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Honestly a great idea for giants in general. Sorta plays into the whole "grind bones for bread" thing by giving giants a "they are what they eat" vibe.
Cool. My giants have pets. Basically fighting a giant means fighting the giant and the monsters they comand, they are never alone and give orders to other monsters who usually are to dumb to have tactics or that without the giant the pets would probably flee, so the giant sack of hitpoints sudenly has a purpose, needing only to defeat the giant to end the encounter.
If they are feasting on wyverns, maybe they are also resistant or immune to poison/poisoned condition. Love the breath attack as well. Does that mean if your players eat the heart of the Giant, they receive some poison based feature for a time?
I'm running Giantslayer, and I've had so many giants with special abilities that I either made up or stole from somewhere. my players never know if they're getting a regular giant, a melee monster, or some sort of gish. the scout player: 'I'll hang back and slow the scythe-wielding giant as we retreat because I can get away' the giant: slaps him with a crit and a combat maneuver that does all but 3 of the scout's health, and cuts his speed by half. the scout: ... Morgan Freeman: it was at that time, he realized he eff-d up.
I had a problem with Giantslayer as well, but thankfully the PF2e giants are so much better, so I've been borrowing abilities from them and adding them like a template.
A good monster should always have a simple and FULL action economy. It is far more dramatic when they act during and after their turn. Also fun to take a simple combo and distribute it between two monster types. Example: a band of goblins, half throw jars of grease and the other half catch it on fire.
I 100% agree with this list! One of my favorite 5e books is Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft. My favorite monster in that is the Relentless Juggernaut as it is just built to be a powerful monster similar to that of Nemesis from Resident Evil or any other super powered monster from a horror series. I made it so that it had a comical amount of health and had it chase the players around a Mansion. With the players never knowing when this behemoth would just come charging through the wall to attack them. It kept my players on edge and we had so much fun
I have a very different take---when every monster has some special ability/vulnerability it comes down to--okay, what's this one's gimmick? That's effective once in a while. Most of the time, however, what makes combat exciting is that there's a lot going on and the party is taking real damage. Getting to giants--players in my world fear giants--they don't encounter them often, but when they do, they know it's going to be bloody. First--I add strength bonuses to their attacks. Secondly, it's not just clubs and rocks--it's kicks and being grabbed up and hurled. So your not only taking damage from having the life squeezed out of you but you're taking falling damage when you slam into the ground. When your main line fighter takes a boot to the head and goes sailing 20-30 feet as the giant makes his way to the squishy center--that's not an uninteresting combat. And these are just hill giants. Fire Giants are terrifying because they use small unit tactics, attack multiple times per round like a trained fighter would--and their pyromancers are something to be dreaded. For instance, when the rocks they start throwing at you have a molten core and shatter on impact---that's f---ing scary. Frost giants are masters of hit and run, especially in blizzards where visibility is next to zero. Gimmicks are cool once in a while, but as a DM I prefer leaning into things that are just nuts and bolts DANGEROUS. There are times when you want to keep em guessing---and sometimes the guessing is--which way are you going to run?
You can blame power creep on the overly complex monsters in 5e and Pathfinder. The more power that is given to the players the more that the monsters have to do to offset said power, thus resulting in longer, more drawn-out, less interesting combats because everyone is super powerful.
0:26 1: A Great Monster Inspires you - The GM 1:15 2: A Great Monster Has Cool Abilities 2:24 3: A Great Monster has Strengths and Weaknesses 3:54 4: A Great Monster is more than a One-Trick Pony 4:44 5: A Great Monster has Great Tactical Depth 5:42 6: A Great Monster Reacts to the Characters 6:03 7: A Great Monster is EASY for the GM to run 7:10 8: A Great Monster has a Cool, Unique, or Memorable Appearance 8:16 9: A Great Monster is something normal, but with a twist 8:44 10: A Great Monster plays on Emotion 9:32 11: A Great Monster has Motivations 10:40 12: A Great Monster Serves a Purpose in the World 11:04 13: A Great Monster Serves a Purpose in the Story 11:34 14: A Great Monster is Correctly Balanced 12:06 15: A Great Monster is Rewarding 12:38 16: A Great Monster Uses its Environment 13:16 17: A Great Monster has a Diversity of Roles 13:53 18: A Great Monster Grows and Evolves 14:42 19: A Great Monster has a Memorable Name 14:58 20: A Great Monster Fits well into your Groups Playstyle Thank you for making this list sir! I don't use DnD or Pathfinder myself but understanding how to build and construct monsters is just wonderful!
