I decided to re listen to the entire webdm playlist while I'm working. These were the glory days of ttrpg content. This channel in particular is what got me back into D&D. I really appreciate the continuous tidbits of information..."'tidbits'"...
I feel so lucky to have found you guys. You're such a small channel but the content is so good. The quality is better than most TH-camrs that i've ever seen and the content is top quality too. There aren't many channels that do what you guys do but I think of all of them you guys are the best.
I really don't understand , these guys deserve many more views than what they're getting. Very easy to listen to and they explain everything well and thoroughly.
Hbz And for a small channel, this interview format was really smooth. It didn’t feel scripted or fake, even though I’m sure they rehearsed it. I’m building a campaign, and just watching this short video gave me a different perspective on making encounters.
I don't even play 5th edition. We are running a long lasting campaign with lots of characters and have no time nor inclination to switch such a campaign. Yet I am interested and so watch this channel's videos regularly regardless. Thank u for the quality content, gentlemen.
Coming back from the dead is generally too easy in D&D. I like the idea that everybody who is brought back to life gets a random curse that can't be lifted without a difficult quest and a complex ritual Every time a character is raised, reincarnated, or resurrected the number of resulting death curses increases by 1.
Adds/minions for dragon fights are simple. One of the splat books in 3 or 3.5 had a spell that let a monster do its breath weapon and then the breath weapon stayed around like a summoned pet. So once or twice per encounter the red dragon can breath fire, and then 8 small or 4 to 5 medium fire elementals crawl out of the blast radius. Or the dragon has lightning so you reskin fire elemental into lightning by making their slam deal electric damage. Poison breath makes a reskinned air elemental, acid is a water elemental literally made of acid, ice can be a reskin of earth or just use the ice paraelementals from the 3.0 manual of the planes.
Great episode as always, just got a few sessions in of Out of the Abyss and I can tell there will be lots of moments to have big set battles, so this advice helps out a lot!
Players are like miniature dragons 🐉 especially when it comes to stuff and being captured. If you capture them they want to be free or die trying , resent any thing you do to try to capture them and no matter what want you to keep you paws off their hoard ... I mean stuff. Also, consider having the pcs always do two characters out the gate with the first being the less preferred in a adventure prolog. This is the one shot mini game that helps new players understand a bit of the world where they will start and the mechanics in a place where they know nothing is permanent. Encourage the to play out of gender or even proffered species for this on shot. Be harsh in a fair way in the fight as they know this is a one shot After that you let them tweak the pennant character or even remake them. ( then at the end of this first night I give them a level bump as prolog reward but that is YMMV territory) Later any Prolog- survivors may have other places in your world. A captured female cleric may be a former PC. A warrior that was badly mauled may show up a a blacksmith. It add instant buy in and sends a signal early on to new players that they will have a lasting impact in the world you made just by playing. That was my experience with it.
Well said, I agree that failure should always be a possibility, or what was the meaning of the party's struggle. When my party hit level 5, I felt the same way about death and resurrection. If it's as simple as it is, what's the meaning. So I instituted Matt Mercer's fading spirit resurrection rule. It doesn't turn it into an epic quest to get the help of the high whatever necessarily, but it allows the possibility of failure. Sometimes, they don't come back. And as a player, losing all your stuff is worse than death, one, because you have less than a new character would start with, and two, I think because the accumulation of loot symbolizes your accomplishments, and such items are the adventurer's tools. Less so for a spellcaster than a physical fighter, perhaps, but killing things with swords while you don't have your trusty sword is almost unthinkable. And spellcasters would lose access to any spell without a material component, wizards wouldn't be able to cast anything greater than a cantrip. For most characters, losing all your stuff reduces you to less than first level.
I found that, for my party of 6 level-13 players, I had to go double the "deadly" threshold to give them a good challenge. I had them fight a group of sky pirates, who were just reskinned versions of Jarlaxle Baenrae, all of the Doom Raiders, and a couple of Drow Gunslingers. I took the stat blocks from Waterdeep- Dragon Heist.
I like the idea of having backup waves of enemies to challenge the PCs. I'll endeavour to incorporate that into my game. However, sometimes the players like being able to scythe through their opponents and eliminate the big bad in a few hits. I don't ever prepare an encounter expecting this to happen, but when it does it can be quite memorable, especially if the result is due to some epic rolling.
