Fairly telegraphing monster mechanics is one of the most important things in homebrewing. Perhaps more important is fostering a sense of trust between the players and the DM so that when the players inevitably DON'T know what's going on, they trust that you have their best interests at heart, and aren't trying to waste their Saturday night against some ridiculous, overpowered, poorly conceived homebrew abomination. Once you have that trust, you can do anything!
For sure. My players once made a joke a year ago about a monster whose AC changes during the fight to make it less predictable. Every once in a while, they would make the joke again. Last time we played, I brought their joke to life via a Fey who had a magically shifting Armor Class. Mechanically, he had an AC of 10, but this is the ability Verbatim: Armor of the Fey. At the beginning of each turn, Kaltaar rolls a d10 and adds it to his AC. At the end of each turn, Kaltaar's AC becomes 10. They absolutely had a blast, and trusted that the perceived "DM bullshit" I threw at them was fair and in the best interest of the session. Player trust is everything.
@@Dark_Aves sounds cool, I am younking that fey idea - usually I change AC only on phase change and it is clear as boss takes out a shield or his armor starts to crumble
I would be even more specific: you should telegraph any monster mechanic which forces a certain fighting style or invalidates another. Fire Power: telegraph it because it invalidates strong disables but of the mechanics at 3:48 that's not necessarily true. Piggybank: no need to telegraph; it's a flavorful, thematic gimmick that doesn't really change how your players fight unless they want to. Shifting Strikes: very strong mechanic, makes it hard to reach or target them. But not unbeatable through sheer brute force and readied actions (a mechanic available to everyone). Depending on what level the players are, you might want to telegraph this. Sin Dredge: invalidates tanking and, to a lesser extent, healing. That said, this works slowly enough that the players will probably have time to understand the implications and react accordingly even if you spring this on them, assuming they're a reasonably diverse and well-rounded party that already has a few levels under their belt.
Here is a good way to give your players knowledge about an upcoming boss: Send them goons or minions that have something to do with the boss in question, with similar or toned down versions of the powers the boss has. It would work like a tutorial, teaching the players that something like that exists in the world and letting them learn how to deal with it.
A trick I like is to bring a weak NPC along with the party who gets hit with the monster's scariest attack. You get to describe how the monster works and give the players a chance to strategize against it without "unfairly" depleting their resources. Plus describing gorey NPC deaths is always fun.
This is what I've been planning to do with my BBEGs. It helps to give the party a chance to recognize the ability and come up with solutions to it, so they can prepare for the big battle with the boss itself.
I just saw this going on in a new videogame that came out a few days ago. The Cult of the Lamb just does that. Every mini sub boss at the end of a run of an area has only a specific type of attack, at the end of the whole area the true final boss has all of the attacks and patters from the previous bosses that you fought just now, but because you had to beat those sub bosses before you know how those attacks act and happen. A good way of translating that into a turn base PnP TTRPG is by having enemy minions in previous rooms say something like "I have been giving a blessing from them. Making me more perfect and closer to my true master" or making them fight a smaller version of the monster like how one can use Gazers or Spectators to signal the party of a Beholder's capabilities with their rays or their weaknesses (that it requires line of sight and visibility to trigger), so when they see the similar appeareance they can infer "this creature must have the same type of properties as the ones before."
This may sound nutty but I will introduce the mechanic of firepower with a nergigante. It will be slightly different with the other beasties, but with a nergi I can just describe its spikes growing in as a visual indicator of it growing meaner.
There are three types of fights in narrative media: dialogue fights, puzzle fights, and skill check fights. The majority of bosses (or in this case monsters) will be puzzle fights, where you need to identify the key weakness in order to overcome the opponent. At its core, a puzzle boss is essentially solving a puzzle under time pressure, and as such the key to making a successful puzzle boss lies in the information stage. While sometimes it might be a good idea to just throw players into the countdown, that's generally a poor environment for people to learn in, so it's better to have a period either before the fight begins or at the start of the fight where the clues to figuring out the boss's weakness are presented to the player. Knowledge checks like the ones you discuss in the video should be used to reward curious or observant players, not just as a flat pass or fail depending on a dice roll. For example, let's imagine we have a group of players fighting a dragon. This dragon has a weak point in its armour on its stomach. - A bad introduction would be: "suddenly a large, red dragon lands on a rock in front of you and roars. Roll a perception check. You failed/You notice a weak spot beneath his left wing where you could shoot him. Okay, roll initiative." - A good introduction would be: "suddenly a large, red dragon soars overhead, roaring as it passes. As it lands on the rock in front of you, you notice a patch of scales are missing underneath his left wing. Roll a perception check. You failed, the dragon makes an effort to hide the weak spot with its enormous wing/You notice that although when it is landed the dragon takes great effort to hide this spot with his wing, it is revealed when he takes flight. Roll initiative." In the first example, the combat is initiated immediately, with no information phase, and a flat roll to find out if you actually get to know about the weak spot or not. You may give the players hints during the actual fight, but they're far less likely to pick up on them when they're under pressure, and have already formulated their strategy. The second example however creates a part of the encounter where combat isn't happening, but your players are able to learn important information about the fight. Moreover, while the skill check is useful in giving a hint, all the information your players need to know is presented to them in your description, even if they fail the check. The players will now go into the fight knowing that a) the dragon has a weak spot b) the dragon is covering the weak spot with his wing and c) the dragon reveals his weak spot when flying. The challenge then is figuring out how to use this information to beat the boss before they get roasted to a crisp. This is a far more compelling fight, and far less likely to end with the players getting frustrated because they didn't pick up on some key information in the midst of combat. You can of course add other bits of information, like with your monster hunter example, in the world before the fight, but it is *vitally* important that you include all necessary information in the information phase. Players should not be unable to beat a puzzle boss because they didn't check up with Salty the Sailor 2 hours ago in the Red Duck Inn, or forget a key detail about manticore fur that was told to them by a passing skeleton which at the time they didn't even know they would need for a fight. These should be useful extras for players who paid attention, not requirements for winning.
I wish more players and DMs knew about the importance of knowledge and communication. I like to homebrew my adventures heavily, but always give fair warning to the players, that way I can ensure that we are playing the same game, under the same assumptions. Great content so far, I'll love to see what you have in store for the subject of magic items!
I'd like a powerpoint presentation about how to not break under pressure when doing improv as a DM. As a player I can remember everything fine but as a DM, I have to stall and look at the chicken scratch called my notes to try and remember what the hell I'm doing and what I should say.
My best advice would be to realize it's okay to respond slowly. You'll be able to respond more quickly as you know more and are more familiar with DMing, but it's okay for you to take the time to respond appropriately if you need it. It's often that feeling of being rushed, needing to know right now, etc. that gets you in a bad mental place.
I generally add additional effects to monsters when they become blooded (50%hp or less) or Mortal (10%hp or less) some monsters become much more terrifying. Even low level ones. Gnolls attack with advantage of the PC is blooded, as the scent stirs them into a frenzy. Hobgoblins make tactical retreats after sounding horns to call for aid, Zombies are slower, but give off a stench once they are bloodied that forces a con save in a short(10 ft) radius. Just little things. Especially if you DM for people who have played a few games, or are DM's themselves, it can be a refreshing take on a somewhat familiar creature.
I'm planning on having a soldier that's just a normal soldier, but the more bloodied he gets, the more the passive magic that's rich in the setting flows into him, drawn by his desire to protect the villain who he loves despite her moral failings from you. Until he's a soul piloting a corpse, with spiritual fishing hooks digging into his body and trying to pry his soul out of it.
i like giving players a bonus action to discover one ability of the enemy if they reserched it before hand, or discover what exactly an ability does after it activates. if they discover everything, they can see what the enemy plans to do on their next turn if nothing changes(this gives them a +1 to Ac or a +2 to saving throws and lets them know its tactics) by the way love your content. this is really good!
I do the same, and it works very well for player engagement. I'll occasionally suggest it to a player after they've had a poor attack and don't have anything they can do for a bonus action, so they don't feel like they waste a turn
I made a short module for Bunkers & Badasses, the Borderlands TTRPG. It suggested to give bosses things like an invincible phase (coming from video game boss fight), but that players should learn about these things. Either let them make a check when a mechanic happened to see if the character understands it, or let them learn as they reach the boss. I did the second. I made my boss a golem in a ruined facility powered by mystical crystals. One side quest was a naturalist character from the games pointing the PCs to kill 3 different types of golems and contemplating their weaknesses. Each golem was weak to a main element, and they were encountered in an area with barrels that explode with that element. When it came time for the golem fight, they easily knew which category of golem it was and thus it’s weakness. Now, it revealed itself to secretly be a different type midway through, but the knowledge they learned from the side quest still helped. (I did give them an invincible phase, but they also learned through the previous rooms how to use the crystals to remove the invincibility.) It was fun setting up the encounter so the players could learn as they approached the boss. And I’m glad the system suggested it. TLDR: B&B is teaching similar things. Bosses can have all kinds of crazy stuff, but make sure your players can learn their strengths and weaknesses.
Something i like to do for stuff like firepower, is to keep count of it on the monster's token that the players can see. it bridges the gap between their meta knowledge of "whats this number going up ? thats not good" and the ingame description of lets say "the dragon keeps heating the room up as magma starts to flow through its scales". even if you didnt describe it in too much details beforehand, it usually prompts players to ask you about it
Love the content! Can't wait for the next one in the series! You kinda covered it in the first video of the series, but I think it's still relevant: having visual indicators of special abilities. I find it's a gentle push of the GM to remind the players, "Hey, there's something unusual happening here- what does it mean?". It helps prompt that knowledge check in game. It of course, adds to the narrative element of the battle too (something I'm bad at and improving on!)
