Variety is the spice of life. Sometimes fast and deadly. Sometimes 5-10 short rests before a long rest to test resource management. Sometimes a single battle lasting 15 rounds against a tier boss.
DnD Combat is an aspect of Story Tension: with very tangible risk vs reward. Key factor: if you stop, you lose tension, always keep it rolling. With this in mind:I rather do pretty much the same, I notate AC / HP, damage, and any common special moves, with a subset of unexpected possible moves off to the side as a quick reference. Every boss of a GOOD encounter should have it's own specially flavored move, i.e. Goblin Kitchen Chef, will toss burning oil at the party as a Minor AOE while yelling at his 'cooks' "Give 'em a pan sear!" (Matt Colville is really good for this) Play creature encounters as if they were the protagonist; they didn't wake up knowing they were going to die today. That way you know what they will do when the players come in sideways on you, trust me they will. In the end, players are not really going to remember, I rolled a 15, +3, +2 to hit doing 7 points of damage against an AC 14 Goblin with 26 HP, rather, "hey, remember that one time when that Gobby tried to cook us with a frying pan, we pan-seared his bacon!!" ------------------ Breathe with me Breathe the pressure Come play my game, I'll test ya - Breathe, The Prodigy
The fear induced by a glass cannon is a good point. As both a player and a DM there’s much more terror in a combat that lasts one round and has the DM say “he does 30 points of damage” than a combat that lasts ten rounds of 3 points damage. The end result is the same but one feels like a slog through a war of attrition while the other will make everyone at the table sit up in shock
LOVE this! Despite being a big defender of RAW combat encounter design in 5e, I've been a vibes combat DM for most of my time behind the screen. I've got some helpful text references for folks who want to do this but don't want to feel it out from scratch each time; The "Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating" in chapter 9 of the 2014 DMG has a great table that gives suggested AC, HP, Saves, Attack bonus, and damage by CR which is really useful for building monsters on the fly. The "Damage Severity and Level" table in the improvising damage section of chapter 8 of the 2014 DMG breaks down dice expressions of damage by level range and whether you want the damage to be a setback, dangerous, or deadly, which is incredibly useful for improvising monster damage. Then the "Monster Features" table in step 20 of building a monster in chapter 9 of the 2014 DMG lists out a bunch of different monster abilities and which monsters have them, which is super useful for gleaning inspiration for giving monsters cool abilities. If you put these 3 tables on your DM screen, you'll never be caught out again when you're PCs start a fight you weren't expecting or you need to throw a monster at them at the last second.
@@pheralanpathfinder4897 I think most of it is the 2014 DMG was so poorly laid out that very quickly a culture of "oh you don't need to read this, you'll learn more by doing or online that by reading this" developed, and just got worse over the last decade. But there's tons of actually useful stuff in there *if you can find it*.
@@IcarusGames I agree. I'm really interested in seeing the new DMG layout But I suspect it's larger size and the effort to cover more topics will lend itself to even fewer people digging deep. That most DMs start after being a player adds to the tendency to overlook stuff in a book that is often "read" by players just looking for magical items or insight into ways to beat traps and other obstacles.
I also just go by vibes, i just pick whatever looks cool to me from the books and then yeet it in. Sometimes i just make up a whole monster from scratch right then and there. I've premade some monsters and I generally just go with my gut for stuff like damage and HP, and/or adjust an existing statblock to make it work for the level of players i have. I'm a big believer in "encounter design doesn't end when you roll initiative", your job as a DM is to curate the experience. If the enemy dies but it was too boring, i have them get back up and have a last hurrah with different abilities that are very thematic until someone knocks them out after a hit or two.
Another awesome vid, definitely something people should watch if they're feeling stressed about specifically 5e combat encounter planning. We gave up on CR pretty immediately which definitely seems the norm, especially since I like to homebrew basically everything. The only amount of work I do ahead of a game is periodically checking how much HP my players have on average, and how much damage they can put out in a round on average. Once I wanna plan a proper encounter I add up the total of all the players average damage per round then multiply that by how many rounds I want combat to last, that becomes my HP pool that I divide out to all (or just one) of the enemies. For attacks, I flip it around, how many rounds do I want one or two PCs to last before going down, dividing their hp up and setting the damage of an attack to average out to whatever that may be. Then I move these numbers up or down from those baselines and add special abilities, resistances, and weaknesses according to how hard or easy I want it to be (or just the vibes!).
Totally agree! I only really get into CR if I think something calls for a highly tactical, planned out battle but otherwise that is just SO. MUCH. WORK. just to have a great time with friends 😂 These easier methods may not be “as balanced” - but it’s absolutelyyy close enough for me!
Honestly, I love the amount of thought you put into this, because even the pared-down "vibes based" combat still has more thought put into it than I often put in! My main thoughts are usually: - does it thematically make sense for this monster to be here? - could this beastie one-shot one of my PCs? (especially at low level)
I don't balance encounters almost at all, but I also don't fudge any numbers or dice rolls. I feel like it takes some of the magic out of the game if I really am directing every event that happens, instead of the more collaborative experience the uncertainty of the dice enables.
I totally respect that! If I'm playing something me and the players agree will be grim and gritty I'm much more comfortable with them just having shit luck, but I do absolutely feel bad if it happens in any of my more narrative focused campaigns where they put SO much effort into creating awesome backstories and character arcs.
Completely agree. If I find out my DM fudges rolls, I have to respectfully quit. Dice fudging makes dice superfluous and cheapens all my hard work, meaning I didn't earn it. This is basically a discussion of New School vs Old School styles.
