Narrative Centric Combat (Running Redcaps) || D&D w/ Dael Kingsmill

[@RoostCentauri07]

Would love a "Running [monster]" series on this channel omg

[@nashelian8848]

pro trick : you can watch series at KaldroStream. I've been using them for watching all kinds of movies during the lockdown.

[@samsonuriah9651]

@Nash Elian Yea, been watching on KaldroStream for months myself =)

[@bennettasa7355]

@Nash Elian definitely, I have been using kaldrostream for since november myself :D

[@themospence]

The raven ornament turning into a familiar is brilliant. Definitely adding that to my "Dope Stuff to Do" list.

[@CorbiniteVids]

dael: "and a lot of you are probably gonna hate this" me: "ooh that means I'm gonna love this" me: *loves it*

[@CorbiniteVids]

I'm really not a crunchy rpg player my whole goal from rpgs is to create a good and immersive narrative whether as a dm or a player, and there's just something about the way battles are often run that feels extremely gamey and 3rd person to me, it just takes me out of it. Like when a dm says the monster is bloodied when it reaches half hitpoints, I do love the narrative explanation that the monster is getting hurt but I honestly hate having a numerical reading of how the monster is doing. It backfires and makes it feel so much less real rather than more. I don't want to know how many hit points an enemy has and I don't really want to be able to figure it out by keeping track monster by monster, I'd rather it be run narrative and I think the way you explained it is a a great way to do that, something I'm really gonna have to try when I get the campaign I've been working on going

[@sethsybrandy3218]

@@CorbiniteVids, not to tell you what you're doing is by any means wrong, your table is whatever you want it to be, but perhaps your should try a less "gamey" system. There's much more collaborative-storytelling base systems out there that might suit your wishes better. I'm the kind of person who will max the hell out of their character, but avoid meta-gaming as much as possible, and focus on the storytelling. Both the crunch, and the fluff, are my go-to, which seems a little less common these days, but oh well.

[@CorbiniteVids]

@@sethsybrandy3218 that's a good point. But I guess I sort of explained what I meant poorly. I do sometimes appreciate a bit of crunch when it gives me structure to then jump off of. But when I'm a player it's mostly that I hate being able to see the crunch behind the screen. I'd rather my dm keep that kind of stuff hidden to keep the illusion up that I'm fighting real monsters instead of just a bunch of numbers. I'm fine with my own stats and abilities as a player revolving around those crunchy numbers, because otherwise it'd be hard for me to conceptualize it, I just don't want to actually see any of the other crunchyness. That said I have been exploring some other rpg options as well

[@ZipperonDisney]

"What matters is that it looks scary from the outside!" Dael, this is why I love your content. You *get* it.

[@natashalevesque6589]

DAEL. DAEL. THANK YOU! I'm a new DM, and I'm very narrative-centric, to the point where I find running combat as a DM both stressful (because of the crunch and all the things to remember, on top of trying to make it cool?) and boring??? Which seems super counter-intuitive for dnd in general? But this gave me so many IDEAS! I've been looking at combat all wrong! I've been dealing with it as kind of this break in the flow of the narrative, or a culmination of a narrative point, where everything breaks, and the narrative flows from that after, but no, NO, that's not it AT ALL! The whole idea of building combat to give cool story points to the players, that's so fantastic and by being able to frame it that way in my head, I'll be able to describe it that way to my players, which is chill as HELL. But moreso, the biggest moreso, is being able to be like "yeah, in like, 5 hits, this guy goes down, he's a minion, it's no big deal" so I can focus on building an aesthetic throughline on the big bad of the encounter, where the aesthetic feeds the narrative of what the encounter is designed to accomplish (build fear, or cement this place as a tricksy, terrible, yet oddly whimsical treasure-trove designed by a madman with a sense of humour, etc) -- This is what I needed. If I can make this work, I'll feel like I'm actually a decent combat DM!

[@MonarchsFactory]

HELL YEAH! This comment just got me totally pumped to prep another session!

[@ctberchem7303]

The trick to being a good DM, combat or otherwise is knowing what will make your players happy. I have a few rules lawyers so I worry a bit about following rules, but when they talk about the game later it is almost never about crunching numbers, it is about the flow and flavor. That's why I love listening to Dael's D&D videos.

[@eddieramirez8292]

@@ctberchem7303 I find that too. I feel like rules lawyers are used to video games, where everything has a numerical value and can be defeated with math. You have to kind of take them out of their own heads so they can experience the game, not the stat blocks. Redcaps are like the perfect enemy type to showcase the difference. Stat wise, there's nothing special about them except for the bit of lore where they have to keep their caps soaked in blood to stay alive. But if you get past that and really set the scene, then you can build a memorable encounter instead of a time killer fight scene

[@Eaode]

there are a lot of tables/players that will have a looser feel for how combat stuff might work. In particular everyone probably knows that one player who's playing a rogue and wants to make Acrobatics checks to do wild shit and move around the fight. Sometimes, just let them. Treat it like it's not combat for a second, let them make a skill check. Decide what the difficulty is and what the reward is. In combat this is actually really simple, you can give bonuses if they're successful. You undermine the strict "legality" of what each character can do by the book, but instead you make it feel more realistic. How many movie fight scenes are just dry punching back and forth, when in real life people might reach for any random object that could do damage. The game isn't bloated enough to have rules for how your character can attack after doing a siiiiick wall run. so if you want your players to be able to do sick wall run attacks, you gotta take the combat rules into your own hands sometimes.

