Never do this with your D&D monsters

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2 ай бұрын

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@theDMLair 2 ай бұрын

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@Pieznake 2 ай бұрын

How did you send this four days before release?

@ArvelDreth 2 ай бұрын

Something I think you're actually overlooking about the resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks is that this would apply to summoned creatures, an ally polymorphed into a t-rex or other giant beast, or something like animate objects. This resistance/immunity has a significant impact on these strategies that would previously have been very optimal.

@phillipmiller-jackson8311 2 ай бұрын

I'm gonna be honest, I think Trolls are a common enough monster that adventurers would know about them to a point. Also, if you had a wizard who likes to burn, they should have burned them because purposely, not doing something you would normally do because of how the monster will react to it is meta gaming in itself.

@TheCobraCom 2 ай бұрын

Yes, something more common like a troll would be in a scary lullaby, possibly. But in the case of more seldom, more powerful monsters there should also be a possibility that the folk tales are misleading or flat-out wrong.

@jopestus 2 ай бұрын

Yep. There is nothing admirable on not playing the character just because the player knows things. Thats the definition of metagaming. A pyromaniac is a pyromaniac

@yellingintothewind 2 ай бұрын

@@jopestus It's some sort of monster - I kill it with fire. It's some sort of undead - I kill it with fire. It's some sort of human - I kill it with fire. It's a troll - I hit it with a stick.

@BCYoshi 2 ай бұрын

Just think how many people in our world could tell you that vampires can't walk in sunlight, or werewolves are weak to silver. And we live in a world where that's just fantasy, not legitimate survival advice

@ArvelDreth 2 ай бұрын

It could depend on the region your character is from. Some places may not have trolls and the stories their characters were raised on may not have included trolls. But, using Forgotten Realms for example, if you have a character from Nesme or the game takes place on the Sword Coast, you know about trolls.

@sitnamkrad 2 ай бұрын

3:20 Aaaand here's my issue with the whole "troll metagame" thing. You have a character that loves fire, and for some reason this character didn't use it on the one creature it would be very useful against? Why? Sounds to me like the player was metagaming to the opposite extreme. Intentionally not using an element because you know it's the creature's weakness, is still metagaming. Iconic creatures are iconic because we recognize them. That includes methods on dealing with said creature. Our brains get happy when we learn things, but even happier when we get to apply that knowledge. Do you want them to fight an iconic creature or not? Then let them fight an iconic creature in the iconic way. If you want to surprise your players, change the creature. But asking players to ignore weaknesses, or worse, intentionally do the opposite, is in my opinion just making the game worse.

@feferson492 2 ай бұрын

Looks like they were just meta gaming in reverse That fire and acid stop regeneration isn't some arbitrary rule, it cauterizes or dissolves the tissue, that's why they stop regenerating

@schwarzerritter5724 2 ай бұрын

It also makes sense from a gameplay perspective, because fire is easily accessible. Non-casters can throw flasks of oil and light them up with torches. How do you deal with a troll that needs lightning damage, rub a piece of amber on your hair and hope that is enough?

@phantafan7965 2 ай бұрын

And especially when one of the players is using fire spells on anything else, it just seems off that they'd see two strong trolls that nearly killed their party members and wouldn't try using it. Especially given that a wizard probably has some great intelligence.

@mdpenny42 2 ай бұрын

There are occasions where "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck", it's a duck. There are other occasions where "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck", it's a mimic.

@jopestus 2 ай бұрын

I confused my players a bit with this lately. They arrived into a 40x40 room with a table in the middle. Three big chests in the surrounding walls. All of them have a lock that eerily resembles an eye of a fish. A majorly torn corpse leaning face first into the table one hand scretched towards the centre of a table. An ocean of dried blood around the corpse. It is holding book titled "how to recognize a mimic" in its table-hand. What has happened? Where is the mimic?

@KingGramJohnson 2 ай бұрын

I was playing Pathfinder 1e with a group online, and our GM is very good at tweaking or reskinning monsters. He had us fight a gelatinous cube. We were way too high level to have to fear it, but the moment we threw fire at it, we realized our mistake...it was a napalm cube. Let's just say I've never forgotten that fight.

@csgilmore3536 2 ай бұрын

I may need to steal this idea

@KingGramJohnson 2 ай бұрын

@@csgilmore3536Do it! It was a wild surprise!

@Teraclon 2 ай бұрын

@@csgilmore3536 May need to? I've already planned an encounter for it >:D

@josephcarriveau9691 2 ай бұрын

Chief, if your players were playing characters that exist in a world with trolls and they're going out of their way to ignore everything that they, and their characters, would definitely know about trolls wasn't them carefully avoiding metagaming, it was them metagaming as hard as they possibly could. Your characters aren't blank slates and walking oblivion. They exist in the same game world as the NPCs. They aren't ignorant of that world. Your character is as likely to know factoids about how to fight a troll as you are to know factoids about how to survive a wild animal attack. If you've ever heard that you should stand your ground and increase your size when dealing with an angry bear or bull, your character has heard about fire and trolls.

