I find that NPC allies are a good way help to make low level encounters more grand yet still possible to win. - The players may be 3 or 4 of 8 guards/adventurers hired to achieve some result together - A champion paladin/fighter who is several levels higher then the party is the one being sent on the quest, the players are just tag alongs to watch his back. - The players party is one of a few different parties all trying to achieve the same goal before one another, this allows the players to come across another party already engaged with some encounter, essentially giving the players some HP sponges. - The players may receive a temporary blessing from some temple to carry out a particular task before a certain time or event. The blessing could make the players stronger at first, but they would feel the pressure of racing against the clock knowing that they could not normally complete this task. - The players find caged prisoners early on in a lowbie dungeon delve, thereby giving them some extra temporary muscle to complete the task. They also make good trap fodder to scare the players.
MrTechFox All but option two I find to be great ways to go. The problem the PC's as tag alongs is they are meant to be the main characters so I don't care for anything that detracts from that. -Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy Oh I agree in general that is best, however I think that as a temporary situation, especially at level 1, a bit of tag along time is alright. Especially if the players end up looking up to this champion and he dies horribly saving the players, and then passing the mission on to them.
I've done ones like 2 & 3, except the helper NPC was a strong, but reckless fighter who eventually ran into something too big to handle. Besides just having a strong attack and a lot of hp, it's just a boring fighter, so isn't stealing any spotlight, plus for inexperienced players, this NPC can occasionally offer tactical combat advice that the PCs can use later. I also love using the competing or cooperating adventurers idea. Either it's a treasure hunt and an NPC group is racing your party to the loot, or it's a rescue mission and both parties were hired because it's an important victim in a dangerous area. In the competing scenario, the rival NPCs got a head start, and you catch up to them in the middle of a big battle. If the PCs are good-aligned enough, they may choose to help the rivals and join forces. Or they can let the rivals die or run away, and the PCs have to finish off the now severely weakened monster.
Personally I think the low levels are some of the most fun of all. it's the only time when EVERYTHING feels legitimately scary (especially after one guy got murdered by a gang of housecats). I love sending out weak enemies in mass or a less-weak enemy that they'd normally not fear. one of my first ever encounters planned was a demonic goat with animal friends. suddenly you're in darkness and those bats and cats and weird goat seem a lot more intimidating. and if you drop someone with something very weak early on your party will be cautious the rest of the game, because that member WONT forget getting stabbed to death by a houseplant. but even without that, this is where town guards are actually threatening and you can make any little thing into either a tough fight or just an interesting encounter. especially for roleplaying, because people are less likely to attack the giant or random beast when they're level 1 and know they're weak.
I like the stabbing with a house plant. We've near party deaths from hose cats as well. It's almost like it's some kind of bizarre right of passage. -Nerdarchist Dave
I've found that adventures become less deadly as soon as you throw out the "everything fights to the death" cliché. When they've killed three out of the eight goblins in the encounter, let the survivors have a change of tactics and leave. Triple play: the party isn't slaughtered, they feel like badasses because the enemy is running away, and the opponents are acting realistically instead of like Skyrim MOBs. I notice you go into this in your "The Basics Of Building And Running Interesting Encounters" video, thought it deserved a mention here
I'm a bit late to the party, but, Temporary magic items are one of my go-tos for helping them take on bigger challenges, thus earning more xp. A wand of Fireball with 1 charge etc. I've even written in very specific items, humorously, but still effectively. One campaign they were a little over their head going after a thief for a bounty and decided to squeeze him for info about his boss... Lo and behold the random rolls caught up to them until they found a single " Arrow of assassin slaying(+6)" Experienced players pretty much know you've wrapped it in a bow when they survive crazy things like that, you may as well make it memorable and fun when you decide to spoon feed them.
The sad part of many low level combat encounters, in 5e, is that they are mostly comprise of the Attack Actions. As a DM, to make these encounters more memorable, utilized the other actions. Dodge, Help, Dash, Hide, disengage or use objects. Even when making attacks add grappling and shoving a creature. Use these all combined with interesting terrain. Lastly, you mentioned tactics. I always think of Tuckers Kobolds. Give your creatures unique and interesting characteristics. The goblins are not just some kind of generic breed but part of an amazing horde with great story behind them. Sure you are encountering just a small party to begin with but they use tactics which bring fear and excitement to the battle. Do not be limited by stat sheets. Be limited by your imagination.
I agree. When my players encounter goblins as lowlevel characters they are not just goblins. They will meet a small tight (str 10) white albino goblin with a horrible scar on his face lacking on eye (disadvantage on perception). He will be leading a tall dim witted (int 6) goblin who laughs annoyingly at everything (disadvantage on hiding), including taking dammage. He will confuse left and right when given directions. There will also be an old goblin on a peg-leg (speed 20ft), with a hissing voice. He will be using a cructh in melee (use Mace stats). Trailing behind them is their pet Giant Rat contiually twitching its nose. The old goblin might speak a little common and translate for the albino goblin: "Nilax pale-face not like you. He make soup of your eye-balls, and share it with your dwarf-scum friends". Have the one legged goblin have three unused left-boots in his pack, along with a letter written in goblin with orders to scout the area, signed by Takomb Zrom, high chief of the rat skull clan. Roll for hitpoints, so that the players don't know if the goblin he is fighting has 1 or 6 HP left. The albino goblin will be carrying 6 daggers of different sizes. The dimwitted goblin has a large chunk of smelly cheese in his pack. What will the players do when the albino goblin suddenly does not atttack, but yells something in goblin towards some bushes in the back (you roll a decption to see how well he acts like he is calling for reenforments)?
When I ran Lost Mine of Phandelver for my group, that was my first time DMing anything. I hit across the good idea of fighting on inclines that affected movement-difficult terrain in one direction, double movement in the other. I put this in the orc encounter at Wyvern Tor so that the hordes rushed down the mountain and they had to fight up through boulder cover. I used a similar idea on the Old Owl Well encounter, but in reverse, so the PCs fought at elevation and were able to draw the zombies up. This idea went over SUPER well, and has become a valuable (if sparingly used) part of my toolkit in designing encounters.
In relation to the first suggestion: kill them. My party contains a human paladin with heavy armor master and tough. She doesn't die. Ever. She took a lightning bolt to the face at level 3. She was fine. That is, until I threw a Thonot Quagoth at them. Heat metal scared the shit out of her. Ever since, that player has been REALLY cautious about spell casters.
One of my favorite encounters had goblins in trees with grapple hooks that were grabbing players and hoisting them of the ground and hanging them in the air. The dwarf fighter was swinging wildly and just floating.
