Thanks guys. I am just getting back into playing (after 32 years) and this will be the first time that I will be the DM. I hope to keep it interesting.
I had this encounter planned that I thought would be fun: the party is guarding a stagecoach as it travels to the nearby town. Two of them ride on the stagecoach, two others ride alongside on mounts, and one hold the back with his own donkey-drawn cart. They are ambushed by orcish worg riders. My idea was to have the encounter be a moving encounter, a la Old West stagecoach robberies. Unfortunately, my party just stopped the stagecoach to fight the orcs on a static playing field. Now I'm thinking of revisiting the set up but have the party heading into the safety of a walled city and overwhelming enemies are nipping at their heels, forcing them to be on-the-move for the encounter.
The one thing I didn't think about until I watched this video, probably because I still have that AD&D/3rd addition mindset, is the new Advantage/Disadvantage system they introduced for 5e, which I think is designed to make combat more tactical and descriptive. So, in your question of if you have a guy that has a sword in one hand and a torch in the other why would he ever Attack with the torch? Maybe whacking the monster in the face with a torch, even though it does less damage, will force the monster back and cause all of its attacks against you to be at disadvantage that round.
Gregory Floriolli 2 sides of the coin here. If you fight with two weapons you can use your bonus action to use the second weapon to make an attack with your off hand. So you can still whack someone with a torch. Secondly yes you can use flavor and description to say why it is more useful to attack with the torch. Let the DM interpret as he may.Nerdarchist Ted
Awe, chandeliers. Had a player would had an acrobatic monk. He would use the terrain like a Bawss. In this abandoned castle, they were being observed by a mimic. It decided to assume the guise of a chandelier in a dinning hall. Sure enough, the monk jumps onto a table, then jumps and swings from the chandelier... and then can't let go! As he looks up, it begins to morph and begins to devour him! Mimic got pawned in the end, but the monk lost his hand!
As one such way to make combat different and interesting, I'm contemplating letting players their reaction to have an action outside of their turn. Example: DM: The orc lunges at you with a downward chop of his blade. Player: I use my reaction drop my sword and step into the swing, attempting to grab either his wrists or the sword hilt to block the attack and disarm him.
***** Nice concept, That would make combat more complex and possible be more heroic. If I were to allow that though there would have to be some stern penalties if they fail to over come the orc in your example.Nerdarchist Ted
Nerdarchy well, like any action, there's the possibility of failure and disaster. To be frank though, I wouldn't be too harsh on a player for describing such an action. Otherwise, players are likely to avoid flavor and simply state "I spend my reaction to use my attack action. Since I can attack twice, I replace the first attack with a grapple attempt, the second with a disarm attempt" ... Far less flavorful Also, while it seems a dangerous maneuver, the truth is that stepping into an attack is far safer then one might think. Many Jujitsu and Aikido techniques begin exactly that way. It's easy to step forward and grasp the opponent's wrists or forearms. Maintaining a grip and/or a proper stance, using the right footwork, or displacement, and disarming the orc is another matter. I'd basically require a grapple check and if successful, a pc with extra attack could then immediately attempt a disarm check as the second attack. I'd only describe failure thematically like so: *Failed grapple* _You step forward and grab his wrists, but the orc quickly pulls free from your grasp and steps away._ *Successful grapple, failed disarm* _As you grab his arms and pull him in, you try to wrench his weapon loose from his hands, but he holds firm._ However, in any such case, I wouldn't hesitate to use the orc's reaction for the round immediately. _As the orc pulls free from your hold, he lurches forward suddenly and attempts to shove you to the ground._
Nerdarchy Honestly though, my concern is more about what sort of actions to allow. I'd want a simple rule for it. In my previous examples I'm assuming any action a player can normally make is allowed, as long as it's a suitable reaction for the triggering reaction. Simply saying, I use my reaction to attack him just because isn't a good reason, but how do I enforce this with a simple rule? Now that's the tricky part.
