11 Tips for Creating D&D Encounters Your Players Will Love (and avoiding tedious combats)

[@theDMLair]

LAIR MAGAZINE | 5e and PF2 resources (adventures, encounters, monsters, traps, puzzles, and more) you can use in your games! www.patreon.com/thedmlair ~~Links to all the stuff I mention in the video~~ D&D Monster Tactics Playlist kzbin.info/aero/PLo4-n9V0bKIWPLbpE0T0hksxZd2GMi1qQ The Monsters Know What They Are Doing amzn.to/3Y1u4xr Running Skill Challenges in D&D 5e kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJ7XgYmXqauoi8U 5e Skill Challenge System (Wishes & Waste, Lair Magazine June 2022 Issue) the-dm-lair.myshopify.com/products/wish-waste-lair-magazine-18-june-2022-issue D&D Story: My Players Tricked an Ogre kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGWVnpKpbL2Copo 10 Ways to Improve Combat Maps in D&D kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJTciJh8p5J1ZrM 12 Steps to Faster Combat Video kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6nTkn2dj5p2eLs

[@dmsmiley420]

I noticed the Wheel of Time books lining one of the alcoves of the DM Lair's shelves, and I tip my hat to you sir! I enjoy my DMs being versed in the lore of the Dragon Reborn. Hands down my favorite series to draw inspiration from for my campaigns.

[@bigkingmtndew5408]

In the campaign I was in curse of strode (Inside joke lmao) the lich in the amber castle started with dialogue and our bard used a healing spell (it shouldn't have healed him like that) but our dm was like "he is restored back to full health and his memory is restored, and he asks to give us a tour of the temple."

[@BlisterBang]

I started DMing in 1980 (2nd edition, of course). As a player, I like to think of things that the DM did not expect at all. Every once in a while, we'd gather at the door like we were going to kick it in and rush. Instead, I'd whip the door open, take a quick glance, and then slam it shut. Then we'd take the next couple rounds to think about what to do next based on what we saw. This needs to be done only rarely (don't mess with the DM TOO much, heh).

[@chrisspray666]

Mistakes are fun too. Have your NPCs make mistakes. Like a wizard that summons a demon to fight for him, only to loose control of it immediately.

[@danielhughes3758]

That's an EXCELLENT suggestion. I think that adds to the narrative combat experience and makes the enemies feel more relatable

[@lanesmith1465]

And it would be kinda fun to them to team up for a bit to fight the Pit Fiend.

[@AvenueStudios]

Love this idea haha! -Dan

[@BigCowProductions]

Ermigosh, you gave me a great idea. Make like a really strong wizard enemy or something that is handilg taxing the players' assets, and as they get low on hp, they call a demon out. They begin to monologue, and right as they start to get going, the demon murders them without a thought. Then the players gotta decide to try to fight, or see if they can get out of it another way.

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

Love it! Now the wizard is begging the party for help that he had just tried to kill. Save him or watch his mistake, the doors are already locked!

[@MeepChangeling]

I once had the players boot in a door only to find this door led to the bathroom and was currently occupied by a female cultist taking a dump. That was the single most hilarious moment I've ever run. She screams, players apologise and close the door. Then "Wait, we're here to kill them!" only for the cultist to demand they get the TP from the closet since the roll ran out. And she rolls a 24 on persuasion, so the PCs did... Expecting her to be gone when the get back. But she wasn't. And that's how the party decided to spare Tina the cult novis, who hadn't done anything because she'd been trapped in the bathroom out of TP for 4 hours.

[@el_noah11]

That’s so funny lmao 😂😂😂

[@marshallsheets2]

That was incredibly funny.

[@bustertn2014]

I have played D&D for decades. I literally started on the first Basic set. I still reminisce about the campaign I ran that spanned about 15 years. While the original campaign lasted about a year, I would just keep spawning new stories and directions the players could go. Main Baddies get whacked, amazing a new baddie would start up, or we caused a ripple that caused something else to happen. My group would at times swap out DM's cause they would come up with an idea and we would play their stories for however long it took. Then would eventually fall back to the original story. It was awesome. These PC's retired at ridiculous levels, and designing high level games was both challenging and fun. We actually catalogued our PC's, let them settle down, found a city etc, then put then down in a 75 page softcover for each player listing many of our greatest adventures. We had a guy who drew our PC's with our descriptions which was awesome. Thx Jay. It was some of the greatest gaming times I have ever been involved in.

[@brianingle799]

Thanks for sharing man. Nothing comes close to the real memories that come from this kind of gaming. Simulated adventures that evoke real emotion and bonding, and memories to always look back on.

[@tweetthechicken3870]

I am currently dm ing for myself With my dad when he joins. Because I don't have anyone else to play with. Any advice For how to be Adm and a player at the same time. I am decent at pretending. I don't know stuff but I don't know how to roll play it I'm just simply good at acting. Like I don't know what the enemy is going to do. But I'm not that good at The speaking part of role play I guess any advice on anything I would like. Don't know why this is important. But I feel like I should say it. I am 19. The game is taking place in the forgotten reams I love the lore. I believe I have most of the 5e books But I'm new to playing I don't currently have a Driver's license. And I don't think I would enjoy And online game unless there's somehow set up like a video game. Or online chess. I am currently playing a Water genasi warlock fathomless With a blink dog Warrior side kick In the game, I am dming myself..

[@JacobAdams-zd4bf]

That sounds awesome!!

[@duck_entertainment]

15 years holy load. That’s longer than some marriages!

[@bustertn2014]

@@duck_entertainment Yep. Luckily not longer than mine. My wife has played in our groups since 1988 and we were married in '89. Since then we are retired and work when we want and are working on getting another group together to start playing seriously again now that alot of the new house remodel is done....

[@avengingblowfish9653]

1. The Three Types Of Encounters 0:40 2. Open With Dialogue 5:43 3. On Designing Non-combat Solutions 11:20 4. Advanced Encounters: Compound Encounters 14:14 5. Creature Selection 19:07 6. Loot Placement 23:37 7. Terrain 25:36 8. Tactics 28:05 9. Beginning the Encounter 29:52 10. Running the Encounter 32:31 11. Ending the Encounter 35:26

[@Spugedelia77]

Thank you!

