Any good resources for GM tactics?
Any good resources for GM tactics?
As a GM I'd like to feel like I fully understand how to utilize my monsters tactically, but over the past couple months as I've been running the beginner box and now leading into Abomination Vaults, I feel as though I'm very often just making three strikes with an enemy or moving and striking twice unless the enemy has a very specific action in its statblock which is obviously better. Like a dragon is obviously supposed to use its breath weapon, but then I ran goblin warriors last night and I couldn't even figure out how to use their scurry reaction beneficially.
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My two cents: The step reaction, is an action in and out of itself; so you could chain multiple steps to keep goblins moving together.
Alternatively; lets imagine a goblin beside a Barbarian; in a grid (G for goblin, B for Barbarian)
Goblin1 is to the left of the barbarian. Goblin 2, comes from lower, coming right to the barbarian; it strides or steps into range, and ends just below the barbarian; within 5 feet of goblin 1 Goblin 1 can then use its scurry reaction to step; and it moves diagonally to the square over the barbarian. Now, Goblin 1 and goblin 2 are flanking Barbarian; Goblin 2 can now make an attack with better chance of damage.
Funny thing; since the reaction can trigger another action (i believe so, but i may be wrong) you could have a line of warrior goblins; all stepping "at the same time" by reacting to the nearest ally stepping. Or a group of four goblins together, one steps outward; they can all follow by chain, or go in different directions.
The cool thing about the scurry is that they can pretty much dance around a pc; it can be offensive or defensive, but is not as much movement as the kobold retreat
Kobolds, as long as there's some frontline, could go like this: PC is fighting some frontline that can take hits Kobold strides into pc's range, making sure to flank Kobold attacks, which trigger their sneak attack extra damage to flat footed targets Kobold uses hurried retreat. It's hit and run, but if there's a bunch of kobolds, and they can get cover behind some terrain(which they 100% SHOULD DO, they should attack somewhere they can take cover behind large rocks, small cave passages etc)
And in general, a lot of tips on strategy are relevant throughout many TTRPGs and Wargames, almost universally; Due to this, you can almost always extrapolate tactics from somewhere like " https://www.themonstersknow.com/ ", which is quite a good source for inspiration imo