I'm so excited to see you mentioned just giving information to players that they'd realistically know. I recently started doing that. It definitely makes the players feel like their character building choices were more impactful and like their characters are more a part of the world. Snagging recall Knowledge from Pathfinder 2E is also a big brain to move, definitely using that in any 5E games.
I'm on a D&D server, there we have downtime activities given to all players between sessions. One possible use is the Learn downtime. Even though this is the case, a player researching what a monster can do is an extremely rare event. Additionally, I use 3rd party sources as a DM, things from Kobold Press. They've never really complained about being blindsided by a monster's ability. For example, a Snow Giant's passive ability to regain 5 Hit Points if they're in an area where ice and/or snow is present. Even at higher levels, like the Marilith's ability to have a reaction every turn in combat. Same thing when the Server would run RAID style events with 6-12 players. The boss mechanics are always a surprise, and part of the fun. The "Oh, shit!" moments players have as the Boss slowly reveals their abilities one by one.
Some players may not be puzzled or miffed if they are hit with a wild mechanic, but you can overall have more fun (depending on the combat) if you have means of gathering information about a creature.
I use a similar system to your Firepower design, with a resource pool that grows based on unique triggers. When I first introduced it into play, it was against a Hydra with storm magic. My solution to ensuring the players didn't feel cheated was to put the lore on the monster in a dead wizard's journal/spellbook. With a wizard in the party, I figured he'd read the journal. He did not! So, they were blindsided, but they learned a valuable lesson: I will always provide lore for the monsters they fight leading up to it. Even in the dungeon itself. I love the idea of the prep work you suggested for them. It really rewards down time and gives the players more options on how they can spend gold, a resource some players fine mostly useless. Great work.
I can tell you that in the 3rd edition days, having a knowledgable character that could reveal important traits of a monster made the player of the character feel like a badass. Even if the dice rolls weren't on their side for the battle, their insight into their foe made them feel indispensable to the party's hard-won victory. Alas wizards have always been powerful, and they often were the ones able to recall lore about otherwordly monsters. Sucks to double-dip on feel-good moments for a class, but I think it is more rewarding then not having it as a part of play.
You can simply give different characters knowledge based on what they'd be familiar with. For example, a wizard might know things about magical creatures or properties of creatures, whereas a druid might know more about mundane animals, or mundane characteristics of enemies. Clerics or warlocks might know more about extradimensional enemies, etc. You could also throw curve balls, like maybe a certain monster is common where a barbarian comes from, or maybe a rogue recognizes an enemy as a source of venom. Personally I'd suggest not using monsters as written all the time, otherwise players may get too familiar with the threats they face. For example, throw a manticore at them, but this variety has poisonous spines, etc.
THIS channel is the D&D channel I've been looking for! So many others prattle on without giving practical advice/tools, but you cut to the chase and provide great stuff! I am subbed and I hope your channel explodes! Keep it up!
I really like the firepower mechanic and I am going to definitely use it for my end-campaign dragon boss. In that regard: One way I have figured out to give them information about the trait is to introduce it in a lighter encounter. And by lighter, I mean a lower tier ancient dragon, who is kind of gone insane and they have to help free it from its insanity. They will fight the ancient dragon without knowing about the mechanic. After they free it, the dragon will thank them and give them information about the mechanic and about the end-boss. Basically, going in blind against an easier fight, learning the mechanic there and using this knowledge to prepare for the tougher fight.
I actually ended up improvising this for my reworked zombies. Rather than rolling a con save to refuse to die, every, single, time, when they die, they revive once at half hp. When my players found the zombies I described them rising fron the ground, turning to face the party as their eyes burned a deep red. It was new players and one, inspired by video games like final fantasy, suggested trying to heal the zombies and see what would happen, I thought it was cool so wanted to quickly improv an effect, and described the zombie's eyes turning from red to gold (the mechanical effect was disabling the revive, but these players didn't even know zombies could revive) one asked to make a check to try to see what changed about the zombie and based on their roll I said "you can sense something about it feels different from the other zombies, but it still seems hostile" because I assjmed the eye colour could be misread as losing hostility. When another zombie fell and revived and I described the eyes turning gold everything clicked into place and the players understood what I was hinting at.
Been wanting to run a Monster Hunter/Witcher style game just to try out a concept. At the start of session 1, give the players an empty monster statblock. Then, as their characters gather info leading up to the fight, they can discuss out of character what the abilities and mechanics of the monster might be and how to counter them. Metagaming with purpose!
I didn't realize I was using Knowledge within my campaign, but I can see why it helps my players enjoy the game now. My campaign is all homebrew based on Latin American folklore, and just like with all folklore, there are various things one can learn about the monster from verbal story telling. So, I've had my players roll History checks if they were born in the region (half are from the region, half are foreigners) which allows for the member to have a bit more opportunities to shine or be useful in other ways than just pure DPS. Similarly, lore is ingrained in the world, so my players have searched and spoken with locals for more niche folklore monsters they might not know. It might not be a full answer, but it gives them enough hints to make educated guesses. Every once in a while I do throw a curve ball, such as one part of the lore was exaggerated or changed due to time and thus not as reliable or straight up false OR no one ever learned of that information because the monster had adapted and changed with time so they gained a new, slightly changed skill. Helps the players feel like they've made a new discovery they could inform the locals, scholars, or higher ups about in case of future events.
@@ahero8101 yo! Thanks for the reply. And sadly, I don't have a organized way or researching lol I'm half Hispanic so I had a sort of base starting point in researching myths and legends. Being able to read spanish helps when I see blogs or books from the native countries. But, for those I didn't know, I focus on one country at a time, or even certain regions within a country as there are various local variants of the same kind of monsters. Chile and Peru have a lot of good ones that I've used as inspiration. It was basically a rabbit hole after that lol
Beautiful video. And something one of my DMs excels at. He keeps track of origins & will request that relevant players make a knowledge check. For example, the Reborn Cleric who spent 900 years trapped as a stone statue might be asked to roll religion about an ancient temple. Or the Warforged Artificer will be asked to roll an arcana check because he participated in fiendish research. Or the Human Paladin will be asked to make a straight charisma check to suss out the proper etiquette & protocols for a foriegn aristocrat because he, too, is from the upper crust. It brings skills & backgrounds to the fore, & I wish I had the presence of mind to have done it back in my 3.5 days as a DM. Now I try to emulate him.
Sometimes it's better the player doesn't know in advance, for certain things. Things that you want to give that "oh shit" moment. Like, my superboss who's loosely inspired by the Touhou girl Yukari Yakumo can drop debris into a vacuum and have it fall for a few turns until it's like a giant railgun slug, then drop it as a nuke. A huge portal suddenly appearing above the players a turn in advance is enough warning to get the heck out of there and suddenly glassing the battlefield can be really awesome when it has tells. Like, the players don't know what's coming, just that it'll be something big, so they prepare for it; and sure enough it's huge and their preparation was barely enough. I feel like every boss should have at least one supermove, transformation, or other "oh shit" moment.
I rewrote a lot of the monsters for my personal setting changing things up on them, but one of the largest ones is I brought back a sections from the 3/3.5 monster manuals. Depending on the creature type, the player can make an Arcana/History/Nature/Psionics/Religion check, gaining certain tidbits depending on the DC which range depending on the rarity of the monster. As an example, for my wyvern-shaped plant creatures known as Log Thrummers, a Nature check of DC 11 informs of their peaceful and dull-minded nature, while a 16 grants that as well as recalling that the honey produced in their stomachs has special healing properties and has alchemical properties as well, and finally a DC 23 grants all of that information as well as informing that the dimwitted thrummers will see anyone or anything that heals them as an ally if they haven't hurt it much before, telling them that the thrummer will seek to swallow the 'ally' and soak them in its honey before vomiting them back up. I had been using a bonus action to recall it but I've been considering allowing each player one attempt as a free action. It does tend to help them out since much of my world is homebrew or pulls from older editions that they didn't play, such as red dragons having a slight weakness to cold, but also being immune to paralysis and magical sleep.
Another way to make the charges work is to make it a visual indicator Either vaguely (how bright the dragons scales are charged with elemental power) or specific (magical orbs around a BBEG mage charging up) That can make it a lot more flavorful and make the mechanics more intrinsic for the players
Hear hear, the way I do it is allowing Skill checks as a Bonus action. Martials can make a lot of use with grapple (fun!), but it also allows for more knowledge, environment interaction, & cinematic gameplay.
Been running a monster hunter campaign for about a year ish now, and this knowledge factor has been such a boon from the beginning. How i run things is the players accept a quest, usually it has two monsters, but sometimes only 1, and prior to leaving the village the players can as a group ask me 9 questions about each monster, no checks here just ask away. More or less would be fine but 9 has worked best so far for me. But those questions can be about anything from the statblock, special attacks, aggressive behaviors, when do they sleep, can we bait them with anything, etc. I also use a breakable parts system the players can ask questions about for detailed info, such as breaking a monsters face giving it disadvantage on bite attacks, or mid fight can either bonus action or action search for a breakable part, but they wont get full info on how breaking that part would be helpful. Like you said it allows the players to really plan things out, and sometimes a major mechanic slips past them and comes up in the fight, then they also know for next time to potentially include that in the questions. This is also for a super arcadey monster of the week style campaign, so this may not work best for everyone However, these questions don't pertain to monsters that just happen to be in the quest, the players can choose to fight them for more materials but they don't know any of the capabilities it has, but i do tend to give a 'it feels powerful' or whatever style warning
For a one-shot I made I had the party collecting magical items with abilities which would reveal and potentially mitigate the boss monsters powers. Worked pretty well to rev up the boss and give the players some hints about what they were going to be fighting. EDIT: Also, you could have the party briefly meet the boss for a short hit and run encounter. That could show off some of its power without leading to a full on fight. In the video the red dragon could drop some burning hot boulders on the party from high above to try and scare them away.
