Open plains hold opportunities for simple, yet iconic adventures. They’ll be the most common “white room” encounters, with two forces thrust at each other with little outside influence affecting the encounter outcomes. Early-tier adventuring tends to favor these environments, but you can scale it into the mid to upper tiers and threaten the homelands the characters originate. These tables are here to provide you with inspiration or random encounters to drop on your players and add some more life to the grassland environments in your worlds!
Sources
Each encounter focuses on a monster from throughout the D&D 5e library; to see what book or source they come from, you can consult the Book column. The sources unabbreviated sources are Basic Rules (BR), Monster Manual (MM), Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse (MPMM), Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (RoF), Out of the Abyss (OoA), Volo’s Guide to Monsters (VGM), and Storm King’s Thunder (SKT).
Grassland Random Encounters
The following table provides random encounters for parties playing in various “tiers” of gameplay; they generally reflect encounters you can sculpt to work for tables within a level range. The Low-tier can work for levels 1-4, Mid-tier for levels 5-11, and the Upper-tier for levels 12+.
Low-Tier Adventuring Random Encounter Table
| d20 | Book | Encounter |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BR | 1d6+3 loose pigs chased by two halfling farmers |
| 2 | BR | A giant weasel and its halfing scout bounty hunter searching for a wererat |
| 3 | BR | 1d4+2 grazing axe beaks |
| 4 | BR | 1d4+3 boars making a mess of a traveling merchant’s cart |
| 5 | BR | 1d6+2 goblins bandits journeying back to their hideout with loot from a caravan |
| 6 | MPMM | Two oxen pulling a nobles carriage with two scout escorts |
| 7 | BR | Two cockatrices in a coup having petrified the farmer and half the chickens |
| 8 | BR | 1d4+1 giant goats rollicking with a pixie in an open field |
| 9 | BR | An adventuring party of a pair of hobgoblins and a pair of orcs |
| 10 | MPMM | Two jackalweres and their two domesticated hyenas |
| 11 | BR | Three swarms of insects ruining a large halfling family picnic |
| 12 | BR | A bugbear, goblin, worg, and hobgoblin ruffing down travelers for coin |
| 13 | BR | A giant hyena with 1d4+1 gnolls burning down a hamlet |
| 14 | BR | Two giant vultures feasting on a hunted loose cow |
| 15 | MM | 1d4+1 disguised scarecrows in an overgrown corn field who killed the owners |
| 16 | MM | Two ankhegs breaking into a farmer’s field and attacking their goats |
| 17 | BR | A giant boar in a pitched battle with a giant elk in the stables of a nearby tavern |
| 18 | BR | An ogre with a goblin on each shoulder guiding it to people’s treasures |
| 19 | BR | A pegasus curiously interacting with a druid in an open field |
| 20 | BR | An anklosaurus out of time |
Mid-Tier Adventuring Random Encounter Table
| d12 | Book | Encounter |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MM | A bugbear chief and its 1d6+2 bugbear henchmen building a watchtower |
| 2 | MM | 1d4+1 orogs traveling back with the spoils of pillaging a dungeon |
| 3 | MPMM | Two leucrotta and their 1d4+1 gnoll allies resting between raids |
| 4 | MPMM | A pair of disguised barghests leading 1d6+3 goblins in a revolt against a hoblin |
| 5 | MPMM | Two ogre battering rams and 1d4+3 hobgoblins seiging a small fortified tower |
| 6 | MPMM | 1d4+1 yeth hounds on the hunt children to bring back to their night hag lord |
| 7 | BR | Two hill giants and their ogre companion enjoying a feast of giant boar meat |
| 8 | MPMM | A mouth of grolantor leading 1d6+3 gnolls in raiding a farmstead |
| 9 | BR | A tyrannosaurus rex summoned into the region by an archdruid by accident |
| 10 | MPMM | A pair of howlers released into a hamlet to end a militia for a wicked wizard |
| 11 | MPMM | A trio of spring eladrin perfroming a spring dance for a growing audience of fey |
| 12 | BR | 1d4+2 wereboars calling themselves “the Boar Brigade” |
Upper-Tier Adventuring Random Encounter Table
| d6 | Book | Encounter |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BR | Four cyclopses leaing 2d10 goblins in a tactical strike from a hobgoblin warlord |
| 2 | BR | An adult black and young green dragon razing the area to expand their territory |
| 3 | MPMM | A cadaver collector and 2d12+8 zombies collecting bodies from a goblin raid |
| 4 | MPMM | A zaratan awoken from an ancient slumber with half a halfling village on its back |
| 5 | MPMM | A pair of ki-rin battling an eidolon and 1d6+3 ghosts attacking a sacred shrine |
| 6 | MPMM | An ancient red dragon whose claim to lands expands by the month |