@carlfishy 2 ай бұрын

I live in a world where vampires don't even exist, and I've known how to kill a vampire since I was about 9 years old. The idea that people who live AND ADVENTURE in a fantasy world haven't grown up hearing stories about different kinds of monsters, and common folk knowledge like "burning things stops them growing back" stretches credulity far more than assuming they know them.

@ArvelDreth 2 ай бұрын

@@carlfishyyou say that but the rules for killing vampires changes from story to story.

@ArvelDreth 2 ай бұрын

Depends on the setting and where the characters are from etc

@deathclawproductions6723 2 ай бұрын

@@ArvelDrethI mean, for vampires you can generally bet that a stake to the heart and sunlight are going to be safe bets.

@ArvelDreth 2 ай бұрын

@@deathclawproductions6723 well a stake through the heart would kill anything that requires a heart to live, and in some stories sunlight is just an inconvenience rather than deadly. But yeah in D&D, unless they have some kind of crazy magical ability that changes this, sunlight kills. But again you could be playing in a setting where the rules are different. In the end it's best for the DM to just call for a knowledge check.

@waffleswafflson3076 2 ай бұрын

If you live in a fantasy world that has trolls its sensible that at some point in your characters life he would have heard folk lore regarding the trolls weakness. We're not talking about Mindflayers or some esoteric thing here.

@phantafan7965 2 ай бұрын

And why wouldn't you use your fire spells on a big evil troll that nearly kills your party, when you normally hit everything with it.

@dancorneanu9144 27 күн бұрын

A bit late, but did any character have a background in medicine? Or a soldier? Or seasoned adventurer? Cauterize the wound. The reason for troll regen or any regen is cell dividing. Cauterize the wound and that is common knowledge. Amputation.

@williamgordon5443 2 ай бұрын

The problem I have with throwing unknown (or tweaked) monsters at players is that I would think that adventurers would talk to people about known monsters in the area. Talk to the guard captain. Visit the tavern and talk to any visiting adventurers. Check for any written records of monsters in the area. Why would any adventuring group go out into the wild without any idea of what monsters are in the area. So you came across a completely unknown monster that not one soldier barely escaped from who said, "thank goodness it was afraid of fire."

@bryanstephens4800 2 ай бұрын

The idea that something as common as a Troll is hurt by fire makes as much sense as knowing silver hurts werewolves. I think this was metagaming. If monsters exist in a world there will be things passed down on them just like werewolves and vampires.

@rgott1234 2 ай бұрын

I've always thought the "immune or resistant to non-magical weapons" was to show why the NPC guards and general population can't easily deal with the monster.

@schwarzerritter5724 2 ай бұрын

I've always thought it was a leftover from older editions where casters had half the spellslots and no cantrips. Casters had to rely on weapons as well once they ran out of spell slots. All it does in 5th edition is nerving martial classes.

@TA-by9wv 2 ай бұрын

@@schwarzerritter5724Completely wrong. By spell casters you mean magic users and illusionist. They memeorize spells. If they use a sword they'll get a hefty penalty for using it. The purpose of needing magical weapons to hit cerrIn supernatural foes is to simulate demons, elementals, and lycanthropes shrugging off mundane weapons. Usually these foes require a certain magical plus or higher in addition to either cold iron or silver weapons.

@farrex0 2 ай бұрын

@@schwarzerritter5724 True, but there are also plenty of enemies that are resistant or even immune to magic. When I was playing a half caster, I remember being useless around those enemies and they were common. Also, the most common resistances are to fire and poison, most spells are of those damage types. Most magical weapons tho, they say they count as magical in order to bypass resistances. Without giving a damage type. So, they are the most likely to not have to deal with damage resistances at all. So, in reality they are not the ones not getting nerfed... unless the DM has not given them a magical weapon.

@ArvelDreth 2 ай бұрын

@@TA-by9wvdepends on the edition. In AD&D 2e, magic users would still use slings or darts.

@TA-by9wv 2 ай бұрын

@@ArvelDreth Daggers, staffs, and knives as well. Other weapons give them a -5 penalty to hit. This can change slightly if weapon proficiencies are used.

@StuffSayoSays 2 ай бұрын

Let's be real here, your players are super metagaming to play down their characters knowledge of fighting a VERY well known monster in almost any fiction, just to make the fight harder for themselves. Children in villages has been told many tales of many dangerous monsters roaming their world, and of course veteran adventurers would have told tales of their encounters with all sorts of monsters, how they survived and how they defeated it. Don't tell me a random peasant child in a small fishing village knows more about Troll, Vampire, Undead, and whatnot's weakness that the actual PCs who decided to be adventurers? LOL!

@ADT1995 10 күн бұрын

As a player I was once guilty of doing this, my DM afterwards told me that I didn't have to do that and that if he wanted to surprise me he would, he also told me that he didn't expect my characters to be stupid. The discussion I had with him after that really changed my outlook on metagaming and I have adopted his views on that in my own games.