I just played my first game with a group where only two people had actually played a little bit before, one of them the DM. We were in a tavern and the big bad shows up, fastforward a few rounds and our cleric had been unconscious for over half an hour, rogue and fighter were both not actually fighting, the barbarian and me the wizard had singlehandedly almost taken down the leader and the entire building was burning(my fault). Our DM was panicing, his big bad was at 7hp and then he just kinda summons an at least 11th lvl mage(i'm guessing based on the spells used) who seems to be the actual big bad and then they just kinda capture us. No fighting, no way to resist, our DM just kinda decided we were captured. I could see the disappointment on our barbs face, that intense "wtf man" look and honestly i felt the same. I think what it was was that it didn't feel earned. Had we actually lost, as our DM had obviously planned, there wouldn't be a problem but this just felt wrong. The rest of the night was great, prison escape is really fun even if you don't get your gold back and the chaos in the tavern as the fight was breaking out was great but that specific moment kinda sucked. So yeah being captured is great, getting captured is not.
Since we usually don't have a lot of time for our sessions since most of us have jobs & college, we usually have set piece encounters & battles. It's really interesting but also tricky, since on several occasions one of us has almost died due to overwhelming numbers & a boss we can't take on alone.....like me....
7:30. About death being cheap in D&D vis a vis the use of magic. This is another one where I would use my tried and true DM method. Which is, yes the players can do that, but as a DM I have an entire MMII and Fiend Folio full of ki-rin, high elves, monadic devas, charondaemons, and the like who will not like it that the players keep cheating death.
Question for you all, what could you send out to keep the real threat alive? They used the example of the aircraft carrier, but what can you throw out, where the players won't focus on it? How would you play that?
Maybe a big friggin black dragon, who is also flanked by black dragonborn sorcerers/clerics who act as support. The big dragon is the real threat, however, the players will most likely go for its underlings first as they are the ones who truly enable the big bad.
had an amazing tpk in modern d20 in a stolen police car barreling down a packed highway while having a shoot out with full auto weapons with the police...great times
Set pieces can be used to train your players. Let them practice combat as a team. No Exp to gain and no risk of equipment and life loss. Perhaps they have been having trouble managing big fights and bosses. They can examine and reorganize their battle method with no risk to players and campaign.
JPruInc are those the names of things you've been in or are you referring to the time of day. But seriously do you do work on other channels cause I rarely forget a face and yours looks familiar
What about making Raise Dead a fairly common spell, but it must be performed EXACTLY or it turns you into a half-dead thing? The DM rolls a percentile, adding your relevant bonuses, and if he gets a 95% or better, you're fine! Or what if the spell must be cast each full moon to keep working?
paul coy I just use the 1st edition resurrection rules with survival based on CON and max resurrection also based on CON. When the cleric casts revivify or whatever I take on the role of the deity and haggle over the price of the raise dead spell. Works fairly well for keeping tension.
I've been playing for almost 3 years with 5E system. I've seen 3 players actually die. Two fell extreme distances and nobody bothered to go get them. The other died as a result of being killed & devoured by ghouls because the rest of the party didn't get there in time. With the "3 rolls to stabilize" it is really cheesy mechanic (imo). Most parties have the ability to intervene and/or the character themselves are able to in the games I've played. Perhaps that's how it should be but I feel that it diminishes the combat a tad bit when you have fairly EZ ways to recover. Granted....what's good for the party is good for the bad guys. LOL !
Indeed. The perception of imminent death keeps the engagement level high; however if you kill players too much, you run the risk of them getting disattached and apathetic about their characters.
Thanks for watching! Want more Web DM in your life? Get our podcast here: www.patreon.com/webdm
I decided to re listen to the entire webdm playlist while I'm working. These were the glory days of ttrpg content. This channel in particular is what got me back into D&D. I really appreciate the continuous tidbits of information..."'tidbits'"...
I feel so lucky to have found you guys. You're such a small channel but the content is so good. The quality is better than most TH-camrs that i've ever seen and the content is top quality too. There aren't many channels that do what you guys do but I think of all of them you guys are the best.
I really don't understand , these guys deserve many more views than what
they're getting. Very easy to listen to and they explain everything
well and thoroughly.
Hbz And for a small channel, this interview format was really smooth. It didn’t feel scripted or fake, even though I’m sure they rehearsed it. I’m building a campaign, and just watching this short video gave me a different perspective on making encounters.
I don't even play 5th edition. We are running a long lasting campaign with lots of characters and have no time nor inclination to switch such a campaign. Yet I am interested and so watch this channel's videos regularly regardless. Thank u for the quality content, gentlemen.
You guys look so young.... So full of life.
Kobold Fight Club makes creating and balancing encounter a BREEZE.
