D&d Adventures: We Stole A Nightmare Horse From A Vampire’s Castle And He’s Our Friend Now

‘Maalstroom’ is the name given to those storm giants who embrace undeath in exchange for immortality and fathomless arcane power. Unlike humanoid liches, maalstrooms need not feed the souls of others into a phylactery - all they require is an enchanted lodestone known as the Heart of the Storm, to which a storm giant quinetssent must be bound. The process is long and complex but mostly harmless; if anything being bound to a Heart of the Storm actually solidifies a quintessent’s presence in the world.

Giants are naturally predisposed towards reclusive lives in lonely fortresses, so very little adaptation is necessary when then ascend to lichhood. Although some maalstrooms use their power to subjugate humanoid empires, ruling as immortal god-emperors, thankfully most maintain their isolation or make war on the great enemy of giant-kind, the dragons.

Some background: I’m a young DM, who runs a group of fellow teens and young adults who meet at my house. 

The fighter, has been separated from the rest of the party, escaping with the MacGuffin. While he waits for the rest of the party to find a way out, he backtracks to a village they passed on the way to the castle, in hopes of finding lodging.

Fighter (OOC): So I go and look for a good place to stay and lay low.

Me: Okay. The inn you went to before seems just shady enough. You can stay there if 

absent Ranger (OOC): What is he just on Fantasy Travelocity while we’re in the dungeon? Travelocitinn?

absent Druid (OOC): Tavernlocity?

My Mom (not a player), from the other end of the room: AirDnD!

😼😼

Hey! Do you have tips on how to make a low cr monster more challenging? I have a cool idea for a dungeon/boss but the only monster that fits is way too easy for my players. Thanks!

Oh, absolutely!

-Other targets. Make there other targets in the battle, even if they aren’t stereotypical minions. The players could have to destroy traps like swinging axes, they could have to accomplish certain checks and objectives while the battle is going on, etc

-Items and abilities. Give the boss some better weapons, even if it’s just trading out a light crossbow for a heavy one. You could also give them some sort of magic weapons, armor, or items. If you don’t want to give items the players can take, maybe add a feat or something to make the battle more interesting. Or just straight up steal other monster abilities, when it makes sense. Maybe the basilisk boss lives in a swamp and CAN breath underwater. You can mess around with statblocks!

-Speaking of statblocks… You can change around some stats. A leader of a group might have higher charisma and intelligence than the typical statblock for its monster type would warrant.

-Terrain!! You can gain so much of an advantage by messing with terrain. You can obscure areas with dust, foliage, cobwebs, rain, and so on to give the attackers an ambush opportunity or places to hide. Pitfalls, uneven terrain like ice and steep rock, or areas that need to be navigated by more than just movement (checks to swim in a rapids, climb a wall, etc) can call for interesting strategy- especially when it manages to separate the party (not fully split, just make party members less accessible to one another).