@bsparky01 2 ай бұрын

I dropped some trolls on my players while they were traveling on the edge of a swamp. Never used the "T" word and described them similar to yours. One of the characters does firebolt almost every turn by default so I knew the regen wasn't going to be a big problem, but all the characters are squishy and I made the trolls hit like a truck. They could hear more coming towards them, vocalizing with each other to hone in on the characters. They got the first few down but took some hits, then made a mad dash for the town they were headed to a half days journey away. Turned the second half into a skill challenge to keep ahead of the pack. Really excited my players, had them on the edge of their seats for a couple hours 😊

@primeemperor9196 2 ай бұрын

"Half the hitpoints." Bro, I have a cleric who loves Guiding Bolt and is blessed by the Dice Gods. I try that, and it's not gonna matter how high I make the damage because the monster will be dead.

@mmcalli0 2 ай бұрын

A cleric rolled a natural 20 on guiding bolt and completely destroyed my wight boss 😂

@Scorpious187 2 ай бұрын

There's a reason my Life Domain cleric's Guiding Bolt spell is renamed "Tactical Nuclear Strike" in Roll20, lol.

@feferson492 2 ай бұрын

@@mmcalli0 paladin two-shot my wight twice

@dennisthornton4434 2 ай бұрын

But adventurers would know trolls, goblins, kobolds by description. Characters go into a dungeon without knowing about the monsters they might find?

@UristMcKerman 2 ай бұрын

Characters do know, most likely. But PCs need to succeed wisdom, int or nature check to determine if they can identify creatures during stress of encounter.

@007ohboy 2 ай бұрын

@UristMcKerman So you make your adventurers roll for petty stuff like opening a door that's already busted in half?😅😂

@007ohboy 2 ай бұрын

I need a Nature check to identify a cow. 😅😂

@davidtherwhanger6795 2 ай бұрын

If the characters already KNOW what creatures are in the dungeon means those characters have already ran thru that entire dungeon. Or some other group has successfully. But that also means the dungeon was effectively cleared. So new monsters would have repopulated the dungeon at some point. Those should not be the exact same ones.

@sleepinggiant4062 2 ай бұрын

Common monsters like goblins and kobolds, yes. Rare monsters, no. This is very world dependent and should be discussed with your DM. In my game, adventurers are very rare, and monster knowledge is based on rumors (and likely wrong). Volo's Guide is not readily available to everyone.

@MagiofAsura 2 ай бұрын

.....so why didnt any players roll arcana/nature check to see if they recognize the creature?

@alexj1989 2 ай бұрын

We did, just didn’t get their weaknesses. It is actually a society check. Apparently PF trolls have society. 😃

@josiahrodes7974 2 ай бұрын

Your characters were metagaming while attempting to not metagame lol. At some point just play the damn character. I don't use fireball because my enemies were weak to fire. I use it because it does big damage in a big area. It's extremely silly to purposefully avoid certain attacks and spells because you as the player would know it works very well. If it's in your arsenal, use it. There's a fine line between avoiding certain things for the sake of roleplay and making your character hilariously stupid because, "they wouldn't know this".

@phantafan7965 2 ай бұрын

Exactly. If you were a Maul wielding martial you wouldn't suddenly switch to your longsword when fighting a skeleton.

@alexj1989 2 ай бұрын

I didn’t avoid any attacks Krobby would usually use. Fireball was out due to the innocent people in the way.

@phantafan7965 2 ай бұрын

@@alexj1989 Was there no way to place it sort of behind them?

@alexj1989 2 ай бұрын

@@phantafan7965 The hostages were right in the middle of the trolls. There was no way to place a fireball without hitting them.

@TrixterTheFemboy Ай бұрын

@@alexj1989 oh right I completely forgot about the hostages lmao

@PK-gd6by 2 ай бұрын

I use knowledge checks in my game to see what information my players get for monsters they havent seen. I also do like to be able to show pictures to the players when I can.

@chazzerine7650 2 ай бұрын

Our table uses roll20, so I can easily grab an image of a monster that looks like the monster, but isn't a dead giveaway.

@IronicCliche 2 ай бұрын

Love how PF2 and D&D 3.5 gives you templates to create unique monsters that are reasonably balanced. PF2 also has rules for recalling knowledge so that you can use in-game knowledge.

@flarescareb 2 ай бұрын

This might be an unpopular opinion but I don’t think counterspell is as big of an issue that you make it appear to be. Sure, it’s a great spell but there’s several ways to get around it and every person I’ve encountered that uses counterspell doesn’t counterspell every, single, thing.

@urfork1 2 ай бұрын

Yeah, especially around that topic in this video it seemed like he was advocating for changes that were more about winning against your players rather than letting them have fun, counterspelling that big spell at a clutch moment.

@TaylorRussell_TheAnimator 2 ай бұрын

Its the meme, man. KZfaqrs be chasin' that sweet, sweet meme of calling counterspell horrible when in reality it's just as much a tactical choice as using any other spell or ability. It's just crummy DMs using the "this controller is broken" excuse.

@chazzerine7650 2 ай бұрын

Every counterspell is one less encounter-ending fireball or hypnotic pattern after all.

@archmagemc3561 Ай бұрын

Counterspell in 5e is just dumb for one thing, you can counterspell a counterspell. That is so bad.

