ไม่สามารถเล่นวิดีโอนี้
ขออภัยในความไม่สะดวก
Encounter Building 101 │ D&December
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ธ.ค. 2016
- New to creating encounters and fights for D&D? Let me give you some inspiration!
Welcome to D&December! Spending the entire month of December talking, playing, and celebrating all things Dungeons & Dragons!
►New here? Subscribe! -- bit.ly/ZhtgD2
►www.NormalBoots.com
►Follow me for instant updates on new videos!
Twitter -- / projared
Facebook -- / pro.jared
Twitch - / projared
►Theme Song - "Goodbye Summer, Hello Winter" by FantomenK
![ได้ซะที! ชื่อBabyของเรา [cc] แดนแพทตี้ SS2 | EP.47 |](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4jrGByLm-Fw/mqdefault.jpg)
Projared: How can we make this sorcerer more dangerous?
summon a boar
oof
Well he did get killed by one in the exact same situation...
Did him dirty
D&d's bob Ross "let's just put a little kobold over here"
Greg Burrow
"Oh you had a beautiful encounter but then you put that miserable kobold in there"
BrosifJoseph "So tell you what, let's just give him a couple happy little friends. Set him up as a real encounter threat."
Greg Burrow "We'll set up an invisible Rogue over here. That will be our little secret."
Dave McHugh
"And if you tell *anyone* that that Rogue is there...I will come to your house and I will cut you!"
Greg Burrow ?
After having my first campaign as dm, I learned that improvising is important. I had a plan for 6 kobolds to surround their cart, but since the kobolds almost killed 2 of them, our barbarian rolled a crit on a kobold and I said that he scared all of them away. I didn't want the party to die and that gave me a golden opportunity.
Jeez, what classes were the two that died?
Nicolas Warren If I had to guess...squishy mages...
Improvisation is, I'd say, the MOST important thing to learn as a DM. Whatever plan you may have, your players will always work to undo it. I had a group that went the complete opposite direction of where they were supposed to go (as ordered by a king, no less) for some complete asinine reason. It's important to not say "No" in those instances, as it is their game to play, but just roll with it.
Great job, btw, with how you resolved your issue. You can expand on this by having the surviving kobolds come back later, in larger numbers. Or, maybe the tale of this barbarian spreads among kobolds, giving them a permanent bonus on intimidation on other kobolds. Stuff like that can help flesh out your world.
Nicolas Warren A bard and a rouge
Attila The Hun by "almost" meaning they had to roll death saves
Some tips for inspiration:
- The first rule to remember is that as the DM, you don't HAVE to follow the rules in the manuals. You can improvise and create new content, abilities, weapons, anything as long as it makes the game more fun for everybody involved. If you have a cool idea for a monster ability but it doesn't exist, you can create it if you know your players would have fun fighting against it.
- Some monsters come with unique abilities, from the Monster Manual. I had fun making my party fight against 2 Ankheg, which can grapple+bite creatures, but also spit acid in a straight line, hitting everyone in that line. It made my party careful about how they were positioning themselves, as they wanted to avoid more than one player getting hit.
- Mixing types of creatures. Maybe you have a human working with monsters. It could be a druid trying to protect some unique monsters, it could be a rogue who trained a wild creature, it could be a lord who bought an exotic beast. Mix and match when you can.
- Giving monsters abilities that are normally reserved for player classes. Maybe some of the enemies your players encounter have Feats you don't always see. A monster could have the "Alert" feat, making it impossible to surprise. Maybe a large beast has the "Charger" feat. You could have a group of beasts attack your group, but only one of them (maybe its larger, maybe it has a different fur) has this special feat.
- Sometime when making players fight human characters, it can be fun to give them Feats or abilities that combine well together. If you have two melee characters who will fight side-by-side, one character can have the Sentinel feat, allowing them to hit as a reaction anyone who attacks their companion. And maybe the other one is a polearm master, giving him a long range with his melee weapon and allowing him to hit anyone who enters his reach. It creates 2 melee characters who get to hit more often than you would expect at first. It can make your party wonder who to attack first, or if maybe they should try attacking them from range.
-Every once in a while, you can have a monster who should be a priority target. Maybe the players see that one creature is giving orders and making the others work better as a unit. Or maybe one creature is moving toward a horn to call reinforcements. It can break the flow of combat if the players are follow a similar pattern every fight, give them something that changes their habit.
When I think of planning as a dungeon master, I try to think like a Fire Emblem Dev.
Like a Fire Emblem Fates Rev Dev or a Rekka No Ken Dev?There's a big difference between those
Sorry, but I haven't played Fates. Can you tell what the difference is? Because I feel like would say Rekka No Ken, but I'm not sure.
In Revelations there are a LOT of arbitrary Gimmicks (and i dont know where to start when complaining abut them)
Yep, then its going to be Rekka No Ken, or in my case, Sacred Stones. Because I think Sacred Stones is one of the best in set pieces when you get heavier into the game.
