Well-designed monsters give you practice with the rules which makes you a better GM. (Part 4)

No one wants to reduce one of the most creative and varied hobbies around to repeating the same tactics, rules, and rolls again and again, but let's face it; fighters like to power attack, wizards like to fireball, and DMs employ many claws, bites, and improved grabs. It can be refreshing, and a lot of fun, to run a monster designed with a few different rules in mind, and the more exposure you have to new rules and unusual situations, the better you'll be at adjudicating and maintaining the flow of the game.

Looking into the critter crate at the Verdant Reclaimer, you'll see we created a very specific set of special attacks that work one right after the other to force a creature to enter the monster's square. We wanted to do this without the usual grapple checks (since grappling is common, narrowly-focused, and sometimes messy to adjudicate), and we didn't want to resort to the roper's Attach ability (which didn't logically fit with the Reclaimer's vines). So we came up with grab, drag, and smother, each of which allows the PC to use rules other than their grapple or escape artist checks to defeat the reclaimer's deadly pull. This rewards slippery characters, characters with high strength scores, characters with specific weapons and the ability to deal good damage with them, and also characters with the skill points to escape the grab, or avoid it in the first place.

The next time you design a monster, keep in mind a wide range skills and abilities, and don't be afraid to design whole new abilities to accomodate them. The next time you run a monster, try bending the rules in logical ways without interrupting the flow. This will keep combat varied and interesting for everyone involved.