Monsters on a Role: Leaders

Yo! Get back to work!

Well, we're finally almost done with the series on Monster Roles. All that's left is the Leader, which is more of a sub-class, but will give us some topics to continue the discussion on boss monsters we began a couple weeks ago.

Leaders

As you can imagine, a group generally has one leader. And they usually have the highest Charisma of all the monsters in the combat. But just an ability score increase isn't enough to justify the role of Leader. So what do Leaders have that other monsters don't?

Well, as I said, this is more of a sub-class. A Leader can be any role (Brute, Soldier, etc), but they have a special ability that provides some kind of buff to their companions.

This is actually the role that is most blatantly in the Monster Manual. In fact, the MM gives us a great snapshot of what sort of things a Leader can do.

The most common type of leader is exemplified by the Hobgoblin Captain (MM pg. 186). They literally have an ability called Leadership, which, as you can guess, provides a buff to the Hobgoblin's allies. The buff comes in the form of a mass-Bless type effect, which is just enough of an advantage to provide the leader-like effect without affecting the monster's CR.

Why doesn't this have an effect? Well, adding 1d4 to attack rolls means on average the Hobgoblin's allies will get +2 on their attacks. Looking at our attack bonus formula:

• If CR is above 1, Attack bonus increase/decrease / 4 = Increase/decrease in CR
• If CR is less than 1, Attack bonus increase/decrease /8 = Increase/decrease in CR

We can see that a +2 attack bonus doesn't really affect CR all that much. It could turn a CR 1/8 monster into a CR 1/4, but note that the Hobgoblin Captain is CR 3. A group fighting the Captain and some other creatures is probably beyond CR 1/8 creatures.

So, if we wanted to make a lower CR creature with a Leadership ability, we would have to calculate the impact of raising the CR of its allies. But that will come later.

A powerful fish-head leader is a great addition to any game

Now, there are a few other Leader abilities in the Monster Manual I want to point out. The Gnoll Pack Lord (MM pg. 163) grants an ally the ability to make a melee attack as a reaction, useful for the savage Gnolls. The Orc War Chief's Battle Cry (MM pg. 246) ability reflects the Orc's ferocity, granting advantage on all attacks for one round. And many creatures have spells that can make them leaders, such as the Drow Priestess of Lolth (MM pg 129), who can cast Freedom of Movement and Mass Cure Wounds.

I do want to note that the Goblin Boss's ability (MM pg. 166), Redirect Attack, isn't a Leader ability. As you can imagine, goblins don't make good leaders, and thus this ability was built to act as an anti-leadership trait. They can save their own hides by hurting their allies, which has a great flavor to it.

There are a lot of PC abilities that can be adapted to leadership as well. A paladin's auras are a great example, as is the bard's countercharm ability. And spells are, of course, a great place to find Leader effects that can be translated into innate effects.

Beyond the basic effect of a trait, there's another part of the ability that we need to discuss. How does this ability change the monster's tactics? Well, it depends.

The Hobgoblin Captain will probably want to stay in the back, well protected, to ensure his bonus lasts as long as possible. Fortunately, he has a javelin attack. The Orc War Chief, who gets to make a bonus action attack and whose effect doesn't end if he goes down, can be on the front lines. The Goblin Boss will probably want to be surrounded by his allies. And the Gnoll is pretty flexible.

Now, you might have figured this out, but there's a type of synergy that is happening here. The tactical effect of the monster's leader ability should work alongside the monster's primary role.

So, tactics create the type of ability you should use. If you have a Dryad (a Controller) with a leader ability to command a hoard of forest animals, you better be sure that the leader ability allows the Dryad to hang back and continue to use their Fey Charm and Entangle abilities.

Thus, each monster role should get a different type of leader ability.

• Brutes need leader abilities that allow them to continue attacking while using their ability
• Soldiers should avoid leader abilities that make their allies more enticing targets than themselves
• Artillery obviously need long-range abilities that they can maintain while attacking
• Skirmishers need leader abilities that work whether they are close or distant from the rest of the combat
• Lurkers can have leader abilities that work for a single round, or that are active up until their attack round
• Controllers need abilities that avoid using up their spell slots or concentration, so they can keep controlling

This leads us nicely to the question of how a leader should act. And again, the answer is "it depends."

Unsurprisingly, Demons don't make good leaders

An Ogre chief will run into melee, howling a command to embolden his allies. An assassin leader will remain hidden in the shadows, directing his companions and providing covering fire. A wizard overlord will hang back and buff his allies while raining fire down on the enemy.

But, no matter what the tactics are, the players should be aware that the leader is providing support for their allies. And the player's decision to take out the boss first or save them for last will depend on the combat scenario, the leader's abilities, and the player's abilities.

This is yet another way to add a level of strategy to a combat. Perhaps the leader fortifies themselves behind a barrier and it must be broken before their effect can be stopped. Or maybe the leader rushes up front, but with twice as many hit points as his allies, the players must weigh the leader's ability against the damage taken if they only focus on the leader for a couple rounds.

So, consider how the leader will use their ability, and how it compares to their role, before the combat begins. Think tactically! When you have a fight with a leader included, the stakes of the combat go up, and you should make the fight more challenging in turn.

So, let's talk about the CR impact of the abilities, before making our own Leaders.

For Whom the Bell Gnolls

As I mentioned above, your leader's ability raises the CR of their allies (and sometimes themselves). However, more often than not, the amount raised is negligible.

You might have noticed that many of these abilities in the MM have a recharge time of 5-6. That means, at the beginning of the creature's turn, they roll 1d6 and can regain their ability if the number rolled is equal to the recharge number. Remember, a round of combat lasts about 3 rounds, so that means the designers expected the ability to be uses about once a combat, maybe twice.

So, we're making abilities that provide a small bonus, and many of them are only going to be used once in a combat. Essentially, we're taking an already small bonus and dividing it by 3. So the overall impact is pretty insignificant to CR.

Does this mean the players will see it as insignificant? Probably not, because they are experiencing each added d4, each attack with advantage, etc. They will directly see the effects, even if the overall difficulty of the combat isn't changing.

Of course, as we mentioned above, the Hobgoblin Captain's ability isn't just for one round, but for the entire combat. But we determined that the Captain's CR was high enough to prevent a change in their allies' CR from affecting combat.