@@StephaniePlaysGames I really don't get why so many DMs are so afraid of killing pcs, it's part of the game, and if it does, they can always make a new character, and that old characters death will offer great rp opportunities and will give weightand real stakes to whatever is going on in the plot. I don't intentionally try to kill pcs ever, but if the dice decide someone is going to die, then they die. Remember, the monsters want to win also. This also means that some enemies WILL finish off downed pcs if they get the chance, though not all of them do, it depends on the what the motivation and goal of whatever they are fighting is.
I think in a comment below Anto gave the page numbers from the DMG that are very helpful for running this type of combat - they’d definitely be worth a look! I think the best thing I try to do for myself as a DM is remind myself that this is all trial and error - you’re just doing tabletop science! 🧪
It's really cool to hear from another GM that runs their games / encounters similar to the way that I do them! It's fun to have a skeleton to improvise off of like that during the heat of the battle to keep them guessing and reward creative thinking more dynamically. Those book recs sounded interesting. I bet there's lots of good inspiration in there for future events. Thanks!
To save time I never assign attribute scores to any npc beforehand. I do it whenever a roll on my end requires the modifier. It’s not hard to come up with the modifier on the fly since each option will just “make sense” for each particular npc. And more than half the time, a lot of attributes for enemy npcs will never even be required in a combat before that npc is eventually annihilated. I will write down the chosen modifier for important npcs whenever the need requires.
I like this approach. It's pretty much how we did it pre 3e. Just estimate and wing it, and pc's beware. Sounds like you'd also enjoy XDM by Curtis and Tracy Hickman, which is sitting in my stack rn. (I'm reading Justin Alexander's massive tome first.) They're all about simplifying the game and rolling with it, rather than being heavy on the rules. Prof DM turned me onto this, and he's got nothing but good advice imo, even if I don't always take it.
I'm in a similar boat with encounter design. As a GM, I want to find out what happens just as much as the players do, so encounters are really just a pacing mechanism. I don't even consider whether or not the players could "win" the fight, so if the narrative or pacing requires they encounter opposition far above their weight-class, then I just let'er rip. Unbalanced encounters are far more interesting, and helps newbie players learn there are alternatives to, "I slice/shoot/stab ". Also, I always roll in the open so the players know their decisions matter.
This is perfect timing for me! Im a new DM. Ive been panicking over encounter design and setting up virtual tabletop stuff (so tedious) for my campaigns. this suggested mindset is a relief. I have been reading through the free booklet for flee mortals! And Its been enlightening, I'm hoping to get the full book ASAP
If you can, grab the Index Card RPG (Master Edition) and give the rules a read. It has much simpler combat than D&D and the most important lessons from ICRPG can be applied to D&D and other games. In fact the "How to use this book" opens with "Don't. Take the key innovations and put them in your other games".
It’s really great inspiration! Mike Shea of Sly Flourish is also such a great source of information for new DMs. Don’t be afraid to try multiple ways of prepping and running things - no matter what anyone tells you the only “right way” is the way that works best for you and your table 😊
@@StephaniePlaysGames I've been using Mike Shea's Lazy DM book for my prep this year and I love it. Right now I'm prepping a session using his 8 steps in combination with random tables from Knave 2e.
I'd never considered the mental aspect of the DEX stat, I always thought of the sneaky side of DEX as the control you have of the little muscles you need to move slowly and quietly. But it makes total sense that sneaking would require both DEX and WIS, to know how loud you're being, or where to hide.
My player's favorite combat from the last sessions was an improvised bar fight were I just made up stats on the fly, didn't even define a number of enemies or put any minis. The combat ended when they knocked out 6 people. They had a blast with crazier and crazier descriptions. Granted making stats on the fly is a lot easier on Warhammer fantasy than DnD.
Omg I love this, that sounds like a blast 😂 Barring people who really need the visual support - I actually love theatre of the mind! Especially when it comes to smaller combat like that - you can get so creative and descriptive!
When I run I consider the rules to be for the players, they are the ways in which they are limited, I won't abuse the logic of the world but I can basically do whatever I want. Players who object to this tend to be those who forget that my objective is not to beat them it's to give them a challenge I think they can overcome.
I will adjust monster abilities on the fly, particularly hp, to make fights more dramatic or meaningful. We're playing Basic/Expert 1981 rules, and even though there is not the action economy of a modern system, the PCs still have enough stacked bonuses (and there are enough of them and their henches) to dogpile opponents if needed. Yes, hp has been doubled in the middle of combat. Also, I keep reference tables with 'Chaos mutations" handy, since mutated/altered opponents are a major factor in the campaign. Its an easy way to give mooks or boss opponents unexpected abilities, some visible, some not.
I've become good at making interesting combats with my players. I have my own rule of not changing stats of monsters in an encounter I've made , but if it is going too easy for players I might do something like get the monsters to take advantage of terrain/objects, or call for reinforcements etc.
Oh I definitely do that too! Just because they have a crazy cool ability doesn’t mean I’m going to use it if I’m already rolling nat 20s against them 😂 But am I tempted to? Yes. Absolutely 😂
I'm also very vibes based on encounter/dungeon design. I don't change AC/HP and stuff mid-combat though! Retreat is always an option. Also, reaction rolls and morale do wonders for making encounters fun and surprising (for me, too)! Enjoyed hearing how you run things
One thing I do that I think is uncommon is rolling for monster hp at the beginning of combat. It makes the difficulty variable in a way that I find exciting!
I do really enjoy things like reaction and morale rolls! As for retreat - neither me nor most of my players ever really take that route 😂 There’s definitely a reason I always have a pretty deep backup PC roster!
