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I love how he's still making good content. I can't tell you how much better my life as a father and husband have gotten getting my family into dnd and I used him solely as my north star being a newbie gm.
One of the most fun encounters my PCs faced in D&D 5e (I mostly run my own system which had more variety, but limiting to 5e because of the video) was when they thought they were facing a boss with legendary actions in their very first session, because they were being attacked multiple times per round, instead of all ganging up on a single opponent. It was a cultist, animated armor, flying sword reflavored as a flying axe, and a tamed dark mantle (which I allowed to move the cultist in addition to his own movement). Once they realized they could catch and stop the flying axe from returning to the cultist they had a lot easier time splitting their focus, because the cultist's main outward attack was gone. They were freaking out that I threw a boss at them, and then laughing when they realized the trick and swiftly took down the cultist. Multiple minions working together work great as threats that feel interesting, especially if the party doesn't realize they are multiple.
2 месяца назад
I don't get why this would make the players think it was a boss fight, unless the cultist was wearing the animated armor, and otherwise wielding the flying axe. But if that was the case, then yes it was a boss fight, as you'd stacked multiple creatures abilities effectively onto a single enemy.
They were wearing the animated armor, dark mantle, and holding the flying axe. Each acted on their own separate turn, and they didn't legendary resistance, or legendary actions... but they thought at first that it was a single creature with legendary actions until they separated the axe and saw it was acting on its own and able to be damaged. I had 8 players, so really, the players were able to put it down really quickly, once they realized what the trick was. If they had seen 4 wolves each with pack tactics keeping adjacent to each other, it would have been even more tactical, but obvious, whereas in the manner used, it obfuscated for a couple rounds. Not quite a boss, but it felt like one for a short while.
2 месяца назад
@@mixofreak I get the idea of what you did, and I like it, just saying that IMO, I'd still put that firmly in boss encounter territory. To me, it's not much different that the Power Rangers combining the individual parts to form the megazord robot, all ultimately pieces of the same collective whole.
The Megazord becomes more powerful than them individually working together. As with the four wolves and pack tactics, these four creatures didn't do more than what they could normally do, heck, they didn't even give each other advantage unlike the wolves. However, it gave the appearance of one entity, so they were spreading out attacks instead of dealing with one after the other. They didn't have area of effect spells, but even if they did, they likely wouldn't have thought to use them, since they were sharing a space. In D&D 5e (2014, not 2024, because legendary actions are going away), bosses have three legendary actions, and usually (but not always) a legendary resistance. Because there were four creatures, it *looks* like the cultist had legendary actions, but unless the players were in melee, the dark mantle only moved the four on its turn, same as the animated armor. The flying axe would use half its movement, attack, and then return unless grabbed (which is what happened in the end). The cultist used cantrips. If it was a boss, it would have been incredibly sub-optimal.
I really appreciate this guy, I cannot explain how intimidating dnd was for me being a person who was super into RPGs and still being the most awkward kid who couldn’t think faster than 10 seconds at a time. Just seeing that people get into this game for decades makes me really excited to continue playing 😅
There is so much dandy content nowadays, but this is one of the few channels that actually makes worthwhile content. And I don't say that to denigrate the others.
So one of the problems I've had is, oddly enough, no imagination on my players parts. It's not a knock on them, but they just don't know how to narrate or roleplay something besides "I'm going to run up and hit it with my sword." And I feel like DnD was built around this idea that EVERYONE at the table is narrating the story; from player actions or world building to consequences. At some point it just became the DMs job to find ways to inject fun into things because more and more players stopped bringing their own imagination to the table.
This 100% There a joke of you setting up a scenario and the people be like "I stab the bad guy!" And you are like "bruh just that?" And they shake their head cuz they dobt got anything to add. P a i n. It like you got to translate the most random kinda stuff.
Part of that imagination was derived from the pressure the game used to put on the players. The lesser the players feel endangered, the less they will feel the need to approach things differently. Just don't lock the party away from the solution, give them the lock AND the key. Make an enemy immune to damage until something happens. Make an enemy change something the party uses constantly in a dramatic way, like turning healing to damage. Make an enemy have a really punishing ability that can be inhibited somehow. Older editions of DnD didn't shy away from these "mean" rules, so players had to come up with clever roleplay to manouvre around them. High spell resistance was scary, caster now doesn't want to waste spells on the creature. Found a blessed blade? Time to use it.
This might be a controversial take, but I think part of this problem is caused by the whole concept of the adventuring day. Almost everything cool your character can do has a resource attached to it. The idea of an adventuring day is that you have a limited number of resources. If you want to save those, or you ran out of resources, the only thing you're really left with is "Attack". If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So when implementing these the tips from this video, make sure that they can be interacted with in a cool way other than "Attack" or they will just be another nail.
I remember complaining about that in Baller Gate 3 and the people were smoking that copium. If you ran BG3 first encounters at a table, that long rest issue would strangle you.
I mean, that's been a problem since 3.5, and they have been trying to fix " 5 minute day" for the longest time. The best practice is not run combat as much as people do, it's why I absolutely hate combat is the only way to get xp in modern times.
Yeah, that's why you should play better games that don't arbitrarily restrict how often you can do fun things, and where combat is actually fun and doesn't take hours to resolve.
My unpopular opinion is that poor combat is almost always driven by poor players. Players who either don't know their abilities, aren't paying attention during moments when it isn't their turn (and thus aren't prepared), and who spend an overwhelming amount of time contemplating everything. They don't know their modifiers, stats, they don't know which dice to roll and on and on. The few times I've played with solid players, combat was never an issue and even a ton of fun. But in most cases, players fail to study their own characters, fail to learn the rules, and fail to memorize their abilities and modifiers.
I really liked using Savage Worlds. Combat was faster and riskier. Thus players were encouraged to be more creative and work together more. Because I didn't have to spend so long calculating things I could focus more on storytelling.
if you're in 5e, i recommend running battles at ranges between 60-300 feet. Retreating from melee in 5e is very difficult, and starting everybody off easily within melee range doesn't utilize the environment very well compared to dodging between cover. Remember that long bows are still hitting no sweat at 180ft as written. Unfortunately I must concede that melee doesn't actually do much more damage than ranged.
