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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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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
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HEAD VILLAIN: Introducing him, and keeping him alive.
My apologies to everyone for my lack of posting in the last few weeks. I’ve been working on guest posts to try to bring up the blog’s ratings online, and it’s left me a little short of time. With that said, let me introduce the first DragonEncounters post on a different site. Meeting the villains… Continue reading
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DRACOLICH: How to Use Immortality as an Unfair Cheat
How to Use – Dracolich “Suicide” Tactics Fighting back isn’t the only way a villain can respond to the heroes’ aggression. Another way is to go after a city, or other civilians, forcing the heroes to either risk themselves in order to save the civilians, or to suffer the effects of massive unpopularity. [See below].… Continue reading
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2024/2014 Monster Manuals, and What Now?
This is just a brief update to address the issue of the new Monster Manual(2024), and to set blog policy for the way forward. For at least the next year (dating from the release of the Monster Manual 2024), I plan to treat both Monster Manuals as authentic. What will that mean? Changes to Monsters: All… Continue reading
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ADULT SILVER DRAGON: Daring Escapes and Visiting Neglected Areas
D&D’s silver dragons rule the sky. These mountain-top and midair encounters let your players ride beside—or battle—the sky king himself. How to Use & How to Not Use DnD’s Adult Silver Dragon Reasons For the Dragon to Refuse to Help As I’ve already discussed, bringing powerful friendly NPCs into D&D raises the problem of why… Continue reading
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COPPER DRAGON WYRMLING: Trickery on the Battlefield and Beyond
How to Use a DnD Wyrmling I mentioned in chromatic dragon wyrmlings that I dislike the idea of using wyrmlings as enemies. In my mind, a battle against a dragon should be impressive, and using wyrmlings as enemies robs dragons of their majesty. With that said, here are a few encounters if you do want… Continue reading
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ANCIENT COPPER DRAGON: The Host Hiding in Plain Sight
This ancient copper dragon can uses Change Shape to trick players, lure them into danger, mess them up, and strike when they least expect it. Change Shape as Combat Tactics How to Use (difficulty 24) The ancient copper dragon, like all ancient metallic dragons and several of the adult metallic dragons, has the ability to… Continue reading
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Prisoners of a Dragon:
Low-level PCs vrs adult chromatic dragon, Number 1. This is the first of a series of articles presenting encounters involving low-level PCs and an adult chromatic dragon. There will be one of these articles to go along with almost every chromatic dragon in the Monster Manual. In setting this encounter, an NPC has been taken… 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.