About the overly complex monsters: I have seen plenty of stat blocks that essentially define a game session. Yes, session, not encounter. And then used it that way. The problem this causes is that you have then robbed yourself of using that monster again, unless heavily modified (nerfed, usually).
I was inspired by the old Warhammer Fantasy Battles giant to make giants more interesting giving them actions like Yell and Bawl, Jump Up and Down, Headbutt, Pick up and…. (Stuff down pants/ Stuff in bag/ Bite/ or Throw back) as well as Swing with Club and Thump with club. Also when they die they fall over potentially landing on a PC and crushing them! Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to try them out yet as my players are still only at level 4 but maybe soon.😈
Idk if you are trying to get comments (congrats if you are because it worked), but I think giants are great monsters. They are the epitome of simplicity and, if played correctly, can either be an easy or medium solo encounter, or if in a group could be a deadly beating by a wall of hit points especially when employing tactics
A great monster always attacks downed players, silvery barbs every one of their crits, has Reactive so it can silvery barbs each turn, and also counterspells. Oh yeah and can use like 5 reactions per turn as well, just in case ( comes in handy when players attempt a Revivify mid combat, the audacity, I know ). Now that’s a GREAT monster!
Very good video- a lot of great content. 2 comments. 1. Ripping on Giants is fine, but provide examples (beyond the one comment about hitting the celling) on how giants can be made better, and explain why you chose the abilities you did. 2. There are more than a few people who play high level D&D. Content creators keep saying "no one plays high level D&D" - it puts the false narrative out there. High level D&D is challenging and rewarding-for the players and DMs.
All 6 "main" giants got a variant with an extra thing to do in Storm King's Thunder. There are some variants in Bigby's too, but I can't say much about that because I don't own the book. Volo's also has some variants. I think they got a lot of love in the end, but the main line of giants were indeed bags of hit points.
Giants are fantastic monsters to pit against the players as long as you throw a group of giants at them instead of a singular one to fight. If all you have them do is swing their club instead of tossing, grappling, focusing fire...well, then you have made them a boring bag of HPs.
Hey now, Rock is a great attack though. Knocking PCs prone at range is a great way to discourage the "I shoot it and run/fly away out of reach" problem most big dumb monsters have.
At my after school Pathfinder club, I always tell my students to think of monster design like puzzle design - determine the intended path to victory, and build with that in mind. While your players may very well come up with an alternative path to victory, having an intended path makes the fight rewarding because there is something for your players to discover, and then (more importantly), exploit! As such, the single most important aspect of any monster is its weakness! The weakness shouldn't necessarily be obvious (& subtle weaknesses are a lot of fun when you figure them out), nor should it be easy to exploit (why not retreat, prepare, and come back ready for revenge). Put a flaw in the proverbial armor, then figure out what the monster is going to do while your players are busy figuring out how to stop it! A good monster is basically a timed puzzle!
Hey Luke! Just wanted to say thanks real fast while the comments are empty. I've been following for awhile and your content is some of my favorite! Thanks for doing what you do!
3:38 "When monsters have weaknesses, it gives players a puzzle to solve." That's not a puzzle. That's just wasting attack after attack until you finally find one that deals damage. It's the same as doing a jigsaw puzzle upside down - ultimately you're just trying each piece until you find one that fits. Now, if you had set this up somehow - if the players had found some notes in the hag's lair that indicated a vulnerability to acid and cold, for example - it would be different. But in your example, you just arbitrarily swapped the troll's resistances and vulnerabilities to waste the players' time.