I am a reformed DnD DM. I now run my own system which is vastly simplified and much more fluid & dynamic, especially in combat. The focus is now more on storytelling & drama than on mechanics. I'm interested in your books (Lairs, Loot), but want to ask: Are they DND specific? Can their material be comfortably ported across into a system which is totally NOT DnD? x
One of my best combat encounters to this day was a custom Devil Boss I designed. The party was ambushed at a bridge by this boss, and he had a Fire resource, which they learned how to identify when he recovered it. This resource allowed him to teleport at a high cost, or cause damage.
My group plays Hackmaster, and for the first time ever (going back to the 80s with AD&D), my group is not filled with "murder hobos". Combat does take time, but I enjoy mixing things up. A large spider encounter starts with 5 players vs 3 spiders, but 15 seconds into combat, 3 small spiders approach from the both side walls. Another 30 seconds later, 3 giant spiders drop from above. This creates a staggered "waves of combat" feel, and my players didnt know what was coming next. You can also add environmental challenges. I use shadows on the map to show where stalagtites will fall soon, or where lava will spill up from the floor, or where the flood line is, or where the floor collapses. This really makes the players engage in combat by having to move around in combat - possibly to get to an objective (like moving closer to a hostage or a boss, or the only exit in the room). If it's just straight combat, it will get boring, but adding only one of these thoughts really mixes it up. My players really love the social interactions, but if social interaction is the meat of your campaign, combat is the fruit and veggies. (And vice versa)
For some reason I never thought of a bunch of enemies with identical stat blocks that have different weapons with the same stats. I'll use this in my next encounter design.
You need to make the game fun. A good storyteller will make any combat fun. I always felt that going full rigid on the rules, especially actions and movement made the game to stiff. I always awarded Hero Points which players could use while we played for some type of above and beyond what you can do per the rules. They earned these points by playing their character well and having a good time and helping the group have a good time. I have been playing DnD since 1979....
My group had a pretty memorable combat encounter the other day. I'll describe it if anyone's interested: It started off as your typical bandit road block. Our druid scouted the roadblock by wild shaping into a bird but was shot down by a gloom stalker on her way back, nearly killing her. The echo knight managed to catch her just in time though with her echo and from there the battle ensued as normal. My party was stronger than I expected and clapped their cheeks pretty hard. The gloom stalker used rope trick to try and escape but the rope was shot down as he approached the top. None of his henchmen even tried to catch him and he fell to the ground unconscious. There was a moment of cheer and celebration as the party delivered this vengeance and the remaining henchmen fled in fear. I fully expected this NPC to escape and return later, but instead the party turned him in and collected his bounty, which led to some interesting story beats later on. It wasn't a particularly inspired encounter (it wasnt really meant to be. It was just something to impede the party while traveling) But we managed to still give it a lot of flavor and it's honestly been my favorite encounter so far this campaign
We also introduced one of the party members, a drunk fist monk, through a playful tavern brawl encounter that quickly got out of control. The monk lost control and went full force on the other party members, who ended up subduing him with a sleeping potion. The tavern burned down in the chaos. That one was also pretty fun. The gloom stalker from the og comment was actually hired to kill the monk for burning the tavern down, but I don't think the party ever figured that out 😂
I agree with those saying to abandon D&D. My friends and I played for YEARS with just the 80’s Rule Cyclopedia and spiral notebooks full of rules we made up. And there are better simpler rule sets like Fudge and Risus that you can use to tell high fantasy-adventure stories that don’t require $100’s in books or subscription fees. Also, it’s the multistep combat system that ruins the gameplay and makes players like me want to read a book or look at their phones.
2:30 *Creatures* (More > Few/Solo, unless the Action Economy is balanced. Variety is the way. Give the enemies a reason to be there, make them react to the circumstances too. 6:54 Tactics. 9:08 Individuality. Create a brief description of tactics the monsters for the encounter you'll run will use.) 12:24 *Map & Terrain* (Elevation. Choke Points. Dynamic environment. Hazards.) 15:06 *Time* (Countdown. Periodic events.) 17:26 *Dynamic Elements* (Lair Actions. Weather. Temperature. Secondary objectives. Twists & Secrets. 19:20 *Purpose & Reward*
in our game some of us preroll our damage for the day, say i am using my minotaur, i have a sheet that shows how much damage i do with my horns, another spot on the sheet has damage for my axe, headbutt and so forth. so all you need to do is hit and whatever the damage you did is what it is, sometimes you get lucky and roll mass damage and you do max damage for that weapon all day long, opposite is true as well you may roll min damage. you need to announce before you roll if that is how you are playing that day. speeds things up alot, takes a little of the randomness away but it is a good alternative and simpler.
I agree with all of these ideas about motivations, tactics, and enemy diversity, but I think at the end of the day what D&D needs is a little less math. Because everything has hit-points in the double digits and weapons deal at most 12 damage, there need to be high bonuses to damage, extra dice, damage enhancing spells(more dice), bonus actions(more attacks), and infinite cantrips that deal d12 damage(seriously, what the hell?). Especially because player characters can heal up to full from a 1-hour short rest, unless massive amounts of damage are dealt player characters are at no serious threat unless serious power difference is present.
On roll20/ I type into the name block of my monsters their individual weapons. S = Spear. LS = Long sword. LS/S = Longsword / shield, B = bola, c = carbine, M = Musket, etc. It makes things easier for all to see who has what. I also give different monsters a "morale" based off of wisdom. I have blood thirsty kobolds and all they want is to feed on their victims and have no care for their self preservation so they run away or surrender on a wisdom check of 15. The lizard men are only their because a black dragon commands them but they have no love for the kobolds and are not effected by the madness that plagues the kobolds so they run away or surrender on a wisdom check of 10. Another tactic I want to implement is when it becomes obvious what they, my monsters, are doing is not working, someone more intelligent will force them to withdraw and reset somewhere else and go in again.
Interesting thing is last session I felt like nothing was getting done, we had no combat, not much roleplay, not much plot progress, etc. I was like aaahhh this session... is one of the bad sessions???... The players, they for some reason liked it, chill nothing really done just walk around a village talk to an outcast and no combat. Really shows my prep needs a lot less combat.
I'm a very experienced game master (started in the 80s), and I still thought this gave some food for thought. I mean, I use a lot of these elements one way or another, but I probably haven't lined up the ideas and reasoning behind them so systematically. Good stuff. (Misleading title though)
Despite the fact that it's a popular topic and there are a lot of videos covering this, you still managed to add a lot of new ideas (giggling, scared and angry goblins are my favourite). Bravo!