The Witcher TTRPG has two differnet checks you can make like this. A successful Education check (usually a low DC) means they learn peasant rumors, tales, stories, and generally vague or even false information aboht the creature. Monster Lore, or Witcher Training (usually a high DC) lets them learn much more information that is always true, and even see the statblock, abilities, and weaknesses of the creature. You can make these checks after learning enough about the creature to be reasonably certain what it is, and the check represents what you have learned about that creature.
I’m enjoying these videos a lot-so far these has been helpful and creative ideas that I haven’t seen elsewhere on other videos. The short length is also very good. One thing I would suggest though, is to avoid putting lots of narrative text on the screen while you are talking about something else, as at 6:56. It’s well-studied that people can’t read and listen to two different things at once. I find myself having to rewind to either read what you wrote, or hear what you said. Some text is fine, just not long sentences of actual information. I’m rooting for this channel and am waiting for its next uploads!
As someone who's played with Knowledge Checks in the same vein of what you described for well over a year now, I personally wouldn't recommend it-- I found people forget to use their free action to do a Knowledge Check a whole lot while simultaneously falling into the pitfall of it being a crutch of my boss design and tackling an encounter As such, I've gradually phased out of using it and now prefer foreshadowing/telegraphing abilities with *additional* opportunity for knowledge checks as a single action (I'm running pf2e) to identify an ability before its used and once something is used, I give the PCs information on it (cause as a general rule of thumb, I think giving PCs more information generally is better for the health of the combat than not) It definitely helps running pf2e since there's an easily customizable spectrum of action worth, whereas with 5e it feels all or nothing between main actions (and quick actions for some builds) versus free actions Best of both worlds, and more often than not you can forgo the checks entirely if need be
I've been DMing for over a decade now and after only the first few months the lessons you've put to video now resonated with me. I've stayed my groups favorite GM through all this time because when they reach my bosses and receive encounter foreshadowing and strange mechanics they love knowing that they're going to be challenged, even as the likes of 3.5 and pathfinder characters. I am thankful that someone like you is taking the time to put these points to video and expand on them meaningfully, over the course of multiple videos each dedicated to their own point. I will say knowing your group is key, however. While I completely agree on average that the party almost always needs or should have the opportunity to learn about effects ahead of time I frequently just make it so that information is available if they look but do not pressure them into looking. This way if they run into a strange mechanic unique to a given monster, they don't have to be handed the whole mechanical block they just recieve an overview based on what they have witnessed. For my group the "oooooh-ahhh" of the surprise mechanic is invigorating enough that they don't mind a turn of set back and they just adjust on the fly with their own strange maneuvers. Obviously not for everyone, though.
Another way might to be have them fight a damaged version of the monster at some point that has the same type of attacks and effects but toned down and lacking a few features. I am aware this is less to do with boss monsters as those are best to be unique but if your monster faction enjoys ordered attacks like some machine based entities then it would fit thematically as well. Which could also be used to foreshadow the strength of the non-damaged variant by how it gets damaged, be it by age or others fighting it first. Some of the unique features of a non-damaged can be stated to be non-functional such as the entity trying to fire a ballista which jams or a flamethrower dangling from its side. Great video anyways! Also what's your opinion on Saving throw type attacks? Eg. Target makes a saving throw for being stomped and so on.
2 Thinks: - I think that a master shouldn't prepare gimmick fights. Never prepare fights with an end already stabilized, it's boring. Don't do impossible fights too, that can be beaten only with a specific trick or knowledge about a "weak point", let them beat the fight in them way if they are able to do. - Never show the mechanics on a meta way, but show them in game, for example on the force cage and dragon, describe them each turn how the scales of the dragon becomes ever more shiny (when the fire points recharge) and than show them how instead the bright of the scales and the temperature of the dragon itself becomes lower after he used his fire to break the force cage. In this way, instead of giving them the solution after a dice roll check, they will feel gratified when their casting of control spells will slow down and stop the dragon to breath fire, and they will win without your solution but anyway in a fair play.
And third thing, when you design a monster (especially a boss monster), prepare some specific tool that can make each player protagonist of the encounter, for example the fire points are really good to exalt how the strategic use of the spells can block the dragon to use his most powerful weapon, but for the combat classes like a fighter? Don't make him only roll attacks and damages, give him a special way to deal vs the dragon that only him can do, like for example make the dragon do grapple fight against the fighter or barbarian with his claws or even the mouth! Put some repairs on the battlefield that players can use (and make these breakable by the dragon itself during the fight, to don't let them "camper" in the same spot all the time and make them feel like that covers are precious resources and won't last forever) and give them the chance to understand that the dragon will breath fire (and give them a visible warning that this is coming to happen), like for example show to them that the flames are becoming visible inside the mouth of the dragon (and say this the turn before of the breath).
From what I understand most D&D settings, the magic system has some connection to the dragons. And older editions had spells only dragons or things that had breath weapons could use. Using this knowledge in a thematic and telegraphing manner combined with a knowledge check from wizard/sorcerer or ranger classes even the sage or outlander background...
Great points. I've had a lot of success introducing homebrew mechanics in tiers. In my last 5e game I made use of homebrew Dark Speech powers that all of the more powerful followers of Orcus were able to use. Early on, after beating Kalarel the Vile, they discovered his book on dark speech which was very rudimentary but still risky to try and read/learn. Then as they faced more powerful bosses; Karavakos in the Shadow Pyramid, various Liches in the Shadowfell, Dorsain King of Ghouls ect. they each had one additional more powerful use of Dark Speech. Over time the players learned how to combat each use of Dark Speech and it was always exciting to discover what they next boss could do better than the last.
I'm a forever dm with over a thousand hours of playtime and I can confidently say you are the absolute best resource out there. Your advice is amazing, applicable, and entirely free of filler. One of the biggest issues with internet writing advice is that it tends to be a contradictory mess of people overgeneralizing concepts and assuming certain implications that they haven't properly conveyed. These videos are the few useful writing guides out there that actually show you how to apply the advice properly, rather than put a take out 1) without explaining it in so much depth that the unimportant details overshadow the core principles 2) leaving it vague or general enough that it isn't practically usable or 3) without knowing their shit Anyways, god tier videos, thank you so much for posting, and I love your channel
We have a special mechanic for powerful attacks - boss telegraphs it in the end of his turn and if PCs have knowledge its aoe may even be shown and then it is resolved in the beginning of his next turn or as a legendary action. It gives players an opportunity to interrupt this attack or just move out. Sometimes battlemap turns into a labirinth of fire, focused beams and giantaxe swings It gives more meaning to movement and even fighters now need to think what to do, positioning is important, I can control difficulty by how attacks are placed, combining special moves with normal attacks and spells leads to complex and interesting fights, but they are slow and avoidable for a reason - usually they are quite deadly or apply conditions with high save DCs. PCs can learn about those moves before battle (survivors, witnesses, books, similar but weaker enemies, too talky minions, etc) or during with some free checks. Also after resolving it is considered learnt and usually there no more than 1-3 moves even on hardest opoonents.
That makes sense. I introduce a lot of homebrew mechanics and my custom Lich rolled nat 1 on three attacks so they didn't really know what he did, then when he marked my Sorcerer with Soul Chains (who didn't care to clear it) and used Mind Control the next turn to use Fireball, my Sorcerer was like... Hollup what?
Learning about boss monsters is literally what hiring sages is for in the game. If your players hear about of the coming of G'thmar the Grotesque and just rush off to battle, they get what they get for poor gameplay. A trip to the library or a local sage, historian, will save your party a ton of unexpected surprises, and a quality DM puts these recourses in the game for the players. No new mechanic is necessary.
If there's knowledge I feel would make the encounter more interesting or exciting, I just hand a prefab note with info to the player who's character most closely matches the relevant knowledge/career. Then they get to inject the info into the scene, validating niche skills and character history.
Instead of knowledge checks I prefer the idea of allowing players to use any skill they are proficient with as a free action on their turn (within reason). That way only characters that it would make sense to figure these things out are the ones doing so, and everyone else gets their own unique things they can do. For instance a bard proficient in arcana can try to understand the dragon's fire power, a barbarian with proficiency in medicine can try to estimate how damaged a creature is, or a ranger with proficiency in acrobatics can attempt to swing from a rope to avoid opportunity attacks. This way there's also more options, when it's either do a knowledge check or don't and there's no downsides, that's not really a choice, everyone would do it every turn. This way there's no guarantee what the player will do, I think that helps keep things from getting stale.
Let the party fight a weaker version of the boss beforehand. A little minion who mimiks the powers of the boss. After defeating it, they can also examine the dead body for features that may allow crazy mecanics.
I'm playing with the idea of a villainous series of characters called Red Inquisitors that have the ability to drain magic from the PCs. Mechanically, this means that they drain spell slots from the player characters until they are killed, upon which the players regain all lost spell slots. My hope is for the first encounter with this foe to come across as an exciting "oh shit" moment. I'm playing with how to do this so my PCs feel threatened, but not like their fun is being trampled on. One thing, for example, is that the Inquisitor always takes the lowest available spell slot. The other is that I intend to make clear that the spell isn't lost to the ether (saying that one of the liquid vials on his belt begins to glow green). The other is making it so that every Red Inquisitor they meet can be looted for at least one low-level magic item and a fair chunk of change. I really like this idea as it reinforces the theme and is totally unexpected.
this will make one of my big monsters I have a lot more terrifying to fight I have a creature called a chaos dragon and I've always wanted them to be terrifying
I actually ran the firepower mechanic on a powerful enemy last Saturday. I dropped the starting points to four and had it regen 2 per round instead of 3, also named it power points instead of firepower. I didn't use very many legendary actions though, and my players felt it was really unfair that it kept passing saves. Noteworthy that there are six of them, two casters and some martials with some nutty homebrew weapons that give all sorts of effects, so they had an edge over your standard party of four. I did tell them the mechanic outright at the start of the fight, and don't normally outright share mechanics like that. They came at it like "Wow this is wildly unbalanced and legendary saves should definitely cost more points." instead of the conclusion that I had, which is just that I ran it wrong and should've used another legendary action or two.
firepower is just bad honestly, it manages to be even worse than legendary saves because the boss can recover it every turn, making caster straight up feel useless. That and dragon and shit will never get to use their breat weapons if a player makes it fail a single check every turn, which is bad since thats the main threatening part of dragon fights.
