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Let's start with a staple of low level play, spiders, they run out of their holes, throw some entangling webs and then charge and fight till 0 HP, story is old story is boring.
That's not how a spider usually hunts, they don't charge like a zombie, they wait for prey and the ambush.
Here's and idea on how to change the playing field and keep players nervous.

They're going into the spiders home, their nest, the spiders have spun webs everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, not just in the big drapes across hallways, have them lay some across the floor and on the walls. Second, remember that spiders can sense vibrations through their webs and can find prey through that vibration. The spiders follow, stalking, then dart in, bite one of the PCs and then run away and let the poison work. Often times, players aren't used to that, and while poison saves are often low, if the spiders keep doing this someone's inevitably going to fail, and then stat loss happens and the players get scared.
If the fighter fails a few saves and loses say, 3 Strength, he's going to be scared, he won't hit as often, he hits less hard, and if his strength drops too much, he could start getting encumbered by his gear.
Anyone starts losing Dex and their AC starts dropping fast.

This has a startling effect on a players confidence, and can be a major inconvenience even at higher levels. Stat damage from Poison or Disease takes time to heal, sometimes several days of straight bed rest, or a valuable Restoration spell, which they might want to save in case of bigger problems.

You can even throw this at them without a Giant Spider dungeon.
You're in an abandoned tower rummaging through a bookshelf, a tiny spider bites your hand cause you nearly squished it.
If you're DM is mean (diabolical genius) he could put on the door right before a fight.
While they're tromping through the woods have them step on a normal hornet nest. I guarantee it'll be entertaining.

Include Disease.
If they're walking around all kinds of dead rotting corpses make them make that saving throw to get all kinds of nasty crap.
If they're wading in swamps make them roll against things like Dysentery or "Trench Foot" or Malaria cause they're getting eaten alive by Mosquitoes.

If you've got other ideas please, share them.

It was simple on the how. They were all shattered drunk, and saves were rolled. It was a high level illusion spell. Mechanically everything was up and up. The wizard's dc's were 28 vs a heavily impaired paladin.

Also I asked the paladin to roll saves a few times, he knew something was up. She did not touch him, when she reached to do so, he killed her. I gave him an attack of opportunity as if it were an unarmed attack from someone without the feat. I also stated it was not an aggressive motion.

Yeah no. I play Paladins and with Paladins extensively and I can tell you that there is NOTHING in this situation that would make the Paladin fall.

1) Saves are abstract, while the Paladin (the player) knows that he's making saves and that something may be up, the Paladin (the character) only sees a demonic creature babbling in an unknown language and attempting to touch him. And tons of creatures have auras or abilities that require saves, hell a vampire can Dominate you with a look. So why would rolling saves be a clue that something is an illusion?

2) "the touch was nonthreatening" yeah, so is a touch attack by a Succubus. Level draining kiss, looks nonthreatening until you shrivel like a raisin. A touch attack can be any type of touch, it doesn't always look like it wants to eat your soul, my point on Succubi again.

3) WHY IN THE NINE HELLS DID YOU LET IT GET THIS FAR!?!?!!? Seriously why? What possible purpose was there in allowing the Wizard to commit such an iredeemably evil and despicable act?

4) "A paladin must be of lawful good alignment and loses all class features except proficiencies if she ever willingly commits an evil act." Since the Paladin had NO in character way of knowing that it wasn't a monster he did not WILLINGLY COMMIT AN EVIL ACT AND THUS DOES NOT FALL. And THEN you had the sheer GALL to tell him that he couldn't raise her, why? He tried to right his wrong and you shut him down, that's not good roleplay or fair, that's just being a dick.

5) The Wizard just proved the Paladin was right all along. When he was angered he orchestrated the murder of not only and innocent woman, but a holy warrior at that. He just pulled a Joker or Scarecrow move, and left a letter on her corpse. HE JUST SIGNED HIS OWN CONFESSION! The Paladin now wanting to kill him is right in the holy sense as that is an incredibly evil act, right in the judicial sense in that the wizard committed a murder and then left basically a confession letter, and right personally in wanting vengeance.

The only way out of this if you want to avoid been THAT DM is to have the Paladin not fall, have a SERIOUS talk with the Wizard about what he thought made this okay, make the wizard an NPC villain while the player rolls a new character, and give the party some way to save the girl and get her back.

That make me question my idea for a Greek Hoplite Hobgoblin with the Leadership feat.....

Well dang, our rogue went cowboy and got eaten by a giant fish. Solves the Yandere problem.

http://hastur.net/wiki/Troop_%28D%26D_creatures%29

I rediscovered this template while looking through old notes, and I'm immediately in love. Planning on having the party face one pretty soon.
In the meantime, has anyone ever used this? How did it go? Any glaring issues that would need to be changed? How did the party react? Opinions and stories are welcome and appreciated.

