One of my buddies ran a labyrinth that was all chess themed. The enemies were chess pieces and it ended with a fight against a whole chess set. The chess pieces had advantage on attacks when you were in the chess pieces hit box (eg. positioned diagonally from a bishop) and the players received advantage when positioned in a pieces blind spot (eg. Diagonally from a rook) this helped make positioning and movement a lot more fun during the fight as we had to move often to avoid attacks.
One of the best combat encounters I ever ran featured redcaps. Players were wandering through the Feywild, in a dense forest which limited visibility and ranged attacks. Then, they're ambushed by half a dozen Redcaps and just as many Quicklings. Now, my players were 10th level at the time, and those enemies are CR 3 and 1. Shouldn't have been a problem. But when the Redcaps run screaming out of the bushes and immediately kick them in the shins, knocking them down, and grappling them to the ground so that one of the others can slice their chest and rub its hat in the wound, then the quicklings can run in from 60 feet away, stab them, and disappear back into the forest without a trace, this single encounter nearly took down a group that hunted adult dragons for a living. They had to work to survive this one. To this day, one of the most memorable encounters for both me and the players.
My DM ran a “combat” encounter for us last week that the whole group found really interesting. The set up included a huge forest fire, nearby a location that we had already bookmarked and had interest in going to. Turns out the fire had something to do with an ex party member that betrayed the group a few months back so the personal vendetta was there. Turns out that the source of the fire was a Phoenix Soul Sorcerer that has lost control and was consuming everything around her. We ended up in a combat with her but rather than “stab it till it stops” we proceeded grappling and restraining her whilst we offered her moral support in her own internal battle, rolling persuasion checks rather than to hit and eventually she managed to control the power, almost consuming herself and us in the process. Just a really interesting take on the standard combat.
We may have talked the young Dragon down in our session yesterday instead of fighting it like we were supposed to. Our DM had been concerned that we wouldn't survive and when our dragon born decided to talk to it instead of attack and rolled a nat 20 on persuasion, it ended up with the dragon agreeing to go back with the kobolds as long as they agreed to worship it as it wanted rather than letting them keep it in a cage.
@@amysewell7175 We had a similar situation in one of my games a few months ago. Our DM expected us to attack this young dragon and instead we talked with it, bargained with it, bribed it, and eventually befriended it. The dragon gave us a token that we could use to call on it in time of need, if we got into trouble too big for us to handle. She was completely not prepared for it, but handled it beautifully!
This presentation style of the "I am teaching myself, maybe you can pickup some things too" is very engaging and insightful and approachable. High quality content, good job!
I completely agree. I've been binging her videos since I discovered her last week!! The energy and atmosphere of her videos draws me in and even makes me want to watch things outside of her DnD content, like the cosplaying video, haha!
Remember - an easy, and almost always pertinent "other thing" enemies can do, especially if the fight is going well for the PC's, is to run for reinforcements. It is a general truism that the primary purpose of guards is to raise the alarm. After a few incidents of chuckling about a screaming goblin dashing off down the corridor only to have half the dungeon fall down on them five minutes later, the PC's should get the message and start thinking about interception, escape points, even the noise they make. Don't just do this with wandering monsters - intelligent guards are there to defend what they are guarding, not fail to do so by dying. Make it purposeful.
You look at the map to see who is nearby. Sometimes the goons have a plan. We had three mutants around a table arm-wrestling. One had a signal device since they are on guard duty. By tooting it they could rouse others. Loud stuff like a fight can create a random encounter roll. I decided that the shrooms of a cave would cover their retreat. If a fight with invaders went badly, two or three big guardians would sacrifice themselves to delay.
I think WAY more baddies should have a "retreat" tactic. Obviously a baddie with a vengeance, or an undead or other mindless beast would not usually bail on a fight. But wild wolves will absolutely cut and run from an unnecessary fight. Seems nice to have a reward even if you do not slaughter all the monsters!
Highly, highly recommend the book “The Monsters Know What They’re Doing” by Keith Ammann, if you’re struggling with the “why” of your monsters! It’s an intricate tour through the Monster Manual with things like how to use their innate spells and special abilities, when to retreat or flee, or how their stat block is a key to their tactics. It’s totally changed which monsters I use and when, and how to make a band of goblins one of the most interesting fights you can have, rather than a blasé default.
Thanks! I just put books 1 & 2 in my Prime cart. There are three books; the third's a little to steep for me now. Thanks for the heads up. But here's a question for you, how do you run a party of goblins? I'm always looking to have my goblins be as threatening as possible.
Best combat I've ever played in: mimic door My DM had set up a room that included 3 doors, the door from which we came in, a door om the other side up some stairs, and a big ass massive door behind some water with stepping stones to draw everyone's attention (this already fucked up our positioning, as suddenly we had a rogue, wizard and druid looking at the door, with our paladin, cleric, sorcerer and bard in the back). Turns our, the door is one very massive mimmic. With the rogue firing arrows into the monstrosity, while the wizard is being swallowed whole, and I (the druid) am pushed to the side, trying to use gust of wind to close the door (its been established that in the DM's world a mimmic can be defeated by forcing it to close), and our warriors struggling to keep up. Then suddenly we hear a massive *BUUUUUURRRRRP* as the mimic regurtitates an UMBER HULK to fight our warriors in the back, I fall back to help our warriors and fail the hypnosis twice in a row. As we struggle, we hear another *BUUUUURRRRRP* as the mimic spews out a WRAITH that starts to attack my squishy druid and the bard. After some struggle, the umber hulk dies trough the use of a spiritual weapon, a snow storm (I had been waiting for years to use that spell), and a crit on a smite. The wizard and rogue are struggling to continue fighting the mimic which is grappling everyone with its tongues, while I in a bear form (I'm very much not a wildshape druid but I was outta spell slots). We hear a final *BUUUUUUURRRRP* as three kobolds fly toward the back of the room, who I manage to paralyze with a hold person spell. With a final group effort, the mimic falls and we interrogate the kobolds. It was hectic, chaotic, and challenging
I am absolutely stealing this idea. I had idea about a mimic door that would ask 3 riddles, the first 2 are easy the last 1 impossible and all of a sudden this door is eating the entire party. Going to incorporate this right here.
thanks for your story. i am at the moment to build an group for cthulhu and i will definitive steal your DM establishment with a mimic can be defeated by a forced closing.
Not quite as epic, but definitely one of my favourite "hah, gotcha" moments was mimic rowboat, "abandoned" in a bayeux type area. When one of the PCs hopped in the boat to look for the oars which weren't visible from the outside, he got munched from below as the boat folded in half into a maw.
Hilariously, one of the most memorable combats I ever had was just 'me sitting and shooting over and over'. This was 3.5. We were a monstrous party--a mind flayer and his minions, a dragon, a half-spirit bard, and me, the drow cleric archer. We were in some layer of the abyss fighting demons or giants or giant demons. The point is, they were big, they had lots of arms, and they had managed to get into melee with us. Now, in 3.5, you provoked an opportunity attack every time you fired a bow in melee range. I was in melee range of one of the giants, but I really needed to kill it, so I figured 'I'll just take the attack of opportunity, be done with it, and then fire the rest of my attacks. I'm at full life, how bad can it be?' Monsters without a feat called Combat Reflexes only had one opportunity attack per turn, after all. I fire. I get smacked back. It hurts, but I fire again. I get smacked back *again*. Now combat reflexes gives you 1 extra opportunity attack per point of dexterity modifier. I figured 'these are huge creatures, how much dexterity could they possibly have? I know he's gonna run out eventually'. I fire *again*. I get smacked *again*. How am I still alive at this point? Well, I was using an ability (imbue spell-like ability -> share pain) that caused half the damage I took to be taken by one of the mind flayer player's minions. This minion (who I loathed; the mind flayer player's turns took like 15+ minutes each because of all the minions and his agonizing over what of his many spells to use) was in *horrible* agony by now. The other players are begging me to stop. The DM is questioning my sanity. But I figure 'this demon just took like 150 damage, it's gotta be close to dead'. I fire, again. I get smacked, again. The minion taking half my damage dies outright. But as it drops, with me at single-digit HP, my arrow connects, crits, and the demon, finally, goes down.
That's even more messes up than my tried suicide attack of my centaur character. It was a siege battles against an orc fortress. Outside, our musketiers fired volley after volley. Some other players, a human paladin, a gnome druid, a treeman bard, an alcoholic spirit elve like girl that was made of her sociopatic parents minds, and a skaven thieft ried to climb together with some otherworldly spirits the outer walls. I ordered all canons to fire at the gate and when it broke open, I charged with lowered lance alone into the fortress, trying to get my centaur killed to motivate my party to come and rescue him (To make them rush faster into the fortress). So I charged in, overrun two orcs and than got attacked by two ogres who used canons as war clubs. Being compleatly surrounded, I charged and fought with my sword against the ogres. And somehow, both had over and over critical miss. I managed to kill one and than the other was killed by the skaven thief with his musket from way over his reach with a nat. 20. The death of both ogres caused panic among the orcs and they tried to flee. The DM ended the fight by describing how the fleeing orcs were massacred by our forces.
@@jarlnils435 "The DM ended the fight by describing how the fleeing orcs were massacred by our forces." I think this qualifies as some great advice about keeping fights interesting. When they get to the point where the pc's are bound to win and all that's left is dice to roll, the above should happen.
I remember a fight against some kind of clown that, if we miss, it redirect our hit to someone else i was thinking "well, just don't miss" and my whole team was damaged by me that day (I'm not very lucky when it come to dices)
I've had a lot of good combats but one I remember as loving a lot was a fight on a river rapids we were trying to cross using stepping stones and rickety bridges. River snakes were attacking us, they would grapple us and try to drag us into the river, the stones were slippery, sometimes bridges would break. We'd tumble into the water where the snakes would try to roll us and suffocate us and we were constantly trying to fight the snakes at the same time as get back on a dry surface and cross the river and rescue our friends. When we finally had killed the last one, our warlock friend was unconscious in the rapids and floating downstream towards a waterfall and the rest were running after him trying to lasso him out of the water and drag him to safety, which we eventually did and revived him. It was harrowing and so much fun.
Love this video! Lemme throw in a nugget of wisdom into this comments section. DMs: Make sure you have your enemies fight rationally, but also in a way that showcases your party's abilities. You have a monk in the party? Have an enemy fire some arrows at her to catch in midair. Druid just learned Earthbind? Give them some flying enemies to take down from the sky. The fighter took Shield Master? Have a fight on a bridge so he can shove enemies off! These are quite a bit different from what Ginny highlights in the video, since it's less focused on the game world itself as it is on the players, but even the most bog standard fights can be made a little more exciting if the players finally get to use that oddly specific ability that they have. You don't have to do it all the time, but if a fight is getting a little too boring or even a bit too difficult, throw in a little something like this to give your players a crowning moment of awesomeness to remember.
I love this, this is such a great point!! As a player it can be frustrating if I have cool abilities that I never end up getting to use. That's a great thing for a DM to keep in mind!!
This is big... I run a few other systems and I find myself trying hard to treat it like a TV show like not just challenge my players but also give them stuff they are great at. Yeah sometimes they can tell I'm pitching them a soft ball, but they get to 'do the thing' so they do not care.
You should definitely do this. You should also have enemies plan for your players' favorite tactics, especially once they become famous. This ends up with the same effect, but from a different perspective. Players feel rewarded that they are recognized enough that enemies are specifically planning for them. It also helps shake up combats that might become stale if the players have come up with a particularly good strategy. Don't overuse it, of course, you don't want players to feel like you're just gibbing their abilities, but definitely throw it in now and again once they get on in levels, where it makes sense. You can also have enemies use your players' own tactics against them! If it's good enough for a famous group of adventurers, it should certainly be good enough for their enemies!
Honestly, the DM for the game I'm in on Saturdays makes the coolest mechanics for enemies. This most recent one the bosses all wore hats, and when they were killed the minions could grab the hats and become the bosses, meaning we had to take out the small guys or risk having the bosses come back. (The hats were magical artifacts)
Another very important aspect to interesting combat: diverse difficulty. If EVERY fight is incredibly difficult, it's going to be far too draining and the players will never feel like they're getting more powerful. If EVERY fight is super easy, it'll just be a boring slogfest. Mix it up.
@@reverie02 It probably depends on what the players enjoy, some are going to like easy fights at certain points and it could lead to different chararacter and narrative development. Like the party gets overconfident or noticed for their prowess, or it makes the tension for an actual worthy foe even more intense.
@@reverie02 I've run a system called Adeptus Evangelion where all the fights are basically huge 4v1 mecha battles against a single powerful kaiju. The problem with only having difficult or impossible fights is that players will completely lose any sense of power progression they may have already earned or lack any sense of scale when it comes to revealing the huge dramatic fights that a campaign has built itself up to. Spacing out the really killer battles with smaller weaker foes, especially those the player has dealt with before, goes a long way towards building up just how powerful the players are now while making the big battle feel that much scarier when they happen for real.
@@reverie02 Except even in real life many people pick fights they don't have any hope of winning. And beyond that, many animals as well. It just needs to make sense in context. A famished wolf will be aggressive and desperate enough to attack a human head on instead of biding its time for a sneak attack, and a creature devoid of intelligence can not appreciate the significance of tools; in other words, they have no reason to consider the possibility of the pointy stick making huge lightning drop on top of them. In society, maybe the assailants are drunk or high on drugs, or maybe they're prisoners with the promise of freedom for taking your party out. Any number of things work.
This is so important! I played in an evil campaign (Pathfinder 1e) from Lvl 1-13 and EVERY encounter was minmaxed by the DM. At first it was exciting to actually have threatening fights, but at the end it was just exhausting. "I am a level 13 evil lich with several magic items, how can a random city patrol be threatening to me?". As you already said: Mix it up. Let the players feel their power from time to time. Then, the big fight will actually feel meaningful and dangerous. As an extra: I think that the harder a fight gets (numbers wise), the less likely players tend to go for options which are not damage. "Why would I try to attempt a Sunder/Trip/... when I can actually not waste my turn and shorten the fight with an attack roll?". If you let the players have their "freedom" of turns from time to time, they are allowed to express their characters in-combat with actual flavorful spells and actions - The fighter grabbing the enemy and throwing him to the ground, the rogue stealing the enemie's weapon and then mockingly playing with it in his hand, the wizard casting that one weird niche spell he has in his book because of background story reasons.
The fight we still talk about, more than 10 years later, is the one the players arranged. We were contracted to hit a merc captain that, in a fair fight, would've owned us with one hand tied behind his back. We were not well known in the area, at the time, so we talked down the contacts to arrange a business meeting with the guy. He was human, so didn't see well in the dark, and I arranged, through the rogue, to have him meet me in the middle of nowhere in the forest by my campfire. I put up 500g to arrange the meeting, and played it like I was a paranoid, wealthy eccentric who didn't want his business to be known. We had the archers in the trees, a shape changed (dog) fighter and a sorcerer (me, the decoy, by the fire). We played at a tete a tete for a bit, and I just reached down to my side (the signal we prearranged) like I was about to pick something up. Between the surprise round, the held actions and pure chaos, we did it. We had the hell beat out of us, but nobody died, and we had heals. Also, we sent the rogue back to the contact, with his big ass deception bonus, and got my money back on top of what we were paid with a bonus, cuz it took two days (instead of the month the DM and the NPC that hired us thought). Couldn't have done that again, though, because after that, people kinda knew to watch out around us.
I actually like to use my "random" encounters to help me with world building. Currently running a sandbox style game so my players can go wherever they want and I do not have all the details worked out but if they run across 2d6 hobgoblins +1d4 devastators then there must be a local settlement or a reason for the hunting/raiding/scouting party to be about. It can really help flesh out the otherwise non descript in between places.
The random encounter table should reflect the region. If there is a displacer beast pack around you have some displacer beasts in there. You can be clever with day-night or subregions or city wards.
Okay, the idea of having a bandit who suddenly gets wild magic surges is utterly brilliant, not only because of the multitude of great points in the video, but also because that sounds like an adventurer backstory. It makes the world feel so much more alive and in line with the players' version of the world rather than having only the party be the Chosen Ones in a low magic setting. Thank you for the ideas and the video!
I also then love the idea of the other bandits mid combat with players to turn around saying, “urm, Mark, you alright buddy?” As he suddenly explodes fire from his chest randomly.
One of the best combats I've run was with a monster that would absorb the souls of fallen foes, my players were horrified and thrilled when it knocked one of the players unconscious, "dementor-ed" its soul out and healed back to full health. The combat became a bit more challenging and the goal became to not let it escape so they could rescue the soul of that player back. It was awesome!
I had a similar one involving homebrew demons. The rogue went off on his own - a mistake. These demons specialize in ambush and one-on-one. It tore him to ahreds, killed him, consumed his soul, and fled. They used wish to bring it to them and ganged up on it, then resurrected him
@@Krassy10 I should clarify that the PC still had death saves and the others had the opportunity to heal them, they just didn't manage to in time and the PC died. It's very rare that someone casts a resurrection spell during combat anyway, so it didn't spoil the fun for them. On their turn I gave them so flavourful description of what they were experiencing, so they didn't feel left out. :)
Something important to note: CR is only as important as the strategy the creature uses. I see a lot of people complain about the Challenge Ratings being too low and throwing monsters around like "move, hit, turn end" instead of thinking about strategy of any sort. Another thing: play to the intelligence and behaviors expected of the creature. This will help with immersion and make things more interesting (A hungry pack of wolves are likely to isolate and kill a single target, dragging them off for food rather than try to kill the whole party).
additionally, a group of bandits, or any group of humanoids in general who are a team, will often work together or have pre-planned strategies in mind. They might notice a wizard is present and has yet to act, so they might focus on them to prevent any major spellcasting. Plus, if the fight is going bad, they might order a retreat, or individuals might decide it isn't worth it anymore and just book it away from the fight
I gave up on CR after version 3.5. It's okay for populating a dungeon or a region. Often a CR=party encounter barely gets the players to spend 1 or 2 dailies (spells, etc). Boss fights need to be x4 CR to be a meaningful contest. But constant x4 CR encounters can piss off players also.
Exactly this. And the opposite can also be useful. I recently redid a one-shot for a single player. and balanced the encounters by deliberately handicapping the enemy strategy. things like, when they score a good hit, the enemies scatter, or have them be a little more cowardly, not wanting to get close, so they end up only attacking every other round. I did remove a few enemies, to streamline things, but mostly I ran 4-person encounters for a single player with minimal size changes, just by playing up the opponent's poor combat decisions.
if you don't know about it already, I recommend looking at The Monsters Know What They're Doing (both the book(s) and the blog). In goes into detail on how different monsters would go about combat and what their primary tactics would be based on stats and lore of the creatures.
Honestly, one of the best encounters we've ever had was one we didn't. I have been running a campaign in the Witcher TTRPG. My party split up, and we had a Witcher, a Druid, and a Woman-at-Arms go to evacuate a city before the enemy forces arrived in the area. Unfortunately, the city was dealing with a Pesta, a specter that spreads plague. My players had done some investigating and learned the identity and story of the Pesta (it's Witcher, so it was really depressing), so when it came time to fight her, the Woman-at-Arms put away her weapon and initiated Verbal Combat. She essentially reasoned with the Pesta, and calmed her down until she discorporated. We managed to concecrate her remains before she could return. It was really neat that one of my combat-focused characters realized that attempting diplomacy was much easier than fighting a specter that spreads plague and controls rats and insects (also in Witcher, conventional weapons do half-damage to monsters). Having the option to learn why the monster is doing something (in this case, revenge), can really help players find interesting ways to deal with the encounter.
This actually has me excited to dm again, I was a dm for a highschool dnd club for just a month and it was exhausting. I didn't know what I was doing and didn't have a plan, as well as being a novice player who hasn't read a single dnd book didn't help. I asked my group to assist my with rules and stuff, but ultimately I left feeling unhappy. The only reason I thought I'd be an okay dm was cuz I'm a creative type who likes telling stories, and in my head the game was beautiful though I doubt I described it right.
