THE DUNGEON COACH

MONSTER PLAYBOOK
BY THE DUNGEON COACH

Contents
Villain Actions....................................................................... 3 The Dungeon Coach
Actions.................................................................................. 3 Medium Humanoid
Bonus Action ....................................................................... 3
Reaction(s)........................................................................... 3 Contact
Villain Actions..................................................................... 3 Email thedungeoncoach@gmail.com
Legendary Actions............................................................... 3 Discord https://discord.gg/NpU932E
Lair Actions.......................................................................... 3 Facebook https://facebook.com/thedungeoncoach
Passives................................................................................. 3
Villain Action Tables............................................................ 4 Resources for dungeon masters
‘The Witcher’ Style Monsters.............................................. 6 YouTube - The Dungeon Coach YouTube Channel
Make it Deadly..................................................................... 6 I create weekly videos every Sunday to help make your
Weaknesses, Resistances and Vulnerabilities................... 6 games more creative and more fun!
https://www.youtube.com/thedungeoncoach
Mechanical Knack Triggers................................................ 6
Mechanical Knack Statuses................................................. 7 DM’s Guild –Check out the other content I’ve published. I
Lure Table............................................................................ 7 will keep making more and more of my documents available
Causing a Stagger................................................................. 7 online from my large list of homebrew content!
“Chosen One” Traits............................................................ 7 https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=The%20
Witchery Solutions to Monsters....................................... 8 Dungeon%20Coach

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THE DUNGEON COACH MONSTER PLAYBOOK

