hello everyone and welcome to another
edition of sage advice I am great tito
and i am joined by do mr. jerry crawford
hello everyone how is it going
great great yes what’s the new year we
get to work on D&D what’s not to like
exactly except for all the other things
that are happening in the world but
we’ll ignore that for this next hour
while we talk about some fun stuff in
Dungeons and Dragons rules that we don’t
necessarily get from you know your sage
advice columns or things like that this
is a way for us to kind of investigate
different bigger topics in what is going
on with the mechanics and the intent of
the design behind them and today we are
going to talk about encounter building
yes indeed I immediately latched on to
you when you said challenge rating and
you’re like no it’s bigger than
challenge rating it’s like the the whole
idea but that’ll be a part of the
discussion too is what CR means for us
and and and how to interpret that and
use that when you’re building encounters
exactly right so what you want to start
to reach start with the first encounter
the first encounter of the third kind
the spaceship descends from the sky
there’s mashed potatoes that point you
to where you can meet the spell jammer
that will take you up into the
phlogiston and travel from faerun to
earth but wait that’s not what we’re
talking about today we should yeah now
you got like 50 people were like we
should talk about that right one of
these one of these days I will happily
do a spell jammer one yeah nice they’ve
talked about a lot on lorry should know
it’s it’s it’s fascinating
yeah well plus my home campaign is chock
full of airships and spell jammer type
craft so it’s near and dear to my heart
but encounters yes how do you counter
them which can certainly include
airships and creatures from beyond the
stars I like that you’re justifying the
tangent yeah I mean this is sort of the
the beauty in DND that in some ways D&D
is all tangent since since you can
encounter pretty much anything and the
encounter rules
in fifth edition which are expressed in
their most detailed fashion in the
dungeon masters guide are really there
to help DMS get a handle on how
difficult a combat encounter in
particular might be now we know that in
a game that has three main pillars
combat social interaction and
exploration in the just sort of normal
English sense of the word encounter you
can have other kinds of encounters I
mean you you know you can have a heated
argument with somebody you know a
diplomatic engagement of some kind you
can encounter something wondrous in the
wilderness but it did not involve battle
in any way when we talk about encounter
building we’re specifically zeroing in
on combat encounters and the whole
reason we have these rules is not
because there’s assumed to be a correct
way of building encounters that’s
actually one of the main things I wanted
to get across in this segment is there
is not one right way to do it there’s
not like some mystical formula if you
just add this and add this you’ll get
the most fun that your players will
level have exactly because because we
have all had experiences in D&D games
where the drunk goblin at the gate all
by itself could end up being more fun
than the carefully calibrated set piece
battle you know at the top of a tower
while there’s a vortex to Hell nearby
it’s like the drunk goblin if role
played well can be just as exciting even
if the numbers tell you this is not
really a challenge so so much in D&D is
about the story that’s brought to bear
the role-playing not only by the DM but
also by the players but you do often as
a DM particularly when you’re writing an
adventure preparing for a session have
this question that will pop into your
head and this is really the question
that the encounter building rules are
meant to answer and that is is this
going to kill them all
am i throwing too much at them and the
kitchen sink yes and so the encounter
building rules are really there for the
DM to try to suss out in advance is this
encounter going to be too dangerous now
you can also use the encounter building
rules to assess is it going to be super
easy is it going to be just right is it
going to be kind of hard or is it going
to be SuperDuper hard and probably kill
them all
the rules in the Dungeon Master’s guide
help you get a sense of of where in the
spectrum of difficulty and encounter is
likely to land yeah it really in the end
though is really just giving you a sense
and the reason why I say this is there
are so many variables that can come into
play in a D&D encounter you could have
an encounter where you face four ogres
and you’re standing on a road on you
know a wheat filled plane that encounter
is gonna play up very differently if you
met the same four ogres on a collapsing
bridge over a chasm of lava right with
occasional you know lava Jets shooting
up at you while you’re trying to fight
the ogres and not fall off the bridge to
almost certain death below so just
environmental factors can change how
difficult something will be in play we
also know that because of the
variability that we’ve built into the
game with things like critical hits and
the recharge abilities of certain
monsters that an encounter that you
could DM it with one group and because
of how the dice rolled for you it was
not too bad yeah the very next group if
you as DM your dice are on fire suddenly
that very same combat encounter could be
devastating right a great example of
this is our dragons have breath weapons
that use the recharge mechanic and many
of them will come back on a roll of a
five or a six in some cases just a six
on a d6 and you could have a group where
they just have rotten luck and that
breath weapon keeps
back and in that case that dragons gonna
