Another thing you can do for improvised combat: keep a sort of "Generic monster" stat block with a couple of defined roles and apply the flavor for it in the moment. Instead of fumbling through a monster manual for what you're looking for in this unexpected encounter, plonk these down instead and call them what you will. Say your party decides to suddenly attack the orc chief when you expected them to negotiate (a rookie mistake!), no big deal, rangle up a handful of generic mook blocks, a sprinkle of generic archers, and one generic spellcaster because the orc chief has a court wizard or tribal shaman or something, and now you've got the building blocks of an encounter!
one of my party members named michiel rolled a nat 1 on a stealth check for the last check he needed to do to flee... so basicly they were alost out and they still needed to fight. my favorite part of this event being that almost the entire party yelled at the same time. GOD DAMMIT MICHIEL. it was a fun evening
the 'protect the baby' bit made me laugh a lot because my character is actually a mom who has to carry her baby around with her even through combat, so her goal is always partially 'keep baby safe' (my DM did get me a magic necklace that the baby can be hidden in to keep him safe so now it's less of any issue but still)
I personally only homebrew my enemies at this point. I look at the monster creation table in the DMG and then note down AC, HP, to hit bonus, damage. Damage is based on how much a monster should deal each round. Let's say 40. Want a heavy hitter? 40dmg a hit. Want a mobile fighter? 4× 10dmg. If it's a single opponent I give him additional initiatives. Then I just gotta watch out that he only ever deals roughly the estimated damage per round. Could do that By using 2 multi attacks worth 10, a heavy hit that he uses on his second initiative and a bonus ability where he throws throwing knives with a Dex save where the DC is based on whatever the table says. So, 13 for example. Then each knife is 2 damage and it can be used to flexibly dish out damage to get to the estimated damage per round. This makes it easy because all I gotta do is roll 1d20. No need to look for more dice, no adding up or anything. Simply, if it hits it deals that damage. This makes it easier for the players to see who's a real danger, who to spare for later and a fighter can consider how longer he can tank those small minions.
My players are LV13 by now and I tend to make interesting monsters stronger by giving them a couple more HP and features. Id rather have a souped up monk giant punt a player than run any more dragon encounters.
To be honest I run everything using improve with only slight planned events. My players don't role play they mostly go from point A to B so I have to be able to give them plenty to do
My favorite combat rule is the cleave rule Example: there is 2 goblins if you make an attack and it does let's say 10 damage and it kills one because it had 6 hit pointa left and the other goblin is within 5ft the remaining 4 dmg goes to the second one
Cool guy with good advice: "Have extra occurrences in the middle of a fight to spice things up!" Me, a Shadowrun DM: "Does that occur before or after the first and only round of combat?" I think I've only ever had Shadowrun combat exceed six in-game seconds twice in eight years of playing.
So, i’m doing a campaign based around dealing with skirmish-style conflicts. Think of a group of mercs attacking a town, a prison break/riot, and a battlefield. I kinda like it cuz to me, being part of a battlefield is awesome, makes the world feel alive. How i’ve been rolling out the results though, is i do a d20 per group of combatants. The tougher combatants win on lower rolls, and the smaller combatants win on higher rolls. If a tough fighter hits a weak fighter, that weak fighter dies, and if a weak fighter hits a tough fighter, that tough fighter is bloodied. They’re just soldiers, they dont need health pools.
*Attacked the party with hyenas at night* Player: I want to throw one into the fire (they succeed and hyena begins taking fire damage) Player: Action Surge, id like to hold the hyena down so it cant get up (Hyena rolled below a 10 every round to break free until it died from fire damage XD)
I was running a game with multiple new players, and guess what? The wizard immediately cast a spell on the first person they saw. In the middle of a crowded market area. Wish I’d had this video
I like this, but I'd like a tip on how to deal with scenarios that aren't covered by the few numbers you store on the monster. What if your player pushes over a barrel of oil and now the entire floor is wet, and suddenly you have to think up the acrobatics of the monster? These things generally stump me. On the other hand, I probably do have way too much information on my npcs, but these situations just keep me from doing it in the way the video says...
