Better Dungeon Master Tactics!

How do you set up a tactical combat encounter for a TTRPG, like DnD 5E? We look at Unit Types, Enemy Positioning, and study some boss fights from Baldur's Gate 3 to look for tips! Get more out of your Dungeons and Dragons monster fights by understanding the fundamentals of tactics and deployment as a Game Master!
MONSTROUS KICKSTARTER PRELAUNCH: www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
0:00 - Intro
1:43 - TTRPGS VS Video Games
5:21 - Unit Types
12:18 - Unit Positions
20:12 - Act 1, Blighted Village
22:57 - Act 2, Moonrise Tower
27:03 - Act 3, High Hall Courtyard
30:10 - Dry Erase Marker Map
36:17 - VVT maps by Elven Tower
38:04 - After Crow
The Dry-Erase Mat that I used: paizo.com/products/btq02c1f?P...
The Monsters and Minis that I used in the video are Pathfinder Pawns: paizo.com/store/pathfinder/ac...
I often draw with Foam Grip Tubes from Impresa to ease my hand strain. You can buy them here: amzn.to/3KgpDXs
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Patreon: / mapcrow
Podcast: thesplatbook.com/episodes
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Itch Store: mapcrow.itch.io/
Merch Store: www.etsy.com/shop/MapCrow
Drivethru RPG: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
Animation by Onesleepybeetle: www.haileesmith.com/
Music from Final Fantasy Tactics by Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata
Additional Music by Alex Ansaldi: www.epidemicsound.com/artists...

[@ananaville1503]

"There's lots of different schools of thought on this. I tend to think the purpose of the GM is to add friction and challenge and obstacle, but not really to aim for fatality. Because if that's the point, it's trivially easy; I have infinite dragons!" I love this take, I'm showing it to my group immediately :D

[@tagg1080]

"i have infinite dragons" got a chuckle out of me. I am really excited by the fact that my current play group geniuniely thinks i am trying to kill them every session. Lets me know i am doing it right.

[@mapcrow]

For sure! That playful antagonism is a real joy sometimes!! Haha!!

[@archersfriend5900]

I completely agree.

[@livingverb8209]

I now aspire to create a campaign around the idea of "infinite dragons"

[@FoxyOwl]

I love the enemy archetypes you laid out here. They feel like they are incredably useful, especially if you think of them how the creature is used in the battle and not a universal rule. A direwolf could be a 'brute' in one fight, but a 'cavalry' in another. As players get more and more tools and defence what was an 'artillery' unit might be treated as a 'ranged' and so on.

[@mapcrow]

Heck yeah!! You are really getting it!! Glad this was useful!!

[@kyhumphrey5247]

Now all we need is a copy of The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, and the party will go running for the hills

[@Eiterra]

Yessss, I love seeing some attention to tactics. So much mapping advice is focused on how to make the map pretty. Back when I was really into video game mapping, there were all kinds of tutorials about map flow, risk vs reward, chokepoints, and things like that, which are hardly ever talked about in D&D pages. I hope to see more like this!

[@CarelessOcelot]

One thing DnD4E did well was try to teach GM's tactics through the use of common video game terms that were analogous to leaders, tank, DPS (ranged/melee), nukers, buffs/debuffers, healers, etc... Once you start doing that and begin planning encounter groups with a mix of monster types rather than say copy/paste monsters, the depth of many ttrpgs opens up greatly just from the mechanics angle alone.

[@zephyrstrife4668]

I agree, and after watching a Puffin Forest video about 4e, I really started to like the idea of minions as well, since they're generally thrown into a fight as cannon fodder but dangerous cannon fodder if the heroes aren't careful. People complained about things like trolls with the minion tag, but by the time you're at a level where the troll minions come into play, the players are supposed to be powerful enough to one-shot them

[@NeverUseAnApostrophe]

The plural of GM is GMs. An apostrophe is never used to pluralize.

[@stratmankudzu]

@@NeverUseAnApostrophe Language is a social construct used to communicate. Grammar is merely framework of general tendencies in language that helps with clarity. If you understood what was being written, there's no reason to be a pedant.

[@timblighton6216]

Facts

[@taccntb4345]

It’s sad that they are trying to use video game analogies….

