Flee Mortals Spotlight - Lazy RPG Talk Show

D&D and RPG news and commentary by Mike Shea of slyflourish.com
Video Contents
00:00:00 Show Start
00:01:05 Flee Mortals Qualifiers
00:02:28 Flee Mortals Overall Assessment
00:03:48 Not a Monster Manual Replacement
00:06:17 Are 5e Monsters Boring?
00:09:50 Flee Mortals Overview
00:13:32 Monster Roles
00:15:54 Action Oriented Monsters
00:17:44 Minions
00:25:48 Encounter Building Guidelines
00:28:21 Monster Index Spreadsheet
00:29:10 Flee Mortals and Other Monster Books
00:30:20 Flee Mortals and D&D Beyond
00:31:59 Flee Mortals Other Chapters
00:34:22 Who Should Buy Flee Mortals?
00:35:22 Flee Mortals Lightning Round Questions
00:41:42 Flee Mortals Final Thoughts
00:42:37 Patreon Spotlight: Readings and Reflections Podcast
00:44:26 Patreon Question: Alternatives to Legendary Actions for Legendary Monsters
00:46:14 Patreon Question: WOTC changing Legendary Actions to Reactions
00:48:36 Patreon Question: Buying or Leasing Material from D&D Beyond or Demiplane
00:52:53 Patreon Question: Safest Place to Buy Digital RPG Content
00:55:40 Patreon Question: Going Off the Path on Published Adventures
00:57:13 Patreon Question: Good Advice I Don't Follow
01:02:46 Patreon Question: Handling Villagers in Protect the Village Situations
01:04:38 Patreon Question: Managing Sandbox Situations with the 8 Steps
01:06:40 Patreon Question: Overcoming the Need for High Production Value D&D
Links
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Flee Mortals
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Flee Mortals Preview
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Flee Mortals Monster Index Spreadsheet
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[@brianabels643]

I'm a big fan, Sly, but respectfully regarding monster complexity: I think it's easy to underestimate (not mention enough) that although these monsters might have "more complicated" stat blocks they balance that by having 100% of what you need to know to run the monster ON the stat block. No more looking up every single listed spell for a Caster monster ahead of time: I can mostly just grab the stat block, quickly review, and go! I find it to be an incredible DM standard of living bump!

[@johndevlin9225]

Yeah, the “plug and play” nature of a lot of the monsters really streamlines things, I basically don’t have to think. The book tells you how the creatures act, what role they fulfil, what creatures they work well with, have no cross referencing, and the action oriented monsters literally tell you the order to use their abilities in. I ran the kraken, and it was the easiest (for me), fastest and most fun boss fight I’ve ever done. It took half the time I was expecting but the players had been through the wringer by the end.

[@Vael221]

Along the same lines, the change in complexity across the FM! book is a lot lower than it is in the normal monster manuals. Like sure, even the simpler monsters try to be a little more complex than Mr. "big guy hit with big stick" Fire Giant, but the end game boss level monsters are not significantly more complicated to run that a handful of goblins is

[@roberttschaefer]

I am enjoying Flee Mortals more than any other 5e book of its kind that I’ve used, read, or reviewed. It’s a permanent top shelf item for me.

[@MisterFizzer]

Yay! I'm glad you like the minion diagram, I made the original one in the MCDM discord to answer common questions during playtesting, and then MCDM asked to use it in the book!

[@SlyFlourish]

That’s awesome!!

[@arnovanboxem2519]

I saved your version it was great.

[@darthdadt]

The thing I appreciate about minions is that it gives me more versatility. If I want to throw a bunch of Orcs at my party but not TPK them it's easier for me to justify "these are poorly trained orcs that don't really want to be here" vs "These two regular orcs have a dozen skeleton buddies but neither are necromancers"

[@nathanadams5933]

I recently used the Griffin stat block as reflavored Pterofolks. Worked amazingly. My players had an epic on the roof of Fireflinger. ^.^

[@moshtradamus92]

Was absolutely blown away from this Flee, Mortals! As a fairly new DM, I CANNOT WAIT for Where Evil Lives!!

[@bloo758]

What I love about the minions in flee mortals is theyre not just regular monsters that die in one hit, they are interesting creatures in their own right, and players are incentivizes to kill them, even though they dont do a lot of damage. There are many cases where solos/leaders gain different actions if they have a lot of minions around, some minions can inflict conditions on PCs if there are enough of them, and the DC for avoiding that condition also depends on the number of minions.

