Action Oriented Monsters | Running the Game
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2019
- Episode 84.
Here's the scratch pad I used to make these. My next step would be plugging in attack and damage numbers, and cleaning it up to be usable on the night.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
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Goblins Per Round, or GPR, is how I do all of my encounter building math
geoxstellar I don’t know why but for some reason now I’m imagining a bunch of goblins being launched out of a t shirt cannon.
@@thelittleredhairedgirlfrom6527 semi automatic goblins.
"Goblins per round" is obviously so much better that "damage per round" for the sheer realism of it. "Damage = 1d6, 2d6, or 3d6, then the other guy goes, and does 1d6, 2d6 or 3d6, depending on factors I haven't figured out yet" is not really all that realistic, for obvious reason.
"Goblins per round" is badass as fuck, for obvious reasons, and also calcus reasons.
This is definitely going into my monster creation 'go-to' BA from now on. I love this creative method.
I make my goblins all goblin minions and then throw as many of them as possible at the players. So now its mgpr or minion goblins per round
"Y'all got anymore of them Action Oriented Monster videos?" **scratch,scratch**
Dael kingsmil
Guess this comment is the genesis moment for Flee Mortals!! :D :D
@@casterknot5094 fact
MonarchsFactory is legit
I tried this out. My party of 5 had to go and fight a bandit camp. My party is very smart and know their way to effectively get items and gear. They bought potions, rope, traps, make shift bombs, molotov, gas bombs, poison weapons. They did everything the could to shut this bandit camp down in one encounter.
The bandit captain who had 50 hp.. sounded like chump changes to the two clerics, gunslinger/rogue, bear barbariant, and a fighter/barbarian.
However I gave that captain 3 villain actions.
"CALL FOR HELP!" two bandits come out of any of the 4 tents in the camp as they woke up late or were getting ready.
"RAIN HELL!" the captains ordered all bandits to fire a ranged weapon a second time!
"TOUGH AS NAILS" bandits be angry. The captain yells at 2 bandits of his choice and they are immediately brought to 1 hp.
Each villain action would fire differently. Call for help only fired if the barbarians advanced, rain hell only fired if the cleric used a big spell, tough as nails only fired to keep the fight going a little longer and was my dm way of putting a little surprise of a guy getting back up to be an annoyance.
My party all got hit hard, but they went full Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th on those bandits. It was super cool and super fun. There were moments were they had to use bought items to help them out.
My thought was this. Have an action to deal damage but never guarantee it like "rain hell"
Have something to keep the players on edge, be more strategic and use resources and abilities. "Call for help"
Something to make the fight annoying.. make the players REALLY want to beat the captain. "Tough as nails" followed by the captain laughing at the players failure. Really pissed them off and when they took down the bandit captain, they cheered.
"You die when I say you die!" Was a hit at my game last night. 3 "Dead" Goblins got up with 1 HP each, and took an extra attack at my players. 5th Session ever as DM (Thanks Matt!), running Yawning Portal, Sunless Citadel.
I slapped it on a Necromancer I made, when his minions went down while he was still alive, he just made them get back up with 1HP. My players reaction when he first did it was "Oh he's annoying". My player's reaction when he did it AGAIN was "Oh he's gotta go". They threw him off a walkway forty feet in the air.
@@ConnorGrummer "They threw him off a walkway forty feet in the air." Sounds like a reasonable resolution.
As of now, all the standard Ankhegs are juveniles and this is the true ankheg
You can even have ancient ankheg the size of a terasque for a high level party. Who spawns loads of juveniles on the BG.
@@kamnis33 The point is that monsters dont need to be high level to be interesting, though.
@@magnusanderson6681 not to rain any negativity but creating an idea for your later leveled characters isnt about making a high leveled monster but about an engaging creature that suprises and excites your players. A ankheg boss for high levels who spawns smaller ankheg when damaged makes your playera have to think. Maybe make cold attacks neutralize the acid spawns so if they figure it put they will feel accomplishment in the middle of a fight. Just My long two cents.
Ankheg Soldier
@@malcolmhensley2605 this sounds really cool
I think my Goblin Boss voice is basically my Orc voice, but I think I could have done a good, angry, squeaky goblin headman if I did it again.