@BlissfulDirtbag You know who's a great gm? Anyone who inspires the players to come to another session. I can assure you that you did great. Be inspired. Tell some stories with your friends.
Your first time can be pretty rough, my first campaign was a bit hectic at first, I had almost memorized the 3.5 players handbook and DMG verbatim in preparation but it only did so much. It worked out in the end though, being a DM is one part creativity, one part Praxeology, and one part Dad. Creativity is vital but you need to be able to grasp the machinations of the wider world and the motivations of NPCs and arbitrate fairly among your players and remain in control of the game. The balance between the three depends on your players.
@@josephahner3031 thank you, I feel like I've slowly getting there, plenty of practice from keeping the campaign on track lol. I really think I just need time to fully plan, and to feel comfortable with the campaign before I start my next
oh, I LOVE this subject. I ponder a lot of the same issues and, yeah, a LOT of my combats tend to end with my going "Dang. You guys killed him SO fast." So, the best I ever had, was actually pre-genned, and I modified it. The party talked to this monster before, and it smugly directed them along the path to a deathtrap rather than the bad guy. So they pulled out all the stops and rolled incredibly and burned through some cool one-use options and this horrid hydra-y thing dies in like, one round. (2 out of 3 players crit, it was nuts.) Then they go into the next area, a chasm with rope bridges and a LOT of little baddies. I'd doubled the number of cannon fodder and they still mopped the floor with them. I also gave the players these drama cards to modify encounters, and they spent them to summon MORE enemies... to also get more cards, including an ally. Then, the final chamber, the big bad is trying to figure out how to get the scroll without activating the final guardians. His minions take up defensive positions and he offers... payment. Help him against the final guardians, get paid. Cash from whichever realm, he's got some magical implements... to him, adventuring parties are useful! They say no, because... well, the murders. So he turns and grabs the scroll, the stone guardians awaken, and on his next turn, he is going to teleport out. The players crush him, no crits, but he's not a hydra. Now they're mostly out of juice, but the remaining minions aren't interested in dying today. The guardians don't care though, and are definitely going to take out everything in the room. The party takes one down with a good bit of effort, and as they're fighting the other, the first regenerates. Time to go! Back to the chasm, where the team cuts the rope bridge. The implacable stone guardians turn, face the stone wall, and strike the wall, piercing it with their giant fingers... and begin to climb with the most gawdsawful percussion, grinding of stone, and falling rocks. The players faces tell me that for once, they don't know how to punch this problem to death. They don't know how much of a headstart they have, or how fast the stone guardians are on land, but they do NOT want to stick around to find out. The new ally's offer to leave this plane and join his team suddenly seemed REALLY good. They had a blast, and we got more done narratively and combat-wise than we usually did in three sessions. Some of it was them doing great rolls... some of it, the system I used had a way to treat a group of enemies as a pack and roll attack and damage as if it were one creature. That really sped up the conflict in the second zone. Because while it's great to speed up the players in combat, it's essential to speed up the monsters turn. (srsly, nobody wants to watch the DM throw 15 attack rolls while muttering.)
That sounds AWESOME! I love the moment when the first stone guardian regenerates and the players have to make a tactical call. Especially after so much combat, that must've really forced them to flex some different problem-solving muscles! Sounds like a really fun session!
@@GinnyDi It was the only fight in like, three years that anybody at that table retreated from. They even threw hands when confronting a GOD later. Well, demigod. If Dr Doom were a demigod. It was great. And now I want to figure out how to get a group together and run a game for 'em. Ahh, my love of gaming is rekindled!
@@DannyboyO1 this encounter sounds spectacular! Really really cool!! If you'd like to run an online game, I'm super down to finally join a group and start playing after watching dnd groups play for this past year. So if this is something you'd enjoy, idk reply and I'll send you my socials. But if not, also totally fine, I just thought I'd throw this out here since I saw your enthusiasm in your comment, seems like you're a really cool dm!
One of my favorite combats was when my first time players found a chest on the side of a merchant road. The chest was a mimic, which I was sure they could handle. One of the great abilities of a disguised mimic that I think some dms and players miss is that they are adhesive and bind to whatever touches them, with escape attempts being made at disadvantage. My players ended up all getting stuck to the mimic trying to pry themselves off and played a game of hot potato of different characters continuously succeeding and failing to get free, all while everyone was just pummeling on this box. It was hilarious.
Mimics can be a very entertaining thing. I think about introduce a mimic as a clay jug. If a player try to grap it a tong comes from inside, grab the hand and pull it inside the the mimic sucks blood from the hand like a leech. and than the have to find a way to get ther hand out of it, but cose its a mimic smashing on the ground only hurt the people. I think the thing to relase the hand would be something like pour something disgusting along the hand into the mimic so she spits the hand out. this would be not life threatend but will give the group a nice wtf moment. Hope if someone steal this the have no babarians in the group that chops of the hand xD
Good advice! The moment you stop looking at encounters as players meeting "evil monsters" and see them as sentient beings with motivations and life of their own, that's when they spring to life, and the adventure writes itself! :)
My proudest combat encounter is a frost knight who my players mistook for an enemy and engaged first; he was actually the guardian of the kingdom they were heading to, and he now wanted to kill them. He had attacks that sprayed ice across the ground and summon a small blizzard, so the field was constantly changing. The encounter took place in a clearing in the snowy mountains, so the guard was even stronger. 2 of the 5 characters were knocked unconscious before the warlock realised what was going on and clarified that they weren't gonna burn the kingdom down.
I had a battle I ran with a few creatures called Chitines. They have an ability that lets them see anything on the same web they're on. So I had a giant room, with a giant web as a floor, dropping off into water below. You see, the room also had a pedestal in the center, with an orb that made the entire room magical darkness on it. My players, when they entered, couldn't see a thing. Disadvantage on all attacks. But the Chitines could sense every movement of the players, since they were on the same web. Advantage on all their attacks. So my players took thrown web-daggers constantly, while they tried to stumble around the room. Eventually they found the pedestal in the center, shut off the magical darkness, and those with darkvision could then fight the chitines in the room. It was dangerous, but it was a blast.
You must have balenced that pretty well then. Because thats pretty close to tpk territory if they didnt find the pedestal. But it seems like the perfect amount of danger so great job
@@jasonandrews1770 yeah... except I didn't mention the 3x3 Cave Fisher that was yanking them into the air from the tall, tall ceiling lmao But to be fair, they did well. There was 4 Chitines and the one Cave Fisher, so really it wasn't a HARD fight. But when 12 daggers are thrown per turn, it looks really scary from a players perspective
@@reaprcussion5703 man that is the perfect level of scared. Because the whole not being able to see whats doing all this would have me shook. Because you dk if theres 1 or 200 of those things
Just to clarify, Chitine would still also be _Blinded_ by the darkness, so also rolling at disADV, but ADV because their target is _Blinded_ as well, so a straight roll. They know where the targets are, but D&D does technically require you to *see* a target for anything that says "a target you can see" and Chitine don't also have Blindsight (Giant Spiders, however, do...). Knowing where the PCs are at all times still gives them a major advantage, without giving them Advantage.
One mistake that I ALWAYS make (working on it) is placing the adventurers in the corner or edge of the map when combat starts. Just place them in the center! Our epic final battle against the Midnight King of Draconia took place exclusivally in the corner of the gigantic map. It was an epic fight, but still. If I had just put them in the center when the fights start, we wouldn't be stuck in that damn corner.
to add to this, don't start combat at the entrance of an area, instead ambush them and attack from all sides, a true ambush wouldn't spring upon the tanks taking point, instead they would flank onto the squishy wizard in the center. Also if some prefight RP/investigation happened then put them where their characters would actually be when the battle triggered. Which likely would be out of ideal formation if the squishy caster triggered the fight and ends up base to base with the foe.
That's such a good point!! I feel like I've done the same thing - "oh, you're entering the area from this side," but then depending on how initiative order plays out, the monsters might come to the players instead of the players going to the monsters, and next thing you know, you're having to estimate distance off-map if somebody needs to move the wrong direction.
@@ratchet1freak Along this line, I like to use "The real" combat starts later tactic, that is, the party enters a cavern, for example, meets up with an initial combat encounter (some of the creatures in their lair), then, a round or two into the combat, Mama and Papa Bear come home and attack from behind.
Just be careful not to rely on this too much. Being surrounded in Every combat can be demoralizing for the squishies. And it can backfire if you're not careful. Here's a story to illustrate: Party level = 3 or so, Searching a graveyard. Some spooky warnings were mostly ignored (player mistake). Suddenly the party was surrounded by shadows (or some other incorporeal undead). The cleric botched their Turn Undead check (older version: Turn Undead would have chased half or more of the undead away). Botch meant the party had to fight out of encirclement, without reliable damage vs incorporeal. I think it was a TPK or nearly so. Basically killed the story and we lost players. Could have lost the gaming group entirely. GM's errors: #1 failed to drive home the dire warnings. Sometimes a dire warning is NOT an adventure hook. #2 banked on the cleric scaring most of the undead away. #3 Assumed the party would skeddadle, rather than try desperately to damage the enemies.
I think a map with a big staircase going down to the middle of a room with several doors, the kind you often see in museums and palaces could act well... Like monsters even trying jumping on the staircase...on the other side, some range-attack sqishies could stay on the second level of the atrium...
You can toss in MUs in other groups. For every 20 goblins there will be a level 1 wizard goblin. If a goblin problem-solving crew shows up, they could have that dude along. Then they start by throwing Hold Portal to cut enemies off.
I accidentally made a really complex and engaging combat in my first session ever dming a major campaign. It all takes place on a large paddleboat. The party's paladin is escorting the young new leader of his church up river to their central cathedral, and the rogue is using the boat system as a way to smuggle illicit goods in and out of the major city. Two things are meant to happen here: 1. The new leader of the church is to be kidnapped in the night. The current leader doesn't want to step down so she had people sent to dispose of the new leader so she could blame the paladin later. 2. A growing rival faction of smugglers sent their own men to infiltrate the boat's crew to sabotage the shipment by stealing a particularly valuable item, and potentially kill this mob family's leader, the party's rogue. It was all MEANT to be an ambush... All is well when the paladin and dwarven artificer start... Oil-wrestling for some reason? It gets rowdy enough where the riverboat crewmen start placing bets. One of them shouts "FIVE SILVER ON THE SHORT ONE!" (the dwarf). Suddenly, the two oil-wrestling PCs nod at each other and rush the crew! Of course, the kidnappers and rival smugglers, unaware of the other groups, think the jig is up! So they enact their plans early. So in the blink of an eye, ONLY because I wanted to add a little flavor to my players silly antics and have the crew bet on their oil-wrestling match, we have: -the kidnapping of a religious leader -the theft of an unknown valuable item -and what's essentially a bar fight. ALL AT ONCE! So it goes to show that interesting combat can really come from anywhere! I fully planned to have my party left in the dark on what happened until the next morning when half the crew, the religious leader and a priceless artifact were missing. But some things are just out of our control. Oh, for those of you that read this far: a part of the rival smuggler's plan was to have a few men destroy the engine room of the riverboat before leaving. And the artificer, with a NATURAL 20 tool check roll, saved the day. He repaired the destroyed engine and prevented a treacherous march through dangerous jungle... That I, already had prepared for them... Ah well!
my most memorable fight: Our party rody up onto a town that was being attacked by a giant purple worm (cr 15), we were lvl 5 at the time and our party consisting of 4 players wasn't really smart and decided to help the town and fight the beast (we were lvl 5 at that time). The DM knowing we couldn't handle this on our own and wasn't prepared for us to fight this monster quickly drew up a map and set down some ballistas for us to use against the worm. the fight was interesting with the worm burrowing and appearing somewhere else and us hurriedly going to the various siege equipment and readying them to fight the beast. miraculously none of us even went down because of good rolls and tactics. but the good thing about this was that we as players knew this was dumb to do but went along with it for the heck of it and actually succeeded making this an incredibly interesting fight and havng us all focus.
I really like all of these tips! As someone who's been DMing for a very long time, I would recommend getting practice creating your own monsters/enemies, or at least adapting existing stat blocks! It takes a lot of extra work, but there is no monster that you'll understand better than your own! Plus, it can really surprise veteran players who know the mechanics of the classics, like dragons, werewolves, and gelatinous cubes.
Oh man, I can totally confirm this - working on my own homebrew monsters has totally helped me understand combat a lot more!! In fact, I didn't really have a good understanding of action economy as a concept until my DM Jesse walked me through it while we were troubleshooting my Feral Merfolk stat block. It's such a great hands-on exercise for wrapping your brain around the way combat plays out!
@@GinnyDi Totally! I feel I was really able to boost my own confidence when I started really learning mechanics by working with them enough to change them. And I loved the Feral Merfolk block! Taking somewhat weak but iconic monsters from the base rules and buffing them/making them fit new worlds, lore, etc is so fun!
A really good option is to add minor abilities to standard Boss monsters, like a bardic inspiration affect for a Boss to do as a free action to encourage his minions. I've added cantrips like chill touch to undead during a chase scene. There are so many options. Check the minor class abilities in the PHB and apply them where it makes sense.
One book I've had lots of fun reading is "The monsters know what they're doing" by Keith Ammann. It goes into how different creatures might tend to fight based on evolutionary instincts, would highly recommend for anyone trying to make "normal" monsters more interesting to encounter.
I think the "Why" point that you mentioned is the first thing that every DM should learn! Not only in Combat, but everything that happens on your table should have a "Why" that needs to make sense (not always logical sense, but at least to make your story keep moving forward!)
My greatest success in combat as a dm was when I put my level 3 party up against an aboleth and a whole ship full of quasi-dimensional-nightmare-assassins. There was a certain pair of extremely curious pcs that expected something extraordinary under every rock, a secret behind every door, and wonder in every soul. I wanted to finally reward them with everything they had been looking for all in one encounter. So, I closed my eyes, opened up the monster manual, and saw the aboleth. I had them choose between what was essentially, Scylla or Charybdis as a danger to avoid while sailing from one country to the next. During the trip, I had one roll a perception check. They nat 20'd so it made it really easy to fake being so distraught that "I HAD to give them ALL this juicy info" about how they noticed the subtle change in the boat crew's demeanor. They noticed them slowly lose, and then gradually gain, coordination. This sine wave of coordination eventually peaked with total, unnatural coordination. That's when they went on high alert. The most curious 2 ran down stairs, thinking correctly that there might be something on the ship rather than under or around it that was making everyone act weird. That's when I hit them with the narrow pass filled with jagged rocks that would surely mean their doom. That's when I allowed the curious duo to find and unveil the Aboleth in it's aquarium! It was being smuggled by the captain. The aboleth had taken over the minds of the crew and the assassins over the course of 3 days. The party had recently found some magic items in a place I definitely thought they'd never be able to get inside, and like, i'm not gonna just take that accomplishment away from them. Anyway, they had to solve a puzzle related to those items to attune to them. They managed to solve the puzzles, fight for control of the ship, maintain ship integrity while traversing the jagged pass of doom, fall in love, travel through time, completely erasing that particular aboleth from the universal timeline, protect the lives of every other npc, including the quasi-dimensional assassins whom they later befriended, AND make it to the other country all in time for the local carnival.
I’ve seen some newer systems start to consider this right down to the foundations. Pathfinder 2e actually made Attack of Opportunity a special ability available to only a small fraction of the monsters in the game (and only one player class, the Fighter, gets it for free at 1st level). Aside from just opening up design space for other reactions, when you combine that with 2e’s action economy (three action points) it can make fights much more mobile. The Multiple Attack Penalty also encourages players to not just spend all of their actions attacking - Monks and Swashbucklers with their increased speeds can force an enemy to waste two actions to get back into melee as they need to Stride twice to match what the Monk covered with one action, which is particularly useful if that enemy’s big damage-dealing melee ability costs two actions to use. Exalted, for all three of its editions, has had a Stunt mechanic in where the PC gets bonuses to their roll based on how well they describe it (rule of thumb is that anything more than a basic “I attack with my hook sword” is worth a one-point stunt). EDIT: Ultimately what I’m staying is either ruthlessly pillage ideas from other rulesets, or try out other systems entirely (lord knows there’s enough free ones out there). Might also get some environmental ideas from some video games - Monster Hunter World occasionally has really heavy things hanging in parts of the map that you can dislodge with a shot from a ranged weapon or your wrist-mounted crossbow to drop onto the monster’s head, another has a sinkhole created by another monster you can lure your prey over and they have to then fight both you and the big angry Diablos who made the sinkhole.
When it comes to the "description makes for the outcome of the combat", try checking the Wu-Shu system. Yes, a whole RPG system (particularly good for oneshots) based upon the rules and approaches of Hong-Kong style action movies. Includes mob fights (the more baddies, the weaker, like the famous Kill Bill scene), boss fights, lots of dice and description of the combat is essential. And it's not limited to kung-fu style either: I have played a traditional action sci-fi there (standard "what happened in this damn cosmic station", Doom-like; the Big Boss turned out to be spoiled army ration yoghurt that has gotten sentience and attempted destroying everyone around) as well as a historical fantasy based upon Sapkowski's Hussite Trilogy (but the Apocalypse the Chiliasts expected did happen, complete with a zombie swarm and the Four Horsemen).
This is something dael kingsmil has a few great ideas about too. Honestly, she has tons of great videos and ideas, worth watching through Edit: love this video and the approach to sharing your ideas. Thanks so much! This is such a huge pain point
Really good video for a staring DM as myself! Also: WELL DONE on the whole setup of your narrative. You keep it from your perspective, admit your mistakes and how you learned from them and give great examples! Awesome stuff, really!!
I think one of my favorite combats I have run was when the players faced off against a Beholder (I can't remember his name off the top of my head). They delved into his lair (not knowing it was a beholder lair at first) looking for an ancient relic to help them against the campaign's bbeg. They noticed paintings of eyes and statues of seemingly featureless spheres as they delved deeper into the dungeon. The Beholder used these as a way to activate his regional effects, causing an eyebeam to suddenly burst from a spherical statue or the paintings of eyes seeming to follow their movement, then attack them with an eyebeam when they looked to closely. The Beholder had killed another Beholder that had previously inhabited the dungeon and raised it as a Zombie Beholder, that it placed in a strategic spot to fool any invaders into thinking they were fighting the master of the dungeon. My players fought this zombie beholder who they boss Beholder spoke through using illusion magic. After defeating the zombie beholder the group let their guard down as they went down into the vaults beneath the dungeon, where the real Beholder waited to ambush them. The Beholder's room was 60 feet high, giving the Beholder plenty of room to hover around out of the reach of the melee, and he had designed traps into the ceiling and floors that he could open using his Disintegrate eye beam. The floors had pitfalls covered with slabs of stone that dropped into pits full of zombies that the Beholder had locked away, while the ceiling had huge stones sealed off that the Beholder could drop on the adventurers. As it turned out I may have designed this encounter to well lol. It ended in a near TPK, with only 2 out of 7 PC's left standing at the end of it. The players had burned a lot of their resources previously in the dungeon on minions and the undead beholder, leaving them with not much to fight the boss Beholder with. They managed some revives after the battle, but they definitely felt the power of a truly intelligent and well prepared bad guy!
We were fighting a giant blob monster, similar to a shambling mound in a haunted ass house with culty rituals in the basement. While we were fighting the mound we heard the cries of the families youngest child, a baby, and my Rouge jumped at the mound trying a melee attack. To all of our horror the mound on its turn just, moved forward and swallowed my character. My character having a soft spot for children found that the shambling mound was actually a manifestation from the baby that had died because of the families dark rituals. Opted to hum a lullaby and calm the baby down instead of fighting the mound and laying them to rest. It was honestly such an interesting switch from just fighting everything.