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Villain Actions
A
balanced encounter in Dungeons and
Dragons usually involves roughly the same
number of monsters as there are players.
This allows you to pressure your players as
a Dungeon Master with hordes of kobolds
or goblins, a roving band of Orcs, and an
annoying group of bandits.
Because combat works better with the party facing a group
of enemies, it can lead to encounters with your villains feeling
rather lackluster. This is because the party is always going to
have the strategic advantage as a group since they’ll always
have a full round of attacks while the Villain just has to sit
there and get pummeled. It’s definitely not very epic.
You can try to beef up your Villains with lair and legendary
actions, but that is often not enough to provide an EPIC battle.
One of my favorite content creators, Matt Colville, solves this
with something he calls Action-oriented Monsters. I have
taken this as inspiration to create this system of mine. If you
want to see it in action, I made a full video about it on my
channel linked right here: https://youtu.be/Xua9kgK9W1Q
Villain Actions are basically BUFFED Legendary Actions,
you can choose to use these at the TOP of the round and go
right away, or if you want to be nice you can use them after
players turns like normal legendary actions. The only rules
here are that you can’t take a Villain Action after or before
your own turn (or do it… you are the DM after all!) and you
cannot do a Villain Action and a Legendary Action back to
back (now THAT would be cheating)
These tables are for both new and veteran DM’s to inspire
Villainous Actions for your monsters! There are 4 Tables for
different kind of Villain Actions (Generic, Set Up, Tactical,
and Finishers) and there are also 2 more tables on triggers for
Reactions and Passive abilities.
The Generic table is basic, actions, and bonus actions for the
villain’s turn. Your run of the mill villain using his servants
as meat shields, casting nasty AoE spells, and the like. It also
includes simple legendary actions. Set up Actions are for round
1 type villain actions to get the fight going. Tactical Twists
are huge game changers where the PC’s will have to adjust to
something big the boss just did, and finally the Finisher is a big
last ditch effort for this EPIC creature to kill them!
The Triggers table is used for determining what causes
these reactions to “go off” and can be combined with any of
the generic actions to custom create your own Villainous
Reactions. There are also passive triggers, which will activate
anytime the players take a certain action or might just be a
constant effect. These do not require the creature to expend
their reaction and can be done an infinite number of times
(since it’s “passive”)
Actions
These can be very basic and standard monster actions, this is
just what the creature does on its turn. Multi attack/ charges/
etc. BUT I would make sure to try and give creatures a ranged
attack of some kind as well so that its “Threatening Range” is
more dangerous!
Bonus Action
Here, you can start to spice things up with extra buffs, cool
spells, or summoning reinforcements.
Reaction(s)
To keep the battle flowing, think about the sorts of things
that would trigger reactions. Perhaps the villain really doesn’t
like fire and goes into a blind rage! Maybe FIRE actually
makes them stronger. Just be sure to be consistent with these
reactions. You can custom make these with a trigger effect and
an action. Make sure not to get too complicated with these
because they can be easy to forget WHAT the triggers are in
the heat of battle.
Villain Actions
Villain Actions are separate from Legendary and Lair
Actions and are designed to give mechanical support to the
narrative you’re telling as the Dungeon Master. Usually, you’ll
want 3 rounds of Villain Actions prepared for your average
combat encounter. You could consider even more for a long,
epic battle.
I recommend setting them up in the following pattern: the
Set-Up, the Twist, and the ULTIMATE. During the setup,
the Villain will take a new position or order their cronies to
take a new formation. Ideally, this will be a bit of a red-herring
in order to give the Villain some sort of surprise advantage
in the Twist. The players are likely going to feel thrilled to
have survived the Twist, but that was only its own setup for
the Villain’s ULTIMATE move. Check out the tables below
for ideas on each of these Villain Actions to keep your games
fresh and your players challenged. Usually I have 3 Actions
for a Round 1 Set Up, Round 2 Twist, and Round 3 Ultimate!
Legendary Actions
If you’re in love with Legendary Actions, this still all totally
works with them. These are nowhere near as grand or EPIC
as Villain Actions but serve as the monster still getting to go
in between the players so its not just sitting there waiting.
Little attacks, cantrips, or movement work great here to keep
the beast feeling ALIVE!
Lair Actions
You can still have fun Lair actions that occur at the beginning
of each turn (Initiative 20) or have smaller actions occur at the
beginning and middle of the turn (Initiative 20 & 10). These
might be changes to the terrain, the arrival of reinforcements,
or something that interacts with a Villain Action.
Passives
Lastly, you might consider what sort of passive abilities/traits
your Villain might have. This could be an aura that protects
them from certain types of attacks or just a bad habit of
attacking the person that dealt the most damage last turn!
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 Villain Action Tables Set Up / Movement
These tables are provided primarily to spark your inspiration,
Burrows (Earthmelds)
rather than as something to roll on directly. Read through
Fly around w/o Opportunity attacks
these and let the ideas presented here inspire you to make
some truly terrifying villains! Movement that causes Difficult Terrain where you move
Huge leap landing with a displacement effect from landing area
Mass Teleport
Generic
Huge knock back all in one direction
Attack back to anyone that attacks you
Huge knock back away from a central point (Creatures
Disengage & Free Movement location?)
Single Action from creature (attack etc) Huge pull inwards towards a central point
AoE Damage AoE Restrain/ Grapple/ Snare on all PC’s
Use nearby allies as a shield, gaining 5 AC. If the attack would’ve Mass status effect (fear, blind, etc)
hit you, the ally takes the damage instead.
Wall/ Barrier Dome separating the battlefield
Call reinforcements
Teleport PC’s to a certain place
Throw the dead bodies nearby
Control PC’s to draw them to certain location
Cast full spell as bonus action (or spell like effect)
Villain steals something important from the Party
Fear Effect that forces use of reaction to flee 1/2 move speed
Levitate/ lfit/ carry PC into a dangerous position
Single/ AoE Stun
Goes invisible and moves somewhere
Charm
Cloud of fog/ darkness blocking vision
Throw creature that you have grappled (or prone)
Can move grappled creature into incoming attacks
Additional attack vs a target with “Insert condition here”
Tactical / Twist
Sneak Attack (bonus damage from Advantage)
Trigger wild magic zone effects
Second Wind Heal
Destroy or effect the items/ potions of PC’s
Turn Based Heal
Huge increase to Defenses in some way (Temp HP or
Give self buff for additional dice/ modifier of damage Temporary increase to AC)
Cast Spell of a certain range (lower range for Bonus Actions) All allies move towards the one who last attacked you, having a
Force creature to move (physical/ spell/ mental) single free attack if they get within range of an attack.
Give disadvantage to a creatures next swing/ full turn Some interaction with the environment, like dropping boulders
or trees, lighting a fire etc.
Teleport
Call reinforcements
Take Flight (Levitate)
Barrier around itself for a turn “turtling” (invulnerability shield)
Burrows (Earthmelds)
Eat a smaller minion for healing
Bane / Bless spell effect
Grant allies advantage on their attacks until your next turn
Cantrip
Fixate all attacks on one target
Grant advantage to an ally
Fixate all attacks on farthest target
Cleave attack hitting multiple targets standing infront of
creature Fixate all attacks on the last person to hit
Whirlwind Attack hitting all within 5ft Healing Aura for all creatures allies/ self
Swallow Mass Dominate/ Charm saving throw
Mass saving throw from a Status Effect
Mass Raise Dead / Summon
Spell dampen/ magic block
Illusions/ duplicates of creature appear