Matthew Colville if your Duergar voice is any portent, it will be terrific
The first time I ran a Goblin encounter, I hadn't planned for a voice and accent for them. I instinctively gave them a raspy voice and Italian Brooklyn accent. My players were very entertained, so I stuck with it.
@@chrissnyder8415 you think this isn't edited?
The 4th is strong with this one...
Love it.
Chris Snyder is this fun banter with a hint of truth or bluntly your opinion attempting to actually come across as a wangrod?
Not that I don’t agree I’m just trying to figure out.
-"I cast Silence on the Gobo Boss, gg DM"
-"You start feeling tremors under your feet"
Hm. Silence would break the goblin encounter. I wonder if ways to get around it.
I was thinking the same thing, but if players solve the encounter that way I think you should just reward them for being smart and not try to work around it per se. At least not mechanically. But breaking concentration is always an option if the goblins know who casted it. Also the players probably wouldn't immediately know that casting silence is the solution because the abilities only go once per round.
@@p00tis Silence can only be cast on a point not an object or person, it would buy them an Action while the creature disengage moves out of the 20ft sphere but outside of them it wouldn't break it entirely.
If they managed to get someone next to it with Sentinel as well or some other movement restriction in place on the boss then they just deserve the win really.
@@p00tis They'd just run away to get reinforcements.
Enemies abound on the goblin boss.
Now he only sees enemies. Chances are he'll run.
“This is my own homebrew nonsense.” Which is why it’s so much fun!!
I’ve got 1 player who used to say, “That’s not what that creature can do!”. And I would respond in a 4th-wall-breaking narrator’s voice, “Clearly, this PC does not know what he/she thinks they know. This should be entertaining.”
Eventually one of the other players said, “Dude, this is Mark’s World… roll with it.” So it became an inside joke, a verb - my homebrew monsters were “Mark’d”.
I never enter a Starfinder campaign without doubling my monsters hp's.
People think DnD is videogames and just go in with that mentality and it really shows, sadly. Glad someone gave your guy a hint.
@@sladewilson9741 I am new to GMing in Starfinder, are the Alien archives stats not a good starting point for enemies?
@@Ninja-gs7ck Not in my experience. Plus I usually have 6 pcs instead of 4
@@sladewilson9741 thanks for the feedback, i guess i have to try it a few times and see how it works for me
Cannot wait for the MCDM Villains and Monsters book to come out :)
I was thinking the exact same thing. Don’t get me wrong I’m ready for kingdoms and warfare. However, I always have room for another Villains and Monster Manual. I especially love the out of the box ideas Matt comes up with. I’ve been playing and DMing for many many years now and he always comes up with a new and most importantly fun way of designing encounters and monsters. Made me go back and buy the 4th edition core set just to mine for power and abilities for my bad guys. So I would love to see a Covillian Monster & Villain Tome.
What should they call it? I have a few thoughts:
MCDM Monster Manual
Bosses & Bad Guys
Matt's Monster Maker
I would 100% purchase that book.
MetalGlitch great title! Perfect for MCDM. Here’s to a future Bosses & Bad Guys Book or Tome or Manual lol.
BroKenny16 absolutely! Take my money too MCDM!
9:12 - "I'm not here to make more work for my self" - Matt, and I intend this in the most sincere way I can delivery this - this is some of the best advice you've given. Keep it up.
and of course.... 25:50 is another gem.
If there's ever a 6E, they absolutely need to get Matt Colville on it!
there will be
@@chaotic28 I think they have designed 5e in a way that a 6e could never happen. The rules are soooo open that you can just change the rules to fix any problems that exist.
@@brettpage Do you mean the fact that the other two of the three core D&D pillars, exploration and social, are so underutilized and underdeveloped by the mechanics that we DMs have to figure on our own out how to actually make they work? Yeah, really open.
@@framerate269 "Do you mean the fact that the other two of the three core D&D pillars, exploration and social, are so underutilized and underdeveloped by the mechanics that we DMs have to figure on our own out how to actually make they work? Yeah, really open."
Agreed!
Welcome to OneD&D.
"a goblin's weapon of choice... is more goblins"
Hah! Of course! Classic goblin shenanigans!