[@RashidMBey]

Dael Kingsmill cries, "Frail things still die! With an ear for the story, And an eye for the glory, And the flail swings they'll try! Give character a crunch, And stick with a hunch, And oh! How the frail things still die!" For my games, narrative is the most delicious component and probably the thing I should and do most consider. Thanks, Dael. You've refreshed my love for the game. As always!

[@cassandracole4589]

"A little bit of crunch, wrapped up in all sorts of flavor." Sort of a crunch wrap, then.

[@Armaggedon185]

You said crunch players would be disappointed, but casting inflict wounds through a familiar is just the right use of rules. Lots of good ideas in this one!

[@danielbufton7471]

It's fine. I'm basically Captain Crunch and I'm not even mad.

[@MonkeyworkPlays]

Hey Dan - as a child I really enjoyed you cereal, as an adult it doesn't really hold up though.

[@Varandru]

I'm in the same boat. I can do crunch moderately well, I come here for inspiration to base it on.

[@danielbufton7471]

@@MonkeyworkPlays Well that was needlessly critical...

[@FirstnameLastname-kn5sw]

@@Varandru *same boat*

[@NeflewitzInc]

I've noticed more and more DMs, and myself included at the table, ignoring or bending the HP monsters have. I have a unified theory bouncing around in my head that I should write down somewhere. It basically boils down to looking at the number of hits you want an enemy to survive and the calculation for HP at each tier of play that translates to.

[@swaghauler8334]

A quick rule of thumb is to divide the monster's HP by 10 and count those as the number of HITS (ie sword strikes or other blows) that it can take. This is an old school method of speeding up combats.

[@TheCrazybros2]

Redcaps are fairies straight out of the brothers Grimm. There one of my favorite monsters! They make a great antagonist for the first three levels or so.

[@matthewkerr6831]

I'm always down for some vague and evocative d&d goodness!

[@somelikeitcoldand]

Your idea about hit points/ hits is SUCH a good idea omg, definitely using it the next time my players fight a horde of whatever!

[@DestinyTrioInc]

A friend of mine recommended your channel to me, and it's revolutionized how i run a session. (I Also adore your retelling of fairy tales and myths). The way you approach story telling and player experience is phenomenal. Thank you! This video is like, from the archive binge I've done, peak your brand, and I love it.

[@jamesh4521]

I've never DMed before and I've been prepping to DM for my group. This is the most useful video I've seen out of dozens, thank you!

[@dyslegein]

How'd it go?

[@fplaysdm74]

“I hope someone found something useful in this conversation”, Yeah what I found useful was to use redcaps to creep out my players

[@Wizardously]

This was awesome. I've been playing since I was a kid and DMing since I was a teenager and I still always find things from your videos to improve myself and my DMing style.

[@ParokyaNiMarvin]

"It's Coture" Me *chokes on coffee* lmao

[@Dohlenblick]

"Much like the common Redcap, the Dm stills all dietary needs with the tears and awe of it's players. That and cocoa."

[@levichang6074]

I’m very much a dm that sticks to the rules but I’ve always loved your advice so gave using the minion rules a go. That combat ran so much better than anything else I’ve run before. Thank you.

[@parasite159]

Redcaps, not to be confused with Redshirts; although both must die, Redcaps are far more dangerous.

[@swaghauler8334]

Unless you're standing between a Redshirt and a plasma conduit. Redshirts attract plasma explosions like picnics attract ants!

[@mikethewizard7378]

I like my math, strategy, and crunch. I love crunch and always feel like I need to defend it. I can disagree but still enjoy the video. Having solid numbers means if we roll bad, we roll bad. That’s it. Thanks for the video with an interesting perspective, Dael.

[@josephfernandez8015]

Why are you not streaming a D&D campaign? Why hasn’t Wizards hired you to do so? 🐉

[@natashasurvivallady8021]

It takes a lot to stream a DND game to the same level of quality that her videos are, and can affect how the players play their game. Also, it turns the game into part of her job, as opposed to just a fun game between friends. Now, I'm not Dael, so I can't say for sure, but these could be a few of the reasons why.

[@ChrisSham]

I think a large part of the point of roleplaying is the uniqueness of doing it for yourself, with your own group. Watching others play might be fun for some, but it's not exactly the main goal. I much prefer these advice and guidance videos, as a way to inspire others to play their own games. I wish Colville would switch back to mainly inspirational guidance, rather than mainly unstructured and slightly pointless streams.

[@sleepytattoos]

Not to shit on OP here, but to answer your question directly - Wizards hired another similar youtuber with a larger, more established following to do the thing you are suggesting.

