I’m an old guy. I started playing D&D in the mid 70s. I just finished watching this and should be off to bed; but, your Verminlord is giving me a cold sweat and my neck hairs are all standing up. How can I sleep with that creation out there? Will it get me while I sleep? Will it enter my dreams and get me from within? I have to work tomorrow and I’m terrified to get out of my chair. Thanks a lot Professor.
Although I was fully expecting to re-watch one of your videos to get my gaming fix while everyone else (or so it seems) on thisTube is yammerin' endlessly about the new PHB stuff the dirty wizard sent them, I was surprised to see that I have yet to watch all of your back catalogue since I stumbled into this dungeon some 3 years ago. Looks like I still have just enough distraction to fit in the gaps in my busy summer. Thanks, and as always keep up the great work! This one's awesome!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 lol. Go for it! It's not that I have an issue with anyone talking about it. It's just that the feed is saturated at the moment, but I don't fault its occurrence with any negativity. My overactive brain just has an aversion to doing what everyone else is. I look forward to your insights!
“Don’t be afraid to adjust monster hp on the fly” Shout it from the rooftops! This is the key to guiding and exciting combat sequence. It’s not against the rules to make a monster harder or easier mid combat.
I concur. I have also used transformations into more monstrous things very effectively to the same end. Party nukes your manticore in 1 round? Have it suddenly stab itself with its tail and start to pump venom into its blood stream. It grows more spikes/talons/claws/muscles, and of course the skin changes color and it gets bigger. Boss phase 2, reroll initiative. Putting a much worse thing (boss a la xenomorph) inside a beast or person that will pop out when defeated is always an option too. 😋
The first piece of advice I give to new GMs is, "Monsters have as much HP as you say they have." Simple fight is accidentally steam rolling the players? Suddenly bad guys start dying on the next hit. A tense combat is getting steamrolled by the party? Don't let the monsters die until the desired tension is reached.
But if the players ever see thru it or dm and learn that trick then you loose all credible threat to a encounter. After that players will think "we lived past that bad situation because the dm" or "we didnt live past that bad situation because the dm"
Ender Panda my response to that is: Was it fun though? Also my players would never find out. I’m pretty sure most GMs that play a more story driven game do this, so it’s not exactly a secret. Also also, I’m not playing D&D to “win” and I assume anyone that comes to my table isn’t either. I’m there to tell/hear interesting stories and heroic deeds. Kinda the whole reason D&D exists. If a player wants to be a number cruncher or rules lawyer, they need to go play Magic: The Gathering or Warhammer 40k.
@@clockworkpanda8 Not sure I understand your point. Fundamentally, the DM's job is to keep the players interested in the story by challenging them, engaging with their characters, and responding to what they do in a way that doesn't break suspension of disbelief. You don't make every goblin a secret supervillain. Sometimes it is good (and realistic) if the players just steam roll an encounter, or a boss even. But, if you have been building toward something for a while and it gets anhilated in one round (for whatever reason), that can be a let down. So, making sure the fight goes at least a couple rounds and hurts the players a bit, to make them feel the risk is fine, because it creates the feeling that they are at risk doing something difficult, and when they succeed it means they triumphed over a great power. Besides, you shouldn't need to do this all the tim anyway. With adequate planning, most of the time things go fine. But, with a custom mob or boss, you never know how it will actually play out. If one of the players mega crits out gate, it might screw your plan. Because the boss would was designed take 30 damage a round and last four rounds, but he just took 100 from crit to his vulnerable dmg type in the first round and now he is all but dead. Well, glad I built him up for 8 sessions as a super baddy. So, who really suffers if he suddenly has an ability that lets him eat a minion and recover health, or a bonus action ability that any damage done to the PCs this turn comes back to him as heal. As long as what you do is interesting and consistent with the story, it will be fine. Just dont suddenly have him beef up lamely for no explicable reason. Bob the goblin should not turn into the tarasque because that is dumb and unbelievable.
The Worm That Walks is also something that got used in D&D 3.5 and I think Pathfinder 1e. In that, it's a mass of grave worms commanded by the lingering will of an evil spellcaster to devour their body so that they can transplant their consciousness from the afterlife into the worms which become a hive mind with powerful regenerative abilities among other new and terrifying powers. I'm a big fan of many monsters that came from the Age of Worms module series that appeared in a series of either Dungeon or Dragon Magazine articles (I can't remember which), centering around defeating a cult who worship a dead god called Kyuss whose undead minions are all worm-themed. There's a ton of fascinating lore behind exactly how the cult infiltrates and subverts other religions to create sleeper agents, which is great for creating paranoia amongst the players as they never know which NPCs may be secretly working for the Cult of Kyuss.
When you said "grim dark", you were not joking. The way you walked us through your scenario instantly made me think of a mix between Warhammer, Call of Cthulhu, DOOM, a few horror movies and several other references. As soon as you said "I like to make my own creatures" - you immediately became a new channel to binge watch.
Great ideas. Boss fights should be an exciting completion of a campaign. Definitely stealing some of these, especially the Vermin Lord. I don’t love adjusting HP on the fly although I have done it. For my last boss fight, I did three mock battles with just me rolling for both sides beforehand. It only took 10 minutes because I cut a few corners but it told me the fight would be very close. One time was a TPK and but the other two instances the party won. It gave me a good idea on how to set stats so it would be a very challenging battle, but not insurmountable. During the real fight, all but one of the NPC allies died and one of the three PCs died. The last three surviving allies were all near death but were victorious. I did not fudge the numbers at all.. As a nasty surprise for that boss fight (which was against a hag), there were actually TWO of them. The hag was flying around, making them into mince meat and right when they dropped her (and were nearly dead themselves) a second hag fly in. This one was weaker than the first but it was quite a shock to the players. They had seen a hag in previous adventures but had no idea there were actually two (until it was almost too late ;) ).
