As a DM, sometimes I watch the encounters I set in motion with a bit of foreboding, like "this could go badly..."

Watching 2 carrion crawlers almost take out a party with 4th level fighters and clerics... was a tense moment for everyone! Fortunately, the first level halfling fighter saved the day!

My carrion crawlers are like facehuggers, but with 8 tentacles, a maw plus legs and a 9 ft long body.

#TTRPG #ODnD #ClassicDnD

@chgowiz
As an old DM, I tend to watch the encounters I set in motion with a sense of anticipation and curiosity. I always expect that the players will do something I haven't expected, and that's the fun of it!

Of course, I don't tend to put unavoidable combat in my adventures. It seems to me that intelligent people will try to solve problems without violence, if they can. That's not always possible, but I give them leeway to find their own solutions.

@chgowiz Old school carrion crawlers are no joke. I have terrified many a party with them.

@DM_Zeppelin 8 attacks per round that can paralyze separate targets! It's brutal.

I had them like an Alien facehugger with their ability to jump and move fast. They would also mantle over paralyzed prey and start encasing them in a hard resin-like substance.

The players did not like this at all! Out of a party of 3 4th lvl PCs, a 3d lvl PC, a 2nd lvl NPC, a 1st lvl PC and 3 hirelings... only a 4th lvl cleric, 1st lvl halfling Fighter and a hireling left standing!

@chgowiz That sounds horribly fantastic! I'd have loved that as a player. Maybe I'm just odd? LOL

@DM_Zeppelin They seemed to be happy to survive, though I know they were getting very worried as they watched their characters drop!

Online play and interruptions means it's been 3 years for some of these players! (This is in my Dungeon23 creation and we started playing Jan of 2023).

Had the other mage showed up, I think this would have gone way differently *cough*sleep spell*cough*

Body horror stuff FTW!