Never, ever, forget that Dragons can fly! Keeping a Dragon grounded trivializes the encounter!

Recently my DM was so focused on keeping track of the number of heads the hydra had, that he forgot the hydra's turn. We had a big laugh. :)

DMing just a few times gave me SO much more empathy for when DMs forget things. I will never ever again be the player who gets annoyed the DM forgot something, and now I’m the player who offers to help track stuff.

Here Monty advises being cautious about trying to spice up an encounter with a lot of status effects and conditions because it can be a lot to keep track of. In addition to that, I would add that an encounter built around one debilitating effect can be a lot more interesting and memorable than one with a random smorgasbord of effects.

I'm imagining Kelly instilling fear in retail customers because it's better than disappointment.

I sometimes forget some of my creatures have magic resistance but then my players will celebrate their polymorph or hypnotic pattern working and even if I remember, feels too mean to go back and fix it. Last week I forgot one of my monsters had spider climb and before the session I thought I'd do all these cool things with it but ended up forgetting it exists until the monster was literally at 3 hp lmao.

The best instance of me forgetting an enemy has resistance to charm happened outside of combat. I remembered he had it just after rolling the saving throw, so I had him act charmed just long enough to get the party grouped up in a nice formation for a breath weapon. Turned my mistake into a great twist for the players.

Honestly, I give anyone doing a TTRPG show a lot of credit. I feel like I'm usually pretty good at remembering these things (of course we all have our moments), but if I were busy trying to entertain not just my players, but a whole audience, I'd lose track of everything mechanically in an attempt to nail the RP

It’s not forgetting but seriously: move your monsters. Movement is exciting. Opportunity attacks aren’t as bad as you would think - or just give your monsters abilities that allow them to ignore them. e.g. Slippery. The creature moves cautiously. Opportunity attacks against it are made with disadvantage.

For monster recharge abilities, I have a solution that might help. Roll the recharge die at the end of the monster’s turn and make it a public roll. I find that I’m more likely to remember to roll at the end of a monster’s turn, maybe because I skim their available actions every time their turn occurs so it’s fresh in my mind. Plus, your players will anticipate the roll and can remind you. As an added bonus, making this an open roll and giving players a round to act before the recharged ability gets used again enables more tactical gameplay.

I don't know if this would drastically overload Kelly's editing duty, but it would have been really nice to see some 10second clips of in game examples from your Drakkenheim campaign. Not of how you forget things but how you remember things and incorporate it to the live game without causing a fuss

I forget how many attacks enemies get pretty often, especially low level monsters who somehow get multiple attacks. One thing I am better about now but which used to get me all the time is remembering to make my enemies speak in the middle portion of combat as well instead of just the beginning and end

It’s always helpful when the whole table works together to remind each other of things. As a player, I’ll gently remind another spellcaster they need a concentration check or I’ll remind my DM what effect is in play on the monster. As a DM, my players will work together to do the same thing (especially with homebrew at play). It heightens the fun and actually helps the players work together both in and out of character.

Almost every single one of my encounters has some form of lair action that represents the environment. It can either impact both sides or impact only the players. It makes the environment the players are in as an essential character in the fight, and forces them to choose to fight or flee within that environment. I had them fighting the mook mobs in an underwater dungeon once where there were strong tidal forces. It caused impacts every tound as the current rushed in and rushed out. One time the tank failed their save and got pulled out from the entire group and into a swarm of monsters that just pummeled on him, which forced the team to adapt their tactics to the situation, to save their ally. A routine combat they had settled into fighting one mob at a time suddenly required them to pivot and try to handle 10 mobs at the same time. It was good fun and put that threat of defeat to mooks which they out classed into mind, making the encounter more rewarding.

Regarding setting player expectations, if you use description to set something up as properly terrifying and the PCs are able to defeat it fairly easily, there's a decent chance that the players' reaction will be relief rather than anticlimactic disappointment. Especially if the monster continues to be creepy after its defeat - melting away into salt, or its severed limbs continuing to twitch.