So if you ignore stat blocks, dont you still need HP, AC and some attacks to run the encounter? Arent you just making your own stat blocks at that point?
For improvised combat with particular groups such as with significant NPCs or gangs I really like having the enemies support or use each other as weapons like the big guy throws the small guys at the party or the small guys betray the big guy by pushing him down the stairs barreling toward the party, or a battering ram made out of people. If the players try doing something lame like tiny hut into dimension door I like to have reinforcements running toward the hut where they see the players if they teleport somewhere stupid like in a public space. If they don't teleport somewhere silly then the encounter ends and they have to lay low for a bit in the current region.
something I like to add in to combat is these little ability's called maneuvers, it's in the battle master subclass section for fighters, there you will see a giant collection of special attacks and stuff, and after some experimentation I found out that giving these ability's to monsters make combat a little more engaging, just my thoughts that I wanted to share.
So how I handled mob enemies is give them a collective stats, but have them occupy multiple spots on the board so when someone deals enough damage to kill one enemy the enemy drops and any excess is ignored
Depends. You always need AC and hp, to-hit and damage dice. You do need the 6 asi's for saves, though only usually only dex, con and wisdom. If you're using basic humanoids or giants like ogres, (or one type of humanoid like dwarves), you have your speed, size and basically what they can do.
From experience, just dont. The game isnt balanced for that. For example, Monks have a huge advantage when fighting spellcasters. They have decent stats for most spell saves and deal enough damage to mulch a squishy caster in 1-2 turns.
Generally, "don't do PvP" is a pretty good rule of thumb, but Zee Bashew did an *excellent* video on the topic of one time he's seen PvP work in a game. The advice is very situational though, and requires a lot of work from the DM.
Oh the optional grouped mobs. It does make things faster. Though I hate using the grouping though because It just doesn’t feel right. I also make mobs have objectives that they want to do. It makes combat more realistic.
Riesenfriese that is exactly what bugs me. I arbitrarily have to say one of things died in the group. Though it does make combat faster and the PCs feel strong.
My checklist for today:
Protect the baby
*survive*
the internet as soon as baby yoda got leaked:
#Goals
What the heck was that “third party” in there!?
That was like an, ogre-shark-thing!
LOTR style cave troll I'd say. But I might be mistaken.
Another thing you can do for improvised combat: keep a sort of "Generic monster" stat block with a couple of defined roles and apply the flavor for it in the moment. Instead of fumbling through a monster manual for what you're looking for in this unexpected encounter, plonk these down instead and call them what you will. Say your party decides to suddenly attack the orc chief when you expected them to negotiate (a rookie mistake!), no big deal, rangle up a handful of generic mook blocks, a sprinkle of generic archers, and one generic spellcaster because the orc chief has a court wizard or tribal shaman or something, and now you've got the building blocks of an encounter!
one of my party members named michiel rolled a nat 1 on a stealth check for the last check he needed to do to flee...
so basicly they were alost out and they still needed to fight.
my favorite part of this event being that almost the entire party yelled at the same time.
GOD DAMMIT MICHIEL.
it was a fun evening
Right when I needed something like this, it showed up in my notifications!
I'm literally running a session in about an hour that I'm just now planning for, lol
Ugly Husky same
No stat block!? That's too risque for me.
I like the group AC idea though
Kane: *tips on how to DM *
Me, a player who just wants to cooperate with my DM:
You are the kind of player we love, thank you for your service
0:19 me when I’ve been busy all week and have to DM a session in an hour
the 'protect the baby' bit made me laugh a lot because my character is actually a mom who has to carry her baby around with her even through combat, so her goal is always partially 'keep baby safe' (my DM did get me a magic necklace that the baby can be hidden in to keep him safe so now it's less of any issue but still)
I personally only homebrew my enemies at this point. I look at the monster creation table in the DMG and then note down
AC, HP, to hit bonus, damage.