Noticed something: Luke's complaints about giants can be equally applied to humans. Any counterpoint anyone can come up with for humans can easily apply to giants.
If you leave a pastie out for the fae folk should you always include rutabega? Also, sometimes the right idea for a party is to quote Monyy Python "Run away!"
Haha!! Luke no word good. At least he doesn't totally suck. To improve your giants, have them utilize the terrain. Each one is terrain specific, so give them actions and abilities relative to that environ.
thank you so much for making this i can make a campaign with my friend now and get to show him how i do 2-3 player dnd its been a while but this was so absolutely helpful i wanted to be sure i said thanks :]
Realizes he can't speak or do his job.. but that's fine. Continues to watch and subscribes regardless. Also, has a magic lucky rabbit's foot and hopefully it helps.
Monsters with too many abilities (high level spellcasters) only really work as solo encounters, so you don't have to split your attention between Monster x does A, monster y does B, and then when monster x comes back up, you haven't forgotten that it did A because you have to keep track of all the stupid little things every monster can do separately
A cool thing for giants might be like: those who get hit by their attacks need to also avoid falling prone or being stunned. I mean: they throw boulders or little boulders, not just rocks and their clubs are probably carved from trees. I do not belive for one moment that a man or a halfling, hit by something strong enough to be like a living catapult or wielding a tree as a weapon, can easily stand or not fall unconcious.
Speaking of monsters having an effect on the world. I had a zoo in the one city. There was a Cerberus there as thebmain attraction. So they broke in and freed it. It never hurt them but it was ravenging the country side eating all the live stock and even some travelers. There were missions woth increasing rewards to stop it and the town was slowly starting to run out of food. The campaign didn't last long enough for it to fully play out but they noticed and talked a lot of crap on the guy that wanted to free it but never did anything about it 😆
12:50 Now try to find something interesting Maruts can do. Giants may be big sacks of hitpoints that do damage, but a Marut is a big sack of hitpoints that does 120 dpr.
Does 5e not give giants bonuses to grapples due to size like they had in previous editions? Giants are terrifying if you run them like the titans from Attack on Titan.
here an example of how i made the Ankhek battle memorable. it borrow and tried to drag a player down with it. so they had to make a str. save, and i use a bandit they were chasing to give them a hint about the battle so i didn't just drag the wizard to his death without them having a chance of making a plan of the party grouping up to defend eachother.i had made it so the player character who was moving the most would be the target. but my party group up and stod in a circle all ready to attack it when it show up to drag one down.
I love creating monsters for the game or tweaking existing ones. I started this in the 3 - 3.5 days. I created a small demon that meandered in groups of 5-12, they were quite placid with low hit points and okay natural AC (12-13). If one was injured and not killed it would go in a berserk rage bite on to any available limb (they were pretty stupid so this would include one of their own) and would explode, their blood was like greek fire and do damage (don’t remember off the top of my head. On each continent of my world there is an elite group of kobolds. They’re still cowardly meat bags but are more tactics driven. A desert group would use gliders and drop clay jars from above filled with nasty stuff on their enemies. (rot grubs for example). This video brought back great memories, thanks Luke.
Lots of the bosses I've designed follow these tips really well. They're chaotic and the phase system keeps them from being too complex (while also stopping the players from 1-tapping them)
3.5's War Hulk can add a pretty simple variants to gaints, either by having their rocks basically be bowling balls or their clubs hit multiple spaces when swinging. Either option gives a bit of map interaction at the very least and you don't want to be in a line, or you can to do stuff like hug walls so the club can't hit more than one character.
As usual great gudance and a fun listen. I like these videos and I"m an habitual notetaker, but I would pay a buck or two for a list like this, or bulletted notes for this. The same for most of your lists.