The most memorable combat I've run actually came in two parts. The first part was almost identical to your example at 13:03: room filling with water, aboleth & its minions in the water, PCs need to deal with both threats at once. They managed to open the valves that would cause the water to drain out, and the aboleth-seeing that it was fighting a losing battle-decided to escape down the drain too. Well, the party really wanted this aboleth dead, and they knew the drain went straight to the river, so they hired themselves a boat & went hunting. I let them have a boat outfitted with a ballista: high damage output, but needing 3 separate actions to load, aim & fire. The fighter swam into melee, the druid summoned a flotilla of crocodiles to help out, and the rest of the party stayed on the boat to either make ranged spell attacks or operate the ballista. Final moment: the fighter riding atop a crocodile, using her Battle Master maneouvres to distract the aboleth (mechanically, giving advantage to the next person to attack the aboleth), then desperately shouting "Juniper, take the shot!" as the druid finally fires that ballista... right through the thing's eyeball.
My husband tends to run interesting encounters that are either narratively significant to one or all of us, or challenges one particular player with their skill set and its usually both. We fought a goblin that had the sword of the rogue's dead father that was protecting the space where we needed to get an item (plot relevance for the group, story for one pc) the sword had the ability to teleport the user around the space making it incredibly difficult for our paladin to get close (there's challenging a pc) the goblin once he hit half health ended up getting an entirely different skill set and essentially got a berserker status going toward the biggest damage dealer in a round as a legendary action. He almost killed our wizard but we did it. We ended up having to escape the BBEG who made an appearance afterward and its one of the most tense situations we've ever been in. Adding Legendary actions and resistances is also something to make an encounter unique and memorable!
I’m getting ready to DM for the first time on Monday so I’m doing my best to soak this up like a sponge (or a spoon, as my phone suggested). Thank you for the tips! I’m very nervous-excited!
@@ericwarner2475 figured I’d report back to say the session was so much fun and I had a blast stumbling over all of the ways in which my players threw curveballs I could have never planned for 😆 genuinely can’t wait to do it again!
Here's my guidelines when designing combat encounters : - No fight should feel "random". Every encounter should either create moral dilemas, give your world some depth, include NPCs that your players are familiar with (allies or enemies), forshadow an upcoming storyline, etc... Or multiple of those at once. Give those fights a place in the overall story you want to build. -Try to vary the types of enemies used. Fighting humanoid guards might be fun from time to time, but it gets old fairly quickly. Find creative ways to justify the presence of varied monsters in a way that doesn't feel forced. - Try to vary the underlying objectives. One fight can be about decimating a group of enemies, an other about rescuing a beloved NPC taken hostage, an other can be clearly unbalanced in the bad guys favor and call for an escape, etc... - It's better to think ahead about the strategies that your "bad guys" will use. For instance, if they are a simple group of bandits, they might have a very simple brute force strategy that rely on their number, but if they are a group of trained assassins hired to kill the party, they might be aware of your players abilities and strategies and be prepared to counter them. - Use terrain to your advantage (as said in the video). The way your map is designed and the abilities of the bad guys can create interesting situations that forces your players to come up with solutions on the fly. - Be willing to make some fights optionnal, but not all of them, otherwise your high charisma PC might just turn every combat into a game of diplomacy, which will get boring pretty fast. - Giving your player some adjency to plan their fight feel really rewarding and exciting for them. Do it fairly often if possible, be willing to improvise if things don't go the way you intended at all. - Finally, prepare sessions that forces multiple combats inbetween long rests. I love when the game is mostly about roleplay, with maybe a single fight inbetween long rests, most of my sessions are like this. But D&D's mechanics and balance shine mostly when applied to a multiple combats in a row scenario. It builds tension over time, as your players close the distance with the enemy leader while also slowly depleating their ressources. If you have a table that is mostly about roleplay (like mine), you might be surprised at how much your players will enjoy a good old combat heavy session from time to time, especially if your story heavy sessions gave it some weight. Just make sure to plan for some short rest opportunities between encounters, and also try to make them understand that they are going to take part in multiple combats to not watch them waste all of their ressources on the first one.
All fights are optional, at least you can leg it out. I like random buggery that is just there. You meet a random troll trying to herd fairies. You could help or steal his hand grenade or trick them to go elsewhere. Random buggery creates events and is much less work for me.
@@SusCalvin I use to have the same mentality when designing encounters. Then, one of my players made a swashbuckler Rogue with maxed out charisma, expertise in every social skill, and reliable talent. Because he is also very creative, if given the opportunity, he will succeed the necessary checks to bypass a combat. At first, the rest of the party reacted like "Good job dude ! let's move forward !". After a while however, it devolved into "Wait, you bypassed the combat AGAIN ? We havn't rolled initiative in like... 3 sessions. Do we even have a reason to be here ?". So yeah, I had to make some fights mandatory, or create situations that were way harder to diffuse, requiring more than just a soft tongue. That being said, I guess it depends on your players and the characters they use.
@@trebmal587 We have no social skill in some older games. You convince people by saying something that convinces them. I arbitrate if this convinces people from the goals they got, what you can offer them and sometimes if they think they can take you on right here and now. I need to know roughly what the hobos are pushing on when negotiating. Sometimes the group wants to do things that can't be smooth-talked. They want to break in and steal stuff, they want to sell crack, they want to buy a magic glock on the black market. if all they did was to smooth things out and accede, they would get stepped on. The latvian mob can show up at their place after sniffing out their grow room and detailing what part of the operation they want. The best use for Charisma is to have a personal goon squad who beats up people at your call.
@@trebmal587 We spent a couple sessions preparing a coup. We figured that despite being 50-100 danish, we could not coup a city-state of 60 000. So we set about checking for friends. After that, the violence was a lot easier.
@@SusCalvin Yes obviously you need to have a decent argument, offer or lie to even being able to roll for it, it's not just "Please dont be a meany - roll for it - 27 - I guess it works". How good the underlying reasoning of your roleplay is will also impact the difficulty of the check. But as I said, the player I'm thinking about was really creative, and capable of putting some really convincing speechs or arguments. If it was a one player campaign, I would totaly be okay with letting him turn 90% of the fights into diplomatic negociations. The problem is that I also had three other players that felt they were not contributing nearly as much as they would have liked with their combat focus builds. The thing is, I was the one designing the antagonists to be creatures you can reason with. I was the one who let those doors open when designing the encounter. Even when I designed an encounter without thinking about ways to bypass the fight, my player would still find one, and be so convincing with it (while doing high checks), that I had to give it to him. Nowadays, I specificaly design some encounters to be "diplomatic proof". That being said, there are still fights that can be resolved more or less peacefully, and I let my players find ways to creatively use the NPCs and environment to get an edge on their current or future adventures.
Something I've adopted is rewarding player cooperation. Everything going on in a round is supposedly happening at the same time, so if two of my players decide to work together to do something, I'll have them roll to have their actions essentially lock together, having the success of one assist the success of the other. The most recent example of this was last session: my party had attacked a group of criminals responsible for decimating a small village. Behind the two leaders of the criminals, six henchmen were slowly advancing, round by round, in a bid to surround the party. My brother asked if he could attempt to scare off the henchmen, and I asked him how he planned to do that. He wanted to kill one and use that as leverage to convince the other five to run. My girlfriend spoke up and said she'd help him, giving my brother advantage on what would already be a pretty convincing roll if he succeeded. Here's how it happened. Gripping his greatsword, Razoreye (Half-Elf Fighter) sprinted forward with a cry, executing a blinding midair spin and (Nat 20) decapitating one of the six encroaching thugs. As the criminal's blood sprayed red mist into the night air, Aravir (Elf Cleric) hurled her staff at Razoreye's feet. The staff trembled and grew, stretching into a giant snake that lifted Razoreye into the air. "Get out of here... unless you want to join him!" yelled Razoreye (Intimidation: 18). After glancing at one another, all but one of the thugs fled, leaving their Tiefling and Human leaders to the mercy of the party.
For deciding when enemies should retreat, you could incorporate one thing that most tabletop war games have: a morale breaking point, some value at which, if you roll under it, the enemy unit turns and runs away. You roll a D6 per remaining soldier, so as you lose troops it gets harder and harder to roll over that breaking point (of course, this works best in those wargames, since you have 20-30 soldiers grouped up to roll at a time). Before combat, you could decide how mentally-tough your enemy is (a goblin patrol of fresh recruits would have a pretty high failure point, whereas battle-hardened dwarven soldiers a fairly low one, for example) and make part of your DM round rolling a gut-check before going back to the top of the initiative. It might even make for some interesting story points; if you roll a bunch of 1s and your enemies turn and run immediately after just one round of combat, why? Did they expect easy pickings but weren't ready for a real fight? Why did they expect to win easily, were they sent after the players by someone else? Conversely if you keep rolling a 6 and that last enemy refuses to run, did the PCs kill her brother? Is she honor-bound to die on her feet, sword in hand? Just some ideas.
AD&D actually had this mechanic, or at least, morale stats, as well as tables for how wandering monsters were likely to react to an adventuring party (flee? attack on site? negotiate? stop if food or coin was dropped, or pursue? continue pursuing once round a corner or out of sight?). I try to incorporate some of this stuff into adventures, mostly to avoid the "one encounter per rest" issue.
This was in earlier versions of D&D. Usually I simply check when the enemies are down to half their number (or less if they have less invested interest in the battle). Roll any die: Greater than 50% result = stick for one more round, otherwise Bugg Out.
I generally go by remaining HP instead of adding another mechanic. If the monster is at half health, it'll look to retreat in the "smartest" way it knows how (low INT (3-7) NPCs will dash, middling (8-11) INT will Dodge and back away, and smart or seasoned enemies will Disengage and fall back. If there's a group of enemies, the healthier ones will cover for the injured, and if a significant number of the group are dead or retreating, the remainder will break ranks or surrender. My general assumption is that most creatures want to survive the encounter, so if the odds aren't in their favor after 50% of their health is depleted, the fight is no longer worth the effort.
@@j_hafe. Yes, I remember that well. Started gaming in the 80s with the red box basic D+D and every creature had a moral number as part of its stat blog. Not sure why they dropped it, I always found it worked quite well.
Yeah, instead of the older D&D Morale checks on 2d6, I currently roll a WISDOM check on my encounters, with a DC reflecting the situation (usually around DC 12, modified up to 14-15 or even 17-18 if things get really bad / confusing for the creature): is this 'monster' smart enough to do what's good for it, or is it too dumb / scared / enraged to actually plan according to the situation ? This works both ways, because it can decide whether or not an enemy will flee, but also charge into a dangerous position, take an AoO, ignore a spell caster, 'remember' to use a lethal ability etc.
A tactic I like to use is starting one players turn by describing what happened on anothers eg how the bad guy reacted to the other players attack from their perspective instead of the attacker. I found it adds realism, cuts down on questions about what’s happening and if the player knows their character is paying attention they usually do too
My character literally once used the very element that there was an underground tunnel with a lot of crates at it's entrance. So she suggested to the party that they mine the tunnel with caltrops, ball bearings, and oil while using the crates for cover. The result was devastating for the attacking goblinoids. Backstory wise it also really makes sense for her since her Girlfriend is a Gloomstalker who could very well have talked her full for hours with tactics and strategy to the point she can count it backwards in Celestial during trance. The DM didnt expect me using all that elements but it certainly made it quite fun to watch all the goblinoids and worgs being stopped right in their tracks.
Gargoyles that were defending a certain tomb had found themselves at odds with an aarakocra village nearby. The party, not knowing anything about either parties, entered the gargoyles territory. So, after a lengthy battle while they were scaling a steep cliff side, a member of the party was rendered unconscious and the rest of the party, except for the rogue who was dodging in and out of cover to take pot shots, was pretty worn out and near unconsciousness/death. Until a passing patrol of aarakocra showed up and began assisting the party and eventually killed most of the gargoyles. I had it though that the aarakocra, skeptical of the party, took the weakened party prisoner, minus the rogue and an NPC who trailed behind them just in case. It’s still one of my favorite encounters, although I did fudge some roles to avoid a TPK since most players were pretty invested and we weren’t too late game.
Best combat I’ve been in was in late 2019, playing the Out of the Abyss module. We were escaping from a drow encampment and had to not only free ourselves from our bonds, but also flee across a rope bridge to safety. The party cleric (light domain) was the last one across and cast fireball on the bridge after she got to the other side, killing about ten soldiers and winning us the fight. Honourable mention goes to another fight in that campaign where the rogue jumped onto a beholder.
Something I found useful was reading "the monsters know what they are doing" and always treating monsters as if they wanted to actually survive (or if they don't want to survive in some situations)
This is fantastic advice. Thank you so much. I often find myself falling for the trap of worrying too much that I've made encounters too hard for my players and I've found the more I just sort of go with it, the more fun everyone (generally) has.
I've been teaching ESL for some time, and I've been using RPG as a methodology for conversation classes for close to 2 years now. One of the things I use as a core rule is that RPG stands for ROLE PLAYING game. Even monkeys can throw dice around and make sounds, but HOW something happens in a game is more important than WHAT happens. Brandon Sanderson mentioned it in one of his classes: you can tell anyone an entire book in a single sentence, but then you wouldn't have much of a story. I love your insights ❤️
Best tip I’ve had was the “action oriented design” from Matt Colville. That way both decreases the huge amount of choices to be made and it helps put in some story elements during prep time when there’s less pressure.
I've mentioned this on a few videos, but I will always preach it to help out other like-minded DMs. One of the things I started doing was I stopped making maps, and by that I mean dungeon and city maps. It became so overwhelming for me to create an entire map for a specific dungeon or city and then have to find excuses, reasons or tangible examples for where things are when my players ask or mention something I never considered like a bathroom or "If this is the Spider Ranch, where do they keep the spider food?" Not to mention in addition to all this, I would design my key encounter rooms in such a barebones fashion they'd become uneventful. Now I design maps exclusively for combat, save for a world map. It lets me put all my time and creative juices to make sure the encounter design is dynamic and has enough elements to feel fun in my eyes. I had a party recently fight in the middle of a large farming field which did allow them to chase and mow the bad guys down but when one of them used Dragon's Breath and caught a large portion of the crops on fire, there was suddenly this obstacle in this big open space the party not only had to avoid, but could also utilize and were also freaking out over because "we can't let this fire get out of hand!"
You hit the nail on the head, combat maps are most of what makes a good combat. It can be what determines the outcome sometimes even more than the dice. If you're a new dm you can start with simple maps and as you learn how to make better and better maps it'll seem like the higher the levels your players get, the sense of scale and stakes really raise. 10/10 video.
Fighting a blue dracolich after casting "fly" on the whole group was lots of fun. A few time had to use my reaction for "feather fall," cast "fly" again and continue.
I highly recommend the book, "The Monsters Know What They're Doing". I FEEL ALL OF THIS ON SO MANY LEVELS. I'm running an accelerated campaign at the moment that's all big boss fights, so trying to keep things interesting is a serious challenge. The next encounter I'm trying out an elemental emissary with immunity to most damage, a fire aura, and a charging attack that moves through player spaces while leaving fire behind. I have copies of my players' character sheets to do trial runs of encounters for all of these reasons.
I recommend avoiding a pitfall of DMing, the enemy's masterfully set up the entire arena to their advantage. On occasion that's fine. Too much and it leads to questions of why every encounter is like a video game where the AI can do whatever it wants while the human can't. So sometimes the hazard is something that just happens and it might help or hurt. I once took the Alders Blood setting and used it for a game, at a logging site the logs were knocked around during a storm, and everyone on either side had to regularly make checks. Also, ambushes can be very fun for parties used to attacking static positions or getting attacked. I also would say that, based on personal preference and experience, I'd recommend at least 10-15 seconds to do something. Besides avoiding panicking someone, their character might know how to flawlessly decapitate a lizardman, but the player hasn't spent the years training it to be second nature. Alternate example, Forcecage might only extend up to a certain point when you cast it, but the player needs to know what that point is. And yeah, they should try to keep track of their abilities, but memorizing the details of every cantrip up to 7th level on top of remembering the campaign, their companions, and their enemies is a lot.
I know I’m late but this was an encounter I was proud of. Spring of 2020, a couple of people were missing for our regular game so I decided to take the remaining three people and try to make a quick one shot with a stat block I quickly found online. What ensued was an hour and a half of slow burning tension as I painted a situation where our party members are investigating the disappearances of several farmer’s daughters culminating to a meeting with our big bad-but they only knew him as another lead. Interviewing him and using invisibility to look through his shack uncovered clues that the man was not just killing his victims but eating them too. Bloody knife was found in the middle of a fridge filled with rib cages that were approximated to belong to young women and my players were full to bursting with tension. When they were arguing on what to do next, one suggested they call him out for it to which I had him respond “Just do it.” They fought “Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf” with such fervor and fear. It terrified them that his body was not found when they left to further explore the shack and one of my players complained to me that she did not sleep well. “Give them a why” at its finest. He wants to eat you.
The best combat I ever ran was when the party was sent to investigate a town which the local king hadn't heard from in months, and the people he sent to check out what was happening there didn't return. The party was sent in to scout out the area but ended up going down to the dungeon where a caster was transforming the locals into gnolls. The fight was tense and the PC's were close to going down and when the bad guy was hurt he used misty step to escape. The bloodhunter charges after the villain but can't keep up so the sorcerer attacks just as the villain is leaving his range, and manages to hit and kill the bad guy. Having your villains attempt to escape when the party looks to overpower them isn't just great for making combat more tense but it can also create a recurring antagonist which is a lot more fun for the players, and it gives you as the DM a new NPC to have some fun with!
One simple method I've found for making combat more interesting is the use of 'confounding factors', which is anything that makes the job of the players more difficult and can draw their attention away from the combat itself. This could include hazards on the battlefield (such as lava or a spike trap), unfavorable terrain (swamp, darkness, any place where the monster has a natural advantage), NPCs that need saving/protecting, puzzles or tricks that the players have to work around, Maybe a moral dilemma, a hidden threat such as nearby guards that they don't want to alert or the sense that something else is creeping up from behind them, or just something chaotic such as a shelf of unknown potions. I've found that the more of these confounding factors are included the more interesting the combat becomes and the more fun it is to DM or play in because they allow for alternatives to straightforward combat that the players or NPCs can utilize to their advantage.
There are a few combats that stand out in my mind! One near the beginning of our campaign. We had to find a wild flower for a potion ingredient, and when we found it and plucked it, it aggravated this Forest Guardian. I was playing a Druid and was against hurting the creature, so we just kept running away, as it followed us. I was doing some investigating and realized the distressed fragrance from the flower was what was aggrieved the guardian. We allowed it to approach us, and it used magic to heal the flower. And instead of plucking the flower we dug it up from the roots and transplanted it in a pot and took the whole plant with us. It was a fun encounter with no violence! Another combat was in a different campaign. He had infiltrated this cult hideout and found they were torturing this Pheonix creature. We released it just as the cults members caught up with us. It was angry and was destroying the tower while the cultists were trying to kill us. There were multiple levels and rooms the encounter went through, a lot was happening and there was a lot to interact with. I was a Warlock in that campaign and during the encounter the DM had my Patron request I leave the tower with a specific item, so I also had to focus on that. There was a lot going on! It was really fun!
I love that you finagled a ‘no violence’ resolution to that encounter! I love combat, both running and playing, but having that option sometimes makes the game world feel more real.
Adding monsters in waves turned out to be super effective for me. This way I can control and scale the difficulty on the one hand and give a sense of time pressure on the other. Also, having ranged enemies distributed in a large area can be a huge challange.
Others have probably mentioned this, but a random D4 roll as a timer for something significant happening is a great way to increase tension. D4 rounds before enemy reinforcements, D4 rounds before the room is flooded with lava, the prisoner is sacrificed, or the monster breaks its mystic chains, and teleports away. It increases the urgency, and players really feel it when that timer goes down every round. Thanks for the video!
I was just thinking about this during our last session and these are great tips! I do need to work on finding more ways to describe how the attack is hitting the opponent without using the same lines every time.
I found out about your channel just this week, and your videos are helping me so much! I love them!! And then i get this feeling that i could make my combat sections better, and then, BOOM there is this new video talking exactly about that! Such coincidence! (P.S i will be GM'ing my first FOR REAL AND SERIOUS dnd campaign and i want it to be the best i can, and wow your videos are helping me so much! Thank you for that!)
