Favorite Monsters #1

[@MonarchsFactory]

That gargoyle fix! So simple! So elegant!

[@munderpool]

Some serious potential for a TPK, but combining two camouflaged beasts like that is an imaginative challenge.

[@williambird7459]

Love gargoyles. Love this format to discuss monster and their uses

[@willinnewhaven3285]

My gargoyle rule, and it has been since I ran sort-of D&D back in 1980 or so, "Until they animate, they cannot be harmed by anything that would not harm a stone statue."

[@jimmurphy1591]

I did the same

[@Fenizrael]

The bed as a mimic is something I love. Great to add to a bunk room for a barracks deep within a fortress where players will need rest.

[@johnnybigbones4955]

This is a great idea for a style of video that I haven't seen on youtube before. It really plays to your strengths. You get to show off your cool set ups and your excellent dungeon tiles and paint jobs, and show your tactical side. Really useful, hope you do more in this style. I like your solution to the Gargoyle problem. I have been running Barrowmaze, an old school dungeon, and there is a clan of gargoyles deep inside the maze. But the adventure writer is careful to put gargoyles all over the place that are just statues, so when you describe rooms you are constantly telling players there are X gargoyles and so on, and eventually they get lulled into a false sense of security. What I have the gargoyles do is wait til the group has nearly completely passed by, and then animate and grab the weediest looking person at the back of the group before running off into the darkness with them, intending to drag them off to the gargoyle lair. This is a fun encounter and really scares the players, while also leading them toward the lair of one of the dungeon factions that they can fight or interact with.

[@jimmurphy1591]

Johnny Bigbones thanks and I hope your right. I am using this format for my adventures on my Patreon page as well. I hope I can make it interesting.

[@pez5767]

Jim, my favorite thing about your Monster Mambos is the way you combo your monsters together AND use the environment. In your Mambos, you often mention "leveling" your monsters or how many points you have to spend, I would love to see you do a breakdown on how you evaluate when (or how much) to level a monster for a party. Great stuff as always. Please keep making Mambos!

[@bradleydillinger2460]

This is Great! I would love to see more about how you pick the treasure you are going to offer!

[@alamos52]

So stoked to see you are putting out videos. I like this video a lot because of the specific advice and examples. I could pick this up and drop it into a game. And there's general take-aways too, such as the style of many encounters, but many rewards. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

[@MrFleem]

"Is that a gargoyle? No, it's a grotesque!"

[@mikegould6590]

I run a particular encounter, and it's with a Mimic, but it's with an Oytugh. I wrote it very early in my career with Nerdarchy. It's called "Friend in Need" under series 1 of "Out of the Box Encounters". Imagine a ruined and collapsed cabin in the woods beside a lonely trail. It's a homestead - long since abandoned. The roof has all but caved in because of a tree that's fallen over onto the cabin. The only actual structure still standing is an outhouse. The players will note something shiny on the wall through the slats of the walls of the outhouse. The shiny thing is a silver framed mirror hung high over the bench of the outhouse. The bench of the outhouse is a Mimic. Below the mimic, through the hole to the ditch below, is an Oytugh. The aberration and the monstrosity are "friends" whom have learned to work together. Strangers always investigate the mirror. When they stick to the bench, the Mimics attacks. If he starts to lose, The Mimic shifts over slightly and the Oytugh attacks from below. Yes, I'm that bastard. I also have a Mimic encounter in series 2 called "Lonely Boat" where I postulate what would happen if a Mimic took the form of an abandoned rowboat with a lock box in it. (Physics tells us that it isn't necessarily the material a ship is made from, it's the shape and density - that's why metal warships exist). I have yet to use Gargoyles as my players either avoid or attack demonic, winged statues on sight at this point. Thanks for the video, Jim. As always, a pleasure.

[@jimmurphy1591]

Mike Gould another one of my favorite D&D monsters.

