There's a great blog series called "The Monsters Know" which details how to use different monster types effectively. It seems to take inspiration from "Tucker's Kobolds", turns it up to 11 and runs with it.
never forget the friendly rust monster. "This strange looking creature approaches like a big happy St Bernard, Wanting to rub against you and gently hug you with its tentacles." (Jester from Critical role loves the cute things) "4 more little ones show up also acting like friendly puppies..." (Jester wants to adopt the little ones) Next thing you know... the Ford's armor is rusting and falling off and everyone's metal items are falling apart (including all magic items) Ford calls forth his falchion and the big one touches it... and the falchion dissolves to rust. (Because even an artifact can be taken out by these creatures)
Y'know what I like about you guys? You have the answers in the description. You don't muck around and play coy with it, you just tell us. Thank you for that
Always remember: Casting a "Protection from good and evil" spell on a person controlled by an intellect devourer will make the creature burst out of its skull. This is a great way to introduce the creature to a new party especially in a mind controll plot: My players came into a town which was cut of by heavy snow storms from the rest of the world for longer than usual and discovered that several things seemed odd with the population. Some people there characters personally knew acted strange, others died in that winter. After they consulted a lich about the strange behaviour (Yeah sorry thats my go to support "villain". Ancient liches that just because goofballs after they achieved everything they wanted and got bored for centurys) he recommended to cast this spell onto the person. The characters thought they would be curing the father of the rouge and instead were just like "WHAT THE..." when suddenly his head exploded and this creature popped out.
Hey guys, long time fan. I just wanted to point out you actually got the intellect devourer's ability wrong. Their Devour Intellect ability doesn't just stun the target if the 3d6 beats the target's intelligence, it reduces it to zero, meaning the target is stunned until it can regain intelligence. There is only one way by RAW that the ability score can be restored, which is greater restoration, a 5th level spell. That also means their intelligence contest for their Body Thief ability AUTOMATICALLY wins. Which actually means if you get hit with Devour Intellect, and the 3d6 beats your intelligence, your allies have a single round to kill the devourer or you die. If there are multiple devourers, the target could be dead before any of their allies get a turn. They are the single deadliest creature in the monster manual, by far. The DM doesn't even need a "rocks fall" situation. Four or five intellect devourers in an ambush will kill a party very easily.
I came here to point this out too, but I will note that there is an alternative, optional method of restoring an ability score. Xanathar's outlines in the "Downtime Revisited" an option for "Relaxation" which, among other possibilities can restore a missing ability score, but it does take a week.
I recently ran a 1-shot where the party had to deal with a mage who'd been taken over by an intellect devourer. The foreshadowing was there well in advance, but when they killed him and the beast popped out of his head, they panicked, as they knew what was going to happen. In one turn, it downed one of the party members and went to devour the brain of their low INT barbarian. Thankfully, he rolled a Nat20 on the save, which let them finish it off in a couple turns. That said, if that barbarian had failed that save, there was most certainly going to be at least one PC death that night. Was a tense couple of rounds.
Had this happen recently. Players were tracking a dude who was running away from them, who they didn't know was Intellect Devoured. They discovered a small tower where they thought he had decided to stay, so they wander in. They find 2 people, a Kenku & a human monk. While two party members talk to the people there, other two investigate the tower & find the dead body of the guy they'd been tracking. Whilst doing this, they discover his head is empty. A moment later, the two people attack them, and just before they kill the monk, the ID leaves the body. Party SHAT themself, but they were surprisingly fine; Bard passed on two saves against 'Devour Intellect' whilst they dealt with the Kenku.
The fact that such low CR monsters can still be a legitimate threat to higher level PCs in the right circumstances is one of the things I love about 5E. In some of the previous editions, some of my favorite monsters just became completely superfluous without monkeying with their stats a lot. EDIT: Also I am legit super happy that kobolds came out as the deadliest low CR monsters. Not enough DMs play them the way they would actually behave when you look at their stats and the kobolds' awareness of their own capabilities compared to adventurers.
I KNOW!!! I love kobolds, and honestly get frustrated when people (and certain modules) describe them as dumb weaklings so much. I love to use them to set some of the deadliest traps I can create.
I was watching this and toward the end thinking "damn, they better not forget kobolds". Suddenly their first place creature is the kobold. Fist pumps!!
Something far too many DM's fail to remember is monster intelligence. I've nearly TPK'd several high level parties with Kobolds and Goblins. Have them react to parties like parties do to them.(started before these two got there) Played by their intelligence, dragons and vampires should be nearly impossible for even very high level parties.
Dragons and Vampires are incapable of being smarter than the DM and have known exploitable weaknesses for an intelligent party to target. I agree with the primary sentiment of your comment, but disagree with that closing remark.
TheAchilles26 They are smart enough to know what their own weaknesses are and strategise around them. The DM knows they will be running these monsters and they have the whole internet to search for intelligence-appropriate strategies.
@@dascientist8443 Humans are smart enough to know what their own weaknesses are and strategize around them as well...this does not make them undefeatable.
@@dollarestoreoffbrand5545 It is less the fact that they are immortal and more the fact that the human's are trying to punch typically very far up when it comes to Dragons and Vampires. Until you are very late game with endgame equipment a Vampire or (Big) Dragon is stronger than almost any individual PC in a straight fight. This is why I agree with OP's sentiment about them being nearly impossible since a lot of how players beat enemies as by using mechanics or strategies to make up for a lack of overall power. But when fighting intelligent enemies that aren't going to blindly attack your frontline while they dodge action every turn and your backline whittles it down it becomes a whooole lot harder and reqipres a lot more tactical accumen. And that is all assuming that the dragon/Vampire is caught by surprise. If they have time to notice/plan/avoid the party they might just do that, or just ambush the party themselves, slap/kill a player and disengage before they can do as much in return. There is a lot of factors to combat.
Know what my dirty DM secret use of swarm is? Big baddies and lieutenants with plague and terror themes call upon swarms who mount on the them and serve as armor, terrible, disgusting and terrifying armor, which attack, and only after the death of the swarm, the baddie begin to take hits on their Health Points. Nasty.
@@MarkATorres1989 I literally clicked the "View more replies" button hoping that someone would mention that fight. One of the most epic fights in videogame history right there.
Great discussion, showing how creatures can be used entertainingly as well as realistically. Good points on how to implement such encounters in a balanced way, too. Appreciate the tribute to Tucker's Kobolds, too. I was inspired by that article to have a lone PC encounter goblins that dropped narcotic seedpods into his campfire from overhanging trees: his dismay and rage at waking up hogtied, surrounded by goblins happily looting his gear was truly beautiful. He escaped (of course) and eventually got his revenge, but was much more wary about adventuring on his own afterwards...
I remember reading a dnd story where a group invited a vietnam vetran into a game of dnd and they had a "tuckers kobolds" scenario planned. It was a *very* intense gaming session.
....is there a swarm that's immune to the gelatinous cubes damage after being swallowed? That would be a crazy symbiotic relationship between the two...
You can always alter something to work. Take a beetle or snake swarm and make them mechanical or golem like in nature that is immune to the cube. The cube could be altered to suit certain types of beasts for the same synergy. In an underdark or subterranean adventure perhaps its in a volcanic area and surves a simular function but with fire or lava instead. Striking out with gouts of flame or streams of molten rock that pool back into its form. Its surface black and crusty and seeming wall like while its idle but its surface becomes cracked and molten when it surges forth. More pouring itself forward than sliding along. Or one that freezes and lives in the halls of an icy ruin. Hidding like a glossy frosted surface until it fractures and strikes forth with shards of deadly ice. Wrapping around its victims in flowing arctic water and a latice of freezing crystals. Leaving statues in its wake and eventually shattering its victims or leaving them to be devoured by other things as you see fit.
I threw a few shadows at my party in an outsider/Un-dead themed dungeon once, one player had a magic dagger that allowed them to raise up a creature they killed for the next few hours, and I had a Shadow demon encounter planned after that fight. For those who don't know it from memory, shadow demons have a 1 for their STR scores, so this shadow the party re-animated was able to One shot the boss monsters, and frankly I never saw that coming
Depending on your ability allocation and how much he sticks purely to by the book encounter design and lack of enemy intelligence. You just might be overwhelming his encounters. At least as low level.
He/she probably knows about stronger characters but like me is terrified of making the game impossible. I'm often slapping my forehead after I fight I thought was fairly balanced lasts about 3 turns with the party remaining at 80% HP.