[@DavidLugo0912]

hero, ty

[@adolfosanchez8863]

Thank you, i usually get annoyed bc this guy talks way too much and i get constantly distracted from the actual useful info

[@shreeyaksajjan1200]

Thank you so much!! Helps so much with these long videos

[@shantilus]

Pin please!

[@Jameshorn87]

One of the best DM advice videos i've seen in a long time. I hate how everything has become so broad and vague when it comes to DM advice on youtube and I appreciate you making a longer video allowing you to give more detailed advice. Looking forward to future content! *Bookmarked for future reference*

[@theDMLair]

Awesome, happy I could help!!! :D

[@Teraclon]

I once made an abandoned keep that had belonged to a transmutation/conjuration wizard. As they entered, they couldn't find any living creatures, so they started searching through the place. when one tried lifting the visor on an armor, the armor's hand snapped out and grabbed him. All armors in the room came to life and attacked them. As they progressed, they were attacked by animated armors, knives, halberds, brooms and a firespitting oven. plus a mimic that had a ring of spellstoring in it with a fireball charged in it, which it used to blast the player that opened it xD Safe to say, they grew extremely paranoid and didn't trust any inanimate objects for severel weeks afterwards >:)

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

Yes dialogues before combat are good. My group has a fire giant as a companion now

[@sloshed-rat]

I love it. Hopefully, when traveling through unventured settlements, villagers cower in fear at the mere presence of your party

[@sterrre1]

My players talk to most monsters before killing them. They persuaded a minotaur to stand down and tried to persuade him to lead them through the maze. But that minotaur isn't too dumb, he saw he was outnumbered 6 warriors with glowing weapons in front of him so decided to let them into the maze while he went ahead to warn and prepare the other Baphomet cultists.

[@jaednhowlar2359]

Ironic, the players probably thought they were super clever and the Minotaur is all like "Thank Zues they let me have time to warn the others!"

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@jaednhowlar2359 The worst possible form of a "win-win" situation... ;o)

[@sterrre1]

@@jaednhowlar2359 they figured it out when they met the same minotaur waiting for them with friends.

[@bugwar5545]

If the minotaur was leading them through a maze, how did he warn the cultists?

[@sterrre1]

@@bugwar5545 he didn't. He let them pass and didn't lead them. Then my players got a bit lost and the minotaur beat them through the maze.

[@MJ-jd7rs]

Ben's comment kinda speaks volumes, the "Really?" as in "Shouldn't we at least be able to try something other than fighting". The thing is, you can. RP doesn't stop just because you rolled initiative. The enemy may start the encounter off by attacking you, but that doesn't mean you can't get him to stop with your words.

[@NiennaNeryam]

I absolutely love reading monster lore. It gives me so much inspiration. In my most recent adventure my players (2 player campaign) were on their way to a mine that was the suspected source of some zombies in the region, when they walked into a Falsifier Fog (TOB2). I played heavily into the part in it's lore that describes it as feeding on despair and not being out to kill. So my players got frightened by visions of their worst fears in the fog and they kept failing their wisdom saves, so we had a very roleplay and backstory heavy session that did a lot of character building. They had to come up with their characters worst fears on the spot and I as the fog played heavily into these visions with whispers in their mind sounding either like the people they were seeing or their own inner voice, adding to their despair. It was epic! I also did some horror stuff with my zombies, because the guy behind this is a sick little guy! 2 of the zombies were wrapped in Boneless. The reactions when their skin peeled off and tried to wrap around my players was priceless. I'm still getting vomit emojis in our group chat xD Another group had initially attached limbs and heads that took on a life of their own. Very fun. All inspired by reading into the monster lore. As a side note, there are very little tips and tricks out there for running a campaign for 2 players. Most boil down to: add more bodies to the party. But that's not what we wanted to do, so I've just been figuring stuff out as I go. Maybe an interesting topic to discuss sometimes?

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Smaller Parties (just my experience) open up the chances for more "intimate" adventures and themes... instead of "out to save the world" from the get-go, you can do more "save the cat" stuff and build relationships... gather followings... give your Players (even all 1 or 2 of them) the chances to REALLY dig in their teeth and flesh out their PC's... It can be a pit-fall to let yourself (as a GM) subscribe to "the numbers game"... Adding bodies to the Party lends to the imminent possibility that the GM ends up RP-ing a BUNCH of GMPC's and you don't want to play with yourself at the Table... Instead, distill DOWN adventures as much as you can, and let the progression and power creep work more slowly. Encouraging things that involve building their reputation more slowly in a "stone by stone and inch by inch" progression means that when you're explicitly prepared for an EPIC Game-changing move, they have friends and followings to call upon. By reputation alone, no military personnel are going to listen PURELY on reputation alone, especially not to "another merc"... as they'll see adventurers without enlistments and rank... uniforms and all. However, when they've had the time to put into building rank, and it's more than reputation when every single member of the platoon steps up and points, "Yeah, that's the guy who pulled my bacon out of the fire..." blah-blah-blah... and "Remember that time we were totally screwed, and he..." etc..etc...etc. At some point it's no longer "just another merc". It can take more prep'... BUT once you've built an adventure, you've got it for notes on another one for later... SO don't just use and toss 'em. Great ideas are worth reskinning and returning to again sometime... even less than stellar adventures can be refined as you figure out what worked well, and where it desperately needed help... Don't be afraid to "flip the script" on an older adventure, during a reskin... For example, if the Players had fun rescuing a princess (or other damsel in distress) from a monster (say... a dragon) at or around level 4 or 5... Maybe around level 8 or 10, they'll enjoy rescuing the poor dragon from the horrible b*tch enslaving it as her "matrimonial test" to weed out low-grade princes or whatever else... There are lots of things you can employ "experimentally" for a couple Players that wouldn't float on their own merits for a team of 4 or 5... AND it's fun to "be big enough to do all the crazy sh*t you like, but small enough to get by DOING the craziest of sh*t, too". Just my philosophy with a metric BUTTLOAD of "one-on-one" and 2 or 3 PC Campaigns over the years. ;o)

[@abettermind]

2 players is AWESOME. You get to spend so much more time on their characters personal goals, ambitions, contacts, etc. You can make their families relevant, make deeply personal storylines, get some seriously intense combat out of relatively weak enemies, etc. The fewer players you have, the more you can cater the game around those specific people. The group becomes easier to predict, session planning becomes a breeze, and again, you can make the campaign all about them. 2 or 3 players = perfection.