[@millersj]

I've run two of the one-shots MCDM put out for this (Fe-fi-fo-fum twice, and Furious Road). My players had very high compliments for their minions. The idea of them killing half a dozen characters in one attack, leaving x'd out tokens across the map was so satisfying for them. It literally made them feel like super heroes, which is essentially the essence of 5e. It was a blood bath and my characters (mostly) came out on top. Hats off to James, Matt, and the rest of the crew over at MCDM. This is some of the most fun my players and I have had in D&D.

[@Patrick_McCarty]

Absolutely love and respect the monetary and personal disclosures on product reviews.

[@RTukka]

I think a good way to conceptualize minions is that, in terms of the world/narrative, a skeleton _is_ a skeleton, but you're just representing that skeleton in different ways mechanically (with _some_ variation, because it also makes sense that some skeletons would be stronger than others; e.g. an unarmed skeleton with half its bones missing and the other half brittle and rat-eaten, vs. a fresh skeleton with sword and shield a bit of armor, vs. a heavily armed skeleton that is fortified with legendary magic, inhabited by the tortured remnant of a particularly powerful and wrathful soul). A clearer illustration might be something like a dragon wyrmling. A dragon wyrmling can represent a serious threat to a low level party just by itself and serve as a mini-boss, but at higher levels you might want the party to face many dragon wyrmlings (moar whelps). It's unlikely that the same stat block is going to do an optimal job of playing the role of mini-boss _and_ horde (in terms of challenge, game flow, etc.) so you have two separate stat block to represent the same monster. For something like a fire giant it does feel a bit awkward, because it seems like a fire giant should be a robust enemy that can take a hit or two. But I don't think that's too problematic if you can get out of the mindset of hit points as meat points. When you miss a minion (and in the 4e framework, a high level minion would have much higher AC than a lower level standard/elite/solo monster; not sure to what extent that is true/modeled in Flee Mortals) in the narrative that could represent the minion tanking a pretty solid "hit." And of course, it just makes sense that sometimes a hearty enemy will get one-shot. Fire giants do have have vital organs, after all. If you're fighting a bunch of fire giants, I think it'd actually be more weird if _none_ of them got one-shot by an arrow or a greataxe or a _psychic scream_ or whatever. That might draw attention to the fact that the PCs are rarely so unfortunate as to get fatally one-shot, but that's why we call them heroes/protagonists and I don't think the players are going to complain.

[@vintagezebra5527]

I just got my book today and I’ve only skimmed the packets that have been made available to Kickstarter supporters, so I’m still getting a handle on all of this. I understand your argument regarding fire giant minions and how it could make sense but, for me, minions on that scale bend the in-game reality to the point of breaking. There have been several systems for “minions” over the years. When DMing, my players have tended to see attacks against minions as wastes of their actions. They’re obliged to wipe them out, lest they get free to terrorize the townsfolk, but they know which opponents are the real threats. My players aren’t awed by their characters being able to wipe out large numbers of canon fodder. I can only imagine their dismay when they think they’ve got an impossible fight on their hands against an overwhelming force of fire giants, only to have the “minions” fall ridiculously easily.

[@dropthedice]

@@vintagezebra5527 You really shouldn't run fire giant minions if your players expect fire giants to be fearsome enemies. From the way we used them in 4e minions are simply a mechanical construct to represent foes that characters can confidently fell but, importantly, that are still dangerous if left unchecked (as evident when you saw their abilities, attacks, and damage expressions.) Minions pack a serious punch for their XP cost if you let them live (again, at least in 4e.) If you do not need to represent this, you probably shouldn't use minions! I've definitely gone for long stretches of time without need for them.

[@vintagezebra5527]

@@dropthedice Roger that! For me, the idea is too abstract and “gamey” for me to use. As I mentioned, having a monster that is exactly the same as its standard version, except that it has much less hit points, would break the reality that I’m trying to reinforce in my game. Every DM and group are different, of course. I’ve never had a use for this, but am glad if someone else does and can use these rules. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

[@hanno4095]

Hot take: the difference between your damage pool and MCDM minions is minimal, with the latter giving players more positive feedback during an encounter

[@ivanhagstrom5601]

Regarding the problem that high CR minions, like fire giants, don't feel like fire giants when they die in one hit. The way I use minions is that I only use them for creature that the players could reasonably and consistently kill in 1-2 hits anyway. This way it doesn't break the mythology of the creature, but it still let's you run hordes of creatures.