Thanks, With that being said I do keep 95% of the dice rolls, I never make a monster survive, if it dies in three critical hits without taking a turn I let it. That being said I have gambled before and bet on black 30 times in a row and in a similar vein I have "killed" the entire party during one encounter without them knowing (that last group of goblins just never showed up to the fight). I definitely choose in the end whether someone dies or not but I never tell anyone particulars. I give my players the feel that I am rolling and taking the rolls exactly as they come because most of the time I do. It is akin to being a convincing liar, if you do it all the time it hurts your credibility but when used sparingly and the story is better afterwards then everyone thinks it is cool. If you use this tactic, never tell the players in the game that you do it because it can ruins the mystique of the DM chair- Nate the Nerdarch
I know a lot of people hate the dungeon tropes, BUT, after 20 plus years, and many games later, ive noticed that its always the best for everyone to start with a dungeon crawl (after some rp in a town or something), its the best way to encounter lots of easy encounters, and its the easiest and quickest way to get to level 3. Afterwards, that's when the real campaign starts. For even better results, start most games with an official 1-3 level adventure, and convert it to your world.
Really good advice, thank you! I think one of the biggest challenges as a new DM is wrapping your head around the fact that you really are in control 100% of the time. I love your suggestion of adding in traps because any given trap is expected to be different but I can see some monster modifications (like swapping out armor or nerfing abilities) causing nit-picky players to whinge if you try to bring those same monsters back later at full strength. All really good pointers though, thanks again!
I had an orc and goblin war and the party walks up to the goblins hauling boulders and catapults They destroyed both sides got loot and saved the elder of a villages granddaughter
One thing I did for my players was use the same creatures, but mix up their goals of combat. First session some pirates had them kill a couple of Sahuagin that they held captive as initiation, then second session I had them fight Sahuagin again but had their captain tell them they had to capture two more to replace the ones they killed. It kept things fresh and exciting and challenging, but wasn't too difficult or too easy for them.
monsters like swarm of rats can be a challenging monster, but even more importantly describing rats crawling on you during the combat because they can enter your square is awesome. Creepy and crawly will get people to panic a bit.
at first or second level a "creature" that has 24 hit points and does 2d6 damage is a decent foe. despite its low ac, its almost a third level opponent.
When I plan the encounters for my players I make sure that both the players and the enemies have a way to get the advantage, and it seems to work well. E.g. I had my players hunt down a 16ft bumblebee. (The setting is a post apocalyptic world where everything is mutated.) The bumblebee have the funny rule that its attacks cannot be avoided. (I think it's justified with that it's literally a 16ft flying homing ball that cannot be outrun.) And its wings make so much noise that anybody to close will be effected. The effect decided by dice can be anything from lowering skill checks or collapsing to you going crazy and attack nearest anyone. But the bumblebee have low will so it can be effected by mental attacks (this game version of magic). So the group have lots of ways to take it down. Traps, distance or mental attacks. Melee is a bad option but it can work if you outnumber it and pray to the dices you might make it with just one death. So it's basically up to the players to play it smart.
The droning of wings I've seen that design other monsters in the past. It's always up to the players to play it smart. Whether they do it or not is another matter. -Nerdarchist Dave
As a new dungeon master your videos have been an incredible help being a better DM. Would you consider making a video addressing how you reward players with loot and magic items in an adventure or dungeon? Random loot tables vs items personalized for your players? At what rate do you reward magic weapons/armor, and what tier weapons/armor are players expected to have at each level? Either way, thanks for the videos.
A good and exciting way to handle something like this is to have a big thing going on, and your party is on the fringe of it. You deal with a couple of things here on this stage, the main stage is actually down the road. When you get there, some gaurds or something are in a fight that they're about to lose, but they've already done a ton of damage to this thing and it could be whatever within reason, right? All you have to do is roll in, drop a few hits, and seal the deal. Right away this puts you in a position where you're dropping things bigger than you which always feels good, and you've already done something seriously heroic which also always feels good.
When I design a series of encounters, a campaign, I visualize the sequencing in terms of a sine wave. A wibbly, wobbly sine wave. The PCs level is the x axis. Then, I keep the majority of the challenge ratings below the x axis with a few peaks that rise above it. Sometimes 2 in a row, sometimes none which means I vary the frequency across all challenge ratings. If you keep a higher percentage of challenges below or well-below x at a given game session, you're golden. Wanna see them sweat? Bump up.
It's an old video but an interestning matter so... 1) Make use of the weak creature of the MM like Jackals and co. There is weak but menacing enough beast (especially in numbers) in the book. 2) Use them in creative way. Ex : The first character passing the pile of rocks blocking the path in the mine land next to a scorpion and is engage in a one on one against it. The group has to spot a swarm of sleeping bat, then stealh or fight the swarm. 3) Give aid to the PC. EX : In the forest, a dwarf beastmaster/nature cleric and his bear are engage against a pack of 4 wolf led by a dyrewolf. The dyrewolf and the bear are in a duel and don't go against the PC. The wolf only attack them when targeted first. The players enter the fight on round two and on round one one wolf took an attack of opportunity while passing the bear + another dashed and did not attack. Finally the NPC can save the day with an heal. 4) Give advantage to the PC. Maybe the dwarf cleric/ranger is an inspirationel leader that gave temporary hit point to the PC so the next combat against the two half orc twin sister and there pet/slave goblin in leash is made easier. Maybe the slave goblin take his chance and backstab an half orc during the fight. Maybe because it is there first real adventure the PC gain an free inspiration. 5) Limited use ressource. An healing potion. A magic missile wand with 3 charge left that does'nt recharge. Some kind of blessing... A magic lantern giving the PC resitance to necrotic and disadvantage to the attack of the shadow they are fighting. 6) Having a joker on hand. Maybe there is an NPC that can intervene at any moment during the very first dungeon. And of course is gonna choose the moment where the group's cleric is down and the fighter just took a crit to present himself. 7) Level 1 are just guys with swords and mage apprentice. Play the fact that they are not badass yet, are learning and can die is interesting. It allow for a bit of horror vibe for example and when the epic come it is gonna feel more epic. Also, a level 1 start is a choice. There is nothing wrong with a level 3, 5, 10, etc.. start. There is a lot of ways to even the playing field or to create condition for an interesting fight with weak creature. The XP budget just has to be set accordingnly.
I couldn't agree more. Be ok will killing of a character, and don't regret it. Roll the dice in the open and avoid the temptation to change the roll. Add monsters of your encounter is it's getting rolled. Make interesting monsters, add abilities to them like class levels or reskin them so they are not anticipated or expected.
The hardest encounter are NPC's of same or lower level of party that act smart. It's only a level 2 wizard, but crap, one sleep that takes out half the party or when the tank sucks up that enemy magic missile for which there's no save is that gut crunch moment . City encounters very dangerous.
