D&D Story: The Obelisk Encounter

[@janNowa]

When the guy yelled "TAKE THE OBELISK DOWN" I expected you to say that the other groups of players got the same idea and every group started breaking the obelisk and dying horribly. Now THAT would have been hilarious.

[@JoanieDoeShadow]

Milla Saunders That's what I was expecting too.

[@Interfect727]

Yeah, that was my expectation as well. I was thinking at that point, "Oh boy, this is going to be a Multi-TPK!"

[@RurouniKalain]

Same actually. Thought the same.

[@maximumfun1078]

and in the end, no one died ...

[@safe-keeper1042]

I was 100% sure that was what he was leading up to.

[@MegaChickenfish]

“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.” ― Terry Pratchett

[@jacobfreeman5444]

It would retroactively spawn the idiots who will press the button.

[@zynx1828]

I mean who wouldn't?

[@Queenofbean_]

Wise words my doode Wise words

[@Pundae]

That book was brilliant

[@StealthMarmot_]

GNU Terry Pratchett

[@Josephine_de_Beauharnais1763]

To be honest, when that one guy yelled "Let's take this obelisk down!" I half expected for other tables' players to hear this and be like: "Oh, you can attack the obelisk?" *Every table starts attacking the obelisk*

[@fabiolean]

This is what I thought was going to happen, too.

[@proclarushtaonasat]

the bad guy was traveling the multiverse, and the different tables are essentially alternate universe versions of each other. So it would have made sense lore wise, for a events in one universe causing a ripple effect across the multiverse, resulting not only in a TPK of that party, but also the death of all alternate universe versions of that party.

[@CentralNexusPrime]

Ditto. Followed by the GMs blaming you for the Obelisk Apocalypse

[@thunderborn3231]

@@CentralNexusPrime i find it interesting that he was specifically told to kill them if they fucked with the obelisk and then he just didn't

[@MetalB1985]

@@thunderborn3231 It sounded like he tried, but the setup of the fight and the parties defensive abilities made it very hard to kill the party in the time limit.

[@namename2186]

"You feel evil eminating from the obelisk" that is not scaring the players off that is giving a plot hook

[@southanime]

The main gm said publicly that traps can insta kill PC's. So, it should have been a hint

[@rokusho6667]

Sigh…. Planned a nice city to explore during Halloween with all sort of food and stalls with a rich history based off revolution and genocide for non humans fighting for their rights… Dwarf with int score of the number after 2 …dropped trout…and crapped in the fountain… I’m front of the whole festival…

[@wormwoodbecomedelphinus4131]

@@southanime it could have had better warning. "You sense an overwhelming sense of powerful evil. You are an ant, it is a mountain."

[@skell6134]

@@wormwoodbecomedelphinus4131 Uhh... it explains it much less good Im sure there sort of enough enemies in D&D who are much bigger than players but still killable

[@daltooinewestwood6380]

@@wormwoodbecomedelphinus4131 welcome to tomb of ahnihilation. Literally the single worst designed piece of garbage ever to be printed. Gary Gygax made this just so he could have fun murdering his players because he was one of “those” DMs who think the game is Player Vs DM in a battle to the death

[@SpaceKingofSpace]

> Spend half the video talking about how this obelisk will absolutely kill the party. > Doesn't kill anyone. Amazing.

[@snowboundwhale6860]

@Johnny W everyone just gets a temporary +1 wisdom and learns not to destroy random ominous magical artifacts

[@coromo4978]

i know simply amazing

[@EricTalwin]

Is this 5th edition, cus if it is, that's probably why it ended this way (if not the rest of my comments might not apply). Monsters have tons of health and do tiny amounts of damage relative to PCs in 5th. Thus there is a low chance of killing the PCs. Ever. Then you where forced to add timer to the match. In this situation it makes sense that the monster can never do enough damage to kill anyone in time and the PCs can't inflict enough damage to kill the creature either. I know there are exceptions to this, but it seems to be in the design philosophy of 5th. If you fallow the rules as written its pretty hard to kill PCs unless they really do something stupid or you single someone out in a heavy handed way. I feel that a lot of this is done in the design to create an illusion of danger for th PCs (but not actual danger) and also to prevent a new DM (not implying Puffin) from accidentally killing PCs. Addressing the disappointed out there concerning the anticlimax. I honestly think this is a good story even if we don't get what we probably all wanted to see happen. He is just telling it like it happened. It may not be as exciting as TPK, but it shows the nature of the system, it helps us see how to design a better encounter. Honestly he was sorta forced to run this it wasn't his design, so its not his fault the PCs didn't all get slaughtered like they where supposed too. Obviously the designer of the encounter didn't do the math ahead of time. I personally would make sure to make a really over powered monster if I really wanted to have all the PCs die if they made said mistake. Or just remove this object entirely. Unless you like the stalemate thing. Thats the great thing about D&D, you can tweak it to be what your group is looking for, you imagination is the only limit. From my almost 20 years of playing through many other systems and from 2nd edition until the present, I feel that 5th is a more "player friendly" ,as some might say, and that can be good or bad depending on your play group. I for one increased damage across the board in my game( Damage of PCs and Monsters) with player consent ( by about 60%) so PCs feel more danger (usually increasing excitement) but at the same time can get awesome sudden victories with a lucky crit. It also makes combat quicker, which is good for my group, but would not work for everyone. People criticizing this need to remember that G.M.ing is hard, and the P.C. are not always gonna do what you want, and thats okay. We get to make these stories together, and have these weird unexpected things happen, sometimes it makes things really annoying but a lot of the time a whole new story gets made that I never imagined that is way better than I could have thought off. And that is what I love the most. I like to have things unfold organically and usually use my notes and encounter plans as guidelines rather than rail roads, so I could probably never be able to run some other persons prescripted event like you did and I give you credit for dealing with it. Thanks for your time, your effort, and your insightful video.

[@AB-bo5fz]

@@EricTalwin Thaco... Having established with that single word I how far back I can claim to go... Having a a "party wipe" encounter.. bad GM.. that fails to kill anybody.. still bad GM... that does nothing but sidetrack the group from the adventure with pointless combat.. Contemporary GM... A good GM knows how to progress the story not waste everybodys time with a few rounds of ultimately meaningless "you dumb, roll for initiative bitches" bullshit combat

[@chainer8686]

I recently came to the realization that I have to up the difficultly of combat encounters becausemy players always insist on circumventing things like rolling stats at session zero and building only optimal characters (who are sometimes hyper focused on just one approach to combat or style), right now I started a new campaign using the variant rule of a short rest is equal to a night of sleep, and a long rest is equal to taking a week off of adventuring. I do use the CR system, but usually rate most fights in the harder range. Also combat that isn't in confined spaces can span entire towns or swaths of land so range is actually a factor as opposed to all enemies constantly being close enough for 1 fireball to get them all.

[@FlameDarkfire]

"Let's boogie," is my favorite way to call for initiative

[@marvelprodigy199]

That sounds fun imma do that

[@n80_]

Clickity clackity your about to get attackety -jocat

[@AppleOfThineEye]

@@n80_ Stop signing your comments. We can see your account name.

[@n80_]

@@AppleOfThineEye I was just crediting him

[@AppleOfThineEye]

@@n80_ Okay. I misunderstood.

[@Eleven217]

Main GM: nah, it's too complicated , IT WON'T happen. Me: I find your lack of faith in human stupidity......disturbing.

[@chaosmastermind]

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.

[@zacharywalker9176]

Cough area 51 raid cough

[@AsaelTheBeast]

Well, as Albert Einstein used to say : There are only two things which are infinite. The universe, and human stupidity, but I'm not sure about the universe.

[@yaronsinger7271]

@@AsaelTheBeast You are truly right

[@nene_san]

@@joshlexcelius2573 tho irrelevant but correct

[@azurebalmung4520]

"What's your name?" ".....what good does it do for a cow to know the name of its butcher? It's still going to end up as steak."

[@DoctorCFlare]

Very insightful

[@neinherman9989]

I'm stealing that

[@alexross1816]

I feel no shame in saying I'm going to steal that.

[@radio6sussex823]

Ah, a yugioh falsebound kingdom fan. Excellent

[@oncewasjosh]

Going to use that for a campaign when the players ask that 👌

[@Cabooseisdabest]

Immune to physical and magical damage? Should've started throwing insults take him down with the ol' emotional damage.

