spells from behind cover. Skirmisher monsters can dart
in from the sides and back away, forcing the characters to
spread out and leaving them open to an ambusher. Foes
of different roles complement each other, creating an
effective team.
Monsters in 5e don’t have defined roles with
connections to specific mechanics and tactics, as the
creatures in some fantasy RPGs do. However, many 5e
foes either already fit a specific role or are flexible enough
to allow us to assign roles to them. For example, a harpy
is a highly effective controller, and a spy is an excellent
skirmisher or ambusher. We can also modify monsters to
enable them to play a role. By assigning a role to a foe, you
enable a specific set of tactics that allow you to challenge
the characters more effectively.
DEFINING ROLES
The following roles capture the most important tactical
concepts in 5e combat, and cover virtually all the foes you
might make use of in a 5e game.
AMBUSHER
Ambushers have special features that allow them to hide,
dart out of danger, render targets senseless, or otherwise
prevent characters from attacking them easily. An
ambusher often deals more damage when hidden, and
might engage in a pattern of hiding, attacking, and hiding
again. Ambusher foes are often less effective when they
can’t hide, which incentivizes characters to force them
into the open. Many ambushers have low hit points.
When to Use Them. Because ambushers can result in
longer, drawn-out fights, you want to use them sparingly.
However, they can be a good choice for a villain who
needs to get away. Ambushers are likewise an excellent
choice if a combat encounter is preceded by a free-form
roleplaying or social encounter, with foes hiding in plain
sight before the fight breaks out.
Placement and Tactics. An ambusher is usually most
effective when they start out hidden, revealing themself
only when they attack. Some ambushers start out in the
open, then disappear and reposition once characters have
moved toward them.
Example Ambushers. Dust mephit, ghost, mimic, phase
spider, spy.
ARTILLERY
Artillery typically have a high attack bonus and deal good
damage at range, but have lower hit points or AC than
other foes. Sacrificing survivability can be fun, allowing
these monsters to hit hard and die quickly. This creates
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tension and pressure early in an encounter, followed by
increasing confidence as the heroes reach the artillery and
quickly defeat them.
Artillery creatures might strike at single targets or an
area, and their high accuracy lets them deal consistent
damage. Because they operate at range, you might focus
the attacks of artillery foes on characters who usually stay
out of trouble, using the flexibility of range to put them
in peril. Alternatively, you can put their accuracy to use
against the characters with the highest defenses.
When to Use Them. Artillery creatures work well in
most encounters. Because of their placement at range,
they draw attention away from other important targets
such as controllers, leaders, or bosses. Artillery foes
encourage characters to use resources to reach them,
finish them off, and heal from their long-range damage.
Placement and Tactics. Artillery creatures seek cover
and elevation from which to rain down destruction. They
stand behind other monsters and blocking terrain so that
characters can’t easily get to them. They might also be
placed without cover and to the sides of the battle, forcing
characters who want to attack them to spread out—so that
ambushers or skirmishers can pick those characters off.
Place artillery closer to the action when you want them to
be easy to reach and to draw attention deliberately away
from other foes.
Artillery creatures like to focus fire and group up on
one target when possible. However, you want to change
up that tactic if you start rolling too well, which can make
artillery creatures extremely dangerous even in relatively
easy encounters. Make sure getting to artillery foes is
fun and not frustrating. A good rule of thumb is that
characters shouldn’t need to spend more than 1 round of
movement to engage an artillery creature.
Example Artillery. Hill giant, mage, manticore, scout,
solar. Of all the roles, artillery creatures are generally the
least represented in the 5e Monster Manual and other
books, but you can easily build artillery with additional
monster powers (see “Reinforcing Roles with Powers”
later in this section).
BRUISER
A bruiser foe deals higher-than-average melee damage,
bringing the pain up close. But that focus on damage
often comes with lower AC, lower attack accuracy, or
lower hit points. Bruisers draw attention with their
damage, and make fun opponents because they’re often
easy to hit, or die quickly.
When a bruiser has low accuracy, a battle often feels
swingy, with a sense of impending doom as each attack
roll creates tension. Even when an attack misses, the
players are usually watching that roll and wincing as they
think about what would have happened if it hit.
When to Use Them. Bruisers should be used in most
encounters, surprising players with their impressive
CONTROLLER
DANNY PAVLOV
damage. However, they should be used with care
in encounters against 1st-level characters, who are
particularly susceptible to being dropped with a single
lucky blow.
Like artillery, bruisers can be used to draw attention
away from other important targets such as controllers,
leaders, and bosses. Bruisers encourage characters to use
resources, first to finish off the bruiser more quickly, then
to heal up in the aftermath.
Placement and Tactics. Melee bruisers should be in
the front lines, where they can deal damage as soon
as possible. They might come out of side passages or
otherwise surprise characters in the rear ranks, but
bruisers seldom switch targets unless a different target
is obviously easier to kill. Bruisers like to focus fire and
group up on one target when possible, so keep an eye on
their damage output to ensure that a few lucky attack rolls
don’t push the challenge level of an encounter too high.
Example Bruisers. Ettin, flesh golem, owlbear,
shambling mound, wolf.
Controller creatures use their attacks and features to
impose conditions or otherwise impede characters from
being their most effective. This role covers many different
types of foes, and the extent of their control can vary.
Some controller creatures grapple, swallow, or otherwise
lock down targets, preventing movement. They might
impose disadvantage on attacks through conditions
such as poisoned or restrained, or use magic such as the
confusion or hold person spells to limit actions.
When to Use Them. Controllers create dilemmas for
a party to contend with. How do the characters change
tactics when the fighter is poisoned and the cleric is inside
a creature’s gullet? These situations can be exciting and
challenging, forcing characters to expend resources and
think of clever solutions. However, used too often, too
extensively, or too effectively, controller foes can feel like
punishment. Be wary of a character rendered ineffective
for several rounds, or of more than a couple of characters
being ineffective for longer than 1 round. When a control
effect feels clearly frustrating, try to change targets over
the course of combat so that the same character isn’t being
controlled round after round.
Placement and Tactics. Controllers should be placed
where they can’t be easily reached, but close to prospective
targets based on the range of their powers. Spellcaster
controllers might be careful to always start farther
than 60 feet from the characters—beyond the range of
counterspell. A controller pairs well with a defender whose
job is to keep the controller safe, or with skirmishers who
can easily move around controlled characters. Controllers
usually have trouble defeating characters one-on-one, due
to their lower damage, but they work well with bruisers
and artillery who can deal high damage to controlled
characters.
Example Controllers. Black pudding, cockatrice,
ettercap, harpy.
DEFENDER
Defender foes soak up hits and damage. They might
deal lower-than-average damage or be less accurate with
attacks, but have higher AC, saving throws, and hit points.
They often look big and imposing, drawing attention to
themselves by issuing challenges and making threats.
Some defenders have attacks or features that pin
characters in place—often referred to as “sticky” features
that make the defender hard to get away from once
engaged. Stickiness can also take the form of imposing
penalties to attack any creatures other than the defender,
or similar features that help the defender soak up the
heroes’ attacks.
When to Use Them. Defenders should be used
sparingly, as too many defenders in an encounter or too
many encounters featuring defenders can make combats
longer and less interesting. Use them in fights where other
vulnerable foes need assistance to prevent being taken
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down too quickly. Defenders work well with skirmishers
or ambushers, who can surprise characters focused on the
defender. They excel at protecting key villains, especially
artillery or controller spellcasters.
Placement and Tactics. Defenders are often placed in
the front lines to tie down characters. However, you can
also place them farther back, closer to another creature
they defend. Make sure defenders won’t lock down all
the characters at once, though. Combat works best when
most characters can move around the encounter area and
discover all it has to offer. You don’t want to design an
amazing encounter and then have the characters spend all
their time locked down in specific locations.
Example Defenders. Animated armor, chuul, gelatinous
cube, knight, shambling mound.
LEADER
A leader has features that help other creatures. They
might heal, boost statistics such as attack modifiers or
saving throws, or move other creatures, and they often
have lower-than-average hit points, damage output, or
accuracy.
When to Use Them. Leaders are most interesting when
used sparingly, though they can be used more often when
they are of different types. For example, a hobgoblin priest
NPC focused on healing feels different from a duergar
war priest who boosts their allies’ attacks.
Placement and Tactics. Leaders can be placed
according to the focus of their useful features, letting
them help as many of their allies as possible. Because
the characters often want to target them, leaders operate
best in the center or slightly back from the center of the
encounter area.
Leaders make good bosses, or can act as lieutenants for
bosses. Be careful when using them with skirmishers and
ambushers, though, since characters moving to pursue
those foes might go after the leader instead. A good
default setup is to have one or two defenders protecting a
leader.
Example Leaders. Couatl, knight, priest.
SKIRMISHER
Skirmishers dance around the battlefield, using high
mobility to dart in for an attack and then get away. They
might have lower AC or hit points than other foes, but
possess features that let them evade blows, retreat, or
counterattack. Skirmishers are usually accurate, having a
high attack bonus, and their damage might be especially
high when using their mobility features.
When to Use Them. Use skirmishers to liven up battles.
They can draw characters farther into an area of combat,
making good use of areas that have dividing features such
as interior walls, side chambers, or more than one level.
Placement and Tactics. Skirmishers should usually start
far enough from the characters to show off their ability
to move in and then move back out, forcing characters
to reposition themselves. Skirmishers with high speed or
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supernatural movement can avoid or surpass terrain that
challenges pursuing characters, who might trigger traps
or spread out so other foes can surround them.
Example Skirmishers. Bulette, copper dragon, goblin,
spy, wraith.
ADDITIONAL ROLES
Beyond the broad categories that define a creature’s role
in combat, many monsters also have a role shaped by how
weak or tough they are relative to other foes.
BOSS
A boss monster stands out because they are clearly
stronger than the creatures around them, most commonly
because they have a higher challenge rating than
those creatures. You can also make a boss stand out by
providing them with either a high AC to make them
harder to hit, or with high hit points to keep them in the
fight right to the end. Adding a unique monster power
(see below) can also help distinguish a boss, particularly
if that power allows them to bolster or command a
lieutenant and other monsters. Lieutenants can be
thought of in much the same way as bosses, but have a
lower CR and fewer features than a main boss.
“Building and Running Boss Monsters” (page 31) and
“Bosses and Minions” (page 61) has more thoughts on
this topic. “Monster Combinations for a Hard Challenge”
(page 67) offers up suggestions for how to build
encounters with a boss.
SOLO
When a creature is the only foe in an encounter, they
will be a higher challenge rating than most creatures
the characters encounter. But because of the action
economy of the game, CR alone isn’t enough to make a
solo creature effective. Legendary actions and lair actions
help a monster act more often, keeping the pressure high
in combat and reducing the chance of a round where a
solo foe accomplishes nothing. You can also add monster
powers to help the creature stand out.
“Building and Running Legendary Monsters” (page
28) and “Understanding the Action Economy” (page
42) offer guidance on solos. “Creating Lair Actions”
(page 36) has additional tips for a solo creature who has
a strong connection to their lair.
MINIONS AND UNDERLINGS
As talked about in “Bosses and Minions,” we sometimes
want a boss or a main monster to be accompanied by
several weak foes. These minions and underlings can
swarm a party, but are fun for the characters to easily
defeat.
Low-CR creatures make good underlings, which you
can run using the advice in “Running Minions and
Hordes” (page 54). But you can also make use of
the following quick minion concepts, built around the
CHOOSE TWO TYPES
Mike has a simple hack for making combat encounters more
engaging without getting too complicated in their design—
choose just two types of monsters. Two types of monsters
offer enough variance to make a combat encounter tactically
interesting without forcing you to spend a lot of time thinking
about monster roles overall. Ideally, these two types come from
opposite ends of the monster spectrum. Melee bruisers paired
with sneaky ambushers. Powerful defenders protecting weaker
artillery. Controllers shaping the battlefield to the advantage of
skirmishers. You can often simplify this concept down to: “Big
dudes up front and weaker damage dealers in the back.”
It’s also worth remembering that not every battle needs to
be a mix of different monster types. Sometimes the characters
just want to blow up a horde of skeletons, and sometimes the
pacing works best when five 7th-level heroes run into a pair of
bandits throwing dice. (“Running Easy Monsters” on page 124
talks more on that topic.)
minions of the 4e game who could survive only one solid
hit. For these minions, you use all of a monster’s normal
statistics, but you ignore their normal hit points and use
one of the following mechanics instead.
One-Quarter Health. A minion has one quarter of the
hit points they would normally have, taking them out
of the fight quickly. A minion of this sort is worth one
sixth of their usual XP value if you use XP for encounter
building.
Save or Die. Each time a minion would take damage,
they must attempt a DC 20 Constitution saving throw. On
a success, the minion survives, and on a failure, they die.
Each time a creature is hit after the first, the DC increases
by 10. This allows for even creatures of high challenge
rating to function as minions, with a failed save coming
eventually. You can alter this DC or the increase to change
a foe’s survivability. A minion of this sort is worth one
quarter of their usual XP value for encounter building.
Even Odds. Each time a minion would take damage,
they must roll a die. If an even number is rolled, the
minion dies. This is a variant of the save-or-die approach,
with a flat 50 percent chance to survive with each hit, and
making no adjustment for a monster’s CR. A minion of
this sort is worth one quarter of their usual XP value for
encounter building.
One Hit Point. A minion has just 1 hit point, but is
only affected by damaging effects that target that specific
minion. The first time such minions are targeted by
effects that deal damage to multiple creatures in an area,
the minions are immune. But those minions die when
targeted a second time with damaging area effects. This
approach allows greater tactical choices for those using
damaging spells or other effects that target an area. A
minion of this sort is worth one sixth of their XP value
for encounter building, though you can reduce this if the
characters can easily target multiple minions.
REINFORCING ROLES WITH
POWERS
In addition to determining what role a monster might
play in combat based on their existing statistics and
attacks, we can also treat roles as a template, adding
features that reinforce a particular role. Any of the
monster powers in “Building a Quick Monster” (page
4) or “Monster Powers” (page 15) might help a
creature fulfill a specific role, but this section presents
additional powers specifically tied to each monster role,
as well as advice for adjusting statistics to help a creature
fulfill a role.
“Monster Powers” talks in detail about the format and
use of powers.
AMBUSHER
To build an ambusher, reduce AC by 2 or reduce hit
points by 20 percent. An ambusher gains proficiency
in Stealth and uses double their proficiency bonus for
Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Then give the ambusher one or more of the following
powers:
Distracting Attack (Trait). When this creature hits with
an attack, they can become invisible until the start of their
next turn.
Shadowy Movement (Trait). This creature can attempt to hide
in dim light or lightly obscured terrain. When this creature
moves, they can make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide as
part of that movement.
Elusive (Bonus Action). This creature takes the Dash,
Disengage, or Hide action.
Duck and Cover (Trait). When this creature hits a target with
an attack and has advantage on the attack roll, they deal CR + 2
extra damage.
The Nimble Reaction power in “Monster Powers” is also
a good fit for an ambusher foe.
ARTILLERY
To turn a stat block into an artillery foe, increase the
creature’s attack bonuses by 2, or increase attack bonuses
by 1 and increase the damage of all attack actions by 1 for
each damage die rolled for the attack (so that 2d8 damage
gains a +2, 3d6 damage gains a +3, and so on). Then
either decrease hit points by 20 percent or decrease AC by
2.
You can then give the creature any of the following
powers:
Ricochet (Reaction). When this creature misses with a ranged
attack, they can reroll that attack.
Quick Step (Reaction). When this creature would make a
ranged attack, they can first move 5 feet without provoking
opportunity attacks.
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BRUISER
To build a bruiser, either decrease attack bonuses by 2,
decrease hit points by 10 percent and attack bonuses
by 1, or decrease AC by 2. Then increase the damage
of all attack actions by 2 for each damage die rolled for
the attack. You can alternatively let each attack deal an
extra CR damage. (At low challenge ratings, for specific
powerful actions, or to provide a higher challenge, this
additional damage can be increased to 3 × CR.)
You can then give the creature any of the following
powers:
Opportunist (Trait). This creature can make an opportunity
attack when any creature moves within their reach, even if that
movement would not normally trigger an opportunity attack.
Offense over Defense (Bonus Action). Until the end of their
turn, this creature deals an extra CR damage on attacks but
reduces their AC by 2.
You might also consider the Goes Down Fighting
power in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4) or the
Improved Critical Range power in “Monster Powers”
(page 15) for a bruiser foe.
CONTROLLER
To create a controller creature, reduce the damage of each
of the creature’s attack actions by 1 for each damage die
rolled for the attack. Then increase the saving throw DCs
for each of their non-damage-dealing attacks and features
by 2.
You can then give the creature any of the following
powers:
Controlling Attacks (Trait). When this creature hits a target
with an attack, they impose one of the following conditions,
based on the creature concept: blinded, charmed, frightened,
grappled, poisoned, prone, or restrained. The condition lasts
until the end of the target’s next turn.
Controlling Spells (Trait). Choose up to two of the following
spells: blindness/deafness, command, entangle, grease, gust of
wind, hideous laughter, hold person, levitate, ray of enfeeblement,
silence, suggestion, or web. This creature can cast any of the
chosen spells as an action. If this creature does not yet have a
spell save DC, the save DC for these spells is 10 + 1/2 CR. Once
chosen, the spells cannot be changed for this creature.
Advanced Controlling Spells (Trait). Choose one spell from
the Controlling Spells trait that this creature can cast. This
creature gains one of the following benefits:
• The spell can be cast as a bonus action.
• The spell can be cast as a reaction to taking damage
from an enemy.
• If the spell normally targets one creature, it can instead
target two creatures within its normal range.
For a ranged controller, consider the Pinning Shot
power in “Monster Powers” (page 15).
DEFENDER
To make a creature into a defender, increase their AC by 3
or increase their hit points by 30 percent. Grant them a +2
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bonus to saving throws, increasing to +5 if the characters
are 11th level or higher. Then decrease their attack roll
bonuses by 2, or reduce their attack roll bonuses by 1
and reduce the damage of all attack actions by 1 for each
damage die rolled for the attack.
You can then give the creature any of the following
powers:
Stick with Me (Trait). When this creature hits with an attack,
the target has disadvantage on attack rolls against any creature
other than this one until the end of the target’s next turn.
For a slightly more complex version of the Stick with
Me power, see the Challenge Foe power in “Monster
Powers” (page 15).
Blocker (Trait). Any creature starting their turn next to this
creature has their speed reduced by half until the end of the
affected creature’s turn.
You might also wish to consider the Defender power in
“Building a Quick Monster” (page 4).
LEADER
To turn a foe into a leader, either reduce that foe’s attack
bonuses by 2, reduce their hit points by 20 percent, or
reduce the damage of all attack actions by 1 for each
damage die rolled for the attack.
Then give the creature any of the following powers:
Shout Orders (Bonus Action, Recharge 4). This creature
chooses up to six creatures who can see and hear them. Those
creatures can immediately either move their speed or take
an action.
Heal Ally (Bonus Action). This creature can choose another
creature they can see and hear within 50 feet of them. The
chosen creature regains hit points equal to 25 percent of their
hit point maximum.
Lead by Example (Trait). When this creature hits a target with
an attack, any ally of this creature who can see the target has
advantage on attack rolls against the target until the start of
this creature’s next turn.
SKIRMISHER
To create a skirmisher foe, reduce a creature’s AC by
2 or reduce their hit points by 20 percent. Each of the
creature’s speeds increases by 20 feet.
Then give the creature any of the following powers:
Nimble (Trait). This creature ignores difficult terrain.
Careful Steps (Bonus Action). This creature’s movement does
not provoke opportunity attacks until the end of their turn.
Knock Back (Trait). When this creature hits a target with an
attack, they can choose to push the target 5 feet away from
them. If this creature is CR 4 or higher, the target must also
succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or be
knocked prone.
You might also wish to consider the Quick Step power
found in the artillery section above.
MONSTER DIFFICULTY DIALS
Balancing combat encounters is notoriously difficult.
Different groups of characters can bring very different
capabilities to each battle, even at the same level. However,
because monsters as they are typically presented are the
average of their type, you can adjust the averages to subtly
or dramatically change the difficulty of a given monster or
group of monsters. By turning these “difficulty dials” for
monsters, you can easily shift the tone of combat even in
the middle of a battle.
“HIT POINT” DIAL
Hit points given for monsters are the average of their Hit
Dice. This means you can adjust hit points within the
minimum and maximum of a monster’s Hit Dice formula
based on the individual story for that particular monster,
the current pacing of the battle, or both.
For example, an average ogre has 59 hit points from
7d10 + 21 Hit Dice. This means a weak ogre might have as
few as 28 hit points, while a particularly strong ogre might
have 91. This lets you easily set up fights in which minion
ogres might have fewer hit points while boss ogres have
more. (As an even lazier rule of thumb, you can halve or
double a monster’s average hit points to give you a weaker
or stronger version of that monster.)
You can turn this dial before a battle begins or even
during the battle. If a battle drags, reduce the hit points
of a monster to get them out of the fight earlier. If a battle
feels as if it will be over too quickly, increase the monster’s
hit points to make them hold up longer. Start with average
hit points, and then turn the hit point dial one way or the
other whenever doing so can make the game more fun.
“NUMBER OF MONSTERS” DIAL
The “number of monsters in a battle” dial alters combat
challenge the most dramatically of all the dials—but
because it’s so clearly visible to players, this dial is also
sometimes difficult to change during a fight.
If circumstances allow for it, some monsters might
flee or automatically fall depending on the events of a
fight. Undead might break if their necromancer master is
killed, and many creatures know to flee a fight they can’t
win. Other times, more monsters might enter the fray
in a second wave if the first wave isn’t standing up to the
characters. (“Building and Running Boss Monsters” on
page 31 talks more about running monsters in waves.)
When developing a combat encounter in which you
think you might turn this dial, consider beforehand how
monsters might leave the battle or how other monsters
might join the fight as reinforcements in a realistic way.
“DAMAGE” DIAL
Increasing the amount of damage a monster deals
on each attack increases the monster’s threat and can
make a dull fight more fun. In the same way, decreasing
monster damage can help prevent a fight from becoming
overwhelming if the characters are having trouble.
The static damage value noted in a monster’s stat block
represents the average of the damage formula for the
monster’s attack. If you use average damage, you can
adjust the damage based on that formula. For example, an
ogre deals 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage with their
Greatclub attack, so you can set this damage at anywhere
from 6 to 20 and still be within the range of what you
might roll.
If you’re a DM who rolls for damage, you can also turn
the damage dial up by adding one or more additional
damage dice. If you like, you can have an in-game reason
for this increase. Perhaps an ogre sets their club on fire
to deal an extra 4 (1d8) or 7 (2d6) fire damage. Or a
particularly dangerous vampire with an unholy longsword
might deal an extra 27 (6d8) necrotic damage if you so
choose. Adding these kinds of effects to a monster’s attack
is an excellent way of increasing a monster’s threat in a
way the players can clearly understand—and it has no
upper limit.
“NUMBER OF ATTACKS” DIAL
Increasing or decreasing the number of attacks a monster
makes has a larger effect on their threat than increasing
their damage. You can increase a monster’s number of
attacks if they’re badly threatened by the characters, just
as you can reduce their attacks if the characters are having
a hard time. An angry ogre left alone after their friends
have fallen to the heroes might start swinging their club
twice per Attack action instead of once. Single creatures
facing an entire party of adventurers often benefit from
increasing their number of attacks.
MIX AND MATCH
You can turn any or all of these dials to tune a combat
encounter and bring the most excitement to your game.
Don’t turn the dials just to make every battle harder,
though. Sometimes cutting through great swaths of easy
monsters is exactly the sort of situation players love.
Turning several dials together can change combat
dramatically, helping to keep things feeling fresh. For
example, a group of starving ogres might be weakened
(lowering the hit point dial) but also frenzied in combat
(turning up the attack dial). By adjusting these dials when
designing encounters and during your game, you can
keep the pacing of combat exciting and fun.
(This section originally appeared in The Lazy DM’s
Companion.)
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BUILDING AND RUNNING
LEGENDARY MONSTERS
The overlap between legendary monsters and boss
monsters (talked about in “Building and Running Boss
Monsters,” page 31) is extensive. At anywhere above
roughly challenge rating 10, legendary creatures become
the most prominent bosses, able to defend themselves
against any group of characters of higher than 5th level.
This section provides tools for GMs to build or
improvise legendary monsters, giving foes the ability to
survive and thrive in battle against powerful characters.
BEST ABOVE 5TH LEVEL
Typically, legendary monsters aren’t needed when facing
characters of 1st to 4th level. The capabilities of legendary
foes only start to matter when characters get access
to spells and features that can take out a creature with
one failed saving throw, and that grant multiple attacks
in a single turn. Against such higher-challenge player
character opponents, legendary monsters need extra offturn actions and resistances to feel like a significant threat.
CORE COMPONENTS OF A
LEGENDARY MONSTER
Legendary monsters typically have two components that
separate them from normal monsters: the Legendary
Resistance trait, and legendary actions. Legendary
Resistance helps a creature avoid situations where a
single failed saving throw takes them out of the fight.
Legendary actions help a single monster better manage
the action economy against multiple opponents. (See
“Understanding the Action Economy,” page 42, for
more on that topic.)
The sections below talk about ways to utilize Legendary
Resistance and legendary actions. But you can use those
ideas to build a quick and easy legendary monster in
just two steps. First, give a creature one to three uses of
Legendary Resistance:
Legendary Resistance. If this creature fails a saving throw, they
can choose to succeed instead.
Second, give the creature three legendary actions. You
can build legendary actions yourself (including advanced
legendary actions, talked about below), borrow them
from other legendary monsters, or use the following basic
legendary actions:
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Quick Movement. This creature can move their speed without
provoking opportunity attacks.
Legendary Attack. This creature makes one melee or ranged
attack using their lowest-damage attack option.
Blast (Costs 2 Actions). This creature can target up to three
creatures within a 20-foot radius, a 60-foot cone, or a
100-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each target must make
a Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom saving throw (your
choice; DC = 12 + 1/2 CR), taking 4 × CR damage of a type
appropriate for this creature on a failed save, or half as much
damage on a successful one.
Any of these basic legendary actions can help a foe hit
harder than they do with their regular stat block, letting
them hold their own as a single combatant against a group
of characters.
LAIR ACTIONS AND REGIONAL
EFFECTS
Some legendary monsters also have lair actions they can
use if fought in their lair, and might have regional effects
they can use in the area around their lair. “Creating
Lair Actions,” page 36, talks more about that topic,
and regional effects can be easily improvised based on a
particular monster’s story.
LEGENDARY RESISTANCE
The Legendary Resistance trait gives legendary monsters
a way to deal with a single instance of a “save or suck”
feature—any attack by a character that can take a foe
out of a fight with a failed saving throw. Legendary
Resistance is like a countdown timer for the players, who
can pick away at that resistance by threatening to impose
debilitating effects that force a foe to burn their resistance
to avoid those effects. For this reason, making it clear how
many uses of Legendary Resistance a creature has, and
how many are expended, can help the players see another
path to victory other than beating down a foe’s hit points.
Most legendary monsters have three uses of Legendary
Resistance. Assuming that a creature has a 50/50 chance
of succeeding on a saving throw, the characters might
need to use four to eight spells or effects requiring a save
before one lands with full effect. As such, if you want the
characters to have a better chance of burning a legendary
monster down, you might give that monster only one or
two uses of Legendary Resistance.
TRACKING LEGENDARY
RESISTANCE
Adding an in-world description that represents a
creature’s ability to make use of Legendary Resistance
can also be useful, as it lets the players easily track how
many uses a foe has left. A powerful wizard might have
three unique Ioun stones floating around their head,
which they can sacrifice one by one to succeed on a failed
saving throw. A demon might have three fiery brands on
their chest, each one losing its red-hot glow as the fiend
expends their Legendary Resistance.
If you want to make things a little more interesting, the
devices channeling Legendary Resistance might be objects
the characters can target. If a demon prince is protected
by four pillars imbued with magical power, shattering
those pillars removes those protections. This still reduces
the risk of the characters burning down a boss in 1 round,
even as it gives them clear actions they can take to break
through the boss’s defenses.
attacks. To thwart this, a beholder might employ guards
who don’t need to see to attack, whether they have the
blindsight trait or make use of magic.
Movement is likewise a great defense against features
and magic that can pin a legendary monster down. The
monster might teleport (which has a chance to bypass
forcecage) or move without provoking opportunity
attacks. (As noted above, such movement works well as a
legendary action.)
FRIENDS ARE THE BEST
DEFENSE
ALTERNATIVES TO LEGENDARY
RESISTANCE
If you’re not a fan of Legendary Resistance, you might
instead allow a foe to take psychic damage to remove
debilitating conditions and other effects—perhaps
a number of d6s equal to one-half the foe’s CR.
Alternatively, you can make the concept of Legendary
Resistance more interesting by having each successful
saving throw impose a cost on a creature. For example,
each time a foe uses Legendary Resistance, they might
lose one use of a legendary action in the current round.
The Bloody Legendary Resistance trait in “Monster
Powers” (page 15) has a similar theme. Just make sure
it’s clear to the players what’s going on so they can see
and understand the price the boss monster is paying for
shaking off the characters’ attacks.
ZOE BADINI
WHAT LEGENDARY RESISTANCE
DOESN’T PROTECT AGAINST
Not all “save or suck” effects can be avoided with
Legendary Resistance. Even legendary monsters might get
physically pinned down by features and effects that don’t
allow for a saving throw, or by effects that change the
combat environment. Hindering the senses of a creature
with spells such as darkness or fog cloud can make them
much less effective in a fight. Other features like the
forcecage spell or the monk’s Stunning Strike attack can
bypass or burn through Legendary Resistance quickly.
It’s worth considering other ways that a legendary
creature can deal with such features and magic. For
example, a beholder relies on eye rays to target creatures
with their formidable magic. So if a beholder is engulfed
in magical darkness—or if the creatures they want to
target with their eye rays are—they can’t use those potent
Any single monster, legendary or not, finds themself at a
disadvantage against a group of characters. As such, one
of the best defenses for a legendary foe is the presence of
other foes fighting the characters. If a legendary dragon
gets taken out with a maze spell, for example, their
stone golem servant can punch the caster of maze in the
face until their concentration breaks. Good synergistic
allies can help legendary monsters offensively as well,
by locking down the characters or threatening backline attackers while their legendary leader finds a better
position.
Adding more monsters can complicate a fight, however,
so be prepared for a longer battle the more creatures
the battle involves. Adding more monsters is typically
important when building encounters for five or more
characters of higher levels.
BALANCING LEGENDARY
ACTIONS
Legendary actions give a monster a boost in the action
economy of a fight (see “Understanding the Action
Economy” on page 42), letting them deal more
consistent damage. Instead of acting only on their turn,
a legendary monster can act up to three times between
other creatures’ turns with specific legendary actions.
Sometimes these actions are just single attacks. Other
times, they involve movement or big area effects.
By design, legendary monsters aren’t meant to deal
more damage than their nonlegendary counterparts at the
same challenge rating. The damage a legendary creature
can do is divided up among the actions they take on their
turn and their legendary actions, but it’s the same overall
damage per round. But because legendary monsters
are intended to be something special, doing just the
appropriate damage for their challenge rating might not
be enough. This is because even with legendary actions
and Legendary Resistance, a single big boss monster is
still at a disadvantage against a group of characters who
pour their wrath out against that boss before targeting any
other foes.
If you’re designing or improvising a legendary monster,
don’t worry if their overall damage output goes above
the standard for their challenge rating—as they likely
need the help. For example, you might want to create
a legendary barbed devil, giving them three legendary
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action Claw attacks built on their standard-action attack.
Normally, you’d think about reducing the damage output
for the Claw attack so that the devil’s overall damage
per round stays the same. But you’re probably better off
not worrying about rebalancing damage across all the
creature’s actions and legendary actions. Your barbed
devil boss’s damage output will go beyond their challenge
rating, but that extra damage gives them a needed edge.
ADVANCED LEGENDARY
ACTIONS
In addition to the legendary actions in the Monster
Manual and other books that you can use or draw
inspiration from, you can create and customize more
advanced legendary actions that fit a foe’s theme and
tactics. When default actions focused on simply moving
and attacking might not fit the story of a monster,
advanced legendary actions can focus on how a boss fight
unfolds, factoring in how characters typically behave and
how the situation escalates.
Three of the following advanced legendary action
setups are drawn from the “action-oriented monster”
concepts introduced by Matt Colville on his YouTube
series “Running the Game,” and as seen in monsters
published by MCDM Productions. Specific features
suitable for some of the other setups here can be found
in the monster powers presented in “Building a Quick
Monster” (page 4), “Monster Powers” (page 15), and
“Monster Roles” (page 22).
AURA CONTROL
As talked about in “Understanding the Action Economy”
on page 42, auras are an incredibly powerful way to
scale up any creature based on the number of opponents
they face. Using legendary actions to alter and shift an
aura is an excellent way to shake up a battle against a
legendary creature. An aura might increase the amount of
damage it deals at certain points in the fight, scaling up as
the battle goes longer. A legendary creature might extend
the effect of their aura, making it larger and threatening
more characters as a result. Or a boss might change the
shape of an aura, creating a donut-shaped ring that leaves
characters at its center within the boss’s melee reach, and
characters outside being shredded by the aura’s power.
COMMANDING ALLIES
A legendary monster who operates with minions can
make great use of legendary actions that help those
minions get into positions and make free attacks.
Alternatively, a legendary boss might cause their
minions to explode or make one final sacrificial blow.
Commanding bosses are all about giving their minions a
free move, a free attack, or both.
EXPLODING
Near the end of a fight, the characters often have the
upper hand. The boss monster’s hit points are down. Their
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big attacks are spent. This is the perfect point to reveal a
legendary monster’s final action—the explosion.
The explosion is a single big damaging move. It might
be a dragon recharging their breath weapon and getting to
use it for free. It might be a mage hurling fire in a massive
ring to burn everyone around them. It might be a fast and
furious sword wielder making a final charge across the
battlefield to score a big hit against every target they pass.
The explosion is a legendary monster’s final, desperate
blow. It’s their ticking time bomb. Often, this sort of final
attack takes two or three legendary actions.
INITIAL POSITIONING
At the start of a fight, an advanced legendary action
might help a monster move into an optimal initial
position. Characters sometimes find ways to get into
advantageous or defensive positions early in the battle,
meaning a legendary monster likewise needs a boon when
it comes to initial positioning. This might be the standard
legendary action providing an extra move that doesn’t
provoke opportunity attacks. Or it might be something
more magical like teleportation. The key is that the action
lets a foe get into a position where they can be effective at
doing what they’re intended to do. Getting into position
usually requires only one legendary action.
REPOSITIONING
Even if they have optimal initial positioning, a legendary
monster eventually needs a way to reposition once a battle
has commenced. In the middle of a fight, the characters
might have a boss pinned down with melee attackers
surrounding them and ranged attackers at a safe distance.
The characters have the boss under control—but that isn’t
much fun for a dynamic and dangerous fight. So you can
give a legendary monster a way to circumvent that control
in fun and dangerous ways.
For example, a legendary monster might quickly shift
to switch places with one of their minions. They might
burrow beneath the ground, leaving a dangerous sinkhole
behind. They might sweep their wings, knocking any
nearby characters prone, then fly to a new position. They
might teleport, leaving behind a blast of fire in their wake.
A legendary action focused on repositioning should
be more than the standard move without provoking
opportunity attacks. It’s a move plus a kick to the face on
the way out. This kind of repositioning should take one or
two legendary actions.
TRANSFORMATION
When it makes sense for their story, some legendary
monsters transform. A humanoid might take on their
werewolf form at some point during a battle, then
transform again into a huge wolf. A vampire might start
off as a humanoid, become a swarm of bats, and finally
take the form of a towering batlike monstrosity. Each
of these transformations can include new features and
attacks based on the new form. “Evolving Monsters” on
page 62 has more thoughts and ideas on this topic.
BUILDING AND RUNNING
BOSS MONSTERS
When thinking about combat against boss monsters, we
often think about what we see in movies, read in books, or
watch on TV. During staged climactic encounters, the tide
of battle turns one way, then the other, then back again.
The hero gets a strong start, then suddenly loses ground,
then gains the upper hand, then loses it again. Suddenly
they’re on their back, a sword at their throat, and it feels
as though all is lost—until the protagonist gets that final
surge, knocks the blade aside, and finishes off the villain
with a masterful flourish.
Tabletop RPGs seldom follow this model. Instead,
characters see the boss monster, wait for about half a line
of monologue, then unleash every single class feature,
magic item, and spell they possess to destroy the boss as
fast as possible. They use every “save or suck” spell they
can cast. They use every single stunning strike they can
inflict. Anything to get that boss down fast.
Without careful planning on the GM’s part, these
kinds of all-in attacks usually work. Sometimes this is
great fun. The players love it, we laugh about it, and
we move on. But sometimes such spiked victories feel
hollow. They miss the pacing and feeling we’d hoped
for. When you spend your entire campaign building up
to the final encounter with the vampire mastermind,
only for the characters to pin that mastermind down in
a beam of sunlight and smite them to death without a
single counterattack, it can feel as though all that work
was for nothing. Even the players who chose to have their
characters pin the boss down might feel as if they were
robbed.
As such, it’s worth paying attention to boss fights in
your games, to ensure they meet the intention of the story
and the pacing you want.
THE ONE ENCOUNTER WORTH
FULLY PREPARING
As GMs, we can often get away without preparing
individual combat encounters for most of an adventure
or campaign, building our encounters during the game
based on the locations and situation in an adventure.
(“Choosing Monsters Based on the Story,” page 113, talks
about one approach to this kind of encounter design).
Boss fights, however, are worth the time and effort it takes
to prepare them.
Boss battles are often the final peak of an adventure, or
of an entire campaign. We want our games to have those
peaks and valleys—the upward and downward beats
that make play interesting and fun. But without careful
preparation, even legendary monsters can go down before
they’ve had a chance to threaten the characters, turning
what should be a major high point into something much
flatter.
RISING DIFFICULTY
When thinking about getting the most out of boss
monsters and boss battles in your 5e games, the first
thing to understand is that protecting bosses typically
only starts to be a problem at 5th level and above. From
1st to 4th level in 5e, characters rarely have the capability
and resources to destroy or incapacitate bosses as quickly
as they do at higher levels. The higher the level of the
characters, the easier it is for them to pin down or destroy
bosses with ease, negating the full challenge the boss is
intended to represent. Though some of the following
techniques might prove useful at all levels, GMs typically
don’t need to worry about them when the characters are
just starting out.
RESOURCE ATTRITION
Many GMs are used to the idea of running the characters
through numerous battles before they face the boss,
ensuring that they’ve burned down their spells, Hit Dice,
and limited-use class features before the final battle. This
approach can help ensure that the heroes don’t come
into the fight fully ready to unleash their most powerful
combat features in the first round. But it can also rob the
players of enjoying the full range of their capabilities the
one time they’d love to have everything on hand. As such,
be careful not to weaken the characters so much that their
favorite features are long gone before the climactic fight
begins.
RUNNING WAVES OF
COMBATANTS
Whenever a boss reveals themself, particularly if they
make themself vulnerable at the start of combat, the
characters most likely aim everything they have on the
boss first. This can be easily prevented by ensuring that
the boss simply isn’t there, or at least isn’t reachable when
combat begins.
Instead of starting a battle with the boss in combat,
consider running waves of combatants before the boss
shows up. Each of these waves might be a hard or even
deadly encounter, with some overlap between the waves
as befits the situation and the difficulty of the encounter as
it plays out.
For example, the first wave of a boss fight might involve
several creatures roughly equivalent in number and
power to the characters. This first wave gets the characters
moving around, establishing positions, and using some of
their resources to control or take out these “normal” foes.
A second wave might involve huge numbers of weak
monsters. A horde of fifty skeletons might charge a group
of 8th-level heroes, firing arrows and swinging swords.
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This gives the characters a chance to go wild with areaeffect or crowd-control spells or features, blowing away
huge swaths of their foes. Another wave might include
a small number of big brutes. Individual crowd-control
features might lock those foes down, or the characters can
focus their high-damage attacks on them.
Only then comes the boss—floating down from
their shielded throne, flying in through a side passage,
teleporting in, manifesting as a swarm of bats, or
what have you. At this point, the characters are spread
all over the battlefield. They’re wounded. They’ve
expended resources. They’re not in an ideal situation
to drop everything they have on the boss anymore.
And depending on how difficult things appear, the boss
might even arrive right in the middle of the previous
wave, forcing the characters to either switch targets or to
continue fighting the threat in front of them.
Running waves of combatants, either one after the other
or having them overlap, is a powerhouse tool to threaten
even the most commanding characters. You don’t need to
use waves for every boss battle, but the more powerful the
characters become, the more that doing so can help you
maximize those upward and downward beats in your final
confrontations.
MITIGATING DAMAGE SPIKES
No matter how powerful they are, most bosses need
protection to survive an encounter with the characters.
Because they’re the most sought-after target in combat,
they often need features or magic to help them survive a
barrage of attacks long enough to do boss things.
One great threat faced by bosses are huge spikes of
damage, delivered by paladins with Divine Smite, fighters
with Action Surge, and other characters with a knack for
unloading tremendous amounts of damage in a single
turn. Adding more hit points to a boss certainly helps
with this problem, and is the easiest way to mitigate
tremendous amounts of damage. But there are other ways.
One trick is to give the boss the capability to transfer
half the damage they take to willing allies—or even all the
damage. A lich might shunt damage into the iron golems
guarding them. A cult fanatic might transfer damage to a
number of cultist minions. An ancient brass dragon might
direct damage to a horde of fire elemental servants. The
Fanaticism trait in “Monster Powers” (page 15) is an
example of this approach.
It helps to have an in-world explanation for such a
feature, with one example being the control amulet of a
shield guardian. A blood-pact ritual undertaken by the
cult fanatic might have the same effect. It also helps to
telegraph this in-world connection to the players so they
can make choices about how to respond. Taking out the
minions first might be tactically advantageous, with their
lower Armor Class and closer physical proximity. Clarify
these advantageous tactics, and nudge players away from
their instinctive drive to focus on the boss.
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USING LEGENDARY
RESISTANCE
Love it or hate it, Legendary Resistance is one of the
strongest ways to protect boss monsters from “save or
suck” spells, or effects that allow a single attack to shut
down a boss’s actions for a round or more. Most 5e
legendary monsters have Legendary Resistance, often
usable three times per day.
If you have a boss you want to protect, giving them
Legendary Resistance covers 90 percent of the effects that
might pin them down and prevent them from doing their
cool boss things—a dragon’s breath weapon, a lich’s deadly
magic, a vampire’s life-draining bite, and so on.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If this creature fails a saving
throw, they can choose to succeed instead.
“Building and Running Legendary Monsters,” page
28, offers lots of thoughts on Legendary Resistance,
including having a legendary boss manifest that trait
physically so the players recognize how many uses are left.
It also talks about ways to alter or fine-tune Legendary
Resistance with additional effects.
HANDLING THE MOST
POWERFUL FEATURES
Many features and attacks in 5e bypass Legendary
Resistance. This includes features that force a creature to
make an ability check instead of a saving throw, making
grappling and pinning down smaller foes such as liches
a common tactic. Likewise, high-level attacks such as the
forcecage spell can easily pin down a boss and remove
their ability to threaten the characters with no saving
throw at all. And though features such as a monk’s
Stunning Strike don’t bypass Legendary Resistance, being
able to use such features on attack after attack means that
a monk might burn out all of a boss monster’s uses of
Legendary Resistance in a single turn.
You can gauge if such situations are a problem in
your game by running early boss monsters against the
characters—even copies of the main boss. An evil wizard
might create a simulacrum to harry the characters, or a
lich might attack knowing that while their soul remains
safely stored away elsewhere, their body being destroyed
is of no consequence. A vampire can test the characters,
then simply return to their coffin if defeated. These
preliminary boss test fights can tell you a lot about what
the characters bring to the table when facing a boss.
Sometimes you simply won’t worry about the party’s
arsenal of irresistible effects, instead letting the characters
take control of the situation with their cool class features
and magic. But if you do feel as though these features get
in the way of the boss fulfilling their duty to the story and
their own place in the world, it’s worth considering how
the boss can react to such situations. Do they have the
magical means to escape a forcecage spell? Can they deal
with multiple stunning strikes in a row? Can they escape a
grapple with misty step used as a legendary action?
Be wary of giving a boss monster the ability to
circumvent the characters’ powerful features just because
you don’t want those features used. Be a fan of the
characters and the cool stuff they can do. But you can
have a boss monster bypass powerful features as long as
doing so still leaves the game fun for the players.
RUN MULTIPLE BOSSES
Another common technique for protecting your boss
monster is to have more than one. Three hags might
work together in a single battle, benefiting from their
coven magic, and even potentially sharing a pool of uses
of Legendary Resistance. Likewise, a pair of twin black
dragons makes for a much stronger encounter than just
one.
Spreading the hatred of a boss to more than one boss
in a single encounter helps avoid the scenario of the
characters focusing everything on a single target. As one
boss works to protect themself, the other boss can come
forward, unleashing their devastating attacks.
Some bosses might be able to make multiple copies of
themselves, using the simulacrum spell or similar magic.
Other bosses might have unique power that lets them
form three separate copies of themselves, perhaps sharing
a single hit point pool but having multiple actions and
multiple physical representations.
CONDENSING LEGENDARY ACTIONS
When running multiple bosses, avoid including more
than one with legendary actions in a single battle.
Legendary actions are intended to offset the problems
with the action economy that arise from having multiple
characters take on a single foe. (“Understanding the
Action Economy,” page 42, has more on this topic.)
If you have multiple bosses, those bosses often don’t
need legendary actions to keep up with the characters,
allowing you to instead compress those legendary actions
down into normal actions. Because legendary actions are
factored into a monster’s challenge rating, if you don’t
want to add those legendary actions to a monster’s normal
actions, you can instead increase the damage of their
regular attacks.
Using an adult black dragon as an example, you can
add a Tail attack and a Wing attack, or three Tail attacks,
to their Multiattack action instead of taking those extra
attacks as legendary actions. Or if you want a battle with
fewer attack rolls, you might instead add 15 damage to
the dragon’s Claw and Bite attacks (the same amount of
damage dealt by three legendary action Tail attacks per
round) to keep their damage output where it should be.
servants don’t worry about fighting in a cavern filled with
lava. Liches have no problem fighting in chambers filled
with poison gas. As such, the environment of a boss’s
sanctum can have a huge effect on the challenge they
bring to a battle. Pools of lava, places to fly, statues to
topple over, glyphs of warding—these kinds of features
can easily turn the tide of a battle in favor of a boss.
Bosses might have ways they can use the environment
to shake up how the players think about the battle.
For example, a powerful lich might use glyph-scribed
obelisks in their lair that allow them to have more than
one concentration spell active at a time. This powerful
spellcaster might have one pillar letting them concentrate
on greater invisibility, another pillar granting them a
globe of invulnerability, another surrounding them in a
cloudkill, and a fourth granting them flight with a fly spell.
Each pillar might have an AC of 15 and 50 hit points,
giving the characters multiple tactical goals as they decide
whether to destroy the pillars so that the lich loses those
spells.
KEEPING YOUR HANDS ON THE
DIALS
“Monster Difficulty Dials” on page 27 talks about how
to make useful modifications to monsters right in the
middle of combat. Running boss battles is one of the
best times to have your hands on those dials, letting you
easily adjust the threat level to keep the characters and the
players on their toes.
When running waves of combatants, you have a firm
hand on the “Number of Monsters” dial. When the second
wave comes out, you can decide how many monsters
join that wave based on the outcome of the first wave.
Did the first wave take longer than expected and push
the characters hard? Reduce the monsters in the second
wave, or remove that wave completely. Did the characters
steamroll the first wave? Add a few more foes.
Turning the “Hit Point” dial likewise tunes the entire
battle. When any of the monsters, including the boss,
have overstayed their welcome, turn their hit points down
and let them fall on the next hit. Did the characters mow
through monsters faster than expected? Consider turning
the hit point dial up, especially for the boss. Typically, you
want a boss to stick around for at least 3 rounds. Less than
that, and the players never get to see what the boss can do.
But a battle that goes on forever can become boring.
ADDING ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
Most often, boss monsters battle in environments that
serve their needs. A red dragon and their fire elemental
33
BUILDING SPELLCASTING
MONSTERS
Magic is a cornerstone of most fantasy RPG campaigns,
and nothing helps bring the magic of a world to life
better than having foes pound the characters with spells
and other magical attacks during combat. Many of the
game’s creatures already pack a magical punch, but adding
spellcasting to foes who don’t already have it can be great
fun. However, the baseline power of spellcasting means
that doing so requires some planning.
A creature’s general level of challenge for a party can
be assessed in many different ways. But when adding
spellcasting to existing stat blocks, the mechanics to focus
on are damage per round, followed by what conditions
can be imposed by a spell. After you’ve chosen magic for a
spellcasting creature, “Running Spellcasting Monsters” on
page 58 has great advice for working with that magic.
SPELL DAMAGE
DAMAGE AND TARGETING
34
Every combat-focused creature deals a certain amount of
damage per round with their best attacks—often the sum
total of all attacks in the Multiattack action. When adding
spellcasting to a creature, you want to focus on that total
damage-per-round number, choosing spells that deal
roughly that same amount of damage to all their targets.
For example, a doppelganger’s Multiattack lets them deal
an average of 14 damage with their Bite and Claw attacks,
so giving them spellcasting that deals 14 damage makes
a nice surprise for the characters and doesn’t change the
doppelganger’s threat level.
If a creature has only one primary attack per round or
deals relatively low damage with Multiattack, a singletarget spell is a great fit. But if a creature’s damage-perround output is high and is spread out across multiple
attacks, look for a spell that allows multiple targets or
deals damage to creatures in an area. A CR 2 gargoyle
dealing a relatively low 10 damage per round is equally
fine with an area spell or a single-target spell dealing 10
damage. But a CR 2 centaur hits harder with 20 damage
per round, meaning they work better with an area-effect
spell dealing that much damage in total to all its targets.
Using a single-target spell that deals the same damage as
all of a high-damage creature’s weapon attacks can skew a
monster’s effective challenge by making them more likely
to drop a character with one attack.
SAVE VS. ATTACK
A key component to calculating creature challenge ratings
is that attacks, spells, and special features are always
assumed to deal full average damage. A monster’s attacks
are always assumed to hit, and the characters are always
assumed to fail their saving throws against a monster’s
spells and special features. But one area where you want to
keep an eye on this is spells that deal half as much damage
on a successful saving throw. Replacing a creature’s
weapon attacks with spells that deal partial damage on a
failed save is akin to deciding that those weapon attacks
deal partial damage on a miss. So be careful that dealing
default damage round after round doesn’t make a creature
a bit too sweet in combat.
AREA EFFECTS
For spells that deal damage in an area, assumptions need
to be made about how many targets those area-affect
spells will hit. A good general guideline is to assume that
most areas of effect will target two creatures on average.
Extra-large areas such as the 60-foot radius of a freezing
sphere or sunburst spell will target three creatures.
CHOOSING DAMAGE-DEALING
SPELLS
For characters, the damage output of spells can
sometimes be a complex curve, tying into caster level
and the level of the spell slot used to cast. When building
JACKIE MUSTO
Alongside hit points, damage output per round is the
most significant factor in determining the relative
challenge of combat-focused creatures. (This can be seen
in many NPC stat blocks, where spellcasters slinging
high-damage evocation magic can have a higher challenge
rating than diviners or enchanters, even when casting at
the same level.) When building a spellcasting foe from
an existing stat block, start by assessing the foe’s damage
output (perhaps with reference to the Monster Statistics
by Challenge Rating table on page 6 of “Building a
Quick Monster”). Then think about how to best rework
that output in spell form.
spellcasting foes for combat, you can usually focus on
baseline damage—5 (1d10) for eldritch blast or firebolt; 10
(3d6) for burning hands; 7 (2d6) for each scorching ray; 28
(8d6) for fireball or lightning bolt; and so on.
That said, when trying to pick a spell appropriate to
a creature’s normal damage output, don’t forget that
adjusting that damage is just as easy as adding the spell
in the first place. Want to build an inferno ettin who casts
fireball? Look at the ettin’s normal damage output of 28
points, then make sure their fireball spell deals about 14
damage (4d6 or 3d8) to each of its two expected targets.
SPELL CONDITIONS
In most cases, conditions in combat make the creatures
dishing them out more effective in a fight, by reducing
the effectiveness of the characters while hindered by
those conditions. Adding spells that impose conditions to
existing stat blocks is thus a slightly less straightforward
process than swapping weapon damage for magical
damage.
The effectiveness of a particular condition can vary
drastically depending on what type of character it’s
imposed on, and on how enemies might take advantage of
the condition’s effects. A fighter who’s been poisoned takes
a big hit in combat as disadvantage penalizes their attack
rolls, even as their wizard ally casting spells that require
saving throws can all but ignore the condition. Likewise,
sleep is a 1st-level spell, and so might seem an easy option
to add to any relatively low-CR creature. But a foe who
casts sleep in order to run away from the characters
is a very different threat than one who does so to let
their melee-focused allies run in and start auto-critting
unconscious heroes.
CONDITIONS AS THREAT
When looking at spells that impose conditions, think
about those conditions as a kind of sliding scale of threat,
from least to most significant. For the purpose of this
approach, ignore grappled as a condition of its own,
focusing instead on the restrained condition that being
grappled typically imposes. Also ignore exhaustion, which
is a special-case condition that should generally not be
imposed during combat.
Charmed, Deafened, Poisoned, and Prone. These
weakest conditions are the easiest ones to make use of for
spellcasting monsters. Each has the ability to take a fight
in an unexpected direction by hindering characters, but
none is powerful enough to upend a battle on its own
because none can take a character completely out of the
fight.
