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Post by thugcorecowboy on Dec 17, 2015 23:59:35 GMT
Your playing a mid to high lvl pc you open the door just a little to peek inside you see a bunch of goblins enjoying a meal you look back at your friends and the warrior sporting a +3 icebrand and a girdle of giant strength says why you smiling as a player it's great to feel like a god for an encounter or two...but I don't want to talk about that I want to Talk about kicking the players in the nuts and putting a fresh element of of fear in the air when the little guy pops up
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Post by joatmoniac on Dec 18, 2015 2:23:55 GMT
On some level it depends on when you want to put the fear into them. You could put templates on them (fiendish etc) allow for more terrifying initial descriptions while making them more powerful. You could equip them with awesome items, namely ones that are of the single or few use type, which would make them more powerful without potentially handing over a ton of disposable income to the party. You could give them preparation, in that they are ridiculously ready for a fight. In your example they are all eating at a table, but what if that table doubles as a bunker? They slide under, flip the benches, push the right buttons, and BAM it's a mobile battle station with turrets that have wands of magic missile installed, and the front shoots out gouts of alchemist fire. Then my personal go to is the addition of classes to the monster. This way they can just be seemingly normal goblins, but then they fly into a barbarian rage and land a dvastating blow on that fighter with a +3 icebrand and laugh in his face when they take a hit from it. So yeah, those are a few I could come up with hopefully they help, and one sparks some inspiration for you!
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Samuel Wise
Demigod
Ready to Help...
Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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Post by Samuel Wise on Dec 18, 2015 3:52:03 GMT
When I've DMd games I rarely use stats directly from the Monster Manual. I switch stats up when playing monsters. For example, if the players are up against a goblin, I could be using the goblin statistics, or the hobgoblin, or (in very rare cases) weak humanish statistics. This doesn't change much first coming out, but I've realized some of my players don't expect every type of the enemy to be as weak or as strong across the board. However, this could also result from my own DM flaw: which is an aversion to battles. Perhaps that helps, but what Joat said about weapons and enviroment is also really good a group of hooded goblins with skinning knives as weapons (probably with chunks of flesh from their last victims) would make those little creatures a lot more terrifying!
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Post by thugcorecowboy on Dec 18, 2015 18:58:46 GMT
I like that barricade idea and adding lvls is always a good time I'm doing that currently with trolls in my campaign the back story being that before the end of the world they were scientists who mutated them selves in order to survive the apocalypse so I give them lvls as alchemists I haven't had the chance to have them in a battle situation but I can't wait to see the look on my more veteran players faces when they figure out that a troll can make his own fire resitence potions me personally I like to play them the way they should be played kolbolds are a perfect example put a group of high lvl pcs against a small kolbold tribe but play the tribe like a south American rebel army
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Skedrix
Squire
Posts: 40 
Favorite D&D Class: Runepriest
Favorite D&D Race: Warforged
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Post by Skedrix on Jan 16, 2016 18:03:43 GMT
Using lesser enemies effectively against higher-level PCs usually takes a bit of planning. Give DMB Episode 49, Commoner Cat-astrophe, another listen and apply those same principles to your piddly minions. Or Google "Tucker's Kobolds" (or go to tuckerskobolds.com) for a great example of using level 1 monsters to effectively terrorize high level PCs.
Ultimately, what it boils down to is that the low level folk won't fight on the high level's terms; low level will lure the high level into a situation where the low level people have the advantage, they'll fight dirty, they'll take the first opportunity to flee and fight another day if they don't have the upper hand, they'll wage wars of attrition while they're well-supplied--whatever advantage they can get, they'll take it.
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Post by ino on Jan 16, 2016 19:09:00 GMT
Certain feats and tactics can make small creatures horrifying. Low and tight spaces smaller creatures can easily move through and hamper larger foes, swarm fighting feat to overwhelm in melee, curved tunnels to limit aoe spells, etc. a few levels or rogue to a small creature with +4 hide can be devastating.
Most of my players have forgotten how terrifying low level creatures can be. I'm looking forward to reminding them. Lol.
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DMFunkopotamus
Commoner
Posts: 20
Favorite D&D Class: Sorcerer with nuclear bloodline
Favorite D&D Race: Demilich
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Post by DMFunkopotamus on Feb 7, 2016 2:35:15 GMT
I ran a campaign a few years ago centered around a cult of Tiamat. Kobolds continued to be challenging foes well into the higher levels. Sometimes it was with sorcerer levels and/or half-dragon templates. But most often it was just due to their large numbers and their trapmaking proficiency. 5 kobolds should make a high level party laugh. 5000 though, should make them run. When facing an army of kobolds, and knowing it includes a good number of clerics and sorcerers and that the camp is likely filled with deadfalls, punji pits, and a dozen other sorts of traps that will chip away at them, even a party of 15th level characters will pause before wading in.
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Post by dmzeke on Feb 15, 2016 5:25:44 GMT
Yeah just pile them on, my players were exploring some ruins, ended up wandering into an intersecting giant any tunnel. After fighting four poisonless giant black ants, they laughed about not even being touched, but then fourty showed up and the laughing stopped they barley escaped the ant tunnel alive, it got bad enough to force them to release a dire bear a player Tug had trapped in a magical ball to draw the now dozens of ants away from them. (Tug will miss that bear it was sort of a trophy for him)
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Post by dmsam on Feb 18, 2016 19:26:51 GMT
Ah, the little things that kill.
In our world, there are a lot of little creatures that carry a big punch. Most of the deadliest creatures are a fraction of our size.
Poison and diseases are ways you can make even the smallest creatures terrifying. In D&D, spiders and snakes get stronger venom as they increase in size. While it fits the idea of escalating conflict, you could always break that box and make your own creepy crawlies.
Be careful though, there is something awfully un-heroic about dying to a little spider after slaughtering orcs and ogres. Your players may not take kindly to that.
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Post by paulhodgson777 on Mar 10, 2016 5:07:51 GMT
My players are *still* wary of goblins after I added levels of rogue to them back in 3rd Ed, they nearly got wiped out by sneak attacks.
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Post by dm_mainprize on Mar 22, 2016 14:29:09 GMT
In the area of my world where my players currently are, Kobolds are the real menace. I have borrowed these ideas from Stonetrix, a reddit user who create hombrewed monsters. HeroShamanBullyI also created a Kobold War Golem, which is an abomination build through ritual magic by a shaman in the moment of his death. Its a pretty menacing thing. My players think twice now about fighting a room full of Kobolds because not all of them are just wimpy little guys. |
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