[@brosephnoonan223]

Hugh Taylor Not immune totally. You need magical weapons (or equivalent) to really damage it physically, and it reflects spell attack rolls (flamebolt, eldritch blast, scorching ray) so you need spells that don't require rolls to attack (Magic Missile, Fireball, Disintergrate).

[@Alphenis]

In truth, that demon isn't really immune to damage. It have resistance to most damage type (damage is halved), 18 AC (hard to hit), the Magic resistance ability (double his chance to avoid spells effects), and about 180 hit point. It's "merely" very hard to kill.

[@TheObsessedGardener]

Or bullied him relentlessly online for some good old psychological damage..

[@fastjimmy6167]

Yeah, Puffin really DM’d this wrong. Yes, the creature has Resistance to non-magical weapons. And it is resistant to fire and cold. And it has Magic Resistance, but all Magic Resistance does is give the creature Advantage on Saves from spells. So if the party attacked with, say, a chromatic orb that did Lightning damage, it would hurt it just fine (an AC of 18 for a party high enough level to be in the Tomb isn’t impossible to hit). Also, how does no one have magic weapons by this point? They are way past the level where they should have some options to shut this down easily.

[@merrickmiller1224]

Its the Death House Shambling Mound problem all over again,

[@diamondaries9966]

There’s a military saying that goes “never expect a plan to survive contact with the enemy” I have found out this is also true for players of ttrpgs

[@RAFMnBgaming]

Never expect a plan to survive contact with the rank-and-file.

[@rbck8826]

Never expect a plan to survive contact with the PCs

[@RAFMnBgaming]

@@rbck8826 Including, of course, ones hatched by the PCs.

[@Ouium]

Enemy? After my two years in the army, I could say that plan will be ruined way before enemy. The second it is passed down chain of command it just dead :3

[@whatwhat98]

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong Murphy's Law

[@jillmo6458]

DEMON: MY WORK HERE IS DONE. PARTY: BUT YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. DEMON: *LEAVES*

[@bradwolf07]

JAY EM Demon: I've got a t-time with a Teifling Bard and Dwarf Cleric in 20 minutes, so bye

[@panosyannatos5721]

I think there's so much bad DMing going on in this story, right from the start. ToH has always been badly designed, but you could have fun with it. This handling is even worse. "If this unheard-of thing happens, then.... you can TPK freely! - Ok, scrape some spells and potions, moving on."

[@butcanyoudothis3320]

To be fair, if the place is deadly, they did just wait spells and supplies on a fight that they couldnt even win.

[@ac0tactics]

As a dm I’d say, roll a survival check. If they roll high enough they can grab shards of the stone that was holding him. Make a weapon that negates demonic resistance. So that they have something the other players don’t even if it’s for a highly situational encounter.

[@Virjunior01]

He scared em shitless. That's what.

[@tmoore2406]

Do we get any XP No Any magical items NO What just happened? NO

[@darklightstudio]

LOL - And also on the animation, it said 10,500xp for the obelisk encounter.

[@timbo3286]

@@darklightstudio In DND you usually get XP for KILLING an encounter, this one just signed off after a while. The only way to actually KILL this thing would be by using attacks/spells/invocations that straight up IGNORE his resistance to, basically, everything. And the only character class that can do that, at least the only i can think of, would be a hellfire Warlock using the Hellfire blast(Ignores Resistance to fire and forces anything which is immune to take HALF the damage from fire), which would be a VEEEERY high risk for him as well(with that being said i only know the 3.5 rulebook and that might've been changed). So there would be A THEORETICAL approach to kill that Demon though for the Warlock it's a high chance of getting himself KILLED.

[@silentdrew7636]

@@timbo3286 no, you get XP for *overcoming* the encounter, which they did.

[@paulman34340]

@@silentdrew7636 SURVIVING BECAUSE THE ENEMY FUCKED OFF IS NOT "OVERCOMING"

[@chaosmastermind]

@@paulman34340 It is if that is the only possible positive outcome.

[@natekite7532]

When the party said "Let's knock this obelisk over!!!" I was hoping/expecting that the other parties would agree and go back to start knocking over the obelisk

[@KalibreSteelblast]

_"Let's be real- that's probably not gonna happen."_ I'm curious as to how long this DM has been at it, to say something so foolish. Because it's either that, or he hasn't DM'd a good group.

[@wardedthorn6523]

No kidding. The one thing you can consistently expect from players as a DM is that they will *never* do exactly what you expect.

[@Abdega]

Or he was *specifically* tempting fate in hopes to jinx it

[@lileggplant3299]

yeah I had someone random I met choose to piss on my charecter when I encountered a magic rug that wrapped around me. people do the most random shit man

[@Abdega]

Lil Eggplant Was your character named “The Dude” or some variant of that?

[@lileggplant3299]

@@Abdega I don't remember, it was middle school

[@DrkValCain]

For how anticlimactic the end of this video is, I still find myself coming back time and time me again

[@isenokami7810]

The fight might have been anticlimactic, but the buildup was still excellent. Besides, there’s a sort of taboo charm to when any game, be it video or tabletop, has these “you’re asking to die if you mess with it” encounters. If someone made a video game off this module, I guarantee players would actively try to take it down. Not just survive, actually kill the demon.

[@noahhastings6145]

"What loot do we get?" "Your lives! Yaaaaaayyyyy!!!"

[@jacobellis2313]

At least until they beat the dungeon have low hp, and no spells left then zulken comes back for them with friends. Congrats you won!

[@erikhermansen3431]

So nothing of value?

[@UltraWeebMaster]

You don’t even need to name the demon. I just avoid the awkwardness of finding a name by using the phrase “I don’t converse with my next meal.”

[@dylanenriguehuntington2908]

Not to mention that knowing a demos name can give you power over it

[@kaarpiv375]

And bullshit and on your side* is much better than bullshit and out to getcha.

[@capkovodna]

Nice, I am totally using that one in my own game. Thanks for the tip!

[@dsandoval9396]

He should've said, "Just call me Tazerface."

[@i-am-your-conscience]

In other systems, if you as DM accidentally named the demon and told it the players, they would have advantage on fighting him for knowing his name.

[@araknidsGrip]

I SUMMON OBELISK THE TORMENTOR!

[@HansLemurson]

You botch the ritual and summon a Halfling who is an Obelisk Tormenter.

[@kriddius]

I would have taken one look at this "unwinnable" monster stat block and done exactly that :D Homebrew Obelisk and One Punch Man the whole damn party

[@berpipo]

TOOOOOOOOOORMEEEEEEEEEENT

[@mr.outlaw231]

AH! Obelisk! It is not possible. No one has been able to summon him!

[@kemix1006]

I PUSH OVER THE OBLELISK THE TORMENTOR WITH MY ENTIRE PARTY!

[@thexsoar]

No good plot line survives first contact with the PC's.

[@blarg2429]

Nothing of any kind survives first contact with the PCs. It's like the story of King Midas, only not.

[@dustrockblues7567]

Sad but true.

[@somedudewatchintv5297]

Thexsoar the Bearded I don't know about that, Team Four Star seem to do fine. You just need to make the story elastic to a certain degree and have multiple routes.

[@blablubb4553]

True. Wasn't a good plot line or encounter this time, though. Just a bad adventure designer's brainfart.

[@mermidion7552]

Somedude Watchintv Very True, though they are the rare good Kind of Players and not the average, i mean they live with the dice rolls and don't complain, turn bad rolls into funny Antics, don't try to Powergame and share the Spotlight evenly with each other. they even give away Magic artifacts without a second thought if it is convinient to the plot...These Kind of Players are really hard to find nowadays.

[@eryvac0074]

This reminds me of something I've run in a campaign. The town the group was in has a large statue that the town had been built around. One of my players was stupid and tried to blast it with fireball. It cracked and shattered, showing a lich that had been trapped for millenium... They players didn't win

[@flamingrubys11]

same but with a fucking universal deith who had been asleep and did not like waking up and this same deity shows up continously through our campaigns hes like a half dragon i guess you could say woth the ability to change some.parts of his body at will, thankfully for the party they had a dragonborn pc who was quite diplomatic and maged to calm the deity down, i told them they had accidentally triggered a optional.super boss and a slight plot before the deity flew away into the mountains to continue his rest

[@FogelTheVogel]

"What is our reward?" "Your reward is that you are still alive"

[@OneDarkCutie]

Robert K low roll smh

[@BD-uo9po]

And 10300 exp

[@someanimelover8602]

B' D Nah they didn’t beat it, them getting to keep their characters for a while longer is the only reward

[@AppleOfThineEye]

@@someanimelover8602 But see, that's just bad DMing. I'm not going to argue about this. It's just bad DMing. That is all.

