Adding clutter and furniture is a great way to get players to buy into the terrain. They can use the stuff for offensive or defensive purposes: break a chair across an enemy's back, or flip over a table for cover.
Totally agree that any extra bits to work with in a map make it more immersive and fun. I like the challenge when the map itself is (also) an opponent. I'm planning a Video Game based campaign and wanted to spice up the maps. I decided to go with v.g. cliches that the players will immediately recognize: suspicious red barrels, glowing arrows in the road, floating platforms, bottomless pits (not an insta-kill, as it is a v.g. setting, just minor damage), spiked floors, etc.
So fun story my D&D group plays in a classroom during lunch and we just use the whiteboard (there’s like 10 of us) and we just draw onto the whiteboard and that has probably saved us both so much money and convenience since we can put whatever without putting us all around a table to see and saving at least a bit of money on grids plus not having to get minis (not entirely necessary but stand out well) since it’s quick to draw and change and colour coding is so fun Although it isn’t as cool as grids
Some excellent stuff there. It's all well and good giving folk topical advice, but when backed up with some hard examples like these it really brings it home A lot more helpful and really look forward to more videos like these.
This video helped me a lot with something I've been disappointed with about Wave Echo Cave in Lost Mines of Phandelver. I've been running this part of the campaign and I once I looked through this section I was immediately disappointed with how the "forge" that was supposed to be so important was just... a forge... Then your beholder encounter gave me the inspiration to run the encounter for the Spectator this way and put in flavor that the chamber was designed this way to channel magical energy into an item being forged in the middle. Now the chamber where the Spectator is placed will be like your Beholder encounter and the room with the big bellows will instead be an area where they separated magical ore from the other ores they dig up.
Great video! Personally I like the idea of clutter, cover, concealment that can be penetrated, potential collateral damage (civilians, indigenous creatures, cattle), hazards like slick surfaces or flimsy structures, narrow/cramped areas that limit or effect which weapons you can use, and friendly fire.
I usually keep the combat straight forward, but I love to add environmental hazards life pits, cave ins, or even random traps in the same room as the battle. It adds a tense feeling to it because you never know whats going to happen next.
@@theDMLair They were once engaged in battle with a target when a player ran over an area designated as weak ground. He failed his Dex save and ended up skewered on stalagmites in the pit. The party was then trying to fight the enemy and his forces, while getting down to the party member to save him. It got really tense for a bit.
I have a bunch of graph paper with 1" squares and some are filled in haphazardly for stone walls and pillars The dungeon is a random layout of these tiles that shift around, especially when one of many sconces on the walls are touched It's a plane called the Vague and the encounters are other creatures who have either wandered in and gotten lost or traveling groups of orcs and such who are also using the Vague to travel quickly
It is fun using stuff you find in the room. I had a warlock that got charged by a bugbear. I doged him and he broke the table. When he got up I used the table as a shield for a +2 ac
I needed this inspiration here for how to make combat encounters you are the and the master of the world so use it to its fullest potential to be something they will not forget even the starter set knew this fact as well.
I recently ran an encounter in ruins with loads of cover against seven star spawn manglers, technically it was a very deadly encounter but I considered it only hard due to the situation, the players all had access to flight, I gave the manglers a 40 foot jumping distance and modified the statblock to where they could only use their flurry ability 1/day instead of recharge on 4-6. With the idea that they would flee into total cover if the players didn't descend into reach, the players had a blast going from pillar to pillar and pushing manglers off of stone pillars 60 feet in the air. (Or just casting shatter on the pillars) The other thing that forced the players to descend was to try to prevent the manglers from warning the dungeon proper. They didn't take much in the way of damage but expended quite a bit of resources to keep the rest of the dungeon from becoming active.
Other suggestions: maps that move around, destructible maps (like in Mortal Kombat), maps designed for stealth fighting scenarios, maps that force movement, 3D free-fall combat maps
@@theDMLair that would be easy, guards next to alarms, maps that have some doors open, using moving/roaming enemies that follow a path. Incorporating sound triggers or view triggers using the stealth rolls into your dungeon. So eg, long corridor with items or pillars that break line of site, broken window on one side of the hallway where guards are routinely moving up and down outside with a bell alarm in the middle of the hallway guarded by someone/something facing away from the party. Just an idea...
Maybe some kind of fight at a formal event. Daggers and small arms only. Some narrative consequence to being violent in sight of guests. Try to leave bodies in inconspicuous places.