Another way of looking at it: The first time you use this design, it will also be the best monster you ever designed ;)
Because it will be the precursor of a world full of nightmare fuel monsters for your players to face.
Good stiuff. Honest, Matt, at some point you're either going to have to create an original system or have a collection of supplements that so meaningfully change 5e as to be indistinguishable from one. You're always quick to identify the weaknesses and sacred cows of D&D & suggest homebrew in a way that Wizards never will for fear of weakening the profitability of their license.
Idk, everyone likes legendary actions. I think its more an issue that they dont make tools for gms to make their own content. 5e monster creation rules are so bad and such a step back from 4e I cant help but suspect malice.
@@magnusanderson6681 This is where something like DnDBeyonds upcoming monster creator could be a massive boon to the homebrew world as it will use the backend Wizards math to do all the calculations and allow for much easier customization of new or existing monsters. They've even talked about a CR slider that will essentially up/down level an existing monster, really cool stuff.
@@TBKzord I hope this doesn't only change stats in numbers
I ran the improved ankheg against the five 10 year olds in the dnd after school club I run today. They were all level 5. I think it was the most memorable battle they've had. It was intense and almost 3 of them went down. Especially when it exploded at the end. So thank you very much for making our club even better.
Gonna have 2 of them ambush the adult group I run for at the weekend. All level 9. Very excited!
Been doing something like this for years. In essence: play the monsters to their ability, not their stat block. I had a Chimera with a Intelligence boosting magic item drop rocks, use weather cover, etc. Tension was high.
It got away. They HATE that Chimera. Now they’re invested.
This reminds me of something I did with my Chimera. The while 8 session campaign was leading to this big dungeon and the treasury of the villain was guarding by a Chimera. The players spent their 7 sessions building a crew to go to the dungeon. They were 5th level 3 players and 4 npcs ranging from cr 1/4 to cr 2.
What I ended up doing is bumping it's hp, and giving the goat head spells (idea came from dragon's dogma). I also had it always flying as long as it had a breath attack to use so half the party couldn't reach for an attack unless they did something creative. And creative they were.
Mike Gould Mike Gould thank you. Play to your audience not to your reference books
I gave a larger than normal Ankheg the effects of the Earth Tremor spell when it burrowed.
That's super cool! I love it!
Matthew Colville Your channel gave me the confidence to GM. Now, D&D is part of our homeschool curriculum and my wife and sons have all tried GMing. Thanks.
Seeing Matt smirk after he says "You die when I say so!" reminded me why I love this channel.
I love that the goblin boss has gone under minimal design changes from here to "Flee Mortals!" That is because he is without flaw.
"Acid for Blood" hmm... maybe it's an automatic reaction for when the monster drops below half hit points, or "bloodied".
You forgot one obvious villain action for the goblins: "Delay them", "Slow them down", "Keep them busy" or something similar. Him shouting this means that he is about to retreat, leaving the goblins to their fate and maybe forcing the players hands. Can they afford to let him escape? They might get to see him again later if they no not stop him
It might be used after the "Kill" command round. If the gob boss sees that after every murdering effort his force cant beat the pcs, he just uses hes lackeys as meatshield to escape. Cool idea.
It might also be used as a DM screwup protection, if you accidentally used to many goblins or if the dice are not cooperating, by removing the boss from this encounter.
@@fofolacosa123 or just have "Kill" have an alternate "Do Something!" if the Goblin Boss is losing (Kill if he is winning)
was LITERALLY just thinking "I could really go for another Running the Game right about now" about ten minutes ago. thanks for the vids, Matt
Exact same thing. I came to the channel just to see if I had missed something.
Me too, although I think that about once every ten minutes.
Same
This is the single greatest encounter balancing advice ever presented for 5th edition. I use this technique all the time now and constantly refer new DMs to this video. Thank you Matt, for being such an amazing treasure and resource!
For a long time, I've believed that encounters need to "change" after two rounds, otherwise they may become boring. This genius idea of adding custom actions to add combat variation and NPC personality is freakin' GOLDEN! Thanks, Matt, you always inspire!
I' ll definately use this, I get so bored with players destroying my beasties before they can do anything cool ..thank you very much! Its great inspiration
I just took a look at the final packet for "Flee, Mortals!" It's very cool to have been here for the beginning of the whole thing.
