Let's use the Monster Manual

[Alexander Atoz]

Long, long ago, there was a very popular thread on this site that went through the Monster Manual, commenting on the various monsters found within. (It can be found at https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...onster-Manual! for anyone looking.) I want/plan to do another thread in its spirit.
Rather than just redoing what was done, I am going to be focusing on something new, ways to use each monster within a campaign. (The original post did plot ideas, but that assumes that the monster is the focus of at least a sub-plot. I plan to suggest interesting encounters, both combat and not, that can be slotted into a campaign not focusing on the monster. Basically, ways to use.)
If anyone else wants to contribute at any point, go right ahead. I don't mind if they want to take on a different angle of the monster that I'm not discussing (plot ideas, lore, whatever), or if they want to continue what I'm doing. I plan to do 1 monster a week (I have limited time, sorry) but I don't mind skipping to whatever monster the thread is up to.

(If anyone likes my ideas and wants more, I have a blog doing this at https://dragonencounters.com/. I'm doing this thread partially to get feedback, partly because I want to, and I guess also partially to promote myself. The blog is also a free resource.)

With all that out of the way, let's get started.

6 Ways to use… aaracockra

1) Given that they fly, they can keep the players updated with what's going on the in the world, letting your quest have proper scale.
2) The enemies have an army. Can the PCs hold them off long enough for the aaracockra to complete the ritual?
3) The enemy at the top is too powerful for the aaracokra. It also has ranged capabilities. Can the aaracockra help the players reach the top, where they can fight it, without exposing themselves suicidally.
4) The enemy in the dungeon is too powerful for the players. The aaracockra won't fight indoors. Lure the enemy outside to claim victory. You'll still have to stop it from retreating, of course.
5) The aaracockra are hostile. If you don't want to climb the mountain while being sniped, you'll have to do it while the aaracockra are grounded on account of a storm. Of course, storms aren't exactly ideal climbing weather.
6) Yan-C-Bin [prince of elemental evil. Air] has corrupted the ritual. Stop the aaracockra before they summon a corrupted air elemental that will lay waste to the entire area.

[Vorpalchicken]

I could have sworn Yan C Bin was the Prince of Elemental Earth. Perhaps I was thinking of Yancy Ben.

[Alexander Atoz]

12 Ways to use… Aboleth

1) The aboleth will, when fighting PCs who are on land, try to “tag” as many as possible with its tentacles, then retreat underwater. Once affected by its slime disease, they’ll only way to survive will be if they pledge themselves to the aboleth. (In a D&D game, I would have there be someone who can help them, if they can get to him. The aboleth’s minions will try to prevent it.)
2) If it has a charmed minion nearby, it can project an illusion into any body of water, making the players think they know where it is.
Underwater fighting
3) The aboleth is much faster than them underwater. It will lead them on a pursui around sunken buildings, then double back and hit the back members. If they don’t chase, it has a lair action to do damage. This will inspire pursuit.
4) Another trick is to collapse structurs on pursuing PCs, thereby taking them out of the battle for a bit while it takes on the others.
5) The aboleth can trigger a mudslide, or just stir up mud with its tentacles, to make it hard for the PCs to see where it is. This is where phantasmal force lair action can be useful, to project a duplicate of itself being in another direction.
6) For a lethal underwater trap, drain a large cave system or structure of water, and seal it tight. When the seal is breached, the water will rush in, and the PCs will be dragged with it. Either add spikes, or seal the entrance behind them.

(I hope to add the next 6, all of which will be ways to use the people it has enslaved, later this week.)

[JonBeowulf]

An aboleth by itself is a mere speedbump. An aboleth with a few minions is very dangerous.

