Відео

Cool. Now do a video on toxic players.

Sorry to be that guy, but “vis a vis” is pronounced “veez a vee”. Good video. First time I’m seeing your channel, and I’ll check out more.

Spells are always the third page. They always have been since 2nd Ed.

Adding monsters that *can* talk to encounters is also helpful 😏 Sometimes back to back encounters are all against mindless creatures, which doesn’t give much opportunity to talk to either side of the table

WOW!!! So much abusiveness, this is advice for bad DMing. PLEASE STOP BEING KILL THE PLAYER DMS!!! DO NOT DO MOST OF THESE, EVER!!! 1a) Power Attack for All? Great idea, keep it, every Martial can take -5 to attack to add +10 to both Ranged and Melee attacks, plus double the 10 on a crit... This is a Good rule, this is good advice. Removing it, bad advice... was 8/10 Stars, now is 0/10 Stars... granting it was great, taking away something that isn't there is just a nothing. 1b) Removal of Shield? WTF? STOP TRYING TO KILL PLAYERS. Keep Shield as is, Shield is fine... Shield is meant to exist. It costs two resources, Reaction and Spell Slot, it is perfectly fine for a one round boost, and if someone boosts themself by multiclassing, they are still using their Reaction and Still using one of their precious spell slots. If Shield were a reaction Cantrip, I could see an issue, but it isn't. Terrible -5/10 Stars, but very common among KILL THE PLAYER DMs, its commonality makes it not as impactfully bad, despite being bad 1c) Again, this is Kill the Player thinking. Stop trying to hurt the players, the dice will do it fine, there is an existing mechanic, No Proficiency at all, Armor stops spellcasting, the dip to get the Armor Proficiency is the Penalty, it is one caster level less, causing more xp needed to get spell levels and spell slots, as well as to get to features. The balance was always there, you don't need to add extra penalties. It works both ways, the Paladin can dip Warlock for Spell Slots that come back on a Short Rest for more Smites, WHICH they nerfed anyway by making Divine Smite a Bonus Action... HORRIBLE RULE -50 out of 10 Stars. 2) No Reactions when Surprised? This is fair, it works both ways, it makes Surprise have a genuine benefit still for Players to be stealthy, not just a pathetic advantage on Initiative, which is actually valueless if you roll low anyway. Oh, look, they had disadvantage and rolled a 19 and a 20, oh, and with advantage you rolled a 4 and a 5... yes, Surprised... so surprised... We can keep this, as it at least sounds good, even if it is nearly useless due to the idiocy of 2024 Surprise Mechanics. A real house rule would be "Anyone who is surprised doesn't get a turn on round one, has disadvantage on initiative, and no one get reactions until the beginning of the turn they get to go" This means, surprised people are genuinely surprised, they are caught off-guard and can't act in response at all, then initiative may or may not be on their side to go earlier or later in the second round, it still wouldn't make the NEW Alert feat genuinely valuable, as it would still would only cancel out the disadvantage where the 2014 version would have meant you got to go on the Surprise 1st round and it protected you from hidden/invisible foes surprising you in the middle of combat (Side Note: a GOOD House Rule would be to make the Alert Feat do both of those, still grant advantage on Initiative, and allow the Initiative Swap, as the Alert Character could have their first turn, get their reaction, and allow a surprised ally to go earlier in the 2nd round). 4/10 Stars, it isn't really that impactful, but it isn't bad advice, just meh. 3) What Books you allow? This isn't a House Rule, this is standard rules... You always chose which books you allowed and disallowed. We can keep this, but it isn't a House Rule anyway. Obviously there were even books that stated things like "This Feat is meant only for this Setting", meaning the intent was unless you were in that setting or allowing something from that setting in your custom setting, that book or part of that book was innately off-limits without talking with the DM. This didn't even need to be stated. 1/10 Stars, technically, as of 2024, it is a sort of House Rule, but this is such a nothing, that it barely warrants above an actual nothing. 4) Exhaustion on 0 HP? WTF? STOP TRYING TO KILL PLAYERS. There are literally mechanics to drop a PC to 0 HP instantly (See Sea Hags). This punishes Tanks, this punishes squishy casters, this punishes getting low rolls, this punishes players for roleplaying. This rules says "You actually want to just go and hide, because mobs gang up, so you will have four to eight levels of exhaustion, since you aggro everything... oops, make a new character cause you didn't ho and hide." The idiocy that MASH Units are stitching up Soldiers in the middle of a fight is dumb. Especially in conjunction with the later idea to nerf an intentionally added feature to reaction spellcasting, this House Rule is a horrible intent to kill parties quicker. -100/10 Stars this isn't just crippling, this is why have a game level game ending mechanics 5) Oh, look, more punishing players to make sure you kill them. Tell me, does your grenade get less effective when it blows up because you drank less coffee? Then why would a fireball be easier to dodge because the Wizard is a little tired? This is just more KILL THE PLAYERS mentality. Ever heard of the adage that a cornered creature is MORE dangerous? Being Exhausted and tired and agitated and afraid for their life, if it were mechanically going to do anything, would be to UP DCs, cause more attacks, make the Squishy Spellcaster MORE Dangerous, not less (No, I'm not suggesting making boosts for fear, exhaustion, low hp, and other negative conditions... but the point was, those are way more realistic if you are talking making things REALISTIC in a Fantasy game). Penalties to melee attacks, because your arms are tired; penalties to con saves to make concentration checks because your mentally exhausted, those make sense, but the magical energies you tap into aren't losing their potency, so Spell Save DCs shouldn't be dropping; and your armor suddenly doesn't get weaker because you are fatigued, so AC shouldn't be going down either (yes, I get that the idea is you're less agile, but lower AC affects the non-agility characters... in addition, it is more KILL THE PLAYERS mentality, as NPCs rarely suffer from Exhaustion, there are few ways to give foes levels, so it doesn't help make the Dragon squishier, it only affects PCs, and it makes them much easier to kill... this is poor GMing at its worst... might as well just say "I decided you have brain eating parasites that do 1d8 Intelligence Damage every round at the start of your turn, you can't remove them, you can make a Int Save to reduce the damage by half at the end of your turn", because this is just you trying to make your PCs dead to make them dead, there is no balance at all). Absolutely, positively, never ever ever do this, this is some of the worst advice ever, and this is in a video that is already filled with horrible, Kill the Players ASAP advice. -200/10 Stars, the above kills players, this kills players faster, Game ends before it starts.

