Scare Tactics (Ways to Use Scare Tactics)

Written by: Jared B.

October is a time of spooky decorations and the gathering of candy. For your Halloween-themed one-shots or campaign episodes, if you plan to lean into scare tactics to make your combats fit the theme, here are some ways you can do that.

A note, if you overuse jumpscare tactics, it loses its power and it can make your players either paranoid or unsurprised by anything you try to do. 

That said, here are some examples of how you can put your Players on the edge of their seats using the environment in combat. 

Step one, keep your environmental options open. To make this easier, pick a setting for the combat that gives you permeable walls and floors to make it easier to have new monsters come from unexpected directions. The examples I will pull from for this article will be, a jungle forest, a swamp, a frozen tundra, and finally catacombs.

The jungle forest gives you trees to block the direct view of incoming monsters, creating good camouflage for hidden creatures and limiting the range capabilities of the player characters(PCs) to keep the monsters at bay. You also have the treetops and vines to drop monsters in from above. In this way, you have at least 2 different directions to bring new monsters into the fight. You can also use inanimate vines as ‘natural’ traps that catch the PCs unaware and hamper their movements during normal travel but also during a fight. I would recommend precisely noting where you have hidden monsters and ‘vine traps’ beforehand so that you are not tempted to insert them later on. 

The swamp redirects the attention down. Most of your surprises will come from under the water or sludge. This can be new monsters entering the fray or it could be environmental. Much like the above-mentioned vines you can make the sludge a surprise hazard with poisonous acid pools or quicksand. These make combat a little more nerve-racking as the PCs have to plan around such hazards that may or may not be there. More so than being a point of damage, I suggest making the environmental surprises be something that disrupts the movement or use of abilities of the PCs so they are surprised and have to work a new strategy around the new problem. 

This goes back to calling it ‘Scare Tactics’. You are setting the field with tactical encounters for the PCs to have to work around, solve, and overcome. Using the surprise to make them have to think quickly not just sit back and plan. 

Frozen tundra will also focus mostly on the ‘down’ viewpoint. You can have your monsters spring up through ice on the ground, form walls of ice to hide behind, and jump out in attack on the PCs. Again using environmental hazards, the icy ground can be slick, or melt and freeze around the PCs’ feet. The aforementioned walls could come crumbling down on the PCs or block the ideal path of attack on a monster. As before the slick ground can make the PCs have difficult terrain or make them slide too far when they intend to stop. The freezing of their feet can make them unable to move until they or their party members make an effort to free them. This gives your monsters time to maneuver either in attack or retreat. 

And finally, Catacombs. In Catacombs I like to have hidden tunnels and hatches that my monsters use. Again I advise that you design these ahead of time so that you know where and when your monsters can realistically join the fight. You can also make ancient mechanisms that move walls, drop floors, and reveal doors. All these keep your PCs’ mental wheels turning, looking for what might come next. You can also use sandtraps here but you are more limited on area, so in making a sinking sand trap or similar, you have to have a way around it for the players to ‘solve’. That way it does not completely block their path forward.

Next, let us talk about what monsters fit these environments and how to best use these specific monsters with the mindset of Scare Tactics. For this article I’m going to be using monsters from D&D 5e. Obviously, if you are playing in a different system or edition you will need to adapt the following to fit.

Again let us start with the Jungle Forest. The easy route is starting with the family of plant creatures labeled “blights”. All of them can be unseen until they move and they blend in well with the vines, trees, and shrubs of the Forest or Jungle environments. This will be pretty straightforward. Place them in the projected path of the PCs and have them attack only when the PCs are within range. Jump Scare, and damage, thus opening a combat encounter. 

Another general grouping is “tribal” type warriors, of almost any race. Could be humanoid, goblinoid, or some other race that commonly gathers in tribal groups. These will employ basic traps to surprise the party as well attacking from the ideal range with javalin and bow. They should attack from range and the only clue of the incoming attack should be the slight sound made when the ammunition is released at the party. 

Next would be any kind of fey that are native to the woods, but especially those that employ stealth and invisibility. This type of enemy can strike from the shadows and become invisible again to avoid being attacked as easily. 

Moving on to the Swamp. In this setting, we will shift to more elementals. The various mephits that are specific to the environment, work well for these types of tactics. They can go unseen in their native environments until they attack or move. This allows them to surprise the party from multiple locations at once in an ambush. In the Swamp, you also can use any creature that can breathe water and air. These creatures can lie in wait just under the surface in the water or mud to ambush the party. Tribal creatures also come into play here, but they will need to breathe underwater as most swamps do not have the ideal tree cover to set up ambushes from above. A new introduction here is the Hag. The one native to this environment can breathe water and air and uses illusion much like the fey mentioned in The Forrest, so she can lie in wait or change her form and bait the party closer before turning on them. Again you need to be careful using this tactic often. If used too much your PCs will never trust an NPC you place in their path. 

Now the Frozen Tundra. We have mephits for here as well. We also have tribal warriors. In this case, I would flavor the tribal ambush by using the ice walls or snow drifts as ambush points. Some monstrosities that are native to this environment have “snow camouflage” allowing them to stealth more easily. They can sneak up or lie in wait for the party more easily than some beasts or other creatures. 

In the Catacombs, there are a variety of monstrosities that are either unable to be seen till they move or have “Stone Camouflage”. On top of that, there are creatures with “spider climb” that allow them to climb up the walls to be above the PCs for a drop ambush or to watch them go by and block their escape. Last but not least, there are mimics. Mimics can technically be used anywhere but they are more native to the ‘Underdark’ or areas that they turn into fabricated objects, such as chests or poles rather than environmental objects like rocks and trees. Technically there are Tribals here as well. I prefer to use monstrosities, beasts, and undead in the catacombs to keep the vibe of the environment. 

For your next use of Scare Tactics, I hope the above has helped you to make it a great memorable experience for your players!

Game on!
Jared (Martel)