[@aaronthomas3258]

Level 12 Encounter Tip: Just banish the demon. In BG3, if successful, the demon would be removed temporarily so you can focus on the other stuff. In TTRPG, if successful, so long as the caster doesn't lose concentration- the spawner is made a COMPLETE noncombatant, and would never return so long as you aren't in the Abyss.

[@maverick8203]

I know this is a minor thing, but the style of drawing the units on the paper as though the view is close to isometric is really cool!

[@zephyrstrife4668]

I actually did this once with a Gnoll warband generated through Volo's Guide to Monsters. Since it was supposed to be something where the village was doomed, i decided to tell everyone to make a quick 5th level character and it would give them a sense of the oncoming danger as these characters... Which were heroes in their own right... Were attacked by a vicious warband, fighting desperately to drive off the gnolls and save as many people as they could before their actual level 1 heroes could return to their hometown. The only hero that managed to survive was the 5th level fighter after he lost his arm to a Maw Demon that was traveling with the pack. The Gnoll Hunters with barbed arrows slowed people down, the dual-dagger wielding berzerkers slaughtered, the regular gnolls felt endless and the Flind was terrifying. It was an awesome way to start the campaign.

[@petsdinner]

I thoroughly loved this episode, so inventive and creative without getting bogged down and crunchy! Also fun tip: 35:39 if you need to increase the size of your play area but don't have the physical space to do so, consider using 10ft squares on your battle grid instead of 5ft. For outdoor encounters (or if you're really jammed for space), 20ft squares can also be used! Anyway I'm just gonna watch the whole thing again. Cheers Kyle!

[@crownlexicon5225]

I would likely do 15' and 30' squares before 20. Most creatures have a movement speed of 30, so 20' squares mean you move a square and a half. 15 means they could move 2 squares, or 4 if they Dash, and 30 means 1 square is 1 movement. Monks, barbarians, longstrider, and a handful of races disrupt that, but they'll do that with any size other than 5' anyway.

[@jabadahut50]

​​@@crownlexicon5225you could handle their non easy divisible speed by giving them an extra free action dash that recharges either with mathed out turn count or give them a d6 regen and the farther over without bieng easily divisible you can decrease the number they have to roll instead of the extra movement. It might give them a bit of an advantage early on but thats kinda what the extra speed is meant to do anyway.

[@timhaldane7588]

Oh, the Act 2 Moonrise encounter was FUN. I absolutely WRECKED them by plopping a Wall of Fire at the base of the stairs and staying just out of artillery range up the stairs. A smarter AI would have avoided walking through the flames into the narrow hallway to get me.

[@plop0r]

This is exactly what I did too lol

[@cryptonyzer8699]

I hated using that or cloud kill cuz harpers would run straight into it, and then I'd have to slaught everyone

[@KerrMalygos]

I just Ice stormed the whole place with evocation wizard gale and jumped on what was left standing with lae'zel and karlach

[@tonysaunders6078]

I like the longer videos. A lot of your videos feel very condensed, like you have more to say. It's good to hear you really explore a topic.

[@mapcrow]

Ha! Yeah, I've spent my whole like learning about this stuff, and I intend to keep on doing so. There is never enough time to say everything.

[@benjamingrissom1828]

I deployed a small summon army for that third act fight, met their chaff with my own across the entire battlefield while I punched up the right flank with the characters. I even remembered to throw my beholder bottle I kept forgetting about into their rear to cause havoc. Incredibly enjoyable encounter.

[@michellethomas6494]

I absolutely love this video and its formate. I think your ability to draw 3D but simple battle maps is extremely useful to understanding the flow of action - which makes sense with your bg as a storyboard artist. this makes me eager to see more battle design break downs, and trying to break then down myself.

[@mapcrow]

Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, analyzing combat encounter deployment turns out to be fun!! Who knew!! Haha

[@vincentprice713]