Well, what about a Kobold Captain? You knew I was going there. A Kobold would greatly benefit from the extra 1d4 added to their attack rolls. So, if we were to make a Kobold Captain (which I'm doing right now), we'd have to adjust the combat to assume all Kobolds were CR 1/4.

That's all well and good for attack bonus, but what about damage, AC, or HP bonuses? It's a good thing we've compiled all the formulas from this series!

• Damage Increase/decrease per Round / 12 = Increase/decrease in CR
• Effective HP increase/decrease / 30 = Increase/decrease in CR
• If CR is above 1, AC increase/decrease / 4 = Increase/decrease in CR
• If CR is less than 1, AC increase/decrease /8 = Increase/decrease in CR
• If CR is above 1, Attack bonus increase/decrease / 4 = Increase/decrease in CR
• If CR is less than 1, Attack bonus increase/decrease /8 = Increase/decrease in CR
• If a monster has proficiency in 0 to 2 saves, its CR is unaffected
• If a monster has proficiency in 3 to 4 saves, raise its CR by 1/2
• If a monster has proficiency in 5 to 6 saves, raise its CR by 1

That should give you some good ideas on different buffs your leader can give.

Death Knight Jerry says, "Don't forget spell-like abilities!"

Honestly, we've pretty much hit the end of this discussion. I could talk more about Paragon monsters and boss fights, but you should check those out on your own.

I hope this series was informative, and that you came away with new ideas on how to make an encounter better simply by changing up the style of your monsters. Next week, I'll be starting a new Friday series which I'm very excited for. It's a big one!

Thanks for reading!

Monsters on a Role: Controllers

Tentacles are a highly underrated method of maintaining control

We're nearing the end of our series on monster roles. After this article, all that's left is Leaders, which will kind of play into a conversation about boss monsters in general. But for today, we'll talk about the Controller, one of the most interesting and complex monster roles.

Controllers

What makes a good controller? Well, that's tricky. A controller is a monster that disrupts a PC's plans. But what are those plans? How do we build a monster that stops a group's strategy when the PCs can do anything?

Well, they can do anything, but they usually do certain things that we can anticipate.

As I've been saying in this series, a group of characters usually follows a particular combat pattern. The fighters and tanks run up to the front lines. The casters and bards stay back. The rogues and monks try to find advantageous positions. And they usually find those positions in the first couple rounds of combat, after which they don't move much.

Then, more fairly predictable things happen. The fighters attack. The casters cast. The rogues backstab. The barbarian rages. The cleric buffs. Et cetera, et cetera.

So when you build a controller, you can make a few different kinds.

A simple type of controller is the Movement Controller. Basically, these guys are the most effective in the first couple rounds of combat. While characters are moving around, these monsters destroy the player's ability to follow the pattern they want to.

These can come in a few different varieties. A Movement Controller could freeze a fighter before they get to the front line. Or, they could pull a caster to the front lines. Maybe they have an ability that forces movement, and they use it to push the party's rogue right into the clutches of a Brute monster.

A suplex is acceptable

Another type of movement control is zone control. There are a lot of effects like this, mostly in the domain of Druids and Clerics. Basically, make a certain area bad to stand in, and you force the players to change their strategy. This could be anything from some extra damage to a condition like poison or petrification.

Now, zone control also comes in different flavors, based on who it needs to be affecting. The Spike Growth spell, which deals damage on movement, won't do anything against fighters or casters. But it will certainly lock down a rogue who was going to use their Cunning Action to Disengage with your monster. An area of Darkness can nullify the efforts of casters, but if you place it around fighters or rogues, you'll only succeed in hamstringing your own brutes. Be selective in your application of these effects!

A more complex type of controller is an Action Controller. These types of monsters have effects that trigger when a player character performs a certain type of combat action. You could have a lightning-fast knight that deals opportunity attacks to anyone that takes an attack action within 5 feet of him. You could have a section of the room that shocks anyone taking a reaction. Perhaps those who take a Help action near the Altar of Selfishness take damage. Or maybe you can only take attack, dash, and hide actions in the Domain of the Feral God

Again, these are obviously going to target different classes differently. Rogues and fighters love their bonus actions, while only casters would take the Cast a Spell action. Again, think about the effect you want and how it will impact your group.

Delicious wizard flesh

Finally, we can have Class Controllers, a specialized type of Action Controller. This is a controller purely designed to take down a specific class. There aren't many examples of these in the vanilla Monster Manual, but check out the Chelicerae (Tome of Beasts pg. 54). A monster with Magic resistance, spellcasting, and the ability to drain a caster's spell slots? That's a class controller.

Other Class Controllers would target certain abilities. A Pacifist Golem might prevent barbarians from raging near it. A creature made of liquid blasphemy might prevent the Channel Divinity ability.

For Class Controllers, it's important to know what classes are in your group, and how the player will react to one of their abilities being removed. Will it be a challenge, or a cheap shot? One way to avoid pulling the rug out from under their feet is to make sure the players have the chance to research the monster beforehand and know their abilities will be compromised. Then, it becomes an interesting combat puzzle, instead of a sucker punch.

So, with all these different types of controllers, with so many different abilities, how the heck do we make one?

Let's start with a basic mechanic, since this will likely be a single trait or spell we add to the monster (via innate spellcasting or the like). We begin by asking ourselves some questions about the effect of the trait, and determine its CR impact along the way.

First off, ask who the trait will affect. You can't answer this question without knowing the composition of your party. If you make an ability that targets wizards, and half your party is wizards, then that's going to be a powerful ability.

I've got my eye on you

Next, estimate how much damage the ability will deal over the course of three rounds. Again, this is affected by what the ability is and who it's targeting. If the trait prevents damage of a particular type (for example, by removing attacks or spellcasting), estimate how much of the monster's HP will be saved by the ability. This will effectively increase the monster's HP by that amount.

If the trait prevents movement or pushes combatants far enough away from the monster that they miss a round of fighting, this will generally save 1/4th of the monster's HP, unless the characters are 11th level or higher. This is because of the abilities and spells available to characters at certain levels. At higher levels, character movement is generally overshadowed by damage output at both close and ranged distances.

If a trait pulls a PC into combat (like a monster using Vine Whip to pull a caster into a fight), the effect on HP and damage is negligible.