You talked about taking away reinforcements from the monsters' side, what about giving reinforcements to your party? I'm currently planning a pretty dangerous encounter for my low-level party where they need to clear out a ton of goblinoids and gnolls that are terrorizing nearby towns. Well, maybe they're not sent to do this alone. They could be the front line, so to speak, but they've got a few warriors backing them up. Something like that can still allow you to showcase dangerous monsters and interesting terrain without risking a total party kill, because they have allies that are also taking hits for them. Nothing raises party morale like a shield wall.
kellogsbeast Good point, this is also a viable strategy and it works if you don't do it too much. When overdone the PCs start feeling like rescued maidens instead of epic heroes. Recently the party took on a coven of necromancers animating a dead treant. They go backup from a small squad of rangers that occupied some of the necromancers. Otherwise the pcs would have been ray of frost to death. So instead of total party death it was like an arrow and ray version of an old west shoot out. ~Nate the Nerdarch
Kobolds and picked can be fun, chaotic, and in packs, creativly disabling/ challenging. Take the monster and modify it to be more of a rewarding encounter.
bandits take their stuff. Some monsters take them prisoner (if Female character is in party, her) or their stuff. if the Barbarian passed their "Speech Check" the goblins either leave or want to help the party.
I'm running my first campaign in 3 days, and I'm thinking of pitting them against an Umber Hulk in the first session, and entice them into running and escaping rather than fighting like idiots by having them kill off an npc that went with the party. Just a little adrenaline rush. Scare the shit out of them.
I think the guys covered everything for the most part, but one more thing you could consider is just starting new players to the game out at 2nd. level just to give them a bit of a buffer.
That, or have them start level one,, but give them their level 2, and maybe 3, HP and Hit dice. When they level up, they get the rest, but the HP and HD were advanced so they don't get them twice. It's a good way of making them tougher at the start of the game without handing them too many resources
Multi tiered encounters that scales dynamicly throughout the fight. The PC's walk into a cave and encounter 3 goblins. One of the goblins blow a whistle. Now even before the first blow is struck the players are on their toes because you have telegraphed that they dont know what they are getting into. And you are pretty free to trickle in more goblins as the fight goes on until the Pc's have taken the level of beating that you want. Once the first PC drops stop adding more goblins and let the PC's wrap up the fight. And then just make the next couple of rooms empty. Which ever goblins that would have been in those rooms heard the alarm and responded off camera. I imagine most of them reinforced the fight but some went further into the cave to warn their comrades. Both players and PC's has to assume that the boss of the cave is either preparing for the meeting or he is already moving towards them gathering up everybody. It puts the players right in that sweetspot between excitement and paranoia that gets their attention, it allows you to pile on the exp pretty quick without accidentically wiping the party. Im also fond of the monster that would normally easily trample a lvl 1 party. Except this particular individual is not at 100% combat effectiveness, either through prior injury, disease or lacking experience. Even a T-rex can be on par with a lvl one character. Also the added tension of ''If the parrents show up we are screwed.''
I like combining low-level combat with conversation: have one of those weak goblins spout insults in common during the fight, and occasionally let slip a clue or bit of interesting lore. Maybe the PCs will switch from kill to capture to try to get more information.
Party of 4 and a pack of 6 wolves. Only one character on watch so for a bit it was 4 on 1, and then it became 4 on 4 until another one joined in the fray. That put the character on watch get dropped from the word go. We all did survive the encounter but it came very close to killing the poor character on watch. He was unconscious and prone in the first 6 seconds of the encounter. That could have ended poorly.
I'm running for a solo elf wizard. I gave my goblins clubs, and she blasted those guys to ashes. Yeesh. Still, even with a d4, she felt in danger, having only 7 hit points.
Monsters are really cool, but what I like even more is have my players fight people - and it is independet of their level, as from the violent bully to the black knight to the dark archmage their are human and elven baddies of any level.
I really like the ideas for using monsters but kind of nerf them due to recent activities or combats they have encountered. That is definitely a interesting way to look at that.
I have found the mile stone method to work best for 5E and you don't have to have a set story point for the level advancement. Just when you fill that the party has reached a significant achievement in the story point. This will also drive the power gamers crazy. 8)
Unfortunately one of my friends got really angry when I dropped one of their characters during a fight. They were going through some other stuff at the time but it still bumbed me out that they didn’t enjoy the session. They apologised but I haven’t DMed since. Wanna find some new players
Yea, helpful or hindering terrain can help a lot. THE most interesting and dangerous encounter I had in a long while was in a dungeon room filling with water. When the water became waist high, a crocodile was let in through a grate in the wall where the water was filling in from.
I had my lvl 2 party of 3 fight the CR 2 Giant Constrictor Snake. The snake half shot two of them and both them and the snake missed a lot, but they beat it without dieing and had a lot of fun with it
Question: Do you always share XP, does everyone has to take part in the battle? If a 100Xp monster is killed by 4 PCs does everyone gets 100 or 25XP? I'm a new DM and I didn't see any comment on this in the player's Handbook.
There is a severe lack of flavour in monsters at the lower tiers. My best advice for dealing with this is re-skinning. I simply cannot advocate it enough. The simple bandit and wolf can be adapted very easily to make a hunting party from a rival nation that the characters meet in the forest. The details are up to you, but the key to interesting combat encounters in the first few levels is to always ground them in your story. The first question is, WHO'S AROUND? What kind of creatures cohabit this space with the adventurers? The second question is, WHERE IS THE STORY GOING? Who among the creatures that live here display some facet of your next story beat? The third and final question is WHAT MONSTER? Pick a low-tier profile to match the criteria thrown up by your story. Tinker if you must, but only if you're confident in playing with the maths of CR and custom monsters. Most of that sort of thing at low levels can be handled descriptively. If you are going to give monsters buffs or nerfs, make them story based! Perhaps you can use a more powerful monster if they have a phobia or allergy that forces them to take damage or roll with disadvantage in the presence of that thing, but that thing sure as hell better be important to the rest of the story! If your main villain is an evil wizard who does human experimentation, you could make mutant commoners by giving them a multi attack for extra limbs, or a slightly increased armour class for scaly skin, or double hit points for being very large, or something as simple as a different damage type like poison or slashing for claws and stuff. The options are literally limitless, but you really have to tie it back to your plot!
if you are at all interested to know i made a program and ran a simulation to test the value of advantage. once you get to a few thousand rolls the average stabilizes at +- 3. the program adds the total sum of 100000 d20 rolls then divides by 100000. with no selection the returned number is 10 as expected when it rolls 2 and selects the higher it returns 13 and returns 7 for disadvantage.
I just feel at 1st level solo player. Having to say "so I have to rest tonight after casting magic missile once" is kind of weak. Like what can I do as first level (2nd edition) mage. Sure I have hit a few times with my staff but honestly. What luck will I likely have getting through a dungeon . And I feel it is a mad cop out to have to take a day off every-time I cast a spell. What can I do? Plus I don't mind dying .. seriously rolling characters is half the fun.
I definitely wanna slap some training wheels on them for the first 3 levels cause those are so easy to die in. As soon as they get to 3 or 4 tho death is fair game
Random encounters can be hard to make interesting. Most great encounters will be things that the players have heard info about before they find them. Legends, tales, townsfolk please for help; these can set up the encounter and make the players become invested in what is happening before the encounter even starts. Not only that but an informed team can find ways hedge the difficulty of the encounter or find non-violent means of solving the encounters problem. Also the player expectations of the encounter can heighten the interest when they find out their assumptions of the encounter was incorrect.