One issue I've had is that some monsters do fancy things at death, like Zombies who can get back up with 1 hit point, or the ooze which divides instead. These are neat mechanics, but during our whole first dungeon with zombies, they never rolled to regain hit points so I almost forgot, and the critical on the ooze meant it didn't have a chance to divide.
I like using Giants as friendly NPCs more than enemies. I just love their culture and divisions. And the way they interact with player characters is so cute.
Something I always add to enemies is a recharge ability. They are so often underrated, but when done properly, they can scare the pants off players haha
Um, no. Historically yes, but modern (recognized by modern dictionaries) is how he used it, appropriately. You could demonstrate your intelligence without being condescending.
Would you a private DM for my buddies bday party? Long time watcher and trust in your skills. Willing to pay $200 per hour. Perhaps a 10 session mini campaign ?
One item about monsters that I think may GMs forget about that helps add variety, not all monsters need to be evil. In fact many of them are not inherently evil which can make for some interesting story dynamics.
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My hill giants often feast on wyverns, so they get a poison breath attack that recharges on a 6. That was enough to trip my players up considerably
Honestly a great idea for giants in general. Sorta plays into the whole "grind bones for bread" thing by giving giants a "they are what they eat" vibe.
Cool.
My giants have pets.
Basically fighting a giant means fighting the giant and the monsters they comand, they are never alone and give orders to other monsters who usually are to dumb to have tactics or that without the giant the pets would probably flee, so the giant sack of hitpoints sudenly has a purpose, needing only to defeat the giant to end the encounter.
If they are feasting on wyverns, maybe they are also resistant or immune to poison/poisoned condition. Love the breath attack as well. Does that mean if your players eat the heart of the Giant, they receive some poison based feature for a time?
Totally stealing this.
Grab attack would be good for hill giants
Then toss, bite and human club attack after
I'm running Giantslayer, and I've had so many giants with special abilities that I either made up or stole from somewhere. my players never know if they're getting a regular giant, a melee monster, or some sort of gish.
the scout player: 'I'll hang back and slow the scythe-wielding giant as we retreat because I can get away'
the giant: slaps him with a crit and a combat maneuver that does all but 3 of the scout's health, and cuts his speed by half.
the scout: ...
Morgan Freeman: it was at that time, he realized he eff-d up.
I had a problem with Giantslayer as well, but thankfully the PF2e giants are so much better, so I've been borrowing abilities from them and adding them like a template.
A good monster should always have a simple and FULL action economy. It is far more dramatic when they act during and after their turn. Also fun to take a simple combo and distribute it between two monster types. Example: a band of goblins, half throw jars of grease and the other half catch it on fire.
I 100% agree with this list! One of my favorite 5e books is Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft. My favorite monster in that is the Relentless Juggernaut as it is just built to be a powerful monster similar to that of Nemesis from Resident Evil or any other super powered monster from a horror series. I made it so that it had a comical amount of health and had it chase the players around a Mansion. With the players never knowing when this behemoth would just come charging through the wall to attack them. It kept my players on edge and we had so much fun
I have a very different take---when every monster has some special ability/vulnerability it comes down to--okay, what's this one's gimmick? That's effective once in a while. Most of the time, however, what makes combat exciting is that there's a lot going on and the party is taking real damage.
Getting to giants--players in my world fear giants--they don't encounter them often, but when they do, they know it's going to be bloody. First--I add strength bonuses to their attacks. Secondly, it's not just clubs and rocks--it's kicks and being grabbed up and hurled. So your not only taking damage from having the life squeezed out of you but you're taking falling damage when you slam into the ground. When your main line fighter takes a boot to the head and goes sailing 20-30 feet as the giant makes his way to the squishy center--that's not an uninteresting combat. And these are just hill giants. Fire Giants are terrifying because they use small unit tactics, attack multiple times per round like a trained fighter would--and their pyromancers are something to be dreaded. For instance, when the rocks they start throwing at you have a molten core and shatter on impact---that's f---ing scary. Frost giants are masters of hit and run, especially in blizzards where visibility is next to zero.
