Combat rating 20
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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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DRAGON TURTLE: Battle of the Living Island
How to Use Combat Encounters Ideas 1 (difficulty 18): Dragon Turtle Island Legends tell of islands that are actually giant sea beasts. This likely inspired D&D’s dragon turtle, and this is my first combat encounter. When setting this up, we’ll immediately run into two problems. The first is that the dragon turtle doesn’t have… Continue reading
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ADULT GOLD DRAGON: Robbing a Dragon, and What Comes Next
When players are forced to rob a gold dragon to gain the item they need, we get to see just how powerful Dnd’s adult gold dragon is. How to Avoid Using – Keeping the Players in Charge Let’s start with my usual. The list of possible reasons for the good-alignment creature to refuse to join… Continue reading
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YOUNG GOLD DRAGON: Dignity in Battle and Moderation in Advice
How to Use in Moderation Reason’s for the Gold Dragon’s Refusal As I often mention, the main problem with using powerful good-aligned monsters is figuring out why they don’t do the quests instead of you. Here are reasons for the young gold dragon: Reason’s for the Player’s Refusal There are also a couple of ways… Continue reading
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ADULT BRONZE DRAGON & Fighting Alongside a Powerful Ally
This article will discuss ways to have the dragon say no in a realistic manner when the players push for help, and also a interesting lair encounter against the dragon, but our main focus will be on how to team up with an overpowered ally in D&D without overshadowing the players. Tips for balanced storytelling… Continue reading
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ADULT RED DRAGON: Battle of the Burning City
Perhaps the most interesting place to put a red dragon is in the middle a city that it’s attacking. Fighting in the city forces the PCs to split their attention between the dragon, the fires, and any people that might need help. Let’s look at them individually. Continue reading
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YOUNG RED DRAGON: How to Use Brute Force Properly
The red dragon is of the worldview that strength (meaning might) is the only important attribute, and that clever approaches are the methods of weaklings. This means that any interesting encounters with them will require either the use of homebrew, or convenient terrain. Continue reading
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ADULT GREEN DRAGON: Threats, Trickery, Minions, and Magic,
Before I discuss the adult greens dragon’s tactics, I want to discuss the spell Hero’s Feast, and how to deal with it. 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.