I made a digital version of your beholder encounter and I posted it on your discord. I included this video's name so maybe people can search for it if that's how discord works. I made it since I really want to use it in my campaign and I posted it there since its your idea and that way other people can also use it if they like. :)
I ran this yesterday (Lost Mines of Phandelver spoilers) with the Spectator encounter in the Wave Echo Cave and it was the most fun I've had in d&d yet! I gave the Spectator 80 hit points, a few legendary actions and 40 foot fly speed. There was 5 player characters, a summoned skeleton and a wolf animal companion (which obviously couldn't do anything). The Spectator flew around trying to avoid the characters while getting them with eye blasts but the characters eventually cornered it in the very highest elevation area with a few outside the center area. It finally downed one character and used a legendary action to paralyze the other and tried to fly away. A fighter happened to be standing in the way which was unavoidable and got to use an damage opportunity attack as it was flying overhead then finally died next turn to an ice knife spell and an arrow from the skeleton. The Spectator got to use several of it's special reaction which I described as catching the spell in its mouth and spitting it back out at them. The first turn the wizard almost died from his own catapult spell with a rock hitting him strait in the face lol. Unfortunately the encounter wasn't as deadly as it could be because I was rolling randomly for which eye rays it was using. I thought that would be fun but I never rolled for the damaging eye ray which deals some auto damage. Once I remembered that then it was on but the characters had lots of places to hide and heal and made it so it was hard for the cleric to reach people with the healing word spell. I used the text option or edited the token name on roll20 to put in what elevation the characters and monster was at so everybody could keep track of what was going on. Anyway, again thanks for the video! :)
i do exactly that but because of that my players look at every table every cupboard and under every stone thats on the map and want to chack on that and its soooooexhausting
I just added a link to it in the description. It's $32 on Amazon. Good quality. I've used mine every week for 2 years and only now is some of the dry erase marker beginning to not erase completely. But still quite useable.
I have one question since I’m new to drawing in DND. Since I have more then one encounter in a session, do I have to draw in the middle of a session so that my characters can get on with a fight?
Lots of the furniture terrain came from Hero's Quest. The tree was from a plastic toy set from Amazon. There are also terrain crates that have furniture. I'll try to find some links to this stuff and throw it in the description later tonight when I get home.
I just added some links to some of the stuff. I think Hero Quest is out of print, though. You might check on eBay, though I have a feeling it won't be cheap. For minis, the cheapest route is getting the Legend of Drizzt, Wrath of Ashardalon, etc. board games.
the DM Lair awesome thanks! And I have Hero Quest. I commented on a previous video giving you props for using it for D&D too lol. You make some really good content that I will use in my current campaign for sure.
I don't understand something with the trap maps. Do you just decide where they are on the fly? Cause if you see it metagaming or not you aren't going to send your character towards it for roleplay sake
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▶ What do you do to spice up the combat maps in your games?
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Adding clutter and furniture is a great way to get players to buy into the terrain. They can use the stuff for offensive or defensive purposes: break a chair across an enemy's back, or flip over a table for cover.
Yes! Exactly! I feel it encourages role playing in that regard. And makes fights more interesting.
Totally agree that any extra bits to work with in a map make it more immersive and fun. I like the challenge when the map itself is (also) an opponent.
I'm planning a Video Game based campaign and wanted to spice up the maps. I decided to go with v.g. cliches that the players will immediately recognize: suspicious red barrels, glowing arrows in the road, floating platforms, bottomless pits (not an insta-kill, as it is a v.g. setting, just minor damage), spiked floors, etc.
A blank room I made ominous that the npc guiding them was like "other PCs have been here..."
So fun story my D&D group plays in a classroom during lunch and we just use the whiteboard (there’s like 10 of us) and we just draw onto the whiteboard and that has probably saved us both so much money and convenience since we can put whatever without putting us all around a table to see and saving at least a bit of money on grids plus not having to get minis (not entirely necessary but stand out well) since it’s quick to draw and change and colour coding is so fun
Although it isn’t as cool as grids
Some excellent stuff there.
It's all well and good giving folk topical advice, but when backed up with some hard examples like these it really brings it home
A lot more helpful and really look forward to more videos like these.