If you hate them just Radiant Dawn that shit.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SEVENTH WAVE OF RIENFORCEMENTS? HOW MANY TOWN GUARDS ARE THERE?"
When a Zinogre invades your D&D campaign.
I blame Felyne Gamechanger
I just wanted to grab some honey.
wonder how much EXP the Zinogre is worth
Part of the fun of D&D is that you can throw in whatever monsters you want so long as you make a stat block for it. The Dungeon Master's Guide even has some guidelines for doing that and calculating the Challenge Rating of homebrewed creatures.
+Stereotypical Nerd Anything from a friendly rabbit to a Predator
So, exactly a week ago I met with my Roleplaying group. And it was pretty nice.
We have had, in fact, not a single fight. Our DM, he told me as we were driving, likes to make his campaigns possible to complete with as little fighting as possible.
It's really nice, every character has a goal he's working towards and he's made a little motive for each character to fit into the story.
We spent most of the night just talking to people, finding out what is going on and walking into a mine with a enormous glass ball inside of it that seems to eat beings.
Think "Colour Out Of Space".
It was interesting in that we've gotten no answers at all and all left thinking what the hell was going on.
To be fair, I'm still trying to find my voice. It's hard to play a snobbish character who likes to be in the forefront of social interactions, when I myself am really bad at talking.
However, it's fun. We'll meet again in January at some point in the middle of next month.
The Drunken Coward Just go with the flow and you'll get it eventually. It might also help to find a character you like that fits that description and breakdown their character interaction. Dialogue is a lot of fun to come up with once you get a grasp on it.
Dialogues, but also puzzles and ways to avoid your foes... Combat now seems to be only a small part of what makes an adventure.
The Drunken Coward as a dm i like to make interesting combat. but the best part of thesecis when my more experienced players avoid everything i set up in ways i never thoight of
Personally I like "story combat", which he showed in this video. You're hunting someone down, then you fight them. Or you finally find a king and you fight him for a magic weapon. If it advances the plot I like it. I rarely give players a non-story combat, unless it's just a bit of an XP grab to calm everyone down after a stressful session
1. Environment.
2. Variety of attacks.
3. Creature interaction.
4. Working off strengths and weaknesses.
That's all you need. It's the best part of DMing.
5. Zinogre
basically Pokemon with a twist
Hugo Fontes
Basically Pokemon but not garbage
yeah, that's exactly the definition I was looking for
Just feel like adding my own thoughts/comments.
So encounter #1 with the Kobolds. For something like this I would try to make things reactive to the player. I'm assuming the Kobolds didn't know the party was coming, so maybe have the spellcaster be asleep in a bed (since it's a living quarters and all!) and have him wake up when the fight begins, delaying his entry into combat by a round. Alternatively, if the players have made a lot of noise in the previous room, he could start awake, and the archers could have pre-flipped their table. When the Kobolds flee, what you could do is have them flee through a small, roughly Kobold sized hole NEAR the doors, so if your players have something like a halfling, they could use the same hole and unlock the door from the other side, or pursue the Kobolds on their own.
For the second encounter, you hit on a really neat idea by having flying enemies that can get around the pits in the room. I would actually take this a little further by having those monsters be neutral. The wizard starts destroying the cavern, and maybe this wakes up bats or something that were living at the bottom, and they just attack everything in the room, not picking sides. You could use dice to determine who the bats attack, or steer them towards either the party or the monsters if you felt one side was winning too much.
Third encounter, maybe what you could do is even have the water tied to the water elemental itself, so when the creature dies the water drains. Alternatively, you could have the platform the party is starting on actually part of a room, or else have a regular room just behind them. Why? Because then they can throw things in the water - tables, dressers, chairs, etc - to make platforms for themselves. Maybe his throne room was right behind his dining room and there are big, long tables in it that can serve as crude bridges. Overall though, a really interesting encounter.
Just my 2 cents.
This guy gets it. Nice organic elements.
I like adding funny or gross elements, especially to either the non-critical encounter to make them more memorable or for the very serious ones for a little comic relief.
I did one recently where the party opens a dungeon door to encounter some goblins relaxing and eating, and one was in the corner sitting on a chamber pot.
In the chaos of the battle, the chamber pot knocked over and spilled goblin filth across the floor.
U r a god
man. I still remember the first low level scripted encounter I ever made.
I had the party, inside a caravan, traversing the wasteland, when the wheel got stuck. the paladin NPC they had joining them was out cold drunk, and the team was a monk, a ranger and a barbarian. what happened was the caravan was jumped by several goblins. I remember specifically, having two goblins on one side, two more on top of the caravan, an archer or two, and one goblin who was wielding a claymore that was way too big and heavy for him. it was a super fun one to play, especially when I had such an awesome party in terms of specific decisions and builds, always fun for a first time DM.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 aw hells yeah
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 I had an undead cult of Nerull send a group of zombies at the party as they were trying to get converts in a town square, as they had stolen power from the goddess of the harvest, and blighted their crop. The party had to set fire to wagons full of straw and dump them onto the zombies to burn them up
The Zinogre took me off guard... I really didn't expect it to appear.
