D&D Newbie DM Monsters
I couldn't find a good image for this one so here's a meme that Settler made for me.
Nothing exceedingly special about this comp, covers some of the most used Monsters that Newbie DMs tend to throw at parties just a little too much.
Owlbears
"You open the barrel and out jumps a giant owlbear!"
They're feathery furious ***** and they'll rend you to shreds if you ever pass into their cone of vision, notoriously spammed in sessions by newbie and veteran DMs alike the Owlbear is a formidable foe that will refuse to give up chase on prey in its territory. The amount of stories you hear of Owlbears attacking during day will astound you, considering they still 'bear' with them a nocturnal nature. Oh, they're also native to the fey of the Underdark so the only time you'd find one on the surface is if it was tamed by someone or if it was driven out of the Underdark.
Red Dragons
"You meet an ancient dragon, and no, it doesn't want to talk to you"
Also another monster that you frequently hear of that is spammed at un-necessary low levels. Don't you just love it when newbie DMs make you encounter an ancient or adult dragon at level 1? I sure do, especially when none of your stats matter, just outrunning the slowest party member matters. What do you do when you can't come up with anything for the party to fight? You look at the front of the starter pack, Dragons are meant to be extremely rare to find, possibly 1-3 per continent is actually lucky to have, they are EXTREMELY territorial and can fight and will kill other Dragons in their territories which can span into a massive area!
Beholders
"You find a big floating eyeball! It shoots lazors!”
Beholders being the iconic mascot of almost all the D&D editions is bound to be overused and oh boy is it ever. Even in Bauldurs Gate the Video Game you find literal hives of beholders working together, usually it isn't too bad if the surrounding environment allows for interesting combat. But newbie DMs will most likely throw the party against this thing without any environmental hazards for it to exploit. Seriously though, if you're new to Dming and you pick A Beholder, just make sure you do a bunch of research on designing environmental hazards and maybe some movement penalties on some areas, like outgrown rocks and boulders, maybe some thorny overgrowth? Etc.
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Orcs
"You open the door and an entire legion of Orcs immediately pour out of it”
We only have Tolkien to blame for this one, of-course orcs have always been portrayed as massive overwhelming hordes in other fantasy settings such as Warhammer. But you know your DMs a Tolkien fan when every corner you turn there's an Orc army waiting for you. If this is a trend among your campaign the party will eventually come to a point where the orcs will be nothing but butter for them to spread on their weapons.
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Drow
“As soon as you step foot in the Dark Cavern, a multitude of Drow cultists swarm you”
OKAY WE GET IT, THE DROW LIVE IN THE UNDERDARK. What is not grasped by many newbie DMs is that Drow generally are a very solitary race in terms of where they settle. It's actually peculiarly hard to find a functioning Drow cult or civilisation since their customs are extremely disjointed. However of-course being the official biggest edgiest race in the Monster Manual they tend to be thrown in as the big bad guys almost all the time and misconceived as a pure evil race that stands on the same level as demons when really they just want to practice their customs in the dank and malicious nether regions of the Underdark, well away from other civilisations. SOMETIMES they invade other places, but really their true intent is to follow the orders of their Queen Lolth.
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The Undead
“You walk into the deep dank cellar, immediately you are assualted by hundreds of mr skeltals”
The undead are a vastly overused monster type, but you can't really blame new DMs since they're very easy to format into an encounter. Even the classic mr skeltal can be turned into a unique type of undead in various ways, another overused member of this family; Vampires, almost every undead setting there's gotta be some stereotypical vampire overlord. Just saying, as a player I'd prefer to encounter a Homo Erotic Vampire Lord who attempts to defeat the party via the power of sexual awkwardness.
Gelatinous Cube
“You walk into a room.....you start to die.”
Of-course nothing spells “I'm an asshole” Like making an entire dungeon room inhabited by a gelatinous Cube, because of their translucent appearance PCs can literally end up walking into it and getting themselves dissolved alive. It is quite popular during good old fashion dungeon crawls and because of this don't be surprised to see one or two.
Trolls
“The Troll roars at you as it roars at you”
Of-course this one could also be blamed on Tolkien for creating a montrosity that DMs will love to use because of their automatic regeneration. The only way to properly kill one is if someone in the party does acid damage or if someone picked up fireball. You can always go caveman stole on it though and throw stones at it until your roll a Nat 20 and ignite them causing its face to burst into flames.
Keep them requests and suggestions coming in, I'm too mentally retarded to think up **** on my own. I hope surprise skeltal man didn't spook you.
Anyways I've got nothing else on tab to make, so like, literally just haul bags of suggestions at me. I read every comment because I have no life so don't be shy. No really. Don't be. Please.
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