I really needed this. I just ran a very complicated encounter designed to really challenge my lvl 4 players and their two lvl 3 NPC sidekicks. I had homebrewed a 5e monster version of the 3.5e Ocular Adept prestige class (humanoid paladins for beholders). They fought two of them and their five gazers, but they also had a fairly strong NPC shadow monk character with them for story reasons. This was one of the most difficult encounters to plan and balance in my GMing career and it went mostly well but I was still beating myself up for forgetting things and for messing up certain traits. For example, I was rolling attacks rolls for the gazers eye rays for the first half of the encounter and still having them roll the DC checks, so I massively nerfed the gazers for half the fight. I also forgot the main goal of the ocular adepts halfway through as the conditions kept piling onto them. It was a lot, but this video made me feel a lot better

For status effects some one in our group bought one of those boxes of colored plastic condition rings that have various status effects written on them and each is a different color. If you are stunned, poisoned, restrained, concentrating, etc. you put a ring on the miniature and take it off when the condition ends.

My first campaign was LMoP. I forgot that goblins have darkvision, so cragmaw hideout was cheesed pretty quickly when they started turning off the lights

Try running Tiamat with 5 separate breath attacks and remembering which ones have been used and which ones have been recharged

How these things are dealt with is a good test of how comfortable the group is with negotiating and adapting, and I like watching you Dudes demonstrate this

For missing monster turns I get around it by grouping initiative. If I have 7 minions I will have 2 goes. The first will have 4 of them and the second initiative has 3. This not only makes "less turns" needed to be remembered but also stops the monsters turn taking forever. I recommend grouping Upton a max of 5.

I'm really happy this was brought up. I've been kicking myself for a couple of weeks for accidently letting my players absolutely cheese the boss of one of their backstories with Bane and Bestow Curse and by forgetting legendary resistances/actions. Thanks for making me remember everyone makes these mistakes ❤

Really like this video!! I appreciate your guys' work a lot, specially because you take the time to provide actual possible and practical solutions to these problems! Great video, as always!

thank you for reminding all of us what we "always" forget. This is so true about all the points you mentioned. When there is a combat, there are so many things we tend to forget and yes we do need to keep track not to forget anything...but to forget the least :). I particularly enjoyed what you mentioned about the minis. Yes these are great to represent the monsters and enemies, but remember that we usually do not have one mini for each encounter and so we need to use again and again what we have in hand to represent what the characters are fighting. And so DMs need to emphasize on what the players do not see. A full description of what is coming to us is so important. Just as important as if we were doing theater of the mind. The one thing that you forgot to mention, and that I think is super important: make the enemies speak!!! Yes, it seems so weird to say that, but remember that when you are talking about intelligent enemies, they are going to speak during combat. Whether this is to cast spells, call out minions for help, or just challenge the characters and interact with them. It is so important to make the battle feel real.

It feels like you were watching my last 10 sessions and you are calling me out!! LOL! You guys rock! Thank you! I am waiting patiently for my Sebastian Crowe's to ship! I am so excited for it!

The rules are there to help you have fun, not prevent you from having fun. 44:25 This may be the greatest thing yall have said in a video. And I watch A LOT!

This is a great podcast episode on DMing in general! The essence is there are so many conditions and the such that are possible in the book, rules at written, but ultimately it is a human that is DMing and that can get real complicated, real quick.

I always enjoy how these videos are conversations! Never just a list of “What you doing wrong! No.1, 2…” Thanks, Dudes!

Just started watching - or more: listening - to your videos about two weeks ago. Even listened to your stuff from years ago! Got interested in D&D after playing Baldur's Gate 3. You got my attention via DND Beyond the Drakkenheim book which got just released. Anyroads, just want to say here and now: you two are awesome together! Please stay great friends together forever - the combination of both of you together make your videos so great! Keep up your good work!

The worst thing to forget = forgetting to watch Dungeon Dudes videos in your KZfaq watch list. This mistake must be avoided

The biggest benefit of this video is to know that I am not alone.

The best campaign I ever ran was back in college when I ran the campaign with a co-DM. I was the lead DM as it was my overall world and storyline but my college roommate was the Co-DM. He ran all NPCs that the party encountered both out of combat and in combat and if we had no NPCs with the party, he would generally control the larger or more intelligent monsters/enemies during combat while I made ruling on the combat and introduced effects like changing weather or the arrival of additional monsters to the combat. We could even split the part and run sessions in separate rooms as he always knew where I wanted to go with the session but respected player options and responded accordingly. Co-DMing is something I've rarely heard about, but it works well and should be utilized more often.

Great points, I have forgot all of these as well from time to time. Also; looking good in the black and red, you are matching really nicely. Kelly, nice chain!