Put a timer on the players decision making, like many other games do. Make the combat take less time per round. Don't give the player 20 minutes to search the books for which spell to cast. They should have a SHORT list of PREPARED spells. They don't get to search the entire book for which spell they want. They get to look at the list, pick, set the target and then ask the results to be adjudicated. That's 30 seconds of player decision then 1 minute of adjudication if the DM has to look it up.
Combat is fun, though. We do a good mix. You just have to be smart on combat design and creating win conditions that aren't just rolling out every last hp point until everything is dead.
2:42 but it's hard to juggle several different monster groups at once It migh be deja vu but it feels like Luke posts a video on this topic every month 😅...
These are good tips, but they don't fix 5e's problems. It's a game about fighting monsters, but the monster fighting is the clunkiest, sloggiest, least-polished part of the game.
Try Dungeon Crawl Classics. Combat is much faster, fun, less predictable, everybody goes completely bonkers offensively (including pcs and monsters) but has very little hp.
Rolling dice and making decisions is not roleplaying. Roleplaying is taking on the role of a character and acting like them through mannerisms and speech. Telling your DM that you would like to convince the guard to let you in and rolling persuasion is rollplaying. Playing out the conversation with the DM is roleplaying. Great video. I love combats that are more than a flat battlegrid. Terrain and environmental effects are great. Having opponents do different things is very important to mix things up.
@@sleepinggiant4062 This a hundred percent. In older editions (pre 3e) Charisma is that stat you use to rally followers and morale, and that’s it. Using your charisma stat you persuade someone is not necessarily how it was intended. If you wanted to persuade people, then you need them to believe in your goals and ambition.
To roleplay is to make choices as if you were another character. Dice don't have anything to do with it, but acting doesn't have anything to do with it either. You can roleplay through a whole session without ever once acting.
In my opinion, the core problem with combat is that GMs say stuff and play stuff like "It does not matter if the 1D6 damage comes from a sword, an axe or a couple of splinters thrown into the player's eyes." There is a huge difference the description makes. Splinters in the eyes might just do 1D6 damage but they will incapacitate the character for some time because he can't see, a sword might impale a character thus hindering it etc. Descriptions are not just for flair and colour they are a tool to enhance the combat, to inflict secondary effects or even to multiply damage to fit said descriptions. Sure, sometimes the GM might have to adjust a target number for a roll but in essence, the descriptions of actions matter much more than a rule about damage. Just imagine the 1D6 to the throat instead of to the arm... Most often it is the lack of descriptions or ignoring the described when applying damage or dice roles that make combat boring.
This 100% I know for sure when I start making my Board Game, I am having a special system where you can aim like in the old Fallouts and shoot or smack a target limbs. Very fun especially if it like a Dragon and you shoot a rocket in their mouth or shoot the gem on a Staff to disable a wizard spells.
4 changes I made that drastically changed combat: 1 - remove initiative order 2 - remove action economy 3 - remove death saves 4 - remove the 'resting' system our combat encounters take 10 to 15 minutes or less.
@mrosskne let me ask this: do you know the difference between a role-playing game and a tactical combat game? if you have ever played an actual role-playing game, you would know that D&D was based on tactical war games and has always kept those fundamentals at its core. that's why so many GMs have a problem switching between combat and non-combat situations. in a true role-playing game, there aren't any changes. the scene simply continues to play out and if a combat activity occurs, it's resolved and the story continues. it takes mere moments, not hours.
you don't need to fix d&d anymore. just leave it forever. CEO just announced D&D will be fully digital and only viewable with a subscription of 150/yr or 14.99/mo. so long DND.
It must be exhausting to feel so pushed around and controlled by the actions of some psychotic company like that I have been running and playing in modified versione of 5e for many years and I will happily continue to do that for many years The dumb Cocks CEO drama does not affect me
Lmao i say. You KNOW that stuff is going to spread around in protest or just "use the caludron book as a base since Warlocks did it!" Also them printed books exist. If you need to direct any pentup ire, i say Tank GW since they are worst. 😂
@@Calebgoblin I find it Funny that historically TTRPG spun off from the guys that were like "instead of having 2 armies smacking either other.. why not you and the b o i s smacking Orcs?" And now the TTRPG crowd are actual wankers who cry and grovel to the company instead of.. embracing the roots and doing whatever the bloody hell you like. Weird group of people.. i swear.
I think there ought to be some tests done. Get all science up in here. I wonder how DnD stuff would work if you put different kinda costs and stuff instead of being so reliant on what some boomers said in 70's Cool downs, make the classes have a special resource they cab make that good for X high level spell casting, having Generators and Spender like in Diablo 3 or having to smash your foe in for the epic yeet. Seems so weird it got staley.
Same TBH. One idea I’ve had is a spell gun, where you need to use one charge/per spell level, have six total, and need to reload when empty. Another idea is a Heat Bar, where it counts up for each spell and they need to vent it or take fire damage
@@Delmworksnoice Ideas. I got one special one i want to use with my Board Game but i got other ones too. Why not just have a normal mana "bar or Counter" where rank 1 stuff = 1 mana / rank 2 = 2 mana / Rank = 3 mana and Rank 5 or 6 cost up to 8 so you either can jug potions or wait skyrim style to recover your bar. Let you overtax yourself but suffer pain and injury for doing it. Basically the door is open but idk, i saw one guy cover a mana system for dnd and he like tried for 8 nano seconds and flopped over. 😅
The game falls apart between level 5 and 12. BG3 recognised this. It makes being a GM with balanced monsters near impossible, so they are made too easy to not Initiative insta wipe the party. It is the worst system for role play concerning skills and proficiency bonuses.. the roleplay is everything the DM / players do despite the rules, not with.
Nice take, and good advice, but it's not fixing combat in 5E, the math is broken, so I have fix to that simple bug. Magical Weapons each + give a bonus dice IE; Dagger +1 (2d4) +1, Dagger +2 (3d4)+2 so a critical hit is massive with magic weapons, get the players exited and even at elevated level the combat is fast 3 to 5 rounds. You're welcome. 🧙♂🧙♂ it's nice to see a player with a magical longsword +2 crit and roll 6d8 of damage and one-shot villain 💜💜
I swear i ought to make my own Board Game. It seems like you roll up on the Pokemon Champion and all they got is Water types and you got the L a w n Mower Grass Starter 😂
2 месяца назад
Serious question: I've played off and on over the years, and here's the thing, if a single fight takes 50% or (usually) more of a game session, and the end of which your party earned a measley couple hundred XP, which is less than a drop in the bucket of the grand scheme of things. How the hell does anyone actually get to decent level at all, where the really fun stuff comes into play? Example - A hydra, CR 8, 3900xp, sounds nice until you realize that you need roughly 12000xp to go from PC level 8 to level 9, which would mean you'd need to kill 3 of them to get close to reaching XP goal for lvl 9, and you'd still be 300xp short. Time-wise this means 3-4 weeks of near-perfect time management just to level up once, so using that as an average, it'd take 20 months of playing every single week, consistantly with a reliable group of friends showing up without any breaks. The campaign would basically have to take over your life for nearly 2 years straight for just one campaign. I honestly don't understand how anyone does it.