Finally, we'll need to determine if this trait stems from the monster's Mental abilities or its Physical abilities. You'll see why this is important in a moment. For example, a gargoyle that can cast Fog Cloud would use its mental abilities, but a gargoyle that breathes thick smoke with the same effect as Fog Cloud would use its physical abilities.

So now, let's determine the CR impact based on our equations, then write the ability.

• Damage Increase/decrease per Round / 12 = Increase/decrease in CR 
• Effective HP increase/decrease / 30 = Increase/decrease in CR

From here, applying the formulas is fairly simple. A few notes:

1. If the trait affects more than one creature, double the effective damage/HP adjustment.
2. If the trait creates a zone that can be moved away from, treat its effect as if it only lasts one round
3. If the trait has a minimal effect on a combat (for example, preventing Channel Divinity effects) because the characters can work around it, the CR impact is negligible

As for writing the ability, there is so much variety in monster types and controller types that I can't tell you how to make something that's a good fit for your monster. But I can tell you a couple things about writing abilities and traits in D&D.

When you have an effect that hits the players like this, you have to decide if you want the effect to be avoidable. About 95% of the time, the effect should be avoidable. That means the players get a saving throw to avoid the potential effect.

How do you calculate the DC for a saving throw on a monster trait? Well, remember how we decided whether the ability would be Physical or Mental? Now that comes into play.

Fog: an adventurer's best friend

You likely already know how to calculate a save DC for a player character. 8 + proficiency bonus + relevant ability modifier. And it probably won't surprise you that monsters use the same proficiency bonuses as PCs. But what ability should we use?

Well, that's pretty straightforward. For Physical traits, we use Constitution. For Mental traits, we use Charisma. So the gargoyle that could breathe a Fog Cloud would use Constitution, and the gargoyle that could cast Fog Cloud innately would use Charisma.

There are two exceptions to this rule. First, grappling/constricting/etc always uses Strength. Second if a monster has class levels in a spellcasting class, they use the ability modifier of that class instead (Clerics use Wis, Wizards use Int, etc).

So now we know who to make our save DC, but for nearly every ability, we could make a Physical version and a Mental version. Which one should we use?

Here's why this matters. If we made a gargoyle with a Charisma-based ability, that ability would be pretty weak compared to the Gargoyle's attacks. The save DC would be a measly 8.

You want to try to keep the save DC in line with the monster's CR. This means you want the final DC to be within a couple points of the monster's attack bonus + 9. The gargoyle's attack bonus is + 4, and a Con-based ability would have a DC of 13 for the gargoyle, so it works out much nicer to have the ability be Physical in nature.

With all of that in mind, let's end the article with a couple Kobolds, eh? Kobolds are excellent candidates for controllers for a few reasons. First off, they die easily, meaning they are more effective when they can toy with the players before they snuff it. Second, they have a reputation as trap builders, which lends itself to a good thematic type of controller.

We'll do three: a movement controller, an action controller, and a class controller.

Our movement controller can be the good ol' "Kobold with a Lasso". This won't have an impact on CR since we'd basically be dragging casters and rogues into fighting territory with the Kobold hoard, but let's still figure out how this trait will function.

While in the lasso, make a DC 20 Charisma saving throw or be forced to tell the truth

Since this is a grapple check, the save DC will be based on strength. So, it will be DC 8. But we could include a version of pack tactics in the trait to reflect the Kobolds working together. Finally, we need to determine what ability a target would use to avoid this. I'd say dexterity, to dodge out of the way.

So here's our trait, which would go under "Actions" on the stat block. Again, there's no CR effect.

Lasso. The kobold targets one creature within 30 feet with a thrown lasso. The target must succeed on a DC 8 Dexterity saving throw, rolling with disadvantage if the kobold has an ally within 5 feet of itself. On a failed save, the target is pulled up to 30 feet towards the kobold in a straight line.

Now, let's do an action controller! I like the idea that kobolds build traps that fit on them, often to their own detriment. We'll focus on melee attacks for control.

Basically, this kobold is covered in sacs of pus it gathered from another monster and tied all over itself. If you hit it from within 5 feet, it will splash on you and deal some acid damage.

Now, we don't want to make this Kobold too dangerous, so let's try to make him a CR 1/4. That means the most damage per round we can increase (to raise his CR by 1/8) is 1.5 damage. That's a CR increase of 1/8 multiplied by 12 (the amount of damage it would take to increase the CR by 1).

But once the players realize this, the kobold probably won't get hit again. So, we can say it really only happens for 1 round. That means we can up the damage of the single attack to 4.5, since it will be divided by 3 rounds. Conveniently, the average roll on a d8 is 4.5.

Note that we're making this damage unavoidable. To make this work, the DM will have to make sure the players know this Kobold is covered in sacs of fluid. To emphasize that, let's make this Kobold a little more weighed down that their companions.

With that in mind, here's our ability. The CR of this kobold would be 1/4.

Pus Sac Armor. When the Kobold is hit by a melee attack from a creature within 5 feet, the creature takes 4 (1d8) acid damage. The Kobold has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.

Finally, let's do a class controller. I've always pictured Kobolds and dragons as inseparable, so let's target a Dragon Sorcerer. Since this one is kind of specific, let's make this monster a Kobold shaman.

Don't mess with my dragon-god!

Remember, the key to making a good class controller is to make it a combat challenge, not kick a player out of a combat. How can we make things more challenging for a spellcaster?

Well, sorcerers focus on damaging spells, and dragon sorcerers usually focus on a single element as well. So we could say that this kobold shaman creates a zone where, when a spell of that element is cast, the caster takes a certain amount of damage. It could be a set amount, or it could be proportional to the spell cast.

Since this is a major part of a sorcerer's build, let's make this effect avoidable. The DC would only be 9, an easy DC to hit, so we'd also not want the damage to be too great. This should be a hampering ability, not a save-or-die ability, and the sorcerer's d6 hit die is already pretty flimsy. To offset that low DC, we'll make this a wisdom save, which sorcerers lack.

As for the CR effect, let's assume this will affect the sorcerer for one round, and we don't want to increase the kobold's CR beyond 1/4. Again, we have about 4.5 damage to work with, but we can say that the damage will (usually) be less than that based on the proportional nature of the trait.