Great, humble and fun video. Sometimes I do great, sometimes I really mess up. Recently I let the dice tell me to use the same wandering encounter twice in a row, and regretted it. I had to remind myself "I'm the DM! Not the dice!" Keeping everything interesting and fun, leaning into the RP and drama is when the table comes alive for me. Rules are pretty critical in combat, but after decades of play I have most of those down pretty well. Totally agree with the abbreviated denouement on some fights. Not everything has to be rolled.

This is your best and most relevant video yet!

Thanks for this video! As someone who’s been DMing for about 15 years and still regularly makes some of these mistakes, I often beat myself up over it. But if it’s happening even to you guys who DM *professionally*, it makes me feel a bit better. :)

Again - the natural interaction makes this better - love seeing Monty’s reactions! (The laugh at the beginning.) Makes it less stiff. Go. With the flow! :)

so glad to hear it even happens to you guys

I have to say one of my favorite encounters is introducing an NPC that had odd mannerisms that was questioned by other allies and when combat started post a doublecross scenario, the players were terrified and surprised when an intellect devourer burst out from that NPC's head. It nearly killed a player that failed a save against Psychic Lance(unconscious condition) a turn before the reveal too. What a memorable encounter tho. It was against the Intellect Devoured NPC a souped up Hyrdroloth with some extra spells (like Psychic Lance) and a Froghemoth. It was fun how the Hydroloth used Control Water to flood the cavern the PCs were attempting to rest in, while the Froghemoth and other swimming minions were hunting them. It was a mechanically complex encounter to put together, but it was worth running for sure.

I used to always forget about concentration checks. I find that having concentration rings around minis made remembering that much easier. For that reason, as a player, I always tell my DM I need to make a concentration check when applicable because it’s just one less thing for them to worry about Edit: I just remembered something I forgot when doing a combat as a DM lol. The party was fighting a smothering carpet, animated armor, and flying swords in a forbidden section of a library, and one of the PCs used some effect that blinded the swords and armors and carpet, I forget what effect it was lol. But I didn’t even realize until after the combat was over that each of them had blind sight. It was the funniest thing when I realized too because I told the party immediately as I realized and went, “I mean obviously they have blind sight, they don’t even have eyes.”

This is a wonderful video for me as I'm gearing up for a couple epic combats in our campaign's final act.

Monty, Kelly-you guys NAILED the intro! Just wanted to call that out 😂

First boss encounter that my players came across was an Annis Hag in her Swamp/mountain lair. I forgot about the difficult terrain, the legendary resistance that I gave her (which got her hit with Bane) and I had a artificer in the party and I accidentally made one of his robots stupid overpowered. Lots of learning opportunities there

For me at least half of those are immediately solved by printing out a proper initiative tracker, designed specifically for what I need. My version is basically a single sheet, landscape orientation. Each creature gets a row, on the left there's name, initiative count and space for tracking HP. Then in the middle I have a bunch of space for writing down status effects, recharges, etc. And the 1/3 of the page on the right is just narrow columns for combat rounds. Lair actions get their own row. If something is going to happen on round 3, it gets a row, and boxes for rounds 1 and 2 are blacked out. And then I just go down the list each round and tick the boxes down. If a creature uses a reaction, I put a little R in their box and I can easily check if they have it available. Same with legendary actions - I put a little L when a creature uses it, I can easily check how many Ls I have since its last turn at a quick glance. It took a second to get used to, but after 2-3 session it was automatic, and it made my life SO MUCH EASIER.

I was running a massive siege combat- the heroes had to choose how to spend time preparing (each hero chose an action from a table I generated, and their choices had an impact on the survivability during the fight). All waves had been repelled and now it was time for the final boss, a massive Orc riding an armored Allosaurus. I painted a scene of it tearing through the battered gate, even eating one of the Orc Lieutenants (to show how awesome he was). Just then, my bard reminded me that he placed Oil on the spot my model was literally standing. I made all the rolls, rewound time- now the Dino blasted through, slipped on the oil, crushing the lieutenant. Then the Dino and boss took damage (since they both rolled sub 5). And the party essentially nuked them both as they lay on the ground, covered in oil. It was hilariously disastrous.