I was like "wait a minute he doesn't mean YEP ITS HIM *Zinogre's theme and also ptsd*"
Dillon Smith it has a theme?
Hleghe Yes, it has... but fighting it I usually play Tadakatsu from Samurai Warriors 3
whatever works, really, I usually play Can't Wait to be King, cuz he reminds me of Simba a bit
Must've been a question mark somewhere
He doesn't even make it a big deal that he just brought in a fucking Zinogre.
"What if he shoots the stalactites with magic missile? Those will be harder to dodge"
Yes. Harder to dodge than magic missile.
I love you Jared.
Quantity=/=Quality. Good starting point for creating anything.
"Where they just completely tackle a challenge in ways that i didn't expect"
"I reach out my hand and grab the ballista shot with my bare hands" :D
I get the sneaking suspicion that my "hit the thing" strategy wouldn't work out so well in one of Jared's campaigns.
N00BSYBORG
it is all about HOW you want to hit them, friend.
The15thpaladin And then I died trying to suplex the dragon.
N00BSYBORG
"Then the Dragonborn Paladin leapt from the ledge, driving the pick of his warhammer into the flying demon, crushing the demonic ribcage upon landing on the ground. He then died, after being swarmed by the hoards of other demons who were really scared of a holy lizard."
+N00BDYBORG
I think you're playing a LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITLE bit too much FFVI.
Another good tip to new creators of encounters is to remember the "3 T's"
Timer - keep the room moving. Every so many turns or if the party converse too much in the middle of a battle create a new event on the map or have an hourglass for skipping a turn.
Treat - equipment, currency or even environmental triggers make players want to keep going. Don't make it game breaking though. For example: a lever that activates a trapdoor or unlocks another room or a wheel that pours tar from an urn. Don't make the only goal clearing the room out through pure combat.
Threat - obviously the enemies but think outside the box. Maybe water is flowing into the room or more enemies are flowing into the area trying to force the party into a certain direction or looking for a way to control the flow. Combined with the hourglass, this can make for a dramatic event.
Just for those interested. Jared did a phenomenal job in the video, but you can never get too many tips.
Gonna play D and D for the first time in 3 days. Wish me luck.
quick tip: kill things while not dying in the process. and also hope that the dice don't hate you.
DM or Player?
Nicolas Warren Player
Nice! Have fun and may your rolls be ever natural!
Hope you have a great time. Any idea what kind of character you're going to play?
While it'd be awesome to have MH monsters in D&D, I'd begin to fear the occasional deviljho randomly wandering into any battles.
DarrylCross imagine a deviljho interrupting a hunt against a tarrasque
DarrylCross you enter the boss room to find many corpses and a deviljho
Better yet: foreshadow the appearing of a Deviljho with a jar of Deviljho's Extra Fancy Frisch-Gherkins
there are monster sheets for mh monsters, you just gonna search them out. In one campaign I ended up fighting a tigrex (and killed him by putting an greataxe in his skull)
It actually shouldn't be too hard to come up with custom monsters. I'm pretty sure you could just come up with a Deviljho using the system.
"Being protected by a Zynogre"
Mixing games and genres are we now Jared...
MONSTER HUNTERRRRR
"YARG! Nom nom nom!" ProJared 2016 quote of the year.
I was LITERALLY looking this up last night because im planning my first campaign and game ever, thanks Jared!!!
Last time I was this early, I still had friends to play dnd with....
Tim Thomas shut the fuck up. early jokes arent funny
It's okay. I never had any in the first place so I haven't gotten a chance to play yet at all lol
Jackman LeBlanc Try roll20.net
Try not back-stabbing them next time C:
Red Leader Is..is that Turd fom Edd'sWorld?
Now I want a D&D campaign with Monster Hunter monsters. That would be sick.
Edisson Proano i've already done that, and allowed them to make loot out of the monster's body parts like in monster hunter!
From where I'm sitting, it sounds like a hell of an idea, but it would take a LOT of time to actually implement such creatures. That is, unless you use actual DnD monsters. For example, a pair of magic katar (punching daggers) that was made using the claws of a Chuul.
Check out Amellwind's guide to Monster Hunting on GMBinder!
i always found it better to design the entire dungeon before ever placing enemies. fill it out with rooms so the dungeon is something that people actually live and operate in rather than a series of encounters.
This trips me up. Jared's earlier ones are good, but I find it really hard to know why there's a bottomless pit with a landbridge over it in this cave or whatever.
Stephen
i won't say i've never used a narrow landbridge in a cave because it can work. i just would have put it somewhere other than where the final boss is, like near the entrance. if i was a final boss, i wouldn't want the enemy to go 3/4 into my home before they hit a choke point. i'd want to keep them out period. i wouldn't want to have to cross it every time i leave my throne room, either.
i just never wanted my dungeons, caves, and keeps to feel like something designed to challenge the players. i want them to be some place those npcs have to actively defend, scheme, and otherwise live.