If i had to make combat go faster, i would bind the PC and monsters to 3 Actions but say you are the monk and you could normally do like 4 attacks and nonsense. You get to do your attacks and skills but on one of thr attacks, you get to use all your "Extra attacks" to go all out of a foe. Like you dragon kick a guy Prone and you use all your "Extra hits" just wailing on the Prone foe to a crap ton of dmg.
@@guyman1570 Personally i rather not have to read a eldritch tome of nerd. For me I seeing the how and why so I can make my Boardgame and imo, both PF2 and DnD would get the Smack, the chop. They both seem way too flimsy in too many regards. Also i hate how Pf2 like "yo moved your last!" Got to be fluid and not so rigid.
Easy. Switch back to 2e, and utilize the book "Player's Option: Combat & Tactics", make liberal use of the critical hit system by upping the severity by one die category, and disallow saving throws vs death to avoid them. That will make combat a LOT more dangerous in your game, and give your players a reason to be polite to NPC guards who point crossbows at them.
I still remember fondly the first major boss fight I had because, despite it being solo boss against group, it resulted in the PERFECT team set-up for my character to one-shot (okay, two-shot) the final boss. The bard tagged the guy with Vicious Mockery, the warlock put up Hold Person. I had advantage, sharpshooter, Hunter's Mark, Colossus Slayer, and favored enemy to pile up. Longbow goes bang bang. Squishy evil wizards don't take 40something damage in a turn and still live unless the DM buffs them up.
It's not a disaster, it's down to who is playing. I love 3 hours tactical combats, it's the reason I play. 90% of your character sheet and items and feats are for combat... if you don't like combat then there's no way on earth you would like one of my games... also there's no way I would enjoy 4 hour conversations, which is what some games seem to devolve into. It's personal taste... find a group that fits what you want and have at it.
Idk, i had more fun trying to get Old Mods from 2008 with no documentation to run. Also you dont just mag dump books onto some poor guy, you should slay the beast abd make your own system imo.
@@TheTerrainWizard For me I am going to work on my own Board Game and try to sell it but rn, I kinda see DnD and PF2 being kinda the same level of potato.
5e !! it sso horrible and borken that its the most popular RPg of all fuckin time!! OMG the game ist broken, people are jsut self entitled bitches :D who expect the game it play itself with zero offort on their part.. 5e is 100 times better than our old school 1e and 2e and we played that shit in cav es with rocks and drew pictures no the wall in chalk.
Yeah dnd 4e delivers a much better tactical heroic fantasy experience than dnd 5e. I think, however, there’s a heavy bias towards narrative and rules light experiences on the Internet and these preferences lean in the opposite direction of DND 4e. It is my personal experience, players like dnd 4e if they are willing to get past the difficulties of building the character without digital support.
I remember people ragging on 4e. Die i think at the end of the day no matter what you use, you will have to wrangle the rules by yourself. Imo just make your own system and stuff.
As someone who played a lot of it, it’s slow as molasses, everyone has too much HP, and every class played too similarly. Plus at low levels, you have about 2 fancy powers and then spend the rest of the combat spamming basics But to be honest I feel a lot of that could be worked around by changing the math and introducing more interesting resource management options
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🔥 LAIR MAGAZINE & FOUNDRY | Get loads of 5e and PF2e adventures, traps, puzzles, monsters, and other GM resources to help you reduce your prep time and run amazing games with Lair Magazine and our Foundry VTT modules! www.patreon.com/thedmlair
Encounter Creation Checklist thedmlair.com/collections/rpg-resources/products/encounter-creation-checklist
I love how he's still making good content. I can't tell you how much better my life as a father and husband have gotten getting my family into dnd and I used him solely as my north star being a newbie gm.
Thank you so much! I'm happy to be able to help!
One of the most fun encounters my PCs faced in D&D 5e (I mostly run my own system which had more variety, but limiting to 5e because of the video) was when they thought they were facing a boss with legendary actions in their very first session, because they were being attacked multiple times per round, instead of all ganging up on a single opponent.
It was a cultist, animated armor, flying sword reflavored as a flying axe, and a tamed dark mantle (which I allowed to move the cultist in addition to his own movement). Once they realized they could catch and stop the flying axe from returning to the cultist they had a lot easier time splitting their focus, because the cultist's main outward attack was gone. They were freaking out that I threw a boss at them, and then laughing when they realized the trick and swiftly took down the cultist. Multiple minions working together work great as threats that feel interesting, especially if the party doesn't realize they are multiple.
I don't get why this would make the players think it was a boss fight, unless the cultist was wearing the animated armor, and otherwise wielding the flying axe. But if that was the case, then yes it was a boss fight, as you'd stacked multiple creatures abilities effectively onto a single enemy.
They were wearing the animated armor, dark mantle, and holding the flying axe. Each acted on their own separate turn, and they didn't legendary resistance, or legendary actions... but they thought at first that it was a single creature with legendary actions until they separated the axe and saw it was acting on its own and able to be damaged. I had 8 players, so really, the players were able to put it down really quickly, once they realized what the trick was. If they had seen 4 wolves each with pack tactics keeping adjacent to each other, it would have been even more tactical, but obvious, whereas in the manner used, it obfuscated for a couple rounds. Not quite a boss, but it felt like one for a short while.
@@mixofreak I get the idea of what you did, and I like it, just saying that IMO, I'd still put that firmly in boss encounter territory. To me, it's not much different that the Power Rangers combining the individual parts to form the megazord robot, all ultimately pieces of the same collective whole.
