Something I once did: there's an Coliseum, the players' objective was to get famous. The fight was set to last only 5 rounds. After the 1st, they realized they cannot do enough damage to actually kill the monster they were facing But they noticed the crowd reacted in certain ways. - They hit the monster. The crowd remained silent. - The druid thornwhips the paladin out of the mouth of the creature, the crowd started cheering - Another hit, a weak 'wooh' - The rogue used on of the props scattered throughout the battlefield (don't remember what exactly) that burned pieces of the monster, the crowd went crazy Then they realized, they were in a Coliseum, the crowd wanted a show, and they were trying to get *famous*. They started to do more and more flamboyant stuff
@@TheDungeonCoach Cool. Ok, if this helps somewhat this was the end of the arc: They became famous enough to challenge the regent and champion of the Coliseum, a red dragonborn with a [homebrew] draconic Deity's blessing that let him heal by consuming fire. He could use big torches in the stadium and the lava fountain to heal or make a lava breath. Anyway, one of the PCs actually died here, but the group became so famous (the artificer even spent all of his downtime between fights feeding their hungry fans) that the 'loved champ' was booed. When champ downed the artificer the people WENT MAD ("that's the guy who gave me food yesterday, don't hurt him no more!"), the party continued using the crowd in their favor until champ dropped his weapon and started arguing with the public Then the barbarian picked up his greataxe+3 and use it to deal the final blow, cutting his head off, freeing the town in a chorus of cheering and happy crying. Fun times
I ran a boss fight where there was 4 big pots full of blood in the room, the pots were basically extra health / legendary actions for the Boss. i didnt tell the players this but i did Elude to it by having the boss drain blood from a pot every time they used their legendary action and described it as wounds healing. Eventually a player figured out to kill the pots, which every time they killed a pot it reduced the max HP of the boss by like 20% and they loss a legendary action.
LOOOOOOVE THIS lol Physical manifestations of their legendary actions are amazing! I’ve had a golem with crystals on it, once they attacked the crystals (they had a 5 higher AC) then it lost a certain ability it would do and 1 Legendary Action
thank you for this idea, I'm respectfully going to steal this idea, my players just ran into a blood hag and this will be such a cool way to use her legendary actions
1 of 6 - Have players roll a perception check during combat. Anyone rolling over DC notices a valuable or helpful object (magic item, lever, key, etc). This gives some players choice of trying to secure the item during combat. 2 of 6 - When a player drops below zero, place an obstacle, such as a monster, between them and the healer i.e. the obstacle must be overcome before the player can be revived. 3 of 6 - Place characters by a ledge or in a corner with pending rock fall and monsters pushing them back so the characters have to get through or around the swarm in front of them to escape disaster. 4 of 6 - Cast Charm or Control Person on a player and have them attack the other players so players have to subdue or save their friend while fighting. 5 of 6 - Have one or more players become trapped (pit, net, cage, etc) before or during being attacked so players have to rescue them while also fighting. 6 of 6 - Include innocent, defenseless bystanders and have monsters attack them during combat.
I've been thinking about reversing the usual 'stop the ritual'. There will be a portal that the PCs need to reopen to let celestials in. The cleric will be rolling to make progress to opening the portal while the rest of the party has to defend him until it opens.
When my players fought their first big bad, my version of the Black Spider from LMoP, I had him drawing not only health from blood fountains around his lair, but restoring his spell slots from a "mana fountain." The bard figured it out and she did a successful arcana check to restore her own spells slots, and they were able to destroy his health regen fountains. The ranger almost died, but they were able to beat him after 2 hours of combat. The extra objectives really make a big difference and can be way more fun than "kill this thing. "
What I would like more is a video on how these sorts of scenarios play out and how to make sure they're still challenging. There's tons of videos out there that say to challenge players in other ways than straight up combat but none that go into detail.
Alternate objectives: the silent fight So how about they are in huge room that some friendly npc is giving a speach, or something else that gets peoples attention. The place is filled up with people, and the players have to do something like kidnapping someone, steelling something or anything similar, while not being noticed by everyone else. Or in the same place they are actually having a fight with others humanoid villains while both of the groups are trying to not be noticed.
Alternate objectives: the party is on a flying ship, and somehow the magic that made it fly is stopping/stopped working. So they have to make a bunch of checks to help the main artificer to fix it, or just protect him/her from something. Example: the front part of the ship has a huge hole, so the wizard might have to cast levitation on the barbarian so he can use his strength to hold and postion a huge pice of wood while the artificer tries fix it on the hole
In the game I'm running now, the players are fighting the illithid. They knew that the elder brain would sense them well before they could even get close to it. They have these items though that if attuned to the psychic emanations of the elder brain could mask them from its creature sense. The only way to attune it though was to get hit by a mind blast from either the elder brain or an Ulitharid connected to the elder brain. Made for an interesting combat because they couldn't kill them until they were all hit by the blast. Meanwhile they have to deal with all the minions of the Ulitharid and try not to die.
I had an early game event where a town was being overrun by skeletons and zombies. The party had to fight their way through the city, then up the cemetery hill. Next they had to fend off the undead while the party cleric performed a ceremony to cleanse the grounds. Ended up being pretty memorable
Last one-shot I ran they were in a town full of mind-controlled plebs, with some enemies appearing, so the longer they lingered the more enemies they got. Speed was key, but then the gates were webbed as well, so they had to slash/burn through the webs while also protecting their cart. Start with an objective, then add enemies as hindrances.