[@professeurgideere5856]

@@someanimelover8602 They did. Solving an encounter through any mean is getting the exp.

[@brycevo]

I'm surprised your table kept insisting on continuing after having very obvious hints the obelisk is evil and they should leave. But then again this is DnD, and Fat Loot.

[@Ankoku9999]

Bryce Mckenzie you are speaking logic by the story one can guess that's not exactly their forte.

[@leyrua]

I kept asking my players, "How high are you flying above the water?" The one who never got the hint was the one who was rolling up a new character by the end of the night.

[@Charon85Onozuka]

How is this surprising? There are some players whose goal is "leave no stone unturned." Even if the big red button says that anyone who pushes it will die, someone will want to push it just to see what happens.

[@TheDonorak]

My paladin would have charged the thing straight up to destroy it. Just saying that’s his lawful good side.

[@danielgehring7437]

In one game I played in, we got a book that literally said "Do Not Read, You Will Die." Two of my party members actually fought over which one would get to read it. The.. the winner died, obviously.

[@TheTrueGlaukos]

you know, I can just imagine how this went down. Bard: hey, that obelisk looked sketchy, I think it's a trap so imma cast identify Cleric: oh, there's something evil in there? I'll smash it, that way it can't sneak up on us later someone else: well that didn't work, let's try tipping it over chaos ensues

[@gremlinwc8996]

Barbarian like

[@qualandrew201494]

TBH sounds like a metagame. No way on earth you turn back to do that.

[@ob2kenobi388]

... I mean... you don't have to imagine. Puffin told you.

[@yanivrubin4166]

"The players actualy arrived in the tomb" Quite an impressive feat, actually

[@GeoffreyToday]

Definitely. I was so let down by Tomb of Annihilation. Our group played it for what seemed like forever without ever getting to the tomb. It was so boring and tedious that it literally killed the campaign and we just stopped playing.

[@tsifirakiehl4250]

@GeoffreyToday Sounds like your DM wasn’t too good at their job.

[@GeoffreyToday]

@@tsifirakiehl4250 actually, he's probably the single best DM I've ever played with, and judging from the number of upvotes on the original comment of this thread, it looks to me like this is not a particularly uncommon assessment of ToA.

[@toxicmongerofthehatefulbro5745]

Look, I wont lie. If you mention there's an Obelisk barely standing up on it's self in the middle of a courtyard I would knock it over because I enjoy knocking over towers. It's a habit I can not break. It is LITERALLY ASKING TO BE PUSHED OVER!

[@SickxSoul]

Imperial Fists, my habit has always been triggered by a "Don't do it." And I'll stand there looking at the thing occasionally a party member will mutter a "you're not gonna do it" and then, well really what other choice do I have but to do it?

[@Ike_of_pyke]

I'd cast sleep on you & everyone in the group every turn until success if you went through the steps.

[@Falcodrin]

Its like a big red button IT HAS TO BE DONE

[@3rdDayfan777]

I designed an entire puzzle around the concept of "don't do it!" I made a huge tree in the middle of the room and described the relative position of the sun. The players felt very clever when they chopped down the massive tree and shot the (illusory) sun out of the sky without me giving any indication that they should. Little did they know that it was actually they way to solve the puzzle. I that my players are going to take the "why would you do that?" option.

[@ShadeSlayer1911]

At high levels, it's unlikely that you'd be able to make more than one person sleep, if even. Sleep is super useful at low levels, and that's it.

[@dogcheese5050]

When I DMed for my cousin she SKIPPED fighting some goblins to save these people who were her friends so she could go into the village and. . .Buy clothes. Yep.

[@tybronx2446]

Chaotic Pure

[@abrahamalfaro7908]

My players skipped rescuing the SCREAMING CAPTIVE in order to loot the treasure chests.

[@Leaddevo]

@@abrahamalfaro7908 obviously. priorities my friend. shiny first, screamy later.

[@BlackburnBigdragon]

I still remember, back in the 80's, playing the original D&D, what my players did to Acererak's OWN tomb, the original "Tomb of Horrors". They went into the thing with all kinds of equipment and took the tomb so damn slowly, it was painful. They used their equipment like archaeologists poking into things to check for safety and such, using rope to rope off safe paths, etc.. When they finally had a safe, roped off, path through a good portion of the tomb, they just blocked off the rest. Then they started giving guided tours of the place for gold. They ended up getting more wealth this way than they ever would have gotten by exploring the damn place, and by encountering less danger. This was the kind of enterprising, scoundrel players I played with. They always looked at every single place and situation that they were in and looked for some kind of way to milk all the gold they could out of it.

[@zachspears5244]

jeez, that's just insane. did they have to sign a waiver, like, 'we're not responsible if you unleash an ancient evil upon the multiverses as we know it and doom all life to oblivion or enslavement, or any combination of such events.'? or was it more along the lines of if little timmy want's to play with the phylactery, then, by golly he can.

[@StarboyXL9]

Lol, those players were like "play D&D? Get on our level noob! We're gonna play Museum Tycoon!"

[@BlackburnBigdragon]

In the "Tomb of Horrors", there wasn't any ancient evil to be unleashed (unless you counted the Demi-litch, which in itself was pretty much a trap, and my players never even WENT into that room. They blocked off the section of the tomb containing it.). The whole tomb was just traps. Many of which were insta-kills. But my players having been burned by so many dungeons before were paranoid by the point they got to this one and handled this one like bosses. Most players would just wander around, touch everything, and just stumble into every trap and instantly die. My players wouldn't even MOVE or set foot into hallways or room, often for days at a time, using all kinds of elaborate equipment that they brought with them or would McGuyver themselves to investigate whether they could even enter or even step one foot ahead. The exploration was painstaking, but their reward, as I said was great. They made a LOT of money off of this place. My players were just... that way. "We're going to handle this SMART and we're going to exploit this for as much money as we possibly can." Every dungeon crawl resulted in them slowly and deliberately testing EVERYTHING. Every brick in the wall. Every floor brick. Every cieling brick... Roping things off...All while keeping things safe for themselves... etc.. "Tomb of Horrors" isn't the only dungeon that they turned into a tourist "trap" either (See what I did there?).

[@BlackburnBigdragon]

Yep. My players were kind of smart. They knew that money was the way to get that sweet castle they wanted, and those servants they wanted, and those magic items they wanted. I can't tell you how many times as a DM I facepalmed because I would sent them to some city for some adventure to happen only for them to begin some elaborate money making scam that would just side-track the whole thing, forcing me to jump through hoops to ram them back into the plot. They looked at every single thing as a money making possibility. EVERY...SINGLE...THING.

[@rheokalyke367]

To be honest, that's in itself a pretty cool way to play, if a little slow and such their goal is slightly different from the regular parties goal. Now, I do not know that much about DMing but isn't there a small amount of freeform/extra a DM can add on their own (I am used to Pen and Paper so I do not know if the same amount of flexibility applies in DnD)? What if you add an encounter that is literally a representation of greed to fit somewhere in a campaign?

[@ArcanaStorm]

(Knocks obelisk down) “Why do I hear boss music?”

[@sometimesKnownbyotherNames]

hear*

[@NintendoNerd7824]

hello fellow man of culture

[@creeperkiller78]

GDM says "if they push over the obelisk kill them" Creatures not strong enough to kill them (facepalm)

[@ColinPowell-ks1fl]

ultra ranger GDM= Greatest Dungeon Master?

[@creeperkiller78]

The real legend 87 grand dungeon master, the head dude/dudette of his D&D league branch

[@Blitzwaffen]

Listening to the fight sounds like the demon was under used. A being of that power wouldn't just sit around waiting at the barbarian or Cleric. It's first actions would be to remove weaker foes and destroy them. Not just inocking them down, but continuing to hit them until they die. Reduce the numbers on itself before crushing what remains. On top of also summoning a second demon to join in.

[@Lilitha11]

Under used, or was the GM being nice on them?

[@Blitzwaffen]

Lilitha11 Puffin rarely seems the nice type in his stories. I suspect it is more likely the topic isn't well covered for the encounter. Even reading baseline data shared on a monster stats page will hardly give you all the knowledge. It gives a good baseline but usually only tells creature specifics rather than racial history, preference, or actions. That is DM interpretation and translation of further research and reading not just running the encounter night of with no pre-planning.

