How to Select Monsters for D&D Encounters

Selecting monsters is the backbone of creating an encounter in Dungeons & Dragons. Without the right monsters or the right combination of monsters, D&D combats can often fall completely flat at the table, resulting in boring game play. So, in this video, I go over several ways you can build encounters so that they are fun, engaging, and dynamic for your players. Awesome encounters, here we come!

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#thedmlair #lukehart

[theDMLair]

📣 What tips do you have for selecting monsters for D&D encounters?

[FloatingOer]

*Invisible flying enemy.
Be me: Druid, turn into a bat and use echolocation.

[Bossaru]

I had one time where I really wanted to throw a curveball at my party. They were obsessed with doing fire damage, and the barbarian even had a flame tongue (and a +1 glaive they never use). They were able to destroy most things I threw at them pretty easily, especially since 3 members of the party could use fireball. So, I planned an encounter a month ahead of time where they would be in an arena. and fight a Wyvern, a T-rex, and then... a Remorhaze. I knew they could kill the Wyvern and the T-rex easily since they were a level 6 party, but the remorhaze was going to be a challenge. One of the players was a storm sorcerer who didn't have fireball, so I figured he would be the most useful member of the party during that fight, given that the remorhaze is immune to both fire and cold damage.


Fast forward to a month later when the arena fight is supposed to happen, as soon as the game starts the guy playing the storm sorcerer wants to change characters, so me being a nice guy I allowed him to. Meanwhile, in my head, I was panicking and wondering if I still wanted to go through with the remorhaze being the last fight. I eventually decided to go through with it. Now for this session we ended up having a new player as well joining us as a druid, and our barbarian was sick so i had to let one of the other players control him during combat.


The arena fights begin and the light cleric immediately wastes his 3rd level spell slots on fireballing the wyvern because he thought that they were only going to do one fight and not three, as expected they killed the wyvern in about two or three rounds. The T-rex also got wiped pretty fast, but it did manage to instantly down the wizard. The third round begins and at this point, the players are missing some health, but not much of their resources which is what I wanted. The party tries fireballing it... as expected and then learns the hard way that fire doesn't do anything. The (somewhat npc) barbarian then uses the +1 glaive to stay a little bit away from the remorhaze and not get burned after each attack. The wizard also realizes the only spell he has that can do anything to the remorhaze is magic missile, so every round was just him upcasting it as much as he could, and the cleric had to actually focus on healing instead of nuking everything. On top of that, my friend's new character who was a winged tiefling monk had managed to stun the remorhaze twice during the fight and it ended up being what saved the party. By the end of the fight the only who wasn't knocked unconscious was the barbarian with 1 health. It was a tough fight and it taught my players a very valuable lesson about picking different spells and thinking before they waste their high-level slots, and afterwards, they thanked me for giving them such a tough fight and said it was one of the most fun challenges they had.

[yin]

Fourth Ed can’t burn in hell, I hear inferno creatures have fire immunity.

[mindartis]

This encounter series has been super helpful. May my players forgive me for my parking lot surround and pound encounters of the past. No more I say no more!

[geoffdewitt]

PC tactic number 1: kill the wizard first. Then the cleric.

[blablubb]

The 4th edition monster manuals were better for that kind of encounter building, because groups of monsters that worked well together but had different stat blocks were often grouped together. Not like the Bugbear, Goblin and Hobgoblin in 5E Monster Manual. All Goblinoids in 4E Monster Manuals and the Essentials Line Monster Vaults were grouped together, so the DM had all the stat blocks he needed on one or two pages right next to each other.

[elizabethlewellen]

This is super helpful! I struggle horribly with balancing fights and building them.

[snappygum]

A handy note: I use screenshots of the D&D Beyond website to grab the screenshots and slap onto monster cards etc. Handy tip, no PDFs required 8)

[n.l.g.]

This advice is pretty obvious in hindsight, but at the same time, like... really, really helpful.