be way more difficult than it would be
normally or the opposite can happen
where you know whether it not even just
by chance but like a good circumstance
or taking advantage of the circumstances
on the part of the player can you know
ruin a carefully crafted it you know a
tentpole encounter we’re like okay this
is going to be the big bad and someone
rolls a queer at crit someone has a
really great idea on how to sneak into
something and then all of a sudden all
that dramatic combat the you plan for
the next three hours gets diffused in 30
minutes exactly and the thing is that
variability we consider it to be a
feature not a bug of the game we assure
of everyone out there right right but
yeah but we we designed this variability
into the game partly for the sake of
narrative surprise not only for the
players but for the dungeon master
that’s a good point we’d love that not
even the DM can fully predict how
something is going to play out and that
makes it so that even the DM gets to
experience D&D as a game yeah without
some of these these little dice
surprises that occur in pretty much
every session of D&D it would be super
easy for DMS to predict and railroad
various outcomes because of that
variability even that question of will
the dragon be able to use its breadth
weapon a second time let’s the DM in on
that fun that the fun of just you’re
playing a game and you don’t even know
you’re the narrative you’re the narrator
of the story and you don’t even know
what’s going to happen next
yeah I think that point is lost for some
players who don’t realize that they want
their Dungeon Master to be these puppet
masters and and having all the answers
and they portray themselves that way I
mean I know as a dungeon master
sometimes I will make it seem like oh I
knew exactly was gonna happen when I had
no clue but you’re right there is that
nugget of fun for the dungeon master to
roll with the improv just as much as of
a dice roll and how it goes there’s as
much the players like to do that and I
is a DM love to really let myself have
fun with that game aspect
so one example of me doing this is any
time I’m running a monster with a
recharge ability i will almost always
roll the recharge die on the other side
of the DM screen so the players can see
it so that if they’re seeing that I
don’t I don’t even know that me guys and
that’s even better
a lot of the time I have the players
roll it because then it it really
changes the dynamic of basically it
gives them sometimes this terrible
feeling of weak cause it’s like if you
had just rolled better dead under number
generator you would have done better
yeah but it it it creates those improv
opportunities which I think often lead
to our favorite moments when playing D&D
sometimes it can lead to a spectacular
unexpected success and then it can also
lead to catastrophe right sometimes the
catastrophe in my mind is even better
than the spectacular success because I
think something something I like to talk
about and I know many other experienced
teams like to talk about is this notion
of leaning into failure of seeing
failure in a narrative game like D&D as
an opportunity to steer things in new
and wonderful directions to to have one
problem spawn other problems for the
heroes to try to solve or villains if
you’re playing a group you know a group
of rascals yes some tea parties are a
bunch of Rascals because there can be
definitely moments when you’re playing
where you you know you roll ahead can
you miss and you know I’m guilty of this
sometimes I miss something like okay I
just miss go to the next area by the law
but I love the moments when you describe
exactly how you missed and you’re right
that can often lead to just more
storytelling right if you just are like
okay I rolled this dice and I didn’t get
the number I hit
there’s no not a lot of narrative play
there right but if you say like oh I
swung my sword and I hit a barrel of oil
and that wheel is leaking all over the
floor you’re like that’s so there all
right well that’s more possibilities
maybe someone takes advantage it may be
take advantage of that you know and so
all of a sudden a failure becomes
something that makes the the dynamic of
the encounters so much more interesting
yeah and now when that that oil is is
oozing around the battlefield people are
like oh my god don’t cast burning right
or near it in a way to get them in the
enemies in the right situation to cast
it yeah exactly Wichita it’s way more
fun than I missed no guru the next goon
the next person right Yeah right
so the CR or the Chand rating is meant
to be a tool to you know even though
there is all this variance in how an
encounter will play out in real play to
at least give you the okay this is in an
ideal situation this is how difficult
this encounter is going to be for my
players yes so so the challenge rating
in in our monsters it basically what it
communicates to you on its own is that a
monster of a particular challenge rating
on its own will usually it’s not going
to wipe a group out if you have a group
of sort of a regular size which can run
anywhere between like three and six
characters and and I give a range there
because even though often in our rules
they’ll say the typical group is four
yeah or it’s fine if it’s five and six
is okay two and maybe three it that that
number shifts depending on the mix of
the group so let’s say you have a group
no one has a single healing ability
everyone has you know sort of their hit
points are in the basement they all you
know Kahn was there dump stat and they
are or they rolled for the hit points
and rolled horribly I sub-optimal party
yes it’s gonna say yes if you have a
suboptimal party you there could even be