The nature of the games I run means that often times the loot I'm giving out needs to be improvised. The solution I've come up with is working it all out after the session but I don't like it very much. I'm wondering if you have any experience would like to make a video about improvising loot on the fly.
Some ideas: Think about what kinds of loot different situations might produce. Think about what loot you might give for different difficulties of situation, or size of hoard, whatever. Actually create a whole bunch of these. Not only could you reference them later, but you'll get familiar with doing it and be much more able to do it on the fly.
I really like your ideas, I may be just a new player but I do like to do myself a research before starting, both in and out of game, knowledge is to be obtained and not granted. Someone may have something about 1 type of monster, but it can not be also to much, as in "I studied Goblinoids all the time before joining as an adventurer" should not grant everything It is understandable to know some things while in the same times with occasions like this I think better would be to give them more knowledge but still not all information, those are a few mostly different and hardly related (in lore only by heritage) creatures. (I do not pledge that I am 100% correct I may take some things wrong but I do believe that one line in backstory if not supposed to be more related to the story line should not grant the whole knowledge, even with Dragons it may say the whole knowledge about the red ones but little to none about brass.) I do also have a question. Could you potential create a playlist for this series? Please.
I haven’t seen the rest, but that’s because the rest haven’t even been made. I’ll test these out, see if I can get better. My last few attempts at dming have been extraordinarily poor.
prowlers and paragons has this out of the box : weakness detection. like all powers, anyone can take it. you could also get an appropriate super sense, such as analytic sight.
Great video, as i said on the other video, i did this using a mecha purple worm that has a black dragon acid breath as a 10pts power and other acidic power, using pts to dispell magic according to the lv of the spell casted on him. Curiously as you said on this video, they actually aknowledge the enemy powers since they see the creature from afar as i introduce the creature's power, and the fighter battle master used his Know your enemy feature and i then proceed to reveal the 'power' system thay the creature recharge 1pt after each turn passed and that he use legendary actions and his reaction with that power, and they see the worm beating some other creatures when the power reach 10 using his acid breath. The power manifest as its a mecha purple worm, so some 'lights' turn on and off on his body. They beat it relatively easy but just because of this knowledge, since they learn he has ressistance to fire and cold and normal damage during battle, his quite sturdy, but the observation of the fighter let them know that they can power down his energy by casting effects on him instead of casting damaging spells, since he will try to release those effects first, easting his energy points on that.
really like your art of making charakter, npc and bosses interresting :D maybe ill take some enemys into consideration for my next session. im having a little trouble setting a difficulty class into my current session with 5 players. they are all lvl 4 and know how to play together. do you know how to make fights a little bit more challenging, without beeing a deadly DM?^^
lol, not even 10 minutes ago. I made a comment on your last video, and you have already answered it almost fully well done, sir. My new question, I guess, is with changes like that. How do you balance encounters also what about players who just don't go looking for information? It also seems really unfair to take away the traits of other classes and just give them to everyone.
Of course I'm giving fair chance for the players to identify what the boss can do, they are fighting the boss, there is no better way to get to know it. If the ancient dragon breathes fire, leaving 3/4 dead, you know it can breathe fire good.
Knowledge is already built into 5e as lore checks vs 3e Knowledge. Religion, Nature & Arcana are most common but even History has applicable uses. When battling a Troll you can have a DC 12 History with "You remember a guard or an adventure saying that you should always have a torch just in case you cross a bridge with a Troll under it." Then if the table doesn't know the meta data you can give them a clue like "you surmise that possibly light or fire might aid you in battle against the Troll". Afterwords you could allow for an Investigation or straight Wisdom check for "You conclude that since night or darkness wasn't said that fire is helpful against Trolls". Alternatively you can use variable DC test like DC0 monster! DC5 its a troll DC10 Lore bits or rumors DC15 advice or tips DC20 Key mechanics DC25/Nat20 ask the player what they would like to know. This DC25/Nat 20 can only be on non legendary or mythic creatures since they should active investigate that unique being. Side note you should always let the players know that meta gaming has its down sides and makes combat feel repetitive. Not all creature are 100% the same plus you never know if a pyromancer cult might be altering Trolls for some reason to be resistant to all fire dmg unless from a level 3 spell or higher cuz fireball. XD
tldr; if you're using a tracker, let the players see the tracker Just watched the first video and was thinking exactly this; my gut reaction was actually to just make the Fire-bar a visible count-down on the side of the table. You don't need to explain it thorughly, but giving the players the exact numbers or the bar each turn makes the game more of a game, and there is zero excuse of misinformation (to their benefit). Mechanics should always be as clear to the players as possible when switching from theater-of-the-mind and roleplaying sessions to mechanical puzzles (which is combat). The less the players need to guess what's going on, the better for everyone. Furthermore, having things like this visible lessen the upkeep load on the DM, as keeping track of the bar becomes a group excersise. The recharge mechanic (roll for the big bad to get their stuff back) always felt like a burden to me.
The best part of D&D is the philosophy and imagination applied to the characters. Don't be concerned with mechanics too much. I do milestones of years. So elderly creatures can use their spells and abilities in specialized ways.
One term I want to throw out, which is I think relevant to this entire thought process, is metagaming. A player being surprised that your Dragon doesn't operate "like normal Dragons", belies that the player is having their character operate under a level of knowledge they may or may not have (that is, how Dragons "normally" operate). If they've never encountered a Dragon, and only heard stories of Dragons being seemingly impervious to magical effects (the player knowing that legendary resistances exist) and wielding breath weapons (the players knowing how normal breath weapons have a recharge mechanic), there's no good in game reason their character should be surprised when they see a Dragon dispelling a Force Cage by coating their claws in magically destroying flame, UNLESS they are assuming their characters knowledge of the written mechanics of a creature is the same as what they know out of game. Typically I've seen this in the form of "well I'll just homebrew some Trolls to NOT be weak to Fire, that'll take care of metagaming", but frankly this should apply to all monsters and spells. If the character has had no first hand or learned experience of a creature, spell, or effect, whatever their player knows should likely not inform how they approach it.
I had on a table a enemie cleric blessed by his God whit imortality and partial invulnerability I used NPCs that had fougth him to give knoledge to the PCs The fight whit him was hard and slow but the idea was exactly that it took 6 rounds to kill him he had 40 HP but it could only be damaged by the 1st attack of the round negating All other instances of damage until its Turn Basicly the players spend their turns positioning prepairing against the cleric Spells and a thing that i love using spells on alternative ways blocking the cleric flying speed and blocking its healing spells whit chill Touch They defeat him on the rigth time right after The cleric companion showed up That one was a Fighter and the PCs used the cenário to their advantage Making it a easy fight but still hard the Fighter almost toke the Giant Spider pet of the druid out and the party Fighter toke some damage They ended up killing him after descovering he was being forced to attack them.
I'd rank traits as - common knowledge/visual | Automatically known - visually deductive | Can be deducted by perception or insight - uncommon/domain/niche knowledge | Can be known by knowledge rolls - obscure | Can be found through research - unknown Some enemies are so rare and obscure that they are hidden in sage lore and libraries, while unknown traits have never been recorded by living people. I'd personally want players to get the rewards of preparation if they know where they are going. Also some classes could have deus ex knowledge points to spend, like a Ranger. Who would've known at a glance that the exotic Guruguru's ripple magic can be reduced by fairy hair/troll vomit/dragon blood and that their core has properties that deflect metal weapons?
Fairly telegraphing monster mechanics is one of the most important things in homebrewing. Perhaps more important is fostering a sense of trust between the players and the DM so that when the players inevitably DON'T know what's going on, they trust that you have their best interests at heart, and aren't trying to waste their Saturday night against some ridiculous, overpowered, poorly conceived homebrew abomination. Once you have that trust, you can do anything!
Once you have that trust, use it against them! >:D
(I'm joking of course)
One of the most important things, before everything else, is a healthy table dynamic!
For sure. My players once made a joke a year ago about a monster whose AC changes during the fight to make it less predictable. Every once in a while, they would make the joke again. Last time we played, I brought their joke to life via a Fey who had a magically shifting Armor Class.
Mechanically, he had an AC of 10, but this is the ability Verbatim: Armor of the Fey. At the beginning of each turn, Kaltaar rolls a d10 and adds it to his AC. At the end of each turn, Kaltaar's AC becomes 10.
They absolutely had a blast, and trusted that the perceived "DM bullshit" I threw at them was fair and in the best interest of the session.
Player trust is everything.
@@Dark_Aves sounds cool, I am younking that fey idea - usually I change AC only on phase change and it is clear as boss takes out a shield or his armor starts to crumble
I would be even more specific: you should telegraph any monster mechanic which forces a certain fighting style or invalidates another.
Fire Power: telegraph it because it invalidates strong disables
but of the mechanics at 3:48 that's not necessarily true.
Piggybank: no need to telegraph; it's a flavorful, thematic gimmick that doesn't really change how your players fight unless they want to.
Shifting Strikes: very strong mechanic, makes it hard to reach or target them. But not unbeatable through sheer brute force and readied actions (a mechanic available to everyone). Depending on what level the players are, you might want to telegraph this.