This video helped me a lot with something I've been disappointed with about Wave Echo Cave in Lost Mines of Phandelver. I've been running this part of the campaign and I once I looked through this section I was immediately disappointed with how the "forge" that was supposed to be so important was just... a forge... Then your beholder encounter gave me the inspiration to run the encounter for the Spectator this way and put in flavor that the chamber was designed this way to channel magical energy into an item being forged in the middle. Now the chamber where the Spectator is placed will be like your Beholder encounter and the room with the big bellows will instead be an area where they separated magical ore from the other ores they dig up.
Awesome! Happy I could help!
Great video!
Personally I like the idea of clutter, cover, concealment that can be penetrated, potential collateral damage (civilians, indigenous creatures, cattle), hazards like slick surfaces or flimsy structures, narrow/cramped areas that limit or effect which weapons you can use, and friendly fire.
I usually keep the combat straight forward, but I love to add environmental hazards life pits, cave ins, or even random traps in the same room as the battle. It adds a tense feeling to it because you never know whats going to happen next.
Yeah, agreed. Have you ever caught your players in an oh crap moment when the circumstances of the encounter changed (trap, etc.)? 😈
@@theDMLair They were once engaged in battle with a target when a player ran over an area designated as weak ground. He failed his Dex save and ended up skewered on stalagmites in the pit. The party was then trying to fight the enemy and his forces, while getting down to the party member to save him. It got really tense for a bit.
Oh that's awesome. Lol. I love that surprise crap in the middle of combat. 😈
I have a bunch of graph paper with 1" squares and some are filled in haphazardly for stone walls and pillars
The dungeon is a random layout of these tiles that shift around, especially when one of many sconces on the walls are touched
It's a plane called the Vague and the encounters are other creatures who have either wandered in and gotten lost or traveling groups of orcs and such who are also using the Vague to travel quickly
It is fun using stuff you find in the room. I had a warlock that got charged by a bugbear. I doged him and he broke the table. When he got up I used the table as a shield for a +2 ac
I needed this inspiration here for how to make combat encounters you are the and the master of the world so use it to its fullest potential to be something they will not forget even the starter set knew this fact as well.
I have to say seeing the old Heroquest doors being used for terrain makes me really happy
I recently ran an encounter in ruins with loads of cover against seven star spawn manglers, technically it was a very deadly encounter but I considered it only hard due to the situation, the players all had access to flight, I gave the manglers a 40 foot jumping distance and modified the statblock to where they could only use their flurry ability 1/day instead of recharge on 4-6. With the idea that they would flee into total cover if the players didn't descend into reach, the players had a blast going from pillar to pillar and pushing manglers off of stone pillars 60 feet in the air. (Or just casting shatter on the pillars)
The other thing that forced the players to descend was to try to prevent the manglers from warning the dungeon proper. They didn't take much in the way of damage but expended quite a bit of resources to keep the rest of the dungeon from becoming active.
when the people were I cocoons, my players would totally fireball it anyway
This was one of my favorite videos. Thank you for sharing all these! Typically everyone talks in generalizations. Seeing real examples was awesome
This is such a great video! So much cool ideas, the cocoons, the fog, but my favorite was the giant with the door shields
Thanks! 😀
Other suggestions: maps that move around, destructible maps (like in Mortal Kombat), maps designed for stealth fighting scenarios, maps that force movement, 3D free-fall combat maps
Interesting. How would you set up a map that forces stealth fighting?
@@theDMLair that would be easy, guards next to alarms, maps that have some doors open, using moving/roaming enemies that follow a path. Incorporating sound triggers or view triggers using the stealth rolls into your dungeon.
So eg, long corridor with items or pillars that break line of site, broken window on one side of the hallway where guards are routinely moving up and down outside with a bell alarm in the middle of the hallway guarded by someone/something facing away from the party. Just an idea...
Maybe some kind of fight at a formal event. Daggers and small arms only. Some narrative consequence to being violent in sight of guests. Try to leave bodies in inconspicuous places.
@@heyitsMattyP exactly, there's loads of way to incorporate stealth in battlemaps.
Awesome ideas!
(That will be stolen by an unscrupulous DM, I assure you.)
Good advice! I'll try this.
This video should be called “giving your players the shaft”
Very useful, thanks!
No problem! 👊
Thanks i going to steal the combat pit trap that i a great ideal!
Steal away! I get half of the credit for any PC deaths it may cause though! 😀
@@theDMLair You sir have a deal!
