Hunting Displacer Beasts || D&D w/ Dael Kingsmill

[@emmacox2617]

Dang that mini game is actually genius

[@Music_Engineering]

I agree!

[@matthewsinnott5386]

Its honestly got a lot of similarities to an exploration-based hex crawl - its definitely a great game structure!

[@metallsnubben]

I think that is just the way now. Minigames for EVERY MONSTER TYPE

[@RobKinneySouthpaw]

Used it. It really is.

[@maddinar6727]

I'm gonna use it in my next session. :D

[@lexvstee]

"I sense a disturbance in the ferns." ~Fighter.

[@connorproudfoot8746]

Damn you and take my upvote.

[@Dohlenblick]

Kneeling over the track in the red soil, the ranger at once felt a chilling pang run down her spine. Something big shifted, far to close, in the foliage at the rim of her periferal vision. Then she felt hot, gory breath, ripple in the humid air. "Clever girl!".

[@montezuma0000]

Displacer Beasts are hunted for their pelts in my setting. They're popular as a fashion piece for the wealthy, and one person I'm working in as a side villain is Cruella de Ville inspired.

[@MonarchsFactory]

I love that

[@digitaljanus]

One of my first PCs wore a displacer beast cloak with his head coming out of the mouth like the way Aztec Jaguar Warriors are depicted in art (probably not in reality though). It might have also been a cloak of displacement, I can't remember.

[@EvelynNdenial]

the cloak of displacement magic item is made of displacer beast hide, so it's like dnd cannon too.

[@montezuma0000]

@@EvelynNdenial yup! That was the inspiration

[@XaleManix]

A fun thought to add: the party thinks they are fighting one displacer beast, because maybe your party is used to the other fluff, or they google all your enemies the second you say their name, or you intentionally put that into their minds. Its actually four of them, and you let them believe its just one until a beast dies.

[@hopelesslydull7588]

I have one of those "I look up all the monsters we have been fighting/have been teased" so I homebrew almost all my creatures to some level.

[@drekfletch]

@@hopelesslydull7588 Once got an item "Bestiary" that was an in-world monster manual. Over a long rest or an unrestful short rest, our Ranger would study a section to learn things. (Knowledge retained for a month before needing restudy.) Could then roll an intelligence check during a fight to remember parts of the stat block or other aspects. DM would then share standard info, but not info for the modified beast.

[@hopelesslydull7588]

@@drekfletch Absolutely stealing that.

[@drekfletch]

@@hopelesslydull7588 I'd seen something about medieval bestiaries and told the DM that next time we were in a city I'd look for one. He was much more generous than I was thinking, given how ridiculous the medieval ones could be.

[@egirlSkeletor]

"Raise your eyebrows, go hmm, and jot something down" is one of the best tools at your disposal as a dm. For added effect roll your heaviest, loudest dice.

[@lewdcharizard9902]

I sense a great disturbance in the ferns... as if several fronds suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly trampled.

[@javidproductions9353]

I felt like the displacer beast hunt could be like the hunt of the Beast of Gévaudan in France. A single creature whipping out cattle and farmers. The king sent down hunters, but they all failed. Until one claimed to have slained the beast. You could set up that the adventurers arrive after that claimed victory. The village is still ravaged because the beast wasn't gone. The hunt won't be recognized or bring glory, but it's needed to protect the villagers.

[@MonarchsFactory]

Very cool concept

[@digitaljanus]

That's what the movie Brotherhood of the Wolf was based on, right?

[@javidproductions9353]

@@digitaljanus Yes.

[@AmericanAurochs]

@@javidproductions9353 The Rudraprayag Leopard would be an equally good choice. Either way, man-eaters were (and are) an element of life in extremely rural areas that are woefully underrepresented as threats in TTRPGs.

[@silentobserver6908]

This is so brilliant I had to write the mechanics down: Goal: find and kill displacer beasts before sundown since they are stronger at night Setup: * 6x6 Grid * Create pathway in forest that displacers have followed away from village * Traps set up along the way by the townspeople. Roll 2d6 3 times to see where 3 traps are set on the grid. * DM has a marked grid and players have the same grid but empty * Players roll a stealth check at the beginning. Anyone proficient in survival or nature may add their modifiers for one of those skills to their total or to the total of another party member. DC set to 14: passive perception of a Panther. * Number of stealth check successes sets the number of perception checks Displacer Beasts need to make before they realize that someone is encroaching on their territory. * Players start in a random location along the A column. Mechanics: * 10 hours before nightfall * Each square is 1 hour of travel * Skill challenge to track displacer beasts. Characters choose a cardinal direction and then make a skill check, DC 16 to gather information about that cardinal direction. Note: East covers Northeast and Southeast squares, etc. * One skill check is included in each square’s worth of travel. Each additional skill check from the same square adds another hour. * Displacer beasts take their turn every hour. DC 14 perception check. * Once Displacer Beasts realize the players are in the forest, they know where the players are and can take their turn after the players take theirs every hour and plan their attack. They may split up, with one group attempting to lure players in a certain direction and set up an ambush.