[Alexander Atoz]

Not certain why you call it just a speed bump, the aboleth seemed a pretty decent monster (even without my suggestions, which will boost it.)
Are you talking about versus a level 10 party? I don't think any monster is more than a speed bump, when facing a party whose level matches its CR, by itself. (CR is meant for 8 such fights per long rest.)
Anyway, the second half of my aboleth list:

Ways to Use Enslaved Minions
7) The aboleth can send its minions further than a mile, if it has a friend/relative enslaved who they’ll care about. Probing telepathy means that deceiving the abolth about their loyalty to their friend is pretty much impossible. (As if eons of experience weren’t enough.)
8) When enslaving a PC, you can tell him that he made his save until you need him to obey the aboleth. Since the aboleth’s first command would be “Act like normal”, this seems perfectly logical.
9) A really nasty way to increase difficulty is if the aboleth has an NPC enslaved whom they need to rescue. They’ll have to rescue him/her before the aboleth is defeated, or the aboleth’s last command will be “Commit suicide”. (Combine this idea with any of the next three, to make it worse.)
10) Have the enslaved minion be standing in an especially precarious structure and throwing spells. If they retaliate, they’ll collapse the structure and kill the person for the crime of being enslaved.
11) Have the aboleth place one or more enslaved commoners near him. Spells thrown at the aboleth will very likely kill the commoners.
12) They meet an NPC chained to the wall. If they ask, he explains that he is immune to enslave. When they get the key and rescue him, he slaps other chains/handcuffs [not noticeable because of the first chains] onto his rescuer.] (He wasn’t actually immune.)

[Alexander Atoz]

13 ways to use… angels

1) One to the classic questions is why, if there are angels, don’t they handle all the problems. I would suggest that, as most beings are a combination of good and evil, they have trouble distinguishing. Either that, or higher access to the mortal plane by celestials makes access for fiends easier.
2) Trouble distinguishing between shades of grey will also explain why celestial being living on the mortal plane prefer to live in the middle of nowhere. Virually all being have too much evil in them for comfort.
3) Angels are too proud, and too honest, to use invisibility to fight. Instead, they’ll use it to give the impression that they’re all knowing. Too use this, have the players be talking among themselves, and suddenly they realize that the angel was behind them, and they have no idea how he got there. (Deva’s will use change shape to achieve the same effect.)
4) Use an angel’s healing touch to provide small, min-quest rewards. If you want to annoy your players, have the angel decide who to heal based not on need, but on virtue [how pious they are.]

Deva

5) The deva will use its shapechanging ability to test whether they deserve to be helped. If you want to make it challenging, provide reasons for them not to help. (Example: An old lady needs help crossing a bridge, but they’re late for an appointment.)
6) The deva likes to give advice in the guise of kind old elderly people. This can lead to interesting circumstances, when such a person who is not the deva say something to the players. This can be either coincidence, or a villain taking advantage of it.
7) When evil [fallen], the deva will use its shape change ability to lead them into terrain that favors the deva. For example, a narrow path where they’ll have trouble using their numbers, with ample foliage to mess up ranged.

[Alexander Atoz]

Planetar

8) When asking the planetar for help, have him grill them about their past deeds and/or hypothetical situations, to see if they’re worthy. He can tell if they try to lie. (Winning is spinning the answer to their advantage without outright lying.)
9) When hostile, have the planetar use Blade Barrier to isolate one PC, so it can duel and kill him. In mountains, Blade Barrier is especially nasty, as it will sever ropes and impose disadvantage on climb skill checks.
10) Control Weather is also a powerful spell to use in battle. You just need to set it up in advance. Bring down strong winds when climbing mountains, or a flash flood in a canyon. In addition, the planetar can send Flame Strikes against them as they try to reach safety.

Solar

11) For a plot complication, have the solar (or any other angel) insist on taking out a certain, less important villain. The players know that doing so would be a mistake (morally or strategically), but the angel won’t listen. If the PCs won’t do it, he’ll send someone else. What do they do?
12) In combat, the solar will use Control weather to fill the sky with scattered clouds. (With 25 INT, it’s not caught by surprise). It its turn, it will shoot, make a flying sword attack, and go back up. In between turns, it will teleport around, so they won’t know where to send area spells.
13) For an absolutely deadly battle, have the players be trying to beat the clock in a trap dungeon while fighting a solar. The solar can teleport to always be in the way, it can avoid many trap effect by flying, and it can blind them. Use for really powerful players only.