Here's what I'm talking about:

Servant of Dragonfire. When a creature within 30 feet and hostile to the kobold casts a spell that deals fire damage, the creature must succeed on a DC 9 Wisdom saving throw or take 2 (1d4) fire damage per spell level of the spell cast, or 1 fire damage if the spell was a cantrip. This damage ignores fire resistance.

So, after the first volley of sorcerer attacks, which will probably include Burning Hands or Scorching Ray, the dragon sorcerer will realize their powers are being targeted. After that, they can use some spells they don't normally use, or weigh their more powerful spells against the damage they would take for casting them.

That's all for the Controller. There weren't as many concrete examples in this article, but hopefully you now have the tools to make some cool controllers for your game. This is one of my favorite ways to spice up combat!

Too spicy! WAY TOO SPICY!!

Thanks for reading!

Monsters on a Role: Lurkers

Talk about an unbalanced encounter!

Next up in our series examining the roles monsters can play on the battlefield, we have the lurker. This one is going to have a good bit of setup, but the payoff is amazing. Last week, we discussed a "roguish" type of monster, the Skirmisher, but we really only covered half the rogue. The skirmisher is all about getting through the PC's front line and dealing damage to their squishy types.

The other half of the rogue is the sneaky kind. And that's what we'll discuss for the Lurker.

Lurkers

Lurkers have a slew of modifications that are going to require an understanding of CR adjustment, Trait creation, and combat design. You can now see why I've been discussing that in previous articles, because it's been leading up to this guy (and even more next week).

Lurkers have the following traits:

• Low HP
• The ability to boost defenses for a round (including stealth)
• The ability to boost attack bonus and damage for a round after their defensive round

Now, that sounds like a lot, but there are actually quite a few lurkers in the MM already. We can use them as inspiration.



ExcuseMeHaveYouHeardTheGoodWord?

First off, the easy part. We already discussed the impact of lowering HP as opposed to raising it, and the same applies here. The formula again:

Effective HP increase/decrease / 30 = Increase/decrease in CR

Lowering the monster's HP gives us some wiggle room to increase the CR back up to full, but it also does something important to the flow of combat.

The idea behind a lurker is that, for one round, they are both untouchable and horribly deadly, the embodiment of a trap going off on the battlefield. Before that round, we want them to be hidden or well-defended, but after, they need to die quickly.

This is a monster that is going to change the flow of combat. Suddenly, the fighter is down to under half their hit points. Suddenly, the wizard is unconscious. Now the support team needs to act, or the strategy needs to change.

But after that crucial moment, we want our monster to go away. Why? Because if the monster pulls off another round like that, you risk decimating the PC's strategy instead of changing it. The group needs to be challenged, not obliterated.

So, lowering the monster's HP not only solves our combat dilemma, but allows the players to take revenge for the killer blow in mid-combat. It adds to strategy and narrative.

Now that the HP of our Lurker is sufficiently lowered, how do we get that CR back up? Let's talk traits. We'll need two: one defensive and one offensive.

Defensive Traits

It believes if it can't see you, you can't see it

When looking at defensive traits, we are looking for something that will allow the Lurker to get into attack range safely. After they are within range, this trait should go away.

The classic Lurker tactic isn't even a trait: They simply hide. While hidden, they give disadvantage to any attacks made against them. From the trait "Nimble Escape" (DMG pg. 281) we can see that hiding every round is the same as an AC boost of 4. Remember our AC formula:

• If CR is above 1, AC increase/decrease / 4 = Increase/decrease in CR
• If CR is less than 1, AC increase/decrease /8 = Increase/decrease in CR

So this will increase CR by 1 at high levels or by 1/2 at lower levels.

Now, a quick aside: If Nimble Escape increases CR by 1/2 (at least!), then how are goblins CR 1/4?

Well, the designers didn't expect the goblins to be hiding every round. In fact, very few DMs will have monsters hide once they are in combat. Thus, the lower CR. But our Lurker is different. We want them to be engaged with the enemy while hiding, and that effect will matter.

The next good defensive traits aren't even really considered defensive: False Appearance and Aggressive.



"The mimic uses its Fist spell"

How are these good for Lurkers? Simply put, they allow a creature to be not considered a target until the round they deal damage. Then, either by running in or revealing themselves, they surprise the PCs and deal their damage. There are some fun variations on this as well: dive-bombing fliers, using foggy terrain, enemies hiding in crates, etc.

Does this have an effect on CR? We know that Aggressive has a minimal effect, and False Appearance (DMG pg. 280) has no effect. Why?

I think it's because the designers assumed that any creature with a False Appearance or Aggressive would use it in the first rounds of combat, then it'd be over. The suit of armor is alive, the stalagmite is a roper, etc etc. So what do we need to adjust for our Lurker, who will be waiting a few rounds before engaging?

Actually, nothing. Think of it this way: the creature is essentially a reinforcement. When a creature is added to a combat in later rounds, we don't adjust the CR of the encounter. Now, whether or now we should is another technical debate, but I believe that latecomers should get the full benefit of their CR. So even though our lurker is hiding a few rounds, we are basically saying that they will die in round 3 instead of round 1.

This is another reason why the low HP is important: it keeps the combat length reasonable, even when an additional foe is added halfway through.



Perfect for when your players won't leave the tavern

Now, there's a few more ways that a Lurker can act defensively. If running into range or hiding isn't possible, then we need something to protect the Lurker while they get into position for their attack. There are tons of possibilities here, so I'll name a few:

• Blur (PBH pg. 219)
• The Dodge action (PHB pg. 192)
• Blink (PHB pg. 219)
• Ethereal Jaunt from the Phase Spider (MM pg. 334)
• Invisibility (PHB pg. 254)
• Shield (PHB pg. 275)
• Stoneskin (PHB pg. 278)
• The Flail Snail's Shell Defense (VGtM pg. 144)
• The Doppelganger's Shapechanger (MM pg. 82)

Essentially, anything that provides a round of increased AC, Damage resistance, disappearance, or disadvantage for a round. These abilities in some form are actually very common in the MM, which is why I said earlier that there are lots of good Lurkers in the game already.

The CR effects of each of these abilities is fairly easy to calculate, now that we've laid the groundwork for defensive adjustments. Just remember: disadvantage is the same as +4 AC, entering combat late has no CR ramifications, and apply the CR to AC modification formula above.

