Monster Spotlight:: Level 2 Terrors

While I continue to work on the Druid article I thought I would do a sequel to my Level 1 Terrors article and show you some monsters that are just one level higher but equally fun to use against players, especially those who already have a decent grasp on the game.

Hyena

Hyenas are fun to use and work well as pets of whatever the real villains of an adventure are whether they be goblins, kobolds, or bandits. They can be found on page 166 of the Monster Manual and are not particularly scary by themselves but using just a few of them along with some other skirmishers or lurkers can yield dangerous results.

Hyenas only deal 1d6+3 damage normally, but they deal an extra 1d6 if the enemy is adjacent to two or more of the hyena's allies, which is not too hard to accomplish, especially if you want to add some minions to the encounter. The real scary part of this monster is their Harrier ability which means that if Hyenas are adjacent to an enemy, all other enemies have combat advantage against them for their sneak attacks. If you throw in some other monsters who get extra dice or have better effects (Kobold Slyblades, on page 169 of the Monster Manual for instance), you can make a reasonably scary encounter.

My personal recommendation for a tough encounter is to use two of the hyenas, find two other lurkers or skirmishers who benefit from combat advantage, and then eight minions of some kind. Make sure the area you put these monsters in is of medium size. Too small and the group's controller will be able to trivialize the entirety of the minions and too large and you won't be able to take advantage of the Hyena's bonuses.

Greenspawn Sneak

Speaking of cool Lurkers, the Greenspawn Sneak is a great monster if you can put them in the right circumstances. They're a Lurker that can attack from both range and melee, and can be rough on a beginner group especially if they're not used to the stealth rules. Greenspawn Sneaks can be found in the Draconomicon 1 on page 218.

Greenspawn Sneaks can deal 1d8+3 in melee or 2d4 from range, each is an at-will basic attack. They also get to deal an extra 1d6 damage if they have combat advantage. The really great ability they have is Arboreal Hunter though. Because of it, if a Greenspawn Sneak starts its turn with cover, it also has total concealment against non-adjacent enemies, which allows them to use Stealth and become hidden, gaining combat advantage. They make a great monster to use hit and run style tactics with, and can be a memorable low level enemy without being too deadly.

While they have a melee attack, you probably want to favor ranged attacks with them so that they can make use of Arboreal Hunter. Make sure to build the encounter with this in mind, giving them plenty of hiding spots to gain cover with. You also want to give the sneaks melee support of some kind. For a thematically appropriate encounter use the Brownspawn Marauders on the same page. The Marauders can blind ranged party members before closing to melee, forcing your party's melee characters to make a tough decision: stay and defend their blinded allies while taking the damage from the sneaks or rush ahead to close in on the sneaks but leave their allies vulnerable to the marauders.

Halfling Stout

Found on page 152 of the Monster Manual Halfling Stouts may very well be my favorite minion period. Halflings may not seem like there's much opportunity for use as a monster, but they can easily be members of a bandit group or mercenaries hired to thwart your party.

The reason that I like Halfling Stouts so much is that they have a ranged attack, which is pretty rare for minions, and that they have Second Chance. This means that even if you hit this minion, there's a chance they could cause you to miss with Second Chance, effectively making you hit them twice to kill them. And if the enemy closes to melee they have a little bit more room to maneuver since they get +2 AC against opportunity attacks.

Regardless, don't just use Halfling Stouts. Mix up the encounter with some soldiers or brutes, and perhaps even a controller. If its a mercenary group you can find decent monsters under the Human, Elf, and Dragonborn sections of the Monstrous Manual and get a really ragtag group of enemies. Add Orcs or Goblins if you want to make the band seem a bit more savage.