[@iainhansen1047]

DnD players are capable of unthinkable idiocy And also mass murder but that first one makes for better videos

[@poke2981]

Iain Hansen hey that merchant called me dumb so I destroyed his whole village and kidnapped his daughter

[@darthr0xas363]

In my defense, I didn't know the cave system had a magical element that became explosive when reacting to fire. I also didn't know there was an entire trade village and thriving town in and above the mountain to be destroyed. I just said, "oh hey, cool cave" walked in, saw one kobold, did an instinctive firebolt, rolled really badly, and hit the wall. Not my fault, it's the dice that murdered all those people and damaged the economy. I'm being hung either way, but still. Actual story from a homebrew campaign. Sorry Jon.

[@boredfangerrude]

XD

[@poke2981]

DarthR0xas its alright at least your not the guy that plays a blood hunter that accidentally killed himself in battle

[@magicianman534]

The former has a way of leading into the latter to be fair.

[@aliahmeed9676]

i sacrfice all of my teammates to summon OBELISK THE TORMENTER!!! in attack mode Edit: glad to see yugioh abgd fans

[@CathrineMacNiel]

not so fast kaiba boi, first I summon Slipher the Executive Producer, in all its executive glory.

[@Set2Seth]

@@CathrineMacNiel oh.....my.....money

[@CathrineMacNiel]

@Abysse Splash don't you mean god?

[@Set2Seth]

@@CathrineMacNiel you worship your thing i'll worship mines

[@fireman8995]

@@CathrineMacNiel I summon Super Ultra Mega Chicken!

[@chromegaman]

"What's your name?" Death knell for any DM when this is asked by the arcane trickster class.

[@IlVostroNarratore]

I'm new into the D&D world, care to explain please? :)

[@chromegaman]

@@IlVostroNarratore, there are certain subclasses of arcane spellcasters in errata books that use True Names as a means of control, attack, and disruption. GM's with that errata would have the knowledge on how to use the rules to make the PCs jumpy.

[@Teixas666]

@@IlVostroNarratore in most intepretation in fantasy and DND knowing the true name of a Demon gives you control over it / allows you to banish it.

[@Frostyman452]

Teixas so it runs on Ancient Egyptian magic then?

[@Pundae]

@@Frostyman452 It takes from all forms of mythologies and such, and invents its own. That's one of the cool things about the game. Loads of people run games with characters or countries based on real-world events

[@Phyrior]

Anyone notice that it's always a halfling that starts this nonsense?

[@Carewolf]

Not as often as a dwarf.

[@VoltisArt]

On Krynn it would undoubtedly be the kender's fault.

[@gothbaby5110]

Phyrior with my last group it was always this lute playing orc names jessica. He was murdered by a member of the group eventually

[@LoneWolf-rc4go]

I've always found that it's the Rogue that starts stuff like this.

[@joshuaxiong8377]

OMFG YOU'RE RIGHT. I had a friend who role-played a sociopathic, chaotic neutral aligned, half-ling that got into SO MUCH trouble... We could've did a clean jail breakout of our informant, but he went gung-ho, got us knee deep in trouble with the jail guards, and my sister's character also having many loose screws didn't help either. Needless to say, we left a bloody jail with 5 dead guards and potentially torn families... Not that he chose a half-ling, it's just that he coincidentally got it from our other friend who hosted the game and created some character classes. Although, he did make the personality for shits and giggles though so it was an insane coincidence. Trolls, the both of them, Jordan and Kim... XD

[@Avery-df9vy]

Story time: One time, i was in a group and we were fighting a ton of skeletons. One guy was at super low hp and had lost his weapon, so he tried to punch a skeleton, rolled a one, missed, punched a wall, lost the tiny amount of hp he had left, and fell down knocked out.

[@GarrettStelly]

this isn't Minecraft

[@lukelblitz3627]

@@GarrettStelly and the prize for most pointless comment of the year goes to......

[@samt3412]

I had a campaign I was in a couple of weeks ago that started by being revived by a Necromancer. Said Necromancer was reviving people to make a makeshift army to take down a king that had killed his family. This was a sequel campaign to a campaign that ended with me accidentally blowing up a city on a mission for the king I mentioned earlier. I, for some reason, decide to tell the Necromancer this. We managed to win the encounter, but I am now the biggest idiot in the party.

[@OukaHimura123]

Lmao that's great!

[@yucatansuckaman5726]

OOF!

[@TheTruthIsGonnaHurt]

I haven't played D&D since 1992! I am so happy that somewhere on our planet, a person can still hijack a quest, frustrate the DM, and almost get the entire party killed. SUBSCRIBED!

[@BSE1320]

"That doesn't seem fair!" You're right! *It's Not* Uh oh, lol

[@Chuusuisetsujojutsu]

I wonder why the asterisks didn’t make it bold...

[@BSE1320]

@@Chuusuisetsujojutsu Abserd was in charge of the code that day.

[@ShadowDemon_4]

@@BSE1320 Ha!

[@kapitan19969838]

@@Chuusuisetsujojutsu The last asterisk is before the exclamation mark

[@oz_jones]

I mean, ToA is meant to be a meat grinder, its not supposed to be _fair_

[@Sintra4]

A few suggestions, next time you run a high level demon: 1. Demons can summon other demons. The Nalfeshnee, for example, has a 50% chance to summon 1d4 Vrocks, 1d3 Hezrous, 1d2 Glabrezus, or another Nalfeshnee. In older editions of D&D the summoned demons could themselves summon more, but that's no longer the case in 5e. Regardless, this mechanic is what makes even weaker demons like Chasme and Barlgura so potentially threatening. 2. NEVER have a demon, regardless of how powerful they are, give their true name. If a demon is summoned, and the summoner speaks its true name, it gets disadvantage on Charisma saves against being dominated by that summoner. Even the demon lords are terrified of their true names being known.

[@tiamatt44]

I don't think the Nalfeshnee gave his true name there, Ben was like, "Uhhh what name sounds like a demon name*goes through a bunch of names before picking one*oh wait, this sounds like a demon's name right? Lets go with that!" So I'm pretty sure if it ever comes up the demon would be like "Oh you thought that was my actual name? You mortals are dumber than you look!" So yeah, I think our evil pig friend will be fine. :)

[@Sintra4]

Quentin Hendricks He was given pretty express permission to fuck their shit up, however. Using a reasonably well-known rule variant that's in reference to an ability demons and devils have had since AD&D seems pretty fair when a DM's only goal is "show no mercy."

[@AGrumpyPanda]

The issue is it's organised play, where GMs are *required* to play exactly to the book in order to create a fair play experience.

[@Saruva_Eduardo]

The demon was severily downplayed, it has teleport, he could easily be teleporting, making the characters follow him around the battlefield wasting their actions to Dash to him and get a free Multiattack taking a good chunk of the PC's HP (if all 3 attacks hit that would be an average of 62 damage plus the fact that the characters are quite weakened by the death curse). And that could be done following the book (and the demon has 19 INT, so it is plausible for him to be a pain in the ....).

[@King_Nex]

Regarding the true name thing, I just told myself the demon struggling to make up a name happened in universe

[@wil2197]

"He's a Pig Demon. Let's boogey" -Puffin Forest, 2018

[@gremlinwc8996]

Me walking into a room like

[@mememachine9508]

Inb4 calamity ganon

[@gagidoo4757]

technoblade has joined the server

[@unevennoble9363]

Is that a snot joke

[@striker8961]

Citizens of L’Manburg :

[@barteepage4109]

... I honestly expected them not to, I mean running a game with moderate advanced curious players and having a large obelisk with myste- okay, never mind, now I only ask why the head GM decided to test luck like that saying how he chances of that happening were so low...

[@danielgehring7437]

The dark secret of every DM is that they harbor a perverse desire to see the group fail.. but only if that group fails _spectacularly._

[@bug5654]

It's only testing your luck if you say, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

[@lisalisa3635]

Daniel Gehring got me there

[@kabob0077]

Bartee Page Murphy was listing in that day, and Murphy wanted to play.

[@zichithefox4781]

DM's make sure that the chance of you doing something is super low, that way you're more likely to keep going on the path. And that thing you have a low chance of pulling off...IS FOR A REASON. My current GM has an NPC following the group for that very reason.