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Ultimate / Finisher Passive Abilities
An ability that takes a turn to charge up, then goes off next turn Damaging Aura
and does something crazy Reduce saving throw aura
Huge AoE Damage Disadvantage Aura
Enter a rage for x rounds (Enraged = Massive damage boost) AC that can be destroyed
Huge AoE status effect (+damage?) Damage back anyone that damages you
Huge throw/ slam/ crush of one PC (into other PC’s?) Additional conditions if fail save by 5 or more
Action Surge for two turns (one during the “villain action” and Gain Temp HP on (Trigger)
one on actual turn, cannot be back to back)
Cause Damage on (Trigger)
Kills all allies within 120ft and gains a damage buff/ heal for each
one Resist/ Immune to status effect/ damage type
Health swap between two creatures (self and PC?)
Mass Dimension Door to get away
Status
Form Change, shapeshift into something stronger
Push
Single devastating attack at one PC (Disintegrate?)
Prone
Summon a powerful creature (dies when he dies?)
Grapple
Transfers spirit into a PC, controls them (how do you remove?)
Restrained
Massive environmental effect
Blind
Enter a dream/ trance to continue fight in their own minds
Charmed
Mass teleport of entire group (creature and PC’s)
Deafen
Says something extremely ominous and dies out of nowhere
Fear
Invisible

Triggers for Reactions Paralyze

Gets hit with certain damage type Poison

When hit with attack of opportunity Stun

When first appearing into combat Exhaustion

When at half health, Bleed

When moving near a dead body, Burn

If all attacks hit on creatures turn

When an enemy misses an attack
Elements
When the creature misses an attack
Fire
When counterspelled
Lightning
When an enemy gets within 5ft
Thunder
When a friendly creature dies
Cold
When any creature dies
Necrotic
When someone drinks a potion
Radiant
Every 1/4 health lost
Psychic
When a creature tries to move out of melee
Force
When an ally within 5ft gets attacked
When knocked prone
When a nearby creature is prone
Above half HP
Below half HP
Death
Lands a hit
Gets a crit
Creature Kills something
Gets hit
Gets crit

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 ‘The Witcher’ Style Monsters Weaknesses, Resistances and
This is a System to take any monster and turn it into a Vulnerabilities
Deadly, Folklore based Monster! These monsters get buffs to
make them much stronger than normal with resistances and These are different things that you can either use as a
immunities that players will have to fight around to defeat it. weakness or vulnerability for the monster, or things that it is
Witchery monsters also have secret “knacks” (vulnerabilities resistant or immune to. Use this as inspiration to buff or nerf
and weaknesses) that the players have to learn and figure out your monster!
in order to stand a chance. This turns these monsters into
folklore monsters. Zee Bashew created this idea, but I have Fire
created a system that takes this concept a step further. Use Cold
these tables to inspire yourself to create some truly challenging Lightning
and memorable monsters for your players! You can find my Thunder
video where I go over all of this right here https://youtu.
Poison
be/9Ztk39IcnsY
Acid

Make it Deadly Necrotic

Radiant
To make a Folklore Monster, Witcher style, we need to find
Force
the Threat Level. Start by taking the Avg level of your group
Psychic
and add the highest proficiency bonus in the party. This is the
threat level of the monster. Slashing
So now what do you do with this number? Lets say we have Piercing
a party with an average level of 4, plus 2 for proficiency. This Bludgeoning
gives us a 6, but let’s make it a bit more challenging and give Abjuration
it a Threat Level (CR) of 7. Choose a monster in the CR Conjuration
6-7ish range and give it 7 different regular resistances. For the
Divination
immunities use Threat Level divided by 3 (rounded down).
For this example it would be 7/3 (rounded down) for a total Enchantment
of 2 immunities, and then decide thematically what those are. Evocation
Illusion
Threat Level = Average Party Level + Highest
Proficiency Bonus Necromancy
Resistances = Threat Level Transmutation
Immunities = Threat Level / 3 (rounded down) Types of Material (metals, silver, rubies)
Now you can choose some items from the following tables Invisibility (must be Invisible to deal damage?)
to give your monster some weaknesses and knacks. Your
players will need to figure these out ahead of time if they hope
to defeat it! Mechanical Knack Triggers
Don’t be afraid to also give this monster extra abilities too
These are things that cause the monster to gain a negative
(see Villain Action section). The weakening knacks that you
effect of some kind. Pair these with the “Mechanical Knack
give this monster should give the players a fighting chance but
Status Effect” table below.
you have to make sure you buff this thing up to be truly deadly.

