What enemies do you prefer to use for a low level party?

What enemies do you prefer to use for a low level party?

Bandits and Dogs

>Low-level
Skeletons.
>Mid-level
Skeletons.(with Class Levels)
>High-Level
MAH BIG-HAPPY BONE-DADDY SKELETONS!

Goblins
>extremely satisfying to kill en masse
>trixie so you can throw a curve ball if the players get to big for their britches

Kobolds of course.

Some kind of animal that no longer hunts its usual prey and now terrorizes villages by eating people.

>exterminating goblins

>when you could PURGE THE WEAK (and ugly. and male) of successive goblin tribes as you conquer tribes one by one, forming an army of eugenics selectively bred smarter, tougher, sexier goblinfus as their new (evil, duh) deity of murder and lust.

Do you even Chaotic/Lawful Evil?

I bet your players only ever play lawful stupid and chaotic dumb.

>not redeeming the goblinsfu's through the power of paldin of Sune/ Sharess's mighty Dickings.

Human bandits.

Actually, they are murderhobos including a perpetual kobold. It's more about murdering them for a reward and taking their stuff.
>Chaotic Dumb
Ehh, mostly just the kobold. The rest play their good characters as true neutral opportunists.

(OP) #
For my campaign's first "mission" I use saving a lumbercamp from a griffon. Getting to the camp they run into disturbed local fauna (an elk, then three wolves) then they get time to analyze the damage at the scene and if they think to, interview the lumberjack through the barred door of their cabin, and prepare for it to come back. Prepared and watchful or not, after a while it shows back up and does typical "this is my territory get out" angry animal behavior.

I pride myself on making lowlevel mundane enemies like goblinoids, fey, and animals/monstrous animals scary.

One day I should probably just run something horror based, but until then the pulp fantasy gritty exploration roots of DnD suffice. Certainly more enjoyable than playing it as plot railroad super heroes epic fantasy.
Btw, protip: Unless it's something you'd run into in civilized society or have extensive experience with already don't say things names, just describe them. An unknown enemy is a scarier one, and even if they figure it out it's already a vivid image in their mind by that point.

i just have a pet peeve with players who walk into a freaking table top, and then play exactly like if it was a freaking hotbar button mashing MMO

Owlbear. Singular. And play it up like The Edge. Stalked by an angry, large carnivore. One as intelligent as the average human and more cunning to boot. It likes to play with its food.

My last campaign there was a stretch of forest the party absolutely refused to return too because the Owlbear.

They're new to the hobby. I think it's fair to give them some time to transition from videogames to roleplaying, especially since they were willing give this nerd shit a chance.

I really like this, but "intelligent as the average human"? Are owlbears really that smart? I mean, owls are pretty fucking dumb.

>I think it's fair to give them some time to transition from videogames to roleplaying, especially since they were willing give this nerd shit a chance.
Amen. Everybody was new at some point.

Do you want hobgoblins user? Because that's how you get hobgoblins.

In 5e, they're int 10. That's average. Wis 12.

In B/X They don't have scores, but are described as apex predators and in a couple different D&D novels they can talk (at least a few phrases).

Those are the only editions I'm intimately familiar with.

Fucking this nigga right hear gets it. A snarling lizard with sharp horns standing on two feet holding a rusty blade is far more impressive than a kobold with a dagger. Once you name anything it becomes far less scary to fight.

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>implying militant, highly intelligent, disciplined amazonian sex goddess warrior woman tribes of Hobgoblins worshiping your character as a ruthless deity of war, death sex lust and fertility is SOMEHOW a BAD thing?

>not hiring out kill teams of warrior maidens to murderfuck anything the merchants and towns in the region don't like.
>not teaching the goblins that true mastery and gleeful maliciousness comes from making everyone Owe you, depend on you, and killing and stealing the WORSE threats out there and taking THEIR stuff.

but user, that's literally the witcher 3's first 'mission'

You know, as far as evil minions go, hobgoblins seem pretty good if you can convince them to follow you.

>implying sex god / warrior god isn't the best way to inspire hobs.

Weaker, smol versions of bigger creatures.

Tiny lizards as the forward scouts and chaff of Lizardmen.

Tiny piglet people for orcs, etc.

Just implying that, I guess because I've always imagined hobgoblins would probably be some kind of turbonazi race supremacists and having preexisting hierarchies, that generic evil overlords would have more trouble recruiting them than other monster people. Not that your specific plan wouldn't work.

that's why you make yourself the central figure of their culture of self and racial improvement. and the central part of their military efforts, strategic and tactical planning, aas well as leading from the sides so they can see you getting stuck in with da boys.

these aren't 'true' hobs, after all, but fast breeding gobbos you're using like slaves / pets / breeding stock.

Cultists always work.

I second on the Owlbear thing. Owlbears are no fucking joke at low levels. Alternatively like I use Skeletons and other Undead.

Whatever the story calls for, because scaling threat levels is where it's at.

Poor people