Bugbears


 * Source: Monster Manual p.33
 * Monster Type: Ambushers, Raider

Introduction
"'Children be alert when you go to bed, else the hiding Bubgear will make you dead'"""A Bugbear is a type of Goblinoid, taller, larger and stronger than it's smaller cousins. Bugbears resemble a large and feral goblin monkeys except for it's face and claws which are said to resemble a bear. More powerfully built than a Goblin, a Hobgoblin's body is built for survival through raiding and hunting making them excellent killers.

The great physique Bugbear is hampered by their less than ideal Intelligence (-1). Bugbears are not well known for being great military commanders or tacticians. They are temperamental and usually known for being capricious with unreasonable mood swings. Despite their handicap, however, Bugbears are very adept ambushers and some of the best at hit-and-run tactics due to their innate Stealth Skills (+6 to all stealth rolls). Because of their fantastic ability to hide and stealthily follow prey, they almost always will try to engage their foes with the advantage of surprise on their side first and foremost.

Bugbears, despite their great strength, are not soldiers and if forced to do so will display poor discipline; they are hunters, scouts and auxiliaries and will usually leave the position of front line soldiering to their relatives the Hobgoblins. Because of their chosen role Bugbears are seldom seen attacking alone and usually with some numerical advantage along with the element of surprise. If these advantages are nullified and the Bugbear notices the battle starting to turn, unlike their Hobgoblin brethren, they will not hold the line instead trying will flee to preserve their life. They will abandon anyone or anything if it means saving their own life. If cornered or captured it will have no hesitate to betray it's former comrades.

How to Run a Bugbear Encounter
"'I had some regulars inna form of a Goblin raiding party lead by this Hobgobbo fella. He paid well for weapons an' always wanted more later, but he never carried more an' a knife. Thought it weird until one day durin' a shipment delivery some schmup appears outta nowhere to attack the Hobgobbo for raidin' his village. Seconds later the sucker is dead an' three tall hairy fellas appear from outta nowhere armed with some a me weapons! Hobgobbo didn't even notice the guy! Stop sellin' to 'im after that. Guy was a prick anyhow.' -Account of an anonymous arms merchant"The biggest strength the Bugbear has is it's stealth and which should be used and exploited as often as possible. With a Stealth bonus of +6, a Bugbear needs only to get a 14 to reach a Stealth roll total of 20. This means unless the Bugbear gets below a 10 on Stealth rolls it will easily beat the passive perception checks of any character. So with their incredible ability to be sneak a Bugbear when nearby but not fighting with a party should always be hiding while stalking the group and should be relatively unnoticed to the party. Only a couple of decent perception checks should be able to allow the party to even be able to notice a Bugbear near them.

Using their stealth Bugbears will attack parties like a hunter would, always at the worst opportune moment for maximum effect. Bugbears have the trait Surprise Attack which means during their surprise round the Bugbear gets an extra 7 (2d6) damage added on top of any damage they may already be doing. This is a huge damage boost to the already deadly damage output of the Bugbear that is further boosted by in melee combat by the Brute trait that adds and extra melee weapon die of damage. So for a Bugbear that attacks and hits during a surprise round with a Morningstar gets 11 (2d8+2) + 7 (2d6) damage total and if it's critical all of that is doubled. In other words a few sneaky Bugbears could severely threaten a party during an encounter. The Surprise Attack damage bonus does apply to any attack made during the surprise round so if needed any ranged attack will get the bonus from the trait, but the Brute trait only applies to melee attacks.

For an encounter a Bugbear would near an area with a decent amount of concealment or cover to hide behind, preferably near enough for them to reach the party should they rush in for a melee attack. They are masters for hit-and-run attacks and should make use of the cover and concealment to great effect.

Bugbears loves to be bullies and pick on the weak, knowing this in battle they use their natural abilities with concealment and cover to reach the weaker and less armored members of a party. Though they can focus fire down particular targets their lack of discipline and love of carnage in general means they usually will just seek out and attack the closest weak target they can. Should they find the weak target not as weak as they thought or a stronger foe begins to hurt it sufficiently the Bugbear should to try retreat and either find a better place to attack a weak target or simply just flee the battle to fight another day.

Bugbears despite their appearances are not front line brutes. There are much better suited monsters for attacking and maintaining a front against a party that the Bugbears would work with. In fact in many strategies for them it is better to team a Bugbear up with a couple of Goblins or for a much harder encounter some Hobgoblins. With a Goblin distraction or a strong united Hobgoblin wall to occupy the stronger members the Bugbears are free to do what they do best.