The Megazord becomes more powerful than them individually working together. As with the four wolves and pack tactics, these four creatures didn't do more than what they could normally do, heck, they didn't even give each other advantage unlike the wolves. However, it gave the appearance of one entity, so they were spreading out attacks instead of dealing with one after the other. They didn't have area of effect spells, but even if they did, they likely wouldn't have thought to use them, since they were sharing a space. In D&D 5e (2014, not 2024, because legendary actions are going away), bosses have three legendary actions, and usually (but not always) a legendary resistance. Because there were four creatures, it *looks* like the cultist had legendary actions, but unless the players were in melee, the dark mantle only moved the four on its turn, same as the animated armor. The flying axe would use half its movement, attack, and then return unless grabbed (which is what happened in the end). The cultist used cantrips. If it was a boss, it would have been incredibly sub-optimal.
I read this as "fixing dnd Wombat" can't wait for that video!
I should totally make that video. :D :D :D
@@theDMLairPlease include Dire Wombats? 😁
Oh yes absolutely
@@theDMLair yes please
Least dyslexic DnD player(bum).
Excellent content management, Luke. You packed a lot of good information and insights into a bitesize video.
I really appreciate this guy, I cannot explain how intimidating dnd was for me being a person who was super into RPGs and still being the most awkward kid who couldn’t think faster than 10 seconds at a time. Just seeing that people get into this game for decades makes me really excited to continue playing 😅
There is so much dandy content nowadays, but this is one of the few channels that actually makes worthwhile content. And I don't say that to denigrate the others.
So one of the problems I've had is, oddly enough, no imagination on my players parts. It's not a knock on them, but they just don't know how to narrate or roleplay something besides "I'm going to run up and hit it with my sword."
And I feel like DnD was built around this idea that EVERYONE at the table is narrating the story; from player actions or world building to consequences. At some point it just became the DMs job to find ways to inject fun into things because more and more players stopped bringing their own imagination to the table.
This 100%
There a joke of you setting up a scenario and the people be like "I stab the bad guy!" And you are like "bruh just that?" And they shake their head cuz they dobt got anything to add.
P a i n. It like you got to translate the most random kinda stuff.
Part of that imagination was derived from the pressure the game used to put on the players. The lesser the players feel endangered, the less they will feel the need to approach things differently. Just don't lock the party away from the solution, give them the lock AND the key.
Make an enemy immune to damage until something happens.
Make an enemy change something the party uses constantly in a dramatic way, like turning healing to damage.
Make an enemy have a really punishing ability that can be inhibited somehow.
Older editions of DnD didn't shy away from these "mean" rules, so players had to come up with clever roleplay to manouvre around them. High spell resistance was scary, caster now doesn't want to waste spells on the creature. Found a blessed blade? Time to use it.
Stop playing D&D
I love ALL the DM Lair videos!!!! ❤
Ayy I missed this kind of video, thanks for the advice and take my big ol thumbs up 👍
Terrain changuing, and monster transformation, sonds great and interesting.
Thx for the video, great advices!
This might be a controversial take, but I think part of this problem is caused by the whole concept of the adventuring day. Almost everything cool your character can do has a resource attached to it. The idea of an adventuring day is that you have a limited number of resources. If you want to save those, or you ran out of resources, the only thing you're really left with is "Attack". If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So when implementing these the tips from this video, make sure that they can be interacted with in a cool way other than "Attack" or they will just be another nail.
I remember complaining about that in Baller Gate 3 and the people were smoking that copium. If you ran BG3 first encounters at a table, that long rest issue would strangle you.
I mean, that's been a problem since 3.5, and they have been trying to fix " 5 minute day" for the longest time.
The best practice is not run combat as much as people do, it's why I absolutely hate combat is the only way to get xp in modern times.
Yeah, that's why you should play better games that don't arbitrarily restrict how often you can do fun things, and where combat is actually fun and doesn't take hours to resolve.
@@mrosskne all i hear is "I am too lazy to fix the thing so find someone lazier who probably couldnt fix it so it PbtA based or something"
@@Subject_Keter All I hear is "I'm too incompetent to make a product that works, but I think people should still pay me for it"
Great video! Playing my first dnd campaign session as a dm tomorrow😬 Wish me luck!
Good luck! Just make sure to have all your notes ready and be ready to rumble.
@@Subject_Keter Thanks! I’ll prepare more than enough probably
Bet you are regretting your decision now, huh?
@@RedSunUnderParadise no, it was great to have a lot of things prepared
@@sherrifbricksOFFICIAL
That you can stand playing DnD means you have the patience of a saint.
Wanna fix combat ? Play nimble 5e. No dead turns, no missing, no half a page for 1 ability and it's compatible with all DnD adventures and bestiaries
YES!!! Oh my god - this set of hacks is PERFECT. I've shifted all of my 5E stuff over to Nimble.
Play prowlers and paragons and then you won't have to throw out all the rules you paid for just to make the game playable.
@@mrosskne that makes me want to throw it rules for fun. 😂
My unpopular opinion is that poor combat is almost always driven by poor players. Players who either don't know their abilities, aren't paying attention during moments when it isn't their turn (and thus aren't prepared), and who spend an overwhelming amount of time contemplating everything. They don't know their modifiers, stats, they don't know which dice to roll and on and on. The few times I've played with solid players, combat was never an issue and even a ton of fun. But in most cases, players fail to study their own characters, fail to learn the rules, and fail to memorize their abilities and modifiers.
I really liked using Savage Worlds. Combat was faster and riskier. Thus players were encouraged to be more creative and work together more. Because I didn't have to spend so long calculating things I could focus more on storytelling.
if you're in 5e, i recommend running battles at ranges between 60-300 feet. Retreating from melee in 5e is very difficult, and starting everybody off easily within melee range doesn't utilize the environment very well compared to dodging between cover. Remember that long bows are still hitting no sweat at 180ft as written. Unfortunately I must concede that melee doesn't actually do much more damage than ranged.
I am a reformed DnD DM. I now run my own system which is vastly simplified and much more fluid & dynamic, especially in combat. The focus is now more on storytelling & drama than on mechanics.
I'm interested in your books (Lairs, Loot), but want to ask: Are they DND specific? Can their material be comfortably ported across into a system which is totally NOT DnD? x
One of my best combat encounters to this day was a custom Devil Boss I designed. The party was ambushed at a bridge by this boss, and he had a Fire resource, which they learned how to identify when he recovered it. This resource allowed him to teleport at a high cost, or cause damage.
My group plays Hackmaster, and for the first time ever (going back to the 80s with AD&D), my group is not filled with "murder hobos".