Loved to hear adding unique passive powers to anyone who goes within a certain range (melee) of the monster. -2 to hit is perfect with their field of vision being obscured. I would even add an element of grappling in the mix. With each melee hit, the PC will suffer d4 dmg/round if they stay within the melee range from being infested by the bug collective. "Resistance is futile"
Is really funny my group got called once that we did not play 5e but a weird d 20 fantasy favored Call of Cthulhu game, we are still proud of it. and by the way, I thought your monster was maybe a bit based on the Crawling One of Call Cthulhu.
I used the Worm that Walks in my Savage Rifts game and was great watching all of the players with huge plasma cannons and laser rifles have very minor effect on it. Even the Techno-Wizard's magic was greatly reduced and in the end, the entire group had to rely on a single holy sword to do any real damage to it. But the Worm is one of many and not a unique creature in my campaign. There will be more and I will definitely be stealing your idea of surrounding it with bees and hornets although mine might be infused with the power of hell fire.
Fantastic Video, I learned some great tricks I never thought of. You roll your dice in the open, so no fudging, but behind the scenes. you adjust hitpoints, very clever. FYI, HarnWorld has a fantastic means of giving the GM an excuse to create new and unique monsters. The creatures are called Ivashu and they are created by the god Ilvir. Great machine for generating random and unique monsters.
My players enjoyed going up against Eldrazzi in a campaign I ran... but they had no idea what they could do outside of what was obvious from their appearance. It gave me the chance to use the Wyvern and Slaad stat blocks since they're ones I don't get to use often.
I love the verm and the whole campaign that leads up to it! If I ever steal it, I will give you credit (at the end -- as the pump-up music plays). One comment that I had hoped you would make, however, is that all of the best Hollywood boss fights (and, even, most of the Greek myths) cause the heroes to fail when they meet the boss on his/her own terms. For me, the best boss fights are when characters need to think of an alternative approach. If the boss is super strong, they need to use a ruse. If the boss is super clever, they play on its vanity, etc. Hercules may have wrestled Cerberus, but I think it was much more satisfying when Orpheus lulled him to sleep with music.
One of things a game does well to foreshadow a Boss encounter; is those little breadcrumbs and hints - the original DOOM was good about that, like if I see a demonic face in the stonework, I steel myself up for the encounter with a powerful demon; say, a Baron of Hell. Other good examples include Neverwinter Online - like the signs and dialogues that lead up to a Boss engagement, however minor, but effective all the same, Or in Monster Hunter World, where the dialogue pertaining to a newly discovered Monster - are fine examples of foreshadowing that fateful Boss Encounter.
I started watching Dungeon Craft Videos in November and just finished my UDT, Dungeon Tiles, Dungeon Walls, etc... Now all I want to do is create Boss Villains: Advanced Red Ooze: A crystal imbued with intelligence touches and controls a red ooze and is looking for a bigger, more adventurous host. AC8, HP50, only takes 1 or 2 HP damage per hit and tries to possess anyone of intelligence who touches the crystal. I love the idea that you can hack at it all day and barely touch it. GRET IDEA!
@DungeonCraft, you suggestion to adjust the monster’s Hit Points is great. I do this all the time and my players, who are having an exciting time fighting my beasties, are none the wiser. Also, adjusting the damage works too.
Love this. Very Helpful. Have a minor boss fight of my own with a created creature the Decopus from an alien planet teamed with some Harpy Sirens. My giant sea creature is powerful and is crushing the ships that the Harpy-Sirens draw in. However I have it as low AC, high hit dice but really not massive hit points. It will come up wrap the ship in three or four massive arms and attack the party with the other 6 or 7 and then try to throw them into his massive five beaked mouth. Unfortunately it has no minions. The Harpy-Sirens are simply scavenging his leavings and any reasonable party will sushify him in a couple rounds. So after listening to your video I have given each limb 20 HP of its own so the Meleeing character is unlikely to hit the main body to start. Once 5 limbs are incapacitated or the creature gets to half hit points it slips to the bottom of the 80 ' deep pond and hides in the choking kelp. I've put in about fifty moray eels in the crater lagoon to take on anyone who ends up in the water. This probably lets me keep the monster in the fight for 3 combat rounds after the initial surprise grasp of the ship. I've taken the creatures tentacles and am using them as interfering minions to keep the party's damage spread out. This was very helpful thanks. I do like the idea of a resurgent arm or two if the fight goes too easy or after it hides on the bottom and the party takes on the Harpies. A couple limbs could reach out of the water to take hold of characters though at this time he is keeping the body submerged.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 The problem is, the people I could best share this with are also my players, who must not know about all the ideas I am stealing.... :D
I absolutely love this series, I have learned so much from watching it. But if theres one thing I don't agree with, its that code, matrixes and algorithms make things less scary. After all, the Terminator and its various robots and the Matrix movie agents and machines are all comprised of code and algorithms, yet they're still terrifying. I suppose that's because you're never afforded the opportunity to learn their code, that's because the situation is always different. Same enemies, different setup. Furthermore, I find that using the monster statblocks informs their decision making which leads to a variety of strategies that can be played out in many different ways. Such as creatures with high int will have tactics and work together, while lower int ones will not, but even those same creatures, whether in numbers or the lack there of, or in different environments, may behave differently. Multiple vampires may try to surround a party while a single vampire may do hit & run, or rather dine & dash in this case. A personal anecdote, one campaign I ran cultists, but the players invaded their base of operations and they were raising zombies to amass an army. Current campaign, cultists are attacking the town and they worship a spider deity and have control over the large spiders they bring. Otherwise its the same cultists statblock. I guess, I'm just looking at the stablock as a starting point and not the end-all-be-all for how to run a creature so its always different in my campaigns.
I know this is an older video but I can't help wondering how the campaign would develop if the Vermin Lord had succeeded in tossing the keystone pc into the pit... the pending invasion of evil from another dimension etc...
I love your campaigns so much! Worm-that-walks, monster impregnations and if the PCs win, they turn everyone into drug addicts.... You should so be a 40k writer :)
Awesome video! I was starting to go through withdraws waiting for a New Dungeon Craft video. This one came in perfect timing as I have a boss fight coming up in my Dark Fey adventure for my Greyhawk Campaign. I love your ideas and the dark story unfolding in your campaign. I hope you had a great New Years and will have a new year of huge growth for your channel. Thanks again for your dedication to the channel and your hard work.
