AD&D Monster Spotlight: Gambado
The Gambado looks silly until it snatches a front-liner into a six-foot hole and bites down. It is not a duelist. It is a trap with teeth.
Run it as a terrain puzzle. The skull at ground level is the tell. Careful players spot scrapes, boards, and coin bait. Reckless players step close and trigger the spring. Give it a strong first strike, then let the party counter as the cover breaks and the pit turns into a nasty scrum.
Keep rulings firm. Surprise at the lip. Drag on a clawed hit. Fall damage when the target goes in. If the creature misses, it drops and tries again. With two or three pits working together, a flat field becomes a fight worth remembering.
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One way of disguising rolls is to roll more than one die and line them up, so you get the results for the next n turns?