***** My main concern would be in making combats long and confusing especially with everyone going out of order every round. It's also important to remember even though thee game is turned based that isn't really what's happening. People often confuse combat mechanics and story combat. For instance just because you swing your weapon once doesn't mean you are only attacking one time in a round. So your orc example could easily take place during the characters turn using the same exact description. All that being said they aren't bad ideas. -Nerdarchist Dave
I inserted a few Skill Challenges into 3.5s Age-of-Worms-AP and my players loved it - especially when they had to fight a VERY powerful Titan and they could amuse him with jokes, feats of strength or whatever... and if they were successful, the Titan would roar with laughter and they would have a pause to heal, buff and such. And once we had a whole combat with players and villains making "yo momma"-jokes to demoralize their enemies during the fight, kinda like Monkey Island insult swordfighting (that was a REALLY stupid adventure). Skill Challenges work well in combat.
I've recently gotten to play my first session of D&D. It was pretty straight forward. Town's here, Goblins are over there, go take care of them before they get a bigger pain in the ass. It started pretty simple. Go over, hit 'em with my Halberd. By the time I got to the last one though, I didn't want to just swing at it with my 1d10+3 Halberd. I wanted something a little different. Party member had softened it up some already, so I described my guy running up to the last Goblin, doing a somersault, and bringing his tail down onto it's head. I ended up killing it with that, and because the tip of my tail was on fire, I also set the goblin's dirty, greasy clothes ablaze. Then, as it lay screaming in pain from the fire, I described my character stabbing it through the chest to end it's misery. Sure, we wound up being unable to bring back it's armor for selling to the leatherworker for materials, but we had fun with the combat!
Hey guys, another great video. I would love to hear your take on the Feywild and its courts. I am looking for inspiration for my campaign in which I plan to use the Feywild.
Test3891 We actually did a video where we talked about an elven forest and touched on the fey wild. I will see if we can expand on that concept.Nerdarchist Ted
Yea Saturday I was running my custom world game, and the players were chasing a child that was kidnapped thinking it was a werewolf but finding out it was an escaped asylum inmate that was possessed by a Cambion, and she made her way into a dilapidated church so the Cambion stepped out of the woman and flew into the rafters. The party taunted it (Bards) and eventually ranged attacked it enough into it having to go melee and then having to escape. The whole combat the party and Cambion were trash talking. It was fun :) Good Stuff guys!
We use a dice which has different body parts on it for certain attacks like crits or major damage. I usually try to describe the wound as well based on the weapon used.
Actually I am being a DM as of recently. For my first session I had my first 2 players (out of 6) start in a well furnished room with them in fine clothes and wielding shortswords. But the twist was that the King was dead at their feet. So for the first part of the scenario was them trying to leave a high-level area undected. They did screw up quite abit, one nearly died (3 successes and 2 fails), and when they got outside I gave them a sort of maze with guards scattered all across it. Afterwords they moved to a town and had to RP for abit. So my point to bring across is that it doesn't even require combat or anything but a puzzle or high-level enemy area that you must get through is extremely exciting aswell.
If the player asks for a thing, I say don't just give to them make them roll for it and depending on how high or low the roll is have that influence how useful that thing is. Roll a 1, there's a rack for barrels but they where shipped out this morning. Roll a 10, 3 empty barrels are there but when you spilt the peg nothing happens. Roll a 20, The barrels collide down covering the orcs in flamable oils and deal 2d4 to each orc, and then on the next turn you can set them on fire or. if they have a torch out already possible have them accidentally ignite the oil as it falls on them.
+JD McDonnell So, they all try to pull the sword, and they all fail. THEN, on the way back through a few days later, the sword is gone. Now, they have to figure out who pulled it, and what are their intentions.
Or, a fun thing I would do, one of them pulls the sword out, and the sword sucks balls. They have to take a will check, if they pass, it's a crappy, blunt, unbalanced sword. If they fail, it's the most amazing sword ever, and nothing the other players do can convince them otherwise. I like introducing useless magical weapons. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
First of all, thanks for the ton of information and videos. You guys are awesome :) Second and this may have been answered in the video but I'm not done with it yet.. it seems to me that 3d maps and similar setups provide a more in depth look at combat and the game in general. I'm old school, have played the red box, 2nd, 3rd, 3.5 and now 5th edition. So I'm used to the imagination or home drawn maps. I'm starting to toss around ideas for starting on my craft game, building rooms and such with foam, similar to that of Drunkens and Dragons here on youtube. Have you guys ever used something similar to help draw the players in with visual aides?