[@josephfernandez8015]

@@sleepytattoos That doesn't mean they can't hire Dael though! They can call it "D&D Down Under" or something! Also Dael has lots of unique ideas when it comes to DMing, so it won't be like another Matt Mercer or Satine Phoenix.

[@KikoKay-Kay]

As some on who did a few streams of it. It takes a lot of out your, and your players. It may be a hobby but you have to put in the same effort as you would a job. Totally agree with you on the "She is great" part tho.

[@Aricade111]

So much about this is goals. Story driven combat (Check) Player centric encounter (Check) Adaptable playstyle (Check) That rockin hairstyle (Check) Goals, all of it

[@kirkfan-px9dj]

This came at SUCH a good time Dael!!!! I've already taken a lot of inspiration from your videos in general but this one was just *chef's kiss, accidentally hits self in the mouth* amazing. I'd honestly never considered running combat this way, and as someone who is generally ehh on combat on numbers in and of itself, this is so super timely. I'm definitely borrowing a lot of these ideas, they're so good.

[@jafarthebarmecide3677]

I made my Redcaps the police force of Faerie. They are basically largish goblins. I have made goblins fey creatures tho, and not necessarily evil but mischevious gnomes (who are also fey)

[@nairocamilo]

Uptop, goblins as fey is the best thing to ever consider

[@kiarshalavia]

My goblinoids as a whole have been reclassified as fey in my home game and are currently vying for being a major court in the fey hierarchy as The Iron Court.

[@tylerh2548]

Check out Shadow of the Demon Lord rpg. Goblins are fey-in-exile and list under the basic ancestries a player can choose in the main rulebook. The Goblin King is an elf who lives in a planar maze and is definitely NOT Bowie.

[@jafarthebarmecide3677]

There are so many things I think belong in Faerie but are overlooked in D&D, I mean to me elves are the epitome of Faerie, now I know they've come up with Eladrin to honour this but elves aren't inherently fey in D&D, high elves and wood elves have separated from the feywild, In folklore and mythology elves are fairies and Faerie is elvenhome or Alfheimr. I envision faerie as a place of chaos, it's inhabitants are varied and extreme and I suppose I have this idea from Shakespeare and "Midsummer Night's Dream" where Oberon and Titania's seelie court is made up of sprites and giants and people with donkey heads. I also think of Riddley Scott's "Legend" where the fairies are either sprites, the Gump (Robin Goodfellow or Puck) or gnomish/dwarvish leprechauns- and in the story it turns out the goblins are just "bad fairies". I suppose it is because D&D needs stats and every different name needs a different stat and story, hence we get Demons who are different from Devils, kobolds are different from goblins despite kobold being a Germanic word for the goblins they associated with cobalt, and in the AD&D books fairies were different from sprites and brownies and pixies and korred and leprechauns even though these are all names from different languages for the same thing- magical little people or spirits. I have made an alternative Earth world where The British Isles are ruled by half-elves and are basically tribute to Faerie. Albion or Prydain is known as Feyland and Ireland is known as Mad West Feyland because of the elves that inhabit Mad West Feyland are the warlike sidhe (pron. shee) ruled by the Tuatha De Danann. Albion is ruled by a half-elven matrilineal dynasty started by Morgan Le Fay. As time went on European nobility married into this dynasty and has had the effect of half-elves being the ruling class of Europe. Half elves in my world all have an aristocratic or noble link somewhere even if their background is different and not necessarily noble. In Europe itself there is the Black Forest or the Hercynian Forest which stretches from the Rhine to Bohemia and from the Danube to the flat lands of Gothland and Prussia to the north. This forest is the woodelf kingdom/empire and it's getting bigger- even surrounding the Bohemian valley itself. The king is basically Thranduil/Rillifane but nobody knows his name, he's just the Wood elf king. He made a treaty with Augustus of the Roman Empire that fixed the Empire's borders at the Rhine and the Danube. I'm sorry I went off on a tangent there, I could redact it but there might be someone interested, you never know....

[@kiarshalavia]

I personally enjoyed the tangent. My fey have just done through a bit of an upheaval in their living cosmology as their god-rulers(the queens of winter/summer and their king of the wilds) have disappeared, as have the gods of the mortal races, leaving self-proclaimed saints to pick up mantles of power to try to fill the new void.

[@Mina.CX7]

As a newish DM I always feel kind of akward in combat, this really gave me a new perspective. Thanks ^^

[@michaeldejesus4982]

Awesome work 👍. I used to use notes on 3x5 cards with the five senses of the players and how they would experience the different areas in a dungeon. Plus a card for each monsters description how I saw them in my mind. The players loved it. This was back in the day of 1981. Basic d&d. They still remember the game to this day. Your narrative skills are amazing.

[@natashasurvivallady8021]

I like your semi minion rules, especially since you still used hit points for the big guy. It's nice to not have to deal with a ton of extra numbers, while at the same time giving your players whose whole class benefit is the kind of numbers they can push out. And thank you for just making red caps the awesome terrors they should be!! XD

[@SupahAwsum123]

Following the flow of a battle is definitely much more important than abiding by a hit point total is something I do regularly and favor far more

[@AliceQuinnRose]

It's nice to see a succesful DM running the game from a storytelling POV instead of a numbers POV. I've struggled to DM in the past because of all the crunch. I felt like I was just being the groups accountant rather than the head storyteller. It wasn't fun. So thank you for providing more creative approaches to DMiing that people like me can exsperiment with.

