battlemap
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Ettercap (1) & How to Run a Horde in D&D
Ettercaps are monsters that look like a cross between a human and a giant purple bug, and act like giant spiders. They live in large colonies of their own type, which immediately makes them a tricky monster to run in D&D encounters. How do you send the players against dozens or more of the same 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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DRIDER: How to Use Darkness and Range in Combat
Three Ways of Running DnD’s Drider: The Temporary Parley Trap, Tactics of the Darkness Spell, and the Drider’s devastating sniper range tactic. How to Use – DnD’s Drider Parley Tactic Advantage of Knowledge of the Drow The drider is the ideal monster with which to set up a drow campaign. As a being who was Continue reading
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SILVER DRAGON WYRMLING: Climbing for Survival and Chasing Down Caverns
Dnd’s silver dragon wyrmling is weak, but can really hamper movement. Here are four separate encounters built around that. How to Use – Silver Dragon Wyrmling Tactics The best way to use any wyrmling, tactically, is for it to hit them with its breath weapon when available, then use its movement speed to get around Continue reading
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Dragon Homebrew: Ideas to Make Each Dragon Unique
While this blog is not meant as a homebrew blog, I feel that an exception is called for. D&D dragons are more or less identical, and while my encounters might be able to make up for that somewhat, they rely on the dragon being the main focus of the encounter, and sometimes even the Continue reading
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GREEN DRAGON WYRMLING: Fighting While Caught in a Trap
If you are going to use a wyrmling, I would give them one heck of an advantage. In the case of green dragons, this feels like it can be done through traps. I’ll suggest some ideas. Continue reading
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YOUNG BLACK DRAGON: The Swamp Dragon
(Yes, I am going to write a separate article for every single dragon in the Monster Manual. Fun dragon encounters can be done, and more than once for all the dragons at once. The trick is seeing how each dragon’s different, and using it. For the young black, that’s cowardice and swamp waters.) For the Continue reading
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DISPLACER BEAST: Making Full Use of the Displacment Ability
Displacer beasts are about misdirection. We’re goint to learn how to combine this feature with allies, terrain features, and traps (where they can’t see where’s safe to step, even as the displacer walks around casually). How to Use: Wild Displacer Beasts Combat Encounter 1: Basic Pack Tactics (difficulty 5) The basic combat encounter for the Continue reading
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BARBED DEVIL: Why Devils Need to Pay for Souls
Before going into the meat of the article, I wanted to write a little about devil contracts. There seems to be a gaping plot hole in the entire idea. 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.