We use minis all the time. If for nothing else as quick references during combat. Glad you are enjoying all the content perhaps you'll consider donating to our patreon. Even $1/month helps- www.patreon.com/nerdarchy?u=314277 -Nerdarchist Dave
Going to play my first ever Rogue pretty soon. Looking to utilize my environment as much as possible for the advantage of the party, because dropping a chandelier on people is often better than Sneak Attack. Thanks for doing this video, gave me tons of ideas! Keep up the good work!
The game does move faster and is more interesting when there is "flavor text" that describes the shot or swing, the reaction of the monster to the hit.
Great advice on all accounts....I've used them all even to the point of casually acting out the blows landed or missed (I usually GM standing up). Something else to consider if the combat and players allow is letting them run the monsters to a certain extent- Attack Rolls, Saves, Battle Movement, etc. Obviously the GM has ultimate control and can take the reigns whenever he/she wants too but it adds and extra sense of danger because the rolls won't then be a...shall we say, suggestion AND the players get to be the "bad guys".
As I was DM, once a PC was unarmed and had to defense himself with the bottom side of a chair. He cold actually trap the enemy with the chair legs on a wall (Strenght) and than kill him with a dagger from his boots. In the same campaign, 2 PC's were facing some enemies. They decided quick to use a rope between them, so in any case, the 2 enemy NPC's had later to make some check (Dextery) for not falling over this rope. One NPC falled down and was killed by PC's better THAC0 Greetings
Another interesting one, since I use a d10 system where you roll for a specific difficulty or higher ( from 2-10) i tend to give exploding 10s( roll another dice for more successes!) for things that are described in a cool manner. The combat in my system is incredibly basic. Roll dexterity+weaponskill vs 6+modifiers like range or sight = hit successes if there is at least one hit success you roll weapon damage (which is strength factors into for melee weapons) + hit successes -1 (for hitting) for pretty much every kind of attack so having 1/9 more dice can be noticeable, especially since you can crit for absurd values (more unlikely than nat20) So my players usually try to surround and employ some tactics to get the difficulty of other attacks down (vs prone enemies) and do a good job describing what they are doing and are even getting up to show their moves and i try to be as descriptive as possible telling them where and how they hit. Also most of combats in my campaigns are against named characters (last one was an unnamed headhunter with the power of out of combat invisibility) or otherwise important characters so there are pretty much no mooks. And every combat feels extremely important and tense. (i dont let playercharacters die if i ambush them but being bested still has far reaching consequences and if they chose the fight everything goes)
that was good, what we had was a field of different mushrooms in a wet cave... and the players had to be quiet (for what reason what so ever) and some lizards to fight (which were very mobile and climb the wall and roof). what the players didnt know was that all these various shrooms had a special effect. like the white ones explode and poisen all adjacent or the yellow ones startet screaming, and the green ones splash goo all around and make difficult terrain.
Of all the countless stories told around a cave fire, dinner table, in a long house, written on paper or performed a stage, the players/characters/stars have mostly been humans. This has entertained us for eons because of the drama and depth of the protagonists and antagonists. So why is it too often that we find flat and flavourous beasties at the D&D Table? Never should it just be just a Kobold. Give them something interesting. Give them culture. Give them traditions, dress, and attitude. Don't just stick to the tropes given in a MM. Make them your own or copy someone with imagination, Search for Tucker's Kobolds as a start. Watch Matt Click's video on Ankle Biters. Give an encounter with a group a Kobolds a sense of Discovery. Why are these black scaled kobolds always using those unique tactics?
So the DM isn't required by standard rules to describe how your character kills something? Only reason I'm asking is because I can see the DM wanting to set up a scenario by having a creature die in a certain way, but as a player I'd like to do that too lol. Maybe I want to cut off its head and throw it at something?