[@Constatonks]

YES! Actual monster hunting! Did a Wyvern hunt and they learned some zoology to help them.

[@Torvik40]

Why you hunt me, bro?

[@benjaminholcomb9478]

@@Torvik40 because they couldn't find the wherevern

[@anarkizt]

@@benjaminholcomb9478 What Vern? Whose Vern?

[@benpolwart8309]

Every time I watch one of your videos I go: "Damn, I should use something like this in my game." This time I didn't. I went: "Damn, I should use exactly this in my game." Great idea, love the raptor hunt vibes.

[@drekfletch]

I grew up in the 90s. On the computer I had Solitaire and Minesweeper, and that was it. I NEVER knew that's what the numbers were for. I was Today Years Old when I found out that that's what the numbers were for.

[@mercyvanzyl316]

Deal's "but it would be dramatic though" is such a vibe and mood and a new motto

[@live4twilight4ever]

a long video, but nothing could have been cut. absolutely packed with useful info.

[@MonarchsFactory]

I'm glad you said that - I was desperately looking for dead time to cut, and I really think this was about the best I could do

[@Calebgoblin]

I could never hunt Big Cat and you know that

[@MonarchsFactory]

I do know that and I'm thankful for it

[@drewwendell]

I am here to report that this exploration game (1) works with large groups and (2) is sound enough to build on top of. I added multiple trails to follow (using a printed map and different colored, numbered chips), integrated rolls (failed rolls still revealed the square and revealed what passed through the hex, just not the number), and added actions (making camp, etc.), and (3) as suitable for long explorations taking place over many days. Just here to offer a field report. And to Dael, every single GM who has seen me run this system has asked to steal it. It's absolutely changed the way we play. Many thanks.

[@seangillikin5392]

I was recently thinking about running a displacer beast session and I took inspiration from the Tsavo Man-Eaters: two real-life lions which attacked railroad construction workers in Kenya in 1898, killing upwards of a hundred people over their several months of frequent attacks. I wanted to use this idea as a way to introduce the party to my greedy industrialist bad guy; someone who just kept allowing people to die rather than resolving the problem or suspending construction. I also decided to give the displacer beasts the Umbral Sight feature of the Gloomstalker Ranger from Xanathar's Guide. Basically, the displacer beasts would be invisible in darkness, even to creatures with darkvision. I think this really amps up the sense of danger and paranoia and forces the party to make a decision about whether to use light sources or not. If they carry lit torches, then the beasts will be able to easily hunt them down. If they don't, they might walk right into the beasts' trap without even knowing it.

[@jedidiahdavis7147]

28:50 "Death in a sack" great reference!

[@Patriquinc]

Death in a sack! That episode of The Storyteller was always my favorite. I’m definitely stealing this for my Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign. I see a ship smuggling displacer beasts for a fantastical menagerie wrecking on an island...

[@MonarchsFactory]

Yes! Someone out there got my reference!!

[@sillyking1991]

so im kinda the opposite idea about displacer beasts. i see them as more 'predator' style ambush hunters. i like your idea with the sprint ability. although i'd probably have it recharge more (maybe 5-6). but i do agree they should have offense, and they definitely should have some cool tail things. but i'd rather go with more of a rogue theme. the way i'd do that is to give it features that are more tied to displacement. so first of all 'ambush predator': while displacement is active, the displacer beast has advantage on all attack rolls, can hide as a bonus action, and has advantage on stealth checks. the idea being that there's almost 2 separate cats moving around. so more like 'mirror image' than 'blur'. and while there are 2 cats, its obviously hard to keep track of which is real and so on. 'extra limbs': as part of the attack action the displacer beast may attack with its tentacles, or perform a shove, or grapple. if both tentacles attempt to grapple or shove the same target, teh displacer beast has advantage on the check. If attacking with them they deal 1d4 damage (no mod). if displacement is active, the tentacles instead deal 1d8+str damage. again, the idea being that the tentacles aren't super dangerous if you know where they are and can easily keep track of them. but can be absolutely devastating if they're able to get in just the right position. i'd probably then combine this with a rogue, or maybe bugbear style sneak attack damage just to really nail home the idea that it can (and will) one shot you if it gets the chance. combined with your idea of the hunting mini-game this would (i think) really enhance the clock. like, the players *really* don't want the beast to find them before they find it. or one of them might be toast. Edit: for flavor, i really like the idea of narrating a displacer attack from one direction, describing to one of the players this large beast and its fangs leaping down at them. rolling to attack, then asking an entirely different player what their AC is. as, obviously, the beast they watched attack was not the real one.