I do want to talk about damage resistances quickly before we get into the offensive traits. Damage resistance is another area where CR effect changes at higher levels, as the party picks up more weapons and different spells. Stoneskin would be impenetrable to a low-level party, but a high-level party would laugh it off.

So, to apply damage resistance, we adjust the Effective HP the monster has and plug it into our HP formula (above). The table changes if the damage is simply a resistance or a full immunity.

So, using the formula, the Stoneskin spell has the following effect on CR:

• CR 1-4: CR increases by the creature's HP / 30
• CR 5-10: CR increases by the creature's HP / 60
• CR 11-16: CR increases by the creature's HP / 120
• CR 17+: No effect

If you're savvy, you can see how this will effect low-CR monster in a big way, possibly pushing them into higher CR categories. And yes, that means the formula will change again.

Offensive Traits



He's just trying to save him from that garish helmet

Now, for offensive traits, we have two goals: to increase attack bonus and damage for a single round.

Many of these traits function offensively the same way that the defensive traits work. For example, advantage grants +4 attack bonus. But we haven't discussed a formula for attack bonus yet! Well, here it is:

• If CR is above 1, Attack bonus increase/decrease / 4 = Increase/decrease in CR
• If CR is less than 1, Attack bonus increase/decrease /8 = Increase/decrease in CR

That should look pretty familiar.

Our offensive traits for increasing attack bonus are pretty straightforward now. Find an ability that increases attack bonus, figure in the CR adjustment, and move along. I think advantage on the attack is the easiest way to go, but don't discount giving cool accuracy-boosting abilities to monsters, like the War Priest's Guided Strike (VGtM pg. 218).

Now comes the trickier part: we need to add some damage to this single round. Now it seems like we can just use our damage formula, but there's something else I want to address.

Damage Increase/decrease per Round / 12 = Increase/decrease in CR

This formula is built on the idea that the damage done each round is consistent. That won't be the case with our Lurker. According to the DMG (pg. 278), if the damage done each round is inconsistent, we need to take the average damage of three rounds and use that instead.

So if we gave our Lurker a poisoned or magical weapon, we'd account for the full amount of increased damage. But we don't necessarily want to give the Lurker a special magic weapon, since that means the damage could be used in subsequent rounds, which would be bad. We want a one-shot big hit.

I'm "sneaking"!

Instead, let's look at ways to increase a single round of damage: spells, sneak attacks, and the Pounce ability (DMG pg. 281).

Note that I'm avoiding the Surprise Attack feature. That's only because it has to activate on the first round of combat, which isn't when our Lurker will be most effective.

So for each of those abilities, the DMG tells us to increase the damage output for a single round by the amount listed in the trait. Then, we take the average of the three rounds.

I think you can start to see why this is a big deal. When we calculate the amount of damage our lurker can deal, we have to use a modified formula. This allows us to give a lot more damage with a lot less CR impact.

Damage Increase/decrease of offensive ability / 36 = Increase/decrease in CR

So we could add a sneak attack or pounce trait that deals 36 (8d8) damage, and only increase the CR by 1. That's like giving a monster the ability to cast Blight!

Of course, it's only for one round, which is why it works. But with that in mind, we can start looking at damage in a new way.



I'd take the dodge action

That was a big article. Let's finish off by building a couple Lurkers! I'm using kobolds of course, and keeping one mundane and one magical.

For our mundane lurker, let's go with Kobold-In-A-Box! How did he get in the box? Easy - the crate is actually covering a tunnel, and when combat started he crawled up under the crate, ready to burst out. So he'll be in position by round 3, which is his defensive ability - he won't be targeted until that crate busts open.

We can also give him an ability that grants advantage on attacks when he leaps out from hiding: Ambusher! We'll just adjust the ability so it works on non-surprised creatures. Finally, let's give him Sneak Attack as well, and add a hefty 7 (2d6) damage to that strike.

Finally, let's drop him to 1 HP. That way, after his single attack, the party can wipe him out and get back to fighting.

So by my calculations, all of that bumps his CR up to just under 1, which I would round up to 1. That actually feels right - a sudden 11 damage would add a lot of danger to a level 1 or 2 party, but above that he'd be more of the game-changing threat we could expect. Do your own math and see if you can get to the number I got!

For our magic kobold, let's create a stronger variety of lurker. First off, we'll use Blur to defend. That's +4 AC. Then, let's go full-out and say this Kobold is a Warlock of an Eldritch Being, and can cast Blight. Since at that level, 5 HP is really nothing, we don't have to adjust the HP to make this beastie killable in one hit.

So how do we make Blight have a higher attack bonus? Well, we can give disadvantage on the save. Here's a hint: I'm treating it exactly the same as an increase in attack bonus. We'll cover that more next week.

So in the end, I have a CR calculation of 2 1/8, which I'll round down to 2. That's a pretty hefty little Kobold!

Hopefully these monster roles are giving you ways to keep your combats interesting. I wouldn't recommend pitting the Kobold-In-A-Box against a group of level 1 PCs the way you would do with a similar CR 1 creature. Rather, the Lurker adds something to a bigger, higher-level combat, and keeps it from becoming stagnant.

Perfectly reasonable!

Next week, we'll be talking about the Controller, which is an amazing to make your combats dynamic and interesting.

Thanks for reading!

Fly, my Minions!

The pay's alright, but the random chokings are terrible

This week I want to cover a topic related to the Monster Roles we've been going over. This isn't a particular role, and in fact can be combined with any other role. Usually they can come in flavors such as soldiers and skirmishers, creatures willing to dish out some damage and get off the field. However, I find they are best thought of as not monsters at all.

I like to think of them as terrain.

Minions

Can literally be whatever you want them to bee

Making a minion is very easy. All it requires is a few rules and adjustments that can be applied to any creature.

1. The monster's HP becomes 1.
2. If the monster would take damage as a result of passing a saving throw, it takes no damage instead.
3. If the monster would take damage from an attack or spell that deals damage on a miss, it takes no damage instead.
4. Treat 4 minions as a single monster with regards to CR calculations.

First off, we've reduced the monster's HP to 1. Essentially, we want this thing to go down in one hit, no matter what that "hit" is. This also means that, in general, our monster is going to only get one attack against the party. But that's okay - minions are supposed to go down easy! And we don't really want them to be the focus.