I think you are working off the assumption that a random encounter has to be you round the corner and there is an owlbear. Sure that is one way of doing but there are others. You can build suspense and tension or it could just an interesting thing that happens that has nothing to do with combat. -Nerdarchist Dave
Is an encounter really random if the DM is rolling for it way before any character can ever find the encounter. A entire dungeon made with a random table and some dice could be called a random encounter, even though all the positions, reasoning, and existence are written out before hand. I think that isn't what most people think of as a random encounter. However if fleshed out mini stories that you randomly add to your bigger story is what you mean by random encounters, I agree. The point I was making is that pre-planned hooks and encounter quirks, can be use in foreshadowing to make encounters better. Honestly I think we might be agreeing, but got stuck on my leading term 'random encounters'.
Psychodegu To be honest anymore I do very little pre planning. Mostly I react to what my players decide to do. I'll throw a few hooks out there and not worry or think to hard as to where they'll lead. I kind of pave the road just in front of my players as they travel it. Helps to keep me from doing unnecessary work. As for a bigger story it usually consist of about 3-5 sentences that we may or may not get to. I generally find ways to tie encounters planned or random back to the players in order to get them invested in what's going on. -Nerdarchist Dave
Psychodegu It is random if the DM does not know exactly where it is going to hit the party. You can have random encounters rolled up on not cards and randomly pull one out and see what the players get. The DM knows the options but it still falls into that criteria. Nerdarchist Ted
Psychodegu It is random if the DM does not know exactly where it is going to hit the party. You can have random encounters rolled up on not cards and randomly pull one out and see what the players get. The DM knows the options but it still falls into that criteria. Nerdarchist Ted
Master of Games I have not delved too hard into the DMGs permanent injury table but I have seriously considered modifying it in a to better suit my needs. Nerdarchist Ted
I did it sideways... "OK guys.. all new level 1 characters. Each of you roll up 3. By level 5, if you aren't down to 1 due to the other 2 dying, you'll be abandoning all but 1. You can pick 2 that will basicly be player controlled NPC/followers now... or let the dice rule. 1st level characters are too easy to kill with one hit.
Do you guys do any other Pen and Papers other then D&D? Me and my friends have started some of our own campaigns using the MERP rulebook but set in our own universes. What is your opinion on that?
We've played Heroes Unlimited, Mutants and Masterminds, and Fate. We just shot an overview video for M&M today. I'm not familiar with that system. But whatever you enjoy is the perfect system in my book. We'd play a lot more systems, but to many games not enough time. - Nerdarchist Dave
Thank you for answering, I hope you dont mind me asking another question. I am going to DM a solo campaign for a friend, but his character is a priest healer with no fighting ability. Any idea how to make that interesting?
Once O rolled a critical fail at having a good times sleep, and I was attacked by a fire troll. I ended up dropping a tree on ot without attacking and then killing it with a a giant piece of wood that I knocked the troll out with, damm those 20 rolls. And I then made a badass mask to look strong and I persuaded the troll to be my companion, I ended up making the troll kill 4 guards without them thinking I was involved. I got about 5000 gold pieces of loot, and I got a deed to a horse from the town for killing the troll with ice magic. And then it all ened when I tried to kill 2 goblins and I chased them to their camp where I had to fight twenty of them. Then I was imprisoned by them but then troll attacked the camp and killed me while I was escaping. I had fun though.
+DarkSteel Back when I had a group playing 3.5 regularly, we'd usually start at later levels for the same reason. However, I don't really *like* doing that. Because part of me ends up feeling like I just walked into a movie 15 or 20 minutes late. Probably nothing too significant was lost, but... I wonder about what the first few levels would've been like. I've been getting more creative with the early levels with my current game, reskinning weaker monsters, adjusting their powers, and so on, so that it's not just "rats and kobolds". It's still quite easy to kill characters who are not super optimal in their tactics and/or lucky with rolls. But at least level 1 and 2 don't feel like they have to be the meaningless now.
Shawn Wesley idk i feel like starting with an extra couple levels immediately sets them apart from normal people. Take the lord of the rings for the example. Sure you can come up with a large grandiose reason for the hobbits to leave the shire even though they are just normal people thrust into very dangerous situations, or you can start your characters like aragorn who already has some experience under his belt and has confidence and the ability to hold his own. Its all a matter of taste but i find the later to make more sense when your group is a party of adventurers rather than normal people dragged out of normal life kicking and screaming.
I get what you're saying. I guess it does come down to matter of taste, but also of feel. I've played other systems -- WoD, FATE--where levels aren't even in the equation, so I have ended up with a very different way of looking at character progression. And I do like the concept of a "commoner" get wrapped up in a bigger adventure and learning to step up to become smarter and more fit, to learn better how to fight and so on. Either way works though, and I know sometimes it's fun to just start off as pretty strong. I even once had a game start off at level 20, since otherwise it takes so long to get there. It was a one-off, but it was fun.
CONSEQUENCES: Without them the game is meaningless! But those consequences don't have to occur immediately save them for level three or five. In the mean time broken arms and ribs and such are a real detriment to a players ability to participate. Stupid players who do stupid things while on crutches or wearing an arm sling deserve to die and probably should!!!!
Why are you talking about killing characters? It is so easy to do this. It is much harder to make the encounter balanced. Add Criticals and fumbles into the game. Just a suggestion.
I find that NPC allies are a good way help to make low level encounters more grand yet still possible to win.
- The players may be 3 or 4 of 8 guards/adventurers hired to achieve some result together
- A champion paladin/fighter who is several levels higher then the party is the one being sent on the quest, the players are just tag alongs to watch his back.
- The players party is one of a few different parties all trying to achieve the same goal before one another, this allows the players to come across another party already engaged with some encounter, essentially giving the players some HP sponges.
- The players may receive a temporary blessing from some temple to carry out a particular task before a certain time or event. The blessing could make the players stronger at first, but they would feel the pressure of racing against the clock knowing that they could not normally complete this task.
- The players find caged prisoners early on in a lowbie dungeon delve, thereby giving them some extra temporary muscle to complete the task. They also make good trap fodder to scare the players.
MrTechFox All but option two I find to be great ways to go. The problem the PC's as tag alongs is they are meant to be the main characters so I don't care for anything that detracts from that.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy Oh I agree in general that is best, however I think that as a temporary situation, especially at level 1, a bit of tag along time is alright.
Especially if the players end up looking up to this champion and he dies horribly saving the players, and then passing the mission on to them.
MrTechFox Funny you mention that, because I was thinking that would be a nice twist.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I've done ones like 2 & 3, except the helper NPC was a strong, but reckless fighter who eventually ran into something too big to handle.
Besides just having a strong attack and a lot of hp, it's just a boring fighter, so isn't stealing any spotlight, plus for inexperienced players, this NPC can occasionally offer tactical combat advice that the PCs can use later.