[cthulhufhtagn]

Sadly, that intro was me with firenewts. I was so excited about my firenewts, my players were going to find a creative solution to getting around this small army in this area. It all sort of escalated, and basically my players spent 3 sessions fighting firenewt after firenewt. Now they'll probably go insane if I ever give them a firenewt again in the future. :(

[Syenthros]

I love 4th Edition and regularly use stuff from it. I wish it were more popular so I could find a group for it. I think it was the most balanced and most tactically satisfying version of the game we'd ever had.

If it hadn't been called D&D, I'm of a mindset that it would have been very popular.

[TabletopThoughts]

I liked 4E. I still use minions and I steal ideas from the massive magic weapons catalog for homemade magic items.

[silvertheelf]

My tips:

What environment are they in, what would they be found with, what is the chance of encountering, what’s the rarity, and then take all the different subgroups you listed in the video and there you go.

Also I make subspecies, like bloodland lizardfolk which are a slightly more aggressive lizardfolk spices and Hoarder’s Hydras which are a hydra spices that like a dragon collects stuff and hoards it, though it doesn’t have a reason to.

[drizzo]

when I create encounters, I like to consider the enemy alignment, intelligence and wisdom.
- Chaotic monsters will generally just charge head on. Some will desert; they really don't have a plan beyond "attack" or "run away".

- Lawful creatures will definitely exploit terrain and or numbers. They will try to ambush when possible and put attackers in positions that give them an advantage (high ground, cover, ect).

- Higher intelligence groups will be better prepared and have ways to counter PC strengths. I will allow them to create 1-3 advantages "mid-fight" to turn the tides of battle. Maybe they will slow the charge of a mounted warrior by throwing down a few flasks of oil they had, or maybe they had several ambushers hiding with ranged weapons or a net or behind a tumble of piled heavy rocks, waiting for just the right moment. Also possible is I will roll for a random potion or scroll and see what happens. This can be used to gain an advantage or in dire circumstances, used as a bribe/ peace offering.

- High wisdom groups will adapt better to situations. Like if they have a flying PC causing them a lot of grief, they will seek cover or a way to bring him down. If they cant counter a strategy, they will retreat. Low wisdom will ignore players in advantageous positions and focus on whats easy to get at; if they cant do that then they will likely just run away.

An ogre (CE) within the ranks of a troop of hobgoblins (LE) will charge a lesser threat, looking to claim the kill, while the hobgoblins strike at range and get their melees and spellcasters in position. The ogre will attack whoever is closest until one of them drops, while the hobgoblins establish cover and pick off anyone attempting to move past or flank the ogre. The Hobgoblins will hopefully only engage once the PCs are weakened and will be prepared to pursue with mounts nearby and a means to counter the most powerful tactic or attack they witness the PCs using.

I nearly killed off the entire party once when they were 8th or so level by using a group of kobolds who had set some fairly sinister and unavoidable traps. One PC did make it through though. The kobolds really didn't know what to do once he started cutting them down, so they ran away.

[dashyburd]

That solitary mage example reminded me of our pre-final boss for our first story. The party just completely beat the crap out of it without much effort, it was kinda funny and sad at the same time... _then again we almost died to skeletons twice._

[Johnkarlburg]

Good stuff man. I do use the 4th edition monster manual all the time. In my opinion it was on was the best monster manuals ever with dc checks and premade encounters for every kind of monster in the book, can't really go wrong there.

[austibon]

I personally still use minions to this day in any RPG. I think it is an awesome way to make characters feel like heroes when they are blasting storm troopers off a cliff side, or knocking aside hundreds of undead to face the necromancer and his mummified guards. It just adds atmosphere.

[Joseph.A.J.C.Etheridge]

9:44 the sentinel feat doesn't give you the ability to attack someone as they enter your area that's the pole arm feat and it only works with something like a staff or glaive

[jaketackett]

Dude,
Thank you for making helpful tips that also don't include a load of language.
The worst thing about being a DM and a teacher is that you want to teach your players how to DM.... But can't point them anywhere without cursing and bad references.
I'm pointing all my little DMs here, so they can watch and learn.
Thanks, budro!