Creature templates are gems often unnoticed. They are a great way to take what the players are familiar with and shake them up. What this does is twofold. First it generates an encounter the players are not ready for. This is its own reward as it freshens up what would be an ordinary and possibly predictable encounter.
Second it takes the omni-present metagame aspect and turns it on its head. Ask a Game Master what value they would place on making one experienced metagaming rules lawyer at their table give a puzzled expression, and I’ll bet they’d rate it pretty high.
The following encounter is intended to do both by applying the half dragon template. This template can be applied to a beast, humanoid giant or monstrosity.
That’s a lot of choice.
This is but one example of such an application and might open up a series of encounters where a rather amorous dragon has seeded a campaign with its brethren, creating a whole list of choice encounters.
Convincing the dragon of the value in more considerate parenthood to end this series of events could become the motivation for several adventures, if the players show interest in discovering the origins of the draconic creatures encountered here.
In this instance, we enter the swamps to deal with a squad of lizardfolk cavalry mounted on giant toads, led by a half black dragon lizardfolk.
Encounter Type: Combat
Map: Marsh encounter map
Lighting: None (flat battle map.)
System: 5E
Length: One shot
Installation Type: Addon
License: Roll20 End User License Agreement
(Personal Use Only, Do Not Distribute)