five of you and suddenly you know what
what is actually not too hard for the
three or four person group as a
nightmare for you because of your mix so
there’s you know there’s a bit of a
range there but again if let’s say
typical group usually four to five
characters you look at the CR or even
six characters you look at the CR and
you think oh yeah this this CR
cr3 monster is not going to give a
third-level party too much trouble and
that’s really all it’s telling you it’s
not telling you this is gonna make a
satisfying fight it’s not telling you
everyone’s gonna have a lot of fun if
you if you do this because there’s so
much more art involved in again the
role-playing and the environment you use
really again all it’s telling you is how
likely is this thing to just kill them
all yeah and do so easily now it starts
getting trickier when you start adding
monsters together because it’s fairly
rare for a combat encounter to just be
one monster hmm unless it’s a legendary
monster wit and a legendary monster is
really designed to be sort of an entire
encounter in itself this is why
legendary creatures have their legendary
actions which they get to take at the
end of other peoples turns I mean
they’re really almost acting like a
group of monsters and that in that
situation exactly and we’ve designed
them as such that that you know it’s
like this this monster shows up and it’s
basically I’m a whole group of people
and I’ve got all these actions and I can
always do every turn right yeah but
about your come back to what you’re
saying about the three you know a sound
rating of three it’s your third level
party it shouldn’t be too hard but when
you add in another third level or a 3cr
monster how does that change it so
that’s it’s at that point you’re gonna
want to take a look at the rules in the
Dungeon Master’s guide where it it it
basically takes the monsters turns them
into hit point totals and says okay
total up these hit points
I’m sorry not high points experience
points and then compare that to the
levels of the the characters in the
party there are tables for you to look
at and it helps you gauge how difficult
a group of monsters is likely to be for
a party of a particular level now in
XANA thar’s guide to everything we
provide an alternative way of assessing
this and frankly i think it’s an easier
way because the the approach and the
Dungeon Master’s guide requires you to
do quite a bit of math and because not
only are you basically reducing all the
monsters to piles of a
P and then you compare those two levels
it then also introduces this notion of
once a party gets big enough that you
then also have to apply a multiplier to
deal with the with the fact that the
more player characters you have the less
difficult a certain group of monsters
become it also has the opposite of that
of the smaller your group gets then
there’s another multiplier which also
changes the difficulty you know I as a
DM created a spreadsheet that does all
of this for me but we realize not
everyone is going to want to have to do
all of these calculations so in XANA
thar’s guide to everything we have a new
set of tables where you can
cross-reference look up see our look up
the level of the characters and then it
just tells you you know this this number
of creatures of this CR is not going to
be too hard for this number of
characters of this level so it does a
lot of the math for you and then there’s
also a separate table specifically for
monsters you’re likely to meet by
themselves so usually that’s gonna mean
a legendary a legendary monster but
again it’s important especially for
people who are coming from third and
fourth addition to not mistake what
these encounter building guidelines are
telling them we’re not telling you you
know a correct encounter has this mix of
monsters a correct encounter is one that
people have a good time playing through
but that is actually the only measure of
did you build a good encounter was did
people have a good time if the answer is
yes you built a great encounter all
these rules are telling you is it’s
giving you an assessment in advance of
how likely a particular monster or group
of monsters is going to give your group
of a bunch of trouble right when we
design our adventures like tomb of
annihilation we use these guidelines not
to build our different encounters in the
adventure in a kind of highly scientific
way we use them to do exactly this test
and that is is this particular potential
combat encounter going to be harder than
we want it to be
because for a lot of our published
adventures will have broad difficulty
targets for different parts of the
adventure for example we might decide
that one chapter of one of our
adventures whether it’s tomb of
annihilation or storm Kings thunder or
cursive straud is really designed to be
not too much trouble for a group that
say like okay this chapter might be for
generally six level characters
characters of any level can go into that
chapter yeah but really what we’re doing
is just we want to ensure that if the
kind of optimal group is there it’s not
too much trouble and then of course if
you’re if you’re lower level or less
optimal the difficulty is going to start
going up and then if you’re higher level
or more optimal the difficulty is gonna
start going down yeah so it’s it’s
really for us again just a test for you
know we just want to make sure that this
thing that’s meant to be a challenge but
not a TPK is indeed a challenge and not
a total party kill yeah and that’s a
difficult thing to encapsulate in just
like okay this is the exact number that
you need to be in order to get that I
know some Dungeon Master’s I’ve seen
online or like oh my characters you know
my party was at X level but they they