1) Can you use the prepare action to dodge? I could see intelligent enemies (or even wolves) just staying in formation and snarling, and as soon as an adventurer charges in, whoever is targeted uses their prepared action reaction to go full defense and give disadvantage, and the other to attack. Next round, they either do the same thing or both attack. That means the adventurer has 3 blows coming his way before he's likely to land an attack, adding some spice to the encounter. 2) Have intelligent monsters perform a phalanx. Two rows of polearms. First row all use their action to dodge, and get an attack of opportunity on anyone who tries to come to melee range. Second row all use the prepare action then use their reaction to attack whoever comes within range. If the barbarian charges in, he's got literally up to 10 attacks hitting him before he can roll a dice. 3) Other idea, use grapple and shove. If the enemies don't deal that much damage but outnumber, they can use their action economy to trade in attacks for attempts at grappling and tripping one adventurer to the ground and crowd him. "The time where the barbarian got jumped by six goblins" sounds like a more threatening and memorable encounter than just trading blows. 4) If the movement of the enemy is more than 30 feet, like, for instance, wolves, they can stay 35 feet away from the party and circle them menacingly instead of straight up attacking. Whichever adventurer tries to rush the wolves first can't attack until next round and will get 3-5 wolf bites with advantage and a chance to get pulled to the ground, OR will waste two turns running towards the wolves and back to his party while the wolves go for the squishies in the back. 5) Monsters can use their spells creatively instead of just to deal damage. 6) Monsters can use the defend action around their squishies, ranged and and casters too, forcing adventurers to deal with the disadvantage. 7) Flying creatures
a couple months late to this, but to answer: 1) no. most tabletop systems require you to specify what action you're taking and what triggers it, when you take a 'prepare' action. this is the case for D&D 5e, PF, GURPS, ironclaw, lancer, and many more systems. you could still pull that off if you have a good read on who your players will target, but there's a level of metagaming involved in that which i'm not comfortable with - especially concerning whether there's any narrative difference in taking the dodge action versus readying the dodge action, if you're concealing details about the ready action. 2) is smart tactics, though the first row isn't likely to get their AoO depending on the system; 5e only allows an AoO when an enemy moves out of your reach, not if they move into reach. 3.5e and PF allow an AoO when you leave any threatened square. also i'm not sure many combats involve enough monsters to do this. 3) this works. action economy do be terrifying. party mage is very likely to hit it with an area-effect spell though 4) i can't say i'm comfortable with the idea of having enemies stay just beyond the statistical edge of the players' movement ranges - that's plain metagaming - but forcing a player to move in to attack first is smart in any case. 5 & 6) yeah. 7) just be wary with flying, so you aren't turning it into a battle where the martials just have to set down their weapons and idle until the enemies get into range. though, most martials should be packing some ranged option anyway.
The coolest battle encounter I ever had was with the best dm I ever had. There was only me and one other player. The dm had this whole multiverse campaign with lots of weird magic and gods. Basically, one of the gods we were working with gave us the ability to *become* a boss. We grew huge tentacles/claws, and had cool abilities. We had to defeat a large group of enemies with all these new powers. I still think about that all these years later.
I would highly recommand the book by Keith Ammann "The monsters knows what they're doing", where he goes over most creatures from the Monster Manual and present a way they would figjt based on their skills, weaknesses and stats. For example, Ammann describe how goblins, being squishy but having decent dexterity, would basically keep a distance, surround an enemy and pin them down with arrows or javelins, staying in cover or in hiding the whole time. Fighting goblins that stick to the shadows and retreat everytime you try to get closer while shooting from all sides is much more interesting -and challenging- than the classical goblin swarm
This video is literally incredible thank you so much, this has really opened my eyes and pushed me to finally DM the campign that i always wanted as a player
So last night I ran my first game as a DM, and it’s the only game I’ve ever been directly involved with too! I had 4 players with level 1 characters and I sent a level 5 Cleric with them (they didn’t know his level, but he casually covered an amount of gold the group as a whole was having a hard time covering and for his stealth/survival roles he rolled by far the highest in the group, so they could tell he was above their level. Once combat started he healed the Fighter from like 3 HP to max while the fighter was in range of 3 baddies, then the next turn he casually knocked one flanking enemy to like 1/4 health, and finally he charged up to one of the baddies who just severely injured an ally and used 2nd level Inflict Wounds (which I flavored as _He charges up after seeing his allies in danger, lays a single finger on the duegar, and it explodes_). Pretty op right? That’s when they realized he was _at least_ 5th level, and I kinda sensed a slight tension from the realization that he was so much higher than they were. Annnnnnd then the duegar who’d been spending his dash action for like 4 rounds getting into combat ran him through with his pike, instantly downing him and nearly outright killing him (I gave him a constitution of 3 so he had 8 HP). Of course, the duegar is surrounded by the party now, _but they miss all but 1 hit_ so he takes the hits and finishes off the poor cleric on the ground, who’d already failed 1 death save. The whole discord chat went silent for a second or two when they realized they’d just lost their dedicated healer (who also could deal more damage in a single spell than anyone else). I, forgetting Clerics use holy symbols and need backstory, improve’d what they found on his body after combat- 200 gold, spell materials, and a gilded leaf- a symbol of his religious order- which represented how not only is there value in life, but life itself is value, and should be protected. He’d come to Icewind Dale after hearing of the unending winter, and went up to use his wealth and power to help those in need (which is also why this high level cleric decided to go along with a bunch of level 1 dudes). Now the party has a martyr, they see the need for a healer (because the second combat they went into was wayyyy more difficult without 1), and it showed them that characters can and will die if that’s how the dice roll. I was _GLOWING_ afterwords when one of the players stayed in VC for a bit to chat and talked about how it’s great he died because (he basically said all of the same things I’d hoped would happen from it)! And he also said, “yeah cause he’s part of the module, right?” My homebrew, OP DMPC made specifically to die felt so natural to them he figured it was part of an official module!
I would also add to the 'put the pressure on' part: do not forget to relieve the pressure occasionally. If players nearly die every combat it will get exhausting. Also if literally everything in your world is a deadly threat to the heroes of that world, well they don't really feel like powerful heroes. There are 4 tiers of difficulty of combat encounters for a reason. Sometimes you should let your players absolutely destroy your opponents with nearly no threat to the group. Usually works best with comedic elements.
My recent campaign's most memorable fight started with another memorable fight. While escaping from a city through old abandoned thieves' tunnels being guided by their favorite NPC, the party set off a trap left behind by said thieves. The trap sealed the room and collapsed two walls, behind which were a mummy and a vampire. The mummy was fairly easy for them to dispatch, but the vampire had been trapped there for almost a century and was out of its mind with bloodlust, and it was beyond their abilities. They still managed to get it down to a third of its hit points, at which time it realized it wasn't getting the easy meal it desperately needed and misted out of there. The party found the vampire in the next town in much better spirits, fed and situated among some charmed nobles. After exchanging threats they agreed to leave each other alone, mostly because the party was still barely a match for it. They stayed long enough for them and their NPC to get into trouble and left in a hurry, leaving instructions for the NPC to come find them. A few sessions later the NPC finally did show up, and the reunion was terrific, until the NPC revealed he was killed by the vampire before they had even left town and was one himself now. And then the vampire showed up and it was a brutal grudge match against their former friend and the vampire who turned him, and that was one hell of a fight.
Best fight our DM has run: D&D wrestling! We were medieval/fantasy fighting slaves on an arena doing non-lethal show fighting as practice for death games. After we struck down some opponents, the DM introduced a super experienced gladiator opponent. After the first blows he threw his weapon and was like "come at me". So my character dropped his weapons and went into a fist fight. My friend grabbed a barrel and stuck it on the gladiator's head. And so on, we were suddenly thinking about "what makes this fun for the people in the audience?" rather than "how do we win most effectively?". This was a really good move by the DM as it opened new perspectives for our combats. It was a great practical reminder that the fighting could/should be fun, not just about who wins. You can "dance" better with your opponent with that mindset. Thx for the great videos, keep it up!
I'm just trying to get into DnD now after watching channels like this for years, and what really surprised me what how combat-centric it is. The fact that there isn't really a specific method for gaining XP doing anything else really surprised me. To be clear, as a gamer I identify as an explorer, which means to me combat isn't content, it's what gets between me and the content. I want there to be just enough of it to spice up the setting, like of course there's a troll in this old cave (but not two or three, see?). My least favorite things in any fantasy setting is dungeon crawling and fighting, so I'm just happy there are alternative ways to gain XP nowadays, give me a two week trek through the woods to deliver some mysterious package to a reclusive noble in his mountain estate with big curtains and no mirrors and hey that's a vampire!
DnD and other similar editions are primarily based around combat. Roughly 80% of the rule set is based in combat, and you'll find the role play and exploration, and skill side of the game to be pretty lacking. It's basically assumed that you'll be narrating out most exploration and role play encounters with a few d20 rolls thrown in at DM fiat. I wonder if there are other systems that might have more developed mechanics for that kind of stuff in the way that combat is very highly developed in DnD and similar games.
One thing to keep in mind is that DMs should generally award XP for non-combat 'encounters' they put together. As a DM, I typically keep track of tasks/quests/interactions and other non-combat encounters that the PCs complete (of their own design or at the request of someone else), then I assign an XP value similar to a combat encounter. This helps ensure they are rewarded for things that aren't just hack 'n slash.
@@lordofdorknessdm3085 That's true. I think I'm more comfortable with having that responsibility now, but I would still prefer if there was a clear DC to XP gained ratio or something like it. Then again if there was I'd probably end up ignoring it half the time anyway.
I am a DM, and my favourite "battle" encounter was actually without enemies. It was a trial, and players had to climb to the top of a mountain and enter the portal. I had a map of a summit, with interesting elements like mammoth's skull, rocks, chasms, and mysterious monuments. The twist was that the portal was inactive. To activate it players had to read riddles from monuments and answer it correctly, but one monument was hidden, so they needed to found it. To spice things up, with each round magical/environmental effects intensified, like ice storms, pillars of ice shooting from the ground etc. I prepared a battle encounter with map, grids and initiative, with puzzels to solve, timer set by players HP and endurance, and without real enemy and I think it's the best I created so far.
Hi Ginny, I've been a DM for 17 years now and to respond to your last question: "which was the most memorable encounter you have ever played'", I'd say the one in which I didn't follow the rules at every step. At a certain point a character was about to die and the player asked me if he could throw a curse before dying, and the circumstance was so perfect that I let him live, cursed by his own evil god, and continue the fight rather than die because his HP was below -10 (it was d&d 3.5 back then); briefly he summoned a giant zombie whale over the head of the enemy angel flying above him and it died right away crushed by the giant evocation. Sorry for the long comment, but my point and advice if you'd like to hear one (yours were good ones indeed), is this: don't stick too much to the rules and let the players put some more creativity. Good luck with you games!
One of the easiest ways I have been able to keep players thinking is keep the monsters/baddies moving. Your "stuff" tip is my favorite. When the DM-controlled baddies are using the environment, swiping wine glasses off tables at player's faces, kicking up dirt, flinging chairs, or just trying to run away, the players are more keen to do the same. I am fortunate to play with some very creative people, too, though, which also goes a long way.
People can move without fearing attacks of opportunity if not every ennemy is an unkillable tank. Anyways combat is all about balance and its not always easy to pull off. Making it fun is also about narrating actions players take, especially if they don't do it themselves it adds the whompf.
In my experience it's less that players FEAR attacks of opportunity, and more that it's not worth it to risk taking one when there's no real benefit to moving around, anyway! It basically makes it so that players will only move if they can't attack from where they are.
The Monster Know What They're Doing by Kieth Ammonn is Amazingly good for this. It goes over a lot of common creatures and gives you information on how they would behave and fight.
This is super helpful! Recently I played a quick one shot with a single player, and by luring all the zombies into a tunnel, he could fight them one at a time. It was a smart strategy, but it devolved into "you hit dealing _ damage, the zombie misses, you hit again" and it was super boring. By asking and applying these questions, I can make my combat more interesting! Thanks!
""Give bad guys a "why"" is exactly what I did when I rewrote a first edition module. Lot's of monsters in a keep and it didn't make sense they hadn't seen or interacted with each other and it also didn't make sense that some of the monsters were there in that space. It was supposed to be a mix of humans and goblins, spiders, beetles, and wolves. I hated it. Even in the basement, there was a doppleganger, some barbarians, a couple mischief making gnome types, etc. It was a chaotic mess and felt like a first level "open the door and fight" hack-and-slash dungeon. I rearranged some things, added some things, changed the last room (a sort of dug out cavern with several smaller chambers), altered the whole premise and made things interconnected as to why they were there. Overall I like the stories I created from my alterations rather than the mish-mash the original developers left me to try and muddle through.
I think the best combat I've ever run is when the players had to do a fighting retreat through a goblin town they were investigating. Suddenly as they're exploring a goblin drums sounds from the nearby forest and a goblin warparty appears. At first the warparty is curious. They were supposed to join up with another tribe, but as darkness fall they start to send scouts into the village. This has given the players some time to prepare, but as more and more goblins amass at the forest's edge it becomes clear that this is not a fight they can win. But it's also clear that they have to bloody the nose of this goblin party or they'll be cut down. So it turns into hit&run fight in the narrow streets. They've dug and hid traps in the muddy streets, but as the fight develops the agile goblins start to climb the buildings. The ranger tries to hold them back but can't really stem the tide. At the same time the rest of the party does not have the climbing skills or agility to fight on the rooftops themselves. So it's a constant retreat, with the pace of the fight rotating between stand&hold (because the goblins in the streets are no match for the party's beefy fighters) and retreating as the goblins take up tactically advantageous positons above them (raining down javelins and arrows). At the same time the rooftop goblins can't keep pace with the retreating party, because while the ranger has boots of spiderclimb and effortlessly moves from roof to roof the goblins are not fast or agile enough to do the same. All the while the spellcasters try to support the party at important moments (like when have to turn and run) by the low level spells&wands they have available (a wand of grease with 5 charges was the MVP of the fight). My tips for GM's that want to make their fights more interesting. 1. Read Tucker's kobolds, aka "How do you turn the most pathetic enemy into the most lethal fight". That should give you plenty of ideas on how social enemies fight on their own turf. 2. Give enemies interesting abilities. Are your enemies fairly mediocre in melee but have good agility? Give them oil flasks or other relatively weak area of effect attacks, especially if they deal damage over time to give their melee fighters the advantage in a static fight. Or include monsters with the ability to break up formations. Any sort of "big guy" (everything from a minotaur to a troll or a Gnoll berserker) should for example be able to bullrush and throw the fighters to the left and right if they try to "shield wall". The situation should always be that the adventurers have to be dynamic, because either a static fight shouldn't be to their advantage (because that's the enemy plan) or it should be difficult (because the enemy has the tools to disrupt that plan). 3. Make the terrain interesting. My goblin town is just one example of an environment where any positional advantage is fleeting and only lasts as long as it takes for the enemy to flank. 4. Intelligent monsters retreat when they don't think they can win a fight unless they've been forced into a desperate situation. Any survivors will either flee completely or reinforce a future encounter.
There are 3 points that make combat interesting: Time, Hinderance, and Damage. So for instance Important NPC (X) Dies in 2 rounds, Webs create difficult terrain, & spiders poison, medium damage. Oh and a swarm of spiders encroaches that spells certain doom in 4 rounds. Very simple example. All my encounters have these 3 points in varying intensities. Beyond this you can make things more flavorful like you suggest but these 3 components are the core.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, actually!! I'm really curious how many people don't allow flanking advantage in their games, because it does feel like by far the rule that creates the most predictable and boring combat movement.
Flanking as written in 5e is one of those rules that seems like a good idea on paper, but brings a whole host of problems due to the fact that creatures really shouldn't be given advantage on attacks as easily as the rule permits.
I use a homebrew rule I call "cornered". If an opponent is blocked from four sides (cardinal or intercardinal directions on a square map) by enemies or terrain, the attacker has advantage on melee attacks. Because the party rarely has four melee attackers they need to use the enviorment to corner enemies. This makes my players do clever stuff like use the push action or set up ambushes in corridors and generally pay more attention to the combat. It also makes the squishy players take risks and go up to melee range to corner an enemy. Enemies can also corner players and that is a great source of tension durning exploration
@@GinnyDi I have never used flanking as a DM, I never played in a game with flanking and only 1 of the 6 shows I watch uses it 🤔 It’s an optional rule that seems like it was made for wargaming fans. It should really not be expected as the norm imo
Great video! The best battle I ever had started in a dark forest with a bolt coming from the shadows at the players, followed by a fireball spell in the center of their formation. The barbarian rushed in the direction of the bolt and the Bard followed close behind. A centaur came from the shadows and grappled the socerer, took them to a nearby creek, and held their head underwater until the party surrendered. Turns out the bounty they were hunting were good guys after all, and not ones to be messed with. They joined forced to kill the evil guy who put the price on their heads.
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One of my buddies ran a labyrinth that was all chess themed. The enemies were chess pieces and it ended with a fight against a whole chess set. The chess pieces had advantage on attacks when you were in the chess pieces hit box (eg. positioned diagonally from a bishop) and the players received advantage when positioned in a pieces blind spot (eg. Diagonally from a rook) this helped make positioning and movement a lot more fun during the fight as we had to move often to avoid attacks.
What a fun and clever idea, I feel it may not fit in any game, but for a one shot or a homebrew, yes!
@@AnaMahsati ooh, or like a puzzle-based dungeon if in larger campaign....🧐
Wow nice
That's super cool!
I read chess as cheese and was disappointed when I corrected myself.
I saw the section “Recap” as “Redcap” and thought “Yes, A dozen redcaps *would* make combat more interesting!” 😅
Havent even watched the vid yet, but omg did I love this comment, and will now laugh when it comes up 🤣
i know what i'm doing next time i need to run combat.
BLOOD FOR THE BLOODY FEY GOD!
It most certainly would
One of the best combat encounters I ever ran featured redcaps. Players were wandering through the Feywild, in a dense forest which limited visibility and ranged attacks. Then, they're ambushed by half a dozen Redcaps and just as many Quicklings.
Now, my players were 10th level at the time, and those enemies are CR 3 and 1. Shouldn't have been a problem. But when the Redcaps run screaming out of the bushes and immediately kick them in the shins, knocking them down, and grappling them to the ground so that one of the others can slice their chest and rub its hat in the wound, then the quicklings can run in from 60 feet away, stab them, and disappear back into the forest without a trace, this single encounter nearly took down a group that hunted adult dragons for a living. They had to work to survive this one. To this day, one of the most memorable encounters for both me and the players.
My DM ran a “combat” encounter for us last week that the whole group found really interesting.
The set up included a huge forest fire, nearby a location that we had already bookmarked and had interest in going to. Turns out the fire had something to do with an ex party member that betrayed the group a few months back so the personal vendetta was there. Turns out that the source of the fire was a Phoenix Soul Sorcerer that has lost control and was consuming everything around her.
We ended up in a combat with her but rather than “stab it till it stops” we proceeded grappling and restraining her whilst we offered her moral support in her own internal battle, rolling persuasion checks rather than to hit and eventually she managed to control the power, almost consuming herself and us in the process.
Just a really interesting take on the standard combat.
That's so sweet 😭 I have to steal that!
@@jokhard8137 it really was! Let me know how you get on!
We may have talked the young Dragon down in our session yesterday instead of fighting it like we were supposed to. Our DM had been concerned that we wouldn't survive and when our dragon born decided to talk to it instead of attack and rolled a nat 20 on persuasion, it ended up with the dragon agreeing to go back with the kobolds as long as they agreed to worship it as it wanted rather than letting them keep it in a cage.
This gives me very Xmen fighting Phoenix lol
@@amysewell7175 We had a similar situation in one of my games a few months ago. Our DM expected us to attack this young dragon and instead we talked with it, bargained with it, bribed it, and eventually befriended it. The dragon gave us a token that we could use to call on it in time of need, if we got into trouble too big for us to handle. She was completely not prepared for it, but handled it beautifully!
This presentation style of the "I am teaching myself, maybe you can pickup some things too" is very engaging and insightful and approachable. High quality content, good job!
I completely agree. I've been binging her videos since I discovered her last week!!
