3 Tips for Building Exciting Monsters
It can be difficult to build a compelling monster for your party to fight. We’ve talked about quickly building a boss monster to fight your players, as well as the different roles that a monster can have in an encounter - but let’s go over a few of the basic things to keep in mind when you actually build a monster. These are just three things that I like to think about before making a monster, making sure that my monster is memorable, interesting to fight, and tells its story.
Building the Monster
Monsters should be unique and flavorful, but keep in mind that not every goon has to have its own unique thing that the other goons don’t have. Perhaps the goons all get a unique ability, but it only works when they have other goons and monsters around them to work the ability off of - like getting advantage to knock creatures prone or to bully other creatures. In this situation, think of the goons as a ‘single’ creature that you are building teamwork into.
1) Use The Monster’s Story To Build Its Mechanics
This one might be the easiest to accomplish. Typically, you are already going to know the story you want the monster to tell, you just have to transform that into its mechanics. If you build a story about a monster that eats magic, well then it stands to reason that you will create mechanics that back up that story - maybe it can absorb spells cast on it if you roll a 1-3 on a d6. Or maybe it gains temporary hit points based on the level of the spell. Or it doesn’t require air, food, or drink to survive, but does require magic items to feed off of.
When you build the monster’s mechanics, make sure that those mechanics help facilitate the story of the monster. You wouldn’t make a monster that is a ghost, and then not give them the ability to be incorporeal. You wouldn’t make a monster known for grabbing people in the deepest of dark nights in the forest, and then not give them darkvision. Or make it so that they shed bright light all around them.
The story of the monster should be told through its mechanics. When you make even just a kobold sorcerer, you are giving them spells that are similar to a sorcerer’s spell list. You want the mechanics to help you tell the monster’s story, similar to the story-telling wisdom of “show don’t tell”. If your monster attacks at night, you are already telling a story about that monster and you should be giving it mechanics to help facilitate that story.
2) Avoid The Claw, Claw, Bite Trap
A common problem with many monsters is that they just aren’t that interesting on their turn. If you want your monster to be memorable, they have to break out of the rut of “it makes a bite attack, deals damage, and we move on to the next turn”. Instead, you want that attack feature to be interesting.
Far too many monsters just have claw attacks that deal a bit of damage, and then we go on to someone else’s turn. Their turns in combat blend together so that a kobold feels like a goblin feels like a grung feels like an orc. You want to give them unique abilities that break that cycle and give them abilities that give players interesting decisions they have to make in combat. Maybe that kobold can use its reaction to run away (with no opportunity attacks) whenever someone ends their turn next to them, this makes it so that the party has to decide who should move in first and how you want to fight the kobolds.
You can still give them that basic claw attack, but give them something to go along with it! Perhaps if they hit on both claw attacks, they decrease the wearer’s Armor class. Or maybe if they do a claw attack, they cause bleeding damage that triggers at the start of every round until the player does something to make it stop. Or they inflict a disease, a condition, or something to differentiate their basic claw attack from another creature’s claw attack beyond how much damage it does.
3) Keep It Simple
The last tip is just a reminder to keep it simple. You could have the most interesting abilities, the most flavorful mechanics, but if it takes you ten minutes to get through the monster’s turn as you require three saving throws, a contested ability check, and referencing a spell - that’s not a good ability.
This is probably one of the hardest things to design because you have to be interesting but also quick. It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to provide mechanics for every little thing the monster can do, but at a certain point you have to be more narrative with the effects. If the monster has viciously sharp claws that can rip the flesh off a creature, you aren’t going to have five saves in a single turn to see if you pull off a character’s skin. Instead, you’ll have it do bleeding damage. Or force a Constitution saving throw that will deal a ton of damage on a failed save. Or ‘narratively’ describe the monster ripping off the skin and give the monster some other unique ability that is easier to design a quick and easy effect.
Of course, what is simple on the drawing board, might not be so simple when you get the monster on the field and engage the enemy. The players might be confused by an ability or what you mean when you say that the creature’s movement causes the ground to shake. Does that mean Dexterity saves to avoid being knocked prone? Can they utilize the shaking ground to their advantage with a grease spell and impose disadvantage on the massive creature?
Finishing the Monster
The main goal for any combat is to be memorable and exciting. You want the players to be invested in what is happening on the battlefield, and the best way to do that is to ensure that the monster the party is facing is interesting to actually fight. You could have the coolest lore about a monster that could devour the moon, but if all it does is a “claw, claw, bite” on its turn - there isn’t much for the party to remember about it beyond what they do to it.
Which is fine, my players still talk about the time they polymorphed a dragon turtle into a llama and then tossed it off a cliff. But you can’t just hope that the players will come up with a unique or fun strategy right off the bat. You need an interesting monster for them to work against. When they have to make interesting choices in combat, you are now cooking with gas and open the story for all sorts of memorable moments to occur!
Header Art: Monster Manual (2008) by Wizards of the Coast / Wayne Reynolds
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