[@haiclips3358]

First time DMing for a group and had a really great encounter. It combined puzzle, social and combat. My party were traversing the River Styx by paying a merronoloth to ferry them across using an enchanted ship wreck. They got ambushed by some merrow who were working with the merronoloth which ended up betraying the merrow due to the parties social interaction beforehand. The merrow then focused fire on the merronoloth to try and drag them off the boat which would cause the enchantment to vanish, sinking the ship and killing the hero's in the River Styx. It become a combat about defeating the enemies while also keeping the merronoloth alive and on the boat.

[@elfbait3774]

In my current campaign, the party has been dealing with a cult of Orcus and one of the minions of the cult was a zombie hill giant they were using as a construction rig. In tracking down the cult's HQ, they encountered a family of hill giants (mother, adult son, child, and pet cave bear). They were worried that she (the giant mother) might think they had something to do with the disappearance of her mate (the zombie giant) and she did. The party was able to talk to the giants, aided by the fact that the fighter in the party is a Rune Knight and thus versed in giant stuff and wearing giant runes, and join forces to take down the cult.

[@gavinmielke4637]

This is just about the coolest NPC team up!

[@michaelthomas1916]

Yeah! A family of giants as allies. That's cool!

[@elfbait3774]

@@gavinmielke4637 thanks! This was a way to sort of lean into my wife's choice of Rune Knight for her fighter. I like to highlight/reward my player's choices.

[@elfbait3774]

@@michaelthomas1916 I put the giants in the party's path with no predetermined outcome in mind. I gave them reason to be there and built off an unconnected decision made earlier in the campaign. The party's choices, actions, and the choices they had made earlier in the campaign all determined the outcome. This sort of emergent story is something I very much prefer in my games.

[@sumnerevans840]

you and a youtuber called pointyhat have helped me start this amazing campaign that all the players and myself love. thank you for the tips and i love your videos!

[@commonviewer2488]

It's good to have scenarios that can play out in vastly different ways. Lets players have more sway over where the campaign is headed.

[@mrneutral8423]

A DM who can backtrack a little to make things fun gets my thumbs up. I agree with everything you say. You seem like a cool DM.

[@beyondblood2707]

I've been a player for 10 years and a DM off and on for 8 years. I've been enjoying listening to your videos because they help me see how much I've learned and changed my approach over the years. I'm not the perfect DM, but these help me think of how to be better and how I may be doing better than I give myself credit for

[@fhuber7507]

36:30 Remember... the edge of the map is not the edge of the world. It's just the edge of what fit on the table.

[@chesster415]

Also, the chase rules exist. You don't have to borrow 4e skill challenges.

[@ItsNket]

Videos like this make me think "Ok, I need to stop what I'm doing and work on some campaign stuff." Great work

[@RobKinneySouthpaw]

Your point about making information as loot is solid. I had some information that I needed the players to overhear. Just in case they didn't overhear it or didn't understand the thieves code it was said in, I had a "burn after reading" kind of note that the captain definitely had not burned, sitting in his pocket.

[@bearded_bear_gaming]

I love how seamless the transitions between DM and the other characters are getting lol

[@DemolitionCinema]

About to run the final dungeon in my homebrew campaign, this couldn’t have come at a better time! Thanks for all your hard work and bringing such good info to us DMs 🙏🏼

[@garymelchisky2880]

Last week, two kinds of skeletons, two kinds of zombies, two kinds of Draugr, three kinds of evil priests, one kind of guard, a fighter, a daemon, and a couple wraiths......a pretty normal boss fight for our games. Yes, it was complicated, especially since we had to break midway through the scene, and pick it up four weeks later! Oh, and at the time of the break, the mage was in Troll shape, his troll-shaped familiar had just been killed, the druid was in bear shape, her bear animal companion was near her but badly hurt, etc. Not to mention occasionally having to make the computer play appropriate battle music!

[@seymourfields3613]

I remember taking a prisoner, tying them up and bringing them along to turn into the sheriff. She failed a DEX save and got crushed under a boulder.

[@TopherVexel]

"Open with dialogue" is BRILLIANT! I couldn't put my finger on why I loved Skyrim and Greedfall so much, until you mentioned this.

[@papasmurf9146]

Lair Magazine: It's better than cleaning up dog poop off the floor. Every product should have such a ringing endorsement.

[@Neutral_Tired]

Fun idea. A spin on the classic "the party is set upon by hungry wolves" encounter The Party comes across a pack of wolves, led by a dire wolf, cornering a giant elk. The party might decide to save the elk, or just to try and sneak away, if the wolves notice them they might think the party are there to steal their kill and fight back. The elk might trample a player when trying to flee

[@Corundum_Rolls]

When I create an encounter I ask: * Does the monster/encounter belong there? (Even random encounters) * Will the monster parlay? * Will the monster run if they are losing? * What loot would the monster actually have?

[@alexwhiz]

Had a dm run a social combat by giving party and npcs social ac and hit points. This allowed us to certain skills and ask questions in initiative. The riskier the question or action the more damage to the npc or players. It was so much fun.