Great video as always guys. I would love to see some of your campaign sessions.
Thanks. We're working on it. Stay tuned.
+JPruInc I hope it'll have the same production value as Web DM, because it's really good.
Coming back from the dead is generally too easy in D&D. I like the idea that everybody who is brought back to life gets a random curse that can't be lifted without a difficult quest and a complex ritual Every time a character is raised, reincarnated, or resurrected the number of resulting death curses increases by 1.
Adds/minions for dragon fights are simple. One of the splat books in 3 or 3.5 had a spell that let a monster do its breath weapon and then the breath weapon stayed around like a summoned pet.
So once or twice per encounter the red dragon can breath fire, and then 8 small or 4 to 5 medium fire elementals crawl out of the blast radius.
Or the dragon has lightning so you reskin fire elemental into lightning by making their slam deal electric damage.
Poison breath makes a reskinned air elemental, acid is a water elemental literally made of acid, ice can be a reskin of earth or just use the ice paraelementals from the 3.0 manual of the planes.
You guys should make a podcast! i would listen the shit out of that
Great episode as always, just got a few sessions in of Out of the Abyss and I can tell there will be lots of moments to have big set battles, so this advice helps out a lot!
*Let's set the pieces for the epic encounter .*
*I'm here to enjoy the classic Web MD videos .*
I love your videos! And there is still a ton to explore! I am excited!
Players are like miniature dragons 🐉 especially when it comes to stuff and being captured. If you capture them they want to be free or die trying , resent any thing you do to try to capture them and no matter what want you to keep you paws off their hoard ... I mean stuff.
Also, consider having the pcs always do two characters out the gate with the first being the less preferred in a adventure prolog. This is the one shot mini game that helps new players understand a bit of the world where they will start and the mechanics in a place where they know nothing is permanent. Encourage the to play out of gender or even proffered species for this on shot. Be harsh in a fair way in the fight as they know this is a one shot After that you let them tweak the pennant character or even remake them. ( then at the end of this first night I give them a level bump as prolog reward but that is YMMV territory)
Later any Prolog- survivors may have other places in your world. A captured female cleric may be a former PC. A warrior that was badly mauled may show up a a blacksmith. It add instant buy in and sends a signal early on to new players that they will have a lasting impact in the world you made just by playing. That was my experience with it.
Well said, I agree that failure should always be a possibility, or what was the meaning of the party's struggle.
When my party hit level 5, I felt the same way about death and resurrection. If it's as simple as it is, what's the meaning. So I instituted Matt Mercer's fading spirit resurrection rule. It doesn't turn it into an epic quest to get the help of the high whatever necessarily, but it allows the possibility of failure. Sometimes, they don't come back.
And as a player, losing all your stuff is worse than death, one, because you have less than a new character would start with, and two, I think because the accumulation of loot symbolizes your accomplishments, and such items are the adventurer's tools. Less so for a spellcaster than a physical fighter, perhaps, but killing things with swords while you don't have your trusty sword is almost unthinkable. And spellcasters would lose access to any spell without a material component, wizards wouldn't be able to cast anything greater than a cantrip. For most characters, losing all your stuff reduces you to less than first level.
Best. Thumbnail. Ever.
I found that, for my party of 6 level-13 players, I had to go double the "deadly" threshold to give them a good challenge. I had them fight a group of sky pirates, who were just reskinned versions of Jarlaxle Baenrae, all of the Doom Raiders, and a couple of Drow Gunslingers. I took the stat blocks from Waterdeep- Dragon Heist.
you guys are so profetionnal, I just skimmed through all your vids, great work!
Gives me more courage to give my party a TPK with much more courage and much less remorse. Thanks for another great clip.
Web Dm clean cut edition. Looking good guys with those well kept haircuts
I like the idea of having backup waves of enemies to challenge the PCs. I'll endeavour to incorporate that into my game. However, sometimes the players like being able to scythe through their opponents and eliminate the big bad in a few hits. I don't ever prepare an encounter expecting this to happen, but when it does it can be quite memorable, especially if the result is due to some epic rolling.