I always considered DnD tactics. Keeping track of stats of enemies, what their weak against, what they are resistant to. A lot of what is in this video pretty much shows it when you really get technical with the rules. It depends on the DM, the group and the type of campaign they are running. Some are very simple and easy to play so you can focus more on the RP while some love the harder and more rule oriented one that involves you to be more tact-filled in order to survive. It all depends on what you depends on what you consider tactics. My favorite moment when a friend of mine just started last year and was struggling a bit on combat and what he is allowed to do. He just sticks to basic moves and abilities for the first 2 to 3 sessions but then he finally had that break through that made him love DnD. The group was facing multiple invisible enemies so the players ran to the corner to try and limit the enemies access but it still was plenty of room for them to run in and attack. That was when my player asked what was around them. I told them since they were in the kitchen just the usual things you would see. Pots and pans, cooking utensils, some food.. "is there flour" I paused and said "You see a few sacks of flour stacked against the wall in the corner." Player then ask "Can I use my action to grab one of the sacks, cut it open and spread it a few feet on the floor in front of us?" I recently learned a tip from a fellow friend recently as I was still new to being a DM to not tell the what they can or can't do but to let the do it and let them deal with the consequence. I replied "It might be possible." After thinking for a moment he finally decides to try it. So now when the enemy tried to approach, they could see the foot prints. He was so elated when it worked. God I love DnD.

[@anselmcs595]

tbh, I am no dnd player, don't have any experience on this. I just let your videos play in the background while i draw maps and such. they are such an inspiration and your good-naturedness is very soothing. Thank you!

[@Athkore]

This was a fantastic video that showcased how to run tactics unbelievably well, your drawings with the commentary is so engaging and easy to follow. Its amazing how memorable these fights are just from the pictures, a real credit to BG3's design and how tactical encounters create engagement.

[@yaknow3397]

It's always so interesting to see people's philosophy with difficulty in DnD. Personally as a DM I like to make difficulty a choice, either a party can take a fight and gain treasure or avoid it to save their lives. Combat itself I think is best enjoyed with odds that can be tipped by player ingenuity; difficulty and the threat of death brings out the most in players and can make for really theatrical and memorable moments.

[@dittrich04]

Sounds like you'd love the OSR style of games like Shadowdark, OSE or Dungeon Crawl Classics. They do not balance encounters, but give players options to do a lot more than just combat as a resolution.

[@rlandsberg1]

Everything you draw in this video seems so simple, but is so well placed in perspective. It is effortlessly impressive.

[@mapcrow]

Thank you! 20 years of effort to get to that point, actually! Haha!

[@kicksywicksy]

Kyle, you keep producing GOLD! So pleased I found your channel.

[@jenniferanderson7010]

I liked using misdirection. I sometimes hid the "elite" boss dude/dudette into one of the other units, or hid them under stealth. I didn't make them impossible to defeat, just super hard to find. If they dressed similar to the "artillery" for the mage types and the infantry or ranged for the warrior types, sometimes I had one of each working together and did away with a brute sort.

[@tadkoz]

This channel ALWAYS delivers. Thank you so much, Kyle. This came at the perfect time, I was just thinking about how to incorporate the interesting and challenging elements of Baldur's Gate encounters into my own games. Looking forward to Monstrous.

[@Mario-bc9dc]

I always love your videos. So well put together! And they're always helpful, good job!

[@kevingriffith6011]

One thing I always do when making an encounter: Establish a "win condition" for each encounter. Basically, a win condition in this context is the overarching strategy that the encounter wants to play for in order to win. Let's say you have an encounter with a 5th level NPC wizard and an ogre. If the wizard opts to cast Haste on the Ogre you have a very different encounter than one where the wizard opts to cast Fireball. Any creature can be a win condition if you build an encounter that supports them correctly: If you want to win with a bunch of infantry, maybe deploy some fast-moving or sneaky monsters to ambush and distract spellcasters, or use creatures that can buff big groups. Want to win with a big juggernaut of a monster? Using a bunch of ranged minions to support him, or a caster for buffs. Keeping your win conditions varied will do a lot to ensure that your combat doesn't get stale, and that your players can't fall back on the same tactics over and over and over again. Unless it's Spirit Guardians.

[@mapcrow]

Yes! I talk about this in my dungeon design video from a few weeks ago and my Factions video!

[@OFFroadOFFcourse]

This video was brilliant. Love your channel man, good work!

[@aidanstokes3]

Hey man thanks for making such great content, always a joy to watch you draw!

[@mapcrow]

Thank you! Just some fun sketches in this one, a little different than the dragon painting from the last video! Haha

[@thetristan7391]

Every video of yours is a gold mine of TTRPG wisdom, and your arrows in 3D space are SO PERFECT

[@Try_Hard_Dad]

Love your art skills! the angeled perspective mid video was really impressive!