Blinded, Frightened, and Restrained. These conditions
are a stronger threat, representing a greater ability to
hinder characters in combat. All can limit the actions
or movement of characters, even as they also penalize
combat rolls.
Incapacitated, Paralyzed, Petrified, Stunned, and
Unconscious. At the apex of the hierarchy of how badly
conditions can mess with characters, these five stand
alone. Each can take a character completely out of a fight,
shifting the overall balance of an encounter for a number
of rounds—or even for the entire battle.
Conditions and Duration. When assessing any spell
that imposes a condition, consider the different feel of
spells that do so for 1 round or that allow a repeated
saving throw to end the condition, as compared to spells
whose imposed conditions have a long duration and
no repeated save. Long-duration conditions with no
automatic opportunity to end them can be vexing for
players if they cause characters to sit out multiple turns.
Even low-level spells such as charm person or sleep can
feel quite different when it’s the characters using them
to turn the tide against a mob of foes, and when it’s a
single spellcasting monster using them to make multiple
characters sit on the sidelines during a fight.
CONDITIONS AS REVERSE BENEFITS
The way combat changes across a broad range of character
levels makes it impossible to come up with any hard-andfast rule for how much damage a particular condition is
equivalent to in a fight. So instead, think about conditions
imposed by spells as granting benefits to the enemy side
akin to adjusting foes before combat. (“Monster Difficulty
Dials” on page 27 talks about how to adjust encounters
on the fly.)
For example, conditions that impose penalties on
characters’ attack rolls decrease their chances of hitting
foes. So giving a creature a spell that imposes the
frightened or poisoned condition is effectively the same
as dialing up the Armor Class of the foes in an encounter.
Conditions that limit characters’ actions have the same
general effect on the action economy in a fight as giving
the enemy side additional actions, so think of spells that
impose the charmed or stunned condition as equivalent
to adding extra attacks to the enemy side.
At the high end of the condition hierarchy, being able to
render characters incapacitated in any way can be thought
of as akin to having more foes on the enemy side, working
with the idea that a character taken out of the fight for
a round is the same as a character spending that round
fighting an additional “virtual foe.”
CHECK SPELLCASTING ABILITY
As a final step in building spellcasting creatures, have a
look at a stat block’s spellcasting ability scores. The math
underlying a creature’s relative challenge in combat makes
the assumption that a creature is using one of their best
abilities for their go-to attacks. So if you add spellcasting
to a creature whose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma
are all low compared to the Strength or Dexterity fueling
their weapon attacks, bump up one of those mental
abilities so the creature’s spell save DC and spell attack
modifier aren’t lagging behind their other attacks.
Alternatively, you can easily create a house rule stating
that creatures known more for brawn than brains who
channel spell magic innately can use Constitution as their
spellcasting ability.
35
CREATING LAIR ACTIONS
When a legendary creature inhabits a location, their
presence can change the environment in which they live.
After a hag moves into a forest, the trees become twisted,
brambles grow, shadows darken, and the air becomes foul
and oppressive. In the lair of a white dragon, bitter winds
howl through icy tunnels, whose walls reflect the frozen
visages of the dragon’s many victims.
From a narrative perspective, lair actions allow us to tell
the story of a formidable creature and their environment.
The best lair actions capture the creature’s essence, and
how that essence permeates and alters the world around
them. From a mechanical perspective, lair actions provide
GMs with an additional set of combat options, allowing
greater flexibility in focusing on the characters and
creating a higher challenge level.
LEGENDARY IN NATURE
In most cases, only exceptional creatures should have lair
actions. This represents the fact that it takes a particularly
powerful or special creature to alter their surroundings in
such a formidable way. However, a good story can explain
a lesser threat having access to lair actions, as with an
alchemist in a workshop with potions brewing, each of
which can explode each round to affect combatants.
When a creature is legendary, take care to ensure
that lair actions feel different from legendary actions.
Legendary actions represent what a creature can do
directly with their body and their inherent capabilities.
Lair actions are external, representing the interplay
between the creature and their surroundings. (“Building
and Running Legendary Monsters” on page 28 has
advice for creating legendary actions.)
THE IMPORTANCE OF A LAIR
Before you can add effective lair actions to a creature, take
the time to understand the key aspects of that creature,
and what kind of environment their lair should be.
Thinking through the connection between creature and
lair allows you to weave lair actions convincingly into a
story. You can get lair ideas by reviewing a monster’s lore,
the myths of similar creatures, and the larger story and
setting of your campaign.
Consider the following examples:
• A fire elemental could live in a lava-filled cavern, but
could also inhabit a burning forest.
• A black dragon has transformed a valley into a fetid
swamp, with all its former beauty turned to rot and
undeath.
• A treant lord has deep roots that influence all the plant
life in an area. Even creatures living in the trees and soil
obey this powerful leader.
• An egotistical giant has collected trophies in a vast
museum, with the spirits of creatures they’ve conquered
manifesting through each of those displays.
36
• A legendary undead pirate captain dwells in a shipwreck
upon a rocky coastline. Waves, sand, and rain all obey
the pirate’s whims, even as their undead crew does
battle.
(“Building Engaging Environments” on page 79 also
talks about the kinds of engaging elements that can factor
into the design of lair actions.)
USING LAIR ACTIONS
When in their lair, a legendary creature can use one of
their lair actions on initiative count 20 (losing initiative
ties). They can’t use a lair action when incapacitated, or on
their first turn of combat if they were surprised.
TYPES OF LAIR ACTIONS
Most creatures have three to four lair actions, which
provide one of three types of benefits. When creating lair
actions, choose the benefit type that fits what a creature
needs in each round of combat.
Damage. Lair actions might represent bursts of fire
or other elemental energy, brambles tearing at heroes,
spectral swords, or other effects. Damaging lair actions
allow a GM to target the characters outside of a creature’s
normal turn, keeping a higher level of pressure on the
heroes. By lessening the impact of conditions or other
effects (other than being incapacitated), damaging lair
actions make a solo creature’s overall damage output more
reliable.
Control or Impede. A column of stone or a stalactite
might deal damage as it falls, but its primary benefit is
pinning a hero down and taking them out of the fight
for a time. Fumes from a swamp or a pool of acid might
poison heroes. Grasping skeletal hands or vines can
grapple and restrain characters. These types of lair actions
limit the characters’ effectiveness, allowing a creature to
evade blows or to isolate and pick off foes more easily.
Excessive control hurts fun, however, so limit your use
of these types of lair actions to make them stand out as
infrequent but significant challenges.
Protection. Protective lair actions shield, heal, or
enhance a creature, providing them with important
survival capabilities they might otherwise lack. For
example, an artificer’s lab might contain a clockworkgenerated shield that grants temporary hit points or
heals wounds. A fire elemental might be able to teleport
from one pool of fire to another to keep away from
the characters. Obscuring gases or crashing waves can
occlude a battlefield, imposing disadvantage on attack
rolls.
(“Building and Running Boss Monsters” on page 31
has thoughts on protecting important monsters that make
great inspiration for lair actions.)
TACTICS
When choosing which lair actions to use during combat,
think about whether damage, control, or protection are
more effective in any given round. Damage and control
work particularly well early in combat, causing the players
to adjust their plans and break out of typical attack
routines. The heroes might be forced to expend resources
or heal an ally rather than make an attack, or might have
to contend with conditions that leave them unable to
reach their target.
Protection works well when a foe is pinned down
in their lair, helping them make it through tough
moments—or to escape those moments entirely. Such
actions surprise the characters, showing the full range of
their foe’s resources as the world around them bends to
that foe’s will.
CREATING LAIR ACTIONS
When creating your own creatures with lair actions—or
if you want to expand on the lair actions of an existing
creature—you have several options. Regardless of which
method you choose, it’s worth noting that the damage
dealt by lair actions should be counted as part of a
creature’s damage output for the purpose of calculating
their CR. Thus, if you add lair actions to a creature, their
CR may increase. However, because creatures with lair
actions are typically high challenge, you can often not
worry about this CR bump if you know the characters can
handle the increased threat.
RESKINNING
You can quickly create lair actions by looking at the lair
actions of published monsters, many of which can be
easily reskinned to fit different environments. A falling
stalactite can become a falling chandelier or a stack of
crates toppling onto the heroes. A teleportation effect can
be reproduced as a magical wind, movement through
shadows, or temporarily stepping into the Ethereal Plane.
Divine healing can be reskinned as a healing spring, an
arcane device that knits flesh back together, or armor that
repairs itself.
MONSTER POWERS
Many of the monster powers found in “Building a Quick
Monster” (page 4), “Monster Powers” (page 15), and
“Monster Roles” (page 22) can be set up as though their
benefit is channeled from the environment rather than
from a creature directly. A power that creates a damaging
BOSSES NEED THE HELP
Mike maintains that the damage created by lair actions is often
necessary, and shouldn’t be counted as part of a creature’s
regular damage output in all cases. Boss monsters, by virtue of
being an obvious single target with limited actions, are often
underpowered for their challenge ratings. As such, having lair
actions for damage, control, and protection is often vital to
ensuring a fun boss encounter.
aura can become a zone of energy spreading around a
specific point, while a power that grapples could originate
from a tentacle emerging from a pool or a portal.
As an example, consider the Telekinetic Grasp monster
power:
Telekinetic Grasp (Action). This creature chooses one creature
they can see within 100 feet of them weighing less than 400
pounds. The target must succeed on a Strength saving throw
(DC = 11 + 1/2 CR) or be pulled up to 80 feet directly toward
this creature.
Then consider how that might be turned into a lair
action:
Telekinetic Grasp. One creature in the lair weighing
less than 400 pounds is grasped by a telekinetic force
and must make a Strength saving throw (DC = 11 +
1/2 CR). On a failure, the target is pulled up to 80 feet
directly toward a location chosen by the creature using
this lair action.
TEMPLATE LAIR ACTIONS
The following lair actions can be used as templates by
changing the exact nature of how the environment creates
the indicated effect. The type of lair action is indicated in
parentheses after the name.
Elemental Damage (Damage). A blast of elemental
energy targets one creature who the creature using
this lair action can see within 100 feet of themself. The
target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw (DC =
10 + 1/2 CR) or take 2 × CR damage of an appropriate
elemental type.
Falling Structure (Damage, Control). Part of a ceiling,
wall, column, or some other part of the lair collapses
onto one target who the creature using this lair action
can see within 100 feet of them. The target must succeed
on a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 CR) or
take CR bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.
The target is then restrained, and can be freed with a
successful DC 10 Strength check made as an action by
the target or a creature who can reach them.
Obscuring Cloud (Control, Protection). The creature
using this lair action chooses a point they can see
within 60 feet of them. A cloud fills a 30-foot-radius
area centered on that point. The creature using this lair
action can see normally within and through the cloud,
which is a heavily obscured area for all other creatures.
The cloud lasts until the creature using this lair action
does so again or is reduced to 0 hit points. It can also be
dispersed by a wind of at least 20 miles per hour.
Restorative Energy (Protection). Restorative energy is
channeled from the environment into the creature using
this lair action. The creature regains 2 × CR hit points
and can attempt to end one condition or magical effect
affecting them. If ending an effect normally requires
a saving throw, the creature immediately makes the
saving throw with advantage, ending the effect on
themself on a success.
37
LAZY TRICKS FOR
RUNNING MONSTERS
This section presents a number of tricks and tips that can
help you more easily prepare and run monsters during
your games. We call them “lazy tricks” not because they’re
about cheating or doing less work overall, but because
they’re meant to let you quickly accomplish things when
your game is in progress and you don’t have a lot of extra
time.
Many of the concepts below are described in more
detail in other sections of Forge of Foes.
QUICK MONSTER STATISTICS
“Building a Quick Monster” (page 4) provides great
guidelines for creating a foe for your game in just a few
minutes. But you can come up with an even quicker set of
monster statistics using the following steps.
First, choose a challenge rating for your monster,
based on their perceived power in the encounter. When
needed, compare your monster to existing monsters to
find a suitable challenge rating. Then use the following
guidelines to craft their baseline statistics:
• Armor Class = 12 + 1/2 CR
• Hit points = (15 × CR) + 15
• Proficient saving throws and skills = 4 + 1/2 CR
• Nonproficient saving throws and abilities = −2 to +2,
based on the monster’s story
• Attack bonus = 4 + 1/2 CR
• DC for saving throws = 12 + 1/2 CR
• Total damage per round = (7 × CR) + 5
Start your monster out with one attack, then add
one additional attack at CR 2, CR 7, CR 11, and CR
15. Split the total damage noted above across all
attacks.
With a solid set of combat statistics at hand, you can
then use narrative descriptions to make your monster
unique, interesting, and evocative.
Damage Reflection. Whenever a creature within 5
feet of this creature hits them with a melee attack, the
attacker takes damage in return of a type appropriate to
the creature. The damage dealt is equal to half the damage
of one of this creature’s attacks. If you give a creature this
feature, give them one less attack than normal.
Misty Step. As a bonus action, this creature can teleport
up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space they can see.
Knockdown. When this creature hits a target with a
melee attack, the target must succeed on a Strength saving
throw or be knocked prone.
Restraining Grab. When this creature hits a target with
a melee attack, the target is grappled (escape DC based
on this creature’s Strength or Dexterity modifier). While
grappled, the target is restrained.
Damaging Burst. As an action, this creature can create
a burst of energy, magic, spines, or some other effect in a
10-foot-radius sphere, either around themself or at a point
within 120 feet. Each creature in that area must make a
Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom saving throw (your
choice, based on the type of burst). On a failure, a target
takes damage of an appropriate type equal to half this
Give any custom monster impactful features and attacks
that make sense for their place in the game. When a
monster feature deals damage, choose a damage type
appropriate to the creature’s physiology, theme, or
story. A creature channeling magical power might
deal acid, cold, fire, lightning, force, poison,
psychic, necrotic, radiant, or thunder damage.
A creature making use of spines, spikes, or
projectiles might deal bludgeoning, piercing, or
slashing damage.
Damaging Blast. This creature has one or more
single-target ranged attacks using the attack bonus
and damage calculated above, and which deal
damage of an appropriate type.
38
VÍCTOR LEZA
TEN USEFUL MONSTER
FEATURES
creature’s total damage per round. On a success, a target
takes half as much damage.
Cunning Action. On each of their turns, this creature
can use a bonus action to take the Dash, Disengage, or
Hide action.
Damaging Aura. Each creature who starts their turn
within 10 feet of this creature takes damage of a type
appropriate to the creature. The damage dealt is equal to
half the damage of one of this creature’s attacks. If you
give a creature this feature, give them one less attack than
normal.
Energy Weapons. The creature’s weapon attacks deal
extra damage of an appropriate type. You can add this
damage on top of the creature’s regular damage output
to give them a combat boost, or you can replace some of
the creature’s normal weapon damage with this energy
damage.
Damage Transference. When this creature takes
damage, they can transfer half or all of that damage (your
choice) to a willing creature within 30 or 60 feet of them.
This feature is particularly good for boss monsters, as
discussed in “Building and Running Boss Monsters” (page
31).
USING AVERAGES
By default, 5e monster stat blocks calculate the average
damage for any attack’s dice expression, as with “13 (2d8
+ 4) bludgeoning damage” for an ogre’s Greatclub attack.
Using average damage for a monster’s attacks is one of the
best ways to speed up combat.
Sometimes, though, you need to roll damage for effects
that aren’t in a stat block. When you do, you can use the
following table to quickly look up the average value of
various dice equations. Simply find the number of dice in
the leftmost column, then go across to the appropriate die
type. As can be seen in the table, you can add up averages
to get an average value for higher numbers of dice—for
example, adding the average of 2d10 and 6d10 to get the
average of 8d10. You can use this approach to find the
average for rolling more than twelve dice, so that if you
need an average for 24d10, you can simply look at the
12d10 average and double it.
# of dice
d4
d6
d8
d10
d12
1
2
3
4
5
6
2
5
7
9
11
13
3
7
10
13
16
19
4
10
14
18
22
26
5
12
17
22
27
32
6
15
21
27
33
39
7
17
24
31
38
45
8
20
28
36
44
52
9
22
31
40
49
58
10
25
35
45
55
65
11
27
38
49
60
71
12
30
42
54
66
78
(The monster powers that appear in “Building a Quick
Monster” on page 4, “Monster Powers” on page 15,
and “Monster Roles” on page 22 often provide damage
expressions such as “4 × CR.” If you’re a GM who loves
to roll dice, you can use this table to convert those fixed
damage values back into a dice-rolling expression by
finding an average close to the fixed value.)
You can also compute averages for dice expressions with
simple equations you can keep in your head. The average
of two dice is the maximum value of one of those dice
+ 1, so that the average of 2d12 is 13. Then double that
number for multiples of two, so that the average of 2d8
is 9, the average of 4d8 is 18, and so forth. Likewise, the
average of a single die is half the size of the die, so add
that number to a two-dice average to get odd numbers.
For example, the average of 4d6 is 14, so the average of
5d6 is 17. (The average of one die is actually half the size
of the die plus 0.5, which is why the average of two dice is
the maximum value of the die +1.)
THE LAZY ENCOUNTER
BENCHMARK
Build encounters based on the story, the situation, and the
location. When you want to check whether a particular
encounter is too challenging for the characters, you can
use a simple benchmark (detailed in “The Lazy Encounter
Benchmark” on page 70) to see if the encounter might
be inadvertently deadly.
OTHER LAZY MONSTER TRICKS
Once you’re in the middle of an encounter, you can make
use of a number of other quick tricks to make running
monsters easier, with more flexibility and greater speed.
Try any of the following options at your table, and make
use of any trick that helps your game:
• Use fixed initiative for monsters equal to 10 + each
monster’s Dexterity bonus. Even faster? Just have all
monsters act on initiative count 12.
• Reduce hit points on the fly to allow monsters to drop
or surrender more quickly, or increase a monster’s
number of attacks or damage if the characters are
having too easy a time. (“Monster Difficulty Dials” on
page 27 talks about these kinds of adjustments.)
• Have foes flee or surrender when it makes sense to
move the game forward. (“Exit Strategies” on page 91
and “On Morale and Running Away” on page 125 talk
more about this.)
• Have constructs and undead be destroyed when the
creature controlling them dies.
• Run multiple waves of monsters for big battles.
(“Building and Running Boss Monsters” on page 31
talks more on this topic.)
• Include creatures designed to eat “save or suck” attacks
such as banishment or polymorph. (“Lightning Rods” on
page 44 has more information on this.)
39
RUNNING MONSTERS FOR
NEW GAMEMASTERS
Forge of Foes contains numerous tips and tools to help
GMs run monsters. But as with any collection of advice,
some of what’s here can feel relatively advanced for GMs
new to the game. This section offers tips to help relatively
inexperienced GMs run monsters effectively—and can
serve as a refresher for advanced GMs as well.
1ST LEVEL = VULNERABLE
Though it seems illogical, 1st level is the most dangerous
and potentially lethal level in an adventurer’s career. With
their low hit points making it easy for them to drop—and
easy to be permanently dispatched if they take damage
while dying—characters are significantly more likely to
die at 1st level than at any other point in the game.
Monsters matched up against 1st-level characters at a
particular encounter difficulty are almost always more
dangerous than monsters matched up against higher-level
characters at the same difficulty. So when designing or
running encounters for 1st-level characters, pay careful
attention to how lethal those encounters might get. Run
fewer monsters than characters, and ensure that the
monsters are CR 1/4 or less. Even a CR 1/2 foe might
prove deadly to a 1st-level character.
Though you might expect CR 1 monsters to be a good
match for characters of 1st level based on hit points and
defenses, many such monsters can deal potentially deadly
damage. A bugbear or a dire wolf, for example, can deal
enough damage to easily kill a low-hit-point character
with one attack. A specter can easily kill a 1st-level fighter
or barbarian with a single hit.
So be nice when the characters are at 1st level. You have
nineteen more levels to turn up the heat. (“Monsters and
the Tiers of Play” on page 74 also talks about the perils
of 1st level.)
MORE MONSTERS, MORE
DANGER
No matter whether the characters are fighting monsters
of a challenge rating appropriate to their level, more
monsters are almost always more dangerous than fewer
monsters. Even if a creature is significantly more powerful
than the characters, that creature is at a big disadvantage
due to their lower number of actions as compared to the
number of actions the characters can take. (This concept
is called the “action economy,” and is talked about in
“Understanding the Action Economy” on page 42.)
When in doubt, keep the number of foes below the
number of characters to make an easier fight. Whenever
an encounter has more monsters than characters, the
challenge goes up.
40
THE 5TH-LEVEL POWER SURGE
In the same way that the characters get much better at
surviving when they reach 2nd level, 5e games have other
leaps in character power at 5th, 11th, and 17th level.
Starting at 5th level, you’ll see the characters pinning
down powerful foes with a single failed saving throw.
You’ll see huge hordes of monsters taken out of the fight
with spells such as hypnotic pattern and fireball. You’ll
watch fighters cleave through powerful opponents with
ease, both from the increases to their attack modifier and
damage, and their ability to dish out four attacks in a turn
using Action Surge.
Even though combat changes at 5th level in the
characters’ favor, that doesn’t mean you have to make
everything harder. But understanding and expecting the
power jump at 5th level lets you think about different
ways to handle that jump. Easy battles are still a lot of
fun (as talked about in “Running Easy Monsters,” page
124). And you can learn what kinds of foes are the
best challenge for the characters’ new capabilities in
“Lightning Rods” (page 44) and “Monsters and the
Tiers of Play” (page 74).
READ THE WHOLE STAT BLOCK
When running a monster, it’s easy to focus on their big
combat statistics. You might look only at a creature’s hit
points, Armor Class, and attacks while getting ready to
run an encounter. However, many monsters have useful
and critical capabilities described in their other statistics,
such as resistances, immunities, senses, and proficiencies.
A goblin’s +6 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks might
be relevant to how you set up an encounter with goblin
cultists, given the circumstances and situation. More
complicated monsters often have important features noted
as bonus actions or reactions, and it’s easy to miss these
features when you’re in the heat of the game.
Stat blocks also tell you the story of a monster. By
looking at a creature’s ability scores and skill proficiencies,
you can recognize how those numbers might feed in to
that story. “Reading the Monster Stat Block,” page 102,
has more details on this.
While preparing your game, review any stat blocks
you think you might run. Then review them again just
before you run them, right at the table. By taking thirty
seconds to remind yourself what a monster brings to an
encounter, you’re less likely to forget a feature and miss an
opportunity for a more memorable game.
SANDWICH MECHANICS WITH
FLAVOR
It’s easy to lose track of the fiction going on in the world
of your game when you’re focused on the mechanics of
combat. So consider sandwiching mechanical descriptions
with the flavor of what’s happening around the characters.
For example, rather than simply reporting the damage a
character takes on a successful hit, you can say something
like: “The cultist hisses at you and slashes with her jagged
curved blade. It hits you for 6 slashing damage as the
blade cuts through your leather armor and into your
flesh.”
Likewise, the mechanics of rolling damage and saving
throws for a complicated spell can be made more
interesting as part of a descriptive narrative. “Durrim,
you hurl your fireball into the room full of unsuspecting
ghouls, one of them turning your way just as the spell
explodes in a roar of flame. Roll 8d6 damage. Two of the
eight ghouls make their saving throws, but six of the eight
burst into flames, leaving only two. They’re smoldering
and burnt, but still fighting!”
Even when crunching numbers, you can move the story
along. Use those silly vocal sound effects you used to
love in middle school, and don’t lose sight of the fiction
happening during the game.
MONSTERS DON’T HAVE TO
BEHAVE OPTIMALLY
A veteran might have three attacks at their disposal, but
that doesn’t mean they have to take them. Sometimes the
characters’ foes make poor choices and bad decisions.
They might let ego get in the way of their better judgment.
They make tactical errors. An enemy spellcaster might
hold back their most powerful spells, thinking that the
characters are easy targets. A troll commander might toy
with a hero, attacking only with a single claw. A gnoll
outlaw in a position to finish off a dying cleric might
turn their attention to the pesky fighter interrupting their
finishing move. Whenever it increases the fun of the game
for the players, let the monsters make mistakes.
REDUCE HIT POINTS TO END
BATTLES EARLY
Proper pacing is one of the most important parts
of keeping a game fun for both you and the players.
Sometimes battles go on too long, threatening to end a
fun encounter as a final slog. If this happens, just reduce
the hit points of monsters to let the next hit take them out
of the fight, letting you and the players move on to the
next part of the story.
Many monster statistics can be fine-tuned before or
during the game, helping you focus on fun and helping
the monsters play the part you want them to in the
narrative. “Monster Difficulty Dials” on page 27 talks
about the kinds of adjustments you can make on the fly to
make a foe easier or harder in combat. These dials include
a creature’s hit points, their number of attacks, and the
damage they deal, as well as the overall number of foes
in a battle. You can tweak all these dials to suit your story
and its pacing, but reducing a monster’s hit points can be
the most powerful dial for keeping your game fast and
fun.
UNDERSTANDING CHALLENGE
RATINGS
The concept of challenge rating as it defines a monster’s
power level can be hard to grasp. “What Are Challenge
Ratings?” on page 99 breaks down this measure of
monster difficulty in detail, but you can keep a few simple
rules in mind:
• A challenge rating compares one monster to another.
There isn’t a perfect comparison between character
levels and monster challenge ratings.
• A monster is a hard challenge for a single character
if their challenge rating is roughly 1/4 of a character’s
level, or 1/2 of a character’s level if the character is 5th
level or higher.
• A single creature might be particularly challenging to a
group of characters if the creature’s challenge rating is
greater than 1.5 × the average character level.
• A battle might be more challenging then you want it
to be if the sum total of monster challenge ratings is
greater than 1/4 of the sum total of character levels, for
characters of 1st to 4th level; or greater than 1/2 of total
character levels if the characters are 5th level or higher.
(The above comparisons are taken from “The Lazy
Encounter Benchmark” on page 70, which explains
them in more detail.)
Challenge ratings are a rough gauge of monster
power—not a perfect measurement. Challenge rating
comparisons alone don’t determine the difficulty of a
battle, as many other factors can come into play:
• The specific situation
• The combat environment
• The experience of the players
• How well the characters’ attacks and features work
together
• Whether most of the characters or most of the monsters
come first in the initiative order
• What kinds of magic items the characters possess
As the GM, you’ll develop a much better sense for the
capabilities of the characters and the potential difficulty
of a battle as you gain more experience running games for
your group.
UNDERSTANDING A
MONSTER’S ROLE
Some monsters like to get up in front of the characters
and hit them with clubs. Some work better while lurking
in the shadows. Others want to be up on a ledge raining
magic down upon their foes from a distance.
When reading a stat block, consider what role and
position a monster might prefer in combat. An evil mage
can have a ton of powerful spells, but they might never
get a chance to use them if they’re up front getting hit.
A squad of veterans can be mighty opponents, but not
if they’re stuck on the other side of a chasm. So always
put the veterans up front and stick the mage in the back.
(“Monster Roles” on page 22 talks more on this topic.)
41
UNDERSTANDING
THE ACTION ECONOMY
Often, GMs look at the powers, actions, and statistics
of characters and monsters and take those statistics at
face value. A fireball spell creates a huge blast of flame.
A paladin smites foes by channeling divine energy
into their attack. A wizard’s power is measured by
the number of spells they wield and the spell
slots with which they cast them. But there’s an
equally important element to the game that’s
not as obvious—the action economy.
The game’s action economy is the
comparison between the number of actions
the characters can take and the number of
actions their foes can take. If these numbers of
actions are imbalanced, one side has a distinct
advantage over the other, regardless of how
good their actions and attacks are, because
one side can simply do more things.
Understanding the action economy is
critical when considering the challenge
of an encounter. As you consider the
characters and the foes they face, consider
how the action economy is balanced—or
imbalanced—between them.
MORE MONSTERS!
LEGENDARY ACTIONS
42
When a single foe faces a whole group of characters, that
foe is at a distinct disadvantage with the action economy.
In a typical party, four to six characters each have actions
they can take in a round, while the poor monster might
have only one.
The iconic CR 15 purple worm can probably swallow
a house. But with only two attacks, it’s possible that the
worm might do nothing at all in a round if they miss
both times. The purple worm is a powerhouse monster
by virtue of how nasty their attacks are, but distinctly falls
short in the action economy. They just don’t have a lot of
actions they can take compared to the characters.
By contrast, other creatures such as the adult red dragon
can do lots of things. The designers of 5e D&D knew that
particular monsters often face groups of characters alone,
putting them at an action economy disadvantage. For
this reason, those creatures are given legendary actions—
actions they take between other characters’ turns to make
up for the lack of actions on their own turn. An adult red
dragon can attack up to six times across a round—three
on their turn and three times with legendary actions. Not
bad.
When you want to run a single nonlegendary creature
against a group of characters, consider increasing that
creature’s actions to account for the imbalance in the
action economy. “Building and Running Legendary
Monsters,” page 28, has more information on this topic.
MODIFYING THE ACTION
ECONOMY DURING A BATTLE
Even without building out a full-blown legendary
monster, you can change up a potential imbalance of
actions by simply giving creatures more attacks as part
of their Multiattack action (or giving them Multiattack
if they don’t already have it). This is a significant threat
boost to a creature, sometimes doubling the amount of
damage they can deal in a turn, so take care. Giving a
purple worm an additional Tail Stinger attack represents
MATT MORROW
Perhaps the easiest way to balance the action
economy is to include enough foes to roughly
balance the actions of the characters. Beyond having
more actions they can collectively take, a larger group of
monsters means more targets. It means the characters’
damage is often spread across multiple foes instead of
focusing on one big threat. “Monster Difficulty Dials” on
page 27 talks about how a GM can adjust encounters
before or during play. The “Number of Monsters” dial is
a powerful tool for tuning a battle’s difficulty. It’s perhaps
the strongest dial you can turn, as it can affect both the
challenge of a fight and the time it takes to complete that
fight.
a significant jump in the danger that creature brings to an
encounter.
For something a bit less drastic, consider letting the
monster attack a second time if they miss with their first
attack. There’s little difference between this approach
and granting a creature advantage on their attack rolls,
except in how you describe the effect during the game.
You might use this approach on a powerful creature who
dishes out tremendous damage, allowing them to hit more
reliably, but capping their damage lower than if they were
hitting twice. For example, a frost giant who attacks again
after a miss with their first attack has a greater chance of
dealing their average 25 damage on a turn, but is still less
likely to deal their full 50 damage per turn.
THE ACTION ECONOMY AND
SPELLCASTING
Monster and NPC stat blocks sometimes feature long
lists of castable spells presenting a wide range of combat
options. But a spellcasting creature can cast only one spell
per turn. Sometimes this is fine, as when a group of cult
fanatics throw around inflict wounds spells one at a time
just as the characters might. But noteworthy spellcasters,
including boss monsters, can improve their standing in
the action economy by casting spells as part of an existing
Multiattack action, replacing one of their normal attacks
with their spellcasting action. For creatures who don’t
have the Multiattack action, you can give it to them,
letting them cast a spell as well as attack on their turn.
Giving NPC spellcasters the ability to cast more than
one spell on a turn increases the threat they can bring
to a battle, so keep that in mind. But for other monsters,
casting spells alongside other attacks can help them
keep up with the characters’ actions, even as it lets them
reinforce their place as a dual melee-and-magic threat in
the fiction of the game.
(“Building Spellcasting Monsters,” page 34, and
“Running Spellcasting Monsters,” page 58, both offer
additional points of view on mixing monsters and magic.)
SPELLS AND FEATURES
THAT BALANCE THE ACTION
ECONOMY
Some spells and features scale particularly well with
efforts to improve the action economy for monsters and
other foes, becoming more powerful the more characters
a foe faces. Spells such as fire shield directly affect enemies
who hit the caster—every time. As such, it’s one of the
few features in the game that becomes more effective as
the caster becomes more outclassed in combat. A paladin
who smites an adult black dragon protected by fire shield
takes an average of 9 damage for each hit. A monk who
strikes the dragon four times with a flurry of blows takes
27 damage!
The balor’s Fire Aura trait scales in two different ways—
damaging any characters who happen to be next to the
balor at the start of the balor’s turn, as well as characters
who attack and hit the balor while next to them. The balor
might get only two attacks on their turn, but their aura
deals significant damage without expending any actions,
and increases in threat as more characters move in close
to attack.
Damaging defensive effects and damaging auras,
whether spells or innate abilities, are gifts that keep on
giving when it comes to balancing the action economy.
Whenever you’re creating or running a boss monster or
some other creature likely to face the characters alone,
these kinds of passive-damage features can help.
The monster powers in “Building a Quick Monster”
(page 4), “Monster Powers” (page 15), and “Monster
Roles” (page 22) offer a number of such options, any
of which can help a foe scale up their threat without
requiring extra actions. You can also assign monster
powers to terrain features, such as an altar that has the
Damaging Aura power, or an arcane orb that targets
a hero each round with the Telekinetic Grasp power.
Setting the terrain features to activate on a specific
initiative count, such as 20 or 15, gives you extra actions
each round that can shift the action economy in your
favor. You can then add simple ways for the characters to
deactivate such features by using their own actions.
The following table highlights a number of spells that
are particularly good at balancing the action economy
in favor of a creature making use of them. To further
improve their value, consider letting foes cast some of
these spells before combat begins, in addition to their
personal protection spells.
ACTION-BALANCING SPELLS
Spell
Level
Spell
Spell
Level
Spell
1
Fog cloud
3
Haste
1
Hellish rebuke
3
Slow
1
Shield
3
Spirit guardians
2
Blur
4
Fire shield
2
Darkness
4
Greater invisibility
2
Spiritual weapon
5
Antilife shell
3
Blink
5
Cloudkill
3
Fear
7
Divine word
3
Fly
9
Foresight
PRECASTING PROTECTION SPELLS
Many spellcasters have a number of spells that enhance
or protect them, but wasting a number of rounds to
cast those spells during combat greatly reduces the
caster’s effectiveness. Instead, consider having foes
precast any such spells that last a long time and don’t
require concentration, such as mage armor, fire shield,
or true seeing. You can also select one long-duration
concentration spell that a foe can cast before a fight if
they suspect adventurers might be present, such as globe
of invulnerability, fly, or invisibility. Precasting spells frees
up a foe’s actions during the actual battle, allowing you to
spend those actions on spells that target the heroes.
43
LIGHTNING RODS
When characters rise above 4th level, their ability to deal
with powerful foes makes a huge jump. But challenging
characters of 5th level and higher isn’t just about making
things hard. It’s easy for GMs to fall into the trap of
thwarting the coolest things the heroes can do, by giving
monsters immunities to certain conditions, increasing
their hit points to offset the high damage a character
can deal, or running monsters with tactics clearly built
to bypass the characters’ best attacks. But thwarting the
characters’ best features can be frustrating to the players,
for obvious reasons.
So instead of shutting down the characters, build your
encounters around monsters specifically designed to show
off—by eating up—the characters’ cool new capabilities
as they rise in level. You can think of these monsters as
“lightning rods”—intended victims ready to take the full
effect of a character’s most powerful attacks and features.
WATCH WHAT THE
CHARACTERS BRING
When running encounters challenging enough for the
characters to use their top-tier features and attacks, pay
attention to what they do. Does the wizard blast enemies
with high-damage spells like fireball? Does the cleric
make liberal use of Turn Undead when faced with those
monsters? Do spells like polymorph or banishment come
into play to get rid of bosses and elite threats?
Note which features the players enjoy having their
characters use, and think about how to build for those
features in your next big battle. If you aren’t sure what
features the characters have, ask the players. Each time
the characters level, start the session by having the players
talk about what new attacks, spells, and special abilities
they’ve picked up. Then build encounters to show off
those features, not avoid them.
For example, at higher levels, a monk gains the ability
to stun creatures with a single strike, effectively taking
a monster out of the fight for a round or more. So when
you know a player’s monk has this feature, add monsters
into big battles that you specifically want the monk to
stun. A smack-talking spellcaster with a low Constitution
saving throw, and who only a monk can reach with their
enhanced movement, is just begging to have a hero leap
up and punch them in the face.
RUN HORDES FOR AREA EFFECTS
44
At 5th level and above, characters get access to spells and
class features with large areas of effect, including hypnotic
pattern, fireball, and Destroy Undead. When you know
the characters have such features at their disposal, add
hordes of low-CR creatures who can charge at them, all
grouped up and ready to be blasted away.
Ignore the fact that it might be more tactically
appropriate for such creatures to spread out, instead
thinking of yourself as the director of an action movie.
What’s the coolest outcome for the scene—a group of
careful zombies staying 20 feet away from one another, or
a huge mob of undead in perfect position to be turned to
ash or blown to pieces with a well-placed fireball?
(“Running Minions and Hordes,” page 54, talks more
about running large numbers of monsters in combat.)
EXPENDABLE LIEUTENANTS
Many legendary monsters can use Legendary Resistance
to avoid being taken out with a single casting of
banishment or polymorph, but their lieutenants have
no such advantage. When the characters have access to
such spells, add powerful monsters into your encounters
specifically designed to be banished, polymorphed, or
otherwise controlled or incapacitated. Monsters with the
bruiser or defender role are often perfect targets for such
spells (see “Monster Roles” on page 22), especially those
with terrible Wisdom and Charisma saving throws.
Keep in mind, though, that if you add one or two hardhitting foes to an encounter who don’t get controlled,
things can go south for the characters quickly.
FRAGILE DAMAGE-DEALERS
For stunning-strike monks, hard-hitting paladins,
sharpshooter rangers, or great-weapon fighters, fragile
foes who deal a ton of damage make fantastic targets.
These are creatures with a low Armor Class, low hit
points, and a low Constitution save, but who are deadly
until taken out. (Creatures with the artillery or skirmisher
role are great choices; see “Monster Roles” on page 22.)
It’s always rewarding for a character to reach such a foe
and cut them down with a single powerful attack.
PLAY TO THE CHARACTERS’
STRENGTHS
Players and their characters love to outsmart their foes.
You can help with this by placing artillery in locations that
the foes assume will be hard to reach, but which you know
present just a minor challenge to characters who can
climb, fly, or short-range teleport. Likewise, add hidden
ambushers when you know that some of the characters
will be able to easily perceive them. These sorts of setups
let the characters show off, and reward the players for
choosing those specific tactical capabilities.
TELEGRAPHING LIGHTNING
RODS
Less tactically minded players might need help, or even
direct advice, to recognize the danger of not dealing with
lightning rods. If you intend for a fire giant bodyguard
of the hobgoblin king to be banished and the characters
don’t pick up on that, they might be in trouble when the
giant starts pounding them into the ground like tent pegs.
If the characters are focused on the boss while getting
pelted by the fiery rays of flameskulls just begging to be
stunned, blasted, or turned, be prepared to project or
reveal outright to the players the dangers their characters
face, and how they might deal with them.
MODIFYING MONSTERS BEFORE
AND DURING PLAY
As a GM, you have many ways to customize monsters
to make them the best fit for a particular encounter. You
might simply give them a few more hit points. Or you
might revise them completely, changing their stats, adding
new features, or modifying their existing features. Some
of these modifications are quick and easy. You can often
do them in your head while running the game. Other
modifications require time and thought best suited for
game prep.
This section discusses which monster modifications
work well before your game begins, and which
modifications you might make during play.
WHY MODIFY MONSTERS?
Why modify a creature in the first place? Why not run
with the default monster stat blocks?
Most of the time, monsters run fine as written. With
dozens of excellent books of foes to use, you can almost
always find one befitting the scene and situation of an
encounter. Even when reskinning an existing stat block
into something new (see “Reskinning Monsters,” page
50), you likely don’t need to make many changes to the
mechanics, letting the monster work as intended.
Sometimes, though, the story of a creature in the world
of the game and the mechanics you find in a published
stat block don’t match. Sometimes, you know a monster
just won’t hold up to the characters in your group.
Sometimes an encounter promises to be less fun than you
want if a monster doesn’t get a little something extra.
CHANGING THE MECHANICS TO FIT
THE STORY
You might want to modify the statistics of a monster so
that they better fit their place in the story and the world.
Maybe the basilisk the characters face is no normal
basilisk but a dire basilisk, twice the size of their kin. They
have more hit points. Their attack bonuses and DCs are
higher. Maybe they can make more attacks per round.
In such a case, the standard basilisk stat block isn’t
enough. So you might decide to use the young black
dragon stat block instead, giving them the Petrifying Gaze
trait of the normal basilisk, and losing the black dragon’s
flying speed. This basilisk is new and different, but this
sort of reskin works well because the modifications fit the
story.
When any of the following issues present themselves,
you can think about changing the mechanics of a monster
to fit the story:
• A creature you want to use needs to be significantly
bigger than the baseline stat block.
• The monster of your story has a trait a published
monster doesn’t have.
• A creature has unique skills, such as a dragon spellcaster
or an undead knight.
• A monster needs to be more of a mini-boss version of
their type—one who stands out among their peers.
INCREASING THE CHALLENGE OF A
MONSTER
Increasing the challenge a monster provides in combat is
another common reason to modify a stat block. Instead
of coming at it from the story first, you might know
that a party of 9th-level characters won’t be challenged
facing CR 2 creatures. But the creatures still make sense
for the situation, so you boost them mechanically, either
reskinning a higher-CR stat block or increasing the
creatures’ baseline stats directly.
It still helps to have an in-world reason for such
changes, though. If a group of soldiers is much stronger
than normal CR 1/8 guards, what makes them so
formidable? If the evil queen’s bodyguard hits like a fire
giant, what makes him so strong and powerful? Even if
a monster’s story is a secondary consideration to their
increase in challenge, it’s worth thinking about the
narrative behind that increase.
MAKING THE GAME MORE FUN
Beyond story and mechanics, we modify monsters for the
fun of the game. Reworking the baseline statistics of a foe
can make combat more exciting, showcase the characters,
enrich the story—and make it easier to get foes off stage
when their time is done.
WHEN NOT TO MODIFY
MONSTERS
Never modify monsters to punish the players. Don’t
rebuild creatures specifically to circumvent the characters’
most powerful capabilities. And don’t modify monsters
just to beat the characters into the ground. Just because
one of the characters picked up the banishment spell
doesn’t mean all monsters should suddenly become
immune to banishment. (“Lightning Rods” on page 44
has more guidance on these topics.)
Before modifying any creature, ask yourself why you’re
modifying them. Is it to fit the story or make the game
more fun? Are your modifications helping you keep up
the right pace and beats to make your game exciting?
Make sure your monster modifications enrich the game
and don’t diminish it.
MODIFYING MONSTERS
BEFORE THE GAME
When preparing adventures and selecting monsters, ask if
the standard stat blocks for the creatures you select work
well enough as is. Most of the time, they should. You can
always make a given creature unique in the flavor of your
45
descriptions—for example, giving them a proper name
and a few scars to show their history. But a chimera is a
chimera, and if the standard chimera stat block works fine
on its own, there’s no need to change it.
If you don’t have the right monsters on hand, look at
your toolbox of options and determine how to make the
monster you need. Should you reskin an existing stat
block? Should you build something from scratch? The
crunchier the details you want to add to a creature, the
more likely you’ll want to do this work ahead of time
instead of at the table. (“Building a Quick Monster,” page
4, and “Reskinning Monsters,” page 50, provide
guidance for both these approaches.)
Often, you can make significant modifications or
entirely new monsters on an index card or in whatever
digital tool of choice you use to run your game. Don’t
worry about the formality of these changes or matching
the style of mechanical wording perfectly. You know
what you mean. Likewise, don’t bother recalculating
the challenge rating of a creature after you’ve modified
them just to assess how they fit an encounter. Your own
understanding of the characters, their capabilities, the
environment of the encounter, and other potential factors
paint a much more accurate picture of the potential
challenge than any encounter-building tool or equation.
If you find yourself needing to figure out a modified
creature’s new challenge rating (for example, if
you’re giving out experience points immediately
after combat), you can do so by comparing the
creature’s capabilities to the Monster Statistics by
Challenge Rating table on page 6, or compare
the creature to other monsters in your favorite
monster book. Don’t sweat it too much, though.
These modified monsters are just for you and
your group. Quick guesses and scratchy notes
are just fine.
Modifying monsters during play is also an excellent
way to change the pacing and challenge of an encounter
during the game. Some GMs oppose this idea, and it’s
fine if that’s how you feel. Changing a creature’s statistics
during an encounter can feel a bit like cheating. It’s
moving the goal lines while the game plays out—but
sometimes you don’t realize that you accidentally set the
goal lines too far out to begin with. Decide for yourself if
such changes are acceptable, and if so, when.
“Monster Difficulty Dials” on page 27 offers lots of
guidance for ways to modify monsters during play.
LOWERING HIT POINTS TO END
BATTLES EARLY
Of all the topics discussed in “Monster Difficulty Dials”
on page 27, few are as important and valuable as
lowering hit points to speed up a dreary battle. Doing
so is an incredibly useful tool for keeping the pace of
your game moving forward. Even if you feel as though
changing damage, increasing hit points, and adjusting
a creature’s number of attacks are a form of “cheating,”
consider reducing a monster’s hit points to keep your
game moving quickly and staying fun.
Sometimes, a creature needs modifications
that are minor enough to make on the
fly. To determine what changes work well
when made during a game session, keep the
following in mind.
First, if you’re playing fast and loose, you can save time
by modifying monsters as the need arises in a battle.
“Reskinning Monsters” on page 50 describes how to
omit details when reskinning a creature unless and until
you need them. If the story of your custom monster
means that they have immunity to poison, just add that
feature during the game when you need it, rather than
worrying about it ahead of time. A skeletal frost giant is
undead, so you know they’re subject to Turn Undead even
if you didn’t bother to jot that down before they showed
up in combat.
46
FABIAN PARENTE
MODIFYING MONSTERS
DURING THE GAME
RUNNING MONSTERS IN THE
THEATER OF THE MIND
While many GMs run combat using a gridded battle map,
online virtual tabletop, or other physical representation
of positioning in combat, some prefer to use a purely
narrative approach often called “theater of the mind.”
Even if you run games this way only occasionally—or if
you’re wanting to try theater of the mind—it’s good to
recognize how this style of play works, and to discuss it
with your players.
In theater-of-the-mind combat, the GM describes the
physical situation, the players describe what they want
to do, and the GM arbitrates the results. On each player’s
turn, the GM clarifies the current situation, and might
offer some options for what a character can do. However,
many monster features are described in ways that make it
difficult to run purely descriptive combat. If a creature has
a spell blasting all targets in a 20-foot radius, how does a
GM decide which targets are in the blast and which are
not?
CHOOSING NUMBERS OF
TARGETS
One way to remove some of the uncertainty of descriptive
combat is to make all creatures’ attacks less dependent
on physical positioning. As an example, a monster who
uses the lightning bolt spell needs to know how many
characters are currently in a line. But instead of thinking
that way, consider instead how many creatures an attack
or feature feels likely to hit, and then target that number
of creatures directly. Thus, instead of hitting each creature
in a line with a lightning bolt spell, a foe’s Lightning
Arc attack might target three creatures within 60 feet,
reducing its range to fit the theme of the attack.
When looking at monster attacks or offensive spells,
you can gauge how many creatures such an effect might
target based on its size, as shown on the following table.
NUMBER OF TARGETS BY
AREA OF EFFECT
Area Shape and Size
Number of
Targets
5-foot-radius sphere
1
10-foot-radius sphere
3
20-foot-radius sphere
4
30-foot-radius sphere
12
30-foot-long, 5-foot-wide line
2
60-foot-long, 5-foot-wide line
3
90-foot-long, 10-foot-wide line
4
120-foot-long, 10-foot-wide line
6
15-foot cone
2
20-foot cone
3
30-foot cone
4
60-foot cone
6
Depending on the situation, you might decide that
more or fewer creatures are caught in an area. For
example, you can turn a monster’s use of a magical attack
mimicking the fireball spell into a fiery blast targeting
four creatures. If you want to add a fun negotiation when
a character casts fireball, ask the players if they’re willing
to add two more enemy targets into the blast—by being
willing to include one of the characters in the area as well!
ROLL RANDOMLY FOR THE
UNAFFECTED
In some situations, the flavor of a monster’s attack doesn’t
lend itself to the pinpoint accuracy of choosing specific
targets. An adult blue dragon’s lightning breath might fork
out like chain lightning, hitting several specific targets
instead of blasting out in a line, but a red dragon’s fire
breath is almost certainly a big cone of flame.
When arbitrating such large areas in the theater of the
mind, consider letting the dice decide who’s in and who’s
out of the blast. Assuming four of six characters are hit by
a young red dragon’s fire breath (a 30-foot cone), assign
each character a number from 1 through 6 (using either
the initiative order or the order of the players around
the table to make it easy). Then roll a d6 twice, rerolling
duplicates, and the two characters whose numbers
match the die rolls are considered to be outside the blast.
Describe how this process works before the battle begins,
and make these rolls in the open so players recognize that
they’re not being picked on.
If any players have good in-world reasons for their
characters to not become targets of a large area of effect
(“I was hiding behind the wall of force spell I cast last
round!”), take that into consideration. Always lean in
favor of the characters when you can, as doing so can
help to build the players’ trust of your approach to this
narrative combat style.
FOES BLASTING FOES
Characters are often careful to not include their allies in
the areas of their bigger spells. Monsters don’t need to
be. It can be great fun for players to watch foes blow up
some of their own allies with big damage. But remember
that powerful monsters often have allies or servants with
resistance or immunity to such damage. For example, an
adult red dragon might have fire elemental or fire giant
allies who take no damage from the dragon’s fire breath.
Even if their allies don’t have immunity or resistance to
their area-effect attacks, many foes might choose to blast
those allies if doing so gives them the upper hand in the
battle. Monsters can be jerks that way.
47
ROLEPLAYING MONSTERS
In a campaign that leans heavily into roleplaying, few
things are as much fun as a GM getting to dig into
the personality and idiosyncrasies of a monster while
bringing them to life at the table. Trying to negotiate
safe passage through a ruin claimed by an ogre or troll.
Bargaining with a chuul in possession of important
magical lore. Attempting to convince a bored green
dragon that the characters have more worth to them as
allies than as a light snack. These kinds of monstrous
interactions can make for great roleplaying scenes.
However, when it comes to monster design, the game
focuses to a large degree on the rules of combat first and
foremost—to the extent that monster stat blocks are
built mostly around traits and actions related to combat,
while largely relegating the other pillars of play to ability
check modifiers and flavor text. As such, when running
monsters, it becomes easy to all but ignore roleplaying
in combat in favor of focusing on the minutiae of attack
mechanics. But actively engaging in roleplaying during
a fight scene can be a great way to create fights that go
beyond the usual exchanges of attacks and damage,
shaping a more memorable encounter.
MONSTROUS MOTIVATIONS
The first step in roleplaying a monster in combat is
understanding the broad scope of what that monster
wants in general, and the narrower scope of what they
hope to attain in this particular fight. The narrative
that accompanies the stat blocks of many monsters can
provide good hooks touching on the creature’s overall
goals, but the specifics of the adventure and the encounter
as you’ve set them up are likely the more important
baseline.
If you’re the kind of GM who jots down notes on which
attacks and effects you want a monster to make use of
during a fight, add notes on the monster’s motivations
as well. If you’re not a note taker, you can instead think
about the monster as if they were a character in a work of
fiction you were writing, asking: What does the monster
want from the fight? What do they need? What obstacles
and conflicts do they perceive as getting in the way of
what they want and need?
A creature’s role in an adventure shapes their wants
and needs in a big way. Are they a guard obligated to
take on the threat the characters represent? Are they
simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when the
party stumbles into their lair? Do they have something to
prove, giving them a perfect excuse to step into combat
when well-armed adventurers wander into their territory?
Are they ravenously hungry and possessed of no moral
compunction against having humanoids on the menu? Do
they have young or other family members to defend? And
should that provoke them to attack, or inspire them to
leave the fight before being badly injured?
48
Once you have a monster’s motivations noted, you can
then look to two areas of information on the stat block.
And just as you’ll use the rest of the stat block to guide
the monster’s offensive and defensive behavior in the fight
(as talked about in “Reading the Monster Stat Block” on
page 102), you’ll use the monster’s creature type and
mental ability scores to guide the way you roleplay those
motivations while the fight unfolds.
CREATURE TYPE
The broad classification of creatures in the game into
different types reflects biology and morphology, origin,
access to magic, and other key details that are shared
between different creatures. And just as creature type
makes a useful shorthand for talking about different
monsters’ abilities, traits, resistances, and other combat
details, it can be used to collectively examine the behavior
of creatures to suggest specific roleplaying tropes.
Though specific creatures might have more detailed
suggestions for roleplaying in the write-ups that
accompany their stat blocks, you can use the following
quick guidelines as inspiration for roleplaying hooks as
needed:
Aberration: Chaotic, ravenous, craves destruction for its
own sake
Beast: Territorial, cautious about combat, fights only if
threatened, defends young
Celestial: Accustomed to power, superiority complex,
immediately forgiving or unforgiving with little middle
ground
Construct: Programmed, focused, unrelenting,
unforgiving
Dragon: Accustomed to power, haughty, superiority
complex, expects adulation or fear from lesser creatures
Elemental: Chaotic, capricious, treats destruction as the
normal state of things
Fey: Capricious, joyful or maniacal, flighty, distractible
Fiend: Destructive, manipulative, fights for any reason,
fearless
Giant: Accustomed to power, dismissive of lesser
creatures, jealous of equally powerful creatures
Humanoid: Self-serving or altruistic, fight if threatened,
fight to save face
Monstrosity: Solitary, accustomed to not fitting in, like to
show off special abilities
Ooze: Mindless, driven to feed, fight in response to any
provocation
Plant: Mindless, fight in response to any threat
Undead: Vicious, relentless, fight for the sake of fighting,
driven to destroy life
THINKING LIKE YOUR
MONSTERS
A creature’s overall intellect as defined by their mental
abilities—Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma—makes a
ROLEPLAYING MONSTERS AS PREP
“Put yourself in the place of your villain,” is one of the best
pieces of advice for making a villain truly come to life. Stepping
into the metaphorical shoes of a boss foe and thinking about
the world as they think about it can give you a much more
realistic view of that foe, what they’re doing, what they want,
and the steps they’re taking to get there. Such mental exercises
are their own form of roleplaying—a kind of independent
game you can play just in your head and as part of your prep.