[@BW022]

I find some of the best encounters are just normal combats with some goal other than (or addition to) normal combat. Examples: 1. You are chasing a pickpocket who leads you through some lord's grounds. His guards intercept you. Do you talk your way out? Fight? Some fight while others race off after the pickpocket? 2. You are fighting some thugs in a market... only the market is make up of small boats -- aka. like old Hong Kong. 3. You are fighting some nasty werewolves... only the bridge you are on is slowly collapsing. Do you dive into the river? Try to collapse the bridge and grab the railings? Fight your way to one side? 4. You are in a bar when someone teleports in and starts using burning hands and scorching ray on the crowd. Fires are starting. He's clearly too powerful for you? Do you try to delay him? Get people to safety? Fight the fire? 5. You are in a room filling with water while fighting some undead. Your goal is only to climb out, but they keep trying to grabble you. 6. You get into some type of honor contest -- a knife fight while tied together, a fist fight, a joust, etc. 7. You are fighting in some situation where you aren't ready -- while going to the bathroom at the inn, while asleep, etc. 8. You are fighting in some situation where noise or some action might set off something worse. For example, fighting another treasure hunting party in a lair full of vines which might wake a massive giant or something. 9. You are trying to get to talk to some noble and warn him about an assassination plot, but this evil aid has told him and tells his guards you are the assassins. How do you deal with the guards without killing them? While the noble is running/hiding or the assassin might get the noble alone? Can they talk and fight? Can someone sneak off during the fight? etc. Sometimes just having something other than the combat itself really makes a difference.

[@JJSeattle]

I like using optional encounters and un-optional events. Example of an optional encounter: "Through the dead trees ahead, the snapping branches reveal a 15-foot B'Rohg giant crossing your path who is dragging several dear with 2 of its 4 arms..." and un-optional event example, "Looking across the waters at the pirate ship heading towards you, several hundred yards away, a massive Dragon Turtle jumps out of the water, with a booming shriek, and snaps the ship in half....it's body nearly out of the water, comes back down smashing into the sea creating a large rogue wave. The captain shouts in fear, "Abandon ship," as the wall of water grows over 60 feet tall at 60 miles per hour - approaching you - you have less than 10 seconds before impact."

[@dannyboy2525]

Damn, sounds like he listened to my podcast at a particular combat encounter….I don’t like being called out like that Luke! Lol

[@BrentHollett]

I have to say, when it comes to rolls and stat blocks in encounters, the D&D Beyond Encounter tool has been a wonderful tool for throwing together bunches of monsters.

[@confounded_feline]

Subbed for your boundless high energy eccentricity combined with top tier advice!

[@NUGGet-3562]

I'm a super new DM and technically still haven't started my campaign, but I gotta say the encounter builder on DnD Beyond is SUPER helpful. All the stat blocks are right there, the to hit and damage things are rollable, you can keep track of initiative, enemy health, all sorts of stuff. And it tells you the difficulty too. Like wow do they know how to make a great tool.

[@forgesoulfire1320]

Your talk of having social solutions to conflicts got me thinking how recently I've developed this city I deeply want to play a six man group in that's quietly at war with other cities and technically itself. The inspiration point was how many approaches could a group take to healing or harming a city in a strange sort of median place of struggle and success. Like the cities self fighting is because a couple refugee gnome clans from southern lands, a few seasons prior wiggled themselves into respected places in this city by systematically funding infrastructure enhancements, construction projects and repairs to existing things. Then, before proverbial paint could dry, one of the clans accused the other of being a mayoral assassin in the making. Which rapidly created a massive mess of chaos, which the accuser clan quickly used to get people in their corner. I called it 'The Brassbottom Conspiracy' when the players would be arriving they would notice that while the city is defensible, competently guarded and otherwise very pretty, alot of the city seems to be faltering and nobody is talking on these things being wrong but instead chatter about The Conspiracy, and worries that a neighboring city might be just a little too envious of their improvements and prosperity overall, preheating firing invasions. For a spoiler; The gnomes are incompetent and being puppeted by a succubus looking to harvest the souls of all the chartered clan members. Besides that, a troop of militant sleek swords are tired of the leadership being pushovers and want to takeover by way of a democratic demand for new leaders. Either side is all part of a bigger picture problem,.That succubus especially is a much much much bigger plot character/ problem that carries on hopefully for many stages beyond as players would start at a measly level three when entering the city. Second spoiler; If investigated to its social ends, it's revealed there are actually two neighboring cities with their eye on this one city, but for rather different reasons and in equally different ways. I'm not revealing much beyond saying the bigger threat is taking a slow and cautious approach to claiming a sort of imperial dominion over the city and many others after it. Given their leader it would be with minimal lives lost to do so. In the end I took alot of inspiration from the golden age of Rome on this threatening city in the shadows of the west.

[@The9volt1]

Re roleplaying the monsters in the moment: This will be a lot easier if you've established what they want and what they are and are not willing to do to get it ahead of time. This is a sort of middle way between trying to map out possibilities and completely winging it.

[@ddisaster626]

On Kobold Warlocks pushing people into pits "That's probably not good to do that's not great game design." Me, who told my players up front during session zero that anything their characters could do the enemies also can, and is ready and willing to enforce that expectation. "At least you only run into people who can use mind sliver and repelling blast OCCASIONALLY. My npcs have to deal with it all the time. What goes around comes around now start strategizing because that Kobold just ran to high ground cover. Be glad there's only one warlock in this pack instead of the two warlocks you have." My party decided to do away with the "only one leveled spell per turn" rule after a combat mistake that we discussed and just decided to all stick with, with the understanding that the same applies to enemies. Having that knowledge of the fact that as soon as they introduce an op strategy it can potentially come back to bite them with someone else just as intelligent does, I feel, get them to put a little thought into how much they want to start cheesing things themselves too.

[@sbncaptain8209]

You are the only dnd advice channel I'll watch. You get it and articulate it eloquently. You've helped me develop my campaign as a newbie so much. I run two campaigns, both set in the same world. One for my buddies and one for my family. It's definitely brought my family closer. You ever think about doing a video on playing with family, specifically the kids?

[@Ilandria.]