Back again. Almost ritualistic for me to come back to this video before important fights. This really is some of the finest content you’ve ever made, matt.
You too huh. Haha
This should literally be a book. Like just start taking the monster manual and entry by entry, make a villain or solo monster out of i
I'd pay for that!
You gonna buy the book now
@@robertcox9871 already did
Villain Actions and Reactions remind me of Magic: the Gathering.
Reactons: Waitwaitwait---before you go to combat.. In response!
Villain Action: Oh, on your end step...
It's like playing against Esper Control.
YES! This is that exactly! That must be why I appreciate it so much.
You just activated my Trap card! (after seeing this comment, my first thought was this)
Isn't that the same as Legendary Actions? I don't get the difference between that and Villain Action.
mAc Chaos Pretty sure it’s the same thing. Remember Matt’s played a bunch of editions, so he has to wrap all those terms around his head!
@@afriendlyinternetcat4984 That's true. Do you think he meant for a Villain Action to be used at the end of the monster's turn, or at some other point? And I assume, once per round, not more than once.
5e really needs some interesting solo monsters.
Action economy really matters in 5e.
Yeah solos in general are kind of tough to write in any turn based game, since it amounts to a bunch of PCs focus firing on one foe. Even legendary actions don't seem to do a hell of a lot since they're often not all that powerful to really be game changers.
It's much more dynamic in a game like Dungeon World where failing at attacking means the enemy hits you. That gets more of an interesting set up where the boss monster gets more actions the more PCs there are, and has that ability to take on the whole group at once.
Dude!... you’re awesome. Your energy is infectious and you easily hold my attention for 30+ minutes. Keep on with the great ideas!
Matthew Colville looks like how I imagine Richard the Lionheart.
As a DM who has struggled with Monsters (especially single monsters) being too easy without being overtly Tanky/Powerful, this video is a lifesaver! I just went back to comb through all the Running the Game videos. DMing this week and I'll definitely be trying out AOMs
Some thoughts:
I think that for boss monsters it's also important to be in the heads of the players. In the case PCs encounter a goblin boss that convokes goblins and rise them from the dead, they will probably just focus the boss. It can be a problem because they might just kill it in one or two rounds. Hence a reaction or action like "protect me with your lives!" where the selfish boss will use other goblins as shields against heroes weapons and spells, as long as there are other goblins near him. It's also a more intelligent and dynamic way to give the boss more HP. And I can imagine the massive (for a goblin) goblin boss grabbing a tiny goblin minion just to ensure not getting hurt.
For the solo monster: PCs will want to argue that they can get opportunity attacks while the beast is burrowing his way. And I'm not sure what to tell them, because it would make sense. I would probably add a screeching bonus action or something when the beast decides to burrow, forcing PCs to make a save to be able to take an opportunity attack.
I’m pretty sure that’s actually an ability that goblin bosses have, where if another goblin is standing next to them and they get hit, they can make their ally take the hit instead of them.
> PCs will want to argue that they can get opportunity attacks while the beast is burrowing his way.
Uh, not if it has a BA disengage.
Sorry that this is two years late, but:
1) Give the monster the mobile feat.
2) Let it take disengage as a bonus action
3) Unless they have sentinile, let them take the AOO and just don't subtract that damage done from the monster. They will literally have no way of knowing.
It was both amazing to see my group's faces when my Bugbear boss acted on their turns and for once caused them to take a look at the boss as a real threat. They usually avoid planning much but seeing them react to a goblin running to give him a healing potion and them trying to intercept him was great. Using this for all my boss monsters, convinced me to get the stronghold and followers that I was going back and forth with.
I love how gleefully Matt talks about all the cool and exciting things he's giving to his bug monster.
The Running the Game series got me into, well, running the game. Each video makes me more excited to run, and more skilled at doing so.
Thanks, Matt. Thanks, MCDM.
"Every round, a fresh goblin arrives." So... Krenko Mob Boss.
Yess!!! I hate krenko!