Thanks, Christopher! No need for withdrawals--we upload videos every Thursday. Here's last week's in case you missed it! ua-cam.com/video/IZWotrOESv8/v-deo.html
Damit Professor I was hoping for a video the first day of 2020. Always look forward to your videos. Even when I disagree with something your saying or don't use an idea, it really gets me thinking.
Nice! I've been looking for some good pointers on honing my encounter building skills. I like how you have a time pressure element. I've been composing adventures as if the player characters did not exist. The story is outlined with some sort of tragic ending. No NPCs are "essential" in as much as I have loose contingency plots in case any given individual becomes absent in the plot for any reason. The whole thing is kinda' like a flow chart with vague bits of plot. Then the player characters enter to "derail the plot." I have no idea what they're going to do to do and it's just as exciting for me as it is for them.
I have never used CR ratings primarily because it establishes this unrealistic idea that the PCs can expect to win every monster confrontation. Long ago, I threw a red dragon at the PCs when they were level 1. They expected it to be some sort of illusion and walked straight up to it--well, I quickly disabused them of that notion. When asked why I did that, I told them that there are things moving about in the world that will absolutely destroy them if they choose to stand and fight rather than run, regardless of how powerful they become. In subsequent games they have run up against other monsters well beyond their ability to handle and have learned to fear and avoid them, or at the very least get clever with how they choose to deal with the encounter.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Unfortunately, 2020 was filled with Natural 1s. And now it's Twenty-twenty Won. Thanks for all the effort you've put in over the past year, anyways. Your a great resource.
"Hurrah, we have defeated the Evil Disgusting Worms That Walk BBG! Success!" One month later, in the Keep tavern... "Why does everyone look hungover as they enter the tavern every evening, and what are these 'munchies' they speak of?" 😂😂😂😂 That Vermin Lord definitely sounds like it creeped your players out from the start to the end of his tale. It did that to me! 👍👍👍👍😎😎😎😎
Matt Colville's action oriented monsters are a great addition. A boss fight I am running soon Is a skeletal abbot in his study with his flesh all piled up with the stats of a rug of smothering
Insightful and stream-lined as always. I've learned so much about refining and redefining my GM strategies since I discovered your channel. My question is this: what are some ways to have a recurring villain escape without resorting to teleportation magic?
Ok I'm not the professor, but since no one answered I will try. I've been a dm since ad&d, not the best one around but I mastered A LOT of games. Here are some tips :1)an intelligent villain always has a plan B, a way to escape in case something goes horribly wrong for him. Keep in mind they've been doing the stuff they do for some time and are still alive, in a world where adventurers exist. The plan B could be a trapdoor to a tunnel that leads out of the city/Castle /dungeon. It could be a secret passage to a busy street where they can hide in the crowd. It could be a small subterranean river that leads to a lake not too far away from the dungeon. 2) minions. Whether intelligent or dumb a creature serving the big bad could fight to the death to defend their master OR come to the rescue and take them away, to fight another day. 3)external forces, like weather or PNGs that have no idea what's happening: an old lady went deep into the woods to gather herbs, when suddenly she walks into the final confrontation. The villain take her hostage and escapes.An earthquake opens up the floor of the dungeon, the villain falls to their inevitable demise... Or do they? The local militia intervenes thinking you are bandits(and knowing the average PC they are not wrong..) and opens an escape route for your nemesis. 4) keep it simple. Don't be afraid of cheesy scenes and cliché stratagems , most PCs love them. The villain in a black cloak running away into the night on a carriage, while shaking their hand screaming :"we will meet again, damn you!" is tremendously overused, but still effective if it never happened to your players! It's their nemesis, they want a bit of cheesy fun. On the other hand overly dramatic scenes are "cringe" and boring to most players :the villain looking at the statue of his dead wife, a single tear dropping on their cheek utters :"I was a fool Antoine. A damned fool." He then pushes a secret lever, disappearing into the wall. Seems epic? No, the players are mere spectators. They probably don't remember that the village elder's daughter name was Antoine, they didn't put together the fact the villain was trying to find a way to resurrect their wife and feel confused and robbed of their spotlight. That's not always true and the occasional pathos filled scene makes a campaign memorable, but less is more. Hope this helps
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 it would be cool to see a BTS of how you film the closeups. You do great work and I have been impressed with how you approach the game. Despite myself being very different in style ( I like a lot of crunch). I enjoy your approach to campaign and encounter design, as well as the crafting videos.
This is great, as all your videos are. Your game play is smart and concise and I appreciate it. I've been looking for different monsters online and Pinterest has lots of them. In my search I found The Book of Beuatiful Monsters, which, if you are not familiar with, you would really like. There is a section on Warp Stones, something you hint at here with the comet. All this is derivative of John Carpenter's The Thing, which I have always thought would be a great DnD monster.
Wouldn't be any twist for me. I would have killed off the Munchburger brothers and collapsed the caves. The Moonstone Cocaine must be eliminated! D&DEA would be hard at work making the world free of illicit addictive drugs! In other videos he shows that the castle has a drug problem. I would be more concerned about that than the portal, unless I knew about the keystone character in our midst. Then you kill off the keystone character, locking the portal forever and kill off the drug dealers and the world is saved!
I love that save or die finish for the evil character and I’m just imagining narrating the compulsion. Death is the only foreseeable outcome. Play me out of it...
I'm planning to run a *Cthulhu Dark Ages* campaign later this year and I think your vids will be great for helping me with the vibe and atmosphere there. Plus, they're just generally entertaining. ;-)
@@kevingooley9628 Eh, the WuFlu has kinda messed up a lot of plans. When we get to play, which is of course much less than we'd like, we've been going for something a bit more upbeat. Still an Arkham based game but in the more usual 20-30s, and with Savage Worlds for a more pulp roaring adventure vibe to let every sort of cut loose and just have some fun, escaping from all the stupid out there right now. ;-)
Good videos. I've just discovered you and am consuming your hints. I love the aesthetic of the vermin lord, and I am considering your adjusted hit point system for it - I tend to prefer the classic D&D system, flaws and all, because the players know where they are. If reality changes for one combat, how do they know what to trust? Mind you, that could work thematically, if they are close to a Chaos Gate and the usual laws of D&D physics break down here...