[@shakespeareenjoyer6012]

This story reminded me how my DM rolled an Ancient Black Dragon FIVE TIMES in the campaign. We always managed to escape tho thanks to spells, teleports and other similar stuff Once we were like level 15 instead of 6, we killed it

[@flamingrubys11]

sllike the omega weapon from ff7?

[@butchbabytoaster]

Our DM had us up against an adult white dragon and his wyrmlings at level 3. Thank the gods for nat 20s.

[@daviddaugherty2816]

When I put my players up against an adult red dragon at level 3 the point was that fighting it was a _bad_ idea. Didn't stop one guy from hitting him with the Wand of Wonders anyway. It was the first time I'd seen insta-death in 5e.

[@Domaik_]

It feels very unsatisfactory to know they lived through it...I mean after the head GM told you that you had his permission to kill the whole party you could have ramped up the damage or something...They asked for it!

[@barrybend7189]

You tip the obolisc party instantly gets 3 round death curse.

[@lmaocatgirls387]

@@barrybend7189 Easy there, Satan

[@SurgStriker]

agreed. Was really disappointing when after all that leadup it comes down to "It's a tank but only shoots water balloons. And it has a limited lifespan so you will just waste time and some potions/spells running around. No one dies, nothing really happens". The head GM made it sound like a vicious beast, so the result was weak :(

[@imperialguardsman135]

@@SurgStriker I would make it a glasscannon with something like high invulnerable save roll. If it rolls good, it will tank all their damage, if not it will have like one or two rounds to kill all of them

[@JohnWilkinsonTesla]

@@SurgStriker - When pitting a party against certain death I try to add another factor. Like, they creature that put him in there would also be summoned just a few rounds later. That way he can "save the day" even though mortal concerns are so beneath him.

[@OrionoftheStar]

After the build-up described I was expecting an actual TPK...

[@EtnaBoy666]

"Nobody is gonna cast Identify and knock over the Obelisk that summons the Dark Inferno Mysterious Figure superboss, it's not gonna happen." Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong." Xehanort's addendum to Murphy's Law: "Any superboss trigger which you think won't get triggered WILL get triggered." ;p This is why I love halflings, they are so stupidly naive that they I have to make a smart halfling character to make up for it. XD

[@flamingrubys11]

God damnit i remember when i accidentally found sephiroth in kh2 and was like oh cool ok lets see *dead*

[@amyliaclenny1866]

Dude that only works if the player character is smart enough to rollplay their halfling bard as intelligent or wise or just average.

[@andrewaftontheandroidhedge2780]

@@flamingrubys11 me with the dark inferno in KH3

[@Webshooters1]

@@andrewaftontheandroidhedge2780 *has Mysterious Figure PTSD flashbacks*

[@fabiolean]

The more appropriate literary rule to invoke here is Chekov's Gun. You shouldn't add details to a story that *don't matter to the story.* Otherwise it's just boring and unrewarding; or confusing.

[@azurebalmung4520]

3:38 - That's the part where Ben should have gone "You turn around to see that the puzzle door is gone, and the once-doorway behind you is now solid rock." just to keep them away from it.

[@maddoxWolfe]

Azure Balmung remover he’s playing adventure leagues he has to follow the module and the module won’t let him do that

[@todddempsey1277]

Why can’t he just bend the rules he’s the DM?

[@Zonic3451]

@@todddempsey1277 Adventurer's League

[@811brian]

@@Zonic3451 but the players ARENT supposed to play that encounter!

[@Teixas666]

@@todddempsey1277 because in adventurer's league all tables must abide the the setting the module gives you, otherwise tables will diverge in progression and you cna no longer have people switch tables.

[@thebananamonk]

This happened yesterday and I wanted to share it... *GM:* "...The Twin Treant Guardians uproot themse..." *Me the Bard:* "TREEDILDUM AND TREEDILDEE!!" *GM:* " -_-' ...your yelling attracts a pack of 25 wild wolves"

[@boredfangerrude]

XD

[@MysticIceFire]

... all the yes

[@NinjaDuckie]

I just apply instant psychic damage to shouted puns

[@zanetaylor10]

EvilNinjaDuckie Yes, my DM threatens permanent damage to health when my group metagames

[@maladroit5581]

. . . god dammit treebeard

[@IslanKleinknecht]

Kinda disappointing that the TPK monster really couldn't pull off the TPK.

[@SheppiTSRodriguez]

5e Nalfeshneee sucks ass

[@Lucan47]

Yeah, I was here expecting something incredibly powerful... Bit underwhelming to find out it was "only" a Nalfeshnee. It's a powerful demon at CR 13, sure, but with 7 PCs it won't TPK any party above 4th level.

[@Bluecho4]

I mean, not for lack of trying. The party had to go through a bunch of healing spells and potions to survive.

[@jared5803]

I would have just increased the damage and made it stay longer

[@Lucan47]

@@jared5803 I would've made it a Marilith instead, depending on the level of the party. But it's Adventurer's league, DMs can't change the modules.

[@williamwright4813]

This IS pretty nuts, but I will say one thing... ...At least these DM's aren't like mine, who tried to make a party of level ones fight a wight and a weretiger.

[@Prince__Teclis]

If my DM pulls out a no win encounter I just say like "-Character Name- feels overcome with dread upon seeing these monsters which he has only read about, never imaging he would face them in battle. Knowing he cannot best them, he pulls out his -insert sharp weapon here- and elegantly glides it across his own throat, ending his life before these monsters have the chance. No point delaying it.

[@PumpkinCake]

That’s actually the safer option, too. If you’re killed by a wight, your corpse can raise as one as well.

[@FriendlyArchpriest]

@@PumpkinCake not according to 5e you don't. They removed the ability to create spawn from all the undead except the vampire.

[@sloporion]

@@FriendlyArchpriest false. Creatures killed by a wight's Life Drain attack rise as zombies. Shadow's Strength Drain creates new shadows. Wraith can use Create Specter on a creature that died violently (say from that wraith's Life Drain attack?).

[@awesomeness9824]

I had a dm that sent 5 level threes against a higher demon. Not fun

[@cazcow]

We just finished Tomb of Annihilation. At the point in the campaign where we encountered the obelisk, I was temporarily in control of a secretly evil character whose motivation for "saving the world" by clearing the temple with the rest of the good characters was due to his intense devotion to Demogorgon. Demogorgon, if you don't know, has a violent rivalry with Orcus, the demon lord who Acererak serves. So, when we rolled up on the obelisk, read it, and came across Acererak's name, my character reacted... violently. He immediately pulled out his sword and attacked the obelisk to defile Acererak's name. We only survived because our magic user was able to banish the demon.

[@brycevo]

I must say thank you. You and Jared made me start playing DnD with my friends. I'm trying to DM our games. I can only hope to be half as good as you or Jared. Thank you.

[@nidus9812]

What did I do again?

[@brycevo]

Jared Kolodziejski Are you a Pro? Because I meant the pro. You're cool too.

[@lykthewarlock]

Bryce Mckenzie Me too

[@BlueSun_]

And both of them can only hope to be half as good as Matt Mercer from Critical Role

[@doublem1354]

Good for you. Im Croatian. We speek a diffrent language. I cant even play with my frieds becouse they are a part of 5% who dont know english. AND I cant find translated books even though there is quite big Croatian D&D comunity.

[@calladreus6391]

I want to know how the other gms reacted when everybody survived.

[@The-PWW]

Obelisk: *Inconspicuoses* Puffin: hMMMm

[@beholder9]

"It has resistance to ALL magic!" Inescapable destruction has entered the chat.

[@unevennoble9363]

Ive seen the stat sheet for that thing. Its actually pretty takeable.

[@LoarvicLoarvic]

In D&D, "resistance" doesn't mean immunity. It means half damage. Their GM is a moron.

[@EricLOTRguy]

At 4:28 I thought with all the tables hearing "let's knock it down", that it would turn into a chain reaction where all of the groups simultaneously cause their own demise. Would have been beautiful.

[@stroof-is-tired]

Honestly your videos really make me want to play DnD. Can't wait to buy a starter kit and start!

[@andrewlentner]

Leah Smith I highly recommend you check it out. It is a bit costly, but you will noy regret it. I have had so much fun with DnD.

[@noahsalvio9649]

Just buy dice. Everything else is either optional or obtainable for free

[@stroof-is-tired]

⦕ Skyjin ⦖ That is definitely true, thanks for the advice. It's a good thing that the game takes part in the imagination, isn't it lol

[@stroof-is-tired]

Andrew Lentner Thanks for the words, will definitely keep them in mind. Definitely looking forward to starting!

