social encounter
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How to Handle Zone of Truth Fairly
The last article was about strategies for lies, tricks, and betrayals. As I said then, it wouldn’t be complete without tackling the elephant in the room—the killer of all “spot the lie” scenarios—the spell called Zone of Truth. Zone of Truth tells the caster when a creature within the spell’s area is lying. It creates… Continue reading
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Alliances and Betrayals with High-Level Villains
How to Use Villain Alliances and Betrayals Evil smiles. Heroes compromise. The game turns. Originally intended to introduce the drow priestess of Lloth, this article will show you how to convince your players to bargain with the darkness—and how to make them regret it. You’ll learn how to build trust with villains, twist alliances into… Continue reading
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DROW MAGE Part 2: Dark Magic and Dark Tactics
How to Use a Drow Mage, Part 2 Welcome to the second part of my creative ways to use the drow mage. In part one, we discussed how to keep the mage alive in combat for the entire first round — and quite a few more rounds beyond that — as well as a number… 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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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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COPPER DRAGON WYRMLING: Trickery on the Battlefield and Beyond
How to Use a DnD Wyrmling I mentioned in chromatic dragon wyrmlings that I dislike the idea of using wyrmlings as enemies. In my mind, a battle against a dragon should be impressive, and using wyrmlings as enemies robs dragons of their majesty. With that said, here are a few encounters if you do want… Continue reading
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ANCIENT COPPER DRAGON: The Host Hiding in Plain Sight
This ancient copper dragon can uses Change Shape to trick players, lure them into danger, mess them up, and strike when they least expect it. Change Shape as Combat Tactics How to Use (difficulty 24) The ancient copper dragon, like all ancient metallic dragons and several of the adult metallic dragons, has the ability to… Continue reading
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YOUNG COPPER DRAGON: The Comedian and the Crumbling Cliff
How to Use Personality of the Copper Dragon While the copper dragon is officially classified as good, I fail to see it in the flavor text description. Based on that description, I’d classify the dragon as neutral. This is not a dragon that will help vanquish evil, unless it is in its most direct self-interest… 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.