I'm pretty sure Hit Dice used to mean how many times a unit could be hit before it couldn't fight anymore. So, it isn't outside of D&D's DNA to just use the Hit Dice of the monster to be how many times they can be hit in a fight. I went back and looked up the origin of Hit Dice, and it didn't always equate to level in older editions. It was a older wargaming term that was a shorthand for how many dice you would use when attacking. It is weird how terms like this, along with Armor Class (originating in Naval Wargames which is why lower used to be better) evolve to mean totally different things over time.
Combat should give a vibe, not be a chore. My favourite vibe of combat is all or nothing, weighty and punchy combat, where one round can leave everyone bloodied and gasping for breath.
When making combat, i usually take the stat block as a reference for what the creatures can do in terms of powers and actions, but throw away most of the numbers. Then, i use a roll expectation of "6-9-11" for players and a "9-12-15" for monsters. For players, i want them to roll 6+ for easy, 9+ for average and 11+ for hard. For monsters, i want them to roll 9+ for easy, 12+ for average and 15+ for hard. Then i take my players stats to create the status block based on the rolls i want. If the tank has 22 AC, minions should have a hard time hitting him. So i give my minions +7 to hit (22 - 15). The damage dealer has +7 to hit? So he should hit easyly the minions. So minions AC should be 13 (6 + 7). Now, the BBEG (for the same tank and DPS) would be hard to hit and good hitting, so i would give him +13 to hit (22 - 9) and a AC of 18 (11 + 7). This usually balances things A LOT.
This is some great advice, though I'd recommend it only for more experienced gamemasters. It's much easier to tell when a novice is adjusting things on the fly, or never looked up the stats of a given type of creature before throwing it into an adventure. Elder dragons that breath for 20 damage, goblins that regularly tank two hits before going down are going to raise some flags for certain players and may make a lot of the combats feel arbitrary. Now an experienced GM knows kinda how things are supposed to play out, and can easily make stats they pulled from their posterior seem realistic, but someone who's only played a couple games probably won't be able to pull that off. Though this is definitely great advice though for those gamemasters that have been running for 10 years and still won't run a combat until they've got a full stat block that includes a creatures knowledge history skill check,
Great advice! For a second I thought you were talking about FAKE fake combat, like not giving the enemy HP and just letting players hit it until you decide it's been long enough kinda combat lol.
😂 That’s what Ryan thought in our interview briefly too! I call it fake because I know other GMs who spend so much time looking at existing stat blocks and like hours balancing things _even though they hate doing it._ My way is slightly unconventional but still very much rooted in the reality of game design without having to torture myself!
Good stuff sister soldier :) I'm a big improvised combat enthusiast as well. After a while it's kinda swirling attacks hazards and complications together in n initiative-arranged slurry of "what do u do now?"
I will admit I don't technically plan combat per se. I just expect my PCs to fight whatever comes up. I wouldn't call them murder hobos but if they come up against what could be considered an enemy they are normally apt to fight. Maybe they're just angry because they also got that weird fork.
I've always run combat like this... And felt super guilty about it. I don't want do deadly combat, or if I do I make an avenue of escape clear. I tinker with lair actions, ignore legendary, raise or lower hp and ac, have mobs 'forget' certain attacks. I'm a special combo of lazy and I really love my player's pc's. I want them to know they can die, but I do my best to give them the tools of survival. Because heroes survive. Usually.
Right! Honestly I'm the same - my players put so much thought into their PCs it’s hard for me to kill them. I save that for when I run more grim an gritty games like Shadowdark 😂
Right! Honestly I'm the same - my players put so much thought into their PCs it’s hard for me to kill them. I save that for when I run more grim an gritty games like Shadowdark 😂
😂 Honestly I’m the last person who’s ever going to tell anyone to do anything other than what’s fun for them and their table! Don’t feel bad about anything that’s working for you!
You are guaranteed quick and dirty combat if you give the opponents just one hp each and have the fight occur waist-deep in a swamp. Quick and dirty every time. :-)
I ran an Amber: Diceless game for 12 years. The game has 4 stats: Psyche, Endurance, Warfare, and Strength. Combat adjudication comes down to these 4 stats, relative participant numbers, environmental factors, how tired/wounded participants are, what weaponry they are using, what powers they possess, and other similar circumstantial factors. The game is heavy on RP, planning, and world building. It's a dimension traveling game where players create worlds and populate them with people and things they care about, then wait for those things to be threatened. lol The players are superhumans who are very likely related to one another in a sort of loose, sprawling pantheon. In some ways, anything goes in this game, and that's why I tired of it. As players grow and develop, there's a tendency to advance the goal posts in order to perpetuate the game. It was technically limitless, but without some sort of hard constraints it began to feel somewhat meaningless. It was *all* vibes, essentially. I picked D&D back up to play with my sons. I was grateful for the limitations I had to work within, and I found storytelling to be easier. After several years of running 3 games a week, all at high level, I am beginning to feel the tedium creep in. I suppose the solution might lie in adjudicating some combats in a purely narrative fashion and others using all the toys.
I noticed you provided a fairly large HP range for the NPCs you designed in the example encounter build and lowered their AC to be an "appropriate" amount, but, do you ever find that there's method in the madness of increasing AC much higher and lowering the HP? Fewer hits per se, but the impact of each hit carries more weight?
I don't balance combat either. I just choose the monster that makes sense for what they are doing. If that monster is too powerful then they just figure out some other way of defeating it.
These are great tips especially combining stats. I wish I got to play d&d more lol being a hockey player d&d isnt high in popularity among most people I know.