@TaylorRussell_TheAnimator Ай бұрын

@@archmagemc3561 incorrect

@davidtherwhanger6795 2 ай бұрын

I like going old school with Zombies and Skeletons. Both are either immune to Piercing Damage, or take only 1 damage from that. Zombies, as their flesh is dead and no longer hurts, take half damage from Bludgeoning Damage, but double damage from Slashing damage. Skeletons, as they have no flesh and are mostly empty spaces, are opposite of the Zombies. Double from Bludgeoning, but half from Slashing.

@DramakilzU 2 ай бұрын

What I like to do is if the party is having trouble figuring out how to find a monster’s weakness (or if the party doesn’t want to metagame), they can use a free action to make an Intelligence check to figure out the weakness through hints. For example, “you notice the troll seems to intentionally avoid any of the torch sconces that are lighting the room.”

@petersmythe6462 2 ай бұрын

"force themselves down the player's mouth and claw them apart from the inside out." Imagine the gnome was the only survivor because they couldn't physically swallow the tiny-sized trolls?

@MagickMan65 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing your advice, Luke! Always appreciate it, and use a good portion of it when I can.

@d_camara Ай бұрын

Try also adding vulnerabilities alongside resistances, make your encounter unique by making the players discover they can electrocute your HP sack for double damage while piercing damage isn't effective. That's way more memorable than a regular HP sack!

@UristMcKerman 2 ай бұрын

Recall Knowledge would've resolved it quickly (well, if they succeded).

@alexj1989 2 ай бұрын

We succeeded once, which gave us some information, but not their weaknesses.

@farrex0 2 ай бұрын

@@alexj1989 Indeed, a low roll should give some information for the characters to figure it out. For example, the low roll would be, "you that some kind of damage type impedes their regeneration, but you can't remember which" . So now the characters can cycle between damage types until they find the correct one.

@alexj1989 2 ай бұрын

@@farrex0 That’s the GMs call. I don’t remember exactly what we got, but I know we didn’t get any weakness.

@feferson492 2 ай бұрын

@@alexj1989 for you to succed and not get critical information is pretty lame

@absurdian8208 2 ай бұрын

Yeah, about that... My players trend to fail their recall knowledge rolls and the last combat with an hydra lasted 2 sessions

@ADT1995 2 ай бұрын

I usually tell my players that if I want them to be surprised I'll modify the monster. My justification for it is that in a world of adventurers and heroes legends get passed down, and also that they would know how to fight trolls in the same way I would know to make myself look as intimidating as possible if I cone across a bear or to wear a mask backwards if I am in an area with tigers despite never confronting tigers or bears (or lions for that matter). Each DM has a different way to approach it. I'm not saying my way is right, but I don't get too worked up about metagaming monsters.

@EposVox 2 ай бұрын

How do you recommend communicating these differences in combat? I find it cheesy when I hear “you notice this doesn’t seem to do as much damage” or something - but I struggle to come up with a better idea for my own DM-ing

@LordDany 2 ай бұрын

sometimes i alrigth state no thid will not deal damage sometimes

@jrester8444 2 ай бұрын

Once, in a homebrew horror Pathfinder game I ran, I used nine Lemures marching in formation in a tight corridor. I described it as a writhing wall of flesh. At fourth level, the PCs totally could have wiped them, but because of its unusual description, they all ran to the hidden Maxim machine gun they discovered outside. Good times!

@GarrettCARROTZ 2 ай бұрын

an idea i had was to make something like a "fireheart troll" which are lesser known variants, so players or their characters obviously wouldn't know of them. Trolls I would rule to be common knowledge, so if they ask, "Is it weak to fire?" I would reply, "As far as you know." The fireheart troll ABSORBS fire instead, and can use their reaction to shoot it right back. A successful perception check might reveal some differences from normal trolls; a fiery glow from its mouth, coal-like protrusions from it's shoulders. Since they use fire to regen, hitting them with ice or dousing them will stop it. This can be done with other elements too. Rock trolls? Thunder or force damage, heck maybe even bludgeoning. Dark trolls? Radiant or lightning. You can get really creative with it imo.

@Lrbearclaw Ай бұрын

One thing I have always liked to do is change Resistances when you change the theme. With Trolls, my favorite variant I found was the "Chaos Troll" where on its turn you roll a d6 to change what element(s) it is weak to and it adds an element to its claw/rend attacks.

@extrakrispy81 16 күн бұрын

Hearing this beginning and the argument between player knowledge vs character knowledge. Something I've started doing is allowing players to make skill checks so that their characters can piece information together. For instance, a character with proficiency in medicine or survival could've rolled a skill check. On a success, their character could think "oh, cauterizing a wound stunts the growth of new tissue. Perhaps cauterizing a trolls wounds would stop the regen". Something similar can be used against pretty much any gimmick monster. Encourage your players to use creative skill checks during all pillars of play.

@DBArtsCreators 2 ай бұрын

A few additional ways to tweak monsters for combat without needing to make more challenges: * Have varied groups of enemies (say, instead of 4 trolls, have 3 trolls and 1 Iron Golem * Don't pay attention to CR. Keep enemies fitting for the area (strong or weak) and let the players figure out what to do. You just need to try and wipe them out (or do whatever else it is the enemies might reasonably do to them) * Let the enemies (where it makes sense) use regular actions (dashing, dodging, hiding, etc), and give them different equipment that changes up what they can do. * Have the enemies use tactics & call reinforcements (not simply rotating to heal, but baiting the players into a trap or damaging the location to change the terrain).