Gimmicks are cool once in a while, but as a DM I prefer leaning into things that are just nuts and bolts DANGEROUS. There are times when you want to keep em guessing---and sometimes the guessing is--which way are you going to run?
You can blame power creep on the overly complex monsters in 5e and Pathfinder. The more power that is given to the players the more that the monsters have to do to offset said power, thus resulting in longer, more drawn-out, less interesting combats because everyone is super powerful.
Completely that 5e giants are terrible. It's one of the things I really like about PF2e giants. Way more interesting.
0:26 1: A Great Monster Inspires you - The GM
1:15 2: A Great Monster Has Cool Abilities
2:24 3: A Great Monster has Strengths and Weaknesses
3:54 4: A Great Monster is more than a One-Trick Pony
4:44 5: A Great Monster has Great Tactical Depth
5:42 6: A Great Monster Reacts to the Characters
6:03 7: A Great Monster is EASY for the GM to run
7:10 8: A Great Monster has a Cool, Unique, or Memorable Appearance
8:16 9: A Great Monster is something normal, but with a twist
8:44 10: A Great Monster plays on Emotion
9:32 11: A Great Monster has Motivations
10:40 12: A Great Monster Serves a Purpose in the World
11:04 13: A Great Monster Serves a Purpose in the Story
11:34 14: A Great Monster is Correctly Balanced
12:06 15: A Great Monster is Rewarding
12:38 16: A Great Monster Uses its Environment
13:16 17: A Great Monster has a Diversity of Roles
13:53 18: A Great Monster Grows and Evolves
14:42 19: A Great Monster has a Memorable Name
14:58 20: A Great Monster Fits well into your Groups Playstyle
Thank you for making this list sir! I don't use DnD or Pathfinder myself but understanding how to build and construct monsters is just wonderful!
About the overly complex monsters: I have seen plenty of stat blocks that essentially define a game session. Yes, session, not encounter. And then used it that way.
The problem this causes is that you have then robbed yourself of using that monster again, unless heavily modified (nerfed, usually).
I was inspired by the old Warhammer Fantasy Battles giant to make giants more interesting giving them actions like Yell and Bawl, Jump Up and Down, Headbutt, Pick up and…. (Stuff down pants/ Stuff in bag/ Bite/ or Throw back) as well as Swing with Club and Thump with club. Also when they die they fall over potentially landing on a PC and crushing them!
Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to try them out yet as my players are still only at level 4 but maybe soon.😈
Idk if you are trying to get comments (congrats if you are because it worked), but I think giants are great monsters. They are the epitome of simplicity and, if played correctly, can either be an easy or medium solo encounter, or if in a group could be a deadly beating by a wall of hit points especially when employing tactics
Love your content man. All of these guides really help with my DM'ing skills and this one especially
Awesome, happy to be able to help! :D
A great monster always attacks downed players, silvery barbs every one of their crits, has Reactive so it can silvery barbs each turn, and also counterspells. Oh yeah and can use like 5 reactions per turn as well, just in case ( comes in handy when players attempt a Revivify mid combat, the audacity, I know ).
Now that’s a GREAT monster!
Very good video- a lot of great content. 2 comments.
1. Ripping on Giants is fine, but provide examples (beyond the one comment about hitting the celling) on how giants can be made better, and explain why you chose the abilities you did.
2. There are more than a few people who play high level D&D. Content creators keep saying "no one plays high level D&D" - it puts the false narrative out there. High level D&D is challenging and rewarding-for the players and DMs.
All 6 "main" giants got a variant with an extra thing to do in Storm King's Thunder. There are some variants in Bigby's too, but I can't say much about that because I don't own the book. Volo's also has some variants. I think they got a lot of love in the end, but the main line of giants were indeed bags of hit points.
Giants are fantastic monsters to pit against the players as long as you throw a group of giants at them instead of a singular one to fight. If all you have them do is swing their club instead of tossing, grappling, focusing fire...well, then you have made them a boring bag of HPs.