Sin Dredge: invalidates tanking and, to a lesser extent, healing. That said, this works slowly enough that the players will probably have time to understand the implications and react accordingly even if you spring this on them, assuming they're a reasonably diverse and well-rounded party that already has a few levels under their belt.
Here is a good way to give your players knowledge about an upcoming boss: Send them goons or minions that have something to do with the boss in question, with similar or toned down versions of the powers the boss has. It would work like a tutorial, teaching the players that something like that exists in the world and letting them learn how to deal with it.
I'm actually surprised I forgot about this. Good ass comment.
A trick I like is to bring a weak NPC along with the party who gets hit with the monster's scariest attack. You get to describe how the monster works and give the players a chance to strategize against it without "unfairly" depleting their resources.
Plus describing gorey NPC deaths is always fun.
This is what I've been planning to do with my BBEGs. It helps to give the party a chance to recognize the ability and come up with solutions to it, so they can prepare for the big battle with the boss itself.
I just saw this going on in a new videogame that came out a few days ago. The Cult of the Lamb just does that. Every mini sub boss at the end of a run of an area has only a specific type of attack, at the end of the whole area the true final boss has all of the attacks and patters from the previous bosses that you fought just now, but because you had to beat those sub bosses before you know how those attacks act and happen.
A good way of translating that into a turn base PnP TTRPG is by having enemy minions in previous rooms say something like "I have been giving a blessing from them. Making me more perfect and closer to my true master" or making them fight a smaller version of the monster like how one can use Gazers or Spectators to signal the party of a Beholder's capabilities with their rays or their weaknesses (that it requires line of sight and visibility to trigger), so when they see the similar appeareance they can infer "this creature must have the same type of properties as the ones before."
This may sound nutty but I will introduce the mechanic of firepower with a nergigante. It will be slightly different with the other beasties, but with a nergi I can just describe its spikes growing in as a visual indicator of it growing meaner.
Dude this series absolutely rocks. Insanely useful storytelling ideas presented really clearly, thank you 🙏
Glad you enjoy it! Really high praise.
There are three types of fights in narrative media: dialogue fights, puzzle fights, and skill check fights. The majority of bosses (or in this case monsters) will be puzzle fights, where you need to identify the key weakness in order to overcome the opponent.
At its core, a puzzle boss is essentially solving a puzzle under time pressure, and as such the key to making a successful puzzle boss lies in the information stage. While sometimes it might be a good idea to just throw players into the countdown, that's generally a poor environment for people to learn in, so it's better to have a period either before the fight begins or at the start of the fight where the clues to figuring out the boss's weakness are presented to the player. Knowledge checks like the ones you discuss in the video should be used to reward curious or observant players, not just as a flat pass or fail depending on a dice roll.
For example, let's imagine we have a group of players fighting a dragon. This dragon has a weak point in its armour on its stomach.
- A bad introduction would be: "suddenly a large, red dragon lands on a rock in front of you and roars. Roll a perception check. You failed/You notice a weak spot beneath his left wing where you could shoot him. Okay, roll initiative."
- A good introduction would be: "suddenly a large, red dragon soars overhead, roaring as it passes. As it lands on the rock in front of you, you notice a patch of scales are missing underneath his left wing. Roll a perception check. You failed, the dragon makes an effort to hide the weak spot with its enormous wing/You notice that although when it is landed the dragon takes great effort to hide this spot with his wing, it is revealed when he takes flight. Roll initiative."
In the first example, the combat is initiated immediately, with no information phase, and a flat roll to find out if you actually get to know about the weak spot or not. You may give the players hints during the actual fight, but they're far less likely to pick up on them when they're under pressure, and have already formulated their strategy. The second example however creates a part of the encounter where combat isn't happening, but your players are able to learn important information about the fight. Moreover, while the skill check is useful in giving a hint, all the information your players need to know is presented to them in your description, even if they fail the check. The players will now go into the fight knowing that a) the dragon has a weak spot b) the dragon is covering the weak spot with his wing and c) the dragon reveals his weak spot when flying. The challenge then is figuring out how to use this information to beat the boss before they get roasted to a crisp. This is a far more compelling fight, and far less likely to end with the players getting frustrated because they didn't pick up on some key information in the midst of combat.
You can of course add other bits of information, like with your monster hunter example, in the world before the fight, but it is *vitally* important that you include all necessary information in the information phase. Players should not be unable to beat a puzzle boss because they didn't check up with Salty the Sailor 2 hours ago in the Red Duck Inn, or forget a key detail about manticore fur that was told to them by a passing skeleton which at the time they didn't even know they would need for a fight. These should be useful extras for players who paid attention, not requirements for winning.
Intriguing framework.
I wish more players and DMs knew about the importance of knowledge and communication. I like to homebrew my adventures heavily, but always give fair warning to the players, that way I can ensure that we are playing the same game, under the same assumptions. Great content so far, I'll love to see what you have in store for the subject of magic items!
Dude, you are the first and only youtuber on DnD stuff that I have actualy used the bell so that I don't miss your Videos! Thank you!
Big ass praise. LFG
I'd like a powerpoint presentation about how to not break under pressure when doing improv as a DM. As a player I can remember everything fine but as a DM, I have to stall and look at the chicken scratch called my notes to try and remember what the hell I'm doing and what I should say.
My best advice would be to realize it's okay to respond slowly. You'll be able to respond more quickly as you know more and are more familiar with DMing, but it's okay for you to take the time to respond appropriately if you need it.
It's often that feeling of being rushed, needing to know right now, etc. that gets you in a bad mental place.
I generally add additional effects to monsters when they become blooded (50%hp or less) or Mortal (10%hp or less) some monsters become much more terrifying. Even low level ones. Gnolls attack with advantage of the PC is blooded, as the scent stirs them into a frenzy. Hobgoblins make tactical retreats after sounding horns to call for aid, Zombies are slower, but give off a stench once they are bloodied that forces a con save in a short(10 ft) radius. Just little things. Especially if you DM for people who have played a few games, or are DM's themselves, it can be a refreshing take on a somewhat familiar creature.
I'm planning on having a soldier that's just a normal soldier, but the more bloodied he gets, the more the passive magic that's rich in the setting flows into him, drawn by his desire to protect the villain who he loves despite her moral failings from you. Until he's a soul piloting a corpse, with spiritual fishing hooks digging into his body and trying to pry his soul out of it.
i like giving players a bonus action to discover one ability of the enemy if they reserched it before hand, or discover what exactly an ability does after it activates. if they discover everything, they can see what the enemy plans to do on their next turn if nothing changes(this gives them a +1 to Ac or a +2 to saving throws and lets them know its tactics)
by the way love your content. this is really good!
i dig this!
I do the same, and it works very well for player engagement. I'll occasionally suggest it to a player after they've had a poor attack and don't have anything they can do for a bonus action, so they don't feel like they waste a turn
I made a short module for Bunkers & Badasses, the Borderlands TTRPG. It suggested to give bosses things like an invincible phase (coming from video game boss fight), but that players should learn about these things. Either let them make a check when a mechanic happened to see if the character understands it, or let them learn as they reach the boss. I did the second. I made my boss a golem in a ruined facility powered by mystical crystals. One side quest was a naturalist character from the games pointing the PCs to kill 3 different types of golems and contemplating their weaknesses. Each golem was weak to a main element, and they were encountered in an area with barrels that explode with that element. When it came time for the golem fight, they easily knew which category of golem it was and thus it’s weakness. Now, it revealed itself to secretly be a different type midway through, but the knowledge they learned from the side quest still helped. (I did give them an invincible phase, but they also learned through the previous rooms how to use the crystals to remove the invincibility.) It was fun setting up the encounter so the players could learn as they approached the boss. And I’m glad the system suggested it.
TLDR: B&B is teaching similar things. Bosses can have all kinds of crazy stuff, but make sure your players can learn their strengths and weaknesses.
Something i like to do for stuff like firepower, is to keep count of it on the monster's token that the players can see. it bridges the gap between their meta knowledge of "whats this number going up ? thats not good" and the ingame description of lets say "the dragon keeps heating the room up as magma starts to flow through its scales". even if you didnt describe it in too much details beforehand, it usually prompts players to ask you about it
Genius tier content. My session zero starts on the 26th.
I'm never washing this comment.
@@seanf5134 how'd it go
@@Xepent So far so good! These videos help form my guiding compass running the game :) Player excitement helps tremendously too.
Love the content! Can't wait for the next one in the series! You kinda covered it in the first video of the series, but I think it's still relevant: having visual indicators of special abilities. I find it's a gentle push of the GM to remind the players, "Hey, there's something unusual happening here- what does it mean?". It helps prompt that knowledge check in game. It of course, adds to the narrative element of the battle too (something I'm bad at and improving on!)
I'm so excited to see you mentioned just giving information to players that they'd realistically know. I recently started doing that. It definitely makes the players feel like their character building choices were more impactful and like their characters are more a part of the world.
Snagging recall Knowledge from Pathfinder 2E is also a big brain to move, definitely using that in any 5E games.
I'm on a D&D server, there we have downtime activities given to all players between sessions. One possible use is the Learn downtime. Even though this is the case, a player researching what a monster can do is an extremely rare event.
Additionally, I use 3rd party sources as a DM, things from Kobold Press. They've never really complained about being blindsided by a monster's ability. For example, a Snow Giant's passive ability to regain 5 Hit Points if they're in an area where ice and/or snow is present. Even at higher levels, like the Marilith's ability to have a reaction every turn in combat.
Same thing when the Server would run RAID style events with 6-12 players. The boss mechanics are always a surprise, and part of the fun. The "Oh, shit!" moments players have as the Boss slowly reveals their abilities one by one.
Some players may not be puzzled or miffed if they are hit with a wild mechanic, but you can overall have more fun (depending on the combat) if you have means of gathering information about a creature.
Just found you in my recommended. Instant subscribe. Thank you!
i found you literally three days ago, i need more
More is coming...
