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DROW MAGE & Keeping Spellcasters Alive in Battle
How to Keep an Enemy Mage Alive Adjusting HP The drow mage is incredibly weak, with only 45 HP for a CR 7. It’s probable that if this statblock had been updated for the 2024 Monster Manual, the HP would have gone up the same way it did for the CR 6 mage, but it… Continue reading
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DROW ELITE WARRIOR & Homebrewing D&D Races
Introduction to Homebrewing Races The 2024 Monster Manual chose the remove humanoid races like the drow, the orcs, and the duergar. In their place, they suggest using various NPC stat blocks. In the case of the drow elite warrior, they chose the gladiator, which is an extremely bad choice. The gladiator is a STR based… Continue reading
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DROW & How to Make Betrayals work in D&D
Welcome to the drow. The drow were left out of the 2024 Monster Manual—a decision I can’t quite understand. I would call it the worst omission, if not for the fact that orcs were also excluded. Since I’ve committed to covering every monster that appears in either the 2014 or 2024 Monster Manual, I’ll be… Continue reading
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ELEMENTAL CATACLYSM: Waging War on the World of Men
How to Use: Aiming the Cataclysm’s Rage The elemental cataclysm is a problem. Properly, it should kite your players, hitting them with its attacks and then burrowing underground before they can retaliate. It has the intelligence and charisma (for self-preservation) to do so, and I doubt even a level 20 party can fight that. Worse,… Continue reading
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WATER ELEMENTAL: Flowing Out of Control
How to Use: Keeping the Overwhelming Elemental in Check The water elemental’s stat block has a problem: its special attack is overwhelmingly strong. When it uses Water-Surge/Whelm and captures a PC, that PC is basically helpless. Then it just dives back into the water. With 90 feet of movement, the other players have no hope… Continue reading
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FIRE ELEMENTAL: As Everything Around Burns Down
How to Use: Basic Fire Elemental Tactics The fire elemental’s behavior is motivated by a liking to setting things on fire. Like the other elementals, it isn’t trying to hurt them; it’s trying to share its flame element with them. This should result in the fire elemental constantly attacking the PCs who aren’t on fire… Continue reading
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Dragon Encounter Design: Make Every Battle Unique
There are ten different dragons in the Monster Manual, five good and five evil, and yet as anyone who has ever met one in a D&D game knows, there might as well be one. The differences between them are so small as to seem just cosmetic. The biggest difference between them is breath weapon… Continue reading
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EARTH ELEMENTAL: Four Unique Ways to Use the Wall Walker
How to Use: The Enemy Inside the Walls The earth elemental’s primary abilities are earth glide and siege monster. As these don’t work very well defensively, the earth elemental is going to have to be used as an attacker/invader. (Technically, it would also make a fantastic sentry. Undetectable until it attacks, and then hitting… Continue reading
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AIR ELEMENTAL: Four Ways to Disrupt the Party with Whirlwind
How to Use: Whirlwind Looking at the air elemental’s stat block, its most potent attack is probably supposed to be whirlwind attack, judging by the fact that it’s on a recharge. However, the whirlwind attack doesn’t seem worth it unless the air elemental can capture at least two PCs in its affect, preferably more, and… Continue reading
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Simple Traps Done Right
For those following this blog, I am proud to announce that I have posted a guest post on Tribality on the subject of traps. Trap Article Traps are a thing that has an incredible amount of potential, but sadly are often used very poorly. The basic way to use them, as described in the DMG,… Continue reading
About Me
I’ve been a DM since I was about 10 years old. (Not of D&D, admittedly, but still.) After growing bored of fights that were all the same, dungeons heavily populated by one monster type, and a general shortage of ideas, I figured I’d embark on my own trip through the Monster Manual, one monster at a time. Feel free to join the quest.