I have one character who's a pacifist, and refuses to kill (I'm allowing that character to deal non-lethal damage if they want), so combat should always be fun, seeing how that character goes about doing that, especially with things like zombies (In my homebrew, zombies are basically, dead bodies animate by a spirit. When spirits are 'killed' they don't die, the return to their own dimension and regenerate over time), or other things that are technically not alive. It will also be fun to see if I can ever make them kill someone. I'm going to start off the campaign with the character's getting a Tarot reading, to hint at things in the future, and the pacifist is going to have some hinting at their belief being tested. another character was a noble, who was framed for a crime, and banished, so their having heavy hinting at hidden schemes. And the 3rd character, an NPC is a were-wolf, but they keep it hidden, because of how people have reacted to that in the past, and his Tarots will have some heavy wolf imagery. (The Tarot cards in my world are psycho-reactive, so the images on them change depending on what it means, and who's being read)
Moving combat and changing environments. GM's, have the wagon master bolt the horses so the brigands have to give chase... the party tactics change dramatically when in motion. Have the monster they are fighting run away and into a cave... perhaps into other dangers. Changing environment forces a change in tactics. If the combat seems boring to you or the players, add a monkey wrench... an innocent getting in the way or allies of the monster showing up. Have the monster they are fighting be prey for a larger encounter. Or a decoy, perhaps a person polymorphed into the expected monster.
I want battles to be more realistic in my homebrew. So fighting something like a giant, or a dragon, is going to be extremely difficult. It doesn't matter how tough you are, if you get slapped by something 3 stories tall, you're going to go flying and die. I made giants do random things in combat. So every turn they might just try to jump on the players (and fall over if it fails a dex check), try and hit them with it's club, or just try to pick them up, and stuff them in a bag. Fortunately, Giants are not smart, and are normally not hostile unless hungry, so they can avoid them, unless they are actively seeking them out.
Good topic! As a bow wielding Ranger, describing my killing blows usually tend to sound the same. What are some good death by arrow examples you can think of?
I would say if the foe has a magicel orb or something you could shoot right into it and it explodes or smth similar. Or hat also is fun if you use hit and run you could slide under the enemy and fire an arrow in thier had. Also 360 no scope on a critical hit (it could become your signiture move) thats always cool
Eturian You could pin the target to a tree or wall, Shoot them in the eye, in the open mouth while he lets out a battle cry. You can for descriptive purposes say you launch a few arrows at speed and sink them all into his torso turning him into a pin cushion. Shoot the weapon out of his hand along with the arrow going through the hand. As he drops to the ground in pain you walk up and slit his throat. You can combine any of these ideas together to get more out of your "killing blow"Nerdarchist Ted
Here's one of sr2joker's vids that ties to this subject: ruclips.net/video/l5RrsqoxiSs/видео.html *EDIT:* Here's another good vid from sr2joker that exemplifies RPing combat and making it interesting ruclips.net/video/m2EFcjfGc7M/видео.html
Thanks guys. I am just getting back into playing (after 32 years) and this will be the first time that I will be the DM. I hope to keep it interesting.
I had this encounter planned that I thought would be fun: the party is guarding a stagecoach as it travels to the nearby town. Two of them ride on the stagecoach, two others ride alongside on mounts, and one hold the back with his own donkey-drawn cart. They are ambushed by orcish worg riders.
My idea was to have the encounter be a moving encounter, a la Old West stagecoach robberies. Unfortunately, my party just stopped the stagecoach to fight the orcs on a static playing field. Now I'm thinking of revisiting the set up but have the party heading into the safety of a walled city and overwhelming enemies are nipping at their heels, forcing them to be on-the-move for the encounter.
Every gaming experience is a chance for us to learn.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Rewatching this and about to go to bed.. Really Dave? Kobold Clowns in an undead circus? Sweet dreams...
The one thing I didn't think about until I watched this video, probably because I still have that AD&D/3rd addition mindset, is the new Advantage/Disadvantage system they introduced for 5e, which I think is designed to make combat more tactical and descriptive. So, in your question of if you have a guy that has a sword in one hand and a torch in the other why would he ever Attack with the torch? Maybe whacking the monster in the face with a torch, even though it does less damage, will force the monster back and cause all of its attacks against you to be at disadvantage that round.
