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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The "this monster should survive x number of hits" thing is actually a lot closer to the way it was done back in the day. Your average soldier was a minion, and went down in one hit. The hero was a little tougher and could survive two or three. Hit points are a weird thing anyway, and the hobby has been struggling with what they actually are since the beginning. Are they actually wounds that you take, do they represent your heroism, or stamina... What I like to do is borrow from 4th edition D&D just a little bit, and use the "bloodied" condition (I call it Wounded). I describe the hits, until the half HP mark, as striking the armor and knocking the wind out of him, or being just barely blocked by a desperate lift of the shield. Then when he crosses that Wounded threshold, the hit strikes home, and he has blood running down the side of his armor. And now he's a little bit slower to react, more hits land on the armor, instead of being blocked by the shield or weapon. Statistically, he's unchanged, it's just clearer that he's getting closer to death. And the final blow, of course, I ask the player how they want to end it. As my PCs get higher levels, I think I'll be adding more minions, too, little one-hit guys, to bring in that cinematic feel.

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

I really like how you put in things in combats just to let your characters shine and the players have fun. e.g. archers, just so the monk can catch arrows.

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

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

The thing with the bandits and later the crows leaving has a lovely vibe reminiscent of how underwater divers will see all the small sharks leave rather suddenly just before the bigger sharks arrive. That moment of anticipation is powerful and interesting.

My favourite bit of evocative monster flavour I've done was describing Sea Hags as looking like bloated drowned corpses. I've used sea hags a few times and that description always makes players squirm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you Professor Kingsmill! You've made battle "crunch" so much cooler for me

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

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

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

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

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

"Not qualified to crunch." I don't know why, but that statement was particularly funny to me. Good video, very evocative.

I am a Critical Role fan and a Dimension 20 fan, but in the home games I DM, you have honestly been the biggest and most direct influence on my own DMing. Your videos have shown me that being less number crunchy and more vague and evocative is ok, and has given me the freedom to develop my own DM style and find my voice. Keep being you and making great content that inspires us all!

When you chef's kiss at your own work, so hard that you hurt yourself!

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

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

I really like the points you made about highlighting certain characters in every battle and giving them all their time to shine, and what you said about "fluid hitpoints". I too often feel worried about the flow of the fight, and sometimes I really wish a monster survived one more hit - or died earlier. All in all really good vid, thank you so much.

that introduction for the redcaps was chilling

This is exactly something I need, I run a Traveller game with a group of role players who prefer the rp side and not the combat aspects of games, so I being a war gamer was heart broken that my fav part of the game might take a lesser role in my game for my players sake, but this changes everything, focus on "flavor" and less on hit points! Dael you made my morning so much better

Thank you Dael! It's been a rough few weeks for me and this came and the absolute perfect moment. Y'know, we should start a petition to get Wizards of the Coast to hire you because this is waaay more flavourful and dynamic than the Redcaps in the books! Oof, your Recaps bleed (forgive the pun) flavour.

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

I just want you to know this is one of the videos that inspired me to DM! I used to have a very math crunchy group and this legit was the push to find a more narrative group I adore. You make DMing sound so damn fun!

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

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

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

Everything about understanding the flow of combat/encounters or a session is great advice. HP's of enemies don't matter if it ruins the flow of what is going on.

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

Changing monsters hit points from their original design to better match the output of your players is just good DMing. I personally don't use a "1 hit/2 hit" system, but I have had to change monsters hit points more times than I can count. My players also know that my monsters will have a range of HP's, for example 18-22, just like their party has a range of HPs (even 2 of the same class/level). Thanks for another great video Dael, I look forward to using your crow covered bad guy in the near future!

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

These DM skills sound amazing, from a player stand point the crunch can feel important, but end of the day I'm there for narrative and I'm definitely incorporating this into any game I DM. Also, get "Vague & Evocative" on a shirt dude!

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

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

"How did you make these things the absolute worst. That's a what a DM lives for" As a DM I completely agree with this statement. When your players dread your next move your having a good time.

Finger pointing outtro is the best thing that's ever happened to Monarch's Factory

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

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

What a coincidence that my players are being hunted by a pack of Redcaps. Next session is going to be great. Thank-you for the awesome content :)

I love that you care more about enjoyment and the storyline and world building rather than just getting hung up on the nitty gritty stuff that can sometimes bog down a campaign but I like it and think it’s a breath of fresh air 😊☺️

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

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

Redcaps are amongst my Favorite Fae out there. They have such a Sinister and unrepentantly horror-movie -esque feel to them. I've ran them in the past as more like ambushers. Hiding in ruins as the party works their way through, they'd knock over bricks and the party would follow it, but its really 2 steps ahead, and they jump them with falling rocks, Falling damage from pit traps and finally some well placed wooden pikes being thrust through mortar in the walls. Your choices however... My goodness, That one is right up there in awesome reveals.

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 years later I’m finally running red caps in my own game

This was great! I think the best thing is that we get to see the design process for making great monsters/encounters.

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

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

Professor Dungeon Master over at dungeoncraft suggests something similar to your hit points, but, being Professor Dungeon Master, he goes a step further in giving EVERYTHING an amount of hits instead of hit points to survive. Worth a watch

Such a good idea to have enemies last for rounds rather than hit points

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

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

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

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

In lieu of e-mailing this to my grandparents (some 14 years gone now), I'll instead send this to my DM, because I'm evidently a masochist. 😁 Great to see you back, Dael!

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

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

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

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

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

Dael: Now, some of you who like crunch might not like this next part Me: I'll be fine, I'm pretty open-minded to different DM styles Me, 1 minute later: *breathing heavily*

My Grandma called and told me to “role initiative”

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

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

Hi. Just found your channel. I like your style. Keep making more, I'll keep coming back~

Came for the vague. Stayed for the evocative.

me, making a vague and evocative sorcerer, watching this channel a bunch

This is SO cool. Exactly the kinda play style I aim for. Could totally see the Raven Red Cap casting swarm and all the ravens bursting off it's body. Might have to be with goblins but I'm definitely borrowing this idea! Thank you!

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

You have very good GM instincts. The exact amount of hit points ultimately don't matter. An especially nice touch was when you explained how low damage rolls warranted surviving another hit. Hell, you could secretly house-rule weapon damage to 1, 2, or 3 hits or something like that and arrange monster hit points accordingly for mooks and lieutenants.

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

What I love about this anti-crunch mechanic is that if you don't tell your players you are doing that, they can still min-max to their content. When I am a player, I am a min-maxer myself, and I could not care less how my DM tracks the hp. I care about my damage numbers. I am looking for HIGH numbers, and with this system, if they are high - the DM can just say "How do you want to do this?". This would actually make min-maxing even more enjoyable =)

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

Giving the enemies a 'dies after # hits' reminds me of the 1 HP Minion class NPCs in Fourth Edition, one of the best tools to come out of the edition. May experiment with your approach over the 1 HP Minion use, since it sounds like it could work just as well for throwing a BUNCH of enemies at the player characters without creating an overpowering or unending combat slog. Thanks, much obliged!

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

I love the concept and will be adopting it for some of my sessions. Thanks, keep up the great work!

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

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

Oh Blue Power Ranger, I thought she was Ash without the hat

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

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

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