While I do not care much for the Critical Role books and the universe, I love both Tal'Dorei packs. This one is full of some super useful D&D creature variants that one can use. The Magma Landshark is for me, a Bulette from the Paraelemental Plane of Magma, and the Cinderslag is a Magma Elemental. The Gorgon is just a beefier tougher Gorgon, and the Deepkeeper is a variant Aboleth. The two Golems work well as depictions of various obscure D&D Golems from older edition, I plan to use the Platinum as a Mithril Golem for example. The Serpentfolk, being large with snake tails, all work nicely as Yuan-Ti Abominations, and I am glad we are getting some non-human Ghosts at last! A Pathfinder adventure actually has ghostly Serpentfolk, so useful for that too. The second set is pretty good too. Unlike the first wave of Critical Role sets where I only wanted a few minis from the monster sets, I am keeping almost all of these.
Epic encounters have influenced my battles greatly. And not only with bosses. I ran a goblin encounter that I used "cut scenes". Plus the use of "the monsters know what their doing" changed combat for my players.
Thanks again for a great video, we recently started Crit roll and are enjoying it. Hope you gents are doing well and mending well. Have a great week ahead Grady and Theo
Spotted the cat hair on the cinderslag! As for creating monsters, I do it all. I'll use the monster manual stats as written. Then usually throw a twist on one or two of them (like when they were freeing slaves from an orc camp, the chief was a vampire-orc. Or the time they had to fight a group of devils, one who sat in front of an organ, which sprayed bats every time he played a chord, and every time he sang a note, he would do something a bard could do (give inspiration, use the help action, or cast a spell). Then ocassionally I'll just build something from the ground up. Like the hive-mind wild dogs. Who use combined mental powers (2 higher save DC for each present, and active dog) to cast friends, command, and other mental spells, in hopes to get a character singled out, and petting the one dog while the others use the terrain to their advantage, and get a suprise round on them.
(and I would like to point out that that is not meant as an insult, or anything with the cat hair. If I showed you my gargantuan red, you'd be playing spot the dragon through the cat hair, and that's after an entire can of air was used.)
Nice job with the Wildlands layout, btw. I completely understand about the "Invisible Minis". I recently bought a Brick of Tyranny of Dragons(for the Dragons, of course) and one of the first minis I got was the "Invisible Drizzt". :-( Fortunately, it was the only one in that brick.
I've yet to have an aboleth mini, and the one included in the set seems like a really good one. And they just seem so happy to be here! How could anyone resist that smile? As for how to use monsters... I've not DMed yet (I might soon though, I'm working it out), but I've always been a fan of using the environment. Prepared positions, cover, difficult terrain, pushing someone off a cliff, that sort of stuff. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, it just needs to work, or at least be enough of a threat of working to up the tension. Hope you're all feeling better, and thanks for the review!
Yeah...i take monsters from other systems and 'backgrade' them to work with my 1st/2nd edition Dark Sun campaign. The size of some of the Giants & dragons make the miniatures for these unusable though. I work with what I've got, even drawing 'chits' with numbers or images showing a picture of what's there on the battle mat.
I do a mix of it all really i normally run grunts just like they are in the monster manual so no need to alter anything if I alter anything for them it would just be giving them a weapon they don’t normally have but for more important monsters I make them completely deferent sometimes but sometimes there just isn’t any monster that fits what I’d like to go for so I make a whole new one
I personally run a "system" for my group where depending on the encounters I have set up for my group depends if it'll be by the book monster or a "spicy" one for homebrew monsters I have two versions for them a swarm encounter which would be about a cr 3 to not overwhelm then legendary for boss encounters
It still baffles me that D&D _had_ a system to support highly tactical combat encounters, but now that 4e is long gone after the player base essentially killed it, people are clamoring for something similar.
Sponsored by Dungeons & Lasers: Encounters OUTDOOR TERRAIN GAMEFOUND crowdfunding campaign gamefound.com/projects/archon-studio/encounters?refcode=RUZYMPnp60qKRLUZfmoa6Q
Sponsored by Hit Point Press' ANIMATED SPELL CARDS: hitpointpress.com/animated-spells/?aff=24
Join our Discord at: discord.gg/965z54hPzx
While I do not care much for the Critical Role books and the universe, I love both Tal'Dorei packs. This one is full of some super useful D&D creature variants that one can use. The Magma Landshark is for me, a Bulette from the Paraelemental Plane of Magma, and the Cinderslag is a Magma Elemental. The Gorgon is just a beefier tougher Gorgon, and the Deepkeeper is a variant Aboleth. The two Golems work well as depictions of various obscure D&D Golems from older edition, I plan to use the Platinum as a Mithril Golem for example.
The Serpentfolk, being large with snake tails, all work nicely as Yuan-Ti Abominations, and I am glad we are getting some non-human Ghosts at last! A Pathfinder adventure actually has ghostly Serpentfolk, so useful for that too.