[@elgatochurro]

Leah Smith roll20, tabletopsimulator

[@tylerchilton7679]

Ended up fighting one of these in a battle, I think the DM was pissed we were wiping all the encounters in one or two rounds. Anyway, it gets to the very end of the first round and it looks like this guy may kill one of us. Then the cleric used banish and the demon missed its save. Not even a type 4 demon of the abyss can survive a group of four or five players that know what they're doing.

[@thaboi8324]

Damn you've been having a heavy fight grouo

[@Abelhawk]

Now THAT'S a story worth telling.

[@JohnWilkinsonTesla]

That's a good reason to have familiars born on this plane.

[@confderatechocolate4645]

Me and another player in my D&D group who watches your channel still reference this story every time a courtyard has a stone statue. Cracks us up every time. Thank you for making these animated stories!

[@StarSage66]

I've had similar situations like this happen before where the PCs end up accidentally releasing a horrible fiend from the lower planes. They usually have the opportunity try and stop it and normally the fiend is powerful enough that they have a *chance* of winning but odds are someone will die. However if they choose not to stop it, the fiend will leave them with a boon in thanks for them releasing it before it departs to wreak its evil upon the world. Little moments like those where heroes can make up for their mistakes or decide to be selfish for the sake of power are key moments I find important for D&D. They also help determine just what sort of adventuring group you're dealing with, especially if you allow adventuring parties of any alignment (a fun policy when you know your players and don't have edgelords at the table).

[@Ozhar1]

I was the only player in the party that hadn't seen this video. Of course my warlock knocked over the obelisk. We managed to kill it because I do force damage and the ranger had a massive damage per round, and we convinced two shady NPCs to help out with the Tomb of the Nine gods so we let them get targeted (and killed) by the demon. Also I used catapult on a jar of rotgrubs I looted off a kobold, idk if that's allowed RAW but rotgrubs can do a lot, potentially.

[@hainguyn948]

wow ._.

[@Rockzilla1122]

sounds RAW to me

[@jackofblades6736]

I don’t play d&d at all but I’m so glad this popped up in my suggested videos. Literally LMAO. Thank you!

[@nixxel2278]

Same.

[@aliservan7188]

i doubt very much if that's true

[@kamacazi8]

So your ass physically ripped off of your body and fell to the ground while you laughed... Yeah I doubt this as well

[@joemama370]

was just bout to type this very msg., was watchin a league champion spotlight and out of the corner of my eye....gold. will now bingwatch his entire playlist, thanks utube

[@YuryKhudyshyn]

@@joemama370 Neeko is good at roleplaying.

[@dseray9494]

So I watched this video when it came out I started playing tomb of annihilation a month and a half ago We finished yesterday You'll never guess why

[@perrywakeman4087]

Did you complete the dungeon normally and survive happily to the end and get a happily ever after?

[@admiraltonydawning3847]

Did a new adventure come out and you abandoned your previous one to never come back?

[@unevennoble9363]

Did you break the obelisk?

[@kjj26k]

You broke the obelisk didn't you?

[@ContagiousRepublic]

Definitely someone to bring back --- with friends --- if the party ever gets too powerful to the point of being boring. A good DM always has one of these monsters in their pocket.

[@ciancarberry8581]

They say don't count your chickens before they hatch. You make them into scrambled eggs.

[@AlhP6871]

I cheered when I saw the notification

[@matthewm9987]

One of my DM had us fight a 4th level dog demon that was trapped inside of a chair because a blood raged barbarian smashed everything insight because he got high off something

[@Luuute]

I tried adventurers league once recently The party was heading out of the city but I wanted to go to a weaponsmith to see if I could get anything better. I ask if I can No A little surprised by the answer so I ask, why cant I? Is there not one in the city? No there is. But no one else wants to go there so let's just go..... Many times that session I attempted to go off the beaten path and each time was a no. Travelling through the forest, I roll survival to forage and scout around. The dm notes I see a cave, can I investigate the cave? No. We arent at that part yet...... That's when I got up, wished everyone a good night, and went home with 1 of the other players.

[@chaosmastermind]

It's called being railroaded, and it's not fun for anyone.

[@romrom920]

To be fair, it also sounds like you were trying to drag the party off in multiple directions which no one else wanted to go to. The DM was probably right to block some of your requests, no one wants to play with the person who's only interest is doing whatever they want.

[@joshwist556]

Sarena Romriell But he only wanted to go to a blacksmith? Why stop them?

[@romrom920]

@@joshwist556if everyone else wants to leave and only he wants to stay the DM has to choose between splitting the party or telling him no. Telling him no a little unfair, but I can see why he did it. He also said that many times throughout the session he tried to go "off the beaten path." I wasn't there so obviously I don't know everything, but I would probably make the same choice as a dm. It sounds like op wasn't a good fit for that group and leaving was the best option. The DM was probably trying to make sure the people who actually showed up for an adventurers league game got what they came for. DMing is about making the game fun for the whole group, not just your most creative player.

[@iglidor]

@@joshwist556 Depends. If he just want to buy some nails or backup dagger, then it is no problem and can be skipped altogether (ie.: Ok, you bought it, lets go). Issue is if one player instead of starting quest decides to stay in town and start roleplaying with NPCs. Like going to blacksmith, wanting to hear description of that smithy and its NPCs, asking how they look, starting conversation with them that goes beyond "I am looking for cheap dagger, here are 2 gold coins" etc. And this sounded more like the other case. He wanted to go to blacksmith and start conversation with that NPC if he has something that is better then what he already has. Right at the start of quest. That simply does not make sense and is kinda inapropriate

[@JustinY.]

This video will make a fine addition to my collection.

[@JustinRed624]

Justin Y. First

[@JustinRed624]

Do you have multiple people on your account? I kept refreshing your playlists and they keep changing

[@spoonsareoccasionallymadeo5728]

*Justin, why?*

[@luckylubis_]

Only 2 likes for your comment this time justin

[@michaelebwando8400]

Im here too

[@ultris07]

I was expecting the Demon to wipe the table, that was just disappointing...

[@taragnor]

Yeah my big problem with 5th edition D&D, the monsters are way too weak. If it was 3rd edition they'd all be dead.

[@Rathkryn]

The monster wasn't weak. The DM just didn't want to kill the players. Instead of focus firing on one character at a time he split up the damage among them. And if you think the monsters are way too weak then you should be using higher level monsters against your party.

[@dddmemaybe]

don't get it twisted, taragnor. 3rd edition has its fair share of encounters that are balanced awkwardly. "haha ecl 7 becuz of only 7hd ecksdee" but then it can cast banshies wail at dc 23 and you're like: WTF?!?. My whole party except the +16 will save monk/paladin(serenity cheeser) are all dead?!?! whattafuck. like, 3.5 doesn't always get the "offense potential versus defense potential" formula correct all the time. some monsters you just don't put in the game, even when they are 5 ecl under the players.

[@taragnor]

dddmemaybe: Well yeah, I mean that's largely true of almost every edition of D&D (except 4th really). Even 5E has a small handful of monsters that can cast plane shift, which is the biggest screw you spell in the game, given it basically removes you from the adventure entirely. In 5E, that's even more out of place, because everything else is fighting with kid gloves on. But yeah, overall 3.5's challenge was more all over the place. 5E is more or less consistently easy, save the one exception I just mentioned. 3E certainly had its share of flaws too though.

[@gamerex9378]

I always return once or twice a year to watch this one. Good times.

[@ErikaDevilVT]

how the heck do you make even the most fearsome creatures in D&D look adorable?

[@haleyg8387]

Encounter? I barely knew her!

[@ericshipley8488]

Haley Giunta nice

[@ferretzim8694]

It's kinda disappointing they weren't completely roflstomped when they went trough all the trouble of summoning that guy. But that's just my evil side talking. I REALLY want to start playing D&D, but I neither have friends or know people who I can play with, or where to look for people to play with

[@descipleofnone]

Ferretzim 86 there are games that are run online. Roll20.net and subreddit DND are always looking for new players. If you have the patients for it you can play on a post by post forum

[@Dylan-ke3zb]

Yea, what this guy said. There are other RPG groups there you can find, but DnD has a LOT of groups available, given its popularity.