[@RyanWBL]

It reminds me of Drizzt books where they're effortlessly cutting through ogres and giants. I never liked that part. Took away any tension in the story.

[@geekpeak5052]

You could also narrate one attack roll as multiple hits in succession. Besides maybe for a lvl 20 greataxe wielding barbarian it makes sense to fell such creatures with a single swing

[@bmd1675]

Hard disagree on your answer to the question "Does this solve combat being too long?" The answer is, actually, yes. If combat feels too long, it means the combat is boring. If it's exciting, it won't feel long. The intention is to make combat more interesting and give the DM more things to do both on the PC's turn, on the enemy's turn, and in between. If combat is interesting and varied throughout, it won't be "too long." Based on sheer time spent in combat? Everything needed to run the monster is in the statblock, so there's no flipping back and forth and trying to figure out how this ability or spell works. The DM just has to read the statblock underneath the monster name.

[@EchotheAndroidNeko]

In testing, we could usually fit about 3 combats (including a boss battle) into roughly 4-5 hours of play. If you're running a single combat or two combats per session with Flee Mortals! and following the adivce on how to not overload yourself with a lot of monsters to start with, it shouldn't be a problem.

[@JamesIntrocasoMCDM]

Thank you so much for this deep dive!

[@SlyFlourish]

Thank you, my friend!

[@RabaShibaRabaSha]

The whole fire giant minion point is that if you're fighting a BBEG with fire giant minions, you're strong enough to be one shotting fire giants. The 18hp is just the damage for overkill and whatnot like you said, its higher so players arent just cleaving through 5 in one shot, but instead maybe only 1 or 2. You also wouldn't have to put 10 giants there. Maybe just 3 or 4 as distractions or roadblocks to stop players instantly getting to the solo BBEG.

[@daanopdebeeck2312]

I really like you separated the Patreon spotlights into different categories. Its so much easier to follow and find the questions you're interested in!

[@Vancity3]

Regarding how to involve a whole town in a fight, I recently ran the add ons to Dragon of Icespire Peak where both Ebondeath and Talos forces attack the town of Leilon. I asked my 3 players what they do the night before to prepare which translated into things happening during the combat. 1. Dig spike traps near the gate - First round of combat after busting through the gate, a bunch of Talos fanatics fell into the spike traps, took some damage and players got surprise round. They wasted the fanatics, but they loved it! 2. Train the townspeople in simple medical techniques - one of the council members managed to save themself from dying and went to 1hp by ripping off some of their shirt, making a bandage and applying pressure to a wound. This gave the players one extra round to save them. If they died they would have lost that scenario. 3. Asked their god for assistance - as the dragon was kicking the crap out of them and downed 2 of the players, a powerful druid ally they had made earlier in the campaign (worships the same god) arrived and blasted out a wall of thorns, driving the dragon back and buying just enough time to get the players back on their feet. To not take the fight out of the players hands, then had the ally simply helping get the townspeople to safety. The players really seemed to love all of these events as their ideas had become reality!

[@abreecher]

For those comparing themselves to Matt Mercer, look back at the first 30 episodes of Campaign 1. Folding tables in an echoing room, maps drawn on pads of 1" square poster paper. Barely any production value, and it still gripped the payers and audience enough to launch the Critical Role we see today.

[@IanPanth]

My copy of Flee Mortals arrived today. I have already used some of the monsters because I have the PDF.

[@rgub5537]

Companions are creatures (not humanoids) with mechanics that work alongside MCDM's beastheart class. Retainers are humanoids with mechanics that work alongside MCDM's Strongholds & Followers supplement.

[@Agent_Orange87]

This is a kinda misleading statement. Companions can be used by anyone. Think of them as party pets that can act in combat. Retainers can also be used by anyone and absolutely do not need the Strongholds and Followers book. They are humanoids that adventure alongside the heroes and can participate in combat effectively

[@raykendo]

Yep. Companions are equivalent to pokemon if you're running the MCDM Beastheart class (i.e. pokemon master). Floyd the pipeweed smoker would be a retainer. You can bring him along, or send him to town to pick up more munchies while you loot the dungeon.

[@ChrisMLeach]

Have just completed LMoP with FM goblins (and others) having run vanilla MM creatures previously in the same module. The difference is stark. Yes, running the FM stat blocks is a little more complicated. Yes, the players were surprised that they no longer got opportunity attacks on goblins etc. But the players enjoyed fighting these creatures SO much more and I enjoyed running them compared to plain vanilla enemies that can only swing a sword or shoot an arrow… Highly recommend FM and looking forward to using some of the more complex monsters.

