Something I find a bit lacking in 5th edition combat is strategy around positioning and movement. There are a few good things in the base rules, but often movement stops after the first round, with little change until the end. This negatively impacts the viability of some otherwise pretty cool things, like reach weapons and terrain altering or area-of-effect spells.
None of the variant rules address this particular well. For example, while the optional Flanking rule does cause a bit more movement, it’s often not in any particularly interesting way. At the same time, it grants advantage much too easily, negating a lot of other strategic decision making.
With that in mind, I’d rather create more opportunities for motion in combat within the confines of the relatively good standard ruleset, then try to force it into every combat with optional rules. So this week I’ll be focusing on a few different home-brews that cause more positional awareness for players in combat. Today’s post, the Bile Hound, is a bit of a trope that any who has played a few video games will likely recognize. They are creatures that sow discord on the battlefield, with a nasty area of effect explosion that discourages melee engagement with them.
Details
The Bile Hound is what you get when you don’t properly vet funding requests at your arcane university. It only took one explosion on school grounds before Fizzbuzz Foobar’s academy certification was revoked, but the damage was already done. His hounds are short life-spanned creatures with an even shorter reproductive cycle. Couple that with a belly full of chemicals as volatile as they are corrosive, and you get the dream of any would be villain or perpetrator of widespread destruction.
The only saving grace to their design is they tend away from large packs and family units, so wild populations to die out quickly. Still, despite efforts to eradicate the artificial species, they still pop up from time to time. Even with the significant danger in raising the creatures, they work as cheap guard dogs for those without any scruples, and enough space to not concern themselves with destroying portions of their own homes.
Tactics
The Bile Hound typically wants to rush into the middle of a group of enemies, attempt to pin one with its Bite attack, and then use its Burst ability to inflict as much damage as possible. As with most enemies you should vary the behavior up a bit however, especially if you plan to use multiple throughout an encounter/adventure.
Variant: Volatile Bile Hound
By changing the stat block up just a small amount, we can create something a bit more chaotic for players. Reduce the Bile Hound’s Hit Points to 8, and remove their immunity to acid damage. Now, a group of them possesses the capability to hit each other with their Burst ability, creating a dangerous chain reaction.
Usage Ideas
Despite their low CR, Bile Hounds are actually capable of dealing a lot of damage to an unwary party rather quickly. For lower level groups, consider providing an opportunity for them to witness a Bile Hound attack against someone else, or at least the leftovers of one, before their first real run-in. For mid-high level groups, a first encounter with 1-2 can create a good shock before throwing in a larger pack.
Danger Hallway
When traversing a dungeon the characters come across a long hallway. There isn’t much remarkable about it other than its length, which stretches beyond the range of any character’s light sources or darkvision. About halfway down the hallway (however long you decide that it) perceptive characters may notice the floor dips just slightly, and the stone floors and walls around them grow strangely smooth. It’s also around this time they notice the wobbling, green lights further down the hall. A few moments later they can make out several Bile Hounds sprinting full speed towards them. Will the party be able to stop them before they close in? What about the ones they didn’t notice behind them?
Night at the Discotheque
The party has fallen afoul of some trap and awoken in some room (a trap door with a chute that deposits them into the room, or perhaps they have been captured, knocked unconscious, and wake up here). It is pitch black, aside from a number of glowing masses dotted about the room. As they begin to question their whereabouts, the sleeping Bile Hounds also stir.