I don't play D&D anymore but, if you want to have multiple monsters with legendary actions, consider giving a group of legendary enemies a pool of legendary actions. For example, when it comes to that group of adventurers, instead of giving them individual reactions, it'd be great if they have group legendary actions of 5, with caveat that if they used one, that one cannot be used consecutively (ie if there's a legendary action to blink step, the said adventurer can't blink step again and again). It would be a memorable fight, especially if they had legendary actions that reflect their group's deeds, legends, and teamwork. ... This sounds like a fun idea. I should make a thing for this.

Oh gosh, where to begin? Magic Resistance has been a big one (party has Wizard *and* Bard, Polymorphs for Days), Mirror Image and Blink for my less beefy Humanoids (especially when the 5th+ Level Monk gets 4 successive hits and Stunning Strike queued up), Burrow Speed! Oh God, Burrow Speed! Had a Xorrn Ambush planned but *fully* left each Xorrn out in the open after each turn (planned on having them burrow after each attack and Ambush-and-Hide throughout the Combat). Gosh, of course there's Hydra Heads (classic, had the PCs going through a desert, occasional Ambush from within the sand, when they got wise and started slicing, I fully forgot to add heads), "yeah the attacks stop" 💀 God sometimes I feel like the master of planning beautiful combats that go the way of the Homer Simpson Grill 😅

I laughed SO hard at the intro title card lasting for like 4 seconds too long 😂 love you guys

You are right! Forgetting someone's trun happens a lot despite the use of extensive trackers... it's so weird!

I have FTD (Frontotemporal dementia) and use a whole load of things to organise the game when I DM otherwise I'd be overwhelmed. I use mini-dice to number the NPCs in combat so I know who has had what done to them, Lynx condition markers for spell effects so we can see who's concentrating, raging, incapacitated etc and I use an Initiative tracker to er...track initiative. Mistakes still get made as in the heat of combat, especially with multiple complex turns the higher level you are, it's too much for most people, but we always sort it out in the end. Spell decals can also help loads, or failing that a dry-wipe marker to denote the spell-zone.

This is why i agree in the use of as many decks as possible to keep track of the stats, conditions, and NPCs. I'll use small, transparent or the pointed sticky notes to highlight certain things. I also make cards like that for every player so i have their info available but i don't keep track of their HPs or conditions, part of my Session 0 is to reiterate that players NEED to know their character. I'll give them private time to explain things and how things work and can be combined or why a basic spell like Bless is so important to have even at T3. I'll give them help in the early levels to remember stuff (yeah, like Hunter's Mark). It makes things a lot easier to keep track of. Of course, I'll also tag the book for less important things out things that need to be remembered. And to add to that area description, I'm using VTTs as more of a way to show players a bit of what I'm describing and to be able to visualize the board and movement who might have difficulty with my verbal description . I just found out a few weeks ago that not everyone can get that movie in their minds or visualize combat, and it's no one's fault. It is what it is. It doesn't mean that you are DMing is wrong or lacking, it only means that your brain works differently than their brain. So, we do what we always do, and try to let everyone have a great time.

Clothes pins on the screen for initiative. Current turn clipped a little higher. Names on the pins for pcs and numbers for enemies. Go a step further, hot glue little black boards to the back of the pcs clips that state their passive perception and insight. Dont forget to make pins for initiative count 20 and 10 as well as lair. You'll need em. Forget conditions? Effects? Concentration? Get some effect rings for your minis or place them around their clothes pin to remind you. Easy fix. Forget battlefield conditions like rough terrain? Print out 20, 30 and 40 ft radius effects and place em on the map. Takes a min to move all the minis but in the end it makes a world of difference. Another option is putting extra dice or markers around the radius. Forgot legendary actions? Use them all at the end of the round! Forget reactions? Here is how I Dealt with that. I bought tiny clothes pins to put next to the initiative clothes pins to represent their reaction. On the monster abilities, I agree with kelly. I print out my statblocks and highlight what I need to remember most. I write notes in the margin and even write out spell descriptions if it's a niche spell that's rarely used. Just a few things I do that have helped me immensely. I hope they help you out as well.

The most common thing that I forget are passive monster effects that trigger at the start of a player's turn. Like the monster has a stench that will trigger at the start of a player's turn if they are within 10 feet of a monster, or they'll take fire damage if they hit a particular monster in melee. If it makes sense to do so, I try to move these to the monster's turn, or add it as a separate slot in the initiative (like a mini-lair action). Otherwise unless it's something where it is the signature ability of the encounter (medusa, bodak, etc.) I will probably just forget every time. [edit]One thing I find really helpful in encounter building is coming up with a plan for the enemies before the battle. Where they can be positioned, which each enemy's role in the encounter is going to be, and especially if they're spellcasters, what they're (probably) going to do for the first few turns. Even for a fairly unintelligent creature, that doesn't mean it's going to just stand there and tank attacks. You can say "this thing is an ambush predator, it's going to try to grab someone and run, and won't usually stand and fight". Makes it easier to keep track of abilities and things when you've decided how they are going to be used.