The artifact must be returned to the statue to appease the goddess, but the onslaught of pirates and the goddess' own wrath on the city is making this quite difficult. Giant waves splash into everyone involved in the combat and the druid turns into a bird and snatches the artifact into the air... A goblin snatches the bag of treasure, which the party can hear clinking and clanking as he picks it up, the other goblins yell something at it and the bag-goblin runs away. The sewer hallway is filling up with leeches and water, but there's a treasure on the other side of the room.
As the DM I ran a combat onboard a ship that was being boarded by Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Drow who were trying to get specific cargo. The enemies were riding on a Horizonback Tortoise and had one special unit of goblins riding a phase spider. The unit was equipped with goggles and leather armor made of the same phase spider material to direct the spider. They managed to get to the cargo but some of the players were fighting one level above and heard them loading the cargo on the spider. The party found them in the hold just as they were about done (X rounds to steal the cargo) fought them for a bit before they just noped out of there with what they had. So the party had to try and stop the Horizonback Tortoise from leaving. It was a pretty epic scene as I had to juggle 3 separate fights one top deck, one mid deck, and one in the cargo hold. It was fun because it had long range combat from other vessels they fought as well as close combat onboard ship. Not to mention the sense of urgency when the cargo was being stolen. And yes they got away with some of the cargo.
I'm preparing a fight for my group. It's a 70x180 square foot room with a fast stream of water running through the middle. While the party fights kobolds, an ogre sits on a raised throne throwing gelatinous cubes at the party. Of one of the cubes lands in the stream, the drain will get clogged and the room will start flooding.
I had a swarm of hundreds of monsters attacking the party while they tried to extract a key from a trap to open a door. It was a super intense combat even though nobody was really in much danger of dying. I also love giving alternate objectives to enemies. Maybe they're protecting an egg, just trying to escape from where the players have cornered them or grab a snack and book it.
By the way, the moment a monster grapples a player and starts running away, the entire table freaks out regardless of how much damage the monster does or anything else like that.
I give split decisions to my groups a lot where they could ALL choose one or the other... OR... split and try for BOTH??? haha Just about to throw this at my party next week too!
I remember a combat where our objective was to remove parasites from people's ears while they were attacking us. We quickly got it down to a science where we would grapple, pin, then tie up orcs, which our investigator would then perform brain surgery on while also threatened by bloodmist constructs.
the rules used to include subdual damage if you wanted to beat down and capture a creature alive. Selling a dragon or a owlbear or whatever to a rich guy was often preferable to just killing it.
I like the idea of coming up against something they can't take out in one go but they need to figure out how to get in, weaken it and get out, maybe picking something useful up that will strengthen them. Then heal up and come back. This has an element of heist to it, with planning, coordination and stealth/surprise being important. It can come in many forms: - a single creature that they may injure, trap, blind, or remove some powerful item from. - an isolated stronghold that they can deplete bit by bit (kill / steal their horses, burn down their food store, kill some of the soldiers, again, steal a powerful item) - a caravan travelling through the wilderness. The party must decide where to attack the caravan so that they have a chance to weaken it and get out before getting caught up with the whole force.
The most praised encounter I've run was a ritual to free an abishai. DC 20 dispel magic/counterspell or kill all the chanting cultists to stop the ritual, it completes in five rounds. The actual combat-capable enemies' goal want to kill the players, it was to keep them busy and stop them from disrupting the ritual. When the ritual went off, the enemies had to hold out for 3 rounds while the cultists gathered enough energy for the abishai, weakened from imprisonment and without higher spell slots, to teleport them out of there. They almost killed the abishai and enemy paladin, and did kill two other lieutenants that were guarding the ritual.
:: The Star Wars Sewer Escape Room :: It may be frantic, and every round can be precarious, but boring it is not. Where the characters or a NPC triggers a collapsing room filled of debris, Carrion Crawlers and a bunch of Skeletons. Acrobatics/Athletics checks to keep atop of the Debris, its a slippery slope! Be fair and allow inspiring actions for players to help other party members being buried. Also for good effect, roll open rolls for the Mobs, there's a grim sense of satisfaction of watching a Carrion Crawler getting crushed out of existence, especially if they helped in the chain of events. Note: allow a back up roll on a failed check using a skill they are 'proficient' in if they come up with a creative use for it (usable only once). IF the players are having a really bad series of rolls; announce you are moving into phase two and are now doing a group check as opposed to individual checks
Alternate objectives: You have to kill these weak monsters, but theres a puzzle behind it=you gotta kill them in a certain order/specific way. Example: because of a dark ritual, lots of weaker demons are popping out, and you and the party gotta resolve a puzzle(that would be given by a profecy, a poem or something like that) to figure out which one of them you kill first/or how you kill it. And every time you make wrong decision, 2 more of them spawn. Note: the main point here is not about the killing, like the monster are supposed to be weak, but when you make 8 bad choices and 16 of them spawn, it starts to get really interesting
My favorite I’ve done so far is there was a bonding ritual set up millennia so by giants that was 2/5 complete by knocking over large stone columns. I’m a blood pool was a monstrous mound of flesh that this town was sacrificing to to protect it from horrors. Ok it’s turn the monster once damaged would try and swallow players to refill its health and instead of simply stopping a ritual (Yee blood sacrifice ) they also need to complete the older ritual. I made a map which I updated after one of the players hit behind it and the monster accidentally knocked over and then the players saw the pentagram the towers could make. This was immediately after dropping or shot giants fighting to kill humanoids and this helped my players understand that at some point the giants raised their mistake and attempted to stop this horror
I had my party in a small room with a barrel of nitroglycerin in the middle surrounded by brazers of fire which spawn flaming skeletons. They had to multitask killing the skeletons and diverting them away from the barrel.
