Combat rating 9
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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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YOUNG BRASS DRAGON: Battles of Lies and Fire
How to Use – Avoiding an Overpowered Ally 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… Continue reading
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YOUNG WHITE DRAGON: Attacks of the Master Hunter
How to Use: Combat Encounters for the White Dragon (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 is a master hunter, especially in its already deadly terrain. Here’s how to use that terrain to the nastiest advantage.… 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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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
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VROCK: A Harrying Attacker and a Treasure Raider
Let’s start with basic strategy. The vrock will perch on a high peak, or other high point, and whenever its spores are available it will fly just low enough to use them before flying back up. Continue reading
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CHASME & How to Run Pursuit by a Large Force
Aside from the plain usage of being an ordinary attacker, there are three ways I would go about using a chasme. Continue reading
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BARLGURA: King of the Mountaintop
With the barlgura we have one of the weirdest combos in D&D. A creature of no intelligence to speak of, with a whole bunch of spells whose usage revolves around being used subtly. Continue reading
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CYCLOPS: Using Poor Depth Perception to Make him Deadlier
The first thing I would like to note is that the one eye is a weakness. The original cyclops in The Odyssey was given one eye as a weakness for Ulysses to exploit, and its only significant function in the story is Ulysses taking advantage of it. ( Continue reading
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CHIMERA: A Fight to the Death
First appearance: The chimera’s attack style is very straightforward. It will dive from the sky, roaring and breathing fire, choosing an angle that will allow everyone to see it. I would choose a forest clearing, personally, or to have it come from arou 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.