The Gorgon's Breath
The Gorgon (D&D 5e, Monster Manual) wears natural armor for AC 19, which is high for a Challenge Rating 5 creature. Parties calibrated to that CR will miss more often than they expect, and the 114 hit points mean the fight runs long enough for the real threat to arrive.
That threat is Petrifying Breath, a 30-foot cone forcing a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. Fail twice and the target is petrified. With a 40-foot speed, the Gorgon chooses its own range, closing to deliver the cone or retreating to recharge it. Its own Constitution score keeps it standing while it waits for the 5-6 recharge.
Counterplay is geometry. The cone wants multiple bodies; spread out and it catches one at a time. The 40-foot speed wants open ground; a doorway or corridor strips its positioning and forces it to melee with the Gore attack instead. Concentrate damage rather than chip at it, because a half-dead Gorgon petrifies just as well as a fresh one.
At the table: Fight it in a 10-foot corridor so the cone can only ever reach one character, and keep that character’s Constitution-save specialist in the front rank.
Related
- Monster Tactic: The Statblock Is Not the Fight
- The Monster Reads the Manual Too
- The Monster Has a Plan Too
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