[@MonarchsFactory]

I considered a solo Predator approach so this was an interesting read - I particularly love that edit you included! I might just steal that idea if my players ever come up against a Displacer

[@sillyking1991]

@@MonarchsFactory thanks! Always nice to have ideas validated.

[@romanwiller2180]

I had a Feywild based campaign where a modified displacer beast was the bbeg, where it was the product of an experiment done during the war between the Seelie and Unseelie courts. The displacer beast was genetically modified to incorporate some of the abilities of local fauna. So its skin had shifting colors that made it blend into the forest (advantage on stealth) and its tentacles had a mushroom spore that would release on a hit that would be a CON save to not be paralyzed for 1d4-1 rounds (or can make a save as an action at the end of each turn). It also had a rapid teleport technique where it could teleport up to three times during its turn up to its movement in order to make things chaotic. Obviously boosted stats since the campaign ended at level 10. All that to say is that displacer beasts are a lot of fun to run as an encounter and you can change so much from them to make them more interesting and scary and an actual threat. I love this idea as well, and that mini game is definitely something I will probably use. Already have a couple of ideas for it

[@bowenmadden6122]

I like the idea that a wizard discovering displacer beasts, hunting them with his adventuring party, and then researching the remains is how the school of Illusions magic might have started, or at least that it was a major contribution to the study of illusions.

[@CorbiniteVids]

I love videos like this cause there's so much that can be applied in other situations or put into more of a general philosophy. Like I typically don't plan on doing any kind of animal hunting stuff for the most part because that just doesn't vibe with how I view fantasy conflict and just animals in general. But now I'm itching for an opportunity to use that minigame system for fighting a group of dark fey that have been taking people into the night, or an enemy party that have been giving the players trouble and targeting them

[@jonathonm6613]

I remember when this first came out and I thought "I'm gonna have to do that one day." Last night was that day, it was a lot of fun. I found that keeping track of which displacer beasts had displacement currently active and which ones didn't was a HUGE pain, so it quickly became "once hit it was over". Then I added an Alpha Displacer which was a huge creature that could grab and throw characters with it's tentacles. They were not expecting that. Good times.

[@chuckchuckerson5364]

For years I have struggled to make displacer beasts anything more than a slight nuisance. Thank you so much, this is amazing! This weekend one of my groups will be traveling to a collection of jungle islands, shrouded in mist, and this was the perfect thing to put it over the top.

[@MarmadukeRupe]

Yes channel your inner Big Cat with max ferocity "Claw-Claw-Tentacle-Tenacle-Glock-AK47"

[@daviddelille1443]

Loving the minigame. If I were running this, I'd give the displacers disadvantage on the first couple turns because they're nocturnal and probably sleeping at that time. I also don't like that they seem to know exactly where the players are at all times. Maybe they should do some tracking checks of their own, but at the very least, they should have to be in an adjacent square to perceive the players. Finally, I'd allow either party to use their turn to hide/ambush.

[@Gulgathydra]

I threw some new gamers up against a displacer beast once. They had already been through a couple rounds of combat, nothing too dangerous, but used up some of their resources. When the displacer beast first attacks, they're in close quarters, they move to a more defensible position. All of a sudden, the displacer beast appears behind them and attacks (it had been behind them the whole time). The mage puts up an illusion of a brick wall in between the beast and the PCs. The (image of) the displacer beast leaps atop the wall and lashes out at the PC directly behind the wall. From the player's perspective, there is now a large, extra-limbed cat beast perching on a wall that doesn't actually exist. They freak out and flee. They could have killed it easily.

[@joaomrtins]

20:12 implying that there is something in that forest that can disturb them. That's the scariest part.

[@ingridplata2411]

Well the party sounds disturbing

[@44Kokoloko]

SO CLEVER I imagine adapting the size of the grid to the length of the trail, or changing the square/time/check numbers ratio to fit different trail sizes, quarries and terrain Maybe adding a gimmick for the more territorial beasts like owlbears.. MY CREATIVE JUICES! They FLOW! Thank you !

[@chainchompwithhumanteeth3789]

This is an incredible idea!! My one suggestion would be using hexagons instead of squares, as it allows easier visualization on the part of the players (considering diagonals and pathing).

