Monster Spotlight: Level 1 Terrors

Player's Handbook 2 has come out and released such a flood of new player options into the game that many of your players are going to want to start new characters. What I'm hoping to give you in this article is a few level one monsters that are interesting alternatives to the standard kobolds and goblins, that will either be more challenging to an already tactically minded party, or at least more interesting to players who have seen that before.

The Monster Manual is difficult to read front to back, and now there are several other books with monsters in them too, so it is hard to know which monsters are challenging and fun to play as the DM and which monsters are on the opposite end of the scale if you haven't looked at it too deeply. Once a week I will highlight a few monsters that I think are fun additions to encounters and point them out here and give possible strategies for them as well. Since so many people are going to be starting new campaigns right now, I figured that starting with the lowest level monsters there are would be a good choice.

Gibberling Bunch

Gibberling Bunches are level one brutes, and can be found on page 257 of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide but they are easy to import into any setting. Flavor-wise they are nocturnal creatures that either live in the Underdark or burrow into the ground during the day and then hunt in large packs at night.

Mechanics-wise the first thing you'll notice is that this monster is a swarm. If you are unfamiliar with swarms, the way they generally work is that they take half damage from melee and ranged attacks, and they have a vulnerability to close and area attacks. This is nice because its one way to make your controllers feel useful without using minions, even if it will frustrate you melee characters a little. Swarms also get to make basic melee attacks against adjacent creatures at the start of those creature's turns.

In addition Gibberling Bunches have an aura which gives their enemies a -1 penalty to all defenses if they are within 10 squares. Their basic attack is +4 against AC and it deals 3d4+2 damage, but you can lower the damage by 2d4 to knock the enemy prone. In addition they have an at-will attack against fortitude with the same +4 bonus that also knocks prone. Knocking your enemies prone is pretty much what these guys do.

Other than those attacks they have two passive abilities, one of which allows the Gibberling Bunch to make opportunity attacks against adjacent creatures who stand from prone and the other passive simply allows them to deal an extra 2d4 damage against prone targets.

That's a lot of different abilities, so lets put them together into a strategy in case it isn't immediately recognizable. The Gibberling Bunch gets its free swarm attacks, so you immediately want to put it in melee against as many targets as possible, a charge attack against a target works pretty good for this usually. Next on the agenda is knocking enemies prone. If you can knock somebody prone with your initial charge attack, at the beginning of their turn you get to make a free attack for a total of 5d4+2 damage. This is a lot on level 1 and if you have a tactically minded group, this encounter will challenge them just based on this. After you make that free attack you can then attack them when they try to stand up from prone, and should you hit, knock them prone again, causing them to use their standards to get back to their feet.

The Gibberling Bunches do have weaknesses. They only have +4 on their attacks which isn't wonderful, and characters with high ACs and decent Fortitudes will be able to avoid getting knocked prone by them very much as will dwarven characters. They also have really really low defenses but this is actually good because even the melee characters will consistently hit them, since nothing makes a player feel lame like repeatedly missing. However, even with these weaknesses I think I should put a disclaimer on this monster. I would honestly say that this monster is probably the hardest level 1 that is currently in the game. Don't make your party fight more than a few of them and don't enclose them in a small place with them because it will kill your players in a pretty unfair way. I recommend using these guys for an "ambush on the road at night" type scenario, where the players can spread them out and not get massacred by them. These also aren't a good monster for players who are just learning the game. The number of extra attacks they get will confuse new players, and make it feel like the game is stacked against them.

Fire Beetles

Found on page 30 of the Monster Manual, the Fire Beetle is another level 1 brute. They are pretty much just what the name suggests: beetles that breathe fire. I recommend using them as pets of whatever kind of monsters run the dungeon your party is exploring or possibly as parasites who took over a certain room and are closed in there, but be careful putting these guys in enclosed spaces.

Probably not the most stand-out interesting creature in the low level bracket of the monster manual at first glance, but this monster packs a punch. Their bite attack is nothing special but their breath fire hits a close blast 3 for 3d6 fire damage and it recharges on a 5 or 6. This monster has the same tactical requirements as the Gibberling Bunch, in that the players will need to keep them spread out to succeed, but it isn't a swarm so it doesn't take half damage. However the beetles do have 10 fire resistance, so don't be afraid of having them breathe on each other.

I think Fire Beetles really shine amidst other types of creatures. I once used them as the pets of a kobold boss I had made and it worked as a fairly memorable encounter even if it was a bit on the difficult side. These can be a good creature to use against new players to teach them the value of obstacles in the terrain. Building the encounter in a room where they can use columns and walls to prevent anyone from being caught in two fire breath attacks or something similar. You could also have them fight near a well or watering hole so that particularly creative players could retreat to the water if they became too injured.

Stormclaw Scorpion

This one is a soldier, not a brute, and as such has higher defenses. They are man-sized scorpions with claws that crackle with electricity and venomous stingers which makes them pretty memorable if you build them into a good encounter. It might even be cool to catch the players in between a clash between a den of Stormclaw Scorpions and Fire Beetles, but the scorpions work well in almost any context.

The scorpions have 32 hit points, and decent defenses for a level 1 monster. They have two main attacks, one is a grab attack. Once the enemy is grabbed by the Scorpion it takes 5 lightning damage a turn until it escapes, and it can then attack the grabbed creature with its other main attack, its sting. The sting attacks fortitude, deals 1d4+3 damage, an ongoing 5 poison damage and immobilizes the creature (save ends both). This means that it is imperative to escape the grab for a player as soon as possible to avoid taking 10 damage each turn. This isn't a huge obstacle for a fighter, but for a caster it becomes treacherous. You can make an encounter with these that will quickly emphasize to your defender the importance of marking creatures so that your casters do not get carried off by scorpions.

Before you brand me as a murderous DM though, I want to point out a unique opportunity that you have with creatures that grab. If you have a player playing an Eladrin, or who has some kind of teleport power, you can make them feel good about their character here. The time your wizard was grabbed by a scorpion and he teleported away to leave the creature bewildered while he blasted it with a ray of frost will be a memorable moment, particularly for characters new to the game. Try to give your players some of these moments where they can be really proud of their characters for more than just dealing damage.

Wisp Wraith

I love undead creatures, so I couldn't do this post without one. I was kind of limited in my options, but this is actually a pretty cool creature. You can find them on page 192 of Open Grave. They are level 1 minions, which means don't be shy about putting a lot of them in an encounter. Flavor-wise they are basically wraiths that failed to come into being correctly, but feel free to improvise them into whatever kind of ghosts or guardians you'd like them to be.

Minions die as long as you hit them, so controllers will shine against these creatures, as will clerics with turn undead. These wraiths are by no means really powerful, but they have a few abilities which can make them interesting to fight, which is better. They slow with their attacks, can shift their full movement speed and are phasing which means they can walk through solid objects. If you don't take advantage of the phasing with the encounter setup there is almost no point.

My suggestion is to include them in a room with lots of obstacles and sub-walls for them to walk through, perhaps a library with tall shelves. Have them come out of the walls themselves when the players approach an item they're searching for or the door to the next chamber. Use them to hit and run, darting through a wall to attack a target and then slinking away through another wall when they next act. If your players start chasing after them, it'll make the encounter even better.

That's it for my first DM article. Again, feedback is appreciated. Thanks for reading.