Yep, you go it. The Adv/.DisAdv. System is definitely there to mechanize fluff and niche situational stuff.
Gregory Floriolli 2 sides of the coin here. If you fight with two weapons you can use your bonus action to use the second weapon to make an attack with your off hand. So you can still whack someone with a torch. Secondly yes you can use flavor and description to say why it is more useful to attack with the torch. Let the DM interpret as he may.Nerdarchist Ted
Awe, chandeliers. Had a player would had an acrobatic monk. He would use the terrain like a Bawss. In this abandoned castle, they were being observed by a mimic. It decided to assume the guise of a chandelier in a dinning hall. Sure enough, the monk jumps onto a table, then jumps and swings from the chandelier... and then can't let go!
As he looks up, it begins to morph and begins to devour him! Mimic got pawned in the end, but the monk lost his hand!
Ouch on both accounts. Time for some monk with the iron fist action.
-Nerdarchist Dave
As one such way to make combat different and interesting, I'm contemplating letting players their reaction to have an action outside of their turn. Example:
DM: The orc lunges at you with a downward chop of his blade.
Player: I use my reaction drop my sword and step into the swing, attempting to grab either his wrists or the sword hilt to block the attack and disarm him.
***** Nice concept, That would make combat more complex and possible be more heroic. If I were to allow that though there would have to be some stern penalties if they fail to over come the orc in your example.Nerdarchist Ted
Nerdarchy well, like any action, there's the possibility of failure and disaster. To be frank though, I wouldn't be too harsh on a player for describing such an action. Otherwise, players are likely to avoid flavor and simply state "I spend my reaction to use my attack action. Since I can attack twice, I replace the first attack with a grapple attempt, the second with a disarm attempt" ... Far less flavorful
Also, while it seems a dangerous maneuver, the truth is that stepping into an attack is far safer then one might think. Many Jujitsu and Aikido techniques begin exactly that way.
It's easy to step forward and grasp the opponent's wrists or forearms. Maintaining a grip and/or a proper stance, using the right footwork, or displacement, and disarming the orc is another matter.
I'd basically require a grapple check and if successful, a pc with extra attack could then immediately attempt a disarm check as the second attack.
I'd only describe failure thematically like so:
*Failed grapple* _You step forward and grab his wrists, but the orc quickly pulls free from your grasp and steps away._
*Successful grapple, failed disarm* _As you grab his arms and pull him in, you try to wrench his weapon loose from his hands, but he holds firm._
However, in any such case, I wouldn't hesitate to use the orc's reaction for the round immediately.
_As the orc pulls free from your hold, he lurches forward suddenly and attempts to shove you to the ground._
Nerdarchy Honestly though, my concern is more about what sort of actions to allow. I'd want a simple rule for it.
In my previous examples I'm assuming any action a player can normally make is allowed, as long as it's a suitable reaction for the triggering reaction.
Simply saying, I use my reaction to attack him just because isn't a good reason, but how do I enforce this with a simple rule? Now that's the tricky part.
*****
My main concern would be in making combats long and confusing especially with everyone going out of order every round. It's also important to remember even though thee game is turned based that isn't really what's happening. People often confuse combat mechanics and story combat. For instance just because you swing your weapon once doesn't mean you are only attacking one time in a round. So your orc example could easily take place during the characters turn using the same exact description. All that being said they aren't bad ideas.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I inserted a few Skill Challenges into 3.5s Age-of-Worms-AP and my players loved it - especially when they had to fight a VERY powerful Titan and they could amuse him with jokes, feats of strength or whatever... and if they were successful, the Titan would roar with laughter and they would have a pause to heal, buff and such. And once we had a whole combat with players and villains making "yo momma"-jokes to demoralize their enemies during the fight, kinda like Monkey Island insult swordfighting (that was a REALLY stupid adventure). Skill Challenges work well in combat.
Vigilluminatus That is a great idea. Thanks for sharing. Nerdarchist Ted
An Un-Dead Circus! that is sick . . . I LOVE IT!
yeah I thought it was one of my more interesting ideas.
- Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy
you would have to be a sicko to go to see an un-dead circus but it would be interesting . . . i would go LOL
I love having players describing their kills and attacks. also allows the DM to work off the players intentions for critical successes and failures
I've recently gotten to play my first session of D&D.