[@HierophanticRose]

This is exactly what BG3 inspired me to. That, and giving my players enough environmental hazards - either to fall for themselves, or use to their advantage

[@EnRandomSten]

Oh boy do I love seeing things like this! I've always made sure to vary the enemies in my campaigns as to where they make situational sense but still act as a cohesive 'unit' if you will. We tend to play more dark heresy and other sci-fi games and one of the challenges then is the fact that ranged weapons tend to lock down the fights. To avoid these lock downs I tend to have 2 priorites when designing the encounter: Good terrain and tactical "weakpoints". Starting with the first, good terrain. Make sure to avoid "kill boxes" where the enemies hog all the cover while the party is in the wide open. When designing the map, think of it a bit like a war game map for warhammer or something where you want an even spread of cover for both sides to dart between. The other big thing is elevation. Give the players the option to attack from above or below, place your infantry in awkward positions for your party to deal with, forcing them to have to send someone to deal with it. A rusty servitor with poor aim can be a surprisingly big threat when put on a catwalk just above and to the side of the party. As for the tactical weakpoints, think of what would be the ideal composition of units in your current encounter and then remove one part of it. You might have strong cavalry units flanking the party but no infantry to pin them down, allowing them to prepare for the attacks. The enemies may have a really powerful artillery unit but the terrain makes it awkward for them to attack unless they reach a pretty obvious vantage point on the map, giving the party a clear 'mini objective' in the encounter. The reason for these are to avoid stale encounters. A good and balanced group of enemies are effective because they are consistent but the dark side of consistency is monotony (idk how to spell that I'm sorry lol). As a DM you can fall into the trap of using the same enemy formation over and over because of worries that other formations may be too strong or weak. Similarly, the party may spot the formations and find a way to deal with them too easily, kill the artillery, avoid the ranged, tie down the cav and focus on the boss.

[@baydenwoodland1235]

Impressive and simply put. Thanks once again for this!

[@BernardoMachado]

amazing content! keep 'em coming

[@Zr0din]

Excellent video! Looking forward to setting this up more. A teacher friend of mine was just told their rent was gonna jump100/month. They can't be looking for a new place and starting a semester all at the same time. Be kind to teachers!

[@garrido_heron]

I love this channel. You have a profound RPG knowledge, vivid drawing, good music, great character. Thank you I learn alot here. Still in the process of creating my first boardgame and this is helping tons!!

[@mikithekynd]

My biggest takeaway from this is to give players pieces of intel about a big fight they're about to be a part of. I loved the perception/arcana checks in BG3 where characters mentioned the area is scorched or occasional "This is a perfect place for an ambush". But also random NPCs/animals/corpses you meet before the fight who tell you about the nearby encounter so you can prepare for it. For a player feeling like a master tactician during the fight is good, but knowing that your dialogue choices and awareness gave you an edge made it even better.

[@zerosum789]

Amazing video. Thanks for putting in so much effort to make something really useful for dms to enhance the game. My players will be thanking you.

[@TheDigitalFlip]

Dude I love that you are using the FFT ost for background music!!! Love your content in general and find it very inspiring and helpful I just couldn’t believe I heard the shop song there haha!

[@TronHammer]

Another really helpful video of which I’ll use the advice for my upcoming homebrew campaign :D

[@jefff6007]

Dude, this video is awesome. Great work

[@micahgreen409]

Thanks for the insight on tactics! I could really use some of this information to spice up my combat encounters!

[@XeroShifter]

I really love this walk-through of encounter design because it comes from a valuable angle that is often left unexplored. 4ED was severely under appreciated by the community as a whole, and there is so much there that really does work well for the game we actually play. It may have come off as video-gamey but that's because of the intense natural language of the rules in the previous edition contrasted it so hard. I think that 4ED was a masterclass in technical writing, and user focused design, even if there were some changes that I could live happier without.

[@michaelleue7594]

If your entire channel was just thoughtful map design processes, I'd watch every single thing you put out.

[@mapcrow]

Ha! I have a lot of that, if you check out the Map Making playlist!!

[@javiergege1062]

Excellent episode!! 👌

[@typoholic]

This is one of my favorite videos you’ve ever done, and you’ve done quite a few bangers. This introduction to unit types and their positioning is just what I needed. That being said, I wish the Dungeon Masters Guide - or some similar product - walked DMs through how to present a steady progression of tactical combat scenarios that both: train players how to handle them; and provide an increasing challenge based on character levels. Wouldn’t that be great? Or did I just hand you inspiration for your next dozen videos? 😃

[@alexanderwizardjar9540]

Loved this video, I'm definitely gonna try and implement all this info!