Oh man! I feel like people so many more people out there might be into it than you expect! I have the curse of never being able to shut up so I’ve found SO MANY people who wanted to try D&D from a pottery studio I rent space at, I had a friend who had a bunch of skateboarding buddies that wanted to try, etc 😂 I always just start with “Oh, I’m a huge nerd so I was playing D&D and…” and someone almost always wants to know a little more!
@@StephaniePlaysGames I have met a few hockey players that were willing to try but most of them just use an orientation slur and continue to chirp me on the ice. If hockey wasn't technically my job I'd definitely not be doing it anymore. Too many people stuck in the 80s and 90s. Now I'm usually running games for my 13 year old son and all his friends but I'd like to play with people my age
@@Stickyickyslapshot Well your knee injury makes extra sense now! As someone who can’t ice skate that is WILD! 😂 Also running for your son and his friends is super cute I love it so much! I bet he’s really going to look back on that fondly when he grows up 🥺 I totally get wanting to play with other adults too though!
Honestly I just don't bother trying to balance encounters; the monsters which are there are those which are there. That said, I play a point crawl game; a big part of the game is players actually interacting with and scouting out these points of interest, and working out which threats they can handle and which either aren't worth their time or are too much to handle. The only thing I get out of CR is whether it's a Trivial encounter, in which case I'll just resolve the combat narratively rather than with actual combat. Also, I'd rather have the monsters shoot to kill.
Great vid! You mentioned Sly Flourish's monsters and 'glass canon' design - is that an article or vid Mike has posted somewhere and goes into that approach to monsters in more detail? Or was his reference to it just meaning the classic glass canon monster, high damage, low AC etc.?
@@joshuabraddy6264 So he may have an actual article on his blog or on his channel covering it in detail - but I mostly listen to his stuff via podcast binges and I’ve mostly heard him offhandedly mention that he does his monsters as the classic high damage, low HP (AC is still probably tailored a little bit more to the PCs) that way combat doesn’t turn into a snooze fest once you get these cooler stronger monsters
I don’t because I’m a coward 😂 I run a lot of narrative intense campaigns and will sometimes fudge a roll if I think it’ll be anticlimactic (only ever in the player’s favor). I want to be better and not do this - but the only time I roll in front of the screen a for Big Deal Rolls where everyone knows the stakes or if I’m playing in a grittier game where everyone knows they will lose a PC at least once 😂
I guess I do wonder why stick to 5e at all if we start from the premise that the written rules pertaining to combat (which take the largest individual portion of the ruleset and where most character abilities exist mechanically) are tedious, confusing, high effort, irrelevant, redundant, or poorly balanced... I'd rather just play another game where the rules and expectations already match the kind of game I run and my players want to play, rather than hacking until it feels right. I like when a system facilitates our table's fun rather than being an obstacle or puzzle we have to solve. I wish the encounter design process as described by the writers just already was what youre describing, rather than the rules saying "balance it This Way" and That Way just not working for the DM or players in so many cases.
Take the OSR approach. Make the foes believable and don't customize the challenge level to the player characters. Get the players to learn to fight dirty. If a foe is particularly powerful, foreshadow that. A believable world is one that doesn't care about what level the players are.
Um, it's a wargame with characters. Not the other way around. This is so sad. CR is sad to begin with - it's based on the whims of the monster designers at WOTC, and not on any real math. So it's invalid to begin with. So, CR being based on the "vibes" of the designers being ignored for "vibes" in combat is a silly mess.
Have you ever tried running combat like this? What other combat tricks do you have to help cut down on prep time?
Variety is the spice of life. Sometimes fast and deadly. Sometimes 5-10 short rests before a long rest to test resource management. Sometimes a single battle lasting 15 rounds against a tier boss.
DnD Combat is an aspect of Story Tension: with very tangible risk vs reward. Key factor: if you stop, you lose tension, always keep it rolling.
With this in mind:I rather do pretty much the same, I notate AC / HP, damage, and any common special moves, with a subset of unexpected possible moves off to the side as a quick reference.
Every boss of a GOOD encounter should have it's own specially flavored move, i.e. Goblin Kitchen Chef, will toss burning oil at the party as a Minor AOE while yelling at his 'cooks' "Give 'em a pan sear!" (Matt Colville is really good for this)
Play creature encounters as if they were the protagonist; they didn't wake up knowing they were going to die today. That way you know what they will do when the players come in sideways on you, trust me they will.
In the end, players are not really going to remember, I rolled a 15, +3, +2 to hit doing 7 points of damage against an AC 14 Goblin with 26 HP, rather, "hey, remember that one time when that Gobby tried to cook us with a frying pan, we pan-seared his bacon!!"
------------------
Breathe with me
Breathe the pressure
Come play my game, I'll test ya
- Breathe, The Prodigy
The fear induced by a glass cannon is a good point. As both a player and a DM there’s much more terror in a combat that lasts one round and has the DM say “he does 30 points of damage” than a combat that lasts ten rounds of 3 points damage. The end result is the same but one feels like a slog through a war of attrition while the other will make everyone at the table sit up in shock
Yeah I’ve definitely had players go “Wait - what?!” as all of the squishier PCs immediately start retreating 😂
LOVE this!
Despite being a big defender of RAW combat encounter design in 5e, I've been a vibes combat DM for most of my time behind the screen.
I've got some helpful text references for folks who want to do this but don't want to feel it out from scratch each time;
The "Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating" in chapter 9 of the 2014 DMG has a great table that gives suggested AC, HP, Saves, Attack bonus, and damage by CR which is really useful for building monsters on the fly.
The "Damage Severity and Level" table in the improvising damage section of chapter 8 of the 2014 DMG breaks down dice expressions of damage by level range and whether you want the damage to be a setback, dangerous, or deadly, which is incredibly useful for improvising monster damage.
