Dragon Encounters

How to Use: Vine Blights in Combat

The most basic use of the vine blights’ is for them to hold the prey still with grapple and Entangle while needle blights and/or other ranged attackers pelt the captive from a distance.

That said, there are a number of other ways to use the vine blights’ grapple and Entangle, as well as their stealth/false-appearence. (2024 edition vrs. 2014 edition). I have eight combat encounter ideas below. Counting the basic use I just mentioned, that’s three ways to use each ability. 

Combat Encounter 1: Dragged Off Somewhere Private (difficulty 2-3)

A different move would be for it to drag the PC it has grappled over to the side, where it can devour him is private. This would likely take him out of sight of the rest of the party, given that areas with blights are choked with vegetation, and could pull the rest of the party into an ambush if they come to the rescue.

(While the vine blight doesn’t have anywhere near the intelligence needed to do set an ambush deliberately, it would make sense for it to drag its prey to somewhere safe for it, which would be surrounded by its allies.)

Intensify further by having multiple vine blights dragging multiple PCs in different directions. (If you hope to drag off two PCs, you probably want 3-4 vine blights. One PC will manage their save against the grapple, and there’s a good chance that the vine blight will get killed too soon. Both the save DC and the vine blight’s HP are pretty low.)

Combat Encounter 2: Isolated in the Dark (difficulty 3-4)

For the hardest possibility, structures where blights live are often rotted. You could have a vine blight pull a grappled PC past a path or through a gate that collapses as he gets pulled through, or as the rest of the party follow him through. Even so, there are other ways to rejoin him, that might also collapse as used.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting splitting the players up for any length of time. That would be fatal at the lower levels that vine blights can be fought at. (Level four max, and that’s really pushing it.) I’m suggesting a fight where the players are forced to keep moving due to PCs being dragged off, and where they can’t strike and retreat due to collapsing paths.

Any separations shouldn’t last for more than a round, but that’s plenty of time for pressure and danger.

Roots of Large-Scale Encounter Design

This scenario will work best with a battlemap, with players able to keep track of where the others are.

Finally, it needs a goal, such as a magical item the players are after, or a central plant that will cause the blights to collapse when it’s destroyed. Having several central points will help the scenario last longer, but don’t spread them out so much that the players have no chance or that it gets boring.

As I suggested in the Needle Blight article, it might be worth scattering healing potions or giving the blights berries with healing capabilities if you want a long battle at low levels. I also suggested there that blights work great as horror monsters, which is something that combines will with this idea and the next 2-3.

Combat Encounter 3: Uprooting the Forest’s Grasp (difficulty 2)

The vine blight of the 2014 Monster Manual had an ability called False Appearance, which meant that it could remain still and be unrecognizable. The 2024 Monster Manual has removed this ability from existence, and handed out stealth proficiency instead.

One way to use a stealth ability is to have let the players know of the monster and its abilities, (doable via meeting it previously in an easy encounter, a knowledge check, or simply gifting it to them as generally known), and then having them see enough movement to know that a vine blight is in a specific area, but not enough to pinpoint where it is. If they want to take it down, they’ll have to send someone into the area to bait it out. Otherwise, they’ll have to put up with the Entangle spell being cast on them every three rounds or so.

Add a few more foes to pad out this encounter.

Combat Encounter 4: Snatched From Behind (difficulty 3-4)

A different way to use False Appearance / stealth would be to send the vine blight at them from behind when they’re engaged with a different enemy to grapple a ranged fighter or spellcaster.

This can be run as any of the grapple encounters above, although the first one, where the vine blight holds the grappled PC in place, would require the other players to be fighting enemies that move out of sight of the grappled PC. Otherwise, grapple is a pointless condition to inflict on a range or spellcaster PC.

The other grapple encounters can be played as written.

Grappling a range or spellcaster PC means that a PC with low HP is being targeted, and one who is unlikely to break grapple. This is ideal for the slightly higher levels (2-4), and not a good idea for level 1.

Combat Encounter 5: Saved by the Grapple (difficulty 2)

A natural consequence of blights moving in and occupying a former village is that the houses are going to start decaying quickly. (Rapid plant growth is not kind to wooden houses.)