The ankheg claws you while you've prone to make sure you have been clawed. Man, I've missed your videos Matt
the first campaign I ever ran was lost mines of phandelver. It was for friends who had never played D&D before. I rebuilt the last boss fight with the Drow in wave echo cave, and this video was really really helpful. they were blown away, not by the amount of HP the drow mage had, but what he did and all the tricks he pulled, like using the corpses of his dead giant spider minions to create an undead abomination spider, and the players were absolutely thrilled afterward, all the while the drow sat on his throne and barely moved himself, until his hubris's got him killed by the PC barbarian. Thank you Matt, it was alot of fun.
Back when I was running homebrews, this is essentially the process I went through to streamline my side of encounters. When I recently started running D&D, I somehow managed to forget this. Thank you for the reminder.
By Riker's beard! This blew my mind. Breaking a boss encounter down into just the key stats and abilities is genius. The villain actions as a semi-scripted set of legendary actions is such a cool concept. My brain is on fire! Thank you for posting this.
Just DM'd my first game and it went over extremely well! All the players said they had an amazing time and said I did a great job as the DM. Thanks for all your awesome videos Matt!
Did anyone else's mind explode at the though of "immune to flanking?" .... just me?
COLVILLE'S ALIVE
DIVE COMMENTERS DIIIIVE!!!!
I heard that in Brian Blessed's voice
I freaking LOVE Matt Colville
Nearly two years after this I still refer to this video every now and then, while also suggesting it and all Matt's work to everyone who will listen to me.
The Action Building technique is almost exactly how PF 2e handles monster building and encounter building, so great minds think alike.
Hey Matt, just in case you actually read this. I know you like cool funky languages in-game. Back in the old *The Keep on the Borderlands* they include a cool little piece of lore in the form of "yelling 'bree-yark!' is the goblin equivalent of yelling 'Hey Rube!'." @8:30 caused this to come to mind. ;-)
its desvribed in colors as "we surrender"
@@messydeskproductions4159 I think you mean "in rumours" as there is a rumour section early in the module and it does include a rumour that 'bree-yark' is goblin for 'we surrender'.
But that's clearly just Gygax trolling the players, as in the encounters it's revealed that
"If there is a cry of *'BREE-YARK' (similar to 'Hey Rube')*, 2 of the guards will rush to the secret door, toss a sack of 250 gold to the ogre and ask him to help them.
I MISSED YOU MATT
Then you need to roll higher or improve your Dexterity.
@@DarthTellor super super late but I absolutely love this comment
I love the idea of actions tied to different rounds in combat, it makes for such a compelling fight
I ran a modified Goblin Boss today. More like the fat goblin king in The hobbit and more magical, carried around by 4 goblins on a throne while more goblins scampered about with spears and scimitars. I knew the party had a few great ranged attackers and could put some hurt on him in the first round so I gave him a crazy AC 20 against ranged attacks so they'd have to close to put him down.
First round the archer rolls a nat 20, the cleric uses guiding bolt and rolls a nat 20 and the monk, with the advantage from guiding bolt....got a nat 20. Lvl 1 party took out a CR 3 monster in 1 round. So....thanks Matt!
My modified purple worm solo monster is ready to go next session!
Hey Matt, I just wanted to say thanks for this series. I discovered it a year ago on accident with zero knowledge of D&D. After binging a few episodes I taught myself and 5 of my friends the rules. And we play every week! Now my friends are also running / playing with new people. So your videos have sparked about 15 new people into discovering D&D
I've been trying to figure out how to do things like this for my games...and Matt Colville provides.
One thing I loved in old Magic: the Gathering sets were Goblins that did things when you sacrificed them. Cards like Goblin Grenade and Mogg Fanatic.
Maybe a round 3 or 4 ability for the Goblin Boss could be that the Boss orders one of its minions to make a suicide attack? I'm just imagining a Goblin screaming "WITNESS ME!" as it grabs a torch and a cask of oil, charging at the party.
It could even be a huge dramatic event a la The Two Towers, Battle of Helm's Deep, movie version!
Makes me think of the diseased orcs that can cause themself to explode.
I was legitimately struggling with this problem for my next session.
