The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters: Volume 1

I bought a load of books to "up my game" as Dungeon Master, and put this one off until now as I thought it was a little over-priced, and also most of the content was available online. How wrong I was! The book is beautifully put together, the hardcover is fantastic, and the sheer size of the thing is way beyond what I had imagined. But most important of all is the fact that this is all really well written. It's really easy to read, like a good "page turner" story where you don't want to stop reading. I think it's fair to say that most D&D books fall into one of three categories: - essential source books that are a little dry, but (mostly) necessary for the tables and information in them; - skinny pamphlets posing as books that have great content, but would be better as a laminated A4 handout; - books written with good intentions, but the author just isn't a very good writer. This book stands far above all of the rest in my opinion. The information in it can be read from cover to cover, or dipped into to prepare a specific encounter. There's some general ideas that cover any monsters not covered in detail, and then a wealth of information for all of the common monsters that I would expect to see in a campaign. I honestly don't know how I have been running combat without this book as a resource, and I would heartily recommend reading this to any Dungeon Master, experienced or brand new to the hobby. My players knew something had "changed" the last time we played, and I had a number of post-game messages to confirm that this was one of the best combat sessions they had ever played. I can't wait to put more of the ideas in this book into practice.

So this book was much bigger than I expected, and I must admit I was little nervous about reading it at first. However, once I read through the introduction and useful overview of the monster's goals, it became clear the book was then quickly split up into explaining the tactics of each individual monster one by one. This with a good index and contents page makes it incredibly easy to find the monsters you want, study them specifically, and then you can put down and pick up the book at your leisure. My party just got visited by an old "friend" they disturbed some time ago, and I'd already built him up quite a lot before (a vampire). This book was brilliant with the tactics and helped me scare the players so much they were meta gaming their little socks off (for a party that rarely meta games at all, this was pretty hilarious to me). Even so, the vampire managed to escape to fight another day, so the paranoia continues for now. Just wait until the vampire sends his minions after them too (all carefully explained in the book as well). I've gone through quite a few of the classic monsters now and always feel like the advice is easy to understand, makes a lot of sense and is very interesting to read. A lot of love went into this book and if there are ever sequels with monsters found in Volo's and Mordenkainen's I will happily purchase them too.

This excellent book is a must-have for all dungeon masters. Especially if you are just getting started out! It goes into great detail about HOW monsters should actually fight in DND 5e, and more importantly WHY they fight like this. It'll really bring your combats to life! I had been throwing many hard or even deadly encounters at my group, but they just kept wiping out all the enemies because I wasn't using any sort of strategy for the enemies. But now, I just threw my first proper deadly encounter at them, and it was a great battle! I use this book to create little decision trees using the website app.diagrams.net and this allows me to have a quick reference as to how a monster should act in combat. It would also make a great gift for any DM friends you have!

By no means is this a core book, most people buy when starting DnD for the first time. But once you understand most intelligent creatures wouldn't want to die, then you think about your campaign and notice most battles are to the death. DM's grab this book and. Your game will become more interesting.

On the whole if you have played Dungeons and Dragons a reasonable amount, you should be able to work this out for yourself, but for new players or those like myself moving from 2nd Edition to 5th Edition, it is a bit of a shortcut. I haven't finished it yet, but would now consider using some of the monsters I had previously avoided in 5e. On the whole, it is just a bit of common sense, but as a shortcut to understanding, go for it.

I bought this some time ago for my brother and it really helped him out when planning for DnD sessions and how monsters would realistically act. Would definitely recommend!

This book is great at looking at all the actions a creature can take and gives you a way to play them effectively and flavourfully. Best thing is it teaches you how to think about a monsters frame of mind in battle.

Very good book. I'm new to DMing and this helped me improve the game play for my players. It was good seeing them learn the difierent battle tactics in a game with a veriaty of different Monsters. It made them think more and get more ingrosed in the game. I love this book! It also help the DM make the Monsters come alive knowing them better.

Wow this book is great!!! It tells a lot of things about enemies. I recomen it completely: 100% It is a shame it does not contains monsters of the multiverse od DND. But it is a great treasure to have if you are DM

Dmlerin mutlaka alması gereken bir kitap.

Excellent supplement to help DMs create and execute challenging and engaging combat encounters. Really helps your monsters think tactically. The players are powerful enough already, so this book will give your NPCs a fighting chance! Based on 5E Monster Manual.

Geweldig naslagwerk voor DM's. Een must-use voor mijn D&D sessies. Ik kan nu veel meer variatie in mijn interacties brengen. Maar ook combat wordt veel leuker, omdat ik de tactieken toepas die eigen zijn aan de verschillende types. En nog een groot pluspunt : de prijs!!! Voor nog geen €20 krijg je 500+ pagina's met info, achtergrond en tactieken van talloze monsters uit D&D!!!

I constantly find myself coming back to this book to get a sense of who a monster is to use it in combat. The strategies help me understand how to use them rather than just lining up in front of the PCs. To me, as DM, it not only makes them feel a little more of a threat in combat, it makes them feel more thematic. It's an overall cheap book and worth every dollar.