Did I mishear, or did he just say "throw some difficult terrain on top of difficult terrain to make it not difficult"? That's it, from now on my sorcerer is using this logic! Burning building? Fireball!
I love it. Will try to implement this in my next session. If I can figure out how to present an alternative objective without hardcoding a solution into it. I always think for my players. And I hate it. xD
Alternate objective: I ran a combat encounter based on the movie SPEED, where a magical carriage filled with passengers had been cursed to explode if it went below fifty miles per hour. The players had to divide their attention between steering the “bus” through a city,crawling underneath it to “disarm” the glyphs of warding, and fighting off waves of enemies
(3:34) - Alternate Objectives: I can't take credit for this (as it was my DM who did it and I was playing) but I thought it was super cool. Setup: There is a magical rot killing people in town. The 'special' ingredient needed to create an antidote is 'silver root' a piece of a white Treant in a forest. However, the forest has been corrupted and some plants (shambling mounds/blood shrubs/etc) are hindering progress. Encounter: The large white Treant is in the middle of the clearing, and several (20) small shrubs surround it and appear to be attacking it. What do you do ? We arrived and then a few shrubs came at us and blocked our way. (at first they didn't attack?) We didn't get the 'clue', so we attacked the shrubs, killing most, a few ran off, but we saw one sneak into an opening in the roots of the Treant to escape. As we approached the Druid (me) tried to communicate with the Treant and let it know we meant no harm and wanted to help. But the Treant didn't believe us, said we were man things and that we corrupted the forest. So the Treant attacked us. We managed to slip into the hole under the Treant in between attacks. Long story short: The little shrub we found underneath was NOT corrupted, but the Treant was. And the shrub was trying to defend against the Treant. Party shocked! there was wall paintings underneath in the cave system which previous Dryads lived and painted, telling a story of how others had come promising help and growth of the forest but instead corrupted it. Then we met with a Dryad hidden in the caves. Do we attack? is it also corrupted? the Dryad said to kill the shrub and it would help us. Decisions, decisions... how to solve the problem? work with a corrupted Dryad to get the 'silver root' (killing a 'good' shrub?) or kill the corrupt Dryad, and hope you can still convince the Treant you are on its side and want to help?
This is kinda the same, kinda different, technically it would actually be the opposite. An alternate objective with combat, if that makes sense. Also, I haven't actually done this yet, so anyone who wants to throw out ways I could improve this, feel free to chime in. I'm designing a maze that the PC's are going to have to make their way through, but I'm actually going to have them in initiative order to make their way through (soft initiative for the most part, basically just a generalized timer). Basically, as they are making their way through the maze, the Minotaur who lives in the maze is in the process of hunting them, and will catch up to them every certain number of rounds (maybe like 10 rounds or so. Like I said, soft initiative, so it shouldn't take very long getting through each round of 'combat'). They then have the option of fighting the minotaur, fleeing from it, or what ever the case is. However, due to the nature of the maze, if they successfully 'kill' the minotaur, instead of dying, its summoned back to the center of the maze, where it magically heals up, and starts hunting again, until the PC's either find the exit to the maze, or find the center and dispel the magic that sustains the minotaur.
Ive been thinking about a room with two large pressure plates on the sides and a center platform that raises based on the weight on the pressure plates. Enemies fall onto the platform from the upper level and the party has to knock them off to add weight to the pressure plates. Maybe it's too complicated but sounds cool in my head
@Coach: Chase down escaping enemy from previous objective. Fight enemies then control speeding train. Airship battle through area and land before fuel runs out. Detect location of rival or bounty and figure out best way to take them out. Build fortifications and last until dawn against mass undead. Last a number of rounds in a fight. Get as far as you can through a gauntlet. Escape a crumbling structure or cave after fighting or looting. Fight on the run till you reach an environmental hazard that will take out the enemies chasing you. Plant charges or evidence and escape capture. Free prisoners and escape capture. Acquire remote and turn golems against creator. Harass army or camp on multiple fronts aka pick off, damage gear, limit food, slow travel, sicken or poison, etc. Seal portal or gate after something else. Destroy siege engines and reinforce troops. Infiltrate castle and open gate. Outrun avalanche or lava and find a safe spot or redirect the elements. Tactically retreat drawing enemies into ambush. Assemble puzzle or destroy object before enemy. Calm a raging monster too big to handle and solve its problem before it gets mad again. I think that’s about 20 off the top of my head coach. These are what you wanted right? Looking forward to the video with scenarios like these. Stay great.
Escape an ever increasing swarm of fairly weak enemies. Say every wave the heroes clear the next wave has twice as many creatures in it. I'm planning on having this in a session for a mini campaign, it's a high level (15) thing so it won't likely kill them but I think by doubling the number of enemies (oh they're a modified version of giant spiders) who show up in each wave should be able to create a sense of urgency even if they monsters they see never become so many they become unmanageable.