Funny you mention kobolds. I've got a party that just lost their fighter to a flame trap surrounded by kobolds. The idea was that it was a false encampment; they'd been slaying kobolds for the past five or so sessions for a Dwarven noble. Lo and behold, a Dwarven friend they knew fell from a tree, hanging dead and mangled. They immediately rushed out to find the kobolds and followed tracks the kobolds had laid, leading into a thicket. As soon as the fighter saw huts in the thicket and a pile of dwarves, he rushed in, tripling a rope that lit the thicket on fire. He had already noticed the wet matting of the forest but continued, not realizing it was oil. The thicket surrounding the hits (maybe a fifteen foot space) lit aflame. He was trapped, surrounded, targeted through the brush. The kobolds couldn't see what triggered the trap, but didn't need to. Their projectiled, covered in a deadly poison, stunned and held the fighter in place while the oxygen around him grew thin. His compatriots rushed to his aid. After being poisoned, burned, and eventually suffocated, the kobolds retreated only after the corpse of the fighter that had destroyed a kobold nest single-handedly lie bloody, torn, and defeated. All in all, the party thought it a valuable lesson and thoroughly enjoyed it. They knew there were kobolds. They knew they were prone to trappings and trickery. They realized they could have been more careful and they shouldn't be as overconfident. The next session is tomorrow; with a new character they plot vengeance for their fallen friend.
Regarding the gelatinous cubes, I had a GM pull out a Black Dragon who lined their lair with the damn things. It's too big to use their engulf on, and it's immune to acid anyway. In 3.5 I remember legion devils being the "Kills things WAY above their CR" hammer with which to slap down munchkins. Their pile of infinitely stacking bonuses based on how many of them are in the area just scaled way too hard.
All hail Mr. Tucker and his Kobolds!! As a long time D&D player, you two get an instant like and sub for bringing up not only Tucker's Kobolds, but the genuine uses for the other four creatures were spot on as well. Very sneaky, and much applause as a player and DM.
Honestly, I'd probably run intellect devourers differently. The "teleport inside your brain to kill you and take over your body" is insane. Maybe make them sit on top of your head and control you. That way you can kill the devourer and get back your character. Makes the combat itself just as challenging, while being way more forgiving in the long run.
The only deaths ever occurring in my PCs party was when i sent some kobolds after them. Once, a kobold inventor threw a rot grub swarm at them while, in the back, another kobold summoned a shadow.
As a DM I dislike how Intellect devourer is written... In general I dislike anything with a SoD before res becomes available. I spend the majority of my DM prep time on weaving my PCs backstories into the main plot (my games are generally focused on PCs personal stories) so a death of a PC is huge loss of content for a single bad dice roll. Gelatinus cube is interesting but I have found most melee characters will just attack it from inside since restrained doesn't prevent attacks and disadvantage doesn't matter since it's AC 6.
George R.R. martin had a saying when he was asked why a characters death wasn't heroic and seemed needless. "Death is needless. Sometimes people just die and their story IS left unfulfilled. That's Life." (something to that effect anyways)
You must gather your party Before venturing forth Nothing about what the OP said is inherently boring. They just weave the PC’s backgrounds into the main plot and focus on their characters. The no-death thing you could make a case for being boring.
@You must gather your party Before venturing forth I didn't say no death. I said I don't like SoD. The loss of a character and the work put into them on a single bad dice roll is neither fun nor interesting. The general response I have gotten to a character death by SoD or even instant massive damage is an annoyed sigh and something along the lines of "well that happened. So what should I make next guys?". There is nothing interesting about walking into a room and the barbarian getting their brain telefragged because they had a bad roll at level 3. Now the party fighting tooth and nail to save the fighter who can't quite make it out of a room that's going to be overrun with demons over the course of 5 rounds only to be denied as they slam the door shut and bolt it to save everyone else... That is far and away more interesting. Or even to have to shut the door themselves as they realize saving that character is a lost cause... Like I said SoD is the problem. I would just replace the SoD with something farm more interesting. For example the way I would run a Intellect devourer would be that if you failed it's save it then enters your mind and a mental battle insues as you drop into a coma Requiring the party to finish the fight then go out and find a way to enter your mind and have a big RP session of them trying to help you find your sense of self as the devourer slowlyt eats away your thoughts and memories.
@@SiberianPhoenix Death should be a spice. Before GRRM books were bland because you knew no one would die. But you can also over spice your food to the point it's hard to eat. I'll let my players die but I'm not going to add Fuck You mechanics
my personal favorite encounter for early encounters (haven't tried higher levels, but I'd imagine it scales up) is an animated armor on a warhorse. everyone focuses on the armor, then get pretty beat up when they get trampled by the horse. being knocked prone can be pretty rough with multiple enemies. plus, it feels more fair than dying instantly.
One of my first characters I played was a high elf arcane trickster who almost died at level 3 from rot grubs. He survived because he used sleep centered on self. As a high elf he was immune to effects that put him to sleep so while the grubs were asleep he got another player to perform surgery on him to get them out.
2 creatures I find scary for their relatively low CR are: 1) the banshee, CR 4 and has a built in save-or-suck attack with her wail 2) also CR 4, the Helmed Horror- immune to conditions, resistant to magic (with immunity to 3 DM chosen spells) resistant to nonmagical, non-adamantite weapon, the _only_ resistance to the beloved force damage in the MM (which is a full blown immunity BTW); oh, and an intelligence score of 10, higher than the average lv 4 fighter. these things are the terror of every spellcaster
Balcamion I DM a party of 8. Because the Action Economy vastly favors them, I tend to throw higher CR monsters at them and they tend to enjoy these encounters. The first time I did this was when they, at second level, fought a Drow Elite Warrior, CR 5, and a modified version of Asha (a priest npc with the drow race features), CR 3. They barely came out of it and it took everything they had to beat them, and they said they really enjoyed this as a first boss fight
@@jammo7370 yeah, the intensity and threat if character death of lower level play really does give a thrill unlike the super power feeling you get at later levels. We fought a Drow elite warrior, several giant spiders, and an ettercap in the cave once we defeated the ghost. I just started DMing for a party of 8 myself using the Spelljammer setting and 5e rules. It's been great so far!
Specters are fun. Have a normal looking ghost wandering a room. Muttering to themselves, or wailing and crying. When the specter eventually notices the players, have it's normal features melt away and reveal your version of what's in the monster manual. Screaming, pointing, dimming the lights around it. Give the players a sense of dread and impending doom. I threw two at my last group, and they got freaked out both times. I absolutely loved it.
@@Balcamion79 with a group of 8 remember that it's easier to send more realistic hordes at them as well. A hall of 8 or 10 living armor and living weapons can be a very challenging encounter and may be wary of future "display" setups in relatively safe places like nobles homes and castles. At a bit later levels golems that resemble statues decorating a ruin or the like thoroughly can do the same. Living armor is cr1 and a.c. 18. So even starting op or large parties may find the handful of them fairly tricky to deal with.
correction at 13:38, the intellect devourer's stun isn't "until the end of the PC's next turn", but rather it causes the PC's intelligence score to drop to 0, leaving them stunned "until it regains at least one point of Intelligence", combining that with body thief ensures a -5 penalty to that contested roll,
I ran one encounter where a group of low leveled characters went to investigate something on a large rock just within jumping distance of a ledge on the shore, ten feet above freezing waters with no easy way to climb back up. There, a small group of ice mephits ambushed them with their Fog Cloud spell, which covered the whole rock. Suddenly, nobody can move more than a few steps without risk of falling off into the water and taking levels of exhaustion from the cold, while the mephits pestered them with little bits of damage from their AOE breath attacks from every direction. In the end, nobody ended up even remotely close to dying from this encounter, but like with the kobold example here it really showed me how much of a difference the terrain can make for any encounter with low-level monsters.
I had a great session with a gelatinous cube a couple weeks ago. I'm running a Strixhaven campaign. During an "after hours snoop," the PCs came across the secret behind how clean the stadium and locker rooms always are. A team of custodians were struggling to contain a gelatinous cube behind a panel of thick glass. It had engulfed one of the custodians and the PCs wound up having to make Athletics checks to keep the creature away from the other workers until the head custodian arrived and put the beast back in the Iron Flask they used to transport the creature. When asked, "What about Glory?", the head custodian shrugs and says, "don't worry about it..."
I'm DMing Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the very beginning is a managerie of deadly low-level enemies, including uncomfortably well depicted rot grubs and several small packs of animals that attack your party by surprise. There is a sink in a house with nothing really of interest of value inside it, but it's really in the way of the party and players may want to investigate it, like the party's sorceress, for example. Instantly three giant centipedes come out of the woodwork, take the party by surprise and destroy her with their acidic poison... 5 player characters died that day to CR 1/4 to 1/2 beasts.
Back a few D&D Editions I almost had a TPK when I threw a Nilbog at a 2 & 3rd level party... The party beat the crap out of that "goblin" and freaked out when it wouldn't die..
