4 Stages of Monster Hunting Quests for D&D 5e | Grim Hollow

[@zephyrstrife4668]

I love this idea, you could even have something that is a mix of the "collect X" quests that turns into a desperate fight to survive the first run in with an unexpected monster. Like a bounty board having an open offer for wolf pelts, only for the party to show up to the projected hunting ground to find several mangled wolf corpses already strewn about and evidence that whatever did this... may not be far away. Hopefully the party didn't make too much noise as they approached...

[@kelpiekit4002]

Another way to double down on the tracking and discovery is if the quest is a research quest. They know about hags as creatures for example but they need to know about one nearby as a person, her behaviour, her history, and her needs, because they'd prefer to deal with her and keep her near if sufficiently reasonable. Or maybe there is no pre-existing knowledge of this creature but they are becoming more common in the region and so the town needs to know how best to avoid danger or defend themselves. Or the only wielder of a particular spell is a hostile fey creature so your wizard needs to track them and observe them casting, without being caught, to learn it.

[@benbyrne2429]

These are some fantastic ideas! It doesn't have to be all about "how do we kill the monster" but also "what does the monster want? Or what do WE need from it?"

[@yandamanwithdaplan]

I really like making my monsters unique. It’s not just a cookie-cutter hag; it’s “Old Meg”, with her own history, strengths and weaknesses. I also get creative with the weaknesses, like “can only be harmed while on hallowed ground” which means the players must investigate to find out what the weakness is and devise a plan to exploit it.

[@benbyrne2429]

@@yandamanwithdaplan That's fantastic! Your monsters sound like they make for excellent hunts.

[@ShadowPa1adin]

This is why I really like to use stuff from The Witcher as template for these kinds of quests. Those short-stories/games serve as great examples for incorporating mystery and conflict into monster-hunting adventures.

[@Deathven1482]

I had a side quest in my first homebrew campaign involving common folk going missing . It turns out that the monsters capturing the folk were related to the main quest, but it also gave my players a safer and deeper way into the dangerous area they needed to delve into to complete the main quest!

[@bastiandoen2583]

Thanks for the inspiration! Just developing my own monster hunt for my players. The real reason they need to hunt it is, what they will discover in the monster's lair. There they will learn about the BBEG of the campaign, who has ... ;)

[@rankrib7677]

this is one of the best dnd channels out there

[@benbyrne2429]

Thanks so much! 🤘

[@yandamanwithdaplan]

@Rankrib76 You should see their Grim Hollow books, they’re absolutely amazing. Ghostfire rocks.

[@irishbug4744]

This needs more views. This all seems super practical and evocative and I cant wait to try it out

[@benbyrne2429]

Thanks so much! 😄 Best way to get more views is if you feel like sharing, but I’m thrilled to inspire your D&D campaign!

[@silvertheelf]

My players heavily engage with bounty boards like it’s the Witcher and they have to complete every side quest.

[@benbyrne2429]

That's awesome! Wish my group did the same. 😅

[@silvertheelf]

@@benbyrne2429 it’s honestly kinda difficult to get them to talk to NPCs and such because they rush off to fast, thanks to this video that might not happen as much.

[@KHfanz]

Bounty boards and tavern keeper gossip are the 2 main ways my players grab onto hooks. And they go all out for those. The normal quest giver thing doesn’t really work for them, they just don’t seem as interested in that.

[@frankalphonso268]

I like that I want that my group is sadly laser focused on main plot and I’m over here like but we could also do this fun thing over here :c

[@silvertheelf]

@@KHfanzYeah, I noticed if it’s not a bounty board or a tavern keep, they just break into houses, lol

[@Tuffsmoygles]

Troll-werewolf. They think they are hunting a giant werewolf (like hill giant) but really it turns back into troll form (5e can transform at will) to regenerate any silver damage done to it, then back to hybrid form to avoid fire/acid damage and make devastating claw attacks (think troll claws on crack). If it is close to death in either form it turns into wolf form and attempts to flee unless one of the party is also close to death then it will continue to attack out of bloodlust.