Just beware of it slowing combat to a crawl with ever larger groups of enemies. Or like many players I have ran for fight to the bitter end for a TPK. Players tend to not like the concept of running away in my experience. Make it clear to them as the danger of their situation ramps up. Unless the point is to see just how long they can last. :)
@@lukasz100096 Sure, you've cleared one wave now the next one shows up with twice the number of enemies. How many times can you cast fireball? That's the good thing with having waves of enemies you don't lose them all to a single fireball. It's also how I would handle a battle scenario, chop the battlefield up into smaller partial combats.
@@joesgotmore I mean of course you have to say thing like "You hear ever more skittering, the sounds of thousands of legs approaching through the tunnels." And yes you don't have to double the numbers you can just have evert wave have a few more enemies but the point is you have to get across to the players that they can't fight this before you end up with numbers that are to much to keep track off in combat.
I have a combat on a frozen lake that is breaking appart. Especialy when attacks miss. Or an Ice shark tipe creature that swims under the ice which makes it very difficult to hit cause you cant see it well under the snow.
I had my players try to break into a guard captain's office and steal a list of targets including some members of the party. When they got into the office they were locked in and had to solve a puzzle to get out. Part of the puzzle involved flipping over an hour glass that I had on the table. I said once that hour glass ran out (15 mins IRL) there would be an alarm that sounded and they would have to escape before the guards rushed in. Whats more, I had some false hints in the room that triggered traps like a flying sword or magic carpet. The party then would have to choose between fighting the enemies or competing the puzzle.
It worked out great, the party ran out of time and so I gave them another 15 mins IRL before the guards showed up. They completed the puzzle just before the guards came and ended up dragging a player's unconscious body out of the house to the bard who was left as a scout.
Attacking isn't always the best option. Often times, using skills to interact with the environment or even the story the dice are telling, is a better use of your action than doing damage. ALWAYS STOP THE RITUAL!!! We recently had a completely non-combat boss fight. It was a negotiation around a table with the BBGE. We were terrified.
I am running a boss fight soon, where an elder oblex style boss monster is trying to harvest thoughts as memories are what gives this creature power. So it has found a old elemental locked away by the last memories and wishes of one of it's old enemies. The oblex each turn will be eatting away at this lock, if broken the extremely powerful elemental will wake up, destorying the cave system party is in release lots of monsters from the underdark into the above realm. (Difficult for them to survive and will make campaign harder) Guarding the elemental are some earth elementals which were drawn by the old elementals slumbering thoughts. They have been covered and made docile by some of the Oblex's minions. Behind the players there is a mass of huge powerful bug creatures which have been trapped away from their master (they are mindcontrolled by the Oblex) and an evil cult the party up to this point has been fighting (these cultist's dont know this yet) are holding the bugs off as the party fights the Oblex. The cult workship the slumbering elemental and want to awaken it. However they believe the Oblex will attempt to corrupt there master, hence why they are fighting the creature. The players only real objective is to get out of the underdark. This whole fight is optional.
I can't get my player to notice shit, just recently from my game they heard a rumor that group a of dwarves who claimed to have found gold nearby has gone missing, then they go to an armor shop run by dwarves and ask zero questions, they are searching for a dungeon in the area but they think that these two events are unconnected.
I actually had a question about your physical book, Alkander’s almanac. I missed it during its Kickstarter and I thought I read on that page later that it was exclusive to the Kickstarter. Do you ever plan to have a second printing or a newer edition in the future because I would love to get a hard copy, but it just doesn’t seem likely rn.
I have plans to do a future kickstarter and if THAT does well there could posibly be another round of printing for AAA there as well. But the last day you can back AAA to get the hardcover is Dec 31st of 2021, so there still is some time left if that works out for you. I appreciate you!
One that I done yesterday. Players take battle with hord of zombies whitch came from uknown terrain under old tower. They take hostage one of necromance and during interrogation one of the players try to convinced him to stop the fight while other was trying to survive
The only downside of this is 5e. The combat takes long enough that you can't throw much nuance into it or else you'll make the entire session 1 battle. Any edition below 3.5e can accomplish this style of gameplay but the system that makes up 5e makes it difficult to accommodate.
Something I once did: there's an Coliseum, the players' objective was to get famous.
The fight was set to last only 5 rounds. After the 1st, they realized they cannot do enough damage to actually kill the monster they were facing
But they noticed the crowd reacted in certain ways.
- They hit the monster. The crowd remained silent.
- The druid thornwhips the paladin out of the mouth of the creature, the crowd started cheering
- Another hit, a weak 'wooh'
- The rogue used on of the props scattered throughout the battlefield (don't remember what exactly) that burned pieces of the monster, the crowd went crazy
Then they realized, they were in a Coliseum, the crowd wanted a show, and they were trying to get *famous*. They started to do more and more flamboyant stuff
WOW this is going in the follow up video!
@@TheDungeonCoach Cool. Ok, if this helps somewhat this was the end of the arc: They became famous enough to challenge the regent and champion of the Coliseum, a red dragonborn with a [homebrew] draconic Deity's blessing that let him heal by consuming fire. He could use big torches in the stadium and the lava fountain to heal or make a lava breath.
Anyway, one of the PCs actually died here, but the group became so famous (the artificer even spent all of his downtime between fights feeding their hungry fans) that the 'loved champ' was booed.
When champ downed the artificer the people WENT MAD ("that's the guy who gave me food yesterday, don't hurt him no more!"), the party continued using the crowd in their favor until champ dropped his weapon and started arguing with the public
Then the barbarian picked up his greataxe+3 and use it to deal the final blow, cutting his head off, freeing the town in a chorus of cheering and happy crying.