A few months ago I finished dming Pathfinder rise of rune lords AP and my party lost 75%+ to the final Boss. 20th level Wizards, with serious minions, are very hard to beat. The party would have been totally destroyed if it wasn't for their summon monster spells and resurrection scrolls.
Love that you mentioned lowering AC. I can't believe the starter set has the goblins in the first encounter with a 14 AC! A lot of sad/angry looking newbies at the table as they repeatedly swipe at the seemingly impossible-to-hit gobbos.
Have you discussed spellcasting bosses on this channel? I'd imagine they need spells in addition to your "AC, HP, Attack" notes, but I'm not sure how much to include.
I am not pretending to know the mind of DM’s Craft. I’m actually just commenting so I can be watching your comment. However, You could basically decide this like you would a DC..... except you’re deciding what is reasonable odds it should be striking...instead of what’s reasonable for it to be hit.
If you use a 1room dc, but feel your boss does need a little boost to make him a bit more deadly, just slap a bonus on it, doesn't even have to be specific, just a +2 to all rolls or something
I do have to point out the following, you start at the beginning of the video that monster manual monsters should be thrown out for big boss fights because the players will know the math and be able to decode how to win with no worries but you yourself have already simplified literally everything in each room to a single number that they have to make no matter how they go about it or what thing they are doing in the room. Once they figure out the number they need to make to do one thing in the room you have then given them the magic number for the entire room. It seems to me that while you have certainly made it easy to design adventures and trivial to run mathematically you have simplified them to the point of absurdity. Why would a dangerous magical item on a pedestal need say a 12 to take without activating as well as a 12 to hit every creature in that room and 12 to avoid the contact poison puddle in the center the minions are trying to push them into. As soon as the players roll a 12 to do anything they ALL know in that instant that everything they are going to do is a 12. They may have to hit something multiple times but they know they will need a 12 to do it. It doesn't even make sense. Is there some math god sitting above making sure that everything possible to challenge them is correctly sorted by room? Sorry but this is just nonsense. Most of the advice you give is fantastic IMO but in this one you have argued both sides. But that is just my take. Thank you for expressing your views.
Hey Michael. That static number is from Index Card RPG. I get your point. Here's how I see it--on a d20, a difference of 3 either way is statistically negligible. The static number greatly speeds up gameplay. The mystery for the players is not in the AC but in HP and they'll wonder what this creature can do. It sacrifices realism for playability. But you're not wrong. Depends on what kind of game you want. Thanks for watching DungeonCraft!
"Take the monster stat-block, call it somethings else, and that puts the FEAR back in the monster." Genius!
That ending doe.
"We did it Patrick! We save The city!"
I actually know that Spongebob reference.
I’m an old guy. I started playing D&D in the mid 70s. I just finished watching this and should be off to bed; but, your Verminlord is giving me a cold sweat and my neck hairs are all standing up. How can I sleep with that creation out there? Will it get me while I sleep? Will it enter my dreams and get me from within? I have to work tomorrow and I’m terrified to get out of my chair. Thanks a lot Professor.
Did you check under your bed?
@@JosephSlone_xyzzy He never replied because he could not reply.
That’s why you *always* clean up your crumbs 👍🏻
Although I was fully expecting to re-watch one of your videos to get my gaming fix while everyone else (or so it seems) on thisTube is yammerin' endlessly about the new PHB stuff the dirty wizard sent them, I was surprised to see that I have yet to watch all of your back catalogue since I stumbled into this dungeon some 3 years ago. Looks like I still have just enough distraction to fit in the gaps in my busy summer. Thanks, and as always keep up the great work! This one's awesome!
Lol. I am currently writing a video where I will yammer about the new PH. Should I not make it?
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 lol. Go for it! It's not that I have an issue with anyone talking about it. It's just that the feed is saturated at the moment, but I don't fault its occurrence with any negativity. My overactive brain just has an aversion to doing what everyone else is. I look forward to your insights!
“Don’t be afraid to adjust monster hp on the fly” Shout it from the rooftops! This is the key to guiding and exciting combat sequence.
It’s not against the rules to make a monster harder or easier mid combat.
I concur. I have also used transformations into more monstrous things very effectively to the same end. Party nukes your manticore in 1 round? Have it suddenly stab itself with its tail and start to pump venom into its blood stream. It grows more spikes/talons/claws/muscles, and of course the skin changes color and it gets bigger. Boss phase 2, reroll initiative.
Putting a much worse thing (boss a la xenomorph) inside a beast or person that will pop out when defeated is always an option too. 😋
The first piece of advice I give to new GMs is, "Monsters have as much HP as you say they have."
Simple fight is accidentally steam rolling the players? Suddenly bad guys start dying on the next hit.
A tense combat is getting steamrolled by the party? Don't let the monsters die until the desired tension is reached.
But if the players ever see thru it or dm and learn that trick then you loose all credible threat to a encounter. After that players will think "we lived past that bad situation because the dm" or "we didnt live past that bad situation because the dm"
Ender Panda my response to that is: Was it fun though? Also my players would never find out. I’m pretty sure most GMs that play a more story driven game do this, so it’s not exactly a secret.
Also also, I’m not playing D&D to “win” and I assume anyone that comes to my table isn’t either. I’m there to tell/hear interesting stories and heroic deeds. Kinda the whole reason D&D exists.
If a player wants to be a number cruncher or rules lawyer, they need to go play Magic: The Gathering or Warhammer 40k.