Yeah designing the dungeon first is the way to go. Since it gives you a better idea on what kind of monsters to add in, and how they'll interact with the environment. Gonna put a narrow unstable bridge? Sounds like a good place to add Grells. Have a pressure plate that drops a portcullis in front of the party? Putting goblin archers on the other side makes them more likely to trigger it.
From a game designers percpective, designing dungeons is super fun. One thing I do in my games is make the level seem like a liveable, created enviroment, or naturaul, but design them in such a way that it would never be a thing in real life. Design it just linear enough to guid the players, while adding some larger exploration to give the players a since od accomplishment. Great vid, by the way.
GamerKingNation
designing the towns, dungeons, castles, map, etc. is easily the most fun part of building a campaign.
Giving a low level wizard the sleep spell is what got Spoony fired from organized play.
Lol yea being fair to monster's is apparently bad. By the way I am happy he is continuing his counter monkey series since you brought him up. Also great video as always Projared. Love your videos man.
It was more the one wizard who went around killing the sleeping party than the fact that they were sleeping, but the real problem was actually the Charm Person (that charmed the thief). A 2 vs. 4 fight against a bunch of spent mages would have been much easier to deal with than the clusterfuck 1 vs. 5 "and oh yeah you can't kill one of them" fight that ensued.
One of the most common pieces of DM advice you'll find is that you shouldn't really even consider removing the autonomy of the players at all with spells like Charm Person, and especially not at such low levels and in a combat situation. It's just no fun and no fair, and that story is a great example of why it doesn't even really fit in for NPC motivations to use it: the wizards wanted to _kill_ the party, not turn them into unwilling slaves.
Yes... but if you'll recall, the fight was pathetically easy. Their prior spells were all Magic Missile, which wouldn't have done enough damage combined to kill a single player. These were three mages going up against a party of 6, three of which were speciality priests and the remaining characters were a wizard, a thief and a fighter. Even if it was an even 3 on 3 battle, the party would have curb-stomped the wizards. Just changing the spells each of the wizards had changed the battle and, like Spoony said, it ultimately came down to the dice, which he got a really good roll with.
His whole "leaping wizards" video was pretty apt - the RPGA are pretty hand-holdy and there needs to be some risk of death in an adventure... otherwise, there's barely a conflict and it's pretty boring overall. That is, however, unless the adventure is designed in where you don't want your party to lose by death and want to play with them on a more personal level. Call of Cthulu, for example, is more about madness than death. Or, perhaps you want to see the players fail their quest instead of killing them... either corrupting them into monsters or even turning them against each other, thus the most dangerous enemy to face is themselves
Shrug. If you already have experience with the game, then essentially you're not in the RPGA's demographic. The harsh truth is it's geared almost exclusively towards younger players and people who can't find a group.. that's why there wasn't already a table at the 'Con, because nobody who could wrangle up a game at their own kitchen tables would waste time with it. It's _supposed_ to be a saccharine experience to entice new players to go out, buy the books, and find their own groups to provide them with a meatier challenge. Getting mad because they're making it too easy is a little bit too much like buying a copy of Kirby's Count to One Two Three and then bitching because it's not a gritty, realistic first person shooter giving you the challenges you're up to. That's not the company's fault.
That being said, I don't disapprove of Spoony's choices or him killing off the party or anything, I just think that in his shoes I probably would have tried to build tension with, say, Dancing Lights or something rather than using up a spell slot to make two strangers pretend fight each other.
Daniel Gehring Wel I don't do RPGA's myself. I did do one organized group that went badly. I had one guy who was this teifling magus who boasted he was the son of the devil to everyone, which honestly if you do good luck dealing with every paladin and their mother trying to hunt you down and slaughter your ass. He used a silence spell on my character just because I wanted to stand on the front lines as a fighter, because he should be on the fronts lines as he is more important and he should lead, meanwhile I just did that to get closer to the action. Then in the middle of a fight in close quaters this asshat threw multiple fireball spells hitting us along with the enemy and ended up knocking out my character, not killing him though, but still afterwards I didn't go back. Its a team game, and if you rather be an ass who cares only for your glory then there is a problem. That's the problem with D&D players to me no matter which edition I play, yes I played AD&D edition 1 as well, most people just seem to glory hound, and not focus on the RP part of it, yet these same people bitch when 4th edition was made for these guys. Listen if you are that guy who dumpstats charisma for no other reason than it doesn't help me kill things faster then go play 4th. Its more balanced for people like that so they aren't breaking the game with their overly min maxed characters and so others can play and have fun.
Lmao the freaking Zinogre made me laugh too hard
And what if he also has this um.. ZINOGRE! *dies laughing*
AND THEN A ZINOGRE SHOWS UP!! XD
Could be worse. He could've pulled a Qurupeco and summoned a Deviljho.
This is also true lol
Jared I'm loving these tutorial vids. As someone who DMed when all of my friends got into Dnd at the same time, I can say definitively these help out for people like us who didn't have an experienced player helping out. Can't wait for next December!