Fun times
I ran a boss fight where there was 4 big pots full of blood in the room, the pots were basically extra health / legendary actions for the Boss. i didnt tell the players this but i did Elude to it by having the boss drain blood from a pot every time they used their legendary action and described it as wounds healing. Eventually a player figured out to kill the pots, which every time they killed a pot it reduced the max HP of the boss by like 20% and they loss a legendary action.
LOOOOOOVE THIS lol
Physical manifestations of their legendary actions are amazing!
I’ve had a golem with crystals on it, once they attacked the crystals (they had a 5 higher AC) then it lost a certain ability it would do and 1 Legendary Action
Great idea to reduce legendary actions after a boss’ weak point is damaged.
@@WisdomThumbs right but then give the boss more attacks or extra movement or triggered special abilities when the weak point takes damage.
@@origamiknife7556 I'm taking notes. A couple possible bosses in my campaign would benefit from this.
thank you for this idea, I'm respectfully going to steal this idea, my players just ran into a blood hag and this will be such a cool way to use her legendary actions
1 of 6 - Have players roll a perception check during combat. Anyone rolling over DC notices a valuable or helpful object (magic item, lever, key, etc). This gives some players choice of trying to secure the item during combat.
2 of 6 - When a player drops below zero, place an obstacle, such as a monster, between them and the healer i.e. the obstacle must be overcome before the player can be revived.
3 of 6 - Place characters by a ledge or in a corner with pending rock fall and monsters pushing them back so the characters have to get through or around the swarm in front of them to escape disaster.
4 of 6 - Cast Charm or Control Person on a player and have them attack the other players so players have to subdue or save their friend while fighting.
5 of 6 - Have one or more players become trapped (pit, net, cage, etc) before or during being attacked so players have to rescue them while also fighting.
6 of 6 - Include innocent, defenseless bystanders and have monsters attack them during combat.
I've been thinking about reversing the usual 'stop the ritual'. There will be a portal that the PCs need to reopen to let celestials in. The cleric will be rolling to make progress to opening the portal while the rest of the party has to defend him until it opens.
Alternate objectives: possesive spirit ritual. Collapsing building. Protect the wagons/other vehicle from a to b. Close portals.
When my players fought their first big bad, my version of the Black Spider from LMoP, I had him drawing not only health from blood fountains around his lair, but restoring his spell slots from a "mana fountain." The bard figured it out and she did a successful arcana check to restore her own spells slots, and they were able to destroy his health regen fountains. The ranger almost died, but they were able to beat him after 2 hours of combat. The extra objectives really make a big difference and can be way more fun than "kill this thing. "
I clicked on this, heard the first sentence, and literally went "ooooohh! This is gonna be good." 😯
What I would like more is a video on how these sorts of scenarios play out and how to make sure they're still challenging. There's tons of videos out there that say to challenge players in other ways than straight up combat but none that go into detail.
That is a GREAT note! I will make notes for a video on exactly this!
Alternate objectives: the silent fight
So how about they are in huge room that some friendly npc is giving a speach, or something else that gets peoples attention. The place is filled up with people, and the players have to do something like kidnapping someone, steelling something or anything similar, while not being noticed by everyone else.
Or in the same place they are actually having a fight with others humanoid villains while both of the groups are trying to not be noticed.
Alternate objectives: the party is on a flying ship, and somehow the magic that made it fly is stopping/stopped working. So they have to make a bunch of checks to help the main artificer to fix it, or just protect him/her from something. Example: the front part of the ship has a huge hole, so the wizard might have to cast levitation on the barbarian so he can use his strength to hold and postion a huge pice of wood while the artificer tries fix it on the hole
In the game I'm running now, the players are fighting the illithid. They knew that the elder brain would sense them well before they could even get close to it. They have these items though that if attuned to the psychic emanations of the elder brain could mask them from its creature sense. The only way to attune it though was to get hit by a mind blast from either the elder brain or an Ulitharid connected to the elder brain. Made for an interesting combat because they couldn't kill them until they were all hit by the blast. Meanwhile they have to deal with all the minions of the Ulitharid and try not to die.
I had an early game event where a town was being overrun by skeletons and zombies. The party had to fight their way through the city, then up the cemetery hill. Next they had to fend off the undead while the party cleric performed a ceremony to cleanse the grounds. Ended up being pretty memorable
Hostage and escort situation is always fun!
A video list of alternate objectives would be awesome! Please do that!
Working on it as we speak!! :)
@@TheDungeonCoach you the man! Love your channel and your general upbeat personality!
"let me know if you want me to do..." -> Uhhh yes. Always.
Hahahaha I appreciate that so much
Last one-shot I ran they were in a town full of mind-controlled plebs, with some enemies appearing, so the longer they lingered the more enemies they got. Speed was key, but then the gates were webbed as well, so they had to slash/burn through the webs while also protecting their cart. Start with an objective, then add enemies as hindrances.
The artifact must be returned to the statue to appease the goddess, but the onslaught of pirates and the goddess' own wrath on the city is making this quite difficult. Giant waves splash into everyone involved in the combat and the druid turns into a bird and snatches the artifact into the air...
A goblin snatches the bag of treasure, which the party can hear clinking and clanking as he picks it up, the other goblins yell something at it and the bag-goblin runs away.