[@Postal0311]

Thank you for the combat advise. I hadn't been able to get combat to feel the way I wanted it to in my campaign. I was generally throwing one or two monsters in a hard or deadly fight and my players were steamrolling through it. After that last combat video of yours I had them fight a boss fight where it was three trivial encounters right in a row. It makes for a much more interesting epic fight. Thanks.

[@EricVulgaris]

Gargoyles are one of my favorite monsters ever! great use of them. Gargoyle damage reduction isn't so much a danger to the party, but a danger to the fun-- those fights can go on for 7+ rounds if you don't have magical weapons.

[@jimmurphy1591]

Eric Vulgaris true

[@seanhillman1016]

Very clever. I love putting denizens in the same area that play off of one another in an opportunistic way, even though they may not be allies.

[@jackderricourt84]

Super cool getting to see your index cards Jim. I mostly use them for NPCs, but I might try using them for monsters now using your template!

[@VerumAdPotentia]

Wow! Well done Jim! You really brought your video to the next level!

[@liamcunnane4049]

Love the twist on Gargoyles! Makes them them much better ambush creatures

[@MrUtterlybored]

It never occurred to me to put monster stats on flash cards for what you *Think* would be that session's encounters! Genius idea and really helps with the clutter of hauling the monster manual. Definitely gonna steal that, thanks Game Methuselah! :D

[@jimmurphy1591]

Utterlybored that is how you can pull out encounters as they are needed and works well if game goes of the rails

[@Pokemon4WoT]

I had a wicked ass DM grin during this whole video. My party is going to have a hard night on tuesday.

[@WeShallLoveOn]

It was really helpful that you showed the encounter on an actual battlemat. I'm going to have to use this on my players.

[@elgatochurro]

I've had to basically make a bunch of furniture and statues just... Around to get people to stop attacking them. They'll eventually stop

[@jimmurphy1591]

I’ve seen that

[@Humorless_Wokescold]

Ah yes, the bed mimic. Not only a great monster, the bed mimic strongly invoked the feeling of a terrible schlock horror film monster. 100% win.

[@tmage23]

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats

[@CrazyConnor2]

@@tmage23 *Death Bed: The Bed That Eats People ;)

[@joshuamcguire4498]

The remorhaz has always been my favorite d&d monster. Especially for a mid-level boss monster. I love how they are stated in 5e, and can make for a super intense encounter. Especially if your party is mostly made up of close-range martial class characters (like mine usually are).

[@jimmurphy1591]

Joshua McGuire there are a lot of nasty beasts.

[@rickeymariu1]

I've gone and rewatched your vids Jim and see, you made it past 10k subscribers!

[@Rocks_Fall_Everyone_Dice]

Great video and great advice. I like the Gargoyle rules

[@GameNubQuin]

Some of my favorite creatures are Mongrelmen. I don't put them in combat very often but I think it is just interesting to see how players interact with a people whose biology curses them into stigmatization and, usually, poverty.

[@Twosocks42]

I used mongrel men recently. They weren't threatening, just trying to scare the party away from the abandoned keep they entered because the mongrel men took residence there (and wouldn't you want to scare away intruders?). All but one of the party made the effort to communicate, and the one I never expected to go murder hobo (a Neutral Good Cleric) was trying to go murder hobo. Fortunately for the group, they trumped him and resolved their quest without attacking innocents, which I had secretly made worth a greater experience prize (they got to get rid of a giant spider infestation instead).

[@jag519]

So, the gargoyle update doesn't stop people from using spells that need a save, right? Like I have a character who after one too many animated statues and armors started just casting sacred flame until something registered as a creature for sacred flame to actually hit (or toll of the dead that works the same way, idr which he started using). It seems like that would still be effective, right? I'm thinking if I use a gargoyle I might just make it count as not a creature while in stone form, but idk.

[@jimmurphy1591]

jag519 both would be fine. In 4th had regeneration in stone form in case of above.

[@diagnosisninja]

>Start video >View comments >Bed mimic >Dis gun be Gud.

[@Aud_the_Odd]

How timely! I just stuck a mimic in one of my first home brew dungeons. Thanks as always for your advice and thoughts.