[@travisskane5459]

Thanks for the review, MCDM hopefully changes the way writers, artists and testers are treated in the industry one awesome Kickstarter at a time.

[@ChrisSneeze]

Man. I didn’t realize you’d designed and written up the Grim Accord. Nice work on that. Great villain party.

[@BadHorse45]

If you're gonna use Fire Giant minions just describe them as if they were Azers, those fire dwarf monsters. Take up less space on a battlefield and make more sense to work as minions that go down in one hit.

[@efrique]

Your specific examples of why the book isn't a direct replacement of the Monster Manual (e.g. ~ 11:50 "Light Benders and Time Raiders") were designed as pretty direct replacements for Monster Manual monsters (if I remember right those were intended to be analogs of Displacer Beasts and Githyanki respectively, fulfilling a similar role but being a bit more interesting in the MCDM sense, without coming anywhere close to infringing on IP, which is why they're hard to recognize if you're not looking out for analogs of WotC creatures). Most of the "I don't know what this thing is" monsters are in that category and it's not hard to figure out how to use them once you realize. This make it very *much* a replacement for the monster manual; generally speaking you could pick up a 5e adventure and run it with the analogous Flee Mortals monsters without a hiccup. They may be a little tougher here and there, but they'll generally fit in the slot thematically with little additional effort.

[@patricks2645]

This weekly show is worth so much to me , thanks for always making such great content Mike!

[@oscarius4]

On production values conversation: I agree with 90% of what Mike says here (and as a sound designer I am biased) but seeing the effect that the right atmospheric soundtrack can bring to a game of D&D this is one of the most prep lite methods to create engagement with the tone of your game. There are countless playlists on Spotify and 10hr long looping atmospheres on KZbin that provide moods for any style of session. On the flip side I have spent many hours creating interactive beautiful bespoke battlemaps and region maps because I personally enjoy it, but the amount of fun my players have gotten from them is closer to that average of 10% more fun.

[@BGL19283]

On the last bit of the video with the person that's worried about production value, I really get that. In my early days I couldn't help but feel this overwhelming pressure but now I do whatever I feel like. Now, there are times that I'm strictly theater of the mind, times that I go all out for terrain, times where I have a heavy curated music list, lights, and all the stuff because I was inspired and had fun creating it. ....but, at the end of the day like you said, the only thing that matters to them is that they had fun. I think it's easy for us to get lost in the shoulda woulda coulda of what other people do. I think only time and experience can validate that it's not as big of a deal.

[@davec1]

I can see player archetypes coming in handy when writing for people you don’t know, e.g. to make sure the adventure you’re writing has elements to appeal to a wide range of preferences. At your home table, understanding the specific, complex individuals playing with you is probably more effective, but even then maybe understanding the archetypes that exist might help you make better sense of your friends’ motivations and preferences.

[@danddjacko]

What are combined arms concepts? The definition of combined arms maneuver is the application of the elements of combat power in a complementary and reinforcing manner to achieve physical, temporal, or psychological advantages over the enemy to preserve freedom of action and exploit success.

[@leahwilton785]

I love this book. The biggest thing it has given me is the confidence to homebrew good monsters, as a long time dnd player but relatively new dm. I can figure out their role, look at what kind abilities other monsters of that role have, look at what kind of abilities other monsters of their type/race have, and look at the power level of monsters of the appropriate cr. Then I just cross these three things until I have something fun, thematic, and balanced.

[@stewi009]

One of the big selling points of Foundry VTT, for me, was the fact that it runs locally on my PC. That means all the assets, all the character sheets, all the rules that drive the system we're running are stored locally, on my machine. Once I've imported an adventure I own on DDB into Foundry, it exists in Foundry no matter what happens to the online version. It may not be the exact same form, it may not be subject all the tweaks and updates WOTC pushes silently, but it's the form of the adventure I'm actually running. And I can copy and edit that version as need be to suit my own game(s) played with it. I'd also second your final point about all these "production values" not really being that important to a game. Lord knows Foundry has plugins for all sorts of amazing things, but I don't really use them that much. I've played around with them, but I've found the fancier they are the more likely they are to break on a whim. I primarily use walls and lighting and OCCASIONALLY active tiles (Monk's Active Tiles.) No sounds, no fancy animations (I tried it but then they broke), no 3D canvas nonsense. Bully for anyone who likes those things, but they are not by any means "necessary" to enjoy the game, and I would generally agree with your assertion that they value they add is not as great as it might appear. All these new players being drawn in by Baldur's Gate 3, I strongly suspect they'll stay for a TTRPG game without those things, if they were ever going to stay at all.