Also, possibly the best running the game video EVER
Totally agree with your monster design choices! Thank you for this awesome inspiration! I'm a 4E DM from Germany, and preferring the compact and concise monster/villain stat blocks from 4th edition to the sometimes convoluted mess that can be 5th edition, especially for spellcasting npcs. I've run into the 4E problem of solo monsters not really being able to hold up against a party of 5 slightly more powerful than average pcs for more than three rounds. My first boss monster in my first level adventure was a spectator based on the stat block of the beholder gauth in the monster manual, but it did not last long enough to inflict any meaningful damage to the party due to a freezing spell cast by the wizard slowing him down and reducing him to one action per turn only. I also forgot to make his saving throws, so that's on me. But I am sure that fight would have been more memorable if I had given the spectator more opportunities to act. I'm designing a vengeful ghost / banshee hybrid for my next adventure, and I think this time I am much better prepared. It will have a reaction to phase into the ground or through architecture and go lurking when hit by an effective attack (anything that does full damage despite it being insubstantial), it will have a rechargeable ability to try and possess a pc's body and control it until the pc saves against being possessed, a necrotic standard melee attack and a paralysing shriek that hits every creature inside a near radius, as well as a dazing gaze of horror as a standard short ranged attack. Now I just need to plan 1 villain action per round and make it one ot the ghost's special attacks. It is meant as the only monster in a small mystery adventure, so the pcs (3rd level 4E party of 5 with two healers/leaders, 2 controllers and 1 striker) will be able to go nova on it. I'm not sure yet how many hitpoints are appropriate, but 150 sound about right to me at the moment, given my experience with them fighting bosses. We'll see how it goes.
I feel like the Goblin Boss is Bogan Redcap.
I know I'm super late to comment, but oh well.
A few months ago, my players were faced by a big undead giant who had a bunch of undead viking soldiers. He was essentially a big ol' healthpool with a big claw attack.
I did use this advice to spice up the fight though. Each round, he would roar as a bonus action and give the minions another multiattack. Really put the pressure on the players and they were super engaged.
Thank you for the advice! Always a great listen between sessions.
This is really cool! I know it is a bit late but from this I made a Goblin Boss called Klank. A huge chunky boy who wears a patchwork mess of armour that the players can knock-off to reduce his AC.
He has a bonus action to call in 2 additional goblins (if available from a pre-rolled pool)
He has a reaction called "Gimme That!" where he can pick up a bit of armour (scattered around the lair) or steal a shield from a nearby goblin to affix to his armour, if he is hit by an attack.
My Villain Actions mostly require the goblin's to use their reaction to perform the given action. This is hoping to allow the players to continue to move around and keep it dynamic.
Then he has three Villain Actions.
"Grab One Quick!": At end of any player's turn, he allows each goblin to pickup a shield or weapon as a free action and may then use their reaction to use it either as an attack (improvised or not) or to equip it (shield / armour).
"Bring Them Down!": At end of any player's turn, all goblins can immediately use their reaction to attack a player twice.
"Protect Me, Idiots!": Near the end of battle, at the end of any player's turn, if Klank's AC is reduced to below 14, he is able to disengage and move up to his movement speed and command the remaining goblin's to do the same, forming a barrier of goblins between the players and Klank,
.
Klank has a twin sister who is more of necromancy and magic and rides a Giant Wolf Spider, so should pair nicely for a memorable and interesting fight!
Any suggestions?
Rahadin from Curse of Strahd was one of my favorite villians there to play just because he had multiattack as well as an AOE bonus action attack. He was a boss himself.
What a wonderful surprise and fantastic video! Love reading the script for this ahead of time as well. Keep fighting the good fight!
YES!! I have used this now in 2 different situations -- first a level 1 party against Sephek Kaltro in Rise of the Frostmaiden. Made for an EPIC fight; second for a 9th level party against a frost-giant-drider guardian a snowy mountain pass entrance into the abyss. In both cases the "villain" was a solo monster and having numerous options for "villain actions", bonus actions, and reactions, made everything SO much better without killing the party. The key for me in both cases was adding abilities around things like additional movement for the villain, debuffing the party, reactions that make the villain's flavor/theme come to life. I can't thank you enough, Matt, for sharing this freely. Hands down the single most important change I've ever made in my game and the players seemed so much more engaged during the combat than they have been against "standard" solo monsters.