@@clockworkpanda8 Not sure I understand your point. Fundamentally, the DM's job is to keep the players interested in the story by challenging them, engaging with their characters, and responding to what they do in a way that doesn't break suspension of disbelief. You don't make every goblin a secret supervillain. Sometimes it is good (and realistic) if the players just steam roll an encounter, or a boss even. But, if you have been building toward something for a while and it gets anhilated in one round (for whatever reason), that can be a let down. So, making sure the fight goes at least a couple rounds and hurts the players a bit, to make them feel the risk is fine, because it creates the feeling that they are at risk doing something difficult, and when they succeed it means they triumphed over a great power. Besides, you shouldn't need to do this all the tim anyway. With adequate planning, most of the time things go fine.
But, with a custom mob or boss, you never know how it will actually play out. If one of the players mega crits out gate, it might screw your plan. Because the boss would was designed take 30 damage a round and last four rounds, but he just took 100 from crit to his vulnerable dmg type in the first round and now he is all but dead. Well, glad I built him up for 8 sessions as a super baddy. So, who really suffers if he suddenly has an ability that lets him eat a minion and recover health, or a bonus action ability that any damage done to the PCs this turn comes back to him as heal.
As long as what you do is interesting and consistent with the story, it will be fine. Just dont suddenly have him beef up lamely for no explicable reason. Bob the goblin should not turn into the tarasque because that is dumb and unbelievable.
The Worm That Walks is also something that got used in D&D 3.5 and I think Pathfinder 1e. In that, it's a mass of grave worms commanded by the lingering will of an evil spellcaster to devour their body so that they can transplant their consciousness from the afterlife into the worms which become a hive mind with powerful regenerative abilities among other new and terrifying powers.
I'm a big fan of many monsters that came from the Age of Worms module series that appeared in a series of either Dungeon or Dragon Magazine articles (I can't remember which), centering around defeating a cult who worship a dead god called Kyuss whose undead minions are all worm-themed. There's a ton of fascinating lore behind exactly how the cult infiltrates and subverts other religions to create sleeper agents, which is great for creating paranoia amongst the players as they never know which NPCs may be secretly working for the Cult of Kyuss.
When you said "grim dark", you were not joking. The way you walked us through your scenario instantly made me think of a mix between Warhammer, Call of Cthulhu, DOOM, a few horror movies and several other references.
As soon as you said "I like to make my own creatures" - you immediately became a new channel to binge watch.
Great ideas. Boss fights should be an exciting completion of a campaign. Definitely stealing some of these, especially the Vermin Lord.
I don’t love adjusting HP on the fly although I have done it. For my last boss fight, I did three mock battles with just me rolling for both sides beforehand. It only took 10 minutes because I cut a few corners but it told me the fight would be very close. One time was a TPK and but the other two instances the party won. It gave me a good idea on how to set stats so it would be a very challenging battle, but not insurmountable. During the real fight, all but one of the NPC allies died and one of the three PCs died. The last three surviving allies were all near death but were victorious. I did not fudge the numbers at all..
As a nasty surprise for that boss fight (which was against a hag), there were actually TWO of them. The hag was flying around, making them into mince meat and right when they dropped her (and were nearly dead themselves) a second hag fly in. This one was weaker than the first but it was quite a shock to the players. They had seen a hag in previous adventures but had no idea there were actually two (until it was almost too late ;) ).
I love how the hometown keeps changing names throughout this series
Loved to hear adding unique passive powers to anyone who goes within a certain range (melee) of the monster. -2 to hit is perfect with their field of vision being obscured. I would even add an element of grappling in the mix. With each melee hit, the PC will suffer d4 dmg/round if they stay within the melee range from being infested by the bug collective. "Resistance is futile"
Do you recommend DMs have a morality tracker? "Congratulations, the whole empire's population are crackheads!"LOL. Brought a tear to my eye...hehehe
Glad I made you laugh. It's always cool when someone laughs about something you thought was funny. Cheers and share if you can!
Dan must have been reading my notes back in the day.😅
Good one Dan! Thoroughly enjoying the channel! 😃👍
Is really funny my group got called once that we did not play 5e but a weird d 20 fantasy favored Call of Cthulhu game, we are still proud of it. and by the way, I thought your monster was maybe a bit based on the Crawling One of Call Cthulhu.
I almost didn't watch this excellent video because it looked like a mini crafting howto
Loved "Unhallowed Ground" in Dungeon Magazine..thank you
you are the coolest DM ever, please keep it up!
Thanks, Matt. Check out the new video on pacing the game, this Thursday at 6pm Eastern.
This is basically a Dungeon Crawl Classics or Lamentations of the Flame Princess encounter.
Love it.
I used the Worm that Walks in my Savage Rifts game and was great watching all of the players with huge plasma cannons and laser rifles have very minor effect on it. Even the Techno-Wizard's magic was greatly reduced and in the end, the entire group had to rely on a single holy sword to do any real damage to it. But the Worm is one of many and not a unique creature in my campaign. There will be more and I will definitely be stealing your idea of surrounding it with bees and hornets although mine might be infused with the power of hell fire.
Fantastic Video, I learned some great tricks I never thought of. You roll your dice in the open, so no fudging, but behind the scenes. you adjust hitpoints, very clever. FYI, HarnWorld has a fantastic means of giving the GM an excuse to create new and unique monsters. The creatures are called Ivashu and they are created by the god Ilvir. Great machine for generating random and unique monsters.
Love this channel. This playlist should be required for all new DMs.
My players enjoyed going up against Eldrazzi in a campaign I ran... but they had no idea what they could do outside of what was obvious from their appearance. It gave me the chance to use the Wyvern and Slaad stat blocks since they're ones I don't get to use often.
I love the verm and the whole campaign that leads up to it! If I ever steal it, I will give you credit (at the end -- as the pump-up music plays). One comment that I had hoped you would make, however, is that all of the best Hollywood boss fights (and, even, most of the Greek myths) cause the heroes to fail when they meet the boss on his/her own terms. For me, the best boss fights are when characters need to think of an alternative approach. If the boss is super strong, they need to use a ruse. If the boss is super clever, they play on its vanity, etc. Hercules may have wrestled Cerberus, but I think it was much more satisfying when Orpheus lulled him to sleep with music.
