The darkweaver’s base speed is 50 feet; it also has a 50-foot climbing speed, with the Spider Climb trait. Add an ability contour that points to a shock attacker combat role, proficiency in ambush skills and 120 feet of darkvision, and you have a critter that’s extremely nasty in a dark forest or subterranean environment. The post Darkweaver Tactics appeared first on The Monsters Know What They’re Doing ..read more

Eaters of knowledge are mighty brutes that crack open victims’ skulls like walnuts and scoop out what’s inside, not only the thinking meat but also whatever the meat had in mind. The more brains they consume, the more their psionic powers grow. The post Eater of Knowledge Tactics appeared first on The Monsters Know What They’re Doing ..read more

Previous githzerai have been, essentially, variations on a monk-ish shock attacker theme. Morte’s Planar Parade gives us three new ones to look at—the traveler, the uniter and the futurist—and they continue the trend, sort of. The post Planescape Githzerai Tactics appeared first on The Monsters Know What They’re Doing ..read more

Ugh. A week lost because the Oobit was sick; another week lost when my wife and I picked up the same bug, which turned out to be stealth COVID. If only we could rewind the clock to before all that happened. Hey, you know who can do that, though? Time dragons. The post Dragon Tactics, Part 7: Time Dragons appeared first on The Monsters Know What They’re Doing ..read more

“Bending the law,” of course, means adhering to the letter of the law while committing all sorts of unsavory offenses against the spirit of it. You might think a faction aligned with the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus would hold both the letter and the spirit of the law in equal, paramount regard … The post Planescape Faction Agent Tactics, Part 5 appeared first on The Monsters Know What They’re Doing ..read more

I know that alignment is an aspect of Dungeons & Dragons that many contemporary players—and even a few longtime ones—consider problematic or irrelevant, but if you’re going to be working within the Gygaxian Great Wheel cosmology, as Planescape does, you can’t just ignore it. The post Planescape Faction Agent Tactics, Part 4 appeared first on The Monsters Know What They’re Doing ..read more

The factions I’m looking at today seem almost to be defined more by their relationships with the Bleak Cabal and the Doomguard than by their own core ideals. The Hands of Havoc and the Heralds of Dust are occasional partners with those factions, while the Mind’s Eye stands in opposition to them. The post Planescape Faction Agent Tactics, Part 3 appeared first on The Monsters Know What They’re Doing ..read more

Today we’re looking at two more factions in the city of Sigil: the Harmonium, a faction of militant peacekeepers (yes, that’s an oxymoron, and no, they don’t care), and the Transcendent Order, who practice their disciplines to the point where action no longer requires conscious thought. The post Planescape Faction Agent Tactics, Part 2 appeared first on The Monsters Know What They’re Doing ..read more

The bulk of Morte’s—the bestiary—skips over the majority of creature types entirely. There are no monstrosities in Morte’s, no giants, no undead, fey, elementals, oozes, plants or beasts. The only humanoids, although there are quite a lot of them, are NPC faction agents. The overwhelming emphasis is on aberrations, fiends and celestials. The post Planescape Faction Agent Tactics, Part 1 appeared first on The Monsters Know What They’re Doing ..read more

The psurlon has a curious ability contour: a single peak in Intelligence, with its three physical ability scores all equal. Avoid attacks or absorb them—it matters not. But for its own attacks, it decidedly prefers to use its psionic ability rather than brute force. The post Psurlon Tactics appeared first on The Monsters Know What They’re Doing ..read more