Unique Low Level Encounter Monsters for D&D 

Also, be careful with Rot Grubs. I've lost characters to both in the first session. Intellect devourer was a bad roll after a stupid decision (made intentionally, OOC) but the rot grubs killed me in one round for not standing far enough away while someone messed with an item.

My first level party used sleep and ran.

I found this s*** out the hard way 2 weeks ago

yeah my party ran into one at level 2 (they were meant to be level 1 but I let them level early) and one of my players had his brain devoured but luckily my campaign is set in a city with a lot of powerful people so they found someone to cast greater restoration.

Just like a Shadow.

Imitating things their previous victims say? "What's that noise? Where are you?! Help-HELP! Save me-Save me-Save me-Save me-"

@@jessegd6306 right but then you throw in there (with a WIS or INt check of course), "According to the map there's a secret door under the tapestry." Then the players are like wait, secret door? tapestry? where's that. Lo and behold later, they see a tapestry and wonder...

@@jessegd6306 Doctor Who style "hey, who turned off the lights?". I very much appreciate that idea.

That's a great idea.

I just stole this idea. You the man!

I'm planning something like this for my first DM campaign, watching local kids dash out into shallow water, kill a single tapeworm pest that's praying on the local oyster crop and then dashing back to land with the body to trade in for a copper. If the players don't leave enough travelling speed to get back, they'll get swarmed by a few, resulting in the rest of the team needing to dash in and help them. If all goes well, maybe I'll throw in a local kids first time that gets it wrong and needs to be saved. Just need to create a monster now. Will probably re skin something With a poison/grapple ability and give it a swimming speed

Ditto with bandits.

As a newbie DM, how can I make my goblin encounters much more deadly?

@@redmage808 Remember that 'Average intelligence' is only 10-11. So Goblins with Int 10 should be expected to use basic tactics in combat. Ambushes, traps, ganging up on targets and ranged combat all come into play. Goblins also come in groups, you will rarely encounter just one. A small group of 6 might not be much, but a band of 12-24 riding Worgs as mounts, with a pack of 6-12 Dire Wolves as hunting dogs, is another thing entirely. When you think of goblin traps, go basic and obvious. Logs or boulders rolling down hills, hunting snares on the ground, rock falls from above in caves. They will not be hard to avoid on their own, but in combat the Goblins could set them off when they want. Goblins are small size creatures, use that to their advantage whenever possible. Low caves that humans might have trouble fighting in, dense forest or jungle underbrush is another option. They also have the Nimble train in 5e, so hit and run tactics are something you can use a lot. Don't be afraid to add poison to weapons either, it doesn't have to be strong, the volume of hits will make it an issue on their own. If you really want to go tough, consider giving some of the leaders some character levels. Rogue, Fighter and Sorcerer are all good classes to give them for added spice. Another thing to consider is that all Goblins and Worgs have darkvision, do not hesitate to target party light sources in combat if doing so would be helpful. Finally, Goblins tend to be cowardly, so having them retreat and come back in larger numbers is not uncommon. If the PCs are in Goblin territory then you can harass them over and over again. Make sure they are resting in safe places and if they are not then ambush them. Goblin tribes can be as large as a few hundred combat capable members, they can take turns attacking to the point that sleep is not an issue. Players have to deal with fatigue and other concerns. Sabotage their food stores or water when you can. Use any of these or a combination of them and your players, even at mid levels, will take goblins seriously. Just remember that they will react accordingly sooner or later, after 5th level the mage might just fireball a goblin group on sight if you make them like this.

@@Ishlacorrin de la g

@@redmage808 also adding onto what was already said if the party drives off the initial attack and some get away they can track the party with wargs and such. If you have a party that goes all in using Leomunds Tiny hut a shaman with Dispel Magic can make the entire territory more terrifying. Also even with Darkvision Perception checks are still at disadvantage in the dark as its still dim light. So the goblins can sneak up fairly easily, the shaman dispels it, the goblins get a surprise round and the next round try to press the advantage while the shaman uses a stinking cloud, web, or some other simple but useful spell. After that first round if they dont have a major advantage they can retreat and return in a few hours. The shaman NEVER puts itself at risk. I ran my lvl 12 party through hell like this. When they entered the stronghold that had trolls as well they definitely felt the pressure. They only had 1 martial character and the rest were casters so after 2/3 encounters only the Barbarian was still in fighting shape.

But they are only CR 3. Or do you mean that Wizards of the Coast still hasn't figured out how to give monsters meaningful CRs, after more than 20 years?

@@rogerwilco2 Yeah, Intellect Devourers are CR 3 in the sense that they aren't great in a straight fight. They should be something like power 3 and possible consequences 10.