It was pretty straight forward. Town's here, Goblins are over there, go take care of them before they get a bigger pain in the ass.
It started pretty simple. Go over, hit 'em with my Halberd. By the time I got to the last one though, I didn't want to just swing at it with my 1d10+3 Halberd. I wanted something a little different.
Party member had softened it up some already, so I described my guy running up to the last Goblin, doing a somersault, and bringing his tail down onto it's head. I ended up killing it with that, and because the tip of my tail was on fire, I also set the goblin's dirty, greasy clothes ablaze. Then, as it lay screaming in pain from the fire, I described my character stabbing it through the chest to end it's misery.
Sure, we wound up being unable to bring back it's armor for selling to the leatherworker for materials, but we had fun with the combat!
Hey guys, another great video. I would love to hear your take on the Feywild and its courts. I am looking for inspiration for my campaign in which I plan to use the Feywild.
Test3891 We actually did a video where we talked about an elven forest and touched on the fey wild. I will see if we can expand on that concept.Nerdarchist Ted
Nerdarchy Thanks Ted I will dig around for that video you referred to.
Test3891 Here is the link: ruclips.net/video/c2jSoRHHm6EN/видео.htmlerdarchist Ted
Yea Saturday I was running my custom world game, and the players were chasing a child that was kidnapped thinking it was a werewolf but finding out it was an escaped asylum inmate that was possessed by a Cambion, and she made her way into a dilapidated church so the Cambion stepped out of the woman and flew into the rafters. The party taunted it (Bards) and eventually ranged attacked it enough into it having to go melee and then having to escape. The whole combat the party and Cambion were trash talking. It was fun :) Good Stuff guys!
Art Wood I love adding RP into combat. It helps dilute the round to round issues.Nerdarchist Ted
We use a dice which has different body parts on it for certain attacks like crits or major damage. I usually try to describe the wound as well based on the weapon used.
Actually I am being a DM as of recently. For my first session I had my first 2 players (out of 6) start in a well furnished room with them in fine clothes and wielding shortswords. But the twist was that the King was dead at their feet. So for the first part of the scenario was them trying to leave a high-level area undected. They did screw up quite abit, one nearly died (3 successes and 2 fails), and when they got outside I gave them a sort of maze with guards scattered all across it. Afterwords they moved to a town and had to RP for abit. So my point to bring across is that it doesn't even require combat or anything but a puzzle or high-level enemy area that you must get through is extremely exciting aswell.
If the player asks for a thing, I say don't just give to them make them roll for it and depending on how high or low the roll is have that influence how useful that thing is.
Roll a 1, there's a rack for barrels but they where shipped out this morning.
Roll a 10, 3 empty barrels are there but when you spilt the peg nothing happens.
Roll a 20, The barrels collide down covering the orcs in flamable oils and deal 2d4 to each orc, and then on the next turn you can set them on fire or. if they have a torch out already possible have them accidentally ignite the oil as it falls on them.
one of my worst d&d games I threw a keg of ail at my enemy and lit him on fire. but the dm didn't do anything about it
Gideon Cohair Well to be fair, it's not like beer is even flammable. Alcohol content is way too low.
Excalibur in the forest?
Hell yeah!!!
now the ability to pull the sword from the stone - entirely different matter.
+JD McDonnell So, they all try to pull the sword, and they all fail. THEN, on the way back through a few days later, the sword is gone.
Now, they have to figure out who pulled it, and what are their intentions.
+Richard Lorenz Excellent!
Or, a fun thing I would do, one of them pulls the sword out, and the sword sucks balls. They have to take a will check, if they pass, it's a crappy, blunt, unbalanced sword. If they fail, it's the most amazing sword ever, and nothing the other players do can convince them otherwise. I like introducing useless magical weapons. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
Well.. if you can't pull the sword from the stone... just take the stone with it!
Excalibur wasn't in the stone, it came from the lady of the lake 😜
First of all, thanks for the ton of information and videos. You guys are awesome :)
Second and this may have been answered in the video but I'm not done with it yet.. it seems to me that 3d maps and similar setups provide a more in depth look at combat and the game in general. I'm old school, have played the red box, 2nd, 3rd, 3.5 and now 5th edition.
