
Making Enemies: Volume 5
Monster Design Inspiration for Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Keith Ammann(Author)
Gallery (Publisher)
Published on 6. November 2025
Book
Hardback
592 pages
978-1-6680-9334-4 (ISBN)
Description
From the acclaimed author of the "must-have" (R.A. Salvatore, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Monsters Know What They're Doing series, an indispensable and easy-to-follow new handbook for creating original enemies in tabletop role-playing games.
In The Monsters Know What They're Doing, the essential tactics guide for Dungeon Masters, and its sequel, MOAR! Monsters Know What They're Doing, Keith Ammann reverse-engineered hundreds of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons monsters to help DMs prepare battle plans for combat encounters before their game sessions.
Now, in Making Enemies, he explores everything that goes into creating monsters from the ground up: size, number, and level of challenge; monster habitats; monster motivations; monsters as metaphors; monsters and magic; the monstrous anatomy possessed by real-world organisms; and how to customize monsters for your own tabletop roleplaying game adventuring party to confront. No longer limited to one game system, Making Enemies shows you how to build out your creations not just for D&D 5E but also for Pathfinder 2E, Shadowdark, the Cypher System, and Call of Cthulhu 7E. Including interviews with some of the most brilliant names in RPG and creature design, Making Enemies gives you the tools to surprise and delight your players-and terrify their characters-again and again.
In The Monsters Know What They're Doing, the essential tactics guide for Dungeon Masters, and its sequel, MOAR! Monsters Know What They're Doing, Keith Ammann reverse-engineered hundreds of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons monsters to help DMs prepare battle plans for combat encounters before their game sessions.
Now, in Making Enemies, he explores everything that goes into creating monsters from the ground up: size, number, and level of challenge; monster habitats; monster motivations; monsters as metaphors; monsters and magic; the monstrous anatomy possessed by real-world organisms; and how to customize monsters for your own tabletop roleplaying game adventuring party to confront. No longer limited to one game system, Making Enemies shows you how to build out your creations not just for D&D 5E but also for Pathfinder 2E, Shadowdark, the Cypher System, and Call of Cthulhu 7E. Including interviews with some of the most brilliant names in RPG and creature design, Making Enemies gives you the tools to surprise and delight your players-and terrify their characters-again and again.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York, NY
United States
Publishing group
Simon & Schuster
Product notice
Laminated cover
Illustrations
1-c black illus t-o
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 41 mm
Weight
756 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-6680-9334-4 (9781668093344)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
10/2025
Gallery Books
€16.80
Available for download
Person
Keith Ammann is an ENNIE Award-winning writer based in Chicago and has been a roleplaying gamer and gamemaster for more than thirty years. He likes to play outwardly abrasive helpers, out-of-their-element helpers, reluctant helpers, and genuinely nice, helpful helpers. Mostly, though, he plays non-player characters. And monsters.