[@1pageadventures]

Yeah, the stat blocks are bloated, but for me its a worthwhile tradeoff. I just tested the monster set of these frog people (Angulotls) in a session. They worked really well in providing an interesting encounters without much additional stuff. I could just be braindead and put them in there and it was really fun. This was miracle work compared to what the DMG does. The downside is that the statblocks are very big, so I needed to learn these monsters beforehand. I feel like a lot of the abilities are more to highlight a tactic then to be impactful. For example, the Angulotl Needler has an ability that does provide minor additional damage when you were hidden before - barely relevant to damage and could have been part of the regular attack. The book wants to highlight a specific tactic so that sou automatically play them right, which I can respect, but it really bloats the statblock. In the end, I feel like the tradeoff is worth it. These monsters work so much smoother and are interesting regardless on how exactly you use them.

[@lonic123]

Thanks

[@IanBoyte]

My copy of Flee, Mortals! came in the mail while watching this video.

[@michaelpinkston2602]

I'm going to use the encounter builder this weekend. I'm going to push my players to their limit

[@ahzad]

In regards to VTT's I agree with much of what you state, with just a couple of exceptions. I started off as a Roll20 user years ago, and quickly came to the realization that if something should happen to the company then any work or assets I bought could vanish into the ether. Luckily I never invested much into the platform, and transitioned to Fantasy Grounds, which could be ran locally on my machine and should something happen to the company all the work, and assets I've bought are safe b/c they are stored on my hard drive and I keep a copy backed up, just in case. I just recently have been experimenting with Foundry which has the same benefits that if the company disappears, my content is still safe, and with the addition of the DBB importer any content I've bought on D&D Beyond is now quite safe from being disappeared by the company as well.

[@zionich]

What I like about minions is they allow for the fantasy of how powerful the characters have become. I understand on some level it might be a little off putting slaying giants with one attack, but you would use them as a minion until the characters are almost god mode.

[@LeeJCander]

In my opinion, its better written and has better art than anything I’ve seen even from Kobold Press & WOTC.

[@Aliktren]

Picked up the pdf only today due to shipping cost, my goodness, the artwork!

[@LeeJCander]

@@Aliktren me too. Uk shipping costs 👎

[@daanopdebeeck2312]

In defense of FM, it contains the 'most important' or classic D&D monsters just slightly more beefed up. It's not a direct replacement but it could very well be if you reflavor certain stat blocks differently. I like to look at them as stronger variants because not all monsters, animals or species are alike. You could run the Overmind and the Time Raiders as Beholders and Githyanki or as totally different creatures. The argument that 5e monsters feel the same or are bland is valid to some degree. For me personally, I'm a huge sucker for lore that gets translated into mechanics. The DM can always describe something well, but I think it's so much more powerful for the story that the players get to experience the meaning or significance of the lore first hand (show don't tell!). So it's not necessarily about more crunchy monsters but I think that there is a certain level of synergy between lore/theme and mechanics before it becomes too crunchy. Those unique abilities are also easy to understand and remember because they do the thing that is described what it should be able to do. Most of my players love tactical combat even though I'm very much a story/character focused DM. I will never compete with their strategic minds combined, but the monster roles spell out the tactics of the monsters for me which intuitively helps me to be (or appear) more tactical and envision how the environment could look like. To be more precise, I'd argue the strategy is already built into the monster stat block so I can put my brain effort into descriptions and not improvise or invent a strategy in the moment (which I'm not good at).

[@daanopdebeeck2312]

Okay I should watch the video further next time because you brought up all my points, my bad!

[@LeeJCander]

I plan to use these as purely bosses or mini-bosses. Just to make my villains feel different. Might use it every 3-4 sessions just to shake things up.

[@HerosDieShow]

I definitely use Flee Mortals in my games and mostly run theatre of the mind. I'd highly recommend it no matter your GMing style.

[@southron_d1349]

I backed "Flee, Mortals!" because the whole project looked interesting. The free pdf arrived and still looked cool. The environments is also excellent. But in the time after backing FM, I became more and more fed up with the 5e bloat, especially in terms of sub-classes. Then along came another Kickstarter - Shadowdark. Guess which one I'm far more interested in running. Unfortunately, I don't expect to be DM-ing a Shadowdark campaign. Instead, we'll be starting a new campaign soon using the Gauntlet and the changing any survivors to 5e. Still, I've taken some ideas from Shadowdark, especially the Death Timer and Gear Slots for the impending campaign. Those lovely random tables can be used as well. As for "Flee, Mortals!" Minions and Environments are likely to be used.