I also love using the competing or cooperating adventurers idea. Either it's a treasure hunt and an NPC group is racing your party to the loot, or it's a rescue mission and both parties were hired because it's an important victim in a dangerous area.
In the competing scenario, the rival NPCs got a head start, and you catch up to them in the middle of a big battle. If the PCs are good-aligned enough, they may choose to help the rivals and join forces. Or they can let the rivals die or run away, and the PCs have to finish off the now severely weakened monster.
Personally I think the low levels are some of the most fun of all. it's the only time when EVERYTHING feels legitimately scary (especially after one guy got murdered by a gang of housecats). I love sending out weak enemies in mass or a less-weak enemy that they'd normally not fear. one of my first ever encounters planned was a demonic goat with animal friends. suddenly you're in darkness and those bats and cats and weird goat seem a lot more intimidating. and if you drop someone with something very weak early on your party will be cautious the rest of the game, because that member WONT forget getting stabbed to death by a houseplant. but even without that, this is where town guards are actually threatening and you can make any little thing into either a tough fight or just an interesting encounter. especially for roleplaying, because people are less likely to attack the giant or random beast when they're level 1 and know they're weak.
I like the stabbing with a house plant. We've near party deaths from hose cats as well. It's almost like it's some kind of bizarre right of passage.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I always feel bad when my players die. Too much fuzz. When their characters die on the other hand... :p (Sorry, just had to...)
+normalstupid LOL understand and applauding.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I've found that adventures become less deadly as soon as you throw out the "everything fights to the death" cliché. When they've killed three out of the eight goblins in the encounter, let the survivors have a change of tactics and leave. Triple play: the party isn't slaughtered, they feel like badasses because the enemy is running away, and the opponents are acting realistically instead of like Skyrim MOBs.
I notice you go into this in your "The Basics Of Building And Running Interesting Encounters" video, thought
it deserved a mention here
I'm a bit late to the party, but, Temporary magic items are one of my go-tos for helping them take on bigger challenges, thus earning more xp.
A wand of Fireball with 1 charge etc.
I've even written in very specific items, humorously, but still effectively.
One campaign they were a little over their head going after a thief for a bounty and decided to squeeze him for info about his boss... Lo and behold the random rolls caught up to them until they found a single " Arrow of assassin slaying(+6)"
Experienced players pretty much know you've wrapped it in a bow when they survive crazy things like that, you may as well make it memorable and fun when you decide to spoon feed them.
The sad part of many low level combat encounters, in 5e, is that they are mostly comprise of the Attack Actions. As a DM, to make these encounters more memorable, utilized the other actions. Dodge, Help, Dash, Hide, disengage or use objects. Even when making attacks add grappling and shoving a creature. Use these all combined with interesting terrain. Lastly, you mentioned tactics. I always think of Tuckers Kobolds. Give your creatures unique and interesting characteristics. The goblins are not just some kind of generic breed but part of an amazing horde with great story behind them. Sure you are encountering just a small party to begin with but they use tactics which bring fear and excitement to the battle. Do not be limited by stat sheets. Be limited by your imagination.
Awesome stuff and you are correct- "Do not be limited by stat sheets. Be limited by your imagination. "
-Nerdarchist Dave
I agree. When my players encounter goblins as lowlevel characters they are not just goblins. They will meet a small tight (str 10) white albino goblin with a horrible scar on his face lacking on eye (disadvantage on perception). He will be leading a tall dim witted (int 6) goblin who laughs annoyingly at everything (disadvantage on hiding), including taking dammage. He will confuse left and right when given directions. There will also be an old goblin on a peg-leg (speed 20ft), with a hissing voice. He will be using a cructh in melee (use Mace stats). Trailing behind them is their pet Giant Rat contiually twitching its nose. The old goblin might speak a little common and translate for the albino goblin: "Nilax pale-face not like you. He make soup of your eye-balls, and share it with your dwarf-scum friends". Have the one legged goblin have three unused left-boots in his pack, along with a letter written in goblin with orders to scout the area, signed by Takomb Zrom, high chief of the rat skull clan. Roll for hitpoints, so that the players don't know if the goblin he is fighting has 1 or 6 HP left. The albino goblin will be carrying 6 daggers of different sizes. The dimwitted goblin has a large chunk of smelly cheese in his pack. What will the players do when the albino goblin suddenly does not atttack, but yells something in goblin towards some bushes in the back (you roll a decption to see how well he acts like he is calling for reenforments)?
When I ran Lost Mine of Phandelver for my group, that was my first time DMing anything. I hit across the good idea of fighting on inclines that affected movement-difficult terrain in one direction, double movement in the other. I put this in the orc encounter at Wyvern Tor so that the hordes rushed down the mountain and they had to fight up through boulder cover. I used a similar idea on the Old Owl Well encounter, but in reverse, so the PCs fought at elevation and were able to draw the zombies up. This idea went over SUPER well, and has become a valuable (if sparingly used) part of my toolkit in designing encounters.
Yea the terrain and dungeon dressings can really make an encounter.
-Nerdarchist Dave
In relation to the first suggestion: kill them.
My party contains a human paladin with heavy armor master and tough. She doesn't die. Ever. She took a lightning bolt to the face at level 3. She was fine.
That is, until I threw a Thonot Quagoth at them. Heat metal scared the shit out of her. Ever since, that player has been REALLY cautious about spell casters.
Heat metal is a beast in this edition.
-Nerdarchist Dave
One of my favorite encounters had goblins in trees with grapple hooks that were grabbing players and hoisting them of the ground and hanging them in the air. The dwarf fighter was swinging wildly and just floating.
Sounds like a riot.
Nerdarchist Dave
"The dice are not my gods, I am theirs." Well said, Nate.
In hushed whisper "The dice know."
-Nerdarchist Dave
Thanks, With that being said I do keep 95% of the dice rolls, I never make a monster survive, if it dies in three critical hits without taking a turn I let it. That being said I have gambled before and bet on black 30 times in a row and in a similar vein I have "killed" the entire party during one encounter without them knowing (that last group of goblins just never showed up to the fight). I definitely choose in the end whether someone dies or not but I never tell anyone particulars.
I give my players the feel that I am rolling and taking the rolls exactly as they come because most of the time I do. It is akin to being a convincing liar, if you do it all the time it hurts your credibility but when used sparingly and the story is better afterwards then everyone thinks it is cool. If you use this tactic, never tell the players in the game that you do it because it can ruins the mystique of the DM chair- Nate the Nerdarch
I know a lot of people hate the dungeon tropes, BUT, after 20 plus years, and many games later, ive noticed that its always the best for everyone to start with a dungeon crawl (after some rp in a town or something), its the best way to encounter lots of easy encounters, and its the easiest and quickest way to get to level 3. Afterwards, that's when the real campaign starts. For even better results, start most games with an official 1-3 level adventure, and convert it to your world.