The six dislikes are the kobolds from the first room.
They brought friends.
A whole extra 60, as of Jan. 22, 2018 at 1:31 New York time zone
Looks like their numbers are multiplying by the dozen
Also: consider what the enemies are doing before the party shows up.
Kobolds are seemingly having dinner, but depending on the amount of noise the party makes, they may already take combat position before the door opens
Your D&D Stuff is actually one of my favourite types of projared content.
So i really appreciate D&D-cember.
Some really good tips here, I employ a lot of the same things when designing my encounters. Recently the party was sent to get a man's family back from a tribe of barbarians, and to get to their village they had to go into a small connecting cave, which had a bridge over an abyss similar to what Jared was talking about here. You're damn right they thought about cutting the bridge if they had to. The warlock also tried to poison their stew while using an illusion to disguise himself, but the chief caught on and won his checks, so that didn't work out too well, and our paladin almost got cut down because of it.
So yeah, just little things are what make the game and experience great. I love thinking on my feet and my players constantly throw me for a loop, been such a blast.
Jared should gather the Normal Boots crew up and DM a D&D game. But get costumes and props, sort of like what the Yogcast guys did for Yogquest.
This video actually really inspired me.
I've been working on a fantasy world for D&D for a really long time, but almost all my work has gone into story and lore.
I knew my encounters should be compelling and engaging, but I hadn't given them much thought or planned them out.
Now I'm actually excited to create interesting and creative encounters.
these videos about D&D are sooo cool!!! I just watch them now and it's amazing Jared. I hope you'll do a D&December for this year because it's really great. I love you man
"The Theatre of Your Mind..." -ProJared, final words of 2016
I tend to ask myself 3 things when developing an area: background, environment, and interactions. The background helps determine why the enemies are located there, giving some story. Like the video, what common (or uncommon) objects exist in the environment, and how is the layout different from similar encounters. And again, just like the video, how can the party interact with the world around them; burning braziers, swinging across chasms, or propelling party members with catapults followed by a player's feather fall.
Great video to help any Dungeon Master (and love the extra MH bit near the end).
Ok, I was busy typing on Reddit so I was only partially paying attention to the video - so I was imagining this encounter with kobolds and then an Ogre shows up, because I heard zinogre and just assumed Ogre... so when I tabbed back to the video and saw ZINOGRE I was just like "Geez, this battle escalated"
im LOVING these videos, i wasnt watching you for last years but i caught myself up and you honestly get me SO HYPED to try D&D. Youre doing an amazing job with them and i hope theres afew more left.
If we kill Zinogre in this scenario, do we get the carves?
You would love Shadowrun, Jared. The amount of open ended encounters you can generate in that game are ridiculous. Not only do you have to worry about the battlefield, but if you have a decker in the group, you have to deal withe the matrix as another plane of existence. I did a run where me and my friends were raiding a corp building that we all had to branch off and navigate certain areas with any and almost all special abilities. I hacked the security system, but kept getting blocked off by throttled internet so the shaman who was the face of the group had to infiltrate the building and go to the corresponding floor to hit the different server arrays while the street samurai, adept, and mage fought their way through the parking garage, running distraction, but constantly on the move to keep the security busy.
It was a deep, intricate and tactical campaign done by a first-timer, but the most fun I ever had.
Greetings from germany. Thank you for this episode. While unfortunately i don't have anyone to play D&D with, i'll use these advices when designing my current computer game i'm working on. :)
Keep up the good work and have some happy holidays! :D
There are online ways to play DnD with people :D
Also, Whats the name of the game you're making?
Stefan Hohnwald if you are still interested in d&d Roll20.net is a online d&d site I use it for just about all my campaigns
Jared, I always love your D&December videos, you're great to listen to and very informative. I honestly wish you would make more of these outside of just December, I'd probably watch all of them.
This was fantastic! Thank you so much for doing this :) I've been a DM for a few years now, and I still struggle to make encounters more interesting than just "Side A: Attack -> Side B: Attack" by the end of it. It's especially tough when my non-combat oriented players complain about their attacks being weak and I need to find something for them to do during the fight. The water room was especially creative for multiple party playstyles! I do hope you do this again and more things like this. DMing tips are never unappreciated!
This is exactly what I needed, thank you so much ProJared, I'm gonna have a session tomorrow as a DM and I had no idea how to deal with encounters to make them more interesting. I really wish there were more D&December left, can't wait for next years episodes!
Solid advice, especially the part about expecting your party to do things you'd never expect them to. Not sure how one plans for their warlock turning the rest of the party into T-Rexes, but it sure made the Gore Magala encounter that much more entertaining.
This was a good watch, i have been really enjoying the D&December videos so far. This and the one about making a character are awesome they are really good to be able to share with friends who maybe haven't been doing this for as long as i have and just want to learn a bit more. Keep up the good work Jared!