[@rafaeljoseph3951]

Incredible content as usual, this was super enlightening

[@mapcrow]

Glad you enjoyed it!!

[@Gibbons3457]

Surprised you didn't use Flee Mortals monsters as your examples, they'd have been perfect. Great video, as always.

[@mapcrow]

Big fan of Flee Mortals! This video wasn’t really about stats or specific abilities, just an introduction to tactics. I will explore specifics in future videos, and I’ll probably talk more about Flee Mortals then.

[@Gibbons3457]

@@mapcrow Oh I was just considering they all have roles predescribed, I was sort of surprised when you didn't mention them as an example but Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't use Flee Mortals so it made sense in the end that you kept it general.

[@user-yy8wn7bi9c]

I'm so excited to put this into practice! It would be cool to have a poster of this (each class and a standard layout) as an add-on alongside your Kickstarter! I already kind-of redrew it, but would love something I could put on my walls

[@RenaissanceManchild856]

This is such a phenomenal video, absolute gold. Thank you for making my day!

[@mapcrow]

Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers!!

[@JohnSmith-nd5yc]

Yes! Please more videos like this

[@juliusjokela5025]

Really well put, concise and to the point explanation of battlefield tactics for ttrpg's! I'd love to see a GM tutorial on how to introduce these kind of tactics to your players, since all the frills go to waste if your players refuse to think and just insist on rushing the center stage and get frustrated with the difficulty or, optionally, the GM is forced to play along with the suicide lunge so they don’t get wiped out. My way, I suppose, is just blatantly teaching them the meta way. Panning out the view for them, explaining these elements that go into it and asking what approaches they see for themselves in the scenario, hoping the perspective becomes automated for them as they become familiar with the concept.

[@DanieloLobo]

One of the most useful D&D videos I’ve ever seen. Well done.

[@mapcrow]

Glad it was helpful! Cheers!!

[@hdpinck2278]

This was hugely helpful! Ive been thinking about how to incorporate lessons from BG3, i appreciate the breakdown

[@mapcrow]

Glad it was helpful! I knew I couldn't be the only one thinking about BG3 this way! haha!

[@maximusprime6768]

Turns out I had unintentially been using some of the enemy types/roles in my campaigns as I was getting bored of my lack of veriety, but seeing this video has helped improve my ideas on how to do combat encounters! I recal making something akin to a fusion of the Brute and Caverly; a Hobgoblin using a Giant Boar as a mount. They were deadly AND quick, but to not make them OP I added a condition that since they're technically 2 different enemies that if the rider was killed first and left the Boar on its own, it would finish the last "command" it was given and then focus on Disengaging/Dodging since it is still a wild animal in a chaotic enviroment with combat and shouting etc. My players still dreaded seeing a Boar Rider in future combats though, they were rather nasty enemies :P

[@f.a.santiago1053]

Hahahahaha "and figuring out what the repeatable patters are, you might also enjoy MOOONSTROOOOUS!!!" Also... I LOVE the FFT music!!

[@ThePalePrince]

Wow you did masterfully with this. My friends and I have been RAVING how many lessons there are in this game for DMs, this just clarified it so concisely that I feel I can internalize the lessons now. Thank you! My players will forever hate you for making combat much deadlier

[@mapcrow]

Oh thank you so much!! That is very kind and encouraging!!

[@ThePalePrince]

@@mapcrow Very welcome. I'll keep sharing your content with other DMs so you get more views and I hopefully get better DMs 😅

[@RicksCreations]

Another great video Kyle! Very helpful, keep up the good work :)

[@mapcrow]

Thank you so much! This video was a bear, so these words are very encouraging!!

[@RicksCreations]

@@mapcrow I can imagine!! The amount of work you put into this one really shows!