[@benbyrne2429]

What a cool concept! XD

[@gobliknight6659]

Trollverine lol

[@shawnrehm2394]

Commenting to remind myself of this concept later

[@EurojuegosBsAs]

Thats some good advice. I would emphasize more on the monster agenda to introduce some tension and urgency. Players need to feel the monster is also a threat to them personally, not some side quest they can skip over. Run the Beast of Gevaudan recently. The movie The Ghost and the Darkness about two man eating lions was a usefull inspiration. Thanks for the video

[@matthewryall167]

Great video, i love it! when DMs indroduce new monsters, hell making new monsters is one of the best parts of running a monster hunt.

[@benbyrne2429]

Agree!!

[@victormenerovaldes7537]

Will be using this tomorrow in a Theros set, using two Fleecemane lions with various upgrades that players will be able to nullify if they find the right clues and act according to what they find out. Thanks a bunch!

[@ontheedgeofshadow2790]

I personally do not run 5e, but I've found that your presentation of themes can be used for what I do run.. which is grittier sword and sorcery low magic "Pulp" and thus im a new subscriber thx for posting

[@zegyboo]

This video is my first intro to your channel, and I WILL be subscribing, great video. I probably won't be buying your statblocks (sorry), because I don't play DnD, I play other systems, but I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate the system-agnostic advice.

[@WhatsUpGazpacho]

5:58 all D&D fog is supernatural

[@gardeth]

Local legends and lore that is wrong is something I’ve used more than a few times. Mixed in with a few times it’s been correct

[@strawberrylotlizard]

Yeah like giving a weakness but really it's something else in the story that seemed benign that is it's weakness

[@samdurfee6093]

8:05 What is that animation? It looks awesome.

[@weavelcow9596]

If anyone knows, I would like to hear as well

[@siveonfarcloud4190]

someone mentioned in another reply that its from "The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf on Netflix"

[@samdurfee6093]

@@siveonfarcloud4190 oh neat

[@GnarledStaff]

Good advice, except that you will likely want to forgo some of those dc checks to get vital clues. Drop DC checks when you can. For example, claw marks on the gravestones should just be given to any player that explicitly checks the gravestones.

[@GhostfireGaming]

Agreed. Checks provide further information that can make a character feel great if they succeed, but don't need to gate the story. For example, a character automatically spots the claw marks. A Nature or Survival check reveals the marks were made by a specific type of creature, so the party can be better prepared when they fight it!

[@8triagrammer]

Very nice. Can't wait to use this in Pathfinder.

[@Southpaw_Blue]

Super useful guide. Thank you!

[@demonic_myst4503]

Monster hunting is a key part my woeld monsters dont have random loot on them u have cut them up and sell their parts athe merngile union guild halls the union owns the banks the merchants and the adventuerers the world got a large roman empire so guilds are legaly wstablished and have power. the guild had money for monsters as they are tasked with clearing out monsters to keep the roads safe and prevent monsters over breeding

[@TheElectrikCow]

Great video, I am definitely able to take away some of this for my own games. The only thing I have a hard time with is getting my players to investigate something before hand.

[@benbyrne2429]

Yeah it can be a challenge. I wrote a monster hunt for my home group and by happenstance ran it for a few other groups first. Those other groups investigated, took their time, and tried to lure the monster into a trap. My home group ran in guns blazing (metaphorically) and almost got TPK'd. 😂 I think it's probably okay to sometimes tell players to just slow down and take their time, let them know the sort of quest this is intended to be.

