Combat rating 16
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FOMORIAN: Turning Sadism into Deadly Strategy
Fomorians are evil giants [extra evil giants, I guess. It’s not like most giants are good.] So evil that they were kicked out of the giant caste system, banished underground, and permanently disfigured. But everything has a silver lining, and the fomorians found a way to project their ugliness onto others, giving them a neat… Continue reading
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YOUNG SILVER DRAGON: The Race to Freedom
Silver dragons are nearly unbeatable on their home turf—but what if one’s being controlled? In this D&D encounter, your players fight to break the spell. How to Use – Silver Dragon Mountain Tactics Combat Encounter: Battle Among The Mountain Peaks (difficulty 12) Of all possible terrains to fight an intelligent dragon in, mountain is definitely… Continue reading
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YOUNG BRONZE DRAGON: How to Use Allies Without Overshadowing Players
How to Avoid an Overpowered Ally 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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ADULT BRASS DRAGON & Uses for a Powerful Non-combatant
Ways to prevent an Overpowered Ally I begin my article with reasons why the dragon doesn’t just do the quest instead of the players, this being one of the most common problems with good-alignment monsters. How to Use – The Neutral Friendly Dragon The brass dragon is a non-combatant when possible. There are numerous other… Continue reading
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SHADOW DRAGON: Unleashing terror From Amidst the Darkness
In the last post, I mentioned that shadow dragons keep their presence hidden, and enjoy spreading a dark unknown fear instead of announcing their strength the way every other dragon does. Before going into the details of how it does that, I felt the need to discuss How to use Horror in D&D. Now is… Continue reading
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ADULT WHITE DRAGON: Defenses of the Frozen Lair
How to Use the Dragon’s Lair Exploring the obstacles of the white dragon’s lair. There are three main parts. Reaching the lair, reaching the dragon, and fighting. Reaching a White Dragon’s Lair The entrance to the dragon’s lair will be high up on a mountain. The side of the mountain will be too slick to… 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 a Blue Dragon: Combat Encounter Tactics (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… Continue reading
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TYRANNASAURES REX: A Dumb Beast, and an Epic Boss
The tyrannosaurus rex is an exciting boss to face, given its rep. In fact, it’s 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… Continue reading
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HORNED DEVIL: How to Use the Devil’s Laziness
or the sake of this article, I am going to assume the horned devil was assigned to watch an entrance. It can be to a magic item, to a portal, or to anything else worth protecting. 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.