I use a similar system to your Firepower design, with a resource pool that grows based on unique triggers. When I first introduced it into play, it was against a Hydra with storm magic. My solution to ensuring the players didn't feel cheated was to put the lore on the monster in a dead wizard's journal/spellbook. With a wizard in the party, I figured he'd read the journal. He did not! So, they were blindsided, but they learned a valuable lesson:
I will always provide lore for the monsters they fight leading up to it. Even in the dungeon itself. I love the idea of the prep work you suggested for them. It really rewards down time and gives the players more options on how they can spend gold, a resource some players fine mostly useless. Great work.
I can tell you that in the 3rd edition days, having a knowledgable character that could reveal important traits of a monster made the player of the character feel like a badass. Even if the dice rolls weren't on their side for the battle, their insight into their foe made them feel indispensable to the party's hard-won victory. Alas wizards have always been powerful, and they often were the ones able to recall lore about otherwordly monsters. Sucks to double-dip on feel-good moments for a class, but I think it is more rewarding then not having it as a part of play.
You can simply give different characters knowledge based on what they'd be familiar with. For example, a wizard might know things about magical creatures or properties of creatures, whereas a druid might know more about mundane animals, or mundane characteristics of enemies. Clerics or warlocks might know more about extradimensional enemies, etc. You could also throw curve balls, like maybe a certain monster is common where a barbarian comes from, or maybe a rogue recognizes an enemy as a source of venom.
Personally I'd suggest not using monsters as written all the time, otherwise players may get too familiar with the threats they face.
For example, throw a manticore at them, but this variety has poisonous spines, etc.
THIS channel is the D&D channel I've been looking for! So many others prattle on without giving practical advice/tools, but you cut to the chase and provide great stuff! I am subbed and I hope your channel explodes! Keep it up!
I really like the firepower mechanic and I am going to definitely use it for my end-campaign dragon boss. In that regard:
One way I have figured out to give them information about the trait is to introduce it in a lighter encounter. And by lighter, I mean a lower tier ancient dragon, who is kind of gone insane and they have to help free it from its insanity. They will fight the ancient dragon without knowing about the mechanic. After they free it, the dragon will thank them and give them information about the mechanic and about the end-boss. Basically, going in blind against an easier fight, learning the mechanic there and using this knowledge to prepare for the tougher fight.
I love this video, it’s so useful! I’m definitely gonna be using the knowledge check! Great video 👍
I actually ended up improvising this for my reworked zombies. Rather than rolling a con save to refuse to die, every, single, time, when they die, they revive once at half hp. When my players found the zombies I described them rising fron the ground, turning to face the party as their eyes burned a deep red. It was new players and one, inspired by video games like final fantasy, suggested trying to heal the zombies and see what would happen, I thought it was cool so wanted to quickly improv an effect, and described the zombie's eyes turning from red to gold (the mechanical effect was disabling the revive, but these players didn't even know zombies could revive) one asked to make a check to try to see what changed about the zombie and based on their roll I said "you can sense something about it feels different from the other zombies, but it still seems hostile" because I assjmed the eye colour could be misread as losing hostility. When another zombie fell and revived and I described the eyes turning gold everything clicked into place and the players understood what I was hinting at.
This guy is blowing up, good luck!!!
and a nice video i think is a guide on how to co-dm a game. i personaly tried it before but it didnt work very well
I was considering making a video about that but I thought it was too niche. Maybe I'll do it for real.
Been wanting to run a Monster Hunter/Witcher style game just to try out a concept. At the start of session 1, give the players an empty monster statblock. Then, as their characters gather info leading up to the fight, they can discuss out of character what the abilities and mechanics of the monster might be and how to counter them. Metagaming with purpose!
I didn't realize I was using Knowledge within my campaign, but I can see why it helps my players enjoy the game now. My campaign is all homebrew based on Latin American folklore, and just like with all folklore, there are various things one can learn about the monster from verbal story telling. So, I've had my players roll History checks if they were born in the region (half are from the region, half are foreigners) which allows for the member to have a bit more opportunities to shine or be useful in other ways than just pure DPS. Similarly, lore is ingrained in the world, so my players have searched and spoken with locals for more niche folklore monsters they might not know. It might not be a full answer, but it gives them enough hints to make educated guesses. Every once in a while I do throw a curve ball, such as one part of the lore was exaggerated or changed due to time and thus not as reliable or straight up false OR no one ever learned of that information because the monster had adapted and changed with time so they gained a new, slightly changed skill. Helps the players feel like they've made a new discovery they could inform the locals, scholars, or higher ups about in case of future events.
bro do you have any ways to research latin american creatures i would love to learn more
@@ahero8101 yo! Thanks for the reply. And sadly, I don't have a organized way or researching lol I'm half Hispanic so I had a sort of base starting point in researching myths and legends. Being able to read spanish helps when I see blogs or books from the native countries. But, for those I didn't know, I focus on one country at a time, or even certain regions within a country as there are various local variants of the same kind of monsters. Chile and Peru have a lot of good ones that I've used as inspiration. It was basically a rabbit hole after that lol
Beautiful video. And something one of my DMs excels at. He keeps track of origins & will request that relevant players make a knowledge check.
For example, the Reborn Cleric who spent 900 years trapped as a stone statue might be asked to roll religion about an ancient temple. Or the Warforged Artificer will be asked to roll an arcana check because he participated in fiendish research. Or the Human Paladin will be asked to make a straight charisma check to suss out the proper etiquette & protocols for a foriegn aristocrat because he, too, is from the upper crust.
It brings skills & backgrounds to the fore, & I wish I had the presence of mind to have done it back in my 3.5 days as a DM. Now I try to emulate him.
Fantastic quality, look forward to each vid
Your channel is already one of my favorite DND channels keep it up don't give up
My combat has been my weakest aspect as a DM for awhile now, thank you so much for this series, it helps a lot
Sometimes it's better the player doesn't know in advance, for certain things. Things that you want to give that "oh shit" moment. Like, my superboss who's loosely inspired by the Touhou girl Yukari Yakumo can drop debris into a vacuum and have it fall for a few turns until it's like a giant railgun slug, then drop it as a nuke. A huge portal suddenly appearing above the players a turn in advance is enough warning to get the heck out of there and suddenly glassing the battlefield can be really awesome when it has tells. Like, the players don't know what's coming, just that it'll be something big, so they prepare for it; and sure enough it's huge and their preparation was barely enough.
I feel like every boss should have at least one supermove, transformation, or other "oh shit" moment.
I rewrote a lot of the monsters for my personal setting changing things up on them, but one of the largest ones is I brought back a sections from the 3/3.5 monster manuals. Depending on the creature type, the player can make an Arcana/History/Nature/Psionics/Religion check, gaining certain tidbits depending on the DC which range depending on the rarity of the monster. As an example, for my wyvern-shaped plant creatures known as Log Thrummers, a Nature check of DC 11 informs of their peaceful and dull-minded nature, while a 16 grants that as well as recalling that the honey produced in their stomachs has special healing properties and has alchemical properties as well, and finally a DC 23 grants all of that information as well as informing that the dimwitted thrummers will see anyone or anything that heals them as an ally if they haven't hurt it much before, telling them that the thrummer will seek to swallow the 'ally' and soak them in its honey before vomiting them back up. I had been using a bonus action to recall it but I've been considering allowing each player one attempt as a free action. It does tend to help them out since much of my world is homebrew or pulls from older editions that they didn't play, such as red dragons having a slight weakness to cold, but also being immune to paralysis and magical sleep.
I’m impressed by this new channel. Seems like you’ve got fairly original ideas regarding D&D. This was an easy subscribe!
Dude I am sooooo stealing your knowledge check mechanic I love it!!
wow, you are really good at this. I can feel my brain expanding with understanding and ideas
Another way to make the charges work is to make it a visual indicator
Either vaguely (how bright the dragons scales are charged with elemental power) or specific (magical orbs around a BBEG mage charging up)
That can make it a lot more flavorful and make the mechanics more intrinsic for the players
Oooh yeah thisll be amazing, I can already tell. Also first or something, but I'll be buried by positive feedback anyway
This is really good, fun ideas and very well explained
Thanks so much!
Hear hear, the way I do it is allowing Skill checks as a Bonus action. Martials can make a lot of use with grapple (fun!), but it also allows for more knowledge, environment interaction, & cinematic gameplay.
Been running a monster hunter campaign for about a year ish now, and this knowledge factor has been such a boon from the beginning. How i run things is the players accept a quest, usually it has two monsters, but sometimes only 1, and prior to leaving the village the players can as a group ask me 9 questions about each monster, no checks here just ask away. More or less would be fine but 9 has worked best so far for me. But those questions can be about anything from the statblock, special attacks, aggressive behaviors, when do they sleep, can we bait them with anything, etc.
I also use a breakable parts system the players can ask questions about for detailed info, such as breaking a monsters face giving it disadvantage on bite attacks, or mid fight can either bonus action or action search for a breakable part, but they wont get full info on how breaking that part would be helpful.
Like you said it allows the players to really plan things out, and sometimes a major mechanic slips past them and comes up in the fight, then they also know for next time to potentially include that in the questions. This is also for a super arcadey monster of the week style campaign, so this may not work best for everyone
However, these questions don't pertain to monsters that just happen to be in the quest, the players can choose to fight them for more materials but they don't know any of the capabilities it has, but i do tend to give a 'it feels powerful' or whatever style warning
Really nice video. Made me think about all my champains as a pc or a dm
keep on the good work
sick videos, keep up the good work!
For a one-shot I made I had the party collecting magical items with abilities which would reveal and potentially mitigate the boss monsters powers. Worked pretty well to rev up the boss and give the players some hints about what they were going to be fighting.