[@robynhiggs4379]

Every one of Dael's videos give me a little more confidence as a DM. I think we share many DMing Styles.

[@danieltenny817]

New to your channel and spent most of this lovely Tuesday morning watching your videos on DnD! I love the theme and flavour you bring to the basic ideas and concepts! Thank you!

[@brittanysleepy8617]

I'm so bad at math thank you for this tips. Keeping track of how many hits instead of hit points should really keep the flow going!

[@dualDisc]

omG I LOVE THIS SO MUCH, THIS WAS ***VERY*** USEFUL FOR ME BC I had been sooo troubled with running my combats. I find it too short, or too long, or too boring, or not deadly enough, or other stuff! And that tip with keeping the HP calculations loose really helps. I think the next time I run combat, I'll go with that, keep a looser grip on the HP and focus on the actual flow of combat, trust my game sense and all that

[@Ben-eb9ji]

The "Monster should go down in X Number of hits" Is a thing I do myself as well and It works like a charm in big fights!

[@jarrettperdue3328]

1. Love your videos. 2. The idea of the *DM* taking on the responsibility of managing player experience and enjoyment in combat, directing for emotional highs and lows, sounds *exhausting* and stressful. I'll happily stay in my little, simulationist bubble where I create obstacles and situations and then watch in joy and amusement as my clever players solve them in unexpected ways. ... barbarian disguised as redcap matron, seeking her errant son-in-law ... what?? [1. and 2. are fully compatible]

[@PhoenixAgent003]

"Just sayin'. I ran it, and it worked well." Nuff said.

[@deusvulture5183]

Dael, I'm a tactical combat enthusiast, but I have to admit, your clever improvisation brings something really intriguing to the discussion that keeps my disposition to mathematics in check. Moreso, from a crunchy perspective, your minified statblocks are actually genius. Much of the statblock information in D&D is totally superfluous and wastes precious space. Have you considered making a video about those and how to format them as easy-to-read snippets?

[@animistchannel2983]

Flavor, crunch, chunks... can we get some trail mix for this one? I used to do similar things with groups of minor support monsters, like approximate their damage taken with "/" slash for minor, "X" through that for badly wounded, and "O" around that for dead. They might go straight to X or O from a big hit. It means they die at different hit point totals, but I figure they have different amounts of hit points to start with, normal variation. I agree with you that it is more important to have the combat make a good, exciting event than to quibble over each point. Having shorthands for things like this mean you can run more, larger, and complex fights & scenarios by saving your brain energy for what matters most. You can even get stuff that isn't combat mechanics going on during the fight itself, because you can afford to think about it at the same time. People who want to run super crunchy fights where each 6-second round takes 2+ hours to complete are welcome to their style of play. Have at it, guys. Personally, I find it inherently unrealistic and boring. At that point, I figure we may as well be playing a computer game and letting the CPU do the maths. Real combat is never that precise -- it's messy and confusing and wacky stuff happens on the spur of the moment. I like a game to reflect that.

[@eb4305]

Darts cricket scoring, freaking brilliant dude. I will be absconding this method good sir or madam.

[@PhantomForces]

I may or maynot have subscribed and hit the notification button in the first five minutes because it's nice to finally find another person who loves narrative combat. In D&D I always have issues making combat narrative maybe cuz combat is so tactical-ish. So I'm trying to get better at pushing narrative in combat. Just D&D all other systems I got it.

[@ahdahcho]

Seriously loved this, I've been looking at ways to change the experience of battle and I'm sure this will go a long way in making battles more immersive and less "roll dice, do math".

[@Tat2ice]

Quite useful actually. The idea of thinking about how many hits a creature can take vs pure HP is a good tool to think about how you'd want the encounter to progress, and why you'd put certain creatures in the encounter

[@ch3ls3ab0t6]

Yeah, over the past year, hp has become increasingly less important. For any little minions, I usually have one thing I want each of them to accomplish even if it's just hit once. And I stick to that unless a player uses a resource that would be considered valuable at their level, in which case, I'll let the little ones die right away. For more powerful enemies, I'll use hp as a guideline. They'll die around the time they lose it, but I focus mostly on the flow of the battle, and what would be dramatic and/or fun. I will definitely alter dungeons on the fly as well. If they've gone through a couple encounters and struggled massively, I'll remove an enemy. If they're breezing through stuff, I'll add something more challenging. All before that part of the map is revealed to them. I keep a lot of stuff off to the side and decide what to add as I go depending on how things are going. I've found it works out way better for us and I don't think my players have any idea.