[@nephicus339]

Thanks for the tips, and inspirations to develop my 'bounty board' into something more than just a monster hunt/fetch quest. ^_^ As an RP-er and writer, I'm more keen on developing a story behind these things than just being like, "Here's your setting, here's your monster, get your sheets and roll initiative!" On that note.. One of my players' favorite shared memory was a 'bounty board posting' I made (i made 'fetch quests' so they could try new character builds without investing in a campaign); but I love a good story, so they're just monster hunts, but i can't help myself... Anyway, they picked up a bounty to hunt down a cyclops. As I said, originally setup to just let them try new builds, there was no investigation, just right to the cave. So they went in, started putting the hurt on this cyclops, and the map I used, well, cyclops didn't have anywhere to go, was locked down by the tortle barbarian, while the squishy mage-types stayed at range near the mouth of the cave. I didn't want the fight to end so soon, and my players could see the cyclops wasn't really a match for them. KRA-KOW, PA-KOW!! Two huge stones strike the warlock and the wizard, taking out half their health each (good damage rolls); turns out two hill giants spotted the adventurers, loomed over the mouth of the cave. While the PCs were focused on the cyclops, the hill giants started lobbing stones at them. Suddenly, nobody gave a crap about the cyclops. Everyone turned and focused on the hill giants who kept a distance, throwing rocks, running up the mountain and lobbing more stones. The barbarian closed the distance with one, so melee started there, but the second giant kept running and throwing stones. Combined attacks, my PCs killed one hill giant, and the other was now out of range of spells, but the tortle barbarian's build let him catch up using everything to move. (side note for rules lawyers; the spells lacked the direct range, but I let the hill giant keep being able to throw stones because of the elevated height adding to the lobbing distance, as well as even falling short, those rocks would be tumbling towards the party, knocking loose other stones, etc etc) After a couple rounds of just two of them, I asked my PC, "...How much would you say your tortle weighs?" Everyone at once, "uh oh." Since the tortle ducked into his shell for the AC bonus, I made him roll athletics at disadvantage against the hill giant picking him up. He failed his roll, and the giant threw him at one of the casters down the mountain. Missed! Though the tortle took some damage, the rest of the giant's turn was to keep running, and escaping once passing 150 ft from the group with nothing to reach that far or being able to catch up. They returned to the cyclops who was no longer aggressive towards the party, but tending to his wounds. Since my PCs are mostly role players and didn't want the session to end yet, they started talking to the cyclops this time. Found out the bounty was just to get rid of the cyclops so the nobles who put the bounty on him in the first place could claim the cave for it's rare mineral deposits so they could mine it. Session ended there, but told my PCs I took notes, and they'll see more regarding this in a future homebrew game. They still talk about it almost a year later. Thanks for reading! Hope it inspired you, dear reader.

[@chaunceyshearinjr5997]

Brooooooo ur out here with that crack bro. Keep it up man. The past 10 to 15 videos you have put out I have watched over and over and over. You are definitely changing the game up and I absolutely love it. Please continue to be amazing and I hope you have a great day. I pray that only the best things in life happened to you again, have an amazing day.

[@farman2table]

Okay but what was the anime with the teleporting ghost who exploded that person

[@kslique]

This sounds like a game of Vaesen

[@daltongiessmann4511]

Just ordered the grim hollow books so excited to start a Champaign

[@benbyrne2429]

Hey thanks so much for the support! I hope you enjoy adventuring in the dark fantasy of Grim Hollow.

[@wolfround13]

I have the Monster Grimoire. I think the Muklac became the Oblivion Stalkers. I can't find Muklac but the art is the same for the Oblivion Stalkers

[@sarooku]

Thanks for this, I was confused when I couldn't find the Muklac in the book just now!

[@neepers]

excellent. great channel so far.

[@harrison3207]

So excellent!

[@benbyrne2429]

Thank you! Appreciate it. 🙂

[@ChrisSneeze]

Great video. Love the information about treating it like a mystery. Gives it that supernatural vibe.

[@benbyrne2429]

Exactly! It makes the monster feel otherworldly rather than mundane and something that simply needs to be culled. Early 'monster of the week' episodes of Supernatural were also influence the way I run these quests, if you were referring to the show directly! 😅

[@matthewschneider9328]

Amazing video, definitely will be using this for my campaign. And 100% it will be the new archetype for my one-shots.

[@benbyrne2429]

I'm super glad you found it useful! 😄 Enjoy the many grizzly monster hunts in your future games.

[@DrAndrewJBlack]

👍🏻 Oh yeah

[@richardmoreno5445]

Thank you. This was an outstanding video.

