@@Hazel-xl8in but even terrasque minions would have to be reduced to -30 hp to kill, and then each one would require a Wish spell to keep it permanently dead. Tarrasques are insane. They're like making a medieval knight fight Perfect Cell.
@@KittenyKat when Matt says "Minion" he means it with a Capitol M. Meaning it has 1 hp and thus loses any healing/regen abilities. So if you summon a Tarrasque Minion, it is already at 1hp. When you hit it, it dies. Thats the point of Minions, you dont track them to ensure they drop to negative whatever.
For a knight to fight the might of a bright wight tonight could invite either fright or delight, despite the lack of light or sight, and incite the right of nerds alike to ignite and take flight the height of their excite to write rhymes of shite and tripe. *drops mic*
Voluntary possession. I've had that in a game. Ghosts of children. Starved to death locked in their room. They wanted to help us "stop the monster," but were afraid to be out and about, and afraid to be left alone again. Eventually, our Paladin, of all people, volunteered to allow one of the spirits to hitch a ride in him, but letting him keep control. And this inspired our Barbarian to then step forward and take on the second, same deal. In exchange for keeping control, I gave them each a flaw associated with the individual they took on (5e flaws). Paladin had the older sister, and got s bit of a stubborn, bossy edge on occasion. Barbarian, with the younger brother, became more attached to the presence of the Paladin, and became afraid of the dark. (Like, pitch black. Dim just unnerved him.) Still. During the quest, it became an interesting side quest for them to find out why the kids were left, and, more interestingly, the party took up the bones of the children, and sought to inter them in the family tombs once it was done. Lay them finally to rest. I hadn't thought of that. The ranger and Paladin came up with it. I loved it
Absolutely love this. I’ve been thinking about running a Kids On Bikes game, and this would also be a great way to use the powered character mechanic in that game.
Ah, the Death House. It was fun, but alas, it was not the house that killed our party. Probably because it didn't stand up from the ground and beat us with its roots.
@@FridgeEating you just caused me to create a One Shot titled The Death House. With the exact same lead up in the quest as Curse of Strahd, but with one major difference. The house is basically the one from the movie Monster House, and the ghost children are lures. Night should end with the house chasing the party through the mystical fog
It's funny rewatching a lot of these videos where Matt talks in the intro about the kickstarter hoping that it will do well knowing now that he is the King of Kickstarter. Makes me happy.
I think some sort of inter-witch turf war would be interesting, just choose a witch and whichever witch would witch witches to be the witchiest witch ever
My friend Dwight's midnight game tonight might feature wrights. The airtight zeitgeist of my party's foresight is to prepare blight, smite and sunlight for the impending fight. Once these slighted wrights are sighted, we might ignite lights and colour those wrights bright white outright so we can finish the rite for the erudite sprite's birthright despite missing respite. Then the wainwright and shipwright can politely unite after the gunfight and we can slay the neophyte trilobite parasite. In hindsight, it's a bit trite, but it's alright. Thank you for the video Matt, it was enjoyable and informative. Both the asides which are relevant to the topic and those that aren't keep things engaging, and there seemed like a lot more puns and wordplay then other videos and it was great. I won't ever again forget Elves' immunity to ghoul/ghast paralysis with that mnemonic.
Were you meaning 'wight' when you said 'wright'? One is an inudead creature, the other is a maker or builder. (Excluding wainwright (cart maker) and shipwright (ship builder).
Important point but it DEFINITELY can began to lead to a death spiral. Also should have mentioned the whole "death by rapid aging"! If you play a short lived race like Aarakocra, ghosts and can kill you with horrifying visage just by making you crusty old!
I kind of like Banshees for this. They can literally murderscream half a higher level party into "Death save county". They're a great monster to deploy when the players split the party. That way you don't risk the TPK and it's a rush to defeat it before someone fails 3 death saves. _"Your friends lay dying! You still feel the pain from the wail in your mind, but you still stand. The Banshee glares glares at you with murder in her cold eyes. She wants you... dead. What do you do?"_ Even if it has spent its single wail the player doesn't know that. Perhaps you gave it an extra wail, just to keep them on their toes and teach them that the monster manual is just the average monster of that type. There's going to be weaker ones and stronger ones.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! What about Mummies? Mummies and Mummy Lords are in the Monster Manual and have really interesting attacks, a damage vulnerability for players to discover, and interesting flavor text that says they can retain information and speak to the party, making them potential NPC's. A lot of potential for fun encounters, really underutilized.
I loved these Undead videos. Demons seem a bit more straight forward than their counter parts, Devils. I think a video on devils would be awesome and potentially more useful.
Banshees drop a character to 0 hit points (unconscious), not killing them. I love the idea of an instant death-causing banshee for a higher level encounter, though.
Same for the Bodak. Both the Banshee wail and the Bodak gaze specify a drop to 0 HP rather than causing immediate death. 5e mostly doesn't have save-or-die effects, after all.
It's really useful to have your mechanical/narrative input on the use and differences of undead, and would love to have those for other creatures. any chance on a video of foreshadowing, I've tried to apply this a few times in my own games, but players forget or ignore. I always have to remind myself a player isn't a reader and while the 'i'm playing a game' mindset players can fall into is sometimes a problem, it can also be a great help if properly tapped into... it's just been very hit and miss for me personally.
Coupled with foreshadowing, I'd love more input on player agency. Meaningful player choice and action is something that can be very difficult to provide and even the best professional adventures can often lack it. getting good intel to the players, allowing them to make meaningful choices with it and allow their actions to change the world in a meaningful way, even if that dramatically changes the direction of the campaign. [when running lost mine of flapdoodle, I almost rewrote the whole thing to be focused around doppelgangers, because my players were so engaged with the first one they met. in retrospect, i wish i had]
Leaving this here for future use, 10:00 is the bit you play before your players fight a wight. Every time I've had a tv in the room and my players encounter a wight, I play this section. Highly recommend
I'll be running my first campaign in 2days, using the taldorei campaign setting as my base, and using one of its story hooks "you best start believing in ghost stories" I'll be using a couple of the generic npc stat blocks (veteran and thug) and modding them into undead pirates to have the traits that zombies have to make them more freshly killed and dangerous, just to really spice them up and make them more like their inspiration
Gotta say, these past undead videos have helped me out a lot. I was/am running a homebrew adventure with an undead theme where I had initially stuck to wraiths, skeletons and zombies because I know them well enough to use them. After your insight into other undead creatures, the common uses of them and your own spins on how to use them, my list of usable creatures and scenarios they fit into has been broadened enough that I don't feel like i'm being too repetitive with encounters etc. Your videos continue to be a great help, I look forward to the next.
The most interesting thing to me in D&D are the monsters. Players, politics, RP, etc...are interesting, but the lore, backstory, mechanics, and implications monsters have in a game are what I live for so...YES PLEASE DO MORE OF THESE!!! It helped that undead are among my favorite creature subtype to kick start this sub category of videos, but anything monster related is two thumbs up from me!
The wight turning people into zombies does come up - villagers have been disappearing, a band of local guards went into the ruin to root the monster out before - now when they go into the ruin themselves, the party encounters the villagers that disappeared and guards that disappeared as zombies. Maybe some of them are NPCs they met earlier, and they have to turn their swords on the faces of innocents possessed by undeath. I think it makes for a quite chilling low-level adventure.