[@MonarchsFactory]

I definitely thought about hexagons too! The main reason I went with squares for this video was so I could easily do the Battleship ABC by 123 labels for clarity. But as long as the DM can clearly see both maps and what's where during the game I don't see why you couldn't go hexagons. 😊

[@mirtul1]

Literally will have an encounter with displacer beasts next session and this video is ginna help a lot! Thanks! Sidenote, I think the displacement ability just imposing disadvantage ist really boring, so I'll make a variant where instead they make an illusiory copy of themselves. Displacement will be an Action they'll take (maybe with recharge); when casting the copy, I'll take the token away and place two identical tokens 5ft away from where the the displacer beast used its ability. So the fight will be about finding out which ones are real.

[@benjaminfrost2780]

Loved it. Mini game is amazing. Displacer changes make sense. You literally got me excited to run Displacers and spawned an entire earning trust with a tribe in the area my players are exploring idea. THANK YOU

[@veggiedragon1000]

Lions are the exception to the rule among big cats though. Its a panther. Panthers are melanistic leopards in Africa or melanistic jaguars in South America. Jaguars are all terrain killers who can swim, climb trees, and overland travel. They can drop down on you from above, and kill alligators by biting through their skulls. Personally I think a single displacer beast or perhaps a mother and almost adult juveniles is terrifying enough. You want to allow blink dogs to be the pack animals and lion based creatures I feel. The minesweeper mini game is really cool though.

[@HouseDM]

Hah I just bought 2 "phase cats" from Reaper minis in anticipation of a displacer beast encounter. Thanks for doing my DM work for me Miss Kingsmill 👌

[@harrison3207]

This automatically came on after watching your other video and your tracking minigame blue my mind. Completely changes how I'd run survival and tracking. Could even be the basis of a hex crawl campaign where the heroes wake up lost.

[@noslenyrahcaz]

I made some small tweaks to this system and ran it for my Fairy Tales campaign (the players were hunting the Jabberwock and the displacer beasts were the Bandersnatches hunting the party) and it went great! Awesome idea! Thanks Dael!

[@heinrichkornelius]

Dael, I'd love so much to have you in my party. Running, playing, it doesn't matter! Your ideas ROCK!

[@Patricwithnok]

I love this Dael. I feel like this could be adapted for a search/chase in a heavily urban area and many other areas as well.

[@jwarner1469]

This is one of my favorite game design videos of all time, let alone a D&D video -- such excellent work!!

[@armandsoulliard3296]

This is a fantastic way to adapt a different game mechanic to D&D to create a distinct encounter/adventure!

[@dittervancrook1735]

I've been trying to figure out how to format a Monster Hunter (The Video game series from Capcom) DnD game and this cracked the code for me. I ran a mechanics one shot to see how it worked with the Monster Hunter Stat Blocks and it worked amazingly.

[@robertbyerlay5040]

I liked the mini grid search too. Even hex grid is good. But it needed some landmarks like hill, cliff, taller trees, stream, meadow, etc... so players can move towards or away from landmarks using their own judgements instead of solely relying on skill rolls.

[@wait4tues]

I've been going through a purge of my DnD content lately. So glad I kept this sub. This is my favorite of your videos so far. Love it.

[@pretsal4955]

Wait a second... this isn't BIG SPIDER!?

[@TheDJYosh]

This is really excellent stuff! This is one of those deceptively simple frameworks that requires a lot of creativity to invent, but feels obvious once someone else shows it to you.

[@mikecerutti4721]

This is AMAZING! After my group gets back together (after we all get our shots) I am 100% using this. I love the feel of the old mine sweeper game mixed with hunting them while they hunt you. Keep up the great work!

[@davidorr9577]

Awesome idea Dael! The dice gods clearly wanted you to do this with sending you the dream vision. If I was to use this, I think I would add in a chance that on some of the off the trail spots a chance to find some herbs for potions if they were using nature or medicine checks. Just to add a little distraction to the party from the main objective to eat up their time.

[@stephanierzeszutek3286]

I love your homebrew changes! I love dnd but there are times where I really think the stat blocks are more a guideline then anything else! I’m going to use your version of Displacer beasts now! Love it

[@Pkmn_Breeder_Tom]

I love Displacer Beasts, they're my favorite creature in the game (aside from the ridiculousness of the Ogre Goblin Hucker). I'm also loving this idea how to spice up encounters with these magical beasties and will totally be using this one day.