[@The73MPL4R]

Check r/lfg. There are lots of people looking for groups

[@seraphina985]

Another place to try asking if you have one near you is a local gaming store, you know the places that sell miniatures and rulebooks etc for RPG games. Many of them host games themselves or if they don't they may well be aware of local GM's looking for players etc. Most are still pretty well connected to the community even if they are not pretty much the exclusive hubs of the community that they used to be back before the internet kind of took over the role of being the meeting place for pretty much any interest on the planet no matter how niche it might be.

[@Ed-tc2pg]

Try comic book shops, places that sell card games or online.

[@jerroldsmith2489]

Bard asked for the demon name? Xanthar's has a spell that allows you to summon and enslave demons if you know their name...

[@TheNo15]

Exactly what I was thinking ;)

[@Alexander-gb4rr]

The Second they start talking about his name I was like "And now they are going to say his name backwards or something like that. And that way they defeat it" even tho, I know literally nothing about D&D monsters.

[@Arnyh0ld]

If you know the demon's TRUE name.

[@rydergolde3169]

Very good points everyone, but keep in mind, he asked his name *after* the encounter was over, when it was like "im leaving, fricc yall, bai"

[@jerroldsmith2489]

KZbinrFan888 main well you're obviously not going to summon him if he's already there

[@Blandco]

Not enough damage output to kill the players? Did he say in the video what level they were?

[@brettharrison8478]

Blandco Looking at the health he gave, they were likely between level 7and 9. Even still, a Nalfeshnee isn’t a terribly hard fight at all, especially when the DM doesn’t use its ‘Summon Demons’ ability. It’s resistant, but not immune, to damage, and it’s only got 180hp, which can be gone in about 2 rounds with a table of 7

[@Daz0n]

I know I'm a month or two late but, to add onto that, he made a slightly bad call with the Nalfeshnee. I looked up the statblock for them and, really, they aren't *that* bad. AC 18 184 HP average Resistant to Cold, Fire, Lightning; Bludgeoning, Slashing, and Piercing from nonmagical weapons Immune to Poison and the Poisoned condition. However... unless this was a special Nalfeshnee, or they were using a different edition than fifth, he was wrong in one regard. They aren't resistant to damage done by magic, they just have advantage on saving throws against magic and other magical effects. So... a little difficult to hit but not impossible, especially with a 5-6th level party of six or seven people. (Guessing that because on the little blackboard, each person had 50 HP.) If save spells don't work, an eighteen shouldn't be that hard to hit. You'd at least have a +3 from Proficiency, and anywhere from a +1 to a +5 from your primary ability score.

[@wildatheart499]

@@Daz0n Im assuming it might be 3.5 as in that version it has a spell resistance of 22.

[@Daz0n]

@@wildatheart499 That is certainly possible, haven't played 3.5 so I wouldn't know. Though isn't that the 5e ToA book that PF used in the picture?

[@rickcarson591]

@@Daz0n yeah there's no 3.5 version of Tomb of Annihilation, plus all the language for resistances was 5e specific not 3.5

[@Guardian-of-Light137]

This was one of the first vids I watched that got me into dnd (What really started it was Jocat after his monster hunter world weapon thing he did a dnd thing that at this time is still going on) Since then it's just been a constant source of entertainment to watch d&d vids and just see all the crazy and cool ideas people come up with. I can't play the game for a multitude of reasons, but I do kind of a makeshift solo roleplay thing with my girlfriend. There's no dice rolling or health or anything and we play through steam chat. (Living in seperate states till we can afford to meet each other for the first time and then hopefully get married) For the most part I tell a story, and she just says what she does in reaction to the events. She prefers it that way since she's never been big into rpg's and would rather just read an epic story and have some input on her OC. And of course she controls all her own dialogue. It's the closest thing we got to DND and she's not a fan of the game herself. But we have fun and that's what matters. Anyway this and many other dnd things have taught me. Don't put something in your game you REALLY HOPE YOUR PLAYERS WON'T DO ................. cause they can. And they WILL. And players. ... Don't be stupid. A kind dm is all that seperates you from character death. Don't make your DM mad. However if you have a toxic dm that just kills you for the lols or worse. Get out of there.

[@666Vampirefromhell]

I actually have thus module and had to look this encounter up in it. Shoot, this is one way to teach a party "play stupid games, win stupid prizes." Also, the demon doesn't have resistance to magical damage. It's resistances are cold, fire, lightning and any non-magical damage. It does, however, have advantage on all saves made against magic. This video earned my subscription to your channel.

[@flyingmollywhop4228]

"What's his name?" Lol my players do this to me all the time. Setting the scene and players see a ransom black cat- follow it to find its owner and ask "what's its name?" Lol evry.damn. time.

[@jzburda]

FlyingMollyWhop Just be like "it doesn't fucking matter"

[@TheEnigmaticKasai]

Same. I always just give a name off the top of my head so we can move on. "It has a collar that says Steven on it" or something like that.

[@jzburda]

Remove Talos I'd be like "You and your party have no idea where you can find the name of this pyramid. Maybe you should go to the nearest town 3 hours away if you really care so much" And also, I'd tell them right at the start that I'm not going to metagame and tell them all these names for objects and insects.

[@hamanu666]

It's name is Ballscratcher or Castrator. That'll shut them up or at least make em cringe slightly.

[@iglidor]

Nice way to name things is to use names as references - for example when my party got into folds of large violent and kinda crazy gang, name of 3 liteunants were Ed, Edd and Eddie and just from this I build easily their characteristics, abilities and nature. Or when they encountered smart fighter, he got name Napoleon and just from this, this so far no name, non-descriptive NPC got its history, was made cunning as fox and good at planing while also solid fighter and in future famous leader. Giving name to something is very important thing. You can then later use that thing/NPC in future and players will become more invested into it. Good name can create well fleshed NPC much faster then any other method.

[@Triss_Joy]

7:46 - anyone else greatly appreciate Ben’s epic battle background music...? 🤣💕

[@StSpongeTube]

Thanks for the vid, was hoping for a brutal wipe but the misery of getting nothing is good too.

[@kindoflame]

If they were completely whipped out, then they could walk away thinking that at least they had a shot at some sweet loot. This way they know that they used up all of their health potions and spells for nothing.

[@JustaGuy_Gaming]

To be fair putting strange objects in plain sight and telling players to ignore them is basically against the adventure code. It's also funny how mad DM's can get when players do ignore their plot hooks.

[@lordruxlinhogie5912]

There is no such thing as an inconspicuous obelisk. All obelisks are inherently conspicuous, that's their point of their existence.

[@destructiveforce7943]

My thoughts exactly. Kind of akin to saying: "You see ahead of you an *inconspicuous* 33 foot long Dragon. It takes up most of your view of Mainstreet." "Wait...uh...could you... uh...could you repeat that?" Obelisks are monuments. Isn't the intent of a monument literally to be conspicuous?

[@erictngo]

Lord Ruxlin Hogie True, last one I ran into summoned an army of undead/alive skeletons that kept pouring into the playing field and killed the entire team except our cleric (me), and our rogue.

[@leotamer5]

There are good obelisks, but obelisks are all color-coded, if it is black or red, it is evil. If it is gold or white, it is good. Blue can go either way, but you can usually tell by the accent colors and the shade of blue.

[@violetnicole1500]

The pig demon sounds like Yoda with allergies.

[@lsswappedcessna]

HMMMmmm! Eat you alive, I must. Come from the Abyss, I do.

[@mrmidnightturbo4245]

Dont summon evil Yoda he will hop from table to table and slay everyone in the room including DM's

[@narwhalnarwhal1399]

Holy shit it does 😂😂

[@narwhalnarwhal1399]

@@mrmidnightturbo4245 nobody: Cringe 3 am videos:don't summon evil yoda pig demon at 3 am omg It was terrifying 🤯🤯🥵🥵😱😱🙀🙀🙀😱😱WARNING SCARY AHHH I ALMOST DIED!!!!! YEAH DON'T DO IT HOLY CRAP IT HAPPEND DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME

[@ryangainey94]

To be fair, most of Puffin's characters sound like that.

[@TheGigafist]

I am a simple man. I see a Puffin Forest video. I instantly watch it.

[@bodkimalone]

You should use this nalfeshnee return as having him and his friends be the B.B.E.G in one of your campaigns

[@daviddaugherty2816]

Unfortunately, this is Adventurer's League. Creativity is strictly disallowed.

[@bodkimalone]

@@daviddaugherty2816 but....why though? Ain't that the point of DND?