The energy and atmosphere of her videos draws me in and even makes me want to watch things outside of her DnD content, like the cosplaying video, haha!
Remember - an easy, and almost always pertinent "other thing" enemies can do, especially if the fight is going well for the PC's, is to run for reinforcements. It is a general truism that the primary purpose of guards is to raise the alarm. After a few incidents of chuckling about a screaming goblin dashing off down the corridor only to have half the dungeon fall down on them five minutes later, the PC's should get the message and start thinking about interception, escape points, even the noise they make.
Don't just do this with wandering monsters - intelligent guards are there to defend what they are guarding, not fail to do so by dying. Make it purposeful.
You look at the map to see who is nearby. Sometimes the goons have a plan. We had three mutants around a table arm-wrestling. One had a signal device since they are on guard duty. By tooting it they could rouse others. Loud stuff like a fight can create a random encounter roll.
I decided that the shrooms of a cave would cover their retreat. If a fight with invaders went badly, two or three big guardians would sacrifice themselves to delay.
I think WAY more baddies should have a "retreat" tactic. Obviously a baddie with a vengeance, or an undead or other mindless beast would not usually bail on a fight. But wild wolves will absolutely cut and run from an unnecessary fight. Seems nice to have a reward even if you do not slaughter all the monsters!
Highly, highly recommend the book “The Monsters Know What They’re Doing” by Keith Ammann, if you’re struggling with the “why” of your monsters! It’s an intricate tour through the Monster Manual with things like how to use their innate spells and special abilities, when to retreat or flee, or how their stat block is a key to their tactics. It’s totally changed which monsters I use and when, and how to make a band of goblins one of the most interesting fights you can have, rather than a blasé default.
Yes. Been reading his blog but finally ordered. Is it really 500+ pages
@@doms.6701 Yessir, 535 pages of combat tactics.
Hell yeah, if a monster has an int of at least like 5 or 6 then they can make plans!
It's a really good book. I use it all the time!
Thanks! I just put books 1 & 2 in my Prime cart. There are three books; the third's a little to steep for me now. Thanks for the heads up.
But here's a question for you, how do you run a party of goblins? I'm always looking to have my goblins be as threatening as possible.
You can always trust Ginny Di videos for 2 things, good D&D content and good lipstick choices.
Yep, I was searching for this. The comment I fully agree with. I'm on myself, yet I got TPK'd here. Those deadly amazing lips...
you forgot to add the awesome ads =D
Best combat I've ever played in: mimic door
My DM had set up a room that included 3 doors, the door from which we came in, a door om the other side up some stairs, and a big ass massive door behind some water with stepping stones to draw everyone's attention (this already fucked up our positioning, as suddenly we had a rogue, wizard and druid looking at the door, with our paladin, cleric, sorcerer and bard in the back). Turns our, the door is one very massive mimmic. With the rogue firing arrows into the monstrosity, while the wizard is being swallowed whole, and I (the druid) am pushed to the side, trying to use gust of wind to close the door (its been established that in the DM's world a mimmic can be defeated by forcing it to close), and our warriors struggling to keep up. Then suddenly we hear a massive *BUUUUUURRRRRP* as the mimic regurtitates an UMBER HULK to fight our warriors in the back, I fall back to help our warriors and fail the hypnosis twice in a row. As we struggle, we hear another *BUUUUURRRRRP* as the mimic spews out a WRAITH that starts to attack my squishy druid and the bard. After some struggle, the umber hulk dies trough the use of a spiritual weapon, a snow storm (I had been waiting for years to use that spell), and a crit on a smite. The wizard and rogue are struggling to continue fighting the mimic which is grappling everyone with its tongues, while I in a bear form (I'm very much not a wildshape druid but I was outta spell slots). We hear a final *BUUUUUUURRRRP* as three kobolds fly toward the back of the room, who I manage to paralyze with a hold person spell. With a final group effort, the mimic falls and we interrogate the kobolds. It was hectic, chaotic, and challenging
I am absolutely stealing this idea. I had idea about a mimic door that would ask 3 riddles, the first 2 are easy the last 1 impossible and all of a sudden this door is eating the entire party. Going to incorporate this right here.
Holy hulking harpies, I am sooo stealing this encounter ;) Thanks for sharing, this is amazing!
thanks for your story. i am at the moment to build an group for cthulhu and i will definitive steal your DM establishment with a mimic can be defeated by a forced closing.
Not quite as epic, but definitely one of my favourite "hah, gotcha" moments was mimic rowboat, "abandoned" in a bayeux type area. When one of the PCs hopped in the boat to look for the oars which weren't visible from the outside, he got munched from below as the boat folded in half into a maw.
This is a great idea, but, burping up a WRAITH? That's a little much.
Hilariously, one of the most memorable combats I ever had was just 'me sitting and shooting over and over'.
This was 3.5. We were a monstrous party--a mind flayer and his minions, a dragon, a half-spirit bard, and me, the drow cleric archer. We were in some layer of the abyss fighting demons or giants or giant demons. The point is, they were big, they had lots of arms, and they had managed to get into melee with us.
Now, in 3.5, you provoked an opportunity attack every time you fired a bow in melee range. I was in melee range of one of the giants, but I really needed to kill it, so I figured 'I'll just take the attack of opportunity, be done with it, and then fire the rest of my attacks. I'm at full life, how bad can it be?' Monsters without a feat called Combat Reflexes only had one opportunity attack per turn, after all.
I fire. I get smacked back. It hurts, but I fire again. I get smacked back *again*.
Now combat reflexes gives you 1 extra opportunity attack per point of dexterity modifier. I figured 'these are huge creatures, how much dexterity could they possibly have? I know he's gonna run out eventually'.
I fire *again*. I get smacked *again*.
How am I still alive at this point? Well, I was using an ability (imbue spell-like ability -> share pain) that caused half the damage I took to be taken by one of the mind flayer player's minions. This minion (who I loathed; the mind flayer player's turns took like 15+ minutes each because of all the minions and his agonizing over what of his many spells to use) was in *horrible* agony by now.
The other players are begging me to stop. The DM is questioning my sanity. But I figure 'this demon just took like 150 damage, it's gotta be close to dead'.
I fire, again. I get smacked, again. The minion taking half my damage dies outright. But as it drops, with me at single-digit HP, my arrow connects, crits, and the demon, finally, goes down.
That's even more messes up than my tried suicide attack of my centaur character.
It was a siege battles against an orc fortress. Outside, our musketiers fired volley after volley. Some other players, a human paladin, a gnome druid, a treeman bard, an alcoholic spirit elve like girl that was made of her sociopatic parents minds, and a skaven thieft ried to climb together with some otherworldly spirits the outer walls.
I ordered all canons to fire at the gate and when it broke open, I charged with lowered lance alone into the fortress, trying to get my centaur killed to motivate my party to come and rescue him (To make them rush faster into the fortress).
So I charged in, overrun two orcs and than got attacked by two ogres who used canons as war clubs.
Being compleatly surrounded, I charged and fought with my sword against the ogres. And somehow, both had over and over critical miss.
I managed to kill one and than the other was killed by the skaven thief with his musket from way over his reach with a nat. 20.
The death of both ogres caused panic among the orcs and they tried to flee. The DM ended the fight by describing how the fleeing orcs were massacred by our forces.
Did you not have room for a 5' step? (Or would that have left you still within his reach?)
@@DC-ud4tq Still within reach. They were at least large, and 3.5 large bipeds have (at least) 10' reach.
@@jarlnils435 "The DM ended the fight by describing how the fleeing orcs were massacred by our forces."
I think this qualifies as some great advice about keeping fights interesting. When they get to the point where the pc's are bound to win and all that's left is dice to roll, the above should happen.
I remember a fight against some kind of clown that, if we miss, it redirect our hit to someone else
i was thinking "well, just don't miss" and my whole team was damaged by me that day (I'm not very lucky when it come to dices)
I've had a lot of good combats but one I remember as loving a lot was a fight on a river rapids we were trying to cross using stepping stones and rickety bridges. River snakes were attacking us, they would grapple us and try to drag us into the river, the stones were slippery, sometimes bridges would break. We'd tumble into the water where the snakes would try to roll us and suffocate us and we were constantly trying to fight the snakes at the same time as get back on a dry surface and cross the river and rescue our friends. When we finally had killed the last one, our warlock friend was unconscious in the rapids and floating downstream towards a waterfall and the rest were running after him trying to lasso him out of the water and drag him to safety, which we eventually did and revived him. It was harrowing and so much fun.
The crew met zombies in a flooded room. They tossed down a hand grenade I think. What would the zombies do, they were trapped in the water.
Love this video! Lemme throw in a nugget of wisdom into this comments section.
DMs: Make sure you have your enemies fight rationally, but also in a way that showcases your party's abilities. You have a monk in the party? Have an enemy fire some arrows at her to catch in midair. Druid just learned Earthbind? Give them some flying enemies to take down from the sky. The fighter took Shield Master? Have a fight on a bridge so he can shove enemies off!
These are quite a bit different from what Ginny highlights in the video, since it's less focused on the game world itself as it is on the players, but even the most bog standard fights can be made a little more exciting if the players finally get to use that oddly specific ability that they have. You don't have to do it all the time, but if a fight is getting a little too boring or even a bit too difficult, throw in a little something like this to give your players a crowning moment of awesomeness to remember.
I love this, this is such a great point!! As a player it can be frustrating if I have cool abilities that I never end up getting to use. That's a great thing for a DM to keep in mind!!
This is worthy of a video all it's own! How to help your players use their new bright shiny powers/equipment/spells.
This is big... I run a few other systems and I find myself trying hard to treat it like a TV show like not just challenge my players but also give them stuff they are great at. Yeah sometimes they can tell I'm pitching them a soft ball, but they get to 'do the thing' so they do not care.
This is such a good idea!
You should definitely do this. You should also have enemies plan for your players' favorite tactics, especially once they become famous. This ends up with the same effect, but from a different perspective. Players feel rewarded that they are recognized enough that enemies are specifically planning for them. It also helps shake up combats that might become stale if the players have come up with a particularly good strategy. Don't overuse it, of course, you don't want players to feel like you're just gibbing their abilities, but definitely throw it in now and again once they get on in levels, where it makes sense.
You can also have enemies use your players' own tactics against them! If it's good enough for a famous group of adventurers, it should certainly be good enough for their enemies!
Honestly, the DM for the game I'm in on Saturdays makes the coolest mechanics for enemies. This most recent one the bosses all wore hats, and when they were killed the minions could grab the hats and become the bosses, meaning we had to take out the small guys or risk having the bosses come back. (The hats were magical artifacts)
Oh my gosh, that's such a fun and clever idea!!
This is awesome!
Sounds like your DM watched Squid Game
@@demonsxx how… how is this remotely related to squid game
@@Nixahma the detective switching masks and becoming a square etc
Another very important aspect to interesting combat: diverse difficulty. If EVERY fight is incredibly difficult, it's going to be far too draining and the players will never feel like they're getting more powerful. If EVERY fight is super easy, it'll just be a boring slogfest. Mix it up.
This
@@reverie02 It probably depends on what the players enjoy, some are going to like easy fights at certain points and it could lead to different chararacter and narrative development. Like the party gets overconfident or noticed for their prowess, or it makes the tension for an actual worthy foe even more intense.
@@reverie02 I've run a system called Adeptus Evangelion where all the fights are basically huge 4v1 mecha battles against a single powerful kaiju. The problem with only having difficult or impossible fights is that players will completely lose any sense of power progression they may have already earned or lack any sense of scale when it comes to revealing the huge dramatic fights that a campaign has built itself up to. Spacing out the really killer battles with smaller weaker foes, especially those the player has dealt with before, goes a long way towards building up just how powerful the players are now while making the big battle feel that much scarier when they happen for real.
@@reverie02 Except even in real life many people pick fights they don't have any hope of winning. And beyond that, many animals as well.
It just needs to make sense in context. A famished wolf will be aggressive and desperate enough to attack a human head on instead of biding its time for a sneak attack, and a creature devoid of intelligence can not appreciate the significance of tools; in other words, they have no reason to consider the possibility of the pointy stick making huge lightning drop on top of them.
In society, maybe the assailants are drunk or high on drugs, or maybe they're prisoners with the promise of freedom for taking your party out. Any number of things work.
This is so important! I played in an evil campaign (Pathfinder 1e) from Lvl 1-13 and EVERY encounter was minmaxed by the DM. At first it was exciting to actually have threatening fights, but at the end it was just exhausting. "I am a level 13 evil lich with several magic items, how can a random city patrol be threatening to me?".
As you already said: Mix it up. Let the players feel their power from time to time. Then, the big fight will actually feel meaningful and dangerous.
As an extra: I think that the harder a fight gets (numbers wise), the less likely players tend to go for options which are not damage. "Why would I try to attempt a Sunder/Trip/... when I can actually not waste my turn and shorten the fight with an attack roll?". If you let the players have their "freedom" of turns from time to time, they are allowed to express their characters in-combat with actual flavorful spells and actions - The fighter grabbing the enemy and throwing him to the ground, the rogue stealing the enemie's weapon and then mockingly playing with it in his hand, the wizard casting that one weird niche spell he has in his book because of background story reasons.
The fight we still talk about, more than 10 years later, is the one the players arranged. We were contracted to hit a merc captain that, in a fair fight, would've owned us with one hand tied behind his back. We were not well known in the area, at the time, so we talked down the contacts to arrange a business meeting with the guy. He was human, so didn't see well in the dark, and I arranged, through the rogue, to have him meet me in the middle of nowhere in the forest by my campfire. I put up 500g to arrange the meeting, and played it like I was a paranoid, wealthy eccentric who didn't want his business to be known. We had the archers in the trees, a shape changed (dog) fighter and a sorcerer (me, the decoy, by the fire). We played at a tete a tete for a bit, and I just reached down to my side (the signal we prearranged) like I was about to pick something up. Between the surprise round, the held actions and pure chaos, we did it. We had the hell beat out of us, but nobody died, and we had heals. Also, we sent the rogue back to the contact, with his big ass deception bonus, and got my money back on top of what we were paid with a bonus, cuz it took two days (instead of the month the DM and the NPC that hired us thought). Couldn't have done that again, though, because after that, people kinda knew to watch out around us.
I actually like to use my "random" encounters to help me with world building. Currently running a sandbox style game so my players can go wherever they want and I do not have all the details worked out but if they run across 2d6 hobgoblins +1d4 devastators then there must be a local settlement or a reason for the hunting/raiding/scouting party to be about. It can really help flesh out the otherwise non descript in between places.
Zee Beshew has a "how I DM" video you might find useful. Also Bob Worldbuilders latest video is about exactly the method you mentioned
The random encounter table should reflect the region. If there is a displacer beast pack around you have some displacer beasts in there. You can be clever with day-night or subregions or city wards.
Okay, the idea of having a bandit who suddenly gets wild magic surges is utterly brilliant, not only because of the multitude of great points in the video, but also because that sounds like an adventurer backstory. It makes the world feel so much more alive and in line with the players' version of the world rather than having only the party be the Chosen Ones in a low magic setting.
Thank you for the ideas and the video!
I also then love the idea of the other bandits mid combat with players to turn around saying, “urm, Mark, you alright buddy?” As he suddenly explodes fire from his chest randomly.
red mage.
@@adamgarrod3565 diablo.
play it
@@adamgarrod3565 yeah, and than turn into a potted plant
One of the best combats I've run was with a monster that would absorb the souls of fallen foes, my players were horrified and thrilled when it knocked one of the players unconscious, "dementor-ed" its soul out and healed back to full health. The combat became a bit more challenging and the goal became to not let it escape so they could rescue the soul of that player back. It was awesome!
I had a similar one involving homebrew demons. The rogue went off on his own - a mistake. These demons specialize in ambush and one-on-one. It tore him to ahreds, killed him, consumed his soul, and fled.
They used wish to bring it to them and ganged up on it, then resurrected him
@@darkseraph2009 Awesome. Rescue and revenge!
That’s an awesome mechanic!
Cool idea, but that specific player's gonna hate the combat.
@@Krassy10 I should clarify that the PC still had death saves and the others had the opportunity to heal them, they just didn't manage to in time and the PC died. It's very rare that someone casts a resurrection spell during combat anyway, so it didn't spoil the fun for them. On their turn I gave them so flavourful description of what they were experiencing, so they didn't feel left out. :)
Something important to note: CR is only as important as the strategy the creature uses. I see a lot of people complain about the Challenge Ratings being too low and throwing monsters around like "move, hit, turn end" instead of thinking about strategy of any sort. Another thing: play to the intelligence and behaviors expected of the creature. This will help with immersion and make things more interesting (A hungry pack of wolves are likely to isolate and kill a single target, dragging them off for food rather than try to kill the whole party).
additionally, a group of bandits, or any group of humanoids in general who are a team, will often work together or have pre-planned strategies in mind. They might notice a wizard is present and has yet to act, so they might focus on them to prevent any major spellcasting. Plus, if the fight is going bad, they might order a retreat, or individuals might decide it isn't worth it anymore and just book it away from the fight
I gave up on CR after version 3.5. It's okay for populating a dungeon or a region. Often a CR=party encounter barely gets the players to spend 1 or 2 dailies (spells, etc). Boss fights need to be x4 CR to be a meaningful contest. But constant x4 CR encounters can piss off players also.
Exactly this. And the opposite can also be useful. I recently redid a one-shot for a single player. and balanced the encounters by deliberately handicapping the enemy strategy. things like, when they score a good hit, the enemies scatter, or have them be a little more cowardly, not wanting to get close, so they end up only attacking every other round.
I did remove a few enemies, to streamline things, but mostly I ran 4-person encounters for a single player with minimal size changes, just by playing up the opponent's poor combat decisions.
if you don't know about it already, I recommend looking at The Monsters Know What They're Doing (both the book(s) and the blog). In goes into detail on how different monsters would go about combat and what their primary tactics would be based on stats and lore of the creatures.
I'm reminded of tales in 2nd and 3.5 where a group of 3 mind flayers with actual tactics would wipe a 16+ level party...
Honestly, one of the best encounters we've ever had was one we didn't. I have been running a campaign in the Witcher TTRPG. My party split up, and we had a Witcher, a Druid, and a Woman-at-Arms go to evacuate a city before the enemy forces arrived in the area. Unfortunately, the city was dealing with a Pesta, a specter that spreads plague. My players had done some investigating and learned the identity and story of the Pesta (it's Witcher, so it was really depressing), so when it came time to fight her, the Woman-at-Arms put away her weapon and initiated Verbal Combat. She essentially reasoned with the Pesta, and calmed her down until she discorporated. We managed to concecrate her remains before she could return. It was really neat that one of my combat-focused characters realized that attempting diplomacy was much easier than fighting a specter that spreads plague and controls rats and insects (also in Witcher, conventional weapons do half-damage to monsters).
Having the option to learn why the monster is doing something (in this case, revenge), can really help players find interesting ways to deal with the encounter.
This actually has me excited to dm again, I was a dm for a highschool dnd club for just a month and it was exhausting. I didn't know what I was doing and didn't have a plan, as well as being a novice player who hasn't read a single dnd book didn't help. I asked my group to assist my with rules and stuff, but ultimately I left feeling unhappy. The only reason I thought I'd be an okay dm was cuz I'm a creative type who likes telling stories, and in my head the game was beautiful though I doubt I described it right.
@BlissfulDirtbag You know who's a great gm? Anyone who inspires the players to come to another session. I can assure you that you did great.
Be inspired. Tell some stories with your friends.
Your first time can be pretty rough, my first campaign was a bit hectic at first, I had almost memorized the 3.5 players handbook and DMG verbatim in preparation but it only did so much. It worked out in the end though, being a DM is one part creativity, one part Praxeology, and one part Dad. Creativity is vital but you need to be able to grasp the machinations of the wider world and the motivations of NPCs and arbitrate fairly among your players and remain in control of the game. The balance between the three depends on your players.