This video is helping me get some good ideas!

I want to clarify something here. I'll comment on a video all the time "oh, you took 2 reaction." Or "oh, you should've made a concentration check" or "you forgot Strength of the Grave" But I in no way mean this to say "yallre bad" or "you suck." I understand that dnd is hard. I forget stuff all the time too. Hell, in typing this, I almost said "to" instead of "too" last sentence. Mistakes happen. I like to point out when they happen because I recommend your videos for people to watch to learn and it's important to know what the rules are so those accidents aren't "on purposes" I LOVE y'all's content. I will keep watching it regardless of mistakes. But I also hold yall to a higher standard because y'all're professional dnd players. Please PLEASE keep up the amazing work.

Love you Kelly ❤️❤️ you rock!! Stay well king

I almost always realize in my review of a session I forgot this and that, but then what about the stuff I don't even know or remember? Love the Strongholds & Followers and the Kingdoms & Warfare books on the shelf!

Nice hoodie Monty. I just got that same one for Christmas.

Will you continue your series of spell rankings? Or did you only concentrate on the 1st levels? 'Cause I absolutely LOVED these videos ❤

Awesome vid as always. I have a question for the DDudes (and the amazing community) I have a pretty good memory and I've noticed that I'm often the one pointing out when things get forgotten in combat. I'm a little worried about that getting perceived as being the rules police. If you have someone who's just really good at keeping track of the game and remembering everything, would you rather they mention things or perhaps just keep it to themselves?

I’m digging the longer videos!

Loved this video, thank you

As a player and a dungeon master. I have this advice for any DM. Practice, practice practice. You wont get it right the first time, or the 100th. Before your game, prep is over, spend 30 minutes before your game looking at your DM screen/sheet. If you don't have one, make one. Throw actions in combat, conditions, spell casting rules, and anything else you might use every single game. Quick example, your players constantly craft stuff, have the coats and times associated with crafting on your sheet. And advice for players, if your dm forgot, pass them a note or a message, dont interrupt whoever is speaking. Everyone wants to have fun, help each other out. If i as a DM can help a player with their actions mid combat, yall can remind me that i messed up. I had a player remind me that a monster forgot to make a saving throw on a following turn. Man, I gave him inspiration. Ez pz

My players recently came across a group of shipwrecked pirates on a beach. Rather than fight them, which I assumed they would do, the Bard led the way in lying that they were a gang of criminals just passing through, and then offered to share some food. The pirates were so grateful that they let them pass and even gave them some directions and info about the nearby town. It was a wonderful reminder that sometimes the most unexpected role-play outcome of an encounter can be way more fun than a fight.

A few people I play with get annoyed at me reminding the dm how a rule or a spell works, but I always follow it (or start the point with) a reminder that they can choose whether or not they want to use that ruling or not. I also don't just do it when it benefits whatever side I'm on. If I'm dming, I'll remind a player that they have a bonus from a source that they've clearly been forgetting, or that one enemy is prone which would give them disadvantage to shoot that target before they devote themselves to it. If I'm playing, I'll let the dm know that I fucked up and couldn't have done x, so y would have probably failed as well. Or I'll remind them that they get advantage on me or another player for reasons. DnD is a cooperative game, and when the rules are clearly out on the table, we can all work to use them to make incredible things happen.

One thing you guys will never forget, is being awesome

I have forgotten all of these at times and a few of them (resistances) all the time. Sometimes it’s because I have a lot going on, and sometimes it’s because I am just as engaged in the battle and kind of forget that I am not a spectator, but the DM. The absolute worst that I can remember though was that I had an NPC prisoner in an orc lair that the party was meant to discover and rescue, an NPC with critical information to keep the party on the right track… it was going to be a really cool moment of discovery, change the dynamic of the battle from kill bad guys to protect hostage and kill bad guys….the wizard pulls some super cool opening gambit and I completely spaced on the NPC.