8:30 "and they can fu... deal with something a litlle more challenging" great self-control Jared :D
I remember one really interesting encounter. We were playing 4th edition D&D with around Level 12-13 party. We were trying to stop a disease, called "Ash Plague" which has plagued most of the continent's northern forest. It was infesting on all life - trees, bushes, animals, giant spiders etc. Basically infected creatures were turning into ash slowely. My Shardmind wizard got infected and was constantly slowed, but we managed to get to the place where infestation started. What we found, was a giant hole in the ground, that was leading to the Ash demiplane (Basically a portal there) and a giant Mushroom that was infected by demiplane's natural magical radiation. So, we had a giant room with several areas where we were jumping around and this whole mushroom colony was constantly sending infected creatures against us, while the "Boss" itself was super-passive (It was gigantic mushroom after all). It was actually really fun fight. So fun, that I used parts of it in some of my games later - like fight over bottomless pit in my Megaman X/Zero RPG where party was fighting against reploid, named Puppeteer Spider, who was constantly moving over her web, was destroing it for party and creating new for herself. And was also shooting her body parts (Spider legs and her humanoid legs later) as well as mechaniloids at party.
I was going to be running a game soon, and thought I should come back and rewatch these guides for help and inspiration.
I don't regret it.
Inspiring as always Jared
This is one of my favorite D&Dcember videos you've ever done. I'd love to see more of these DM advice type of videos in the future. Thanks a lot, Jared!
What kind of lamination does your battle grid have? Every time I laminate some grid paper the expo markers smudge and bleed through.
It's not great TBH. The red, blue and green markers leave smudges of color after cleaning.
Do you know how best to acquire a laminated battle grid similar in size to the one in the video?
RussianWhiteandBlackBear you can get a plexiglass sheet to lay over the grid
Well is the one you showed in the video the one that comes in the back of the book or custom made?
I use the reversible mega mat by Chessex. You can find them on Amazon. They're pretty great, hexes on one side and squares on the other and you can get them big enough to cover almost an entire dinning room table. They're meant to be used with washable markers, not dry erase, so you can wipe them clean with a damp cloth or even just a licked fingertip. DO NOT use dry erase on them as it'll seep in and never ever come off. Red and brown markers kill them too. Blue and green crayola markers are your best bet.
When you pulled out the Zinogre I was like "Whoa, can he do that?!"
I always try to add a dynamic of the encounter that changes halfway through. For example, in one combat your fighting a couple guards in a sub-terrain storage room. Halfway through the fight, a giant spider bursts from a chamber blocked off earlier! This adds a whole new dynamic to the fight, and the PC's can then go explore the tunnel revealed by the spider.
Thank you so, so much for this Jared! I'm an aspiring DM, since I love putting my creativity to use with games like D&D. And sure, being a player is fun, but I still want to create more than just my character. I want to create a world for my players to enjoy to the utmost extent! So, all of these tips are extremely helpful for me, who doesnt think as tactically as I probably should whilst making encounters.
'he is also protected... by a zinogre'
because why the ever loving fuck not?
Coming back to this video, I have to thank you, Jared. I literally added a Zinogre to my Pathfinder 1e campaign after watching this video years ago, and it's still one of my favorite encounters I've ever run. XD
You really inspired me to begin DM. It was not this video in particular, but all DnDecember. thx for doing this series
Thank you so much, I needed this video in my life, I've not been playing the DM for vary long, so I had been having trouble coming up with interesting, and more importantly difficult encounters for my party, with this, you've exposed to me a whole new dimension of encounter creation, I cant wait to use these techniques the next time that I meet with my group.
I love watching these videos. As an aspiring DM's my mind races with cool things to do when I finally get to be a DM.
I believe you should do these outside of December. You are a very good teacher.
Zinogre? Now I want a pencil and paper game based on monhun!
i once offered the idea to one of my hunter friends of making MH enimes in pathfinder but it never went anywhere
I just want to have a Mizutsune fight. I love those things.
once I get into DnD, I will make a homebrew monster hunter campaign. i'm trying to think of how to do it.
i'm thinking of the return of the Frenzy Virus or something. maybe the Shagaru magala the main character slew in 4U already laid its egg for the century, and the egg gets mutated into hatching faster? I don't know how i'll do it, quite frankly. I just want to involve Gore Magala or at least Apex monsters somehow. and as another commenter further down suggested to another, I suppose for breakable parts you just need to treat the parts as different targets.
I've been wanting to make hallway encounters where the zombies or whatever literally burst from the walls. Like, throughout this hallway they hear echoeed noises all around so they think it's just an encounter in the next room, until all throughout the hallway enemies burst from the walls (Maybe even from the roof), and it's a claustrophobic encounter. And then, of course, there's when I'd do things as a naval DM. I'd make encounters come from the sky, underwater, other ships, islands, and I'd even make attacks happen from inside the ship itself. And I've always loved the thought of the Big Bad of a campaign utilizing the tactics of a Dwarf Fortress player, or at least, me locking down my fortress; Seal up the bunker and unleash caged monsters/megabeasts/whatever to slaughter all on my land. Moral of the story? I should never DM for the sake of my health.