Then the "Monster Features" table in step 20 of building a monster in chapter 9 of the 2014 DMG lists out a bunch of different monster abilities and which monsters have them, which is super useful for gleaning inspiration for giving monsters cool abilities.
If you put these 3 tables on your DM screen, you'll never be caught out again when you're PCs start a fight you weren't expecting or you need to throw a monster at them at the last second.
Yesss! All of these really are such good resources! 😊
I've long wondered why these rules are almost always ignored by DM advice.
@@pheralanpathfinder4897 I think most of it is the 2014 DMG was so poorly laid out that very quickly a culture of "oh you don't need to read this, you'll learn more by doing or online that by reading this" developed, and just got worse over the last decade. But there's tons of actually useful stuff in there *if you can find it*.
@@IcarusGames I agree. I'm really interested in seeing the new DMG layout But I suspect it's larger size and the effort to cover more topics will lend itself to even fewer people digging deep.
That most DMs start after being a player adds to the tendency to overlook stuff in a book that is often "read" by players just looking for magical items or insight into ways to beat traps and other obstacles.
@@IcarusGames Hard agree 😂 I'm glad I'm a huge nerd and like to read TTRPG rules for fun
I also just go by vibes, i just pick whatever looks cool to me from the books and then yeet it in. Sometimes i just make up a whole monster from scratch right then and there. I've premade some monsters and I generally just go with my gut for stuff like damage and HP, and/or adjust an existing statblock to make it work for the level of players i have.
I'm a big believer in "encounter design doesn't end when you roll initiative", your job as a DM is to curate the experience. If the enemy dies but it was too boring, i have them get back up and have a last hurrah with different abilities that are very thematic until someone knocks them out after a hit or two.
Exactly! I also come at DMing from a curation perspective and I think it’s a ton of fun that way! 😊
Another awesome vid, definitely something people should watch if they're feeling stressed about specifically 5e combat encounter planning.
We gave up on CR pretty immediately which definitely seems the norm, especially since I like to homebrew basically everything. The only amount of work I do ahead of a game is periodically checking how much HP my players have on average, and how much damage they can put out in a round on average. Once I wanna plan a proper encounter I add up the total of all the players average damage per round then multiply that by how many rounds I want combat to last, that becomes my HP pool that I divide out to all (or just one) of the enemies. For attacks, I flip it around, how many rounds do I want one or two PCs to last before going down, dividing their hp up and setting the damage of an attack to average out to whatever that may be. Then I move these numbers up or down from those baselines and add special abilities, resistances, and weaknesses according to how hard or easy I want it to be (or just the vibes!).
Totally agree! I only really get into CR if I think something calls for a highly tactical, planned out battle but otherwise that is just SO. MUCH. WORK. just to have a great time with friends 😂 These easier methods may not be “as balanced” - but it’s absolutelyyy close enough for me!
Hell yeah fake combat 🔥🔥🔥
Should I have called it something else? Yes. Will I double down on it instead? Also yes 😂
I very much like the mathematical part of combat design, but I'm glad there are multiple ways to do things are you're enjoying your way.
Honestly, I love the amount of thought you put into this, because even the pared-down "vibes based" combat still has more thought put into it than I often put in!
My main thoughts are usually:
- does it thematically make sense for this monster to be here?
- could this beastie one-shot one of my PCs? (especially at low level)
I love this! I don't balance combat either. This video is refreshing. I too "design" my combat like this. Great vid.
Thanks for the kind words! 😊
I don't balance encounters almost at all, but I also don't fudge any numbers or dice rolls. I feel like it takes some of the magic out of the game if I really am directing every event that happens, instead of the more collaborative experience the uncertainty of the dice enables.
I totally respect that! If I'm playing something me and the players agree will be grim and gritty I'm much more comfortable with them just having shit luck, but I do absolutely feel bad if it happens in any of my more narrative focused campaigns where they put SO much effort into creating awesome backstories and character arcs.
Completely agree. If I find out my DM fudges rolls, I have to respectfully quit. Dice fudging makes dice superfluous and cheapens all my hard work, meaning I didn't earn it. This is basically a discussion of New School vs Old School styles.
@@StephaniePlaysGames I really don't get why so many DMs are so afraid of killing pcs, it's part of the game, and if it does, they can always make a new character, and that old characters death will offer great rp opportunities and will give weightand real stakes to whatever is going on in the plot. I don't intentionally try to kill pcs ever, but if the dice decide someone is going to die, then they die. Remember, the monsters want to win also. This also means that some enemies WILL finish off downed pcs if they get the chance, though not all of them do, it depends on the what the motivation and goal of whatever they are fighting is.
I think this made me reconsider how im gonna try to do this next encounter im planning
I think in a comment below Anto gave the page numbers from the DMG that are very helpful for running this type of combat - they’d definitely be worth a look! I think the best thing I try to do for myself as a DM is remind myself that this is all trial and error - you’re just doing tabletop science! 🧪
@@StephaniePlaysGames oh yea I've been running for a decade but fiddling around with new concepts and improving on old wonky ideas is so good
This is amazing. Can’t wait to try some of these tips out
@@MichaelCurren Thanks for the kind words! 😊
It's really cool to hear from another GM that runs their games / encounters similar to the way that I do them!
It's fun to have a skeleton to improvise off of like that during the heat of the battle to keep them guessing and reward creative thinking more dynamically.
Those book recs sounded interesting. I bet there's lots of good inspiration in there for future events. Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words! 😊
This is a wonderful video. I am 100% onboard with vibe-based design. Especially in combat. Thank you!!!