Two intellect devourers nearly killed the warlock in the party I DM for.... He was level 9

Intellect Devourer stat blocks are unimpressive, for sure. The problem is their unique abilities which, with only a couple of bad rolls, can result in an almost instant TPK, especially since those bad rolls are reliant on an ability which the vast majority of players use as a dump stat in 5e. Intellect Devourer snatches your third level Totem of the Bear barbarian with a crit-fishing GWM build? The now-effectively-dead Barbarian (huzzah, low level save or die!) proceeds to kill the whole party, resistant to everything they throw at it. Even at much higher levels, these things can still generate a TPK in the right circumstances just by being present.

​@@rogerwilco2 CR is already meaningful if you use it for it's intended purpose: keeping in mind how much damage the creature can do per turn, and how many hitpoints they have. CR is not meant to be a "This creature is CR 3 so you can blindly plug in this creature into an encounter for a lvl3 party" kind of tool. You will still need to read the full statblock, think beforehand about whether the encounter needs to be combat or not in the first place, if it is combat is it an fight to get away, a fight for resources that both groups need, or is it a fight to defeat the enemy, and you have to think on whether your party can deal with the negative consequences, other than damage, things like poison, sickness, mind control or petrification. How would wizards of the coast ever express in a single number that the danger of a monster is in how sudden they appear, or in how big the group of monsters is compared to the party? CR wasn't ever meant to express all of these things and more. CR is just an estimate for damage, hitpoints and EXP calculation, and that is exactly what it is based on. How you use a monster, what kind of danger it should pose and what kind of encounter you build is what makes an encounter deadly or not.

I don't see how a single one could cause trouble for an 8th level party, if they use any sort of care.

Intellect devourers are disaters

@@kamikeserpentail3778 Some people like to play with almost no threat to their characters. As a result, if anything moderately dangerous shows up, they aren't prepared to deal with it.

Zombie or skeleton wildlife works too.

Isn’t there already a giant wasp creature?

Somehow I instantly knew what you were making an homage to. There's plenty of inspiration to be gained from Fable series, great choice

Hero, your health is low! Do you have any potions or food?

My players are now scarred from too many gibbering mouthers. It doesn't matter if they are level 3 or level 10, if they hear something that might be a gibbering mouther, they will be noping out of there as fast as possible.

@@yodal_ They can be brutal. Especially if your party doesn't have enough ranged classes.

The more I read the comments on here, the more I appreciate pf2e's monster level system. Coming up with a raiding party is such a joy!

Its eazy to kill your players, its hard to ALMOST kill your players

"Kobold dragonshield on a guard drake" Well I know what I'm doing.

Meanwhile my Dragons: Release the Intellect devourers. That's how I got banned from DMing.

@@SkoomaGodDovahkiin666 Meanwhile in my game: The players sell a bound and unconscious Black Dragon wyrmling to an Illathid while in the black Market area of the Sewers.... (Gotta love it when the players chose to do things that can become problems for them later on down the line in the campaign...)

@@minnion2871 Based. My group does that too. A lot. Not just illithids, sometimes we sell dragons to Gith and Warforged and perpetuate their wars for profit. Best part? The paladin(Ambition or Conquest played by either me or my brother) are the ones doing the haggling.

*yoink*

No reason there can't be. Don't let your dreams be dreams!

Thanks a ton!

Thank you! Share us with your friends if you can!

Haha, I said the exact same thing at 2:03

Goblins can incite fear and terror if used correctly. Unless you mean the actual fear condition

They're taxmen, always fiends

Call of Cthulhu D20 was made for 3rd Edition.

@@dubuyajay9964 ?

We always add the closed captions- they should be there that way. But noted!

They used to be worse, their bite did no damage points, but had a numbing effect, so the player had to make either a INT or CON, I can't remember which, check to even notice the presence of the grubs, although back then if the fire missed as long as the rot grub entered from an arm or leg the player had a couple of turns before it was too deep. Although, they can also be killed by anything capable of a Cure Disease effect, so hopefully the healer has a spell ready to fly.

Well it is like... Our druid likes to summon poisonous snakes, as their CR rating is 1/8 they do 2d4 poison each, and she can summon a lot of them. So one time she summons them against some sorcerer urds. So our damn had them find the snakes and mostly succumb to them. But if I had been damn I would have them take it to the air and just burn them with any aoes they had. The snakes have like to health. CR doesn't really mean anything

Magmins. All of our narration is always in the Closed Captions, so consider turning them on if you're having trouble making out any of our spoken words.

@@masterthedungeon Thank you.