This is a situation that just stuck with me ever since it happened. I was dming a high level campaign through discord and the party was fighting a hammerhead sharkfolk paladin. In my games the players can have 2 npcs to accompany them,and for that battle one of the supporting npcs was a wood woad the party saved. During the first 2 rounds i just completely forgot the wood woad then in the third turn i realized “oh i forgot his turn,he’ll act now”. The npc wood woad which was forgotten proceeded to crit twice and kill the boss instantly. It did leave a memorable situation though

For important calls that can sway the combat, I have the player who's asking about it look up a ruling and put their turn on hold, then move on to the next player. Gives them something to do and allows them to find a resource while the combat keeps rolling, that way I can stay engaged. For lesser things, definitely agree with just making a call and saying we'll come back to it again in the future.

With effects and conditions, one thing I do that helps me remember with a caster class that has a turn-ticking damage is to roll the damage in the caster turn, then apply it if the conditions are still met. It runs into the problem of "does this actually tick at the beginning or end of the victim's turn?"--but I at least have the damage queued up to remind me to check.

Posted 34 seconds ago. Nice! Thanks Dungeon Dudes!

Grognard here… I have always played with a smaller subset of rules from each edition of DnD. Because while we’d love to play a game where all these sophisticated rules are executed, but what is humanly possible always falls short. What I often do is say, for this session encumbrance will be important, and that will be the only time we worry about it. I’m currently playing Monster of The Week. It’s so much more fluid, rapid, and adaptable.

Thanks for the reminder content.

Forgetting to lock focus during recording of a video about forgetting to do common things is priceless; the books on the back shelves look so crisp and amazing though especially that 100k plaque.

Thanks dudes!

Tracking conditions simple hack: I pre-write numbers down the page for initiative, fill in names when it's rolled. When a condition pops that's multi round, I write it beside the name on init and call it out when I get to that turn. If it's a one round condition like dodge, they get a ring (pop bottle rings from cracking the seal make great markers and are different colours)

When I forget minions turns, I pretend they took the hide action and nobodies passive perception triggered. Brings a nice bit of chaos to the table and a lot of good "Oh sh*t" moments. I love when players remind themselves of conditions. Makes me very happy

My Bros, Amazing video and just wanted to say you got the drip m8s

In terms of creating new ways to end encounters, in my game, cloud elementals were grabbing people and taking them skyward to the bbegs lair at the top of the mountain. So one of my players suggested that instead of fighting, they let themselves be captured. This meant they effectively bypassed the second half of the mountain encounters I had planned and reached the bbeg with full resources. I was blown away.

My players were rowing across Waterdeep Bay and I played some seagull sounds for them to set the mood. One player decided he wanted to bait a seagull in to catch it. I allowed it then they decided to have another character roast it (after he cleaned it properly via a good survival check) with the sacred flame cantrip. I told them that the smell of cooked meat caused a mob of seagulls (who are definitely cannibals) to flock to their boat to try to steal their food. The mob of seagulls attracted attention and a hand shot up from the water and snatched a gull. One of my characters decided to grab and grapple the arm; roll initiative. They found themselves in combat with four sea spawns, which they easily beat. They get to the other side of the bay, partially loot the dungeon I prepared then decide to retreat, then return to their boat to rest. Before they get the opportunity to rest they get attacked by a sea hag and 10 more sea spawns demanding to know why they slaughtered her minions. Just saying, actions have consequences... My players are learning and they are loving the results. Lol, this actually got them leveled up from 3 to 5, but the hag got away and she WILL be back 😇

15:28 had this exact thing happen in my curse of Strahd game. I made sure that Strahd had cast mirror image on himself before dealing with the players face to face. The artificer cast faerie fire on him, which I didn’t resist because I was sure that the mirror images would make it a mute point. When the echo knight fighter came up and unleashed all 6 attacks using all his incarnations and action surges, I was so blown away by the roles he had I totally forgot about mirror image 😅. Strahd died in the first round of combat. As upset as I was, my players loved the moment and the siege of Castle Ravenloft they had to endure beforehand I think was fight enough for them.

Watching this before work only had time for half the video I’ll watch rest later tonight but I dm more than I play - my two things , embarrassingly to admit, sometimes I forget a held action a player announced earlier in the turn like “if the zombie moves near our healer I’ll attack it” and number two I forget an ability the monster has. As far as in general though I “eat the mistake “ so to speak as the dm. And this is usually to my players benefit more than it’s not.