Putting yourself into your villain’s thoughts and mindset
can guide you as you design your world and the adventures
the characters are set to undertake within it. Perceiving the
world as a boss monster does can tell you how they feel about
the characters, what minions they might send out to do their
bidding, what secrets the characters might learn about the
boss, what locations they’re focusing on, what treasures they
amass, what other allies the villains connect with, and so much
more.
great go-to roleplaying hook. A creature’s scores in those
three abilities shape the way in which that creature thinks
about the world, their instinctual understanding of the
world, and their sense of place and importance within the
world.
Monsters with high Intelligence or Charisma might love
to focus on their own mental and emotional superiority,
making them hard to negotiate with, just as monsters with
high Wisdom are traditionally hard to dupe or trick. By
contrast, monsters with low mental ability scores have
more trouble engaging with the world, whether a low
Intelligence that makes them easily confused or reluctant
to embrace complex concepts, a low Wisdom that makes
them naturally incautious, or a low Charisma making
them easily manipulatable and standoffish.
Creatures with high mental ability scores often have
a strong sense of self, convincing them that everything
they do is the right course. This can make intellectually
superior creatures inclined to get into fights just for the
sake of doing so—somewhat ironically, given that they’re
in the best position to understand what’ll happen to them
if the fight goes bad. This can also make such creatures
disinclined to surrender or back down in combat, unless
first offered some sort of overture or face-saving “out” by
their opponents.
By contrast, less intellectual monsters are focused
mostly on the basic goals of food, shelter, and being
left alone. They often won’t enter a fight unless directly
threatened, and are quick to abandon the fight if it goes
against them, but might be difficult to negotiate with if
their lack of intellect makes it difficult to grasp complex
terms of detente or surrender.
THE FINE ART OF SUBOPTIMAL
CHOICES
Many of the most interesting roleplaying choices a
monster can make in combat—fighting for no reason,
attacking a clearly superior foe to prove a point, fleeing
a fight if injured regardless of the state of their foes—are
at odds with the assumed overarching goal of winning
the fight. And that’s as it should be. Much combat time
in the game revolves around the characters being given
opportunities to assess, then counter the strengths of
their foes, and roleplaying those foes provides great
opportunities to reveal strengths and weaknesses.
Creating a sense that monsters and NPCs have a stake
in every fight beyond simply stepping up as bags of hit
points—playing them as wary, or afraid, or desperate,
or cocky in ways that benefit the characters—can help
make those fights feel as real to the players as they do to
the heroes. It can also help you use roleplaying to shorten
fights where the characters are so far ahead that finishing
a battle might feel tedious, or to find a different outcome
for a fight that the characters will almost certainly lose
if they stick it out to the bitter end. (“Exit Strategies” on
page 91 and “On Morale and Running Away” on page
125 both dig into this topic.)
The familiar hook of “These creatures fight to the
death,” is one straightforward and usually suboptimal
roleplaying choice. But there are many other excellent
and entertaining choices toward the bottom end of
the spectrum of optimal combat tactics, and digging
deeper into the intellectual boundaries of your monsters’
roleplaying can help you find them.
HOOKS VS. STEREOTYPES
When playing to a monster’s intellectual weaknesses in
combat, be careful that your roleplaying doesn’t cross
over into hurtful and offensive tropes or stereotyping.
With the exception of creatures who can be thought of
as “programmed” in some way (many constructs and
undead; most oozes; some aberrations), creatures with
a low Intelligence ability score might think differently
than high-Intelligence creatures—but they’re still
thinking, conscious creatures nonetheless. As such,
when roleplaying creatures with a low Intelligence ability
score, you want to establish those creatures as having a
particular type of intellect, rather than playing them as
mentally inferior, for laughs or otherwise.
Most people who’ve lived around animals can imagine
the conversations they might have with a dog or cat
who somehow learned to talk, even with both having
Intelligence 3 by the rules of the game. A talking dog
might regale you with tales of how the world smells that
you have no ability to understand. A talking cat might
alternate between doting on you and suddenly forgetting
you exist. So keep those kinds of ideas in mind when
roleplaying creatures with a low Intelligence score,
treating them as simply having a different intellectual
focus and way of viewing the world, and avoiding ableist
tropes such as pidgin speech, sluggish reasoning, and
slurred words.
49
RESKINNING MONSTERS
Of all the tools Gamemasters have at their disposal,
few are as powerful as reskinning monster stat blocks.
Reskinning a monster’s stat block lets us take the time,
energy, and money invested in professionally designed
monster statistics and turn them into just about any
monster imaginable, quickly and easily. This brings
incredible value to every book of monsters a GM owns.
To reskin a monster, select an existing stat block and
describe it as a completely different monster in the story
and lore of the game. For example, the stat block of an
ogre might be described as a powerful humanoid warrior
or the thick-necked bodyguard of a local guildmaster.
At its simplest, reskinning takes little more effort than
finding a stat block and describing it as something else.
There are layers to reskinning, however, some of which
go deeper than a simple surface-level description change.
This section explores those layers and the benefits that
each provides.
CHOOSING RESKINNABLE
STAT BLOCKS
As powerful as reskinning is, the process always starts
with a GM finding the right stat block to reskin. An ogre
stat block might be perfect for any tough and powerful
humanoid, but it won’t work as well for a tentacled horror
bursting out of the darkness. However, a giant octopus
stat block does the trick for that horror nicely.
Simpler stat blocks—those of humanoids, NPCs,
animals, and giants—often work well when reskinning
secondary monsters or groups of monsters. For example,
the fire giant stat block easily becomes a powerful tombguardian knight. When looking to build a custom boss
monster, though, think about reskinning the stat blocks
of more powerful and complicated creatures—including
legendary creatures. An adult red dragon stat block is a
great stand-in for a powerful fire-based sorcerer boss who
slashes with fiery blades (reskinned Claws and Bite) and
huge blasts of pyro-energy (the dragon’s Fire Breath).
Reading the Monster Manual or your other favorite
monster books offers tremendous dividends for your
games. Not only does it help you identify which stat
blocks will work best for reskinning, but it also fills your
imagination with the lore of numerous monsters, giving
you a sense of how they might fit into or help you build
your adventures.
COMMON RESKINNABLE
MONSTERS
The table on this page presents a list of common
reskinnable monsters for standard nonboss creatures at
several challenge ratings. The stat blocks of these creatures
focus on simple mechanics, with the intention that you’ll
reskin their descriptions with the flavor of the monster
50
you create. (“General-Use Combat Stat Blocks” on page
13 contains a number of monster stat blocks built
specifically for reskinning as well.)
To use the table, look down the CR column to find the
baseline challenge rating of the monster you need. The
Example Monster column for that challenge rating lists a
few easily reskinned monster stat blocks. The Reskinned
Role column then shows you what monster role this stat
block can most easily be reskinned into, broken out by tier
of play and the monster’s role in combat (see below).
The tiers of play break down into the following tiers and
levels:
1st Level: Though standard 5e includes 1st level in tier 1,
1st-level characters are delicate enough that they really
belong in their own tier of play.
Tier 1: 2nd through 4th level
Tier 2: 5th through 10th level
Tier 3: 11th through 16th level
Tier 4: 17th through 20th level
The monster roles that these stat blocks can easily
reskin into are defined as follows:
Artillery: Ranged combatants who often attack with
spells, and who typically have lower hit points, Armor
Class, or both.
Bruisers: Monsters with high hit points and relatively low
Armor Class, and who hit hard.
Controllers: Creatures who use conditions and other
hindrances to impede opponents.
Defenders: Creatures with high Armor Class and other
defenses, and who deal moderate damage.
Skirmishers: Low-defense creatures who often deal high
damage, and who have superior mobility.
(“Monster Roles” on page 22 has more information
on breaking down monsters by role.)
CR
Example Monster
Reskinned Role
1/8
Bandit
1st-level skirmishers
1/4
Goblin, skeleton
Tier 1 skirmishers
1/2
Black bear, orc, thug
Tier 1 bruisers
1
Animated armor, brown bear,
spy
Tier 1 defenders, bruisers,
and skirmishers
2
Bandit captain, cult fanatic, ogre
Tier 1 defenders, artillery,
and bruisers
3
Knight, minotaur, shambling
mound, veteran
Tier 2 defenders
5
Gladiator; air, earth, fire, or water
elemental; shambling mound
Tier 2 bruisers
6
Mage
Tier 2 artillery
7
Giant ape, stone giant
Tier 3 bruisers
8
Frost giant
Tier 3 bruisers
9
Fire giant
Tier 3 defenders
10
Stone golem
Tier 3 controllers
11
Horned devil
Tier 3 skirmishers
12
Archmage
Tier 3 artillery
13
Storm giant
Tier 4 skirmishers
16
Iron golem
Tier 4 defenders
You need not limit yourself to the stat blocks above,
of course. These simply work well as straightforward
creatures easy to reskin, suitable when you need several
monsters or minions to support a more powerful boss.
MODIFYING FEATURES
Often, you don’t need to make any other changes to reskin
a stat block into a new monster. Sometimes, though, you’ll
want to add more details, whether you do it before or
during the game. Powerful tomb guardians (reskinned fire
giants) clearly have the undead type. But unless they’re
hit with poison attacks or abilities such as Turn Undead,
you can worry about adding the features associated with
undead creatures as needed.
You might start off by writing down those features on
an index card, on a sticky note, or in whatever digital
tool you use to take notes. The “Common Monster Type
Templates” section of “Building a Quick Monster” on
page 4 breaks down features and traits for undead
and many other monster types. Additionally, the more
experienced you become, the easier it gets to improvise
these sorts of features on the fly.
If you’re changing saving throws, adjusting attacks or
abilities, or changing the scope of magical effects in a stat
block, you might want to write those changes down as
well. You’re only taking these notes for yourself, though,
so they don’t have to be pretty. You’re the only one who
needs to understand these shortcuts.
ADD SPELL EFFECTS
AND MAGIC
Adding spell effects and other magical abilities to
reskinned monsters is a fantastic way to customize them,
granting access to hundreds of predesigned thematic sets
of mechanics that can be easily applied to your monsters.
You can change up any creature by giving them one
or more uses of a particular spell. The reskinned giant
octopus playing the part of an otherworldly horror as
described earlier will be much more thematic if they can
cast darkness or black tentacles. However, when adding
new magical features, ensure these are features your new
monster needs and can actually use.
Monsters are often limited by the numbers of actions
they can take, so be careful that magic used as an action
doesn’t simply replace the thematic actions that define a
creature. As an example, spiritual weapon is a good spell
to give an assassin reskinned as a priest, because it’s only
a bonus action to cast. As such, it won’t interfere with
the assassin’s ability to make Shortsword attacks fueled
by their signature Sneak Attack and Assassinate traits.
(“Understanding the Action Economy” on page 42 has
more information on this topic.)
ADDING FEATURES
JACKIE MUSTO
Instead of—or in addition to—modifying
the features of your reskinned monster, you
can add new features to an existing stat block
to give a creature new mechanical flavor over
and above the baseline reskinned monster. For
example, you might add some fire damage onto
a reskinned veteran’s Longsword attack, or
give a fire giant reskinned into an undead
guardian an aura that deals necrotic damage
to creatures who hit the guardian with melee
attacks.
Monster powers built for specific sorts of
creatures can help your reskinning efforts. A
bugbear reskinned as a zombie is far more
convincing when you give them the Undead
Resilience power. A topiary in a magical
garden that comes to life in the shape of
a dragon can become truly draconic with
the Poison Thorns or Grasping Roots powers.
“Building a Quick Monster” (page 4),
“Monster Powers” (page 15), and “Monster
Roles” (page 22) all present new monster
power options that you can add to your foe
of choice.
51
To make them even more usable, some spells can
easily be converted into traits. For example, the blink
spell used as an always-on trait creates a creature able
to move between dimensions the way a blink dog does.
A foe created from or armored by magical glass might
automatically activate the mirror image spell as a trait
at the end of each long rest, with that spell’s duplicates
rendered as panes of glass the heroes must smash. When
an ooze moves, they might leave behind the effects of a
grease spell, just as a creature reskinned as a monk might
be able to use jump and feather fall as inherent traits
rather than spells they cast using an action or reaction.
ESSENTIAL ADD-ON SPELLS
The Add-On Spells table sets out a list of spells that work
well as add-ons to any monster, organized by level and
indicating whether the spell is focused on dealing damage,
on defense, or on control. When needed, use a spell attack
bonus of 4 + 1/2 CR for the monster using the spell, and a
spell save DC of 10 + 1/2 CR.
You might consider changing the type of action
required to activate spells normally cast as an action.
Letting a creature activate such a spell as a bonus action,
or as one of several attacks they can make with their
ADD-ON SPELLS
Spell Level
52
Type
Action
1
Spell
Burning hands
Damage
Action
1
Guiding bolt
Damage
Action
1
Hellish rebuke
Damage
Reaction
1
Inflict wounds
Damage
Action
1
Shield
Defense
Reaction
1
Sleep
Control
Action
2
Acid arrow
Damage
Action
2
Darkness
Control
Action
2
Invisibility
Defense
Action
2
Misty step
Defense
Bonus action
2
Scorching ray
Damage
Action
2
Shatter
Damage
Action
2
Spiritual weapon
Damage
Bonus action
2
Web
Control
Action
3
Counterspell
Control
Reaction
3
Dispel magic
Control
Action
3
Fireball
Damage
Action
3
Lightning bolt
Damage
Action
3
Spirit guardians
Damage
Action
4
Blight
Damage
Action
4
Fire shield
Damage
Action
4
Greater invisibility
Defense
Action
5
Cone of cold
Damage
Action
6
Chain lightning
Damage
Action
6
Circle of death
Damage
Action
6
Disintegrate
Damage
Action
6
Harm
Damage
Action
7
Finger of death
Damage
Action
Multiattack action, helps them use these abilities without
reducing what else they can do. Just be careful that
doing so doesn’t increase a creature’s damage output
significantly. (“Building Spellcasting Monsters” on page
34 has more information on this topic.)
MASHING UP MULTIPLE
MONSTERS
One further level of reskinning involves mashing together
two monster stat blocks. You can think of this process as
something like using one monster stat block as a template
for another.
This process works best when using the more
complicated stat block as a baseline, and modifying it with
traits from another simpler stat block. For example, if you
want a fire giant death knight, use the death knight stat
block first (the more complicated of the two) and add fire
giant features like Huge size and immunity to fire damage.
If you’re feeling nasty, you might also bump the damage
the death knight deals with their Longsword attack from 9
slashing damage to the fire giant’s 28 damage.
Knowing that the fire giant is significantly bigger
means that the fire giant death knight probably has more
hit points than the baseline death knight. But instead
of doing a lot of math to calculate new hit points with
a d12 Hit Die instead of a d8, just increase the death
knight hit points by 50 percent. Always remember that
you’re building a one-off monster, not a creature you plan
to publish. Rough changes save you time better spent
elsewhere in your preparation.
DESCRIBING RESKINNED
MONSTERS
The key to making a reskinned monster work is how you
describe your new creature in the game. You’ll want to
lean heavily on your narrative, focusing your descriptions
on the parts of the monster you’ve reskinned most
directly. Describe the aura of necrotic horror surrounding
the undead fire giant. Add the details of the tattoos the
thick-necked bodyguard of the guildmaster wears. Lean in
on the description to make a new monster come alive.
Do the same thing with your narration of the reskinned
creature’s attacks. If an adult-red-dragon-turned-sorcerer
attacks with the dragon’s breath weapon, describe how the
sorcerer’s body erupts with burning veins, and how they
unleash a blast of fire hotter than any natural source as
they extend their hands toward the characters.
How we narrate our monsters is critical to helping the
players think past those monsters’ game mechanics. As
such, it’s particularly crucial when we reskin one monster
to incorporate the mechanics of another.
THE RELATIVE WEAKNESS
OF HIGH-CR MONSTERS
Challenging high-level characters is much harder than
challenging low-level characters. It often takes more
monsters than expected—and often of a higher-thanexpected CR—to push high-level characters to their
breaking point. A number of low-threat monsters can kill
a 1st-level character with one hit, but it’s nearly impossible
for most high-threat monsters to do the same to a 20thlevel character.
CHARACTER GROWTH
Characters in 5e don’t just grow linearly when they
increase in level. In addition to more hit points, higher
attack bonuses, and increased damage, they also gain new
features. They increase the number of things they can do
with their actions. They gain new defenses and become
more versatile, working even better as a group.
Though a level ranging from 1 to 20 represents a
character’s relative power, 10th-level characters aren’t
just twice as good as 5th-level characters—they’re better
in entirely new ways. They have spells and class features
that can completely upend a battle, accomplishing with a
single action what might have taken significant effort at
lower levels.
This faster-than-linear growth continues all the way
to 20th level, and spikes at levels where characters gain
additional attacks and access to more powerful spells.
By 20th level, characters are able to mitigate incredible
amounts of damage, and to dish out far more damage
than most monsters can keep up with. Challenging a
group of 20th-level characters is thus much harder than
challenging a group of 4th-level characters. The game’s
standard encounter-building guidelines don’t keep up.
Neither does the general concept of challenge rating as
5e presents it. A CR 1 dire wolf might be an effective
challenge against a group of four 1st-level characters,
using the basic guidelines for what CR is supposed to
represent. But against four 20th-level characters, a CR 19
balor isn’t nearly as dangerous. (See “What Are Challenge
Ratings?” on page 99 for more on this topic.)
THE LINEAR GROWTH OF
MONSTER CHALLENGE
Although players often choose optimal new spells and
features as they increase in level, they continue to face
monsters who use average statistics. Unlike characters,
monsters largely are linear creatures. And by virtue of the
way monsters are designed, any special features they gain
by virtue of a higher challenge rating have a cost toward
that challenge rating.
Using the game’s standard monster-building rules,
if a creature has the Magic Resistance trait to grant it
advantage on saving throws against magical effects,
that creature’s defensive challenge rating increases. If a
creature has Legendary Resistance, its defensive CR goes
up again. A monster’s CR increases the more special
features they have—yet monsters need those features to
stand any chance of challenging higher-level characters.
As a result of this, monsters don’t typically hit as hard
or have as many hit points as expected at higher challenge
ratings. Even worse, features and traits that affect a
creature’s calculated CR are often weighted high. For
example, the wight has a Life Drain attack calculated into
their damage output even though they can’t effectively
use that attack while also attacking to full effect with
their longsword. Life Drain thus pulls down the wight’s
effective damage output below their challenge rating’s
expected effectiveness. (An easy fix for this is to give the
wight a damage boost on their Longsword attacks with
the Damaging Weapon power, part of “Building a Quick
Monster” on page 4, or a similar effect.)
It’s also worth noting that a creature’s challenge rating is
based on the idea that they hit with all attacks, and that all
saving throws against their attacks and features fail. This
often works out at lower levels, but the more powerful
the characters are, the more easily they can avoid attacks
and pull off saving throws even against high DCs. A
character’s proficient saving throws go up relatively
linearly as they increase in level, but all their saves get
much better when they’re near a paladin ally and their
Aura of Protection feature.
KEEPING THREATS HIGH
The more experienced you are at running 5e games, the
easier it becomes to improvise challenging battles without
checking any table or other reference. You quickly become
aware when a monster is hitting below their expected
challenge compared to the characters, at which point,
you can use the other sections of this book to bring that
challenge back up.
The Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table in
“Building a Quick Monster” (page 4) helps you create
a baseline for the expected hit points and damage of a
creature at a given challenge rating. If you feel like a foe
isn’t holding their own, you can adjust their hit points and
damage to provide a threat more appropriate to their CR
and their place in the world of your game.
Beyond base damage, you can look to the monster
powers in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4),
“Monster Powers” (page 15), and “Monster Roles”
(page 22) to boost a creature’s effectiveness in combat.
And “Monster Combinations for a Hard Challenge”
(page 67) and “The Lazy Encounter Benchmark” (page
70) offer different approaches to determine encounter
difficulty that scales higher as the characters increase in
level.
53
RUNNING MINIONS AND HORDES
A powerful sword fighter stands atop a hill, surrounded
by a horde of murderous brigands. A cleric braces herself
against an ancient sarcophagus, holy symbol held aloft,
while hundreds of skeletons swarm around her. Five
heroes stand in a narrow passageway, facing down an
army of charging cultists.
Fantastic stories often place heroes in the paths of
dozens or even hundreds of foes. Most of us have had the
experience of reading or watching as those heroes cut
through the opposing hordes, sending foes flying through
the air as they smash through enemy ranks.
Unfortunately, the default 5e combat rules offer little
practical help for running dozens to hundreds of creatures
against a group of heroes. So this section offers several
different approaches to running numerous low-threat
creatures against a single party. These aren’t mass-combat
rules in which large groups of monsters fight each other.
Rather, these tips focus on a small group of powerful
heroes fighting a great horde of foes.
BUILD YOUR HORDE RULESET
Attempting to run large groups of monsters with existing
rules typically breaks down in two areas: tracking damage
and managing die rolls. As such, many of the guidelines in
this section focus on two things:
• Rules for tracking damage done to creatures fighting as
a horde
• Rules for managing attack rolls and saving throws for
large numbers of creatures
These rules follow certain design constraints, which are
worth understanding as you think about which rules to
use:
• Any rules for horde combat should handle almost any
number of monsters.
• Rules should use the normal 5e monster stat blocks and
combat setup as much as possible.
• They should be easy to implement and use.
• They should focus on the fantastic and heroic battle
going on in the story.
• For ease of play, foes taken out during a battle (whether
reduced to 0 hit points, hypnotized, made unconscious
with a sleep spell, and so forth) are removed from play.
• Rules shouldn’t require arduous preparation before use
at the table.
• They should be understandable to both players and
GMs.
• They should be easy to remember, so you can use them
without having to reference books, tables, or articles
online.
There’s no perfect way to run hordes in 5e, and all of
these optional rules abstract typical 5e combat in some
way. Every solution requires trade-offs. As such, some of
the different approaches in this section might work better
in certain circumstances than others. If you’re mainly
worried about tracking damage, you might use 4e-style
minions or a single damage tally to avoid managing lots
of die rolls. If you find yourself needing to roll attacks or
saving throws dozens of times for a group of monsters,
you might use the “one quarter succeed” method or try
grouping rolls together. You can even switch approaches
in the middle of a battle, going with whichever rules help
you meet the intent and feeling of the narrative.
DESCRIBE YOUR MECHANICS
Whatever rules you choose when running hordes of foes,
let the players know how those rules work, so they know
how to interact with the horde most effectively. Don’t
surprise them when the wizard casts fireball against a
group of monsters, only to realize they’re all part of one
big stat block.
Battles against hordes aren’t typically intended to
challenge the characters in the way that waves of more
potent attackers are (as talked about in “Building and
Running Boss Monsters,” page 31). Instead, fighting
hordes is all about cleaving through foes, blowing groups
of enemies sky high, and looking awesome while doing so.
LEAN INTO NARRATIVE
54
Setting up a spectacular scene of action requires solid
in-world descriptions to show the players the
results of their characters’ actions. Describe
what it looks like when a fireball spell explodes in the
midst of the horde. Describe how the fighter’s blade
cleaves through three skeletons, destroying them all in
one fell swoop. Use in-world descriptions to make the
battle against the horde feel like the cinematic action
scene you want to represent.
ROUND HIT POINTS
When considering the hit points of creatures who are
part of a horde, it’s far easier to deal with the math if you
round those creatures’ hit points to the nearest 5 or 10.
An average zombie has 22 hit points—so make that 20.
An average skeleton has 13 hit points, so round up to 15
or down to 10, depending on how challenging you want
them to be. This trick works regardless of which style of
hit point tracking you choose for your horde (as discussed
below).
TRACKING DAMAGE 4E STYLE
In the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, a minion
was a special type of creature with all the baseline
statistics of a normal creature—and only 1 hit point. To
offset this lack of hit points, a minion didn’t take damage
if they were missed by an attack, even if that missed attack
dealt damage. (Fourth edition didn’t have saving throws
that worked like 5e saving throws, instead using attack
rolls for weapon attacks, area-effect spells, and other
damaging effects.) This meant never needing to track the
damage dealt to a minion, since the first damage dealt by
a hit killed them.
To use the same sort of approach for a horde of 5e
monsters, give those monsters the following trait:
many minion creatures as the attack could conceivably
hit, subtracting the hit points of each slain monster from
the damage of the attack until no damage remains.
For example, consider Avantra the paladin hewing into
a horde of minion skeletons with her greatsword while
using Divine Smite. Each skeleton has 15 hit points, and
Avantra’s smite deals 38 damage. The first minion skeleton
is destroyed automatically by the successful hit, and
Avantra’s player subtracts 15 from the total damage of the
attack, leaving 23. That lets the attack hew into the next
skeleton, destroying that one and subtracting another 15
damage to leave 8 damage remaining. The attack then
cleaves into a third skeleton, destroying that minion foe as
well and reducing the remaining damage to zero.
THE HORDE DAMAGE TALLY
Instead of treating the members of a horde as individual
creatures for the purpose of tracking damage, you can
track damage done to the horde as a whole. Whenever
any member of the horde takes damage, add that damage
to an ongoing tally. Round each creature’s hit points to the
nearest 5 or 10 to make the math easier. Then each time
the tally reaches the hit points of an individual creature
in the horde, the last creature damaged is killed and you
reset the tally to any damage left over. Additionally, if
a single attack deals enough damage to kill more than
one monster, let that attack kill multiple monsters in the
horde, then reset the tally.
Minion. If this creature takes damage when they are hit by an
attack or fail a saving throw, they drop to 0 hit points.
Using 4e-style minions avoids the need to track the
damage dealt to dozens or hundreds of individual foes.
A minion still has their normal hit points, but those hit
points act as a kind of damage threshold. Any damage
dealt to a minion from a missed attack or a successful save
that is equal to or greater than the minion’s hit points also
drops them to 0 hit points, as does damage from autohit attacks such as the magic missile spell. Likewise, you
use a minion’s normal hit points when considering the
effectiveness of hit-point-dependent effects such as the
sleep spell. You just don’t bother tracking those hit points
as the fight unfolds.
JACKIE MUSTO
CLEAVING MINIONS
You might also choose to allow the characters’ weapon
attacks to cleave through minions in a horde, giving
melee and ranged characters the same awesome feeling
of hewing down monsters that a wizard gets by throwing
a fireball spell. Whenever a character kills a minion
with a weapon attack, if the amount of damage dealt
by the attack is greater than the minion’s hit points,
subtract the minion’s hit points from the damage
dealt and let the attack carry through into the
next minion in line. Repeat this process for as
55
For example, imagine Thorgrim the fighter and Selvara
the ranger facing ten zombies, each with 20 hit points.
Thorgrim makes three attacks, hitting all three times and
dealing 12, 11, and 18 damage on each hit. But instead of
applying the damage to individual zombies, tally it up as
the total damage dealt to the zombies overall—41 damage,
enough to destroy two zombies. Those two drop, and
the damage tally is reset at 1 point of damage remaining.
Next, Selvara fires three arrows, dealing 9, 13, and 17
damage on three hits. Her 39 damage is added to the tally
to increase it to 40—enough to destroy two more zombies,
and dropping the tally to 0.
When tracking damage for hordes, write down the base
hit points of a single creature in the horde as a reference,
the number of creatures remaining, and the current
damage tally. It might look something like this:
Zombies (20 hp) × 6: 0 damage
When a horde of creatures is hit with a high-damage
area attack, rather than using the tally, it’s often easier
to simply remove all the creatures affected by the attack
if doing so makes sense. For example, if a wizard casts
fireball against twenty skeletons with 15 hit points each,
it’s easier to remove all the skeletons than to figure out
which ones of them might have one or two hit points
remaining.
MULTIPLE ATTACKS AND
SAVING THROWS
56
Based on the physical circumstances of a horde battle,
it’s often the case that only a handful of foes can attack
a single character, even if hundreds of those foes are
in the horde. If creatures are making between four and
six attacks against a single character, you can still roll
individually for those attacks. But save yourself time by
calculating your target number before you roll.
Ask the player of the character under attack for their
character’s Armor Class, and whether they plan to use any
abilities or spells to boost it (such as shield). Then subtract
the attack modifier of the attacking creatures to get a
target number for the d20 roll—the minimum number
the attacker would need to roll in order to hit normally.
You roll one die for each creature attacking the character,
compare to the target number, and count the successes.
Multiply the successes by the amount of damage the
attacking creature deals, and you have the total damage
dealt to the character.
Consider using the same technique when enemies
make saving throws. If a single effect requires multiple
creatures to make a save, ask the player for the save DC
and subtract the saving throw modifier of the monster
to get the target number. Roll the appropriate number of
d20s based on the number of creatures affected, and see
how many succeed.
When a number of creatures in a horde act at the same
time and force one character to make multiple saving
throws, have the character make a single saving throw
with disadvantage against the effect.
ONE QUARTER SUCCEED
With a horde of sufficient size, the number of attack rolls
or saving throws needed might simply be too many. So
instead of rolling for those attacks and saves, assume
that one quarter of the creatures in a horde succeed on
attacks or saving throws. For example, if a wizard casts
hypnotic pattern in the middle of a horde of twenty raging
orc mercenaries, assume that five of them succeed on the
saving throw and the other fifteen are hypnotized. This
“one quarter succeed” abstraction is fast enough to use for
hundreds or even thousands of foes, and doesn’t get any
harder to use as the number of creatures increases.
You can increase or decrease the number of monsters
who succeed based on the circumstances of the situation.
For attacks against a character who’s particularly well
armored or who casts shield, or if most or all foes have
disadvantage on their attack rolls, assume that one in ten
attack rolls succeed. Use the same guideline for horde
saving throws if specific effects hinder the saving throws
of creatures in the horde, or if something has boosted
the power of the characters’ features that require saving
throws.
If there’s enough variance in power level between
the characters and the creatures of the horde, such as a
20th-level wizard dropping a meteor swarm spell on two
hundred manes, assume that all creatures within the
area fail their saving throws. A 12th-level cleric might
simply destroy every skeleton surrounding them with the
radiant force of their Turn Undead feature, or leave one or
two survivors.
Because horde battles often involve edge cases such as
part of a group being caught by a hypnotic pattern spell,
or a bunch of undead who are turned but not destroyed,
work with your players and within the intent of your
game’s narrative to adjudicate such cases as they come up.
Lean into decisions that make the scene feel epic.
COMBINE ROLLS
If you prefer some dice rolling to anchor the action in
your game, combine the foes of a horde into smaller
groups, then make one attack roll or saving throw for each
such group. You can put creatures into groups of four, ten,
or any number that makes sense against the size of the
horde. When you make one attack roll or saving throw
for the group all at once, use the attack modifier or saving
throw modifier of one creature in the group, and add the
damage of all creatures together if the combined attack
hits.
For example, a cleric might use her Turn Undead
feature on a horde of twenty wights. Instead of rolling
twenty saving throws, combine the wights into groups of
five so that each group makes one save. On a failed save,
all five wights in a group are turned. Likewise, if nine
wights attack the cleric, put them into groups of three,
roll three attack rolls using the wight’s normal attack
modifier, and combine the damage of all three wights in
a group. Even though wights get two attacks each, you
can combine the damage from both attacks as part of this
abstracted approach—14 damage per wight for 42 damage
per group.
You can also use this approach to make mass attack
rolls, rolling two attacks for an entire horde. Each attack
uses the attack modifier of the type of creature in the
horde, and deals one quarter of the total damage of the
horde. For example, if ten skeletons attack a paladin, you
could roll two attacks at a +4 bonus (the skeleton’s attack
modifier). Each attack that hits deals 12 damage—one
quarter of the 50 points the ten skeletons can deal in total,
with their Shortsword attacks dealing 5 damage each.
Like the “one quarter succeed” guideline, this twoattack rule scales for a horde of any size, and requires just
a little math to compute the total damage dealt.
HORDE MONSTER STAT
BLOCKS
Another common approach to handle hordes of creatures
is to combine multiple creatures together into a single stat
block resembling a much larger creature. This lets you run
hordes the same way you run any normal big monster,
akin to how a swarm of rats represents multiple rats.
For this approach, choose a challenge rating for the
horde and build the stat block for that challenge rating.
You can use the information in “Building a Quick
Monster” (page 4) to build a stat block in a few
minutes, or reskin an existing stat block to represent your
horde. Rather than a single stat block, you can also create
multiple stat blocks to represent groups within a larger
horde. For example, a horde of sixty skeletons might be
broken up into four group stat blocks representing fifteen
skeletons each.
If you’re not sure what challenge rating to use for a
horde, try multiplying the challenge rating of the creatures
in a horde or horde group by the number of creatures,
rounding up for creatures with challenge ratings less
than 1. For example, a horde of fifteen skeletons with a
challenge rating of 1/4 would have a CR of 3.75, rounded
up to 4.
To represent a hoard of creatures, add the following
trait to the base stat block of the creatures in the horde:
Horde. The horde can occupy another creature’s space and
vice versa, and can move through any opening large enough
for the horde’s base creature to move through. The horde
can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points. Damage
dealt by the horde is halved when the horde has half of its hit
points or fewer.
One problem with horde stat blocks is that attacks
affecting a large area often work less well against singlestat-block hordes than they would against the creatures
in the horde individually. For example, a fireball spell is
tremendously effective against a group of ghouls, easily
cutting their numbers down. But when that group of
ghouls is represented by a single ghoul horde stat block,
that horde remains standing even after a lot of damage.
Likewise, casting hypnotic pattern on a horde of bandits
either hypnotizes all of them or none of them, depending
on whether the horde collectively succeeds or fails on
their saving throw. You can help fix this by establishing
that damaging areas of effect deal double damage, or
that an area of effect controlling many creatures instead
deals damage to a horde’s hit points. But this often isn’t
as rewarding to the players as describing the characters
actually tearing through or controlling a big pile of foes.
If you use single stat blocks to represent hordes of
monsters, let your players know, so they know what
to expect and can choose the right actions given the
mechanics you’re using for the horde.
CHOOSING HORDEAPPROPRIATE CREATURES
Certain foes work better in a horde than others. Often,
weaker monsters make more sense for a horde than
stronger ones—a good thing for the characters facing
them. Your story often dictates what kinds of creatures
normally attack in large groups, whether skeletons,
bandits, guards, orcs, goblins, kobolds, or similar foes.
If your story calls for a particularly strange horde of
creatures, consider reskinning an existing horde-friendly
stat block as a starting point. “General-Use Combat Stat
Blocks” on page 13 offers some simple examples.
If a single horde is made up of different types of
creatures, use a single stat block for all those creatures,
then describe them differently in the narrative. Trying to
manage two separate stat blocks for multiple hordes of
monsters quickly becomes complicated.
For creatures with multiple attacks, combine those
attacks into one attack roll that deals the creature’s total
damage. For example, each veteran in a horde of veterans
combines their Longsword attacks from Multiattack into
one attack dealing 14 damage (or 20 damage if you decide
they’re using their Shortsword attack too).
Ignore bonus actions, reactions, and special attacks
for creatures in a horde. If a creature deals some sort
of ongoing damage, add that damage to its regular
attack, but ignore other damage and effects. If a horde of
creatures has a damage-dealing attack requiring a saving
throw, let a character targeted by that effect make a single
saving throw against it with disadvantage.
SWITCH RULES AS NEEDED
All the guidelines in this section are intended to make it
easier for you to run large numbers of monsters. But at
some point, you can stop using them when they no longer
serve this purpose. This doesn’t have to be an all-at-once
process, though, as many of the guidelines above can be
used, and removed, independently.
You might switch from using “one quarter succeed”
for large numbers of monsters to “combining rolls” when
fewer are in play. You might use a damage tally at the
start of a horde battle, then switch to tracking damage
independently when only a handful of foes are left. You
might start with a single stat block used to represent
a group of monsters, then “explode” that horde into a
handful of individual monsters when the horde’s hit
points are low enough.
57
RUNNING SPELLCASTING
MONSTERS
Whether an NPC mage or priest, or a monster innately
channeling potent magic, spellcasting foes create great
flexibility for a GM wanting to challenge players and
characters in combat. But that flexibility comes at a cost.
Spellcasting is one of the most complicated subsystems
in the game, which can make running spellcasting
creatures a challenge. Even stat blocks that focus the
magic of creatures and NPCs into one or two fully
broken-out key features usually come with a list of other
spells the foe can use. But because using one of those
spells often means that a GM needs to look up its details,
a foe’s key features can end up overused, while potentially
interesting spells from the spell list languish.
The following guidelines can help create a better
experience running spellcasting foes.
LEARNING MAGIC
Whenever you review the stat blocks of your favorite
spellcasting creatures, whether as part of game prep or
just for fun, make yourself familiar with their spells by
making notes on those spells. The act of making notes,
whether handwritten or electronically, reinforces memory
in a much stronger way than simply reading. So by taking
down the details of interesting spells on index cards or in
an app, you help to fix those details in your memory—
even as you give yourself a useful tool for playing and
adjudicating those spells on the fly.
GMs who have the ability to see stat blocks and look
up spells electronically might not see the value in this.
But consider that clicking through to read the full text
of wall of force creates a need to parse out the important
information from the spell description, which takes time.
However, making a note saying, “Any angle; dome or
sphere 10-foot radius; flat surface ten times 10-by-10;
immune to all but disintegrate,” gives you that information
at a glance when you need it quickly.
A SUITE OF SPELLS
Throughout multiple editions of the game, a number of
spells have become classics—because they work. Fireball,
lightning bolt, command, hold person, wall of force, and
many more are the cornerstone of combat spellcasting,
and appear in numerous creatures’ stat blocks. So
when you’re making notes on the spells of your favorite
creatures, keep an eye out for spells that appear over
and over again, as well as spells you think should be
used more often. Then use the notes you make for those
selections as a suite of combat-friendly spells you know,
like, and can use easily in your game.
As GMs, we often put a certain amount of pressure
on ourselves to make sure every combat encounter feels
58
unique, but don’t let that force you into using unfamiliar
spells that can slow down play and make running combat
a chore. On the other side of the table, the players of
clerics, wizards, and warlocks will be making use of repeat
castings of spiritual weapon, eldritch blast, and fireball
encounter after encounter without a care, so cut yourself
the same slack.
In a pinch, a spellcasting creature you haven’t had time
to fully prep can make use of spells from your creature
caster suite even if those spells aren’t normally on their
spell list. Just make sure that the spells you use match the
level of spells normally available to the creature.
QUANTITY AND VARIETY
The number of spells in your creature casting suite is
up to you, but try to have enough that you can go a few
encounters—or even a couple of sessions—without
repeating yourself. In an ongoing campaign against death
cultists, two encounters against mini-boss high priests
who favor flame strike might feel flat. But if one priest
specializes in flame strike while the other loves to harry
foes with insect plague, you keep the characters and the
players on their toes.
MIXING THINGS UP
Knowing that you have your creature casting suite set
up and ready to run, you might then pick one new and
unusual spell to prep in each session. By being able to
deal quickly and easily with most of the spells your foes
use, having to reference one spell while under the stress
of running combat is an easier task. And who knows? If
you have fun with that new spell, it might become another
addition to your creature casting suite for future games.
SPELL SKINS
“Reskinning Monsters” on page 50 talks about the ease
and usefulness of reskinning stat blocks to let them pose
as new and unique creatures. Even if you’re not reskinning
any other part of a stock creature, reskinning spells is a
particularly easy way to add new combat spice to familiar
foes. This technique works well with the spells of your
creature caster suite, which can be quickly reflavored to
make it feel as if foes have access to an even wider range
of magic.
DAMAGE TYPES
Trading out damage types is the first and most
straightforward approach to reskinning spells. Enemy
mage casting fireball? Been there, done that. But when
that mage unleashes sphere of ruin, a reskinned fireball
that deals necrotic damage, the fight potentially gets a bit
more interesting.
Each of the standard damage types is intrinsically
connected to many classic spells, so swapping damage
types makes a unique statement about a creature’s magic.
Likewise, changing up damage is a great way to work with
a theme for spellcasting foes, whether it’s dark priests
primarily channeling necrotic damage, elemental-adjacent
creatures favoring cold and fire damage, or an order of
storm mages specializing in destroying enemies with
thunder and lightning.
Damage Type
Acid
Bludgeoning
Example Spell
Acid arrow, acid splash
Arcane hand, control water
Cold
Cone of cold, ice storm
Fire
Burning hands, fireball
Force
Disintegrate, magic missile
AREAS OF EFFECT
Many classic offensive spells are tied to specific types of
areas, from fireball’s 20-foot-radius sphere to fear’s 30-foot
cone. Changing up a spell’s area is thus an easy way to
make it feel as though a spellcasting creature has a special
edge. When you change a spell’s area, just make sure you
keep the number of possible targets roughly the same so
as to not seriously increase or decrease the threat of the
spell.
In general, when a spell targets only creatures standing
on a level surface, as opposed to flying creatures who
might stack on top of each other in the area of effect, you
can use the following table to convert different types of
areas. To use the table, look for the area of the spell you
want to convert in the leftmost column, then read across
to the cell under the type of area you want to convert to.
Lightning
Lightning bolt, shocking grasp
Necrotic
Blight, finger of death
Piercing
Insect plague, spike growth
Poison
Cloudkill, poison spray
Cone
Psychic
Feeblemind, phantasmal killer
Radiant
Guardian of faith, sacred flame
Slashing
Blade barrier, wall of thorns
Thunder
Shatter, thunderwave
SAVING THROWS
Changing up saving throws is another easy way to
mix things up spell-wise, and can go hand-in-hand
with retooling damage. Spells whose effects need to be
physically avoided, including acid, cold, and fire damage,
often make use of Dexterity saving throws. But if you finetune the description of a spell’s effect so that it instead
overwhelms targets with destructive power, a Strength
or Constitution save can represent trying to shrug off the
worst effects of the spell. Mental saving throws can also
be easily swapped around, with only a subtle difference
between a character calling on Intelligence to resist their
mind being overwhelmed, Wisdom to keep their will
focused, and Charisma to remain grounded in their sense
of self.
Saving Throw
Good for…
Strength
Resisting crushing effects, ignoring forced
movement
Dexterity
Rolling with area-effect damage, avoiding hurled
effects
Constitution
Resisting necromantic or poison effects,
maintaining bodily autonomy
Intelligence
Resisting illusions, shrugging off psychic effects
Wisdom
Resisting charms, shrugging off mind control
Charisma
Resisting spiritual effects, shrugging off
emotional control
Cone
Cube or
Square
Cylinder,
Sphere, or
Circle
Line*
—
Size ÷ 2
Size ÷ 2
Size × 3
Cube or
square
Length × 2
—
No change
Length × 6
Cylinder,
Sphere, or
Circle
Radius × 2
No change
—
Radius × 6
Line*
Length ÷ 3 Length ÷ 6
Length ÷ 6
—
* These conversions assume a line 5 feet wide. For each additional 5
feet of width, divide the line’s length by 2.
For example, the 20-foot-radius area of a fireball or ice
storm spell could be converted to a 40-foot cone, a 20-foot
cube or square, or a 120-foot line that is 5 feet wide.
VARIETY, NOT PUNISHMENT
In the course of reskinning spells to mix things up in
combat, be careful that these approaches don’t end up
accidentally—or intentionally—punishing characters for
their defensive strengths. If all foes cast their spells with
areas of effect that conveniently fill whatever room the
characters are in, it’ll start to feel punitive. Likewise, if
the rogue has Evasion and the barbarian has resistance to
everything except psychic damage, a lot of fun gets sapped
from the game when enemy spellcasters tee up mindball
and cerebral bolt instead of fireball and lightning bolt,
dealing psychic damage and calling for Intelligence saving
throws round after round.
59
USING NPC STAT BLOCKS
Of all the monster stat blocks GMs have at their disposal,
NPC stat blocks offer tremendous utility. Because many
games prominently feature nonplayer characters as
villains and opponents, a crafty GM can squeeze the most
value out of NPC stat blocks with a few simple guidelines.
INHERENTLY RESKINNABLE
STATS
Though any monster stat block can be easily reskinned
into a unique creation, NPC stat blocks make particularly
useful baselines for reskinning because of their general
utility. Simply change the creature type and the flavor,
and you can easily turn an NPC into an undead horror,
an otherworldly fiend, a commanding goblinoid, or many
other monstrous foes. (“Reskinning Monsters” on page
50 has more information on this topic.)
NPC stat blocks are likewise easy to reflavor. Change
their weapons, their armor, and their mannerisms and
you have an entirely new NPC. Every veteran can be
unique, with personalized armor and a sword tied to a
distinct history. Reskin and reflavor an NPC spellcaster’s
spells and damage types, and you can quickly create acidic
sorcerers, ooze-worshiping cultists, psionic adepts, and
archmages of the infinite void. Such changes are often easy
enough to do in your head, making it easy to improvise
unique foes during your game with the same simple NPC
stat block.
BUILD MONSTROUS NPCS
It’s easy to forget the wide range of potential creature
types you can wrap over an NPC stat block. Humans,
elves, dwarves, and the other common humanoid
ancestries are obvious choices for NPCs, but goblinoids,
orcs, drow, giants, skeletons, zombies, and ghouls fit just
as easily. Making a quick change to a monster’s type, and
adding an ancestry trait if desired, is all that’s needed
to turn a common NPC stat block into a huge range of
potential foes. You can also look to the monster powers
presented in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4),
“Monster Powers” (page 15), and “Monster Roles” (page
22) for further quick customization.
TEMPLATING
60
For more utility from NPC stat blocks, consider using
them as templates that can be customized with the traits
of other creatures—or vice versa. This is a great way to
add a social role to a monster, or to give monstrous foes
the feel of having class levels. Want to turn a typical
duergar into a duergar veteran? Take the duergar’s
most defining traits and add them to the veteran stat
block. Want to create a stone giant archmage? Take the
archmage’s Spellcasting feature and add it to the stone
giant stat block. A doppelganger scout, a goblin noble, a
troll priest—any such combination gives you a huge range
of options to turn existing monsters into foes who feel
more like characters.
When mashing up stat blocks in this way, add features
of the simpler or weaker stat block to the baseline stat
block of the more powerful or complex creature. In the
case of the stone giant, their physical ability scores, Armor
Class, and hit points are higher than the archmage’s, so
it’s easier to add a high Intelligence and spellcasting (the
primary feature defining the archmage) to the stone giant
stat block than it would be to take the baseline archmage
and add the stone giant’s dominant features.
WORRY LESS ABOUT CR
If you can’t find an NPC stat block at the exact challenge
rating you want, it’s often easier to just use the nearest
existing stat block that fits the story of the NPC. A few
points of CR up or down doesn’t make a huge difference
in the story. If you’re worried an encounter might be too
easy or too hard, you can add more NPCs or reduce their
numbers as you need. You can go especially far with the
baseline CR 3 veteran stat block, which works well against
characters as low as 2nd level (with the veteran serving
as a powerful elite foe), all the way to 15th level (where
hordes of veterans still provide a challenge).
If you want to fine-tune an NPC’s stat block for a
different challenge rating, you can use the Monster
Statistics by Challenge Rating table in “Building a Quick
Monster” (page 4) to upgrade or downgrade an NPC
like any other stat block. Just replace the NPC’s hit points
and attack numbers with those in the table for your
desired CR. Recalculate their damage either by changing
their number of attacks or replacing those attacks with
the attacks in the table. Likewise, if the NPC has attacks
or features that require a saving throw, replace the stat
block’s save DC with the table’s value.
ADD ONE SPECIAL TRAIT
To make nonplayer characters stand out, use a default
NPC stat block but add one unique feature for particular
NPCs. Maybe you change a mage’s fireball into an acidic
or necrotic blast. Or you could create a corrupting sphere
spell that creates a temporary hole in the world, through
which demons claw at those trapped within—still
doing fireball-appropriate damage, but with some fancy
reskinning.
A veteran serving a necromancer might bathe her
blades in necrotic flames, dealing an extra 3 (1d6)
necrotic damage on each hit. A psionic spy might add 7
(2d6) psychic damage to their Shortsword attack. Or to
make NPCs even more memorable, you can use any of the
monster powers in “Building a Quick Monster,” “Monster
Powers,” or “Monster Roles,” tailoring a generic stat block
even more to the story you want to share.
BOSSES AND MINIONS
When creating a boss battle, thinking about which bosses
pair well with which minions can be a great starting point.
You can use the table below to match up minions and
bosses in a number of classic adventure environments.
Boss CR Boss
For unique bosses, look to “Building and Running Boss
Monsters” (page 31), as well as the monster powers
in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster
Powers” (page 15), and “Monster Roles” (page 22).
Environments
Minions
1
Goblin boss
Caves, mountains
Goblins, worgs
2
Bandit captain
Cities, sewers, ruins
Bandits, spies, thugs, berserkers, gladiators
2
Cult fanatic
Cities, ruins
Cultists, bandits, thugs, dretches
2
Ettercap
Caves, ruins
Giant spiders
2
Ghast
Ruins, crypts, cities, sewers
Ghouls, zombies
2
Gnoll pack lord
Plains, caves, ruins
Gnolls, hyenas
2
Ogre
Ruins, caves
Orcs, goblins
2
Sea hag
Coves, swamps, grottos
Giant constrictor snakes, crocodiles
3
Bugbear chief
Keeps, fortresses, ruins, caves
Bugbears, goblins, worgs
3
Green hag
Forests, swamps
Bullywugs, giant toads, giant constrictor snakes, imps, quasits
3
Winter wolf
Frozen mountains, frozen ruins
Dire wolves, ice mephits
4
Banshee
Ruins, crypts
Specters, skeletons
4
Bone naga
Ruins, crypts
Skeletons, specters, wights
4
Ettin
Mountains, ruins, caves
Ogres, orcs
4
Lamia
Ruins, towers, caves
Jackalweres
4
Lizard king/queen
Swamps, sunken grottos
Lizardfolk shamans, lizardfolk, monitor lizards
5
Hill giant
Mountains, ruins, caves
Ogres, orcs, bugbears, goblins, cave bears
5
Night hag
Ruins, crypts, Lower Planes
Hell hounds, quasits, manes, shadow demons
5
Sahuagin baron
Coves, grottos, underwater ruins
Sahuagin priestesses, sahuagin, reef sharks, giant octopuses, krakens
5
Wraith
Ruins, crypts
Flameskulls, specters, wights
6
Hobgoblin warlord
Ruins, keeps, fortresses
Hobgoblin captains, hobgoblins, bugbears, goblins, worgs
6
Mage
Towers, cities
Animated armor, imps, acolytes, flesh golems, veterans
6
Medusa
Ruins, caves
Basilisks, giant constrictor snakes, death dogs
7
Oni
Ruins, caves, cities
Hobgoblins, orcs
8
Frost giant
Frozen mountains, frozen ruins
Yetis, young white dragons, polar bears, winter wolves
9
Fire giant
Volcanoes, caverns
Hell hounds, young red dragons, salamanders, azers, fire mephits
9
Glabrezu
Lower Planes, ruins, towers
Barlguras, chasmes
10
Aboleth
Caverns, coves, lakes
Chuuls, cult fanatics, hydras, NPCs (enthralled), sea hags
11
Efreeti
Ruins, volcanoes, cities, deserts
Fire elementals, salamanders, fire snakes
11
Horned devil
Lower Planes, ruins, towers
Barbed devils, bearded devils, spined devils
12
Archmage
Towers, cities
Animated armor, imps, cambions, demons (any), elementals, golems
13
Adult white dragon
Frozen mountains, frozen ruins
Yetis
13
Vampire
Ruins, crypts
Vampire spawn, giant bats, dire wolves, specters, wights
14
Adult black dragon
Swamps, sunken grottos
Giant crocodiles, trolls, bullywugs, lizardfolk, kuo-toa
15
Adult green dragon
Forests, ruins, caverns
Treants, elves
15
Mummy lord
Ruins, crypts
Mummies, skeletons, wights, cult fanatics
16
Adult blue dragon
Deserts, ruins, towers
Air elementals, mages
16
Marilith
Lower Planes, ruins, towers
Hezrous, vrocks
17
Adult red dragon
Mountains, volcanoes, ruins, caverns Fire elementals, kobolds
17
Death knight
Crypts, ruins, Lower Planes
Wights, wraiths, liches, flameskulls, nightmares, revenants
19
Balor
Lower planes, ruins
Mariliths, glabrezus, goristros, cambions, cult fanatics
20
Ancient white dragon Frozen mountains, frozen ruins
Abominable yetis
20
Pit fiend
Lower planes, ruins, towers
Horned devils, bone devils, erinyes
21
Ancient black dragon
Swamps, sunken grottos
Giant crocodiles, trolls, bullywugs, lizardfolk
21
Lich
Ruins, towers, crypts, caves
Death knights, iron golems, wraiths, mages
22
Ancient green dragon Forests, ruins, caverns
Treants, elves
23
Ancient blue dragon
Deserts, ruins, towers
Air elementals, mages
24
Ancient red dragon
Mountains, volcanoes, ruins, caverns Fire giants, fire elementals, kobolds
61
EVOLVING MONSTERS
Players usually feel safe assuming that a monster is exactly
what the characters see. But what if that monster changes
partway through a fight? An evolving monster starts out
one way, and then at a specific point in the narrative,
raises their threat level significantly. When a monster
evolves, GMs are able to catch players by surprise and
crank up an encounter’s excitement. The evolution keeps
player interest high and communicates a shift in story.
Something caused this monster to suddenly change, with
new and exciting capabilities!
