How to Use the BEHIR in your DnD Campaign and How to Run it in Combat Encounters

How to Use the BEHIR in your DnD Campaign and How to Run it in Combat Encounters | DM Advice 5e

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From Scottish folklore, and inspiring modern myths like the Loch Ness Monster, the Behir of D&D 5e is a gigantic electrified serpent, with a the movement of a boa constrictor, the body of a crocodile, and a hatred for "true" dragons.
In this video we explore the nature and lore of this Challenge Rating 11 monstrosity from the Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Let's discuss their behaviour, tactics, and combat abilities to work out how to best use them in your D&D game and how they can become real threats on the battlefield against a party of adventurers.
If you'd like to use the homebrew Behir Broodling or the Ancient Behir featured in this video in your D&D campaign, you can find the stat blocks here on Reddit:
/ behir_variants_for_5e_...
If you'd like to see a particular monster from the 5e Monster Manual featured in the next video, let me know in the comments!
If you are interested in more Dungeons & Dragons content, you can also find me on:
Patreon: / nazirnorth
Reddit: / submitted
DMsGuild: www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?a...
Cheers,
Nazir North
#DnD #MonsterManualBreakdown #NazirNorth #Behir

Пікірлер: 22

@GlacialScion 3 ай бұрын

Assuming they were created to go after dragons, I think it makes the most sense for them to have been intended to hunt dragon eggs and wyrmlings. Both are still small enough for the Behir to swallow whole. Their climbing ability would allow them to reach most lairs, while their serpentine bodies would let them maneuver through even narrow tunnels with ease. They're also able to find and enter underwater lair entrances. Then, their high speed allows for quick getaways before the mature dragons can return. Makes a lot of sense to me, and even feels particularly nefarious on the part of the giants. Tough to get sympathy for evil creatures, but going after their kids is a good way to inspire it.

@NazirNorth 3 ай бұрын

True, that's a really good point! A bit like some real snakes, sneaking into nests and targeting the eggs or ones that have recently hatched.

@bukharagunboat8466 3 ай бұрын

The main thing to give a Behir to play with is water! That fits the mythology and makes the beast much more dangerous. It's fundamentally a fast-moving and agile ambush predator, so it wants to get Surprise, perhaps by attacking from a narrow side tunnel. All those legs give it a climbing speed, but also make it very good at backing up; narrow tunnel again. Have it breathe from its ambush position into a party standing in water, then retreat to buy time to recharge its capacitors. It can comfortably outrun the party. One small improvement to the monster would be to give it a swimming speed. If designing the lair with standing water and hard to reach narrow tunnels isn't enough then give it a lair action; the ceiling collapse and lightning arcs from the Blue Dragon would work, but obscuring fog clouds could be thematic and effective.

@NazirNorth 3 ай бұрын

Yeah, great suggestions! Swimming speed makes perfect sense, which is why I went for that for the homebrew broodling (plus is calls back on the behir mythos).

@EksaStelmere 3 ай бұрын

I largely ignored the D&D lore when I ran this monster and played it like an independent race of territorial sea, er, freshwater serpent. While we did have a couple encounters above water, the main confrontation was in an underwater cave that required a bit of work to find and infiltrate. I gave it a set of repurposed kuo-toa and a sea hag (loch hag?) as support minions. Aside from that, things went about as recommended here. Swallowed someone and turned it into a time attack, happy ending. Would have loved to use a baby behir, but didn't think too much about it at the time given the scenario.

@NazirNorth 3 ай бұрын

Sounds like a smart way to do it! Honestly, sometimes the best thing to do for a monster is ignore the official lore and reflavour things as needed for the campaign.

@worldforger0 3 ай бұрын

These videos are great, I wish WotC put this kind of stuff in their books, with adventure hooks and a few points on how to run the monster.

@NazirNorth 3 ай бұрын

Cheers! Hopefully we get some more support like that for DMs when they release the new books later this year.

@QCreyton 2 ай бұрын

It speaks draconic because their old use was information gathering. (Edit: spelling)

@NazirNorth 2 ай бұрын

That would certainly make a lot of sense!

@DBArtsCreators 2 ай бұрын

This makes me want to make Behir varieties for different elements (and redesign the existing Behir), to emphasize how they are almost a parallel to dragons. Give them better senses as well, with a special focus on locating Dragons & Giants (for the lore aspect of "prey & masters"). Perhaps give them some legendary actions as well, equivalent to their respective chromatic dragon parallel's lair actions (and that is where the big mechanical parallel is. Dragons claim a territory as their lair, while Behir roam, hunt & migrate, making the much smaller region around them their "lair" at any given time). As for them knowing draconic: that is usually the language of magic as well. Perhaps one could homebrew a lore-wise explanation as Behir originally being anti-magic, using their knowledge of draconic to 'counterspell' the abilities of dragons (like if Skyrim had enemies who could disable the player's Dragon Shouts).

@NazirNorth 2 ай бұрын

I really like the idea of other Behir varieties, maybe following the different types of giants that may have created them. Some more anti-dragon features would also make a cool niche for them!

@DBArtsCreators 2 ай бұрын

@@NazirNorth This makes me wonder what kind of behir Hill Giants would create. They aren't typically the "making" type. Some sort of "mud behir" perhaps, more accidental than anything? On the flipside, I'd imagine cloud giants would have some sort of flying serpent variant, like a couatl (perhaps wings instead of legs, like Giratina's alt-form), while Fire giants would have artificial mechanical variants (like clockworks).

@NazirNorth 2 ай бұрын

@@DBArtsCreators Great suggestions. I think for the Hill Giant, I'd imagine something more like a brute, without any kind of elemental connection, although earth could work!

@DBArtsCreators 2 ай бұрын

@@NazirNorth A hill giant behir just being an aggressive snake on steroids would certainly be interesting.

@Grogeous_Maximus 3 ай бұрын

More things to steal with my grubby goblin hands (⚈_⚈)

@NazirNorth 3 ай бұрын

Haha! Plenty more homebrews to come soon as well!

@notmyemail506 3 ай бұрын

I used this as my first time dming. This was the first boss

@NazirNorth 3 ай бұрын

Cool! How did it go?

@notmyemail506 3 ай бұрын

@NazirNorth it was easy for them because I was still new to dnd so i was rolling all the wrong dice and I didn't know until they told me

@Patrick-nl4zp 3 ай бұрын

Looks like both the regular behir and your provided one need a -2 or even -5 on their CR. CR never makes sense anyway lol

@NazirNorth 3 ай бұрын

I think as far as the DMG CR rules go, the calculation comes out okay (even though WotC have admitted that that table is a bit janky). But yeah, in practice, the behir can feel a little underwhelming in combat (which is why it needs that legendary resistance and action boost)!