[@Falruk]

I have spent dozens of hours on dnd beyond homebrewing most if not all of the monsters in FM!, and through modules import them into Foundry, so they're readily available there.. So as a DM I do rely on D&D Beyond for FM! monsters, but I've gone through the trouble of inserting the book myself.

[@joyful]

I just want someone else to come up with synergy between cool monsters. I really love kobold press monsters; they have cool abilities and can really hit hard. But I still need someone else to take the time and come up with enemy group compositions, special abilities to add in for a spicy boost, and synergy across mobs.

[@daanopdebeeck2312]

I agree with your stance about player archetypes and those labels give the illusion of control. Everyone's style of play is not set in stone, hell it may change the other day, or the next session I might be in a different mood and my preferences will change naturally. As you mentioned many times before, you changed from a more tactical minded DM during 4e to a more story focused DM with 5e, but these were also the core aspects that were highlighted or build around in these editions (is this a coincidence or the main zeitgeist at that time?). Especially for beginner players and DM's this can change drastically over a short amount of time and after more experience you want to try and focus on other things, so the style of the DM and its players will evolve constantly. However, it's still useful to know what your players value and expect out of the game during a session 0 for example. In other words, how much do they value the 3 main pillars of play and in what order? What are their preferences, expectations and wishes/hopes for the one-shot or campaign?

[@ericgee]

My one complaint about Flee Mortals that I've found thus far is that the table for Monsters by CR doesn't give you a page number for the monster. It only gives you the section name for where to find it. Wouldn't it have been more direct to just give the page number. Am I missing something?

[@cholulahotsauce6166]

Good point; *but* there is room in the margins to write it in!

[@rpgquestboard]

I might be getting their videos confused but I think the Dungeon Dudes extended the legendary action mechanic in this instance because they were hosting something like a 60 person game across a few tables and wanted big bosses to get lots of actions in.

[@FrostSpike]

Have you reviewed the series of Monster Manual Expanded I-III (by Dragonix Books available on DMsGuild)? These expand on the monsters in MM 2014 (I/III), VGM/MToF (II/III) with some new variants and archetypes for the base creatures, plus add some new ones (esp. in III) which are either completely new, or have been in earlier editions. I've found them to be really good to add more flavourful opponents into my game.

[@TheADHDM]

re: player archetypes I think this is a useful tool when writing adventures for conventions or sale, but rather than using the tactician/slayer/dramatist or whatever you build them like market avatars. At your real life table, you're going to be like "This Star Trekky part with the Gith duel is for Patrick he's gonna love it", but when writing for an unknown audience, you have to astral project your own Patrick onto these archetypes when you're trying to serve the players-to-come

[@Zr0din]

1. Complex? Sure! Better? Yes. Is it a replacement for the standard Monster Manual? PLEASE if you do not have the Monster Manual yet, then DO NOT BUY IT unless you get it for cheap at a used book store. With all the changes about to happen, do not bother buying a WotC Monster Manual right now. 2. Do the monsters hit harder within their CR level?? I sat down and compared some of them to the first Tome of Beasts from Kobold Press (which is NOTORIOUS for killing people) and I believe they are more tricky and there will be more surprises but NOT more killing.

[@joshuabrown-clay4858]

What a conflict of interest! Could we get Ms. Sly Flourish in here to give a review?

[@joegkushner]

Sounds good but I'm not paying almost $20 bones to ship one book. I'll check it out at the FLSG and do without the PDF.

[@jaakkosippola7191]

For me and I think for many the encounter amount for a day is good way to build a adventure. The problem people have usually that encounters are too easy or too swingy. I think that the problem they have is dnd was built with the assumption that they loose resources but by bit. And that makes the upcoming encounters bit harder. This is also why there is a short rest. When you take the “adventuring day” idea away. You probably don’t use short rests that often and you throw harder encounters. It needs to be said. You should not use this all the time. As an example you do not need to make travel use this mechanics. The best use for it is in a “dungeon”. Or any location based thing you might have. An enemy keep, ancient temple or similar.