[@masterbuilder7577]

I happened to run across the flee mortals book right as I was finishing baldurs gate 3 and trying to work some of the stuff I learned from the encounters in there into my campaigns to help spice up combat, and I feel like the lessons learned in there such as the sense of environmental combat it gives (something that never came up much in my games before playing it but I have really enjoyed implementing opportunity's for creative environmental advantages in combat for both sides after the fact) combine really well with the action oriented creatures and ideas from that book helping to make combat more interesting for players without having to resort to pitting them against overwhelming odds like I used to in order to provide challenge. really great book to add some more tactical depth to combat and just some fun twists on how standard monsters function to help more experienced players still get that sense of wonder at trying to figure out a new creatures move set for the first time.

[@Muropfel]

I love map videos like this, since I'm playing online and use Krita as a map tool. I like drawing maps myself, so advice like this helps me create somewhat fast maps with an acceptable level of detail without needing to draw the map too long

[@adamleonardo7303]

While the content of the video is nothing new to me, I absolutely love your placement of the various songs from Final Fantasy Tactics throughout.

[@knight_lautrec_of_carim]

I really like your point of: The players will put in ALL the resources trying to burst the boss to 0HP! The DM knowing the player's resources is very important

[@benjaminparker5044]

These diagrams are absolutely amazing

[@Cardinalsqr]

⁠Personally, I love the tactical aspect and really like playing dnd combat like a proper wargame, alongside the fun role play and storytelling. Playing dnd like that makes it a perfect fusion of both styles of games, making it a really great experience. It being almost “Warhammer with a great story alongside” is really nice

[@yariko3438]

Amazing video!! You always do a good job explaining things in a very easy way to understand, that's pretty rad! I liked that the whole vid reminded me of Fire Emblem mechanics a TON, you should definitively give it a try if you haven't! (there's tons of games btw, they're all super good!).

[@mapcrow]

Love Fire Emblem! Really enjoyed Three Houses, but I’ve played a bunch of em!

[@irinore]

One of my DMs has been talking about introducing more tactically thinking enemies into combat for a while now, so I'll send this to him

[@MegaDieseldriver]

This is incredible!

[@otislundahl8712]

This is super helpful as I'm getting into the Lancer RPG, which has very challenging tactics

[@noreaelvago4972]

I'll definitely use this way of thinking about battle encounters from now on, the seven types of enemies will really help me, I'm not usually sure what to do with each enemy, so they end up all doing the same, but I hope that using this will help my managment skills

[@harkejuice]

I think the Blighted Village would be fine for in-person, but in that case you'd get some rumors about the sneakier entrances to the combat or a hint in the form of some ragamuffin in the alley offering a key to the alleyway gate for coin or something of the sort.

[@samdouglas32]

With a bit more context that encounter could have been fine, but it felt arbitrary and a bit mean-spirited to include so early. Why am I even going to this village? I walked straight in because I had freed Sazza and figured this must be the goblin camp she mentioned. I was disappointed when I failed the persuasion roll, the fact I was a friend to the goblins was not even acknowledged, then my party got obliterated before their turn. Overall I felt the game's encounter balance was way too deadly and eventually switched to easy mode which felt a bit closer to a tabletop experience -- exhaustively searching the multiverse for a timeline where the heroes win isn't my idea of fun, nor in the spirit of an RPG.

[@dasutin]

The Final Fantasy Tactics music is clutching me by the body and soul.

[@mapcrow]

Haha!! I just HAD to!! Heehee

[@OwlOwlington]

I love that the background music is from Final Fantasy Tactics. Great game to go along with a great video!

[@itDingle]

Awesome video. Explained well, the doodles were great, and it all had final fantasy tactics music behind it

[@mapcrow]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@paulorodrigosilvadecampos4278]

Beautiful video

[@DarKnightStudios101]

Dude. The Zodiac Brave death knell as the intro? That is some fuckin deep magic right there. Liked. Subbed.

[@denolaj]

Final Fantasy Tactics music for the background music? Nice detail! You took me by surprise and I was open for your flanking charge!

[@jordanfish3938]

Great use of the FFT music and SFX!

[@lotrotk375]

Nice pathfinder pawns!

[@paulh3892]

Killer video!

[@RussellHowes-ky8ux]

Great video.

[@nyarparablepsis872]

I was content with not playing BG3 after an initial binge (that led me to beginning of act 3). I was happily typing away at my theory chapter. And then I watched this video. Brilliant. I will never look at encounters the same (so many possibilities!), and I really want to finish BG3 as well. Theory chapter: forgotten.

[@mapcrow]

Yeah! I think many combat designs in the game show world class examples in the genre!!