The sewer hallway is filling up with leeches and water, but there's a treasure on the other side of the room.
As the DM I ran a combat onboard a ship that was being boarded by Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Drow who were trying to get specific cargo. The enemies were riding on a Horizonback Tortoise and had one special unit of goblins riding a phase spider. The unit was equipped with goggles and leather armor made of the same phase spider material to direct the spider. They managed to get to the cargo but some of the players were fighting one level above and heard them loading the cargo on the spider. The party found them in the hold just as they were about done (X rounds to steal the cargo) fought them for a bit before they just noped out of there with what they had. So the party had to try and stop the Horizonback Tortoise from leaving. It was a pretty epic scene as I had to juggle 3 separate fights one top deck, one mid deck, and one in the cargo hold.
It was fun because it had long range combat from other vessels they fought as well as close combat onboard ship. Not to mention the sense of urgency when the cargo was being stolen. And yes they got away with some of the cargo.
My god that does sound epic!!!
@@TheDungeonCoach Thank you coach.
Appreciate this!! Need ideas for future combats!!
Absolutely true - this is the mindset I try to take with every combat encounter
Glad you made this video when you did, I just got done with the session 0 for an Eberron campaign and this'll really help with designing encounters.
I'm preparing a fight for my group. It's a 70x180 square foot room with a fast stream of water running through the middle. While the party fights kobolds, an ogre sits on a raised throne throwing gelatinous cubes at the party. Of one of the cubes lands in the stream, the drain will get clogged and the room will start flooding.
I had a swarm of hundreds of monsters attacking the party while they tried to extract a key from a trap to open a door.
It was a super intense combat even though nobody was really in much danger of dying.
I also love giving alternate objectives to enemies. Maybe they're protecting an egg, just trying to escape from where the players have cornered them or grab a snack and book it.
By the way, the moment a monster grapples a player and starts running away, the entire table freaks out regardless of how much damage the monster does or anything else like that.
@@epee11c woulds love to see what TheDC has to say about foes dividing the party to stymie synergy. Is that fun for players or DM? If not could it be?
Just imagined a new arch nemesis character named Thedck (TheDC).
You are good at this! and YES I do the same for enemies too! goes for both sides lol
I give split decisions to my groups a lot where they could ALL choose one or the other... OR... split and try for BOTH??? haha Just about to throw this at my party next week too!
I remember a combat where our objective was to remove parasites from people's ears while they were attacking us. We quickly got it down to a science where we would grapple, pin, then tie up orcs, which our investigator would then perform brain surgery on while also threatened by bloodmist constructs.
the rules used to include subdual damage if you wanted to beat down and capture a creature alive. Selling a dragon or a owlbear or whatever to a rich guy was often preferable to just killing it.
Would love a followup video with example breakdowns of some mid-level combats. It would definitely help me implement these in my game
working on it as we speak! Gonna make a follow up for sure now!
@@TheDungeonCoach Looking forward to it, Coach!!
What's the first one?
I like the idea of coming up against something they can't take out in one go but they need to figure out how to get in, weaken it and get out, maybe picking something useful up that will strengthen them. Then heal up and come back. This has an element of heist to it, with planning, coordination and stealth/surprise being important. It can come in many forms:
- a single creature that they may injure, trap, blind, or remove some powerful item from.
- an isolated stronghold that they can deplete bit by bit (kill / steal their horses, burn down their food store, kill some of the soldiers, again, steal a powerful item)
- a caravan travelling through the wilderness. The party must decide where to attack the caravan so that they have a chance to weaken it and get out before getting caught up with the whole force.
The most praised encounter I've run was a ritual to free an abishai. DC 20 dispel magic/counterspell or kill all the chanting cultists to stop the ritual, it completes in five rounds. The actual combat-capable enemies' goal want to kill the players, it was to keep them busy and stop them from disrupting the ritual.
When the ritual went off, the enemies had to hold out for 3 rounds while the cultists gathered enough energy for the abishai, weakened from imprisonment and without higher spell slots, to teleport them out of there.
They almost killed the abishai and enemy paladin, and did kill two other lieutenants that were guarding the ritual.
:: The Star Wars Sewer Escape Room ::
It may be frantic, and every round can be precarious, but boring it is not.
Where the characters or a NPC triggers a collapsing room filled of debris, Carrion Crawlers and a bunch of Skeletons.
Acrobatics/Athletics checks to keep atop of the Debris, its a slippery slope!
Be fair and allow inspiring actions for players to help other party members being buried.
Also for good effect, roll open rolls for the Mobs, there's a grim sense of satisfaction of watching a Carrion Crawler getting crushed out of existence, especially if they helped in the chain of events.
Note: allow a back up roll on a failed check using a skill they are 'proficient' in if they come up with a creative use for it (usable only once).
IF the players are having a really bad series of rolls; announce you are moving into phase two and are now doing a group check as opposed to individual checks
Ahhhhh yes!!! This fits so perfectly!
That's a great back up to have. Smart thinking for the whole thing, but that's genius.
Awesome ideas as usual thanks DC!
Alternate objectives: You have to kill these weak monsters, but theres a puzzle behind it=you gotta kill them in a certain order/specific way. Example: because of a dark ritual, lots of weaker demons are popping out, and you and the party gotta resolve a puzzle(that would be given by a profecy, a poem or something like that) to figure out which one of them you kill first/or how you kill it. And every time you make wrong decision, 2 more of them spawn.