I had never heard of Tucker's Kobold's but about 20 years ago a friend asked me to help him create a challenge for a player who was OP. The DM was a newer DM and the player was very experienced and easily destroyed everything he threw at him, including a tarrasque. This was 3rd edition when it was relatively new and I was only familiar with 2E, so I didn't fel comfortable with the rules enough to run it myself. The player was a werewolf, and I helped the DM create an adventure that trapped him in a silver mine unknowingly, landed him in a deep river after a subterranean bridge collapsed that forced him to remove his armor, and incorporate traps and excessive numbers of kobolds with range weapons- where every item in the mine was made of silver. I taught the DM that a battle isn't just a bunch of numbers on a stat sheet, but a creative way to implement surroundings and strategy to achieve a goal.
Do the dark souls! Show the players the deadly enemy in an isolated situation which allows for experimentation, exploration, etc. Then, once they have an idea of how the monster works, throw a pack (only after they have had a chance to learn, and always leave an escape route if the players find they are unprepared)
In Curse of Strahd our rogue ran into a room without checking and ran right inbetween 3 shadows. They rolled best initiative. All 3 hit and the DM rolled 3d4. He rolled 4 on all of them and the rogue's STR was 12. Our DM does not like killing players, but he does not deus ex machina to save us if it happens. He was so shocked, because he was not expecting that encounter to be a problem and after the rogue died we did kill them on the first turn. It was just the worst luck on the rogue's side.
My first time ever playing was a random encounter my friend and I did. I was a Goliath Barbarian and he was a Dragonborn Fighter. Both of us were level 1. We were ambushed and had to take on 4 Kobolds. I grabbed one, threw him onto another one, my friend(Dratin) uses firebreath to kill them both. Pact tactics left him nearly dead so we fled and out of fear they also fled. After a short rest we went back in, rolled for perception. I roll a 20, see them hiding behind a boulder in the dark, I without warning launch Dratin straight at them. One died by getting his skull crushed, and since Dratin readied his attack he slit the others throat. RIP Kobolds.
I reckon that a Peryton is really dangerous because they have 60ft flying speed, with flyby(no opportunity attacks), a dive attack, and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks. I had a group of 4 level 4 players up against 2 of these and there was almost a tpk.
I used a gelatinous cube like a false wall in my campaign. My party had already been in this cave once, and so knew something was off when the tunnel didn’t go the same way as it had the first time. They went in anyway, finding a dead end just as the gelatinous cube (which looked like wall because of the amount which had been dissolved into it) moved into the tunnel behind them. They had to fight it as it slowly closed in on the dead end. Our bard ended up throwing himself inside the cube and repeatedly using thunder wave. It worked, but it was no more than a few turns away from a potential tpk. (I know thunder wave requires verbal components but it was too good for me not to allow just once)
Stacking different types of Sahu is devastating in itself. There are so many flavours and levels, including a cleric that can paralyse at range. Combine this with the amounts they canonically swarm in, and a take no prisoner (force fails through hits, killing PCs) mindset, and it’s terrifying.
I feel like with the intellect devourer some key points for body snatch wasn't told, like how the target has to be unconscious or incapacitated before it can be used.
There was a 2nd Edition boxed adventure, Dragon Mountain, that had a mountain lair loaded with Kobolds. There was a dragon too, but the bulk of all interactions was with kobolds.
My Paladin was inside a Gelatinous Cube. Okay, I have like 16 STR, I'll be fine, just gotta- Sorceror: I use shocking grasp I just looked at the player and said "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!"
Fun combo is druid's thorny terrain spell and grease. Terrain only does I think a d4 of damage per 5 ft walked without spending double movement. Grease the top o a hill and the side covered in thorns. Instant damage for however long the hill is. (Max 10d4)
Shadows are no joke. I was playing in a 2 member party as a paladin my friend playing a cleric. Both of us lvl 10. Our DM was a newer DM and saw how low cr shadows were so he threw a bunch at us. That was legit the most terrifying encounter I've ever played in.
Personally I'd say if you're running the shadows you should have them target the fighter or barbarian, the strongest member of the party as they have "the most vitality" that the shadow seeks. Idk just feels like that's the best thematic move.
That would assume that shadows actually eat or consume vitality or strength, rather than simply sapping it as an effect of being attacked. Idk if they actually eat "vitality" or not, I'm just responding off the top of my head. It would also assume the shadows weren't more interested in building their numbers to get the juicier prizes.
Our DM waited until our entire party had settled down in an Inn. We all requested separate rooms and retired for the night. The DM sent 13 Darklings (one being a Darkling Elder) in a surprise attack against our party in our sleep. We were lvl 4. It was terrifying, but not insurmountable. We prioritized getting out of the rooms and regrouping to take on our foes as a team instead of as individuals. That's a good example of making your players poop their pants a little but not killing them for the hell of it. He was fair and gave us plenty of room to either succeed or fail based on our decisions. Not only did he make sure it was something that we could manage, allbeit with much difficulty, he also allowed us enough time for a long rest before the surprise attack. This encounter helped me realize two things about my wizard. 1): Mage armor lasts 8 hours and there are no rules that say you can't cast it before you go to sleep. 2): Magnify Gravity is a great way to slow down melee opponents and hit them with a little damage whilst only using a lvl 1 spell slot. Obviously there are other spells that can reduce movement speed of enemies or even lock them in place. I just... uhh... don't know them... yet. Good DM's want to see their players flourish in order to see the campaign they are building through to the end. That doesn't mean they won't try to make your characters life a living hell sometimes. A good DM is just as invested in your characters progression as the player is. If you are playing DnD with a DM who seems to just want to kill off their players, then you are most likely playing a very one sided game and should probably bow out. There are some people who enjoy that type of "Come at me Bro!" kind of gameplay and more power to you. If the DM and the Players have agreed that the game is a survival match, then that can be fun too. Most people, however, want an adventure. They want to see a story unfold in which their actions and decisions have weight.
One fun idea for Shadows - make them retreat, or be at disadvantage from light sources. So the human party with torches and other light sources has a decent time fighting them as the light sources harm the Shadows, but a party composed of various races that have darkvision are in great danger as the Shadows have no light to worry about. (Snip various comments about playing the only human in a party of characters that all the others have nightvision/darkvision, and having to beg for a source of light before going underground)
Remembers in Rappan Athuk, there is a trap where you open a fake door that drops a stone portcullis. A stone door opens and released a black pudding. Which proceeds to slither down the 10 foot wide hallway, through the stone bars and dissolving the trapped characters
I once played in a homebrew dungeon where, when we were pretty high level, we encountered (IIRC) 1200 armored goblins in a 10x20 room. :) We were something like 12th level, which, in that game was MUCH higher than the 2nd level goblins. In the first round, we put potions of poison (+ damage) on our blades. The eight goblins in the first row attacked - and missed. We smiled. In the second round, we put potions of sharp (+ hit prob) on our blades. The eight goblins in the first row attacked - and missed. We laughed! Then we attacked. The four fighters in the front row struck and killed the eight goblins. Our wizards threw fireballs and killed 10-20 more. The next row attacked - and missed. It went on like that. Once in a while, they put a point or two of damage on our front row which our clerics healed. When we killed enough to gain two levels of experience (the maximum we could) one of the clerics did a ritual that sacrificed the 600 remaining goblins to his god. The DM was stunned. :)
I was surprised to see kobolds listed there but looked into Tucker's Kobolds and that has definitely opened my eyes as to how devastating kobolds can be.
A gelatenous cube in a hallway was one of the most dangerous and memorable moments for my party which was level 4 at the time and somehow getting them at the right angle. I was never able to re-create this threaat level with it since but that time was sure great!
When I was a little kid, I would go to the library and read the 1st edition monster manual. The illustration and description of rot grubs would give me nightmares.
I was doing LMOP with a group of complete novices and they came across the wolf den. They hadn't been noticed but the sorcerer decided to use "message" on one of the wolves. Now I went down the route that these wolves in a goblin cave (and therfore mainly only heard goblin speech" just heard an unfamiliar language in its head and freaked out and broke its chains. Rolled initiative and the rogue took their turn and went to the loo, by the time they'd come back these wolves had shredded the party. Rogue came back and beat the hell out of them but this was my 2nd ever session as a DM and i was really worried about a TPK (would have just had them captured or something) but I started to worry I was being overly harsh They now REALLY go out of their way to avoid wolves now xD
I've been watching a ton of your videos lately as I have (after almost 15 years) gotten back into DMing! My whole party is new to the game and the last version I dm-ed was 2.5/3. Thank you for giving me some many ideas to use! Plus my players love the class guides I've sent them of yours!
I remember playing an under-dark campaign and we came across mindflayers and intellect devourers. My Barbarian was the type of character that would jump into battle (this had to do with me not knowing much about the monsters and resulting in hitting things). Jumping from a ledge she crit one killing it out right, in her frenzy she used her other attack to hurl her great axe at the one floating above, hitting it but not killing it. The it came the monsters turn and I heard "make an intelligence save". With my 8 INT I didn't know what would happen.... Nat 20 (19)! When the battle was over my party later told me how bad things could have gone. My barbarian took the head of the mindflayer as a trophy and a reminder. (Our fighter that later joined didn't have the same luck in the next session... RIP)
I ran a game once where the party was sent to collect the essence of several Will-o-Wisps for the local blacksmith to fashion +1 weapons with a small service fee. I wasn't trying to kill anyone, but two players died within the first two rounds and the third one just turned around and made a run for it. Huge underestimation on my part. Those things can be surprisingly deadly.
