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Monster Tips

JohnnFour

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Adamantium WoA
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I've been receiving emails from Friday's monster Musing.

See comments below for some great ideas.
 
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JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
Small Critters With Artillery
From RPT GM David M.

...to address your actual issue, 'Making Monsters Marvelous Again'... Kobolds and goblins.

Everyone thinks that because they're small, they're not a problem. 'We'll just charge in, screaming, hacking with swords to break them up and cause fear'.

That's fine.... but kobolds and goblins actually do really well with ranged weapons. Yes, they're not physically strong, but they have good dexterity.

Now picture a group of 10 goblins who are on a scouting mission, in mid-winter. They have been told to scout around the area, and see if there are any animals worth hunting for food. A very simple objective... they're actually not interested in open combat, their mission is to find food for the tribe.

Six of the group are carrying three javelins each, the other four have shortbows, with two quivers of arrows each. They're a scout group, and they know it. Their orders are not to engage, unless it is absolutely needed - and even then, it's a tactical retreat. Pick off as many of those who threaten you, and retreat. They're not roaming around to pick fights, they've been sent out to look for food.

Now you have a party of 5 PC's, and they walk into an apparent ambush. Actually, it isn't.... the PC's and the goblin scout group, simply happened to cross paths at the worst possible moment. The goblins are chasing a deer that they hit, but didn't kill.

RP to the extreme! The PC's might see goblins, and think... wipe them out! That's usually the norm. However, the goblins have their orders..... do not engage in combat. So now, the goblins will retreat in all directions.... but they're not being cowardly. They're retreating to take advantage of their ranged weapons, which they are really good at. They have no interest in an open fight, but they will use ranged weapons to avoid actual combat, so as to get back to actually tracking down that deer for food.
 
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JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
A Cunning Action Economy Puzzle
From RPT GM Gustavo

I saw some time ago a really terrirific encounter with live actors enacting a scene from silent hill featuring noise attracted dead nurses and a guy (the actor that plays John Snow) tied to a gurney..

I tweaked that into an encounter where a group of warriors got captured by a wide area spell. When you entered the area, for every step you did, the warriors would each take one step. For every action you did, the warriors did one action. But this isn't a single person's game, so as the party did one step each, the warriors did one step for every step of the party. When the party used actions, each warrior would use the same number of actions of the party.

This was a really nasty trap that forced them to be really intelligent about it, taking the placement of all warriors into account and trying to face only one at a time.

To add to the creepiness, the warriors moved as broken toys, and the attacks thus came from weird angles.
 

JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
I'm thinking of turning this into a monster.

It can spray like a skunk.

The musk enrages the creature and triggers a 2-for-1 kind of adrenalin reaction so it gets to move or act twice for each move/action taken by those sprayed.
 
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