For our play of the Castle Greyhawk campaign, I’ve been developing my own Wandering Monster tables. For the most part, these are aimed at providing danger – thus foes – for the players. Especially when – on the Labyrinth level – this was the main thing that would challenge the party.
Let me say: Using only wandering monsters? Not good. You want areas of interest to engage the players. My party finally found the entrance to the Crypts, and there are a LOT more things to engage with: creepy talking clown faces, strange inscriptions, locked chests, and so on.
This is a party of five level 7-10 characters, and this was the table I tried at first:
Roll (d8+d12) | Monster |
CR |
Number |
2 | Beholder, Death Kiss |
10 |
1 |
3 | Young Red Dragon |
10 |
1 |
4 | Cloaker |
8 |
1d2 |
5 | Rot Troll |
9 |
1d2 |
6 | Venom Troll |
7 |
1d3 |
7 | Minotaur |
3 |
2d6 |
8 | Otyugh |
5 |
1d6 |
9 | Vampire Spawn |
5 |
1d6 |
10 | NPC party | ||
11 | Greater Zombie |
5 |
1d6 |
12 | Howler |
8 |
1d2 |
13 | Chain Devil |
8 |
1d2 |
14 | Great Troll |
9 |
1 |
15 | Hydra |
8 |
1d2 |
16 | Mind Flayer |
7 |
|
17 | Spirit Naga |
8 |
1d2 |
18 | Pyrohydra, 5 heads |
9 |
1 |
19 | Stone Golem |
10 |
1 |
20 | Alhoon |
10 |
1 |
This was a pretty good table for generating very dangerous foes, but it was killing the pacing a lot – because combats took quite a bit of time to resolve. It also led to a short session, as after only three combats, the party were badly hurt and needed to rest. This particular campaign has most sessions being a single dungeon expedition, so we often call them. (It’s also Monday night, so early to bed isn’t that bad).
For my most recent session, I created a new table, lowering the difficulty a bit:
Roll | Monster |
CR |
Number |
2 | Cloaker |
8 |
1 |
3 | Mind Flayer |
7 |
1 |
4 | Spirit Naga |
8 |
1 |
5 | Stone Giant |
7 |
1 |
6 | Gargoyle |
2 |
1d4+2 |
7 | Orog |
2 |
1d4+2 |
8 | Quaggoth |
2 |
1d4+2 |
9 | Bugbear |
1 |
1d6+4 |
10 | NPC Party | ||
11 | Fire Snake |
1 |
1d6+4 |
12 | Duergar |
1 |
1d6+4 |
13 | Ghoul |
1 |
1d6+4 |
14 | Berserker |
2 |
1d4+2 |
15 | Ghast |
2 |
1d4+2 |
16 | Wight |
3 |
1d4+1 |
17 | Deathlock Wight |
3 |
1d4+1 |
18 | Grick Alpha + 1d6 Gricks |
8 |
1d6+1 |
19 | Canoloth |
8 |
1 |
20 | Venom Troll |
7 |
1 |
The target encounter difficulty here is 7-8, as opposed to the first tables 9-10. My feeling is that I’ve put it down a bit too low, but the two encounters I rolled during the session didn’t disrupt play that much, so that was a win.
As I’ve noted recently, large groups of monsters are difficult to gauge their threat level. Turn undead and fireball can end combats very quickly – but if the party lacks those options, encountering 10 ghouls could go very poorly if there are some good rolls from the ghouls and poor rolls from the party.
I am going to keep working on these tables and see how they work in play. Wandering monsters exist partly to provide life to the dungeon, and partly to provide time pressure – if the party think that taking short rests and casting rituals have no cost, then they’ll keep using them. I want them to use them, but know that it does raise the danger level.
A couple of notes:
The pyrohydra is a flame-breathing hydra. I use the stats for a hydra, but make a few changes:
- Each head can breathe fire in a 15-foot cone, inflicting 3d8 fire damage, a successful DC 17 Dex save halves the amount. Each head can do so as part of a multiattack, so that could be 15d8 in one round! (I mostly run it as each head can use this 1/combat, but if the combat runs long, they recharge).
- Heads don’t regenerate – if you cut one off, two don’t grow back in its place.
- Immune to fire
- The CR is bumped up one level. Probably.
The NPC party are a group of adventurers in the dungeon. I need to work out the exact specifics of their stat blocks. They have a random alignment – could be good, could be evil – and so can act as foes or allies of the party.
These tables are made for a megadungeon in which a lot of different monsters live. I’d go with more targeted tables for a smaller dungeon – based on what lives therein!