My party's Dragonborn Paladin recently somehow convinced a pack of Black Kobolds that the party was in fact in this Black Dragon's lair due to being summoned by it. The party then asked the Kobolds about any dangers or traps ahead and the Kobolds replied with stuff like, "dragon-friend does not know how we set traps? This is suspicious." The paladin then just said something like "oh yes, I was just being cautious so we may meet the Black Dragon without alarming you." My players then just took the fact that the kobolds weren't fighting as a victory and pressed onwards. It was a silly moment.

[@American1Pride]

I can’t say how important it is to not run every encounter as combat. In a campaign I’m playing in, we saw a couple of bugbears and goblins outside of a cave, so we all stood back and discussed for like 5 minutes how we should trick them by persuasion, etc etc. A well thought out plan, then we we approached, DM goes “okay roll initiative” like damn, just shut down our plan immediately with combat and we wasted that energy discussing that plan.

[@zombieskurge2193]

As a dungeon master, this video was so helpful! The players in the campaign seemed to be having a lot more fun than before I watched this video.

[@WilliamClemmer]

As a new DM, your videos are fantastic. And I’ve watched a lot of others. Great job man

[@DawnsonRPGs]

Recently, in my Rime of The Frostmaiden game, the party fought Xardorok Sunblight in the forge after an encounter that ONLY ended because the party willingly surrendered to be taken inside as Xardorok tried to elicit sympathy from them and give them a choice (join him, leave or die). They did also have backup from Drizzt but I scaled him down to be a slightly higher level than them and had him there as support rather than a full damage dealer (even then it was still a tough fight). The Wizard and Paladin decided to use one of the carts full of metal I described to block the door which delayed the guards and the Sorcerer cast catapult on their shackles at Xardarok. It was a very fun and tense fight with a very climactic ending and I am very proud of how I ran it.

[@futurelawski]

Great video, I've found it super useful as I'm still very new to DMing. Also backed your kickstarter can't wait to get it.

[@avengingblowfish9653]

I'm trying to train my players that non-combat solutions are possible, but if the enemies don't immediately surrender or show any hostility, my players have a bad habit of responding by stabbing the monster in the head and asking if they can get a "surprise round". I'm sure your next video is already planned, but a good follow up to this would be how to transition into combat in various situations. If a player wants to end negotiations by suddenly stabbing the enemy in the head, it feels bad when they roll last in initiative order. I allow them to get a free attack, but only on a successful deception roll with the DC based on the conditions of the situation. I generally start with the monster's passive insight and add 5 if it was already a tense situation and then adjust it based on additional factors.

[@minimalistmindset3020]

Generally, that seems like a good way to resolve it. The action that starts a spontaneous combat is free, but not surprise or advantage, because the creatures are still aware of the player that is doing so. If it is a tense situation already, then I believe a deception check is unnecessary, but it's not a bad way of doing it. Instead, I would have the monsters unleash their Held Action as a reaction(because they are expecting a fight already, so why wouldn't they?), because monsters can do that, too, even outside of combat, just like players. Maybe not all of them(but you can, it's totally fine), but at least one or two should so you can hammer home the point that the monsters can be ready to strike suddenly, too. This only applies to monsters that are not 'kill on sight' monsters, because otherwise you just roll initiative as normal.

[@MechbossBoogie]

DM: "...they attack." Party Face: "Whoa! Wait a minute, we just want to talk!" I've done that as a player before. It was great.

[@grandarchon6969]

Coming up with ways for characters to show off a unique part of their kit is fun. For example throw 30 zombies in a room so a cleric can turn them all. Or a shaft a player can fly up, something big for a barbarian to rage, pick up and throw...etc. Think about things that can highlight one or two character features.

[@nimnim4699]

Love love love all your hard work and amazing content thank you 👊

[@Manda_Kat]

In 3:44 about analysis paralysis I see exactly what you mean. The example of "We can talk, trick or fight for this encounter" is a great choice opportunity and having a ton of those throughout the game is a good way to introduce choice. The bad way to introduce choice is when they drop the characters into a place, list out a long list of shops, NPCs and possible actions and then just ask "so, whaddaya wanna do?"

[@trumanway3763]

A friend from our DND club started putting sticky notes folded over her Dm block so in our side it says our character name and monster name so the players could see the turn order and she as the dm could see turn order and health. That was a really smart way to do it and I'm certainly gonna use it from now on

[@derKrueger]

A nice story from my table about "prparing everything in advance" (what in my experience never works because the players find solutions i would never had thought of). We had a big group with several DM's and didn't play a big campain but lots of single adventures. One day i "had" to DM and i thought out several posible "one evening shots" and what happend? I started up in a tavern. The players ignored all my NPC's, started a tavern browl and well, the rest of the evening was a prison brake. XD

[@kodiakthebear4422]

A lot longer than normal, but appreciated. Will definitely be taking a few of these tips to my table 👻

[@softballa13tondalayo]

I like that when you say you’re going to add a link to another video, you do it ✨

[@theDMLair]

Of course! There are people who say it and then don't do it? :D

[@Mr01010011]

One thing I like to do is when the group loots coins from corpses I will have them roll a d100 and I will also roll a d100. If we match which has happened only once so far over 3 years. One of those coins they looted contain the halfling lucky ability granted to the wearer.

[@robertnett9793]

There can be also encounters that are neither social nor combat (or in between) - there's always nature for the players to overcome. Melting spring water has caused a flood which destroyed the bridge and made the surrounding terraint treacherous. Somebody has built a rickety rope bridge a while ago. How to get over it? Repairing the bridge? Swim? Use the rope bridge? Cast a spell.... What can people find while digging in the dirt (my favorites are a single boot buried deep in the mud and / or a discarded draft for a mocking bards song about the terrible condition of the local streets)

[@brianshutts9531]

Another item for encounters might be lore. I have experienced players that know lore and I was able to create an encounter/event they participated in. I was running Decent into Avernus campaign. In Avernus there are warlords that the players could encounter but was lacking how to introduce them. According to lore Asmodeus meets with the Lords of the 9 hells for updates. So Mahadi hosted an event where the warlords had a no holds barred race and all the Lords of Hell are there to witness. And possibly meet if they were to play their cards right. Which one did. Played out very well.