[Alexander Atoz]

6 ways to use … Animated items

1) To get the greatest effect out of animated objects, present them as ordinary at first, and give the players time to get used to them as ordinary objects. Then animate them.

Animated Armor

2) A decent way to use animated armor is to to have the villain animate it when he sees he’s outmatched, to give himself time to flee. Stopping him will involve getting past the armor right away, which might force them to [briefly] split the party.
3) If you’re having them play a rogue mission, in which they don’t want to get discovered, animated armor is ideal. It makes perfect sense as a sentry, it won’t think to raise the alarm, and it’s very hard to take down silently.
4) Place the animated armor in a room full ] of armor. How do the players navigate the room when they don’t know which is animated? To stop them from breaking everything, give a need for silence, or other foes shooting them, or have some of the other suits be booby-trapped.

(I hope to finish later this week.)

[Atranen]

Cool thread, you've got some nice ideas here! I like the water trap for the aboleth. How to fit it in so it doesn't feel like "rocks fall, everyone dies"...

[Alexander Atoz]

Cool thread, you've got some nice ideas here! I like the water trap for the aboleth. How to fit it in so it doesn't feel like "rocks fall, everyone dies"...

Thanks for the compliment.

Regarding the trap, the truth is that I came up with the trap independent of the aboleth, and placed it here because it seemed as good a place as any. If you run it without an aboleth, or when the aboleth isn't right there, you could add a window so the players can see that the room/place beyond is empty. I think there's a good chance they won't realize the danger of opening the door, especially if you provide other things to do/examine in the same area to distract them, and give them some type of incentive to open the door. (They can see inside, via the window, so all you need is "Oooh, look, shiny gold coins!"
Also, the trap isn't meant to be fatal, just damaging.

[Alexander Atoz]

(Sorry I'm late. I hope to post the ankheg this week as well.)

Flying Sword

5) The best use for flying swords might be to not have them attack the PCs at all. Instead, have them attack the rope bridge the PCs are on or need to cross.
6) For a difficult encounter, have the sword be guarding an area at the top of a cliff. If they try to climb, the flying sword will chop at their hands when they can’t retaliate, and make them lose their grip. If they don’t climb, the sword will hide behind a pillar.
7) While in general, PCs can walk through an area held by an enemy two or more sizes small, I’d argue that the flying sword should be an exception. It’s a sharp piece of metal, for goodness’s sake, how do you walk past that without impaling yourself?

Rug of Smothering

8) To make a rug of smothering encounter harder, have a lantern get knocked over, setting the room on fire. Whie the fire will eventually destroy the rug, it won’t be too healthy for the person wrapped inside the rug, either. They might need to move the rug before freeing him.
9) Once they know to be aware of rugs of smothering, you can put multiple rugs on the floor before a combat, and they’ll be scared of each one. Or they can be identifiable from the outset, with the players needing to shoot them down before they come close.
10) Create a scene where some of them have to distract an NPC while others steal something, and place a rug of smothering. Now they have to save their companion from said rug while still keeping the NPC distracted.

[Alexander Atoz]

(I had hoped to post this last week, but "oh, well".)

6 Ways to Use… Ankhegs

1) Tactics: The ankheg will stay below the surface except when its acid is ready to be fired, then it will emerge, fire, and burrow back that same turn. It will also surface to attack someone standing in soil, but it will burrow back that same turn.
2) You can increase difficulty by not letting the players know how many ankhegs they face. For this reason, I would suggest starting the fight with their acid awaiting recharge. You can say that they only start building it up when they sense prey.
3) Because a fight where the enemy is constantly out of reach is very frustrating, I would give the players a different goal rather than defeating the ankhegs. For example, have there be a heavy treasure chest in the middle of their soil that the players need ot obtain.
Interesting Encounters:
4) When the villain sees he’s had it, have him run for it over ankheg land. For an even harder battle, through a tunnel that goes through ankheg land. (The villain himself is wearing ankheg repellent.)
5) For a lethal pit trap, have falling into the trap also trigger the release of ankhegs, who will immediately burrow into the trap. The players are surrounded by earth on all sides.
6) The players see the villains they are after, but there is ankheg land in the middle, and no easy way to go around in a hurry. The villains don’t know about the PCs, and may or may not know about the ankhegs. The villains should have at least some ranged attacks.