Damage is based on how much a monster should deal each round.
Let's say 40.
Want a heavy hitter? 40dmg a hit.
Want a mobile fighter? 4× 10dmg.
If it's a single opponent I give him additional initiatives. Then I just gotta watch out that he only ever deals roughly the estimated damage per round.
Could do that By using 2 multi attacks worth 10, a heavy hit that he uses on his second initiative and a bonus ability where he throws throwing knives with a Dex save where the DC is based on whatever the table says. So, 13 for example. Then each knife is 2 damage and it can be used to flexibly dish out damage to get to the estimated damage per round.
This makes it easy because all I gotta do is roll 1d20. No need to look for more dice, no adding up or anything. Simply, if it hits it deals that damage. This makes it easier for the players to see who's a real danger, who to spare for later and a fighter can consider how longer he can tank those small minions.
My players are LV13 by now and I tend to make interesting monsters stronger by giving them a couple more HP and features. Id rather have a souped up monk giant punt a player than run any more dragon encounters.
God like way to make a sponsered video.
To be honest I run everything using improve with only slight planned events.
My players don't role play they mostly go from point A to B so I have to be able to give them plenty to do
My favorite combat rule is the cleave rule
Example: there is 2 goblins if you make an attack and it does let's say 10 damage and it kills one because it had 6 hit pointa left and the other goblin is within 5ft the remaining 4 dmg goes to the second one
Isn't there a fighter ability that does that?
@@ryansauer5964 The fighter ability allows you to do that even if you don't kill the main target and it also deals 1d8 instead of the left-over damage
Parker Kranz Hey look, Trample from MtG
@@avoidinhabitant5414 aaaaaaaah
@@ryansauer5964 Yup, although there are better options when it comes to the Battlemaster maneuvers
I love the I AM SPEED
Cool guy with good advice: "Have extra occurrences in the middle of a fight to spice things up!"
Me, a Shadowrun DM: "Does that occur before or after the first and only round of combat?"
I think I've only ever had Shadowrun combat exceed six in-game seconds twice in eight years of playing.
So, i’m doing a campaign based around dealing with skirmish-style conflicts. Think of a group of mercs attacking a town, a prison break/riot, and a battlefield. I kinda like it cuz to me, being part of a battlefield is awesome, makes the world feel alive. How i’ve been rolling out the results though, is i do a d20 per group of combatants. The tougher combatants win on lower rolls, and the smaller combatants win on higher rolls. If a tough fighter hits a weak fighter, that weak fighter dies, and if a weak fighter hits a tough fighter, that tough fighter is bloodied. They’re just soldiers, they dont need health pools.
love ur channel
I like the simplicity here.
UA-cam is featuring this in the "Table Stakes" event and it makes me so sad knowing this guy doesn't make videos anymore.
*Attacked the party with hyenas at night*
Player: I want to throw one into the fire (they succeed and hyena begins taking fire damage)
Player: Action Surge, id like to hold the hyena down so it cant get up
(Hyena rolled below a 10 every round to break free until it died from fire damage XD)
I want to like the video but don’t want to ruin the 666 likes because Satan
I'm always curious as to who the nine people who dislike videos like this are 😂
This is really good. Just keep it simple and fun
Can you do a video on making homebrew spells?
I was running a game with multiple new players, and guess what? The wizard immediately cast a spell on the first person they saw. In the middle of a crowded market area. Wish I’d had this video
Btw these visuals are slick
Just starting to learn to DM, your stuff has helped a lot with inspiration, thank you for the content
Your art style is gorgeous
The sheer relief that came over me upon learning I could throw away the stat blocks is indescribable.
Improvise structured interface. verbally embodied, you can think on your feet
Almost 500 thousand views and not even 250 comments… that’s impressive!