[@sonoffalco3773]

I currently have an adventure being set up where the setting is in a land where the planes converge and slip into the material plane, one area is a ruined minotaur maze that has been there for near 1000 years. Inside is a skeletal minotaur and 3 skeletons, 2 with swords one with a bow. The minotaur is there to challenge the high AC/HP. At the end of the maze is a puzzle door, and then a bone naga guarding the treasure in the center that is modified a bit with a lair action to turn the 22x22 square area into a maze that is 2 squares wide for it to charge through and knock players over and deal 3d6 bludgeoning damage on a failed dex, or half as much and they stay standing on a success

[@ShadowDreamer100]

36:10 Routs historically ended exactly like that in battles. An unorganized retreat tends to leave more dead because no one is covering the retreat to prevent getting slashed, stabbed, or shot in the back. A covered retreat could actually make a tense last moment of the encounter. Maybe the last 3 bandits at an ambush pick one of themselves to be an impromptu runner back to camp to bring reinforcements or alert the camp it will be under attack, and its up to the other two to cover the runner. Gives the party a choice as to who to target, and could give an impromptu chase scene, too.

[@Satori2046]

That's really the kind of video I dig. In depth analysis. Cheers for the good work and hoping for more.

[@capsalo5321]

A dumb silly idea that sparked for me while listening to this towards the end. May have been done before, I don’t know. I think it’d be funny to have an encounter that’s like a tavern brawl, and you can take it to a ludicrous amount of stages and opportunities to get out of it. Like maybe at first it’s a small group, a little 4v4 brawl, if they wanna talk themselves out of it they can, if not, let them roll for initiative, they get ready to go for a good ol throw down, but wait, a new group enters the tavern, they got beef with the group you were about to fight, so now they want in on it, but they’ll go through you too. roll their initiative, but we’re not done. Bring in ANOTHER guy or group who has something against one of the party’s characters or mistakes them for someone else (maybe they even wronged someone in a previous campaign and you can make it a call back). Now they’re in the fight as well. Repeat at much as you want to reinforce the idea that maybe fighting isn’t the best way to go about it. With opportunities to get out of it every step along the way. Get to an absurd amount of gangs and groups and NPCs with grudges to a ludicrous degree like the News Teams in Anchorman, and when you think you’re at the cap, maybe even the keeper is like “Aw hell, I gotta set an example” and he can just be some OP brawler or he can just go grab the guards and get them in on the scuffle. You still have the opportunity to get out of it at the very end, but make it difficult, maybe a party’s bard wants to rise to the occasion. If they pass, sure happy tavern sing along time like it’s a Disney movie, if they fail, too bad, tensions are high so they get a chair to the back and the fight ensues leaving everyone to take their licks or try to get out of the crowded chaos where nobody relents on their opportunities to swing at whoever wherever whenever, halflings and gnomes and goblins just being yeeted around at random by the bigger guys, if the guards show up you make it worse by giving them some jail time. Just a chaotic encounter that they had every opportunity to back down on. Fun and humorous either way, especially with the random NPCs showing up and maybe having their own story about why they got a chip against so and so, you can even let your players chime in and headcanon an NPC in this crowd that THEY have a reason to swing on. You could have it even lead to something being sought after by several people or one of them drops a map in the brawl that can open up the adventure and give the party the idea “if we make it out of here, we gotta look into this.” If anyone uses this, let me know, I hope it goes well and is fun for all.

[@selkiara1272]

My Dark Lord is a chatterbox. He loves to banter with heroes, and rarely initiates combat, unless the party attacks first or treat him rudely. I have described him as 'Sauron meets Deadpool'. He is an ancient evul beyond reasonable measure, and he understands it is a very rare adventurer who can stand toe to toe with him. So he cracks jokes, he quips, he disarms them with humor, he uses guile to convince them he is in the right. Most parties can just walk away with their limbs intact by not getting in his way. But fighting him is always an option, and an option he revels in. In my current campaign, the party agreed to team up with him to take down a mutual foe. They encounteted him expecting a fight, but he disarmed them with charisma and convinced them that there could be a mutually beneficial bargain to be struck. The Dark Lord got really messed up in a fight that the party was not present for. They went to deal with another adventure, and the Dark Lord was attacked by one of the heroes who defeated him in the previous era. Seeing him in his state, they decided "Honestly, we will never get another chance like this. Alliance or not, he is the Dark Lord. We roll initiative." He looked back, smiled "You're right. You'll never get another chance." Aaand 3 people died, but they forced him into the Astral Plane in the process and it was a HUGE moment for the table. They felt accomplished, not just because they won, but because they chose their moment. Later, when he came back, the party was terribly wounded, and suffering from a nasty debuff to their con. "Well, long time no see, guys... You know, this feels somehow familiar. I'd never have another chance like this... Lucky for you schmucks, I'm not here for you. I'll let you live if you help me with that mutual problem we teamed up to face before you guys betrayed me. Any funny business and you will die. I've long rested, you have not, and I don't sleep."

[@gabriellajoie9486]

Love your vibe man. Talking about your dog pooping. Your a natural, keep it up

[@b0therme]

For your blind puppy try putting down layers of newsprint in a corner in or near the bathroom. Smear a tiny bit of puppy poop on the top layer so she can find it. Eventually she'll remember where it is. There's a learning curve. Good luck!

[@klutch0065]

Hey. That's awesome advice!

[@niklitis]

If PCs want to have a lot of conversation during combat, you can have it be kind of like when in shows two fighters circle around each other between attacks. Like back and forth until one attacks. Or you if it’s a consistent issue, you could let PCs know that if they talk for too long, the NPC can get an opportunity attack. I wouldn’t do that often but it’s an option. I like the idea of cinematic fights where the PCs and NPCs are having convos between turns that might make the round a little longer but would make roleplaying more fun.

