---
product_id: 106776833
title: "The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters: Volume 1"
price: "RM271"
currency: MYR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.com.my/products/106776833-the-monsters-know-what-theyre-doing-combat-tactics-for-dungeon
store_origin: MY
region: Malaysia
---

# The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters: Volume 1

**Price:** RM271
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters: Volume 1
- **How much does it cost?** RM271 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.my](https://www.desertcart.com.my/products/106776833-the-monsters-know-what-theyre-doing-combat-tactics-for-dungeon)

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## Description

This book offers DMs a comprehensive guide to understanding monster abilities and developing strategic battle plans, elevating combat encounters in your D&D campaigns.

Review: Probably the best "non-source" source book for D&D I have ever bought - I bought a load of books to "up my game" as Dungeon Master, and put this one off until now as I thought it was a little over-priced, and also most of the content was available online. How wrong I was! The book is beautifully put together, the hardcover is fantastic, and the sheer size of the thing is way beyond what I had imagined. But most important of all is the fact that this is all really well written. It's really easy to read, like a good "page turner" story where you don't want to stop reading. I think it's fair to say that most D&D books fall into one of three categories: - essential source books that are a little dry, but (mostly) necessary for the tables and information in them; - skinny pamphlets posing as books that have great content, but would be better as a laminated A4 handout; - books written with good intentions, but the author just isn't a very good writer. This book stands far above all of the rest in my opinion. The information in it can be read from cover to cover, or dipped into to prepare a specific encounter. There's some general ideas that cover any monsters not covered in detail, and then a wealth of information for all of the common monsters that I would expect to see in a campaign. I honestly don't know how I have been running combat without this book as a resource, and I would heartily recommend reading this to any Dungeon Master, experienced or brand new to the hobby. My players knew something had "changed" the last time we played, and I had a number of post-game messages to confirm that this was one of the best combat sessions they had ever played. I can't wait to put more of the ideas in this book into practice.
Review: Massive Tome, but still very concise - So this book was much bigger than I expected, and I must admit I was little nervous about reading it at first. However, once I read through the introduction and useful overview of the monster's goals, it became clear the book was then quickly split up into explaining the tactics of each individual monster one by one. This with a good index and contents page makes it incredibly easy to find the monsters you want, study them specifically, and then you can put down and pick up the book at your leisure. My party just got visited by an old "friend" they disturbed some time ago, and I'd already built him up quite a lot before (a vampire). This book was brilliant with the tactics and helped me scare the players so much they were meta gaming their little socks off (for a party that rarely meta games at all, this was pretty hilarious to me). Even so, the vampire managed to escape to fight another day, so the paranoia continues for now. Just wait until the vampire sends his minions after them too (all carefully explained in the book as well). I've gone through quite a few of the classic monsters now and always feel like the advice is easy to understand, makes a lot of sense and is very interesting to read. A lot of love went into this book and if there are ever sequels with monsters found in Volo's and Mordenkainen's I will happily purchase them too.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | 169,784 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 103 in Hobbies & Games References 215 in Role-Playing & War Games |
| Book 1 of 5  | The Monsters Know What They’re Doing |
| Customer reviews | 4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars (4,143) |
| Dimensions  | 15.24 x 4.57 x 22.86 cm |
| Edition  | Illustrated |
| ISBN-10  | 1982122668 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1982122669 |
| Item weight  | 767 g |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 560 pages |
| Publication date  | 11 Jun. 2020 |
| Publisher  | Gallery Books |

## Images

![The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters: Volume 1 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81h6huJSzuL.jpg)
![The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters: Volume 1 - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81VrJ2CdutL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Probably the best "non-source" source book for D&D I have ever bought
*by M***L on 29 June 2020*

I bought a load of books to "up my game" as Dungeon Master, and put this one off until now as I thought it was a little over-priced, and also most of the content was available online. How wrong I was! The book is beautifully put together, the hardcover is fantastic, and the sheer size of the thing is way beyond what I had imagined. But most important of all is the fact that this is all really well written. It's really easy to read, like a good "page turner" story where you don't want to stop reading. I think it's fair to say that most D&D books fall into one of three categories: - essential source books that are a little dry, but (mostly) necessary for the tables and information in them; - skinny pamphlets posing as books that have great content, but would be better as a laminated A4 handout; - books written with good intentions, but the author just isn't a very good writer. This book stands far above all of the rest in my opinion. The information in it can be read from cover to cover, or dipped into to prepare a specific encounter. There's some general ideas that cover any monsters not covered in detail, and then a wealth of information for all of the common monsters that I would expect to see in a campaign. I honestly don't know how I have been running combat without this book as a resource, and I would heartily recommend reading this to any Dungeon Master, experienced or brand new to the hobby. My players knew something had "changed" the last time we played, and I had a number of post-game messages to confirm that this was one of the best combat sessions they had ever played. I can't wait to put more of the ideas in this book into practice.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Massive Tome, but still very concise
*by N***E on 27 June 2020*

So this book was much bigger than I expected, and I must admit I was little nervous about reading it at first. However, once I read through the introduction and useful overview of the monster's goals, it became clear the book was then quickly split up into explaining the tactics of each individual monster one by one. This with a good index and contents page makes it incredibly easy to find the monsters you want, study them specifically, and then you can put down and pick up the book at your leisure. My party just got visited by an old "friend" they disturbed some time ago, and I'd already built him up quite a lot before (a vampire). This book was brilliant with the tactics and helped me scare the players so much they were meta gaming their little socks off (for a party that rarely meta games at all, this was pretty hilarious to me). Even so, the vampire managed to escape to fight another day, so the paranoia continues for now. Just wait until the vampire sends his minions after them too (all carefully explained in the book as well). I've gone through quite a few of the classic monsters now and always feel like the advice is easy to understand, makes a lot of sense and is very interesting to read. A lot of love went into this book and if there are ever sequels with monsters found in Volo's and Mordenkainen's I will happily purchase them too.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A must-have for ALL Dungeon Masters
*by J***E on 12 March 2023*

This excellent book is a must-have for all dungeon masters. Especially if you are just getting started out! It goes into great detail about HOW monsters should actually fight in DND 5e, and more importantly WHY they fight like this. It'll really bring your combats to life! I had been throwing many hard or even deadly encounters at my group, but they just kept wiping out all the enemies because I wasn't using any sort of strategy for the enemies. But now, I just threw my first proper deadly encounter at them, and it was a great battle! I use this book to create little decision trees using the website app.diagrams.net and this allows me to have a quick reference as to how a monster should act in combat. It would also make a great gift for any DM friends you have!

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters (1)
- MOAR! Monsters Know What They're Doing (3) (The Monsters Know What They’re Doing)
- How to Defend Your Lair (4) (The Monsters Know What They’re Doing)

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*Product available on Desertcart Malaysia*
*Store origin: MY*
*Last updated: 2026-03-19*