Some D&D players enjoy solving mysteries, negotiating with NPCs, and spending entire sessions discussing whether the local baron can be trusted.
Others start looking disappointed if nobody has rolled initiative in the last forty minutes.
I’ve DMed for both kinds of players, and although I enjoy a good roleplay session, I can understand wanting to spend more time fighting monsters. After all, there’s a reason most of the character sheet is dedicated to things you can do in combat.
However, running a combat-heavy campaign isn’t as simple as throwing more monsters at the party. You can certainly do that, but after the fifth encounter with six identical goblins standing in an empty room, things get boring. Even the players who really love combat will eventually start checking their phones.
Good combat encounters need something interesting going on. Maybe the terrain creates problems, enemies have different abilities, or the party is trying to accomplish something before reinforcements arrive. Sometimes, of course, a really big monster is enough.
For this list, I’ve focused on D&D 5e adventures that give combat-oriented groups something worthwhile to fight. Some are proper dungeon crawls, others are collections of short adventures, and a few offer entire campaigns built around dangerous enemies and difficult encounters.
1. Book of Lairs
If you already have a campaign going and just want better combat encounters, Book of Lairs from Kobold Press is probably the most useful option here.
It contains 24 monster lairs, each with its own short adventure, maps, hazards, tactics, and treasure. Instead of putting a monster in a room and hoping the fight is interesting, the book gives that monster a location designed around it.
You might send the party into a necromancer’s cistern, a clockwork tower, an imperial ghoul outpost, or even the citadel of a void dragon. The encounters cover a variety of character levels, so there’s a good chance you’ll find something appropriate for your group.
What I particularly like about this approach is that the environment actually matters. Fighting an enemy on open ground is one thing. Fighting the same enemy in its own lair, where it knows the layout and can use the surroundings against the characters, is another.
There is one thing to watch out for, though. Several encounters use monsters from Kobold Press’s Tome of Beasts, so you’ll want access to that book as well. The extra battle map pack is also separate from the main PDF.
Still, if you’re looking for memorable fights that can fit into pretty much any campaign, this would be my first pick.
2. Scarlet Citadel
Scarlet Citadel is a proper old-fashioned dungeon crawl, published by Kobold Press for D&D 5e. It offers roughly ten levels of adventuring through a ruined fortress once occupied by powerful wizards.
Naturally, the place is now full of monsters, strange magic, traps, and creatures that have made the dungeon their home.
The adventure is built around exploring an increasingly dangerous location. Players can retreat to the nearby town of Redtower, recover, prepare, and head back down when they’re ready. That creates a nice rhythm where combat is the main attraction, but the players still need to think about supplies, healing, and how far they’re willing to push their luck.
The variety of enemies is another big advantage. You’re dealing with more than the usual collection of skeletons and goblins, including several original creatures that should keep experienced players guessing.
I’d recommend this for groups that enjoy tactical combat and exploration equally. The dungeon has enough traps, secrets, and strange locations that moving from one battle to the next doesn’t feel repetitive.
The main downside is the commitment. This is a substantial dungeon campaign, and the DM will need to prepare the areas the party is likely to explore. Also, if your players aren’t interested in spending many sessions underground, you might want to reconsider.
Personally, I like having a town nearby where players can retreat between expeditions. It makes the dungeon feel like a place they’re trying to conquer rather than something they’re expected to clear in one go.
3. Quests of Doom 2
Quests of Doom 2 comes from Frog God Games and contains six standalone adventures for D&D 5e. It’s an excellent choice if your group likes difficult encounters but doesn’t necessarily want to commit to one enormous campaign.
The collection includes adventures such as The Spire of Iron and Crystal, Grimmsgate, and Jungle Ruins of Madaro-Shanti. Each has its own premise and location, so you can pick whichever fits your current campaign or run them as separate adventures.
Frog God Games has always leaned toward a more old-school approach to adventure design. That means dangerous enemies, traps that can actually hurt, and situations where charging forward without thinking can end very badly.
For a combat-heavy group, that’s a good thing, provided everyone understands what they’re getting into.
The fights tend to work best when players treat them as actual threats rather than assuming every encounter was carefully balanced for their level. Scouting, preparing spells, using the environment, and knowing when to retreat become more important.
The DM should read the chosen adventure carefully before running it. Some of these scenarios are demanding, and the older design philosophy may require adjustment for groups accustomed to more forgiving modern encounters.
Still, if your players enjoy difficult combat and the satisfaction of surviving something genuinely dangerous, there’s plenty to work with here.
4. Rappan Athuk
If your players keep complaining that your encounters are too easy, Rappan Athuk might cure them of that particular problem.
Published by Frog God Games, this enormous megadungeon has been around in different editions for years, with a version available for D&D 5e. It has a reputation for being extremely dangerous, and that reputation is very much deserved.
We’re talking about a sprawling underground complex filled with monsters, traps, hidden passages, and encounters that can kill an unprepared party. The dungeon is large enough to support an entire campaign, although you can also use individual sections in another adventure.
The important thing to understand is that Rappan Athuk isn’t designed around the assumption that every fight should be winnable. Players can wander into places where they are badly outmatched, and sometimes the smartest decision is to turn around.
That makes it particularly good for experienced players who enjoy planning, scouting, and trying to gain every possible advantage before combat.