@@josephahner3031 thank you, I feel like I've slowly getting there, plenty of practice from keeping the campaign on track lol. I really think I just need time to fully plan, and to feel comfortable with the campaign before I start my next
oh, I LOVE this subject. I ponder a lot of the same issues and, yeah, a LOT of my combats tend to end with my going "Dang. You guys killed him SO fast."
So, the best I ever had, was actually pre-genned, and I modified it. The party talked to this monster before, and it smugly directed them along the path to a deathtrap rather than the bad guy. So they pulled out all the stops and rolled incredibly and burned through some cool one-use options and this horrid hydra-y thing dies in like, one round. (2 out of 3 players crit, it was nuts.)
Then they go into the next area, a chasm with rope bridges and a LOT of little baddies. I'd doubled the number of cannon fodder and they still mopped the floor with them. I also gave the players these drama cards to modify encounters, and they spent them to summon MORE enemies... to also get more cards, including an ally. Then, the final chamber, the big bad is trying to figure out how to get the scroll without activating the final guardians. His minions take up defensive positions and he offers... payment. Help him against the final guardians, get paid. Cash from whichever realm, he's got some magical implements... to him, adventuring parties are useful! They say no, because... well, the murders.
So he turns and grabs the scroll, the stone guardians awaken, and on his next turn, he is going to teleport out. The players crush him, no crits, but he's not a hydra. Now they're mostly out of juice, but the remaining minions aren't interested in dying today. The guardians don't care though, and are definitely going to take out everything in the room. The party takes one down with a good bit of effort, and as they're fighting the other, the first regenerates. Time to go!
Back to the chasm, where the team cuts the rope bridge. The implacable stone guardians turn, face the stone wall, and strike the wall, piercing it with their giant fingers... and begin to climb with the most gawdsawful percussion, grinding of stone, and falling rocks. The players faces tell me that for once, they don't know how to punch this problem to death. They don't know how much of a headstart they have, or how fast the stone guardians are on land, but they do NOT want to stick around to find out. The new ally's offer to leave this plane and join his team suddenly seemed REALLY good.
They had a blast, and we got more done narratively and combat-wise than we usually did in three sessions. Some of it was them doing great rolls... some of it, the system I used had a way to treat a group of enemies as a pack and roll attack and damage as if it were one creature. That really sped up the conflict in the second zone. Because while it's great to speed up the players in combat, it's essential to speed up the monsters turn. (srsly, nobody wants to watch the DM throw 15 attack rolls while muttering.)
That sounds AWESOME! I love the moment when the first stone guardian regenerates and the players have to make a tactical call. Especially after so much combat, that must've really forced them to flex some different problem-solving muscles! Sounds like a really fun session!
@@GinnyDi It was the only fight in like, three years that anybody at that table retreated from. They even threw hands when confronting a GOD later. Well, demigod. If Dr Doom were a demigod. It was great.
And now I want to figure out how to get a group together and run a game for 'em. Ahh, my love of gaming is rekindled!
@@DannyboyO1 this encounter sounds spectacular! Really really cool!! If you'd like to run an online game, I'm super down to finally join a group and start playing after watching dnd groups play for this past year. So if this is something you'd enjoy, idk reply and I'll send you my socials. But if not, also totally fine, I just thought I'd throw this out here since I saw your enthusiasm in your comment, seems like you're a really cool dm!
never
nm
"I have the power to be less powerful" is some of the best advice I've heard on encounter design and the player/DM dynamic.
One of my favorite combats was when my first time players found a chest on the side of a merchant road. The chest was a mimic, which I was sure they could handle. One of the great abilities of a disguised mimic that I think some dms and players miss is that they are adhesive and bind to whatever touches them, with escape attempts being made at disadvantage. My players ended up all getting stuck to the mimic trying to pry themselves off and played a game of hot potato of different characters continuously succeeding and failing to get free, all while everyone was just pummeling on this box. It was hilarious.
Mimics can be a very entertaining thing. I think about introduce a mimic as a clay jug. If a player try to grap it a tong comes from inside, grab the hand and pull it inside the the mimic sucks blood from the hand like a leech. and than the have to find a way to get ther hand out of it, but cose its a mimic smashing on the ground only hurt the people. I think the thing to relase the hand would be something like pour something disgusting along the hand into the mimic so she spits the hand out. this would be not life threatend but will give the group a nice wtf moment. Hope if someone steal this the have no babarians in the group that chops of the hand xD
note to self: add mimics to the random encounter table
Good advice! The moment you stop looking at encounters as players meeting "evil monsters" and see them as sentient beings with motivations and life of their own, that's when they spring to life, and the adventure writes itself! :)
My proudest combat encounter is a frost knight who my players mistook for an enemy and engaged first; he was actually the guardian of the kingdom they were heading to, and he now wanted to kill them. He had attacks that sprayed ice across the ground and summon a small blizzard, so the field was constantly changing. The encounter took place in a clearing in the snowy mountains, so the guard was even stronger. 2 of the 5 characters were knocked unconscious before the warlock realised what was going on and clarified that they weren't gonna burn the kingdom down.
I had a battle I ran with a few creatures called Chitines. They have an ability that lets them see anything on the same web they're on. So I had a giant room, with a giant web as a floor, dropping off into water below. You see, the room also had a pedestal in the center, with an orb that made the entire room magical darkness on it. My players, when they entered, couldn't see a thing. Disadvantage on all attacks. But the Chitines could sense every movement of the players, since they were on the same web. Advantage on all their attacks.
So my players took thrown web-daggers constantly, while they tried to stumble around the room. Eventually they found the pedestal in the center, shut off the magical darkness, and those with darkvision could then fight the chitines in the room.
It was dangerous, but it was a blast.
That sounds terrifying and really cool.
You must have balenced that pretty well then. Because thats pretty close to tpk territory if they didnt find the pedestal. But it seems like the perfect amount of danger so great job
@@jasonandrews1770 yeah... except I didn't mention the 3x3 Cave Fisher that was yanking them into the air from the tall, tall ceiling lmao
But to be fair, they did well. There was 4 Chitines and the one Cave Fisher, so really it wasn't a HARD fight. But when 12 daggers are thrown per turn, it looks really scary from a players perspective
@@reaprcussion5703 man that is the perfect level of scared. Because the whole not being able to see whats doing all this would have me shook. Because you dk if theres 1 or 200 of those things
Just to clarify, Chitine would still also be _Blinded_ by the darkness, so also rolling at disADV, but ADV because their target is _Blinded_ as well, so a straight roll. They know where the targets are, but D&D does technically require you to *see* a target for anything that says "a target you can see" and Chitine don't also have Blindsight (Giant Spiders, however, do...). Knowing where the PCs are at all times still gives them a major advantage, without giving them Advantage.
One mistake that I ALWAYS make (working on it) is placing the adventurers in the corner or edge of the map when combat starts.
Just place them in the center! Our epic final battle against the Midnight King of Draconia took place exclusivally in the corner of the gigantic map. It was an epic fight, but still. If I had just put them in the center when the fights start, we wouldn't be stuck in that damn corner.
to add to this, don't start combat at the entrance of an area, instead ambush them and attack from all sides, a true ambush wouldn't spring upon the tanks taking point, instead they would flank onto the squishy wizard in the center.
Also if some prefight RP/investigation happened then put them where their characters would actually be when the battle triggered. Which likely would be out of ideal formation if the squishy caster triggered the fight and ends up base to base with the foe.
That's such a good point!! I feel like I've done the same thing - "oh, you're entering the area from this side," but then depending on how initiative order plays out, the monsters might come to the players instead of the players going to the monsters, and next thing you know, you're having to estimate distance off-map if somebody needs to move the wrong direction.
@@ratchet1freak Along this line, I like to use "The real" combat starts later tactic, that is, the party enters a cavern, for example, meets up with an initial combat encounter (some of the creatures in their lair), then, a round or two into the combat, Mama and Papa Bear come home and attack from behind.
Just be careful not to rely on this too much. Being surrounded in Every combat can be demoralizing for the squishies. And it can backfire if you're not careful. Here's a story to illustrate: Party level = 3 or so, Searching a graveyard. Some spooky warnings were mostly ignored (player mistake). Suddenly the party was surrounded by shadows (or some other incorporeal undead). The cleric botched their Turn Undead check (older version: Turn Undead would have chased half or more of the undead away). Botch meant the party had to fight out of encirclement, without reliable damage vs incorporeal. I think it was a TPK or nearly so. Basically killed the story and we lost players. Could have lost the gaming group entirely.
GM's errors: #1 failed to drive home the dire warnings. Sometimes a dire warning is NOT an adventure hook. #2 banked on the cleric scaring most of the undead away. #3 Assumed the party would skeddadle, rather than try desperately to damage the enemies.
I think a map with a big staircase going down to the middle of a room with several doors, the kind you often see in museums and palaces could act well... Like monsters even trying jumping on the staircase...on the other side, some range-attack sqishies could stay on the second level of the atrium...
The idea of a bandit being a newly-realised wild magic sorcerer is brilliant.
Plenty of opportunity for combat antics and potentially a recurring NPC
You can toss in MUs in other groups. For every 20 goblins there will be a level 1 wizard goblin. If a goblin problem-solving crew shows up, they could have that dude along. Then they start by throwing Hold Portal to cut enemies off.
Just have to say, in a decade on this platform, yours are the only sponsored adds I don't skip over. So entertaining, each one of them :)
I accidentally made a really complex and engaging combat in my first session ever dming a major campaign.
It all takes place on a large paddleboat. The party's paladin is escorting the young new leader of his church up river to their central cathedral, and the rogue is using the boat system as a way to smuggle illicit goods in and out of the major city.
Two things are meant to happen here: 1. The new leader of the church is to be kidnapped in the night. The current leader doesn't want to step down so she had people sent to dispose of the new leader so she could blame the paladin later.
2. A growing rival faction of smugglers sent their own men to infiltrate the boat's crew to sabotage the shipment by stealing a particularly valuable item, and potentially kill this mob family's leader, the party's rogue.
It was all MEANT to be an ambush...
All is well when the paladin and dwarven artificer start... Oil-wrestling for some reason? It gets rowdy enough where the riverboat crewmen start placing bets. One of them shouts "FIVE SILVER ON THE SHORT ONE!" (the dwarf). Suddenly, the two oil-wrestling PCs nod at each other and rush the crew!
Of course, the kidnappers and rival smugglers, unaware of the other groups, think the jig is up! So they enact their plans early.
So in the blink of an eye, ONLY because I wanted to add a little flavor to my players silly antics and have the crew bet on their oil-wrestling match, we have:
-the kidnapping of a religious leader
-the theft of an unknown valuable item
-and what's essentially a bar fight.
ALL AT ONCE!
So it goes to show that interesting combat can really come from anywhere! I fully planned to have my party left in the dark on what happened until the next morning when half the crew, the religious leader and a priceless artifact were missing. But some things are just out of our control.
Oh, for those of you that read this far: a part of the rival smuggler's plan was to have a few men destroy the engine room of the riverboat before leaving. And the artificer, with a NATURAL 20 tool check roll, saved the day. He repaired the destroyed engine and prevented a treacherous march through dangerous jungle... That I, already had prepared for them... Ah well!
my most memorable fight:
Our party rody up onto a town that was being attacked by a giant purple worm (cr 15), we were lvl 5 at the time and our party consisting of 4 players wasn't really smart and decided to help the town and fight the beast (we were lvl 5 at that time).
The DM knowing we couldn't handle this on our own and wasn't prepared for us to fight this monster quickly drew up a map and set down some ballistas for us to use against the worm.
the fight was interesting with the worm burrowing and appearing somewhere else and us hurriedly going to the various siege equipment and readying them to fight the beast.
miraculously none of us even went down because of good rolls and tactics.
but the good thing about this was that we as players knew this was dumb to do but went along with it for the heck of it and actually succeeded making this an incredibly interesting fight and havng us all focus.
I really like all of these tips! As someone who's been DMing for a very long time, I would recommend getting practice creating your own monsters/enemies, or at least adapting existing stat blocks! It takes a lot of extra work, but there is no monster that you'll understand better than your own! Plus, it can really surprise veteran players who know the mechanics of the classics, like dragons, werewolves, and gelatinous cubes.
Oh man, I can totally confirm this - working on my own homebrew monsters has totally helped me understand combat a lot more!! In fact, I didn't really have a good understanding of action economy as a concept until my DM Jesse walked me through it while we were troubleshooting my Feral Merfolk stat block. It's such a great hands-on exercise for wrapping your brain around the way combat plays out!
@@GinnyDi Totally! I feel I was really able to boost my own confidence when I started really learning mechanics by working with them enough to change them. And I loved the Feral Merfolk block! Taking somewhat weak but iconic monsters from the base rules and buffing them/making them fit new worlds, lore, etc is so fun!
A really good option is to add minor abilities to standard Boss monsters, like a bardic inspiration affect for a Boss to do as a free action to encourage his minions. I've added cantrips like chill touch to undead during a chase scene. There are so many options. Check the minor class abilities in the PHB and apply them where it makes sense.
dragons are easy. werewolves are easy.
One book I've had lots of fun reading is "The monsters know what they're doing" by Keith Ammann. It goes into how different creatures might tend to fight based on evolutionary instincts, would highly recommend for anyone trying to make "normal" monsters more interesting to encounter.
or pinkies ftom doom. lay forth
i wrote books on hell. diablo is popular in hell a name u dont know leviathan.he is a corner. he will alwasy be
leviathan is the great beast he hodes. he is a water god. dont piss him off. hes not Dionysis. he is Leviathin.
he knows eveyone. your deeds. eveyone is gong to hell. period. u can live an upright life
when hell is full, hell is full
I think the "Why" point that you mentioned is the first thing that every DM should learn! Not only in Combat, but everything that happens on your table should have a "Why" that needs to make sense (not always logical sense, but at least to make your story keep moving forward!)
"I don't have that much experience"
Your perspective has improved my game significantly and I've been DMing for over a decade.
My greatest success in combat as a dm was when I put my level 3 party up against an aboleth and a whole ship full of quasi-dimensional-nightmare-assassins. There was a certain pair of extremely curious pcs that expected something extraordinary under every rock, a secret behind every door, and wonder in every soul. I wanted to finally reward them with everything they had been looking for all in one encounter. So, I closed my eyes, opened up the monster manual, and saw the aboleth. I had them choose between what was essentially, Scylla or Charybdis as a danger to avoid while sailing from one country to the next. During the trip, I had one roll a perception check. They nat 20'd so it made it really easy to fake being so distraught that "I HAD to give them ALL this juicy info" about how they noticed the subtle change in the boat crew's demeanor. They noticed them slowly lose, and then gradually gain, coordination. This sine wave of coordination eventually peaked with total, unnatural coordination. That's when they went on high alert. The most curious 2 ran down stairs, thinking correctly that there might be something on the ship rather than under or around it that was making everyone act weird. That's when I hit them with the narrow pass filled with jagged rocks that would surely mean their doom. That's when I allowed the curious duo to find and unveil the Aboleth in it's aquarium! It was being smuggled by the captain. The aboleth had taken over the minds of the crew and the assassins over the course of 3 days. The party had recently found some magic items in a place I definitely thought they'd never be able to get inside, and like, i'm not gonna just take that accomplishment away from them. Anyway, they had to solve a puzzle related to those items to attune to them. They managed to solve the puzzles, fight for control of the ship, maintain ship integrity while traversing the jagged pass of doom, fall in love, travel through time, completely erasing that particular aboleth from the universal timeline, protect the lives of every other npc, including the quasi-dimensional assassins whom they later befriended, AND make it to the other country all in time for the local carnival.
oh my god
I’ve seen some newer systems start to consider this right down to the foundations. Pathfinder 2e actually made Attack of Opportunity a special ability available to only a small fraction of the monsters in the game (and only one player class, the Fighter, gets it for free at 1st level). Aside from just opening up design space for other reactions, when you combine that with 2e’s action economy (three action points) it can make fights much more mobile. The Multiple Attack Penalty also encourages players to not just spend all of their actions attacking - Monks and Swashbucklers with their increased speeds can force an enemy to waste two actions to get back into melee as they need to Stride twice to match what the Monk covered with one action, which is particularly useful if that enemy’s big damage-dealing melee ability costs two actions to use.
Exalted, for all three of its editions, has had a Stunt mechanic in where the PC gets bonuses to their roll based on how well they describe it (rule of thumb is that anything more than a basic “I attack with my hook sword” is worth a one-point stunt).
EDIT: Ultimately what I’m staying is either ruthlessly pillage ideas from other rulesets, or try out other systems entirely (lord knows there’s enough free ones out there). Might also get some environmental ideas from some video games - Monster Hunter World occasionally has really heavy things hanging in parts of the map that you can dislodge with a shot from a ranged weapon or your wrist-mounted crossbow to drop onto the monster’s head, another has a sinkhole created by another monster you can lure your prey over and they have to then fight both you and the big angry Diablos who made the sinkhole.
When it comes to the "description makes for the outcome of the combat", try checking the Wu-Shu system. Yes, a whole RPG system (particularly good for oneshots) based upon the rules and approaches of Hong-Kong style action movies. Includes mob fights (the more baddies, the weaker, like the famous Kill Bill scene), boss fights, lots of dice and description of the combat is essential.
And it's not limited to kung-fu style either: I have played a traditional action sci-fi there (standard "what happened in this damn cosmic station", Doom-like; the Big Boss turned out to be spoiled army ration yoghurt that has gotten sentience and attempted destroying everyone around) as well as a historical fantasy based upon Sapkowski's Hussite Trilogy (but the Apocalypse the Chiliasts expected did happen, complete with a zombie swarm and the Four Horsemen).
This is something dael kingsmil has a few great ideas about too. Honestly, she has tons of great videos and ideas, worth watching through
Edit: love this video and the approach to sharing your ideas. Thanks so much! This is such a huge pain point
Yeah, we NEED a Dael and Ginny colab!
@@crowhaveninc.2103 For real.
@@crowhaveninc.2103 Definitely. The major issue with this though is Dael is based out of Australia.
Link?
@@josephfernandez8015 That just means the time-zone desync will let you have 24-hour Dael and Ginny. 😃
I love your humble and laid back style as well as your informative and helpful tips. Great job
Really good video for a staring DM as myself! Also: WELL DONE on the whole setup of your narrative. You keep it from your perspective, admit your mistakes and how you learned from them and give great examples! Awesome stuff, really!!
"It's not bad, but it's bad enough to fix" I like that. I like that a lot.
I think one of my favorite combats I have run was when the players faced off against a Beholder (I can't remember his name off the top of my head). They delved into his lair (not knowing it was a beholder lair at first) looking for an ancient relic to help them against the campaign's bbeg. They noticed paintings of eyes and statues of seemingly featureless spheres as they delved deeper into the dungeon. The Beholder used these as a way to activate his regional effects, causing an eyebeam to suddenly burst from a spherical statue or the paintings of eyes seeming to follow their movement, then attack them with an eyebeam when they looked to closely.
The Beholder had killed another Beholder that had previously inhabited the dungeon and raised it as a Zombie Beholder, that it placed in a strategic spot to fool any invaders into thinking they were fighting the master of the dungeon. My players fought this zombie beholder who they boss Beholder spoke through using illusion magic. After defeating the zombie beholder the group let their guard down as they went down into the vaults beneath the dungeon, where the real Beholder waited to ambush them.
The Beholder's room was 60 feet high, giving the Beholder plenty of room to hover around out of the reach of the melee, and he had designed traps into the ceiling and floors that he could open using his Disintegrate eye beam. The floors had pitfalls covered with slabs of stone that dropped into pits full of zombies that the Beholder had locked away, while the ceiling had huge stones sealed off that the Beholder could drop on the adventurers. As it turned out I may have designed this encounter to well lol. It ended in a near TPK, with only 2 out of 7 PC's left standing at the end of it. The players had burned a lot of their resources previously in the dungeon on minions and the undead beholder, leaving them with not much to fight the boss Beholder with.
They managed some revives after the battle, but they definitely felt the power of a truly intelligent and well prepared bad guy!
With some enemies, that would feel unfair. But beholders are geniuses and ultra paranoid, this must have been a fun fight!
This is all super helpful. I was having the same issues. This will help sooooo much.