[@avengingblowfish9653]

Regarding Legendary actions/resistances, they are balanced around a party of 4 players just like CR. If you have more than 4 players, monsters should have one additional legendary action/resistance for every player beyond 4. With that said, as a DM who likes strategic combat, I prefer Legendary reactions over actions, because it requires a trigger which allows players to strategize around it once they learn what it is.

[@jackdubois1512]

Can someone whip up a quick retainer stat block for floyd?

[@SneakyNinjaDog]

The Flee Mortals preview link does not work 😞

[@tahirravat131]

What book were you referring to when you said Monster Managerie? Who publishes it?

[@bloo758]

He was referring to the monstrous menagerie, published by ENworld I believe. If you just Google advanced level up 5e, you'll find it.

[@CloudVaris]

Definitely not your job to be an expert on 17 different VTTs, but for Foundry, you actually can/automatically do download all of the module assets when you import them.

[@JunMiyazaki]

The vampires are really well designed, indeed... our DM used them against us as a replacement for Curse of Strahd vampires. Since then I hate you :P

[@SlyFlourish]

Yay! 🧛

[@JunMiyazaki]

About Waithward's question - I think fancy maps, ligthning effects, audio, etc... these are sooo overrated. Yes, a good Czepeku map adds value to the session - but one of my most remembered battle as a player was on a kitchen table where candies were used as monsters (and if I killed the monster I could eat the candy!) A well executed theatre of the mind battle could make a much lasting memory. This I why I'm sceptical with WotC's 3D VTT - I don't think 3D will add much more to the RPG experience.

[@AvengerYouT]

I think I got Jason B question about sandboxy situations. Imagine you're running Curse of Strahd. Characters will probably leave the town of Vallaki in the middle of the next session after getting clues about several nearby places. You can't ask them just yet where they're gonna go, since there's half a session until that moment and new things might come into play that might change their minds. And the eight steps heavily depend on that choice, since the Winery secrets and NPCs are different from Krezk secrets and NPCs, for instance. So you end up having to "lazely" prep everything. Or select one or two places to prep expecting that your players decide to go there. Being a lazy DM that use Mike's lazy steps, I've found myself in this situation multiple times. My tips for that are: 1) Always try to end sessions between scenarios. My players are aware that my sessions are 2h to 4h long, and I usually end the session just after they decide to go to another adventure location. 2) Don't offer them leads to more than two or three scenarios. Start with the ones that the NPCs are more likely to know and give info about. Wait for them to solve those before offering new leads. 3) Put a random encounter that might steer them in the direction you want. (Try to make it natural though, and don't force them). 4) If nothing works, and you end up having to improvise a location you don't remember or never created, ask for a 30 min break, pick a map (good to have some printed), name some rooms and bookmark some interesting monsters on you Monster Manual to use.

[@BGL19283]

This is interesting that you explicitly say that it's not a replacement for the monster manual when I have seen numerous comments and videos, all claiming that it just replaced it out right. Did those people not verify that by checking the monsters? 🤨

[@synmad3638]

It has enough monsters to be the only monster book you use. It's more a matter of whether or not you want a book that features pretty much every classic D&D monster, in which case it's not a replacement.

[@BGL19283]

That makes more sense. I'm guessing some people are just I don't know fluffing or something.

[@daniellambert8381]

To echo the other person here: you can run an entire home brew campaign using Flee Mortals. However you couldn’t run most published adventures with direct replacements because some monsters in the WOTC book simply aren’t in the MCDM version.

[@bonderoff]

25:45 that’s like when your snozzberries don’t taste like snozzberries. It just ain’t right

[@AlejoSilos]

As a video game designer, I can tell that we use many different player archetypes modes. Bartle´s the most famous one (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_taxonomy_of_player_types). But we don't actually use it in our daily work. It is very useful for discussions and analysis from a theory standpoint. On the other hand, some games where there are many fixed playstyles, each level must accommodate for all those different styles. For example, the Hacker/Guns Blazing/Talker paths in games like Cyberpunk, Deus Ex, etc..

[@epee11c]

Now, I have some of my own minor issues with the minion rules (4e and here), but I don't get the complaint about fire giants. I've heard this complaint about minions from all sorts of people, but I don't understand why you wouldn't want to just have the option. If the 20th level PCs get a giant-slaying blessing from a god that would double the damage... maybe you just want the option to minionize them, or maybe youre just running a goofy game. Now, I don't think I'll minionize them, but why artificially cap the minion rules at CR 5 or something? It seems arbitrary. To be clear, I no longer run D&D. I have my own system with its own minion rules (its a pretty different game and not capatable with 5e) so I may be a bit out of touch.