@rcschmidt668 2 ай бұрын

Thanks, Luke! I like the idea of having the monsters use the magic item the party could win. For trolls, a boss troll might have one type of fire sword, but it can’t attune, and thus it takes fire damage each round, but the character takes weapon damage plus high strength plus fire damage.

@kpny8484 2 ай бұрын

My players had decided to go up the snow covered mountain despite all of my efforts to tell them otherwise that this was a bad idea. So I naturally had them fight an ice troll. Leading up to the encounter, I had a speaker under the table and played some howler monkey calls every now and then, telling the players they could hear these calls as they continued up. They had no idea what an ice troll sounded like, but now they do.😁

@schwarzerritter5724 2 ай бұрын

Why is making monsters immune to slashing/piercing/bludgeoning damage a good idea, especially if it also includes magical damage? It makes the battle more difficult for martial classes. Sure, you might point out they have to think more strategically and use the environment to their advantage, but it makes no difference to casters; they can use the same spells and cantrips they use on every other enemy.

@GrumpyGrobbyGamer 2 ай бұрын

Great stuff Luke! Thank you.

@iangrant1299 2 ай бұрын

Metagaming or using information gathered in the background game? Characters would talk to other adventurers, explorers, soldiers, even each other. In a world with Trolls, there is also a world with Troll Killers. Only truly novel creatures wouldn't be recognized within a few moments.

@jakodar Ай бұрын

My players are used to me throwing tweaked or customized monsters at them. I do it often and then we talk about it after the sessions. I like the video and the steps Luke gave. I took notes so that I can process them, try them out and add to my Monster-Lab Chop-Shop document.

@Mazortan 2 ай бұрын

Introduction literally describes meta-gaming, but instead of optimising it was aimed to be as ineffective as possible, especially if one of the characters usually uses fire. If you all enjoyed those 5 hours - more power to you, but that sounds like cutting your nose off to spite your face. I would be miserable.

@jierdareisa4313 2 ай бұрын

I love ALL the DM Lair videos!!!! ❤

@jeebay5188 2 ай бұрын

My groups party was in a jungle and they had been traveling for a few days to get to their destination. So I took the displacing attribute from a displacer beast and tacked it on a tiger as a benefit for being in its natural habitat. No other powers or special abilities, just an adult tiger. Because of this tweek it took them longer to kill it of course but they survived, when they finished their objective and returned to town they found out why due to asking the natives. They were told that the local tigers had this innate ability due to being in their natural environment. I do little things like that, nothing game breaking but enough to give my players pause.

@jebgordon6608 2 ай бұрын

I described goblins in one adventure as looking like gollum from Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings and I think it took my players three sessions to figure out that they were just different looking, but otherwise plain old, goblins.

@danielbauer5178 Ай бұрын

I've been adjusting monsters for my players for a while. I use most of these techniques already, but there are some really good advice here that I'm going to use ASAP

@conundrum60690 2 ай бұрын

I gotta agree with everyone else. Zero chance I as an adventurer am going to go dungeon diving without find out the common monsters. Some unheard of eldritch horror? Sure I could see not knowing about it, but everyone knows trolls orcs etc.

@johnhannas3959 2 ай бұрын

Years ago, I ran a 3.5 or PF1 adventure where one of the BBEG's dragon was a "Fiendish, Half Black Dragon Troll". Players loved and hated it at the same time. Acid: Immune, Fire, DR 5, Otherwize normal troll abil's. Also, in my world, kobolds were offspring of 2 different dragon types that shared none of their abilities (the dragons always roll a nat 1 on breeding) . They simply worshiped dragons. Red & Green dragon mate = Christmas tree goblins. The green & black goblins alerted them in a swamp/bayou and there were other fiendish creatures around.

@johnhannas3959 2 ай бұрын

PS: A couple of the players were unrepentant MinMaxers that I allowed and I was a very courtious looser that did not mind they tor thru some of my Ideas. I was some of the time to activly trying to kill them, but alas to no avail. I knew them for several years and knew they were MinMaxers (Thom: Iajatsu Focus w/ 2 blades? - 3.0).

@MechbossBoogie 2 ай бұрын

This is why in my Pathfinder game I made my own Bestiary. My trolls were covered in fur and weak to light, my basilisk was serpentine, could burrow, and its gaze dealt Dex damage where if it knocked you to 0 Dex then you would turn to stone instead of just failed save=statue, to name a couple.

@matthewesch8758 2 ай бұрын

13:33 - this idea of simply describing a critter differently was explicitly noted in the 2e campaign setting of Spelljammer.

@karsonkammerzell6955 2 ай бұрын

To the mention about increasing damage and not HP all I have to say is that I believe the Hobgoblin stat block is the best designed thing I've found as a base material to work with The AC is high owing to what is described as martial prowess, HP is low enough that they can only take one or two hits, and their damage is enough to be threatening. I really love it as a metric on what to use to showcase a skilled, but mortal, opponent.