Thanks for the kind words! I’m glad you enjoyed it 😊
I absolutely run combat like this :)
Great tips!
Also love the music choice for this.
Thanks for the kind words! 😊
To save time I never assign attribute scores to any npc beforehand. I do it whenever a roll on my end requires the modifier. It’s not hard to come up with the modifier on the fly since each option will just “make sense” for each particular npc. And more than half the time, a lot of attributes for enemy npcs will never even be required in a combat before that npc is eventually annihilated. I will write down the chosen modifier for important npcs whenever the need requires.
I like this approach. It's pretty much how we did it pre 3e. Just estimate and wing it, and pc's beware. Sounds like you'd also enjoy XDM by Curtis and Tracy Hickman, which is sitting in my stack rn. (I'm reading Justin Alexander's massive tome first.) They're all about simplifying the game and rolling with it, rather than being heavy on the rules. Prof DM turned me onto this, and he's got nothing but good advice imo, even if I don't always take it.
11:40 This is where redshirts come in. Redshirts are NPCs that die to impress how dangerous the monster is.
Totally agree, that’s a very good tactic - but stop killing all of Scotty’s friends! 😂 I love redshirts, somebody needs to protect them!
I'm in a similar boat with encounter design. As a GM, I want to find out what happens just as much as the players do, so encounters are really just a pacing mechanism. I don't even consider whether or not the players could "win" the fight, so if the narrative or pacing requires they encounter opposition far above their weight-class, then I just let'er rip. Unbalanced encounters are far more interesting, and helps newbie players learn there are alternatives to, "I slice/shoot/stab ". Also, I always roll in the open so the players know their decisions matter.
This is perfect timing for me! Im a new DM. Ive been panicking over encounter design and setting up virtual tabletop stuff (so tedious) for my campaigns. this suggested mindset is a relief. I have been reading through the free booklet for flee mortals! And Its been enlightening, I'm hoping to get the full book ASAP
If you can, grab the Index Card RPG (Master Edition) and give the rules a read. It has much simpler combat than D&D and the most important lessons from ICRPG can be applied to D&D and other games. In fact the "How to use this book" opens with "Don't. Take the key innovations and put them in your other games".
It’s really great inspiration! Mike Shea of Sly Flourish is also such a great source of information for new DMs. Don’t be afraid to try multiple ways of prepping and running things - no matter what anyone tells you the only “right way” is the way that works best for you and your table 😊
@@StephaniePlaysGames I've been using Mike Shea's Lazy DM book for my prep this year and I love it. Right now I'm prepping a session using his 8 steps in combination with random tables from Knave 2e.
I'd never considered the mental aspect of the DEX stat, I always thought of the sneaky side of DEX as the control you have of the little muscles you need to move slowly and quietly. But it makes total sense that sneaking would require both DEX and WIS, to know how loud you're being, or where to hide.
I put nearly 100% of my prep into making enough of the world so that once I sit down the game is free to be nearly 100% vibe.
I love the concept of "Vibe". Definitely where I'm at as a gamer these days.
My player's favorite combat from the last sessions was an improvised bar fight were I just made up stats on the fly, didn't even define a number of enemies or put any minis.
The combat ended when they knocked out 6 people. They had a blast with crazier and crazier descriptions.
Granted making stats on the fly is a lot easier on Warhammer fantasy than DnD.
Omg I love this, that sounds like a blast 😂 Barring people who really need the visual support - I actually love theatre of the mind! Especially when it comes to smaller combat like that - you can get so creative and descriptive!
@@StephaniePlaysGames Yes! I use minis for strategic combat and theatre of the mind for a more cinematic feel.
When I run I consider the rules to be for the players, they are the ways in which they are limited, I won't abuse the logic of the world but I can basically do whatever I want. Players who object to this tend to be those who forget that my objective is not to beat them it's to give them a challenge I think they can overcome.
I will adjust monster abilities on the fly, particularly hp, to make fights more dramatic or meaningful. We're playing Basic/Expert 1981 rules, and even though there is not the action economy of a modern system, the PCs still have enough stacked bonuses (and there are enough of them and their henches) to dogpile opponents if needed. Yes, hp has been doubled in the middle of combat. Also, I keep reference tables with 'Chaos mutations" handy, since mutated/altered opponents are a major factor in the campaign. Its an easy way to give mooks or boss opponents unexpected abilities, some visible, some not.
Oooooh Chaos Mutations sound awesome!
@@StephaniePlaysGames check out Jon Becker's "Comes Chaos" for mutant goodness
I've become good at making interesting combats with my players. I have my own rule of not changing stats of monsters in an encounter I've made , but if it is going too easy for players I might do something like get the monsters to take advantage of terrain/objects, or call for reinforcements etc.
I use the D&D Beyond calculator, then go 2-3x deadly. 😅 If things get ugly I might scale back enemy HP during the fight or "forget" to use abilities.
Oh I definitely do that too! Just because they have a crazy cool ability doesn’t mean I’m going to use it if I’m already rolling nat 20s against them 😂 But am I tempted to? Yes. Absolutely 😂
I'm also very vibes based on encounter/dungeon design. I don't change AC/HP and stuff mid-combat though! Retreat is always an option.
Also, reaction rolls and morale do wonders for making encounters fun and surprising (for me, too)!
Enjoyed hearing how you run things
One thing I do that I think is uncommon is rolling for monster hp at the beginning of combat. It makes the difficulty variable in a way that I find exciting!
I do really enjoy things like reaction and morale rolls! As for retreat - neither me nor most of my players ever really take that route 😂 There’s definitely a reason I always have a pretty deep backup PC roster!