This was great. Thank you for the advice. I am a new DM playing the starter kit with my teenager kids, and I'm definitely going to use this process.
We were fighting a giant blob monster, similar to a shambling mound in a haunted ass house with culty rituals in the basement. While we were fighting the mound we heard the cries of the families youngest child, a baby, and my Rouge jumped at the mound trying a melee attack.
To all of our horror the mound on its turn just, moved forward and swallowed my character. My character having a soft spot for children found that the shambling mound was actually a manifestation from the baby that had died because of the families dark rituals. Opted to hum a lullaby and calm the baby down instead of fighting the mound and laying them to rest.
It was honestly such an interesting switch from just fighting everything.
The most memorable combat I've run actually came in two parts. The first part was almost identical to your example at 13:03: room filling with water, aboleth & its minions in the water, PCs need to deal with both threats at once. They managed to open the valves that would cause the water to drain out, and the aboleth-seeing that it was fighting a losing battle-decided to escape down the drain too.
Well, the party really wanted this aboleth dead, and they knew the drain went straight to the river, so they hired themselves a boat & went hunting. I let them have a boat outfitted with a ballista: high damage output, but needing 3 separate actions to load, aim & fire. The fighter swam into melee, the druid summoned a flotilla of crocodiles to help out, and the rest of the party stayed on the boat to either make ranged spell attacks or operate the ballista. Final moment: the fighter riding atop a crocodile, using her Battle Master maneouvres to distract the aboleth (mechanically, giving advantage to the next person to attack the aboleth), then desperately shouting "Juniper, take the shot!" as the druid finally fires that ballista... right through the thing's eyeball.
My husband tends to run interesting encounters that are either narratively significant to one or all of us, or challenges one particular player with their skill set and its usually both. We fought a goblin that had the sword of the rogue's dead father that was protecting the space where we needed to get an item (plot relevance for the group, story for one pc) the sword had the ability to teleport the user around the space making it incredibly difficult for our paladin to get close (there's challenging a pc) the goblin once he hit half health ended up getting an entirely different skill set and essentially got a berserker status going toward the biggest damage dealer in a round as a legendary action. He almost killed our wizard but we did it. We ended up having to escape the BBEG who made an appearance afterward and its one of the most tense situations we've ever been in. Adding Legendary actions and resistances is also something to make an encounter unique and memorable!
I’m getting ready to DM for the first time on Monday so I’m doing my best to soak this up like a sponge (or a spoon, as my phone suggested). Thank you for the tips! I’m very nervous-excited!
Hope your first DMing went well!
@@ericwarner2475 it actually hasn’t happened yet so I will be carrying these well wishes with me! Thank you 😊
@@amberu1625 you will do awesome. Remember to have fun and relax. And welcome to the true elite! DMs! The D&D special forces.
@@ericwarner2475 figured I’d report back to say the session was so much fun and I had a blast stumbling over all of the ways in which my players threw curveballs I could have never planned for 😆 genuinely can’t wait to do it again!
@@amberu1625that is awesome. That...uh...I didn't expect that...welcome to thinking quickly on your feet!
Here's my guidelines when designing combat encounters :
- No fight should feel "random". Every encounter should either create moral dilemas, give your world some depth, include NPCs that your players are familiar with (allies or enemies), forshadow an upcoming storyline, etc... Or multiple of those at once. Give those fights a place in the overall story you want to build.
-Try to vary the types of enemies used. Fighting humanoid guards might be fun from time to time, but it gets old fairly quickly. Find creative ways to justify the presence of varied monsters in a way that doesn't feel forced.
- Try to vary the underlying objectives. One fight can be about decimating a group of enemies, an other about rescuing a beloved NPC taken hostage, an other can be clearly unbalanced in the bad guys favor and call for an escape, etc...
- It's better to think ahead about the strategies that your "bad guys" will use. For instance, if they are a simple group of bandits, they might have a very simple brute force strategy that rely on their number, but if they are a group of trained assassins hired to kill the party, they might be aware of your players abilities and strategies and be prepared to counter them.
- Use terrain to your advantage (as said in the video). The way your map is designed and the abilities of the bad guys can create interesting situations that forces your players to come up with solutions on the fly.
- Be willing to make some fights optionnal, but not all of them, otherwise your high charisma PC might just turn every combat into a game of diplomacy, which will get boring pretty fast.
- Giving your player some adjency to plan their fight feel really rewarding and exciting for them. Do it fairly often if possible, be willing to improvise if things don't go the way you intended at all.
- Finally, prepare sessions that forces multiple combats inbetween long rests. I love when the game is mostly about roleplay, with maybe a single fight inbetween long rests, most of my sessions are like this. But D&D's mechanics and balance shine mostly when applied to a multiple combats in a row scenario. It builds tension over time, as your players close the distance with the enemy leader while also slowly depleating their ressources. If you have a table that is mostly about roleplay (like mine), you might be surprised at how much your players will enjoy a good old combat heavy session from time to time, especially if your story heavy sessions gave it some weight. Just make sure to plan for some short rest opportunities between encounters, and also try to make them understand that they are going to take part in multiple combats to not watch them waste all of their ressources on the first one.
All fights are optional, at least you can leg it out. I like random buggery that is just there. You meet a random troll trying to herd fairies. You could help or steal his hand grenade or trick them to go elsewhere. Random buggery creates events and is much less work for me.
@@SusCalvin I use to have the same mentality when designing encounters. Then, one of my players made a swashbuckler Rogue with maxed out charisma, expertise in every social skill, and reliable talent. Because he is also very creative, if given the opportunity, he will succeed the necessary checks to bypass a combat.
At first, the rest of the party reacted like "Good job dude ! let's move forward !". After a while however, it devolved into "Wait, you bypassed the combat AGAIN ? We havn't rolled initiative in like... 3 sessions. Do we even have a reason to be here ?".
So yeah, I had to make some fights mandatory, or create situations that were way harder to diffuse, requiring more than just a soft tongue. That being said, I guess it depends on your players and the characters they use.
@@trebmal587 We have no social skill in some older games. You convince people by saying something that convinces them. I arbitrate if this convinces people from the goals they got, what you can offer them and sometimes if they think they can take you on right here and now. I need to know roughly what the hobos are pushing on when negotiating.
Sometimes the group wants to do things that can't be smooth-talked. They want to break in and steal stuff, they want to sell crack, they want to buy a magic glock on the black market. if all they did was to smooth things out and accede, they would get stepped on. The latvian mob can show up at their place after sniffing out their grow room and detailing what part of the operation they want.
The best use for Charisma is to have a personal goon squad who beats up people at your call.
@@trebmal587 We spent a couple sessions preparing a coup. We figured that despite being 50-100 danish, we could not coup a city-state of 60 000. So we set about checking for friends. After that, the violence was a lot easier.
@@SusCalvin Yes obviously you need to have a decent argument, offer or lie to even being able to roll for it, it's not just "Please dont be a meany - roll for it - 27 - I guess it works". How good the underlying reasoning of your roleplay is will also impact the difficulty of the check. But as I said, the player I'm thinking about was really creative, and capable of putting some really convincing speechs or arguments.
If it was a one player campaign, I would totaly be okay with letting him turn 90% of the fights into diplomatic negociations. The problem is that I also had three other players that felt they were not contributing nearly as much as they would have liked with their combat focus builds.
The thing is, I was the one designing the antagonists to be creatures you can reason with. I was the one who let those doors open when designing the encounter. Even when I designed an encounter without thinking about ways to bypass the fight, my player would still find one, and be so convincing with it (while doing high checks), that I had to give it to him.
Nowadays, I specificaly design some encounters to be "diplomatic proof". That being said, there are still fights that can be resolved more or less peacefully, and I let my players find ways to creatively use the NPCs and environment to get an edge on their current or future adventures.
Something I've adopted is rewarding player cooperation. Everything going on in a round is supposedly happening at the same time, so if two of my players decide to work together to do something, I'll have them roll to have their actions essentially lock together, having the success of one assist the success of the other. The most recent example of this was last session: my party had attacked a group of criminals responsible for decimating a small village. Behind the two leaders of the criminals, six henchmen were slowly advancing, round by round, in a bid to surround the party. My brother asked if he could attempt to scare off the henchmen, and I asked him how he planned to do that. He wanted to kill one and use that as leverage to convince the other five to run. My girlfriend spoke up and said she'd help him, giving my brother advantage on what would already be a pretty convincing roll if he succeeded.
Here's how it happened.
Gripping his greatsword, Razoreye (Half-Elf Fighter) sprinted forward with a cry, executing a blinding midair spin and (Nat 20) decapitating one of the six encroaching thugs. As the criminal's blood sprayed red mist into the night air, Aravir (Elf Cleric) hurled her staff at Razoreye's feet. The staff trembled and grew, stretching into a giant snake that lifted Razoreye into the air. "Get out of here... unless you want to join him!" yelled Razoreye (Intimidation: 18). After glancing at one another, all but one of the thugs fled, leaving their Tiefling and Human leaders to the mercy of the party.
For deciding when enemies should retreat, you could incorporate one thing that most tabletop war games have: a morale breaking point, some value at which, if you roll under it, the enemy unit turns and runs away. You roll a D6 per remaining soldier, so as you lose troops it gets harder and harder to roll over that breaking point (of course, this works best in those wargames, since you have 20-30 soldiers grouped up to roll at a time). Before combat, you could decide how mentally-tough your enemy is (a goblin patrol of fresh recruits would have a pretty high failure point, whereas battle-hardened dwarven soldiers a fairly low one, for example) and make part of your DM round rolling a gut-check before going back to the top of the initiative. It might even make for some interesting story points; if you roll a bunch of 1s and your enemies turn and run immediately after just one round of combat, why? Did they expect easy pickings but weren't ready for a real fight? Why did they expect to win easily, were they sent after the players by someone else? Conversely if you keep rolling a 6 and that last enemy refuses to run, did the PCs kill her brother? Is she honor-bound to die on her feet, sword in hand? Just some ideas.
AD&D actually had this mechanic, or at least, morale stats, as well as tables for how wandering monsters were likely to react to an adventuring party (flee? attack on site? negotiate? stop if food or coin was dropped, or pursue? continue pursuing once round a corner or out of sight?). I try to incorporate some of this stuff into adventures, mostly to avoid the "one encounter per rest" issue.
This was in earlier versions of D&D. Usually I simply check when the enemies are down to half their number (or less if they have less invested interest in the battle). Roll any die: Greater than 50% result = stick for one more round, otherwise Bugg Out.
I generally go by remaining HP instead of adding another mechanic. If the monster is at half health, it'll look to retreat in the "smartest" way it knows how (low INT (3-7) NPCs will dash, middling (8-11) INT will Dodge and back away, and smart or seasoned enemies will Disengage and fall back. If there's a group of enemies, the healthier ones will cover for the injured, and if a significant number of the group are dead or retreating, the remainder will break ranks or surrender. My general assumption is that most creatures want to survive the encounter, so if the odds aren't in their favor after 50% of their health is depleted, the fight is no longer worth the effort.
@@j_hafe. Yes, I remember that well. Started gaming in the 80s with the red box basic D+D and every creature had a moral number as part of its stat blog. Not sure why they dropped it, I always found it worked quite well.
Yeah, instead of the older D&D Morale checks on 2d6, I currently roll a WISDOM check on my encounters, with a DC reflecting the situation (usually around DC 12, modified up to 14-15 or even 17-18 if things get really bad / confusing for the creature): is this 'monster' smart enough to do what's good for it, or is it too dumb / scared / enraged to actually plan according to the situation ? This works both ways, because it can decide whether or not an enemy will flee, but also charge into a dangerous position, take an AoO, ignore a spell caster, 'remember' to use a lethal ability etc.
A tactic I like to use is starting one players turn by describing what happened on anothers eg how the bad guy reacted to the other players attack from their perspective instead of the attacker. I found it adds realism, cuts down on questions about what’s happening and if the player knows their character is paying attention they usually do too
My character literally once used the very element that there was an underground tunnel with a lot of crates at it's entrance. So she suggested to the party that they mine the tunnel with caltrops, ball bearings, and oil while using the crates for cover. The result was devastating for the attacking goblinoids. Backstory wise it also really makes sense for her since her Girlfriend is a Gloomstalker who could very well have talked her full for hours with tactics and strategy to the point she can count it backwards in Celestial during trance. The DM didnt expect me using all that elements but it certainly made it quite fun to watch all the goblinoids and worgs being stopped right in their tracks.
If it works for the player characters, those pesky goblins can & will do exactly the same thing... 😉
OR DoNT
Gargoyles that were defending a certain tomb had found themselves at odds with an aarakocra village nearby. The party, not knowing anything about either parties, entered the gargoyles territory. So, after a lengthy battle while they were scaling a steep cliff side, a member of the party was rendered unconscious and the rest of the party, except for the rogue who was dodging in and out of cover to take pot shots, was pretty worn out and near unconsciousness/death. Until a passing patrol of aarakocra showed up and began assisting the party and eventually killed most of the gargoyles. I had it though that the aarakocra, skeptical of the party, took the weakened party prisoner, minus the rogue and an NPC who trailed behind them just in case. It’s still one of my favorite encounters, although I did fudge some roles to avoid a TPK since most players were pretty invested and we weren’t too late game.
I never want to watch a sponsorship again if it doesn’t look like yours; you’re spoiling us with such enjoyable videos beginning to end!!
Best combat I’ve been in was in late 2019, playing the Out of the Abyss module. We were escaping from a drow encampment and had to not only free ourselves from our bonds, but also flee across a rope bridge to safety. The party cleric (light domain) was the last one across and cast fireball on the bridge after she got to the other side, killing about ten soldiers and winning us the fight. Honourable mention goes to another fight in that campaign where the rogue jumped onto a beholder.
"Where the rogue jumped on a beholder" please elaborate
@@cesargeney5268 yes I would love to hear the story about that too
Something I found useful was reading "the monsters know what they are doing" and always treating monsters as if they wanted to actually survive (or if they don't want to survive in some situations)
My players are gonna love this, as a new DM, I want to challenge myself to create exciting or interesting combat that they'll enjoy.
I've been DM/storytelling for over 25 years. You have now unlocked some of our secrets.
This is fantastic advice. Thank you so much. I often find myself falling for the trap of worrying too much that I've made encounters too hard for my players and I've found the more I just sort of go with it, the more fun everyone (generally) has.
I've been teaching ESL for some time, and I've been using RPG as a methodology for conversation classes for close to 2 years now. One of the things I use as a core rule is that RPG stands for ROLE PLAYING game. Even monkeys can throw dice around and make sounds, but HOW something happens in a game is more important than WHAT happens.
Brandon Sanderson mentioned it in one of his classes: you can tell anyone an entire book in a single sentence, but then you wouldn't have much of a story.
I love your insights ❤️
Best tip I’ve had was the “action oriented design” from Matt Colville. That way both decreases the huge amount of choices to be made and it helps put in some story elements during prep time when there’s less pressure.
Ginny: "I'm not saying I want to kill my players and drink their tears"
Me: ...*puts down cup of players' tears* "Uhh... this is... someone else's..."
I've mentioned this on a few videos, but I will always preach it to help out other like-minded DMs. One of the things I started doing was I stopped making maps, and by that I mean dungeon and city maps. It became so overwhelming for me to create an entire map for a specific dungeon or city and then have to find excuses, reasons or tangible examples for where things are when my players ask or mention something I never considered like a bathroom or "If this is the Spider Ranch, where do they keep the spider food?" Not to mention in addition to all this, I would design my key encounter rooms in such a barebones fashion they'd become uneventful. Now I design maps exclusively for combat, save for a world map. It lets me put all my time and creative juices to make sure the encounter design is dynamic and has enough elements to feel fun in my eyes. I had a party recently fight in the middle of a large farming field which did allow them to chase and mow the bad guys down but when one of them used Dragon's Breath and caught a large portion of the crops on fire, there was suddenly this obstacle in this big open space the party not only had to avoid, but could also utilize and were also freaking out over because "we can't let this fire get out of hand!"
You hit the nail on the head, combat maps are most of what makes a good combat. It can be what determines the outcome sometimes even more than the dice. If you're a new dm you can start with simple maps and as you learn how to make better and better maps it'll seem like the higher the levels your players get, the sense of scale and stakes really raise. 10/10 video.
Fighting a blue dracolich after casting "fly" on the whole group was lots of fun. A few time had to use my reaction for "feather fall," cast "fly" again and continue.
I highly recommend the book, "The Monsters Know What They're Doing". I FEEL ALL OF THIS ON SO MANY LEVELS.
I'm running an accelerated campaign at the moment that's all big boss fights, so trying to keep things interesting is a serious challenge. The next encounter I'm trying out an elemental emissary with immunity to most damage, a fire aura, and a charging attack that moves through player spaces while leaving fire behind.
I have copies of my players' character sheets to do trial runs of encounters for all of these reasons.
I recommend avoiding a pitfall of DMing, the enemy's masterfully set up the entire arena to their advantage. On occasion that's fine. Too much and it leads to questions of why every encounter is like a video game where the AI can do whatever it wants while the human can't. So sometimes the hazard is something that just happens and it might help or hurt. I once took the Alders Blood setting and used it for a game, at a logging site the logs were knocked around during a storm, and everyone on either side had to regularly make checks. Also, ambushes can be very fun for parties used to attacking static positions or getting attacked.
I also would say that, based on personal preference and experience, I'd recommend at least 10-15 seconds to do something. Besides avoiding panicking someone, their character might know how to flawlessly decapitate a lizardman, but the player hasn't spent the years training it to be second nature. Alternate example, Forcecage might only extend up to a certain point when you cast it, but the player needs to know what that point is.
And yeah, they should try to keep track of their abilities, but memorizing the details of every cantrip up to 7th level on top of remembering the campaign, their companions, and their enemies is a lot.
There is no arena. Your advantage as an invading hobo troop is to pick when and where to do so.
I know I’m late but this was an encounter I was proud of.
Spring of 2020, a couple of people were missing for our regular game so I decided to take the remaining three people and try to make a quick one shot with a stat block I quickly found online.
What ensued was an hour and a half of slow burning tension as I painted a situation where our party members are investigating the disappearances of several farmer’s daughters culminating to a meeting with our big bad-but they only knew him as another lead. Interviewing him and using invisibility to look through his shack uncovered clues that the man was not just killing his victims but eating them too. Bloody knife was found in the middle of a fridge filled with rib cages that were approximated to belong to young women and my players were full to bursting with tension. When they were arguing on what to do next, one suggested they call him out for it to which I had him respond “Just do it.”
They fought “Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf” with such fervor and fear. It terrified them that his body was not found when they left to further explore the shack and one of my players complained to me that she did not sleep well.
“Give them a why” at its finest. He wants to eat you.
The best combat I ever ran was when the party was sent to investigate a town which the local king hadn't heard from in months, and the people he sent to check out what was happening there didn't return. The party was sent in to scout out the area but ended up going down to the dungeon where a caster was transforming the locals into gnolls. The fight was tense and the PC's were close to going down and when the bad guy was hurt he used misty step to escape. The bloodhunter charges after the villain but can't keep up so the sorcerer attacks just as the villain is leaving his range, and manages to hit and kill the bad guy.
Having your villains attempt to escape when the party looks to overpower them isn't just great for making combat more tense but it can also create a recurring antagonist which is a lot more fun for the players, and it gives you as the DM a new NPC to have some fun with!
One simple method I've found for making combat more interesting is the use of 'confounding factors', which is anything that makes the job of the players more difficult and can draw their attention away from the combat itself. This could include hazards on the battlefield (such as lava or a spike trap), unfavorable terrain (swamp, darkness, any place where the monster has a natural advantage), NPCs that need saving/protecting, puzzles or tricks that the players have to work around, Maybe a moral dilemma, a hidden threat such as nearby guards that they don't want to alert or the sense that something else is creeping up from behind them, or just something chaotic such as a shelf of unknown potions. I've found that the more of these confounding factors are included the more interesting the combat becomes and the more fun it is to DM or play in because they allow for alternatives to straightforward combat that the players or NPCs can utilize to their advantage.