Very perceptive analysis of Hollywood films.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I can almost see your eyes rolling! Yes, reading endless "however" comments like mine must get old =)
One of things a game does well to foreshadow a Boss encounter; is those little breadcrumbs and hints - the original DOOM was good about that, like if I see a demonic face in the stonework, I steel myself up for the encounter with a powerful demon; say, a Baron of Hell.
Other good examples include Neverwinter Online - like the signs and dialogues that lead up to a Boss engagement, however minor, but effective all the same,
Or in Monster Hunter World, where the dialogue pertaining to a newly discovered Monster - are fine examples of foreshadowing that fateful Boss Encounter.
I started watching Dungeon Craft Videos in November and just finished my UDT, Dungeon Tiles, Dungeon Walls, etc... Now all I want to do is create Boss Villains:
Advanced Red Ooze: A crystal imbued with intelligence touches and controls a red ooze and is looking for a bigger, more adventurous host. AC8, HP50, only takes 1 or 2 HP damage per hit and tries to possess anyone of intelligence who touches the crystal. I love the idea that you can hack at it all day and barely touch it. GRET IDEA!
@DungeonCraft, you suggestion to adjust the monster’s Hit Points is great. I do this all the time and my players, who are having an exciting time fighting my beasties, are none the wiser. Also, adjusting the damage works too.
Love this. Very Helpful. Have a minor boss fight of my own with a created creature the Decopus from an alien planet teamed with some Harpy Sirens. My giant sea creature is powerful and is crushing the ships that the Harpy-Sirens draw in. However I have it as low AC, high hit dice but really not massive hit points. It will come up wrap the ship in three or four massive arms and attack the party with the other 6 or 7 and then try to throw them into his massive five beaked mouth. Unfortunately it has no minions. The Harpy-Sirens are simply scavenging his leavings and any reasonable party will sushify him in a couple rounds. So after listening to your video I have given each limb 20 HP of its own so the Meleeing character is unlikely to hit the main body to start. Once 5 limbs are incapacitated or the creature gets to half hit points it slips to the bottom of the 80 ' deep pond and hides in the choking kelp. I've put in about fifty moray eels in the crater lagoon to take on anyone who ends up in the water. This probably lets me keep the monster in the fight for 3 combat rounds after the initial surprise grasp of the ship.
I've taken the creatures tentacles and am using them as interfering minions to keep the party's damage spread out.
This was very helpful thanks. I do like the idea of a resurgent arm or two if the fight goes too easy or after it hides on the bottom and the party takes on the Harpies. A couple limbs could reach out of the water to take hold of characters though at this time he is keeping the body submerged.
Cool. Thanks for sharing!
Next week we enter the "Oops, all Drug Lords" campaign setting. 👌
You Sir, take AWESOME, to whole new level.
Thanks, Del. Share it if you can. You youtube algorithm is brutal and does not promote my videos after 48 hours.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I will. Keep up the great work !
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 The problem is, the people I could best share this with are also my players, who must not know about all the ideas I am stealing.... :D
@@Yeldibus Lol. Literally. I get it, though.
Really love the insight and explanation. Very well crafted video helps a lot. Thank you.
Loving the lovecraftian vibe! Might steal a few ideas for my next campaign ^^
Steal away and pass it on to other people!
I absolutely love this series, I have learned so much from watching it. But if theres one thing I don't agree with, its that code, matrixes and algorithms make things less scary. After all, the Terminator and its various robots and the Matrix movie agents and machines are all comprised of code and algorithms, yet they're still terrifying. I suppose that's because you're never afforded the opportunity to learn their code, that's because the situation is always different. Same enemies, different setup.
Furthermore, I find that using the monster statblocks informs their decision making which leads to a variety of strategies that can be played out in many different ways. Such as creatures with high int will have tactics and work together, while lower int ones will not, but even those same creatures, whether in numbers or the lack there of, or in different environments, may behave differently. Multiple vampires may try to surround a party while a single vampire may do hit & run, or rather dine & dash in this case.
A personal anecdote, one campaign I ran cultists, but the players invaded their base of operations and they were raising zombies to amass an army. Current campaign, cultists are attacking the town and they worship a spider deity and have control over the large spiders they bring. Otherwise its the same cultists statblock. I guess, I'm just looking at the stablock as a starting point and not the end-all-be-all for how to run a creature so its always different in my campaigns.
I know this is an older video but I can't help wondering how the campaign would develop if the Vermin Lord had succeeded in tossing the keystone pc into the pit... the pending invasion of evil from another dimension etc...
Thank you for the neat content!! Fun to harvest an idea or two for each campaign from a focused, logical UA-cam.
I love your campaigns so much! Worm-that-walks, monster impregnations and if the PCs win, they turn everyone into drug addicts.... You should so be a 40k writer :)
A real missed opportunity in monster manuals is an AKA section with a nice list of alternate names for the creatures.
Awesome video! I was starting to go through withdraws waiting for a New Dungeon Craft video. This one came in perfect timing as I have a boss fight coming up in my Dark Fey adventure for my Greyhawk Campaign. I love your ideas and the dark story unfolding in your campaign. I hope you had a great New Years and will have a new year of huge growth for your channel. Thanks again for your dedication to the channel and your hard work.
Thanks, Christopher! No need for withdrawals--we upload videos every Thursday. Here's last week's in case you missed it! ua-cam.com/video/IZWotrOESv8/v-deo.html
Damit Professor I was hoping for a video the first day of 2020. Always look forward to your videos. Even when I disagree with something your saying or don't use an idea, it really gets me thinking.
Matthew Mc Fadden The second day was the best I could do. Thanks for your support!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Professor's videos are never late , nor are they early, they arrive precisely when they mean to! *wink*
I am a very old school DM/player and you are honestly the best I've seen on youtube. Fu Mercer. LOL.
Nice! I've been looking for some good pointers on honing my encounter building skills. I like how you have a time pressure element. I've been composing adventures as if the player characters did not exist. The story is outlined with some sort of tragic ending. No NPCs are "essential" in as much as I have loose contingency plots in case any given individual becomes absent in the plot for any reason. The whole thing is kinda' like a flow chart with vague bits of plot. Then the player characters enter to "derail the plot." I have no idea what they're going to do to do and it's just as exciting for me as it is for them.