Floor slates part, and a spiked pit trap impales the victim on multiple spikes (10d6 + prone + immobilized). Then the ceiling opens up and drops a gelatinous cube onto the victim. The floor and ceiling slates close, trapping the impaled, immobilized victim, in darkness, unable to breathe, and taking 6d8 acid damage per round. Roll initiative!
Just remember that combos of these monsters can drive adventuring parties crazy. Kobold layer with arrow slits and murder holes, that also use traps full of swarms and/or gelatinous cubes. A couple of kobolds full of rot grubs in a pit, ect...
Oh, man, I still remember reading about "Tucker's Kobolds when I got my latest issue of Dragon magazine back in the 80s, and have loved the idea ever since, both as a DM, and as a player! Many curses were heaped upon my name as a DM when I created my own personalized version of Tucker's evil tribe, and unleashed then on my players' adventuring crew! I'll never forget hearing my friend, who played a very nasty & deadly Wood Elf Rogue griping at me about how he'd "rather tonguewrestle a Mind Flayer than mess with my Goblin tribes ever again!" ;-P
I parlayed a somewhat disastrous encounter with Shadows for my Bard into multiclassing into a Shadow Magic Sorcerer. (She got wrecked but the party has a Pally and a Cleric)
The secret to that is using Milestone progression instead of XP. Put enough challenge, or story in each session to award a level. The end result is new abilities and powers each session for the PCs and new scenarios and challenges each game for the DM. As the DM you have the throttle. Award levels more rapidly than magic items and the balance is simple to maintain, while making progress rapid and enjoyable.
Many DMs find the fourth tier to be 'boring' because at that point the party is expected to literally save the world. So it's actually rare to go beyond level 15 or so. As another comment mentioned though, using Milestones instead of XP can keep things simple for the DM and provide a better gauge of the expected potency of a party.
Frankly, it can be hard to have a storyline carry you for 20 levels, most campaigns which have been more story and character driven tend to finish up around level 10 or so
Honestly, one creature that I'm shocked didn't make the cut was the Troglodyte. Granted they don't have special attacks, doing just regular damage. But they are a CR 1/4 creature that gets 3, yes 3!! attacks at that level. Combine that with a stench that can poison foes making them that harder to hit, and a natural camouflage ability for sneak attacks, I have had several party wipes with these incredibly lethal beasties.
love how you mention the gelatinous cubes i used those once and paired them with some rogue dwarf colony in one of my games where the dwarves used the cubes to help in crafting so i kept describing everything as acid etched
As a GM, I would usually hint at something like a rot grub long before the players encounter it. For example, in town, a group of wood cutters bring in their friend who has died. The players either witness or head about the rotvgrub jumping to another character in town and killing them too. If the players make an investigation, perhaps speaking to a priest or healer, they are warned about the grub and it's dangers. Not told exactly how to deal with it, just scared a little by the NPC who does not really understand and only knows stories about perhaps burning the grub, cutting someone's leg off, etc.
I once had a forgiving DM who made 2 types of mind devourers, 1 just take control of a PC but would turn his brain to mush and put him in coma for a long time while the other was the classic mind devourer which he used for PC’s with a much higher level.
The beautiful thing about the intellect devourer is the rp potential. I had a case where my players split the party, the barbarian went to look for something and found an intellect devourer that proceeded to body thief him. The party had no idea this had happened in character so they assumed the barbarian was himself while he was actually an intellect devourer now spying on the party. A couple of private messages to the affected player led to everyone having a great and memorable time as the barbarian turned on the party as they confronted the ilithid behind the dungeon. (I let the barbarian's player continue to play their intellect devoured character).
I'm just gonna ignore the half damage AoE to swarms in 5e. It makes no sense that you kill your friends faster than a swarm of bugs... bad new rule, tossing it out the window.
I think it was in a choose your adventure, but they had an orc skeleton, sword raised, inside a gelatinous cube. It was approaching, looking like a charging skeleton
Shadows kill spellcasters, Intellect Devourers kill melee classes, Gelatinous Cubes kill scouts and sneaks.
For everything else, there's Master Card.
I've been playing a wizard, so I've been pretending my character was scared of Intellect Devourers. But nope... It's actually me that is.
Took me a while to get the joke
Hey who turned off the lights?
For everything else... Just drop a mountain on it
The irony is that wizards are the least threatened by Intellect Devourers because they have a high Intelligence and proficiency on INT saving throws
You could easily call this video "Five Ways For a DM to Lose Friends".
Bingo!
"5 ways to deal with murder hobos"
"Five Ways to Make Someone Hate D&D"
1 goblin isn't a threat. 47 goblins, however....
Still not a threat to Goblinslayer.
@@HiopX GAWWWBLINS!
Fireball
Lvl 3 we killed 44 Orcs 6 bugbear 1 war chieftain 1 hill giant 1orge
Kayl Archibald hate to break it to you. Your dm did 1. Not play the monsters right 2. Probably fudge a bunch for of rolls
There's a great blog series called "The Monsters Know" which details how to use different monster types effectively. It seems to take inspiration from "Tucker's Kobolds", turns it up to 11 and runs with it.
"The Monsters Know What They're Doing"?
There is a book of it now
I got the “monsters know what their doing” book.
I have killed more PCs with rats than with dragons
And that might be one of the most useful things to remember as a DM
A bunch of rats magically fused into the shape of a dragon
never forget the friendly rust monster.
"This strange looking creature approaches like a big happy St Bernard, Wanting to rub against you and gently hug you with its tentacles."
(Jester from Critical role loves the cute things)
"4 more little ones show up also acting like friendly puppies..."
(Jester wants to adopt the little ones)
Next thing you know... the Ford's armor is rusting and falling off and everyone's metal items are falling apart (including all magic items) Ford calls forth his falchion and the big one touches it... and the falchion dissolves to rust.
(Because even an artifact can be taken out by these creatures)
@@johnjustjohn5866 The Rat King from the show Hilda....
@@fhuber7507 No Rust Monster wants to hurt anyone, just give them your metals
Y'know what I like about you guys? You have the answers in the description. You don't muck around and play coy with it, you just tell us. Thank you for that
Exactly. I can look and go: "wait why is this on the list"
Then go to the timestamps and listen to the reasoning.
Always remember: Casting a "Protection from good and evil" spell on a person controlled by an intellect devourer will make the creature burst out of its skull. This is a great way to introduce the creature to a new party especially in a mind controll plot:
My players came into a town which was cut of by heavy snow storms from the rest of the world for longer than usual and discovered that several things seemed odd with the population. Some people there characters personally knew acted strange, others died in that winter. After they consulted a lich about the strange behaviour (Yeah sorry thats my go to support "villain". Ancient liches that just because goofballs after they achieved everything they wanted and got bored for centurys) he recommended to cast this spell onto the person. The characters thought they would be curing the father of the rouge and instead were just like "WHAT THE..." when suddenly his head exploded and this creature popped out.
I could see the lich watching their reaction with a spell
Did you just explain the plot of the “the thing” but just with dnd terms
I'm loving the idea of lichs becoming deranged clowns because they get So Bored and want some excitement.
Shut up, stop it! My DM watches your channel, you're gonna get my character killed!
actually, let them keep going
if you know where your DM takes ideas from, you can prepare accordingly
@@Konpekikaminari Yes just have high int high str, carry a flamethrower and hold it out in front of you to test for cubes.
@@lystic9392 few are the problems a flamethrower can't solve
@@Konpekikaminari encouraging metagaming. For shame
Fire elemental says hello
*Dungeon walls:* start speaking kobold
*Adventurers:* panic
almost as bad as when the trees start speaking Vietnamese
@@luzfire7523 Or when the snow starts speaking finnish
(screams in flashbacks)
Cue music: How could this happen to meee!
TUCKERS KOBOLDS!
Hey guys, long time fan. I just wanted to point out you actually got the intellect devourer's ability wrong. Their Devour Intellect ability doesn't just stun the target if the 3d6 beats the target's intelligence, it reduces it to zero, meaning the target is stunned until it can regain intelligence. There is only one way by RAW that the ability score can be restored, which is greater restoration, a 5th level spell.
That also means their intelligence contest for their Body Thief ability AUTOMATICALLY wins.
Which actually means if you get hit with Devour Intellect, and the 3d6 beats your intelligence, your allies have a single round to kill the devourer or you die. If there are multiple devourers, the target could be dead before any of their allies get a turn.