To reinforce the expendability of goblins to their leader (and to make him harder to kill), I like the idea of making the reaction allow him to swap places with an adjacent, allied goblin when attacked, and make that goblin the target of the attack. This allows him to take advantage of the positioning his other abilities grant even more, and allows clever PCs to gain additional, positional advantage of their own.
You have no idea how much I needed this video.
This is EXACTLY what I need for my next session!
This was such an excellent video. I love how clearly you articulate your thought process on these design decisions. It makes me want to brew all kinds of awesome monsters!
I love these Running the Game videos. I think I'll go through and rewatch them all and take notes to improve my DM'ing.
One of the best -build a monster - advice videos.
Love the new closing splash screen. Super professional 👌
your videos were recommended for me for quite a while now and today i took the time (since your vids are rather long lol) and watched some of 'em. and i don't regret it one bit! kinda struggling balancing my encounters and this video made the future encounters so much better, can't wait to try those villain options. thank you so much!
Is it just me or anyone else just loves to hear that guys talking ? Watched every Running the game and campaign dairy and never thought... the hell is he talking about ?! Never! Your great Matt
I was feeling kinda insecure about homebrewing a campaign for the first time, but this video reenergized me completely. Keep up the inspiring content!
I've watched every video in this series. This is my favorite.
Running a one shot for the first time in a while, this kind of thought process is just what I needed for the encounters. Thanks so much!
I just used the Action Oriented approach for a custom set of monsters. A most interesting mechanic I came up with was an a mental attack that moved the player's initiative to the bottom of the initiative list. It interrupted the players' plans and forced everyone to scramble suddenly for different options. I found it a great way to challenge players in a new way. With a lower-level party, it offers a great way to attack without bruising delicate hitpoints. Natural 20 on Frustration.
Looking back, this has been the most valuable D&D video I’ve ever watched.
This is cool.
Love the more mechanics-oriented episodes.
This might be one of my favorite running the game videos so far. I love this concept and it definitely sounds like it'll make for great fights.
I’m so excited to see you’ve made another video in your old style. This is super useful stuff, and is more about discussing theorycrafting than actual mechanics. I love it! Hope to see more!
I used this video for my demon medusa, and it was epic. They absolutely loved it, were challenged, and felt like they had really achieved something.
You're an amazing man.
Must be the hair.
That Ankheg is absolutely perfect for my next session. Thanks Matt!
Another solid video Matthew! I love the Running the Game episodes. Lot's of great info for us long running GM/DM's and those new to the hobby! Love it!
This has been the single most beneficial video I have ever seen in terms of improving combat in my own game. I've come back to rewatch it again and again.
This weekend I ran a hag boss fight that used this idea to employ a progressive series of weird homebrewed single-use magic items. One round she'd stick a wooden straw into a player's neck and suck out HP to heal herself. Another, she'd throw a set of steel teeth with wings through a window to alert allies to start executing hostages. A mirror that created a lifelinked duplicate of herself, a cloud if biting flies in a jar, a boiling teapot flying through the air trying to hit PCs in the head... it was a lot of fun to come up with wierd one-off items for her to pull out of her pockets and pouches. It was the most fun I've had running combat in DnD, and my players got a whole slew of cool, dramatic combat moments (and one of my players got to reveal a bunch of her backstory). So thankful Matt shares his talent for design with us.
This was so incredibly helpful! Thank you!
THE BEACONS ARE LIT! COLVILLE CALLS FOR VIEWS!
This was one of my favorite RTG videos. Some really great ideas here. Thanks!
This is easily my favorite RTG you have done. Well done. I really look forward to you maybe doing more monsters.
The action design reminds me a lot of how 4th Edition handled things -- specific action-based mechanics with enough flavour to reinforce the fiction and enough crunch to make combat tactically interesting.
Overall, the approach to design is similar to how I do things in my own games -- and how Dungeon World and the like work -- you start with the fiction, figuring out what the monster is and what it wants to do, then you come up with a handful of "moves" that communicate that to the players, and then work out some mechanics that fit that fiction.
For set-piece encounters, I also like to use what I call "event hooks" as well -- essentially dramatic environmental or situational changes that occur when the certain health thresholds are reached or when certain events occur.
For example, the first time the ankheg successfully grabs someone with its claws, its efforts to drag them away cause the ground around it to collapse, dropping it and any characters nearby into a maze of dark, narrow, and twisting tunnels where it can use its burrowing ability to its adventage.