The fact that a monster has False Appearance or stealth proficiency suggests that it’s an ambusher, who waits with a readied action for its enemy to come near.

Wait for them to be navigating a decaying house, and then have the floor collapse under one of them, causing them to plunge into the cellar. Or nearly do so, at any rate.

As the PC starts to slip, the vine blight uses its readied attack action and grapples him. The only thing now keeping him from falling is this grapple, and if he breaks out of it or if the blight is killed, he will fall. On the other hand, he’s stuck in what isn’t exactly a great position, and he’s taking damage every turn.

The Other Blights 

This scenario will work best with a few other enemies in the room to make it that much harder for the other players to mount a rescue. It doesn’t have to be a significant number of enemies, the goal is to have the players slightly distracted so as to make everything a little bit harder, not so overwhelmed that breaking the grapple would be difficult even without the pit.

Another consequence of the added enemies is that it will really hurt them if they don’t attack the vine blight, and then it uses its next turn to hit them with Entangle. Maybe they want to drop their companion into the cellar after all.

Consequences of Falling

If he does fall, I suggest bludgeoning damage from falling, being knocked prone, and finding himself in a dark cellar with 3-4 twig blights, or some other threat that he might or might not be able to survive by himself, but either way will last a while.

You can have the player fall off the side of a cliff instead, if that works better.

To round off the article, here are three possible ways to use Entangle.

Combat Encounter 6: The Falling House (difficulty 2)

As mentioned before, blights presence mean that areas become flooded with vegetation which also means that houses will start falling apart. Given that the plants burst out of the ground, their roots will be in the ground, and since using a STR check to break free means that you’ll be pulling against them, there’s a good chance that they’ll pull part of the house down around their head.

This will work with the STR check needed to break free, but probably not with the STR save needed to avoid being caught in the first place. As the vines are still growing, they aren’t yet so firmly in the ground, and the plants grabbing the PC are still weak, breaking before much pressure is exerted on the ground.

Of course, all this means is that you should target multiple PCs, so as to catch at least one of them. Also, if one vine blight fails, you can try again with the next.

Breaking the spell by causing the vine blight to lost concentration will cause the plants to disappear, thereby avoiding the danger.

Combat Encounter 7: The Overgrown River (difficulty 2)

A similar but different challenge will come if the players are attempting to navigate a river, whether by boat or by wading.

The rise of plant growth caused by blights will also choke waterways, both natural and human made, and since the water still needs to go somewhere there’ll be a large marshy area with varying levels of current. The Entangle spell will clog the waterway further, and by a considerable amount.

Breaking the spell when it’s cast on the river will have the opposite effect breaking the spell when cast on the house. If they break out of it with a STR check, the plants will still be there, and the change to the water will be virtually nothing.

If the blight loses concentration, on the other hand, the water held in place by the Entangle spell will be suddenly released, and not only will they be off balance from being suddenly released, they’ll be hit by a rush of water, knocking them off their feet and possibly carrying them a bit downstream.

For the sake of fair play, I suggest letting them save themselves with a DEX save.

Using Entangle on Water

There’s some debate online about using Entangle on water, as the spell specifies ground, but if the PCs are wading it seems obvious that it should work. Even on a boat, I’d say it should work due if the boat isn’t too far from the bottom of the river, as the plants should be able to grow high enough to reach the boat and grab hold of that.

Combat Encounter 8: Entangle as Camouflage (difficulty 1)

The last way that Entangle might be used, for the sake of this article anyway, will be as a form of cover and camouflage.

The plant growth caused by Entangle will be high enough to impede movement, which means it should be possible to use for cover when lying prone. Even better, the vine blight of 2024 doesn’t need to make another attack roll to continue damaging a foe it has grappled, so there are no real consequences to lying prone either.

There’s also the fact that vine blights look similar to plants. If a vine blight moves into the area of an Entangle spell, spotting it might well be impossible for someone who doesn’t know where it is. Even if they do know, I might well say that they have to make an Investigation check if they weren’t close to the vine blight when it lay down. Knowing the area doesn’t make pinpointing something easy.

Should the plant growth conjured by Entangle catch on fire, it will most likely generate a lot of smoke, being green, and this will increase the stealth usage further.