The second set is pretty good too. Unlike the first wave of Critical Role sets where I only wanted a few minis from the monster sets, I am keeping almost all of these.
Excellent insights and suggestions there! Looking forward to busting out that second pack! Thank you kindly! -Theo
I hope you are feeling better, and thanks for the review.
Slowly but surely improving! Thanks! -Theo
I got mine for $30 recently at my FLG and was happy to get a lot of unique and useful minis for the price of 2 boosters!
Oh what a deal! Nice job! -Theo
Epic encounters have influenced my battles greatly. And not only with bosses. I ran a goblin encounter that I used "cut scenes". Plus the use of "the monsters know what their doing" changed combat for my players.
Nice! Yes, those are both great resources for improving your combats! Thanks for mentioning them! -Theo
Thanks again for a great video, we recently started Crit roll and are enjoying it. Hope you gents are doing well and mending well. Have a great week ahead Grady and Theo
Thank you kindly! -Theo
Also the wildlands terrain looks amazing!
Spotted the cat hair on the cinderslag!
As for creating monsters, I do it all. I'll use the monster manual stats as written. Then usually throw a twist on one or two of them (like when they were freeing slaves from an orc camp, the chief was a vampire-orc. Or the time they had to fight a group of devils, one who sat in front of an organ, which sprayed bats every time he played a chord, and every time he sang a note, he would do something a bard could do (give inspiration, use the help action, or cast a spell).
Then ocassionally I'll just build something from the ground up. Like the hive-mind wild dogs. Who use combined mental powers (2 higher save DC for each present, and active dog) to cast friends, command, and other mental spells, in hopes to get a character singled out, and petting the one dog while the others use the terrain to their advantage, and get a suprise round on them.
(and I would like to point out that that is not meant as an insult, or anything with the cat hair. If I showed you my gargantuan red, you'd be playing spot the dragon through the cat hair, and that's after an entire can of air was used.)
Nice job with the Wildlands layout, btw.
I completely understand about the "Invisible Minis". I recently bought a Brick of Tyranny of Dragons(for the Dragons, of course) and one of the first minis I got was the "Invisible Drizzt". :-(
Fortunately, it was the only one in that brick.
"Returning Spear"... makes complete sense now. I was wondering why it was shaped like a Boomerang.
So happy for those to hit the stores
In Call of the Netherdeep there's an NPC aboleth that's corrupted with red veins. This deepkeeper is different but can fit the description
Worth mentioning that the Cobalt Golem is the wrong size; I believe the statblock is Huge.
Yes, good eye! The Stat block indicates huge! -Theo
@@TheGallantGoblin Technically the Landshark should also be Huge, however there is a Young variant that is Large.
I've yet to have an aboleth mini, and the one included in the set seems like a really good one. And they just seem so happy to be here! How could anyone resist that smile?
As for how to use monsters... I've not DMed yet (I might soon though, I'm working it out), but I've always been a fan of using the environment. Prepared positions, cover, difficult terrain, pushing someone off a cliff, that sort of stuff. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, it just needs to work, or at least be enough of a threat of working to up the tension.
Hope you're all feeling better, and thanks for the review!
Indeed! Oh yes, tactical use of the environment is a great way to improve combat! Thank you, feeling a bit better today! -Theo
Love that Wildlands terrain!
Not a set I’m likely to buy, but I could do with a few Wizkids set that I don’t purchase.
Hehe, always happy to save folks money too! :-) -Theo
Yeah...i take monsters from other systems and 'backgrade' them to work with my 1st/2nd edition Dark Sun campaign. The size of some of the Giants & dragons make the miniatures for these unusable though. I work with what I've got, even drawing 'chits' with numbers or images showing a picture of what's there on the battle mat.
I am pretty sure that the gorgon is exactly the one from C2
I love to alter monsters. There's so much more than rolled hit AC claw claw bite.
Indeed! -Theo
Some cool minis there
I use monsters as is or I’ll change them up as needed
I do a mix of it all really i normally run grunts just like they are in the monster manual so no need to alter anything if I alter anything for them it would just be giving them a weapon they don’t normally have but for more important monsters I make them completely deferent sometimes but sometimes there just isn’t any monster that fits what I’d like to go for so I make a whole new one
Nice! Keeps players on their toes too! -Theo
I can’t balance to save my life so most of the time I just re-skin monsters into new things.
Reskinning can go a long way! -Theo
Gollum is from Tolkien.
I personally run a "system" for my group where depending on the encounters I have set up for my group depends if it'll be by the book monster or a "spicy" one for homebrew monsters I have two versions for them a swarm encounter which would be about a cr 3 to not overwhelm then legendary for boss encounters
I love the flexibility there! -Theo
It still baffles me that D&D _had_ a system to support highly tactical combat encounters, but now that 4e is long gone after the player base essentially killed it, people are clamoring for something similar.