Combat rating 11
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YOUNG BRONZE DRAGON & How to Use Allies Without Overshadowing Players
How to Limit the Use of I already gave several reasons for why the dragon isn’t accompanying them on their quest, or fighting it for them. (Having an NPC accompany the players is generally a mistake. Even more so if it’s more powerful than the players, an thereby stealing the spotlight. [The young bronze dragon… Continue reading
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YOUNG BRASS DRAGON: Battles of Lies and Fire
How to Use And so, after twenty-seven articles, we come to the good dragons. As is my typical style for good-alignment monsters, we’ll start with the reasons why the PCs are the ones getting sent on the quest, and why the much more powerful good monster isn’t doing it for them. (Somehow, just saying that… Continue reading
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YOUNG WHITE DRAGON: Attacks of the Master Hunter
How to Use – Combat Encounters (difficulty 8) As mentioned in the Monster Manual, what the white dragon lacks in size, strength, and intelligence, he makes up for in natural instincts. He also has the most beneficial terrain, as far as he’s concerned. You can use the following ideas separately, or you can thread several… Continue reading
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YOUNG GREEN DRAGON: How to Run Parley and Combat
With the green dragon, we have a unique type of dragon, in that it will try to avoid fighting when it can. Continue reading
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YOUNG BLUE DRAGON: Master of Tactical Fighting
How to Use – Combat Encounter (difficulty 10) The blue dragon is a strategist. It will take note of any weaknesses in its opponents, and fight accordingly. This means that against a group of melee PCs, if will strafe them with its breath, and forgo attacking on the rounds that it can’t if that will… Continue reading
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TYRANNASAURES REX: A Dumb Beast, and an Epic Boss
The tyrannosaurus rex is one of those rare monsters that will be exciting encounter just on the strength of their name, or reputation. With other monsters, there are various ways to make them exciting, but they won’t measure up to the reputation that the T. Rex already has. I can’t name ten monsters in the… Continue reading
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TRICERATOPS: Charge of the Triceratops
Have the players enter a clearing, ringed about by dead thorns, possibly as high as their waists, possibly higher than their heads. Continue reading
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CHAIN DEVIL: How to Maximise Animated Chains
My combat encounters are going to revolve around various ways to use the animate chains ability, but before we get into that, I want to discuss his unnerving face reaction. Continue reading
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BONE DEVIL & Taking Care of a Group of Commoners
How to Use – Combat encounter 1 (difficulty 10) Suggested terrain: A dessert wilderness, with tall peaks of rock jutting up on both sides of the path. Or you can just use mountain walls on one or both sides. The bone devil’s preferred strategy will be to lie flat on top of the columns, and… 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.