RELEASE THE SPIDERS!
Really good idea. Just make sure its for a party that can actually deal with that. A strong example of such a party would be for those at least tier 4 and up(rogues all the way up to wizards, no fighters, paladins, or any of similar power) for such a thing, as those lower likely won't be able to deal with it in time before they die. As for seafaring encounters, just make sure its a big boat and possibly have it progress in such a way that it is part of the actual story(say, its the reason they become stranded, or its a prelude to the adventurous hell they have to endure).
This was actually very good timing. I've been planning to DM for some time now and as a matter of fact, I may end up DMing for a specific party of 3. While I have thought about alot of these things myself, it's good to see it displayed in a practice. One thing I've also thought about;
Even for filler-fights, I wanna try and make a story built around it. Like the house with the Kobolds. Perhaps they had a reason to be there, even if it contributes nothing to what is going on in the story. Maybe they are this band of thieves that were looting the place and as the party fights, these Kobolds can exchange banter between each other or towards the party. These guys could then become a re-occuring group. This goofy band of comedic villains, always getting into trouble and bumping into the party.
Just to make encouters that much more memorable.
A quick and easy tip is to give your random encounters context.
"You see Monster X" < "You see Monster X eating the corpse of a bear. It has a wicked cut on its face, fresh with blood."
It makes it feel like there is an outside world going on and that the monsters didn't just pop into existence right when the players entered a room.
"Up ahead, you hear yipping coming from behind an overturned cart. A kobold leaps on top, spies your party, and draws a scimitar as it alerts the rest of the scaly raiders."
"You see two snoozing ogres lying against each other in front of a cave, barely covered by a tiny blanket. One of them appears to be using a large club as a pillow."
Red Dragon
Exactly. Just give the monsters something to do. Instead of dungeons just being a place that houses a boss fight, build something of an event that's going on, maybe something that isn't even directly related to your main quest.
Like if you're going to a fortress inhabited by bandits to get back a powerful magic artifact, don't just have them bumming around in random rooms. Think about what bandits would do after a successful heist; Most likely celebrating. As you enter the outskirts of the fortress, you see a wagon of stolen foods being pushed inside. When you're at the fortress, you can overhear a great feast going on in one of the rooms. Maybe the guards outside are groggy about not attending the party inside. If your group has people that are good with disguises, let the players even go and attend the party if they want to.
Speaking of such, another thing is to not make every fight mandatory. Give players an option to avert a battle and seek different options around that. Cut off an enemy group approaching via bridge. Let the party disguise as members of whatever dastardly group you're up against, maybe letting that caged Owlbear loose could clear a room or 2 of enemies and sometimes, the enemy can be reasonable, someone you can bribe, decieve, convince to surrender/cooperate or run an errand for.
Those are things I'm considering whenever I think about how I'd make a D&D campaign.
you have no idea how helpful this video is. I've not had...too much trouble DMing so far, and can even reskin/customize creatures decently, but I'm never sure how many to throw in and such, so this is gonna help like nuts.
Good points on using the environment as a challenge in the encounter. I've read over many encounters in campaign books and modules that are just there without any context or flavor. I definitely agree with changing things up to be more challenging. Also, make sure all your players can do something in combat. It is heart breaking to fell left out when initiative starts, but as a DM keep that in mind especially when you have large parties.
I like that support pillar thing from early on, because if a party member happens to have any explosives, well... you know what I'm getting at.
For me, it was Drow.
Drow are fun to fight. Mainly because they're assholes, snobby and
completely batshit crazy evil, doing all sorts of inhuman experiments
and rituals, so every time you get to murder a few, it feels good and
anyone on the good side of the morality scale will think you did a good
thing.
And also, they all carry potent knockout poison, which gives you one
save to avoid becoming unconscious for one minute and then another to
not be knocked out for hours, and are proficient in its use. Meaning a
couple of drow scouts with hand crossbows and a few bolts dipped in it
can down an entire party if the saving throws aren't merciful.
Also, Drow are always looking to take prisoners to mutate with their experiments or sacrifice to their gods. Thus I gave all of them a rope and an Oil of Levitation so they could capture unconscious party members and carry them easily. The one they managed to partly drag away, a barbarian with an oversized sword, was pretty scared. The others saw the drow pulling a floating barbarian, sleeping like a baby, hugging a gigantic sword like a pillow, trailing it behind himself like a helium balloon.
Yeah, it was funny.
And the other who got tranquilized was the Paladin. During the surprise round. The crossbow does the minimal damage of 1, but he fails the Fortitude save. He has the time to say "Huh, I felt a prick" and comes crashing down.
Legitimately very helpful. I've played a lot over the years but only in the last 8 months or so started DMing. It's definitely a bit difficult to get used to but tips like these will go along way so thanks Jared!
This was incredibly informative! I'm a DM and as you were expressing ideas to do, you were saying things I had just thought of moments before. Of course, you still said a lot of things I wouldn't think of, and that will be very useful to implement in future campaigns!