I'm pretty sure Hit Dice used to mean how many times a unit could be hit before it couldn't fight anymore. So, it isn't outside of D&D's DNA to just use the Hit Dice of the monster to be how many times they can be hit in a fight. I went back and looked up the origin of Hit Dice, and it didn't always equate to level in older editions. It was a older wargaming term that was a shorthand for how many dice you would use when attacking. It is weird how terms like this, along with Armor Class (originating in Naval Wargames which is why lower used to be better) evolve to mean totally different things over time.
Combat should give a vibe, not be a chore. My favourite vibe of combat is all or nothing, weighty and punchy combat, where one round can leave everyone bloodied and gasping for breath.
Yeah I’m the same! If combat is happening I like there to be big implications- I think that’s one of the reasons my PCs pick fights very carefully !
*furiously writing notes*
When making combat, i usually take the stat block as a reference for what the creatures can do in terms of powers and actions, but throw away most of the numbers.
Then, i use a roll expectation of "6-9-11" for players and a "9-12-15" for monsters.
For players, i want them to roll 6+ for easy, 9+ for average and 11+ for hard.
For monsters, i want them to roll 9+ for easy, 12+ for average and 15+ for hard.
Then i take my players stats to create the status block based on the rolls i want.
If the tank has 22 AC, minions should have a hard time hitting him. So i give my minions +7 to hit (22 - 15).
The damage dealer has +7 to hit? So he should hit easyly the minions. So minions AC should be 13 (6 + 7).
Now, the BBEG (for the same tank and DPS) would be hard to hit and good hitting, so i would give him +13 to hit (22 - 9) and a AC of 18 (11 + 7).
This usually balances things A LOT.
@@brunonadai2547 Ooooh that’s definitely another great way to think about it! 😊
This is some great advice, though I'd recommend it only for more experienced gamemasters. It's much easier to tell when a novice is adjusting things on the fly, or never looked up the stats of a given type of creature before throwing it into an adventure. Elder dragons that breath for 20 damage, goblins that regularly tank two hits before going down are going to raise some flags for certain players and may make a lot of the combats feel arbitrary.
Now an experienced GM knows kinda how things are supposed to play out, and can easily make stats they pulled from their posterior seem realistic, but someone who's only played a couple games probably won't be able to pull that off.
Though this is definitely great advice though for those gamemasters that have been running for 10 years and still won't run a combat until they've got a full stat block that includes a creatures knowledge history skill check,
Great advice! For a second I thought you were talking about FAKE fake combat, like not giving the enemy HP and just letting players hit it until you decide it's been long enough kinda combat lol.
😂 That’s what Ryan thought in our interview briefly too! I call it fake because I know other GMs who spend so much time looking at existing stat blocks and like hours balancing things _even though they hate doing it._ My way is slightly unconventional but still very much rooted in the reality of game design without having to torture myself!
Good stuff sister soldier :)
I'm a big improvised combat enthusiast as well. After a while it's kinda swirling attacks hazards and complications together in n initiative-arranged slurry of "what do u do now?"
I know! And as a player I hate that so I definitely couldn’t understand why I’d go and _do it_ as a GM 😂
Yes! Combat encounters are more art than science.
Especially if you have players like mine 😂 Optimal choices who? And I’m not here to stifle creativity!
@@StephaniePlaysGames creativity IS the game
I will admit I don't technically plan combat per se. I just expect my PCs to fight whatever comes up. I wouldn't call them murder hobos but if they come up against what could be considered an enemy they are normally apt to fight. Maybe they're just angry because they also got that weird fork.
They’ve never been the same since that fork (you should ominously say this all the time 😂)
I've always run combat like this... And felt super guilty about it. I don't want do deadly combat, or if I do I make an avenue of escape clear. I tinker with lair actions, ignore legendary, raise or lower hp and ac, have mobs 'forget' certain attacks. I'm a special combo of lazy and I really love my player's pc's. I want them to know they can die, but I do my best to give them the tools of survival. Because heroes survive. Usually.
Right! Honestly I'm the same - my players put so much thought into their PCs it’s hard for me to kill them. I save that for when I run more grim an gritty games like Shadowdark 😂
Right! Honestly I'm the same - my players put so much thought into their PCs it’s hard for me to kill them. I save that for when I run more grim an gritty games like Shadowdark 😂
Ok I was doing this and feeling bad about it… until NOW!!!
Well, with a lot more winging it lol
😂 Honestly I’m the last person who’s ever going to tell anyone to do anything other than what’s fun for them and their table! Don’t feel bad about anything that’s working for you!
You are guaranteed quick and dirty combat if you give the opponents just one hp each and have the fight occur waist-deep in a swamp. Quick and dirty every time. :-)
Damn, this video could’ve been much shorter! 😉
I ran an Amber: Diceless game for 12 years. The game has 4 stats: Psyche, Endurance, Warfare, and Strength. Combat adjudication comes down to these 4 stats, relative participant numbers, environmental factors, how tired/wounded participants are, what weaponry they are using, what powers they possess, and other similar circumstantial factors. The game is heavy on RP, planning, and world building. It's a dimension traveling game where players create worlds and populate them with people and things they care about, then wait for those things to be threatened. lol The players are superhumans who are very likely related to one another in a sort of loose, sprawling pantheon. In some ways, anything goes in this game, and that's why I tired of it. As players grow and develop, there's a tendency to advance the goal posts in order to perpetuate the game. It was technically limitless, but without some sort of hard constraints it began to feel somewhat meaningless. It was *all* vibes, essentially. I picked D&D back up to play with my sons. I was grateful for the limitations I had to work within, and I found storytelling to be easier. After several years of running 3 games a week, all at high level, I am beginning to feel the tedium creep in. I suppose the solution might lie in adjudicating some combats in a purely narrative fashion and others using all the toys.