[@Nova-jw6ju]

D&D activity is gonna be picking up for me this summer, so will definitely try an encounter like this. Maybe with a twist, like the townsfolk are actually using the displacers to weaken the party for blood sacrifice to their fertility demon god. Thanks Dael youre a genius

[@django3422]

How am I only just seeing this? I love it! Once again, reshaping the way we think about D&D. I'm excited thinking about whether this framework could be adapated to accomodate other creatures too. This could make "hunt the beast" adventures actually interesting and a worthy endeavour. So evocative too. I loved when you were describing how the Displacers already figured out where the traps are, really selling them as these highly intelligent apex predators in their natural environment. I think what could add to that is if the players learn this from the villagers. One of them commenting that they tried setting traps for the beasts but the Displacers are too cunning. Also gives the players the opportunity to learn where, or at least get a clue as to where, some of the traps are. But while the villagers might be able to tell them where one, or maybe even two trap sites are... they then tell them, solemnly, that the last team that went in to set traps... never came back. Did they manage to set their traps before being ambushed? If so, where? No-one knows... well, the DM and the Displacers do but yeah...

[@Ombrackk]

Love the concept, both for the minigame and the statblock ! This will be put to use for sure ! I went ahead and added a reaction and a bonus action to the night beast, mostly because I'm running 6 players and I'm afraid 2 or 3 beasts would be a tad too easy for them due to their sheer number. Maybe some would find it useful or inspiring, so I thought I'd share :) Reaction is "Trapped! If a creature within 10 feet of the beast leaves that area, it must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be immobilized by one of the tentacles." I think it plays on the tentacle ability and gives the beast something more to do on the PCs turn. Bonus action is "Nimble shadow. After using its whole movement, the night beast can move an additional 5 feet in any direction. The distance becomes 10 feet when in dim light or darkness." I thought giving the beast some more area control would suit the hunting style of the creature, and the extra distance is cool for the displacement flavor !

[@mrkoskos1]

really like the battleship-esque tracking minigame, will probably try to remember to use that

[@3ndlessL00p]

Turning this into an encounter in the Nessian Wood for my Theros campaign next week. Excited to see how it goes down, especially because we got a new player joining us, playing a Sacred Keeper Ranger from your Theros homebrew 😉

[@crossedquills1068]

So, this set my game designer brain on fire and I put together a basic rule set for large-scale army/siege combat using this gird and similar vibe. Thank you for the inspiration!

[@vladimirrassushin8422]

Ohhhh! This concept for tracking is AWESOME! Thank you!

[@coachvincent]

It's a shame we can only give you 1 thumbs up- great work. The displacer beast is so iconic and this scenario is so well thought out. I am a big fan of your work. Keep it up!

[@Lvl99BlackMage]

This is so good...I'm gonna be thinking about this mini game and what other monsters or travel/exploration things could be done in that way for so long. I'd love to expand on some of this stuff and try it out as a way to make quick, easy, and interesting hex/dungeon crawl explorations. And it's interesting to think of something like a flying monster that maybe gets to move two squares a turn or some impassable chunks of squares that represent obstacles that monsters can travel through but unprepared players can't. I'm probably overcomplicating it already, but that's what my brain does on cool d&d ideas.

[@br41nc3ll]

The mini game is great and I actually needed a one-shot for hunting displacer beasts. The stars have aligned 🌟 Thank you

[@ericastacio5512]

Thanks for this! I ran this mini game for my players last session and they really enjoyed it. Very unique. Appreciate it very much.

[@jrglackn]

I would pay money for a print version of this on DMsGuild or similar.

[@2DLogic]

Love this and will definitely be using the Minesweeper hunting mechanic. Displacer Beasts are one of my favorite monsters too, your redesign definitely does them more justice than the 5e stat block. Great video. 🍻

[@noahdavies4431]

Having learned tracking from the Lead Ranger Program, I feel that on anything but like, a very high success, there should be multiple possible paths that can be followed, because you may find a broken branch in one direction, but also a trail of miscoloured leaves leading in another (when leaves are stepped on they often flip over, the bottom side being a different colour to the rest of the leaves that haven't been flipped over), and some clues could indicate a direction, like if you're tracking through grass, you may be able to see a light colored path of grass leading to the woods, or if you come from the other direction, it'll be a dark coloured path. With grass, following the light path will lead you in the same direction as the query, whereas the dark path will lead you the opposite direction. (This is due to grass bending in the direction of travel, when it's bent away from you, light reflects off of it and at you, making it appear lighter, but if it's bent away from you, you'll get less reflection from the stalks and it'll appear darker) this would make it so that you could give an indication of direction of travel, but only if the players have the knowledge needed to follow in the right direction. Another thing is if you're tracking over a long period of time, the query may need to rest and may stay in one area for a while, and when they leave, clues to what they had been doing can be left. If you're following a mercenary group, for instance, maybe they set down their weapons, this could have left an imprint on the ground, giving you some indication of what you're working with, maybe they made a map and we're careless enough when covering it that you can still kinda read bits of it, maybe they have hostages and you can count based on some markings how many mercs there are and how many prisoners, any extra information that can be found is good. I think that the whole mini game is really really cool! You introduced it and I got a bit scared that it would mess with the tone of the game, sort of not making it D&D-is enough, but I was pleasantly surprised that it both holds true to the game AND is a fairly accurate model for tracking!