Note: the main point here is not about the killing, like the monster are supposed to be weak, but when you make 8 bad choices and 16 of them spawn, it starts to get really interesting
My favorite I’ve done so far is there was a bonding ritual set up millennia so by giants that was 2/5 complete by knocking over large stone columns. I’m a blood pool was a monstrous mound of flesh that this town was sacrificing to to protect it from horrors. Ok it’s turn the monster once damaged would try and swallow players to refill its health and instead of simply stopping a ritual (Yee blood sacrifice ) they also need to complete the older ritual. I made a map which I updated after one of the players hit behind it and the monster accidentally knocked over and then the players saw the pentagram the towers could make. This was immediately after dropping or shot giants fighting to kill humanoids and this helped my players understand that at some point the giants raised their mistake and attempted to stop this horror
I had my party in a small room with a barrel of nitroglycerin in the middle surrounded by brazers of fire which spawn flaming skeletons. They had to multitask killing the skeletons and diverting them away from the barrel.
Did I mishear, or did he just say "throw some difficult terrain on top of difficult terrain to make it not difficult"?
That's it, from now on my sorcerer is using this logic! Burning building? Fireball!
I love it. Will try to implement this in my next session. If I can figure out how to present an alternative objective without hardcoding a solution into it. I always think for my players. And I hate it. xD
Yesss! please, do a video about alternate objectives🤩
The best (and only) objective in combat should be to survive.
Thanks for the video! 👍🏻
Alternate objective: I ran a combat encounter based on the movie SPEED, where a magical carriage filled with passengers had been cursed to explode if it went below fifty miles per hour.
The players had to divide their attention between steering the “bus” through a city,crawling underneath it to “disarm” the glyphs of warding, and fighting off waves of enemies
(3:34) - Alternate Objectives: I can't take credit for this (as it was my DM who did it and I was playing) but I thought it was super cool.
Setup: There is a magical rot killing people in town. The 'special' ingredient needed to create an antidote is 'silver root' a piece of a white Treant in a forest. However, the forest has been corrupted and some plants (shambling mounds/blood shrubs/etc) are hindering progress.
Encounter: The large white Treant is in the middle of the clearing, and several (20) small shrubs surround it and appear to be attacking it. What do you do ?
We arrived and then a few shrubs came at us and blocked our way. (at first they didn't attack?) We didn't get the 'clue', so we attacked the shrubs, killing most, a few ran off, but we saw one sneak into an opening in the roots of the Treant to escape. As we approached the Druid (me) tried to communicate with the Treant and let it know we meant no harm and wanted to help. But the Treant didn't believe us, said we were man things and that we corrupted the forest. So the Treant attacked us. We managed to slip into the hole under the Treant in between attacks.
Long story short: The little shrub we found underneath was NOT corrupted, but the Treant was. And the shrub was trying to defend against the Treant. Party shocked! there was wall paintings underneath in the cave system which previous Dryads lived and painted, telling a story of how others had come promising help and growth of the forest but instead corrupted it. Then we met with a Dryad hidden in the caves. Do we attack? is it also corrupted? the Dryad said to kill the shrub and it would help us. Decisions, decisions... how to solve the problem? work with a corrupted Dryad to get the 'silver root' (killing a 'good' shrub?) or kill the corrupt Dryad, and hope you can still convince the Treant you are on its side and want to help?
This is kinda the same, kinda different, technically it would actually be the opposite. An alternate objective with combat, if that makes sense. Also, I haven't actually done this yet, so anyone who wants to throw out ways I could improve this, feel free to chime in.
I'm designing a maze that the PC's are going to have to make their way through, but I'm actually going to have them in initiative order to make their way through (soft initiative for the most part, basically just a generalized timer). Basically, as they are making their way through the maze, the Minotaur who lives in the maze is in the process of hunting them, and will catch up to them every certain number of rounds (maybe like 10 rounds or so. Like I said, soft initiative, so it shouldn't take very long getting through each round of 'combat'). They then have the option of fighting the minotaur, fleeing from it, or what ever the case is. However, due to the nature of the maze, if they successfully 'kill' the minotaur, instead of dying, its summoned back to the center of the maze, where it magically heals up, and starts hunting again, until the PC's either find the exit to the maze, or find the center and dispel the magic that sustains the minotaur.
Interesting concept.
This is a good idea to pursue further. It might also be good to identify alternate objectives for foes. They are not always out to kill, are they?
Ive been thinking about a room with two large pressure plates on the sides and a center platform that raises based on the weight on the pressure plates. Enemies fall onto the platform from the upper level and the party has to knock them off to add weight to the pressure plates. Maybe it's too complicated but sounds cool in my head
Great video thank you!
@Coach: Chase down escaping enemy from previous objective. Fight enemies then control speeding train. Airship battle through area and land before fuel runs out. Detect location of rival or bounty and figure out best way to take them out. Build fortifications and last until dawn against mass undead. Last a number of rounds in a fight. Get as far as you can through a gauntlet. Escape a crumbling structure or cave after fighting or looting. Fight on the run till you reach an environmental hazard that will take out the enemies chasing you. Plant charges or evidence and escape capture. Free prisoners and escape capture. Acquire remote and turn golems against creator. Harass army or camp on multiple fronts aka pick off, damage gear, limit food, slow travel, sicken or poison, etc. Seal portal or gate after something else. Destroy siege engines and reinforce troops. Infiltrate castle and open gate. Outrun avalanche or lava and find a safe spot or redirect the elements. Tactically retreat drawing enemies into ambush. Assemble puzzle or destroy object before enemy. Calm a raging monster too big to handle and solve its problem before it gets mad again. I think that’s about 20 off the top of my head coach. These are what you wanted right? Looking forward to the video with scenarios like these. Stay great.