Combat does take time, but I enjoy mixing things up. A large spider encounter starts with 5 players vs 3 spiders, but 15 seconds into combat, 3 small spiders approach from the both side walls. Another 30 seconds later, 3 giant spiders drop from above. This creates a staggered "waves of combat" feel, and my players didnt know what was coming next.
You can also add environmental challenges. I use shadows on the map to show where stalagtites will fall soon, or where lava will spill up from the floor, or where the flood line is, or where the floor collapses. This really makes the players engage in combat by having to move around in combat - possibly to get to an objective (like moving closer to a hostage or a boss, or the only exit in the room).
If it's just straight combat, it will get boring, but adding only one of these thoughts really mixes it up.
My players really love the social interactions, but if social interaction is the meat of your campaign, combat is the fruit and veggies. (And vice versa)
I've never been to a video this early. 30 seconds since posting.
Insert last time I was this early joke😂
For some reason I never thought of a bunch of enemies with identical stat blocks that have different weapons with the same stats. I'll use this in my next encounter design.
You need to make the game fun. A good storyteller will make any combat fun. I always felt that going full rigid on the rules, especially actions and movement made the game to stiff. I always awarded Hero Points which players could use while we played for some type of above and beyond what you can do per the rules. They earned these points by playing their character well and having a good time and helping the group have a good time. I have been playing DnD since 1979....
Play prowlers and paragons so you don't have to ignore the rules to have fun
The DM Lair: Gives great advice and suggestions for combat
Me, completely distracted: But why are his Pathfinder Bestiaries out of order???
Hee actively uses them, that's probably why :ь
My group had a pretty memorable combat encounter the other day. I'll describe it if anyone's interested:
It started off as your typical bandit road block. Our druid scouted the roadblock by wild shaping into a bird but was shot down by a gloom stalker on her way back, nearly killing her. The echo knight managed to catch her just in time though with her echo and from there the battle ensued as normal. My party was stronger than I expected and clapped their cheeks pretty hard. The gloom stalker used rope trick to try and escape but the rope was shot down as he approached the top. None of his henchmen even tried to catch him and he fell to the ground unconscious. There was a moment of cheer and celebration as the party delivered this vengeance and the remaining henchmen fled in fear. I fully expected this NPC to escape and return later, but instead the party turned him in and collected his bounty, which led to some interesting story beats later on.
It wasn't a particularly inspired encounter (it wasnt really meant to be. It was just something to impede the party while traveling) But we managed to still give it a lot of flavor and it's honestly been my favorite encounter so far this campaign
We also introduced one of the party members, a drunk fist monk, through a playful tavern brawl encounter that quickly got out of control. The monk lost control and went full force on the other party members, who ended up subduing him with a sleeping potion. The tavern burned down in the chaos. That one was also pretty fun.
The gloom stalker from the og comment was actually hired to kill the monk for burning the tavern down, but I don't think the party ever figured that out 😂
I agree with those saying to abandon D&D. My friends and I played for YEARS with just the 80’s Rule Cyclopedia and spiral notebooks full of rules we made up. And there are better simpler rule sets like Fudge and Risus that you can use to tell high fantasy-adventure stories that don’t require $100’s in books or subscription fees. Also, it’s the multistep combat system that ruins the gameplay and makes players like me want to read a book or look at their phones.
2:30 *Creatures* (More > Few/Solo, unless the Action Economy is balanced. Variety is the way. Give the enemies a reason to be there, make them react to the circumstances too. 6:54 Tactics. 9:08 Individuality. Create a brief description of tactics the monsters for the encounter you'll run will use.)
12:24 *Map & Terrain* (Elevation. Choke Points. Dynamic environment. Hazards.)
15:06 *Time* (Countdown. Periodic events.)
17:26 *Dynamic Elements* (Lair Actions. Weather. Temperature. Secondary objectives. Twists & Secrets.
19:20 *Purpose & Reward*
Man, that encounter creation sheet is going to be a life-saver! I run eleven campaigns and this will definitely help to up my game! Thanks a ton! :D
in our game some of us preroll our damage for the day, say i am using my minotaur, i have a sheet that shows how much damage i do with my horns, another spot on the sheet has damage for my axe, headbutt and so forth. so all you need to do is hit and whatever the damage you did is what it is, sometimes you get lucky and roll mass damage and you do max damage for that weapon all day long, opposite is true as well you may roll min damage. you need to announce before you roll if that is how you are playing that day. speeds things up alot, takes a little of the randomness away but it is a good alternative and simpler.
I agree with all of these ideas about motivations, tactics, and enemy diversity, but I think at the end of the day what D&D needs is a little less math. Because everything has hit-points in the double digits and weapons deal at most 12 damage, there need to be high bonuses to damage, extra dice, damage enhancing spells(more dice), bonus actions(more attacks), and infinite cantrips that deal d12 damage(seriously, what the hell?). Especially because player characters can heal up to full from a 1-hour short rest, unless massive amounts of damage are dealt player characters are at no serious threat unless serious power difference is present.
On roll20/ I type into the name block of my monsters their individual weapons. S = Spear. LS = Long sword. LS/S = Longsword / shield, B = bola, c = carbine, M = Musket, etc. It makes things easier for all to see who has what. I also give different monsters a "morale" based off of wisdom. I have blood thirsty kobolds and all they want is to feed on their victims and have no care for their self preservation so they run away or surrender on a wisdom check of 15. The lizard men are only their because a black dragon commands them but they have no love for the kobolds and are not effected by the madness that plagues the kobolds so they run away or surrender on a wisdom check of 10.
Another tactic I want to implement is when it becomes obvious what they, my monsters, are doing is not working, someone more intelligent will force them to withdraw and reset somewhere else and go in again.
Interesting thing is last session I felt like nothing was getting done, we had no combat, not much roleplay, not much plot progress, etc. I was like aaahhh this session... is one of the bad sessions???... The players, they for some reason liked it, chill nothing really done just walk around a village talk to an outcast and no combat. Really shows my prep needs a lot less combat.
Thanks for sharing with experience 😊
"Why is D&D combat often boring?"
Because you don't have power metal playing in the background.
Blud really thinks Metal is enough to make DnD not an insult to the concept op gaming.
Good suggestions. I think a lot of DM's forget that environment and conditions make combat encounters so much more interesting.
me and my group recently changed do pathfinder 2e from D&D, dou you plan on making videos about pf2 ??