Two examples to follow:

Elven Warband (Troop of Elven warrior 1) CR 6

CG Gargantuan humanoid (troop of Medium elves)
Init +1; Senses Nightvision, Listen +2, Spot +2
Languages Common, Elven
AC 20 (+2 Dex, +3 studded leather, +1 light shield, +4 troop) touch 15, flat-footed 18
Hp 45 (10 HD)
Fort +7, Ref +4, Will +2
Speed 20 ft. (4 squares)
Melee 6 Longsword +6 (1d8+1/19-20)
Ranged 12 longbow +7 (1d8/×3)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +5; Grp +6
Atk Options expert grappler, multiple opportunities
Abilities Str 13, Dex 13, Con 0, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8
SQ elf traits, troop anatomy
Feats Weapon Focus (longbow)
Skills Hide -11, Listen +2, Search +3, Spot +2

Veteran Cohort (Troop of human warrior 3) CR 8

LN Gargantuan humanoid (troop of Medium humans)
Init +4; Senses Listen -1, Spot -1
Languages Common
AC 22 (+4 chain shirt, +4 wall shield, +4 troop) touch 14, flat-footed 22
Hp 166 (30 HD)
Fort +18, Ref +10, Will +10
Speed 20 ft. (4 squares)
Melee 9 Shortsword +7 (1d6+1/19-20)
Ranged 9 Javelin +6 (1d6+1)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +7; Grp +8
Atk Options expert grappler, multiple opportunities
Abilities Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 9
SQ troop anatomy, wall shield
Feats Weapon Focus (short sword), Weapon Focus (javelin), Improved Initiative
Skills Climb -5, Jump -9

Now this is from 3.5 so it might take some adjustments but it should translate very easily

Ooh, I found a template that could help with making low level NPCs dangerous.

The Troop Template.

"Troop" is an acquired template that can be added to any Small, Medium, or Large construct, elemental, humanoid, outsider, or undead. A troop can incorporate any riding animals used by such creatures as long as such mounts are Medium or Large. A mount and rider together is treated as one creature of the mount's size for all calculations of troop abilities.

A troop is deliberately formed and requires a degree of training and organization beforehand, as well as at least a few minutes of actually ordering ranks before battle. Creatures with Intelligence 2 or less must be under the direct control of intelligent creatures in order to form troops. A troop uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type: A troop is a Gargantuan creature composed of twenty small or medium creatures or five large creatures (or riders on large creatures). The troop’s type remains unchanged from the base creature (ignore the type of any mounts).

Hit Dice: A troop has a single pool of Hit Dice and hit points. Troops have half the total hit points and Hit Dice the component creatures. This works out to ten times the base creature's values for small and medium creatures, five times the creature's values for large creatures. Include mounts in the calculation, including the mount's size. Reducing a troop to 0 hit points or lower causes it to lose cohesion break up into component creatures which are broken and run away from the battle to the best of their ability. Damage taken until that point does not degrade its ability to attack or resist attack. Troops are never staggered or reduced to a dying state by damage.

Speed: A troop’s speed is 10 feet slower than that of the base creature (or its mount, if applicable).

Armor Class: As the base creature, with a +4 troop bonus. Ignore the Troop’s new size modifier; AC is based on the size code of component creatures.

Base Attack: A troop uses the attack bonuses of component creatures with a +4 troop bonus.

Attack/Full Attack: The attacks of the troop are carried out by individual creatures in the troop, using the attack bonus of the troop. The number of creatures that can attack each round depends on their size and armament. Total the number of attacks from the following table.

Base creature is Small 9 attacks
Base creature is Medium 6 attacks
Base creature is Large 3 attacks
Reach (per 5' of reach) +3 attacks
Piercing weapons +3 attacks
Missile Weapons +3 attacks

If a troop uses several different sets of weapons, it might have a different number of attackers with each set. All troop attack in a given round must use the same set of weapons. Attackers attack individually, allowing each of them to make one attack in a charge and to gain extra attacks from special tactics like Two Weapon-Fighting.

Space/Reach: 20 feet/5 ft. The reach of the base creature is ignored.

