A battlemap covered in identical miniatures can pose a difficult challenge to DMs and players alike when it comes to tracking hitpoints and statuses or indicating targets.  Some of this can be mitigated through the use of aids like tokens, chits, or flags for marking conditions, but DMs often still need a way of distinguishing between monsters in their notes, and players shouldn't have to resort to latitude, longitude, and GPS coordinates just to say which minion they are attacking.

Fortunately, if you're using D&D miniatures, it generally isn't too difficult to find a way of marking the bases in order to identify them.  Avery makes round, colored, 1/4 inch, removable labels that work great for the task, and you can pick up a pack of 760 of them for less than five bucks at Staples.

The labels come in four colors:  green, yellow, blue, and red. The red and yellow ones are perhaps the most useful as the provide the greatest contrast for black ink.  You'll probably find that something like an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie is your best bet for writing dark, crisp numbers.

Having multiple colored labels can prove useful for distinguishing between different but similar miniatures that are likely to appear together in an encounter.  A perfect example are the Kruthik minis, which are all basically the same except for size and slight variations in color.  Using a different colored label for each type of Kruthik makes them stand apart a bit more, ensuring that you won't accidentally confuse your young with your hatchlings.

You could, of course, simply buy a metallic Sharpie to mark your miniatures, but that's permanent and why mar a figure when a removable sticker works just as well, if not better.  Besides, you might want to sell your collection on eBay some day so you can, I dunno, spend the money on a Gargantuan Orcus.

Crawling Claws are creepy little undead creatures that have been around since the early days of D&D.  In 4^th Edition they made their appearance in Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead, and have several variants (Crawling Claw Swarm, Crawling Gauntlet, Lich Claw, etc.), but it in each case represent severed hands, paws, or claws, reanimated by necrotic powers or necromancy.

In a recent game, my players entered a tomb in which the skeletal remains of failed tomb robbers had been reanimated to protect it.  To enhance feeling that some magic force was manipulating these remains, I threw a few Crawling Claws at the party, in the form of reanimated skeletal hands.  Since Wizards of the Coast had not, to my knowledge, produce a suitable miniature, I had to go in search of a substitute.

After much searching, I finally managed to find a pewter hand charm sold by an online jewelry supply shop that would make due in a pinch.  The size was perfect:  not much more than half an inch long.  Of course, since they were supposed to represent skeleton hands, I slapped a quick couple coats of white paint on them.  I also clipped off the loops since I obviously wasn't planning on using them as charms. Finally, to make them easier to manipulate, I affixed them each to a plastic chip with a bit of sticky tack.  Voila, instant Crawling Claw!

Apparently I'm on the same wavelength as someone at Wizards of the Coast.  Last week I blogged about Giant Spiders, Spiderling Minions, and a Giant Spiderweb trap appropriate for a 1st level party.  This week I picked up Monster Manual 3 and what does it have in it?  A 2nd level spider, spiderlings, and a web trap.

If you're going to fill a cave, dungeon, or forest with Giant Spiders, there has to be a way for them to catch their prey, doesn't there.  To go along with my custom 2nd level arachnid I created a Giant Spiderweb trap designed to snag unsuspecting adventurers.  Because it does no damage and is essentially one-shot (I reasoned that anyone escaping essentially destroys the web in the process), I decided it was a Minion trap and worth 25XP.


In play, the trap works well stretched across entryways or narrow spaces.  And of course, in the process of trapping the adventurer, the trap is also likely to inform its creator (the aforementioned Giant Spider) that dinner has arrived.

Update:  The Monster Manual 3 describes a terrain called web sheets (MM3 p.183) which is very similar to my Giant Spiderweb Trap design.  It makes an attack versus reflex (which the Giant Spiderweb Trap should probably do to be consistent with trap design) but only immobilizes victims (can't move).  I think restrained (can't move, -2 to attacks, grants combat advantage) is more consistent with how a giant web would work (and be more useful to the spider spinning it) but to each their own.

"The cavern is littered with carcasses and webbing, some strands looking as thick as braided rope.  The torchlight spills into the cavern, reflecting off of web, and stone, and dozens of round, black eyes.  The abnormally large creatures scurry about, eager for a meal, while up above their mother silently descends from the ceiling, hoping to catch her prey unaware...."

I've always liked giant spiders as denizens of fantasy worlds, ever since my young mind was introduced to them by way of The Hobbit.  Spiders are creepy to begin with in the real world, so it seems only natural to imagine bigger and deadlier versions lurking in the dark places between the points of light in D&D.  Imagine my surprise when 4th edition only offered up a couple of variants of this classic monstrous vermin, and none that were simply a low-level Giant Spider (as vanilla as that may be).  (Update: the Monster Manual 3 offers up the Ambush Spider, a 2nd level lurker).

Desiring an creepy but simple-to-run arachnid for my game, I quickly threw together a Giant Spider of my own, using the Deathjump Spider (MM) and Bristle Spider (MM2) as templates.



To add to the creepy-crawliness of the encounter, I also whipped up some Spiderlings, minion versions of the Giant Spider.  They lack the poisonous sting of their mother, but possess that uncanny spider talent to move out of the way just as you're swinging a shoe sword their way.


Add in a few squares of spiderweb terrain (DMG p.69) and a couple of Giant Spiderweb Traps, and you have an encounter fit for beginning adventurers.  (The newly released Monster Manual 3 contains a sidebar [MM3 p.183] presenting cobwebs in which spiders can hide and web sheets which are similar, but less potent, than my homebrew Giant Spiderweb Trap.)