I'm a very experienced game master (started in the 80s), and I still thought this gave some food for thought. I mean, I use a lot of these elements one way or another, but I probably haven't lined up the ideas and reasoning behind them so systematically. Good stuff. (Misleading title though)
Despite the fact that it's a popular topic and there are a lot of videos covering this, you still managed to add a lot of new ideas (giggling, scared and angry goblins are my favourite). Bravo!
Put a timer on the players decision making, like many other games do.
Make the combat take less time per round.
Don't give the player 20 minutes to search the books for which spell to cast. They should have a SHORT list of PREPARED spells. They don't get to search the entire book for which spell they want. They get to look at the list, pick, set the target and then ask the results to be adjudicated. That's 30 seconds of player decision then 1 minute of adjudication if the DM has to look it up.
You should get like playing cards and label the spells on them so they can use it.
Combat is fun, though. We do a good mix. You just have to be smart on combat design and creating win conditions that aren't just rolling out every last hp point until everything is dead.
Wooooo 🎉
The disaster of 4 and 5e is 3.5 and arguably editions even older didnt have problems with boring combat, the new writers are just incompetent
Using D&D as my first system to run for a group. Hoping it works well so I ca eventually switch to a more flexible system.
2:42 but it's hard to juggle several different monster groups at once
It migh be deja vu but it feels like Luke posts a video on this topic every month 😅...
These are good tips, but they don't fix 5e's problems. It's a game about fighting monsters, but the monster fighting is the clunkiest, sloggiest, least-polished part of the game.
That roleplay vs social encounters rant never gets old, cause the impetus for having it seems omnipresent.
As far as Im concerned there is nothing good fun or redeeming about 5E game engine period.
Try Dungeon Crawl Classics. Combat is much faster, fun, less predictable, everybody goes completely bonkers offensively (including pcs and monsters) but has very little hp.
Rolling dice and making decisions is not roleplaying. Roleplaying is taking on the role of a character and acting like them through mannerisms and speech. Telling your DM that you would like to convince the guard to let you in and rolling persuasion is rollplaying. Playing out the conversation with the DM is roleplaying.
Great video. I love combats that are more than a flat battlegrid. Terrain and environmental effects are great. Having opponents do different things is very important to mix things up.
@@sleepinggiant4062 This a hundred percent. In older editions (pre 3e) Charisma is that stat you use to rally followers and morale, and that’s it. Using your charisma stat you persuade someone is not necessarily how it was intended. If you wanted to persuade people, then you need them to believe in your goals and ambition.
To roleplay is to make choices as if you were another character. Dice don't have anything to do with it, but acting doesn't have anything to do with it either. You can roleplay through a whole session without ever once acting.
In my opinion, the core problem with combat is that GMs say stuff and play stuff like "It does not matter if the 1D6 damage comes from a sword, an axe or a couple of splinters thrown into the player's eyes."
There is a huge difference the description makes. Splinters in the eyes might just do 1D6 damage but they will incapacitate the character for some time because he can't see, a sword might impale a character thus hindering it etc.
Descriptions are not just for flair and colour they are a tool to enhance the combat, to inflict secondary effects or even to multiply damage to fit said descriptions.
Sure, sometimes the GM might have to adjust a target number for a roll but in essence, the descriptions of actions matter much more than a rule about damage. Just imagine the 1D6 to the throat instead of to the arm...
Most often it is the lack of descriptions or ignoring the described when applying damage or dice roles that make combat boring.
This 100%
I know for sure when I start making my Board Game, I am having a special system where you can aim like in the old Fallouts and shoot or smack a target limbs. Very fun especially if it like a Dragon and you shoot a rocket in their mouth or shoot the gem on a Staff to disable a wizard spells.
Good tips as always.
I try to do most of these myself.
Great advice!
I gave a fellow GM very similar advice for making combat more interesting. I approve of this video.
Great video luke
Backed Nimble 2.0 to address these issues
17:02
Player: 100 years? Haha, don't make me laugh *breaks through the wall by rolling a 20*
Pick up Nimble. It's the PERFECT set of hacks for streamlining D&D.
1 minute is crazy
He hasn’t made a horror story video in over a week. Thank gods.
I like to role play.
I find roll play less exciting.
4 changes I made that drastically changed combat:
1 - remove initiative order
2 - remove action economy
3 - remove death saves
4 - remove the 'resting' system
our combat encounters take 10 to 15 minutes or less.
How do you remove action economy? Do you know what action economy means?
@mrosskne let me ask this:
do you know the difference between a role-playing game and a tactical combat game?
if you have ever played an actual role-playing game, you would know that D&D was based on tactical war games and has always kept those fundamentals at its core. that's why so many GMs have a problem switching between combat and non-combat situations.
in a true role-playing game, there aren't any changes. the scene simply continues to play out and if a combat activity occurs, it's resolved and the story continues. it takes mere moments, not hours.
You didn't answer my question.
Combat??? Oh boy do I have to introduce you to puzzles
you don't need to fix d&d anymore. just leave it forever. CEO just announced D&D will be fully digital and only viewable with a subscription of 150/yr or 14.99/mo. so long DND.
Thank God I have all my books as physical copies
It must be exhausting to feel so pushed around and controlled by the actions of some psychotic company like that
I have been running and playing in modified versione of 5e for many years and I will happily continue to do that for many years
The dumb Cocks CEO drama does not affect me
@@davedeboy5726 other than the books that exist 🤣
Lmao i say. You KNOW that stuff is going to spread around in protest or just "use the caludron book as a base since Warlocks did it!"
Also them printed books exist.
If you need to direct any pentup ire, i say Tank GW since they are worst. 😂
@@Calebgoblin I find it Funny that historically TTRPG spun off from the guys that were like "instead of having 2 armies smacking either other.. why not you and the b o i s smacking Orcs?"
And now the TTRPG crowd are actual wankers who cry and grovel to the company instead of.. embracing the roots and doing whatever the bloody hell you like.
Weird group of people.. i swear.
I think there ought to be some tests done. Get all science up in here.
I wonder how DnD stuff would work if you put different kinda costs and stuff instead of being so reliant on what some boomers said in 70's
Cool downs, make the classes have a special resource they cab make that good for X high level spell casting, having Generators and Spender like in Diablo 3 or having to smash your foe in for the epic yeet.
Seems so weird it got staley.
Same TBH.
One idea I’ve had is a spell gun, where you need to use one charge/per spell level, have six total, and need to reload when empty.
Another idea is a Heat Bar, where it counts up for each spell and they need to vent it or take fire damage
@@Delmworksnoice Ideas.