[Alexander Atoz]

6 ways to use… azer

Offense

1) The azer are lawful. They fight well together. This gives rise to several basic strategies, such as swarming the same target, and changing position so that the target PC provides cover to the most wounded for ranged attacks.
2) Being grappled by an azer is worth 1d10 damage a turn, from touching it. This is almost half of an attack’s damage. I’d say they still need more reason to grapple. One way is to have one of them knock a PC prone, and another grapple to keep him that way.
3) When fighting, have them run through bushes and anything else flammable. Not only will this create obstacles that will only hurt the other side, but it will also limit visibility. Plus, fire spreads.

Defense

4) When in their base, the best thing they can do is dump a lot of coal onto the fire and fight defensively. If the players don’t take them down fast, the heat will become a deadly weapon. (Have them holding a key, or some such, to give the players motivation.)
5) Outside, they’ll run through bushes and anything else flammable. Try catching a fleeing foe when he’s leaving burning obstacles in his wake.
6) If they can reach a human dwelling, have them jam the door and start setting everything on fire. When the PCs force the door open, the sudden influx of fresh air will cause the fire to flare up in their faces.

[Alexander Atoz]

6 Ways to use… Banshee

1) Incorporeal movement and fear don’t combine (fear requires eyesight). My solution – have the banshee draw out the melee, move past them through the floor, and then use fear to keep the melee away while attacking the mages.
2) The temptation is to start with the banshee’s wail, as that’s its strongest attack. If you wait until mid-combat, though, it can feel like the final blow to players who are already struggling, and it will be a lot harder to heal PCs not unconscious.
3) Evil creatures, or bandits, can ply the banshee with gifts and compliments, getting permission for themselves to share her domain. In case you were wondering how to work a banshee into your story.
4) Banshee can come from any elves, which means you can have a drow who became a banshee, which in turn means that your haunted house can have spiders (swarms, giant, or phase spiders). Plus, they fit a haunted house perfectly.
5) When a banshee has been defeated, that is a good time for her to disappear through the floor, only to harry them again later. She can hide on the other side of a wall, and use life sense to know exactly when to pop out.
6) Old castles, of the top that it’s fun to make haunted, have long twisting staircases. Knock out a PC there, or even trip him, and he might fall all the way to the bottom. If there are PCs below him, they might fall too. (Although there’s a chance they might catch him.)

[Alexander Atoz]

6 Ways to use… Basilisk

1) When basilisks are near, players are going to be tempted to keep their eyes on the floor, especially near corners. Add in archers, or traps, and life becomes tricky. (The basilisks are tamed).
2) The fact that they can’t look around means that if the PCs separate, even slightly, they’ll have a hard time keeping track of each other. Cause this with multiple goals and time limit. (Manage this by keeping 1 battlemap behind the DM screen, and showing them where they are on the other during their turns only.)
3) Formation for an army with basilisks: Have the basilisks lead, put defenders with reach weapons to stop the PCs moving past, put archers behind. (You could just have the basilisks trained not to attack the enemy, but this will be more fun.)
4) The aftermath of a basilisk encounter creates more problems. They have to decide which NPCs to rescue, especially if they have limited potions. You can drop cluses, or just create multiple profiles and see who they pick.
5) Place two burrows. One contains a basilisk, the other contains a valuable but fragile treasure. If they try to grope for it, the run the risk of getting bitten. They obviously can’t look. What do they do?
6) The most important tip to running a basilisk? Don’t let them know that they’ll be facing one until it’s too late to go shopping. Everyone already knows about using mirrors.