How To Use Ghouls In Your Combat Encounters?
Ghouls are iconic lower-tier monster with their razor-sharp teeth and jagged claws, that roam the night in packs, driven by an insatiable hunger for humanoid flesh. And today, we will learn how to use 5e Ghouls in our combat encounters. We will look at what kind of abilities and tactics the Ghoul possesses, find more variant Ghoul ideas for your games delve deeper into their mythology, and find ideas for our encounters.
Ghoul abilities
5e Ghoul has some abilities that can prove to be quite dangerous not only to low-level parties if we use them correctly.
The Ghoul Bite attack is just a +2 to attack, which is relatively straightforward, while Claws are a more exciting ability with a CON 10 roll, causing paralysis when failing the roll. When looking at the abilities of the Ghoul, everything stands on the Paralysis condition. When a party member becomes paralyzed, the Ghouls become terrifying creatures to fight. This condition means that the Ghoul bites and their claw attacks gain an advantage, and become critical hits, which is scary not only for a low-level party. To make it more terrifying, a paralyzed party member is an all you can eat buffet in which every Ghoul wants to participate. When someone drops, maybe the ghouls notice that and try to swarm the downed party member, removing themselves from others even if they would get opportunity attacks. So we should utilize these twisted creature’s nature and paralyzed condition to make a decent combat encounter.
The Nature of the Ghoul and Tactics
The Ghouls are Undead with a Chaotic Evil alignment in 5e. Chaotic alignment is one of the hints of what kind of combat encounter we should think of when preparing the encounter - Disorganized and a little bit twisted. Ghouls use frantic tactics that remind a "berserk" type” or "hit-and-run" type combat with some ambush at the start of it. It seems that the creature tends to roam and hunt alone. However, packs of 4-12 ghouls are not uncommon.
Ghoul Stats
While looking at what are ghouls best at, we see that they have a decent DEX(15) and above-average STR(13) stats. I interpret DEX for Ghouls as twitchy ambushers lurking in shallow graves waiting for their prey or lurking in a cavern above to jump on the party the first chance they get. Even though the STR is not that impressive, I would imagine them trying to drag away the paralyzed party member in some hole to cut off the party member from the rest of the group.
While the WIS and CON are average, this also means that they are fairly reasoning(WIS 10) creatures that are not brain dead(even though they are undead) like the zombies. Having ten wisdom could entail that they are capable of some cunning tactics if engaged.
When looking at the Ghoul worst stats, the most noticeable shortcomings are the INT of 7 and the CHA of 6, yet, they can't be charmed. This combination reminds me a bit of Gollum, where he misuses or mispronounces the words. He is quite rude and has some similar fascination except it's(Like the ring's fascination in Gollum's case) feasting on the mortal flesh. So if you're thinking of giving more character to the Ghouls, think of Gollum and turn that twisted fascination to 11.
Damage and Condition Immunities
The 5e Ghoul has a couple of interesting Damage and Condition immunities that could help us design a combat encounter with them in mind. Exhaustion, Poison, and Charmed Conditions don't work on them, so how do we use this to our advantage?
Ghouls being a rather grotesque creature that feast on flesh, their lair, should reek like a god damn unrefrigerated morgue. That is why they are probably immune to Poison. Poison theme is a good lair advantage for the Ghouls to have since this could mean poison traps for the party, an infectious and venomous environment to fight in. Using poison could be an even more significant threat than the ghouls themselves since it causes an attack disadvantage to the players, which could balance the low attack bonus of Ghouls.
Exhaustion is a great indicator that 5e Ghouls don't stop. They are monsters that can run you down and will not stop till you're dead.
Immune to Charms - I wanted to highlight this immunity just for moments where the paladins, bards, or bards can try to use charms on them, where your ghouls can reply something on the lines "There is no place for your God here." or "The last one that tried that I feasted on his flesh." - You know just chaotic evil things for some flavor during combat.
Darkvision - Though it's a standard ability, this inspires me to believe that the Ghoul lairs would probably be somewhere in the damp and moist environment. Narrow caves dug with their claws with multiple places to ambush those that dare to go in(Something similar to the caves in the movie "Priest"). However, they may be an excellent fit for crypts, graveyards, and similar places. However, due to low AC and health, I would discourage using them in large open spaces.
Who pairs well with Ghouls in Combat Encounters?
When paralysis is the end goal of the Ghoul, when pairing Ghouls, we need to keep in mind that if we add too many control abilities like that, we will make out players skip too much of their turns, which can become a bit tedious. When the Ghoul primarily a melee monster, we need to add some range creatures to make the encounter more interesting. Since range archers are not the best fit thematically and the Ghouls are relatively straightforward, spellcasters seem like an obvious choice for a perfect choice.
Ghasts - Are a great combo with Ghouls since they are like bigger and stronger bro ghouls with abilities like Stench that fit the poison theme well or Turn Defiance, which helps the ghouls splendidly.
Deathlocks - Could fit well with the lore since they mindlessly serve a patron(Probably Orcus), and their range spell abilities would enhance the encounters.
The Lore & Mythology of the Ghouls
Weirdly enough, the Ghoul that we know comes from Islamic folklore where they would reside in cemeteries and feast on human flesh created by evil spirits or sometimes even Jinns. The idea of the Ghoul is similar to what we know, yet the setting is vastly different, which we can use to our adventures. While researching the mythology and DnD lore, I came across exciting bits to create variant abilities for the ghouls to make them even more interesting.
Ghoul Fever
In previous DnD editions, this feature was a feature where the infected bite would transform the person into a ghoul on the next midnight and require a paladin, cleric help to cure it. I don't get why they cut this from 5e since this could provide a decent amount of roleplaying and adventure hooks.
Shapeshifting
In Arabic folklore, Ghouls would have some shapeshifting abilities with a distinct feature. If you're planning on running a smaller adventure with a couple of ghouls, only infiltrating a village could prove to be a nice addition to the creature.
Servants of Witchlike Jinn
Sila, a witchlike Jinn, would disguise herself as an attractive youthful woman, leading men from their travels astray, killing them, and feasting on their flesh. Damn, this could become an adventure if she does this to keep her youth, and the ghouls are the men she devoured.
Graverobbers
Some writers attributed the aspect of graverobbing to Ghouls, which could be useful detail when the party discovers a Ghouls "treasure". This idea for your ghouls could also be a plot hook if someone seeks to find a family heirloom missing from a grave.
Ghoul Variants
In the end, there is not much variety when it comes to ghouls in 5e. Because of this, people kind of know what to expect from them. That’s why I leave you with a couple of variant ideas for your 5e Ghouls to make them a bit more exciting.
Spore Infested Ghouls
Infectious Spores - When moving 20ft. in a straight line, the Ghoul releases 5ft. radius around the line poisonous spores trying to infect the target. CON 10 save or get 1d6 damage
Moon Crazed Ghouls
If there is moonlight, the ghouls can disengage as a bonus action. Two attacks Multiattack. Abilities - Leap - the Ghoul 15feet, the target need to make a Dex 13 or be grappled.
Bloated Ghouls
Abilities - Infectious Burst - Upon their death, their death Bloated Ghoul explodes in 15ft. Radius everyone in this radius needs to make DEX 14 saving throw or get 2d6 poison damage and get poisoned.
Roaming Ghoul
These Ghouls hunt in packs of 4-6 ghouls. They coordinate and feast together mostly around the remote and dense forests. It's said that the roaming ghouls are cursed soldiers that didn't receive a proper burial and rituals, or the mass burial has been contaminated. - Pack Tactics. The Ghoul has an advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the Ghoul's allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.
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