Changes to aberrant combat behavior vs. ranged attackers

[Ryan]

So there's two aberrants that tend to get pulverized before they can even come close to ranged attackers - hook horrors and umber hulks. But both are described as having innate abilities to help them move around the Underdark - horrors can climb really well, and hulks can burrow through the ground. Can such abilities be added passively to these creatures, to make them more challenging opponents?

I think it'd work similarly to how phase spiders go about their business of teleporting right on top of people and ruin their day. With a slight change in SFX (say, a [the Umber Hulk burrows under ground] emote and a hole appears below the creature, and the creature then re-appears closer to the attacker) this might(?) be possible, I guess. I'm unsure if it's outside the limits of the engine or not.

Similarly, I've seen DMs bring hook horrors up cliffs before to attack ranged opponents - can this be added passively?

It'll certainly make the business of hunting aberrants more fraught with danger!

[Pandip]

People should avoid creatures entirely if they're planning on exploiting cliff mechanics to kill them, seeing as that's a pretty severe exploit. As long as you aren't kiting or utilizing cliffs, I don't think these creatures are particularly susceptible to ranged fighters.