You might be able to see why I think of minions as terrain, now. Specifically, damaging terrain. If a PC runs across a patch of razorvine, or flies too low over a magma lake, what happens? They take some damage, and their movement is likely hindered.

Well, the same thing happens when you put a wall of minions between your players and the boss monster you devised. The players have to stop and fight the minions, taking some damage in the process.

This brings us to the second and third part of the conversion: minions don't take damage on "misses" and Saving Throw failures. Why? Because otherwise, a fireball would blow a huge hole in our terrain, every single time! The minions are there specifically to prevent movement towards the boss monster while dealing a bit of damage. If the wizard gets lucky on initiative, there goes your fight.



Nothing a well-placed Meteor Swarm can't handle!

And that leads us to the last point of conversion. When calculating the CR, we treat a squad of 4 minions as a single creature. Note that I didn't say "divide the CR by 4". That's because having a lot of monsters on the field changes the CR multiplier on DMG pg. 82. If you are making a deadly encounter, and you suddenly have a x4 multiplier on the total CR of your monsters, you're going to run out of CR for the boss pretty quickly!

But the question then arises: why 4? Well, I've touched on this a couple times, but the designers of D&D very clearly expected a single combat to last 3 rounds. You calculate monster damage by dividing by 3, you assume a spellcaster casts their 3 most damaging spells, etc. So why does the minion count as 1/4th of a monster, if it is only going to deal its damage once and then die?

Well, that's because a large portion of your minions are going to die before they ever see combat. Between AoE spells and multiattacking melee PCs, the players can dish out a lot more minion-killing damage than you have minions.

So, to compensate for that, we assume the following:

• Out of your minion horde, about a quarter will die before they get into attack range
• After that, each minion will get about 1 attack before they go down.

So basically, don't get too attached.

Running Lots of Baddies

Next, let's talk about the in-session adjustments. Unless you only need a few minions on the field, you could potentially be busting out a LOT of minis. Are you going to roll initiative for each one of them, and have them move and attack individually?

For the love of Pelor and Lathander, please, no.

Fortunately, the DMG provides a better way for this to be handled on page 250. To paraphrase, you calculate the d20 roll needed to hit the PC, then work out how many minions need to surround the PC to get a hit in. They offer this fine chart:



So, if a group of Orc minions (+5 to hit) surround a fighter with AC 19, they would need to roll a 14 in order to hit. Which means every group 3 Orcs would score a single hit.

Now, the DMG notes that this system ignores the possibility of a critical hit in favor of easier play. I think that's perfect for minions, however. Mowing through a mountain of Orcs is supposed to feel good, not make the players worry that a stray battleaxe with lop their hand off.

In order to make this work, I'd suggest that you treat the minions like a lair action (See? Get it? Terrain!) and have them all move on initiative count 20. Then, resolve their attacks based on positioning.

Do note that this method does lend itself to some VERY interesting boss tactics, as well.

• A boss that can cast a Bless spell on their minions can essentially grant a +2 to hit
• A boss that can give their minions advantage can essentially grant a +4 to hit
• A boss that can lower AC can give their minions more hits per round

Bosses



Remember to give the minions personality. Or lack thereof.

So you've got a fine squad of minions, ready to steamroll your opponent. But what about the boss they are protecting?

Well, to be honest, you don't really need a boss. If you want the players to just fall down a chute and land in a big pile of zombies, that's your game and you can do what you like. But since minions are essentially just terrain, it's good to have an additional focus for the players to try and get to.

4th Edition has these other types of monsters that are called "Elite" and "Solo" monsters, which are designed to make a normal monster tougher. They can still be any type of role, but they have more actions and better stats than a normal monster of their type. Sound familiar? That's right. I'm linking this article to you. AGAIN. GO READ IT.

The cool thing about using paragon monsters as bosses is that you can give them extra turns to support their minions. We'll talk about the "Leader" role eventually, but Spellcasters in particular can be effective bosses when they can attack and support their minions. Have you ever had a Priest cast Bless in combat? What about a Mage casting Ice Storm or Suggestion? I bet you haven't, because they usually die before they get a chance to.

As I said, we'll talk more about this later. But for now, go read that Angry GM article and make some paragon bosses.




Nope.

That's all I really have to say on minions. They are a good way to make a combat feel more epic, give fragile bosses some much-needed support, and change the way your players approach movement in combat. Overall, pretty dang sweet.

Thanks for reading!

Monsters on a Role: Skirmishers

This is as close as I'm going to come to making this a wolf-themed blog

Now that we've covered some of the basic monster roles, let's dig a little deeper. This week we'll be discussing the skirmisher.

Skirmishers

Skirmishers address an issue in D&D that most players and DMs don't even realize is happening.

When you start a combat, there are usually 1-2 rounds where all the PCs and monsters get into position. The archers and spellcasters stay back, the fighters rush in, and the clerics and bards cast their buffs. But after that, there's not a whole lot of movement. The combatants bash on each other until someone dies. Which leads to the second half of the combat being less tactical and more mechanical.

Now, clever DMs know this, and work around the problem. They have enemies that show up halfway through the battle and force a new round of repositioning. Or they have terrain that forces movement. Or certain enemies use area of effect spells to break up the positioning.

But certain monsters can alter the flow of the combat without any help. And the way they accomplish that is through mobility.




The gang's all here!

A skirmisher has the following traits:

• Average HP and AC
• Average Attack Bonus
• Slightly higher attack damage
• Very high mobility
• The ability to avoid or negate opportunity attacks

These traits allow the skirmisher to get around the fighters and clerics and hit the party's spellcasters and archers. They function like the rogue of the party: go for a big hit on a juicy target while the rest of the enemies are distracted.

Now, this often means that skirmishers don't function well unless there are other enemies present (such as soldiers and brutes) to provide that distraction. But that isn't to say that a skirmisher couldn't act alone, as long as they have some means of stealth and escape from the party.

So, how do we make a monster more rogue-like?




Stabbing Spellcasters is always a solid strategy

Let's first discuss mobility. We want our monster to be able to run around the front lines once they have been established. Since many spells have a range of 30 feet, we can expect our caster PCs to be about 30 feet behind the front line. If our skirmisher is going to start out of range and run all the way behind the line, I'm guessing they will need a speed of about 60 feet.

