DM Monster Thread: What did you play and how did it do?

[gfishfunk]

This is a simple idea fir a thread: if you played a monster (or a group) against PCs, report what the monster is and how it did. Custom monsters appreciated, but feel free to share other creatures as well. This includes any combat enemy, really.

This is not a thread to debate good and bad, but to see what DMs played, how it did, and feedback for future design.

The Enemy: Custom Dracolich, was 'testing' the players to see if they were worthy to take on an errand that he would also give further information.
The Environment: Top of a short and stout tower, about 50' across and 25' from the ground. The middle of the circle had another elevated area and worked to block line of sight into four quadrants. There was also rubble and fallen columns in one of the four quadrents.
The Design: The Dracolich had a simple cold damaging AoE zone that moved around the field with arrows showing which way it was moving. It could concentrate on two of these zones at once, and faililng a concentration check eliminated one zone at a time. Casting and moving the zones constituted lair actions. The Dracolich also had a breath weapon that dealt fire damage that came out in a 20' cone, and alternatively a claw grapple leading to a very high damage bite-the-grappled-pc combo. When the dracolich hit half health, it rolled saves on all current effects and immediately added a new cold AoE zone.
The Result: Six PCs. They rocked it pretty well. The zones provoked tons of movement (which was the point) and did a marginal amount of damage. As they were absolutely avoidable, it was more of a changing map type of effect than real damage dealing. One of the players felt the halfway point effect of shrugging off an effect was unfair, which was partially true (its also unfair that it could concentrate on two spells). Anyhow, the two AoE effect only occurred once because of the concentration issues. It was getting hit about six times per round (accounting for misses, multiple attacks, etc) and failing its concentration about half the time. Those zones simply did not last.

Conclusion: I actually need to beef up the beefiness for so many players. The fight was described as fun, but not challenging. No one felt that they may actually lose at any given time....but the point of the battle was to introduce my players to mechanics I'll typically use: moving zones of damage, attacks that lead to grapples and high damage follow-ups, and half health renewals.

What is your creature? How did it actually do?

The Enemy:
The Environment:
The Design:
The Result:

[TrinculoLives]

Ooh! Like a "Best of Game" after report. I like it.


The Enemy: 6 ghouls and a ghast. It was my first time using these in a home-brew game, but some did show up in an LMoP game I ran. The interesting thing about them is their paralyzing claws, and I included the Ghast because it gives the other undead Advantage on saves against being turned by the cleric.

The Environment: An underground stone chamber bisected by a rushing stream. The single bridge created a choke point, while rows of giant's tombstones and some cave-ins provided cover and high ground, respectively. Wooden doors placed into the walls all around gave the undead their entrance.

The Design: Basically, the party fell down through a series of tunnels into this chamber. I used a random table to place where they landed, and gave them a round in which to move to more advantageous ground before the undead would enter.
I wanted the ghouls to attack together, but as soon as one of them paralyzed a PC that ghoul would grab hold and drag him towards the nearest wooden door, and thence to a quiet corner to be messily devoured.
This way, the PCs would be attacked from all sides, and would have to move quickly to save any downed companions before they disappeared through one of the doors. I wanted to encourage tactical combat with an emphasis on moving around the battlefield.

The Result: It was a total cluster-cuss. :smallbiggrin:

During the re-arrangement round most of the PCs simply stayed where they were or began investigating the chamber's contents. And when the ghouls entered the PCs all kind of attacked their own target in different portions of the cave. The cleric went down in the first round, and the ranger shortly after. They were both dragged away into the tunnels, while the warlock Disengaged and accomplished little. The bard player really took the cake though. He first spent a turn playing out a flaw of his, and then used hypnotic pattern followed the next round by another illusion spell. Ghouls are immune to being charmed, and the second spell specifically says it has no effect on undead. :small tongue:

Conclusion: My players are not nearly as coordinated as I thought! From their comments they seemed to be amused by their ineptitude, so the encounter seemed to be a success.
I really did enjoy preparing the encounter though. Drawing to the terrain with combat in mind, as well as the optimal terrain for the ghouls' attack, was a tactically satisfying task.

[Laserlight]

The Enemy: Xiuhcoatl, based on a shadow red dragon. Instead of one circular marker, I made it six Medium counters--one for the head, four body, one tail.

The Environment: a large oval chamber with poisonous smoke covering the floor and boulders of various heights sticking out of the smoke. There were also a few pits with oozes but no one stumbled upon them
The Design: Shadow fire breath ensures the party can't bunch up. The serpent continuously moves counterclockwise around the cavern; if you could see well enough to follow its path through the smoke, you could figure out that its path was somewhat predictable and could move to intercept (or avoid).
The Result Shay = paladin rogue, Mat = glaive fighter, Aberthal = barbarian, Ixchel = cleric, Belonwu = archer fighter

Ghostly shadows rose from the floor to attack the party, draining their strength. The party quickly defeated the shadows, but while they were distracted, the feathered serpent arose from the smoke and breathed death over them. The heroes were staggered, badly hurt. Bak Pakal (NPC) was slain outright, and moments later his shade arose to attack, although Mat's glaive quickly dispelled it.
Shay circled off to the side and leapt onto the shadow dragon's back, but was quickly shaken off. Aberthal had seen him, though, and made his own leap--landing on the serpent's snout and straining his mighty thews to clamp its mouth shut. Belonwu circled wide, sending arrow after arrow into the beast. Shay and Mat leapt from rock to rock to slash at its feathered sides. Ixchel circled a pinnacle to avoid the serpent's rush; she chanted hymns to Chaac and sent spell after spell into the shadow serpent. Aberthal clung to the beast, his axes locked together under its jaw, and the serpent shook but could not dislodge him. Finally Shay, exhausted but still game, whispered a quick prayer and drove his radiant blade deep into the shadow serpent, felling it with a mighty stroke. And the serpent writhed in Aberthal's hands and transformed into a turquoise-edged tepoztopilli war spear. They had found Xiuhcoatl, the weapon of the Sun.

The party was shaken by that first breath weapon attack; Aberthal didn't do much damage in this fight but did manage to prevent it from getting another Breath attack. Also, as it happened, he had Light on him, and thereby kept the dragon from hiding in the smoke.

The ranged characters took cover, shot, and maneuvered to avoid the dragon as it came toward them. Mat, who was quite cautious / thoughtful, hopped from rock to rock and hacked at it with his polearm. Shay deserved to stay aboard the dragon but his low STR combined with his dice ruled that out; however, he did get a nice sneak attack smite to finish it off.