Evolving monsters change the assumptions made about
an encounter. For example, players and characters alike
know that goblins are skirmishers and easily defeated. But
if a goblin drinks a potion and is horribly transformed
into an enormous ooze, the nature of the confrontation
changes significantly. The threat might feel mechanically
similar to an encounter with a goblin and an ooze
companion who enters combat once the goblin falls or
flees. But the emotional reaction of the players is different.
Though any player can enjoy the surprise that comes
of seeing a monster in a different light, evolutions work
especially well for when experienced players become
accustomed to and even bored by familiar creatures.
DEVELOP A STRONG CONCEPT
Not every monster should evolve. This technique should
be used sparingly, and with a strong concept that will feel
right to the players. So think through that concept and the
reasons for the evolution.
STORY
Verisimilitude is important, whether the concept is
mundane or supernatural. A goblin drank a potion and
turned into an ooze … but why did that potion have such
a powerful effect? An encounter always works better if the
story concept is strong. Perhaps a group of goblin zealots
have taken over a tower once inhabited by an eccentric
wizard who collected oddities. Stating this up front
establishes the story.
Mundane evolutions can be just as exciting. A crab
might molt, shedding their carapace to grow in size and
become more formidable (though probably with a lower
Armor Class). A huge spider might have hundreds of baby
spiders on their back, something seen in nature. Then
THE 2016 D&D OPEN
When designing this competitive event, Teos combined
a puzzle with an evolving monster. The characters found
themselves in a room, sealed with an enormous gnomish
contraption containing a metal tarrasque which looked certain
to defeat them. Except that each time the characters solved
a short puzzle or riddle correctly, the gnomish contraption
reassembled the metal creature into a different, easier threat.
The next-to-last form? A flumph. The final form? A helpless
upside-down flumph.
62
when the spider is hurt, the spiderling swarms advance to
change the nature of the fight.
Evolving monsters can let you make use of powerful
story material, including rebirth, divine transcendence,
foolish deals with malevolent forces, or a character
taken over by their baser emotions. Such a story can
appeal to the players, becoming a significant campaign
development, and reinforced through your descriptions
of the evolution. A shelled creature might change
color before they molt. A creature with the power of
rebirth might boast of their immortality and call upon
otherworldly magic before being reduced to 0 hit points.
EIGHTEEN EVOLVING MONSTERS
The following ideas can be used to work up evolvingmonster encounters around many standard types of foes,
or as inspiration for creating encounters of your own.
Ritual of Transformation. A spellcaster stands within
a ritual circle, and is transformed when the ritual is
complete. Character actions could change the efficacy
of the evolution, perhaps transforming the caster into a
different creature than what was intended.
Undead Host. An undead creature holds another creature
inside them, either living or undead, which emerges
once they are defeated.
Incorporeal Shift. A corporeal undead refuses to fall,
rising from apparent destruction as an incorporeal
evolved form—a death knight becoming a powerful
wraith, perhaps.
Cursed until Death. A monster bears a curse that
has transformed them, and that is ended when the
characters kill them. This causes the villain to transform
into their original form, whereupon they attack again
in a state of fear and anger, unable to remember what
happened.
Sudden Curse. Desperate to defeat the characters, a
creature foolishly grabs a cursed magic item or artifact
and becomes transformed by it.
Molting or Shedding Skin. A juvenile kraken might molt
their shell to become an adult, or a giant snake could
shed their skin to become even larger.
Youthful Vitality. A foe begins a fight as old and frail, but
magic in the area begins to rejuvenate them, improving
their statistics every other round.
Extraplanar Pact. A foe has made a pact with a fiend or
other extraplanar entity. The entity either rewards or
punishes the foe by transforming them in the middle of
battle, or when the foe dies.
Wild Magic. Magic in the area is out of control, and
changes one or more foes. It might be possible for the
characters to undo the change, or even to benefit from
it.
Power Armor. The foe climbs into a large suit of magic
armor partway through the fight, gaining powerful
capabilities.
Escaped Meal. A creature has swallowed another
creature, which they cough up when hurt sufficiently.
Both creatures now attack the characters, unless the
heroes can win over the newly appeared foe.
Empowering Meal. A creature gains the powers of
creatures they consume—such as a dragon who
swallows an NPC spellcaster and now can cast their
spells!
Shapechanger. A creature changes shape into a powerful
new form when a fight starts to go against them, or was
previously shapechanged and reverts to their true form
during battle.
Illusion Drops. A creature’s appearance is merely a
facade, which they use illusion magic to maintain. Once
they realize that fighting is the only option, the creature
drops the illusion and reveals their true form and actual
capabilities.
Parasite. A creature is controlled by a parasite. When
defeated, the parasite emerges from the creature and
attacks—trying to gain a new host.
Remembered Power. A foe has repressed memories,
letting them tap into their true strength even though
they don’t remember having such capabilities.
Primal Fury. When wounded, a creature taps into a
primal state of being to become more ferocious.
Reversible Strength. Due to powerful magic or some
other effect, a foe begins a fight far stronger than the
characters. The characters can reverse the effect, letting
the foe devolve to a form that can be defeated.
SHAKE UP THE FAMILIAR
Scott points out that players can easily become overly familiar
with common monsters, either because they’ve fought them
several times or because those players are also GMs with a high
level of monster knowledge. Turning a known commodity into
an evolving monster is an easy way to transform familiar foes
into something new and exciting. But think about adding some
kind of clear visual indication—an unusual piece of equipment,
an eldritch tattoo, strange demeanor or behavior, and so on—
to hint to the players that this isn’t the monster the characters
are used to.
in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster
Powers” (page 15), and “Monster Roles” (page 22).
Monster powers are specifically designed to be exciting
and to surprise players, as well as to communicate story.
TRIGGER
Think about how the evolution should be triggered. Does
it happen when the creature is reduced to half their hit
points? When reduced to 0 hit points? When a ritual is
complete, or on the second round of combat? The trigger
should always fit the story, and should feel inevitable—but
shouldn’t feel like you’re trying to fool the characters. If
the players feel as though their characters should have
MECHANICS
Because evolving monsters is a technique to be used
sparingly, you want the mechanics of that evolution to
be evocative and significant. The mechanical change
reinforces the story and the seriousness of what has
taken place.
CARLOS EULEFÍ
STATISTICAL EVOLUTION
First, think through the type of evolution and
what it represents. Is a creature becoming
larger? Are they changing type, such as
from humanoid to elemental? What
capabilities should the new form have?
Depending on the nature of the
evolution, you might simply swap
creature statistics entirely. A goblin mage
becomes an ogre. A dwarf noble becomes
a fire elemental. Or you might borrow
aspects of one stat block, combining
them with the other. For example,
you might use the noble stat block but
add the fire elemental’s resistances,
immunities, and Fire Form trait, as well
as having all the noble’s attacks deal fire
damage.
You can also apply new features or
actions using monster powers, as found
63
been able to stop the evolution before it was triggered, a
fight might become frustrating rather than exciting.
Foes might evolve a single time, or more than once.
The evolution could be permanent, or something the
characters can prevent or reverse. In the latter case, think
through what circumstances would allow this, and which
of a monster’s mechanical aspects (such as stat block
features) might be lost based on how well the characters
succeed on undoing the effect.
Foreshadowing a trigger helps establish the story. A
villain warns the characters not to strike them down,
with their death triggering the transformation, of course.
A huge creature has a swollen belly, and striking them
causes them to cough up a meal that also attacks the
characters.
ENCOUNTER DYNAMICS
Statistical changes can result in major changes to the
dynamic of the encounter. A foe who becomes part
spider might be able to walk on the ceiling, avoiding traps
and hazards on the battlefield. A foe who becomes part
fire elemental can ignore the river of lava in a cavern.
Consider matching the evolution with an environment
that makes the most of the change, but do so in a way that
doesn’t make the battle much harder for the characters.
In some cases, a transformation might involve tradeoffs. The monster might gain new abilities, even as they
lose former resistances or gain new weaknesses. Either
way, though, the expectation is that whatever narrative
device allowed a foe to evolve can’t be used by the
characters to gain similar benefits.
Evolutions are meant for monsters. Monster statistics
are different from character statistics, and evolving
characters in the same way can have an impact on game
balance. Thankfully, there are plenty of other ways to
help the characters even the odds against a foe who is
suddenly more formidable, as discussed in “Building
Engaging Encounters” on page 76. And as a one-off
benefit, you can have fun letting an environmental effect
grant characters the use of one of the monster powers
in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster
Powers” (page 15), or “Monster Roles” (page 22).
ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
Mike notes that the environment might change along with
a monster’s newly evolved form. The world might fall away
into a void, or rocks could start dropping from the ceiling as
a creature’s evolution disrupts the physical nature of the area
around them. A transformation into a fire elemental might set
a room ablaze. Such unexpected changes create a truly epic
scene.
64
DESIGNING VERAGON
When writing the book Fantastic Lairs, Mike, Scott, and fellow
designer James Introcaso wanted to provide powerful foes
even for the highest-level characters. One such foe was
Veragon, a demon-touched ancient gold dragon who was
intended to do the impossible—work as a solo monster
capable of truly challenging a group of 20th-level heroes.
Anyone who’s run 20th-level encounters knows how hard it can
be to challenge such characters, who have so many resources
at their disposal and so many tricks up their proverbial sleeves
that any lone monster, no matter how big, is at a disadvantage.
A big part of addressing that challenge was having
Veragon evolve as he faced the characters. The dragon has a
tremendous 546 hit points, enough to keep him alive even after
multiple paladin smites and rogue sharpshooter sneak attacks.
For half the battle, he acts as a “standard” ancient gold dragon,
though with a big pile of spells he can cast. But when reduced
to half his hit points, Veragon turns into something else as his
demon-touched nature takes hold.
Suddenly, the dragon is throwing around the finger of death
spell twice per round, even while surrounded by an aura that
chews through characters like a never-ending circle of death
spell. But one trick that makes this approach work is that
Veragon becomes simpler to play when he switches forms,
focusing on those new abilities and his regular attacks, and no
longer having all his spells at his disposal in phase two of the
fight.
Veragon isn’t a simple monster by any means, but when
building your own evolving monsters, always keep in mind
how to balance increased power with making your monster
easy to run at the table. Evolving monsters don’t just need to
add new things. They can often take some things away as well.
RESOLUTION
Evolving a monster can be more than just a fun, oneoff change. It can tie into your campaign or drive up
its stakes. A young noble who went missing has been
transformed by terrible studies encouraged by the cult
threatening the local area. A power that changes people
into devils in one encounter might affect other creatures
as well, prompting the characters to find the catalyst for
the transformation and stop others from being exposed
to it.
The story impact of an evolution can merit providing
some extra time after combat ends so the characters
can analyze what took place and learn from it. Story
implications, such as an aberrant spy among the nobility,
might result in the characters coming up with ideas to
detect or counter any other such spies. Think about what
manner of resolution works best to make an evolution a
strong part of the story.
THE COMBAT ENCOUNTER
CHECKLIST
Sometimes all a game needs is an interesting location
and some cool monsters to fight, setting up a combat
encounter that a GM might build right at the table. The
characters go somewhere, everyone decides it’s time for a
fun fight, and you whip something up. Or you determine
that, given the circumstances going on in the story, it’s
time for the characters to run into some opposition, and
you’re off to the races. (“Building a Quick Monster” on
page 4 and “General-Use Combat Stat Blocks” on page
13 are great resources when you’re building those kinds
of on-the-fly encounters.)
Sometimes we need more, though, particularly for big
set-piece battles or boss fights. When it’s time to build
an interesting and dynamic encounter, the following
checklist can help determine what options a big combat
might need:
• Interesting monsters
• A fantastic location
• Zone-wide effects
• Traps and hazards
• Advantageous positions
• Interactive objects
• Cover
• Difficult or fantastic terrain
• A goal
No battle needs all these things, but it’s worth running
through the list to see which options fit the sort of combat
scenario you’re putting together.
INTERESTING MONSTERS
For a big, self-contained combat encounter, a single
monster usually won’t do it. Even several monsters
of the same type might not prove interesting enough
for a big fight. Complex, climactic battles often work
best with two or three creature types that work well
together—big bruisers up front and powerful artillery
in the back, for example. (“Monster Roles,” page 22,
has more information about choosing foes this way.)
However, having more than three types of creatures in
any one battle is going to be hard to manage. As such,
designing a big set-piece battle is also a great time to think
about waves of monsters (talked about in “Building and
Running Boss Monsters,” page 31).
A FANTASTIC LOCATION
An empty, 50-foot-square room doesn’t lend itself to
an interesting set-piece battle. We want fantastic rooms
with interesting shapes, lots of room to move around,
and a cool environment for the characters to spend
time in. Great self-contained fights are like theme parks
where the characters can climb up big statues, swing
from chandeliers, and dance across elevated platforms.
Whether you’re playing online or in person, you can
purchase battle maps showing off interesting locations, or
might find maps that cartographers have released for free.
Build a library of cool maps that inspire your players to
enjoy the scenery while they’re kicking ass.
However, you want to ensure that your fantastic
location isn’t too big. It’s no fun to have a character spend
multiple rounds running to the far side of an arena—only
to arrive just in time to watch the other characters drop
the big bad to the mat. Let all the characters get to the
meaty part of a location in two moves at most.
ZONE-WIDE EFFECTS
Sometimes a combat environment has a big ongoing
effect—something that impacts all the creatures in the
area, no matter where they are. Such zone-wide effects can
make a fight more interesting, as with any of the following
examples:
• Unholy energy in a crypt makes healing magic only half
as effective as normal.
• Supernatural fire negates any creature’s resistance to fire,
and turns immunity to fire into resistance.
• Psychic wailing forces each character to succeed on a
DC 10 Constitution check to successfully cast a spell.
• Periodic bolts of lightning strike, with each creature in
combat having a 1-in-4 chance of being struck at the
start of their turn.
• An arcane rift causes each damaging spell cast in a fight
to deal an extra 2d6 force damage.
• An aura of bloody rage fills the area, granting each
combatant advantage on attack rolls.
• A rift to a realm of chaos causes all spells to trigger a
wild magic surge.
• The god of blood infuses all melee attacks with an extra
die of damage.
• A rift in space-time lets a creature swap places with
an enemy within 60 feet if that enemy fails a DC 12
Wisdom saving throw.
• A thick fog makes it impossible to see creatures more
than 30 feet away.
Avoid zone-wide effects that are just plain annoying.
Having creatures fall down a lot because of icy floors
sounds fun—until all the characters are lying on their
backs and the players are wishing they’d never entered the
fight in the first place.
Likewise, certain effects hurt some classes more
than others. Disadvantage on attack rolls hurts martial
combatants more than spellcasters. Limiting movement
hurts melee attackers, while limiting visibility hurts
ranged attackers. Be aware of when a zone-wide effect
affects some characters more than others, so that you can
change it up if needed.
TRAPS AND HAZARDS
Certain parts of a battlefield might contain traps or
hazards. Some of these might be easily seen, such as
65
bladed pillars or spike-lined pits. Others might come as a
surprise, such as a trap door over an acid pool.
Characters with high passive Wisdom (Perception)
scores might notice hidden traps automatically, or you
might give each character a chance to make a Wisdom
(Perception) check requiring no action—maybe even
rolling on their behalf—to detect a trap before stumbling
into it.
Make sure these traps matter if you’re going to put them
in an encounter. Traps that are too far out of the way
might never come into play. Likewise, it can be fun for
players to spring traps on their opponents, so don’t use
them only as a threat against the characters.
ADVANTAGEOUS POSITIONS
Getting the characters to enter an arena (literal
or metaphorical) and move around can be hard.
Advantageous positions give them a reason to do so.
Areas of high ground where they can gain cover against
their foes—and perhaps advantage on attacks—are highly
sought after by ranged attackers. Arcane circles that infuse
a spellcaster’s magic with greater power might draw
wizards into a room. This approach can turn a whole
encounter into a fun game of “king of the hill” as the
characters and their enemies fight for superior position.
“Building Engaging Environments” on page 79 has
more ideas on this topic.
INTERACTIVE OBJECTS
Make sure that the battlefield features some interactive
objects. This can include any physical features the
characters can manipulate and use to their advantage in a
fight, including things like the following:
• Crumbling statues that can be easily toppled
• Pillars that collapse part of the ceiling
• Chandeliers upon which to swing
• Ballistas the characters can use to fire upon their foes
• Obelisks infusing the villain with power until they’re
destroyed
• Levers that physically or magically transform parts of
the battlefield
• Catapults that can hurl allies to the far side of the fight
• Cranes lifting heavy objects that can be dropped onto
foes
• Fiery cauldrons or braziers ready to tip over
• Deep wells into which enemies can be dumped
COVER
Shattered pillars, crumbling statues, destroyed furniture,
fallen trees, and other forms of cover can help break up
the otherwise open terrain of a big battleground. When
you drop in these elements of cover, be sure that the
players understand the advantages of hiding behind them.
For bonus points, tie the history of the location and
other secrets and clues to these elements of cover. It’s not
just a statue—it’s a statue of the forgotten god Gan, lost
66
in history and now seeking just one follower to pull their
spark of divinity from the edges of infinite darkness.
DIFFICULT OR FANTASTIC
TERRAIN
Different areas of a location might have some sort of
terrain feature that can impact the fight. Difficult terrain
is the easiest option, making it challenging but not
impossible to take certain routes across the battlefield.
But other areas of interesting terrain can also shake up a
physical encounter. Icy floors where the characters might
slip don’t work well as a zone-wide effect. But they can
be great in specific areas, forcing the characters to avoid
those areas as they move.
Any of the following terrain features can make a big
battle location more interesting:
• A crumbling bridge over a deep crevasse
• Spikes of sharp glass that cut creatures when they fall or
are forced to move through them
• Jets of flame that randomly erupt
• Swampy land that belches forth poisonous gas when
crossed
• Oiled surfaces that cause creatures to slide across them
uncontrollably.
• Electrified floors that deal damage to creatures at the
start of each turn
• An area filled with antigravity magic that causes
creatures to fall to the ceiling
• An ethereal rift where creatures become invisible and
insubstantial
• Pockets of shadow where characters have their life
energy drained away
• An area of antilife magic where living creatures gain
vulnerability to necrotic damage
A GOAL
Finally, think about what objective an encounter might
have beyond simply taking out all the enemies. What
might the characters do to “complete” the encounter?
The following sorts of goals work well in a big set-piece
encounter:
• Stop a ritual before cultists summon a demon.
• Recover an artifact and escape with it.
• Kill the boss, but don’t worry about their minions.
• Activate a gateway and escape through it.
• Recover a prisoner.
• Steal secret plans.
• Destroy a powerful monument.
• Activate the four altars around a temple site.
• Close a magical gateway and prevent the villain’s escape.
• Destroy a doomsday device before it blows up the
multiverse.
This topic is touched on in more detail in “Building
Engaging Encounters” on page 76 and “Exit Strategies”
on page 91.
MONSTER COMBINATIONS
FOR A HARD CHALLENGE
When GMs design encounters, we often have a concept
that includes the number of foes the characters will face.
An encounter might feature a squad of four monsters
going against the characters one-to-one, or perhaps a
larger force of six or eight swarming the heroes. Or maybe
we want a stronger creature, acting as a boss or captain,
with only a few other creatures to back them up. And,
of course, it’s always fun for characters to face a single
dangerous foe.
This section provides guidelines for combining
creatures of different challenge ratings to enable these
various concepts. Simply pick your concept, consult the
appropriate table for the number of characters in your
game, look up their average character level, and you have
the monster challenge ratings you need to build different
types of encounters and boss scenarios. You can then
use the many other tips in this book to make encounters
unique, including “Building and Running Boss Monsters”
for any of the boss scenarios on the tables.
HARD CHALLENGE LEVEL
MONSTER COMBINATIONS
JACK KAISER
The challenge ratings in the tables are geared toward
creating encounters that are a hard challenge (see
“Defining Challenge Level” on page 105). The encounter
concepts are set up along specific lines, reflecting some of
the most common—and fun—combinations of foes.
One Monster. The leftmost column notes the challenge
rating expected for a solo creature whose statistics and
capabilities can build a hard challenge. As discussed
in “Building and Running Boss Monsters” (page 31)
and “Understanding the Action Economy” (page 42),
running an encounter for a single solo monster is always
tricky. So use the advice in those sections to ensure that
an intended solo creature is up to the challenge.
Two, Four, Six, Eight, or Twelve Monsters. The other
columns under Monsters of the Same CR allow you to
challenge the characters with a number of creatures of
the same CR, and usually of the same type. For example,
a hard challenge for four 4th-level characters could
constitute six scouts (CR 1/2) or two ogres (CR 2).
Using creatures of the same type allows you to quickly
and simply tell a story as the characters find themselves in
an ogre market cavern, a caravan under attack, the room
with mimics, and so forth. Using the same monsters also
lets you focus on a single stat block for ease of play.
One Boss + X Monsters. Encounter concepts often
suggest a group of creatures led by a more formidable
leader. Each of the Boss Scenarios columns pairs up one
boss and a number of subordinates of lower challenge
rating. For example, a group of four 3rd-level characters
could face one boss of CR 2 and two subordinates of CR
1/2—perhaps an ogre explorer and the two rust monsters
they’ve befriended.
The rightmost column under Boss Scenarios builds
encounters with eight minions, two lieutenants of a higher
challenge rating, and one boss whose CR is higher again.
USING THE TABLES
To build encounters using the tables, follow these steps:
• Select the appropriate table, based on the number of
characters in the party—four, five, or six.
• In the leftmost column of the selected table, find
the row containing the average character level for
all the characters. (To find the average, add up all
the characters’ levels, then divide by the number of
characters and round down.)
• Follow that row to the column containing the encounter
concept you wish to use. For example, to create an
encounter with one boss and three lesser monsters,
you’d go to the 1 Boss + 3 Monsters column.
67
FOUR CHARACTERS (HARD CHALLENGES)
Monsters of the Same CR
Character
Level
1
2
4
6
8
1
1
1/2
1/8
1/8
0
2
3
1
1/2
1/4
3
4
2
1/2
1/2
4
5
2
1
5
8
4
6
9
7
10
8
Boss Scenarios
12
1 Boss +
2 Monsters
1 Boss +
3 Monsters
1 Boss +
4 Underlings
1 Boss + 2 Lieutenants +
8 Minions
—
1/2 + 1/8 (x2)
1/2 + 1/8 (x3)
1/4 + 1/8 (x4)
—
1/8
0
1 + 1/4 (x2)
1 + 1/4 (x3)
1 + 1/8 (x4)
1/2 + 1/4 (x2) + 0 (x8)
1/4
1/8
2 + 1/2 (x2)
2 + 1/4 (x3)
2 + 1/4 (x4)
1 + 1/4 (x2) + 0 (x8)
1/2
1/2
1/4
2 + 1 (x2)
2 + 1/2 (x3)
3 + 1/4 (x4)
2 + 1/4 (x2) + 0 (x8)
2
1
1
1/2
4 + 2 (x2)
4 + 1 (x3)
4 + 1 (x4)
3 + 1/2 (x2) + 1/4 (x8)
5
3
2
1
1/2
5 + 2 (x2)
4 + 2 (x3)
5 + 1 (x4)
4 + 1 (x2) + 1/4 (x8)
6
3
2
1
1/2
5 + 3 (x2)
5 + 2 (x3)
6 + 1 (x4)
4 + 1 (x2) + 1/2 (x8)
12
7
3
3
2
1
7 + 3 (x2)
5 + 3 (x3)
6 + 2 (x4)
4 + 2 (x2) + 1/2 (x8)
9
12
8
4
3
2
1
7 + 4 (x2)
6 + 3 (x3)
6 + 3 (x4)
5 + 2 (x2) + 1/2 (x8)
10
14
8
4
3
2
2
7 + 5 (x2)
6 + 4 (x3)
7 + 3 (x4)
5 + 2 (x2) + 1 (x8)
11
16
9
5
4
3
2
8 + 5 (x2)
6 + 5 (x3)
9 + 3 (x4)
6 + 3 (x2) + 1 (x8)
12
18
11
6
5
4
2
9 + 7 (x2)
8 + 5 (x3)
8 + 5 (x4)
7 + 4 (x2) + 1 (x8)
13
19
12
7
5
4
3
11 + 7 (x2)
10 + 6 (x3)
10 + 5 (x4)
8 + 4 (x2) + 2 (x8)
14
20
13
8
6
4
3
11 + 8 (x2)
10 + 7 (x3)
10 + 6 (x4)
8 + 5 (x2) + 2 (x8)
15
21
14
8
7
5
4
12 + 9 (x2)
10 + 8 (x3)
10 + 7 (x4)
9 + 5 (x2) + 2 (x8)
16
22
15
9
7
5
4
12 + 10 (x2)
11 + 8 (x3)
11 + 7 (x4)
10 + 6 (x2) + 3 (x8)
17
24
16
10
8
5
5
14 + 10 (x2)
11 + 9 (x3)
11 + 8 (x4)
12 + 6 (x2) + 3 (x8)
18
26
17
11
8
6
5
14 + 12 (x2)
12 + 10 (x3)
12 + 9 (x4)
13 + 7 (x2) + 4 (x8)
19
27
19
11
9
7
5
15 + 12 (x2)
14 + 10 (x3)
13 + 9 (x4)
13 + 8 (x2) + 4 (x8)
20
29
19
12
9
7
5
15 + 13 (x2)
14 + 11 (x3)
13 + 10 (x4)
14 + 8 (x2) + 5 (x8)
• The entry you cross-referenced notes the challenge
ratings of the creature or creatures in your encounter. If
a multiplier is indicated, that’s the number of monsters
for the preceding CR. For example, wanting to challenge
four 3rd-level characters with the encounter concept of
one boss and three monsters yields an entry of “2 + 1/4
(×3).” This indicates that you want one CR 2 creature
acting as the boss, and three CR 1/4 creatures acting as
subordinates.
• Choose your monsters! If you’re building a quick
encounter, the recommendations in “Monsters by
Adventure Location” (page 72) are a good starting
point.
SCALING ENCOUNTERS
Each of the tables is intended to build a hard encounter
(see “Defining Challenge Level” on page 105). However,
you can easily build encounters with other challenge
levels in mind by adding or subtracting a modifier to the
party’s average character level:
• For a deadly challenge: +1 or +2
• For a medium challenge: −2
• For an easy challenge: −4
68
DON’T HANG ON TOO TIGHT
It’s good to keep in mind that the guidelines in this section
aren’t perfect for every group and every situation. Building
combat encounters will always be an art, not a science. As such,
the tables can give you a rough idea about what combination
of monsters you might use in an encounter and what challenge
rating might be appropriate for a hard challenge level. But so
many variables can affect the outcome of an encounter—not
the least of which is the incredibly random d20 roll—that no
two battles ever run the same.
Your own experience with your players and their characters
almost always offers a better gauge of how any given combat
scenario might play out. As such, always treat the advice in this
section and the rest of Forge of Foes as loose guidelines, not
fixed rules.
For example, when building an encounter for four
10th-level characters, you could use the row for 8th-level
characters to create a medium challenge.
In all cases, be cautious with scaling. Encounters
of certain types and at certain levels will be harder or
easier than the approximation would indicate. Always be
prepared to adjust encounters on the fly (with “Monster
Difficulty Dials” on page 27 providing great advice on
this topic).
FIVE CHARACTERS (HARD CHALLENGES)
Monsters of the Same CR
Character
Level
1
2
4
6
8
1
1
1/2
1/4
1/8
0
2
4
1
1/2
1/4
3
5
2
1
1/2
4
6
3
1
5
9
5
6
11
7
12
8
Boss Scenarios
12
1 Boss +
2 Monsters
1 Boss +
3 Monsters
1 Boss +
4 Underlings
1 Boss + 2 Lieutenants +
8 Minions
0
1/2 + 1/4 (x2)
1/2 + 1/8 (x3)
1/4 + 1/8 (x4)
—
1/8
0
1 + 1/2 (x2)
1 + 1/4 (x3)
1 + 1/8 (x4)
1/2 + 1/4 (x2) + 0 (x8)
1/2
1/4
2 + 1/2 (x2)
2 + 1/4 (x3)
2 + 1/4 (x4)
1 + 1/4 (x2) + 1/8 (x8)
1
1/2
1/4
3 + 1 (x2)
3 + 1/2 (x3)
3 + 1/2 (x4)
2 + 1/4 (x2) + 1/8 (x8)
2
2
1
1/2
5 + 2 (x2)
4 + 2 (x3)
5 + 1 (x4)
3 + 1 (x2) + 1/2 (x8)
6
3
2
1
1/2
6 + 3 (x2)
5 + 2 (x3)
6 + 2 (x4)
4 + 1 (x2) + 1/2 (x8)
7
4
3
1
1
7 + 3 (x2)
5 + 3 (x3)
6 + 2 (x4)
4 + 2 (x2) + 1 (x8)
13
8
4
3
2
1
7 + 4 (x2)
7 + 3 (x3)
6 + 3 (x4)
5 + 2 (x2) + 1 (x8)
9
14
8
5
3
2
1
8 + 4 (x2)
7 + 4 (x3)
7 + 3 (x4)
6 + 2 (x2) + 1 (x8)
10
15
9
5
4
3
2
8 + 5 (x2)
8 + 4 (x3)
8 + 4 (x4)
6 + 3 (x2) + 1 (x8)
11
17
11
6
5
4
2
10 + 6 (x2)
9 + 5 (x3)
8 + 5 (x4)
6 + 4 (x2) + 2 (x8)
12
19
12
7
6
4
3
11 + 7 (x2)
10 + 6 (x3)
9 + 5 (x4)
8 + 4 (x2) + 2 (x8)
13
20
13
8
7
5
3
11 + 8 (x2)
11 + 7 (x3)
10 + 6 (x4)
9 + 4 (x2) + 2 (x8)
14
22
14
9
7
5
4
11 + 9 (x2)
12 + 7 (x3)
10 + 7 (x4)
10 + 5 (x2) + 2 (x8)
15
22
15
9
7
5
4
12 + 10 (x2)
12 + 8 (x3)
12 + 7 (x4)
11 + 5 (x2) + 2 (x8)
16
24
16
10
8
6
4
12 + 11 (x2)
11 + 9 (x3)
11 + 8 (x4)
11 + 7 (x2) + 2 (x8)
17
25
17
11
9
7
5
15 + 11 (x2)
13 + 10 (x3)
14 + 8 (x4)
12 + 7 (x2) + 3 (x8)
18
27
18
11
9
7
5
15 + 12 (x2)
14 + 10 (x3)
13 + 9 (x4)
12 + 8 (x2) + 4 (x8)
19
28
20
12
10
8
6
15 + 13 (x2)
14 + 11 (x3)
13 + 10 (x4)
13 + 9 (x2) + 4 (x8)
20
29
20
13
10
8
6
16 + 14 (x2)
15 + 12 (x3)
14 + 11 (x4)
14 + 9 (x2) + 5 (x8)
12
1 Boss +
2 Monsters
1 Boss +
3 Monsters
1 Boss +
4 Underlings
SIX CHARACTERS (HARD CHALLENGES)
Monsters of the Same CR
Boss Scenarios
Character
Level
1
2
4
6
8
1 Boss + 2 Lieutenants +
8 Minions
1
1
1
1/4
1/4
1/8
0
1 + 1/4 (x2)
1 + 1/4 (x3)
1 + 1/8 (x4)
—
2
5
2
1/2
1/2
1/4
1/8
2 + 1/2 (x2)
2 + 1/4 (x3)
2 + 1/4 (x4)
1/2 + 1/4 (x2) + 1/8 (x8)
3
7
3
1
1
1/2
1/4
3 + 1 (x2)
3 + 1/2 (x3)
3 + 1/2 (x4)
1 + 1/2 (x2) + 1/4 (x8)
4
8
4
2
1
1/2
1/2
4 + 2 (x2)
4 + 1 (x3)
4 + 1/2 (x4)
2 + 1/2 (x2) + 1/4 (x8)
5
10
6
3
3
1
1
7 + 3 (x2)
7 + 2 (x3)
6 + 2 (x4)
3 + 1 (x2) + 1/2 (x8)
6
12
8
4
3
2
1
7 + 4 (x2)
6 + 4 (x3)
6 + 3 (x4)
3 + 2 (x2) + 1 (x8)
7
13
9
5
4
2
1
8 + 5 (x2)
7 + 5 (x3)
7 + 4 (x4)
5 + 2 (x2) + 1 (x8)
8
15
11
6
4
3
2
8 + 6 (x2)
8 + 5 (x3)
8 + 4 (x4)
6 + 3 (x2) + 1 (x8)
9
16
12
6
4
3
2
9 + 6 (x2)
8 + 6 (x3)
10 + 4 (x4)
6 + 4 (x2) + 1 (x8)
10
17
13
7
5
4
2
10 + 7 (x2)
9 + 6 (x3)
10 + 5 (x4)
7 + 4 (x2) + 1 (x8)
11
19
14
8
6
4
3
12 + 8 (x2)
11 + 7 (x3)
12 + 5 (x4)
8 + 4 (x2) + 2 (x8)
12
20
16
9
7
5
3
14 + 9 (x2)
13 + 8 (x3)
12 + 7 (x4)
9 + 5 (x2) + 2 (x8)
13
21
17
10
8
6
4
14 + 10 (x2)
13 + 9 (x3)
12 + 8 (x4)
10 + 6 (x2) + 2 (x8)
14
23
17
10
8
6
4
15 + 10 (x2)
15 + 8 (x3)
13 + 8 (x4)
9 + 7 (x2) + 2 (x8)
15
24
18
11
8
6
4
15 + 11 (x2)
15 + 9 (x3)
12 + 9 (x4)
9 + 7 (x2) + 3 (x8)
16
25
19
11
9
7
4
15 + 12 (x2)
15 + 10 (x3)
13 + 9 (x4)
11 + 7 (x2) + 3 (x8)
17
27
20
12
10
7
5
16 + 13 (x2)
16 + 11 (x3)
15 + 10 (x4)
11 + 7 (x2) + 4 (x8)
18
28
21
13
11
8
5
18 + 14 (x2)
17 + 12 (x3)
15 + 11 (x4)
12 + 8 (x2) + 4 (x8)
19
29
21
14
11
8
6
18 + 15 (x2)
16 + 13 (x3)
15 + 12 (x4)
13 + 9 (x2) + 4 (x8)
20
30
22
15
13
9
7
20 + 16 (x2)
18 + 14 (x3)
16 + 13 (x4)
13 + 10 (x2) + 5 (x8)
69
THE LAZY ENCOUNTER
BENCHMARK
Forge of Foes offers multiple ways to think about and plan
combat encounters in your game. But this section sets out
a simple calculation you can keep in your head to give
you a gauge of the difficulty of an encounter. This “lazy
encounter benchmark” isn’t perfect or precise. Rather, it’s
a tool for getting a rough sense of the potential challenge
of a combat encounter—and for recognizing when an
encounter crosses over from challenging to potentially
deadly. Think of it like a tachometer measuring how fast
the engine is running in a car. If you go beyond the limit
defined by the benchmark, you’re “in the red”—pushing
to a point where your encounter might be more than the
characters can handle.
USING THE BENCHMARK
The primary calculation of the lazy encounter benchmark
compares the challenge ratings of monsters with the levels
of the characters in the following way:
An encounter might be deadly if the sum total of
monster challenge ratings is greater than 1/4 of the
sum total of character levels, for characters of 1st to 4th
level; or greater than 1/2 of the sum total of character
levels, for characters of 5th level or higher.
What exactly does “deadly” mean in this context?
“Defining Challenge Level” on page 105 explores this
topic in detail, but it can be easily summarized. In a
deadly encounter:
• Most characters might lose more than half their hit
points.
• Several characters might go unconscious.
• There’s a chance that one or more characters might die.
For example, imagine an encounter pitting five 4thlevel characters against four ogres of CR 2. To see how
dangerous this fight might be, add all the character levels
together and divide by 4 (because they’re lower than 5th
level), giving a result of 20 ÷ 4 = 5. Now compare that
result to the sum of monster challenge ratings, with four
CR 2 ogres giving a total of 8. Because 8 is more than 5,
this could be a potentially deadly encounter.
Above 4th level, you divide character levels by 2
instead of 4 because of the extra resources and synergies
characters gain at 5th level and higher. Going back to the
previous example, if the characters were 5th level instead
of 4th, their total levels would be 25. The benchmark gives
a result of 25 ÷ 2 = 12 (rounded down, as usual in the
game). The four ogres still have a total CR of 8, and with 8
less than 12, these fifth-level characters aren’t likely to find
this a deadly fight.
70
As another example, consider six 8th-level characters
facing three CR 11 horned devils. Dividing the total
character levels of 48 by 2 gives a result of 24. Adding up
the challenge ratings of the horned devils gives you 33. So
with 33 much higher than 24, that’s a potentially deadly
fight.
Still, even when a calculated benchmark suggests that
an encounter might be too tough, that doesn’t mean
you should automatically change things up. The lazy
encounter benchmark is there to give you a warning sign
that your encounter might be into the danger zone where
it becomes more than the characters can handle. But your
own experiences with the characters and players should
ultimately tell you whether you should change things up
or not.
The lazy encounter benchmark intentionally doesn’t
provide specific measurements for easy, medium, or hard
encounters. Instead, think of it like an analog gauge. The
lower the total monster challenge ratings are compared
to the benchmark calculation from character levels, the
easier the battle might be. The higher the total monster
challenge ratings are above the benchmark, the deadlier
the battle might be.
OPTIONAL SCALING FOR
HIGHER LEVELS
As characters rise in level above 10th, their increased
power and synergies mean that you might find the
benchmark becomes less accurate about representing the
potential deadliness of encounters. If this is the case in
your games, you can scale up the benchmark equation for
higher-level characters with the following variation:
An encounter might be deadly if the sum total of
monster challenge ratings is greater than 3/4 of the sum
total of character levels, for characters of 11th to 16th
level; or equal to the sum total of character levels, for
characters of 17th level or higher.
Explore this option only if it feels as though encounters
assessed using the original benchmark are consistently
underpowered for your group. But if you need it, this
WRITE DOWN THE BENCHMARK
RESULT
Because the benchmark result only changes when the
characters increase in level, you can write it down and keep it
in your notes. If you’re going to have five 8th-level characters in
your next several sessions, you can write down “Lazy Encounter
Benchmark: 20” and reference that when throwing monsters
together for an encounter. It’s especially useful to keep this
number in front of you when improvising encounters during a
session.
option sets the benchmark for truly dangerous encounters
at the highest levels, where characters of great heroic
capability might face several powerful creatures in a single
battle.
THE CR CAP FOR A SINGLE
MONSTER
Although the lazy encounter benchmark uses the total
challenge ratings of all monsters in an encounter, it
doesn’t take into consideration the maximum challenge
rating for any single monster, either alone or with a group.
For that, you can use a different benchmark calculation to
describe when a single monster of a particular challenge
rating might represent a deadly challenge for characters of
a given level, whether battled alone or in a group:
A single monster might be deadly if their challenge
rating is equal to or higher than the average level of
the characters, or 1.5 times the average level of the
characters if the characters are 5th level or higher.
TUNING THE BENCHMARK
Given the many different circumstances that can affect
character power and encounter difficulty, you might want
to tune the benchmark calculation up or down to serve as
a more accurate guideline for your own group. To do so,
simply increase or decrease the number of characters you
use to calculate the sum total of character levels, treating
that as a dial for tuning the benchmark for your own
group.
For example, if a party in your campaign has
companion NPCs who make combat easier, or if
characters employ spells that often remove monsters
from combat, you can pretend the group consists of six
characters instead of their actual five and calculate the
benchmark that way. Likewise, if a group regularly gets
into trouble in encounters where the sum total of monster
CR is well below the benchmark, pretend the party has
four characters instead of five.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Many circumstances can change how challenging an
actual combat encounter might be. All of the following
examples set up types of encounters that often play out
more easily than the lazy encounter benchmark might
suggest:
• The fight features significantly more characters than
foes.
• The characters’ goals in an encounter can be achieved
without eliminating all the foes from the fight.
• The environment favors the characters.
• The monsters come in waves instead of all at once.
• Foes are distracted or in disadvantageous positions.
• The monsters are all surprised, or all act after the
characters in initiative.
ALTERNATIVE BENCHMARK
An alternative approach to the lazy encounter benchmark lets
you compare monster challenge ratings and character levels
with a single straightforward formula, as follows:
To assess the strength of the characters relative to the
monsters they face, take the sum total of all character
levels and divide by 4. Then multiply that number by the
characters’ tier.
At 1st tier (levels 1 to 4), the benchmark is simply the total
of all character levels divided by 4. But as characters rise in
level and across the tiers of play, they experience three distinct
bumps in power at 5th level (the start of the second tier,
multiplying the benchmark by 2), 11th level (the start of the
third tier, for a ×3 multiplier), and 17th level (the start of the
fourth tier, for a ×4 multiplier).
In a broad sense, characters of the second tier can be
thought of as effectively twice as powerful as characters of the
first tier, with characters of the third and fourth tiers increasing
in power yet again. However, as with the default versions of the
benchmarks, it’s important to remember that increasing the
multipliers for the third and fourth tier is optional, and should
be done only if you find that encounters created with the ×2
multiplier aren’t keeping up to the characters.
• The characters have spells or features well suited for
taking out foes.
• The players engage in excellent tactical behavior and
synergistic strategies.
• The characters are well rested and coming in fresh.
• The characters have an arsenal of powerful magic items.
• The characters have useful companions.
Likewise, the monsters might be favored over the
characters in the following types of encounters:
• The monsters outnumber the characters.
• The characters are surprised by the monsters.
• Foes have advantageous position.
• The terrain favors the foes.
• The monsters fight with a strong tactical synergy.
• The characters are coming in well worn by previous
fights and have no chance to rest.
As you make use of the benchmark, you’ll soon come to
recognize when the circumstances of a combat encounter
might steer it toward an easier or harder fight.
71
MONSTERS BY
ADVENTURE LOCATION
This section offers quick starting points for building
encounters, in the form of tables that cover a broad range
of foes in twelve types of common adventure location. The
tables serve four purposes:
• They show which creatures might inhabit a particular
adventure location.
• They highlight foes appropriate for a given level range
in that location.
• They show which foes might naturally pair up with
other foes.
• They offer example relationships between creatures and
suggest what they might be doing in a location.
Though you can use the setups in the tables directly,
you’ll get even more value from them by customizing
your own list of foes for these common locations and
scenarios—or by adding environments and scenarios that
fit the specifics of your campaign. “Choosing Monsters
Based on the Story” (page 113) and “Building Engaging
Environments” (page 79) both offer thoughts on
determining which creatures make sense for a situation or
location.
Each line in the “Example Encounters” column contains
an example encounter with multiple monsters. You can
decide how many monsters are appropriate given the
scenario, the number of characters, and their level.
Monsters who are in bold represent potential bosses for
an encounter.
ANCIENT RUINS
Level
72
Example Encounters
1st
• A thug leads bandits intending to rob a caravan.
• A vengeful shadow shifts in the darkness among a
handful of arisen skeletons.
2nd to 4th
• A pair of bugbear entrepreneurs use goblin actors
as bait to seek adventurers as prey.
• A sorrowful banshee orders specters to recreate
their former beautiful life.
• A gnoll pack lord bounty hunter leads gnolls and
hyenas after an escaped prisoner.
• A death dog protected by wolves lairs in a ruined
cave.
• A lamia served by jackalweres dwells in an illusory
paradise.
5th to 10th
• A wise bugbear chief leads bugbear and goblin
soldiers from an obsidian throne.
• A cyclops matriarch leads fanatically loyal ogres.
• A solitary medusa dwells in a mausoleum,
surrounded by petrified heroes and protected by
death dogs.
• A noble oni in a posh den is guarded by loyal spirit
naga storytellers.
11th to 16th
• An adult blue dragon is guarded by clay golems
in a jeweled lair.
17th to 20th
• An ancient blue dragon protected by stone
golems and air elementals dwells in the shattered
remains of a tower.
CRYPTS, CATACOMBS, NECROPOLISES
Level
1st
Example Encounters
• A pair of skeletons rises from a pile of crawling
claws.
2nd to 4th
• A lost ghost wanders, surrounded by specters.
• A bone naga rises from an obsidian sarcophagus
to command a host of skeletons.
5th to 10th
• A mummy lord entombed in a cold-iron
sarcophagus is guarded by mummies and wights.
• A pair of wraiths float above unholy urns
surrounded by vengeful specters.
11th to 16th
• A vampire in a gilded tomb is guarded by howling
dire wolves and served by vampire spawn.
17th to 20th
• A lich in an unhallowed laboratory is protected by
loyal death knights and iron golems.
CITY SEWERS
Level
1st
2nd to 4th
Example Encounters
• A wandering zombie is covered by a swarm of
rats.
• An erudite ghast weaves fantastic tales to their
ravenous ghoul followers.
• A spy is guarded by unscrupulous bandits while
awaiting the arrival of a contact.
• An otyugh luxuriates in a watery pit, surrounded
by concealed gray oozes.
• Wererats try to be intimidating by threatening to
feed prisoners to their giant rat pets.
SEEDY CITY STREETS
Level
Example Encounters
1st
• A giant rat and the swarm of rats that travels with
them are feeding on a dead body.
• A thug and a pack of bandit toadies are waiting
for someone to rob.
2nd to 4th
• A spy assisted by thugs has been hired to steal
something from the characters.
• A bandit captain with berserker bodyguards and
bandit followers is easily insulted.
• A cult fanatic leads cultists who have summoned
ravenous dretches into the world.
5th to 10th
• A mage commanding veterans is seeking
something the characters seek as well.
• A bandit captain protected by hired gladiators
and veterans seeks the characters with an offer
they can’t refuse.
• A careful assassin backed up by spies and thugs
hunts the characters.
WIZARD’S TOWER
Level
1st
Example Encounters
• A loyal imp commands a squad of guardian flying
swords.
HELLISH CITADEL
Level
Example Encounters
2nd to 4th
• A bearded devil draws lemures through a portal
connected to the river Styx.
• A barbed devil and a host of imps keep watch on
enemy forces.
2nd to 4th
• A summoned succubus or incubus directs
animated armor serving as guards.
5th to 10th
• Apprentice mages command elementals and flesh
golems.
• An important chamber is guarded by two
flameskulls and a number of helmed horrors.
5th to 10th
• An armored erinyes commanding a host of spined
devils prepares for war.
• A horned devil leading bearded devil soldiers
guards an oracular sphere.
11th to 16th
• An impatient archmage is protected by two stone
golems in an arcane laboratory.
11th to 16th
• Ice devil wardens and bone devil guards protect a
valuable prisoner.
17th to 20th
• A lich studies the multiverse while protected by
bound balors and iron golems.
17th to 20th
• Pit fiend commanders and horned devil
lieutenants use scrying crystals to get the drop on
the characters.
VOLCANO LAIR
Level
Example Encounters
5th to 10th
• A fire giant with pet hell hounds commands an
azer to dig for them.
• A trapped efreeti uses fire elementals to fight for
freedom.
11th to 16th
17th to 20th
FROZEN FORTRESS
Level
5th to 10th
• An adult red dragon served by salamanders
demands fealty from the characters.
• Frost giant hunters enjoy the sport of their
remorhaz pet stalking commoners.
• The bone-cluttered cave of an abominable yeti is
guarded by winter wolves.
11th to 16th
• An ancient red dragon worshiped by fire giants
awakens from slumber.
• An adult white dragon is served by loyal frost
giants.
17th to 20th
• An ancient white dragon lairing atop an
inaccessible peak is worshiped by generations of
abominable yetis.
ABYSSAL KEEP
Level
2nd to 4th
Example Encounters
• A night hag and their pet quasit schemes within a
chamber guarded by hell hounds.
• A summoning circle disgorges a barlgura and a
gang of dretches.
5th to 10th
• A glabrezu commands from a throne flanked by
chasmes.
11th to 16th
• A marilith, their cambion advisor, and a number
of hezrou servants guard a planar gateway.
17th to 20th
• A balor, a servile archmage, and a squad of
glabrezu soldiers guard an artifact.
DEEP CAVERNS
Level
1st
1st
2nd to 4th
5th to 10th
• Basilisks and cockatrices lair in a hall full of
petrified adventurers.
• A cloaker lurks above a pack of hook horrors
disemboweling a dead bulette.
• Ropers and darkmantles hang above a waterfall,
competing for prey.
• An elf cultist hunts prey with bloodthirsty wolves.
5th to 10th
• An orc war chief commands a force of ettin and
orc scouts based in a ruined keep.
11th to 16th
• An adult black dragon commands a host of trolls
made loyal through fear.
• An adult green dragon lurks in a dead forest,
protected by shambling mounds.
17th to 20th
• An ancient black dragon dwells in a sunken bog
filled with giant crocodiles.
• An ancient green dragon rules from an ancient
wooden throne guarded by loyal treants.
• A cockatrice pecks at a crumbling statue, while
stirges linger above.
• A giant bat surrounded by swarms of bats skulks
in the shadows.
• Darkmantles and piercers lurk in pools of shadow.
• A worg-riding goblin boss commands a squad of
goblin hunters.
Example Encounters
• Two ettercaps and their giant spiders stalk
adventurers.
• An ettin warlord commands a host of orc
mercenaries.
• A green hag lurks in an old hut with a pet giant
toad, and is guarded by loyal bullywugs.
• A werewolf prowls the shadows with their dire
wolf companions.
Example Encounters
2nd to 4th
DARK FORESTS AND FETID SWAMPS
Level
Example Encounters
SUNKEN GROTTO
Level
Example Encounters
1st
• A lizardfolk hunter is teaching their trained giant
crabs how to hunt.
2nd to 4th
• A sea hag commands loyal kuo-toa to set up an
effigy to a fictitious god.
• A lizard king with a lizardfolk shaman advisor
commands a clan of lizardfolk from a coral throne.
5th to 10th
• An aboleth in a swirling pool is guarded by chuuls
and worshiped by enthralled veterans.
• A sahuagin baron watches a pack of sahuagin
fight water weirds.
• A corrupt sahuagin priestess feeds sacrificial
victims to giant crocodiles.
11th to 16th
• A kraken rules a deep-sea trench, surrounded by
reverent water elementals.
73
MONSTERS AND THE
TIERS OF PLAY
How combat plays out against specific types of monsters
in D&D and other 5e games changes depending on the
level of the characters. Character power progression
isn’t smooth and linear across levels. Rather, it spikes
at particular levels, potentially changing the outcome
of a battle dramatically. As an example, the jump from
4th to 5th level gives melee characters twice as many
attacks, while spellcasters gain access to spells such as
fireball, significantly raising a party’s damage output
overnight. Recognizing when and how these changes
take place can help GMs understand and prepare for
these shifts in game play.
1ST LEVEL
2ND THROUGH 4TH LEVEL
74
At 2nd through 4th level, encounters most often play
out as expected for a heroic fantasy roleplaying game.
Characters are robust enough to face a range of monsters
and not get killed. Most characters have a single attack, or
sometimes two if they fight with a weapon in each hand.
Spells usually target one or two creatures.
Combat encounters of 2nd to 4th level are often the
easiest to balance compared to other levels of play.
Characters of 2nd through 4th level can typically handle
a group of monsters from challenge rating 1/8 to CR 1, a
pair of monsters of CR 2 or 3, or a single monster up to
about CR 5.
Great foes at these levels include all of those appropriate
for 1st-level characters, along with ogres, scouts, dire
wolves, and veterans. Cult fanatics, hags, vampire spawn,
ettins, and lamias can work well for bosses at this tier.
5TH TO 10TH LEVEL
At 5th level, character power spikes up. Fighters can attack
twice, and can double that double attack with Action
Surge. Spellcasters gain access to spells such as fireball,
spirit guardians, and hypnotic pattern. As characters rise
above 5th level, their capabilities increase quickly. Monks
get Stunning Strike. Spellcasters learn spells able to take
out a foe with a single failed saving throw, including
banishment and polymorph.
At 5th level and above, you can no longer trust a lone
nonlegendary monster to challenge a group of characters.
Often a single spell, class feature, or volley of attacks can
incapacitate or kill any such creature. Against large groups
of foes, a casting of fireball or a use of Turn Undead can
end the fight. Get comfortable with this change to how
your encounters are going to play out, and use lightning
rod monsters (page 44) to let the characters show off
these potent capabilities without ruining your fun.
At these levels, the heroes’ defensive capabilities
increase as well. Characters can fly, turn invisible, or block
off entire sections of the battlefield with spells like wall
of fire. Healing becomes plentiful. Paladins can protect
entire parties with their defensive features. Even lower-
FABIAN PARENTE
Though not identified as its own tier of play in the fifth
edition core rules, games at 1st level are entirely different
from games at later levels. Characters of 1st level have few
resources—hit points in particular. Creatures of CR 1/2
can kill 1st-level characters with a single critical hit, and
1st-level spellcasters have few spells able to control more
than one or two monsters.
When designing combat encounters at 1st level, be
wary of using foes higher than CR 1/4, and lean toward
running fewer monsters than characters. A CR 1/2
creature might make a decent boss monster for 1st-level
characters, but a CR 1 monster might knock characters
unconscious with a single hit—or even kill them
completely.
Even when running a published adventure for 1st-level
characters, take note of the encounters it offers. Many
such adventures include potentially deadly encounters at
1st level, so adjust them accordingly by running lower-CR
monsters and fewer of them.
Creatures of CR 1/8 to CR 1/2 work well for 1st-level
characters, including bandits, cultists, and skeletons, with
maybe a thug for a boss.
(The “Running-1st Level Adventures” sidebar in this
section offers more thoughts on this topic.)
level defensive features such as the shield spell can be used
more often with a larger number of available spell slots.