Wow - quite twisted...brilliant! 👍🏻
Thanks, Chuck!
I have never used CR ratings primarily because it establishes this unrealistic idea that the PCs can expect to win every monster confrontation. Long ago, I threw a red dragon at the PCs when they were level 1. They expected it to be some sort of illusion and walked straight up to it--well, I quickly disabused them of that notion. When asked why I did that, I told them that there are things moving about in the world that will absolutely destroy them if they choose to stand and fight rather than run, regardless of how powerful they become. In subsequent games they have run up against other monsters well beyond their ability to handle and have learned to fear and avoid them, or at the very least get clever with how they choose to deal with the encounter.
@@HadrianWasTaken Are you asking a question?
Super sweet this was a great game, just love it !!!! Keep up with the great work!! Happy New Year!!
Thank you. May your 2020 be filled with 20s!
I enjoy creating monsters. Makes me feel like a mad scientist! Bwahahaha! Great video as always! Thank you, Professor!
You're very welcome and may 2020 be filled with 20s.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Unfortunately, 2020 was filled with Natural 1s.
And now it's Twenty-twenty Won.
Thanks for all the effort you've put in over the past year, anyways.
Your a great resource.
"Hurrah, we have defeated the Evil Disgusting Worms That Walk BBG! Success!"
One month later, in the Keep tavern...
"Why does everyone look hungover as they enter the tavern every evening, and what are these 'munchies' they speak of?"
😂😂😂😂
That Vermin Lord definitely sounds like it creeped your players out from the start to the end of his tale. It did that to me!
👍👍👍👍😎😎😎😎
Glad you enjoyed it! New video: ua-cam.com/video/7LCLFpPa1IM/v-deo.html
Matt Colville's action oriented monsters are a great addition.
A boss fight I am running soon Is a skeletal abbot in his study with his flesh all piled up with the stats of a rug of smothering
Love it! Thanks PDM, you always give me ideas to hammer my PCs with.
I love the Cthuthlu twist at the end of your campaign. Monster creation was brilliant! Well done!
This is why you're the channel I subscribe to.
Insightful and stream-lined as always. I've learned so much about refining and redefining my GM strategies since I discovered your channel. My question is this: what are some ways to have a recurring villain escape without resorting to teleportation magic?
Ok I'm not the professor, but since no one answered I will try. I've been a dm since ad&d, not the best one around but I mastered A LOT of games. Here are some tips :1)an intelligent villain always has a plan B, a way to escape in case something goes horribly wrong for him. Keep in mind they've been doing the stuff they do for some time and are still alive, in a world where adventurers exist. The plan B could be a trapdoor to a tunnel that leads out of the city/Castle /dungeon. It could be a secret passage to a busy street where they can hide in the crowd. It could be a small subterranean river that leads to a lake not too far away from the dungeon. 2) minions. Whether intelligent or dumb a creature serving the big bad could fight to the death to defend their master OR come to the rescue and take them away, to fight another day. 3)external forces, like weather or PNGs that have no idea what's happening: an old lady went deep into the woods to gather herbs, when suddenly she walks into the final confrontation. The villain take her hostage and escapes.An earthquake opens up the floor of the dungeon, the villain falls to their inevitable demise... Or do they? The local militia intervenes thinking you are bandits(and knowing the average PC they are not wrong..) and opens an escape route for your nemesis. 4) keep it simple. Don't be afraid of cheesy scenes and cliché stratagems , most PCs love them. The villain in a black cloak running away into the night on a carriage, while shaking their hand screaming :"we will meet again, damn you!" is tremendously overused, but still effective if it never happened to your players! It's their nemesis, they want a bit of cheesy fun. On the other hand overly dramatic scenes are "cringe" and boring to most players :the villain looking at the statue of his dead wife, a single tear dropping on their cheek utters :"I was a fool Antoine. A damned fool." He then pushes a secret lever, disappearing into the wall. Seems epic? No, the players are mere spectators. They probably don't remember that the village elder's daughter name was Antoine, they didn't put together the fact the villain was trying to find a way to resurrect their wife and feel confused and robbed of their spotlight. That's not always true and the occasional pathos filled scene makes a campaign memorable, but less is more. Hope this helps
Awesome grimdark ending. I try to have something similar happen in my games when the PCs leave a power vaccuum.
Great advice. Thank you for sharing
Thanks for watching this video. It took an agonizing 40 hours to make & got a fraction Of the views of my typical video.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 it would be cool to see a BTS of how you film the closeups. You do great work and I have been impressed with how you approach the game. Despite myself being very different in style ( I like a lot of crunch). I enjoy your approach to campaign and encounter design, as well as the crafting videos.
Just realized that at least one sentence in that is likely to drive you bananas. My only excuse is I took a lot of latin in high school and college.
@@Creek5Romeo I have behind the scenes "making of" videos on Patreon. Not sure if I've done one on closeups, but maybe this week.
This is great, as all your videos are. Your game play is smart and concise and I appreciate it. I've been looking for different monsters online and Pinterest has lots of them. In my search I found The Book of Beuatiful Monsters, which, if you are not familiar with, you would really like. There is a section on Warp Stones, something you hint at here with the comet. All this is derivative of John Carpenter's The Thing, which I have always thought would be a great DnD monster.
Is anyone else getting a Michael Jackson "Bad" vibe from the Vermin Lord? Just me? Great vid, PDM.
Dungeon Craft videos are great.
Love the twist at the end.
Wouldn't be any twist for me. I would have killed off the Munchburger brothers and collapsed the caves. The Moonstone Cocaine must be eliminated!
D&DEA would be hard at work making the world free of illicit addictive drugs!
In other videos he shows that the castle has a drug problem. I would be more concerned about that than the portal, unless I knew about the keystone character in our midst.
Then you kill off the keystone character, locking the portal forever and kill off the drug dealers and the world is saved!
Gonna have to make a video on how to make that custom worm mini. Great video as always Professor!
Loved the episode! Your campaign updates are probably my favorite part of the channel.