The damn handy mnemonic for remembering elves being immune to ghouls paralysis but not ghasts at the 9:00 minute mark kills me every single time. Just aces.
TheSpartin01 That’s kind of strange because they don’t have brains which kind of makes that useless I always figured psychic damage just causes your brain to spontaneously shut off completely or causes you to forget things like suddenly you can’t remember how to breathe
Have you ever run a Undead Campaign wherein the PC's are 'awoken' undead. Perhaps they were all zombies, ghosts, etc., of a litch that died and freed them? Or maybe some great divine strike aimed at killing them fused a part of the divine in them allowing their wondering true soul to reattach in part but they lack many of their memories (alive or undead). Now they quest to restore themselves (Very Fullmetal Alchemist) while trying to keep their dark secret hidden.
Like the Forsaken from WoW, broken free of the Lich King's control. Still a great campaign idea! And even better than WoW cause you have more options than just zombie. I'd love to play a vampire spawn trying to ascend to masterdom.
Dillon Wyatt I have a vampire BBEG who has regained his soul from an extremely well-worded wish. BUT, he’s still a vampire and still undead!! So genie gave his exactly what he asked for but not why he really wanted. Anyway, he’s BBEG because now he’s found a way to turn back time, & just needs a strong enough magical source (aka battery) to power it. There’s a reason there are no gods that can alter time backwards!!! So the gods are helping the PCs, but there are chaotic gods that want to help the BBEG hoping he’ll destroy creation itself!
Cool trivia, ghouls are created when a person eats a corpse. The reason their finger nails are so long is because they are graveyard scavengers and they are used to burrow into Graves and smash them open.
Listening to this video for the first time gave me the idea of a dungeon where the final boss is a wight (or a handful of them) surrounded by the zombies of a previous adventuring party who TPK’d against it. The quest giver would be the ghost of one of the former adventurers who ask the party to kill the wight and their bodies so their souls can escape from limbo, and communicates by possessing one of the PCs and speak through them. It would be a straight dungeon delve, but it makes for a (hopefully) memorable narrative context
Thanks for another helpful video. Please do videos on Demons and Devils too! Even though I could just look up the monster's stat block, hearing your suggestions for how to run the creatures helps to spur my own imagination :D
Precisely! I'm a new DM, and it's incredibly helpful to hear Matt share his insights and experience with us. In the end, I'm still going to do what makes sense in my world, but there's a good amount of nuggets of wisdom I can mine from these videos.
Had a wonderful encounter with two players in Wave Echo Cave that wouldn't have been possible without ghoul paralysis being so weak. It was pyrrhic but not a slog as the two players stood up on a huge stone table and had clumsily alerted several different groups of ghouls and got themselves trapped back to back as the creatures streamed out of the darkness, continually paralysing them and whittling them down until exhausted they stood surrounded by two dozen ghoulish remains. I don't know if they learned anything about running from known danger into unknown danger while making lots of noise but it was badass.
I honestly very much enjoyed these 2 undead videos. They actually gave me the inspiration I needed to flesh out my story for my upcoming campaign. I have the books but I love getting an experienced DM's opinion on the usefulness of the provided monsters. Thank you Matt!
These videos have been SOOO helpful. I had a DM who used a bunch of these undead, but I felt like he wasn't taking advantage of the roleplaying opportunities. He just used them as lifeless bags of hitpoints. Good to know I'm not the only one who thinks undead can have interesting encounters attached.
I like the 'undead' series and especially how you really reinforce that the 'metabolically challenged' should be used as a part of an encounter and with other monsters. I think you mentioned that having multiple types of monsters really helps make a good encounter (and creates some tactical thinking beyond "I attacked the nearest 'defier of decomposition'). If you do go into a series of demons definitely talk about what sort of encounter they should be in, how they can be paired up to make things interesting. You also just generally have more experience running D&D than I think a lot of average people do. When you talk about the 'resurrection impaired' and can talk about your experiences or times they have worked well for you I think that really helpful. As they say "Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of painting over the ugly parts and recycling for more than it's worth".
For anyone who hasn't heard of it, a great resource if you're looking for advice on playing monsters tactically (read: making them meaner by playing to their strengths) is a blog called The Monsters Know.
I would love an Odds/Math video. I think it would be cool to do a series of videos on monsters by type, as well (like, an episode on constructs, an episode on aberrations, an episode on fey) but this is mostly because I appreciate the breadth of perspective that comes of many years playing. It helps me to build that same mental library to have an understanding of what the big sections are and who the big names in each section are. That said, I think I enjoy the videos about actual gameplay more. The Sociology of Dnd video was super helpful, as well as the ones where you talked about descriptions, active voice, maintaining players' agency, getting through the grind, etc. Thank you for posting these!
As for raising targets that are life-drained, consider using it as a premise for an encounter or adventure. A wight rolls into a town, kills the residents with life-drain, and they are raised up by the time the players get there. I'd actually prefer my character dying to having them being aged. I once made a whole-one shot adventure about a ghost possessing a player. One of the PCs was possessed from the start-- and each player had a secret to throw suspicion off of him! It was a great success! EDIT: This WAS a useful video! Thanks!
That thumbnail wins today's notifications. Re "weaponized beauty": The banshee could be used as a once-per-campaign encounter when it fits the story. I thought the description was odd, too, until I needed a spooky encounter in an elf tomb and made a sealed room that held a banshee. She appeared as a lovely elf noblewoman who asked "Where is my husband?" Eventually she remembered he isn't there because he left her at the altar and left her enraged for life and on into undeath. Then her visage changed and she lashed out at the living who interrupted her rest and made her remember her past. Give her a backstory with a reason to be supernaturally angry -- husband assassinated, or children turned to shadows, or younger sister deposed her.
Matt, your writer is showing! The right wight to fight tonight was hilarious and it was fun to watch you try to stack it. Clearly some wordplay love there.
Andrew Ryan he had to write to bring the right light to see the sight of the plight of a bright wight his friend might have to fight tonight out of spite. It gives me a tight shite.
A key note for setting, in Dark Sun, Banshees are the dead spirits of dwarves with unfinished business who are literally to stubborn to leave the material plane and wail the woes of never having finished some task of great importance, or literally having a half finished pot as we found out in one of the dark Sun video games
As someone working on a campaign where a necromancer is the Big Bad, these undead videos are super helpful, and I'd absolutely love to see a demon/devil one! Great for generating ideas too. I'm definitely using a ghost hostage possession scenario in the future! However there is one neat/nasty thing you forgot to mention about the ghost's Horrifying Visage, and that is the aging effect!! The nastiness of that effect is very character level and DM dependent. It's no problem for a party with access to greater restoration, but speaking as someone who played in a group that got essentially TPKd at LV5 by three ghosts, as half our party died of old age while the rest barely held on, that one is an effect not to be forgotten about, or underestimated. Having your 12 year old half-orc turn 72 in a matter of seconds is pretty rough.
Alright, something I NEED to add down here as a request: When you show the images of the monsters, PLEASE write down under each image which monster is which. I spent half the banshee/ghost explanation thinking they were the other way around. Love your videos, I've been following them since ep. 01 and you have given me an absurd amount of knowledge and insight into a seasoned DM's mind. For someone who just started playing and DMing D&D only two months ago, this is priceless. Many thanks, "Mr. Col'ville"
Even veterans have a tough time remembering all the details (especially those that haven't been steady in every edition), so I think it's good to get a video going over the essentials. More than that, however, it's great to tackle how to modify these monsters (both for in-combat reasons and for storyline reasons).