They are the single deadliest creature in the monster manual, by far. The DM doesn't even need a "rocks fall" situation. Four or five intellect devourers in an ambush will kill a party very easily.
Yikes. I remember reading their stat block, looking at their cr, and being like "this can't be right"
Wtf. Both the shadow and the intellect devourer are way way unbalanced.
Plus you aren't even regular dead you are *very* dead. Raise Dead or Revivify won't work, you need at least Resurrection.
I came here to point this out too, but I will note that there is an alternative, optional method of restoring an ability score. Xanathar's outlines in the "Downtime Revisited" an option for "Relaxation" which, among other possibilities can restore a missing ability score, but it does take a week.
@@whateverhappens4917 Not like the 0 intelligence-having PCs have too many plans at this point, why not plop down on the couch and relax a while?
I recently ran a 1-shot where the party had to deal with a mage who'd been taken over by an intellect devourer. The foreshadowing was there well in advance, but when they killed him and the beast popped out of his head, they panicked, as they knew what was going to happen. In one turn, it downed one of the party members and went to devour the brain of their low INT barbarian. Thankfully, he rolled a Nat20 on the save, which let them finish it off in a couple turns. That said, if that barbarian had failed that save, there was most certainly going to be at least one PC death that night. Was a tense couple of rounds.
I TRULY hate Intellect Devours. It was my first death since coming back to 5e.
I've died at least once in every edition I've played in to them. My druid in 2nd ed disabled and murdered his whole party from falling to just 1.
Had this happen recently.
Players were tracking a dude who was running away from them, who they didn't know was Intellect Devoured.
They discovered a small tower where they thought he had decided to stay, so they wander in.
They find 2 people, a Kenku & a human monk. While two party members talk to the people there, other two investigate the tower & find the dead body of the guy they'd been tracking. Whilst doing this, they discover his head is empty.
A moment later, the two people attack them, and just before they kill the monk, the ID leaves the body. Party SHAT themself, but they were surprisingly fine; Bard passed on two saves against 'Devour Intellect' whilst they dealt with the Kenku.
Saves don'T have natural 20.
@@Ironfist85hu1 It still exceeds a DC 12 though, which was the point.
The problem with using Rot Grubs to attack a high-level party:
"I cast fireball on myself"
If I'm going down I'm taking the shrubs with me!
Yeah, but... you're not going down to a mere fireball.
At high level you can kill swarms with regular weapon attacks pretty quickly and if ur a tank ur ac will be so high they won’t be able to touch you
Unless they roll a nat 20, which is always a possibility.
If the character even knows that fire is a solution. What if the character doesn't know.
The fact that such low CR monsters can still be a legitimate threat to higher level PCs in the right circumstances is one of the things I love about 5E. In some of the previous editions, some of my favorite monsters just became completely superfluous without monkeying with their stats a lot.
EDIT: Also I am legit super happy that kobolds came out as the deadliest low CR monsters. Not enough DMs play them the way they would actually behave when you look at their stats and the kobolds' awareness of their own capabilities compared to adventurers.
My party's rogue hired a kobold as his servant,
I KNOW!!! I love kobolds, and honestly get frustrated when people (and certain modules) describe them as dumb weaklings so much. I love to use them to set some of the deadliest traps I can create.
I was watching this and toward the end thinking "damn, they better not forget kobolds". Suddenly their first place creature is the kobold. Fist pumps!!
Praise the egg!
*pokes you* Spoiler alert.... lol
Enjoyed the details and tactics.
1. Shadow
2. Swarm
3. Intellect Devourer
4. Gelatinous Cube
5. Kobolds
Something far too many DM's fail to remember is monster intelligence. I've nearly TPK'd several high level parties with Kobolds and Goblins. Have them react to parties like parties do to them.(started before these two got there)
Played by their intelligence, dragons and vampires should be nearly impossible for even very high level parties.
Dragons and Vampires are incapable of being smarter than the DM and have known exploitable weaknesses for an intelligent party to target. I agree with the primary sentiment of your comment, but disagree with that closing remark.
TheAchilles26 They are smart enough to know what their own weaknesses are and strategise around them. The DM knows they will be running these monsters and they have the whole internet to search for intelligence-appropriate strategies.
@@dascientist8443 Humans are smart enough to know what their own weaknesses are and strategize around them as well...this does not make them undefeatable.
@@robertburns4429 corect but we arnt imortal so we cant plan for hundreds of years
@@dollarestoreoffbrand5545 It is less the fact that they are immortal and more the fact that the human's are trying to punch typically very far up when it comes to Dragons and Vampires.
Until you are very late game with endgame equipment a Vampire or (Big) Dragon is stronger than almost any individual PC in a straight fight.
This is why I agree with OP's sentiment about them being nearly impossible since a lot of how players beat enemies as by using mechanics or strategies to make up for a lack of overall power. But when fighting intelligent enemies that aren't going to blindly attack your frontline while they dodge action every turn and your backline whittles it down it becomes a whooole lot harder and reqipres a lot more tactical accumen.
And that is all assuming that the dragon/Vampire is caught by surprise. If they have time to notice/plan/avoid the party they might just do that, or just ambush the party themselves, slap/kill a player and disengage before they can do as much in return. There is a lot of factors to combat.
Be wary of the elderly in a profession that has a high mortality rate.
Know what my dirty DM secret use of swarm is? Big baddies and lieutenants with plague and terror themes call upon swarms who mount on the them and serve as armor, terrible, disgusting and terrifying armor, which attack, and only after the death of the swarm, the baddie begin to take hits on their Health Points. Nasty.
Stolen
Your tactic reminds me of Ram from Gears of War with his shadow swarm thingys.
@@MarkATorres1989 I literally clicked the "View more replies" button hoping that someone would mention that fight. One of the most epic fights in videogame history right there.
I believe they were called krill.
Shamelessly stolen
*when you have a 19 in Str and a 17 in Int* I'm a glass cannon susceptible to everything *except* these monsters!
@Lezerni Wolf eldersnight?
I made a character and made their strength stay as low as possible......
Finding gauntlets of ogre power and a headband of intellect vs these guys;
Oh god, a pit trap with a gelatinous cube in it?!
That's terrifying
Kelly makes a blind turn into a narrow, squeaky-clean dungeon corridor:
"Chewy, no, wait, DON'T!!!"
Great discussion, showing how creatures can be used entertainingly as well as realistically. Good points on how to implement such encounters in a balanced way, too.
Appreciate the tribute to Tucker's Kobolds, too. I was inspired by that article to have a lone PC encounter goblins that dropped narcotic seedpods into his campfire from overhanging trees: his dismay and rage at waking up hogtied, surrounded by goblins happily looting his gear was truly beautiful. He escaped (of course) and eventually got his revenge, but was much more wary about adventuring on his own afterwards...
I remember reading a dnd story where a group invited a vietnam vetran into a game of dnd and they had a "tuckers kobolds" scenario planned. It was a *very* intense gaming session.
The deadliest monster for a low-level party is a Tarrasque.
Me the lvl 2 tabaxi monk running away at mach 3.
Nah do time dragon
Technically can be deadliest for every level party's
Vampire hydra
Nah. Its the commoner. Why? They can destroy a parties reputation and lead a mob to kill the party.
I was going to put a beholder zombie in my dungeon for Saturday... not anymore ;)
Infest him full of rotgrubs
....is there a swarm that's immune to the gelatinous cubes damage after being swallowed? That would be a crazy symbiotic relationship between the two...
crawling claws maybe
Anything immune to acid damage
Shove a clay Golem inside there.
@@dgtlrn No, a SWARM of clay golems.
You can always alter something to work. Take a beetle or snake swarm and make them mechanical or golem like in nature that is immune to the cube.
The cube could be altered to suit certain types of beasts for the same synergy. In an underdark or subterranean adventure perhaps its in a volcanic area and surves a simular function but with fire or lava instead. Striking out with gouts of flame or streams of molten rock that pool back into its form. Its surface black and crusty and seeming wall like while its idle but its surface becomes cracked and molten when it surges forth. More pouring itself forward than sliding along.
Or one that freezes and lives in the halls of an icy ruin. Hidding like a glossy frosted surface until it fractures and strikes forth with shards of deadly ice. Wrapping around its victims in flowing arctic water and a latice of freezing crystals. Leaving statues in its wake and eventually shattering its victims or leaving them to be devoured by other things as you see fit.
I threw a few shadows at my party in an outsider/Un-dead themed dungeon once, one player had a magic dagger that allowed them to raise up a creature they killed for the next few hours, and I had a Shadow demon encounter planned after that fight. For those who don't know it from memory, shadow demons have a 1 for their STR scores, so this shadow the party re-animated was able to One shot the boss monsters, and frankly I never saw that coming
I just shared this with my dm, i feel our party just overpowers him a little too often with our tactics.....