Nothing like becoming the Drug King Pin of the realms..... :O
SAY. MY. NAME!
thank you so much for the inspiration man
Very cool, That sounds like a lot of fun.
I like the story. Kinda what some people believe about aliens in "real life".
This channel is what i needed
Wow that's a bleak victory story at the end :o
Yes, it is. Thanks for watching, Richard!
I absolutely love this video .
I've been enjoying your videos, Professor. Did you make one on the D/E/F section?
The minis you have on 2:44 are so awesome. Are they still in production?
Yes. The Barbarian is from Massive Darkness. Sorceress is from Reaper.
I love that save or die finish for the evil character and I’m just imagining narrating the compulsion. Death is the only foreseeable outcome.
Play me out of it...
This is an awesome boss
I'm planning to run a *Cthulhu Dark Ages* campaign later this year and I think your vids will be great for helping me with the vibe and atmosphere there.
Plus, they're just generally entertaining. ;-)
Cthulhu Dark Ages is great! How'd your game go? Dark, Dank, and Grim, hopefully.
@@kevingooley9628 Eh, the WuFlu has kinda messed up a lot of plans. When we get to play, which is of course much less than we'd like, we've been going for something a bit more upbeat.
Still an Arkham based game but in the more usual 20-30s, and with Savage Worlds for a more pulp roaring adventure vibe to let every sort of cut loose and just have some fun, escaping from all the stupid out there right now. ;-)
Love it. Great video professor
This Will help a lot for my upcomikg campaign
This ending is why the Inquisition in 40k just blow the shit down or quarantine it haha
Aka Starspawn from 5e. Great video still
cool looking monster
Good videos. I've just discovered you and am consuming your hints.
I love the aesthetic of the vermin lord, and I am considering your adjusted hit point system for it - I tend to prefer the classic D&D system, flaws and all, because the players know where they are. If reality changes for one combat, how do they know what to trust? Mind you, that could work thematically, if they are close to a Chaos Gate and the usual laws of D&D physics break down here...
A few months ago I finished dming Pathfinder rise of rune lords AP and my party lost 75%+ to the final Boss. 20th level Wizards, with serious minions, are very hard to beat. The party would have been totally destroyed if it wasn't for their summon monster spells and resurrection scrolls.
Happy New Year, just shared with my Discord group ,
Awesome! Thanks, Brian!
This was great!
That ending! What a twist!
Thanks! Please share it!
Love that you mentioned lowering AC. I can't believe the starter set has the goblins in the first encounter with a 14 AC! A lot of sad/angry looking newbies at the table as they repeatedly swipe at the seemingly impossible-to-hit gobbos.
Sounds like my player would be looking for a plus 2 can of RAID for this boss fight. uh....back to the village...I'll be back. LOL Cheers!!
I love the miniature of the vermin lord with the mask on his hand *_* where did you get it?
Ps. I loved all the story and the GM's tips. Congrats!
It is a Gloomhaven mini
@@Arydis4 Correct.
Awesome figure! What is the vermin lord figure in the cloak holding the mask?
Kyuss approves this!
when they kill it say: "fool this wasn't even my final form!"
if the Vermin Lord is made of worms and insects, would Bixby's Crushing Hand do more than 1 damage, as it would be swatting him?
You let your players get that high a level?
This is great!
Jeesh, that's a pretty dark ending to that quest line... I'm gonna steal it!
Awesome as usual! The use of the baby as a force to move the party along is soooo smart!
Great vid! I have a question - what exactly is the morality tracker? Sounds very interesting!
Genius.
Moon stone is warp stone reskinned isnt it?
Have you discussed spellcasting bosses on this channel? I'd imagine they need spells in addition to your "AC, HP, Attack" notes, but I'm not sure how much to include.
Love it!
Inspirational!
So, is Expedition to the Barrier Peaks next?
I would love to see his take on a module like that. 👍
Great! A question: since you reduced enemy stat blocks to AC, HP and Damage.. your enemies have no to-hit-bonus or do they?
I am not pretending to know the mind of DM’s Craft. I’m actually just commenting so I can be watching your comment. However, You could basically decide this like you would a DC..... except you’re deciding what is reasonable odds it should be striking...instead of what’s reasonable for it to be hit.
If you use a 1room dc, but feel your boss does need a little boost to make him a bit more deadly, just slap a bonus on it, doesn't even have to be specific, just a +2 to all rolls or something
Does PDM have a video on balancing monsters in depth
Algorithm engaged.
Thank you. My recent videos have struggled and something has DEFINITELY changed since August.
Did the Age of Worms 3.5 Kyuss have any influence on your boss? I ask because Kyuss was also known as "The Worm that Walks."
I do have to point out the following, you start at the beginning of the video that monster manual monsters should be thrown out for big boss fights because the players will know the math and be able to decode how to win with no worries but you yourself have already simplified literally everything in each room to a single number that they have to make no matter how they go about it or what thing they are doing in the room. Once they figure out the number they need to make to do one thing in the room you have then given them the magic number for the entire room. It seems to me that while you have certainly made it easy to design adventures and trivial to run mathematically you have simplified them to the point of absurdity. Why would a dangerous magical item on a pedestal need say a 12 to take without activating as well as a 12 to hit every creature in that room and 12 to avoid the contact poison puddle in the center the minions are trying to push them into. As soon as the players roll a 12 to do anything they ALL know in that instant that everything they are going to do is a 12. They may have to hit something multiple times but they know they will need a 12 to do it. It doesn't even make sense. Is there some math god sitting above making sure that everything possible to challenge them is correctly sorted by room? Sorry but this is just nonsense. Most of the advice you give is fantastic IMO but in this one you have argued both sides. But that is just my take. Thank you for expressing your views.
Hey Michael. That static number is from Index Card RPG. I get your point. Here's how I see it--on a d20, a difference of 3 either way is statistically negligible. The static number greatly speeds up gameplay. The mystery for the players is not in the AC but in HP and they'll wonder what this creature can do. It sacrifices realism for playability. But you're not wrong. Depends on what kind of game you want. Thanks for watching DungeonCraft!