At 5th level and above, a GM’s understanding of the
capabilities of the characters and how those capabilities
relate to a monster’s stat block is vital to building
challenging encounters. (See “Reading the Monster Stat
Block,” page 102, for more on this topic.) Creatures who
challenge characters at 5th level and above (roughly CR 4
and up) are usually more complicated than those of lower
challenge ratings. Hard encounters put together using
default encounter-building rules might be less challenging
than expected.
Characters of 5th to 10th level can often take on hordes
of foes of CR 1/4 to CR 1. They can usually survive battles
against groups of CR 2 to CR 5 monsters, small groups of
CR 6 to CR 10 foes, and single monsters up to CR 15.
Great foes at this tier include young dragons, giants,
mages, and lower-CR demons and devils. Bosses can
include medusas, lower-CR adult dragons, mid-CR
demons and devils, and maybe even an archmage.
11TH TO 16TH LEVEL
At 11th level, characters become superheroes. They have
huge amounts of resources at their disposal to handle
the hardest monsters in the game. The heroes’ ability to
control or incapacitate foes continues to increase, along
with their ability to dish out tremendous amounts of
damage.
The variance in power and capabilities between
different groups at these levels of play is wide. Challenging
battles can take significantly longer to run than those of
lower levels. Monsters who feel like a good challenge often
end up easier to defeat than expected, and characters at
this level can often take out a single powerful boss with
ease. Likewise, the characters have numerous options to
mitigate the damage their foes deal—made worse by the
fact that many published monsters appropriate for these
levels deal too little damage for their challenge rating.
(See “The Relative Weakness of High-CR Monsters,” page
53, for more on that topic.)
Characters at these levels can often take on large groups
of monsters of up to CR 3, medium-sized groups of CR
6 to CR 10, small groups of CR 11 to CR 14, and single
opponents of up to CR 21. Good foes at this tier include
all of those mentioned previously, along with ancient
dragons, higher-CR giants, liches, and high-CR demons
and devils. And even at a high CR, a boss monster
almost certainly wants some friends to defend against the
characters.
17TH TO 20TH LEVEL
From 17th level up, the characters are just short of
godlike. They travel across worlds. They can often
easily defeat any single monster of any challenge rating,
unless the GM customizes that monster to face them.
Characters at the highest levels have the strongest
defenses imaginable, letting them absorb tremendous
amounts of damage and wave off most detrimental effects.
RUNNING 1ST-LEVEL ADVENTURES
At 1st level, 5e isn’t just effectively its own tier—it almost feels
like its own game. Play at 1st level feels different than at just
about any other level. Characters have far fewer resources at
their disposal—including tactical options and hit points—even
as 1st-level campaigns often feature less-experienced players.
Many groups love this style of play, often seen in D&D-inspired
games that identify as part of the Old School Renaissance,
hearkening back to a time when characters were at greater risk
of death, and players had to trust to their wits rather than their
characters’ die rolls and class features to overcome challenges.
As a GM running a 1st-level 5e game, you have some choices
about how you want to handle this very different play style.
First, you can get through that level quickly. Mike often quips
that 1st level should be a crucial conversation and a fight
against a giant rat. Then boom, the characters are 2nd level
and can begin their adventuring careers in earnest. This takes
the game past its initial potentially deadly stage, and into the
heroic-fantasy style of play faster. At 2nd level, character hit
points go way up in relation to the damage their foes can deal,
and new class features unlock to give characters more agency
in situations that might have crushed their 1st-level selves.
Alternatively, you can design adventures specifically for this
level of play. The guidance in this section can help you think
about which monsters of specific challenge levels work best
to not wipe out 1st-level characters. Or you might decide to
have the stripling adventurers focus more on challenges in the
world than combat encounters. Create opportunities for the
characters to sneak around, so that maybe they drop a big pile
of logs on those pesky bandits instead of facing them head on.
Your 1st-level games can also focus on roleplaying, letting the
characters engage with important NPCs before heading off on
more dangerous missions.
Alternatively, you can embrace those earlier days of fantasy
roleplaying where death was around every corner. Many
people love 1st-level 5e games for this very reason. Two
Shortbow attacks from a skeleton can put an average character
in the dirt, and a critical hit from an ogre can turn even the
toughest fighter or barbarian into a red splotch on the wall.
Whichever approach you choose, discuss the style of the
game you plan to run with your players ahead of time. Find out
if they want that grim and dangerous 1st-level adventure, or
if they’d prefer to have their stern conversation and giant-rat
fight before their real heroic journey begins.
To build challenging encounters at these levels, GMs
must customize those encounters around the powers and
capabilities of the characters, and such battles can take
a long time to run. (“Building Challenging High-Level
Encounters,” page 86, has information and advice on
these sorts of encounters.)
At these levels, characters can take on huge numbers of
foes below CR 5, large groups of CR 6 to CR 10, mediumsized groups of CR 11 to CR 15, and bosses of CR 22 and
above. Characters at these levels can fight—and triumph
over—any monster in 5e, even when partnered with other
monsters.
75
BUILDING ENGAGING
ENCOUNTERS
An engaging encounter is one that makes the players take
notice. They lean forward in their seats. They talk to each
other excitedly. They come up with plans, interact with
scene elements, and stay focused as the scene develops.
But how do we achieve this?
This section looks at the types of elements in an
encounter that can serve as sources for engagement. It
then discusses the types of engagement we can tie to those
elements, evoking in the players a desire to take action.
engaging. An encounter with the zealots who attacked the
caravan from a previous scene? Much more engaging.
WHAT DOESN’T ENGAGE?
Encounter features that can be manipulated catch the eye
of players and characters alike. The more the interaction
feels rewarding, necessary, or interesting, the greater the
engagement.
A rewarding feature is one that provides a benefit in
combat. A statue might look obviously unstable as it
looms over a foe—inviting the characters to topple it onto
that foe. An enemy spellcaster lobs spells from a raised
platform, but a block-and-tackle can allow a character to
reach the top of the platform. Archers fire on the party
from an unreachable position, but furnishings can be
Many aspects of a fantasy roleplaying game are fun but
not necessarily engaging. This is especially true of the
many repetitive elements of the game. A spellcaster
attacks with their cantrip. A rogue hides. The dwarf
fighter attacks with her battleaxe. Players can do these
things, have fun, and be disconnected from play at the
same time. A player might roll their dice, then go back to
their phone.
Similarly, an encounter element can fail to engage. A
trap fires an arrow, but the players smartly conclude that
it isn’t a priority and agree to ignore it for
a time. That’s fine if the role of the trap was
solely to add a bit more damage. But it’s
lackluster if the trap was supposed to
engage the players. Likewise, a GM
might imagine an encounter with a
pack of gnoll reavers as fearsome, but
can clearly see that the players aren’t on
the edge of their seats. Monster concepts,
and even monsters with fun stat blocks, are
sometimes not enough engagement on their
own.
FOES
Certain monsters and types of monsters can provide
engagement in their own right. They might have
surprising features, story importance, interesting
roleplaying potential, or other compelling aspects.
ACTIONABLE FEATURES
ENCOUNTER ELEMENTS
PROVIDING ENGAGEMENT
To create an encounter to which the characters
can fully respond, it’s good to break the
encounter down initially into its component
parts. Think about which elements can fit your
encounter concept—but be aware that you don’t
want to overwhelm the encounter with too many
engaging elements. Rather, look for the specific
elements that match the feel of the encounter best.
ENCOUNTER PREMISE
76
DANNY PAVLOV
The premise of an encounter dictates from the start
how significant it is for the players. An encounter
with goblin religious zealots might or might not be
turned on their sides to provide cover. The clearer the
payoff of a feature, the more likely the engagement.
Necessary features are ones that the characters
immediately understand they must make use of during
an encounter. For example, planks next to a ravine must
be turned into a bridge to get to the other side to reach
enemies. Magic pillars must be interacted with to bring
down a force field protecting a spellcaster. A vial of liquid
labeled “Sleep Potion” appears near a huge monstrosity
who appears impervious to spells and weapons.
Interesting features are those that are as much fun
for the players to figure out as for the characters—or
sometimes even more so. If an angry beast is held in
a cage and the key is in the lock, it isn’t clear whether
letting the beast loose will help the party—but it sure is
interesting! A lever on a wall bears a sign saying: “Pull
when in danger.” An unlabeled potion sits on a table
halfway between the foes and the characters, and the foes
appear intent on seizing it first.
LOCATION AND TERRAIN
The location of an encounter can easily drive engagement.
A battle across a ravine filled with molten lava tends to
wake the players up. A choice between using a swaying
rope bridge to cross a ravine or taking a longer but safer
path around it forces a decision.
BENEFITS AND TREASURE
a battle on the edge of a ravine filled with molten lava
can take on story relevance when a character spots an
important item they need sitting perilously close to the
edge of the ravine.
Story relevance can be an important add-on to random
encounters, even beyond what such encounters can tell
the characters and players about the world. Players pay
attention when a random encounter features a direct
connection to the villain they’ve been chasing, a clue they
need to obtain, or an NPC they care about who is in peril.
PERSONAL OR GROUP GOALS
An encounter has greater engagement when it ties to goals
the players and their characters care about. A player might
have set up a character backstory to which an encounter
element can be tied. A long-lost journal, information
about a missing sibling, or a clue to the location of
a treasure they once lost can all engage individual
characters.
The characters might also have goals as a group.
Needing to earn the trust of a city’s rulers might be
necessary to gain permission to build a keep in the area.
So if the characters happen upon a spy who just murdered
one of those rulers, the stakes are that much more
engaging.
AN ADVANTAGE OR OPPORTUNITY
The presence of an obvious benefit engages players. To
reach the golden chest, the foes must first be defeated.
A noble shouts a promise of a reward if the characters
save them from an imminent threat. A foe fights with a
glowing longsword that promises unusual power to the
character who claims it.
Encounters can provide clear boons the characters can
utilize or turn to their advantage. A barrel of lamp oil
is discovered, one room away from an enormous troll.
A chandelier has a rope tied to it, ready for someone to
swing across the area. A cavern features only sleeping
foes, who stay that way if the characters can cross the
debris-strewn floor without making noise.
TYPES OF ENGAGEMENT
THE UNEXPECTED
As you consider sources of engagement for your
encounters, also consider what types of engagement those
encounter elements can provide.
STORY RELEVANCE
Story relevance ties one or more encounter elements to
the arc of the adventure or the campaign. This relevance
is often tied to the encounter premise, but it can link to
other encounter elements as well. During a battle with
ruffians in a city, a character notes a foe’s tattoo—a symbol
associated with the secretive cult the party has been trying
to find. Suddenly, the foe has story relevance. Similarly,
START STRONG
Especially for experienced players with a wide knowledge of
what standard monsters can do, Scott likes to have monsters
who play against type or immediately show off unusual traits
or abilities. This strong start can dial up the engagement in a
hurry.
An encounter can grab everyone’s attention when an
encounter element is surprising or unusual—especially
the encounter premise. Approaching a guardroom, the
characters hear goblin and human guards having a heated
argument that threatens a fight. In response, the players
can discuss how to use the conflict to their advantage
as they try to sneak past—or to goad the two sides into
fighting each other.
Surprises can also be revealed during an encounter.
A young kraken might molt, shedding their skin and
becoming larger and more capable as you add several new
features to their stat block. Or an earthquake might strike
underground, threatening to throw all the characters into
a lava-filled ravine. In a dungeon, a foe pulls a lever and
a wall begins to drop, closing off access to the treasure
in 2 rounds unless the characters can reach it or stop the
wall’s descent. Foes can also provide surprises by revealing
information as they fight. What does the paladin do when
an assassin says she’s tired of serving evil and offers to
follow them?
77
FORESHADOWING VILLAINS
Mike likes to let characters hear tales of particular villains ahead
of time. The characters might encounter a captive, who tells of
the fearsome gnoll captain Argvon the Black Foot. When the
characters later encounter a fearsome gnoll with one black
foot, they excitedly anticipate a challenge!
MYSTERIOUS OR INTRIGUING
A mysterious encounter element is a promise that
something will be revealed during the encounter, often
in exchange for interaction and engagement. When a
skeleton on the ground has an arm stretched toward one
of three levers sticking out of the wall, the characters and
players can discuss what this means. They can seek out
clues to tell them more, and hopefully learn enough to
make the exercise feel rewarding.
When facing creatures made of shadow, interacting
with a glowing source of light in the center of the room is
likely to interest the characters. Likewise, when fighting
an invisible foe in a chamber full of looking glasses and
spectacles, the characters should be quick to suspect that
interacting with those objects might let them discover a
way to reveal that foe.
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
Characters and players can have fun interacting with
a situation that feels like an obvious setup. The players
might second-guess themselves and trigger the setup
anyway, or they might find clever ways to turn the
situation against others. For example, a dungeon doorway
leads into an open-air garden, the warm sun visible
overhead. That can’t be possible, and the characters know
it. Or an enemy on the far side of a room might flip a lever
that activates a trap. Another lever near the characters has
an inscription on the wall above it that reads, “Turn Off
Trap”—but the characters might suspect that pulling that
second lever will only make the trap worse.
IMPENDING DOOM
An obvious problem that gets worse over time creates
pressure and begs for action. An hourglass secured to a
wall rotates, the sand slowly running out—but what must
the characters do in response? A shadowy form pushes
against a membrane, threatening to break through at any
moment. A gang of kobold inventors are assembling a
huge trap or weapon, and will be able to use it against the
heroes in just a few rounds. Such clear signs of impending
doom provide a clarion call to action.
FORESHADOWING
When the characters have heard of a particular monster
or dungeon feature ahead of time, finally reaching that
foreshadowed element makes a big impression. A torn
journal in a dungeon corridor might record the account
78
of other adventurers who barely survived “the deadly
scythe room.” Several rooms later, the characters find
a chamber filled with swinging scythes, making that
encounter feel more engaging and less random because of
the earlier warning.
PROVOCATION OR CHALLENGE
A villain appears in court and whispers a challenge,
daring the characters to strike them down. An ogre
bellows that no foe has ever forced her to yield. A band
of goblins wear shirts saying “Unbeatable Goblin Fight
Club.” Such provocations demand responses from the
characters, and make a scene more memorable.
HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
An encounter with no engagement can be boring.
An encounter with too much engagement can be
overwhelming. When thinking about encounter elements
that can create engagement, try to think through the
perspective of the players when their characters first
enter the encounter. How much information is presented
initially? How much additional information is presented
as the encounter progresses? Is needing to process
that information likely to help the characters during
the encounter? Or will it cause the players to become
disengaged because they can’t keep track of everything
going on around the party?
As a rule of thumb, select no more than two or three
types of engagement for an encounter, and apply them
sparingly. One goblin warlord issuing a challenge
can create a memorable scene. But that scene loses
engagement if the characters are already trying to
swing on a chandelier, disarm a trap, and save a beloved
NPC. Similarly, if every goblin in the war band issues a
challenge to different characters, the engagement becomes
repetitive and harder to track. Less is more!
Engagement can also be overwhelming for you as a
GM. When GMs have to track too many variables, it can
become harder to also look after all the other parts of
the game, including roleplaying the foes, remembering
character backstory, and running monsters tactically.
Using whatever level of engagement you’re able to run
most effectively will help make that engagement fun for
you too.
As you create encounters and try out different methods
for increasing engagement, also keep an eye on what
works for your group. Some players like a simpler game,
while others will embrace complexity and enjoy trying
to track all the things they can do in an encounter. Over
time, you can modify your approach to find the best
common-ground fit between your preferred style and that
of your players.
BUILDING ENGAGING
ENVIRONMENTS
Engaging environments are ones in which the terrain,
features, layout, and other elements excite players
and characters alike. In this section, we take a look
at the locations we choose for our battles, and the
art of encouraging the characters to interact with the
environment.
REINFORCING STORY
When designing an encounter, consider the natural
habitat of the foes in that encounter. The right
environment can reinforce the theme of the encounter
and enhance the story by creating a more realistic and
engrossing setting.
For example, in an encounter with several giant apes,
it’s almost mandatory for the encounter area to include
trees and vines from which the apes can swing down and
attack. Such an environment provides engagement as the
characters deal with the apes’ ability to climb out of reach
and move from branch to branch.
Even if an expected or ideal environment isn’t available,
you can play off the baseline concept. Giant apes in a
canyon could climb rocky pillars and navigate narrow
rock ledges, providing the same advantages and attack
options outside of a forest environment, and helping the
story resonate with and engage the players.
However, when selecting an environment, make
sure that what fits the story doesn’t hinder the fun. An
encounter with giant frogs in pools or a swamp makes
great sense. But if the pools are so deep that the characters
can’t easily approach the frogs, the encounter could
become frustrating. Adding giant lily pads increases
engagement and reduces frustration, while still presenting
the thematically appropriate challenge.
TACTICAL ENGAGEMENT
An environment that provides a tactical advantage almost
always creates engagement. This can be true regardless of
whether the environment favors the foes, the characters,
or both. When providing a tactical advantage, think
of the benefit and how it might be countered, as with
the examples below. (You can find additional ideas for
engagement in “Building Engaging Encounters” on page
76.)
FORMATION
What the characters see when an encounter starts informs
how they approach the encounter. If ten kobolds are in
the center of a room, the characters might opt to initially
engage with area spells and effects. Melee characters
lacking those options will rush forward, engaging the
closest foes.
But if five of the kobolds are in the center of the room
and five are farther back using bows, the tactics change.
Area spells are still useful, but the characters might want
to divide their tactics, with some going after the kobold
archers. Likewise, spreading all ten kobolds around the
room, perhaps in groups of two, forces the characters to
split up. This could leave them open for a surprise the
kobolds have planned, such as getting ready to use nets or
standing on the far side of concealed pit traps.
For all these options, needing to decide what to do
can engage the players, encouraging them to develop
strategies and communicate with each other.
MOVEMENT
An excellent skill to develop as a GM is understanding
how an encounter drives, facilitates, or impedes
movement. Consider an encounter with interesting
features, but in which the monsters quickly run up to the
characters and the fight ends up centered on the doorway
into the area. To avoid this, consider the width of the
entrance and the distances between the door, the foes, and
the engaging aspects of the environment.
Moving foes back from the entrance allows characters
to get fully inside an encounter area. In many cases, it can
be advantageous to start an encounter without obvious
foes, making it more likely that the characters will enter
the area—after which combat can begin. Gargoyles might
wait until characters start to explore the interior of an
old temple before revealing themselves. A group of gnoll
sentries can enter a great hall from another door once the
characters reach the center of that area.
Once an encounter is underway, provide incentives to
entice characters to move. An engaging environment can
help, but think through all the lines of travel that exist in
an area. Are there bottlenecks where fights will impede
movement? Are there enough ways to reach key areas of
the encounter? How many 30-foot moves are required
to reach those key areas? You don’t necessarily want
to remove all elements that impede the characters, but
providing ways to speed up travel or bypass bottlenecks
can encourage movement.
Forced movement can also provide good engagement.
A monster who can use telekinesis, grasping tentacles, or
some other means of dragging characters closer to desired
locations (including closer to themself) ensures that the
characters will interact with the environment, whether as
STACK THE DECK
Scott notes that GMs can easily entice players to take a
particular course of action by giving their characters a tangible
benefit if they do so. Characters might not be inclined to take
the time to navigate stairs to reach a boss monster—unless the
stairs also provide half cover against attacks from the boss’s
minions, creating an environmental benefit that makes that
route a more attractive option.
79
UNREALISTIC SIZES ARE OKAY
Scott points out that the goals of facilitating roles and enabling
movement often require larger encounter areas than would
be found in real life—and that this is fine. A 30-by-30-foot
chamber is large in our world, but might work perfectly with
the backstory of a fantastic location to allow for monsters and
characters to interact properly.
Similarly, Teos points out that a 5-foot-wide corridor works
just fine for real people walking, but can be too narrow for
the combat-focused reality of the game. This is because
moving through a space containing an ally requires twice the
movement. As such, a 5-foot corridor can hinder any attempts
for characters or monsters to reposition or move tactically, and
should generally not be used anywhere that combat might
take place.
a result of forced movement or of trying to stay out of the
reach of a creature who can move them.
FACILITATE ROLES
Even though monsters in 5e games don’t have defined
roles (controller, defender, and so forth), you can always
think about the effect a monster’s stats have on the role
it plays in combat, then use the environment to facilitate
that role.
A monster with high hit points or Armor Class
should go to the front, drawing the heroes’ attention and
soaking up the damage that would otherwise reach more
important monsters. A choke point forces heroes to work
through these combat-focused foes first. Monsters who
deal high damage, especially those with high mobility, can
engage key heroes in the middle or rear party ranks and
then move away to safety.
The environment facilitates this approach to monster
roles when it provides ways for monsters to reach their
intended targets. Likewise, monsters who hide should
be given cover so they can maximize their potential for
ambush. And monsters who can boost allies or attack at
a distance should be given enough space to do so while
maneuvering to stay away from the characters.
(For a look at how to more formally apply monster
roles to your game, see “Monster Roles” on page 22.
“Reskinning Monsters” on page 50 also makes use of
monster roles.)
ELEVATION AND COVER
80
Even easily defeated foes such as kobolds and goblins
become harder to take on if some of them are placed on
higher ground and behind cover. Similarly, providing
characters with the benefits of elevation or cover can
allow them to take on stronger foes or additional waves of
weak foes.
When adding elevation, consider how one or both sides
can use it, and how creatures can reach elevated areas.
Stairs or other means of access that are difficult terrain
might require several rounds of movement. Many players
would rather have their characters stay below and make
inefficient ranged attacks than spend 2 or more rounds
to reach their foes. But there are also times when placing
foes out of reach works well, as doing so can let ranged
and spellcasting heroes shine.
If melee characters are expected to try to reach the
high ground, set up ways for them to do so in 1 round,
and don’t create a scenario where they spend most of the
combat running from foe to foe. Even risky ways to move,
such as making an ability check to ascend to a warehouse
balcony using a pulley, work better than spending
successive rounds on movement.
Both elevation and cover are excellent ways to boost
survivability. Because spellcasting foes often have fewer
hit points and can be easily pinned down in open terrain,
allowing spellcasting foes to begin combat hidden behind
cover causes characters to focus on other targets initially.
Once the spellcaster takes their actions, the heroes can
change tactics to respond to the newly revealed threat.
And whereas needing to spend 2 rounds to reach a
goblin is usually frustrating, spending 2 rounds to reach a
dangerous spellcaster might be a worthwhile option for a
melee hero.
Cover is also a boon to any foes or characters who
benefit from stealth. A rogue always appreciates
environments allowing them to hide, just as foes who
work best as lurkers or skirmishers can benefit from cover
and being able to fall back to hard-to-reach places.
ENGAGING ELEMENTS
Specific elements in the environment can help engage the
players during an encounter, especially when the source of
engagement gives the characters an edge. When designing
encounters, look for opportunities to add dynamic
elements that fit the location and reward interaction.
DAMAGING OR HINDERING TERRAIN
In a forest frequented by fey creatures, the vegetation
might grab at characters, slowing or restraining them.
A fight atop a volcano might feature pools of glowing
magma that damage any creature moving through them.
When selecting such terrain, consider where to place
it in an encounter. Think through the likely routes
creatures will take during combat, and how to create or
break up obvious movement patterns to generate options
or force particular behavior. Pools of lava might force
melee characters to spend time reaching foes, or might
encourage them to focus on high-AC foes in front of
them, helping to protect vulnerable foes farther away.
When hindering or damaging terrain is obvious, the
players can freely discuss options when the encounter
begins. Terrain can also be revealed during play when
it impacts a creature, though it’s often more effective to
hint at the terrain’s unusual nature and encourage ability
checks that can reveal its effects. “The vegetation is
moving, as if blown about by a wind you can’t sense,” can
inspire a player to ask if they can learn more, followed
by an Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) check
to determine the terrain’s effects. If the check fails, the
LEVEL MATTERS
Damaging and hindering terrain can be exciting, but Scott
notes that such terrain has a disproportionate impact on
lower-level characters, who often lack ways to mitigate
hindering terrain or come up short on the hit points needed
to weather continued damage. At the same time, highlevel characters might see such terrain as little more than a
resource tax, requiring a couple of relatively low-level spells
or readily available class features to deal with. As such, setting
up engaging terrain at lower or higher levels often requires
additional work to maintain the story and the challenge.
character must decide whether to risk crossing the area to
learn what it does the hard way.
To create damaging terrain, you can take inspiration
from magic the characters or their foes might use,
including spells such as spike growth, entangle, grease,
or sleet storm. You can also use the guidelines in the 5e
Dungeon Master’s Guide for creating traps, using the tables
to determine how much damage terrain might deal.
FACILITATING OR DENYING
MOVEMENT
Swinging from a chandelier is great fun, and is more
likely to become part of a scene when you point out the
chandelier and the rope attached to it in an encounter
area. Characters are more likely to cut a rope bridge the
monsters are using when you describe how old the bridge
looks and how its ropes are fraying.
Likewise, adding elements that make movement
easier increases the dynamic nature of the encounter
environment. Bridges, ropes, teleporters, slides, and
ramps can all add interest and engagement, helping
facilitate the use of the entire encounter area.
Such environmental elements can also change the tide
of an encounter. The foes might start with the advantage
of higher ground, but heroes who can pile up a number
of convenient crates can reach those foes. Or an area
could feature ladders or even a trampoline the heroes can
utilize. When foes are attacking from a hayloft, a barrel
of torches can allow characters to turn the tables, lighting
the loft on fire and forcing the creatures above to descend.
ATTACKS AND POWER-UPS
An encounter environment can include elements that
provide or boost offensive capabilities. A siege weapon
might add a potent way for characters to damage a giant,
or provide the means to tear down cover. In a bar fight,
broken bottles can serve as improvised weapons, and
alcohol spilled on the bar’s surface might be lit on fire.
Such elements can be even more fun when they initially
favor foes but can eventually be used by the characters.
Spellcasting foes might benefit from an arcane circle
boosting their spells, until the heroes drive them back
and make use of the circle’s magic themselves. A table
in an alchemist’s laboratory might hold potions that any
creature can drink to gain a benefit, a fact the characters
learn while observing their foes.
Providing an obvious element meant to boost foes can
also be interesting if the characters are allowed to prevent
its use. If kobold brigands begin an encounter near a siege
weapon but their ammunition is some distance away, the
characters have the ability to prevent the kobolds from
loading the weapon.
DEFENSES
Encounter elements offering a defensive benefit can
likewise provide solid engagement. If heroes are targeted
by ranged attackers, they might be in trouble if they have
no cover. But a nearby clockwork fan has a large crank
that can be turned to create a wind that blows away
incoming arrows, and forces the foes to approach with
melee weapons.
Defenses can be interesting when they have a limited
duration or a means to disable them. An arcane shield
might protect an enemy spellcaster until special runes can
be removed from four pillars in the area. The fell undead
in a ruined temple regenerate all damage until a corrupted
relic is restored by bathing it in holy water. The trick is
to provide ways the characters can discover this. If the
relic or the runes pulse with magical energy whenever
a foe would have taken damage, that can provide a clear
indication to the heroes of what kind of power is in play.
Mundane defenses can work just as well for creating
engagement. A ritual is being conducted behind a closed
door that the characters must get through, but monsters
stand in the way. A pack of undead is on the move, but
the adventurers can loosen and drop a rusted portcullis
to slow the horde’s approach. If ranged combatants stand
on the other side of a ravine, the characters might topple
a tree or move wooden planks to create a bridge. And
if a red dragon breathes fire from above, the characters
can hide in one of two ruined homes—but each time the
dragon breathes, that home will burn, preventing it from
being used as cover a second time.
CHARACTERS ACT DEFENSIVELY
Mike notes that players often have their characters act
defensively by default. As a result, giving the characters
more defenses can cause play to become less dynamic if
those defenses provide an incentive to hunker down in
one place. To counter this, consider ways for additional
defenses to eventually break down, as with a monster tearing
through cover, or a magic circle in the process of fading out.
Alternatively, create reasons why the characters can use the
defenses only periodically.
Scott likewise points out that providing defensive-minded
characters with alternative—as opposed to additional—ways
to defend themselves can help with this problem, especially
if those alternative means of defense require or encourage
movement.
81
FIFTEEN ENGAGING
ENVIRONMENTS
Presented below are fifteen examples of environments
containing elements meant to engage your players and
their characters. You can use any of these examples as is,
or as inspiration for creating your own environments.
SLIP AND SLIDE
Frost-covered terrain features ramps shaped of ice, letting
foes or heroes quickly move across a battlefield that would
otherwise be difficult terrain.
ALCHEMY LAB
In an alchemist’s laboratory, any missed attack causes
bottles to break and spill, creating a range of short-term
hazards.
VERTICAL ACCESS
Within a wizard’s tower, each level features open ceilings
and narrow ledge-floors hugging the inside walls,
allowing other levels to be seen from above or below.
Teleportation alcoves on each ledge can allow the fight to
span several levels at the same time.
SHIFTING FLOOR
A construction site features automated clockwork cranes
that move sections of the floor during a battle, and which
suddenly bring different areas of the encounter together
or move them apart. The characters understand that they
can learn to manipulate the cranes, giving them control
over the battlefield.
STEP LIGHTLY
While exploring a swamp, the characters quickly discover
that what seems to be solid ground is actually a sleeping
tentacle beast. Missing with an attack or moving without
care causes the beast to strike.
CRYPT SHORTCUTS
A battle unfolds in an abandoned crypt filled with secret
passages. The passages allow rapid maneuvering from one
side of the fight to the other, but a few of them contain
undead that dislike being disturbed. The presence of
undead is random, and either side might trigger their
appearance.
DOWN TO EARTH
Enemies start the fight atop a wooden platform, letting
them attack with ranged weapons from cover. However,
the heroes can cut the supports, causing their foes to take
falling damage as they crash down to the characters’ level.
WHITE WATER
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A battle takes place on rafts heading down a river. Each
round brings a new threat from the environment, such
as low branches forcing all creatures to duck or take
damage, or fast-moving rapids requiring an ability check
to navigate.
CONTROLLED MOVEMENT
In a dwarven fortress, a central chamber set with levers
allows foes to open and close different sections of narrow
corridors, enabling dwarf guards to attack the characters
and then retreat. Once the heroes reach the central
chamber, they can take control and dictate the conditions
of the battle.
FIRE BRIGADE
During a battle in a burning building, in addition to
their normal actions, each creature can attempt to either
prevent the fire from approaching them or cause it to
spread toward their foes.
STAY DRY
While the characters fight in a sewer canal, it suddenly
begins to fill with water. Ramps and other devices can be
climbed to keep the fight going.
MARKETPLACE BRAWL
A marketplace erupts in an exciting battle. Errant blows
might knock over stacks of crates to hinder the characters
or their foes, sacks of flour might split open to create
obscuring and flammable clouds, or angry merchants
could enter the fray to demand that the characters pay for
damaged goods.
PIT PUSH
Multiple pits are set into the floors of a chamber where
the walls shoot inward each round, potentially knocking
creatures into a pit. It’s possible for the characters to
determine which walls will move next, and how far, so as
to find a safe place to fight.
KING OF THE HILL
A battle takes place along the outside of a pyramid, with
those atop the pyramid gaining a bonus to attack and
damage rolls, whether from magic or from the cheers of a
crowd below. The uneven top of the pyramid has space for
only four creatures, and creatures can be pushed off with
successful blows, leading to constant change at the top.
GEYSER RIDES
Geysers erupt in a cavern at unpredictable intervals,
sending creatures flying upward and spraying them with
scalding water. However, riding a geyser also allows
creatures to reach the mushrooms growing on the cavern
ceiling, which provide magical benefits.
ASSESSING A PUBLISHED
ENCOUNTER
Despite all the care designers take, no published
adventure is perfect. It’s impossible for the encounters
in an adventure to fit every group’s preferences, or to be
playtested for the way every group of characters might
approach them. Designers recognize that there’s no way to
flawlessly select monsters, motivations, and engagement
that will work for every table. So they make use of flexible
design to encourage GMs to personalize a published
adventure’s encounters.
GMs didn’t always understand or even know this,
however. Historically, earlier editions of D&D carried a
mistaken sense that the words on the page were somehow
sacred. “That’s the way the encounter is written,” was used
as an excuse to explain why an encounter didn’t work
well.
Using a published encounter offers many benefits.
But as GMs, recognizing that published encounters are
imperfect means we must also accept the responsibility
to tailor those encounters to our own needs. We want
to learn how to assess what an encounter offers, and the
changes we can make to improve how it runs at our table.
Here’s how.
Which are the Key Sections? Which sections receive the
most emphasis? In one encounter, terrain might receive a
lot of emphasis. In another, the encounter’s focus could be
the characters’ goals and how the monsters try to thwart
them.
Where is the Fun? Ideally, the key sections also drive
the fun—within the context of what that means to your
players. Ask yourself which sections excite you as a GM,
because those will probably also be the ones to excite your
players. You want to lean into those sections during play.
What’s Confusing? Sections that read poorly, are
confusing, or appear overly complex during a quick skim
might simply need review to fully understand them.
However, confusion can also be a sign that a section
doesn’t fit your play style. Note these sections for later
review.
What’s Missing? Is the encounter missing sections?
Does it fail to mention what the monsters do, or lack
details for the environment and terrain? Does it seem too
simple or lack fun? Make a note of these gaps.
ALLIE BRIGGS
FIRST LOOK
When reviewing an encounter in a published adventure,
start by quickly skimming it from start to finish. Note
the major sections and what they tell you, at a high level,
about the encounter. Published encounters (particularly
encounters featuring combat) often have one or more of
the following sections, roughly in this order:
• Introduction or overview for the GM
• Descriptive text to read aloud for the players
• Lighting, ceiling or canopy heights, sounds and smells,
and other environmental information
• Goals or other story information not
in the introduction
• Terrain mechanics
• Features that the monsters or
characters might use
• Lists of monsters and traps
• Monster tactics or scaling
• Monster or NPC motivations and
roleplaying guidance
• Developments or phases of play
• Rewards and treasure
• Information for moving on to the
next adventure section
A quick glance over the
encounter’s sections can help
you understand the encounter
framework. Then ask yourself
the following questions.
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WHAT’S MISSING THAT EXCITES
YOU?
Scott notes that we don’t have to focus on every one of these
questions as GMs. Another way to approach a first read is to
look for the sections that normally excite you or are best for
your style of play. For example, if you like tactical encounters,
you might specifically look for monster tactics and terrain. If
you love roleplaying and exploration, you’ll look for creature
motivations, lore, and interesting features. By using this
approach, you’ll be sure to focus on the elements you enjoy
most, and can add those elements where they’re missing.
Does This Fit the Story? Does the encounter fit the
adventure, your campaign, and the developing stories of
the characters?
Does It Inspire Other Ideas? As you read, you might
be inspired to add a plot twist, a new creature, or another
element to the encounter. Or a published encounter might
give you an idea for another encounter you want to create,
perhaps tying into the published encounter through
theme or plot.
SECOND READ
After an initial skim, go back and read the encounter fully.
Some GMs like to do this immediately, while others prefer
to give it a bit of time (even a day or two) for initial ideas
to settle.
A second read prepares you to run the encounter, and
might correct some aspects of your initial assessment.
Something you thought was confusing might become
clear, or a perceived deficiency might actually turn out
to be a strength. You might also confirm aspects of your
initial assessment. You can make notes in the margins,
underline or highlight text, or make notes in a separate
document to help you when you run the encounter.
During this second assessment, you want to focus
particularly on the following key aspects of the encounter.
ASSESSING THE FOES
In a few cases, the monsters, NPCs, and other foes aren’t
the key to an encounter. If this happens, you can decide
not to worry about those foes, as they aren’t critical to the
fun. For most encounters, though, the foes are a key part
of the action. You therefore want to assess them carefully.
Lore and Story. It’s worth reviewing the lore behind
creatures appearing in a published encounter. Monster
lore can offer valuable information about a creature’s
mannerisms and preferences, which you might otherwise
forget. By reviewing monster lore, you get into the heads
of those foes, and can better understand how they fit
into the story of the encounter, the adventure, and the
campaign.
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Consider which lore aspects are known to the heroes.
An ogre mercenary makes a straightforward foe,
recognizable on sight. You can describe their massive
muscles and stature to emphasize their nature. Any
adventurer should know that a giant spider is dangerous,
so you can freely describe the venom dripping from
their fangs to heighten the sense of danger. Low-level
adventurers probably won’t recognize what a cockatrice
can do, so you might instead describe the coloration of
their plumage and leave their capability for petrification
as a surprise to be experienced during play.
Monster Stat Block. As described in “Reading the
Monster Stat Block” (page 102), you can review monsters
in an encounter to understand how they operate, gauge
their strengths and weaknesses, and think about how to
make the most of their capabilities.
Whenever a monster uses a combination of actions
or features to be effective, you want to highlight that on
their stat block. You also want to look for intersection
points between different monster types. If one foe knocks
creatures prone, this benefits another creature with many
melee attacks, since they can now gain advantage on
each of those attacks. Conversely, creatures might have
features, actions, or spells not worth using. You can cross
those out to make your foes easier to run.
In general, ask yourself what makes a stat block
interesting in the context of the encounter. If certain
aspects aren’t interesting, you can mark them up to
change them, or add to them using the monster powers
in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster
Powers” (page 15), and “Monster Roles” (page 22).
For complex monsters, consider assigning specific
features to particular rounds. An undead wizard might
blast characters with a fireball spell on the first round, use
a fear-based action on the second round, and then move
in to use their life-draining melee attacks on characters
not affected by fear.
Goals and Tactics. An encounter might have creatures
engaging in unusual goals or employing specific tactics. If
not, you want to review the stat blocks and lore to create
appropriate goals compatible with the encounter.
Encounters often feature more than one type of
creature—hobgoblin gladiators fighting alongside an ogre
battlemaster, for example. You can examine these pairings
and what makes them interesting, starting with whether
allied foes have slightly different goals and tactics. You can
then highlight the differences during play, adding interest
and realism to the encounter.
Environment and Engagement. You can review how
creatures fit into an encounter’s environment, and how
those creatures engage the players. If an encounter offers
this information, then review these aspects to make the
most of them during play. You might make a note next
to the stat block such as, “The ogre will try to destroy the
bridge,” or, “The bandits use the ropes to move between
levels.”
If the environment doesn’t fit the monsters well, or if
their engagement with the environment is low, you can
add those details. “Building Engaging Encounters” (page
76) and “Building Engaging Environments” (page
79) have all the information you need to make those
adjustments.
Challenge Level. You can assess the overall challenge
level of monsters based on their CR and how many of
them appear, using the tables in “Monster Combinations
for a Hard Challenge” (page 67) or the information in
the “Lazy Encounter Benchmark” (page 70). You can
then assess whether the encounter utilizes the monsters to
their typical potential, or even above that potential.
For example, if normally weak gnome archers are
placed behind cover in a place the heroes can’t easily
reach, you might treat the challenge level as higher—a
medium encounter becoming hard, or a hard encounter
becoming deadly. You can then consider how that
challenge level fits the resources the characters have
available, and whether an encounter under those
circumstances will be fun.
If a different challenge level would work better, you
can make adjustments. Some published encounters come
with scaling advice—information on how to adjust the
encounter for weaker or stronger characters—which
you can use to make changes. If not, you can make your
own changes, or add features to monsters to increase the
challenge. “Monster Difficulty Dials” (page 27) talks
about making adjustments to encounter difficulty on the
fly. “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster
Powers” (page 15), and “Monster Roles” (page 22)
present lots of options for adding features to monsters.
And challenge level is discussed in more detail in
“Defining Challenge Level” (page 105).
SURPRISES AND DEVELOPMENTS
When preparing an encounter, you want to differentiate
between what should be obvious to the characters initially,
and those elements that can be learned during the course
of the encounter.
Aspects that should be known might need to be
clarified for characters. For example, if the published
encounter says negotiation is possible, you can review
EXITS AND ALTERNATIVE ENDINGS
Scott advocates always checking a published encounter
for exit points and a range of possible endings, beyond
the often-default expectation of all the foes—or all the
characters—being killed. Are the creatures in an encounter
likely to negotiate for surrender or offer an alliance? Will
some of the creatures attempt to escape if overwhelmed?
Similarly, recognizing the difference between an encounter
the characters can run from versus an encounter that demands
a fight to the finish can help you prepare for a range of
outcomes.
whether the encounter gives the characters reasons to try
this. If anything that should be clear isn’t, you can make
a note to clarify that during play, or add ways that the
characters can learn the information.
Some elements of the encounter might initially be
hidden or unclear, with the intention of having those
elements revealed during play. You should make a note
of such elements, and think through the conditions
by which characters can discover them, or when they
should be surprised by them. It’s okay if characters spoil a
surprise through clever or lucky play, so always keep that
possibility in mind as well.
Developments are often events that take place after
the first round of combat—making them easy to forget
during play. To prevent this, make a note of when a
development occurs, and place the note where you’ll see
it. For example, if a fog rolls in at the start of round 2, you
might add an entry to the initiative tracker reminding you
of that. As noted earlier, for complex monsters, you might
want to assign specific actions to particular rounds. And
if certain creatures surrender when reduced to below half
their hit points, you might write that next to their stat
blocks.
If an encounter is simple, you can consider possible
developments for it. A foe might issue a challenge or
share interesting information at a particular time. Making
a note of this can help keep you from forgetting the
development.
MINIATURES, MAPS, AND TERRAIN
If you play with miniatures and maps or crafted terrain,
your read-through of an encounter should also assess
how best to portray the encounter physically. You don’t
need perfect miniatures or maps to have a great time,
but choosing miniatures effectively can help clarify who’s
involved in a battle. Can the players tell two groups of
creatures apart? If important terrain elements are featured
on the map, will those be clear? Can you use simple
tools like wooden blocks to signify elevation? A bit of
time spent in preparing miniatures, maps, and terrain
according to the specifications of the encounter can
facilitate a great session.
ONLINE PLAY
You can ask similar questions for online play, selecting
maps, creature tokens, and terrain markers that will
help players understand what they face and the options
available to them. When reviewing a published encounter,
ask yourself whether you can easily use a generic map
(a standard dungeon chamber, a default forest clearing,
and so forth), or whether you want to look for a more
distinctive map and more detailed tokens to properly
capture the features described in the encounter.
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BUILDING CHALLENGING HIGHLEVEL ENCOUNTERS
As characters rise in level, many GMs find it harder and
harder to challenge those characters and their players.
Why is that?
Characters gain more features as they level up than
monsters do, and the players choose many of those
features carefully, if not optimally. Likewise, players hone
the use of their characters’ capabilities through repeated
play, while GMs are often running higher-CR creatures
for the first time.
The game’s math also takes some of the blame. At low
levels, monsters deal enough damage to kill characters
outright, and the regular rules for building encounters
based on challenge rating often result in low-level
encounters that can easily wipe an entire party out. At
high levels, the reverse is true. It can seem impossible for
monsters to deal enough damage to threaten a character,
let alone kill one.
So with all those factors in mind, let’s take a look at
how we can build high-level encounters that will be
challenging, fun for the players, and fun for us to run.
ANALYZING CHALLENGE
Challenging players and characters becomes easier if we
look at challenge as more than just hit points. It also helps
if we understand our players and their characters, as well
as our own tendencies as GMs.
STORY AND FUN ARE MORE
IMPORTANT
In the quest for challenge, we should never forget what
matters the most: whether the GM and the players are
having fun. Although a nail-biting encounter can be
exciting, many players have even more fun with an easy
win. Easy wins can make players feel awesome!
Story is one of the key ways to provide fun. A good
story resonates with the players. A game’s story is
more likely to be a good one when the players see their
characters’ actions matter, when there are secrets to
unravel, and when the characters’ goals and aspirations
are woven into the game. If a fight is easy but has a
great story, that’s almost always preferable to having a
challenging fight with a so-so story.
The first step to making high-level play great is thus
to create a great story alongside a fun and engaging
encounter. That way, even if the encounter isn’t as
challenging as you might have hoped, the game session
can still be fun and interesting. Think about and ask
yourself the following questions when creating a highlevel encounter, even before you work on making it
challenging:
• Are the monsters interesting, and fun to engage with?
Do they do interesting things, and do they advance the
story?
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• Does the encounter engage the characters, giving them
heroic and fun things to do?
• Does the encounter matter? Are there choices with
repercussions, opportunities for clever play, secrets to
learn, plots to advance, and threats worth overcoming?
• Are the decisions and actions epic, reflecting the
importance of the high-level heroes?
At lower levels of play, a straightforward combat
encounter can be exciting even when it’s not part of a
perfect story—because the risk of death creates its own
story. So as the risk of death becomes mitigated at higher
levels, it becomes important for the GM to replace the
narrative tension that the threat of death brings to the
game.
High-level play should therefore come with exciting
story. The heroes are saving entire lands, if not the world
or multiverse. Threats such as planar intrusions, the
essential nature of magic becoming corrupted, or an
ancient terror that can gain unstoppable power—if you
create an engaging story around such concepts, your
encounters will be fun regardless of whether the fights are
hard or easy.
CHALLENGE IS MORE THAN
DAMAGE
Encounters inevitably become boring if the only
challenge the characters face is hit point loss. So by
remembering that challenge is more than damage, we
can enable more ways to create engaging encounters that
feel epic, especially as the characters gain levels and face
increasingly formidable threats.
The basic nature of an encounter can make it seem
challenging and rewarding, even if the combat ends up
being easy. Consider the following examples:
• A mighty creature threatens to destroy a town or city
that is important to the heroes. Each round, in addition
to their attacks, the creature also deals damage to
buildings. The faster the characters defeat the creature,
the more of the settlement they can save.
• The villain is protected by an arcane energy field that
greatly reduces incoming damage. Characters can
destroy the arcane engine, which hovers high above
the ground. Flight and teleportation, as well as other
capabilities, become part of the way to address the
challenge.
• The dragon the characters fight isn’t just flying—
they’re also ending each turn behind clouds. This puts
spellcasters with the ability to cast control weather, or
other characters with similarly powerful mastery over
nature, in a position to cancel the dragon’s advantage.
(“Lightning Rods” on page 44 has lots of ideas on
how to customize creature traits and tactics to allow the
characters to show off—and to feel great doing so.)
• As the heroes prepare to face the head of an enemy
army, they also must raise the spirits of their nation’s
people, and heal dozens of wounded soldiers so they
can return to the battle and keep the enemy from
outflanking them. A scenario of this sort can challenge
players to come up with an inspiring speech, knowing
that the tide of battle might change if their speech is a
good one.
LEARNING OVER TIME
As we run encounters as GMs, we can take measure of
what works and what doesn’t. By isolating what made an
encounter easy and how to change that, you can change
your approach to increase the challenge. “Building
Engaging Encounters” on page 76 has lots of ideas on
this topic, in addition to the following examples.
Starting Distance. You might have been really excited
to use monsters who felt powerful for an encounter, only
to discover that most of them never got to do anything.
Spells might have prevented some from acting, while
other creatures were cut down before they could reach
the characters. So make a note regarding which types
of monsters become less effective when they start out
grouped together and far from the characters. Then next
time, test a way to place the monsters right among the
heroes, perhaps cloaked by illusions or coming out of
doors, crates, or thick underbrush.
Obvious Linchpin. You might spend time preparing
a powerful spellcaster mini-boss, setting them up at an
altar, guards before them, ready to tear into the characters
with their magic. The players, however, immediately
focus fire. A few ranged attacks, spells (including castings
of counterspell), and attacks by melee fighters with
mobility, and your caster won’t get to do much. So make
a note about how making the boss so high profile played
against the encounter setup, and think about providing
the spellcaster with some protection next time—an
arcane barrier, a shield guardian, resistances, and so
forth—that can help prevent them from being taken
down. Alternatively, you might have the caster appear
from behind cover, making it likely that they get at least
a round to cast a strong spell. Darting behind full cover
each time they cast could buy them a couple of rounds,
and portals or other ways to move around to different
areas of cover could protect them further.
Unhittable Defense. A fearsome giant deals tremendous
damage—if they can actually land a blow against the
characters. The one time you think you’ve actually hit
the multiclassed tank, out comes a shield spell or a class
feature to make the attack miss. When this happens, make
a note of it. You want to reward the player of an optimized
character with their desired play experience, but when
you can’t count on hitting that character, you need more
than one monster who hits hard, or ways for the hardesthitting monsters to reach other targets with lower ACs.
When you want to challenge the tank in ways beyond
weapon attacks, make use of damaging terrain, spells,
illusions, and other complications to keep them on their
IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT
Mike often talks about the “triangular growth of character
power” (discussed in “The Relative Weakness of High-CR
Monsters” on page 53). Characters don’t become stronger
linearly as they increase in level. They become vastly more
powerful and capable. On his blog, Teos has analyzed the
average hit points of characters and compared it to the average
damage of creatures in an encounter. As characters increase in
level, foes appropriate for those characters fall farther behind.
For example, a 12th-level party has somewhere around 375
total hit points. The official rules state that a battle with a CR 16
creature should be a tough challenge, but such a creature deals
an average of 46 damage per round—meaning they need 8
rounds to defeat the heroes even if every attack hits!
toes. Similarly, characters who fight primarily at range
often avoid damage, but you can design surprises for them
as well. That obvious cover … it couldn’t possibly be an
advanced mimic who grapples and deals a ton of damage,
right? Surely not.
Smooth Operators. Some adventuring parties operate
like a well-oiled machine. Each character has a role and
plays it well. Make a note of this in your games. Usually,
it’s good to not just allow but to reward that kind of play.
But what happens when the character who bails others
out of trouble is in trouble? When the healer can’t heal
because healing magic doesn’t work in an encounter area?
When the terrain restrains, making it hard for characters
to move around? By playing against the characters’
strengths, you can test what happens when the battle is
fought on your terms. However, this is a technique to be
used sparingly. Otherwise, it can feel as though you’re
being antagonistic toward the players by deliberately
countering their characters’ best combat options.
What Works. Just as importantly, when a high-level
encounter is hard, you can examine that. Where were
the monsters in relation to the characters? What let the
monsters be effective? How can you use this as a template
for future combats?
CHALLENGING HIGH-LEVEL
CHARACTERS
You have a fun story. Your encounter challenges
characters in ways other than damage. You’re analyzing
your games and learning as you play. Now it’s time to add
specific techniques to make your high-level encounters
more challenging.
JUST ADD DAMAGE
This sounds trite—and remember that challenge is about
more than damage. But dialing up damage to boost the
challenge for high-level characters is a good first step.
If your encounters lack challenge, and especially if the
players seem unimpressed, increase damage. A strong
blow, even if a character still has plenty of hit points, feels
dangerous. It wakes the players up.
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Mike loves using two or even three bosses in one encounter!
When you take this approach, by describing each of the bosses
and showing off their capabilities, you can create an encounter
with no obvious linchpin.
Similarly, Mike is a fan of waves of foes, as discussed in
“Building and Running Boss Monsters” on page 31. The
characters might quickly defeat the spellcaster protected by
guards, but when a second guard patrol then shows up, the
loss of the first obvious linchpin isn’t as significant—and the
characters have expended the resources that enabled them
to take down the linchpin so quickly. Waves of foes from
unexpected directions can also pressure the more fragile
characters who hang back from battle, forcing a change in
tactics beyond just pummeling the obvious boss.
To make things even more interesting, the boss or linchpin
can arrive as part of a wave. Have the characters start out by
battling guards, then have the boss arrive after resources have
been expended.
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The easiest way to increase damage is to add more dice
to every attack a monster makes. If a foe deals 2d8 + 10
damage, try making that 3d8 + 10. If that’s not working,
try 4d8 + 20. If you’re comfortable doing so, you can
simply double a creature’s damage output if they need a
strong boost.
From a story perspective, you can
easily explain a change in a monster’s
damage as a response to something
the characters have done. When a
monster misses on their first attack,
they become enraged and start
to hit harder. When reduced to
half their hit points, a creature’s
tenacious nature drives them to hit
harder in an effort to stay alive.
You can also add one or more
monster powers (see “Building
a Quick Monster” on page 4,
“Monster Powers” on page 15,
and “Monster Roles” on page 22)
to increase the damage dealt by key
foes. If a foe hits hard but only takes
on single targets, add an aura so they
deal damage to every character who
comes near. You can also add a power
that gives an additional attack, or
even one that deals damage when a
monster dies, either exploding or
leaking lethal energy.
You can add damage in an
encounter from sources other than
creatures as well. If your original idea
for a warped Outer Planes landscape
was to have colored grass that restrains the
characters, you might decide that on the second round
of combat, the grass begins to deal damage as well.
(For more ideas on this topic, see “Building Engaging
Environments” on page 79.)
KEEP THE HEROES BUSY
When a bunch of high-level characters are dealing
significant damage, their foes can drop quickly. So
challenging encounters must find ways to tie up the
characters using more than just combat. This approach
functions like splitting the party, but all the characters are
present. They’re just pursuing more than the singular goal
of defeating enemies.
To keep the heroes busy, consider any of the following
scenarios.
Save Something. The characters came to retrieve a holy
artifact or ancient tome—and during the battle, the item
is in danger. Maybe the fire used in a ritual grows out of
control, and will destroy the item unless the characters
do something. Or maybe a beloved NPC is dangling
over a pit that looks like a giant maw. If the characters
must spend actions and resources to save someone or
something, it limits their ability to just fight monsters.
MATT MORROW
MORE THAN ONE BOSS OR
MULTIPLE WAVES
Activate or Disarm. A terrible trap drains the
characters’ life essence until it is disarmed. Four pillars
around the encounter area must be deactivated to bring
down the arcane shield protecting the villain. Any device
that needs to be shut down during a fight can keep
the characters busy—with the location of the device
made difficult to reach, whether it’s floating in midair,
surrounded by damaging terrain, or accessible only
through a portal that must be activated before use.
