Fun low level encounters
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Tatzlwyrm - Yellow eyes flicker from the underbrush. In an instant a large reptile leaps out; six feet in length, a dragons head with daggered teeth and 2 powerful arms with razor claws. A cloud of noxious vapor escapes from its gory maw.
This is it! You finally got a group together. You all learned the rules and you are ready to begin your first game of D&D or Pathfinder! But you are a little disappointed. In the rule books and everywhere else you read, its very difficult to find any interesting low level monsters. Fear not! These creatures listed below are in almost any edition of D&D and tend to be fun memorable encounters no matter what skill level you are at!
Lets start off simple with a wolverine! You want the players to fight a pretty fierce beast but they just aren't ready to fight a bear (just yet). A Wolverine is an excellent substitute.
Forlarren - Hairless Satyrs. They have a small amount of hit points but they are fairly intelligent and have a heat metal ability. If your party doesn't like killing animals but still want to fight something exotic this is the enemy for you.
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Smoke Dragon - Let's say a pseudodragon like the Tatzelwyrm isn't your thing. Your party wants to fight a REAL dragon, but they also don't wanna fight a baby.
Al-Miraj - Also known as blink bunnies. They are rabbits with unicorn horns. While hilarious, they are ******* ANNOYING! They can blink as a free action making them damn near impossible to hit. For rabbits, they have a shocking amount of hit points, and did i mention they can teleport?
Tatzlwyrm - Yellow eyes flicker from the underbrush. In an instant a large reptile leaps out; six feet in length, a dragons head with daggered teeth and 2 powerful arms with razor claws. A cloud of noxious vapor escapes from its gory maw.
**** yeah! Low level dragon-kin. 22 HP, low AC and and a good hit rate. These ******* are fast and deadly. Your party will remember these sons of bitches.
They get a stealth bonus and they have pounce (allowing a charge action and a full attack with a bite, 2 claws, grapple, and rake all in one round!) You wanna strike fear into a party, this is the way to go!
Full party of level 3 adventurers were tracking down a mated pair of these guys last week. They took out the male but when the female got her turn she killed the level 3 war priest in 1 round (a crit on the bite helped).
One of my favorites! What could make these guys better? Oh, right! ******* POISON BREATH! goddamn I love these things
This is it! You finally got a group together. You all learned the rules and you are ready to begin your first game of D&D or Pathfinder! But you are a little disappointed. In the rule books and everywhere else you read, its very difficult to find any interesting low level monsters. Fear not! These creatures listed below are in almost any edition of D&D and tend to be fun memorable encounters no matter what skill level you are at!
All creatures I list can be found www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/-bestiary-by-challenge-rating/-bestiary-cr-1-2. Its for the game pathfinder but they are perfect for low level players between CR 1-2. Just be sure not to throw too many of these creatures at the party. Remember, as DM's we don't want to slaughter our players but we don't want them to walk through every encounter either.
Lets start off simple with a wolverine! You want the players to fight a pretty fierce beast but they just aren't ready to fight a bear (just yet). A Wolverine is an excellent substitute.
22 HP, easy to hit armor class, a rage ability and 3 strikes for a full attack, this little guy is pretty decent fight that is easy enough to hit for most players but should last a couple of rounds and bloody a few noses.
Forlarren - Hairless Satyrs. They have a small amount of hit points but they are fairly intelligent and have a heat metal ability. If your party doesn't like killing animals but still want to fight something exotic this is the enemy for you.
13 hit points, a damage resistance of 5/cold iron (for newbies, if your players are not using cold iron weapons the creature ignores the first 5 damage of the attack) and 2 slam attacks with a Heat Metal special attack you can get some really cool thematic moments out of these guys.
Hell, slap on some levels of cleric or sorcerer and you got an interesting NPC or short term villain!
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Smoke Dragon - Let's say a pseudodragon like the Tatzelwyrm isn't your thing. Your party wants to fight a REAL dragon, but they also don't wanna fight a baby.
The smoke dragon might be your thing! For a low level party this can be a fun fight. 22 hit points and slightly higher than normal AC, and spell resistance of 10 make these guys a fun, unique encounter.
They have a smoke breath weapon that can cause a debuff rather than damage. 3 attacks (not too hard) and they can fly really well giving your archers something to feel really valuable for at low levels.
Fun potential encounter - House catches fire. Players go into help. They see the mysterious figure of a dragon in the smoke (dragon gets bonuses!), and boom! Dramatic and engaging fight. Have the dragon escape when it gets low and return to a secret master. Smoke and fire by their nature are mysterious. This will pique party interest.
Al-Miraj - Also known as blink bunnies. They are rabbits with unicorn horns. While hilarious, they are ******* ANNOYING! They can blink as a free action making them damn near impossible to hit. For rabbits, they have a shocking amount of hit points, and did i mention they can teleport?
Al-Miraj are creatures created by magic mutations. In their history supposedly a witch wanted a more powerful familiar and thus created the species. They have a weakness to witch hexes and can make great fodder for a witches lair. They don't do allot of damage but they can last a while due to their fast movement and mobility.
If you REALLY wanna mess up a party, have the Star Buck be a psionic varient. They can control air, light, and use telekinesis, and levitate...also they have spell resistance and immune to poisons.
The party enters the final chamber of the Warren. Inside is what is clearly the Star Buck, evident by it's groupies and followers. The Dwarf berserker, tired of these godsdamn rabbits in this godsdamn cave charges the leader. As expected, they teleport away.
What was not expected was the burst of light that came from the leader. What was also not expected was the star buck to float slowly into the air, wind brushing past their faces. And least of all, they did not expect their prized fighter to be lifted into the air and thrown against the cavern wall to be knocked unconcious. The party drew their weapons knowing that this is was the "vorpal bunny" that the village warned them about.
Tags: dungeons and dra
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