Really good advice, thank you! I think one of the biggest challenges as a new DM is wrapping your head around the fact that you really are in control 100% of the time.
I love your suggestion of adding in traps because any given trap is expected to be different but I can see some monster modifications (like swapping out armor or nerfing abilities) causing nit-picky players to whinge if you try to bring those same monsters back later at full strength. All really good pointers though, thanks again!
Glad you enjoyed. You will never completely satisfy nit picky players.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I had an orc and goblin war and the party walks up to the goblins hauling boulders and catapults
They destroyed both sides got loot and saved the elder of a villages granddaughter
One thing I did for my players was use the same creatures, but mix up their goals of combat. First session some pirates had them kill a couple of Sahuagin that they held captive as initiation, then second session I had them fight Sahuagin again but had their captain tell them they had to capture two more to replace the ones they killed. It kept things fresh and exciting and challenging, but wasn't too difficult or too easy for them.
monsters like swarm of rats can be a challenging monster, but even more importantly describing rats crawling on you during the combat because they can enter your square is awesome. Creepy and crawly will get people to panic a bit.
yea there something certain monsters a swarm of snakes would be another. Just the idea of these are worse then the actual threat.
-Nerdarchist Dave
at first or second level a "creature" that has 24 hit points and does 2d6 damage is a decent foe. despite its low ac, its almost a third level opponent.
When I plan the encounters for my players I make sure that both the players and the enemies have a way to get the advantage, and it seems to work well.
E.g. I had my players hunt down a 16ft bumblebee. (The setting is a post apocalyptic world where everything is mutated.) The bumblebee have the funny rule that its attacks cannot be avoided. (I think it's justified with that it's literally a 16ft flying homing ball that cannot be outrun.) And its wings make so much noise that anybody to close will be effected. The effect decided by dice can be anything from lowering skill checks or collapsing to you going crazy and attack nearest anyone.
But the bumblebee have low will so it can be effected by mental attacks (this game version of magic).
So the group have lots of ways to take it down. Traps, distance or mental attacks. Melee is a bad option but it can work if you outnumber it and pray to the dices you might make it with just one death. So it's basically up to the players to play it smart.
The droning of wings I've seen that design other monsters in the past. It's always up to the players to play it smart. Whether they do it or not is another matter.
-Nerdarchist Dave
As a new dungeon master your videos have been an incredible help being a better DM. Would you consider making a video addressing how you reward players with loot and magic items in an adventure or dungeon? Random loot tables vs items personalized for your players? At what rate do you reward magic weapons/armor, and what tier weapons/armor are players expected to have at each level?
Either way, thanks for the videos.
You are quite welcome. Yes we love taking view suggestions.
-Nerdarchist Dave
A good and exciting way to handle something like this is to have a big thing going on, and your party is on the fringe of it. You deal with a couple of things here on this stage, the main stage is actually down the road. When you get there, some gaurds or something are in a fight that they're about to lose, but they've already done a ton of damage to this thing and it could be whatever within reason, right? All you have to do is roll in, drop a few hits, and seal the deal.
Right away this puts you in a position where you're dropping things bigger than you which always feels good, and you've already done something seriously heroic which also always feels good.
When I design a series of encounters, a campaign, I visualize the sequencing in terms of a sine wave. A wibbly, wobbly sine wave. The PCs level is the x axis. Then, I keep the majority of the challenge ratings below the x axis with a few peaks that rise above it. Sometimes 2 in a row, sometimes none which means I vary the frequency across all challenge ratings. If you keep a higher percentage of challenges below or well-below x at a given game session, you're golden. Wanna see them sweat? Bump up.
It's an old video but an interestning matter so...
1) Make use of the weak creature of the MM like Jackals and co. There is weak but menacing enough beast (especially in numbers) in the book.
2) Use them in creative way. Ex : The first character passing the pile of rocks blocking the path in the mine land next to a scorpion and is engage in a one on one against it. The group has to spot a swarm of sleeping bat, then stealh or fight the swarm.
3) Give aid to the PC. EX : In the forest, a dwarf beastmaster/nature cleric and his bear are engage against a pack of 4 wolf led by a dyrewolf. The dyrewolf and the bear are in a duel and don't go against the PC. The wolf only attack them when targeted first. The players enter the fight on round two and on round one one wolf took an attack of opportunity while passing the bear + another dashed and did not attack. Finally the NPC can save the day with an heal.
4) Give advantage to the PC. Maybe the dwarf cleric/ranger is an inspirationel leader that gave temporary hit point to the PC so the next combat against the two half orc twin sister and there pet/slave goblin in leash is made easier. Maybe the slave goblin take his chance and backstab an half orc during the fight. Maybe because it is there first real adventure the PC gain an free inspiration.
5) Limited use ressource. An healing potion. A magic missile wand with 3 charge left that does'nt recharge. Some kind of blessing... A magic lantern giving the PC resitance to necrotic and disadvantage to the attack of the shadow they are fighting.
6) Having a joker on hand. Maybe there is an NPC that can intervene at any moment during the very first dungeon. And of course is gonna choose the moment where the group's cleric is down and the fighter just took a crit to present himself.
7) Level 1 are just guys with swords and mage apprentice. Play the fact that they are not badass yet, are learning and can die is interesting. It allow for a bit of horror vibe for example and when the epic come it is gonna feel more epic. Also, a level 1 start is a choice. There is nothing wrong with a level 3, 5, 10, etc.. start.
There is a lot of ways to even the playing field or to create condition for an interesting fight with weak creature. The XP budget just has to be set accordingnly.
I couldn't agree more. Be ok will killing of a character, and don't regret it. Roll the dice in the open and avoid the temptation to change the roll. Add monsters of your encounter is it's getting rolled. Make interesting monsters, add abilities to them like class levels or reskin them so they are not anticipated or expected.
Master of Games All great suggestions, Thanks. Nerdarchist Ted
Another good video. Nerdarchy has become my favorite site for videos on the Internet and you guys have really rekindled my interest in D&D
Awesome to hear. Thanks for the kind words.
-Nerdarchist Dave
The hardest encounter are NPC's of same or lower level of party that act smart. It's only a level 2 wizard, but crap, one sleep that takes out half the party or when the tank sucks up that enemy magic missile for which there's no save is that gut crunch moment . City encounters very dangerous.
You talked about taking away reinforcements from the monsters' side, what about giving reinforcements to your party? I'm currently planning a pretty dangerous encounter for my low-level party where they need to clear out a ton of goblinoids and gnolls that are terrorizing nearby towns. Well, maybe they're not sent to do this alone. They could be the front line, so to speak, but they've got a few warriors backing them up. Something like that can still allow you to showcase dangerous monsters and interesting terrain without risking a total party kill, because they have allies that are also taking hits for them. Nothing raises party morale like a shield wall.
kellogsbeast Good point, this is also a viable strategy and it works if you don't do it too much.
When overdone the PCs start feeling like rescued maidens instead of epic heroes. Recently the party took on a coven of necromancers animating a dead treant. They go backup from a small squad of rangers that occupied some of the necromancers. Otherwise the pcs would have been ray of frost to death.