Epci kitty right there

There were a few issues with a group I played with. First, the DM occasionally let slip an adversarial attitude. He couldn’t balance encounters very well, and would get visibly butthurt when he didn’t get to use certain monster abilities. He would go out of his way to make sure we couldn’t use roleplaying out of combat to avoid encounters altogether, or to do anything clever. When he did get to use certain abilities, you could see a certain amount of glee on his face as it makes the encounter totally pointless, as he would have to bend over backwards to avoid a TPK after inflicting us with some unrecoverable status effects. His encounters would often involve multiple monsters at a very high CR rating (think 2 or 3 at CR 20 and some CR 10s against a party of four level 14s). His descriptions often left out any critical hints or information that one might expect should be readily provided without actively asking about it. “You enter a room” “What do we see?” “Roll a perception check” “Ok, uh, 9” “You don’t see anything of note” “So an empty room?” “As far as you can tell” Later we would find out we missed an important book sitting on a table in plain sight. Enemies with clearly high-value magical equipment would frequently just evaporate after being defeated with no in-universe reason other than he couldn’t be bothered to think about what we could loot. He would also be very stubborn when faced with a disagreement over rules. But probably the worst part was his inability to keep the game on track. Two or three of his friends were always taking shots during the game, constantly on their phones or not paying attention. They would go off on random conversations and constantly be surprised by things like the fire-based monster being immune to fire damage, or generally not knowing anything about how their own characters function. The worst part was when they would join in the drinking and get so sloshed in the middle of an encounter that I would actively have to correct him on what the monsters are even capable of doing (like not being able to use their nuking ability at will to do 12d10 damage…) Spending almost two hours to get through just 4 rounds of combat is not fun.

I play such a hacked up, homebrew rules LIGHT system that this never even comes up at my table.

Not being able to identify a spell being cast thru knowledge of S/V components seems bizzare to me and as a DM I would house rule that for sure. It has to be an oversight.

Come on Graze isn't that bad. Just think of it, Thor against Thanos. Thor comes down with the greatest of blows and misses, but there's still a scratch on Thanos's cheek. Graze is still cool.

Seriously, who photocopies when they provide a clean PDF??

Thanks for giving me good guidance on how to run a better game for my players

We need more of this skill in dnd

Very nice advice.

I like your videos because it has specific and actionable advice! Like that initiative for speaking video. Keep up the good work 👍

Bro, I heard you like to teleport. Quadruple down on teleportation by being an Eladrin or Shadar-Kai Archfey Warlock with the Fey Touched feat. Then, take the Epic boon of Dimensional Travel so you can teleport before or after you teleport. 😅

Add ice and you’re Mr. Misty.

Then add the cloud Goliath or Eladrin species for even more (proficiency times per long rest) teleports, and you ARE a combat teleporter. Especially with blink as a warlock spell. Unfortunately, you don't get teleport as a spell, so mass teleport is stuck with teleportation circle, which is not as good as teleport.

What kind of multiclass options would you pair with Archfey Warlock?

In my wider rpg circle we call this banter

🥳🫂👍🏿 “I think they’re neat” 🥔

I'd ra

To start your rating system isn’t working if most people don’t like or understand it. Second when rating a subclass you need to factor in how it functions with its core class because a lot of the abilities play off the core classes ability. What you’re doing is the same as deciding a car is good or bad based off its tires only.

I’ve never even seen a DM require an action to recognize a magical effect before, at most it’s a difficult check, at least the DM just says what it is

There's a few things in the 2024 rules I like, but overall, I'm disappointed Iin them and don't plan on "upgrading" any time in the near future.

