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Tune Monsters with Extra Attacks

by Mike on 5 February 2024

Not all monsters are created equal for their challenge rating. Some monsters don’t hit very hard at higher challenge ratings. Others hit well above their weight class.

I’ve talked about the four dials of monster difficulty before:

The number of monsters in a battle
A monster's maximum hit points
The number of attacks the monster has
The amount of damage those attacks inflict

We can tweak monsters, either before or during a fight, using these four dials. Has a battle overstayed its welcome and gotten boring? Drop those monster hit points. Is an otherwise fun and challenging battle becoming boring because it's too easy? Jack up that damage.

If this topic is of high interest to you, please check out our book Forge of Foes with tons of great advice and tools to help you run monsters in your 5e games.

Adding or reducing the number of attacks a monster has is an easy and powerful way to change the difficulty of a monster. We don't have to do any complicated math or calculations in our head for this modification. We don't have to roll more damage dice. Instead, we just have a monster attack again or have it make one less attack.

This "number of attacks" dial has a big impact. If a monster only has one attack and you give it two – you're doubling its potential damage output. If a monster attacks three times but you only have it attack twice, you're removing 50% of its damaging threat. It's a big dial but it's an easy one to turn and create a big effect.

Normalizing the Action Economy

We might turn the "number of attacks" dial to account for a big delta in the action economy. Four characters versus a single monster has a big sway in the action economy – the number of actions (attacks) the characters have versus the number of attacks the monster has.

In a case like this example, giving the monster more attacks helps even out that delta. We probably don't want to have the monster make all of its attacks against a single target, though, instead spreading them out to other members of the group.

Reducing the Threat

Likewise, if a particular monster proves too deadly for a group, it can attack less. Just because Agdon Longscarf can make two branding iron attacks doesn't mean he has to every round. Maybe he does so if he's surrounded. Maybe he does a jaunty dance instead of that second attack. Monsters don't always behave optimally.

Fixing Sub-Par Monsters

Often higher CR monsters hit below their challenge rating. I think this is due to overweighting the extra abilities these monsters have. I argue these monsters need those extra abilities to challenge higher level characters. The result of these overweighted abilities is a reduction in damage. It's not uncommon to find lower challenge monsters hitting at 10 damage per challenge rating (the thug hits at 20 per CR!) but higher challenge monsters hit for 5 or 6 damage per CR. Their extra abilities don't make up for that drop in damage.

If a monster isn't holding up its end of the fight, give it another attack.

Think About Why You're Doing It

It's important to know why you're adding or subtracting attacks. Are you really adding to the fun of the game or just making yourself feel better? I like to imagine the dials have resistance to them. They like to spring to the average. They need force to move. We don't just move them willy nilly. We need a good reason. What are some good reasons?

A monster is significantly outclassed in the action economy.
A monster hits below the challenge it represents in the fiction of the game.
A big boss is really only threatening one character instead of almost all of them.
The amount of damage the monster inflicts is boring.
A lower challenge monster faces higher level characters and would otherwise be completely useless without more attacks.
We want to increase the threat without making battles longer.

Why shouldn't we give a monster more attacks?

We're mad at the players.
We want to punish the characters.
We're sad our monster rolled so many failed attacks.

An Easy Tool for the Toolbox

Of all of the dials of monster difficulty, adding or removing an attack to a monster's arsenal might be the easiest to implement and have a significant impact on the situation. Keep this tool handy and use it to tune your game for the most fun at the table.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

I also posted a YouTube video on the Tomb of Kytheros – Shadowdark Gloaming Session 19 Lazy GM Prep.

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

Keep the situation dynamic in big battles. Change up the tactics and environment.
Roleplay villains in combat. What do they say? How do they react to the characters?
More monsters are a bigger threat than big monsters.
Boss monsters almost always have allies.
Intelligent magic items are tag-along NPCs who don’t take up the spotlight.
Did a character die? Give their player an NPC to control.
Set up hard set piece battles with lots of monsters and then lean in on cool character ideas.

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