Thanks for these Matt. Somewhat serendipitously, after your first video my party uncovered a group of shadows in a Pathfinder AP I'm running (Rise of the Runelords) and, because they kinda took the floor in the reverse order to that which was intended due to finding a secret entrance/exit, these guys were at the start of the floor with a load of goblins running in to turn it into a 3-way fight which has ended pretty badly for the melee fighter, having taken 10 points of strength damage so far, and having multiple bosses left to kill (one of whom has got some amount of mythic power allowing her to use some of her cleric-based channel negative energy to erupt out of her wounds, effectively damaging anyone who attacks her in melee with channel energy as a free action). But no, this has been useful and I would appreciate a devil/demon/daemon video.
One of my favorite usages of a ghost was when my party found an NPC in a destroyed town, this NPC was very distort and would not let the player touch or get too close. Little did the players know that this wasn't a person at all but a ghost that did not know that it was dead. At least not until they found it's recently dead body.
As someone whose gone from player too DM, I find these video's of yours too be very helpful in learning my way of running a game. Something my cousin said around the same time as a video of yours was released, was that "As the DM, you can do anything! These are just GUIDES, not RULES, play things your way if you want too". Its been interesting watching these videos of yours in particular, as Iv taken to flavouring up all applicable monsters in the MM with the mythological aspects they're attributed with... like, my Hydra can only be killed either by bleeding it dry, or cartorising the neck-stumps after cutting a head off... as Heracles did when he and Iolous fought the Hydra in greek mythology. Also, what you said about Ghosts... I DID THAT IN MY FIRST DM GAME! :D I took 3 ghosts, and had them as "echos" of the people who were murdered in this old ruin. The catch was, if the party decided to attack them, the mother ghost would have turned into a Banshee, and would have been the threat in that encounter. Luckily, they decided to play it cautiously, and instead where able to listen in on the ghosts "echos" and learnt what had happened, so they were prepared about what to face in the bowels of the Ruin. ...my game is completely homebrew, so there's no campaign to point too for this, sorry. Well, I dunno, I was inspired by Pillars of Eternity, so maybe that part of Caed Nua was my inspiration for that part? ...I dunno... lots of fun, all of it :D
I still think you should monetize your videos, especially because of things like paying for the studio. I can honestly say that no one that watched your videos would mind watching an ad beforehand, if it supports the channel and gets us more amazing content.
The original Dark Sun setting had a great way of handling undead - every one of them was effectively unique, powerful and pretty dangerous. I also particularly like using the idea that PCs might research an undead or demonic creature to determine its specific weaknesses and powers so as to avoid or mitigate the scarier effects.
More stuff on world building and giving that world a unique and interesting flavor would be super interesting. For example, I'm trying to develope a "New World" conquistador setting/ sandbox campaign. I know you've done some live streams featuring world building, and touched on world building many times, but it would be great to see some dedicated running the game videos on it.
I recently read about someone's character having the quirk of nibbling on a ginger root... which eventually led to her rolling with Advantage against ghast stench, because the ginger was calming her stomach.
A thing to note about ghosts is that against a low level party, especially one with dumped charisma, they can be a one monster death spiral since the only way to exorcise them is to beat each party member unconscious in turn in order to get the ghost out.
Matt, when you're running minions have you considered using a 1d4-1 for the "hits" it takes to down a minion? Meaning they function the same but that ogre might be 2-3 hits and still feel just as minionish but less like a paper monster
I think he is referring to the actual minions (type of various creatures) from 4th Edition. I am not a fan of 4th Edition nor of those minions, but your suggestion might make them more interesting.
The wights' zombie ability can actually be used as it is. I once had my players defend a small village from a bunch of Wights, and if they hadn't noticed the rapidly decaying bodies, they'd have had an encounter with a dozen zombies from within the village when they could be resting.
I very much liked the compare/contrast of the really similar undead. I've never used any undead other than zombies, ghosts, mummies, and ghouls specifically because I had trouble keeping the similar ones straight in my head. Useful and fun videos, I'd welcome more of the type.
Ghosts are a great resource. In one of my campagins, the BBEG, a military commander, was a Warlock whose demonic patron had secretly struck a deal with a powerful devil. The commander starts getting very powerful, to the point he stages a coup d'etat, kills the king and sits on the throne, and becomes one of the best (altough ruthless) rulers in history. At the peak of his power, the PCs kill him, and the devil possesses his body (this was part of the deal). Seeing his body being defiled, the ghost of the king aids the PCs in defeating the devil and his former patron, and is absolved of all his sins by the gods.
I think, that these videos are a great help for DM's, you give insight and plothooks for better usage and you make it not boring to watch. Thoses video started a ton of ideas for my own game, where undead are heavily featured. So thanks a lot :)
Matt! As an Industrial Designer with ambitions to move into concept art in the entertainment industry, I greatly hope to come in professional contact with you someday!
Well you asked sooo, Myself, I don't run 5e, so the Hitpoints and AC's are not useful to me, but the idea behind each undead is invaluable, just in this video I got an idea for 2 custom monsters (I almost always make custom monsters, one of my players in a metagaming skank-weasel and has memorized the pathfinder bestiary and the monster manual) So the video was useful in that I probably wouldn't have gotten the idea for the monsters without it. So the video was useful in regard to the creation of ideas, but the HP and AC and the number crunch weren't as useful.
Keep making vids like these. It helps a ton in thinking of outside the box ways to use these monsters. Especially how you went into several possibilities with the Ghost.
Watching your previous video on undead actually inspired me to create a dungeon. Specifically your image of Shadows as the shadows from a nuclear explosion. This image wasn't really something that the Monster Manual conveyed and it really got my brain churning for how to make use of that image in a dungeon.
Two things - First, a discussion between the "boss" undead might be great. Mummy Lord vs Vampire vs Lich. That could lead into Vampires and their Spawn vs Mummy Lords and their Mummy servants. Second thing: I assume no tiny save DC as irrelevant. My 3rd level party tanked their saves versus ONE Cockatrice...not normally a big deal...until I tel you they were on a sinking ship at the time. Yeah. Couldn't make an 8. None of them. Ugh. So a Save DC of 10 for a Ghoul means likely getting eaten alive by the rest of the Pack. Four Ghouls means eight saves, and there's an average of one fail at least in that bunch. Then it's auto Crit bites from there on in, and dead characters. Ghouls are badass. Period. With or without Ghasts.
These undead videos were super useful Matt. I had the same issue as you in relation to not knowing the specific differences and uses between say a ghost and a banshee. This video helped clarify those problems. I'm not sure how useful a demons video would be as they seem more clear in their abilities and function but notes on ways to enhance roleplaying with them would be pretty exceptional or notes on why to use this demon in this scenario over another. Keep up the great content, we all really appreciate it.
THEY'RE FIGHTING VECNA!?! Bro I'm on ep 70 they haven't even killed the White Dragon. I'm not super bothered, but I'm bummed it won't be a surprise now.
When you pointed out how annoying it is that other youtubers ask for "opinions in the comments" and that you are actually curious what people think I realized that I am watching the right channel. Everyone knows they are doing it because of youtube algorithms/money so they deserved being called out for pretending to be interested. All that aside, just let me tell you that I really appreciate your videos. There are always one or two truly inspirational tidbits that anyone could include into their game, which is really awesome.