[@nathanrodic6294]

This was a great video

[@bhatfield1417]

I love your videos Jim

[@targon749]

I put my players in what was essentially a medusa lair- a courtyard with a bunch of statues, and a temple on a podium with Greek-style marble pillars. The party snuck in to the temple to find a broken statue on the ground with it's head missing. As they left, the gargoyles attacked. No one saw it coming and it was a super fun encounter.

[@jimmurphy1591]

Morgan Smith now that is mean😉

[@targon749]

The players loved it and thought it was super dramatic, and the cleric got a magic shield (a mirror shield) out of it, so overall, I thought it went down well.

[@Maknikos9]

Hey Jim, really love all the vids! One question for the back to back encounter: why would the second wave of gargoyles/mimics wait? What’s the reasoning in having a back to back encounter instead of one big combat from a story perspective and the monsters’ point of view?

[@jimmurphy1591]

Raneem it depends of the quality of the party. With a CR Generation systems for encounters, almost every battle would be considered a deadly one. To avoid that you split your encounters into waves so to not overwhelm the party. You still get the mass battle but it’s up to you when the reactive encounters occur. This is even more important with weaker creatures since the way they rate CR is really cocked up there. Now you could just ignore it and run what you want, you’ll end up with my reputation.

[@JamesBrown-qb5ih]

I love those corpse minis! Any chance you know where you got them? Thanks :)

[@jimmurphy1591]

James Brown those are ancient. I think heritage, from the 70’s

[@JamesBrown-qb5ih]

Jim Murphy damn, they look awesome! Thanks for the reply!

[@roumonada]

Since you give gargoyles extra abilities, do you raise the cr and xp award?

[@jimmurphy1591]

Joshua Roumonada I did not, but I run milestone experience. You could but these abilities only apply when they are in statue form. More to stop meta gamers

[@ishmiel21]

Hi, Jim. I love your videos and have looked up to you ever since Matt's interview with you a few years back. I have a question for you. I''m the DM of my group and we're getting ready to start a new campaign. As such all my players are looking for minis. One of my players is female and finding female minis is a real pain in the ass. SHe's going to be playing a female paladin and I can't find a decent female mini anywhere. I need something repainted because I can't paint. This might be hard to believe but I am blind. yup, a blind DM. Do you have any suggestions on where I can find a repainted female paladin or fighter mini? Maybe an elf or half orc or something. She doesn't want to pay a human. Thanks a ton and keep up the great work!!!

[@jimmurphy1591]

Joe easier to find females than the 70s. WizKids makes some new pre-painted that are nice and both Pathfinder & D&D line. Check eBay for individual miniatures since many people open packages and sell. Reaper makes a great female Paladin but needs paint. Maybe someone in your group would like to paint?

[@ishmiel21]

Thanks, Hum. Naw, no one in the group is a painter. We have a photographer, a stage manager, a stage actor, and me. I've been checking on eBay and haven't come across anything good. I'll keep looking but if you have any other suggestions I'd love to hear them. Thanks again, dude!!!

[@jimmurphy1591]

Joe look for cheap every few days, there is often stuff on you need

[@wimplesaur]

There are a fair number of female characters in the newer D&D/Pathfinder pre-painted ranges. There will definitely be something to suit you there

[@praecantrix]

Where do I get those minis

[@jimmurphy1591]

Paint them! Most were Reaper or RalPartha

[@praecantrix]

Jim Murphy yeah that's perfect thanks. They look so solid

[@nickp4173]

Small comment, Jim. I almost didn't watch this video at all because it was titled "Favorite Monsters" and you listed the monsters in the description. As I watched it though, it became more "Managing Monsters" than "Favorite Monsters". Might be worth while to consider changing the title of these types of videos (assuming you make more as the "#1" indicates) to "Managing Monsters" or something similar, to indicate to other DMs/GMs the types of lessons contained within? Anyways, thanks for a great video!

[@jimmurphy1591]

Nick P that might have been a better title but was thinking of my favorite foe and was planning on making this a series if popular.