Although graze doesn't seem like the most interesting property, there's more to it than this. (1) First, there are features that proc on _damaging_ a creature, without mentioning hitting them. Graze could potentially be very potent in combination with these. In fact, one example doesn't require a feature: a concentration save is required if the caster takes damage. So attacking a concentrating caster using graze property means 100% chance of triggering the save. The mage slayer feat makes this interaction more potent. (2) Second, it does stack with other features (at least in the relevant sense): other features may proc on success while graze does so on failure, but they're all adding their contribution statistically. (3) A final thing to note, although minor, is that graze fills a rather unusual niche. In contrast to most features, it's optimized for the failure of an attack. This means it may be useful in unusual situations where the chance to hit is abnormally low, such as a creature with very high AC (but fairly low HP), or a situation where attacks are debuffed.

Great video, super applicable advice. Working it in to my encounter outline right now lol

I like the list of personalities for mooks

My DM allows us to make a check as a free action to identify a spell being cast, with the DC being the spellcaster's save DC, but we make the check with advantage if we know the spell (as presumably we would be able to recognize the words, gestures, and associated components).

If the DM won't do it, then I will. I allows describe how I cast my spells. I keep it short of course.

Couple fun combo's Polo keep away= mount+lance+warhammer Chuck wagon=dagger+handaxe Gladiator=trident+net The goofiest goober= 11 eldritch knight+3 path of the beast+6 way of mercy Nick>vex>claw>claw>cleave>cleave bonus action heal and grapple and when you run out of rages swap the claw for a cantrip. You need 2 enemies ganging up on a downed ally but go ham. Or in hindsight probably a battle master is better.

AI shill

A villain creates a cabal of enchanters to run shops all over the continent selling flying equipment for grossly cheap princes for years creating an entire airborne culture. Then, one day, they end all of their enchantments at the same moment.

Retconning things bc u forgot & gaslighting players abt it. Not communicating with players. Power with control tripping / gatekeeping. Coming in with ego like you’re better / know more than everyone else, are better than the game itself, or are bored by people engaging instead of following your railroad & don’t want to be there (ie making it all abt you, but not even having fun in the process… sounds very specific but seems incredibly common to the point it keeps a lot of games from even getting started? ) Canceling last minute all of the time or not setting boundaries on players who do / communicating abt schedule ahead of time..? Way worse tho, literally treating all the players like they’re there to follow everything you say in and out of the game just to fulfill your own story god complex that doesnt even involve gameplay and acting like you’re still doing them a favor. Not caring about the welfare of your players outside of the game including in emergencies. Taking everything like a personal insult if it isn’t what you wanted people to do in game or out. Not investing time or energy into anything or acting like it’s beneath you & the game doesn’t matter even if you do.

Nearly every spellcasting class got a buff of some kind in 2024 *except* for wizards, so I think it is purely a matter on WOTC's end of taking as a given that wizards are the premier spellcasters and trying to get the rest to catch up in some fashion. They didn't give the bards more spell preparations because they gave them access to three additional spell lists *permanently* from level 10, rather than just a couple of picks a couple of times. Giving them four spell lists and extra spell preps would be insane.

Combat Dialog is a way to have fun and trash talk with your buddies. you should do it for sure.

Just because roll play starts, doesn't mean role play needs to stop.

Whoever did work on the druids must have been on ambien constantly while writing the new rules. How can you utterly destroy such a beautiful class.

OR you can be an evocation wizard, and have the sculp spell feature. Not only are you immune to every evocation spell you cast, so are your allies.

You're under rating Graze. The higher the AC, the better this gets. Treantmonk has been doing DPR comparisons, and he's been surprised by just how much graze has been adding.

Flanking? You mean "conga line"

Like many others. Disagree on your graze evaluation 1.5 star is far, far to low.

Thanks you so much. I’m dm’ing my first campaign on Saturday and have rapidly been trying to find advice about how to be a good dm

I like how the dialogues that happen in a fight can bring the PCs together. Kinda like siblings, we can be mean to each other but nobody else can be mean to them 😂

Great video, truly an underrated skill! I think that consciously using this in my games will elevate combats by exactly what it needs

This is great advice. I tend to run encounters for tactical as I see the battle in my head, but I realize I sometimes fail to "pull" the players into the world.

Are enchantments spells? Consider BBEG disarms the player enchanted items with the intent of turning the OP item against the party. Being able to disable it is a big deal, even if you couldn't remake such an item.

I like snappy combat with some short descriptions. I aim for 1 minute turns. I would get super bored if everyone is taking 5 minutes on each of their turns gossipping or Umming/Ahhhing while looking over their abilities. This is what causes even more delay as players check out and stare at their phones and other gadgets - because slow can be very boring. Its a balance. Good to the point descriptions of how swings or blows land is great and immersive. Sitting through too many 5 minute monologs will get tiring quickly.

I agree that this is like the secret sauce of combats and I wish I was better at making combats a story and not just a game.

I give my NPC's a background, which helps with knowing what they will say and how they will respond to the party. For me, it may be more work (not really, I LOVE writing backgrounds!), but it makes all the difference. If you don't like doing backgrounds, there are some great books out there on NPCs who have done all the work for you.