Attack Options: Troops gain the following attack options.
Expert Grappler (Ex): A troop can maintain a grapple without penalty and still make attacks against other targets (normally, attacking other targets while grappling imposes a –20 penalty on grapple checks). A troop is never considered flat-footed while grappling. Multiple Opportunities (Ex): Each time a troop makes an attack of opportunity, all of the eligible attackers in the troop can make an attack of opportunity.
Troop Anatomy (Ex): Troops are made up of relatively small numbers of individual creatures, so spells or effects that target specific numbers of creatures can have an effect on a troop. Each specific creature that is slain, disabled, or otherwise incapacitated by spells or effects that target specific creatures inflicts damage to the troop equal to the hit points of the base creature. Effects that affect single creatures which do not incapacitate as above have no effect.
Although troops are treated as one creature, it sometimes becomes necessary to determine the fate of a specific individual caught up in the troop. If a troop is dispersed by nonlethal attacks, there are no casualties. If the troop is dispersed by lethal attacks, assume that 30% of its number are slain and 30% are reduced to 0 hit points. To determine a specific individual’s fate, simply roll d%: a result of 01–30 indicates death, 31–60 indicates the victim is reduced to 0 hit points, and a roll of 61–100 indicates the victim escapes relatively unscathed.
Troops take double damage from area attacks that cover at least half the troop's space, that is 8 or more squares in the troop's area.

Saves: A troop’s saving throws are recalculated based on its new hit dice. A troop makes saving throws as a single creature.

Abilities: A troop’s abilities are the same as the base creature, as well as the following:

Skills: Same as the base creature; do not recalculate based on the troop’s new Hit Dice, but do include modifiers for changes in size and speed. Mounts and riders use the best value in each skill.

Feats: Same as the base creature; do not recalculate based on the troop’s new Hit Dice.

Organization: Solitary, platoon (2-4), battalion (5-10), or army (11-200). Troops are often accompanied by leaders and officers of the same size as the base creature, who can occupy the same space as the troop because of the size difference.

Challenge Rating: As base creature +6 if the base creature is Small or Medium. As base creature +2 if the base creature is Large.

Advancement: As base creature.

Level Adjustment: —

RavenStarver wrote:

Now, Pirates, that's an entirely different kettle of fish

here some unflattering facts about real pirates.

The favorite prey of real pirates during the height of Piracy between the 16-18 century were slave ships. Slaves where easy to sell,the buyers did not ask questions , and slave ship crew caught between a pirate ship and their cargo which might revolt any minute would always quickly surrender

Yeah, I remember reading about that in High School.

@yeti1069

Absolutely, by simply giving a few of them 1 level in a class they become a much larger threat. Maybe they've got two barbarians, a cleric for healing and buffs, and a sorcerer who loves burning hands and magic missile. Players faces are hilarious when the enemy they've been fighting starts healing or getting healed. "Only we get to do that!"

Bandits, whenever I come across them they're either useless after a couple levels or you somehow have 8th level thieves sleeping in the woods like hobos and mugging farmers.
How do you keep bandits relevant as encounters while maintaining a sense of realism for the region they're in?
First, consider the region they are in. This is terrain as well as who they steal from normally. If their victims are normally farmers, they are not going to be prepared to face paladins, wizards and barbarians.

Mostly it's about having them make sense, really. Your normal everyday bandits aren't going to be a lvl 4 ranger, lvl 4 rogue hybrid. That would a group of elite bandits like Ali Baba's 40 thieves. Those 40 men could and would sack entire cities, but, those are the kind of guys who get a widespread reputation, they'd famous in the region, possibly the whole kingdom.
Another point, have bandits be smart, but don't go trying to outsmart the party. Sure the bandits could have a well setup ambush, tree across the road, archers on both sides, spearmen in the bushes. But are they really going to have a wizard with spells prepared specifically to counter the party's caster? That reeks of DM Metagame and isn't really fair to the party.

There's a guy on YouTube called Demonac who posted a video a little while ago about how to make insignificant npcs still feel like people.
The technique he used was, "stereotype but".
If I say, "You see a city guard", you've already formed a mental picture of this person based on your assumptions of what a city guard is. Then I add a mood to them, "The guard is leaning on his spear and looks very bored" or "the guard is very bright and perky and greats you in passing"
That adds another layer to them with hardly any effort on my part. The last bit is the but, and you don't have to use this last bit.
You add one element that's out of the ordinary. Like "The city guard looks at you with bright eyes and smiles, her uniform freshly pressed, shined and spotless."

A quick, easy trick to make an otherwise bland NPC feel more dynamic

Are there ways to incorporate all this town fluff without making it all seemed forced?

That mostly comes down to how you deliver it, stopping them and spouting exposition always seems forced and breaks the mood. You want to try and just mention things in passing, consider how long it might take them to get to their destination and throw in a few tidbits. I like the ideas Eltacolibre mentioned. A young noble half dressed fleeing an older man spewing threats, mention in passing a pseudodragon or two wheeling about overhead.