[@olig8615]

Dear Dael, I had a vague and evocative idea: a campaign module themed after the 12 labours of Hercules. I think you could probably find an hour's worth of ideas to talk about just for how you'd design the Nemean Lion for a boss fight. I'd like to do something like make a sales pitch that you should take this idea off my hands and flesh it out fully since you're more qualified on the DM and the Mythology side than I am and also could turn this into a whole bunch of content for your channel and/or a game-design sales pitch to WotC if you'd like. 12 consecutive quests with a decent amount of the standard big monster-slaying mixed with an interesting variety of other quest-types and quest-type hybrids that increase smoothly in complexity. Some monster-capturing, heists, social quests that are also optionally heists, a creative problem-solving challenge that would work well with the short and long rest mechanic, and then a monster-capture/heist hybrid to hell and back to steal Hades' big ol' boy Spot to top it all off. Here's what I'm thinking so far: Slay the Nemean Lion. Monster-slaying (Single Big Boss encounter, 1 legendary action) Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra. Monster-slaying (Single Big Boss encounter, 3 legendary actions) Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis. Chase (Non-combat monster-capturing quest type rewarding mobility and Crowd Control) Capture the Erymanthian Boar. Monster-slaying/Chase Hybrid (Single Big Boss enemy transitions to Chase at 20%ish health) Clean the Augean stables in a single day. Creative Problem-solving challenge (party dependent af, generally rewards utility spellcasters) Slay the Stymphalian Birds. Monster-slaying (Multiple Enemies encounter ) Capture the Cretan Bull. Chase Steal the Mares of Diomedes. Heist or Monster-slaying/Chase Hybrid (Multiple Enemies that each begin Fleeing at 50% health) Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta. Social or Heist (up to the DM or the Dm can leave up to the party) Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon. Social or Heist or Monster-slaying (Single Big Boss, 1 legendary action, 1 lair action) Steal the apples of the Hesperides. Heist Capture and bring back Cerberus. Monster-Slaying/Heist Hybrid (Single Big Boss Enemy, two legendary actions, two lair actions then transitions to Heist) There's a few design gaps in the necessary mechanics, particularly the mechanics of a Chase, when you can start the attempts the Capture mechanic, and the actual mechanics of "Capturing" done during the chases. For Chases, I'm imagining a battle of mobility and CC. I think you could have a boss encounter where the boss uses its movement to flee and its actions to impede being chased or captured in different ways. The Golden Hind of Artemis would be swift through the forest and may have the land and forest itself come to its protection etc...You could have the chase be through difficult terrain which the Boss is unaffected by. The Golden Hind could cast spells like Spike Growth or Entangle, it could have a spell that causes a dex save or being knocked prone as roots rise to trip your ankles. You get where I'm going with the boss side of the mechanics. I think you could also use the existing combat mechanics and spells for PC's without changing anything. By doing so you reward different spells than the usual combat powerhouses for spellcasters and reward underutilized mechanics like grappling/inflicting prone for your martial characters. You could also easily give the Ranger class a mechanic buffing them for this as well. I was thinking of something like a "Fatigued" state that the monsters would get to after a certain number of rounds of consecutively "Fleeing" during a Chase. The goal of the chase would be to keep up with the Fleeing monster, dodge it's CC and land your cc on it to slow it down/wear it out until it's Fatigued, at which point it would be vulnerable to attempts from the Capture mechanic. For the Capture mechanic I was thinking that you could give the party a magical net from the same divine source that gives these quests when the third quest is given. The mechanics could be something along the lines of it's an action to throw the net at a Fatigued monster and it has to make a CON save vs the throwers STR or DEX save DC. Additionally different CC conditions could add different bonuses to the save DC. Something like if its prone then +1, if its restrained +2, paralyzed +3 or something like that. This gives your martial characters a crucial role that doesn't get outshone by the spellcasters and make them feel useless, as well as something for them to do with their action to "get the killing blow" in these non-lethal encounters. Plus the fighter/ranger/barbarian gets to feel like Hercules. Ok so that's about as far as I've gotten. I haven't yet gotten around to sitting down to make any of these 12 encounters fully yet. If you've made it this far Thank You and I'm Sorry. If any of this vagueness was evocative please steal it all and run with it, I think you'd do it better justice than I would.

[@TriMarkC]

Oli Glossinger That’s a seriously great series of adventures right there!! This could be designed as a series of one-player scenes, like as Hercules has to do. Or better as a team dynamic as you noted, w lots of opportunities for each player to shine in one scene and the team needed for the others. This whole thing is going in my idea book, but really hope Dael takes this & runs with it for her share w all of us. Well done!!

[@raykendo]

Another great and thought-provoking video. It's nice to see D&D handled in a less crunchy manner. It's like mixing corn chips with chili. Not too crunchy for your grandma, but still flavorful. And as a fan of redcaps, I love what you did with them.

[@spoke2639]

Finally! Someone who likes to run combat the same way I do! I 100% agree with your philosophy when it comes to monster HP and feeling out the flow if the combat instead of adhering strictly to numbers.

[@mikethewizard7378]

arlen guest that is fascinating to me because I’d hate too many combats like this. Quantum encounters where the party always wins by just a little. No hit points on the enemy instead just a number of hits they can take is something I really like actually. Neat to get a different perspective.