[@AzzAGoss86]

Awesome! I like how you "exit stage left" at the end of each video-true theatre style

[@AquaSheep93]

I adapted and ran this hunt structure with one of my groups today! We had a new character join after a PC death (woops) who is a bounty hunter and I ran this to search a city precinct for a fugitive mad mage. The party immediately split into two and whilst one group followed the trail, the other wandered with no sign of the trail before walking straight into the mage's squat. It was a lot of fun and will definitely be using it again in the future - tho I may need to make some more adaptations for my group :)

[@lindsaycastle3735]

This is really cool and I can see printing a really pretty map with different features then laying the grid over the top. This could easily work for any type of tracking and in many systems. I might use this in my Changling the Lost game for the players tracking something in the hedge!

[@maxmic1206]

I once ran a game with something that looked like this. Basically I had the aprty walking through a dense forest looking for a nomad barbarian small tribe who had an artefact that'd open a temple. So the forest was a 6-6 square, and they had about 2 days to locate theIr camp that'd move everyday before the apocalypse, so they had to check for print, tracks and good ol' poop trenches. Tons of fun

[@chadlosier6418]

I literally just ran this as my first introductory adventure for my (starting at) 2nd lvl party last Sat. Ranger Fighters Wizard and Bard guarding a caravan through a forest road, there were a total of 2 Displacer though for story reasons only one was on the prowl. I had the same notions about making the beasts more interesting with homebrew and the cat and mouse game being the primary focus, but boy do I wish I would have watched this first. I managed as a newish DM to stumble through it, and my players were generous enough to say they enjoyed it, but yeah, this would have been much better.... Subscribed! Thanks for the content!

[@Torvik40]

Your idea about the successes on a group check setting the number of successes needed to counter the group's success is pure gold. Much more interesting than a simple pass/fail result, and I'll bet it could be applied to other group skill checks besides Stealth vs. Perception. As a biology teacher, though, I feel obligated to point out that a) *most* big cats are solitary, not just tigers (lions are the exception, not the rule) and b) there really isn't a lot of undergrowth in the jungle, because the canopy blocks out most of the sunlight which plants need to grow. Also, a rules quibble: the beast's displacement ability is actually *less* useful in the dark (unless the PCs have darkvision, which, to be fair, a lot of PC races do) because disadvantage from two different sources doesn't stack. But apart from those nitpicks, this was an awesome video and I eagerly await the other monsters on the list!

[@Torvik40]

On further reflection, I realized one significant problem with the group checks rule: it doesn't scale well with group size. A smaller group should have an easier time being stealthy, but going by your rule the opposite is true, because a larger party can generate more successes. Also, the size of the opposing group isn't taken into account. That doesn't matter so much when you're doing a monster hunt, but if the PCs are sneaking into a fortress, it should be harder the more sentries there are. I still think there's the seed of a brilliant idea there, but the mechanics need a bit of tweaking in order to achieve the intended result.

[@ElTaitronAnim]

This is a very cool hunting/tracking minigame! I'm sure it would work for other creatures too, with a handful of monster-specific tweaks. And your displacer beast lore is good too.

[@prolixpress1147]

Love this structure, I'm running a oneshot this weekend that's an Adventurers' Guild certification exam and this concept is so perfect for it

[@BradTastic17]

I finally had an opportunity to run this for my players, and it went over so well! Thank you so much for all of the incredible work you do!

[@falfires]

This is a great, simple, hex-crawl-like system for long hunts. I'll definitely use it.

[@ToddReynolds45]

I’ve been wanting to find rules for a monster hunter style game and this is PERFECT!!! Thank you

[@afinnerty32]

Perfect timing. I'm running a werewolf hunt in my Strahd campaign this weekend and will definitely give this a try. Thank you.

[@MonarchsFactory]

Ooh, let me know how that goes! A werewolf hunt would be 😙👌

[@afinnerty32]

@@MonarchsFactory just finished the session. Worked great. Players were extremely caution when they found human tracks then blood and then wolf tracks. All the while hearing the distant howls get closer as they ran for the safety of the mountains beyond the forest. Ended with them running out of the forest, chased by the wolves as the sun began to rise. Still a fight ahead but not as deadly a one. Thanks for the idea 👍

[@MonarchsFactory]

@@afinnerty32 Brilliant!

[@infamousgrosso]

This is incredible. Absolutely using this, I love your videos, literally the most creative TTRPG youtuber to date. Thank you!