For monsters with recharge abilities, I roll the recharge right away (behind the screen, obviously) to see how long it takes to get it back. I make a note on the sheet I'm using to keep track of everything going on in that encounter. I don't think I've ever forgotten one yet, but there isn't video evidence one way or another. :)

Don't forget to deploy passive auras and bonus actions. Some of the statblocks have neat features that encourage movement and positioning, but arenin a wall of text.

One of the more memorable encounters for me as a player was on a cliff's edge. Not super tall, but enough for me to know that my monk wouldn't get hurt for more than 10 points. I was subclassed into rune knight, so I tackled the ogre off the cliff, taking him out of the combat completely.

When it comes to forgotten things, I like to use the metaphor of reparable and irreparable gamestates. A reparable gamestate is anything that can be corrected by adjusting numbers, reorganization of effects, or minor manipulation. An irreparable gamestate it’s one where meaningful change has happened as a result of an event. These are the key moments: a player dying, a trap being set off, a mechanic being discovered, or more than a rounds worth of time. In these cases, you can’t rewind things and you have to either bend to fix them or accept the gamestate as is. This is why it’s important for everyone to pay attention and not be on their phones since maintaining the gamestate is a shared responsibility.

Once I run an encounter where a bunch of aberrations, including a Beholder burst out of the ground and attack a refugee camp. I only remembered the civilians because they were goblins and orcs forcing me to remind the players that no, the goblin over there is a victim, not a practice target. What I forgot about was that the Beholder has legendary actions. Which is good because my players chose to run into that encounter with barely any HP or resources and survived by the skin of their teeth.

Ha I had a mimic ship for a pirate adventure I ran. It was crewed by various sea based creatures and the sails were a type of cloaker. One of the players got trapped below decks(in the stomach) digestive juices started flowing so one of them polymorphed into a t rex and chewed his way out.

How I track initiative that helps with a lot of these issues is index cards. Every PC gets a card with their ac and saves on it as a reminder. Every enemy gets a card with ac, hp, saves and each action they have available. The cards are easy to prep, just make them for each enemy they might encounter each session. They keep you from having to go to the book or some other reference in combat. And it gives you constant reminders of important info

"We surrender" can legitimately be one of the most interesting responses to an encounter.

My favorite time using monster morale has to be when the player where fighting a giant insect monster and a troll a bunch of goblins had turned into a walking fortress using the trolls regeneration ability. The insects and the troll were not on the same team and they were fighting atop a massive tree that the insects had made a nest in. The party’s astral monk had just climbed up the troll and finished of the last of the goblins. The troll now being all alone and not having taken acid or fire damage this turn decided to take his chances with gravity and jump off the tree with the monk still on his back. The monk took surprising little damage because of slow fall and used step of the wind and dash to make back up to the fight in a single round.

Last year I promptly killed the party bard with a howler before the paladin reminded me we had skipped their turn. In that scenario we did rewind time, and the paladin of course flattened the remaining enemies. It became a pretty fun Schrödinger's tabaxi bard moment, as we basically played it as the bard seeing an alternate future 😅

I use Avrae.. it takes off the actual dice rolling but it keeps track of lot of things like Resistances, effects and recharge abilities, HitPoints and initiative tracker.

Something I did in a recent session when I realized "I need to do something to set up that this guy is tough" I had him laugh when combat was iminent, exclaim how much he's been itching for a battle then had him punch a tree with the back of his fist, causing it to fall over. A bit cartoony/excessive lol, but it got the players to go "yo, that guy knocked over a tree in one punch! I'm not messing with him!" Which lead to some very creative combat decisions

"The story doesn't stop just because the swords are drawn," is a great motto!

This video further confirms my theory that Monty once bet someone he could mention "hypnotic pattern" in every video they make, lol

I once forgot that a player had just taken their turn and tried giving them another. Somehow convinced myself that all the stuff they just did happened in the previous round.

Been there. Done all of those. I once let my group kill off a very dangerous legendary crocodile because it horribly failed a saving throw and they were so excited that I forgot that it got to make 2 saves a day that it failed the roll on. They still bring this one up.

I do something called a DM's Turn which has help soooo much. on DM turns I normal have it for terrain effects etc and also missed NPC or monster stuff.

My party is scattered across the west coast, so The Forge is our table. Somehow, with all the digital tools and markers and icons at your fingertips, it is all too easy to forget things.