What forest creatures will you use for a woodland encounter? Who crosses your party’s path in an adventure through the woods? Are there sparse trees and cute toadstools with sun beams coming down from up above? Maybe you’re in a spooky, dark and misty forest, where moss hangs low off tree branches and it’s difficult to see more than 5 feet in front of you. Perhaps it’s hot and humid, with broad leafed trees and a forest floor choked with vines. Or it’s cold and snowy with only shrubs and stunted pines for cover. Or it’s in a swamp! Whatever the type of forest you have, you’ll almost certainly have some creatures for realism. Here are five suggestions, including an NPC stat block of our Forest Faerie.
1. Grizzly Bear
Like a brown bear, but larger and more dangerous, the Grizzly Bear has long claws (2d8 + 5), similar to an Owlbear, and a powerful bite (1d8 + 5), much like their cousin the Polar Bear. These forest creatures typically travel on their own, but cubs will stay with their mothers between 1 and 2 years after birth. They typically don’t attack unless provoked first or they feel threatened. If they have their young nearby or a recent meal, they may be more likely to attack.
Ahead of you, a large dog-like animal steps onto the path. It stops and turns to look at you, then stands on just it’s hind legs, arms raised to it’s shoulders. It’s definitely not a dog. The creature lets out a bellowing roar, bearing it’s sharp teeth, shaking the undergrowth around you.
You could engage your players in combat with these creatures, have them decide how to handle a defensive momma bear, or an aggressive youth. Alternatively, you can use these large creatures in a more peaceful and natural way. Maybe your party sees them from afar fishing in a stream, or picking berries. Perhaps there’s a sick or injured bear in the area your players can decide to help.
If you do plan an encounter, you can always increase the difficulty by adding up to 3 cubs, using the brown bear stat block.
2. Deinonychus
Why limit yourself to present-day animals? During your make believe roleplaying game is the perfect time and place to act out all your dinosaur battle fantasies. A personal favourite of mine, and who’s skeleton is to blame for the inspiration of Jurassic Park’s raptors, Deinonychus is fast but not particularly intelligent. You can use these critters to supplement other larger baddies in battle, like an Allisaurus or Tyrannosaur; toss a few of them at your party, leaning in to one of the theories that deinonychus was a pack animal; or as a flavourful, low-difficulty encounter on it’s own.
Unlike their smaller cousin, the velociraptor, Deinonychus has a pounce feature (instead of pack tactics) similar to a panther or other powerful solo hunters.
As a non-combat encounter, you can have the dinosaur stalk the party and encourage your characters escape the hunter. This can work especially well if a party member picks up on them early and tries to flee or outsmart them.
A lean feathered reptile, crouches on two legs. It peers at you through the long grass from behind two large cat-like yellow eyes. It’s tongue flicks out of it’s mouth a couple inches and along it’s thin razor-sharp teeth, like it’s licking it’s chops at the prospect of fresh meat. It eyes you, hungrily.
3. Blights
Blights are great for spooky forests, and we talked about them in 10 level 1 encounters that aren’t goblins. No matter what kind of trees or vegetation live in your forest, you can depict your blight accordingly. Some types of blights are indistinguishable from the plants they resemble when standing still and can be used to surprise your party or whittle down their reserves to increase the difficulty of challenges they’ll encounter later.
Typically found in forests, these creatures are unaffected by darkness with their blindsight, and possess a mix of melee and range attacks. They’re not very strong, and if you insert them too often they can be a pretty boring adversary. But toss them in for flavour, whether they enter combat or not, keeping your party on their toes while traversing any wooded area.
As you continue to wind your way down the dark path in this dense forest, the uneasy feeling that you’re being watched only grows. At first you thought your eyes were playing tricks on you, that the shrubs and trees, their roots were moving. But as you pay more attention you realize it’s not some trick of the light or that you’re growing tired. These are no ordinary trees. They’re alive.
4. Wood Elves
Not all encounters with living things need to be with monsters and beasts. It’s perfectly acceptable to come across humanoid and conversational creatures in the forest. You could have your wood elves be hostile, friendly, skeptical. They could be any manner of humanoid ‘monster’, such as a hunter, warrior, cultist, or a mix of different types. Their camp or village could be a place your party can find shelter and rest, a new quest, supplies, or merely friendly banter and information. Or, they could part of an enemy faction or group sent to hunt one of the players down.
It’s nice to use NPCs, hostile or not, to engage and create conflict with your players every once in a while. This is especially the case if roleplaying is one of the table’s goals. Not every encounter needs to be combat, and not every combat needs to be with a giant scary and obviously evil combatant.
A short, slender woman drops from the trees a few paces in front of you. “You shall go no further,” she snarls, brandishing two long knives. Her small angular nose matches her long, pointed ears. The elf’s cropped bangs hang loosely to one side of her face, covering a scar that runs to the bottom of her chin. She looks to her left, then her right, as you see at least half a dozen arrows pointed at you with drawn bows poking out from the branches of nearby trees.
5. Forest Faeries
Small, nimble, and devious forest creatures, the Forest Faerie is rarely seen by human eyes. Unless you’re being attacked by one, that is. They live in small communities, their homes hidden away in the largest of old growth trees. They are remnants an older age, when the connection between the fae and mortal worlds was much stronger, when humans loved the earth as much as the fairies. The ones left in this world typically keep to themselves, but the younger ones are getting bolder as their elders have become so restrictive and boring! Curiosity can’t help but overcome the odd Forest Faerie.
Here’s a Forest Faerie stat block for you:
Small fey assassin rogue (fairy), chaotic good
Armour Class 14 (leaf leather armour)
Hit Points 21 (2d8 + 11)
Speed 30 ft., 30 ft. fly
Languages: common, sylvan
| Ability | Score |
| Strength | 9 (-1) |
| Dexterity | 16 (+3) |
| Constitution | 13 (+1) |
| Intelligence | 10 (+0) |
| Wisdom | 12 (+1) |
| Charisma | 10 (+0) |
Actions
Multiattack. The faerie makes two attacks: one with it’s dagger and one with it’s offhand dagger.
Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4+3) piercing damage.
Offhand dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d4) piercing damage.
Dart. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4+3) piercing plus 4 (2d4) poison damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw of become poisoned by the darts for 1 hour.
Bonus Actions
Cunning Action: Can take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a bonus action.
Features
Assassinate: Advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet. In addition, any hit against a creature that is surprised is a critical hit.
Sneak Attack: Once per turn, deal an extra 2d6 damage to one creature hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. You don’t need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn’t incapacitated, and you don’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.
Fairy magic: druidcraft (cantrip)