Cool reoccurring bad guy idea: make the Kalarel the Vile person gathering sacrifices to turn himself into a lich, then if the party foils him, the runes explode and turn him into a bodak. I see myself using this in the future.
Banshees are female because the original Irish term, Bean Sidhe, translates literally to "woman of the hills." You can't have a male "woman of the hills."
Yes, Mathew Colville, this was an interesting series. And yes, I woul lobe a deamon series as well. Do a wonderfull job of: 1. Reminding/informing me what kind of interesting monsters there are. 2. You give concrete examples of how you could run them in an encounter. 3. Giving examples of on-combat encounters and combat encounters of some co plexity without seeming contrived. 4. You don't spend more time on a monstar them you need. Keep the good stuff comming and continue to deliver this grandmaster blend of game designer, storyteller and experience.
This video literally got me to open Volo's Guide, notice that the bodak was there, and immediately think about how I could start using it in my campaign, where one of the antagonist factions is a cult formed around an extraplanar pain god, so... yeah, I'd say that this video was very useful, and a series on demons would be welcome.
i've had a pretty cool idea: the ghost of a knight who mistakes one of the party members for his comrade, the knight then relives some ancient event from long ago, e.g. killing a monster. his work must be finished in order for his soul to rest
This has been great. I'm running Curse of Strahd a bunch lately and a lot of the undead felt like fodder until I dove into more of the lore. So in addition to just generally doing my homework as the DM with the book these videos have been super fun to watch and helpful for my game.
Also I love your point on players not knowing how long paralysis will last, even when its only a minute by the book. I support not telling the players -- let them sweat it. We're playing the game for player reactions, after all.
I love making ghosts essentially NPCs. I ran a one-shot where the characters were trying to get a powerful magical object from the tomb from the first king, who was laid to rest in a now ruined temple to the god of civilization and order. The temple had been flooded, and the high priestess had drowned, but she was charged with keeping order in the tomb, serving the god and her king, so she remained a loyal servant as a ghost. It was so much fun. When one party member broke the stained glass window to get inside, she attacked. She kept attacking until the characters noticed her ghostly vestments and were able to correctly apologize and explain their mission. After that she made them sign what was left of the logbook (a soggy moldy mess) and gave them a tour. It was fun.
We once fought a wight in a dungeon we weren't ready for and lost one of the PC's to it before we could extract. We get some help and return "days" later only to find our former companion zombie part of the reinforcements.
Love ghost possession! So, so much potential! My first ghost NPC, the characters were to help the ghost get revenge by getting her close enough to her killer, a Kara-Tur ambassador, in which she would possess him and have him jump the edge of a bridge and drown himself. Fitting as he strangled her, both dying of exficsation. He would dishonor himself and his position in front of his large enterage.
I used a male Banshee named Dudley Woodword in my campaign. I described him as Chaning Tatum with pointy ears, and a stomach you can grind cheese on. You would feel so safe in those muscles, and long to know his stubble against your face as he moves in for a gentle kiss. Everyone was amused by Dudley, until he forced them to retreat and they lost some of their horses and gear :'(
I think the wight zombie ability is maybe used as a clue. A townsperson is found dead on the edge of town. The next day, they're back as a zombie. A skill check (Religion or History or Investigation) or some roleplay investigation could fill in the blank.
Personally, I found this serie very interesting. It introduced my to a few creatures I vaguely knew about, and now I want to try them out! I especially like when you go off on a "what if" scenario on how one would use these creatures in an encounter (the ghost hostage situation was great!). Thanks Matt!
![ว้าว!ลุงบีมแบกทองมารับขวัญหลานกันยกบ้าน [cc] แดนแพทตี้ SS2 | EP.49 |](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Osihq1OAs-4/mqdefault.jpg)
If you put the Bodak on an undead horse, your players can fight a Bodak Horseman
I love this
I'm gonna need you to go to prison.
I will be doing this now
"Any enemy can be a minion"
*Khalander the Lying One summons 12 Tarrasque minions*
Sciver Zero *party casts acid splash and deleted two per action*
@@Hazel-xl8in but even terrasque minions would have to be reduced to -30 hp to kill, and then each one would require a Wish spell to keep it permanently dead. Tarrasques are insane. They're like making a medieval knight fight Perfect Cell.
@@KittenyKat when Matt says "Minion" he means it with a Capitol M. Meaning it has 1 hp and thus loses any healing/regen abilities. So if you summon a Tarrasque Minion, it is already at 1hp. When you hit it, it dies. Thats the point of Minions, you dont track them to ensure they drop to negative whatever.
I mean they wouldn't have the best AC so they would go down quick
And the lier part of "The Lying One" is that they are minions.
Might fight a bright wight tonight out of spite and it will be a delight.
Hope its not a shite fight that'll give you a fright, but in hindsight, it'll be alright.
especially if its in bright light.
AH! Fighting bright wights at night out of spite is TIGHT!
You might fight a bright wight tonight using smite!
For a knight to fight the might of a bright wight tonight could invite either fright or delight, despite the lack of light or sight, and incite the right of nerds alike to ignite and take flight the height of their excite to write rhymes of shite and tripe.
*drops mic*
Voluntary possession. I've had that in a game. Ghosts of children. Starved to death locked in their room. They wanted to help us "stop the monster," but were afraid to be out and about, and afraid to be left alone again. Eventually, our Paladin, of all people, volunteered to allow one of the spirits to hitch a ride in him, but letting him keep control. And this inspired our Barbarian to then step forward and take on the second, same deal. In exchange for keeping control, I gave them each a flaw associated with the individual they took on (5e flaws). Paladin had the older sister, and got s bit of a stubborn, bossy edge on occasion. Barbarian, with the younger brother, became more attached to the presence of the Paladin, and became afraid of the dark. (Like, pitch black. Dim just unnerved him.)
Still. During the quest, it became an interesting side quest for them to find out why the kids were left, and, more interestingly, the party took up the bones of the children, and sought to inter them in the family tombs once it was done. Lay them finally to rest. I hadn't thought of that. The ranger and Paladin came up with it. I loved it
That's from Curse of Strahd, ain't it? Ran it as well, the Death House was spectacular.
Absolutely love this. I’ve been thinking about running a Kids On Bikes game, and this would also be a great way to use the powered character mechanic in that game.
Ah, the Death House. It was fun, but alas, it was not the house that killed our party. Probably because it didn't stand up from the ground and beat us with its roots.
@@FridgeEating you just caused me to create a One Shot titled The Death House. With the exact same lead up in the quest as Curse of Strahd, but with one major difference. The house is basically the one from the movie Monster House, and the ghost children are lures. Night should end with the house chasing the party through the mystical fog
@@jonathongoulding9780 You're welcome / I'm sorry
It's funny rewatching a lot of these videos where Matt talks in the intro about the kickstarter hoping that it will do well knowing now that he is the King of Kickstarter. Makes me happy.
"How often will you see a Wight at a baseball game?"
Just go see the Wight Socks.
Now I just wish that was a real baseball team made up of entirely undead
@@animefreak122ist8 I am sure Boston Dynamics will eventually make a robot that looks undead
@@evannibbe9375 Boston Necrotics
"Especially knowing their alarm is harmless. It's halarmless!"
"It's flying rubber! It's FLUBBER!"
