"Hey, remember that time we fought those skeletons?"
"Yeah, I almost died. It was bloody ridiculous."
"No, you're thinking of the skeletons we fought back in Derdinn's Keep. I'm talking about when we fought the skeletons in those crypts back when we were second level."
"You mean third level. There were three skeletons and two zombies."
"No, second level. The ones with rusty scimitars."
"They've all had rusty scimitars."
We can't all work our way though the
Monster Manual from cover to cover; sometimes in our campaigns we have to throw the same kind of monsters at the party that they have already fought. But that doesn't mean they have to
feel the same. Too often as GMs we become satisfied with presenting monsters just as they are presented to us in the
Monster Manual or
Bestiary. But no matter how good a dish is, eating it over and over is going to get bland.
Take a look at these skeletons. We've got your typical shambling skeleton in tattered scraps of armour:
A saintly skeleton decked out in the finest gilded plate:
And glowing-eyed skeletons (okay, probably liches) wielding staves and wearing crowns and mighty robes:
 |
| Keith Parkinson |
In your game, if you pitted your party against any of these three types of skeletons - even if behind the screen they were all just your basic
CR 1/3 skeletons - I guarantee they wouldn't remember it as just "that skeleton fight."
The two simplest and best ways to make your monsters unique are reskinning and reequipping.