YOU FOOL YOU FOOLISH FOOL, YOU'VE DOOMED YOURSELF.
Prepare to roll up a new character ...
Depending on your ability allocation and how much he sticks purely to by the book encounter design and lack of enemy intelligence. You just might be overwhelming his encounters. At least as low level.
You done messed up A-A-simar
He/she probably knows about stronger characters but like me is terrified of making the game impossible. I'm often slapping my forehead after I fight I thought was fairly balanced lasts about 3 turns with the party remaining at 80% HP.
Thank you for introducing me to Tucker's Kobolds
Funny you mention kobolds. I've got a party that just lost their fighter to a flame trap surrounded by kobolds. The idea was that it was a false encampment; they'd been slaying kobolds for the past five or so sessions for a Dwarven noble. Lo and behold, a Dwarven friend they knew fell from a tree, hanging dead and mangled. They immediately rushed out to find the kobolds and followed tracks the kobolds had laid, leading into a thicket. As soon as the fighter saw huts in the thicket and a pile of dwarves, he rushed in, tripling a rope that lit the thicket on fire. He had already noticed the wet matting of the forest but continued, not realizing it was oil. The thicket surrounding the hits (maybe a fifteen foot space) lit aflame. He was trapped, surrounded, targeted through the brush. The kobolds couldn't see what triggered the trap, but didn't need to. Their projectiled, covered in a deadly poison, stunned and held the fighter in place while the oxygen around him grew thin. His compatriots rushed to his aid. After being poisoned, burned, and eventually suffocated, the kobolds retreated only after the corpse of the fighter that had destroyed a kobold nest single-handedly lie bloody, torn, and defeated. All in all, the party thought it a valuable lesson and thoroughly enjoyed it. They knew there were kobolds. They knew they were prone to trappings and trickery. They realized they could have been more careful and they shouldn't be as overconfident. The next session is tomorrow; with a new character they plot vengeance for their fallen friend.
SPURT! "I WIN!"
- How long you lived down here?
+ ELEVEN DAYS.
- How long do Kobolds live?
+ ELEVEN DAYS.
And eleven days it was.
@@asdasdasdasd714 lol a natural 20 with a scorpion on a stick for 7 damage had me dying.
@bryan diaz varela do you even dnd bro?
@bryan diaz varela critical role
Regarding the gelatinous cubes, I had a GM pull out a Black Dragon who lined their lair with the damn things. It's too big to use their engulf on, and it's immune to acid anyway.
In 3.5 I remember legion devils being the "Kills things WAY above their CR" hammer with which to slap down munchkins. Their pile of infinitely stacking bonuses based on how many of them are in the area just scaled way too hard.
Dopplegangers. Just. Dopplegangers. It only takes 2 to mess up an upstart 5 person party of 4th level characters.
All hail Mr. Tucker and his Kobolds!! As a long time D&D player, you two get an instant like and sub for bringing up not only Tucker's Kobolds, but the genuine uses for the other four creatures were spot on as well. Very sneaky, and much applause as a player and DM.
Honestly, I'd probably run intellect devourers differently. The "teleport inside your brain to kill you and take over your body" is insane. Maybe make them sit on top of your head and control you. That way you can kill the devourer and get back your character. Makes the combat itself just as challenging, while being way more forgiving in the long run.
The only deaths ever occurring in my PCs party was when i sent some kobolds after them. Once, a kobold inventor threw a rot grub swarm at them while, in the back, another kobold summoned a shadow.
If you haven't already, you can read the original full Tucker's Kobold's story here:
media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/TuckersKobolds.pdf
As a DM I dislike how Intellect devourer is written... In general I dislike anything with a SoD before res becomes available. I spend the majority of my DM prep time on weaving my PCs backstories into the main plot (my games are generally focused on PCs personal stories) so a death of a PC is huge loss of content for a single bad dice roll. Gelatinus cube is interesting but I have found most melee characters will just attack it from inside since restrained doesn't prevent attacks and disadvantage doesn't matter since it's AC 6.
George R.R. martin had a saying when he was asked why a characters death wasn't heroic and seemed needless. "Death is needless. Sometimes people just die and their story IS left unfulfilled. That's Life." (something to that effect anyways)
It's best summed up here: www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/17/george-rr-martin-game-of-thrones-characters-die-it-has-to-be-done-song-of-ice-and-fire
You must gather your party Before venturing forth
Nothing about what the OP said is inherently boring. They just weave the PC’s backgrounds into the main plot and focus on their characters.
The no-death thing you could make a case for being boring.
@You must gather your party Before venturing forth I didn't say no death. I said I don't like SoD. The loss of a character and the work put into them on a single bad dice roll is neither fun nor interesting. The general response I have gotten to a character death by SoD or even instant massive damage is an annoyed sigh and something along the lines of "well that happened. So what should I make next guys?". There is nothing interesting about walking into a room and the barbarian getting their brain telefragged because they had a bad roll at level 3. Now the party fighting tooth and nail to save the fighter who can't quite make it out of a room that's going to be overrun with demons over the course of 5 rounds only to be denied as they slam the door shut and bolt it to save everyone else... That is far and away more interesting. Or even to have to shut the door themselves as they realize saving that character is a lost cause...
Like I said SoD is the problem. I would just replace the SoD with something farm more interesting. For example the way I would run a Intellect devourer would be that if you failed it's save it then enters your mind and a mental battle insues as you drop into a coma Requiring the party to finish the fight then go out and find a way to enter your mind and have a big RP session of them trying to help you find your sense of self as the devourer slowlyt eats away your thoughts and memories.
@@SiberianPhoenix Death should be a spice. Before GRRM books were bland because you knew no one would die. But you can also over spice your food to the point it's hard to eat. I'll let my players die but I'm not going to add Fuck You mechanics
my personal favorite encounter for early encounters (haven't tried higher levels, but I'd imagine it scales up) is an animated armor on a warhorse. everyone focuses on the armor, then get pretty beat up when they get trampled by the horse. being knocked prone can be pretty rough with multiple enemies. plus, it feels more fair than dying instantly.
One of my first characters I played was a high elf arcane trickster who almost died at level 3 from rot grubs. He survived because he used sleep centered on self. As a high elf he was immune to effects that put him to sleep so while the grubs were asleep he got another player to perform surgery on him to get them out.
As a player, I really worry about all these "kills you outright" abilities given to all these low level monsters.
I imagine these are meant to be thrown at a party of high-level adventurers in massive numbers.
2 creatures I find scary for their relatively low CR are:
1) the banshee, CR 4 and has a built in save-or-suck attack with her wail
2) also CR 4, the Helmed Horror- immune to conditions, resistant to magic (with immunity to 3 DM chosen spells) resistant to nonmagical, non-adamantite weapon, the _only_ resistance to the beloved force damage in the MM (which is a full blown immunity BTW); oh, and an intelligence score of 10, higher than the average lv 4 fighter. these things are the terror of every spellcaster
The banshee never stops being brutal.
@@paranoidrodent no, the bloody thing most certainly does not
Pretty sure it was designed to be a clear message from the DM
Ghost was my party's first monster encounter. It was kinda scary for 4 level 1 characters!
Balcamion I DM a party of 8. Because the Action Economy vastly favors them, I tend to throw higher CR monsters at them and they tend to enjoy these encounters. The first time I did this was when they, at second level, fought a Drow Elite Warrior, CR 5, and a modified version of Asha (a priest npc with the drow race features), CR 3. They barely came out of it and it took everything they had to beat them, and they said they really enjoyed this as a first boss fight
@@jammo7370 yeah, the intensity and threat if character death of lower level play really does give a thrill unlike the super power feeling you get at later levels. We fought a Drow elite warrior, several giant spiders, and an ettercap in the cave once we defeated the ghost. I just started DMing for a party of 8 myself using the Spelljammer setting and 5e rules. It's been great so far!
yeah that band is great...
oh the creature, yeah they're great too :P
Specters are fun. Have a normal looking ghost wandering a room. Muttering to themselves, or wailing and crying. When the specter eventually notices the players, have it's normal features melt away and reveal your version of what's in the monster manual. Screaming, pointing, dimming the lights around it. Give the players a sense of dread and impending doom. I threw two at my last group, and they got freaked out both times. I absolutely loved it.
@@Balcamion79 with a group of 8 remember that it's easier to send more realistic hordes at them as well. A hall of 8 or 10 living armor and living weapons can be a very challenging encounter and may be wary of future "display" setups in relatively safe places like nobles homes and castles. At a bit later levels golems that resemble statues decorating a ruin or the like thoroughly can do the same.