I noticed you provided a fairly large HP range for the NPCs you designed in the example encounter build and lowered their AC to be an "appropriate" amount, but, do you ever find that there's method in the madness of increasing AC much higher and lowering the HP? Fewer hits per se, but the impact of each hit carries more weight?
I don't balance combat either. I just choose the monster that makes sense for what they are doing. If that monster is too powerful then they just figure out some other way of defeating it.
These are great tips especially combining stats. I wish I got to play d&d more lol being a hockey player d&d isnt high in popularity among most people I know.
Oh man! I feel like people so many more people out there might be into it than you expect! I have the curse of never being able to shut up so I’ve found SO MANY people who wanted to try D&D from a pottery studio I rent space at, I had a friend who had a bunch of skateboarding buddies that wanted to try, etc 😂 I always just start with “Oh, I’m a huge nerd so I was playing D&D and…” and someone almost always wants to know a little more!
@@StephaniePlaysGames I have met a few hockey players that were willing to try but most of them just use an orientation slur and continue to chirp me on the ice. If hockey wasn't technically my job I'd definitely not be doing it anymore. Too many people stuck in the 80s and 90s. Now I'm usually running games for my 13 year old son and all his friends but I'd like to play with people my age
@@Stickyickyslapshot Well your knee injury makes extra sense now! As someone who can’t ice skate that is WILD! 😂 Also running for your son and his friends is super cute I love it so much! I bet he’s really going to look back on that fondly when he grows up 🥺 I totally get wanting to play with other adults too though!
@@StephaniePlaysGames are you going to pax unplugged!?!?
@@Stickyickyslapshot I wish! 😩 We’re in the middle of a move so unfortunately this year is not my year for cons!
Honestly I just don't bother trying to balance encounters; the monsters which are there are those which are there. That said, I play a point crawl game; a big part of the game is players actually interacting with and scouting out these points of interest, and working out which threats they can handle and which either aren't worth their time or are too much to handle.
The only thing I get out of CR is whether it's a Trivial encounter, in which case I'll just resolve the combat narratively rather than with actual combat.
Also, I'd rather have the monsters shoot to kill.
Great vid! You mentioned Sly Flourish's monsters and 'glass canon' design - is that an article or vid Mike has posted somewhere and goes into that approach to monsters in more detail? Or was his reference to it just meaning the classic glass canon monster, high damage, low AC etc.?
@@joshuabraddy6264 So he may have an actual article on his blog or on his channel covering it in detail - but I mostly listen to his stuff via podcast binges and I’ve mostly heard him offhandedly mention that he does his monsters as the classic high damage, low HP (AC is still probably tailored a little bit more to the PCs) that way combat doesn’t turn into a snooze fest once you get these cooler stronger monsters
Yup, always blows me away how stressed people make themselves about "perfectly balanced encounters." Ballparking is the only way to go.
So much depends on player choices which are completely out of our control 😂 I optimize for ✨ fun ✨
Hyperbole gang
You said "Baroness in her Mansion"
What are you taking about my wife for? 😂
Oh…hey, yeah I have something I’ve been meaning to tell you…
I run a very mean secret security detail 😐 That’s it!
I loved the video, do you roll behind a screen? Do you have any tips for DMs who roll in front of the players?
I don’t because I’m a coward 😂 I run a lot of narrative intense campaigns and will sometimes fudge a roll if I think it’ll be anticlimactic (only ever in the player’s favor). I want to be better and not do this - but the only time I roll in front of the screen a for Big Deal Rolls where everyone knows the stakes or if I’m playing in a grittier game where everyone knows they will lose a PC at least once 😂
@@StephaniePlaysGames I still got lots of cool tips to think about from the video so thank you! Happy gaming!
Combat by vibes. Yes plz. Numbers are so 4th edition.
Its all ~* just vibes *~ over here 😂
I guess I do wonder why stick to 5e at all if we start from the premise that the written rules pertaining to combat (which take the largest individual portion of the ruleset and where most character abilities exist mechanically) are tedious, confusing, high effort, irrelevant, redundant, or poorly balanced... I'd rather just play another game where the rules and expectations already match the kind of game I run and my players want to play, rather than hacking until it feels right. I like when a system facilitates our table's fun rather than being an obstacle or puzzle we have to solve. I wish the encounter design process as described by the writers just already was what youre describing, rather than the rules saying "balance it This Way" and That Way just not working for the DM or players in so many cases.
You mentioned sly flourish i think you might like lazy dms forge of foes
I love Forge of Foes! Honestly I like anything Mike has ever put out 😂
Take the OSR approach. Make the foes believable and don't customize the challenge level to the player characters. Get the players to learn to fight dirty. If a foe is particularly powerful, foreshadow that. A believable world is one that doesn't care about what level the players are.
Yeah I definitely do that in a video game-type way to keep PCs from going into areas that are above their pay grade!
The Valley Girl's Guide to GMing: Vibes Edition
5/5 content 1/5 music (not being a hater, trying to be helpful 😅)
Um, it's a wargame with characters. Not the other way around. This is so sad. CR is sad to begin with - it's based on the whims of the monster designers at WOTC, and not on any real math. So it's invalid to begin with. So, CR being based on the "vibes" of the designers being ignored for "vibes" in combat is a silly mess.
You’re fine to do whatever’s most fun for you. If you prefer to run only things that other people create, that’s fine ✌️