This post is part of a series. Read the first post here!

Table of Contents

• Goals
• Hobgoblins
  • From the Module
  • Remix Red Hand Hobgoblins
  • Named Baddies
  • I want stats!
• What’s Next

Goals

When building combat encounters and enemies for Red Hand of Doom, I have a few key goals. They revolve around the core premise that RHoD is a thrilling action movie, not a gritty war film or comedy flick.

• Spectacle: Combats should be setpieces with larger-than-life enemies in memorable locations. They are not filler content or resource drains.
• Variety: The heroes will often take on hobgoblins headfirst in this adventure. We should include other types of enemies and challenges when we can.
• Combat as Sport: In general, combats in RHoD are fun tactical minigames with roughly balanced sides where heroes can show off their cool abilities. They still require strategic thinking and reward clever play, but most can be viewed tonally as an action movie fight scene.

This post focuses on ideas over implementations. I considered presenting the exact statblocks and encounters I used for my 5e campaigns of RHoD, but wanted to remain system agnostic. Instead, outlines of common spells and abilities are used as a reference point for your own conversions.

When balancing encounters for your table, remember: if it’s accidentally too hard, your players will feel suitably heroic in the face of a mighty foe (a future post will cover what happens if players are captured by the Red Hand). If it’s accidentally too easy, your players will feel suitably heroic as they handily save the day. Variety in difficulty is good. Because we are trying to reduce filler combats and make every combat a spectacle, many will involve heroes using their most powerful daily abilities each fight to “go nova”.

This miniseries will cover all the enemies in Red Hand of Doom. First up are the obvious: hobgoblins.

Hobgoblins

Art by Martin Sobr

Born with fiendish blood from an ancient ancestral pact, hobgoblins seek conquest and domination.

The warring hobgoblins of the harsh Wyrmsmoke mountains, who call themselves the Kulkor Zhul in their own tongue, have been united under the warlord Azarr Kul. He preaches the worship of Tiamat under the sigil of the Red Hand of Doom.

Blessed with rich veins of ore and volcanic forges, the Kulkor Zhul are a well-equipped and organized army. Their soldiers are supported by fanatic priests and mages.

From the Module

RHoD gives us 9 rank-and-file hobgoblins to use:

• Doom Fist Monk: Acrobatic, stealthy, hard-to-hit harassers with dragonchains that grapple and constrict and a stunning attack.
• Doom Hand Cleric: Armored priests with healing who will be using hold person, bless, invisibility, and can summon hellhounds with a scroll.
• Doom Hand Warpriest: High level clerics with dominate person, air walk, good concentration, and a scroll of flame strike.
• Hobgoblin Bladebearer: An elite champion dual-wielding shortswords who challenges individual opponents to combat.
• Hobgoblin Regular: Longsword/shield, longbow, chainmail, and Alertness feat.
• Hobgoblin Sergeant: A beefier regular with better HP and equipment.
• Hobgoblin Veteran: A beefier regular with better HP and equipment.
• Kulkor Zhul Mindbender: Manipulative wizards with a variety of crowd-control spells: dominate person, charm monster, enthrall, suggestion, etc.
• Kulkor Zhul War Adept: Blaster casters with draconic heritage that fly around the battlefield: lightning bolt, mirror image, fly, haste, etc.

Remix Red Hand Hobgoblins

Art by Filipe Pagliuso

First, let’s make the regular/sergeant/veteran package of basic soldiers a bit more interesting. Azarr Kul’s hobgoblins are an army — well trained and disciplined. To represent that, all the soldiers can have pack tactics: advantage on attack rolls if they are adjacent to an ally. This will also keep them dealing chip damage to heroes with high AC.

• Red Hand Regular: Let’s keep these guys simple. Have them fight in squads of 5 to activate pack tactics and rush the nearest unengaged hero.
• Red Hand Veteran: Scarred and grizzled. Let’s keep them simple as well — same equipment as a regular, but with more HP and a multiattack. Use them when you actually want a swarm to be a challenge.
• Red Hand Sergeant: Better armor and HP. They carry a glowing banner of the Red Hand on their back. Allies within 30’ have resistance to fire, poison, lightning, acid, and cold damage (helps mitigate AoE spells). As a free action, can command a lesser ranking ally to make an attack.
• Red Hand Archer: We’ve got a melee mook, let’s make a ranged one. Leather armor. Flaming arrows do 1d6 additional fire damage.

Making Martials Shine: If you're throwing large numbers of hobgoblin mooks at your players but finding that only the casters with large AoE spells are having fun, consider making hobgoblin regulars and archers minions.

