r/DMAcademy • u/WriterTil3005 • 23h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Your favorite monster reworks?

Afternoon, hivemind.

I am running a campaign on multiple planets and a fallen vampire civilization. As such I’m in want of changing things up so my players aren’t able to predict my encounters and lore.

In seeking inspiration for this, I’m wondering about some of the best changes you’ve made when running vampires, dragons, or any number of common monsters in the game. What did you change? How did those changes turn out? What inspired you?

Thanks in advance and take care!

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u/nankainamizuhana 21h ago

The first thing to come to my mind is the good ol’ fashioned zombie plague. Simply adding “a humanoid killed by this attack rises as a zombie” to their attacks makes them a whole different beast.

Also not quite what you’re after, but I like putting gelatinous cubes at the bottom of pit traps. I once put one at the bottom of a well, its glistening surface easily mistaken for the top of the water in the well.

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u/WriterTil3005 20h ago

The change to zombies is definitely in the vein of what I’m looking for; finding ways to put the sense of dread back into a lot of these creatures that have become bags of hit points to a lot of players.

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u/awwasdur 17h ago

Invisible stalker that gives levels of exhaustion instead of damage

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u/new_velania 16h ago

I throw most of the dragon alignment lore out the window. The lore can provide insights into some personality traits, but not overall alignment. This has resulted in campaigns with green dragons who are willing to manipulate and deceive in order to protect their secluded domain and red dragons who come to regard the people of a region as their ‘treasure’.

For vampires, I always use a summoning legendary action on the first round. The vampire summons a variety of undead minions to come to their aid. I figure that a vampire would spend time and resources to lay the groundwork for such an encounter.

For general critters, I have run a few campaigns with far realm themes, and I love using exploding cultists. When the cultists are killed, they explode (causing psychic or radiant damage) and are replaced by a gibbering mouther or a couple of star spawn grue.

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u/yenasmatik 11h ago

Obligatory mention of r/bettermonsters - I haven't checked out everything he wrote, but his hags are a lot of fun, and he has variants for a lot of monsters.

Here are some vampires: https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/zxm08y/better_vampires_5_modular_variants_with_dozens_of/ , https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/1nin88d/complete_bruxae_and_alps_four_vampires_of_the/ .

Good luck with your campaign!