THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING: WINGED MONKEY TACTICS

 

I'm a fan of Keith Ammann's books. With an engaging voice and style, he analyzes monsters to arrive at what should be their optimal battle tactics, based on their stats and their lore.

I'll review his books at a later date. I include this background to set up what I want to do with this series. Take monsters that I've created to highlight how best to run them during an encounter.

I'm going to start with my winged monkeys series, not only because it's now complete, but also because their tactics do differ according to which type you're running in an encounter.

Moving from least to most:

Winged Squirrel Monkeys: This one is easy. These monkeys are primarily the missile troops of the bunch. They have a high DEX, low HP, and multiattack with thrown objects. They should only use their rend attack if grounded and without ammunition to throw. In other words, as their very last resort. At least one monkey per turn should spend its action summoning more winged monkeys. 

Winged Howler Monkeys: They are marginally stronger than their squirrel monkey cousins, and their only multiattack option is to rend. Their flyby attack ability makes this even more feasible and desirable, in that they can swoop in from 30 ft. away, attack, and retreat back another 30 ft. away. If there are more than two howler monkeys available, one should screech to deafen their opponents and the other should summon more monkeys. Another tactic that may prove useful is for them to grapple an opponent, fly upwards their remaining movement to then drop their opponent and inflict falling damage.

Winged Baboons: Even more so than the howler monkeys, based on their strength and ferocity, melee attacks should be their main and only strategy. Flyby attacks and grapple-and-drop attacks should be their go-to.

Now a word about the Monkey See, Monkey Do ability. If they are up against spell-casters, this should be a viable action for at least one monkey per turn after a spell is cast. They have to take an action, and it is possible to fail at it, since it requires an INT save versus the original DC of the spell. Since they have average INT, this means that at best in most cases, there is a 50-50 chance of success. Using this ability some should cause spellcasters to have second thoughts about what spells they cast and how they do it. 

King of the Winged Monkeys: This is the boss monster for the group. While it is a formidable opponent on its own, it should be even more effective as a battlefield commander. The very first thing it should do is to summon its swarm of 3D4 winged monkeys (the DM can decide whether to choose which groups appear or can determine it randomly), then should ideally rally its troops on subsequent rounds. Because of its higher INT and ability to channel up to 3rd level spells (like, say, oh, fireball), whenever such a spell is cast, it should forego its other options to cast the same spell back via its Monkey See, Monkey Do ability.