Living armor is cr1 and a.c. 18. So even starting op or large parties may find the handful of them fairly tricky to deal with.
correction at 13:38, the intellect devourer's stun isn't "until the end of the PC's next turn", but rather it causes the PC's intelligence score to drop to 0, leaving them stunned "until it regains at least one point of Intelligence", combining that with body thief ensures a -5 penalty to that contested roll,
I ran one encounter where a group of low leveled characters went to investigate something on a large rock just within jumping distance of a ledge on the shore, ten feet above freezing waters with no easy way to climb back up. There, a small group of ice mephits ambushed them with their Fog Cloud spell, which covered the whole rock. Suddenly, nobody can move more than a few steps without risk of falling off into the water and taking levels of exhaustion from the cold, while the mephits pestered them with little bits of damage from their AOE breath attacks from every direction.
In the end, nobody ended up even remotely close to dying from this encounter, but like with the kobold example here it really showed me how much of a difference the terrain can make for any encounter with low-level monsters.
I knew Tucker's Kobolds were coming :P Good Show!
I had a great session with a gelatinous cube a couple weeks ago. I'm running a Strixhaven campaign. During an "after hours snoop," the PCs came across the secret behind how clean the stadium and locker rooms always are. A team of custodians were struggling to contain a gelatinous cube behind a panel of thick glass. It had engulfed one of the custodians and the PCs wound up having to make Athletics checks to keep the creature away from the other workers until the head custodian arrived and put the beast back in the Iron Flask they used to transport the creature. When asked, "What about Glory?", the head custodian shrugs and says, "don't worry about it..."
What I'm getting from this is always have a paladin or cleric D:
Never put your treasure in one place, actually.
I'm DMing Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the very beginning is a managerie of deadly low-level enemies, including uncomfortably well depicted rot grubs and several small packs of animals that attack your party by surprise. There is a sink in a house with nothing really of interest of value inside it, but it's really in the way of the party and players may want to investigate it, like the party's sorceress, for example. Instantly three giant centipedes come out of the woodwork, take the party by surprise and destroy her with their acidic poison... 5 player characters died that day to CR 1/4 to 1/2 beasts.
One time my character died to a kobold. One. Single. Kobold.
and that kobold was promoted to dragonshield
I have used Mongrelfolk in our recent campaign and it was such a nice breath of fresh air when it comes to encounters and player experience.
Back a few D&D Editions I almost had a TPK when I threw a Nilbog at a 2 & 3rd level party... The party beat the crap out of that "goblin" and freaked out when it wouldn't die..
Never winter Nights forever scarred me when it comes to Intellect Devourers. Easily the hardest part of the early game main campaign
Sounds like the perfect counter for rot grubs is the flames of phelagos feat.
Need to burn them off? I'm on fire!
I had never heard of Tucker's Kobold's but about 20 years ago a friend asked me to help him create a challenge for a player who was OP. The DM was a newer DM and the player was very experienced and easily destroyed everything he threw at him, including a tarrasque. This was 3rd edition when it was relatively new and I was only familiar with 2E, so I didn't fel comfortable with the rules enough to run it myself. The player was a werewolf, and I helped the DM create an adventure that trapped him in a silver mine unknowingly, landed him in a deep river after a subterranean bridge collapsed that forced him to remove his armor, and incorporate traps and excessive numbers of kobolds with range weapons- where every item in the mine was made of silver. I taught the DM that a battle isn't just a bunch of numbers on a stat sheet, but a creative way to implement surroundings and strategy to achieve a goal.
Do the dark souls! Show the players the deadly enemy in an isolated situation which allows for experimentation, exploration, etc. Then, once they have an idea of how the monster works, throw a pack (only after they have had a chance to learn, and always leave an escape route if the players find they are unprepared)
In Curse of Strahd our rogue ran into a room without checking and ran right inbetween 3 shadows. They rolled best initiative. All 3 hit and the DM rolled 3d4. He rolled 4 on all of them and the rogue's STR was 12.
Our DM does not like killing players, but he does not deus ex machina to save us if it happens. He was so shocked, because he was not expecting that encounter to be a problem and after the rogue died we did kill them on the first turn. It was just the worst luck on the rogue's side.
There's always room for 10 x 10 jello!
My first time ever playing was a random encounter my friend and I did. I was a Goliath Barbarian and he was a Dragonborn Fighter. Both of us were level 1. We were ambushed and had to take on 4 Kobolds. I grabbed one, threw him onto another one, my friend(Dratin) uses firebreath to kill them both. Pact tactics left him nearly dead so we fled and out of fear they also fled. After a short rest we went back in, rolled for perception. I roll a 20, see them hiding behind a boulder in the dark, I without warning launch Dratin straight at them. One died by getting his skull crushed, and since Dratin readied his attack he slit the others throat. RIP Kobolds.
My favorite trap: 30' pitfall right into a Gelatinous Cube
.
Dude.
I reckon that a Peryton is really dangerous because they have 60ft flying speed, with flyby(no opportunity attacks), a dive attack, and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks. I had a group of 4 level 4 players up against 2 of these and there was almost a tpk.
Just ordered my skullsplitter dice. Thanks for the code and love the videos and twitch streams
I used a gelatinous cube like a false wall in my campaign. My party had already been in this cave once, and so knew something was off when the tunnel didn’t go the same way as it had the first time. They went in anyway, finding a dead end just as the gelatinous cube (which looked like wall because of the amount which had been dissolved into it) moved into the tunnel behind them. They had to fight it as it slowly closed in on the dead end. Our bard ended up throwing himself inside the cube and repeatedly using thunder wave. It worked, but it was no more than a few turns away from a potential tpk. (I know thunder wave requires verbal components but it was too good for me not to allow just once)
ok, THIS is my last dnd video for the night.... wait what are the five cantrips I must have?....
This video gave me so much inspiration for my next arc of our campaign. Thanks!
Stacking different types of Sahu is devastating in itself. There are so many flavours and levels, including a cleric that can paralyse at range. Combine this with the amounts they canonically swarm in, and a take no prisoner (force fails through hits, killing PCs) mindset, and it’s terrifying.
Broom of animated attack laid crit damage on my party's fighter in death house. The swarm of rats took down my party's ac 18 cleric.
One of the quest rewards I gave a party in an old hexcrawl was team of kobold sappers for use in defeating a Death Knight's castle defenses.
I feel like with the intellect devourer some key points for body snatch wasn't told, like how the target has to be unconscious or incapacitated before it can be used.
The stunned condition includes incapacitated
@@revshad4226 well yeah? That's part of incapacitated. Even then the person still has to have less Intel than what the creature rolls onb3d6
There was a 2nd Edition boxed adventure, Dragon Mountain, that had a mountain lair loaded with Kobolds. There was a dragon too, but the bulk of all interactions was with kobolds.
My Paladin was inside a Gelatinous Cube. Okay, I have like 16 STR, I'll be fine, just gotta-
Sorceror: I use shocking grasp
I just looked at the player and said "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!"
*Playing as a Wizard using greaseto try and trip an enemy to keep it prone for melee players*
*Paladin uses the searing smite*
Fun combo is druid's thorny terrain spell and grease. Terrain only does I think a d4 of damage per 5 ft walked without spending double movement. Grease the top o a hill and the side covered in thorns. Instant damage for however long the hill is. (Max 10d4)
Shadows are no joke. I was playing in a 2 member party as a paladin my friend playing a cleric. Both of us lvl 10. Our DM was a newer DM and saw how low cr shadows were so he threw a bunch at us. That was legit the most terrifying encounter I've ever played in.
Shadows are undead, the cleric should’ve managed to slaughter them with the turn/destroy undead channel divinity feature
Personally I'd say if you're running the shadows you should have them target the fighter or barbarian, the strongest member of the party as they have "the most vitality" that the shadow seeks.
Idk just feels like that's the best thematic move.
That would assume that shadows actually eat or consume vitality or strength, rather than simply sapping it as an effect of being attacked. Idk if they actually eat "vitality" or not, I'm just responding off the top of my head. It would also assume the shadows weren't more interested in building their numbers to get the juicier prizes.
Our DM waited until our entire party had settled down in an Inn. We all requested separate rooms and retired for the night. The DM sent 13 Darklings (one being a Darkling Elder) in a surprise attack against our party in our sleep. We were lvl 4. It was terrifying, but not insurmountable. We prioritized getting out of the rooms and regrouping to take on our foes as a team instead of as individuals. That's a good example of making your players poop their pants a little but not killing them for the hell of it. He was fair and gave us plenty of room to either succeed or fail based on our decisions. Not only did he make sure it was something that we could manage, allbeit with much difficulty, he also allowed us enough time for a long rest before the surprise attack. This encounter helped me realize two things about my wizard. 1): Mage armor lasts 8 hours and there are no rules that say you can't cast it before you go to sleep. 2): Magnify Gravity is a great way to slow down melee opponents and hit them with a little damage whilst only using a lvl 1 spell slot. Obviously there are other spells that can reduce movement speed of enemies or even lock them in place. I just... uhh... don't know them... yet.