Penalty Box. A glyph or other magical effect could
put a character into a maze spell or take them to a
pocket dimension where they face a challenge before
returning. Stepping on the wrong flagstone might teleport
a character into a sarcophagus. A lot of monsters can
swallow characters, limiting their actions for a time. All
these scenarios are effective ways of isolating characters
and keeping them busy, but you want to make sure
they’re fun. Perhaps while within the belly of a monster,
a character finds an unexpected treasure. The inside of a
sarcophagus might have a note hinting at how to defeat
the boss villain. Make any penalty box feel like part of the
adventure, not a way to pick on specific characters.
MODIFY THE ENCOUNTER BUDGET
Some GMs create encounters using the core rules in the
Dungeon Master’s Guide, adding up the XP of creatures
in an encounter and using that total to determine the
challenge level (easy, medium, hard, or deadly). A benefit
of this technique is that if encounters consistently feel too
straightforward, you can easily alter your budget, and thus
alter the associated challenge.
If moderate encounters consistently feel easy, try
increasing the XP budget of a moderate encounter—or
simply use the threshold for a hard encounter. When
building a deadly encounter, you can take the difference
in XP between the minimums for hard encounters and
deadly encounters, then add that as the new minimum for
a deadly encounter.
However, be careful to not adjust the budget in a way
that adds more creatures than you can easily run—
especially creatures of different types. Adding another hill
giant to an existing brute squad is fine. But adding a troll,
a cyclops, and an advanced ogre is likely to overwhelm
you. Any XP budget is usually better spent on creatures
you can run easily and effectively.
Another way to modify the encounter budget is to
worry less about balancing encounters, and to simply
run more encounters before the characters can take a
long rest—as long as doing so fits the story and pacing of
your game. “On Encounters per Day” on page 93 offers
advice on this topic.
The Lazy Encounter Benchmark. If you use the lazy
encounter benchmark (from the section of the same name
on page 70) instead of the core rules’ XP encounter
budgeting, you can increase the threshold of encounter
challenge by pretending a party has more characters. If
five characters routinely find hard encounters less than
CAN YOU WEAR IT? CAN IT BE A
MOUNT?
Talking of mounts reminds Teos of some of the surprises
organized play has provided. A fire giant with a pyrohydra
“backpack” they carried, the hydra’s heads breathing fire in
every direction. Druids using Wild Shape to serve as mounts
for powerful creatures. Teleporting creatures carrying foes into
battle, and then far away to safety. High-level encounters are a
great time to get a bit weird, because the characters can likely
survive even if you accidentally push a concept too far. Plus the
unusual nature of such an encounter will surprise the players
and engage them.
challenging, build encounters as though the party had six
characters—or even more characters, until you find the
right balance. This technique can easily be used with most
online encounter-creation tools.
CUNNING TACTICS
Because the effectiveness of a high-level party often comes
from the tactics of the characters and players, keep in
mind certain monster tactics specifically designed to
challenge high-level characters in return.
Prevent or Draw Focused Fire. Is it obvious to the
players and characters which enemy should be ganged
up on and defeated first? If so, describe all your foes as
fearsome and interesting in different ways, making them
all seem worthy of attention. You can also use descriptions
during combat to make the least damaged foes seem more
important than they are, leading characters to return fire
when attacked by those foes. You can adjust position on
the battlefield, so that the most important enemies aren’t
near the encounter locations where the characters want
to be. This can split the party, forcing some to focus on
specific foes or locations, while others chase down the one
foe dealing a ton of damage at range.
Alternatively, sometimes having an obvious main foe
can be used to your advantage. The big elemental in an
encounter is a sack of hit points, and melee characters
take fire damage each time they hit that foe. Meanwhile,
the elemental’s seemingly unimportant allies are the
real threat, but their innocuous appearance makes the
characters downplay that threat.
Monster Roles and Placement. As described in
“Monster Roles” (page 22), you can often think of
the characters’ foes as a team, each using separate but
complementary tactics. So place each foe where they
can best fulfill their role. Defend vulnerable or key
targets, whether through harmful terrain, features such
as self-firing arcane ballistas, or foes such as a spellcaster
benefiting from cover or magical defenses. Unless there’s
a story reason to not do so, you can place creatures where
they’ll be most effective right from the start of battle.
Just ask yourself whether a particular foe would want to
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start next to characters, near them, far away, or hidden or
behind cover.
Counter Defenses. If the damage resistances high-level
characters often have are a problem, you can consider
ways to remove them periodically. A dragon’s breath
weapon might cling to characters, dealing damage for
multiple rounds or temporarily removing resistance
to the breath’s damage type. A trap, magical effect, or
environmental feature can do the same. You might even
let the characters learn that there are ways to reverse these
effects by interacting with some aspect of the encounter.
MONSTER–TERRAIN INTERACTIONS
A powerful way to give foes an advantage and increase
the challenge in high-level encounters is to create an
interaction between the terrain and your monsters.
“Building Engaging Environments” (page 79) cautions
about not overwhelming low-level characters. But with
high-level characters, you can safely cut loose!
Many creatures can fly, letting them stay away from
the heroes or forcing characters to expend magical
resources to take to the air. But a black dragon can also
swim through pools of acid, while most characters can’t.
This lets the dragon use such pools to move around an
encounter area—or even hide in a pool while their breath
weapon recharges.
A giant might push a pillar down on a character,
dealing the same damage as if the giant had hit with their
best melee attack, and also causing the character to be
restrained. Incorporeal undead can fight in collapsing
ruins, uncaring as parts of those ruins fall and pin
characters underneath the rubble.
A massive demon might set an encounter area on
fire while fighting, potentially dealing damage to the
RUNNING A BATTLE ACROSS
TWO WORLDS
In a particularly memorable high-level battle, Mike built an
encounter designed to split the party—not just into separate
rooms but across separate worlds. For months, the game
had set up the idea that one of the characters had a deep
friendship with a giant they thought was dead. But what
none of the characters knew was that the nasty ancient blue
dragon sorcerer boss had actually trapped the friendly giant in
amber. When the characters entered the dragon’s sanctum, the
trapped giant was hanging above a pit leading into the Nine
Hells—whereupon the dragon snapped her clawed fingers and
the amber prison fell. Without a second thought, the character
bound to the giant leaped in after them.
Thus began a battle across two worlds, with some characters
fighting the ancient blue dragon sorcerer on one side and
others fighting a host of devils to protect their friend in a
hellish arena. Only through the careful use of a powerful cubic
gate did the characters survive, teleporting across worlds for
the occasional bout of healing before popping back to their
home world to defeat the dragon.
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characters each round. And similar effects might hurt the
characters even as they provide a boon to foes. In a dread
temple, waves of necromantic energy could heal undead
while damaging the heroes. Curtains of fire could provide
concealment for fire elementals, while also burning any
character who moves through them.
BREAK THE RULES
Our world uses physics, but a magical world can ignore
or bend the expectations physics creates. Similarly, the
world of the game creates expectations which we can
change, creating exceptions that can be validated through
story. A fire giant king might be no regular fire giant, as
you increase your encounter budget as described above to
create a stronger threat. You can have the king deal more
damage, letting them hit harder than expected. You can
also pair them with a powerful mount, such as a massive
hydra that breathes fire and is immune to fire damage.
A magical monster on another plane might be able
to use their movement to simply will themself to be
anywhere in the encounter area. A creature who doesn’t
normally fly could be a winged variant who does. A
creature might wear self-repairing armor, manifesting as
temporary hit points granted at the start of each of their
turns. A death knight becomes truly terrifying when you
give them the ability to tear apart the magic of a forcecage
spell with their bare hands. You can usually exceed the
game’s expectations when creating high-level challenges
because high-level characters are so resilient. They can
even recover from death … unless you counterspell their
revivify.
One of the best ways to break the rules is to take
monster features you love and add them to other
monsters—but you need to do so convincingly. A
remorhaz is a great threat, because whenever characters
hit them with melee attacks, those characters take
damage. You can add that sort of trait to any elemental
creature, or to a monster covered in spikes or wearing
spiked armor. You can give a monster a reaction to reflect
a spell back on a caster, with or without an opposed check
or saving throw. Or you might have a creature targeted by
a spell cause the spell to target the caster as well, evening
the score a bit. You can have creatures who take a final
attack when they die, upping their damage output as
they go down fighting. The monster powers presented
in “Building a Quick Monster” (page 4), “Monster
Powers” (page 15), and “Monster Roles” (page 22)
present all kinds of ready-to-use features that let you scale
damage and alter effects to meet your needs.
ON THE FLY
When preparing encounters for powerful high-level
characters, keep in mind that the tricks and tools
discussed here can also be used on the fly to make
encounters more challenging. If you do so, don’t worry
about picking just one or two. Use several ideas and
options, one after the other, until the encounter becomes
compelling and fun for both you and the players.
EXIT STRATEGIES
The other sections of this book talk about lots of different
options for setting up and running combat with monsters
and other foes. But when thinking about the beginning
and middle of a fight, many GMs overlook all the possible
endings of a fight—and the ways in which having ending
options in mind can help keep an exciting combat from
becoming a total-party-kill scenario.
In the earliest editions of D&D, encounter design was
much more of an art than a science (as discussed in “The
History of Challenge” on page 97). As such, adventures
for those older editions typically set the GM up to assume
that every fight might go in any possible direction,
with four cardinal points on that combat compass: the
characters win; the monsters win; the characters flee; the
monsters flee.
But as later editions of the game have pushed toward
the holy grail of balanced encounter design, and an
implicit math-backed guarantee that a certain encounter
should turn out a certain way, the fine art of not fighting
to the bitter end has become minimized. A whole lot of
players have never learned the value of fleeing a fight their
characters can’t win, and GMs are reminded to ignore
alternative options for ending fights by the number of
published adventures making use of the words: “These
creatures fight to the death.”
To help prevent an exciting encounter from becoming
memorable for all the wrong reasons, this section
encourages GMs to think about monster motivations,
a broader range of rewards for combat beyond just
“winning,” hooks that you can use to have foes roleplay
their way into a surrender scenario, and making sure that
the physical setup of encounters affords characters and
monsters alike the ability to flee from a fight.
PLAN YOUR ENDGAMES
Figuring out how to end a fight in a satisfactory way that
doesn’t involve one side claiming complete victory is a
difficult thing to do in the moment. While engaged in
running combat, a GM already has a lot of things to think
about. As such, by the time you realize that an encounter
you thought would be an average challenge at best is
about to become a smorgasbord of player-character pâté,
coming up with a believable plot twist to take the fight to
a different end can be tough.
You want to think about those plot twists and possible
alternative endings ahead of time, so that you’ve always
got one or more ready to drop into any fight. The
following guidelines can help.
ASSESSING MOTIVATIONS
Only rarely do the monsters in a fight have the single
motivation of “destroy or be destroyed in turn.” Mindless
undead or constructs are great for those kinds of fightto-the-finish encounters when that’s what you want to
run. But almost all other creatures, including intelligent
undead and the game’s full range of monstrous and NPC
foes, have other motivations for getting into combat—and
equally powerful motivations that can inspire them to
get out of combat. (“Roleplaying Monsters” on page 48
talks more on this subject.)
STAYING ALIVE
A monster who fights and runs away lives to fight another
day, and even creatures who can’t articulate that old adage
can live it. Every NPC, from the most loyal guard to the
most fanatical cultist, has a sense of self-preservation that
can inspire them to flee when the fight goes bad. Likewise,
animals, aberrations, draconic creatures, and more all
have reasons to want to live, whether those reasons are
guided by intellect and self-awareness or by instinctual
need.
Monsters who draw part of their combat strength from
fighting as a team or in a pack are especially open to
reevaluating the odds of survival in a battle as their allies
start to drop around them. Whether the characters fight
a pack of wolves or a mercenary band, those enemies can
easily tell when the tide of battle shifts to create a fight
they can’t win, triggering a perfect opportunity for an
offer of truce—or for the enemy side’s sudden flight from
the battlefield.
ALTERNATIVE REWARDS
A pack of wolves on the hunt most often have sustenance
as their goal, not violence, when they surround characters
in the wilderness. One way or another, bandits get into
that line of work for material gain. And most sapient
creatures who routinely enter into combat understand
what kind of edge magic can give them in battle. As such,
player characters looking to end conflict early often have
the ability to buy their way out of a fight. Dropping food
for hungry predators; offering coin or other valuables to
brigands, pirates, or cultists; or offering magic or service
to sapient monsters in the hope of ending a violent
misunderstanding can easily let the characters reshape
the scope of a fight. Alternatively, a foe aware that they are
about to be trounced by the characters might offer them
a reward or their own promise of service in the interest of
ending combat.
CUT OFF THE HEAD
Many times, the ferocity of a group of creatures in battle
is inspired by strong leadership, whether a pirate captain
able to whip a ship’s crew into a fighting frenzy, a mage
summoning magical creatures to do their bidding, or
a group of zombies responding to the will of the death
knight who directs them to attack. Having a clearly
identified boss who controls the rest of the enemy
combatants in a battle gives the characters a clear line
on ending a fight early. Once the boss is dispatched, you
can have their minions flee, or let them fight on in a less
organized fashion to give the characters an edge.
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CHANGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Teos likes the potential that comes from characters asking
surrendering foes to join them. As the GM, you get to decide
how long this alliance will last, and how thoroughly the
surrendering foes comply with requests—particularly ones
that endanger them. It can be good to come up with a goal
(other than treachery) for the surrendering group, whether
that’s simply not to lose any more members, or to gain enough
treasure to make the truce worthwhile.
This kind of setup provides a realistic roleplaying hook to
communicate to the players, and from which tension and
compromise can emerge. If the characters’ newly made allies
are pushed too far from their goal, it’s time for the alliance
to end in a way that will further the goal. This might mean
retreating at night, renegotiating, or attacking when the
characters are vulnerable.
CAN’T WE JUST TALK?
Whether on its own or as a lead-in to convincing foes to
stand down in some of the scenarios above, negotiation
and detente are time-honored traditions for ending a
fight. Though combat is one of the most exciting aspects
of fantasy roleplaying games, it’s almost always easier and
less costly for both sides in a conflict to not fight. So after
a few rounds of exciting combat, don’t be afraid to show
the players and characters that detente is a fine alternative
to one side or the other being thoroughly beaten down.
Rather than having the party’s most charismatic
character take a solo role in talk meant to end hostilities,
you can engage the whole party in negotiations by calling
for a group ability check using different abilities and skills.
This lets everyone play a part, from the sorcerer making
Charisma (Persuasion) checks to set out the deal, to the
cleric making Wisdom (Insight) checks to help determine
which foes are most open to negotiation, to the barbarian
quietly making Strength (Intimidation) checks to warn
the other side what happens if discussions break down.
In the event of a failed group check, you can allow the
negotiations to successfully end hostilities anyway, with
the failure simply creating a complication surrounding
the truce. For example, although the leader of a group of
assassins agrees to end a potentially deadly fight with the
party, one prideful member of that band feels humiliated
at being forced to stand down, and can return as a longterm foe of the characters in subsequent adventures.
INS AND OUTS
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In addition to the many social baselines that might allow
a combat encounter to be called off early, adventures—
particularly site-based published adventures—have
another important requirement for GMs who want to
keep exit conditions in mind. Specifically, one or more
actual exits.
Just as recent editions of the game have seeded the
expectation that every fight should go to the bitter end,
many of the adventures of those editions focus on a linear
encounter setup that can make it difficult for characters
to break off from an encounter without interrupting
the expected flow of adventure events. In a site-based
adventure, this idea most often manifests in a map that
features little or no empty or safe space for characters
fleeing a fight to fall back to.
If fleeing one encounter only brings the party
immediately into the orbit of the next encounter, not
much is gained—especially if some of the combatants in
the previous encounter are in hot pursuit. Likewise, you
can set up the most entertaining surrender-and-flee scene
for a goblin mercenary band who realize the party are way
above their pay grade. But if the mercenaries don’t have
a way to slip safely and quietly out of the adventure, the
characters are just going to run into them again.
SIDE ROUTES
Whatever the main route the characters are expected
to take through an adventure (whether in a dungeon, a
city, a noble’s estate, or what have you), make sure the
adventure’s physical locations hold side routes that can
be fallen back to. If you set out that the Forest of Eternal
Death promises a horrid end to all those who stray from
its single path, characters or monsters breaking off from a
fight in the forest might have nowhere to go. If it doesn’t
make sense to have prebuilt side routes in a location,
secret passages and alternative pathways (waterfalls, air
shafts, fast-flowing streams, sinkholes, and so forth) also
offer good escape routes for both characters and monsters.
SAFE HAVENS
Unless it makes sense for creatures (especially characters)
to not be pursued after fleeing a fight, it’s important
to have locations where a party can safely regroup.
Stumbling upon a secret room, or having previous
knowledge of a section of a fortress or ruin where guards
don’t regularly patrol, can give fleeing creatures respite
before taking on new threats. And combatants on both
sides of a fight might be able to make use of illusions or
other magic to create a safe space while remaining in
enemy territory.
RIPPLE EFFECTS
Any group that can depart from an encounter rather
than falling victim to it provides a potential catalyst
for unexpected changes in an adventure—especially a
published adventure that doesn’t expect that group to
survive.
In a site-based setup, a group of NPC adventurers who
stand down from a fight with the characters and agree to
go their own way might take care of subsequent threats
before the characters get to them—or might rile up
those threats out of spite for when the characters finally
arrive. In an event-based adventure, enemies who survive
combat because the characters let them go might become
reluctant allies of the party from a sense of hard-won
respect. Or they might double down on their nefarious
plots, furious at having been bested by the party and
anxious for revenge.
ON ENCOUNTERS PER DAY
In many discussions, the ideal number of combat
encounters a group of characters can face before taking a
long rest—often described as “the adventuring day”—is
focused on resource attrition. But although draining
resources is an important consideration, it isn’t the only
factor in assessing encounters, nor the most significant.
This section examines how the number of encounters in
an adventuring day impacts play, enables specific stories,
and contributes to the overall level of challenge those
encounters create.
WHAT THE RULES AND
OFFICIAL ADVENTURES SAY
In talking about the adventuring day, the 5e Dungeon
Master’s Guide states that an adventuring party can handle
roughly six to eight medium or hard combat encounters
in a day, interspersed by two short rests. These numbers
are likely based on typical character resources—hit
points, spell slots, and so forth—but their context is never
explained. More importantly, those numbers aren’t given
as a recommendation. (“Defining Challenge Level” on
page 105 provides recommended maximums based on
every encounter challenge level.)
The fact that these numbers aren’t recommendations
can be seen in the design of the game’s many official
adventures, which vary greatly in the number of
encounters per day. In some scenarios, the characters
might undertake a week-long wilderness trek
with only a single combat encounter. Other
scenarios might feature a dungeon with a dozen
encounters. A typical four-hour one-shot
or organized play adventure usually
features three to four encounters in
a single day, often of medium to
deadly difficulty.
the challenge of running out of resources, that drawback
becomes a special experience. (This idea is expanded
upon at “Dictating Rests” below.)
When the story doesn’t force the heroes to continue,
players generally prefer to decide whether to press on
for greater progress and rewards, or to stop to rest and
recuperate. As discussed in “Defining Challenge Level”
(page 105), the difficulty of an encounter does impact
when characters need to rest. However, resting is even
more valuable as a way to establish the pace of play. Rests
are natural break points, allowing characters, players, and
GM to step away from the tension of combat, engage in
interparty roleplaying, discuss character and adventure
goals, and plan for the next set of adventures.
THE RIGHT NUMBER
So what number of encounters should a GM use?
Ultimately, the right number of combat encounters in an
adventuring day is as many as makes sense for the story
and your world. You might set up just a few encounters
MATT MORROW
DRAINING
RESOURCES
As noted, the arbitrary number
of six to eight combat encounters
in a day is likely based on available
resources. Characters start the adventuring
day fresh, and as they face foes and other
challenges, they use up spells, limited-use
class features, and magic items.
Running out of resources and
being forced to face another fight is
problematic. Characters who lack
healing, have minimal hit points,
have no spell slots, and have expended
their limited-use class features—yes,
that is challenging. It’s also frustrating if it
happens too often. As such, GMs should consider using
resource attrition sparingly, and tying it to strong story
developments. In situations where the players understand
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in an inhospitable region, then dial up to many possible
encounters in a populated city or a forest teeming
with beasts and monsters. The number dictated by the
story can then be adjusted based on play impact and
story beats. These design goals are the key reasons why
adventures often vary the number of encounters in a day.
STORY IMPACT
Start by thinking about the story. When the characters
engage in an overland trek, a single combat encounter in a
day can break up the travel nicely, painting a picture of the
environment and the foes who live there. A self-contained
encounter story, such as a lazy troll under a bridge who
demands payment to cross, or a chance encounter with a
pack of beasts, helps you tell the larger story of a desolate
wilderness where dangerous creatures live and hunt.
When the characters explore a dungeon, you can
instead set up several encounters spread across a series of
cramped quarters joined by twisting, sarcophagus-lined
corridors. This larger number of encounters perfectly fits
the story of ruins crawling with threats. So ask yourself
what threats should be present in the setting, and how
those threats can be best captured as encounters. Then
use the number that best fits the setting as you portray the
story you want to tell.
PLAY IMPACT
An adventuring day with lots of short encounters feels
different from a day with one or two long encounters.
Over one session of play, changing the number of
encounters helps you vary the feel of the game, keeping
the players’ interest levels high. You can thus select the
type of adventuring day that will help you create the
desired play experience.
When a day features a single encounter, that encounter
is likely significant. You have one chance for this
encounter to impart your vision of a particular part of
the setting and the story. For example, on a wilderness
trek through a primeval forest, you might create a single
encounter featuring a gargantuan dinosaur among
bubbling tar pits. You can easily lean into the pulp feel of
this encounter, with the monster making the most of their
capabilities, and the terrain helping to shape a memorable
and interesting fight. With just a single encounter, the
players get a strong feeling for the lands the characters
travel through, in addition to a great play experience.
But you could instead use multiple encounters to mark
out one day of a wilderness trek. You might decide to
make each encounter tougher than the previous one,
building a sense of dread. Before they even begin travel,
the characters might hear stories of the swamp teeming
with undead. As they traverse the swamp, they glimpse
roaming zombies, easily evaded at first. They then face a
series of encounters, with your story goals spread across
them so that each tells one facet of the overall story.
The first encounter could feature skeletons in the
tattered military garb of the nation controlling the
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swampland. The second encounter could feature zombies
and skeletons in the uniforms of this nation and a
rival, painting the picture of an ancient battle. A third
encounter with ghouls and a ghost could take place at a
main battle site, loaded with lore about how one of the
armies’ clerics tried to animate their dead soldiers to gain
victory, but instead doomed everyone.
MULTIPLE APPROACHES
These approaches aren’t exclusive, and you can consider
both story impact and play impact based on your design
goals. As GMs, we always want to periodically step back
and assess the patterns of play in our games. Are our
dungeon excursions always composed of three to four
encounters? Are our wilderness treks always a single
encounter? Breaking out of established patterns can
surprise the players, even as it makes our storytelling
more complex.
PACING AND THE PILLARS
OF PLAY
When the adventuring day features a single encounter,
we have a limited canvas with which to capture the three
pillars of 5e play—roleplaying, exploration, and combat.
When we use multiple encounters in a day, we have more
opportunities to play with pacing and activate different
pillars of play. As with the general approach to choosing
how many encounters to run per adventuring day, think
about the effect of these broadly different approaches.
A SINGLE COMBAT ENCOUNTER
In an attempt to keep play exciting, a single encounter
in a day often features just combat by default. But it’s
better to choose the pillar you want to feature in a single
encounter based on your story and the encounter’s place
in the campaign. There are times when roleplaying or
exploration deserve the focus and will create a better
experience, just as there are times when combat is more
exciting for the players.
When focusing on combat for a single encounter, you
can add separate roleplaying or exploration experiences
during the remainder of the adventuring day. With no
further threats at hand, the pacing of additional events
allows the characters to rest and regain resources. And
even when a single big encounter is primarily focused
on combat, you can increase its complexity by weaving
roleplaying or exploration elements into it. Make it clear
that sadistic dwarf warlords are forcing a band of goblins
to fight, and the characters might encourage the goblins
to switch sides. In a fight against a golem who appears
impossible to defeat, let the players deduce that arcane
machines along the walls of the golem’s sanctum can shut
down—or heighten—the construct’s defenses.
In the same way, you can focus on exploration or
roleplaying as the main pillar of play, then add an
aspect of combat to that play. While the characters
explore a ruin, a spider attempts to leap onto an isolated
character for a quick fight before exploration resumes.
Or an encounter might begin as a fight, then highlight
roleplaying when both sides realize they have a reason to
work together.
MULTIPLE COMBAT ENCOUNTERS
When exploring a hillside riddled with caves, some of
those caves might feature foes who can be engaged in
roleplaying encounters. At the same time, roleplaying or
investigation can provide insight into certain aspects of
the setting, helping the players determine which creatures
live in the caves and why. You can adjust the length of the
many possible encounters in and around the caves with
more or fewer foes, and by varying complexity. Doing
so creates different experiences to engage the players’
interest, and to surprise the characters as they explore
each cave and steadily gather more information.
With multiple encounters, you can decide how often
to insert scenes without combat. These interludes allow
characters to momentarily let their guard down, stop to
rest, and reflect upon the adventure. As such, decreasing
the number of noncombat breaks keeps the players on
their toes as it builds a sense of relentless danger and
pressure. A series of caves that are home to kobold
trapsmiths could be an unending gauntlet the characters
must run through until they reach the end. Or it could
feature a number of exploration and roleplaying scenes in
which the characters learn about the folk who dwell in the
caves, negotiate with some of those folk, and prepare to
sneak into the caverns occupied by oppressive forces.
You can also consider the pacing when an encounterfilled adventuring day ends. Will the next day feature
more of the same? Will you do a fast cut straight to the
next combat encounter to keep pressure going, or do the
characters get to return home or to a place of rest and
refuge? Allowing for slow moments and a return to base
provides many opportunities for play, including allowing
characters to follow up on personal goals or make the
most of downtime activities.
CHALLENGE
A single encounter can be just as hard as several
encounters strung together. But because the game can be
swingy, a single encounter might have more variance than
a series of encounters, ending up much easier or harder
than expected. As such, when planning a single encounter,
think through ways to adjust the challenge during play.
For example, if you realize that damaging terrain is too
effective, you can prompt characters with possible ways
to bypass it. If a boss monster foe isn’t dealing enough
damage, you can have them become enraged and boost
their damage output when they drop below a certain hit
point total.
When working with multiple encounters in an
adventuring day, you typically need to worry less about
any particular encounter being easier or harder than
expected. Variance in individual encounters usually
evens out over time, with characters expending resources
on unexpected challenges and saving resources on
encounters that go easier than expected. If you find that
the characters are having too easy a time and you want
resource attrition to be part of the play experience, you
can simply increase the challenge of later encounters.
“Modifying Monsters Before and During Play” (page
45) has lots of ideas for this.
DICTATING RESTS
An average adventuring day allows characters to take a
number of short rests before ending with a long rest. You
can lessen the frequency of rests when needed to create
a sense of urgency and use up resources more quickly.
You can also add more rests when you want to replenish
resources to compensate for heightened challenge.
DENYING RESTS
Successfully resting, whether the one hour of a short rest
or the eight hours of a long rest, requires two conditions.
First, the characters must be able to rest without engaging
in strenuous activity. Second, the rest period must be
uninterrupted. This means that you can reduce or prevent
resting by altering either of these conditions in any
number of ways.
Clear Time Pressure. A volcano’s imminent eruption.
Poison gas slowly building up in a cavern. The timing of
a ritual. An army’s impending arrival. Upcoming story
events such as these can help convince the characters to
not take a rest by making it clear that resting will result
in failing at their primary goals.
A Need to Keep Moving. To stay in one place long
enough to rest might be impossible. For example,
guards patrolling an area will surely find characters
if they stay in one place more than ten minutes (to
prevent short rests) or one hour (to prevent long rests).
Constant Threats. A location might be unsafe,
periodically dealing a small amount of damage to the
characters from magic, environmental effects, or the
STAY FLEXIBLE
Scott notes that some site-based adventure setups can lock a
GM into needing to run a full slate of encounters, even if those
encounters end up depleting more of the characters’ resources
than expected. For example, consider the difference between
exploring a haunted ruin and infiltrating an active military
outpost. The former can easily allow retreat and respite, but the
latter forces the characters to keep going until they accomplish
their goals.
When designing such scenarios, consider whether the
characters might get in over their heads and what changes
you can make if they do. In the military outpost scenario,
you should be able to easily remove some of your planned
encounters, or allow the characters to use distractions or
roleplaying to avoid them.
95
DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT
Mike often takes a different approach when considering the
number of encounters per day—he doesn’t.
If you want to experiment with this approach, just let
the game play out how the game plays out. Sometimes the
characters have good opportunities to take a lot of long
rests, such as when they’re traveling vast distances in relative
safety. Other times, heroes exploring deep dungeons have
few opportunities for a safe respite. Sometimes the characters
have all their resources going into a big fight. Sometimes they
have hardly any. If the fun of the game is at risk from too many
or too few encounters between rests, it’s worth grabbing onto
the reins and looking to the advice in this section for managing
your adventuring day. But otherwise, don’t be afraid to let
things play out how they play out based on the evolving story
taking place at the table.
attacks of lurking insects. Alternatively, poisonous gas
or extreme temperatures might make it impossible for
characters to rest.
Nightmares and Hauntings. Short rests might be possible
in a haunted area, but attempts to take a long rest result
in horrid dreams that deny characters the benefits of the
rest.
Background Disturbances. The constant chittering
of insects, the ground shaking due to tremors, the
moaning of spirits, and similar disturbances can prevent
rest. Likewise, a recurring loud gong in a nearby temple
or waves of magical energy washing through an area
could interrupt a rest.
If the environment denies characters the opportunity
to rest, let the players determine this quickly. Heroes who
enter a ruined abbey should immediately feel a sense of
overwhelming dread telling them they won’t be able to
rest even as they explore, creating a sense of urgency.
When characters can’t rest, the number of encounters
in an adventuring day becomes more impactful, and
resources become precious. Even a single encounter
per day as a party crosses a haunted wilderness can be
a challenge when no long rests are possible. A series of
easy- and medium-challenge encounters becomes more
exciting and formidable when no short rests are available.
ADDITIONAL REST BENEFITS
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Sometimes it can be useful—or even necessary—to give
characters even more rests than normal, by granting the
benefit of short or long rests in other ways. When rests are
plentiful, characters can face repeated challenges with all
or most of their resources available, which can be fun for
the players.
When providing rest benefits, you can grant characters
the full effect of a short or long rest, or create a partial rest
effect that replicates a spell or other magic. Usually, the
time required to gain these benefits is reduced, even to
the point where the characters can gain the benefit during
an encounter by making use of a source of power that
bestows it.
Holy Restoration. Drinking from a healing font, praying
at a temple, or receiving a divine gift can all provide a
restorative effect.
Alchemy. Potions and draughts, ancient elixirs, or
alchemical concoctions can allow characters to
replenish resources in unusual ways. Alchemy can be a
good way to provide alternative types of rejuvenation,
from temporary hit points to reproducing the effects of
magic potions.
Unusual Magic. Arcane equipment, sources of raw
eldritch power, or limited-use magic items can all
restore characters. As a potential benefit, you can also
let characters attune to newfound magic items more
quickly than normal (or even instantly), either as a
property of those items or a one-time supernatural
benefit.
Nature’s Gift. Natural sites with an abundance of
primal or elemental energy might heal or reinvigorate
characters.
Meditation or Psionic Restoration. Places or sources
of deep mental calm can restore body and mind in
minutes rather than hours or days.
Safe Place. In a busy or well-trafficked environment,
the characters might find a secret door leading
to a concealed space where they can rest without
interruption. This space might be temporary, or it could
allow repeated use.
Out of Time. An extradimensional space can allow for
time to pass differently, so that a short or long rest can
be taken with almost no time passing in the world.
Chaos. Elements of chaos magic or wild magic can
let characters restore resources, or not expend those
resources in the first place. In areas of such magic,
casting a spell might not use a spell slot. Or perhaps
every critical hit or each fallen foe randomly recharges
one of a character’s limited-use class features.
In some cases, it can be fun to surprise players
and characters with a source of rest or rejuvenation.
The characters might feel like they are on their last
legs with many dangers still to come, only to find an
unexpected way to regain resources. However, when the
players benefit from carefully tracking their characters’
resources, it can be better to let them know up front
how they can replenish those resources once spent. For
example, characters trapped in a dungeon where resting
is impossible might quickly realize that each of a set
of artifacts they must recover to exit the dungeon also
provides the equivalent of a long rest. This mechanic
keeps the characters focused on finding the artifacts,
while still encouraging them to use their capabilities to
the fullest.
THE HISTORY OF CHALLENGE
In the first comprehensive edition of the Dungeons &
Dragons game (the version commonly known as first
edition or 1e to those who remember it, though it was in
fact the second full version of the game), the ancient red
dragon—that greatest of all mortal foes—had 88 hit points
and an Armor Class of −1.
Those aren’t typos.
Yes, Armor Class ran backward in those days. That’s
roughly equivalent to AC 21 in 5e. It’s complicated to
explain.
When we talk about encounter building within the
context of the 5e D&D ruleset, we’re discussing a topic
that’s been around for almost fifty years, and which has
gone through multiple stages of evolution and revision.
Each edition of the game had its own rules for how
monsters and other enemies were to be stacked up
against the player characters, and its own guidelines (or
charming lack thereof) that GMs were expected to follow
to create challenging encounters. By looking back at the
progression of challenge and encounter design, we can see
where earlier editions fell short of the modern game—and
where we can learn things as GMs from the more laissezfaire approach of earlier gaming generations.
TURNING THE TABLES
There was no such thing as challenge or CR in first
edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. (That name is
also complicated to explain.) There were no formulas
or checklists for building balanced encounters. There
was, in fact, very little consensus on what a balanced
encounter even meant, in the sense that we talk about it
with the current version of the game. Instead, monsters
were broadly organized into ten “level” groups according
to their XP value (the number of base experience points
a monster was worth if defeated in combat). That XP
calculation was in turn based on a monster’s Hit Dice
(which were d8s across the board for all creature types
and sizes, unlike later editions), hit points, and special
features.
Monster Hit Dice were also used to compare the relative
threat of a group of monsters with the party fighting
them, by dividing total Hit Dice by total character levels—
but with monsters granted extra virtual Hit Dice for
bonus hit points and special attacks.
Challenge in 1e was a complicated process, in other
words. But even more than that, challenge in 1e was never
intended to be a process for selecting monsters to create
balanced encounters. The ten tables into which creatures
were divided were used for stocking the 1e game’s default
multilevel, increased-depth-equals-increased-threat
dungeons, where the level of the dungeon below the
ground was expected to indicate the level of characters
who would find its threat level manageable.
Consulting the tables, a GM could see that the minor
monsters of Table I were most common on the first to
third levels of the dungeon (arbitrarily intended for 1stto 3rd-level characters), more powerful monsters from
Table IV were unseen on the first dungeon level and most
common on levels five through seven, and so forth. But
random encounter tables for wilderness areas paid no
attention to monster strength, with creatures there chosen
entirely on the basis of fitting the environment and
nothing else.
NIKKI DAWES
TRIAL AND ERROR
The second edition of AD&D (commonly called 2e
in current parlance) cleaned up and clarified the 1e
encounter approach somewhat. But for the most part,
encounter building in both those earliest versions of
the game was an art, not a science. Through trial and
error, while keeping one eye on the tables and the other
on monster Hit Dice and special features, a GM would
develop a sense of which monsters were a reasonable
fit for characters by level. They would then adjust the
difficulty of such encounters by adjusting monster
numbers relative to the party. But creating encounters
against higher- or lower-threat creatures was almost
entirely an ad hoc process. Then that process was made
even more chaotic by randomly rolling for the number of
monsters in an encounter before randomly rolling their
hit points, as many GMs did.
As such, encounters in the first- and second-edition
days often needed to feature things rarely considered
by modern GMs accustomed to setting up balanced
97
encounters of specific challenge level (easy, medium, hard,
and deadly). GMs of old would thus become deft hands at
fitting monsters to the narrative (see “Choosing Monsters
Based on the Story” on page 113), and at making sure
that combat encounters can be resolved in ways other
than a clear win for the characters (talked about in “Exit
Strategies” on page 91 and “On Morale and Running
Away” on page 125).
At the height of second edition, the ancient red dragon
received an upgrade to the red great wyrm, and averaged
out at 103 hit points with an upgraded AC of −11
(equivalent to AC 31 in the current game).
GUIDELINES FOR CHALLENGE
Starting in 2000, third edition D&D (no more “Advanced,”
3e to most, divided into 3.0e and 3.5e releases) made big
changes to monsters and encounters—and in so doing,
laid the framework for encounter-building guidelines
whose reflection can be seen in the current game.
Across the board, monsters in 3e were tougher than
their 1e and 2e counterparts, as 3e design embraced the
idea of monsters having ability scores (which they didn’t
in earlier editions), and made good use of monsters’
Strength and Constitution modifiers to dial up damage
output and hit points. Characters in the 3e game got
tougher and more feature-rich as well, but that edition
stuck close to the 1e/2e model in combat, with an average
fighter still dealing a baseline 1d8 + 4 damage with a
longsword, and a fireball spell still smacking down foes
with 1d6 damage per caster level.
GMs in third edition were the first to make use of
challenge rating as a concept and game term, as each foe
in the game was assigned a fixed numerical CR based
on defenses, attacks, damage output, special features,
and other factors. Famously, the 3e core rules didn’t
provide any easy way to calculate a GM-created monster’s
challenge rating, describing instead an arduous process of
eyeballing the monster’s stats against other monsters of a
given CR.
Challenge rating was used to determine XP rewards
for characters defeating a monster of a particular
CR, with that reward adjusted depending on how the
characters’ level and the monster’s CR compared. More
importantly, though, 3e provided formulas and tables
in plenty for determining how to create a theoretically
balanced encounter for characters of a particular level,
using the baseline idea that one monster of CR X was an
appropriate challenge for four characters of level X. At
the same time, third edition formalized the sense of what
“balanced” should mean by breaking out encounters into
varying ranks of difficulty, from easy to overpowering.
In 3.0e and 3.5e, the apex red dragon remained the red
great wyrm, and received an eye-popping update to 660
hit points and an Armor Class of 41.
NUMBERS GAME
98
The tactical-focused fourth edition of D&D used
dramatically different foundations for monster building
and encounter design, making significant departures
from third edition. The biggest of those departures was
replacing monster challenge rating with monster level,
and creating an encounter framework where one creature
of level X was considered equivalent to one character
of level X. That made building balanced encounters
as easy as matching the characters up against equal
numbers of same-level foes, using same-level elite and
solo monsters to build mini-boss and boss encounters,
or using straightforward formulas to build more complex
encounters featuring monsters within one or two levels of
the characters.
The rebuilt challenge paradigm of fourth edition
created what was arguably the game’s best encounterbuilding system—at least within the context of the neverending power creep that was the unintended baggage of
4e’s tactical-combat focus. That focus owed much to the
broad math underlying the fourth edition game, which
used the horizontal scaling of minion, normal, elite, and
solo monsters to fill in a roster of foes for each level of
challenge. By comparison, the much tighter bounds on
5e monster math can see a creature like an ogre act as a
solo monster at the lowest levels of the game, an elite or
normal monster at low-to-middle levels, and a minion at
anything beyond the middle levels of the game.
To wit, the ancient red dragon in 4e once again became
the apex draconic foe, and tipped the scales at 1,390 hit
points and an Armor Class of 48.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
The current 5e core rules are a wonderful amalgam of
ideas, principles, and feel-of-play from previous editions,
all reshaped within a contemporary design space that’s
produced the most popular—and arguably the most
solid—version of the game yet. Tightening the range of
bonuses that can be applied to combat has created a more
focused math for determining the challenge of monsters.
This means a thankful move away from the 3e and 4e
tendency of attack modifiers, hit points, and Armor Class
and other defenses to reach mid or high double digits. But
at the same time, a more controlled increase of character
power across all levels leaves room for the most powerful
monsters to still feel forbidding.
Looking over the history of challenge, one
straightforward conclusion is that whether the game
had loose systems or rigid systems, those systems never
worked quite as well as their designers intended. Whether
it’s the loose Hit Dice gauge of 1e and 2e or a rigid levelbased system like 4e, other factors and the subtle effects
of the game’s mechanics can constantly send battles in
unexpected directions.
The rest of this book offers much advice for building
and running encounters for the 5e game, keeping in mind
the importance of being able to navigate those unexpected
combat course changes. But as a starting point to all that,
this section can offer up that the ancient red dragon of 5e
has 546 hit points and an Armor Class of 22.
Roll for initiative.
WHAT ARE CHALLENGE
RATINGS?
Challenge ratings are a loose guideline with which we can
compare monsters to evaluate their power and station,
and to compare them to the level of the characters.
Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of 5e’s
challenge rating system can help you build more dynamic
encounters and adventures.
The concept and intent of a monster’s challenge
rating is sometimes difficult to grasp. This comes from
one important yet often unspoken aspect of challenge
ratings: they don’t compare to anything else. A monster’s
challenge rating compares only to the similar challenge
rating of other monsters—and this comparison is loose at
best. Even with the same challenge rating, creatures often
behave very differently in combat.
THE LIMITS OF GUIDELINES
As set out in the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide, four
characters should be able to defeat a single monster with a
challenge rating equal to their level without suffering any
deaths. But relating four characters to one foe is hardly a
solid comparison, because of the difference in the number
of actions the characters and a single foe can make use
of. (“Understanding the Action Economy,” page 42, has
more information on this topic.)
In general, a single monster doesn’t match well against
four characters of a level equal to the monster’s challenge
rating. The higher level the characters, the worse that
match becomes. Further, challenge ratings don’t provide
any indication of how well a group of foes matches up
against a group of characters. For that, the 5e core rules
offer a complicated two-dial system of experience points
budgets and multipliers, while other books provide
tables to help compare groups of monsters to groups of
characters. But there’s one unfortunate truth underlying
these approaches: no system does an accurate job. There’s
simply too much variance and too many variables to
summarize combat with a single calculation.
This book includes different sets of loose guidelines
to help gauge the combat threat of creatures compared
to characters, including “Monster Combinations for a
Hard Challenge” on page 67 and “The Lazy Encounter
Benchmark” on page 70. Loose guidelines are as
good as any advice on this topic can get, given how
loose challenge ratings can be when applied to different
creatures, and the high variance of difficulty for any given
encounter. Since no system of encounter building is
particularly accurate, loose systems thus work better than
complex ones.
COMPARING MONSTERS
So if challenge ratings are of limited use in gauging
encounters, why do we bother with them? It’s because
challenge ratings are still generally useful for comparing
one monster to another. They say something about each
creature’s place in the world. Giant rats aren’t as dangerous
as ghouls, who aren’t as dangerous as ogres, who aren’t as
dangerous as fire giants, who aren’t as dangerous as balors.
Challenge ratings offer quantifiable numbers that show
the overall power hierarchy of creatures and NPCs in the
world. They show which foes are weak, which ones are
strong, and which are epically dangerous.
APPROPRIATE CHALLENGES
Challenge ratings also clarify what kinds of threats
characters should face given their level. They help define
what kinds of problems are worthy of the characters’
attention at different points in their adventuring careers.
It’s easy to conclude that 18th-level characters probably
shouldn’t be facing giant rats, even as 2nd-level characters
shouldn’t be facing frost giants.
Character level means something in the story of the
game. A 2nd-level party typically handles problems of a
local scale. At 7th level, characters are handling regional
problems. By 13th level, they handle kingdom-level
problems. At 17th level, characters are taking on the
problems of the multiverse. And thanks to challenge
ratings, we can see what foes are the best general fit for
those types of threats, knowing that 3rd-level characters
are going to have significant trouble defending a town
overtaken by an army of greater demons.
In this regard, a monster of a specific challenge rating
shows roughly what level of characters are their “equals”
from a story perspective—even if knowing that doesn’t
help perfectly balance the mechanics of combat.
THE WORLD DOESN’T FIT THE
LEVEL OF THE CHARACTERS
That said, GMs shouldn’t shy away from exposing low-CR
monsters to higher-level characters—or vice versa—if
doing so makes sense within the context of the story.
Bandits are still bandits wherever they might be found,
and if 9th-level characters get jumped by such brigands,
it’s perfectly acceptable for them to mop the floor with
those NPCs—and potentially a lot of fun. (“Running Easy
Monsters,” page 124, has thoughts on that topic.)
On the other hand, the characters might witness foes far
beyond their capabilities—hopefully from a distance. It
behooves GMs to telegraph the danger of encounters with
too-powerful creatures, so that the characters don’t run
in with swords and spells at the ready, only to be quickly
destroyed. Likewise, being directly threatened by highCR monsters can take agency away from the players and
characters alike, leaving them with few options other than
surrender and capitulation. In general, try to avoid forcing
encounters with deadly threats just to push the characters
in a particular direction—but if doing so makes sense in
the larger context of the story and won’t ruin the players’
fun, go with it.
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WHAT MAKES
A GREAT MONSTER?
You flip through a monster book, seeking a foe for your
next gaming session. But what should you look for?
This section is all about breaking down the
characteristics that can help identify a great monster. But
it can also help guide you when customizing a monster,
letting you correct any lackluster aspects—by making
use of the guidance found elsewhere in this book—and
turning an okay monster into a great one.
FUN, ENGAGING, AND
MEMORABLE
A monster’s presence in an encounter should be fun for
both the GM and players, built on exciting features that
engage the characters. When a monster is both fun and
engaging, the encounter is more likely to be memorable,
worth looking back on and retelling over time.
FUN TO PREPARE
A fun monster feels fun even as you read over their
details prior to the game. They have exciting combat or
noncombat features that jump off the page, making you
look forward to surprising the players.
Because of the Shield Bash reaction you created for the
knight, you might decide to add a pit to the encounter
area, forcing the players to change their characters’ typical
tactics to avoid being pushed in. Characters might focus
on attacking the knight from range, or drawing them
away from the side of the pit. Similarly, observing the
rogue using their custom-created Poison Weapon bonus
action might inspire the characters to focus fire, trying to
defeat the rogue before they can once more add deadly
poison to their blade.
Great monsters can create different types of
engagement. Undead who explode in waves of necrotic
energy encourage characters to spread out across the
battlefield. A creature who strikes and then goes invisible
encourages the characters to locate the creature or ready
actions for the foe’s next attack.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES
Consider working up a fight against giants. What makes
that combat potentially memorable? What features do
EXCITING DURING PLAY
Consider a hypothetical stat block for an enemy knight,
with a Greatsword attack and a high AC to reflect their
formidable armor. Although those baseline details fit the
concept, they’re not particularly exciting. Now imagine
a similar stat block, but the knight can use a reaction to
perform a shield bash and push an approaching creature
away. That second stat block will likely provide more
excitement for the players.
Consider another hypothetical stat block meant
to represent an NPC rogue, and which features a
recharging bonus action to apply poison to a weapon
and deal extra poison damage until the end of the
rogue’s turn. In addition to its mechanical benefit, that
bonus action is something you can roleplay, describing
the sickly gleam of poison to make the players
understand that this foe just became a greater
threat.
FACILITATES ENGAGEMENT
100
ALLIE BRIGGS
When reviewing creatures, look
for features that create obvious
interactions with the environment,
other creatures, or the characters.
The examples of the hypothetical
knight and rogue aren’t just
potentially exciting—they also create
engagement that way.
giants have that can provide a foundation for an engaging
fight?
In general, giants have a lot of hit points, have low AC,
and hit hard. But to build on that foundation, you might
imagine that a giant can stomp the ground to knock
characters prone, or hits so hard that every blow can push
a target across the encounter area. Maybe you want your
giants to hurl furniture, driving home their incredible size
and strength.
You can use the table in “Building a Quick Monster”
(page 4) to quickly improvise the attack modifier and
damage for any new action you want to give a creature, or
use one of the common monster powers in that section.
“Monster Powers” (page 15) and “Monster Roles” (page
22) have even more powers you can consider, whether
to use as is, or to reskin to make a power an even better fit
for a specific concept.
CONCEPT AND LORE
A great monster’s description provides concepts and lore
that can inspire you as you design encounters. By grasping
the nature of a foe and their place in the world, you can
best fit that foe into your campaign plans, making the
monster far more than just a set of statistics.
For example, you might be planning an encounter in
a swamp, and choosing a creature whose lore says they
dwell in such locations. So look at how well the creature’s
nature reflects this, and how their capabilities reinforce
the concept and lore. An amphibious froglike creature
with a huge mouth, a grasping tongue, and the ability
to swallow prey whole nicely fits a swamp encounter.
Likewise, monster lore related to hiding underwater and
ambushing creatures as they pass reinforces the concept
of your encounter.
In addition to ecology, story lore works great to build an
encounter concept. For example, many myths and legends
talk about hags as creatures of the swamps. So when
you decide to make your froglike monstrosity the pet of
a green hag who rides that pet through the swamp she
rules, the concept really comes together.
EASY TO RUN WELL
Many encounters work fine with simple monsters, such
as when you imagine a group of gnome contract killers
stabbing at the heroes. But there are times when you want
a more complex monster, such as a malevolent dragon
who can take on the whole party. In both cases, though,
you want the stat blocks to be easy to run well. So when
IN DEFENSE OF THE KNIGHT
Scott and Mike both point out that there’s nothing wrong
with just loving a creature who hits hard and is simple to run.
You can often look to the narrative for other ways to make
an encounter engaging (as discussed in “Building Engaging
Encounters” on page 76), so don’t forget that narrative can
be as powerful a tool as an interesting stat block.
BALANCING MONSTER AND
ENCOUNTER COMPLEXITY
Scott notes that simple monsters can create interesting
encounters when paired with great environments, novel tactics,
and compelling goals (see “Building Engaging Encounters”
on page 76 and “Building Engaging Environments” on
page 79). Complex monsters, however, are made to create
interesting encounters just by virtue of their features and
capabilities.
assessing how easily a monster can be run, keep the
following points in mind.
APPROPRIATE CHALLENGE
First and foremost, a monster who runs well is typically
one chosen to be a suitable challenge for a specific
encounter. “Assessing a Published Encounter” (page
83), “What Are Challenge Ratings?” (page 99), and
“Defining Challenge Level” (page 105) all talk about the
process of assessing how well a monster can challenge a
party.
THE RIGHT COMPLEXITY
Most foes last 2 to 5 rounds in combat, so they don’t need
more than a few actions and features to be interesting.
Consider the classic goblin stat block, with one melee
and one ranged attack, plus the simple but memorable
ability to slip out of combat or easily hide. It’s possible
for a monster to be simple to the point where they fail to
be interesting. But even then, they might make a perfect
choice for followers or minions of more interesting foes.
A creature such as a dragon should be more complex,
because you want their features and actions to provide
you with options you can use in response to the
characters. As such, having multiple actions and features
lets you fine-tune a combat encounter to create the best
challenge.
INTUITIVE
A great monster does their job intuitively, with just the
right number of actions and features for use in combat.
In turn, those intuitive actions let you run monsters well,
granting a level of confidence that comes from monster
features and actions making sense. For example, when a
creature can use a bonus action to knock a target prone,
you’ll understand that doing so grants that creature
advantage on its follow-up melee attack action.
A great monster also establishes why they have the
features they do, based on the creature’s lore and their
place in the world. For example, an agile flying creature
might have a flyby attack in combat, letting them attack
and move without provoking opportunity attacks, which
reflects their normal method of hunting prey. Likewise, a
creature resembling a turtle might be able to retreat into
their shell, with that defensive response making perfect
sense in the context of the creature’s place in the world.
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READING THE MONSTER
STAT BLOCK
A stat block is the window through which a GM can
understand all of a creature’s intricacies. How does a
monster perceive the world and react to threats? What are
their capabilities and preferences? Are a creature’s tactics
fearsome or lackluster? This section discusses what a stat
block can tell you about those things and more.
Each section of the standard 5e stat block provides
different insights into a creature, helping you better
represent that creature tactically and to breathe life
into them through roleplaying. If you’re designing an
encounter, review monster stat blocks to ensure they work
well with the encounter’s theme, goals, and dynamics.
And even if you’re using an encounter from a published
adventure, you should review monster stat blocks before
your game session, giving yourself enough time to make
the most of those monsters during play.
BROAD STROKES
The first two lines of a stat block define a monster at their
most basic level, and are the clearest parameters you can
share with players.
NAME
In many cases, a creature’s name can be informative and
evocative. A shambling mound. A mummy. A spy. Unless
a creature’s name should be unknown, say it aloud often
to personify the creature.
SIZE AND TYPE
Whether humanoid or giant, aberration or fey,
monstrosity or undead, a creature’s type helps define how
they fit into the world. Likewise, a creature’s size can help
you roleplay how they interact with other creatures and
the environment.
ALIGNMENT
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Whether alignment plays a big part in your game or not,
a creature’s alignment in their stat block can help you
understand their moral outlook and how organized and
logic-oriented they might be. A lawful creature follows the
rules and conventions of their society, works in organized
teams, and embraces dependable tactics and planning.
A chaotic creature thinks for themself, improvises,
easily breaks with social conventions, and might behave
arbitrarily. A good creature looks for kindness and
compassion in the world, values fair exchanges, and tries
to help others. An evil creature seeks personal gain and is
largely bereft of compassion. Creatures who are neutral or
unaligned are uniformly unpredictable, and often more
likely to flee a fight they can’t win than more dogmatic
foes.
Every creature is an individual, but a creature’s default
alignment can help guide how they react to situations,
including how likely they are to offer to cease combat
and negotiate, or to run away from battle and leave their
friends behind.
BASELINE STATS
Roughly half of most stat block information sits above
the Actions section, and contains the baseline details
necessary for running a foe in combat.