However, I wouldn’t recommend it to a group that gets frustrated whenever a character dies. The difficulty is part of the appeal, and removing that danger would take away much of what makes the dungeon interesting.
This is also a massive amount of material for the DM to manage. Fortunately, you don’t need to prepare the entire dungeon at once, which is good because I suspect trying to memorize the whole thing would qualify as some form of psychological punishment.
For groups that specifically want dangerous, old-school combat, though, it’s hard to ignore.
5. Prepared 2!
Prepared 2! is another Kobold Press collection, this time featuring twelve short adventures for characters between levels 1 and 11.
The main advantage is variety. One adventure involves a goblin war machine rampaging through a city. Another features a long-forgotten boring machine with crazed automaton pilots. There’s also a dragon’s lair, a mysterious ooze outbreak, and several other situations that can turn into memorable battles.
These are the kinds of adventures I’d keep around for nights when the group wants some action without getting too involved in a complicated story.
The goblin war machine is a particularly good example of what makes combat interesting. Instead of fighting goblins standing around waiting to be attacked, the party has to deal with a larger threat that’s actively causing problems.
That gives the DM plenty of opportunities to use movement, obstacles, and changing circumstances during the battle.
Because the adventures are short, you can also drop them into an existing campaign without much trouble. Some might need a little work to fit your setting, but that’s usually easier than writing an entire adventure yourself.
One thing worth checking is the monster selection. Some scenarios use creatures from Kobold Press supplements, so you may need the relevant statistics or suitable replacements.
For DMs who want a collection of action-oriented adventures they can pull out when needed, Prepared 2! is a very practical option.
6. Empire of the Ghouls
Empire of the Ghouls is a full campaign from Kobold Press for levels 1 to 13. It starts with people disappearing in the city of Zobeck and eventually leads the party into the underground empire of the darakhul.
If you enjoy campaigns where the characters gradually discover that the problem they’re investigating is much larger than they expected, this one has plenty to offer.
The campaign features undead enemies, underground dungeons, cults, dangerous creatures, and an entire civilization that the party will eventually have to confront.
Combat plays a major role, especially as the characters travel deeper into hostile territory. There are plenty of opportunities for dungeon fighting, ambushes, and encounters with enemies that have abilities the players may not be familiar with.
However, the adventure also has a proper story, political factions, and NPC interactions. That makes it a good fit for groups that want frequent combat but still care about why they’re fighting.
My main concern would be the amount of preparation. This is a large campaign with its own setting details and quite a few moving parts. The DM needs to understand the factions and the wider conflict well enough to keep the story coherent.
It also deals with some fairly unpleasant subject matter, including cannibalism, body horror, and other dark themes. Make sure your group is comfortable with that before starting.
For an experienced table looking for a long, dark fantasy campaign with plenty of dangerous encounters, Empire of the Ghouls is a strong choice.
7. Rise of the Drow
Rise of the Drow from AAW Games is another substantial campaign, designed primarily for levels 1 to 15, with additional exploration allowing play to continue beyond that.
The story begins on the surface before taking the party deep underground, where powerful drow houses, dangerous monsters, and an expanding conflict threaten the world above.
There is plenty of fighting throughout the campaign, including battles against underground creatures, drow enemies, and threats that become increasingly dangerous as the party gains levels.
What makes it different from a straightforward dungeon crawl is the scale of the setting. The characters travel through underground settlements, strange environments, and major drow cities. There are factions, politics, and plenty of opportunities for the party to make enemies before actually fighting them.
That works particularly well if your players enjoy combat but still want their victories to mean something. Defeating an important enemy feels more satisfying when the party has spent several sessions dealing with their influence.
The downside is that this campaign is enormous. The Collector’s Edition runs to hundreds of pages, and the DM has a lot of locations, NPCs, and encounters to keep track of.
I’d also recommend making good use of the environment during combat. Underground encounters become much more interesting when darkness, narrow passages, elevation, and limited visibility actually affect how the battle plays out.
If your group wants a long campaign featuring plenty of combat, dangerous exploration, and drow-related trouble, this is an excellent option.
Which Combat-Heavy D&D Module Should You Run?
That depends on what kind of combat your players enjoy.
If you want individual encounters that you can insert into an existing campaign, I’d go with Book of Lairs. It gives you the most flexibility without requiring you to commit to a whole new adventure.
For a long dungeon campaign with plenty of tactical encounters, Scarlet Citadel is probably the best overall choice.
If your players specifically enjoy difficult, old-school combat, look at Quests of Doom 2 or Rappan Athuk. Just make sure they understand that running away is sometimes the correct decision.
For shorter action-heavy adventures, Prepared 2! is worth having around.
And if you want a full campaign where combat is supported by a larger story, I’d choose Empire of the Ghouls or Rise of the Drow.
One final thing I’d suggest is changing how you run encounters rather than simply increasing their number. Give enemies a reason to move, use cover, retreat, or protect something. Put obstacles on the battlefield. Have reinforcements arrive halfway through a fight occasionally.
I’ve found that even fairly ordinary monsters become more interesting when the party has to think about something other than which enemy has the fewest hit points.
Although, sometimes the party just wants to fight a dragon.
That’s fine too. There’s a reason we have so many of them.
