As a DM the inverse is so frustrating. Monsters tend to have more attacks but rolling ten times a round at +4 vs AC 21 is boring as heck. https://t.co/6qTaB85Yep
— adam koebel (@skinnyghost) August 5, 2018
Not for the AC 21 player. https://t.co/ROsy356n4Y
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
I just said it was boring and frustrating for me. Does the player’s enjoyment in combat take design priority? depends. where do you want to have fun? baseline answer is yes unless you want to be more tactical, because combat is a chance for player to use their toys.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
what’s the DM’s role during combat? Tactically – rules arbiter/story teller. Action by action, the DM keeps the action moving by handling rules and provides improv descriptions to entertain the players.
Strategically – the DM selects monsters and challenges that typically fall into two categories:
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
1. Genuine threats to the party’s success or survival.
2. Opportunities for the players to flex their PCs’ abilities and feel like heroes.
Benefit here is that if 1 goes sideways than congratulations, you actually created the second situation and the players probably enjoyed it.— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
(I don’t mean that to sound snarky or whatever I’m just curious!) no worries! the exchange works if net fun between dm and player is positive. but there’s an entire *thing* in play that the 5e texts aren’t particularly good at making the reader a good DM.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
Like, there’s a layer here that is the actual important layer (DM skill/presentation/improv/whatever) in terms of enjoying the game, and the game barely touches on it.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
So the critique is legit, because the game doesn’t ever actually say what I said in response to your original comment.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
My assumption is that the DMs role in combat is to present challenges to the PCs that are fairly balanced and represent real risk. When I’m spending three rounds whiffing I feel like I’m failing my job. Yeah, the game never really talks about the entertainment/empowerment angle. Because while the game sheds 3/4e approach to mechanics, it hadn’t caught up in moving past it in player/DM soft skills. I think that’s the source of 90% of non-textual issues with 5e.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