Hearing High or Low pitch noises

DM Huddle!
Make sure your players know what they are getting into
with this type of monster, or they will TPK! Have NPC’s
talk about how dangerous it is as they learn more about
how to fight it!
Hearing a certain type of music (Bards?)
Targeting specific parts of its body
Seeing a Symbol or Rune
Getting hit with a Character’s Class feature
Take a certain type of damage
Become Staggered (see Stagger Table below)
Light or darkness

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Mechanical Knack Statuses Causing a Stagger
Once the Mechanical Knack is triggered and the players do A “stagger” is a mechanic I created (inspired from Wildstar
the thing that weakens the monster, it gets one or more of the MMORPG) where you do something to a creature to enter
statuses from this table. These are some effects that you can it into a temporarily vulnerable state. In this staggered state,
put on the monster besides just dealing extra damage. all damage dealt to it deals double damage. You could further
set up some awesome combos by dealing damage of a type
Disadvantage on attacks and/or saving throws that it is already vulnerable to causing 4X damage while it
is staggered!
Blind
Charmed
If the creature gains a certain status effect
Defeated
Deal a certain amount of damage within 1 round to a creature
Frightened
Deal a certain amount of damage in a single hit to a creature
Grappled
Deal a certain type of damage
Incapacitated
Counterspell the creature
Grappled
Hit a certain spot on the creature (roll at disadvantage or give
Paralyzed
that spot a higher AC)
Petrified
Poisoned
Prone “Chosen One” Traits
Restrained These are special characteristics that would grant PC’s the
Stunned ability to deal damage to the creature or double damage if you
Unconscious want to get crazy.
Reduced movement speed
Disable some of the creature’s own abilities Only those who have experienced great loss
Only those with anger in their heart (Barbarian)
Only those with a focused Mind or Soul (Monk)
Lure Table Only a Trained Fighter (Fighter)
These are things that could serve as either a weaknesses or a Only those who follow a higher power (Cleric / Warlock)
lure to draw them out. Only those who <insert sketchy rogue thing here> (Rogue)
Only those who have slain a <insert nasty beast here> (Ranger)
High / low pitch sound or music Only those with pure hearts (stereotypical Paladin)
One of the elements Only those who have made an Oath (Paladin)
Certain smell of some kind Only those who have been near death (have failed at least 1
Certain language it speaks/ understands death saving throw)
Blood Only those born with power (Sorcerer)
Moonlight Only those with the blood of (Sorcerer or Race of some kind)
Day/ Night time Only those with a Keen Mind (Wizard/ people with Int score
higher than “X”)
Cry of a certain creature
Only those that open themselves up to art, creativity, or music
Symbol
(Bard)
Some kind o material its drawn to
Only those who are one with Nature (Druid)
Scent of a certain school spell being cast
Only those who have survived or currently have <insert disease
Fear/ emotions here> (Vampirism? Lycanthropy?)
Certain time of day/ week/ month Someone who has betrayed or been betrayed
Temperatures

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 Witchery Solutions to Monsters
Once the PC’s figure out the weaknesses this creature has, they
need to find a way to use that to their advantage. This is a list
of things that the PC’s could use to counter the monster. Keep
in mind that these effects could be temporary or permanent.

Potions that temporarily grant buff

Weapon oils that temporarily grant buff of certain weapon
damage to item, or converts all damage dealt into a different
element (easier way to handle it)
Potions that grant an ability to deal damage though a feature of
some kind (Dragons Breath = Fire damage)
Crystals that can be shattered for an effect
Scrolls of magic
Enchants to certain items (temporary or permanent)
Quest to get something specific (item or boon)
Special / Magic Items that can harm it
Boon granted by an NPC
Unique circumstance (full moon)
Items crafted out of specific material
Items that have been used to accomplish strange tasks (blade
thats pierced the hide of a werewolf, a wooden stake that has
slain a vampire)

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