Hey now, Rock is a great attack though. Knocking PCs prone at range is a great way to discourage the "I shoot it and run/fly away out of reach" problem most big dumb monsters have.
At my after school Pathfinder club, I always tell my students to think of monster design like puzzle design - determine the intended path to victory, and build with that in mind.
While your players may very well come up with an alternative path to victory, having an intended path makes the fight rewarding because there is something for your players to discover, and then (more importantly), exploit!
As such, the single most important aspect of any monster is its weakness!
The weakness shouldn't necessarily be obvious (& subtle weaknesses are a lot of fun when you figure them out), nor should it be easy to exploit (why not retreat, prepare, and come back ready for revenge).
Put a flaw in the proverbial armor, then figure out what the monster is going to do while your players are busy figuring out how to stop it!
A good monster is basically a timed puzzle!
Hey Luke! Just wanted to say thanks real fast while the comments are empty. I've been following for awhile and your content is some of my favorite! Thanks for doing what you do!
Use giants from Bigby's book.
3:38 "When monsters have weaknesses, it gives players a puzzle to solve." That's not a puzzle. That's just wasting attack after attack until you finally find one that deals damage. It's the same as doing a jigsaw puzzle upside down - ultimately you're just trying each piece until you find one that fits.
Now, if you had set this up somehow - if the players had found some notes in the hag's lair that indicated a vulnerability to acid and cold, for example - it would be different. But in your example, you just arbitrarily swapped the troll's resistances and vulnerabilities to waste the players' time.
Noticed something: Luke's complaints about giants can be equally applied to humans. Any counterpoint anyone can come up with for humans can easily apply to giants.
Depends on system. In pf2e, thanks to traits, even different weapons feel different. But yeah, on higher lvl npc, some ability is due
@@Mirekluk Luke's mentioned on a few occasions that his issue is specifically with 5e giants, so that's what I meant to reference as well.
Content: 100%
Speaking: 60%
Just kindling: you're way better at speaking than all those haters! 😅
If you leave a pastie out for the fae folk should you always include rutabega?
Also, sometimes the right idea for a party is to quote Monyy Python "Run away!"
I love those pathfinder monster cards. I’m slowly purchasing all the cards for the bestiarys and APs i am actively running
Haha!! Luke no word good. At least he doesn't totally suck. To improve your giants, have them utilize the terrain. Each one is terrain specific, so give them actions and abilities relative to that environ.
thank you so much for making this i can make a campaign with my friend now and get to show him how i do 2-3 player dnd its been a while but this was so absolutely helpful i wanted to be sure i said thanks :]
I’ve used flying giants before as well as player classes.
I do have my monsters retreat or surrender too. My party has a fire giant henchman now too
Realizes he can't speak or do his job.. but that's fine. Continues to watch and subscribes regardless. Also, has a magic lucky rabbit's foot and hopefully it helps.
did anybody else see the " Number 9 a great monster is something normal with a twis"? specifically "twis" at 8:20
Monsters with too many abilities (high level spellcasters) only really work as solo encounters, so you don't have to split your attention between
Monster x does A, monster y does B, and then when monster x comes back up, you haven't forgotten that it did A because you have to keep track of all the stupid little things every monster can do separately
A cool thing for giants might be like: those who get hit by their attacks need to also avoid falling prone or being stunned. I mean: they throw boulders or little boulders, not just rocks and their clubs are probably carved from trees. I do not belive for one moment that a man or a halfling, hit by something strong enough to be like a living catapult or wielding a tree as a weapon, can easily stand or not fall unconcious.
Speaking of monsters having an effect on the world.
I had a zoo in the one city. There was a Cerberus there as thebmain attraction. So they broke in and freed it. It never hurt them but it was ravenging the country side eating all the live stock and even some travelers. There were missions woth increasing rewards to stop it and the town was slowly starting to run out of food. The campaign didn't last long enough for it to fully play out but they noticed and talked a lot of crap on the guy that wanted to free it but never did anything about it 😆
12:50 Now try to find something interesting Maruts can do. Giants may be big sacks of hitpoints that do damage, but a Marut is a big sack of hitpoints that does 120 dpr.