[@faolan2174]

​@@bodkimalonebased on my understanding of Adventurer's League, the DMs have to follow a particular pre-written adventure, and aren't allowed to venture too far off from there. They're allowed some creativity to fill in the gaps, but overall they have to stick to the assigned story. It's mainly so all the tables/groups of players are on the same page with each other and the storyline. If one group derails the campaign, they're not in sync with the other groups anymore, so GMs have to be very careful about what the players can and can't do.

[@alaskaball188]

All magic? Even... Cast Darkness???

[@blarg2429]

Darkness does work on demons such as this one, but only if you're all (monster included) about twenty feet off the ground and everyone's covered in blood when it's cast.

[@asedwadsa]

blarg2429 It's a joke from an old video of Puffin Forest

[@348joey]

which one is that again?

[@MrSpartanspud]

The one where the dragon attacks the ship. Along the lines of, always read your spell descriptions before casting.

[@unknowndane4754]

I think the title was something like "read your abilities"

[@tonymarshall9662]

Cant believe i have just foumd this channel. Had me in stiches laughing at work today. Love it

[@elinquisidorperseverante6835]

I sometimes just hate how random players are, tough it's hilarious. Thanks for this video mister lots-of-trees!

[@ashleygiguere3214]

4 years later and still a great story. My favorite thing about D&D is just how chaotic it gets because people end up not doing what you think they would.

[@davenn7597]

I bet u one of them was like: "Dis is abserd"

[@firepower7017]

DumbAnimator Nah. Just call up your comrades. Tell them to bring a S-51 mobile artillery gun and blast that demon to hell and if that fails well then just pretty much just die I guess.

[@kingslayer3089]

Dis guy gonna killed

[@cooperdickey5785]

Davenn yaaaas abserd is heeere

[@_Gondor44_]

this was adventurers league, and abserd was a homebrew session

[@weckar]

Good old Adventurers League, where you need to be given permission to have players die.

[@WaltRBuck]

Funny, I can't stand Adventurer's League lol Things like this are largely the reason

[@coreycaesarvt]

Depends on GM and player. Was playing in a session of Dragon of Icespire Peak, and we ran into the baby white dragon when we were trying to get a midwife out of her windmill. The thing does his breath weapon, and it does 44 damage into three of us, and two of us (including me) were around level 2. I was a Shepard Druid that had a Con Mod of +3 and had the 7 temp hp from the bear totem. Barely survived with 1 point above my death thresh hold. Woke up to see the party rogue frozen solid. The capper? The rogue was named YULETIDE.

[@RottenRogerDM]

I have 56 names on a skull which says different. And two TPKs.

[@TheRhetoricGamer]

Pathfinder Society is way different.

[@flamingrubys11]

@@WaltRBuck tbh ive passed up most adventurers leagiue the reason being dnd iyself seems wayyy too math heavy i decided to start playing urealms on table top instead

[@crycrybribri]

So i was actually planning on running Tomb of Annihilation with my party, but one of my players might see this and he is DEFINITLY gonna knock the obelisk over since his real life alignement is basically chaotic-chaotic...

[@greedow]

change the obelisk to have a kill curse on the one who knocks it down instead of this specific demon. or to a deadlier demon. or to nothing at all. make it have a rust monster and eat his best item. or have the obelisk contain a good item that's actually horrible. cursed items ftw

[@Star-Commander-Vong]

Yeah, like Qualquer said. You're not gonna be in the AL, so you can basically make it do whatever you want.

[@voidlayern9368]

This story is a classic. I'm glad I found this video lol, actually started to ckeck out D&D with some friends of mine after watching a bunch of these.

[@stevenmcreynolds4948]

Awww, no total party kill? Shame lol Good video though

[@elgatochurro]

Steven McReynolds I would-be made it kill the party

[@charlesmckenzie3760]

tomb of annihilation is a party killer in general, if your party ever says they want something more difficult run them through that, a big problem with 5e difficulty is magic, and in tomb you can't revive your allies if they die, well you can.... but they'll be a corpse falling aprt and slowly wither away into nothing

[@Konpekikaminari]

Steven McReynolds personally I'd ignore the demons time limit Letting him stay until it's a TPK

[@Johannes-br6zn]

Even if the demon didn't kill anyone, it still weakend them. I would bet that the group lost at least one or two characters because of this fight in the long run.

[@MalevolentDivinity]

No, the deterioration plotline is specifically for characters who've been revived before. If your character dies during the plot their soul gets sucked into a device and eventually eaten by a zombie god fetus. Though I'm curious as to if the party thereafter went on to piss off the beholder later in the dungeon.

[@KonDragon008]

Never underestimate the crap the players can manage to bring upon themselves. Ever. XD Honestly, our group was actually pretty good (and crafty). We avoided an encounter with a lich by sealing it in a room, and during an airship battle (it was a custom campaign) our spellcasters controlled the pilots of a couple of the ships (and the rest of us used persuasion) to convince the other ships that the enemies were on board. Although, there was the time when we could have just sent a character's familiar to go check out a ship off the coast...did I mention that our group had wanted posters up for them because we sided with the rebellion against the throne?...but didn't. So instead of doing the obvious thing, we decide to disguise ourselves. Half our party had no points in the ability. I had no bonuses to Charisma to help with a check, and another person had a negative "bonus" to Charisma. Not that it mattered, because the captain of the ship recognized ALL of us by rolling high on perception. Somehow we managed to get away, and then we remembered about the familiar. Derp.

[@pip5528]

I honestly thought everyone was gonna die, and I love that reaction from the other GMs! Priceless!

[@Konpekikaminari]

what's funny is that afaik ToA has this elaborate process to summon a lone CR 13 demon that's more bulky than damaging for a finite amount of rounds but will throw a _permanently invisible Beholder_ at the party for basically entering a room

[@saqvobase4301]

If you see something perilously balanced you just have to knock it over... right?

[@BaronSengir1008]

Only if you have a tabaxi in your party... Lol

[@toxicmongerofthehatefulbro5745]

Psh I agree with you, if it's just barely balancing itself it's just BEGGING to be knocked over.

[@MisterJasro]

and than you get arrested by the museum guard.

[@ninjamaster9094]

This applies to EVERYTHING. Unstable tower? Fragile gem? Vial of unknown substances? Monk in perfect meditation? Rock just above someone’s house? All of those are just asking to get knocked over.

[@BlueDog241]

This is my 4th time watching this episode. It's a personal favorite.

[@quiteindeed6809]

I swear if I ever get to play D&D I will just sit in the first room punching the wall.

[@lsswappedcessna]

*Natural 20* *critical hit on wall* *breaks fists* *wall crumbles* OOPS IT'S THE FINAL BOSS! *gets roasted by Lich*

[@Set2Seth]

You shouldve casted darkness on it

[@JohnWilkinsonTesla]

@@Set2Seth And then attacked the darkness

[@thegloriouswizard5270]

@@JohnWilkinsonTesla with Magic Missile.

[@ChouhouinNeko]

@@thegloriouswizard5270 are you a sorcerer of light ?

[@shared-knowledge]

I would be that one guy who after the demon told you his name would go "Meh.. that name is to hard to remember with all the other demons we encounter daily.. you what? I will call you Tiffany.." just for that jaw drop moment where the DM.exe breaks and the table pisses their pants laughing. and from then on and until the end of time that demon will be known as Tiffany throughout the multi verse.

[@Rockoll]

Yo what's up? I don't play D&D but I always find your videos very interesting and fun to watch. The game seems a bit complicated and requires a lot of communication and I don't really have many friends so I never really play but I still really like watching these stories.

[@IXMandalorianXI]

Check out Roll20 to find games that are run online using digital maps, character sheets, and tokens with voice or video. There's a forum where you can post a "looking for game."

[@andrewlentner]

If you have a local hobby store, there's probably a game being run there or people who want to start a game. If not, gather your best buds and your wallet and get the Player's handbook at the very least. You can play prebuilt campaigns called modules, or make your own. Or you can find an online group

[@Kurtz6603]

I was just about to suggest roll20. I used to play dnd at my friends house but now we are all married and some have kids. We use roll20 so we can hang out whenever.

[@cryptogames299]

Rockoll same here....

[@toastrmonky8593]

Adventure league and hobby stores man. There are always people looking to do these kinds of things. I used to be in the Navy and would travel all the time, but I never had a problem finding a D&D or Magic the Gathering group.