So I'm used to the imagination or home drawn maps. I'm starting to toss around ideas for starting on my craft game, building rooms and such with foam, similar to that of Drunkens and Dragons here on youtube. Have you guys ever used something similar to help draw the players in with visual aides?
We use minis all the time. If for nothing else as quick references during combat. Glad you are enjoying all the content perhaps you'll consider donating to our patreon. Even $1/month helps-
www.patreon.com/nerdarchy?u=314277
-Nerdarchist Dave
Going to play my first ever Rogue pretty soon.
Looking to utilize my environment as much as possible for the advantage of the party, because dropping a chandelier on people is often better than Sneak Attack.
Thanks for doing this video, gave me tons of ideas!
Keep up the good work!
Awesome glad you got some milage out of this one. I'd rather see my players get creative than effective it's far more fun that way.
- Nerdarchist Dave
The game does move faster and is more interesting when there is "flavor text" that describes the shot or swing, the reaction of the monster to the hit.
Great advice on all accounts....I've used them all even to the point of casually acting out the blows landed or missed (I usually GM standing up). Something else to consider if the combat and players allow is letting them run the monsters to a certain extent- Attack Rolls, Saves, Battle Movement, etc. Obviously the GM has ultimate control and can take the reigns whenever he/she wants too but it adds and extra sense of danger because the rolls won't then be a...shall we say, suggestion AND the players get to be the "bad guys".
As I was DM, once a PC was unarmed and had to defense himself with the bottom side of a chair.
He cold actually trap the enemy with the chair legs on a wall (Strenght) and than kill him with a dagger from his boots.
In the same campaign, 2 PC's were facing some enemies. They decided quick to use a rope between them, so in any case, the 2 enemy NPC's had later to make some check (Dextery) for not falling over this rope.
One NPC falled down and was killed by PC's better THAC0
Greetings
Another interesting one, since I use a d10 system where you roll for a specific difficulty or higher ( from 2-10) i tend to give exploding 10s( roll another dice for more successes!) for things that are described in a cool manner. The combat in my system is incredibly basic. Roll dexterity+weaponskill vs 6+modifiers like range or sight = hit successes if there is at least one hit success you roll weapon damage (which is strength factors into for melee weapons) + hit successes -1 (for hitting) for pretty much every kind of attack so having 1/9 more dice can be noticeable, especially since you can crit for absurd values (more unlikely than nat20)
So my players usually try to surround and employ some tactics to get the difficulty of other attacks down (vs prone enemies) and do a good job describing what they are doing and are even getting up to show their moves and i try to be as descriptive as possible telling them where and how they hit.
Also most of combats in my campaigns are against named characters (last one was an unnamed headhunter with the power of out of combat invisibility) or otherwise important characters so there are pretty much no mooks. And every combat feels extremely important and tense. (i dont let playercharacters die if i ambush them but being bested still has far reaching consequences and if they chose the fight everything goes)
that was good,
what we had was a field of different mushrooms in a wet cave... and the players had to be quiet (for what reason what so ever) and some lizards to fight (which were very mobile and climb the wall and roof). what the players didnt know was that all these various shrooms had a special effect. like the white ones explode and poisen all adjacent or the yellow ones startet screaming, and the green ones splash goo all around and make difficult terrain.
Kematen2013 Sounds like a blast. Did the party survive?Nerdarchist Ted
Nerdarchy yeah they did ... and after that they made a stew out of some of the shrooms ^^
Of all the countless stories told around a cave fire, dinner table, in a long house, written on paper or performed a stage, the players/characters/stars have mostly been humans. This has entertained us for eons because of the drama and depth of the protagonists and antagonists. So why is it too often that we find flat and flavourous beasties at the D&D Table? Never should it just be just a Kobold. Give them something interesting. Give them culture. Give them traditions, dress, and attitude. Don't just stick to the tropes given in a MM. Make them your own or copy someone with imagination, Search for Tucker's Kobolds as a start. Watch Matt Click's video on Ankle Biters. Give an encounter with a group a Kobolds a sense of Discovery. Why are these black scaled kobolds always using those unique tactics?