Now, speed in the Monster Manual is something pretty limited by species. Quadropedal animals can move 60 feet if they are lucky. Of course, any creature can dash 60 feet if needed, but that isn't really enough to also attack the enemy.

The best solution is the ability to dash as a bonus action. The Orc ability "Aggressive" is perfectly what we need. According to the DMG pg. 280, Aggressive increases the effective damage per round of the monster by 2. Plugging that into our damage formula:

Damage Increase/decrease per Round / 12 = Increase/decrease in CR 

Gives us a measly 1/6 CR increase. So unless we're making a CR 1/8 or 1/4 monster, we can safely add Aggressive to our monster and use the bonus dash.



The noble mongoose - you know, rikki tikki tavi?

Now, just adding that ability might be enough. But it doesn't really capture the flavor of the skirmisher. We also want the ability to back out of danger when overwhelmed. So instead of making our monster just dash, let's give them a bonus action to dash OR disengage.

This has already been discussed by another monster building series, but the basics of it are this: the disengage bonus action doesn't affect challenge rating, the dash bonus action acts like Aggressive. So we can give our creature a simpler version of the Rogue's Cunning Action, at the cost of increasing CR by 1/6.

Now, I wouldn't want to include the Hide action here, because then we'd get the Nimble Escape trait (DMG pg 281) which increases AC and Attack Bonus by 4 each. That's basically saying the creature has disadvantage on being attacked, and advantage on attacking. We don't have to give the skirmisher that much power - they are already targeting the weakest party members.

In fact, I'd suggest that any damage increase we give our skirmishers be small. We don't want to give it a massive sneak attack bonus or anything like the rogue. These monsters are about moving and attacking the weakest party members, not decimating them like a true rogue. A good rule of thumb is to always avoid one-hit-kill abilities, or save-or-die effects, from both the PCs and the monsters.

So essentially, we can easily make a monster into a skirmisher by giving it the ability to dash or disengage. There are some other ways to achieve this, however.



Gotta go fast!

Teleportation generally uses an action if the range is greater than 30 feet. But we can teleport as a bonus action (essentially, Misty Step), which would function the same as a dash with the bonus of stopping opportunity attacks. If you can give a monster the ability to use Misty Step, it would be a good way to make them into a skirmisher. Just remember that casting a spell as a bonus action means they can't cast anything higher than a cantrip for their actual attack (PHB pg 202).

Another option is to give the monster a trait similar to the Swashbuckler's Fancy Footwork trait from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (SCAG pg 135). The ability makes an attacker immune to opporunity attacks from any creature they make melee attacks against. If you have a roguish monster, this is a way for them to use their bonus action to dash, and still have the opportunity to retreat from the PC they are attacking.

Both of these options function similarly to having a bonus action to Dash and Disengage, instead of one or the other. Why wouldn't this affect the monster's CR more than the ability to Dash or Disengage?

Well, remember how combat is usually stagnant after a few rounds? The designers of the game knew about that. They even have a mechanic (Opportunity Attacks) to discourage movement after the positions are set. So I believe the designers didn't expect there to be much movement after those initial set-up rounds.

Unfortunately, that means the impact of the extra Disengage can't really have a CR effect based on an existing ability. What we can do, however, is estimate the effect.



All I wanna do / is run up and stab you

If a monster is moving around and using their disengage ability while dashing, they will probably avoid one opportunity attack before dying. A single attack isn't as effective as a full attack action, usually doing 1 blow instead of 2. So if we're negating the damage of half an attack, that's very similar to giving the monster a single use of Legendary Resistance (DMG pg 280) and reducing a spell's damage by half.

According to the entry for Legendary Resistance, the amount of extra HP is altered by the CR of the monster:

• CR 1-4: Add 10 HP
• CR 5-10: Add 20 HP
• CR 11+: Add 30 HP

So we can estimate the total effect on CR by using the HP formula:

Effective HP increase/decrease / 30 = Increase/decrease in CR

If our creature is able to Teleport as a bonus action, or use Fancy Footwork, then the CR would increase by the following:

• CR 1-4: CR increases by 1/2 (1/6+1/3)
• CR 5-10: CR increases by 5/6 (1/6+2/3)
• CR 11+: CR increases by 1 1/6 (1/6+1)

A quick bonk on the head will suffice

So, now that we know the full effect of mobility on our skirmisher, let's build a couple Kobold skirmishers! The first one will have our Dash or Disengage bonus action, and the second will have the ability to use Misty Step.

Our Kobold Skirmisher gains the ability "Scurry: The Kobold Skirmisher may use a bonus action to Dash or Disengage." His CR becomes 1/8+1/6, which is closer to 1/4 than 1/2. So we have a CR 1/4 Kobold that can run behind enemy lines and stab a wizard.

Our Magic Kobold Skirmisher gains the ability "Innate Spellcasting: 3/day. The Kobold may cast Misty Step using no material components." Her CR is 1/8+1/6+1/3, which comes out to just over 1/2. Since we always round to the closest number, we get a CR 1/2 Magic Kobold that can teleport out of trouble when she needs to.

That just about covers Skirmishers. Though simple to build, there's a lot of ground to cover when it comes to estimating the effect of traits on CR. This is an area where, as a monster builder, you'll need to do your research, know the rules really well, and use your best judgement on how a particular trait affects the power of a monster.

Next week, we'll get into the real meat of traits with the Lurker!

Thanks for reading!

Monsters on a Role: Artillery

Stay over there, I want to cast a spell

Continuing our series on Monster Roles, we come to a classic monster that is extremely useful, but quickly forgotten by newer DMs. The Artillery!

Artillery

This one seems pretty straightforward, but we'll be doing some fun math this week to lay the groundwork for some more complex monster roles in the coming weeks.

Artillery have the following traits:

• Powerful Ranged attacks
• High attack bonus on Ranged attacks
• Defense against Ranged attacks
• Low AC in Melee
• Low HP
• Average mobility

There are plenty of monsters that already act as Artillery, the most common being offensive spellcasters. Beholders, Pixies, Mages, and Hag Covens all make excellent artillery. A wizard is by-the-book artillery, and giving a monster the ability to cast magic is a great way to make a normal beastie into an artillery master.

Eight times the artillery, Eight times the fun!

Of course, that involves a lot of CR manipulation, as you could probably have guessed.