[@thae1532]

In an encounter I made the player's fight enemies on a cliff face with multiple levels of elevation. They fight high knockback enemies that attack the players with those high knock back attacks to deal lots of fall damage and then have a brute at the bottom of the cliff to throw the player's back up to the monks to do it all over again.

[@Undead_Beholder]

I'm running a futuristic homebrew, and one of the first encounters was with three raiders, one of which had gotten a hold of some old ass armor and an old minigun. When the raider with the minigun took his turn, I had his minigun explode when he tried to use it.

[@rcschmidt668]

Interesting choice of the Yugoloth as an example. They like wealth, and they have big plans. I would like to think that their presence in the material plane is to gain vast amounts of gold, have the coins cursed in some way, and then return the gold to the realms. Having them accept bribes in situations like this makes their job easier.

[@aqacefan]

I turned a random encounter into a recurring NPC, when a manticore chose to yield rather than fight to the death. It's now demanding tribute in exchange for safe passage through its "hunting grounds" (at least until such time as it somehow regenerates its missing wing).

[@DominoPivot]

One funny alternative could be to have an encounter where some of the enemies are trigger happy while others are trying to deescalate. The players could retaliate, could agree and try to talk things out, or could themselves have a trigger-happy character they have to convince not to shoot. And to use your advice, make the NPCs realize they might be fighting the wrong people by pointing a party member that's not talking. Fey creatures might notice a druid, pretty criminals might recognize a noble, a cultist might secretly be a fan of the bard's music, give them a reason to suddenly reconsider attacking the players after one round. Worst that might happen is the party kills them anyways, and players will remember this as "that one time a bunch of creatures realized they bit more than they could chew one second too late".

[@Ilandria.]

My current primary group is extremely (and I mean extremely) inconsistent about when they are itching for a fight vs wanting to talk to NPCs, so I've had to take the latter approach of just understanding NPC motives and the world well enough that I can role play on the fly. I'm actually at the point in this campaign where it is extremely rare that I ever plan out social paths though an encounter at all beyond just noting what the NPCs are attempting to achieve.

[@micahthomas705]

Running my first DM session over foundry and it's Shadowrun. Because, why make it easy? Really enjoy the content. Love the brand agnostic format.

[@serviceisstrength3696]

Tip Number 12: Remember that NPCs are still characters. NPCs aren't simply automatons, they have their own interests and desires. Say the party runs into a group of goblin wolf-riders. What are the riders doing? Are they patrolling their territory, and thus liable to attack the party as intruders? Are they fleeing from something and thus want to avoid the party? Are they foraging and thus see the party as either a resource to be exploited or a threat that needs to be dealt with? Just like you ask the party what they want to do, make sure to ask your NPCs what they want to do.

[@Zjivarra]

With my new group we’ve played three entire sessions and zero combat, nor physical conflict has ensued. And they loved the social encounters.

[@17joren]

If you are going to determine the NPC moods on the fly, you can also roll on the reaction table from older editions to help vary dispositions.

[@UnchallengedGaming]

Good ideas, I’m making a text-based adventure rpg mobile game. I’ve added a random encounter mechanism, but don’t want to over bombard players with combat- so instead of flee option, I like the persuade/bride option. Other good dialogue ideas too. My game is a bit backwards from traditional games, your playing as the enemy and battling heroes coming down the catacombs instead so there are plenty of ripe newb heroes to combat 😂

[@natethetoe386]

I don't see why it is a problem if a pack or orcs, goblins, etc just start attacking the players. They can always reason with them after the fight brakes out. Just because you start combat does not mean it needs to end in death, but I get the idea of what your saying and agree. If the players decide to run, I will often let them get away but roll for how many consumables they used. For example, "The fighter lost 4D6 Hp and use 3 Heath potions, the rogue dropped his dagger, and the wizard cast misty step and shield it the escape." Yes, players being able to run, is important. Great video TY.

[@mt_baldwin]

If you are going to try this, beforehand you want to talk or have the players talk about what to do with surrendering enemies. Some players have a big problem when you start slitting the throats of goblin enemies that've surrendered or fireballing a roomful of kobolds that have given up. When you start to take the living/breathing world approach (which is basically what's being discussed in this vid, when enemies act more realistic and combat becomes just one type of resolution) this will come up eventually. In the above, the goblins were 6, 7 survivors of a raiding party that had wiped out a small hamlet of about 20 people the day before that the player group had tracked down and fought (they surrendered, got tied up, and the rogue did the did). The Kobolds were about 2 dozen left of a large clan that had been raiding and killing folks for years whose lair the party had just adventured through and defeated them (put 'em an enclosed room and the wizard finished it with a wand of fireball).

[@dilitidarn]

In my last session, I had two encounters planned. They were posted on like a mission board and when the players asked if there were any other missions, I made up some "generic, not of interest missions, like ghost hunting" and of course they picked a ghost hunting mission. A mission I had NOTHING prepared for. So when they went to sight up for that mission, the guy who was writing them down told them that mission was already full. And when they asked why it was still on the board, the poor guy went into a melodramatic word vomit about how he's the only one there who was given the task to write the mission parties down and how he hadn't had the time to take it down yet. And then I had their Favorite NPC invite them on a different mission that I had sort of planned out. And now I'm planning on making the ghost mission they wanted to go on be related to a "bbeg" and instead of it being a real mission, it had been a trap and the "party" that had been sent to take care of the ghost mission have gone missing and now another, much stronger and experienced, party will be sent to investigate it and they'll have a chance to join them. Y'know, to make up for how they didn't get to go do the thing they wanted to do-

[@jonathanosborne7509]

So, haven't tried it yet, but i found a Reaper brand 'Loot Golem'. Got me thinking: for that game when the players smite the big bad dragon, for example, and go 'so thats it?' animate the hoard of loot. The more they damage it, the less reward they receive, but if they disenchant the magic core, they keep what they can. Alternatively if the core is a magic item perhaps it can animate other items in the room, even the deceased big bad, and keep an encounter going with upscaled difficulty.

