Looking for creative low-CR mook ideas.

[johnbragg]

Sure, you could balance the boss fight with goblins or skeletons or bugbears or bandits, but that's boring.

What are some creative mooks and minions to throw into a boss fight, to balance the action economy while making the encounter memorable?

Animated Swords, CR 1/2, AC 17, 17 hp sound like fun.
Swarms are thematic, and make combat different.

In 3rd edition I could just slap a template on a humanoid or animal or whatever and I had a Fire/Ice/Bronze-Clad whatever. Is there an easy way to do that in 5th, without completely screwing up the CR math?

Other fun speedbumps for boss fights?

[gloryblaze]

Blights (CR 1/8 for Twig, 1/4 for Needle, 1/2 for Vine) can be fun for evil druids, young green dragons, malicious fey, and other forest-y encounters. Similarly, Myconid Adults (CR 1/4) are solidly creepy Underdark mooks (poisonous mushroom people!) though due to being Lawful Neutral (iirc) they're less likely to be in conflict with the players.

Magmins and mephits (of all sorts) are fantastic low-CR Elementals to throw at players in hordes.

Gray Oozes are gray-t.

Darkmantles are spooky. Encounter what looks like a solo BBEG in a cave, then the stalactites come to life and eat your head.

[Unoriginal]

Take a rug of smothering and make it a moss of smothering?

[Mortis_Elrod]

Slap Half-Dragon on a few things if you want a template. Half-Shadow Dragon if you want it to be memorable.

Half-Shadow Dragon Displacer Beasts
Half-Shadow Dragon Owlbears
Half-Shadow Dragon Darkmantles
Half-Shadow Dragon Chimeras
Half Shadow Dragon Cyclops
Half shadow Dragon Cloackers
Half Shadow Dragon Centaurs
HalF shadow Dragon Grimlocks
Half Shadow dragon Hook Horrors
half Shadow Dragon Jackleweres


Need a sea boss?

Half Shadow Dragon Kraken



Cmon its fun.

[johnbragg]

Sure, you could balance the boss fight with goblins or skeletons or bugbears or bandits, but that's boring.

What are some creative mooks and minions to throw into a boss fight, to balance the action economy while making the encounter memorable?

Animated Swords, CR 1/2, AC 17, 17 hp sound like fun.
Swarms are thematic, and make combat different.

In 3rd edition I could just slap a template on a humanoid or animal or whatever and I had a Fire/Ice/Bronze-Clad whatever. Is there an easy way to do that in 5th, without completely screwing up the CR math?

Other fun speedbumps for boss fights?

OK, just ran another session.

The AC 17 Flying Swords gave my players fits.

The Swarm of Spiders was barely a speedbump--the Druid and Wizard were on watch, handled it easily. But that wasn't as a minion in a boss fight, that was a random dungeon-flavor nighttime random encounter. We'll see what happens when it's a mook supporting the Black Spider drow wizard.

Magmin looks like a perfect speedbump--CR 1/2 beings of Chaos and Fire.

[Malapterus]

Kobolds with PC levels. While they were made to be easy-kill newb fodder, even a small group with PC levels can action their racial abilities into a devastating team.

First off, they get Pack Tactics, meaning they always get Advantage on an attack if one of their allies is nearby. With that alone, imagine one character facing down just two Kobold Rogues.

Their other ability, which really needs re-written for fluff, allows them to virtually shut down enemy combat for one round per battle. If they're all kobolds, that's one round per each of them.

Make a little party of Kobolds. Three rogues, one of each archetype; a Bear-barbarian to soak up aggro, make the fifth one a healer or a ranged attacker (Sharpshooter Ranger(Hunter) with Horde Breaker?) and you'll take something that officially has a low CR but will really challenge your party. Plus, you get to make kobold noises.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Kobolds with PC levels.

To make it even easier, you don't even have to stat them up yourself - I've already done it (https://www.dropbox.com/s/1u0jm3ysj495hky/Kobolds.pdf?dl=0)!

As to templates, they're going to be hard to realise in 5e, because any given template is likely to have a non-linear affect on CR. You'd have to manually recalculate it every time, which means there isn't really any point having a template. It'd be no easier than starting from the ground up.

[Unoriginal]

To make it even easier, you don't even have to stat them up yourself - I've already done it (https://www.dropbox.com/s/1u0jm3ysj495hky/Kobolds.pdf?dl=0)!

As to templates, they're going to be hard to realise in 5e, because any given template is likely to have a non-linear affect on CR. You'd have to manually recalculate it every time, which means there isn't really any point having a template. It'd be no easier than starting from the ground up.

Though it'd be easy to just say "add those standards modifications, then adjust the CR in consequence. Like they do for the proposed monster modifications in the MM

[Nettlekid]

Quicklings from VGtM? The weakness of mooks is that they're easily dispatched, especially by AoE attacks. Quicklings have enough mobility (120 move speed) to move around a battlefield without bunching up and have advantage on Dex saves against stuff like Fireball, could interact with a battlefield by cutting chandeliers or springing traps, have low HP (10) but a decent AC (16) and force disadvantage on attack rolls, and make three dagger attacks at +8 to hit and 1d4+6 damage per action. Since they're Tiny you can even have shenanigans like have them climbing the PCs and using them as cover. They're annoying and threatening enough not to be ignored even if the boss is an immediate threat.