@OceanusHelios 2 ай бұрын

I think the metagaming argument can be taken to absurd levels. It's almost like if werewolves were real, real people fighting them wouldn't try silver bullets. In a world built on lore, built around a certain lore....the Characters Will Know the Lore and it will be talked about often in those worlds. Lore spreads through rumors. People would know how to fight trolls, especially if they were not completely alien to the world. People living in that fantasy would know a lot of lore...about places, creatures, and things. When you have components, like one for a regeneration potion, and the DM has a lore that says "potion requires eye of troll, do not burn, simmer over the lowest heat possible but never bring to a boil...best to cook in a double boiler and with heat not strong enough to burn the skin....simmer for 12 days)... That might indicate that yeah, fire might mess with Trolls regenerative juju. Characters would know of the local legends, the rulers, the local heroes. Does this make it more difficult for the DM to bring in surprises? Well yes. But it would be important for the DM to let the players know ahead of time, "Oh yeah, well these creatures have a reputation....and this is the old wives tale and rumor about them." In fact, with some monsters, for their characters there might have been fairy tales told to them as youths about ways in which monsters were defeated.

@chapandonaweb6142 2 ай бұрын

PF2e has a rarity tag on every monster, in my table we stablish that assuming the characters know how common monsters work isn't metagame. It's like you knowing that tigers are solitary and carnivores even if you never saw one personally

@god4246 Ай бұрын

taking on my first campaign as dm, these videos are pretty useful

@darrenpellichino2923 2 ай бұрын

I 100% make monsters resistant to all forms of piercing bludgeoning or slashing not just non-magical. But I seldom do all three so they can find a way to get good damage. I also like adding some unique abilities to give them a little flavor. The party we have does so much damage that they easily kill way above their level. I also find that the room layout along with a little bit of dramatic roleplaying can make the whole encounter feel deep. So far everyone helps out to keep it moving along.

@tscoff 2 ай бұрын

Your player who was playing the goblin was metegaming by NOT burning the trolls. He should have stuck with his character’s normal love of fire because that would have been in character. I have done that in the past as a player. Sometimes to use damage types that would work against the monster and sometimes to use damage types that the monster was resistant to.

@ElJefeRules 2 ай бұрын

I’ve always argued that high level monsters having immunity to nonmagical weapons is more of a thematic design choice than a mechanical one. It means it will take more than an army of normal guys to bring them down.

@mos5678 2 ай бұрын

Meanwhile, What kinda troll we talking about? Are we talking mountain trolls, rock trolls, cave trolls, crystalline, wood, swamp, ash, river, hedge or ice? Not all trolls have to have acid/fire as a weakness. Sonic/Force or Light vulnerability are also common troll weaknesses if we look outside memestream dnd.

@Kobold_Bard 2 ай бұрын

Regarding the PCs not knowing about a certain creature type, it kind of depends on the characters: wizards and clerics might have read about them in their studies (allow a Arcana or History skill check) and melee fighter types may have heard stories from veterans or teachers (all a History skill check); you get the idea. It's a different story in the case of unique or special monsters (For example, PC's from the western part of Faerun would probably never heard of a Huli Jing that had for some reason decided to travel to their part of the world.(from Kobold Press's Tome of Beasts).

@maxhurst9878 2 ай бұрын

I had my party of completely new players fight a troll... After 1½ years of playing. They had no idea why it was still standing and I was describing their attacks tearing apart the troll but it was still standing. Eventually the blood hunter finally pulled his flame tongue and put an end to it. But a party of level 13 nearly fell to one dire troll

@MatthewSmith-if7vd 2 ай бұрын

You just inspired me to create a new and unique creature for my sandbox campaign. Thank you. If ya wanna know what, just ask 😁

@uwtartarus 2 ай бұрын

I appreciate the inclusion of PF2e stuff alongside the 5e stuff. 👍

@kotabear0172 2 ай бұрын

My campaign is heavily inspired by the game Horizon Zero Dawn, so all animal based monsters have increased defense and some other surprise things added due to being metal creatures

@christianschmid1440 2 ай бұрын

MY mage is pretty stereotypical in that regard. 3 Steps of social interaction with unknown creatures: 1. greet them with my mage hand 2. if they turn out to be rude -> slap them with my mage hand 3. if they stay rude after being slapped -> greet them with a fireball 4. if they survive -> slap them with a fireball 5. repeat. 😂

@shadowrodney 12 күн бұрын

I don't play much DnD but the moment I heard "regeneration per turn" I already knew that encounter should have been boss level xD healing enemies are tough even without hard hitting moves because they turn the battle into a battle of attrition.

@petersmythe6462 2 ай бұрын

I mean I would argue that rolling a pretty easy knowledge check nature or history would be enough for the party to know what trolls are and a few let pieces of information about them. It's not metagaming to use background knowledge your character has.

@SamuelDancingGallew 2 ай бұрын

On the note of Counterspell, how about making it exclusive to Wizards, and have it consume EITHER the Action or the Spell Slot. So it allows you to say: "No, not that spell." Without completely ruining a Creature's Turn.