Yeah it was interesting seeing how the Dungeon World philosophy was converted to D&D here. Honestly I feel like DW is a game all DM's should try running at least once. It really boils down D&D to the essentials and gets people thinking about important things as opposed to just boring back and forth damage. I love the DW article about the 16 HP dragon and how to make that monster scary. Really would like to see D&D as a whole take more from DW.
It's no surprise, these are all computer based rpg design philosophy, which is what 4e took many inspiration from.
Personally, as a huge strategy game player, it's a shame that WoTC got burned by 4e so hard that they decided to went in the complete opposite direction. There are many great things in 4e, and taking some of them in 5e will dramatically increase the amount engagement battles can have.
Been rewatching every Running the game and I'm so happy to see this
Matt, you channel is amazing. I love how you approach RPG and your content makes me feel so much more confident in my DM skills. Thank you
Legendary or Villain actions are absolutely key to make battles feel fun. I really like the Villain Action structure you have here. It helps enormously to have monsters not feel like bullet sponges or just pure damage dealers.
One thing I often do with opportunistic predators (lions, bears, hook horrors, etc.) is make them really mean but have them nope out when they get to about half hit points. That makes them threatening on the initial strike but also gives the PCs incentive to hit hard to drive them back. Other monsters are much more prone to fighting to the death.
I've done a goblin boss who was unthreatening itself but had an action to command other goblins to attack. It also had a reaction to sacrifice one of its goblins to take a PC blow. Eventually the PCs managed to fry most of the goblin allies and at that point the boss was pretty well useless, but they really didn't like him.
8:30
Anyone else immediately think "Hey Everybody! GET IN HERE!"?
Theres no 6th edition without this guy. Call him now, wotc
Wow. What a blast! This opened my eyes. THANK YOU, Matthew, this was awesome! My battles will never be the same again.
You are a master. Thank you for your creative passion and excellent explanations!
I've been having the same problem running "out of the box (book)" monsters: they just don't do anything interesting. So far, all the monsters I've spent time inventing abilities/actions for have been a hit with the group and every time I slack off and just run something as-written, I feel like it's been a mistake. A big regret is a recent encounter with a hydra, which is REALLY cool monster, and I mean how often do players get to fight a hydra? Anyway, I wasn't sure what the players could handle going by the CR of the monster, so I tried to just focus on dmg/ac/hp to determine the difficulty, and it fell flat to the point where I was just calling out rolls for head attacks as quickly as I could to get his turn over asap, but if I had tweaked the actual actions like I had done before and like Matt is suggesting here, the fight would've been what it should have been: memorable and fun. Lesson learned, I just wish I didn't have to waste the Hydra fight to learn it!
Anyway, perfect video. Loved it. Looking forward to Kingdoms and Warfare even more now. Maybe, especially now. I can always use more good ideas and inspiration. Thanks Matt
off topic but if they ever made a legend of Zelda movie Matthew should play the owl
I would actually enjoy hearing the owl talk for so long if that happened
Matt, I've watched pretty much every RTG video you've made, and this was my favorite and most insightful to me yet. I love singular bad guys. I recently ran a massive boss fight with a ton of friendly and enemy NPCs. It was epic, but so much to track and handle and the combat lasted over 2 hours (this was fine as it was the completion of a major arc) but then not long after I threw a lone monster at my party, I took a Hezrou, buffed it up and gave it some legendary actions, a 5-6 recharge necrotic bite/heal action, and a 10ft. frightening presence instead of poison. I had so much more fun piloting that singular monster in combat than the massive epic fight. It had a leap attack legendary action so it could trigger a bunch of frightened conditions on the melee attackers, then jump away to a ranged striker or healer far away and nobody could follow until they beat the save, meanwhile it's mauling the backline.
I think the fight was memorable but I'm now wondering how much cooler it would have been if I had given it bonus actions and reactions. I really like the idea of Villain actions firing off on set rounds. If the combat continues to last through rounds 4-6, does the monster get an additional set of Villain actions?
This is still by far my favorite video of yours and I've been using it in my current campaign to spice up certain bad guys. Always nice to come back to this video from time to time for more inspiration!