[@chrislemaster75]

Love it, thanks.

[@donaldshults2230]

It'd be nice to see more modules that lays out the units of each faction the way we see at around @11:20 to give you a nice overhead view of how to run most of the encounters in the book in a way that is interesting with one step less interpretation.

[@mapcrow]

Right!? I think it would make setting up and running a tactical game much easier and more fun!! I might try doing that in some future videos! Cheers!!

[@matthewparker9276]

I think all published adventures should outline a basic tactic for each group of enemies. Not a full battle plan, but one or two sentences to give an idea of the intent of the encounter. Along the lines of "the orcs will attack the players on sight, but try to flee as soon as one dies," or "the mimic will remain disguised until a player is in reach and is engaged in combat with another enemy." Let the GM know what those units were put there to do.

[@donaldshults2230]

@@matthewparker9276 For me, I'm often running things in a sorta emergent way with random encounters, factions and interections, so I dunno how often I would use that for MY games (not to say other people shouldn't have such things) but often a stat block in modules (especially ones with new/unique monsters) is hard for me to parse in these kinds of games. So a simple bestiary that noted some ways to use each creature type in combat would help me run better combats with less prep.

[@wingw3844]

We need more of this tactic map

[@davidharper238]

90% of my time on KZbin is watching stuff while I work, so videos that are 40+ are ideal. I also like them.

[@alexmetea3586]

Top marks for using Final Fantasy tactics music and sound effects.

[@Warghoul]

Great video

[@joshs_boxes]

Excellent insights here. I have never tried tactical grid combat, but this video makes me want to try it out

[@mapcrow]

It’s fun! Just don’t be surprised if it takes a bit longer than usual the first few times.

[@joshs_boxes]

Awesome, thanks for the heads up!

[@anathema1828]

Excellent!

[@markfarnsworth3340]

Great video made even better by the Final Fantasy tactics background music 😎

[@mapcrow]

Glad you liked it! Cheers!!

[@SneakyNinjaDog]

Really enjoyed this topic. There was a time (around 4e) where some people were really really opposed to talk this kind of strategy. The ones that felt 4e was too videogamey. You are indeed pulling from a videogame for inspiration (albeit a roleplay one) and I think it is really clever to try and learn from videogames as long as you keep in mind the inherent differences as you also point out. "Ehm GM, can we load in our save from before this fight started?"

[@tjschess7365]

You write with mustard, love it

[@K-H-28]

I really enjoyed this video and your explanations of monster archetypes and tactics. I thought it was very helpful! Out of curiosity, what're your thoughts on Paizo's pawn packs? I'm thinking of getting something like that for home games

[@mapcrow]

I really like the pawns! I think they can get a tad too specific, but I love the ones that come with the old starter kit!

[@GetIntoItDuhh]

best episode yet

[@mapcrow]

Thank you so much!!

[@edm00se]

Thank you for calling out the spoiler sections so nicely and adding chapter markers.

[@mapcrow]

You are so welcome! I like to add chapter markers for longer videos any way, but it was extra important for this video! Cheers!

[@edm00se]

@@mapcrow absolutely. I was happy to be able to gauge where things where based on the spoiler warning, I just started act 3 so knowing to skip a chapter worked out great. Thanks!

[@byodinsbeardrpg]

The Elite looks like the King of Town and I'm here for it.

[@mapcrow]

Doohoohoo

[@RevRaak]

Have a great semester!

[@mapcrow]

Thank you!! I will!!

[@zachmacneil6975]

I like the use of the final fantasy tactics soundtrack here

[@knife9185]

I didnt really have much trubble with moonrise just going throught the front door. BUT my multiplayer campaigns all did you give me an interesting perspective on the idea of 'Intended' Solutions

[@caspernoir4028]

its funny the positioning of the NPCs at 16:57 is nearly identical to the last fight on the Nautilus in BG3, some good game design right there

[@Jerry7Msa]

I am curious where you got the Inspiration for the Spawner Sketch :D Thank you for the effort! It is greatly appreciated, I was thinking about how to implement some things from BG3, like the shared Inspiration that everybody can use. This goes deeper and is very helpful.

[@mapcrow]

I really didn’t have any ideas for how to draw the spawned, it’s just a cross between a devil and a wizard. I thought a regular devil was too similar in shape to the Minotaur. Haha