[@marclemieux4902]

@@mikethewizard7378 "Quantum encounters where the party always wins by just a little. " One of my DMs does this quite often and it does get very tedious. You never have a sweet critical hit that takes out a mook in one hit, it's always two rounds to drop one while you're getting ginsued because no matter how high the barbarian's ac is, they get hit.

[@mikethewizard7378]

Marc Lemieux that sounds kinda frustrating. Have you tried discussing with your Dungeon Master? Might not be the game for you if it’s not your playstyle.

[@marclemieux4902]

@@mikethewizard7378 yeah, the group has rotating GMs, the other ones are quite good, this one is newer but they inconsistently takes advice from too many different blogs, it gets messy with the physics of the world changing from week to week depending on what they've read. It's becoming less of an issue now that we have loads of hit points, but lower levels every goblin seemed to have 15+hp when the PCs only had 8-15

[@johngregg6820]

As a crunch-averse DM running a very numbers-heavy system, I'd been playing like this for a long time but I'm SO glad to see it all spelled out like this from someone who knows what they're doing more than me.

[@MrAverus]

Utilizing minions and "tough" minions is a great idea that helps a GM populate battles with diverse enemies without nightmarish bookkeeping. I have colored poker chips that stack easily. You can color code and stack as many chips as it takes to kill a minion. After a hit, remove a chip (perhaps green to red) showing the damage to the players. No tallying HP.

[@johnharrison2086]

Excellent video Dael. Your advice regarding flexibility with HP and the numbers of enemies is exactly what I do. I am glad someone else thinks the same way! 😊

[@animusnocturnus7131]

wait wait wait... Dael... you can remember which enemy was hit with a hard or weak blow? That' amazing! I'd never be able to adjudicate by this rule, because I can't remember how hard an enemy was hit even after only one round of battle.

[@TriMarkC]

Animus Nocturnus I use 1/2-size index cards w 1 for each PC, 1 for “minions” & 1 for miniboss. Each has their HP on it (minions have an HP for each minion written, so I can quick edit as they’re hit.). Since I also use these as my Initiative tracker, I put them in order of initiative, and as each their turn, I can immediately see their remaining HP ...including my PCs’.

[@reidycakes93]

I've used Redcaps once and my players loved it. I had them tricking the players into believing they were friendly and making them distrustful of a small community of Wayang. The players had shrunk themselves after seeing a small lawn gnome-like creature living in their basement walls. The Wayang can be quite disturbing to those unfamiliar with them, so its pretty easy to convince them. In actuality, the Redcaps wanted to take the Wayang's blood and maybe some from the adventurer's if they fell in the process. Eventually, they figure out the plot and slaughtered the Redcaps before the potions ran out and they were crushed by the walls. I like your idea of having an infestation, make them a much bigger threat. I might add a hive of them living under a gladiator's arena, could add a bunch of creepiness to see tiny tongues and hands trying to squeeze through a drain pipe. I did have a big lumbering guy, but I think having a spellcaster would have been a good idea, especially if they can cast blood themed magic and the players can see that the guy is literally pumped full of blood (all sloshing around).

[@TimParker1]

PC's: "How did you make [redcaps] so horrible?!?" Dael: "That's what DM's live for" Abso-effing-lutely. I homebrew monster stat blocks 90% of the time. Always trying to balance tone and narrative necessity above rigid construction. The way Dael weaves the lore of Redcaps into a visceral and realistically confusing encounter is wonderful here. It's not their sheer power that your players are terrified of, it's the descriptions, it's the feeling of dread; of the unknown. Everyone should take a look at good horror, and action, and think about the tropes and plot devices that well-written descriptions and narrative queues provide, and compare them to what Dael outlined here. This is a great way of subverting expectation and forcing your PC's to question what they know. S+ work here.

[@thejadedjester4935]

This is a video I've been waiting for, always enjoy videos that inspire different ways to go about combat.

[@VoidplayLP]

"Thats the dream, thats what a DM lives for" Yep...thats true.

[@MumboJ]

I often do exactly this for HP as well! :D Write down HP, Ignore HP, Estimate number of hits (usually 1-3), Stronger/weaker hits count for more/less.

[@RedGalaxy00]

Ask me sometime about the time I basically turned a bunch of goblins into the veitcong.

[@Caitlin_TheGreat]

You're really *conveying* some concepts here, really *transporting* ideas into our minds, just *motoring* some weighty thoughts along. ... something about _operating automobiles_ ... to a person's _house_ ...

[@jimmywilliams2326]

I have great ideas. A orc raiding party makes a camp along a trade route coming out of a city so it can't bypass the camp, the leader is a magic user with either a zombie or skeleton raven with zecrotic damage who wears the jaw, finger or teeth bones as jewellery. Every night a suspicious fog crawls across the land screams can be heard from inside the fog, the area inside the fog is treated as difficult terrain.

[@Wyrdnairon]

Thanks for another great video! To maybe translate some of what you said into some pointersIguess: monster stats and mechanics are designed to add context to a monster's behavior, turn by turn, and following them strictly is part of what makes combat in games last longer than necessary. Don't be afraid to shuffle the encounter based on the party structure! Just like using rogues to backstab barbarians, have rangers act as covering fire, and if there's a duelist, give them something big for them to duel while the rest of the party deals with the mob.

