This week on Game Master Tips, Matthew Mercer is back to talk about how to customize the creatures and monsters your party will be encountering throughout your campaign. Whether you’re trying to make the perfect beast for an encounter, surprise those well-seasoned players with something new, or just balance something out a little better, Matt has some helpful hints to get you started.

If you’re scaling your creatures based on your party, consider changing up a few attacks–either by giving the creature or monster a condition-inflicting action instead of something that could destroy the party or by cranking down a few stats.

Perhaps you have a larger party. Think about altering or adding the creature’s attacks here as well, but instead of just beefing up damage, give them an action which affects a larger area, allowing them to catch multiple PCs in a Cleave or blast of some sort. Also consider how having a large party may affect the creature’s movement–is there a way to have it move around easier without getting caught in Attacks of Opportunity?

Watch the full video above to find out all of Matt’s tips and let us know if you have some of your own in the comments below!