The banshee wail ability drops a character who fails the save to 0 hp, causing them to fall unconscious- it doesn't outright kill.
"It's all downhill from here folks, you might as well stop watching the video now."
Clicks like, continues watching.
did the exact same thing lol
That's where I disliked... god that was terrible....
No one throws me my own guns and tells me to ride.
You should do a video on the different types of Hags, I have trouble telling which witch is which
I've always had an issue determining which witch does which ability, as well as which witch dislikes which witch type
I think some sort of inter-witch turf war would be interesting, just choose a witch and whichever witch would witch witches to be the witchiest witch ever
Which witch is which witch?
Wish I knew myself...
If two witches watch two watches, which witch watches which watch?
Anybody want which 'wich now?
My friend Dwight's midnight game tonight might feature wrights. The airtight zeitgeist of my party's foresight is to prepare blight, smite and sunlight for the impending fight. Once these slighted wrights are sighted, we might ignite lights and colour those wrights bright white outright so we can finish the rite for the erudite sprite's birthright despite missing respite. Then the wainwright and shipwright can politely unite after the gunfight and we can slay the neophyte trilobite parasite.
In hindsight, it's a bit trite, but it's alright.
Thank you for the video Matt, it was enjoyable and informative. Both the asides which are relevant to the topic and those that aren't keep things engaging, and there seemed like a lot more puns and wordplay then other videos and it was great.
I won't ever again forget Elves' immunity to ghoul/ghast paralysis with that mnemonic.
pentbot trite? Nay, a delight.
Were you meaning 'wight' when you said 'wright'? One is an inudead creature, the other is a maker or builder. (Excluding wainwright (cart maker) and shipwright (ship builder).
This was a beautiful thing
This boi is on fire
Banshees don't insta kill, they just drop you to 0 hp, so not insta kill.
Yea this is kinda important...
Important point but it DEFINITELY can began to lead to a death spiral. Also should have mentioned the whole "death by rapid aging"! If you play a short lived race like Aarakocra, ghosts and can kill you with horrifying visage just by making you crusty old!
Man0oz Agreed, but even so the Death Saves are incredibly important.
I kind of like Banshees for this. They can literally murderscream half a higher level party into "Death save county". They're a great monster to deploy when the players split the party. That way you don't risk the TPK and it's a rush to defeat it before someone fails 3 death saves.
_"Your friends lay dying! You still feel the pain from the wail in your mind, but you still stand. The Banshee glares glares at you with murder in her cold eyes. She wants you... dead. What do you do?"_
Even if it has spent its single wail the player doesn't know that. Perhaps you gave it an extra wail, just to keep them on their toes and teach them that the monster manual is just the average monster of that type. There's going to be weaker ones and stronger ones.
Because you have a banana as your avatar, I unconsciously word-swapped. Was wondering why bananas would drop anyone to 0 hp.
You might Fight a Bright Wight Tonight out of Spite using Smite
Shawn Doherty Only if I get paid.
to your fright you might fight a bright wight tonight out of spite using spite to the DMs delight, you might even build an appetite.
I wish I may I wish I might
Well alright.
You might Fight a Bright Wight Tonight out of Spite using Smite while you sip a Bud Light
I have an army in my game full of undead lead by a Lich necromancer and the army is called the Deadites.
"Hail to the king, baby!"
Magnificent Hair ✅
Magnificent Beard ✅
Magnificent Voice ✅
To this sir, I salute to you.
I have Hero Hair and Hero Voice and the rest of me is Comedic Sidekick.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! What about Mummies? Mummies and Mummy Lords are in the Monster Manual and have really interesting attacks, a damage vulnerability for players to discover, and interesting flavor text that says they can retain information and speak to the party, making them potential NPC's. A lot of potential for fun encounters, really underutilized.
I loved these Undead videos. Demons seem a bit more straight forward than their counter parts, Devils. I think a video on devils would be awesome and potentially more useful.
I would like if he did a video on every creature or creature type. Devils, Demons, Abberations, Constructs, Angels, etc.
WebDM has done a good job of covering most of the major monster types and how to include them in your campaign.
Seconded!
WebDM has, mighty gluestick has, others too. Doesnt mean we don't want our ol' buddy matt's take on them too!
But we want Matt's opinions :P
Banshees drop a character to 0 hit points (unconscious), not killing them. I love the idea of an instant death-causing banshee for a higher level encounter, though.
Only in the dumbed down rules. If you aren't saving vs death you aren't playing real D&D...
Same for the Bodak. Both the Banshee wail and the Bodak gaze specify a drop to 0 HP rather than causing immediate death. 5e mostly doesn't have save-or-die effects, after all.
In 2e I know that it’s an insta death.
It's really useful to have your mechanical/narrative input on the use and differences of undead, and would love to have those for other creatures.
any chance on a video of foreshadowing, I've tried to apply this a few times in my own games, but players forget or ignore. I always have to remind myself a player isn't a reader and while the 'i'm playing a game' mindset players can fall into is sometimes a problem, it can also be a great help if properly tapped into... it's just been very hit and miss for me personally.
Coupled with foreshadowing, I'd love more input on player agency. Meaningful player choice and action is something that can be very difficult to provide and even the best professional adventures can often lack it. getting good intel to the players, allowing them to make meaningful choices with it and allow their actions to change the world in a meaningful way, even if that dramatically changes the direction of the campaign.
[when running lost mine of flapdoodle, I almost rewrote the whole thing to be focused around doppelgangers, because my players were so engaged with the first one they met. in retrospect, i wish i had]
Leaving this here for future use, 10:00 is the bit you play before your players fight a wight. Every time I've had a tv in the room and my players encounter a wight, I play this section. Highly recommend
I'll be running my first campaign in 2days, using the taldorei campaign setting as my base, and using one of its story hooks "you best start believing in ghost stories" I'll be using a couple of the generic npc stat blocks (veteran and thug) and modding them into undead pirates to have the traits that zombies have to make them more freshly killed and dangerous, just to really spice them up and make them more like their inspiration
"He might fight a bright wight tonight out of spite!"
Pack it in, folks. That's all there is.
Gotta say, these past undead videos have helped me out a lot. I was/am running a homebrew adventure with an undead theme where I had initially stuck to wraiths, skeletons and zombies because I know them well enough to use them. After your insight into other undead creatures, the common uses of them and your own spins on how to use them, my list of usable creatures and scenarios they fit into has been broadened enough that I don't feel like i'm being too repetitive with encounters etc.
Your videos continue to be a great help, I look forward to the next.
The most interesting thing to me in D&D are the monsters. Players, politics, RP, etc...are interesting, but the lore, backstory, mechanics, and implications monsters have in a game are what I live for so...YES PLEASE DO MORE OF THESE!!! It helped that undead are among my favorite creature subtype to kick start this sub category of videos, but anything monster related is two thumbs up from me!
Undead 2 electric boogaloo?
I feel like Colville got extra silly with this one lol love it. Much appreciated video as always :)
The wight turning people into zombies does come up - villagers have been disappearing, a band of local guards went into the ruin to root the monster out before - now when they go into the ruin themselves, the party encounters the villagers that disappeared and guards that disappeared as zombies. Maybe some of them are NPCs they met earlier, and they have to turn their swords on the faces of innocents possessed by undeath. I think it makes for a quite chilling low-level adventure.
The damn handy mnemonic for remembering elves being immune to ghouls paralysis but not ghasts at the 9:00 minute mark kills me every single time. Just aces.