The first and easiest way to turn a monster into artillery is to give it a ranged attack equal in power to its melee attack. Kobolds, our normal test subjects, already have this feature with their sling attack. So let's look at another monster that we could turn into artillery.

Bugbears are potent melee combatants, but deal pitiful damage at range, especially for a CR 1 creature. What if we had one Bugbear hanging back, firing past his allies? We'd want it to deal at least 11 damage, to make up for the fact that the bugbear wasn't in melee. Beating that brute ability is tricky to do with the weapons in the PHB.

However, on the DMG pg 255 we find our solution. This Bugbear is firing a hobgoblin-made ballista! Perfect for keeping him in the back - it could be stationary. And instead of 3d10 damage, we could say it's a medium-sized ballista and only deals 2d10 damage - an average of 11, the same as a melee bugbear's Morningstar attack. To finish it off, we can have a couple of unarmed goblins assisting with the loading and aiming of the ballista.

But what if we wanted the full shebang - a large ballista dealing 16 damage a round? Well, that would increase his CR. Remember our equations:

1. Damage Increase/decrease per Round / 12 = Increase/decrease in CR 
2. Effective HP increase/decrease / 30 = Increase/decrease in CR 

So he'd go up to CR 1 1/2, which could be rounded up to 2. To compensate, let's lower his defensive CR!




Somehow seems like a bad idea...

If we want to bring him back down, we'll need to lower his HP by 15. We won't worry about AC for now.

The normal bugbear has 27 (5d8 + 5) HP. We want it lowered to at most, 12. Well, just like a PC, the HP of a monster is (their average hit die + their Con modifier) x their "level". For monsters, "level" isn't connected to CR, it's just how many hit dice the monster has. So all we have to do is lower the bugbear's number of hit die.

A d8 averages out to 4.5 (due to the probability of the die rolls). So each of the bugbear's hit dice add 5.5 HP to its total. That means all we have to do is lower this bugbear's HP down to 11 (2d8 + 2) and we're back at a CR 1 creature. It makes sense, as well, that the scrawniest Bugbear would hang back and fire the ballista.

Basically, we made the Bugbear more dangerous in combat, but easier to kill, meaning we can reasonably expect him to deal about the same amount of damage as a normal Bugbear. As long as he stays in the back where he belongs.

Remember that this process can be applied to any monster, and can adjust AC as well. As long as the defensive stats are adjusted to compensate for the higher offensive capabilities. Or you're okay with throwing tougher monsters at your players.



Two words: Vampire. Army.

So we've talked about the easiest way to make a monster into artillery - bigger guns. But the biggest gun, of course, is magic. A wizard's fireball is worth a whole squad of ballistas.

How do we calculate for magic in CR? It's obviously dependent on the spells a monster casts. There are offensive and defensive spells, and they can both affect CR.

The first step you can take to figure out the effect of magic on CR is to compare the effect of the spell to the list of Monster Features on DMG pg 280. Let's take an offensive and defensive spell: Fireball and Shield.

We have two analogues for Fireball: Breath Weapons and Death Bursts. It looks like both assume that it will affect two targets, and each target will fail its saving throw. That's a fair assumption, since we might hit more targets but some will make their saves.

Both Breath Weapons and Death Bursts assume that we use that ability "for 1 round". That's because when it comes to calculating single-shot effects, we assume the creature can only use it once (on average) every three rounds. That also tells you a lot about how long the designers of D&D estimated a combat would last.



It's funny that they though soldiers would be enough

But for a Fireball, a wizard might have 2 or even 3 3rd-level spell slots. So we need to apply the Fireball damage in each round it will go off. If a wizard can fire off 3 Fireballs, we have to assume that the wizard will cast the spell whenever they can. So it actually becomes equal to a damage-per-round effect.

The average Fireball deals 28 damage. Assuming it hits two targets and they fail their save, just giving a creature 3 Fireballs increases its CR by 2!

Now let's look at Shield. It uses a reaction to increase the creature's AC by 5. At first, this might seem to be similar to Parry from the Monster Features table. But there's a caveat: Shield lasts an entire round, and Parry is against a single attack.

Again, it comes down to how many times a wizard is able to cast the spell. Assuming the wizard has at least three 1st-level spell slots, there's no reason why you wouldn't add the full amount to their effective AC.

Using the AC equations from last week:

• If CR is above 1, AC increase/decrease / 4 = Increase/decrease in CR
• If CR is less than 1, AC increase/decrease /8 = Increase/decrease in CR

The wizard's CR would be increased by 1. It's starting to become clear why the Mage NPC in the MM is CR 6!



It's a great spell, but it's mostly used to deflect the Barbarian's halitosis

The most complex way to create an artillery monster is to change its melee attack into a ranged attack. However, to keep the attack at the same attack bonus and damage, you'd also have to swap their Strength and Dexterity, which would change their AC, saves, skills, and affect all their other attacks.

I'm not going to get into that here, because if you muck around with a creature's statistics too much you can destroy some of the basic traits that make it the type of monster it is. I promise, your players will not enjoy fighting a clay golem with 9 strength and 20 dexterity. First because suddenly the wizard's Fireball is nerfed, and second because it's unlike any other Golem in the game. You'd be breaking your immersion.

Now, as a last point, let's discuss how to give defense against ranged attacks.

The easiest way to do this is to give the monster proficiency on dexterity saving throws. This will provide better cover against the best ranged attacks - magic. You can also put the monster behind cover, which grants it extra AC and a bonus on Dex saves - without increasing its CR!

Another idea would be giving the creature the monk's "Deflect Missiles" ability (PHB pg. 78). I would count this as a type of Parry-like ability that would add to the monster's effective AC, increasing it by 1 or 2 depending on how much damage reduction you allow.

I think that about wraps it up for Artillery. Want to give a Kobold magic abilities and see where it gets us? I do!

SURPRISE

Oh wait, they already did that in Volo's Guide to Monsters. Giving the Kobold Scale Sorcerer access to Scorching Ray and some extra HP raised its CR all the way up to 1 (from 1/8). in fact, I'd say that this is a good example of how to adjust a creature, and if you have the time, see if you can figure out the Scale Sorcerer's Offensive and Defensive CR and how closely it averages out to 1. You might figure out something interesting about how Wizards of the Coast calculates their CRs.

Thanks for reading!