EDIT: Also, you could have the party briefly meet the boss for a short hit and run encounter. That could show off some of its power without leading to a full on fight. In the video the red dragon could drop some burning hot boulders on the party from high above to try and scare them away.
Dude, your videos are absolutely perfect. Keep up the good work!
The Witcher TTRPG has two differnet checks you can make like this. A successful Education check (usually a low DC) means they learn peasant rumors, tales, stories, and generally vague or even false information aboht the creature. Monster Lore, or Witcher Training (usually a high DC) lets them learn much more information that is always true, and even see the statblock, abilities, and weaknesses of the creature. You can make these checks after learning enough about the creature to be reasonably certain what it is, and the check represents what you have learned about that creature.
I’m enjoying these videos a lot-so far these has been helpful and creative ideas that I haven’t seen elsewhere on other videos. The short length is also very good. One thing I would suggest though, is to avoid putting lots of narrative text on the screen while you are talking about something else, as at 6:56. It’s well-studied that people can’t read and listen to two different things at once. I find myself having to rewind to either read what you wrote, or hear what you said. Some text is fine, just not long sentences of actual information. I’m rooting for this channel and am waiting for its next uploads!
As someone who's played with Knowledge Checks in the same vein of what you described for well over a year now, I personally wouldn't recommend it-- I found people forget to use their free action to do a Knowledge Check a whole lot while simultaneously falling into the pitfall of it being a crutch of my boss design and tackling an encounter
As such, I've gradually phased out of using it and now prefer foreshadowing/telegraphing abilities with *additional* opportunity for knowledge checks as a single action (I'm running pf2e) to identify an ability before its used and once something is used, I give the PCs information on it (cause as a general rule of thumb, I think giving PCs more information generally is better for the health of the combat than not)
It definitely helps running pf2e since there's an easily customizable spectrum of action worth, whereas with 5e it feels all or nothing between main actions (and quick actions for some builds) versus free actions
Best of both worlds, and more often than not you can forgo the checks entirely if need be
My dude, these are amazing!
THIS IS WHAT IVE BEEN WAITING FOR PART TWOOO LETS GOOOOO
I was hooked after the first video, and now I'm subscribed. I absolutely LOVE this type of content. Keep it up!
Thank god you added the recall knowledge as a free action. I was gonna say if it cost an action, no one would use it.
I've been DMing for over a decade now and after only the first few months the lessons you've put to video now resonated with me. I've stayed my groups favorite GM through all this time because when they reach my bosses and receive encounter foreshadowing and strange mechanics they love knowing that they're going to be challenged, even as the likes of 3.5 and pathfinder characters. I am thankful that someone like you is taking the time to put these points to video and expand on them meaningfully, over the course of multiple videos each dedicated to their own point.
I will say knowing your group is key, however. While I completely agree on average that the party almost always needs or should have the opportunity to learn about effects ahead of time I frequently just make it so that information is available if they look but do not pressure them into looking. This way if they run into a strange mechanic unique to a given monster, they don't have to be handed the whole mechanical block they just recieve an overview based on what they have witnessed. For my group the "oooooh-ahhh" of the surprise mechanic is invigorating enough that they don't mind a turn of set back and they just adjust on the fly with their own strange maneuvers. Obviously not for everyone, though.
Another way might to be have them fight a damaged version of the monster at some point that has the same type of attacks and effects but toned down and lacking a few features. I am aware this is less to do with boss monsters as those are best to be unique but if your monster faction enjoys ordered attacks like some machine based entities then it would fit thematically as well. Which could also be used to foreshadow the strength of the non-damaged variant by how it gets damaged, be it by age or others fighting it first. Some of the unique features of a non-damaged can be stated to be non-functional such as the entity trying to fire a ballista which jams or a flamethrower dangling from its side.
Great video anyways! Also what's your opinion on Saving throw type attacks? Eg. Target makes a saving throw for being stomped and so on.
Another actually useful dnd prep channel right here
2 Thinks:
- I think that a master shouldn't prepare gimmick fights.
Never prepare fights with an end already stabilized, it's boring.
Don't do impossible fights too, that can be beaten only with a specific trick or knowledge about a "weak point", let them beat the fight in them way if they are able to do.
- Never show the mechanics on a meta way, but show them in game, for example on the force cage and dragon, describe them each turn how the scales of the dragon becomes ever more shiny (when the fire points recharge) and than show them how instead the bright of the scales and the temperature of the dragon itself becomes lower after he used his fire to break the force cage.
In this way, instead of giving them the solution after a dice roll check, they will feel gratified when their casting of control spells will slow down and stop the dragon to breath fire, and they will win without your solution but anyway in a fair play.
And third thing, when you design a monster (especially a boss monster), prepare some specific tool that can make each player protagonist of the encounter, for example the fire points are really good to exalt how the strategic use of the spells can block the dragon to use his most powerful weapon, but for the combat classes like a fighter? Don't make him only roll attacks and damages, give him a special way to deal vs the dragon that only him can do, like for example make the dragon do grapple fight against the fighter or barbarian with his claws or even the mouth! Put some repairs on the battlefield that players can use (and make these breakable by the dragon itself during the fight, to don't let them "camper" in the same spot all the time and make them feel like that covers are precious resources and won't last forever) and give them the chance to understand that the dragon will breath fire (and give them a visible warning that this is coming to happen), like for example show to them that the flames are becoming visible inside the mouth of the dragon (and say this the turn before of the breath).
These are really good videos. Nice job man! I'd love to see a video or videos about "Why Your DnD Narrative/Plot sucks".
From what I understand most D&D settings, the magic system has some connection to the dragons. And older editions had spells only dragons or things that had breath weapons could use. Using this knowledge in a thematic and telegraphing manner combined with a knowledge check from wizard/sorcerer or ranger classes even the sage or outlander background...
Great points. I've had a lot of success introducing homebrew mechanics in tiers. In my last 5e game I made use of homebrew Dark Speech powers that all of the more powerful followers of Orcus were able to use. Early on, after beating Kalarel the Vile, they discovered his book on dark speech which was very rudimentary but still risky to try and read/learn. Then as they faced more powerful bosses; Karavakos in the Shadow Pyramid, various Liches in the Shadowfell, Dorsain King of Ghouls ect. they each had one additional more powerful use of Dark Speech. Over time the players learned how to combat each use of Dark Speech and it was always exciting to discover what they next boss could do better than the last.
I'm a forever dm with over a thousand hours of playtime and I can confidently say you are the absolute best resource out there. Your advice is amazing, applicable, and entirely free of filler. One of the biggest issues with internet writing advice is that it tends to be a contradictory mess of people overgeneralizing concepts and assuming certain implications that they haven't properly conveyed. These videos are the few useful writing guides out there that actually show you how to apply the advice properly, rather than put a take out 1) without explaining it in so much depth that the unimportant details overshadow the core principles 2) leaving it vague or general enough that it isn't practically usable or 3) without knowing their shit
Anyways, god tier videos, thank you so much for posting, and I love your channel
i love you peen eater.
@@ahero8101 I love you too, we should start a small military organization in the rural mountain ranges of Chile
I'm subscribing because this is fairly good advice and all your videos so far have been helpful thank you :)
Love your channel
We have a special mechanic for powerful attacks - boss telegraphs it in the end of his turn and if PCs have knowledge its aoe may even be shown and then it is resolved in the beginning of his next turn or as a legendary action. It gives players an opportunity to interrupt this attack or just move out. Sometimes battlemap turns into a labirinth of fire, focused beams and giantaxe swings
It gives more meaning to movement and even fighters now need to think what to do, positioning is important, I can control difficulty by how attacks are placed, combining special moves with normal attacks and spells leads to complex and interesting fights, but they are slow and avoidable for a reason - usually they are quite deadly or apply conditions with high save DCs. PCs can learn about those moves before battle (survivors, witnesses, books, similar but weaker enemies, too talky minions, etc) or during with some free checks. Also after resolving it is considered learnt and usually there no more than 1-3 moves even on hardest opoonents.
That makes sense. I introduce a lot of homebrew mechanics and my custom Lich rolled nat 1 on three attacks so they didn't really know what he did, then when he marked my Sorcerer with Soul Chains (who didn't care to clear it) and used Mind Control the next turn to use Fireball, my Sorcerer was like... Hollup what?
Learning about boss monsters is literally what hiring sages is for in the game. If your players hear about of the coming of G'thmar the Grotesque and just rush off to battle, they get what they get for poor gameplay. A trip to the library or a local sage, historian, will save your party a ton of unexpected surprises, and a quality DM puts these recourses in the game for the players. No new mechanic is necessary.
👏🏾Very nice! I look forward to the next video.
If there's knowledge I feel would make the encounter more interesting or exciting, I just hand a prefab note with info to the player who's character most closely matches the relevant knowledge/career. Then they get to inject the info into the scene, validating niche skills and character history.
Would be nice if the video title had "Part 3" or something similar to make it easy to figure out if the viewer has missed a video.
Instead of knowledge checks I prefer the idea of allowing players to use any skill they are proficient with as a free action on their turn (within reason). That way only characters that it would make sense to figure these things out are the ones doing so, and everyone else gets their own unique things they can do. For instance a bard proficient in arcana can try to understand the dragon's fire power, a barbarian with proficiency in medicine can try to estimate how damaged a creature is, or a ranger with proficiency in acrobatics can attempt to swing from a rope to avoid opportunity attacks. This way there's also more options, when it's either do a knowledge check or don't and there's no downsides, that's not really a choice, everyone would do it every turn. This way there's no guarantee what the player will do, I think that helps keep things from getting stale.
I am loving this series so far. Keep it up!
Watched part 1&2. Subscribed
Let the party fight a weaker version of the boss beforehand. A little minion who mimiks the powers of the boss. After defeating it, they can also examine the dead body for features that may allow crazy mecanics.