I always make my ghosts vulnerable to psychic damage. Just makes sense to me.
Selim Shahed well, only the gengar family (and marshadow) would be weak :/
TheSpartin01 That’s kind of strange because they don’t have brains which kind of makes that useless I always figured psychic damage just causes your brain to spontaneously shut off completely or causes you to forget things like suddenly you can’t remember how to breathe
Have you ever run a Undead Campaign wherein the PC's are 'awoken' undead. Perhaps they were all zombies, ghosts, etc., of a litch that died and freed them? Or maybe some great divine strike aimed at killing them fused a part of the divine in them allowing their wondering true soul to reattach in part but they lack many of their memories (alive or undead). Now they quest to restore themselves (Very Fullmetal Alchemist) while trying to keep their dark secret hidden.
I like where you're going with this. Makes me want to write an undead one shot.
Cool idea!
Dark souls?
Like the Forsaken from WoW, broken free of the Lich King's control. Still a great campaign idea! And even better than WoW cause you have more options than just zombie. I'd love to play a vampire spawn trying to ascend to masterdom.
Dillon Wyatt I have a vampire BBEG who has regained his soul from an extremely well-worded wish. BUT, he’s still a vampire and still undead!! So genie gave his exactly what he asked for but not why he really wanted. Anyway, he’s BBEG because now he’s found a way to turn back time, & just needs a strong enough magical source (aka battery) to power it. There’s a reason there are no gods that can alter time backwards!!! So the gods are helping the PCs, but there are chaotic gods that want to help the BBEG hoping he’ll destroy creation itself!
Cool trivia, ghouls are created when a person eats a corpse. The reason their finger nails are so long is because they are graveyard scavengers and they are used to burrow into Graves and smash them open.
Listening to this video for the first time gave me the idea of a dungeon where the final boss is a wight (or a handful of them) surrounded by the zombies of a previous adventuring party who TPK’d against it. The quest giver would be the ghost of one of the former adventurers who ask the party to kill the wight and their bodies so their souls can escape from limbo, and communicates by possessing one of the PCs and speak through them. It would be a straight dungeon delve, but it makes for a (hopefully) memorable narrative context
Thanks for another helpful video. Please do videos on Demons and Devils too! Even though I could just look up the monster's stat block, hearing your suggestions for how to run the creatures helps to spur my own imagination :D
Precisely! I'm a new DM, and it's incredibly helpful to hear Matt share his insights and experience with us. In the end, I'm still going to do what makes sense in my world, but there's a good amount of nuggets of wisdom I can mine from these videos.
Matt: "There's a trick you can use to remember this and that's...Just remembering"
*Gee, what an idea! Why didn't I think of that?*
Had a wonderful encounter with two players in Wave Echo Cave that wouldn't have been possible without ghoul paralysis being so weak. It was pyrrhic but not a slog as the two players stood up on a huge stone table and had clumsily alerted several different groups of ghouls and got themselves trapped back to back as the creatures streamed out of the darkness, continually paralysing them and whittling them down until exhausted they stood surrounded by two dozen ghoulish remains. I don't know if they learned anything about running from known danger into unknown danger while making lots of noise but it was badass.
I honestly very much enjoyed these 2 undead videos. They actually gave me the inspiration I needed to flesh out my story for my upcoming campaign. I have the books but I love getting an experienced DM's opinion on the usefulness of the provided monsters. Thank you Matt!
The MCDM logo is so sweet
Right!?
Undead: Summoned
Squad: Notified
LAMB SAUCE: LOCATED.
England: my city
Grass: Green
Air: Clean
Sweet Lass: By my side
bagels : toasted
cheese : creamed
Joke: funny
These videos have been SOOO helpful. I had a DM who used a bunch of these undead, but I felt like he wasn't taking advantage of the roleplaying opportunities. He just used them as lifeless bags of hitpoints. Good to know I'm not the only one who thinks undead can have interesting encounters attached.
I like the 'undead' series and especially how you really reinforce that the 'metabolically challenged' should be used as a part of an encounter and with other monsters. I think you mentioned that having multiple types of monsters really helps make a good encounter (and creates some tactical thinking beyond "I attacked the nearest 'defier of decomposition'). If you do go into a series of demons definitely talk about what sort of encounter they should be in, how they can be paired up to make things interesting. You also just generally have more experience running D&D than I think a lot of average people do. When you talk about the 'resurrection impaired' and can talk about your experiences or times they have worked well for you I think that really helpful. As they say "Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of painting over the ugly parts and recycling for more than it's worth".
I'm now making a game where the players find a Wight at a baseball game... simply because of Matt
The Hero Party vs the Wight Socks
For anyone who hasn't heard of it, a great resource if you're looking for advice on playing monsters tactically (read: making them meaner by playing to their strengths) is a blog called The Monsters Know.
I would love an Odds/Math video. I think it would be cool to do a series of videos on monsters by type, as well (like, an episode on constructs, an episode on aberrations, an episode on fey) but this is mostly because I appreciate the breadth of perspective that comes of many years playing. It helps me to build that same mental library to have an understanding of what the big sections are and who the big names in each section are. That said, I think I enjoy the videos about actual gameplay more. The Sociology of Dnd video was super helpful, as well as the ones where you talked about descriptions, active voice, maintaining players' agency, getting through the grind, etc. Thank you for posting these!
As for raising targets that are life-drained, consider using it as a premise for an encounter or adventure. A wight rolls into a town, kills the residents with life-drain, and they are raised up by the time the players get there.
I'd actually prefer my character dying to having them being aged.
I once made a whole-one shot adventure about a ghost possessing a player. One of the PCs was possessed from the start-- and each player had a secret to throw suspicion off of him! It was a great success!
EDIT: This WAS a useful video! Thanks!
That thumbnail wins today's notifications. Re "weaponized beauty": The banshee could be used as a once-per-campaign encounter when it fits the story. I thought the description was odd, too, until I needed a spooky encounter in an elf tomb and made a sealed room that held a banshee. She appeared as a lovely elf noblewoman who asked "Where is my husband?" Eventually she remembered he isn't there because he left her at the altar and left her enraged for life and on into undeath. Then her visage changed and she lashed out at the living who interrupted her rest and made her remember her past.
Give her a backstory with a reason to be supernaturally angry -- husband assassinated, or children turned to shadows, or younger sister deposed her.
Matt, your writer is showing! The right wight to fight tonight was hilarious and it was fun to watch you try to stack it. Clearly some wordplay love there.
Andrew Ryan he had to write to bring the right light to see the sight of the plight of a bright wight his friend might have to fight tonight out of spite. It gives me a tight shite.
A key note for setting, in Dark Sun, Banshees are the dead spirits of dwarves with unfinished business who are literally to stubborn to leave the material plane and wail the woes of never having finished some task of great importance, or literally having a half finished pot as we found out in one of the dark Sun video games
As someone working on a campaign where a necromancer is the Big Bad, these undead videos are super helpful, and I'd absolutely love to see a demon/devil one! Great for generating ideas too. I'm definitely using a ghost hostage possession scenario in the future!
However there is one neat/nasty thing you forgot to mention about the ghost's Horrifying Visage, and that is the aging effect!! The nastiness of that effect is very character level and DM dependent. It's no problem for a party with access to greater restoration, but speaking as someone who played in a group that got essentially TPKd at LV5 by three ghosts, as half our party died of old age while the rest barely held on, that one is an effect not to be forgotten about, or underestimated. Having your 12 year old half-orc turn 72 in a matter of seconds is pretty rough.