I just played my first game with a group where only two people had actually played a little bit before, one of them the DM. We were in a tavern and the big bad shows up, fastforward a few rounds and our cleric had been unconscious for over half an hour, rogue and fighter were both not actually fighting, the barbarian and me the wizard had singlehandedly almost taken down the leader and the entire building was burning(my fault). Our DM was panicing, his big bad was at 7hp and then he just kinda summons an at least 11th lvl mage(i'm guessing based on the spells used) who seems to be the actual big bad and then they just kinda capture us. No fighting, no way to resist, our DM just kinda decided we were captured. I could see the disappointment on our barbs face, that intense "wtf man" look and honestly i felt the same. I think what it was was that it didn't feel earned. Had we actually lost, as our DM had obviously planned, there wouldn't be a problem but this just felt wrong. The rest of the night was great, prison escape is really fun even if you don't get your gold back and the chaos in the tavern as the fight was breaking out was great but that specific moment kinda sucked. So yeah being captured is great, getting captured is not.
I have never played in a game where Raise Dead is common or easy to do. I actually wonder how many groups play that way because I feel it is a lot.
A good minions for a dragon are a hord of koblads and a few dragon borns.
0:40
The mimic leaps OUT OF the chest
That's how I like to run Mimics. The chest is safe, but the helmet inside clamps down around the crown of your head when you don it.
awesome show!
Since we usually don't have a lot of time for our sessions since most of us have jobs & college, we usually have set piece encounters & battles. It's really interesting but also tricky, since on several occasions one of us has almost died due to overwhelming numbers & a boss we can't take on alone.....like me....
Ahh, yes. The bigger battles
7:30. About death being cheap in D&D vis a vis the use of magic. This is another one where I would use my tried and true DM method. Which is, yes the players can do that, but as a DM I have an entire MMII and Fiend Folio full of ki-rin, high elves, monadic devas, charondaemons, and the like who will not like it that the players keep cheating death.
i hate to say but i feel like the only thing i got from this is. handle a mass combat in waves of monsters, and 1 big guy with support.
you guys should do a video about all the playable races
Question for you all, what could you send out to keep the real threat alive? They used the example of the aircraft carrier, but what can you throw out, where the players won't focus on it? How would you play that?
Maybe a big friggin black dragon, who is also flanked by black dragonborn sorcerers/clerics who act as support.
The big dragon is the real threat, however, the players will most likely go for its underlings first as they are the ones who truly enable the big bad.
had an amazing tpk in modern d20 in a stolen police car barreling down a packed highway while having a shoot out with full auto weapons with the police...great times
you need the favor of hierophant green
Set pieces can be used to train your players. Let them practice combat as a team. No Exp to gain and no risk of equipment and life loss. Perhaps they have been having trouble managing big fights and bosses. They can examine and reorganize their battle method with no risk to players and campaign.
does Jon act I feel like I've seen him somewhere else before
Three in the Afternoon, maybe? Six in the Morning?
JPruInc are those the names of things you've been in or are you referring to the time of day. But seriously do you do work on other channels cause I rarely forget a face and yours looks familiar
+Joshua Reynolds They are two Lightsaber fan films that we've done.
an affair? I think not. That's not what you call it when your getting paid
Anybody know what shirt Pruid is wearing?
t-shirt
In my world raise dead is different from ressureacrion. Resurrection is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY harder to do.
What about making Raise Dead a fairly common spell, but it must be performed EXACTLY or it turns you into a half-dead thing? The DM rolls a percentile, adding your relevant bonuses, and if he gets a 95% or better, you're fine! Or what if the spell must be cast each full moon to keep working?
paul coy I just use the 1st edition resurrection rules with survival based on CON and max resurrection also based on CON. When the cleric casts revivify or whatever I take on the role of the deity and haggle over the price of the raise dead spell. Works fairly well for keeping tension.
I've been playing for almost 3 years with 5E system. I've seen 3 players actually die. Two fell extreme distances and nobody bothered to go get them. The other died as a result of being killed & devoured by ghouls because the rest of the party didn't get there in time. With the "3 rolls to stabilize" it is really cheesy mechanic (imo). Most parties have the ability to intervene and/or the character themselves are able to in the games I've played. Perhaps that's how it should be but I feel that it diminishes the combat a tad bit when you have fairly EZ ways to recover. Granted....what's good for the party is good for the bad guys. LOL !
Is the audio a bit broken or my tablet is?
ur tablet is broken
If there is no risk of death (TPK), players may/will get bored. No feeling of a genuine challenge.
Indeed.
The perception of imminent death keeps the engagement level high; however if you kill players too much, you run the risk of them getting disattached and apathetic about their characters.
Why does Pruitt look like a child in this video?
Edit: Facial hair
Your example for a huge battle to be played in a roleplaying game... is from the Avengers.
Really dispelling those soy boy stereotypes, guys.
horrible audio in this one makes it unwatchable/unbearable.
camera is shakey and adds to the annoyance.