[@ed-chivers]

Oh wow, Dael, I absolutely love this! The way I run my games the story absolutely comes first - there have been lots of times where I've decided "eh, we've had enough of this guy, this is getting boring" and decided to knock a bunch of hit points off a bad guy so that they die quicker (or, sometimes give them more hit points if the players are getting through too quickly!)... The story's got to come first, after all that's what your players are going to remember, not the numbers. P.S. this video has given me some horrible ideas to inflict upon my players...

[@osarkthegoat7038]

I absolutely love the idea of fudging monster hit-points. so much more story potential!

[@peterosborne8315]

Osark The Goat eh. I think my players would feel kinda cheated if they ever found out I ever did something like that

[@osarkthegoat7038]

@@peterosborne8315 I doubt mine would even notice. mostly because I don't divulge hit point totals

[@my_fair_rachel7898]

I'm so glad I'm not the only DM that doesn't keep track of all the bad guy hp. It bogged my gameplay so much. Keeping track of hits instead has made combat so much easier and flow faster, thus making it more exciting and less stressful.

[@MonarchsFactory]

Totally agree! I noticed a big difference in how I feel post-session, as well -- when I was tracking numbers super accurately I felt like I was dragging play, couldn't keep things like concentration in mind, messed more things up. This way has freed up so much ram in my brain that the battle runs smoother and I don't beat myself up over mistakes later

[@Pyre001]

I sometimes use a similar system, much like the Minion-system except they have more than one "hit point", basically requiring two or three hits to go down. Crits count double, saved spells count as 'half', overwhelming amounts of damage (like a crit with a LOT of damage or a Maximized Fireball) might kill outright.

[@UrbanScalawag]

I would absolutely LOVE to play in a campaign with you as my GM! I love everything about the way you describe the campaigns you run.

[@TheKazragore]

For my campaign, my Redcap moment was my converted Soulspike Devourer. It had been taking children from a swamp town and the party initially thought it was an Oni. When I presented them with a Lego constructed set of ruins as the map, and the "mini" for the monster, they freaked a bit. Then they fought it. To this day, they all agree it was the most harrowing session of the campaign which is now 2 years in. Great feeling when you can pull something like that off.

[@ryancarter6876]

I dig your DM style seems like mine, focused on telling a story not so much crunchy wargaming haha :D

[@AinaLove73]

first that ending was so awkward I love it. And yeah this is like advanced minions from 4e minions IMO. I do this quite often I don't track hit points and I have set conditions for how lng something survives. Like 3 hits and its dead, or it will live for 3 rounds combat at least unless a NAT 20 attack is used on it after round 1.

[@alexanderlundberg5644]

I liked this a lot, even as someone who loves the crunch quite a lot. I will definitely try creating cool moments for my players, and might use number of hits until a monster dies sometime.

[@Driftingsiax]

Came up with a clever analogy. D&D is chips and salsa. The crunch on it’s own is bland, because it’s a vessel to deliver the flavor. The flavor on it’s own lacks substance (imagine drinking salsa) so the crunch is there to make the flavor more satisfying.

[@valasafantastic1055]

Great fun! good tips and loved the way you made Redcaps truly interesting and terrifying. fun video thanks!

[@faithfreeman849]

The "Monster survives ___ Hits" thing sounds like Monster of the Week's Harm System

[@faithfreeman849]

Wait, the Redcap Raven would make a decent MOTW Monster now that I think about it, I'm gonna steal it

[@RashidMBey]

Saint Kingsmill blesses the timeline once more with her holy gruel? Grail? I don't know. This seems more like food for thought than cups for thought. I love the shift from seeing monsters as pawns to deal damage versus NPCs that thematically filter their battle options through personality and disposition. A big takeaway for me is besetting your players with peculiar problems fit for their strengths to enrich the combat. This was so damn cool. Absolutely love Dael. 💙

[@TheLemuroid]

Last week I ran a session that I later titled "The Red Cap Wedding". It was violent to say the least.

[@rashkavar]

I still prefer to play by the numbers, partly because I like to roll for hp to differentiate monsters a bit more (also keeps the party on their toes a bit, because it's harder to predict when exactly the enemy goes down. But yours is also an excellent take on things. Any suggestions on running combat in a civilian-rich environment? I don't want to be too specific because I know at least one of the players in this campaign watches this channel, but if the enemy's goal in combat is killing civilians rather than killing the heroes, how would you run it?

[@faerae666]

My daughter has that mermaid Barbie. Love your ideas Dael!

[@Daniel_Montenegro]

You are a natural, girl! Very good insights from this video.

[@maewilkes8883]

Oh my god, that was amazing! I want to read how all of that scene played out, like a short story! 😍

[@EternalTotem]

I love this. My grandma approves. You got me thinking on doing this scenario now for my monsters it will make DM combat a lot easier.