ARMOR CLASS
Armor Class tells you how easy it is to break through a
creature’s defenses. AC is a function of size, Dexterity,
and the toughness of a creature’s armor or hide. A
small or quick creature is generally harder to hit than a
large or slow creature, except where large creatures are
protected by scales or skin that is as tough as metal—or is
sometimes actually made of metal.
Take a moment to think through what a creature’s
Armor Class represents. Does a slow brute plod along
and barely bother to dodge? Does a rogue parry and
twist away from every blow? Is a villain’s armor nigh
impenetrable? Bringing AC to life can be a lot of fun for
GMs and players.
AC is also important because of how tangibly it impacts
the play experience. It influences how often attacks hit or
miss, which can feel frustrating or rewarding. High AC
tells a story of a mighty combatant capable of outlasting
opponents through resilience or cunning. Describing this
can help establish expectations and increase the payoff
when a character finally lands a blow.
HIT POINTS
Hit points represent a creature’s health, linearly
determining how long a foe can remain in an encounter.
They typically represent how physically fit a creature is.
The combination of Armor Class and hit points is
important, since a foe with both high AC and hit points
can last a long time, defining a creature who can wade
into the action, take risks, and provoke opportunity
attacks without worry. When AC and hit points are low,
a creature falls quickly no matter how much damage they
dish out, instilling players with confidence. When AC is
low and hit points are medium or high, the players feel
great while hitting often, but the foe can still endure long
enough to make trouble. High AC and low hit points are
a wildcard, defining a monster who might last a long time
or go down quickly to a few lucky blows.
SPEED
Speed doesn’t vary tremendously among monsters,
but having additional movement types such as flying,
climbing, or burrowing can grant tactical advantages, and
can be used to surprise players and drive engagement.
Take a moment to assess a monster’s traits (see below),
as these might interact with speed in the form of special
capabilities such as charging, stealth, or teleportation.
ABILITY SCORES
Ability scores tell the story of a foe’s assets and
weaknesses. They help you describe a creature as quick or
plodding, hardy or weak, boring or fascinating, uncouth
or compelling. Combined with a creature’s proficiencies,
ability scores determine the skills that foes feel most
confident using, such as Athletics or Stealth.
Strength. Strong creatures often engage with the
environment and physical challenges. They are more likely
to try climbing a cliff to reach an opponent, jump across a
pit, or break through a wooden barrier. A weaker creature
shies away from such trials, and might avoid the front
lines of battle unless they can dart in and out of danger.
Dexterity. Dexterous creatures are quick, often
acting first in combat, and looking for ways to seize the
advantage over stronger foes. They might favor ranged
weapons or skirmish tactics, and might bypass challenges
by swinging on ropes, dodging out of danger, or hiding.
Constitution. A creature with a high Constitution has
a strong measure of health and hardiness. They can easily
take physical risks and expect to survive, where a more
fragile creature will be cautious and seek cover or other
ways to improve their chances.
Intelligence. Creatures of high Intelligence are often
analytical or experienced. They might have studied or
faced similar challenges in the past, and are thus able
to make good choices regarding future opportunities.
Creatures with lower Intelligence might take longer to
fully assess their options, and might make mistakes or be
fooled easily.
Wisdom. A wise creature is aware of their surroundings
and can read situations accurately. They understand
other creatures and how they behave, with the insight
to potentially guide that behavior. An unwise creature
misunderstands situations, potentially acting contrary to
available information.
Charisma. A high Charisma is a boon in directing
others and preserving strong bonds. A charismatic
creature can keep their allies from fleeing, or help
negotiate favorable terms with others. They can be
intimidating or manipulative, covering up lies capably.
Creatures with low Charisma might try to avoid social
interactions or could end up on the defensive in such
situations, easily giving away their intentions.
SAVING THROWS AND SKILLS
Saving throws and skills highlight which abilities a
creature uses most confidently. Proficiency in certain
saving throws might define how easily a creature
throws themself into specific types of peril, while skill
proficiencies can determine how a creature acts outside of
combat.
Because these lines in the stat block can be easy to
overlook or forget—and because many creatures don’t
have proficient saving throws or skills called out—make
note of these things. You might highlight or circle ability
scores that are a creature’s best saving throws, or jot
down the names of skills that a creature is likely to use,
particularly skills that interact with traits or actions.
VULNERABILITIES, RESISTANCES,
AND IMMUNITIES
Beyond their importance in combat, vulnerabilities,
resistances, and immunities are also amazing
opportunities for encounter and story design. They let
you look for ways to bring story to the forefront during
combat, highlighting the interaction between the nature
of a creature, the characters, and the environment.
You can lean into a creature’s weaknesses to make
combat easier for the characters, as with a troll marauder
fighting in a burning forest. Not only does such a scenario
make the troll easier to defeat, you get to explain how
the creature came to be there, and to roleplay them
appropriately. Resistances and immunities can likewise
easily heighten a challenge. For example, in an encounter
with a black dragon, you can add acid pools linked by
submerged tunnels, providing the dragon with a refuge
and the means to surprise the heroes.
SENSES
If every foe in an encounter has the ability to fight in the
dark (whether through darkvision, tremorsense, or other
means), that might be an advantage worth incorporating
into your encounter design. Tremorsense, truesight, and
blindsight defeat most of the ways in which characters can
hide. Even a few creatures with special senses can work
well in that regard as they provide information to their
allies.
LANGUAGES
It’s important to note whether foes can understand or
be understood by the characters. When kobold brigands
shout tactics in Draconic and one character understands
them, that’s fun! If a giant shouts at the characters and no
one understands what they’re saying, it leaves the players
to determine whether combat can be avoided. Language
differences highlight the importance of spells such as
comprehend languages or features such as telepathy.
CHALLENGE RATING
A creature’s challenge rating (and the XP reward assigned
to that challenge) is a rough measure of that creature’s
power. By the 5e core rules, a creature of a particular
challenge rating should present a medium encounter
when fought by four characters whose level is the
same as that challenge rating—but there’s a lot more to
creating encounters than that simple formula. You can
find more on that topic in “Monster Combinations for
a Hard Challenge” (page 67), “The Lazy Encounter
Benchmark” (page 70), “Building Challenging HighLevel Encounters” (page 86), “What Are Challenge
Ratings?” (page 99), and “Defining Challenge Level”
(page 105).
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TRAITS
A creature’s traits represent vital features, advantages, and
characteristics, all of which are important to review before
play begins. Unlike actions, which must be chosen round
by round, traits are typically “always on” and thus easy to
forget during play. Make special note of traits you expect
to come up during play to make them easier to remember.
Traits can drive monster behavior and encounter
design. A grick’s Stone Camouflage grants advantage
on Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide in rocky terrain,
so let that monster make the most of it to set up an
ambush encounter. An otyugh’s Limited Telepathy creates
an interesting roleplaying encounter if the characters
can figure out what the creature wants—or a combat
encounter if they can’t.
Traits can likewise determine how a creature
approaches combat. A tiger uses their Pounce trait
whenever possible, as does a minotaur with their Charge
trait, because they deal much more damage that way. A
wolf ’s use of Pack Tactics provides advantage on attack
rolls, causing wolves to instinctively gang up on foes.
Whether a monster will risk an opportunity attack to
move into position to use a combat-focused trait can
depend on their ability to judge risk and choose caution
over opportunity, perhaps as indicated by their Wisdom,
Intelligence, or alignment.
Some traits require careful attention because the
moment when they trigger is easy to overlook. Examples
include remembering to use a gnoll’s Rampage trait, or
determining whether a troll’s Regeneration trait functions
on their turn. If possible, avoid using more than a couple
of monsters with hard-to-track traits in an encounter.
In some stat blocks, spellcasting and innate spellcasting
are included in traits, requiring special review. “Running
Spellcasting Monsters” (page 58) has a lot more
information on this topic.
ACTIONS
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Although some traits can deal damage in their own
right, a creature’s primary damage output comes from
their actions. Actions are the dynamic means by which
a creature engages the characters, challenging and
potentially defeating them. The nature of each action
provides tactical advantages, as well as a means by which
you portray the creature and their threat.
In some cases, lore and statistics suggest that certain
monsters don’t often experience combat, or that they
lack tactical acumen. For such monsters, you don’t need
to worry about optimal combat choices, and having foes
making obvious mistakes can delight players. Roleplay the
creature’s confusion, frustration, or other signs that they
lack combat experience. Clever players might try to goad
such creatures into making poor choices, creating a fun
play experience.
For the most part, though, monsters in a fantasy world
must periodically face combat in order to survive. For
such monsters, their actions represent the tactics they
have honed over time, and they use the most favorable
of those tactics when possible. Reviewing a stat block’s
actions can reveal superior choices to use whenever
possible, let you dismiss choices you can ignore, and
highlight actions dependent upon other actions or specific
situations. For example, a chimera’s Multiattack action
allows three attacks, but it almost always makes sense to
substitute the higher-damage Fire Breath for one of those
attacks whenever it’s available.
Whenever an attack imposes a condition that makes
subsequent attacks easier, a creature knows instinctively to
use that attack first. For example, an otyugh’s Multiattack
allows one Bite and two Tentacle attacks, but a hit with
a tentacle can restrain an opponent to make them grant
advantage, so Tentacle attacks should be used first.
Actions with a recharge are almost always superior
to actions lacking them, but there can be situational
advantages to waiting to use such actions. For example,
a dragon who recharges their breath weapon will wait to
use it again until they have enough targets lined up.
Creatures with spell attacks or complex actions can be
hard to run, requiring tactical assessment and comparing
damage output to determine the options the creature
should naturally favor. For example, a drider can cast
faerie fire to help their allies, or can cast darkness to
prepare an ambush or escape from battle. They otherwise
deal more damage with three Longbow attacks, but
should instead use two Longsword attacks and a Bite
attack if pressed to melee. This complex creature’s optimal
attacks aren’t immediately obvious, however, so reading
the stat block carefully is important.
PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS
Encounters typically run better when you play to your
own strengths as a GM. If you enjoy discovering a
complex monster’s perfect attack sequence, then the time
spent reviewing attack options will be rewarding. But if
you prefer a simpler game, running complex monsters
could result in frustration—so when you review monster
stat blocks, choosing the simpler options will be more
effective and rewarding. If a published encounter has a
complex monster, consider replacing their most complex
actions or traits with simpler options, either from another
creature stat block or from the range of monster powers
presented in this book (in “Building a Quick Monster” on
page 4, “Monster Powers” on page 15, or “Monster
Roles” on page 22).
ROLEPLAYING ACTIONS
Actions are the primary way that creatures engage with
other creatures in a combat encounter. As such, your
monsters will resonate more fully with the players when
you bring their actions to life through roleplaying. A
drider scout might cast their spells in a hissing voice, or
dip their arrows in poison before nocking and loosing
them. An otyugh might send telepathic images of food
as they attack, revealing their simple goal. “Roleplaying
Monsters” on page 48 talks more about this topic.
DEFINING CHALLENGE LEVEL
As GMs, we all want to design for a specific challenge
level at different points. Though we understand that the
players and their characters will often surprise us, we want
to be able to shape a thrilling final encounter that pushes
the heroes to their limits, or a series of easy encounters
that let players build confidence.
GMs using challenge levels might find that the
definitions of challenge in the 5e core rules—the idea
of breaking encounters out as easy, medium, hard, or
deadly—don’t match their expectations, or that the
definitions are unclear. This section can help with that,
by discussing the key factors that establish a particular
challenge level. Using these criteria, you can then provide
an alternative definition of the easy, medium, hard, and
deadly challenge levels used for encounter building.
are losing even if they actually have the upper hand. A
similar effect takes place when characters are rendered
unconscious by other means, stunned, paralyzed, or
otherwise unable to act, though running out of hit points
feels far more dangerous.
WHAT DETERMINES
CHALLENGE LEVEL?
CHALLENGE LEVELS
Challenge levels are useful because they can help craft
specific experiences for the players. Understanding the
factors that differentiate challenge levels can thus help
GMs select the right challenge for a particular play
experience.
The following elements, all related to monster challenge
rating, establish the baseline challenge level of an
encounter.
HITS AND DAMAGE
Characters are challenged the more often they are hit by
attacks and the more damage they take from those hits.
This is true even if the characters are not close to dying.
Hits and damage are the easiest key factors to assess
before an encounter begins, and also the easiest to adjust
during play.
RESOURCE EXPENDITURE
When the challenge level feels high, players expend their
characters’ resources to achieve victory or prevent defeat.
Resources include class features or magic items with
a specified number of uses, consumable magic items,
spell slots, and other limited-use capabilities. Resource
expenditure feels important to players, even if they know
the encounter is to be followed by a long rest.
FORMIDABLE FOES
Foes feel formidable when they hit harder than expected,
hit more often than usual, have special tricks, control the
battlefield, or are particularly well suited to the encounter
environment. This often translates to monsters of higher
challenge rating, but not always. A fearsome description
and great roleplaying can make a foe feel formidable to
the players and their characters alike.
DYING CHARACTERS
When a character is brought to 0 hit points, all the
players notice. The tenor of an encounter often changes
immediately, creating the feeling that the characters
ABILITY TO PRESS ON
After the fight ends, do the heroes feel they can
continue adventuring and face future encounters? The
most challenging encounters erode the confidence of
an adventuring party, hastening the point when the
characters stop for a short or long rest, and therefore
impacting the length of the adventuring day. (“On
Encounters per Day” on page 93 talks more about rests
and the concept of the adventuring day.)
By using these key criteria, you can define each challenge
level—easy, medium, hard, or deadly—in a way that
replaces the definitions found in the core rules. You can
still use your current tools or the core XP-based rules to
determine an encounter’s challenge level. But the tips and
guidelines found throughout this book will help your
encounters meet these new definitions. In particular,
“Monster Combinations for a Hard Challenge” on page
67 has specific guidelines for achieving a hard challenge
level with different groups of foes. “The Lazy Encounter
Benchmark” on page 70 talks about how to avoid a hard
challenge level crossing over into deadly.
EASY CHALLENGE LEVEL
An easy encounter is relaxing and empowering for the
players, as their characters show off their capabilities.
Because no characters should take significant damage
or be in danger, players have the freedom to be creative,
trying unusual or inefficient tactics for the sake of
roleplaying or fun.
IF YOU DON’T USE CHALLENGE
LEVELS
Mike tends not to aim encounters at particular challenge levels,
instead letting the challenge of an encounter shape itself as
a result of the story and the pacing of the game. Sometimes
that creates an encounter with two half-drunk bandits playing
cards in the woods. Sometimes it’s a squad of merregon devils
conducting phalanx training.
Using the information in “The Lazy Encounter Benchmark”
(page 70), Mike determines if a battle might be inadvertently
deadly after he’s decided on the number and types of creatures
to drop into an encounter. This is a less exact but much faster
approach to encounter building, which Mike favors. For your
own games, try different approaches for designing combat
encounters and see which work best for you and your group.
Keep all the options in your GM’s toolbox, and use whichever
works best for the moment.
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Use easy encounters as warm-ups, to provide respite or
confidence, or in a dungeon or other area that works best
with many short encounters.
Hits and Damage: Low
Resource Expenditure: None
Formidable Foes: Stock creatures, dispatched quickly
Dying Characters: None
Ability to Press On: High. Characters can easily face
eight to ten easy encounters in an adventuring day.
MEDIUM CHALLENGE LEVEL
HARD CHALLENGE LEVEL
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A hard encounter features one or more formidable foes
who can function effectively, hitting reliably and dealing
damage that causes characters and players to take notice.
Hit point levels can go up and down as healing resources
are consumed, driving characters to adjust tactics and
expend vital resources to counter the threat.
Most of the characters could lose a quarter to half of
their hit points as a result of their foes’ high damage
output. One or two characters might end up dying and
unconscious, and there could be moments when the battle
looks like it could go either way, even as the heroes are
expected to emerge victorious. Losing the fight is a slim
possibility, but the challenge level of the encounter means
the characters are likely in a position to negotiate or
retreat to avoid dying en masse.
After a hard battle, the characters can continue, but
might decide to rest if they’ve had previous encounters.
Use hard encounters to wake up the players, underscore
the stakes and peril in an adventure, deplete resources, or
present a strong challenge that the characters will enjoy
overcoming.
Hits and Damage: High
Resource Expenditure: Moderate to high
Formidable Foes: One or more
Dying Characters: One or two, and several characters
might run low on hit points. Character death is possible,
though rare.
Ability to Press On: Moderate. Characters can face two to
three hard encounters in an adventuring day.
DEADLY CHALLENGE LEVEL
In a deadly encounter, most or all of the foes are
formidable, feeling stronger than the characters even if
they actually aren’t. They hit often and hard. In addition
to damage, higher-CR monsters often have features and
other capabilities that add pressure to the encounter.
Players should be on the edge of their seats as they
carefully consider and reconsider tactics while the battle
progresses. Resource expenditure is ongoing, as characters
dig deep and use their strongest class features and magic.
A deadly encounter is dangerous, but isn’t aiming to
be a slaughter or a TPK—a disastrous encounter that
ends in a total party kill. Most characters should lose
half or more of their hit points in a deadly encounter.
Several characters might be temporarily taken out of the
fight by conditions or other effects, and there’s a chance
for one or more characters to take enough damage to
drop to 0 hit points. The pressures of combat might also
result in characters dying outright by failing death saving
throws, especially from critical hits or taking damage
while unconscious and dying. Deadly encounters are
particularly challenging when the party is already low on
hit points and resources.
After a deadly encounter, characters who began the
encounter fully rested will typically take a short rest to
spend Hit Dice and regain a few resources. Characters
who began the encounter without their full hit points or
resources usually choose to take a long rest. Use deadly
encounters to introduce key foes, surprise players with a
thrilling challenge, or provide an exciting conclusion to a
gaming session or adventure.
Hits and Damage: Very high
Resource Expenditure: Very high
CARLOS EULEFÍ
At the medium challenge level, monsters are of a high
enough CR to provide some measure of threat, and
one formidable foe could be grouped with weaker
foes. The encounter allows for moments when both
characters and monsters shine, but the characters are
expected to have the upper hand throughout the battle
by expending a few resources. Characters are unlikely
to drop to 0 hit points, unless they began the battle with
fewer than half their normal hit points.
Use medium encounters when you want game play to
be engaging but not high pressure. After the battle, the
characters are left less capable than when they began, but
should still be inclined to continue unless previous battles
have depleted their resources.
Hits and Damage: Average
Resource Expenditure: Low
Formidable Foes: Stock creatures, dispatched quickly
Dying Characters: None, though one in four characters
might run low on hit points.
Ability to Press On: High. Characters should be able to
face four medium encounters in an adventuring day.
Formidable Foes: Most or all
Dying Characters: Several, with a low-to-moderate
chance of character death.
Ability to Press On: Moderate. Characters can face one to
two deadly encounters in an adventuring day.
BEYOND DEADLY?
The core rules set an XP value above which an encounter
is deadly—and no amount of XP over that line changes
the definition. This might seem strange, especially given
that neither the core rules nor Forge of Foes use the term
“deadly” to mean “everybody dies.”
We don’t usually want a high chance of a TPK—a total
party kill encounter—in our games. We want the heroes
to prevail because that’s fun for the players. A deadly
challenge level already feels like high stakes, and going
above that risks frustration and the end of a campaign. As
such, it can be helpful to have a threshold that warns us
when we’re at the upper level of deadly and veering into a
TPK.
To determine the upper end of a deadly encounter,
take the difference between the XP thresholds of the
deadly and hard columns in the core rules of the Dungeon
Master’s Guide, then add that number to the deadly
column. This new number becomes the end of the deadly
threshold—meaning that above that number is where a
TPK becomes likely. For example, if the hard encounter
threshold is 3,000 XP and the deadly threshold is 4,400
XP for a party of four characters, then the upper threshold
for deadly would be the difference (4,400 – 3,000 = 1,400)
added to the deadly threshold (4,400 + 1,400 = 5,800).
This tells you that using creatures in an encounter with
a total XP value of 5,800 or higher takes you beyond the
deadly threshold and puts you at risk of a TPK.
ADDITIONAL FACTORS NOT
RELATED TO CR
The following factors aren’t directly related to challenge
rating or challenge level, and therefore don’t appear
in the discussion above. However, these factors are
important to also keep in mind, as they can impact how
you might need to modify the expected challenge level
to make an encounter work as intended. (“The Lazy
Encounter Benchmark” on page 70 talks about other
considerations that can have an effect on challenge level.)
TACTICS
Your tactical decisions as a GM impact the challenge.
You might make the enemy wizard obvious at the start of
combat, or begin with them hidden behind a secret door.
You might have monsters attack the rear ranks, forcing
melee characters to choose between reinforcing their
position and going after the boss ahead.
TERRAIN
Does reaching an enemy caster require crossing a rickety
rope bridge, or swinging across a chasm? Are archers
CHALLENGE LEVELS AS ANALYSIS
POINTS
Scott notes that we can use challenge levels to assess how
closely our encounters hit the desired mark, and then adjust
our approach accordingly. When you run a medium challenge
level encounter, do the benchmarks hold true? This analysis
lets you know the relative strength and weakness of the
characters—and your style as a GM—compared to the default
definition. You can then make adjustments to achieve the
desired challenge more consistently.
positioned far from the heroes and behind cover? You can
easily use terrain to increase challenge level in ways that
monster CR fails to capture.
GOALS
The characters might need to stop the cultists, but also
to save a group of captives. A merchant trapped in a
burning shop calls for help, distracting a hero from their
goal of attacking an evil fire demon. A relic must be
recovered before it falls into lava. Having specific goals in
an encounter beyond simply defeating the foes increases
the challenge level if those goals decrease the emphasis
characters can place on combat.
USING CHALLENGE LEVELS
When you create encounters, use the challenge level that
most closely fits your goals for the encounter. If you’re
looking for a fun warm-up that shouldn’t use up resources
or threaten the characters, then go for an easy challenge
level. If the encounter should feature formidable foes
dealing maximum damage and pushing the characters
to their limits, with high resource expenditure and the
chance of characters dropping to 0 hit points or dying
outright, that’s a deadly encounter.
As you create encounters, you’ll find yourself varying
the challenge level to fit the story and to create different
emotional responses from your players. This idea lends
itself to a number of different approaches for filling out a
party’s adventuring day.
CLASSIC APPROACH
This straightforward method of encounter building
tells a satisfying story and has an easy-to-manage linear
expenditure of resources. However, players can quickly
become too accustomed to this approach.
The classic approach features the following setup:
• An easy challenge to warm up the characters and
provide a fun start.
• A set of medium or hard encounters to expend
resources.
• A deadly challenge as the climactic finish.
Examples of the classic approach include:
• Entering a cultist hideout to stop the ritual taking place
in the final chamber.
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• Overcoming several wilderness challenges, then facing
off against a terrifying monster before reaching a
specific destination.
• Following leads in the city to find and confront a series
of lesser members of the thieves’ guild, before battling
the head of the guild.
REVERSE APPROACH
The reverse approach flips the script to surprise players
who expect encounters to become more progressively
difficult. Expending resources early on can shake the
players’ confidence, though, requiring cues that the
characters should press on.
The reverse approach features the following setup:
• A deadly challenge to start, knocking the characters
back and surprising the players.
• A set of medium or hard encounters to expend more
resources.
• An easy challenge to finish things off, allowing the
characters to relax and celebrate their success.
Examples of the reverse approach include:
• Attacking a keep, which results in numerous defenders
coming to stop the characters. Once past those defenses,
the number of foes drops down to reflect the number
of defenders that have been defeated or are unwilling to
challenge the characters.
• Deadly traps and terrible undead guardians have
prevented anyone from making it into an ancient tomb.
Once this initial chamber is cleared, the characters can
explore the inner chambers, finding that they need only
fight a few more undead and solve a relatively simple
puzzle to gain the treasure they seek.
HILL APPROACH
In this approach, challenge is built up, then eased back
down. This creates a nice tension, with roughly half the
action taking place after vital resources have been spent.
The hill approach features the following setup:
• Two medium encounters to start, or an easy and a hard
encounter.
• A deadly challenge to anchor the action.
• Medium or easy encounters to finish things off.
Examples of the hill approach include:
• The characters sneak their way into a keep, steal an item
from a trap-and-guardian-filled central chamber, then
must flee the site before the defenders are fully alerted.
• A trek across the wilderness passes through a central
highlight such as a lava field or a vast swamp. That
central point offers potentially deadly challenges, but
getting there and then getting away are relatively easy.
VALLEY APPROACH
This approach keeps the characters focused with both
a strong start and a strong finish, but provides a respite
in between. This style of encounter building works well
when you want the middle scenes of an adventure or a
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THE “ALL-OR-NOTHING” APPROACH
Conventional wisdom suggests that if you want to challenge
characters, you’ll want to wear them down first. Characters
who enter a battle fully rested have a lot of resources at their
disposal, and especially if they have the opportunity to use
those resources all at once, they’re going to dominate the
battle.
Sometimes, whether by accident or design, the characters
end up facing the boss monster fully rested. They haven’t been
worn down first with a series of easy or medium battles, but
can push straight toward the big climactic boss fight. When this
happens, the hard encounter threshold probably isn’t enough
to truly challenge a party. You have to go harder than hard—
into the realm of deadly encounters, or even beyond.
“Building and Running Boss Monsters” on page 31 talks
about running waves of monsters, and that approach works
great for an all-or-nothing battle. You can effectively set up the
characters facing the easy and medium battles they missed out
on—but they face those challenges one right after the other, or
maybe even overlapping. Then in the final wave, the big boss
and their guardians come out before the characters have any
chance to rest.
Alternatively, you might set up a seemingly overwhelming
encounter, then dial it back by having many of the potential
foes in the battle not focused on killing the characters. Some
might be busy performing a ritual. They might be in the middle
of a big vampire wedding ceremony. They might be getting
ready to raid the headquarters of a rival. Even if such a battle
is well beyond deadly, the characters can maintain the upper
hand by picking and choosing their foes. Sure, things can still
go sideways—but that’s where the real fun begins.
session to focus less on combat and more on exploration
or roleplaying.
The valley approach features the following setup:
• A deadly or hard encounter to start, ratcheting up the
tension.
• Two easy encounters, or one medium and one easy
encounter, to allow the characters to regain their
footing.
• A deadly or hard encounter to maximize the tension
and drama of the conclusion.
Examples of the valley approach include:
• Defeating bandits hiding out in ancient ruins is a tough
challenge, but makes exploring the ruins easy. Then as
night falls, the bandits rise as undead.
• Secretly breaking into a bank is a dangerous operation,
but once inside, the characters face only minor traps as
they explore the vaults. Then when they emerge, they
find that the city watch has been called to confront
them.
• The characters defeat a deadly monster in their lair,
explore some low-threat caves at the back of the lair,
and return to find that the monster’s enraged partner
has just arrived.
BALANCING MECHANICS
AND STORY
Monsters serve two purposes in tabletop RPGs. First, a
monster’s stat block includes the rules and mechanics by
which a GM can run them in the game—typically during
combat, but not always. Secondly, monsters also serve the
story of our games. It’s easy to focus on the mechanics of a
foe when preparing to run them, but don’t forget the story
of that foe. They have things they do mechanically, yes,
but each monster also has a representation in the world.
They have lore and flavor. Physical descriptions. History,
motivations. The sounds they make. The smells …
Game mechanics serve the story of each monster,
not the other way around. But it’s easy to forget about a
monster’s narrative when combat begins. Each creature
in a fight moves their speed, makes their attacks, and
deals their damage. They react to the characters’ actions,
teleport, knock opponents prone, build articulated
walls of fire, and so on. With so many rules, it’s no
wonder GMs sometimes forget there’s a story going on
in the background. It’s a lot to manage, and the more
complicated the monster, the easier it is to forget what
they’re like in the world.
and describe such details each time a monster attacks
or a character hits them. You don’t have to flood your
description with details for every single monster. But
every so often, when it feels right, mention the scar over a
brass dragon’s left eye, or the creases in a bandit captain’s
well-worn leather boots, or the rusty blade decorated with
scalps wielded by a gnome murder cultist.
DON’T FORGET THE STORY
GMs often fall back on designing or implementing new
mechanics when they want to change a monster from
their default presentation, and there’s nothing wrong
with that. (This book is filled with that sort of advice.)
But you can also try changing the in-world description
of a monster and their behavior to suit their fictional
narrative. Tweak their description. Tweak their behavior.
Tweak their history and their reaction to confrontation
with the characters. Describe a creature’s unique armor
or weapons. Talk about their tattoos or scars. Talk about
the holy symbols around their necks. Every foe can be as
unique as you’re willing to describe them.
When preparing, designing, and running monsters, don’t
forget the role they play in the story of your game. First
and foremost, every foe is an element of the story taking
place at the table. A troll is often (though not always)
a big, warty, green-skinned, regenerating giant who’s
no stranger to combat. Only within the context of that
description does the troll have a set of mechanics—their
stat block—to support that story.
Use the story of monsters to your advantage. Make
foes unique and interesting by their descriptions, their
mannerisms, their words, and their actions. A giant
rat might be the most boring monster in the game—or
could be the most horrific foe ever faced, based on the
description a GM uses when that oily-furred, red-eyed
horror slithers out of a slimy sewer pipe, screeching as
they bare razor-sharp, plague-coated teeth.
UNLIMITED NARRATIVE BUDGET
The narrative surrounding a monster is limited only
by imagination and time. You can describe monsters
however you wish. Every ogre warrior’s club can be
uniquely carved to show their exploits in combat. Every
elf knight’s suit of scale armor can show the details of
the battles they fought before. You needn’t change the
mechanics of every veteran in a squad to make each of
them unique and interesting. The way they wear their
armor, the scars across their hardened skin, the style of
swords they wield—all these details can change without
touching the stat block.
You can jot these details down ahead of time if you
want, or you can stretch your improvisational skills
ASK PLAYERS TO IDENTIFY
MONSTROUS TRAITS
A GM doesn’t need to be the only one responsible for
filling in these details. During combat, you can ask the
players to identify interesting physical characteristics of
the foes they face. Use these characteristics not only to
enrich the flavor of the foe, but to identify them when
making attacks, applying damage, or otherwise targeting
them. “The ogre bodyguard with the huge scar across
their chest” and “the skeleton with the green mohawk” are
far more interesting than “ogre number three” and “the
skeleton on the left.”
MORE THAN MECHANICS
WHEN TO CHANGE MECHANICS
Alter the mechanics of a monster only when the default
stat block doesn’t support the monster’s story in the
world. If a troll warlord stands atop a bone-cluttered
hill preparing to hurl the skulls of former victims at the
characters, the troll stat block has no such ranged attack.
So you improvise. Reskin the troll’s Claw attack into a
Thrown Skull attack that uses the same attack bonus
and deals the same damage, changing that damage from
slashing to bludgeoning. Want to make that attack even
more dangerous? Increase the damage by another 2d6.
Becoming comfortable making such modifications
right at the table can help you improvise monsters all
throughout your games. “Monster Difficulty Dials” on
page 27 offers more advice on making changes to
monsters on the fly. Additionally, the Monster Statistics
by Challenge Rating table (part of “Building a Quick
Monster,” page 4) gives you a set of statistics to
improvise new monster mechanics with little to no prep.
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BUILDING THE STORY
TO FIT THE MONSTER
In many cases, we can choose monsters to fit the story
of our adventures (as discussed in “Choosing Monsters
Based on the Story” on page 113). Story matters the most
in the long run, so it typically makes sense to start with
a larger premise and stock our adventures with monsters
who reinforce that story. But there are times when it’s
even more fun to do the reverse. We start with monsters
who excite us, then we build the story to fit them.
MONSTERS FIRST
While paging through any of the many monster books
available for 5e games, you come across an amazing
monster. Filled with excitement, you wish that creature
could appear in your campaign. Or maybe a player
mentions a type of monster during a game session, saying,
“I’ve never fought one of those before!” Or you might
have long had an idea for a fun encounter with different
types of unusual creatures, but those creatures don’t fit the
current locations in the campaign.
In these and other similar situations, it makes sense to
think about the monsters first and then build a story to
validate their presence.
VERISIMILITUDE
Players have more fun when they can immerse themselves
in a world that makes sense. They know that every aspect
of the game’s setting is imaginary, but they can suspend
that disbelief when it makes sense to do so. As such, it’s
important to make monsters and their presence in the
game make sense.
Start by asking yourself whether a particular
monster fits the environment and setting. A monster’s
lore often includes rich information on the types of
environments they favor, as well as the role they play
in such environments. So as fantastic as creatures like
water elementals are, they make the most sense when
they’re encountered near a lake or other body of water. If
you place a water elemental in the middle of a dungeon
corridor with no explanation for why they came to be
there, the players will likely find that jarring, making them
less likely to enjoy the session.
You also want to take care when combining different
types of monsters, to make sure it makes sense for
them to work together. GMs should select monsters for
encounters the way a chef selects ingredients: choose a
few skirmishers, add a beefy monster to take some hits,
and done! But even though a squad of goblins fighting
with a water elemental might be tactically sound, that
combination will inevitably be jarring in the game.
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ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY
When choosing monsters first and then selecting
the story, you want to find a story that establishes
verisimilitude. For some monsters, minor explanations
can suffice. Players and their characters will likely believe
that brigands have hired a bugbear ranger from a nearby
forest. Minor details such as the bugbear wearing a tootight uniform can reinforce this already plausible story.
Even the goblins and the water elemental can work,
if at the start of the encounter, the goblins are arguing
over who should use a magic item. When they see the
characters, one of the goblins takes the item and uses it …
to cause the water elemental to appear!
FISH OUT OF WATER
There are times when it can be fun to use monsters who
don’t fit the situation, or monsters who shouldn’t be
working together. Strange combinations can be surprising
and intriguing, as long as you take some care to make the
fish-out-of-water scenario plausible.
When a monster is a figurative fish out of water, you’ll
need to work a bit harder to establish verisimilitude. In
this case, you want to explain how the monster came to
be in its present environment, and make that a key part
of the encounter. Start by asking yourself the following
questions:
• Where did this creature come from, and how could it
have ended up here?
• What would it take for this creature to be comfortable
in this location?
• In what ways is the creature changing or impacting the
location? In what ways is the location impacting the
creature?
• What would this foe need or want to allow them to
remain in this location? How could someone else keep
the creature here?
• How do the answers to the previous questions impact
the current story and the other creatures in this
location?
• What can the characters notice or learn that explains
the story of this monster?
LORE AND STAT BLOCKS
A monster’s stat block tells us a lot about them, as
discussed in “Reading the Monster Stat Block” on page
102. Likewise, the lore that accompanies a stat block
can provide ideas useful for thinking through a monster’s
nature and what their story might be.
As an example, wolves fight in packs, and they hunt
prey. Their desire for prey could force them into a village.
Maybe the first thing the characters see at night is a bush
moving. When they investigate, a deer bounds out
from shelter. Moments later, the wolves that hunt the
deer show up.
Kobolds have a reputation for liking traps, so you
can showcase their traps up front to foreshadow their
presence in a location. You might also leave related clues
in the form of notes written in Draconic. You can then
set up a fun encounter where kobolds are trying to create
or repair a big trap, with the final encounter reinforcing
the earlier discoveries and providing confirmation
for players who guessed what unseen foes they were
facing.
Novels and movies can also provide narrative
ideas that can be combined with monster lore to
set up plausible scenarios for a fish-out-of-water
creature. A construct or undead could have
escaped from their creator, creating a scenario
that works with the expectation that players
are familiar with the story of Frankenstein.
Depending on how much you borrow from the
novel, the players and characters might end up
asking who is the true monster and villain in
the story.
EXAMPLE STORIES
Like our larger campaign story, the story we create for
our monsters is just a starting point. The real narrative is
the one created by the intersection of the characters and
that initial tale. A great monster story is therefore one that
helps the characters engage with the scene as fully as they
can, creating a fun adventure that the players will want to
talk about for years to come.
This section presents several types of stories that can
explain the presence of a monster you want to use in an
unusual environment or location. Use any of these setups
and the example stories that come with them as is, or use
them as starting points that you can alter as needed to fit
your own game.
SUMMONED, HIRED, OR CAPTURED
MATT MORROW
A creature who doesn’t fit their environment could have
been deliberately brought to that environment. Magic or
other threats might bind the creature, or they might serve
willingly in exchange for something.
Bound Air Demon. An evil sorcerer binds an air
demon, convincing the fiend to stay by constructing
an area that has tall ceilings, many ledges, and is filled
with smoke. The demon can speak of this as they attack,
explaining why they deign to serve a mere humanoid.
Water Guardian. A water creature could be bound to
a fountain, cistern, or moat. The characters might meet
an NPC carrying buckets of water, with the scars along
their arms a sign of the dangers of reaching into the water.
Runes of binding are hidden under the water’s surface,
visible to a character who carefully peers over the edge, or
could be noticed during battle.
Oops, We Hired Swamp Creatures! A group of
lizardfolk working as laborers in a village have been
hidden away by the merchant who hired them, and have
flooded the basement of the merchant’s home trying
to make themselves comfortable. When the characters
discover them, it’s clear that the lizardfolk are being
taken advantage of, and pointing this out could turn the
laborers against their employer.
Spider Pet. Goblins feed giant spiders in a side tunnel
near their lair, and the arachnids no longer attack
creatures providing food. In an adjacent cavern, the
goblins raise pigs, and are trying to drag one out of a cage
to feed the spider when the characters happen by.
SURPRISING PLAYERS
Scott notes that intentionally using a fish-out-of-water scenario
can sometimes work better than making use of monsters who
are the perfect fit. Players expect goblins in the goblin tunnels,
and might be less engaged when they see still more goblins
in a larger cave. However, add another creature who doesn’t
seem to belong, and the players become intrigued. They’ll still
want to know why the monster is in a strange location, or why
two seemingly incompatible creatures are working together,
but those questions now tie into the encounter rather than
undermining it.
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BREAK AWAY FROM STEREOTYPES
Mike notes that the act of building a story around an out-ofplace monster pushes us away from stereotypical situations.
The very act of having to explain the weird occurrence of a
creature’s existence forces a GM to come up with a creative
explanation that they might never otherwise have come up
with. Truly memorable encounters can arise from this process.
And That’s Why We Locked Them Up. A prison
holds an atypical creature, such as a mephit captured by
bandits. The creature’s personality, as well as a possibly
secret reason for their captivity, can then become a fun
part of the adventure. Is the creature a potential ally and
source of information, or a potential foe biding their time
before they turn against the heroes? Are they especially
obnoxious, or incessantly obsequious? Do they lie all too
convincingly, then quickly turn against any ally or enemy
who believes them?
Another option is to have a captured creature seem
mundane when they’re actually far more dangerous. That
dog held captive in the crate? It’s a hell hound or death
dog. The trophy case displaying two crossed swords?
Those are flying swords. And of course, the empty cell
holding nothing but a mundane-looking object might be
a mimic, a cloaker, or a creature not normally known for
camouflage fallen victim to a magical curse.
MINI-BIOME
A broader location might contain a small area where an
out-of-place monster fits in, even when the rest of the
location is not a typical lair. Magic can always be used
to explain a mini-biome, though this might feel forced
or trite. A more natural reason for a mini-biome usually
works best.
Localized Swamp. Lizardfolk and their pet giant frog
dwell in a cavern where an underground river has eroded
the rock, creating swamplike conditions.
Brackish Waters. A sea creature is attacking settlements
along a freshwater river. A village elder tells the characters
that during heavy rains, the sea floods the estuary and the
waters turn brackish, explaining how a marine predator
has found a new home.
There Must Be a Volcano. A biome can sometimes
be foreshadowed. Setting up the appearance of a fire
elemental and magma mephits in a dungeon can be
accomplished by first creating a chamber where crude
drawings of volcanoes and fire creatures cover the walls.
When the characters later come across a river of magma,
the presence of fire creatures makes sense.
ON A MISSION
Sapient monsters might intentionally travel to an
unfamiliar location, becoming explorers just like the
characters. The reason for the monsters being there can be
just as interesting as the monsters themselves.
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Give Us the Artifact! A band of drow seek a rumored
artifact or lost lore. Their mission is vital, so they might
negotiate with the characters to gain what they seek—or
fight the characters if their mission is opposed.
Meet the Neighbors. A group of creatures who would
normally be more at home on a different dungeon level or
in an adjacent biome have come to the area the characters
are exploring with some purpose in mind. They might be
meeting up with other creatures to establish an alliance,
trying to claim (or reclaim) a valuable relic, or simply
seeking conflict for its own sake. The appearance of such
creatures can add richness to an encounter, even as it sets
up new regions or dungeon levels the characters haven’t
yet visited.
What Dug This Hole? A burrowing creature has broken
into a dungeon or city basement, seeking or escaping
something. The broken wall or floor explains how the
creature came to trade its former environment for a new
one.
A STORY WITHIN A STORY
We can make the presence of a monster believable by
telling that creature’s story and explaining how that
telling fits into our larger story. Though discovering an
explanation for a monster’s presence after the monster has
been encountered sometimes works, providing at least a
partial explanation up front can make the actual moment
of meeting the monster feel more plausible.
Inventor Lost Control. To make use of some awesome
clockwork monsters within a larger dungeon, you
can place a door barred from the inside with a “Keep
Closed” warning sign. The door leads to a mini-lair for
a gnome inventor. The first of three rooms holds her
notes, indicating that her clockwork creations have gone
out of control. The second and third rooms contain the
aggressive creatures, and the third room also has the
bound inventor. If freed, she can help turn the tide of
battle.
Long Cold Winter. You can establish that it’s been an
unusually harsh winter in town, and that the townsfolk
are afraid. This sets the players and characters up nicely
for a yeti attack, which seems entirely plausible.
They Have Eyepatches and Say Yar. To make use of
some great bandit-type stat blocks while the characters
are in a port town, simply reskin them as pirates. For extra
fun, place wanted posters for the pirate captain that the
characters can find before the encounter.
They Scuttled Off That Way. A remorhaz is a fun
monstrosity, but doesn’t quite fit a dungeon milieu. So set
up a scene where the characters can overhear two ogres by
a fire in a cave, talking about how a rock broke open and
something nasty came out. Investigating the fire pit shows
that some of the rocks around it appear to have cracked
open like eggs. Later, the characters can encounter a
young remorhaz—perhaps chewing on the remains of
another dungeon denizen the predator surprised.
CHOOSING MONSTERS
BASED ON THE STORY
Rather than building combat encounters based on the
level of the characters and the difficulty of the intended
challenge, consider choosing monsters for your adventure
based on the story and the situation in the world around
the encounter.
This idea isn’t always easy to understand, and it departs
from a common approach toward preparation for fantasy
RPGs—building adventures as a set of encapsulated and
predefined scenes or encounters, with a bit of exploration,
some roleplaying, and (usually) a lot of combat.
As an alternative, write down a list of the monsters
who might be encountered in a larger area depending on
the situation taking place during the game. The seventh
step of preparation from chapter 9 of Return of the
Lazy Dungeon Master describes how to abstract lists of
monsters from the scenes and situations in which they
might appear during an adventure. This lets GMs “cook
at the table,” dropping in monsters who fit both the scene
and the situation—and which make for the most fun in
the moment as the GM improvises encounters based on
what happens during the story and the game.
other monster books available for fifth edition fantasy
games offer excellent summaries of each of their creatures,
including lore, environment, behaviors, and allies. When
considering monsters to add to your adventure, start first
with your favorite book of monsters.
Many monster books and guides for Gamemasters
include lists of monsters by ecology, often sorted by
challenge rating. These lists show what monsters typically
reside in which environments, including forests, deserts,
ruins, cities, and more. The challenge ratings in such lists
are useful guides, but don’t be afraid to include weaker
monsters to let higher-powered characters show off
their skills. Likewise, you might choose a monster who’s
technically too powerful for the characters, but you can
give them a chance to see the creature from afar so they
don’t simply wander in and get killed.
(“Bosses and Minions” on page 61 offers suggestions
on which monsters might serve more powerful creatures,
all keyed to environment. “Monsters by Adventure
Location” on page 72 features lists of monsters keyed to
specific locations.)
UNDERSTANDING THE STORY
REALISM AND FUN
Which monsters make sense given a particular story,
situation, and location isn’t always clear. We must first
understand the story of our adventure, which we can do
by asking the following questions:
• Where does it take place?
• Who would inhabit this location?
• What types of allies, followers, or symbiotic
relationships exist alongside these primary inhabitants?
• In what numbers do these inhabitants typically gather?
• Do they wander alone? Do they travel in pairs or
groups?
As an example, red dragons are usually solitary
creatures as regards living among other dragons—but
they could certainly have allies. Some might have fire
elementals who serve them unerringly, or hordes of
kobold worshipers to do their daily menial work. They
might have sworn knights or priests who serve them
on far-reaching quests, or who protect the dragon as
bodyguards and advisors. A particularly powerful red
dragon spellcaster might summon and bind a demon to
their service—a demon eager for a chance to break their
bonds.
When considering what monsters might inhabit the
locations of our adventures and in what numbers,
consider the issue from two angles. What makes sense
in relation to the fiction and location of the world? And
what best entertains your players? Instead of balancing
both ideas at the same time, though, consider focusing
on realism first. What makes sense for the fiction of the
game?
If the characters delve into the ruins of an ancient crypt,
all sorts of undead come to mind, including skeletons,
specters, wights, wraiths, ghosts, mummies, vampires, and
liches. But many other types of foes might also work in
such a location, including cultists, necromancers, graverobbing bandits, or black puddings feasting on the flesh of
the dead.
Any such creatures can easily feel realistic given the
location. So when preparing a game set in a crypt, list the
various undead and other monsters who might show up
in an encounter. Then when running the game, choose the
type and number of monsters that feels like the best fit for
the fun and pacing of the game.
Since the inhabitants of a location can move around,
you can decide what quantities and combinations of
monsters might reside in or travel through any given
area moment by moment. Did the party just finish a big
battle with hard monsters? Maybe it’s time for a couple of
weaklings to wander through. Have the characters been
having an easy time so far? Maybe they stumble into a
group of heavy hitters. Either scenario still makes sense
given the larger story and situation, but you can choose
UNDERSTANDING THE
MONSTERS
It always helps to have a deeper understanding of the lore
behind monsters, whatever its original source. You might
seek out this lore from old folktales and stories from
thousands of years ago. You might take monsters from
popular fiction. The D&D Monster Manual and the many
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the scenario offering the right beat and the right element
of pacing for the game.
Such variability helps tremendously in pacing a game.
You don’t ever have to throw your hands up and run
an encounter as is, just because it’s written that way. By
choosing the number and types of monsters, you can
easily tweak encounters toward what brings the right
pacing and feeling to the overall game.
WHAT ABOUT ENCOUNTER
BALANCE?
If we’re choosing monsters strictly by what makes sense
for the scene, location, and situation, then improvising the
number and combination of monsters during play, how
do we ensure encounters are balanced? There’s one simple
answer:
We don’t.
“Monster Combinations for a Hard Challenge” (page
67) offers guidelines for building groups of monsters to
challenge characters. But a story-focused approach toward
encounters means not worrying about encounter balance.
Instead, you can focus only on being aware of when an
encounter might become inadvertently deadly, discussed
in “The Lazy Encounter Benchmark” on page 70.
CHOOSING TOKENS AND
MINIATURES
Whether you play in person or online, this free-flowing
way of choosing monsters might challenge you if you
make extensive use of tokens or miniatures. However,
there are a few easy ways to make sure you can still use
those tools even while running flexible, story-based
encounters.
SELECT A SUBSET OF TOKENS
OR MINIATURES
If you know you’re going to be running an adventure in
a crypt and you have an idea of the types and numbers
of monsters who dwell there, you can sift through your
collection and set aside the tokens or miniatures you
might need. This can be a little time consuming, and you
might not use every mini you pull out. But having them
all on hand means you can pick what you need when you
need it.
For online play, you don’t have to worry about the
number of tokens—just the style. You can keep a separate
folder with the tokens you think you might make use of
given the scenario, then copy and paste as many of those
tokens as you need.
USE GENERIC TOKENS
A set of generic tokens is a fantastic lazy tool for online
or in-person play. A generic token is either a physical or
digital token with an abstract representation of various
types of monsters, rather than specific art for only one
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type of monster. These abstractions might include a skull,
a grim-looking humanoid, a wolf, a slime, a dragon, or
any other general representation of creatures in the game.
Numerous examples of generic tokens can be found
online, which can be purchased or constructed at low
cost. Some virtual tabletops even include generic monster
tokens built in. For others, you might have to import the
tokens into your VTT, but having a set of generic tokens
on hand means never needing to worry about having the
exact right token at the exact right time.
ORGANIZE FOR EASY RETRIEVAL
When you organize your tokens or miniatures, either inperson or online, spend the time to organize them so you
can easily find the ones you need when you need them.
Find the right categories that make it easier to dig out the
right ones. Keep your most-used tokens or miniatures
close at hand, and let your least-used tokens or miniatures
fall to the bottom of your organizational system.
FIND A FAST METHOD FOR
ONLINE TOKENS
A number of online tools let you build a token from any
image quickly and easily. Some virtual tabletops have
built-in token making software. Find these tools and
practice using them to quickly build tokens from the
many monster images made available for purchase or free
download online. Get good and fast at this process, and
you’ll be able to build any monster token you need even in
the middle of your game.
CRAFT GENERIC TOKENS FOR
IN-PERSON PLAY
For playing in person, you can build a set of generic
tokens with a little bit of crafting. Start by printing out
black-and-white silhouettes of monsters, skeletons,
knights, and other images. Search for royalty-free game
icons online. Pick the ones you like and print them out at
just under one inch in size. Then punch them out with a
one-inch hole punch. Use one-inch magnets for the base
of the token and one-inch clear epoxy stickers for the top.
You can put together a couple of dozen such tokens for
under $20.
BUILD SITUATIONS AND SEE
WHAT HAPPENS
By abstracting monsters from encounters and choosing
monsters who fit the scenes, story, locations, and
situations in your adventures, you give yourself the
freedom to let those adventures follow whatever
directions they might take in the game. Keep these
tools and guidelines in mind to help you facilitate the
adventure—moving where the action takes you, and freely
adjusting the pace to fit the fun of the table.
ROMANCING MONSTERS
It can happen in any campaign. Everybody’s focused
on the endgame, dispensing with foes on every side,
digging in deep to uncover ancient lore, and unraveling
dire mysteries layer by layer. And then the player of the
warlock says:
“Hey. What if instead of trying to defeat the Shadow
Sovereign and their Legions of Umbral Anguish, I just …
you know … turn on the charm?”
Whether it starts as a simple jest around the table at
the end of a very late night, an ironic attempt at Twilight
actual-play fan fiction, an homage to all the players’
favorite anime, or some other slow-burning urge, many
campaigns come to the crossroads that is romancing the
big bad. Whether that big bad is a feral monster, a wicked
villain, a capricious deity, a malevolent antihero, or worse
(which is to say, better), the characters’ ultimate goal of
fiercely taking down their foe can suddenly remake itself
as the new goal of … well, fiercely taking down their foe.
If you catch the drift.
Romancing monsters and villains is a trope that’s
existed in human-told tales for millennia. It can be great
fun if it fits the story your game is telling and the narrative
sensibilities of the players. (Letting the game move in
this direction also inevitably brings the roleplaying side
of things into sharp focus, discussed in “Roleplaying
Monsters” on page 48). But there are a few things to
think about before taking your game to the delicious dark
side.
storyline should be treated as narrative kryptonite. People
sometimes talk about how there’s no wrong way to play
the game, but in fact, there are many, many wrong ways
to play the game. And invoking or alluding in any way to
nonconsensual encounters of a romantic or passionate
nature is one of the worst.
CONSENT
Wait, didn’t we already do this?
Yes we did. But consent is such an important part of
this topic that talking about it once isn’t enough. This
time, though, we’re talking about player consent. Because
even for a romancing-the-monster story that involves
appropriate consent within the narrative, it’s important
to recognize that this might not be a type of story all
players want to engage in. Many players love a campaign
that strays into romance-and-relationship side treks,
whether between player characters, characters and NPCs,
characters and emissaries from the Court of the Shadow
Fey doomed to never find true love, or what have you. But
lots of players find those topics uncomfortable when they
engage them in games, even if they have no problem with
them in other fictions. And it’s important to respect that.
If a full-on villain romance is something that feels
like it might come up in a campaign, GMs should make
discussing that topic part of their session 0. If it comes
JACKIE MUSTO
CONSENT
Any narrative form—prose fiction, film or video, video
game cut-scene, or tabletop roleplaying scenario—can
veer toward romantic interactions between characters
and all the things that can result from that. When
this happens, showing consent within that
narrative framework is the all-important first
point in any checklist of tropes and narrative
elements feeding the story. Always.
There’s perhaps no more archetypal moment in
a story revolving around an enemies-to-lovers
reversal than the villain and their heroic foil
fighting toe to toe, matching each other’s
ferocity, pressing each other closer and closer
in combat—and then having one or the other
plant a physical or metaphorical kiss on their
astonished foe. It’s a great scene. But no matter
how innocent it seems, don’t ever confuse
that momentary transition of violence into
romance with a scenario in which romance
is earned through violence, threats, or an
imbalance of power.
Especially in a roleplaying game, where our
engagement with the story as the players creating
it is so much stronger than as viewers or readers
passively engaging with a book or film, the
loss of agency for any character in a romantic
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CAN’T WE JUST BE FRIENDS?
Mike points out that even if romancing the monsters isn’t your
thing (and especially if that kind of roleplaying isn’t a good fit
for any member of your group), a lot of the issues discussed
here work perfectly well for creating an enemies-to-friends
scenario. Fiction, movies, and comics are full of examples of this
sort of story, because that narrative packs a lot of punch. Think
of the number of times in comics that villains have reversed
away from their initial motivations to take a heroic turn (Bucky
Barnes, Harley Quinn, and many more), or villains and heroes
have found common ground to fight a mutual foe (one of the
constant themes touched on by the X-Men comics and films).
up without forethought or planning during a campaign,
use your safety tools to take a pause in the game (whether
during a session or as a conversation between sessions) to
ask how that type of story fits with each player’s lines and
veils. (You can get more information on RPG safety tools,
including lines and veils, in The Lazy DM’s Companion,
and many places online.)