@MalloonTarka 2 ай бұрын

I once increased the hitpoints of a monster by a *lot,* but I feel it was for a good reason: It was the tutorial monster in the oneshot, meant to let the players get a hang of their abilities and the types of things monsters would do _before_ they met the main encounter. In my initial tests the monster got maybe one hit in before the player characters' damage annihilated it. So I made it more beefy. Did it mean the oneshot turned into a twoshot? Yes. Do I think the players were better prepared and thus the main encounter was the better for it. Also yes.

@GonthorianDX 2 ай бұрын

I gave a spellcaster boss immunity to all damage, instead any form of healing will damage her. It took my party several rounds before the fighter smashed a potion of healing in her face and found out it started to mutilate her

@ZanarkandAce 2 ай бұрын

I like to study up on the hunting strategies of real world creatures for inspiration in my combats. My players didn’t know what to do against the wolves that did everything they could to avoid taking damage. It was an escort mission with women and children and the players HATED the ever-present howls from wolves that only entered line of sight when the party was distracted

@adamhubbert8896 2 ай бұрын

I didn't know they were trolls, but I knew fire was the answer. Fire is always the answer.

@kyleward3914 2 ай бұрын

I had a troll encounter in a game once that was running over our normal session time. I was tired and basically begging the players to metagame. I knew at least one of them knew how to stop the trolls, even if other players were newer and might not. About a round before I was going to have an NPC with a torch run up, someone got it.

@jordankennard172 2 ай бұрын

Love your videos!

@ForteGigasGospel 2 ай бұрын

Honestly I feel this where things like, Boss Goblin, Orc Warchief, etc all come into play, sprinkle them around, especially when players start getting high up, as ways to make some of the enemies different, even without making them visually different.

@Insert_Bland_Name_Here 2 ай бұрын

I homebrew and change so much stuff in my games that, at this point, one of the players who does know a bit about the game and its monsters already has just given up on trying to rely on that player-knowledge he has. And he actually seems to appreciate that monsters aren't just lazily copy-pasted from the monster manual.

@FallofZee 2 ай бұрын

I pretty much give my players free reign to meta in combat because i almost entirely make my own statblocks for them to discover or its something common enough that their characters would know.

@backonlazer791 2 ай бұрын

Every time I've ran a Troll encounter there's at least one player who asks whether their character knows what the creature is and what it does at which point I allow them to roll a knowledge check or they just happen to use fire or acid damage a lot. If the party's fire mage suddenly stops casting fire spells when they encounter a Troll it feels very contrived.

@dividendjohnson4327 Ай бұрын

A note for tip #2 if you're playing Pathfinder 2E. Be very, VERY, careful if you are halving HP and doubling damage on higher level or boss-type enemies. Because of how tight PF2E's math is higher level enemies will have higher to-hit bonuses, which means they've got higher to-crit bonuses, so that doubling of damage can very easily spiral into one-shotting the PCs. I'd personally recommend smaller tweaks, like bumping damage by a die size or something, instead. That or just don't use that method on bosses, and instead use it on their gribblies. Those guys are supposed to go down quickly anyway and mostly just waste party actions, so making them hit like glass trucks won't be quite as dangerous.

@dukejaywalker5858 2 ай бұрын

I think the purpose of "resistance/immunity to non-magical damage" is more useful as a narrative device for the setting. i.e. even an army of soldiers would be ineffective against certain enemies. A single werewolf could singlehandedly take out an entire town, even if every person in the town were attacking it. Cue the PCs with their magic stuff!

@strix4609 2 ай бұрын

It's funny that we talk about Trolls, but my table is in a lab where a "biomancer" wizard used Trolls to study the regeneration thing, and use it to fuse creatures together. Hell Hounds has been with Hives, which made Hive Dogs : Dogs where their head have been replaced with hives. In combat, Wasps fly around, making the Hive Dog under the effect of a "Poison Spirit Guardian" ability, and they summons swarm of Wasps !

@Reapor234 2 ай бұрын

In regards to resistances and immunities to magical BPS damage: What I've started doing is removing the blanket "magic damage bypasses all" and branching out with the various metals already in the game. Constructs are immune to all non adamantine damage; monstrosities (besides lycans) are resistant to all non magical; aberrations and fiends are resistant to all but silvered damage; fey are resistant to silvered/magical, but damaged normally by regular weapon damage (instead of adding Cold Iron). Likewise, a magic weapon can't be silvered because it messes with the enchantments. Adamantine is hard to enchant because of how dense the metal is. This means my players, a party that all primarily deal weapon damage, have to carry an assortment of weapons to make sure they succeed. In addition, I also give every creature a thematic vulnerability that can be exploited, or a feature similar to Flesh Golem's Fire Aversion; something the players can figure out/ research ahead of time in order to use to their advantage.

@hosermandeusl2468 Ай бұрын

I would refer y'all to the back section of the PHB, "What Every Player Knows", oft overlooked by players, it contains the brief stories heard around campfires & in taverns that inspired them to become adventurers in the first place.

@jonhaynie1987 2 ай бұрын

I do reduce hit points a little bit, but I don't double damage unless it makes sense narratively. Other than that, the only real change I make is to play the monsters as if they know what they're doing and also want to live. I don't just make them stand there and get reduced to zero hp. They use tactics and will try to escape after a certain damage threshold.