[@benbyrne2429]

Thanks for letting us know! 😁

[@chrisxenophon113]

Love this overview. I always struggle with the investigation phase of monster hunts and laying findable clues to encourage my players to think harder about how they want to fight the monster. The lore elements in the grimoire seem like a great addition to the standard monster manual. I'd love to purchase it but it looks like the link to your website, or the website itself is down.

[@GhostfireGaming]

Thanks Chris! Links in the video description should work. Sorry it took us a while to get back to you. 😅

[@fengari7638]

Whats that animation @ 8:06

[@davidyow9203]

Not 100% sure but it looks like a similar animation style to the DOTA show on Netflix. I'd check IMDB and see what other projects they've worked on if that's not it. Or wait for someone who knows to reply.

[@benbyrne2429]

It’s from The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf on Netflix. I forgot how amazing the monsters in that thing were. 😄

[@kirillfox5958]

hunters give me Bloodborne vibes

[@badmojo0777]

who wants toplay in Bens next campaign? HANDS UP!

[@Arnsteel634]

I play without ability checks. But this is a very damn good video. I hope your other videos on this channel are as good.

[@andrewholland2763]

I received my Bounty Cards yesterday. I am excited to incorporate them into my game.

[@GhostfireGaming]

That’s awesome, and thanks for the support! 😄 I hope you’ve found them really useful.

[@jonathanowen9917]

When you are running a monster hunt, what do you do in between player investigations? So, for example, you have six clues about the monster with three set to DC14 and three set to DC15 and you have three players. You have the players roll and they get 15, 16, and 19. Do you reveal everything and jump straight into the monster fight, reveal one clue for each player, or reveal one clue for the party? If it is one of the latter two cases, what do you have the party do next? How do you keep this from being 1-5 minutes of dice rolling and clue reveals and then straight into the final combat? I have a party with players on levels 3 and 4 and they don’t have silver weapons. In the case of the monster being a lycanthrope, do you have an NPC come up and give the players silver weapons, have the party randomly find these expensive weapons lying about, make the party go shopping and have the merchant just happen to have silver weapons for sale (can the party even afford to purchase them?), make it loot for a side quest - how do you get silver weapons into their hands in a meaningful way?

[@egglessedits7190]

I currently run a sandboxy campaign which Main foxus is hunting demons and monsters but always with some form of twist to most battles. It doesnt have like a final boss or a hige overarching plot cause its more chatacter driven. I still dont want them to just go there, kill that rinse and repeat. I still need to figure that out.

[@StBrock21]

so where is Muklag in the grimoire?

[@GhostfireGaming]

The müklac was written after the Monster Grimoire, but you can get it stat block and lore for free (alongside a few others) in the description of this vid: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmW1faOFh7t7rpY

[@johannesstal270]

would love those bounty for grim hollow cards but as a pdf. shipping doubles the cost for me.

[@jklappenbach]

I wouldn't assign a perception or investigation DC for discovering basic clues. Don't assign a roll for that which the party is actively seeking and has put themselves in the right place and right time. You could have a knowledge / lore wisdom check to see if they can tie the clues they find to a monster type (would you know this?) But a party, having done *an* investigation of the area, should be given enough to know how to defeat the monsters.

[@benbyrne2429]

I agree, it can be the most satisfying to players to be able to piece clues together by asking the right questions while investigating rather than having them gated behind rolls that can feel arbitrary. GMs should obviously flavor the need for rolls to theirs and their groups taste! I might ask for rolls if the players aren't quite pieces clues together correctly, or making incorrect assumptions, however. I don't want characters with high INT or Investigation proficiencies to feel like they've missed something if a roll would likely yield success for them.

[@davidmc8478]

This seems like good advice but I think rolling dice is part of the fun of the game. I have been struggling to see my way through this and I wonder if the answer is in pbta - you get one clue on a fail but you get two clues on a success.