Good points. Breath life into your worlds fellow Dms.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Love the Undead Circus idea!
Bond Fan Dave is good for that creepy stuff ~Nate the Nerdarch
My dm is awesome we just started a new campaign where its a huge invasion on neverwinter and we had air ships drop us into the battle
jeremy dorn That does sound awesome ~Nate the Nerdarch
Good advice. Thanks...
llent once again. Some good ideas in there.
Glad you enjoyed it.
-Nerdarchist Dave
So the DM isn't required by standard rules to describe how your character kills something? Only reason I'm asking is because I can see the DM wanting to set up a scenario by having a creature die in a certain way, but as a player I'd like to do that too lol. Maybe I want to cut off its head and throw it at something?
the title is misspelled I think. "how to keeping fighting"
I have one character who's a pacifist, and refuses to kill (I'm allowing that character to deal non-lethal damage if they want), so combat should always be fun, seeing how that character goes about doing that, especially with things like zombies (In my homebrew, zombies are basically, dead bodies animate by a spirit. When spirits are 'killed' they don't die, the return to their own dimension and regenerate over time), or other things that are technically not alive. It will also be fun to see if I can ever make them kill someone. I'm going to start off the campaign with the character's getting a Tarot reading, to hint at things in the future, and the pacifist is going to have some hinting at their belief being tested. another character was a noble, who was framed for a crime, and banished, so their having heavy hinting at hidden schemes. And the 3rd character, an NPC is a were-wolf, but they keep it hidden, because of how people have reacted to that in the past, and his Tarots will have some heavy wolf imagery. (The Tarot cards in my world are psycho-reactive, so the images on them change depending on what it means, and who's being read)
Moving combat and changing environments.
GM's, have the wagon master bolt the horses so the brigands have to give chase... the party tactics change dramatically when in motion.
Have the monster they are fighting run away and into a cave... perhaps into other dangers. Changing environment forces a change in tactics.
If the combat seems boring to you or the players, add a monkey wrench... an innocent getting in the way or allies of the monster showing up.
Have the monster they are fighting be prey for a larger encounter. Or a decoy, perhaps a person polymorphed into the expected monster.
I want battles to be more realistic in my homebrew. So fighting something like a giant, or a dragon, is going to be extremely difficult. It doesn't matter how tough you are, if you get slapped by something 3 stories tall, you're going to go flying and die. I made giants do random things in combat. So every turn they might just try to jump on the players (and fall over if it fails a dex check), try and hit them with it's club, or just try to pick them up, and stuff them in a bag. Fortunately, Giants are not smart, and are normally not hostile unless hungry, so they can avoid them, unless they are actively seeking them out.
Good topic! As a bow wielding Ranger, describing my killing blows usually tend to sound the same. What are some good death by arrow examples you can think of?
I would say if the foe has a magicel orb or something you could shoot right into it and it explodes or smth similar. Or hat also is fun if you use hit and run you could slide under the enemy and fire an arrow in thier had. Also 360 no scope on a critical hit (it could become your signiture move) thats always cool
Kematen2013 Love it looks like I just need to think of my characters situation. Love your response man!
Eturian You could pin the target to a tree or wall, Shoot them in the eye, in the open mouth while he lets out a battle cry. You can for descriptive purposes say you launch a few arrows at speed and sink them all into his torso turning him into a pin cushion. Shoot the weapon out of his hand along with the arrow going through the hand. As he drops to the ground in pain you walk up and slit his throat. You can combine any of these ideas together to get more out of your "killing blow"Nerdarchist Ted
Nerdarchy Love it thanks!
I once slipped that the pretty girl the players were following was a doppelganger :C
Here's one of sr2joker's vids that ties to this subject:
ruclips.net/video/l5RrsqoxiSs/видео.html
*EDIT:* Here's another good vid from sr2joker that exemplifies RPing combat and making it interesting
ruclips.net/video/m2EFcjfGc7M/видео.html
***** Thanks for sharing these. Andrews vids are great.Nerdarchist Ted
I think his name is pronounced energy