Alright, something I NEED to add down here as a request: When you show the images of the monsters, PLEASE write down under each image which monster is which. I spent half the banshee/ghost explanation thinking they were the other way around.
Love your videos, I've been following them since ep. 01 and you have given me an absurd amount of knowledge and insight into a seasoned DM's mind. For someone who just started playing and DMing D&D only two months ago, this is priceless. Many thanks, "Mr. Col'ville"
I enjoyed the humor in this one... and I find myself working on an elf ghoul-ghast mnemonic.
The horrified elf on the cover of the AD&D Village of Hommlet as Ghouls stun his party is all the mnemonic I need.
ghouL eLf
Even veterans have a tough time remembering all the details (especially those that haven't been steady in every edition), so I think it's good to get a video going over the essentials.
More than that, however, it's great to tackle how to modify these monsters (both for in-combat reasons and for storyline reasons).
Thanks for these Matt. Somewhat serendipitously, after your first video my party uncovered a group of shadows in a Pathfinder AP I'm running (Rise of the Runelords) and, because they kinda took the floor in the reverse order to that which was intended due to finding a secret entrance/exit, these guys were at the start of the floor with a load of goblins running in to turn it into a 3-way fight which has ended pretty badly for the melee fighter, having taken 10 points of strength damage so far, and having multiple bosses left to kill (one of whom has got some amount of mythic power allowing her to use some of her cleric-based channel negative energy to erupt out of her wounds, effectively damaging anyone who attacks her in melee with channel energy as a free action).
But no, this has been useful and I would appreciate a devil/demon/daemon video.
Little "let's try this again" error at 20:10? ;)
yeah def forgot to edit that out. The quickness in which he resets is both impressive and a tiny bit creepy
Matt, whatever you do with the Stronghold rules, MAKE A PDF VERSION AVAILABLE! WotC is really missing the mark by only having hard copies for sale.
yeah, but a lot of people are Old School, and like having a physical item in their hands. I know I do.
paul coy that's why printers exist.
One of my favorite usages of a ghost was when my party found an NPC in a destroyed town, this NPC was very distort and would not let the player touch or get too close. Little did the players know that this wasn't a person at all but a ghost that did not know that it was dead. At least not until they found it's recently dead body.
As someone whose gone from player too DM, I find these video's of yours too be very helpful in learning my way of running a game. Something my cousin said around the same time as a video of yours was released, was that "As the DM, you can do anything! These are just GUIDES, not RULES, play things your way if you want too".
Its been interesting watching these videos of yours in particular, as Iv taken to flavouring up all applicable monsters in the MM with the mythological aspects they're attributed with... like, my Hydra can only be killed either by bleeding it dry, or cartorising the neck-stumps after cutting a head off... as Heracles did when he and Iolous fought the Hydra in greek mythology.
Also, what you said about Ghosts... I DID THAT IN MY FIRST DM GAME! :D
I took 3 ghosts, and had them as "echos" of the people who were murdered in this old ruin. The catch was, if the party decided to attack them, the mother ghost would have turned into a Banshee, and would have been the threat in that encounter. Luckily, they decided to play it cautiously, and instead where able to listen in on the ghosts "echos" and learnt what had happened, so they were prepared about what to face in the bowels of the Ruin.
...my game is completely homebrew, so there's no campaign to point too for this, sorry.
Well, I dunno, I was inspired by Pillars of Eternity, so maybe that part of Caed Nua was my inspiration for that part? ...I dunno... lots of fun, all of it :D
I'm so happy to see a new video from you, you're always son insightfull! Could you make an episode about misdirection? THX!
I still think you should monetize your videos, especially because of things like paying for the studio. I can honestly say that no one that watched your videos would mind watching an ad beforehand, if it supports the channel and gets us more amazing content.
It's okay now the kickstarted was a huge success.
There is a great deal of overlap between his profession and these videos, it's best to keep it clean on the money side unless he's his own boss.
I do mind ads, and I happily bought S&F and will probably buy the next book to support MCDM instead
I adblock TH-cam and support creators on Patreon instead. TH-cam monetization is a scam. Funny how TH-cam still runs adds on demonitized channels...
The original Dark Sun setting had a great way of handling undead - every one of them was effectively unique, powerful and pretty dangerous. I also particularly like using the idea that PCs might research an undead or demonic creature to determine its specific weaknesses and powers so as to avoid or mitigate the scarier effects.
I guess I'm a year late, but not only is this video useful; but ANY video like it is highly useful regardless of monster type.
He might fight a bright wight named Dwight tonight out of spite!
and if it were in an area of magic darkness you might fight a bright wight named dwight tonight out of sight and out of spite!
More stuff on world building and giving that world a unique and interesting flavor would be super interesting. For example, I'm trying to develope a "New World" conquistador setting/ sandbox campaign. I know you've done some live streams featuring world building, and touched on world building many times, but it would be great to see some dedicated running the game videos on it.
I recently read about someone's character having the quirk of nibbling on a ginger root... which eventually led to her rolling with Advantage against ghast stench, because the ginger was calming her stomach.
A thing to note about ghosts is that against a low level party, especially one with dumped charisma, they can be a one monster death spiral since the only way to exorcise them is to beat each party member unconscious in turn in order to get the ghost out.
I'm afraid I don't understand the cutaway to the woman this time.
Me, either. I scrolled through the comments looking for clues, but-no luck.
I assumed that was Matt's significant other based on the story preceding it.
Sorry for the necro, but I think that’s Jess/Lady Sariel
Matt, when you're running minions have you considered using a 1d4-1 for the "hits" it takes to down a minion? Meaning they function the same but that ogre might be 2-3 hits and still feel just as minionish but less like a paper monster
I think he is referring to the actual minions (type of various creatures) from 4th Edition. I am not a fan of 4th Edition nor of those minions, but your suggestion might make them more interesting.
The wights' zombie ability can actually be used as it is. I once had my players defend a small village from a bunch of Wights, and if they hadn't noticed the rapidly decaying bodies, they'd have had an encounter with a dozen zombies from within the village when they could be resting.
I very much liked the compare/contrast of the really similar undead. I've never used any undead other than zombies, ghosts, mummies, and ghouls specifically because I had trouble keeping the similar ones straight in my head. Useful and fun videos, I'd welcome more of the type.
Thank you, Christian!
Can we get Old Gregg as a Lake Hag variant?
Easy now fuzzy little man peach!
Ghosts are a great resource. In one of my campagins, the BBEG, a military commander, was a Warlock whose demonic patron had secretly struck a deal with a powerful devil. The commander starts getting very powerful, to the point he stages a coup d'etat, kills the king and sits on the throne, and becomes one of the best (altough ruthless) rulers in history. At the peak of his power, the PCs kill him, and the devil possesses his body (this was part of the deal). Seeing his body being defiled, the ghost of the king aids the PCs in defeating the devil and his former patron, and is absolved of all his sins by the gods.
I think, that these videos are a great help for DM's, you give insight and plothooks for better usage and you make it not boring to watch. Thoses video started a ton of ideas for my own game, where undead are heavily featured.
So thanks a lot :)
Matt! As an Industrial Designer with ambitions to move into concept art in the entertainment industry, I greatly hope to come in professional contact with you someday!