"You better ask my mama how to make a monster!" --The Cramps, "Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon"
Does 5e not give giants bonuses to grapples due to size like they had in previous editions? Giants are terrifying if you run them like the titans from Attack on Titan.
I gave a troll resistance to fire damage once. It was awesome! To kill it my players needed to use fire, but fire only did half damage to it!
here an example of how i made the Ankhek battle memorable. it borrow and tried to drag a player down with it. so they had to make a str. save, and i use a bandit they were chasing to give them a hint about the battle so i didn't just drag the wizard to his death without them having a chance of making a plan of the party grouping up to defend eachother.i had made it so the player character who was moving the most would be the target. but my party group up and stod in a circle all ready to attack it when it show up to drag one down.
Challenge accepted. You can't speak. You can't do your job.
Little idea I’m posting to my fave D&D content creators: put a bow on you or icon in support of JoCat
7:02
But an oversimplified monster is boring. So, don't do either.
Ah I see this is just a clever way to get your viewers to give you ideas for giants. Clever man!
Great Video
Oops, the wrong game had me laughing.
I love creating monsters for the game or tweaking existing ones. I started this in the 3 - 3.5 days. I created a small demon that meandered in groups of 5-12, they were quite placid with low hit points and okay natural AC (12-13). If one was injured and not killed it would go in a berserk rage bite on to any available limb (they were pretty stupid so this would include one of their own) and would explode, their blood was like greek fire and do damage (don’t remember off the top of my head.
On each continent of my world there is an elite group of kobolds. They’re still cowardly meat bags but are more tactics driven. A desert group would use gliders and drop clay jars from above filled with nasty stuff on their enemies. (rot grubs for example).
This video brought back great memories, thanks Luke.
Lots of the bosses I've designed follow these tips really well. They're chaotic and the phase system keeps them from being too complex (while also stopping the players from 1-tapping them)
Enjoy the videos you make....share many of your tips to my friends and the D&D groups at the game shop I work at. Keep up the Great Work!!
dare excepted you can't do your job
3.5's War Hulk can add a pretty simple variants to gaints, either by having their rocks basically be bowling balls or their clubs hit multiple spaces when swinging. Either option gives a bit of map interaction at the very least and you don't want to be in a line, or you can to do stuff like hug walls so the club can't hit more than one character.
Adding this to favorite videos!
As usual great gudance and a fun listen.
I like these videos and I"m an habitual notetaker, but I would pay a buck or two for a list like this, or bulletted notes for this. The same for most of your lists.
One issue I've had is that some monsters do fancy things at death, like Zombies who can get back up with 1 hit point, or the ooze which divides instead. These are neat mechanics, but during our whole first dungeon with zombies, they never rolled to regain hit points so I almost forgot, and the critical on the ooze meant it didn't have a chance to divide.
I like using Giants as friendly NPCs more than enemies. I just love their culture and divisions. And the way they interact with player characters is so cute.
Something I always add to enemies is a recharge ability. They are so often underrated, but when done properly, they can scare the pants off players haha
You're not to only one who's tang gets tungled in the salablys... Great stuff, Luke!
Thinks his next encounter is a mad mage who creates different type of giants and hunts down the party for making fun of his giants over the years.
Great info in this list, your videos have helped me with being a new DM.
Stop using the word "decimate" when you mean "devastate." Seriously. "Decimate" means to eliminate one-tenth of something.
Um, no. Historically yes, but modern (recognized by modern dictionaries) is how he used it, appropriately. You could demonstrate your intelligence without being condescending.
Would you a private DM for my buddies bday party? Long time watcher and trust in your skills. Willing to pay $200 per hour. Perhaps a 10 session mini campaign ?
One item about monsters that I think may GMs forget about that helps add variety, not all monsters need to be evil. In fact many of them are not inherently evil which can make for some interesting story dynamics.