[@Odalkor]

If there was a GMbinder version of that minigame, I could feel heaven

[@chaoshead87]

Finally a beast that mechanically feels like the fluff attached to it. The mini monster hunter game is good as well and may be used at my game table. Thanks for all you give us.

[@RobKinneySouthpaw]

Used this setup for a mushroom hunt, along with some stuff from the plants video. Played remotely, where I shared a blank copy of a Google document as the grid/"map" and it worked out super. Just a little more prep time and I could have overlaid the grid on like an actual jungle map for extra pizzazz. In this case the players use the survival to check clues not only to find what they were looking for, but also to avoid the trails of large monsters or local tribes of grungs, lizard folk, and such

[@okojjoko5716]

Amazing, I will be using exactly this in an upcoming underwater hunt for a Greater Basilisk

[@JohnHegner]

Truly excellent video, Dael! The tentacles grappling fits right in with them dragging off victims to eat while still alive, and their general love to drive fear into the hearts of their prey before killing them. The only other idea that comes to mind to fit the bill for this is to give their tentacle spines the wounding property, so they grapple and do a single point of damage, but that opens up a bleeding wound that you need to make a Medicine check to staunch, or magical healing to close. In this way, the displacer beasts will hide and wait for their prey to close. Then launch a surprise attack, inflict bleeding wounds on their prey, and then Sprint away back into the darkness and underbrush before starting their stalking again. Their prey, meanwhile, bleeds and bleeds and bleeds for a bit, readying actions for when they return, but they never do. By then they've lost some blood and risk medicine checks and magical healing to keep the damage minimal before continuing on. Rinse and repeat until the prey succumbs to their wounds, their prey somehow forces them to fight, or the approach of dawn forces them to attack to finish off their play things.

[@Khann119]

So many great ideas on this channel. I leave your videos so inspired but also overwhelmed with all of the details you have come up with that I fear I would forget in the moment. Regardless, you continually provide excellent resources for me. Thank you for the inspiration!

[@LukeLavablade]

"Why aren't you rolling?" is exactly the type of thing I'd love to hear as a DM. This is a great minigame, Dael! Simple enough to be versatile, specific enough to not be too easy. Definitely gonna use this in the future.

[@hobbiest6831]

Omg you nailed it, I love your take on the displacer pride! I'll be running a version of this this weekend!

[@BosJTor]

This makes me want to run a witcher style game. Where successfully hunting the monster drastically changes the challenge of fighting them. Very inspiring!

[@carternorvell9966]

There's actually a trpg system for the witcher. I didn't even know it existed until about a month ago

[@justinleesmith]

Super cool! Trying this out tonight in my Shadowfell campaign.

[@CitanulsPumpkin]

One thing you could do to vary the displacer beast encounter is add pack leaders and minions. Have clear pack leaders/alphas that have all your homebrew additions. Then fill out most of the "pride" with either default monster manual displacer beasts, or even 1hp minions of your homebrew versions. Or you could even throw in a bunch of "lesser" displacers with no homebrew stuff and only 1hp. In your mock up encounter you had the displacers split into two groups. Maybe the number of times they split up is limited to the total number of pack leaders in the pride. The leaders might even be the source of all the extra powers you gave to the displacers. The party might only be there in the first place because the locals hired them to clear out the new pair of super cats that moved into the region. Once those 1d4 displacers are gone the local militia will again be able to handle the regular displacers.

[@MonarchsFactory]

Certainly makes it easier to inflate the number of pride members without autokilling the party

[@quincinnamon7686]

If your session is centered around the displacer beast, it could be cool to invite another friend to play the displacer beast, and have them hunt the party. Also, neither the beast nor the party are allowed to see each others grids, so it's genuine battleship.

[@user-fm9km1qg3c]

Nice design! The main thing is that the author understands what purpose each design/choise serves. Just half an hour of joy.

[@Ramschat]

Awesome! I must say though that you have basically given them greater invisibility in dim light or darkness, which is a little brutal

[@RenaissanceManchild856]

Loved this video, and had a last minute cancellation and half an hours prep time and still had it bouncing around in my brain, so got to put it into action! I’ve been piecing together a fairytale campaign setting and used this to pitch it to my players for our next campaign. I loved it! And my players loved the mini game. The evocative descriptions and ideas in this video really stuck in my brain and made adapting it a breeze. Thanks Dael! (I am going to ramble a bit more below if anybody is curious how another group handled it.)