[@stevenmike1878]

i made a hunt where the party had to kill a mega raptor reking caravans but its a mystery on what they are fighting. the only survivor was an old man who claims he saw a dragon without wings. but everyone says that cant be, but thats what he heard the woods whisper. then the party travels they are ambused by kobalds who scream they need meat for there lord. when you finish the kobalds. a bit further you find more things like starved wolves nawing on the bones of a mammoth skeleton. who attack the party for nourishment. you find the kobald village empty and you find the shamens diary, and its bassically a zealous shamen dillutional written rants who convinces himself they found a dragon egg they stole off a caravan. and it goes into the shamen convincing himself it had to be a dragon. even tho it doesnt have wings. it gets to a point where they cant feed it and it starts eating kobalds which is explained, that kobalds were not tru believers and the dragon ate them, when they reincarnate as a hatching they will be punished. the raptor as it gets bigger leave the village at will eating all the wildlife, it was the kobalds hope to eventually raid and destroy the human town with there new dragon lord. if the party is missing someone that adventure they will find a ork tribe in the woods where all the men have been eaten after there attempts to kill the raptor in a hunt. the only peolple left are children a few woman and the old ork chieftain. who will join the party after the raptor ate his sons who forced him to stay home because of his age and they needed a test of strength, a decision he regrets and hiding away and not fighting the beast is a shame to great for himself to bear. so he joins the party. traveling further in the woods. you see toppled trees. and eventually the raptor attacks then if injured will flee. or maybe killed? but eventually leads to a grotto of woods with a lake where the final showdown occurs. the raptor dies and the party find a small nest of football sized eggs. if the party kills the raptor early and doesnt discover the eggs. then after the adventure you describe the grotta they missed and inside is a nest are some eggs as a baby raptor hatches forth.

[@klosnj11]

Sorry to ruin the 666 likes, but I had to. This vid was too good not to give the thumbs up to.

[@benbyrne2429]

I’ll let it slide this one time. 😉 Thanks so much for the support!

[@thatguy-js7ri]

1:41 wheres that from?

[@GhostfireGaming]

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf on Netflix.

[@jaimiebrown4055]

So this is just the monster of the week ttrpg in DND format? Cool

[@philosopherhobbs]

Good video but those DC checks don't make any sense to me. The fog check seems fine because even though the thickness of it shouldn't require a check, maybe it moves in a subtly unnatural way. DC 15 to see that the graves are undisturbed? If the party walks around, that's just something they should see and have described to them in some way. DC 14 to notice claw marks (assuming they're not weak, barely visible scratches which they could be)? Again, that should just be part of the description of a gravestone if they choose to look at them or at least a much lower number.

[@francotejerina4524]

do you get a digital copy of the deck when buying it?

[@GhostfireGaming]

Currently, the deck is a physical product only.

[@deepseastonecore3017]

A star walks into a black hole but doesn't seen phased. The black hole then turns to the star and says, "I don't think you understand the gravity of this situation."

[@tylerdruskoff9689]

what show is playing in the scenes he shows like at 8:09

[@GhostfireGaming]

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf on Netflix.

[@Muddledde]

What animes are shown in this video?

[@Rubadubrubs]

Idea: A family is found torn to pieces in their home and all but one child is dead. The youngest child is missing. Turns out the child is a Werewolf of something similar and ran away because of fear and gilt. Do the characters kill the monster or save the child?

[@joakimandersson7769]

"being the operative word"

[@danieladamczyk4024]

Imagine if Witcher game ever did that.

[@wbbartlett]

I didn't realise that 'what' was spelled differently in Australia. Interesting.

[@raulracolta6224]

why is he screaming most of the time? :)))

[@jahpocalypse]

your links don't work

[@loganmcgee18]

lol why are you yelling at me

[@YaleBreaker]

Just fyi if you want to take the umlaut in Müklac seriously you're better off pronouncing it somewhere between "Mew-clark" or "Moo-clark"

[@wanderlocktv]

intro took way too long, got 45 seconds in and lost interest

[@Tysto]

Good information, but why are you shouting at me?

[@mekquake5879]

Look you seem like a nice guy but your proportions really scare me