I like this, but I'd like a tip on how to deal with scenarios that aren't covered by the few numbers you store on the monster. What if your player pushes over a barrel of oil and now the entire floor is wet, and suddenly you have to think up the acrobatics of the monster? These things generally stump me. On the other hand, I probably do have way too much information on my npcs, but these situations just keep me from doing it in the way the video says...
Thank you for the video. I learned so amazing stuff from this and shared it to my friends who want to be dms.
Cool source of ideas for dynamic battle is dark messiah of might and magic. Barrels, walls with spears, different levels on one map.
I prefer sticking to statblocks myself. Cut away too much of a creatures capabilities, you may as well be playing a different game.
So if you ignore stat blocks, dont you still need HP, AC and some attacks to run the encounter? Arent you just making your own stat blocks at that point?
For improvised combat with particular groups such as with significant NPCs or gangs I really like having the enemies support or use each other as weapons like the big guy throws the small guys at the party or the small guys betray the big guy by pushing him down the stairs barreling toward the party, or a battering ram made out of people. If the players try doing something lame like tiny hut into dimension door I like to have reinforcements running toward the hut where they see the players if they teleport somewhere stupid like in a public space. If they don't teleport somewhere silly then the encounter ends and they have to lay low for a bit in the current region.
something I like to add in to combat is these little ability's called maneuvers, it's in the battle master subclass section for fighters, there you will see a giant collection of special attacks and stuff, and after some experimentation I found out that giving these ability's to monsters make combat a little more engaging, just my thoughts that I wanted to share.
Ha! I feel better now- I DM this way all the time! It’s amazing how the fight turns out lol
So how I handled mob enemies is give them a collective stats, but have them occupy multiple spots on the board so when someone deals enough damage to kill one enemy the enemy drops and any excess is ignored
"Q"ute Gal(in white T-Shirt?)! 😊
Seamless ad transition, nicely done
Can you do a table technician on split personalities
This is just what annoys your players the most
I freaking love your art
AKA how to do all combat for me, haha
I do this every time
*Protect the baby!*
Cool advice!
This video has inspired several ideas for upcoming events. Thanks for another fantastic video.
Love seeing a new Kanekuo!! Great video for those DMs with a few sessions under their belt.
That segue tho'.
2:00 is basically the point in the video where you end a poor mans life by instantly teleporting behind him.
What software do you use for drawing?
Clip studio paint!
I use a 'spear thrower' group that always has a barrel spears in front of them so that the players can destroy it and force them to close range
hey man i like the video good job keep it up
6-9? NICE
This video has good timing I have a game today
So in reality, you don't need a whole stat block? Just a couple of the most important numbers and abilties
Depends. You always need AC and hp, to-hit and damage dice. You do need the 6 asi's for saves, though only usually only dex, con and wisdom. If you're using basic humanoids or giants like ogres, (or one type of humanoid like dwarves), you have your speed, size and basically what they can do.
Hell yeah baybee
So, when do we get to learn how to pull pvp?
From experience, just dont. The game isnt balanced for that. For example, Monks have a huge advantage when fighting spellcasters. They have decent stats for most spell saves and deal enough damage to mulch a squishy caster in 1-2 turns.
Generally, "don't do PvP" is a pretty good rule of thumb, but Zee Bashew did an *excellent* video on the topic of one time he's seen PvP work in a game. The advice is very situational though, and requires a lot of work from the DM.
Heck! Awesome!
Thank you
YES
Oh the optional grouped mobs. It does make things faster. Though I hate using the grouping though because It just doesn’t feel right.
I also make mobs have objectives that they want to do. It makes combat more realistic.
Shared initiative for grouped mobs is good, but shared HP just seems weird.
Riesenfriese What makes em weird? Out of curiousity.
@@lapaba1236 Shared HP? Youre shooting at 5 dudes for a couple rounds and suddenly they all collapse at once.
Riesenfriese that is exactly what bugs me. I arbitrarily have to say one of things died in the group. Though it does make combat faster and the PCs feel strong.
imagine not knowing what 3.5 is... this whole thing is trash. look up 3.5.
No wonder your name has butt in it