@ericregis3912 2 ай бұрын

Unless its a monster that was artificially created for the 1st time recently, in my table I let my players roll a history or arcane check when they encounter a monster for the 1st time, with a varying DC depending on the rarity of the monster. If they pass, I say that they read about it once or heard a story about the monster, and if its high enough I would say something along the lines of "You remember reading that this creature can be fend off with fire" or "Once you met a traveler that told a story about how he defeated a troll with his acid arrows".

@jasonplatts1394 2 ай бұрын

The non-magical damage immunity is a hold over from AD&D where is was much more common.

@egggnome6266 2 ай бұрын

Having a mage whose 'go to' is fire magic that doesn't use fire magic because the player is pretending he doesn't know troll's weakness is fire isn't role-playing.

@sleepinggiant4062 2 ай бұрын

#9 yes! Always describe the monsters instead of saying, 'you see a ghoul'! My players are really good at not metagaming when they identify a creature.

@ismirdochegal4804 Ай бұрын

I'm currently running D&D 5e in Ravnica. There are no Dwarves or Gnolls or Yuan-ti in Ravnica. But the player do not need to know what statblocks I use. A Monster is what I say it is. And I say these Gnolls are just a fresh version of Minotaurs. The Dwarves (or better jet Duerger) are just simic-hybrids that can enlarge on command. (That's ancored in the Ravnica Lore.) And the Yuan-ti are also just part of the weird Mutations those Simic Scientists made possible in this world.

@IcebulletZ 2 ай бұрын

My girlfriend is our GM. She knows because I help do background work (making maps, tokens, roll tables...) that she needs to switch up the monsters if she wants it to be fun. She really takes an RP side with the monsters and each are different in some way. I can't memorize or track Stat blocks that way.

@hiccuphh3122 2 ай бұрын

In one of my recent games I was using Slaadi as the protectors of a Wizard's experiment lab. The change I did was so that the Blue Slaad only infected a victim if the bite attack landed. None of the party had "Remove Curse" and I didn't want to kill them all.

@JMcMillen 2 ай бұрын

One way I've come up to solve that is to let the party, in advance, find a meta-magic item that allows them to charge the item with an appropriate level spell slot to then be able to cast the spell for that item. It's particularly useful for those odd ball utility and cure spells that characters never think they need to memorize, until it's too late.

@DarrylCross 29 күн бұрын

Of course then there are the Ether Trolls, who live in (or come from) the Ethereal Planes. They gain a lair action in which their cruel scrawling on the walls will either deal psychic damage or cause stun to creatures of the trolls choice with an Int score above 2 and aren't suffering the Blindness condition. Suddenly that Bear Totem Barbarian isn't feeling quite so tough now, is he? The Ether Troll's regeneration is stopped by taking Bludgeoning Damage from Hammers.

@painisweakness9387 2 ай бұрын

With trolls I made a flame rage troll. A troll that has surpassed his weakness to fire, and if fire is used against him he will become enraged. With this, radiant is what his weakness is that can kill him

@fred_derf 2 ай бұрын

Not al trolls are susceptible to fire. War Trolls, for instance, are susceptible to acid damage not fire damage.

@autumnsilverwinds4990 2 ай бұрын

I'm amused at what could happen if you give a troll a Ring of Regeneration. Good luck players

@Jbrowni3 2 ай бұрын

Thats when you stop just fighting- and start thinking!

@heyzoms 2 ай бұрын

Not only were these trolls, but you were playing pf2e trolls, weren't you lol. I know from experience that troll in pf2e are whole different monsters. Glad to see some sneaky pf2e stuff in your videos. Its a treat!

@vodostar9134 2 ай бұрын

A couple of weeks ago in a desert setting, my players ran into some trolll. Being in a desert setting, they weren't bothered by the sun... or fire. They also spit acid, so that doesn't bother them either. But they don't like water. Maybe that's why they're hanging out in a desert. It takes ice or water damage or submersion in water to keep these guys from regenerating. The party had a hard time before they figured it out. My monsters are always purpose designed for the adventure although I do have some standard go-tos based on the setting (like orcs, but not necessarily 5e orcs.)

@thomaspetrucka9173 2 ай бұрын

I do increase hit points on my monsters, BUT...my group is 7 players, and if I want everyone to get a turn in combat, I usually have to bump the HP. I'm still able to convey pace and urgency using tone, lair elements, and roleplay. I think it goes a long way. I've kind of shifted away from this problem by homebrewing almost all of my monsters, though. 😅 Usually starting with one of the 5e statblocks.

@silverstrings292 2 ай бұрын

i can attest to how good it is to make a monster highly mobile. party's usual tactic is pile all the tanks in front of the monster so they can't get to the squishies. just ran right past them and they panicked. spent more resources using teleport spells for repositioning than anything else

@sethb3090 2 ай бұрын

My example here is the hydra. It has a cool gimmick ability that is pretty strong when it works, becoming more and more of a glass cannon, or if you have the fire damage, it just doesn't have an ability at all and becomes progressively weaker as the fight progresses.