I got one special one i want to use with my Board Game but i got other ones too.
Why not just have a normal mana "bar or Counter" where rank 1 stuff = 1 mana / rank 2 = 2 mana / Rank = 3 mana and Rank 5 or 6 cost up to 8 so you either can jug potions or wait skyrim style to recover your bar.
Let you overtax yourself but suffer pain and injury for doing it.
Basically the door is open but idk, i saw one guy cover a mana system for dnd and he like tried for 8 nano seconds and flopped over. 😅
The game falls apart between level 5 and 12. BG3 recognised this. It makes being a GM with balanced monsters near impossible, so they are made too easy to not Initiative insta wipe the party. It is the worst system for role play concerning skills and proficiency bonuses.. the roleplay is everything the DM / players do despite the rules, not with.
Your Pathfinder bestiaries are out of order. It's all I can stare at. 🤣
The only way to solve combat is more combat. There's way, way, way, too much social encounters that it's making rpgs boring.
There shouldn't be discrete encounters. It's not a video game.
Sry but I disagree.
While not the best thing, its the one thing I enjoy about the game.
Nice take, and good advice, but it's not fixing combat in 5E, the math is broken, so I have fix to that simple bug. Magical Weapons each + give a bonus dice IE; Dagger +1 (2d4) +1, Dagger +2 (3d4)+2 so a critical hit is massive with magic weapons, get the players exited and even at elevated level the combat is fast 3 to 5 rounds. You're welcome. 🧙♂🧙♂ it's nice to see a player with a magical longsword +2 crit and roll 6d8 of damage and one-shot villain 💜💜
I swear i ought to make my own Board Game. It seems like you roll up on the Pokemon Champion and all they got is Water types and you got the L a w n Mower Grass Starter 😂
Serious question: I've played off and on over the years, and here's the thing, if a single fight takes 50% or (usually) more of a game session, and the end of which your party earned a measley couple hundred XP, which is less than a drop in the bucket of the grand scheme of things. How the hell does anyone actually get to decent level at all, where the really fun stuff comes into play? Example - A hydra, CR 8, 3900xp, sounds nice until you realize that you need roughly 12000xp to go from PC level 8 to level 9, which would mean you'd need to kill 3 of them to get close to reaching XP goal for lvl 9, and you'd still be 300xp short. Time-wise this means 3-4 weeks of near-perfect time management just to level up once, so using that as an average, it'd take 20 months of playing every single week, consistantly with a reliable group of friends showing up without any breaks. The campaign would basically have to take over your life for nearly 2 years straight for just one campaign. I honestly don't understand how anyone does it.
If i had to make combat go faster, i would bind the PC and monsters to 3 Actions but say you are the monk and you could normally do like 4 attacks and nonsense.
You get to do your attacks and skills but on one of thr attacks, you get to use all your "Extra attacks" to go all out of a foe.
Like you dragon kick a guy Prone and you use all your "Extra hits" just wailing on the Prone foe to a crap ton of dmg.
Honestly, might as well just transition to PF2e if you're going in at that depth.
@@guyman1570 Personally i rather not have to read a eldritch tome of nerd.
For me I seeing the how and why so I can make my Boardgame and imo, both PF2 and DnD would get the Smack, the chop.
They both seem way too flimsy in too many regards. Also i hate how Pf2 like "yo moved your last!" Got to be fluid and not so rigid.
Easy. Switch back to 2e, and utilize the book "Player's Option: Combat & Tactics", make liberal use of the critical hit system by upping the severity by one die category, and disallow saving throws vs death to avoid them. That will make combat a LOT more dangerous in your game, and give your players a reason to be polite to NPC guards who point crossbows at them.
I still remember fondly the first major boss fight I had because, despite it being solo boss against group, it resulted in the PERFECT team set-up for my character to one-shot (okay, two-shot) the final boss. The bard tagged the guy with Vicious Mockery, the warlock put up Hold Person. I had advantage, sharpshooter, Hunter's Mark, Colossus Slayer, and favored enemy to pile up.
Longbow goes bang bang. Squishy evil wizards don't take 40something damage in a turn and still live unless the DM buffs them up.
It's not a disaster, it's down to who is playing. I love 3 hours tactical combats, it's the reason I play. 90% of your character sheet and items and feats are for combat... if you don't like combat then there's no way on earth you would like one of my games... also there's no way I would enjoy 4 hour conversations, which is what some games seem to devolve into. It's personal taste... find a group that fits what you want and have at it.
How to fix dnd combat = play a better game.....the end.
Play a different game.
It's almost 50 years out of date. There are literally thousands of newer systems that do it far better.
5E mechanics are nothing like OD&D or AD&D. 20 years out of date would be more accurate 😊
@@garethhamilton1252ten
Idk, i had more fun trying to get Old Mods from 2008 with no documentation to run.
Also you dont just mag dump books onto some poor guy, you should slay the beast abd make your own system imo.
Which systems do you think work better?
@@TheTerrainWizard For me I am going to work on my own Board Game and try to sell it but rn, I kinda see DnD and PF2 being kinda the same level of potato.
You guys realize there are better combat focused games than TTRPGS(Cringe), right?
5e !! it sso horrible and borken that its the most popular RPg of all fuckin time!! OMG the game ist broken, people are jsut self entitled bitches :D who expect the game it play itself with zero offort on their part.. 5e is 100 times better than our old school 1e and 2e and we played that shit in cav es with rocks and drew pictures no the wall in chalk.
You're Awesome, I love your videos!!
4e's combat basically solves most of the issues with 5e's combat that is talked about here. It still really baffles me how people don't enjoy it
Yeah dnd 4e delivers a much better tactical heroic fantasy experience than dnd 5e.
I think, however, there’s a heavy bias towards narrative and rules light experiences on the Internet and these preferences lean in the opposite direction of DND 4e.
It is my personal experience, players like dnd 4e if they are willing to get past the difficulties of building the character without digital support.
I remember people ragging on 4e. Die i think at the end of the day no matter what you use, you will have to wrangle the rules by yourself.
Imo just make your own system and stuff.
4e really was much better than people think it was.
As someone who played a lot of it, it’s slow as molasses, everyone has too much HP, and every class played too similarly. Plus at low levels, you have about 2 fancy powers and then spend the rest of the combat spamming basics
But to be honest I feel a lot of that could be worked around by changing the math and introducing more interesting resource management options
Stop playing D&D