The text at 1:51 got creepy real quick lmao
I'm playing with the idea of a villainous series of characters called Red Inquisitors that have the ability to drain magic from the PCs. Mechanically, this means that they drain spell slots from the player characters until they are killed, upon which the players regain all lost spell slots.
My hope is for the first encounter with this foe to come across as an exciting "oh shit" moment.
I'm playing with how to do this so my PCs feel threatened, but not like their fun is being trampled on.
One thing, for example, is that the Inquisitor always takes the lowest available spell slot. The other is that I intend to make clear that the spell isn't lost to the ether (saying that one of the liquid vials on his belt begins to glow green).
The other is making it so that every Red Inquisitor they meet can be looted for at least one low-level magic item and a fair chunk of change.
I really like this idea as it reinforces the theme and is totally unexpected.
this will make one of my big monsters I have a lot more terrifying to fight
I have a creature called a chaos dragon and I've always wanted them to be terrifying
Need. More. Now.
Great channel man, keep going
I actually ran the firepower mechanic on a powerful enemy last Saturday. I dropped the starting points to four and had it regen 2 per round instead of 3, also named it power points instead of firepower. I didn't use very many legendary actions though, and my players felt it was really unfair that it kept passing saves. Noteworthy that there are six of them, two casters and some martials with some nutty homebrew weapons that give all sorts of effects, so they had an edge over your standard party of four. I did tell them the mechanic outright at the start of the fight, and don't normally outright share mechanics like that. They came at it like "Wow this is wildly unbalanced and legendary saves should definitely cost more points." instead of the conclusion that I had, which is just that I ran it wrong and should've used another legendary action or two.
firepower is just bad honestly, it manages to be even worse than legendary saves because the boss can recover it every turn, making caster straight up feel useless. That and dragon and shit will never get to use their breat weapons if a player makes it fail a single check every turn, which is bad since thats the main threatening part of dragon fights.
Good stuff, I'm subscriving.
Thanks for subbing. :D
Video suggestion:
Why players don't care about your plot
The nature of the games I run means that often times the loot I'm giving out needs to be improvised. The solution I've come up with is working it all out after the session but I don't like it very much. I'm wondering if you have any experience would like to make a video about improvising loot on the fly.
Some ideas:
Think about what kinds of loot different situations might produce.
Think about what loot you might give for different difficulties of situation, or size of hoard, whatever.
Actually create a whole bunch of these. Not only could you reference them later, but you'll get familiar with doing it and be much more able to do it on the fly.
I really like your ideas, I may be just a new player but I do like to do myself a research before starting, both in and out of game, knowledge is to be obtained and not granted. Someone may have something about 1 type of monster, but it can not be also to much, as in "I studied Goblinoids all the time before joining as an adventurer" should not grant everything It is understandable to know some things while in the same times with occasions like this I think better would be to give them more knowledge but still not all information, those are a few mostly different and hardly related (in lore only by heritage) creatures.
(I do not pledge that I am 100% correct I may take some things wrong but I do believe that one line in backstory if not supposed to be more related to the story line should not grant the whole knowledge, even with Dragons it may say the whole knowledge about the red ones but little to none about brass.)
I do also have a question. Could you potential create a playlist for this series? Please.
I haven’t seen the rest, but that’s because the rest haven’t even been made.
I’ll test these out, see if I can get better. My last few attempts at dming have been extraordinarily poor.
prowlers and paragons has this out of the box : weakness detection. like all powers, anyone can take it. you could also get an appropriate super sense, such as analytic sight.
Its insane that people play 5e so much when it requires such a ridiculous amount of jerry rigging to make functional
Great video, as i said on the other video, i did this using a mecha purple worm that has a black dragon acid breath as a 10pts power and other acidic power, using pts to dispell magic according to the lv of the spell casted on him. Curiously as you said on this video, they actually aknowledge the enemy powers since they see the creature from afar as i introduce the creature's power, and the fighter battle master used his Know your enemy feature and i then proceed to reveal the 'power' system thay the creature recharge 1pt after each turn passed and that he use legendary actions and his reaction with that power, and they see the worm beating some other creatures when the power reach 10 using his acid breath. The power manifest as its a mecha purple worm, so some 'lights' turn on and off on his body. They beat it relatively easy but just because of this knowledge, since they learn he has ressistance to fire and cold and normal damage during battle, his quite sturdy, but the observation of the fighter let them know that they can power down his energy by casting effects on him instead of casting damaging spells, since he will try to release those effects first, easting his energy points on that.
really like your art of making charakter, npc and bosses interresting :D maybe ill take some enemys into consideration for my next session. im having a little trouble setting a difficulty class into my current session with 5 players. they are all lvl 4 and know how to play together. do you know how to make fights a little bit more challenging, without beeing a deadly DM?^^
lol, not even 10 minutes ago. I made a comment on your last video, and you have already answered it almost fully well done, sir. My new question, I guess, is with changes like that. How do you balance encounters also what about players who just don't go looking for information? It also seems really unfair to take away the traits of other classes and just give them to everyone.
good stuff
your videos are so god damn usefull bro
Of course I'm giving fair chance for the players to identify what the boss can do, they are fighting the boss, there is no better way to get to know it.
If the ancient dragon breathes fire, leaving 3/4 dead, you know it can breathe fire good.
Knowledge is already built into 5e as lore checks vs 3e Knowledge. Religion, Nature & Arcana are most common but even History has applicable uses. When battling a Troll you can have a DC 12 History with "You remember a guard or an adventure saying that you should always have a torch just in case you cross a bridge with a Troll under it." Then if the table doesn't know the meta data you can give them a clue like "you surmise that possibly light or fire might aid you in battle against the Troll". Afterwords you could allow for an Investigation or straight Wisdom check for "You conclude that since night or darkness wasn't said that fire is helpful against Trolls".
Alternatively you can use variable DC test like DC0 monster! DC5 its a troll DC10 Lore bits or rumors DC15 advice or tips DC20 Key mechanics DC25/Nat20 ask the player what they would like to know. This DC25/Nat 20 can only be on non legendary or mythic creatures since they should active investigate that unique being.
Side note you should always let the players know that meta gaming has its down sides and makes combat feel repetitive. Not all creature are 100% the same plus you never know if a pyromancer cult might be altering Trolls for some reason to be resistant to all fire dmg unless from a level 3 spell or higher cuz fireball. XD
I use knowledge checks too, i think its the most important part of any game
tldr; if you're using a tracker, let the players see the tracker
Just watched the first video and was thinking exactly this; my gut reaction was actually to just make the Fire-bar a visible count-down on the side of the table. You don't need to explain it thorughly, but giving the players the exact numbers or the bar each turn makes the game more of a game, and there is zero excuse of misinformation (to their benefit). Mechanics should always be as clear to the players as possible when switching from theater-of-the-mind and roleplaying sessions to mechanical puzzles (which is combat). The less the players need to guess what's going on, the better for everyone.
Furthermore, having things like this visible lessen the upkeep load on the DM, as keeping track of the bar becomes a group excersise. The recharge mechanic (roll for the big bad to get their stuff back) always felt like a burden to me.
The best part of D&D is the philosophy and imagination applied to the characters. Don't be concerned with mechanics too much. I do milestones of years. So elderly creatures can use their spells and abilities in specialized ways.
One term I want to throw out, which is I think relevant to this entire thought process, is metagaming.
A player being surprised that your Dragon doesn't operate "like normal Dragons", belies that the player is having their character operate under a level of knowledge they may or may not have (that is, how Dragons "normally" operate).
If they've never encountered a Dragon, and only heard stories of Dragons being seemingly impervious to magical effects (the player knowing that legendary resistances exist) and wielding breath weapons (the players knowing how normal breath weapons have a recharge mechanic), there's no good in game reason their character should be surprised when they see a Dragon dispelling a Force Cage by coating their claws in magically destroying flame, UNLESS they are assuming their characters knowledge of the written mechanics of a creature is the same as what they know out of game.
Typically I've seen this in the form of "well I'll just homebrew some Trolls to NOT be weak to Fire, that'll take care of metagaming", but frankly this should apply to all monsters and spells. If the character has had no first hand or learned experience of a creature, spell, or effect, whatever their player knows should likely not inform how they approach it.
Here is the support comment.
My monsters sure do suck when they’re seduced
I had on a table a enemie cleric blessed by his God whit imortality and partial invulnerability
I used NPCs that had fougth him to give knoledge to the PCs
The fight whit him was hard and slow but the idea was exactly that it took 6 rounds to kill him he had 40 HP but it could only be damaged by the 1st attack of the round negating All other instances of damage until its Turn
Basicly the players spend their turns positioning prepairing against the cleric Spells and a thing that i love using spells on alternative ways blocking the cleric flying speed and blocking its healing spells whit chill Touch
They defeat him on the rigth time right after The cleric companion showed up
That one was a Fighter and the PCs used the cenário to their advantage Making it a easy fight but still hard the Fighter almost toke the Giant Spider pet of the druid out and the party Fighter toke some damage
They ended up killing him after descovering he was being forced to attack them.
Maybe other thing fair could be show, before the fight starts, one trait about the enemies. One immunity, resistance, trait…
I'd rank traits as
- common knowledge/visual | Automatically known
- visually deductive | Can be deducted by perception or insight
- uncommon/domain/niche knowledge | Can be known by knowledge rolls
- obscure | Can be found through research
- unknown
Some enemies are so rare and obscure that they are hidden in sage lore and libraries, while unknown traits have never been recorded by living people.
I'd personally want players to get the rewards of preparation if they know where they are going. Also some classes could have deus ex knowledge points to spend, like a Ranger.
Who would've known at a glance that the exotic Guruguru's ripple magic can be reduced by fairy hair/troll vomit/dragon blood and that their core has properties that deflect metal weapons?
@@Viljarms Cool
Here in my garage