[@steveyoung4869]

I'm running Call of the Netherdeep at the moment and am planning what happens after the module ends. This video is very timely.

[@markturner1220]

I like using perception vs stealth form the initiative order, that way only the most stealthy adversaries surprise the pc’s. It’s nicely thematic for an ambush in the streets or forest

[@nickoftime5501]

Had a combat where the players convinced an Ettin to turn against the hag. Was pretty great.

[@benhaney9629]

Puzzles in battles are cool. Also Zelda style boss fights where the boss itself is like a mini puzzle. Like how have to attack a certain part of the boss to “down it” or uncover its weak point or even stuff as simple as the eye on the one eyed giant armored spider is the weak point. Lol. Speaking of Zelda the PCs having to fight their “shadows” with all their abilities (maybe or maybe not their items, probably not because that’s the advantage for the PCs) is fun and good turn about is fair play for the DM. A chance for him to use all those spells theyve been getting hammered with all campaign… “Let’s see how you like being polymorped into a cute bunny…”

[@koalabro6118]

Damn you offer great advice, I'm willing to bet that you've been a DM since at least high-school with that much experience!

[@thomaspetrucka9173]

Players truly do not surrender. I have seen players die because they refuse to run away or surrender once initiative has been rolled. You just can’t bank on it as a DM, especially if you’re not at the sort of table that is ok with killing PC’s. They’ve seen too many movies where the heroes almost die but get saved at the end.

[@Trollstrolch]

I think it is ok, to let them escape - but for that, they have to get caught first. Big bad evil monologue instead instantly killing the good guys...

[@grufftroll7679]

always take the smallest character with food, drink, on a silver tray, knock, and snivel...boss said you have earned this. do a head count , and then free surveillance.

[@R3dS0ulSnak3]

One of my favorite homebrew rules is when in combat I enforce the 3 word rule. Whenever we are in a combat situation the players n npcs are only allowed to speak 3 words during their turn. I always picture it as we are attacking, defending, and casting spells, so all we have time for is a sporadic yell in combat. Otherwise my group will spend time strategizing when they really wouldn't have a chance to. It's great trying to come up with 3 words to convey an idea in a hectic situation.

[@el_noah11]

I think that perhaps a way to improve upon this rule is maybe allowing players to use their bonus action to speak say a sentence more, sacrificing whatever they could do in that bonus action. Tell me what you think!

[@tylerstoker9507]

My players once used destroy water to remove all the blood from an enemy I had thrown at them. They did all the math, calculations, adjustments, and preparations for the creature. So I let them do it, and the final boss battle for the session was over in one turn

[@CrashCraftLabs]

dude i love your barbarian voice/persona hahaha could def watch a dnd story arc of him on the reg.

[@Ilandria.]

In terms of loot on creatures I almost always just have it be the equipment the creatures were using as well as a small (read: effectively irrelevant) amount of coin. If there's more than that it's either an important item/artifact/etc. that one of the creatures was actively using in combat, or had reason to be carrying it (a parchment containing a hit list or something). I really don't like spending time after every encounter with all of my players trying to loot corpses, so I make sure it's clear whenever there may be something of value worth looking for. I also don't want to give out too much loot, so I tend to take all of the loot that WOULD be on creatures and spread it around the dungeon in secret areas or as larger hoards to find after primary encounters, etc.

[@braydenb1581]

I rarely just have combat. Most of my stuff can be talked out. I did a year campaign where we only had like 5 combat even though we played once or twice a week. We used skills and abilities to sneak and talk and everything else but never came to a full out battle only those handful of times. My players loved it

[@paulallerston3771]

One of my characters surrendered once. There were 3 of us, all rogues and we were very low level, like level 3 or something. We found ourselves facing off against, maybe 20 goblins, who were pinning us down with archers. Then they dropped a cage on us, trapping my 2 companions, one of whom then got shot and dropped to zero hp. At that point, my character dropped his weapons and surrendered, figuring, they would either slaughter us or take us prisoner, allowing for a chance of escape... we ended the session there, as our DM's head kinda exploded because he hadn't even considered surrender as an option... we now know that surrender is ALWAYS an option. Lol

[@Trollstrolch]

@@paulallerston3771 Once i just got a "they slit your Throat" after surrendering, so it is risky...

[@garrettwhite3922]

My party ended up trying to marry off the fire genasi to a newt to gain passage through the firelands. Little did they know "wed in fire" meant dipped in lava together... good times.

[@nickw2876]

I like consumables to beef up the baddies...5e has serious power creep...potions, rage root (creature rages barb skill for 1/2 min then 2lvs of exhaustion) drugs, scrolls. No loot for party but can level up low level monsters.

[@vivianadelatorre7267]

so whats interesting is that like i naturally do the "encounters start with dialogue and have ways to solve without combat" naturally. even like monsters tend to be either like hungry or scared or whatever. but like my games are very linear so ive always wondered why players never got frustrated with me for being railroady. this kind of explains it. in my games, each encounter is very open ended, even if the path is a line with a few branches

[@insertname7466]

I enjoy running combat encounters, my players enjoy combat encounters. Because of this, I laid out the expectation in session 0 that we will likely be running multiple combats per session, and likely not go more than 2 sessions without a combat encounter. If I had gotten any objections, of course I could adjust, but a sentient mushroom that wants to feed on the corpse of my players can't be reasoned with. Nor can a pack of Shadow Mastiffs. Of course, the option to have a friendly discussion with the Night Hag guarding the temple of Shar and convincing her to let them take an ancient and powerful artifact is an option... but unlikely.

[@markbasilejr9808]

in old school looting the bodies was necessary to get full exp because gold was exp. and so it became "tradition" to loot the bodies. I find my new school player's do not loot bodies, where as my players before 4 came out would loot ANY body anywhere anytime.

[@jonathanschmitt5762]

When the video lasts 39:59 minutes and not 40 minutes: My dissapointment is imeasurable and my day is ruined. (Just a joke, Great video.)

[@Mikso46]

Incredible advice, I really needed this