The Monsters Know What They’re Doing

Ready-to-Use Tactics for D&D 5E

Tag: beasts

Space Beast Tactics

December 6, 2023

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Beasts, Monstrosities

Putting the “wild” in “Wildspace,” a variety of creatures make their homes in the starry deep. Like most wild animals, these creatures generally mind their own business, fighting only if you try to catch one of them or stumble into their nests.

Space guppies are flying “fish” that carry wee air envelopes around them, allowing them to serve as spacefaring mounts for tiny creatures—although they’re not smart enough to serve as independent mounts, so if they’re ridden, they’re not going to do anything except Dodge or Dash. (Thanks to their Flyby trait, they never need to Disengage.) Their only outstanding ability score is Dexterity, but lacking any ranged attack, they have no recourse except to slap enemies with their tails, then use Flyby to scoot away as far as they can get. They don’t fly very fast—only 30 feet per move—so any opponent who wants to will catch up to them easily. The upshot is, only a large school of space guppies will bother to stand their ground against any foe of any size (use “Handling Mobs,” chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide); more often, they’ll simply Dash away rather than fight. Honestly, I’m surprised that Boo’s Astral Menagerie doesn’t include a “swarm of space guppies” stat block. Since Boo’s doesn’t, I will:
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Monsters of the Multiverse: Celestials, Fey, Elementals, Constructs, Oozes and Beasts

July 26, 2022

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Beasts, Celestials, Constructs, Elementals, Fey, Oozes

Lots of monster types in this batch, but not that many monsters. The overwhelming majority of the mechanical changes in Monsters of the Multiverse went into humanoids and fiends; whether because they were designed and balanced better to begin with or because they just aren’t encountered as often, other monster types got away pretty clean.

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Fastieth and Clawfoot Tactics

March 21, 2022

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Beasts

What’s better than steampunk fantasy? Steampunk fantasy with dinosaurs! Eberron: Rising From the Last War includes stat blocks for two, both used by the nomadic halflings of the Talenta Plains as trained mounts: fastieth and clawfoots. (more…)
Pigeon Tactics

April 1, 2020

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Beasts, Fey, Meta, Monstrosities

If you live in a major North American city (except, weirdly, Milwaukee), you’ve undoubtedly encountered pigeons on an almost daily basis. Like squirrels, they enjoy a commensal relationship with humans, benefiting greatly from our effect on the ecosystem without significantly helping us or harming us in any way. And you know they’re generally quite chill, unless your toddler runs directly at them, as toddlers invariably do.

The standard pigeon in fifth-edition Dungeons & Dragons is no different. A small, unthreatening thing, it’s disinclined to fight at all and relies heavily on its Hypervigilant Flight reaction, which allows it to move up to half its speed as a reaction—without provoking an opportunity attack—if another creature moves within 5 feet of it. Pigeons are prey creatures, not predators, and the only way you’re likely to suffer a Beak attack from one is if you somehow manage to grab it.

A swarm of pigeons behaves similarly to a single pigeon, but not exactly the same. It still spooks easily, and it rarely attacks, preferring simply to use Hypervigilant Flight to retreat to a safe distance and, if pursued, to Dash to a safe perch out of reach. However, sometimes a swarm of pigeons chooses an empty, elevated location to roost in, such as an upper floor of an abandoned building. Particularly if this roost is home to eggs or squabs, a swarm of pigeons may become aggressive toward anyone who intrudes.

The first action it generally takes against a trespasser is Evacuate, more as a scare response than a calculated attempt to debilitate. If the target subsequently moves, so does the swarm, using Hypervigilant Flight. However, if the target doesn’t leave, the swarm then swoops back down and attacks with its Beaks. It continues to attack until the intruder is driven off or the swarm is reduced to 10 hp or fewer.

The giant pigeon is another matter, because unlike its Tiny cousins, it doesn’t scare. Cheeky and undauntable in its pursuit of food, it disregards other creatures as long as they leave it alone. Even snatching food away from it doesn’t provoke it to fight; it simply continues to try to get the food back, with greater determination. (You can use the Disarm action, from “Action Options” in chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, to represent the giant pigeon’s attempts to snatch food back from a character who’s holding it.) If and when one does actual harm to it, however, it fights back, doing its best to drive the aggressor away. (more…)
Cranium Rat Tactics

January 28, 2020

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Beasts

Cranium rats are minions of mind flayers, created “by bombarding normal rats with psionic energy” (and also, it seems from the illustration, delicately removing the top layers of their scalp and skull). Mind flayer colonies use them as forward observers; although the range of their telepathy is short (only 30 feet), the 120-foot telepathic range of a mind flayer extends their link to a more practical distance, and the 5-mile range of an elder brain increases their effectiveness by several orders of magnitude.

A lone cranium rat can’t do much. It’s extremely weak, with only 2 hp and 30 feet of darkvision. Its Bite attack is inconsequential. It can cause its brain to glow, emitting eerie dim light to a range of 5 feet, but that’s not very useful. If its range were 30 feet, it could combine this illumination with its darkvision to eliminate its Perception penalty within that radius. Since its passive Perception is only 10, that would be fairly useful. At only 5 feet, though, all a single cranium rat can do with this glow is give itself away.

However, a cranium rat that’s actively spying for a mind flayer colony might be ordered to use Illumination because a mind flayer or elder brain wanted to get a good, clear look at someone or something that the cranium rat had approached in the dark. In this scenario, the cranium rat is effectively doomed to die, providing a brief moment of extreme creepiness before it succumbs to an opportunity attack. If that attack should somehow miss, the cranium rat snuffs its light and Dashes away, hopefully to safety. (more…)