Blood pact done! 😈
I thank you for giving this warlock the power of the DM patron!
Don't thank me yet.
Power has its price...
I still use the old map that we used when playing AD&D or 3/3.5e, what type of map are you using?
I made a digital version of your beholder encounter and I posted it on your discord. I included this video's name so maybe people can search for it if that's how discord works. I made it since I really want to use it in my campaign and I posted it there since its your idea and that way other people can also use it if they like. :)
I ran this yesterday (Lost Mines of Phandelver spoilers) with the Spectator encounter in the Wave Echo Cave and it was the most fun I've had in d&d yet! I gave the Spectator 80 hit points, a few legendary actions and 40 foot fly speed. There was 5 player characters, a summoned skeleton and a wolf animal companion (which obviously couldn't do anything).
The Spectator flew around trying to avoid the characters while getting them with eye blasts but the characters eventually cornered it in the very highest elevation area with a few outside the center area. It finally downed one character and used a legendary action to paralyze the other and tried to fly away. A fighter happened to be standing in the way which was unavoidable and got to use an damage opportunity attack as it was flying overhead then finally died next turn to an ice knife spell and an arrow from the skeleton. The Spectator got to use several of it's special reaction which I described as catching the spell in its mouth and spitting it back out at them. The first turn the wizard almost died from his own catapult spell with a rock hitting him strait in the face lol.
Unfortunately the encounter wasn't as deadly as it could be because I was rolling randomly for which eye rays it was using. I thought that would be fun but I never rolled for the damaging eye ray which deals some auto damage. Once I remembered that then it was on but the characters had lots of places to hide and heal and made it so it was hard for the cleric to reach people with the healing word spell. I used the text option or edited the token name on roll20 to put in what elevation the characters and monster was at so everybody could keep track of what was going on.
Anyway, again thanks for the video! :)
The first two maps just seem like they'd be unfun for my wolf totem barbarian. Really cool ideas but would suck to play a melee primary character.
How do you introduce the FOV to player? Do you draw meanwhile playing?
i do exactly that but because of that my players look at every table every cupboard and under every stone thats on the map and want to chack on that and its soooooexhausting
Question: where did you find that board and the how much
I bought it at a convention, but I know it's on Amazon. I'll get you a link later today when I'm off work. 😀
I just added a link to it in the description. It's $32 on Amazon. Good quality. I've used mine every week for 2 years and only now is some of the dry erase marker beginning to not erase completely. But still quite useable.
Thank you so much for asking I was gonna, these are perfect for what i need
where do I buy these puzzle like whiteboards??? I surely need one now.
How did you make it work mechanically where they could get hurt by the spiked change? Acrobatics?
How do you make several maps for your players if they have multiple options(Curse of strahd) and hide them from the players
FUN Ideas
do you always have to use fog of war or only for certain things?
I try to use it all times for realism.
I have one question since I’m new to drawing in DND. Since I have more then one encounter in a session, do I have to draw in the middle of a session so that my characters can get on with a fight?
Where do you get your terrain minis like that tree?
Lots of the furniture terrain came from Hero's Quest. The tree was from a plastic toy set from Amazon. There are also terrain crates that have furniture. I'll try to find some links to this stuff and throw it in the description later tonight when I get home.
the DM Lair that would be great! Thanks! Keep up the great work
I just added some links to some of the stuff. I think Hero Quest is out of print, though. You might check on eBay, though I have a feeling it won't be cheap. For minis, the cheapest route is getting the Legend of Drizzt, Wrath of Ashardalon, etc. board games.
the DM Lair awesome thanks! And I have Hero Quest. I commented on a previous video giving you props for using it for D&D too lol. You make some really good content that I will use in my current campaign for sure.
Awesome! Glad you're finding the content useful. Yeah, Hero Quest is awesome. 😀
Do you predraw these maps? Or are you just very quick about it?
I always predraw them on gragh paper. Sometimes I predraw them on the grid. But Most of the time I draw them in the grid at the table.
I don't understand something with the trap maps. Do you just decide where they are on the fly? Cause if you see it metagaming or not you aren't going to send your character towards it for roleplay sake
I think small non-obvious markings would work, like a copper coin on each trap, the monsters will know not to pick it up.
👍👍
... SHAFT
He's a bad mother- Shutcho mouth!
SHAFT! LOL!
Heh heheh “shaft”
Holy this guys face needs to chill
👍👍