[@RenaissanceManchild856]

I had my players be accompanying the hunting party of one of the local barons. Only the king and his courtiers are permitted to hunt in the wood, but most suspect those laws are much older, and once applied to a much more pointy eared king. After a successful start my players stepped into one of the bear traps and just could not get a decent roll to save their life. On the fly I introduced a trio of sprites hooligans, drawing on the Feegles from the Pratchett novels, who began mocking the party. The party tried to persuade them, but only made hollow threats of retribution from the rest of their hunting party. Deciding they would be more insulted by this,l than cowed (accompanied with a pretty poor roll) the sprites abandoned them to escape the trap on their own and spent the next hour or so calling out after them, hollering and jeering and ruining their element of surprise. I ruled the outcome as two successes for the displacer beasts which began the chase early. The party found the body of an elk, pierced with arrows and left to rot. This forest is haunted by wicked elves from the Feywild, that have been known to hunt humans for sport. Suddenly the carcass lurched, head lolling to stare at the party. One of the sprites had crawled inside the mouth and started mocking them, moving the elks jaws in a grisly pantomime. They found the arrows and decided it would be best to move on in case the elves came back. Even the sprites seemed nervous as the party pushed deep into the wood. The cleric cast augury to determine which way to head next. The parties current cause would lead them directly into another trap. Knowing that danger was close, and right ahead of them, the party decided to risk pressing on, narrowly avoiding a pit trap. The party became aware they were being pursued. The woods were thick and claustrophobic here. They hurried to find somewhere to make a stand, but the two beasts sprung their ambush. I gave the beasts the pounce action (and a bite and claw) from the Sabre tooth statblock and gave them stealth and perception proficiency from the same statblock. One beast felled the party warlock with a lucky crit from surprise, and the party of four were on the backfoot from the very beginning. They were surrounded and split their focus, and things looked very dire. Displacers have a whopping 85 hit points, and my party of four 4th level PCs were down to three, and the displacement ability kept foiling the rogues sneak attacks. The warlock was healed and used his goblin nimble escape feature to flee into the trees, and the two beasts began to give chase, avoiding most of the attacks of opportunity. I had planned to have either blink dogs or some friendly fey join the fray if things turned against the party. Instead I brought my trio of sprites, with another three of their friends, join the fray. Seeing the battle underway and unable to resist a good brawl, they fired their darts at both sides, displacer and party alike. With a crazy bit of luck one of the displacers rolled a 2 on his save and was put to sleep. That’s ten percent odds. The party managed to cut down the pursuing beast, but two were poisoned by the sprites darts. Then, the sprites woke the remaining displacer. In a hard fought fight they got the upper hand and killed the last displacer. The sprites, furious at the party for stealing their “kill”, staked their claim to the displacer that had been put to sleep. Their leader, Cobweb, and lieutenant, Mustard Seed, stared down the barbarian who agreed to the compromise. “You’re a hard man, mustard seed.” Night was fast approaching as the party left the forest. At twilight they heard the sound of harps, and snuck close to spy a camp of elven courtiers, picnicking after a hunt of their own. I had planned this as a social encounter if the party dispatched the beasts quickly, but the exhausted party thought better of disturbing them and pressed on out of the forest. When they arrived they found the camp had packed up and left, with no trace of a fire or any of the horses or people. By the time they reached the nearest village they found that the kings hunters had left weeks ago. Time passes differently in the Ardenweald, especially when the elves cross over, and they had been left for dead. All in all a great session and my players are really keen to keep going alongside our curse of Strahd game. Thanks for such an inspiring setpiece!

[@ZiggyTopp]

This is an amazing video, I've watched it a few times and have taken it as inspiration for an upcoming event in my current game. You're amazing, keep up the great work!

[@caitlinmanning1292]

This is masterful!!! I'm going to apply this to a dungeon crawl for my players! The dungeon is way too big and complicated to map, it would take far too much time and it just wouldn't be worth it, SO I THINK THIS IDEA IS PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@escueladerol8334]

What a cool idea! In our table we don't use displacer beasts so much because of their CR, but after this I am willing to try it out!

[@thebakerofbananabread3237]

This has been "The Phantom and the Shadow" by Dael Kingsmill. A oneshot drama and thriller.

[@digitaljanus]

I did a monster hunt once with this monster in 2nd ed. called IIRC a darkenbeast. It's created by a spell an evil spellcaster put on livestock. At night it transforms and engages in slaughter but the PCs have a devil of a time tracking it because by day, it's back to being Grandma Ethel's cow. That session was more like Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow than Jurassic Park or The Ghost in the Darkness though.

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

It’s when I make complicated mini games like this that I’m most reminded that locate creatures is a spell

[@ed-chivers]

I love this so much. I especially love the idea of how the mood at the table would change when the players realise that they're being hunted too - there's a huge amount of dramatic tension there :)

[@TubaHorse]

That tracking system is genius. Can't wait to use it!