Well you asked sooo,
Myself, I don't run 5e, so the Hitpoints and AC's are not useful to me, but the idea behind each undead is invaluable, just in this video I got an idea for 2 custom monsters (I almost always make custom monsters, one of my players in a metagaming skank-weasel and has memorized the pathfinder bestiary and the monster manual) So the video was useful in that I probably wouldn't have gotten the idea for the monsters without it. So the video was useful in regard to the creation of ideas, but the HP and AC and the number crunch weren't as useful.
Also I will probably be re watching it to get new ideas.
Keep making vids like these.
It helps a ton in thinking of outside the box ways to use these monsters. Especially how you went into several possibilities with the Ghost.
Watching your previous video on undead actually inspired me to create a dungeon. Specifically your image of Shadows as the shadows from a nuclear explosion. This image wasn't really something that the Monster Manual conveyed and it really got my brain churning for how to make use of that image in a dungeon.
Two things - First, a discussion between the "boss" undead might be great. Mummy Lord vs Vampire vs Lich.
That could lead into Vampires and their Spawn vs Mummy Lords and their Mummy servants.
Second thing: I assume no tiny save DC as irrelevant. My 3rd level party tanked their saves versus ONE Cockatrice...not normally a big deal...until I tel you they were on a sinking ship at the time. Yeah. Couldn't make an 8. None of them. Ugh.
So a Save DC of 10 for a Ghoul means likely getting eaten alive by the rest of the Pack. Four Ghouls means eight saves, and there's an average of one fail at least in that bunch. Then it's auto Crit bites from there on in, and dead characters.
Ghouls are badass. Period. With or without Ghasts.
damn it matt i have an exam in the morning!
These undead videos were super useful Matt. I had the same issue as you in relation to not knowing the specific differences and uses between say a ghost and a banshee. This video helped clarify those problems.
I'm not sure how useful a demons video would be as they seem more clear in their abilities and function but notes on ways to enhance roleplaying with them would be pretty exceptional or notes on why to use this demon in this scenario over another.
Keep up the great content, we all really appreciate it.
You could make a video on the how hero's have to poop and I would watch it. Yes on demons!!!
THEY'RE FIGHTING VECNA!?! Bro I'm on ep 70 they haven't even killed the White Dragon. I'm not super bothered, but I'm bummed it won't be a surprise now.
But it doesn't go down like you think it would.
Honestly the journey is the best part
It went down exactly how I thought it would 😂
.... Giggady
Honestly the Vecna clues were sown back in the Whitestone arc, so if you're into the Chroma Conclave arc it's not really a spoiler...
When you pointed out how annoying it is that other youtubers ask for "opinions in the comments" and that you are actually curious what people think I realized that I am watching the right channel. Everyone knows they are doing it because of youtube algorithms/money so they deserved being called out for pretending to be interested.
All that aside, just let me tell you that I really appreciate your videos. There are always one or two truly inspirational tidbits that anyone could include into their game, which is really awesome.
Cool reoccurring bad guy idea: make the Kalarel the Vile person gathering sacrifices to turn himself into a lich, then if the party foils him, the runes explode and turn him into a bodak. I see myself using this in the future.
Perfect timing! Was just getting into a DnD mood
Banshees are female because the original Irish term, Bean Sidhe, translates literally to "woman of the hills." You can't have a male "woman of the hills."
Supposing a male version existed, the name for it would be something like "fershee".
deenes.ffzg.hr/~rmatasov/irish.html
Its not hills, its spelt bansí, with sí being the irish word for fairy. Its a woman of the fey.
What if the Elf's transgender?
@Janie Mendosa A Beanshee
ireland doesn't exist in fantasyland. I can have a male banshee if I want, because the etymology of the real world doesn't matter in fantasy
Yes, Mathew Colville, this was an interesting series. And yes, I woul lobe a deamon series as well. Do a wonderfull job of:
1. Reminding/informing me what kind of interesting monsters there are.
2. You give concrete examples of how you could run them in an encounter.
3. Giving examples of on-combat encounters and combat encounters of some co plexity without seeming contrived.
4. You don't spend more time on a monstar them you need.
Keep the good stuff comming and continue to deliver this grandmaster blend of game designer, storyteller and experience.
This video literally got me to open Volo's Guide, notice that the bodak was there, and immediately think about how I could start using it in my campaign, where one of the antagonist factions is a cult formed around an extraplanar pain god, so... yeah, I'd say that this video was very useful, and a series on demons would be welcome.
Notification squad: form ranks
Kaden C *salutes*
Half right!
Kaden C salutes
*RED AND BLACK LEADER, STANDING BY.*
Gold Leader, coming up at yer six.
i've had a pretty cool idea: the ghost of a knight who mistakes one of the party members for his comrade, the knight then relives some ancient event from long ago, e.g. killing a monster. his work must be finished in order for his soul to rest
This has been great. I'm running Curse of Strahd a bunch lately and a lot of the undead felt like fodder until I dove into more of the lore. So in addition to just generally doing my homework as the DM with the book these videos have been super fun to watch and helpful for my game.
I love these videos! I've started running a campaign with large amounts of undead and necromancy and this has given me some cool ideas, thanks Matt!
Also I love your point on players not knowing how long paralysis will last, even when its only a minute by the book.
I support not telling the players -- let them sweat it. We're playing the game for player reactions, after all.
I love making ghosts essentially NPCs. I ran a one-shot where the characters were trying to get a powerful magical object from the tomb from the first king, who was laid to rest in a now ruined temple to the god of civilization and order. The temple had been flooded, and the high priestess had drowned, but she was charged with keeping order in the tomb, serving the god and her king, so she remained a loyal servant as a ghost. It was so much fun. When one party member broke the stained glass window to get inside, she attacked. She kept attacking until the characters noticed her ghostly vestments and were able to correctly apologize and explain their mission. After that she made them sign what was left of the logbook (a soggy moldy mess) and gave them a tour. It was fun.
We once fought a wight in a dungeon we weren't ready for and lost one of the PC's to it before we could extract. We get some help and return "days" later only to find our former companion zombie part of the reinforcements.
Love ghost possession! So, so much potential!
My first ghost NPC, the characters were to help the ghost get revenge by getting her close enough to her killer, a Kara-Tur ambassador, in which she would possess him and have him jump the edge of a bridge and drown himself. Fitting as he strangled her, both dying of exficsation.
He would dishonor himself and his position in front of his large enterage.
I'd really love more like this, for anything from similar-but-different monster types to similar-but-different locations.
I used a male Banshee named Dudley Woodword in my campaign. I described him as Chaning Tatum with pointy ears, and a stomach you can grind cheese on. You would feel so safe in those muscles, and long to know his stubble against your face as he moves in for a gentle kiss. Everyone was amused by Dudley, until he forced them to retreat and they lost some of their horses and gear :'(
I think the wight zombie ability is maybe used as a clue. A townsperson is found dead on the edge of town. The next day, they're back as a zombie. A skill check (Religion or History or Investigation) or some roleplay investigation could fill in the blank.
Personally, I found this serie very interesting. It introduced my to a few creatures I vaguely knew about, and now I want to try them out! I especially like when you go off on a "what if" scenario on how one would use these creatures in an encounter (the ghost hostage situation was great!).
Thanks Matt!
Super useful. I had no idea how different and detailed each type of undead was. Keep it coming.