5e D&D woefully underuses Resistance, Immunity, and Vulnerability -- especially since there are 13 damage types in the game (ten magical, 3 physical). Scramble and sprinkle them liberally about in a new conception of your campaign world! Further, given 10 magic & 3 physical damage types, and 3 conditions beyond Regular damage, you can easily roll up randomly very different monster strengths and weaknesses. Grab a 1d10 for magic, 1d3 for physical, and 1d4 for received damage... and maybe a 1d8 for how much resist-immune rolls (or 1 per Hit Die minimum?).

So let's say Merfolk are Hit Points 2d8+2, so 2 Hit Dice. And yet they do not have any resistance to cold or pressure or the like. Could just eyeball it and give them Resistance to Cold & Bludgeon. Or you could roll 1d4 twice, checking between 1. immune, 2. resist, 3. normal, 4. vulnerable, then pick/roll between magical or physical die and roll off that as well. Who knows, maybe you get something interesting like Immune to Fire, Vulnerable to Psychic? (These Merfolk have delicate feelings?)

Quote from: Opaopajr;11424905e D&D woefully underuses Resistance, Immunity, and Vulnerability -- especially since there are 13 damage types in the game (ten magical, 3 physical). Scramble and sprinkle them liberally about in a new conception of your campaign world! Further, given 10 magic & 3 physical damage types, and 3 conditions beyond Regular damage, you can easily roll up randomly very different monster strengths and weaknesses. Grab a 1d10 for magic, 1d3 for physical, and 1d4 for received damage... and maybe a 1d8 for how much resist-immune rolls (or 1 per Hit Die minimum?).

So let's say Merfolk are Hit Points 2d8+2, so 2 Hit Dice. And yet they do not have any resistance to cold or pressure or the like. Could just eyeball it and give them Resistance to Cold & Bludgeon. Or you could roll 1d4 twice, checking between 1. immune, 2. resist, 3. normal, 4. vulnerable, then pick/roll between magical or physical die and roll off that as well. Who knows, maybe you get something interesting like Immune to Fire, Vulnerable to Psychic? (These Merfolk have delicate feelings?)

Ok, I like this a lot.  Consider it stolen... :cool:

Quote from: LiferGamer;1142165I have some Shameless players who in the current 5th edition game, study the monster manual, and now that we are playing remotely I have no doubt they are combing through it while we play.

That being said eventually we all have seen most of the stock monsters again and again.

I got a little grumbling when the monster that the fish described (to the druid) as that which lurks, turned out to be an eye of the deep. I told the player well, the fish hasn't read the Monster books.

Being evasive is useful but I find far more fun in using their knowledge against them.

Most recent example and the thing that got me wanting to post, they've inadvertently rescued a bounty from a terrible fate- he had a red slaad egg injected; they quickly metagame figured out what it was and how to handle it.

The part that started to get them on edge was the realization that there is a Thieves Guild both with the means of watching someone no matter where they are, who also have a pet red slaad.

Confession I originally was going to come here for help brainstorming name for said Guild.  Red something.

But I'm sure many of you have done something similar, like statues outside of Medusa's lair, even the simplest of foreshadowing can be fun.

I don't, or at least I'm careful about using player expectations against them.

I like for players to be able to make plans, and if every time they make a plan, I subvert it, then I think the game gets very meta, like Ear Seekers in 1st Ed AD&D being a "counter" to characters listening at doors. Then players come up with work-arounds like ear horns with some kind of mesh on them, and it's a power play between the GM and the players, instead of the characters trying to succeed in a scenario.

I kinda like adventureres being able to say "Ah, a Troll! Dangerous beasties they are! I hear fire is their weakness." And being able to come up with tactics around their knowlede and rumors they've heard. Your example at the end about the medusa is right on.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1142207A perennial problem since AD&D 1e came out with the Monster Manual. The solution remains the same - buy more monster books to comb through and/or custom monster creation.

I highly recommend this book by James Raggi. It's really excellent.
https://www.amazon.com/Esoteric-Creature-Generator-Classic-Simulacra/dp/9527238269

Raggi likes the idea that no two monsters in the world are the same. I'm not that extreme, but I do like weird monsters and weird takes on old monsters. I especially like homebrew campaigns where the DM rewrites the monster manual to their campaign and we get to figure out all the new whats and whys as we play the campaign. AKA, in-game earned meta-knowledge.

I'm really not a fan of random creature generators. They have their place, but I feel like the monsters created are something like those old Mad-Libs. A bunch of random nonsense jammed together and called a monster.
For some kind of chaos-spawn, or comic book style mutant monsters, it's ok.