Escape an ever increasing swarm of fairly weak enemies. Say every wave the heroes clear the next wave has twice as many creatures in it. I'm planning on having this in a session for a mini campaign, it's a high level (15) thing so it won't likely kill them but I think by doubling the number of enemies (oh they're a modified version of giant spiders) who show up in each wave should be able to create a sense of urgency even if they monsters they see never become so many they become unmanageable.
Fireball?
Just beware of it slowing combat to a crawl with ever larger groups of enemies. Or like many players I have ran for fight to the bitter end for a TPK. Players tend to not like the concept of running away in my experience. Make it clear to them as the danger of their situation ramps up. Unless the point is to see just how long they can last. :)
great tips!
@@lukasz100096 Sure, you've cleared one wave now the next one shows up with twice the number of enemies. How many times can you cast fireball?
That's the good thing with having waves of enemies you don't lose them all to a single fireball.
It's also how I would handle a battle scenario, chop the battlefield up into smaller partial combats.
@@joesgotmore I mean of course you have to say thing like "You hear ever more skittering, the sounds of thousands of legs approaching through the tunnels."
And yes you don't have to double the numbers you can just have evert wave have a few more enemies but the point is you have to get across to the players that they can't fight this before you end up with numbers that are to much to keep track off in combat.
I have a combat on a frozen lake that is breaking appart. Especialy when attacks miss. Or an Ice shark tipe creature that swims under the ice which makes it very difficult to hit cause you cant see it well under the snow.
I had my players try to break into a guard captain's office and steal a list of targets including some members of the party. When they got into the office they were locked in and had to solve a puzzle to get out.
Part of the puzzle involved flipping over an hour glass that I had on the table. I said once that hour glass ran out (15 mins IRL) there would be an alarm that sounded and they would have to escape before the guards rushed in.
Whats more, I had some false hints in the room that triggered traps like a flying sword or magic carpet. The party then would have to choose between fighting the enemies or competing the puzzle.
It worked out great, the party ran out of time and so I gave them another 15 mins IRL before the guards showed up. They completed the puzzle just before the guards came and ended up dragging a player's unconscious body out of the house to the bard who was left as a scout.
Attacking isn't always the best option.
Often times, using skills to interact with the environment or even the story the dice are telling, is a better use of your action than doing damage.
ALWAYS STOP THE RITUAL!!!
We recently had a completely non-combat boss fight. It was a negotiation around a table with the BBGE.
We were terrified.
I am running a boss fight soon, where an elder oblex style boss monster is trying to harvest thoughts as memories are what gives this creature power.
So it has found a old elemental locked away by the last memories and wishes of one of it's old enemies.
The oblex each turn will be eatting away at this lock, if broken the extremely powerful elemental will wake up, destorying the cave system party is in release lots of monsters from the underdark into the above realm. (Difficult for them to survive and will make campaign harder)
Guarding the elemental are some earth elementals which were drawn by the old elementals slumbering thoughts. They have been covered and made docile by some of the Oblex's minions.
Behind the players there is a mass of huge powerful bug creatures which have been trapped away from their master (they are mindcontrolled by the Oblex) and an evil cult the party up to this point has been fighting (these cultist's dont know this yet) are holding the bugs off as the party fights the Oblex.
The cult workship the slumbering elemental and want to awaken it. However they believe the Oblex will attempt to corrupt there master, hence why they are fighting the creature.
The players only real objective is to get out of the underdark. This whole fight is optional.
Would love to see a roll chart or something to brainstorm How to make an objective!
2:40 impossible terrain lol
I can't get my player to notice shit, just recently from my game they heard a rumor that group a of dwarves who claimed to have found gold nearby has gone missing, then they go to an armor shop run by dwarves and ask zero questions, they are searching for a dungeon in the area but they think that these two events are unconnected.
How to make rangers more useful and powerful?
💜💜💜
So, what I did was cast flaming sphere to block off on end of a narrow passage way, so that enemies would have to take damage from it.
I actually had a question about your physical book, Alkander’s almanac.
I missed it during its Kickstarter and I thought I read on that page later that it was exclusive to the Kickstarter.
Do you ever plan to have a second printing or a newer edition in the future because I would love to get a hard copy, but it just doesn’t seem likely rn.
I have plans to do a future kickstarter and if THAT does well there could posibly be another round of printing for AAA there as well. But the last day you can back AAA to get the hardcover is Dec 31st of 2021, so there still is some time left if that works out for you. I appreciate you!
@@TheDungeonCoach that is great news! Where do I go to back AAA now?
One that I done yesterday. Players take battle with hord of zombies whitch came from uknown terrain under old tower. They take hostage one of necromance and during interrogation one of the players try to convinced him to stop the fight while other was trying to survive
The only downside of this is 5e. The combat takes long enough that you can't throw much nuance into it or else you'll make the entire session 1 battle. Any edition below 3.5e can accomplish this style of gameplay but the system that makes up 5e makes it difficult to accommodate.
Your 'sequence' of videos has been increasing every time.
73rd like! Woot!
I now challenge you to be the 73rd like on the NEXT video... good luck sir!