Good DM's want to see their players flourish in order to see the campaign they are building through to the end. That doesn't mean they won't try to make your characters life a living hell sometimes. A good DM is just as invested in your characters progression as the player is. If you are playing DnD with a DM who seems to just want to kill off their players, then you are most likely playing a very one sided game and should probably bow out. There are some people who enjoy that type of "Come at me Bro!" kind of gameplay and more power to you. If the DM and the Players have agreed that the game is a survival match, then that can be fun too. Most people, however, want an adventure. They want to see a story unfold in which their actions and decisions have weight.
One fun idea for Shadows - make them retreat, or be at disadvantage from light sources. So the human party with torches and other light sources has a decent time fighting them as the light sources harm the Shadows, but a party composed of various races that have darkvision are in great danger as the Shadows have no light to worry about.
(Snip various comments about playing the only human in a party of characters that all the others have nightvision/darkvision, and having to beg for a source of light before going underground)
I love the dungeon materials you guys are using. They work really well with the minis.
Remembers in Rappan Athuk, there is a trap where you open a fake door that drops a stone portcullis. A stone door opens and released a black pudding. Which proceeds to slither down the 10 foot wide hallway, through the stone bars and dissolving the trapped characters
I once played in a homebrew dungeon where, when we were pretty high level, we encountered (IIRC) 1200 armored goblins in a 10x20 room. :) We were something like 12th level, which, in that game was MUCH higher than the 2nd level goblins.
In the first round, we put potions of poison (+ damage) on our blades. The eight goblins in the first row attacked - and missed. We smiled.
In the second round, we put potions of sharp (+ hit prob) on our blades. The eight goblins in the first row attacked - and missed. We laughed!
Then we attacked. The four fighters in the front row struck and killed the eight goblins. Our wizards threw fireballs and killed 10-20 more.
The next row attacked - and missed.
It went on like that. Once in a while, they put a point or two of damage on our front row which our clerics healed.
When we killed enough to gain two levels of experience (the maximum we could) one of the clerics did a ritual that sacrificed the 600 remaining goblins to his god.
The DM was stunned. :)
A DM once almost killed my low level sorceress with sentient clothing.
That was not a good day for Shauna.
I was surprised to see kobolds listed there but looked into Tucker's Kobolds and that has definitely opened my eyes as to how devastating kobolds can be.
A gelatenous cube in a hallway was one of the most dangerous and memorable moments for my party which was level 4 at the time and somehow getting them at the right angle.
I was never able to re-create this threaat level with it since but that time was sure great!
When I was a little kid, I would go to the library and read the 1st edition monster manual. The illustration and description of rot grubs would give me nightmares.
I was doing LMOP with a group of complete novices and they came across the wolf den. They hadn't been noticed but the sorcerer decided to use "message" on one of the wolves.
Now I went down the route that these wolves in a goblin cave (and therfore mainly only heard goblin speech" just heard an unfamiliar language in its head and freaked out and broke its chains.
Rolled initiative and the rogue took their turn and went to the loo, by the time they'd come back these wolves had shredded the party. Rogue came back and beat the hell out of them but this was my 2nd ever session as a DM and i was really worried about a TPK (would have just had them captured or something) but I started to worry I was being overly harsh
They now REALLY go out of their way to avoid wolves now xD
I've been watching a ton of your videos lately as I have (after almost 15 years) gotten back into DMing! My whole party is new to the game and the last version I dm-ed was 2.5/3. Thank you for giving me some many ideas to use! Plus my players love the class guides I've sent them of yours!
I remember playing an under-dark campaign and we came across mindflayers and intellect devourers. My Barbarian was the type of character that would jump into battle (this had to do with me not knowing much about the monsters and resulting in hitting things). Jumping from a ledge she crit one killing it out right, in her frenzy she used her other attack to hurl her great axe at the one floating above, hitting it but not killing it. The it came the monsters turn and I heard "make an intelligence save". With my 8 INT I didn't know what would happen.... Nat 20 (19)! When the battle was over my party later told me how bad things could have gone. My barbarian took the head of the mindflayer as a trophy and a reminder. (Our fighter that later joined didn't have the same luck in the next session... RIP)
To whom it may concern,
*Fireball*
Magic Missile has a name on each bolt, Fireball is as you say above.
I ran a game once where the party was sent to collect the essence of several Will-o-Wisps for the local blacksmith to fashion +1 weapons with a small service fee.
I wasn't trying to kill anyone, but two players died within the first two rounds and the third one just turned around and made a run for it. Huge underestimation on my part.
Those things can be surprisingly deadly.
Floor slates part, and a spiked pit trap impales the victim on multiple spikes (10d6 + prone + immobilized). Then the ceiling opens up and drops a gelatinous cube onto the victim. The floor and ceiling slates close, trapping the impaled, immobilized victim, in darkness, unable to breathe, and taking 6d8 acid damage per round.
Roll initiative!
Just remember that combos of these monsters can drive adventuring parties crazy. Kobold layer with arrow slits and murder holes, that also use traps full of swarms and/or gelatinous cubes. A couple of kobolds full of rot grubs in a pit, ect...
My personal favorite low-level creature is the Cockatrice.
Been using them alot in my campaign. Usually doesn't manage to petrify anyone, but it's always fun when it succeeds.
I find them interesting. Have not used them yet but...
Oh, man, I still remember reading about "Tucker's Kobolds when I got my latest issue of Dragon magazine back in the 80s, and have loved the idea ever since, both as a DM, and as a player! Many curses were heaped upon my name as a DM when I created my own personalized version of Tucker's evil tribe, and unleashed then on my players' adventuring crew! I'll never forget hearing my friend, who played a very nasty & deadly Wood Elf Rogue griping at me about how he'd "rather tonguewrestle a Mind Flayer than mess with my Goblin tribes ever again!" ;-P
(Before watching video) If Intellect Devourer isn't I'm amazed.
*EDIT* Ah good it was there
I parlayed a somewhat disastrous encounter with Shadows for my Bard into multiclassing into a Shadow Magic Sorcerer. (She got wrecked but the party has a Pally and a Cleric)
Sometimes i just wonder... Will i ever be able to play/dm a campaign from lvl 1 to 20? Sounds like a far away dream...
I did that, took 2 years and a lot of sweat and tears
The secret to that is using Milestone progression instead of XP. Put enough challenge, or story in each session to award a level. The end result is new abilities and powers each session for the PCs and new scenarios and challenges each game for the DM. As the DM you have the throttle. Award levels more rapidly than magic items and the balance is simple to maintain, while making progress rapid and enjoyable.
Many DMs find the fourth tier to be 'boring' because at that point the party is expected to literally save the world. So it's actually rare to go beyond level 15 or so. As another comment mentioned though, using Milestones instead of XP can keep things simple for the DM and provide a better gauge of the expected potency of a party.
Frankly, it can be hard to have a storyline carry you for 20 levels, most campaigns which have been more story and character driven tend to finish up around level 10 or so
Honestly, one creature that I'm shocked didn't make the cut was the Troglodyte. Granted they don't have special attacks, doing just regular damage. But they are a CR 1/4 creature that gets 3, yes 3!! attacks at that level. Combine that with a stench that can poison foes making them that harder to hit, and a natural camouflage ability for sneak attacks, I have had several party wipes with these incredibly lethal beasties.
love how you mention the gelatinous cubes i used those once and paired them with some rogue dwarf colony in one of my games where the dwarves used the cubes to help in crafting so i kept describing everything as acid etched
As a GM, I would usually hint at something like a rot grub long before the players encounter it. For example, in town, a group of wood cutters bring in their friend who has died. The players either witness or head about the rotvgrub jumping to another character in town and killing them too. If the players make an investigation, perhaps speaking to a priest or healer, they are warned about the grub and it's dangers. Not told exactly how to deal with it, just scared a little by the NPC who does not really understand and only knows stories about perhaps burning the grub, cutting someone's leg off, etc.
I once had a forgiving DM who made 2 types of mind devourers, 1 just take control of a PC but would turn his brain to mush and put him in coma for a long time while the other was the classic mind devourer which he used for PC’s with a much higher level.
The beautiful thing about the intellect devourer is the rp potential. I had a case where my players split the party, the barbarian went to look for something and found an intellect devourer that proceeded to body thief him. The party had no idea this had happened in character so they assumed the barbarian was himself while he was actually an intellect devourer now spying on the party. A couple of private messages to the affected player led to everyone having a great and memorable time as the barbarian turned on the party as they confronted the ilithid behind the dungeon. (I let the barbarian's player continue to play their intellect devoured character).
I'm just gonna ignore the half damage AoE to swarms in 5e. It makes no sense that you kill your friends faster than a swarm of bugs... bad new rule, tossing it out the window.
They do not take half - just the regular total.
I think it was in a choose your adventure, but they had an orc skeleton, sword raised, inside a gelatinous cube. It was approaching, looking like a charging skeleton