Remember that this conversation includes the GM
as well. A group of players dead set on having the bard
seduce the Three-Tongued Death King should make sure
that the GM is happy to run that particular scenario, and
should ask whether that GM has any lines and veils of
their own regarding that type of subject matter.
ENEMIES TO LOVERS
Part of the reason that so many games and campaigns
can move in the direction of characters romancing their
enemies is that characters romancing their enemies is
a storytelling tradition as old as storytelling itself. The
myths of Ancient Greece familiar to a great many fantasy
fans are chock-full of such stories—though many are
extremely problematic in their handling of character
agency (to put it mildly) and should be approached with
care if you’re looking to them for inspiration.
Shakespeare did a much better job with Beatrice and
Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet
in that eponymous play, and other works. (Still, though:
content warning for those plays falling far short of being
feminist classics.) Even better was Jane Austen setting
the bar for the enemies-to-lovers trope with Elizabeth
and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. And more recently,
one can look to Daphne and the Duke of Hastings in the
Bridgerton Netflix series and books, Ygritte and Jon Snow
from the Song of Ice and Fire books, Satan and Emilia
from the anime The Devil Is a Part-Timer!—and of course,
Han Solo and Princess Leia in The Empire Strikes Back,
with the frisson of adversarial tension carried between all
those characters creating a narrative foundation that turns
unlikely romance into compelling character story.
LEVELS OF CONFLICT
The power of the enemies-to-lovers trope lies in the way
it upends the expectation for the conflict that drives the
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narrative. In the simplest terms of story analysis, character
versus character is one of the foundational forms of
dramatic tension and conflict, and is unsurprisingly the
conflict linchpin in tales of fighting monsters. As such,
stories built around battle and struggles for interpersonal
domination fit perfectly into the combat-focused
narrative framework of a fantasy roleplaying game.
But at a level above the straightforward narrative
tension of character versus character, the dramatic
paradigm of character versus themself offers a more
complex conflict framework. Essentially, a story built
around the idea of a character fighting against their own
instincts and nature implicitly raises the question of how
the character can ever possibly win that battle. As such,
whichever character in the enemies-to-lovers scenario is
the one most surprised by the sudden turn of romantic
events ends up in a much more dramatically interesting
place, as the question of how to handle their enemy
becomes increasingly complicated.
THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE
A character’s attempt to romance a villain might start
out as a ruse, intended to distract or confuse that foe, or
to allow the character to get close enough to the villain
to learn vital information. In a similar vein, a villain
characterized as a cold, calculating despot might view
caring for others as a fatal weakness—making their longignored ability to feel emotion into a flaw the characters
decide to exploit.
But in the course of what initially feels like contrived
romantic attraction, a character might learn that their
enemy is more than what they first appeared to be—or is
perhaps even worthy of redemption. So if the character’s
false overtures are met with real emotion, real romance,
and a chance to turn the foe away from their villainous
path, what should they and their compatriots do?
BAD BARGAIN
Another angle that can play into a romancing-themonster scenario arises from the realization that both
sides in that scenario can continue to have their own
adversarial objectives even as the romance blooms.
A player character who ends up drawn to the idea of
romancing a villainous foe might initially do so with
a particular goal in mind, even if that goal is just the
baseline idea of not wanting to kill or incarcerate the
villain in the normal way of things.
However, in the course of roleplaying the scenario, the
character and their allied party members might discover
that the foe has goals of their own for the romance—
perhaps including objectives the characters have a hard
time accepting. This sort of setup can lend itself to strong
roleplaying opportunities wrapped around all kinds of
moral dilemmas, as the characters must decide whether
having an enemy become a lover creates more problems
than it solves.
THERE BE MONSTERS
The rest of Forge of Foes is filled with all kinds of guidance
for making monsters feel unique and memorable in your
games. But most of that advice is built around the idea
of adding on to a preexisting monster concept in some
way. Whether you’re starting with an existing stat block
and customizing it, or crunching the numbers underlying
monster design to create the most effective attacks and
traits, fine-tuning a known creature is a great way to
match that creature to the fit and feel of your game.
But what about creating new monsters from whole
cloth, or thinking about reskinning a monster not with
new stats and attacks but with a new story? Within
the world of the 5e game, with all its infinite fantasy
possibilities, how do you come up with ideas for new
monsters in the first place?
THE OLD TALES
The lists of monsters assembled for the earliest editions
of Dungeons & Dragons are an odd grab bag of creatures
from European myth and folk tales, sprinkled through
with equally fantastic creatures borrowed (usually with no
acknowledgment, and often in problematic ways) from
other cultures. For years, many fantasy RPG players have
learned of the wiles of minotaurs, wyverns, harpies, and
the tarrasque at the gaming table, long before discovering
the centuries-old tales in which those creatures first
appeared—and learning how drastically the game lore for
many monsters deviates from its classical roots.
Just as the designers of the monsters in the earliest
fantasy RPG rulebooks and periodicals did, you can create
monsters from the fantasy stories that define your own
personal journey through the genre. Were you awestruck
by the sandworms of Dune? Pleasantly creeped out by the
Children of the Forest in the Song of Ice and Fire novels
and Game of Thrones? Overwhelmed by the towering
beasts in Shadow of the Colossus? Creatures from books,
movies, TV, streaming shows, video games, comics, and
other entertainments are ripe for rebuilding as part of
your own games and campaigns. You might want to
perfectly clone a tabletop version of a favorite fictional or
video game foe, pick and choose bits of lore as a starting
point, or take any option in between.
ROOTS IN STORY
The most memorable monsters are often those whose
inspiration doesn’t come first from cool attacks and
other game mechanics, but from a creature’s place within
the story of your game and campaign. The way that the
interplay between players and GM, the characters and the
game world, shapes a communal narrative stands at the
heart of the unique experience of tabletop RPGs. So when
thinking about a new monster, think about the place
that monster might occupy in your story—physically,
mythically, and thematically.
Think about how you want the characters to feel when
they first hear about the threat a monster presents. Think
about how you want them to respond to rumors and
evidence of the creature’s plots and attacks, and of the
reaction you hope to see when they finally face the foe
in combat. Then give thought to what mechanics can
support that sense of the monster’s story.
RUMORS AND WHISPERS
Even as you draw inspiration from the story your game
will tell, you can also think about the stories told within
your game. How do the NPCs of your campaign or game
world speak about the monster you’re creating? What
tales do they tell about the creature’s depredations or
reputation for evil? Have they grown up hearing legends
of the monster from an early age? Do heralds or other
minions appear as a warning of the monster’s own
imminent arrival? What warnings do people give their
children when rumors begin to spread that the creature
you’re creating prowls among them?
One great way to tap into this internal sense of story is
to create short pieces of flash fiction for your campaign—a
few hundred words written in character by specific or
unnamed NPCs. You might eventually share your writing
with your players, as part of setting the tone for the kind
of story you want your monster to tell. But even if you
don’t, the act of writing such fiction can help clarify the
sense of the monster’s existence, helping bring them to life
in your mind as you bring them to life in the world.
MONSTER AS PUZZLE
The nature of the stories surrounding many classic realworld monsters involve puzzles that people can solve to
help deal with the monster. In some European folkloric
traditions (not to mention Sesame Street), vampires
are compelled to count grains or seeds spilled upon
the ground, preventing them from wreaking havoc. A
sphinx is a deadly guardian capable of destroying all
trespassers—except for those who answer a challenging
riddle. The original basilisk of Pliny the Elder was said
to be fatally weakened by the odor of a common weasel.
Creating a puzzle or a secret for a monster is a great story
hook, revealing a creature’s vulnerabilities and providing
the characters with a tangible reward as they gain some
measure of control over the monster.
UNIVERSAL FEARS
Many monsters of myth and legend originated in the
primal fears that kept our forebears huddled together in
the dark of night or around the evolutionary leap forward
that was the campfire. Even today, we often gravitate
toward fiction—fantasy or otherwise—with antagonists
who tap into those archetypal terrors. So when thinking
about new monsters, you can keep in mind any of the
following fundamental human(oid) fears as an origin
point. (Content warning: As indicated by their titles, some
of the following examples deal with themes that might be
upsetting.)
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MODERN FOLKLORE
Mike notes how the history of D&D and its monsters often
connects to old folktales and lore, but points out that players
and GMs today are all swimming in our own modern folklore.
Movies, TV shows, books and comics, video games—all
these entertainments can flood our minds with ideas for cool
monsters to drop into our games. And as a bonus, many recent
fictional works break away from the typical Eurocentric and
male-dominated forms of fiction and lore that inspired many of
the traditional monsters of D&D.
As GMs, we can take our inspiration from all around us,
including traditional folklore, modern fiction, real-world history,
and current events. And when we do, we can easily combine
inspiration to create a wholly new approach. Vampire folklore
goes back thousands of years, and yet we continually come
up with new takes on those awesome creatures. Spacefaring
vampires, good-guy vampires, vampire gunslingers, vampire
governments—there’s no end to the mash-ups. So whether
you’re diving back into lore from two thousand years ago or
the latest episode of your favorite TV or online series, take
your ideas from everywhere and use them to build the coolest
monsters your players have ever seen.
DEATH AS THE END
A fear of death is well understood and shared by most
people. But that fear changes within the context of a
game in which the more powerful the characters, the
more likely they can treat death less as a final end to
the journey of life, and more as a momentary detour
to be overcome with magic and heirloom jewelry. As
such, monsters in the game who have the ability to kill
characters permanently, leaving no chance of being raised
or resurrected, pack a powerful punch that can let the
characters truly share in the fear of death their players
understand.
BEING EATEN ALIVE
One of the most horrific understandings that comes
of observing nature in all its splendor and glory is the
idea of how many animals come to their end inside
other animals, consumed while still conscious, their last
terrified awareness focused on their own inescapable
demise. Monsters who have attacks allowing them to
engulf characters or swallow them whole hit that primal
fear hard, and can create truly horrific moments in a
campaign.
BLOOD AND LIFE
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Even before humans began to collate the earliest concepts
of medicine and physiology, blood was seen as a precious
commodity linked inextricably to the power of life.
Creatures who drink blood have long been a mainstay
of folklore, including vampires, demons, and evil
spirits whose tales of exsanguination have existed since
antiquity and can be found in countless cultures. In a
game in which a character’s combat health is measured
in hit points, a monster who drains blood or steals life
force in other ways—reducing a character’s hit point
maximum, reducing their Strength, and so forth—makes
a formidable threat, with heroes forced to watch helplessly
as their vitality and essence is drained away.
LOSS OF IDENTITY
The fear of being replaced and having one’s life taken
over by another creature, whether evil shapeshifter or
capricious changeling, is deeply connected to psychology
and the concept of ego. This fear can work in two
directions, causing characters to dread the thought of
another creature stealing the thoughts, memories, and
appearance that define them—as well as creating paranoia
in those characters if they have reason to believe that a
loved one or ally has already succumbed to that fate.
LOSS OF AUTONOMY
Losing one’s personal autonomy by succumbing to
physical or mental helplessness, or by having the ability
to make choices taken away, is a powerful fear for
many people. As such, monsters who can shut down a
character’s physical responses by immobilizing them,
wreck their mental faculties by making it impossible to
reason or assess the world, or take away their ability to act
through mind control make powerful foes. Such creatures
must be handled carefully, however, given the importance
of character agency to the game.
Character agency is the idea that players should
always be able to make free, meaningful choices for their
characters, and taking away those choices can drastically
undermine the fun of a game. This fear is thus one that
can frustrate and anger players almost as much as it
frustrates and angers their characters. When monsters
establish the kind of control that takes away a character’s
purpose, it’s good to keep that control short term, and to
give characters plenty of chances to break that control.
If you ever find that repeated saving throws or the other
regular mechanics of the game aren’t enough, you can
think about options such as letting a character choose to
take 1d8 psychic damage per two levels to end charm or
domination effects. You can also have a monster control
only some of a character’s actions, leaving the character
free to act independently some of the time.
TALK TO THE PLAYERS
When thinking about these or any other personal fears
as grist for your campaign story mill, it’s a great idea to
talk to your players in a session 0 or an in-game checkin to make sure the fear you want to make use of isn’t
something one or more players will find problematic.
(Information on using safety tools in your game can be
found in The Lazy DM’s Companion, and many places
online.)
Additionally, one universal fear to be wary of is the
fear of “the other” that lies at the root of many myths
and legends of the real world, and which has long fed
imperialist and colonialist narratives. “Anticolonial Play”
on page 119 has some thoughts on that particular trope
and how to avoid having it undercut your game.
ANTICOLONIAL PLAY
In any family tree tracing out the evolution of modern
fantasy roleplaying games, the apex of that hierarchy
isn’t a roleplaying game at all. Tabletop miniature war
gaming was the forebear of fantasy roleplaying in its
earliest forms. In fact, the primal edition of the Dungeons
& Dragons game made the explicit assumption that new
players were already war gamers, able to automatically
understand the lexicon and context of those games.
Some fifty years later, D&D and other 5e fantasy games
would be all but unrecognizable to the players of the game
in its first war game-adjacent incarnation. But despite
that, the DNA of all the editions that led to 5e still lingers
in the game’s rules and its worldview. And that worldview
holds a starkly colonialist view of the relationships
between the game’s heroes and too many of the other
sapient peoples—humanoids and other creatures with
intelligence, awareness, language, and culture—who often
play the part of the game’s foes.
The ongoing legacy of colonialism is the foundation
of a great deal of what’s wrong with the world—and a
book like this is clearly not the venue to try to fix what’s
wrong with the world. However, as gamers, we can,
should, and must think about how our experience of the
real world feeds into the worlds we create together. We
need to understand the ways in which the traditions of
colonialism hardwired into common culture and media
can easily make us embrace potentially hurtful ideas even
without meaning to.
A PROBLEM WORTH FIXING
The topic of colonialism in fantasy gaming deserves far
more discussion than our little monster book can bring
to bear. The sidebars in this section dig in just a bit to the
starting points of colonialist thought and its pervasiveness
in the real world. But even those brief discussions
aren’t the actual point of us wanting to talk about an
anticolonial approach to monsters in Forge of Foes.
We want to have this discussion because being
aware of and rejecting colonialist ideals in our fantasy
roleplaying games makes those games better. Because
the more interesting you make the peoples and sapient
creatures of your world and their place in that world, the
more interesting your story.
It’s easy to say, “D&D is just a game. What does it
matter?” But there’s actually a good answer to that
rhetorical question, because the harm that colonialism
does in games can ruin the fun for players with real-world
stakes in the problem. And in the end, building better
stories with the help of a new perspective doesn’t take any
more effort than building the same old stories that fantasy
gaming has been working with for the past fifty years.
A CHECKLIST FOR BETTER STORIES
The point of this section isn’t to figure out how to fix
colonialist thinking in the real world, as much as we’d all
like to. It’s about acknowledging how the harmful roots
of that worldview (talked about in the “Colonialism: The
Short Version” sidebar) have long been a part of fantasy
roleplaying, and the ongoing problems created by a
pervasive “it’s just a game” moral setup in RPGs (talked
about in the “Othering” sidebar on the next page).
Those deep historical faults at the heart of the games we
love make for tired, derivative storytelling. But by keeping
a handful of course corrections in mind, we can move
away from those old faults as we build better game worlds:
• Avoid monolithic ancestry cultures (“All elves/dwarves/
orcs are the same”) in favor of a broader cultural
worldview.
• Use ancestries as adjectives (“Gnoll bandits are
attacking villages,” rather than, “Gnolls are attacking
villages”) to avoid forcing narrow morality onto sapient
creatures.
• Focus on villainy as a choice, not a biological or cultural
imperative.
• Avoid the trap of perceiving civilization from a single
viewpoint (usually “settled lands = civilized lands,” so
that everywhere else is uncivilized).
• Understand and move away from the trope of heroic
characters as the saviors of “lesser” folk.
• Make use of cultural inspirations from reliable
sources, with the aim of centering other cultures and
perspectives from a position of respect.
COLONIALISM: THE SHORT VERSION
Colonialism is a topic far too broad to be properly summed up
in this or any other short treatise. But in a nutshell:
The history of our modern age has been defined by specific
groups of people laying claim to the entire world over centuries
of exploration—and not caring that the rest of the world had
other peoples living in it at the time. The history of colonialism
is a history of conflict and warfare. Of groups clashing over
control of wealth and natural resources. Of one group of people
raiding into and claiming lands not their own, and treating the
lives and livelihoods of folk living in those lands as plunder.
And if any of the above sounds vaguely similar to any fantasy
RPG you’ve ever played, you might get a sense of the problem.
At its heart, every fantasy roleplaying game tells a story.
Our stories take place in specific worlds, and often explore a
lot of the negative aspects of those worlds in the course of
showing off the best parts of those worlds. All heroes need evil
to fight against, after all. But colonialism needs to be treated
differently than many of the other negative aspects of our
game narratives, because the harm of unexamined colonialism
can hurt players and the people near them in very real ways.
For many of us, the story of the game takes place entirely in
our imaginations—both the good and the bad. But for just as
many players, the bad aspects of a game’s narrative are made
real in their own experiences, every day of their lives. For many
of us, the stories of heroism and adventure we know best are
stories of colonialism—and being aware of how colonialism in
a game can harm others who play the game is the first step in
addressing that harm.
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The sections that follow explore this checklist in greater
detail. Ultimately, none of the thoughts and suggestions
presented here are anything like a complete fix for the
harmful colonialist legacy of fantasy roleplaying, with
that task sitting firmly in the hands of the designers
working on 5e D&D and other modern fantasy games.
But these are just some of the things we can do as GMs to
help address that legacy—and to build better worlds and
adventures as a result.
BEWARE MONOLITHIC
THINKING
Though it’s part of a much broader conversation about
culture in fiction, the idea of monolithic culture in fantasy
owes a lot to the world-building of J.R.R. Tolkien in The
Lord of the Rings, which has long provided a bedrock
foundation for fantasy fiction and RPGs. Monolithic
culture is the idea that all members of a particular
ancestry share a consistent set of outlooks, ideals, and
OTHERING
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The earliest versions of D&D worked on the assumption that
the world of the game was one in which sophisticated humans
and demi-humans (to use the parlance of the original edition—
elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and so forth) were locked
into perpetual conflict with other peoples. Orcs and goblins,
kobolds and lizardfolk, hobgoblins, bugbears, and more were
the evil enemy, to be fought alongside more monstrous foes
such as dragons, aberrations, and the undead.
When one group of people—whether in our game worlds
or in the real world—reduces another group of people to the
status of default enemies, that’s a process called “othering.”
As the name suggests, othering is about defining differences
between ourselves and other people that allow us to eventually
view those people as wholly different from ourselves. As
less than us, deserving only of contempt and violence. As
sometimes not even people at all.
Unsurprisingly, othering plays a huge part in colonialist
thinking, creating a mindset that allows one group of people
to see other people merely as obstacles to be overcome on
the path to conquest and control by way of conflict. Equally
unsurprisingly, othering is the first order of business in
warfare—and in the war games that were inspired by the
conflicts of history, originally created as a tool to teach the
strategies of conflict and colonialism to European army officers.
When playing a miniatures tactical skirmish game, a
player doesn’t think about the morality involved in attacking,
defeating, and killing imaginary enemies on the other side.
It’s just a game, after all. And as the earliest versions of fantasy
roleplaying gaming evolved from war gaming, that “it’s just a
game” sense of not caring about the morality of fighting and
killing sapient humanoid peoples was locked in. It established a
narrative baseline for fantasy RPGs that was rooted in othering.
And so the idea that whole cultures of sapient humanoids can
be painted as irredeemably evil has lingered within fantasy
games, even fifty years and more than five editions of D&D
later.
behavior—to the point where any member of an ancestry
who doesn’t show off their people’s acknowledged traits
might be treated as abnormal. Even in fictions where that
approach makes solid narrative sense and has benign
intent (as with the elves and dwarves of The Lord of the
Rings), monolithic culture can only ever tell a single
story—and the best fantasy RPG campaigns tell stories in
multitudes.
We don’t have to look far to find monolithic culture
in our games, as that concept is baked into the selection
of ancestry that’s been front and center in every D&D
Player’s Handbook, and in many of the games D&D has
inspired. Our first entry point into the world of the game
tells us that all dwarves are bonded by mining and forge
craft, clan ties, and a hatred of specific other ancestries.
All elves are lovers of art and nature, aloof and distant,
detached and vengeful. All orcs are shaped by barbarism
and fury, embracing violence as a first resort.
As a steppingstone into roleplaying, monolithic culture
serves a purpose. By focusing on common archetypes,
players can quickly grasp the familiar feel of their elf
wizard, their dwarf cleric, or their orc barbarian, and can
start off with a useful sense of how their character fits
into and views the world. But the line between archetypes
and stereotypes is razor thin. And especially when the
negative stereotypes of an in-game ancestry show stark
and hurtful parallels to the real-world stereotypes used
for generations to attack the people of marginalized
communities, the fantasy of the game gains the potential
for harm.
ANCESTRIES AS ADJECTIVES
Instead of treating ancestries as nouns in the world of
your game, and inevitably making use of the “all X are Y”
trope created by monolithic thinking, think of ancestries
as adjectives. An ancestry should be used to give flavor to
conflict, not to define conflict across the board.
One of the most standard adventure hooks in fantasy
games goes something like this. “Goblins are attacking the
village! The characters need to help!” It’s a straightforward
setup. It’s fun. But as written, it embraces the explicit idea
that the goblins are attacking the village simply because
that’s what goblins do. So when that hook comes to mind
or appears in a published adventure, put yourself in the
frame of mind that attacking villages isn’t what goblins do
across the board—then figure out what kinds of goblins
might engage in that sort of behavior.
For example: Goblin cultists are attacking the village.
Or goblin bandits are attacking the village. Goblin
refugees are attacking the village. Goblin men’s-rightsactivists are attacking the village. Any of these alternative
scenarios sets up the same basic adventure—but in these
other scenarios, goblins aren’t the noun. They aren’t the
agents of conflict simply because they exist to create
conflict. Rather, they’re the adjective giving more context
to who the agents of conflict are, letting you explore the
story of why they’ve embraced conflict as a choice.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO
Mike, always seeking a lazy approach, likes to shake up
monolithic thinking by changing the game’s traditionally
ancestry-focused motivations into paths one chooses to follow.
If hobgoblins are raiding nearby trade roads, it’s never just
hobgoblins. It’s hobgoblin cultists of Krasar, demon prince of
war and bloodshed.
Mike also likes to provide a juxtaposition when making use
of members of an ancestry traditionally coded as “evil” in the
game by showing off explicitly good members of that ancestry.
Those orcs of Thrasix are a bunch of jerks, sure. But those orc
paladins of Vorn? They’re good-hearted protectors of the land.
Why are cultists or bandits or refugees or MRAs
attacking a village? You can probably come up with any
number of good reasons on which you can hang a solid
story. But none of those reasons have to revolve around
the weak idea of: “Because that’s the way they are.”
THE GANG’S ALL HERE
As an additional side benefit, thinking of ancestries as
adjectives makes it easier to move away from the habit
of forging threats in homogenous groups. If all goblins
aren’t sneaky thieves and reavers by biological or cultural
necessity, maybe a goblin bandit gang in a published
adventure consists of ne’er-do-wells from different
ancestries led by a goblin? Or maybe a group of goblins
looking for easy money have been seduced into a life of
crime by a duplicitous dwarf con artist? In every way,
moving your game away from the archetypes that feed
stereotypes makes for better story.
JACKIE MUSTO
BUT I JUST WANT BAD GUYS
TO FIGHT!
When shaping heroic story, it’s a given that the heroes
need to do heroic things. And if the story of your
campaign involves conflict between different peoples,
different kingdoms, different territories, different clans,
it’s perfectly reasonable to want to make use of the wide
range of creatures in the game as anchors for that conflict.
(If that wasn’t the case, a lot of the rest of this book would
be a waste of your time.)
Nothing in this section is meant to make you stop using
orcs, hobgoblins, giants, and other sapient folk as foes. But
when you do, just ask yourself: “What is it that’s making
these orcs, these hobgoblins, these bugbears, these giants,
these hags drive the conflict?” And look for an answer
more interesting than: “Because they were born evil.”
Asking and answering that question lets us establish
a more level playing field between the sapient creatures
who fill the world of our games. You can move away from
the notion that orcs, goblins, kobolds, giants, duergar,
drow, hags, troglodytes, ogres, doppelgangers, and all the
rest of the wide range of sapient creatures in the game
are specifically prone to warmongering, casual violence,
betrayal, humanoid sacrifice, and any of the other
elements on your adventure-hook-conflict checklist.
As GMs, we can move away from the idea that certain
types of sapient creatures exist only as fodder for conflict.
Rather than treating specific groups of sapient creatures
as inherently violent and defined by the combat tactics
hardwired into their ancestry traits and stat blocks,
you can establish that those folk are no more likely to
be violent or aggressive than the player characters and
their own peoples. But if and when orcs, giants, goblins,
doppelgangers, hags, and more are pushed to conflict,
their combat tactics define the specific and different ways
in which those foes will mess the characters up.
LET JUSTICE BE DONE
Consistent with the morality of their war game roots,
earlier editions of D&D made it very clear that the player
characters were the arbiters of frontier justice in the game
world. When evil arises, heroes are meant to deal with it,
acting as judge, jury, and all-too-often executioner. Even
in the 5e rules, it remains easier to kill a foe than to safely
neutralize them while letting them live.
Thankfully, not every combat in the game needs to be
a fight to the death (as talked about in “Exit Strategies”
on page 91, and “On Morale and Running Away” on
page 125). However, many gaming groups—not to
mention many published adventures—struggle with the
idea of what the characters should do when a group of
foes are left alive at the end of a fight. It’s a problem that
becomes an even bigger problem in campaigns where
every member of a specific ancestry is intrinsically
amoral, creating the narratively grotesque idea that good
characters should feel compelled to kill evil humanoids
just because.
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BIOESSENTIALISM
“Bioessentialism” is a word that’s never appeared in any edition
of D&D. But it’s the concept that underpins the game’s original
colonialist worldview, and thus has been present in fantasy
gaming, unnamed and unseen, since the beginning. Short
for “biological essentialism,” it’s the idea that the core traits
and behaviors of certain sapient peoples and creatures are
biologically hardwired in—and as a result, can’t be changed by
intent or will.
For centuries, bioessentialism has been a foundational
component of bigotry, racism, and dehumanizing behavior
in the real world. But even as most people are quick to
understand how abhorrent and wrong such beliefs in the real
world are, putting a fantasy spin on it can make bioessentialism
far too palatable in fiction and roleplaying games.
The most obvious aspect of bioessentialism in fantasy
games is ability score modifiers and suggested alignments
based on ancestry, which once shoehorned characters into
specific archetypal tropes. Dour, lawful, and hard-drinking
dwarves with robust Constitution and penalized Charisma.
Fragile and chaotic elves with heightened Dexterity and lowerthan-average Constitution. Half-orc characters established
at character creation as strong, dull, and crude (as the third
edition Player’s Handbook put it), and tending toward evil,
with a bonus to Strength and a penalty to Intelligence and
Charisma.
Thankfully, ability score penalties disappeared before the
release of 5e, and the current rules detach ability modifiers
from a character’s ancestry altogether. But the idea of locking
in behavior and morality for all creatures of a specific ancestry
or type remains a problem in the representation of sapient
creatures as potential foes on the GM’s side of the game.
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It’s quite telling that in so much fantasy world-building,
the fictional justice system looks an awful lot like the
worst parts of our broken real-world justice systems.
Corrupt city guards looking out only for themselves.
Robin Hood-style sheriffs brutalizing the people of
vulnerable communities. So in the world of fantasy that
you and your players create, don’t be afraid to engage in
the ultimate fantasy of real justice for the people of your
campaign.
In settled lands, you can establish that the law functions
along real lines of fairness, impartiality, and restitutionbased justice. Though if you do, be aware that for some
players, that might look like an attempt to sugar-coat
or mythologize broken real-world justice systems—and
that many people have experienced trauma within those
systems, making that topic a good one to discuss with
safety tools in mind. (Information on using safety tools
in your game can be found in The Lazy DM’s Companion,
and many places online.)
A better approach is to make use of the characters’
status as larger-than-life heroes to try to redress harm
done in the world in ways that center the specific needs
of the harmed. Then when the characters take a bunch of
rank-and-file cultists into custody after dispensing with
their evil-by-choice leadership, you can let the players
and characters alike define how what happens to the bad
guys is focused not on the bad guys, but on the needs of
the people who’ve been wronged. Whether that involves
restitution or imprisonment, your game can shape the
narrative of those sentences not as arbitrary punishment
leveled by a justice system, but as a means of preventing
those who’ve harmed before from harming again.
THE CIVILIZING DIVIDE
The first incarnation of D&D made it clear that the
baseline world of the game was a battleground between
the forces of chaos and law, barbarism and civilization. As
story tropes go, that archetypal clash between the solidity
of civilization and forces dedicated to destruction and
anarchy is pretty potent. But the concept of “civilization”
at the center of that trope is straight from the colonialism
playbook.
It’s said that history is written by the victors—and when
those victors write history, they’re usually quick to slap
the “civilized” label onto their own side. It’s always been
this way, whether we’re talking about the oldest historical
conflicts, the world-changing wars of the modern age, or
the less subtle but equally destructive cultural warfare that
colonialism epitomizes.
The root of the word “civilization” connects to the
concept of living in towns and cities. But when those of
us who’ve grown up unwittingly steeped in colonialist
thought use the term, that’s usually not what we mean.
We talk of civilized lands in our fantasy, and of characters
dwelling among civilized folk, and of adventurers passing
beyond the boundaries of civilization. And when we do
so, we should ask ourselves: What are we actually saying?
When defining the world of our games, we can create
settled lands, filled with permanent farmsteads, villages,
towns, and cities. We can shape wilderness, sparsely
populated and filled with peril. We can talk about
peoples and creatures who live in nomadic settlements,
or who live under a tight code of law, or who are fiercely
independent. But when we use the word “civilized” rather
than “settled” to exclusively describe lands dotted by
permanent towns and cities, we’re implicitly describing
nomadic cultures as uncivilized. When we talk about
the record of civilization being the written annals of a
particular culture or ancestry, that can easily be heard
as saying that histories recorded in story or song are the
mark of less-civilized cultures.
A conflict between a settled agrarian nation and a
land of wilderness nomads could be a great setup for a
campaign story. But avoiding the use of “civilization” to
describe only the settled nation lets you easily make it
clear that both lands are equally civilized with respect to
their own specific cultures and histories.
BARBARIAN RHAPSODY
The other side of the “civilized” coin is the millenniaold trope of labeling different groups of people with
descriptives such as “barbaric.” As many players are
aware, D&D and the many other games descended from
it are somewhat unique in having a character class—the
barbarian—named after what was originally an Ancient
Greek cultural slur. But much more recently—and
much more importantly—“barbaric” and similar terms
have been used as epithets to harm the members of
marginalized groups, and to reinforce the divide between
colonizing peoples and the victims of colonialism.
As with “civilized,” if the word “barbaric” ever comes
to mind when describing a group of humanoids or other
sapient creatures in your game, ask yourself what you
actually mean by that. When looking for words to replace
“barbaric” when talking about the worst behaviors sapient
creatures can engage in—humanoid sacrifice, ritual
murder, genocide, cannibalism, or what have you—“evil”
remains a solid go-to. “Brutal” and “ruthless” are equally
apt, with all three terms implying that a conscious choice
underlies malevolent behavior.
If you’re instead talking about a more general mode,
conduct, or worldview that clearly doesn’t push into evil
territory, treat that as a sign that synonyms for “barbaric”
should be avoided across the board. A group of nomadic
peoples might live by a code of law whose unforgiving
nature is viewed as a reflection of their harsh lives in the
wilderness. But describing that code as “brutal” creates an
explicit contrast with the codes of other folk—and a sense
that those other folk are morally or culturally superior.
AVOIDING THE SAVIOR
COMPLEX
A trope as old as fiction itself, the savior complex refers to
a narrative in which a group of people (or, in the case of a
fantasy roleplaying game, any group of sapient creatures)
faces significant peril—and is saved from that peril not by
their own actions, but by the actions of another group of
creatures. The savior complex is rooted deep in real-world
colonialism, which was built for centuries on the idea that
the peoples subjected to colonial conquest and cultural
destruction were being “saved” by the beneficent actions
of superior peoples and cultures.
A common trope in the game involves the player
characters stepping up to help NPCs unable to defend
themselves. It’s a workable (if overworked) campaign
hook. But be careful that the hook doesn’t cross over into
savior-complex territory by having the NPCs’ inability to
properly defend themselves revolve around their having
a “less advanced” culture or worldview than that of the
characters.
Most of the time, a better option for that particular
hook involves the people in trouble being able to take
care of themselves, then having the characters’ presence
solidify that capability, rather than standing in for it
wholesale. Also a good idea is thinking about what
things the locals are actually better at than the characters,
making it clear that needing aid against exceptional
threats isn’t a one-note sign of inferiority. Work toward
having the characters and the NPCs as natural allies and
equals, with each possessing assets and knowledge that
HARDWIRED FOR EVIL
Beyond baseline bioessentialism (as talked about in that
sidebar), fantasy also engages in something we might call
“theist-essentialism”—the idea that the traits of humanoids
and other sapient creatures are instilled in them by their creator
gods. Often, this feeds neutral stereotypes such as the dwarves’
love of stone and mountain, or the elves’ fascination with magic
and nature. Other times, the effect is much less benign.
With this trope on display, it’s not the case that orcs and
bugbears and kobolds are biologically predisposed toward
violence or trickery or evil. Rather, that’s just the way their
violent, conniving, and evil gods made them. But whether
named, renamed, or unnamed, this is effectively the same
bioessentialist idea that an entire group of sapient people are
compelled to evil. It defines whole cultures of sapient beings as
having a single mode of thought, a single morality, and a single
goal. And it drives the same wedge of flat, harmful narrative
into the heart of any game.
allow them to create a stronger presence standing together
than standing apart.
CULTURAL INSPIRATION IN
YOUR GAME
Stories and lore from cultures not our own can be
fascinating because of their newness. Our familiarity
with the tales and literature of our own cultures can make
those things feel too familiar, so that the tales, literature,
art, and legends of other cultures feel like a breath of fresh
air. But that becomes a problem when our experience of
and exposure to other cultures doesn’t come from reliable
and authentic sources.
Seeking out reliable voices talking about cultures
not your own is a great way to explore those cultures.
Libraries, bookstores, and the Internet are full of histories,
books of mythology and legend, and other sources of
cultural inspiration written by people within those
cultures. And there are an increasing number of fantasy
RPG campaign settings and player supplements based on
real-world cultures and created by designers, illustrators,
and others with concrete connections to those cultures.
As a bonus, many such authentic game works present
great advice on how players who aren’t part of a particular
real-world culture can approach using fantasy tropes
built from that culture. But if you’re working on your
own to make use of real-world inspiration, you can follow
the basic advice those game works often lay down—be
respectful of the cultures you want to explore in your
games. Don’t portray their peoples or traditions as exotic.
Avoid the harm inherent in othering and treating new
cultures as less advanced or less civilized than your game’s
dominant cultures.
Likewise, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that other
cultures should just be avoided in your games because
of the risk of using them wrongly. Rather, be active in
making cultural representation in your game better—and
helping your game tell better stories as a result.
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RUNNING EASY MONSTERS
Many GMs like to run a string of hard battles, one right
after the other. For them, running easy monsters is a
waste of time. It takes too long to set up an encounter that
won’t last more than a round or two, and easy battles bore
players. This section offers a few arguments against this
point of view, and a number of recommendations to get
the most fun out of running easy monsters.
SHOWING A LIVING WORLD
The monsters in a typical fantasy world don’t suddenly all
become more challenging each time the party gains a new
level. No doubt, the characters journey to new locations
with deadlier foes as their adventures take them to places
appropriate for their station in the world. But that world
remains filled with countless monsters less powerful than
the characters. Bandits are plentiful. Liches, not so much.
As such, it doesn’t make sense that every group of hostile
entities the party faces happens to be a perfectly balanced
group of five to eight foes of the appropriate CR, designed
to last exactly 3 rounds in an exciting fight.
When 2nd-level characters go into a seedy tavern, it’s
entirely plausible for them to find a bandit captain leading
a bunch of drunken bandits at the bar. But it doesn’t make
sense to find the same bar filled only with bandit captains
when the characters come back at 8th level, unless there’s
a Bandit Captain Convention in town.
When the characters run into monsters weaker than
they are, it reinforces the idea that they dwell in a large,
living world—one that doesn’t shift its whole ecology and
social structure just because the characters gained a level.
SHOW OFF CHARACTER
GROWTH
Running easy encounters also lets the players see the
growth of their characters. Players are likely to remember
how challenging a battle against an ogre enforcer was
when the characters were 2nd level—but now they’re
taking on eight ogre guards at a time at 13th level,
and wiping the floor with them. Few things are more
rewarding than casting fireball into a group of evil
monsters and knowing none of them will survive, even
if they make their saving throws. Fighting weak foes lets
the players truly enjoy how powerful their characters have
become. (And as the number of those weak foes grows,
“Running Minions and Hordes,” page 54, has lots of
advice for keeping combat moving.)
CHOICES OTHER THAN
COMBAT
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When a group of 7th-level characters are stopped by two
overconfident CR 1/8 bandits, a lot of things can happen.
Sure, the characters can easily dispatch the pair. But they
could just as easily persuade them to step aside. The
characters might interrogate them to find out who they’re
working with. They might recognize the bandits as scouts
and sneak around them to avoid alerting a larger band of
brigands.
How high-powered characters approach two bandits
can tell you a lot about those characters. What motivates
them? What do they do when facing clearly surmountable
foes? How do they treat people weaker than they are? So
instead of thinking of every situation in the game as a
combat encounter, let these kinds of easy confrontations
tie into all three pillars of the game, with sneaking,
talking, or fighting driving exploration, roleplaying, and
combat.
COMBAT IN THEATER OF THE
MIND
The common argument that easy battles take too much
time often comes from a requirement to set up battle
maps with tokens or miniatures. Drawing maps in person
or finding the right map for online play takes time, as
does finding the right tokens or minis. Who wants to do
that for a battle against two bandits?
For quick, off-the-cuff battles against weaker foes, a
generic battle map and some generic tokens work well.
But running easy battles is also the perfect time to use
“theater of the mind” play—running combat without
maps or miniatures. In theater-of-the-mind combat, the
GM describes the situation, the players describe what they
want to do, and the GM adjudicates what happens as a
result. (“Running Monsters in the Theater of the Mind”
on page 47 talks about this process in detail.)
In a clearly easy battle, players don’t need to worry
about optimizing positioning to make the most of their
combat features. Because it doesn’t really matter where the
bandits are or who they’re next to if a single hit can take
them out.
EASY AND HARD BATTLES
Though easy battles are fun, many easy battles can
become boring—just as too many hard battles can come
to feel frustrating and tiring. As such, you want to always
switch things up between easy battles and hard battles as
you run your adventures. By improvising encounters—
choosing the number and types of monsters during
play—you can craft easy, medium, and hard battles as the
game unfolds. Don’t let the cycle of such battles become
a pattern, though. You don’t want only easy battles
always followed by hard battles, and so on. (“Monster
Combinations for a Hard Challenge” on page 67, “The
Lazy Encounter Benchmark” on page 70, and “Defining
Challenge Level” on page 105 all provide guidance for
encounter building.)
ON MORALE AND RUNNING AWAY
Our games often feature situations in which one or
more monsters would flee from the characters given the
opportunity. At other times, it’s the characters facing an
overwhelming challenge who would like to run away,
or characters with the upper hand wanting to convince
a group of bandits to throw down their swords and
surrender.
Novels and movies are full of these kinds of scenes,
where the villains or the heroes get to flee the fight and
return another day. Unfortunately, the rules of 5e don’t
support these scenarios the way we might picture them
in our minds. But by being aware of the factors that often
prevent these scenarios from working, we can create a
framework to handle them.
MORALE
The concept of morale comes from the military games
that preceded roleplaying games. As a battle wore on, the
chance increased that one side would break and run, and
it was perfectly acceptable for dice to decide this. Early
editions of Dungeons & Dragons implemented morale
using a single die roll. Later editions used checks and
tables, often tending toward overly complex solutions.
Fifth edition D&D returned to a simpler approach to
morale, but one that still rests on a single saving throw.
Ultimately, both the simple and the complex die-roll
approaches can feel more like a game and less like a story.
Rolling to see whether foes surrender or run doesn’t
necessarily fit the narrative of who those foes are, or the
purpose they serve in the campaign. The players might
also be having fun with an encounter, so that you don’t
want the battle to be over just yet even if the dice say so.
A morale check can often feel like a coin toss. Roll
high, and enemies fight to the death. Roll low, and
they surrender or flee. But what makes sense for the
creatures and the situation? What would be the most
fun for the game? These questions are ignored when
morale is determined by simply rolling a die.
defeat. By the time players finally agree to start running
away, their characters are usually in bad shape.
When it comes to characters fleeing, initiative is a key
problem. One character might start to retreat, even as
others stay behind to try to accomplish a goal such as
retrieving a valuable item, or to buy time. This effectively
splits the party, and anyone still in the encounter is now
both injured and outnumbered. If one character drops,
the characters who retreated might try to return to
the encounter to save them—and suddenly you have a
frustrating total-party-kill scenario on your hands.
Even if all characters can leave an encounter area, in an
environment such as a dungeon, it might be unclear how
easily the characters can elude the monsters coming after
them or reach a place of refuge. Initiative works against
the characters once again, because if they can move and
dash, so can the monsters.
A FRAMEWORK FOR HANDLING
MORALE
The key problem with making checks for morale is
that the check is often abstract, failing to represent the
situation at hand in a tangible fashion tied to the story.
Even with complex tables adjusting for various factors, the
MONSTERS FLEEING
DANNY PAVLOV
Sometimes it makes sense for a foe to flee
combat. At other times, you might feel that the
story should result in an enemy getting away.
This is especially true of key villains, who might
need to escape so they can show up in a later
scene. Unfortunately for their enemies, though, the
characters usually have multiple means to prevent fleeing.
Spells can immobilize or slow. Magic or class features
might allow a character to easily catch up to a fleeing
monster. Once a foe is hindered or grappled, that buys
enough time for the whole party to gang up on them, and
that foe is defeated. If it happens every now and then,
that’s fine. But all the time? Not cool.
CHARACTERS FLEEING
When the tide of battle turns against the characters,
players often resist fleeing because doing so feels like
125
dice make the result too unpredictable. But we can instead
lean into the story as follows.
UNDERSTAND THE MONSTERS
Before the encounter begins, review monster lore and
stat blocks as you consider the story of the encounter.
What goals do the monsters have? What motivates them?
What’s the role they play in the story? One foe might fear
their boss villain overlord too much to surrender, while
another might gladly surrender or flee. By understanding
the foes, you’re prepared to react to the characters and the
encounter.
UNDERSTAND THE CHARACTERS
During the encounter, listen to what the characters
are saying and evaluate what they’re doing. Are they
communicating with their enemies? Are they offering a
truce or promising only death? Those enemies will react
to the characters based on their motives and mannerisms.
ASSESS THE PLAYERS
Separate from how the characters might be feeling, assess
whether the players want the battle to continue longer and
end through combat. Are they looking forward to pushing
their fun combat capabilities to the limit? Or do they have
broader motivations such as learning the boss villain’s
location or plans? Even if the monsters offer to surrender,
you don’t want to force that option on the players if it isn’t
welcome.
PROVIDE CUES
If the motivation of foes would lead to surrender, those
foes can provide cues to indicate that. A boss villain
might glance nervously at the exit, or a once-confident
monster could look clearly overwhelmed. You can express
such details outright, or have the characters attempt easy
Wisdom (Insight) checks to note them.
REACT AND ADJUST
Over the next round or two, have the monsters react to
what the characters do, playing off that to further facilitate
a surrender. For example, a character might see how
nervous the monsters are and demand that they stand
down. The monsters might respond by asking for coin.
The characters choose to intimidate, so you improvise an
easy DC, or ask a player to roleplay the scenario and have
the foes react to that.
You also adjust as you continue to read the players.
If they see enemies offering to surrender but prefer
combat, so be it. Likewise, if the players express interest in
negotiation, you can switch out of initiative and jump into
a more narrative mode of play to let each side state their
demands. Combat can resume if negotiations break down.
Assessing what the participants want and allowing
monsters and characters to provide each other with cues
126
enables morale to become a tangible part of the narrative.
This lets you move away from the on-off switch of a die
roll and instead allow morale to become a full part of the
story developed in concert with the players.
A FRAMEWORK FOR RUNNING
AWAY
A few exceptions in the game prove the rule that sees the
initiative system make it all but impossible to flee from
combat. A monster designed specifically for escape might
be able to remain hidden and do so. If characters are
smart and flee before they’re badly wounded and close to
dropping, they might run away. (“Exit Strategies” on page
91 talks about planning ahead for ways to bring combat
to a close.)
In general, though, the characters have too many ways
to stop one or two fleeing creatures in between each
of those creatures’ turns, and wounded characters flee
too slowly to withstand damage from pursuing foes. To
counter this, we need to step away from typical initiative
for fight-to-flight scenarios, making use of the following
framework instead.
ASSESS TIMING
Ideally, you want to monitor an encounter for the cues
that tell you the characters are facing a potential totalparty-kill scenario, or that a foe needs to flee. You can
encourage characters to flee when needed by describing
the overwhelming power and confidence of their foes.
Likewise, you can monitor the monsters’ hit points so you
don’t wait too long to enact their escape.
REDUCING FRUSTRATION
Mike notes a few tricks that can be used to help boss foes
depart a fight in order to return again, but in ways that can feel
more realistic and less like deus ex machina:
• The boss was a simulacrum forged by the “real” boss.
• The boss has a magical vessel holding their soul, which
resurrects them somewhere else.
• After defeat, the boss is dug up and resurrected by faithful
cultists.
• When the boss is mortally wounded, powerful magic or a
special feature grants them an automatic escape, such as
teleporting back to a sanctum, or turning into mist and
drifting back to their lair.
• The defeated boss was one of many clones.
As well, once a boss flees or drops early, you can have any of
their servant creatures—summoned monsters, created undead,
bound fiends, constructs, and so forth—quit the fight. Some
might simply fall apart or magically unravel, while others are
drawn back to their original dimensional realms when the
magic binding them expires. It’s a great “easy out” for a GM,
especially if the characters have exhausted their resources
while pushing the boss to the point of flight—but still leaving
them with a huge pile of underlings to deal with.
MAKE AN IMPENDING TPK CLEAR
DETERMINE SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Players usually know when their characters are having an
easy time with monsters. But they often fail to realize that
the characters are facing a total party kill, doubting the
risk of such a scenario until long after you as the GM see
it coming. As such, you need to make an impending TPK
as clear to the players as it would be to their characters.
You can call out a looming TPK descriptively, clarifying
as a character is attacked that their foes have the upper
hand and sense imminent victory. If that doesn’t work,
you might need to be even clearer, telling the players
that their characters recognize how the foes they face
are stronger than the party, and that continuing to stand
against them might mean the characters’ end.
An escape plan might simply work. The defenders in a
goblin enclave could believe a tall tale that the characters
were sent by their boss to test their readiness. Good job!
Mercenaries or brigands might accept gold or magic
as payment to stop fighting. Other plans might require
successful checks, parting attacks, or spells to succeed.
A Strength (Athletics) check or an attack with a slashing
weapon could snap a rope, causing drapes to collapse
on a group of guards. Failure might mean that escape is
delayed or comes at a cost.
Escape plans implemented by foes can be handled
the same way. A villain sets a tavern on fire, and the
characters must decide whether to save innocent people
or go after their nemesis. It takes all the characters
to put out the fire, so it’s an all-or-nothing decision.
Alternatively, a hobgoblin war boss might need to make
ability checks to swing across a pit, then cut the rope to
prevent the characters from following.
DEFINE OPPORTUNITIES
Assessing the situation lets you identify any plausible
means of escape. The capabilities of the creatures fleeing,
their positioning, and the terrain around them can all be
factors. For example, strong foes could shove furniture
between themselves and the characters, blocking pursuit.
A spellcaster might use a spell to impede a chase, to
obscure the area, to set fire to vegetation or furnishings,
or to cause a column or other heavy object to topple over.
Foes might put noncombatants in the encounter area
in danger, forcing the characters to deal with that threat
instead of pursuing.
PAUSE INITIATIVE
When you know that either the characters or their foes are
ready to flee, pause normal initiative. Let the players know
that to resolve the scene, you’ll employ side initiative—
an option presented in the Dungeon Master’s Guide
where each side (monsters and characters) takes a turn
collectively. On each side’s turn, every member of that
side acts in whatever order the players (for the characters)
or the GM (for foes) chooses. The side initiating the
escape goes first, after which the pursuers act. You can
also forego initiative entirely, simply narrating the scene
as you would an exploration or roleplaying scene.
COMMUNICATE THE OPPORTUNITY
Players can often be encouraged to develop a plan
around getting out of combat, which you can help with.
Alternatively, you might propose plans based on what the
characters observe. If a number of foes are all standing
under a platform, suggest that the characters can cause
the platform to topple to buy themselves time to flee.
If the terrain doesn’t offer clear opportunities, you can
encourage the players to think through their characters’
capability to create illusions, obscure their enemies’
senses, or create distractions. Throwing a sack of gold
might stop ogre mercenaries, and throwing rations will
typically cause a ravenous beast to pause long enough for
the characters to get a safe distance away.
MITIGATE OR HARNESS
FRUSTRATION
Players often hate it when villains escape, especially if
that escape feels arbitrary or forced upon them. But
the frustration level can be reduced when the players
understand clearly how the foe escaped, and especially if
the characters made the hard choice to allow that escape
so as to deal with a different threat. Whenever possible,
work to channel the players’ potential frustration toward
the villain and not you—and understand that when the
heroes next meet the villain, they will absolutely want
revenge.
OPTIONAL CHASE
If doing so feels realistic and fun, you can use the chase
rules found in the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide to play out
a chase as one group of combatants flees from another.
But such a chase should feel rewarding, rather than simply
dragging the characters back into a combat that the
players are ready to end.
DESCRIBE SUCCESS OR RESUME
COMBAT
Successfully running away can be described in loose
terms. Fleeing characters get away from their enemies,
and can choose a safe location they want to reach. A foe
can slip away, even as you let the players know that the
characters haven’t seen the last of that foe. Alternatively, if
an attempt to flee fails, combat resumes with the original
initiative order.
At your discretion, a different attempt to flee can be
made, if that would be fun and if a new plan can be
employed. And remember that for both sides in a fight,
surrender is always an option—and usually a far better
option than dying.
127
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
This book comes from the minds and the partnership of
Teos Abadía, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, and Mike Shea. With
the combined experience of nearly a century’s worth of
writing, designing, and running D&D and other fantasy
RPGs, we all have lots to say about running monsters.
All three of us have designed monsters for decades,
working with publishers such as Wizards of the Coast,
Kobold Press, MCDM, Ghostfire Gaming, Pelgrane Press,
Sasquatch Game Studio, and many more. We’ve spent
years living and breathing monsters and other foes—and
we’re thrilled to be able to share that passion with you.
TEOS ABADÍA
Teos Abadía is a Colombian-American freelance author
and developer working with Wizards of the Coast, Penny
Arcade, MCDM, Hasbro, and others. Teos was a primary
author on the D&D book Acquisitions Incorporated,
and on the vast Dungeon of Doom and Caverns Deep
adventures for Dwarven Forge. His board game work
includes the recent HeroQuest game relaunch. Teos shares
knowledge and advocates for a healthier RPG industry
as cohost of the Mastering Dungeons podcast, on his blog
at Alphastream.org, and on Success in RPGs—a YouTube
series helping creators identify what success in the RPG
industry is like … and the concrete steps we can take
toward achieving it.
SCOTT FITZGERALD GRAY
Scott Fitzgerald Gray (9th-level layabout, vindictive good)
is a writer of fantasy and speculative fiction, a fiction
editor, a story editor, and an RPG editor and designer—all
of which means he finally has the job he really wanted
when he was sixteen. His work in gaming covers three
editions of Dungeons & Dragons, including working as an
editor on all three 5e core rulebooks, as well as creating
the CORE20 RPG system.
Scott shares his life in the Western Canadian hinterland
with a schoolteacher named Colleen, two itinerant
daughters, and a number of animal companions and spirit
guides. More info on him and his work can be found by
reading between the lines at insaneangel.com.
MICHAEL E. SHEA
128
Mike Shea is the writer for the website Sly Flourish
and the author of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master,
The Lazy DM’s Workbook, The Lazy DM’s Companion,
Fantastic Adventures, Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the
Grendleroot, and a number of other books. Mike has
freelanced for a bunch of RPG companies, including
Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, Pelgrane Press, and
MCDM. He’s been playing RPGs since the mid ’80s, and
writing for and about RPGs since 2008.
Mike also happens to be the son of Robert J. Shea,
author of the ’70s cult science fiction novel Illuminatus!
He lives with his wife Michelle in Northern Virginia,
USA.
Built for the Lazy Dungeon Master,
Forge of Foes helps you create,
customize, and run monsters for
your 5e fantasy roleplaying games.
As with the material found in
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master,
The Lazy DM’s Workbook, and The
Lazy DM’s Companion, Forge of
Foes offers easy-to-use tools and
guidance to help you master the
monsters in your game.
TAKE YOUR
MONSTERS
TO THE
NEXT LEVEL