[@matthewhughes1950]

I love the concept of taking inspiration from the monster blocks and running with your own thing. Keeps players off the meta knowledge. My favorite custom is mawhounds. :p glass cannon scary dogs that attack in packs that are sort of like the dog monsters from borderlands. My players love them.

[@matthewhughes1950]

Also from the dm's side of it not having to track 15 enemies hp is great. Easily trackable with tick Mark's. Let the players be like yaaaas 8 damage then 12 damage etc. There was another video that talked about tracking via hits and not hp and they brought up some very similar points. Loved all of this.

[@seraphlord]

You have such a wonderful sense of humor, that outfit Couture joke got me XD

[@MulderStarling]

Oh my god I love all these videos.

[@deusvulture5183]

Also, the minion mechanic in 4E got totally thrown out with the bathwater. The idea about guesswork HP for minor enemies is a suitable expansion of that idea. Professor Dungeonmaster from @DungeonCraft has made a great video about this which shares some of these ideas.

[@Dyanosis]

I know this was almost 5 years ago now, but your stat block is definitely older D&D... "Flat-footed AC"? Haven't seen those terms in awhile lol. What a blast from the past.

[@Ekigane]

Today has been an adventure, this morning, i had the revelation that if i want to be notified of your videos, i should subscribe. I then proceeded to have difficulties subscribing as pressing the decently sized red subscribe button apparently doesn't make me subscribe and instead makes youtube do something else for some reason, each time something different. But i finally managed to subscribe, and that makes me happy.

[@eunaotinha]

Please share more encoutners like this with us.

[@trex23d]

In every game I've GMed, I take HP as a suggestion and tweak it all the time to make the game flow better, especially for the little guys. The illusion and fun is way more important than the crunch,

[@S_Tinguely]

So many insights in this video... SO GOOD !!!!

[@lindsayparmelee6904]

I'm definitely not crunch adverse, but I get lost in the crunch and the game suffers. I'll definitely try the no HP thing.

[@mcmuffincakes]

FLAVOR vs. CRUNCH? That's some DYNAMITE terminology

[@thedabblingwarlock]

Oh I found plenty that is useful. I'm gonna be using this the next time I GM.

[@Omegaroth666]

This was very validating for me, personally.

[@Atombomb207]

Have you ever played a game on the app store called kingdom rush? Their 3rd game had redcaps but the had normal sized sized scythes with a "death strike" that just did a large amount of damage. All of their games are fun and good inspiration for dnd I reccomend trying it out 😊 Btw, I went from watching 2 Indian guys building a pool at 2am, its 6am now and I've watched at least 13 videos! It's so awesome hearing so much imagination flowing through you (especially in that accent. Idk even now what it is but it's just so entertaining) -keep it up🤙

[@Daekeyas]

This was extreemly useful. thank you

[@rogerfarley7823]

Great vid, don't discount your advice or insight. It's good stuff. I am like you. I already feel that D&D turns into a board game during combat. I try to allow my more crunchy players have their fun, but want to keep the emphasis on the important stuff and not calculator skills. BTW... the HP/stats for monsters are only considered the AVERAGE for that monster and can literally be anything you need it to be. There are such things as sickly orcs and brute goblins!

[@ZYR47]

Interesting that we do essentially the same thing, but have completely different avenues to get there or explain it. In the end, I agree that the flow of battle and the feelings it produces are more of a priority for me than the crunch. I do love tinkering with boss monsters or key cogs that all work together to do something mechanically cool for a unique battle, but most times the mooks are just mooks and I have an idea of how long they should last. My default is 20-25 hp (for a level 5 to 11 game) and that leaves me free to adjust the numbers of creatures and the tactics more knowing they'll each get at least a little time to shine but can still fall to player resources in a believable manner. Meanwhile the one or two "named" monsters have true hit points and mechanics that play off their mooks but don't make me track a million dots of 40-70 hp each.

[@davidfunk3505]

If I remember right, at least from 3.5e, Red Caps are Fey Creatures. That may have changed in 5e to relate more to demons. Which I feel is a shame. Because while the Feywild is beautiful and magical, it isn't without a darker side, and things like red caps and quicklings are perfect examples of that. Idk, perhaps Red Caps' nature are more in line with demons in D&D, but still. They might still be Fey though, which I'd be happy with. I'll have to look at my 5e monster manual again.

[@nicholasschoonbeck6866]

Redcaps are taken from European faerie ideas that one troop wore green & one troop wore red & they sometimes clashed. In Brian Froud's Faerie book, Alen Lee painted one that Froud described as a border goblin, based on some old folklore. RA Salvatore has used them in one of his series, not a D&D one.

[@MonarchsFactory]

The Froud/Lee 'Faeries' redcap art is amongst my all time favourites -- that book is just a never ending treasure trove

[@nicholasschoonbeck6866]

@@MonarchsFactory I still have my 1st copy, that's falling apart that & stole from a library as a kid (I was a bad kid) but we have bought a few new ones for other family members & I'm trying to get my granddaughter into it now.

[@jgr7487]

I need a "Vague and Evocative" t-shirt

[@connierule3902]

I second!

[@crystalkalem9289]

"I am the very model of a modern english major!"