[@synmad3638]

Pretty much. If your characters are able to kill fire giants as if they were minions, then use fire giants minions. If not, don't.

[@Agent_Orange87]

Or, if you want your players to just feel cool killing things and feeling heroic use some minion giants alongside the regular ones. This, to me, simply represents that heroes are heroes and not all enemies are on the same level as the PCs or their own kind

[@merck__]

#NotARant 😅

[@norandomnumbers]

If WotC pulls their licences from Fantasy Grounds, it means they won't be selling their content there any more. The stuff you've bought in Fantasy Grounds is yours forever, and WotC can't touch that.

[@mcolville]

I believe FG validates your data files when you update. Which means they absolutely delete your past purchases. I don't think they would LIKE to do that, but I believe they could.

[@norandomnumbers]

@@mcolville Doesn't matter. According to the FG team they have a special licensing agreement with WotC which prevents them from doing that.

[@mcolville]

​@@norandomnumbers You mistake my meaning. WotC could revoke the license and instruct them to remove all the data from user accounts. I don't concern myself primarily with what they *might* do, or what I think is likely, I think about what the *can* do and whether I, personally, have the power to stop them. I'm not talking about what's legal or what's likely. When I modify modules I bought, then update, it overwrites my modifications. Which means, I think, that they COULD just erase my old content. Best you can do is A: not update and B: make sure your data is backed up somewhere else.

[@norandomnumbers]

@@mcolvilleHmm I hadn't considered that. I should probably backup my entire FG folder instead of just my campaigns huh? Also holy shit your Matt Colville! I love your channel & other content!

[@MrNhoj509]

Love to listen to you Mike. But I don't always agree. 5E power creep and optimizations destroyed the idea that tons of skeletons are like minions to a high level party. They are chaff, and have zero threat. Where fire giant minions do threaten the party. You don't use fire giant minions at the level PCs are challenged by fire giants, you use normal fire giants. You use them as minions in the tier 3-4 battles in the lair of the Crimson Dragon King. It's pretty much the same as in 13th Age.

[@CharlesKhan]

All these monster books will never be as great as deities and demigods, I’ll never be fourteen looking at Thor and Cthulhu stats for the first time again.😂

[@leonardoraele]

I still think that The DMG method of handling groups of monsters is much superior to both MCDM's and Sly Flourish's methods. The only change that I make to DMG's method is having the monsters share a pool of HP so that I don't have to track a lot of separate small HP bars.

[@natetron7000]

Says ‘I’m not ranting’ goes an a rant. Lol rant /rant/ verb speak or shout at length in a wild, impassioned way.

[@Rushbolt43]

So I'm confused here. This is supposed to be a book about deadly monsters, but we have many weak monster stat blocks because the concept of minions is included. Huh? Dozens of wimp monsters that use precious space in the book. Space that could have been used to include more deadly versions of MM monsters that were omitted. Just seems like a missed opportunity.

[@geoffdewitt6845]

For me, I wound up skipping this for two reasons. 1) I don't need a lot of the stuff they're providing. 8 kinds of kobolds? Please. If I need a specialist kobold, I can make one on the fly with gear and feats. Charging monsters hp to use legendary resistances? That's been a thing for half a decade now, and I got that for free. 2) Everything I saw was either too complex or slowed down play. Nothing I'm hearing is making me revise that opinion.

[@wingedhussar2909]

I don't like everything in flee mortals. Things exploding just to be a thorn in the side of melee focused characters. I don't think that's a very good or fair mechanic and players don't like it either

[@bloo758]

I think it's pretty disingenuous to say that "things just explode to punish melee characters" when there is a whole ass creature role that is created to be a thorn in the side of ranged characters: ambushers. Lots of ambushers have abilities that obscure them and/or allow them to hide, and since ranged characters won't want to give up their distance, they won't be able to break the obscurement. There is also artillery and skirmisher creatures that can challenge the ranged PCs and get up close to them, respectfully. That's the beauty of the creature role system. It forces the party to evaluate the combat scenario and think tactically about who to target. Maybe the melee character shouldn't just blindly wail on whatever is in front of them, and instead rush towards the usually less slippery, but higher priority targets in controllers and artillery creatures.

[@kingsfan2099]

Hope the GM can keep track of those reactions.

[@Patrick_McCarty]

Absolutely love and respect the monetary and personal disclosures on product reviews.