There are a few combats that stand out in my mind!
One near the beginning of our campaign. We had to find a wild flower for a potion ingredient, and when we found it and plucked it, it aggravated this Forest Guardian. I was playing a Druid and was against hurting the creature, so we just kept running away, as it followed us. I was doing some investigating and realized the distressed fragrance from the flower was what was aggrieved the guardian.
We allowed it to approach us, and it used magic to heal the flower. And instead of plucking the flower we dug it up from the roots and transplanted it in a pot and took the whole plant with us. It was a fun encounter with no violence!
Another combat was in a different campaign. He had infiltrated this cult hideout and found they were torturing this Pheonix creature. We released it just as the cults members caught up with us. It was angry and was destroying the tower while the cultists were trying to kill us. There were multiple levels and rooms the encounter went through, a lot was happening and there was a lot to interact with.
I was a Warlock in that campaign and during the encounter the DM had my Patron request I leave the tower with a specific item, so I also had to focus on that.
There was a lot going on! It was really fun!
I love that you finagled a ‘no violence’ resolution to that encounter! I love combat, both running and playing, but having that option sometimes makes the game world feel more real.
The pot idea sounds like a good murderhobo bum solution. Other ideas we might have tried is to disguise the scent.
Adding monsters in waves turned out to be super effective for me. This way I can control and scale the difficulty on the one hand and give a sense of time pressure on the other.
Also, having ranged enemies distributed in a large area can be a huge challange.
Others have probably mentioned this, but a random D4 roll as a timer for something significant happening is a great way to increase tension. D4 rounds before enemy reinforcements, D4 rounds before the room is flooded with lava, the prisoner is sacrificed, or the monster breaks its mystic chains, and teleports away. It increases the urgency, and players really feel it when that timer goes down every round. Thanks for the video!
I was just thinking about this during our last session and these are great tips! I do need to work on finding more ways to describe how the attack is hitting the opponent without using the same lines every time.
I found out about your channel just this week, and your videos are helping me so much! I love them!! And then i get this feeling that i could make my combat sections better, and then, BOOM there is this new video talking exactly about that! Such coincidence! (P.S i will be GM'ing my first FOR REAL AND SERIOUS dnd campaign and i want it to be the best i can, and wow your videos are helping me so much! Thank you for that!)
Good luck to you and your players. We all wish you the most fun you can pack into every session.^^
@@Mirikal Thank you so much!! You're nice bro
Ahh, that makes me so happy to hear!! Best of luck with your new campaign, you're gonna kill it!!
@@GinnyDi Thanks for the support AND for the content! You're awesome, really
@@GinnyDi Oh, and i actually want to add that i LOVED the tips on making a character "wrong", it adds so much narrative flavor to them!
1) Can you use the prepare action to dodge? I could see intelligent enemies (or even wolves) just staying in formation and snarling, and as soon as an adventurer charges in, whoever is targeted uses their prepared action reaction to go full defense and give disadvantage, and the other to attack. Next round, they either do the same thing or both attack. That means the adventurer has 3 blows coming his way before he's likely to land an attack, adding some spice to the encounter.
2) Have intelligent monsters perform a phalanx. Two rows of polearms. First row all use their action to dodge, and get an attack of opportunity on anyone who tries to come to melee range. Second row all use the prepare action then use their reaction to attack whoever comes within range. If the barbarian charges in, he's got literally up to 10 attacks hitting him before he can roll a dice.
3) Other idea, use grapple and shove. If the enemies don't deal that much damage but outnumber, they can use their action economy to trade in attacks for attempts at grappling and tripping one adventurer to the ground and crowd him. "The time where the barbarian got jumped by six goblins" sounds like a more threatening and memorable encounter than just trading blows.
4) If the movement of the enemy is more than 30 feet, like, for instance, wolves, they can stay 35 feet away from the party and circle them menacingly instead of straight up attacking. Whichever adventurer tries to rush the wolves first can't attack until next round and will get 3-5 wolf bites with advantage and a chance to get pulled to the ground, OR will waste two turns running towards the wolves and back to his party while the wolves go for the squishies in the back.
5) Monsters can use their spells creatively instead of just to deal damage.
6) Monsters can use the defend action around their squishies, ranged and and casters too, forcing adventurers to deal with the disadvantage.
7) Flying creatures
a couple months late to this, but to answer:
1) no.
most tabletop systems require you to specify what action you're taking and what triggers it, when you take a 'prepare' action. this is the case for D&D 5e, PF, GURPS, ironclaw, lancer, and many more systems.
you could still pull that off if you have a good read on who your players will target, but there's a level of metagaming involved in that which i'm not comfortable with - especially concerning whether there's any narrative difference in taking the dodge action versus readying the dodge action, if you're concealing details about the ready action.
2) is smart tactics, though the first row isn't likely to get their AoO depending on the system; 5e only allows an AoO when an enemy moves out of your reach, not if they move into reach. 3.5e and PF allow an AoO when you leave any threatened square. also i'm not sure many combats involve enough monsters to do this.
3) this works. action economy do be terrifying. party mage is very likely to hit it with an area-effect spell though
4) i can't say i'm comfortable with the idea of having enemies stay just beyond the statistical edge of the players' movement ranges - that's plain metagaming - but forcing a player to move in to attack first is smart in any case.
5 & 6) yeah.
7) just be wary with flying, so you aren't turning it into a battle where the martials just have to set down their weapons and idle until the enemies get into range. though, most martials should be packing some ranged option anyway.
The coolest battle encounter I ever had was with the best dm I ever had. There was only me and one other player. The dm had this whole multiverse campaign with lots of weird magic and gods. Basically, one of the gods we were working with gave us the ability to *become* a boss. We grew huge tentacles/claws, and had cool abilities. We had to defeat a large group of enemies with all these new powers. I still think about that all these years later.
I would highly recommand the book by Keith Ammann "The monsters knows what they're doing", where he goes over most creatures from the Monster Manual and present a way they would figjt based on their skills, weaknesses and stats.
For example, Ammann describe how goblins, being squishy but having decent dexterity, would basically keep a distance, surround an enemy and pin them down with arrows or javelins, staying in cover or in hiding the whole time. Fighting goblins that stick to the shadows and retreat everytime you try to get closer while shooting from all sides is much more interesting -and challenging- than the classical goblin swarm
This video is literally incredible thank you so much, this has really opened my eyes and pushed me to finally DM the campign that i always wanted as a player
So last night I ran my first game as a DM, and it’s the only game I’ve ever been directly involved with too!
I had 4 players with level 1 characters and I sent a level 5 Cleric with them (they didn’t know his level, but he casually covered an amount of gold the group as a whole was having a hard time covering and for his stealth/survival roles he rolled by far the highest in the group, so they could tell he was above their level.
Once combat started he healed the Fighter from like 3 HP to max while the fighter was in range of 3 baddies, then the next turn he casually knocked one flanking enemy to like 1/4 health, and finally he charged up to one of the baddies who just severely injured an ally and used 2nd level Inflict Wounds (which I flavored as _He charges up after seeing his allies in danger, lays a single finger on the duegar, and it explodes_).
Pretty op right?
That’s when they realized he was _at least_ 5th level, and I kinda sensed a slight tension from the realization that he was so much higher than they were.
Annnnnnd then the duegar who’d been spending his dash action for like 4 rounds getting into combat ran him through with his pike, instantly downing him and nearly outright killing him (I gave him a constitution of 3 so he had 8 HP).
Of course, the duegar is surrounded by the party now, _but they miss all but 1 hit_ so he takes the hits and finishes off the poor cleric on the ground, who’d already failed 1 death save.
The whole discord chat went silent for a second or two when they realized they’d just lost their dedicated healer (who also could deal more damage in a single spell than anyone else).
I, forgetting Clerics use holy symbols and need backstory, improve’d what they found on his body after combat- 200 gold, spell materials, and a gilded leaf- a symbol of his religious order- which represented how not only is there value in life, but life itself is value, and should be protected.
He’d come to Icewind Dale after hearing of the unending winter, and went up to use his wealth and power to help those in need (which is also why this high level cleric decided to go along with a bunch of level 1 dudes).
Now the party has a martyr, they see the need for a healer (because the second combat they went into was wayyyy more difficult without 1), and it showed them that characters can and will die if that’s how the dice roll.
I was _GLOWING_ afterwords when one of the players stayed in VC for a bit to chat and talked about how it’s great he died because (he basically said all of the same things I’d hoped would happen from it)!
And he also said, “yeah cause he’s part of the module, right?”
My homebrew, OP DMPC made specifically to die felt so natural to them he figured it was part of an official module!
I would also add to the 'put the pressure on' part: do not forget to relieve the pressure occasionally. If players nearly die every combat it will get exhausting. Also if literally everything in your world is a deadly threat to the heroes of that world, well they don't really feel like powerful heroes. There are 4 tiers of difficulty of combat encounters for a reason.
Sometimes you should let your players absolutely destroy your opponents with nearly no threat to the group. Usually works best with comedic elements.
« My friends told me it was okay but i can still fix it » said every gm ( works for bisexuals, virgos etc. )
My recent campaign's most memorable fight started with another memorable fight. While escaping from a city through old abandoned thieves' tunnels being guided by their favorite NPC, the party set off a trap left behind by said thieves. The trap sealed the room and collapsed two walls, behind which were a mummy and a vampire. The mummy was fairly easy for them to dispatch, but the vampire had been trapped there for almost a century and was out of its mind with bloodlust, and it was beyond their abilities. They still managed to get it down to a third of its hit points, at which time it realized it wasn't getting the easy meal it desperately needed and misted out of there.
The party found the vampire in the next town in much better spirits, fed and situated among some charmed nobles. After exchanging threats they agreed to leave each other alone, mostly because the party was still barely a match for it. They stayed long enough for them and their NPC to get into trouble and left in a hurry, leaving instructions for the NPC to come find them. A few sessions later the NPC finally did show up, and the reunion was terrific, until the NPC revealed he was killed by the vampire before they had even left town and was one himself now. And then the vampire showed up and it was a brutal grudge match against their former friend and the vampire who turned him, and that was one hell of a fight.
Best fight our DM has run: D&D wrestling!
We were medieval/fantasy fighting slaves on an arena doing non-lethal show fighting as practice for death games. After we struck down some opponents, the DM introduced a super experienced gladiator opponent. After the first blows he threw his weapon and was like "come at me". So my character dropped his weapons and went into a fist fight. My friend grabbed a barrel and stuck it on the gladiator's head. And so on, we were suddenly thinking about "what makes this fun for the people in the audience?" rather than "how do we win most effectively?".
This was a really good move by the DM as it opened new perspectives for our combats. It was a great practical reminder that the fighting could/should be fun, not just about who wins. You can "dance" better with your opponent with that mindset.
Thx for the great videos, keep it up!
I'm just trying to get into DnD now after watching channels like this for years, and what really surprised me what how combat-centric it is. The fact that there isn't really a specific method for gaining XP doing anything else really surprised me. To be clear, as a gamer I identify as an explorer, which means to me combat isn't content, it's what gets between me and the content. I want there to be just enough of it to spice up the setting, like of course there's a troll in this old cave (but not two or three, see?).
My least favorite things in any fantasy setting is dungeon crawling and fighting, so I'm just happy there are alternative ways to gain XP nowadays, give me a two week trek through the woods to deliver some mysterious package to a reclusive noble in his mountain estate with big curtains and no mirrors and hey that's a vampire!
DnD and other similar editions are primarily based around combat. Roughly 80% of the rule set is based in combat, and you'll find the role play and exploration, and skill side of the game to be pretty lacking. It's basically assumed that you'll be narrating out most exploration and role play encounters with a few d20 rolls thrown in at DM fiat. I wonder if there are other systems that might have more developed mechanics for that kind of stuff in the way that combat is very highly developed in DnD and similar games.
One thing to keep in mind is that DMs should generally award XP for non-combat 'encounters' they put together. As a DM, I typically keep track of tasks/quests/interactions and other non-combat encounters that the PCs complete (of their own design or at the request of someone else), then I assign an XP value similar to a combat encounter. This helps ensure they are rewarded for things that aren't just hack 'n slash.
@@lordofdorknessdm3085 That's true. I think I'm more comfortable with having that responsibility now, but I would still prefer if there was a clear DC to XP gained ratio or something like it. Then again if there was I'd probably end up ignoring it half the time anyway.
I am a DM, and my favourite "battle" encounter was actually without enemies. It was a trial, and players had to climb to the top of a mountain and enter the portal. I had a map of a summit, with interesting elements like mammoth's skull, rocks, chasms, and mysterious monuments. The twist was that the portal was inactive. To activate it players had to read riddles from monuments and answer it correctly, but one monument was hidden, so they needed to found it. To spice things up, with each round magical/environmental effects intensified, like ice storms, pillars of ice shooting from the ground etc. I prepared a battle encounter with map, grids and initiative, with puzzels to solve, timer set by players HP and endurance, and without real enemy and I think it's the best I created so far.
Well done Ginny Di. New subscriber and old dm (from 70s). Great ideas and well presented...loved it.
Hi Ginny, I've been a DM for 17 years now and to respond to your last question: "which was the most memorable encounter you have ever played'", I'd say the one in which I didn't follow the rules at every step. At a certain point a character was about to die and the player asked me if he could throw a curse before dying, and the circumstance was so perfect that I let him live, cursed by his own evil god, and continue the fight rather than die because his HP was below -10 (it was d&d 3.5 back then); briefly he summoned a giant zombie whale over the head of the enemy angel flying above him and it died right away crushed by the giant evocation. Sorry for the long comment, but my point and advice if you'd like to hear one (yours were good ones indeed), is this: don't stick too much to the rules and let the players put some more creativity. Good luck with you games!
One of the easiest ways I have been able to keep players thinking is keep the monsters/baddies moving. Your "stuff" tip is my favorite. When the DM-controlled baddies are using the environment, swiping wine glasses off tables at player's faces, kicking up dirt, flinging chairs, or just trying to run away, the players are more keen to do the same. I am fortunate to play with some very creative people, too, though, which also goes a long way.
The most memorable encounters are always the ones with high stakes and important consequences.
People can move without fearing attacks of opportunity if not every ennemy is an unkillable tank. Anyways combat is all about balance and its not always easy to pull off. Making it fun is also about narrating actions players take, especially if they don't do it themselves it adds the whompf.
In my experience it's less that players FEAR attacks of opportunity, and more that it's not worth it to risk taking one when there's no real benefit to moving around, anyway! It basically makes it so that players will only move if they can't attack from where they are.
The Monster Know What They're Doing by Kieth Ammonn is Amazingly good for this. It goes over a lot of common creatures and gives you information on how they would behave and fight.
This is super helpful! Recently I played a quick one shot with a single player, and by luring all the zombies into a tunnel, he could fight them one at a time. It was a smart strategy, but it devolved into "you hit dealing _ damage, the zombie misses, you hit again" and it was super boring. By asking and applying these questions, I can make my combat more interesting! Thanks!
""Give bad guys a "why"" is exactly what I did when I rewrote a first edition module. Lot's of monsters in a keep and it didn't make sense they hadn't seen or interacted with each other and it also didn't make sense that some of the monsters were there in that space. It was supposed to be a mix of humans and goblins, spiders, beetles, and wolves. I hated it. Even in the basement, there was a doppleganger, some barbarians, a couple mischief making gnome types, etc. It was a chaotic mess and felt like a first level "open the door and fight" hack-and-slash dungeon.
I rearranged some things, added some things, changed the last room (a sort of dug out cavern with several smaller chambers), altered the whole premise and made things interconnected as to why they were there. Overall I like the stories I created from my alterations rather than the mish-mash the original developers left me to try and muddle through.
I think the best combat I've ever run is when the players had to do a fighting retreat through a goblin town they were investigating.
Suddenly as they're exploring a goblin drums sounds from the nearby forest and a goblin warparty appears. At first the warparty is curious. They were supposed to join up with another tribe, but as darkness fall they start to send scouts into the village. This has given the players some time to prepare, but as more and more goblins amass at the forest's edge it becomes clear that this is not a fight they can win. But it's also clear that they have to bloody the nose of this goblin party or they'll be cut down. So it turns into hit&run fight in the narrow streets. They've dug and hid traps in the muddy streets, but as the fight develops the agile goblins start to climb the buildings. The ranger tries to hold them back but can't really stem the tide. At the same time the rest of the party does not have the climbing skills or agility to fight on the rooftops themselves. So it's a constant retreat, with the pace of the fight rotating between stand&hold (because the goblins in the streets are no match for the party's beefy fighters) and retreating as the goblins take up tactically advantageous positons above them (raining down javelins and arrows). At the same time the rooftop goblins can't keep pace with the retreating party, because while the ranger has boots of spiderclimb and effortlessly moves from roof to roof the goblins are not fast or agile enough to do the same. All the while the spellcasters try to support the party at important moments (like when have to turn and run) by the low level spells&wands they have available (a wand of grease with 5 charges was the MVP of the fight).
My tips for GM's that want to make their fights more interesting.
1. Read Tucker's kobolds, aka "How do you turn the most pathetic enemy into the most lethal fight". That should give you plenty of ideas on how social enemies fight on their own turf.
2. Give enemies interesting abilities. Are your enemies fairly mediocre in melee but have good agility? Give them oil flasks or other relatively weak area of effect attacks, especially if they deal damage over time to give their melee fighters the advantage in a static fight. Or include monsters with the ability to break up formations. Any sort of "big guy" (everything from a minotaur to a troll or a Gnoll berserker) should for example be able to bullrush and throw the fighters to the left and right if they try to "shield wall". The situation should always be that the adventurers have to be dynamic, because either a static fight shouldn't be to their advantage (because that's the enemy plan) or it should be difficult (because the enemy has the tools to disrupt that plan).
3. Make the terrain interesting. My goblin town is just one example of an environment where any positional advantage is fleeting and only lasts as long as it takes for the enemy to flank.
4. Intelligent monsters retreat when they don't think they can win a fight unless they've been forced into a desperate situation. Any survivors will either flee completely or reinforce a future encounter.
There are 3 points that make combat interesting: Time, Hinderance, and Damage. So for instance Important NPC (X) Dies in 2 rounds, Webs create difficult terrain, & spiders poison, medium damage. Oh and a swarm of spiders encroaches that spells certain doom in 4 rounds. Very simple example. All my encounters have these 3 points in varying intensities. Beyond this you can make things more flavorful like you suggest but these 3 components are the core.
My combats have been much better since dropping flanking as a rule.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, actually!! I'm really curious how many people don't allow flanking advantage in their games, because it does feel like by far the rule that creates the most predictable and boring combat movement.
Flanking as written in 5e is one of those rules that seems like a good idea on paper, but brings a whole host of problems due to the fact that creatures really shouldn't be given advantage on attacks as easily as the rule permits.
@@IncaSteppa420 yes I agree it should be like cover. So you get a +3 to attack rolls or something
I use a homebrew rule I call "cornered".
If an opponent is blocked from four sides (cardinal or intercardinal directions on a square map) by enemies or terrain, the attacker has advantage on melee attacks. Because the party rarely has four melee attackers they need to use the enviorment to corner enemies. This makes my players do clever stuff like use the push action or set up ambushes in corridors and generally pay more attention to the combat. It also makes the squishy players take risks and go up to melee range to corner an enemy.
Enemies can also corner players and that is a great source of tension durning exploration
@@GinnyDi I have never used flanking as a DM, I never played in a game with flanking and only 1 of the 6 shows I watch uses it 🤔 It’s an optional rule that seems like it was made for wargaming fans. It should really not be expected as the norm imo
In short, I'm enjoying these short videos which provide great info in a bite-size format.
Great video! The best battle I ever had started in a dark forest with a bolt coming from the shadows at the players, followed by a fireball spell in the center of their formation. The barbarian rushed in the direction of the bolt and the Bard followed close behind. A centaur came from the shadows and grappled the socerer, took them to a nearby creek, and held their head underwater until the party surrendered. Turns out the bounty they were hunting were good guys after all, and not ones to be messed with. They joined forced to kill the evil guy who put the price on their heads.