One thing I did in the Lost Mines of Phandalver encounter with the Cragmaw Hideout cave.
Our adventurers reached there, took out the lookout, and before we went in, it started raining heavily. We got into the cave, and using the sound of heavy rain fall we managed to sneak past the first 3 wolves in the cave since they wanted to try and rest.
After clearing out the cave, all that was left was a bugbear, his pet wolf and 2 goblins, easy encounter yes?
Well put a small twist where as soon as the combat started, the Bugbears wolf let out a loud howl in teh cave, and while the adventurers were fighting, the 3 wolves from teh entrance actually broke their rusty chains, and ran AROUND the cave to flank the adventurers. What made it more interesting was, the Prisoner they saved, the adventurers at first had him stay behind just outside of the encounter, but when our Fighter realized the wolves were coming, he instead grabbed the prisoner and pushed him into a nook far away, and instead got ready for the flanking wolves, for a moment leaving only 3 adventurers to fight the 2 goblins, bugbear and the wolf.
It was actually a small but very interesting engagement, that feeling of "Ok, we HAVE to take out as much as possible before the reinforcement comes!" feeling.
Hey Jared!
I recently purchased the PHB and the DM's guide for 5e on amazon, with the hopes of being a DM with some friends after the holidays. Thank you for this video! Very simple, natural, and intuitive ways to spice up encounters! I'm taking notes!
Your music choice for these is wonderful, really adds a lot.
i lost it when he whipped out the zinogre
I don't think a Zinoger is D&D regulation.
MaverickhunterXZero anything, is a D&D regulation. it's a core aspect of the game
I love Volo's Guide to Monsters. I finally got to build an encounter with a Kobold Inventor, kept the frontline fighter sickened by the skunk in a cage, I am so happy the random roll didn't have it spray the kobold. Good times, loving that new book and it has plenty of replacement options for existing encounters.
I really want to do a Legend of Zelda D&D campaign!
My marathon of rewatching, liking, and commenting on every Jared video continues. Video 66
"The big bad guy is also protected by a zinogre", Oh Jared...I'm so hype for Double Cross as well.
Doesn't matter which channel it comes from, I always dig encounter design videos. Good job here :)
You (ProJared) and the commenters have convinced me to purchase some 5th edition books when I have fortified my Pathfinder collection a little bit. Seems like they deserve the monetary support for a product well made. And that it could help giving a fresh feel to the dungeoning and dragoning.
Thanks for this video I've been a DM on and off for around 18 years now, and I have to admit making combat encounters non standard has always been a bit of a weakness These are certainly some good points.
Elevation and depth are two things I rarely see DMs implement to combat encounters. I understand that it can be difficult to represent on a game mat, but high and low ground are staple tactical features of all battlefields and there's a number of things you can do with them.
When I've been listening to dnd gm advice for an hour and I open my phone to see it's projared! Yay xD
This video is excellent. Something not only new DMs can learn from.
jared. Thank you so much for your help and guidance. I've learned so much from D & December. Im now in a campaign with a couple of friends in a homebrew of 5th edition. im a dragonborn paladin and i juat took my oath of the ancients.
So I'm guessing a Zynogre would be a land dragon capable of using both electric spells and Monk skills?
edit: and is always accompanied by a full orchestra of bards to play its battle theme, which gives it stat boosts so long as they're playing. :3
Go bug nets
@@Shemegory now I want a Monster hunter type DnD game.
D&December need to be a thing in every month ! :D It's just too good !!!
Don't forget the most important thing, go right.
Wow, you really gave me some great ideas I wanna use! Thanks!
monster hunter monsters in d&d, count me in!
I just started being the DM for my group, this is very helpful. I love the elemental aspects
Gonna miss these awesome videos come january
Please make more DnD videos besides DnDecember
When your adventures steal a cannon and bring it every where every encounter is interesting. When the paladin cleric and monk use 4 week long rests to bless and enchant it you get even more interesting.
I'm thinking about starting to DM, and your videos have been a major help so far. I've been doing a lot of improv in highschool, and it seems like that will come in handy for all of this. I can't wait to see how I miserably fail in some unexpected way
I'm not a very experienced player (I've only been in a few campaigns that were either insanely combat heavy with loads of min-maxed characters, or just completely horrible with a terrible DM) but I want to make a story-driven campaign where I'll be the DM. It'll be my first time DMing and I'm making loads of custom content. I'm almost done writing a 45 page player handbook for the campaign, so I'm super excited!
I've been watching tons of videos about what makes a good DM, because I know a bad and inexperienced DM can ruin a campaign, and I really want to do this right. So I just wanted to say thanks for these videos, Jared. They're a huge help, and give me a lot of insight into things I would've never thought of, especially this video. Thanks so much, and I'm looking forward to the rest of D&December!
Chances are you're being way too ambitious. You aren't too good to start small.
these kinds of videos are helpful, interesting, and relaxing. kinda like Bob Ross in a way but with D&D. keep em coming!