Now for some special units that can still be used in decent numbers:

• Red Hand Bladebearer: Dual-wielding shortswords. Can taunt a hero: if ignored, they get free attacks. Use to lock down a single target and protect allied wizards/archers/priests.
• Red Hand Smokebinder: Can turn into a smoke form with a fast fly speed and resistance to mundane attacks. Melee attacks with a garrotte choke victims. Use as assassins that evade melees and silence spellcasters.
• Red Hand Scalebrute: HP, heavy armor, and a flaming greatsword. Put them in a chokepoint as tanks while archers shoot from behind them.
• Red Hand Dragonchain: Armored fighters with dragonchains. Attacks grapple (and maybe restrain?) and deal constriction damage every round. Use them to restrict movement and add a new condition for heroes to overcome.

And the specialist units:

• Red Hand Dragonpriest: Heavy armor, melee weapon, shield, advantage on concentration checks. Paladin/cleric combat spells flavored as the blessings of Tiamat: spirit guardians, wrathful smite, thunderous smite. Maybe even haste. Wade into battle chanting prayers to the Dragon Queen.
• Kulkor Zhul Bloodpriest: Priests of the traditional hobgoblin religion honoring the vitality of blood. Heavy armor, cleric buff/debuff spells: dominate person, hold person, invisibility, cure wounds, revivify. Stand in the backline.
• Kulkor Zhul War Mage: A classic wizard flying and blasting. Fireball, lightning bolt, and ice storm for damage. Fly, misty step, and mirror image for defense.
• Red Hand Captain: Heavy armor, flaming sword. Leads groups of soldiers: gives allies advantage on initiative, gives allies extra attacks and movement, commands allies to make one last attack when they are killed.

Some additional thoughts:

• I like the idea that soldiers branded with the Red Hand combust on death, dealing damage to everyone adjacent. But we’re going to save this for the Battle of Brindol and Azarr Kul’s ritual!
• Wyvern riders! Just slap someone on the back of an armored wyvern.
• Have some regulars manning emplaced siege weapons: ballista, catapults, etc. Add magical ammunition for increased effect.
• The original 3.5E module makes heavy use of potions and scrolls. Consider: scroll of blur, potion/scroll of invisibility, potion/scroll of fly, scroll of haste, and healing potions.

Named Baddies

Art by Jesper Ejsing

If you have to improvise an encounter, grab one of these guys to upgrade it from filler to a setpiece.

• Pash-Kara the Rotfang: Dragonpriest/smokebinder with green dragonscale cloak immune to poison damage. Summons a cloudkill around her. Can cast contagion.
• The Knights of the Wyrm Ascendant: An order of hobgoblin paladins in service to Tiamat, riding out from the Tower of Five Doors. Azarr Kul’s counter to the party of heroes: use them as rivals or in the “Marked For Death” encounter. Each rides an armored wyvern.
  • Khrave, the Knight Tyrant (Red Hand Captain). Red crown and armor.
  • Mûl Dar, the Knight Rapacious (Kulkor Zhul War Mage). Black robes and staff. Face has a snarling gold mask grafted to it.
  • Ash-Kreva, the Knight Regal (Kulkor Zhul Bloodpriest). Skin dyed blue with ritual pigment. Silver armor finely engraved with cruel motifs.
  • Hashaara, the Knight Wrathful (Red Hand Dragonpriest). Armored in white dragonbone. Blood drips endlessly from clawed hands.
  • Zaraz, the Knight Deceiver (Red Hand Dragonpriest). Green eyes that charm victims. A forked and serpentine tongue endlessly flicking.
• Agliash of a Hundred Manacles: A Red Hand Dragonchain who can animate dragonchains. Use chain devil stats. Draped in animated chains as armor.
• Van-Kathet the Unslaked: A Kulkor Zhul Bloodpriest who delved into the secrets of vampirism. Add sunlight sensitivity, a bite attack with lifesteal and max HP drain, and a blood-mist form (all as vampire).

I want stats!

If you’re specifically looking for stat blocks to base hitpoints, AC, and attacks off of, I recommend Draz74’s conversion or Horatio@Bridge’s conversion. You could also use the hobgoblins in the Monster Manual or Flee Mortals! as a baseline.

What’s Next

Future posts will cover:

• Ogres and giants.
• Goblins and bugbears.
• Monstrous beasts.
• Dragons.
• A smorgasbord of ready-to-use setpiece encounters/locations.

Additionally, future posts on the Druids, Ghostlord, Barrows, and Dwarves will add plants and undead for even more enemy variety.