So instead of total party death it was like an arrow and ray version of an old west shoot out. ~Nate the Nerdarch
Kobolds and picked can be fun, chaotic, and in packs, creativly disabling/ challenging. Take the monster and modify it to be more of a rewarding encounter.
bandits take their stuff. Some monsters take them prisoner (if Female character is in party, her) or their stuff. if the Barbarian passed their "Speech Check" the goblins either leave or want to help the party.
I'm running my first campaign in 3 days, and I'm thinking of pitting them against an Umber Hulk in the first session, and entice them into running and escaping rather than fighting like idiots by having them kill off an npc that went with the party. Just a little adrenaline rush. Scare the shit out of them.
I think the guys covered everything for the most part, but one more thing you could consider is just starting new players to the game out at 2nd. level just to give them a bit of a buffer.
That, or have them start level one,, but give them their level 2, and maybe 3, HP and Hit dice. When they level up, they get the rest, but the HP and HD were advanced so they don't get them twice. It's a good way of making them tougher at the start of the game without handing them too many resources
That works as well or even level 3 that is kind of the sweet spot for 5e.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Multi tiered encounters that scales dynamicly throughout the fight.
The PC's walk into a cave and encounter 3 goblins. One of the goblins blow a whistle. Now even before the first blow is struck the players are on their toes because you have telegraphed that they dont know what they are getting into. And you are pretty free to trickle in more goblins as the fight goes on until the Pc's have taken the level of beating that you want. Once the first PC drops stop adding more goblins and let the PC's wrap up the fight. And then just make the next couple of rooms empty. Which ever goblins that would have been in those rooms heard the alarm and responded off camera. I imagine most of them reinforced the fight but some went further into the cave to warn their comrades. Both players and PC's has to assume that the boss of the cave is either preparing for the meeting or he is already moving towards them gathering up everybody. It puts the players right in that sweetspot between excitement and paranoia that gets their attention, it allows you to pile on the exp pretty quick without accidentically wiping the party.
Im also fond of the monster that would normally easily trample a lvl 1 party. Except this particular individual is not at 100% combat effectiveness, either through prior injury, disease or lacking experience. Even a T-rex can be on par with a lvl one character. Also the added tension of ''If the parrents show up we are screwed.''
Irtehdar I think Nerdarchy in one form or another have done exactly that. All great suggestions. Nerdarchist Ted
I like combining low-level combat with conversation: have one of those weak goblins spout insults in common during the fight, and occasionally let slip a clue or bit of interesting lore.
Maybe the PCs will switch from kill to capture to try to get more information.
Party of 4 and a pack of 6 wolves. Only one character on watch so for a bit it was 4 on 1, and then it became 4 on 4 until another one joined in the fray. That put the character on watch get dropped from the word go. We all did survive the encounter but it came very close to killing the poor character on watch. He was unconscious and prone in the first 6 seconds of the encounter. That could have ended poorly.
the way combat or AC/HP is described in 5e was described similarly by Gary G. in his AD&D DMs Guide.
I definitely new it came from the early parts of the game, but it's been a long time since I've looked at those books.
- Nerdarchist Dave
Drunk Orcs. I'm having that.
I'm running for a solo elf wizard. I gave my goblins clubs, and she blasted those guys to ashes. Yeesh. Still, even with a d4, she felt in danger, having only 7 hit points.
Monsters are really cool, but what I like even more is have my players fight people - and it is independet of their level, as from the violent bully to the black knight to the dark archmage their are human and elven baddies of any level.
I really like the ideas for using monsters but kind of nerf them due to recent activities or combats they have encountered. That is definitely a interesting way to look at that.
It's a great tactic. Also it might make those monsters more open to parley as well.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I have found the mile stone method to work best for 5E and you don't have to have a set story point for the level advancement. Just when you fill that the party has reached a significant achievement in the story point. This will also drive the power gamers crazy. 8)
Unfortunately one of my friends got really angry when I dropped one of their characters during a fight. They were going through some other stuff at the time but it still bumbed me out that they didn’t enjoy the session. They apologised but I haven’t DMed since. Wanna find some new players
Yea, helpful or hindering terrain can help a lot. THE most interesting and dangerous encounter I had in a long while was in a dungeon room filling with water. When the water became waist high, a crocodile was let in through a grate in the wall where the water was filling in from.
Oh the old crocodile trap haven't done that one in ages might need to dust it off.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I had my lvl 2 party of 3 fight the CR 2 Giant Constrictor Snake. The snake half shot two of them and both them and the snake missed a lot, but they beat it without dieing and had a lot of fun with it
Question: Do you always share XP, does everyone has to take part in the battle? If a 100Xp monster is killed by 4 PCs does everyone gets 100 or 25XP? I'm a new DM and I didn't see any comment on this in the player's Handbook.
Froschritter 25 XP to the 4 PCs. You always divide the XP even when an NPC helps they get included in the XP sharing.
There is a severe lack of flavour in monsters at the lower tiers. My best advice for dealing with this is re-skinning. I simply cannot advocate it enough. The simple bandit and wolf can be adapted very easily to make a hunting party from a rival nation that the characters meet in the forest. The details are up to you, but the key to interesting combat encounters in the first few levels is to always ground them in your story.
The first question is, WHO'S AROUND?
What kind of creatures cohabit this space with the adventurers?
The second question is, WHERE IS THE STORY GOING?
Who among the creatures that live here display some facet of your next story beat?
The third and final question is WHAT MONSTER?
Pick a low-tier profile to match the criteria thrown up by your story. Tinker if you must, but only if you're confident in playing with the maths of CR and custom monsters. Most of that sort of thing at low levels can be handled descriptively.
If you are going to give monsters buffs or nerfs, make them story based! Perhaps you can use a more powerful monster if they have a phobia or allergy that forces them to take damage or roll with disadvantage in the presence of that thing, but that thing sure as hell better be important to the rest of the story! If your main villain is an evil wizard who does human experimentation, you could make mutant commoners by giving them a multi attack for extra limbs, or a slightly increased armour class for scaly skin, or double hit points for being very large, or something as simple as a different damage type like poison or slashing for claws and stuff. The options are literally limitless, but you really have to tie it back to your plot!
if you are at all interested to know i made a program and ran a simulation to test the value of advantage. once you get to a few thousand rolls the average stabilizes at +- 3.
the program adds the total sum of 100000 d20 rolls then divides by 100000. with no selection the returned number is 10 as expected when it rolls 2 and selects the higher it returns 13 and returns 7 for disadvantage.
I just feel at 1st level solo player. Having to say "so I have to rest tonight after casting magic missile once" is kind of weak. Like what can I do as first level (2nd edition) mage. Sure I have hit a few times with my staff but honestly. What luck will I likely have getting through a dungeon . And I feel it is a mad cop out to have to take a day off every-time I cast a spell. What can I do? Plus I don't mind dying .. seriously rolling characters is half the fun.
ha! I've been giving role play xp for years! it really helps to encourage my players to actually get in their characters skin's.
I definitely wanna slap some training wheels on them for the first 3 levels cause those are so easy to die in. As soon as they get to 3 or 4 tho death is fair game
Random encounters can be hard to make interesting. Most great encounters will be things that the players have heard info about before they find them. Legends, tales, townsfolk please for help; these can set up the encounter and make the players become invested in what is happening before the encounter even starts. Not only that but an informed team can find ways hedge the difficulty of the encounter or find non-violent means of solving the encounters problem. Also the player expectations of the encounter can heighten the interest when they find out their assumptions of the encounter was incorrect.
I think you are working off the assumption that a random encounter has to be you round the corner and there is an owlbear. Sure that is one way of doing but there are others. You can build suspense and tension or it could just an interesting thing that happens that has nothing to do with combat.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Is an encounter really random if the DM is rolling for it way before any character can ever find the encounter. A entire dungeon made with a random table and some dice could be called a random encounter, even though all the positions, reasoning, and existence are written out before hand. I think that isn't what most people think of as a random encounter.
However if fleshed out mini stories that you randomly add to your bigger story is what you mean by random encounters, I agree.
The point I was making is that pre-planned hooks and encounter quirks, can be use in foreshadowing to make encounters better. Honestly I think we might be agreeing, but got stuck on my leading term 'random encounters'.
Psychodegu
To be honest anymore I do very little pre planning. Mostly I react to what my players decide to do. I'll throw a few hooks out there and not worry or think to hard as to where they'll lead. I kind of pave the road just in front of my players as they travel it. Helps to keep me from doing unnecessary work. As for a bigger story it usually consist of about 3-5 sentences that we may or may not get to. I generally find ways to tie encounters planned or random back to the players in order to get them invested in what's going on.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Psychodegu It is random if the DM does not know exactly where it is going to hit the party. You can have random encounters rolled up on not cards and randomly pull one out and see what the players get. The DM knows the options but it still falls into that criteria. Nerdarchist Ted
Psychodegu It is random if the DM does not know exactly where it is going to hit the party. You can have random encounters rolled up on not cards and randomly pull one out and see what the players get. The DM knows the options but it still falls into that criteria. Nerdarchist Ted
I describe injures with critical hits and death. and if its a massive hit I leave them with a wicked scar or missing finger or something.
Master of Games I have not delved too hard into the DMGs permanent injury table but I have seriously considered modifying it in a to better suit my needs. Nerdarchist Ted
I did it sideways...
"OK guys.. all new level 1 characters. Each of you roll up 3. By level 5, if you aren't down to 1 due to the other 2 dying, you'll be abandoning all but 1. You can pick 2 that will basicly be player controlled NPC/followers now... or let the dice rule.
1st level characters are too easy to kill with one hit.
Do you guys do any other Pen and Papers other then D&D? Me and my friends have started some of our own campaigns using the MERP rulebook but set in our own universes. What is your opinion on that?
We've played Heroes Unlimited, Mutants and Masterminds, and Fate. We just shot an overview video for M&M today. I'm not familiar with that system. But whatever you enjoy is the perfect system in my book. We'd play a lot more systems, but to many games not enough time.
- Nerdarchist Dave
Thank you for answering, I hope you dont mind me asking another question. I am going to DM a solo campaign for a friend, but his character is a priest healer with no fighting ability. Any idea how to make that interesting?
Teun Lots of role-playing, mysteries, and political intrigue.
-Nerdarchist Dave
So do you ever make situations that you realize that you just outmatched the player and they have 0 chance of survival?
I just tend to "forget" that the enemies have multi-attack
Once O rolled a critical fail at having a good times sleep, and I was attacked by a fire troll. I ended up dropping a tree on ot without attacking and then killing it with a a giant piece of wood that I knocked the troll out with, damm those 20 rolls. And I then made a badass mask to look strong and I persuaded the troll to be my companion, I ended up making the troll kill 4 guards without them thinking I was involved. I got about 5000 gold pieces of loot, and I got a deed to a horse from the town for killing the troll with ice magic. And then it all ened when I tried to kill 2 goblins and I chased them to their camp where I had to fight twenty of them. Then I was imprisoned by them but then troll attacked the camp and killed me while I was escaping. I had fun though.
honestly i start players off at level 3 so they can jump right into the action. I like just skipping the rats and kobolds phase :p
+DarkSteel
Back when I had a group playing 3.5 regularly, we'd usually start at later levels for the same reason.
However, I don't really *like* doing that. Because part of me ends up feeling like I just walked into a movie 15 or 20 minutes late. Probably nothing too significant was lost, but... I wonder about what the first few levels would've been like.
I've been getting more creative with the early levels with my current game, reskinning weaker monsters, adjusting their powers, and so on, so that it's not just "rats and kobolds". It's still quite easy to kill characters who are not super optimal in their tactics and/or lucky with rolls. But at least level 1 and 2 don't feel like they have to be the meaningless now.
Shawn Wesley
idk i feel like starting with an extra couple levels immediately sets them apart from normal people. Take the lord of the rings for the example. Sure you can come up with a large grandiose reason for the hobbits to leave the shire even though they are just normal people thrust into very dangerous situations, or you can start your characters like aragorn who already has some experience under his belt and has confidence and the ability to hold his own. Its all a matter of taste but i find the later to make more sense when your group is a party of adventurers rather than normal people dragged out of normal life kicking and screaming.
I get what you're saying. I guess it does come down to matter of taste, but also of feel.
I've played other systems -- WoD, FATE--where levels aren't even in the equation, so I have ended up with a very different way of looking at character progression. And I do like the concept of a "commoner" get wrapped up in a bigger adventure and learning to step up to become smarter and more fit, to learn better how to fight and so on.
Either way works though, and I know sometimes it's fun to just start off as pretty strong. I even once had a game start off at level 20, since otherwise it takes so long to get there. It was a one-off, but it was fun.
Shawn Wesley
I've run a level 20 start before just to get a feel for epic level progression in 3.5. Needless to say its horribly unbalanced lol
Definitely!!
Hi i love all your videos and i love to see how you have developed so much. I love this video concept and i would like you to re visit it.
is that shrek on your fridge?
Shrek on a stack of miniature supply bins I believe.
- Nerdarchist Dave
+Nerdarchy lol awesome. shrek is my homeboy.
Ryan Garza Shrek is love, Shrek is life.
M
CONSEQUENCES: Without them the game is meaningless! But those consequences don't have to occur immediately save them for level three or five. In the mean time broken arms and ribs and such are a real detriment to a players ability to participate. Stupid players who do stupid things while on crutches or wearing an arm sling deserve to die and probably should!!!!
woot, 2nd view
Why are you talking about killing characters? It is so easy to do this. It is much harder to make the encounter balanced. Add Criticals and fumbles into the game. Just a suggestion.