really want to go to this place and how
do I tell them not to do that
you know because they won’t be okay and
I think there is the almost expectation
that the dungeon master won’t present
challenges or encounters that are too
far outside their there their level
right right in the expect expectation is
like oh they might my doesn’t matter is
not gonna try to kill me all the time
but there is something to be said about
like well that’s just you need to be
able to know that there’s lethal parts
of the the world that you cannot always
do or if you do you have to make sure
you’re very careful and you’re using all
that you can’t just go walk-in
willy-nilly and I think there’s
something in the open you know I mean I
guess we’re talk a little bit more about
like you know open style adventure
writing of you’re exploring a whole area
versus the more narrative of like okay
event event event event but I mean those
kind of play into it’s like you know
that’s why it’s harder for some don’t
just a manager to run sandbox campaigns
is because well how do i how do i deal
with that so a DM could certainly
whether it’s an adventure they’re
designing themselves or if they’re
taking one of our published adventures
and modifying it they could certainly
use the encounter building guidelines in
the dungeon masters guide or in Zanna
thar’s guide to adjust all the
encounters so that they are designed
specifically for their group of
characters and and these guidelines
would help the DM figure out roughly how
difficult a combat encounter is going to
be our are starting on some assumption
in fifth edition though is that the game
is pretty open-ended in sandbox II and
we often like particularly in our
published adventures dangling out the
possibility that you might wander into a
fight you can’t win yeah because we
don’t we don’t view the game as a series
of combat encounters that you are
expected to face in a predictable way
and then March off with a set amount of
experience points and treasure we viewed
the game as a set of potential combat
encounters some of what you might might
not turn into combat at all because you
might talk your way out of the problem
you might cleverly use a spell or the
environment or one of your class
features or an element of your
characters background to circumvent the
problem entirely and all of those to me
are our legitimate ways to handle the
many challenges that face adventurers in
D&D and often those non-combat ways can
be the most exciting when you write when
you figure out okay we can just avoid
this whole thing and I as a DM reward a
group that does that sort of
problem-solving just as much as a group
that fights its way through the problems
you know I’ll give just as much
experience points and I’ll try to make
it so that if there was a treasure
involved that there’s an opportunity to
gain treasure in some other way at a
later point right because the again the
point is moving the story forward having
a great time and solving problems
without we hope diem
getting too fixated on only one way
through the problem and that can include
not expecting always that people will
fight their way through something I
often like to having potential combat
encounters in an adventure particularly
one that I that I know I’ll be DMing
because then I can I can control what
happens at the table I often like having
ones in the path of the party that the
numbers tell me this is way difficult
this is if they try to fight their way
through this without negotiating without
fleeing this has a good chance of
destroying them not because I want to
destroy them it’s because I love the
sense of the world being living and
breathing that that often gives that
that reminds them that they’re not
they’re not in a sort of they’re not in
a video game like experience where
everything has sort of been pre
calibrated for them they’re in a living
world and they happen to wander into
this place that’s like oh boy and this
is too much and it’s often a great
opportunity to reveal something about
the setting it’s also a chance sometimes
to introduce NPCs or friendly monsters
that might show up to help them
sometimes if they do get themselves into
trouble I like to have an ally of their
show up and help them out because that’s
also another sign of being a living
breathing world but like hey they helped
that that high level cleric a while ago
who it turns out has been spying on them
and knew that they were getting into
trouble and sends help yeah so that also
it adds the storytelling it’s not it
doesn’t take away exactly
I often love to give warning so often as
I have to yes often quest giver quest
giving NPCs in my games will give cues
about the danger of something you know
and we’ll do some version of like are
you sure you want to go in there and you
know and click yes yeah like this is
this is what you might be facing you
know if you go in there and I’ve also
I’ve also made use a number of
over the years of DMing of you know as a
last-ditch effort of a fight starts that
I know the players cannot survive and I
will have some version of the NPC who
rides by and says some version of fly
you fools like because because again
there are other people in the world
especially if you’re not down in a deep
you know deep dungeon if you’re if
you’re up if you’re up in the wilderness
or you’re in a city area in your castle
there’s likely someone else in the world
knows what you’re up against yeah and it
was how dangerous it can be and and can
yell out you know are you crazy you know
get out of here you’re going to die or
to start off a fight with like a a bang
right yeah like you use the breath
weapon in the first rounds they know
exactly what they’re up against or
something like that so that it becomes
like okay no this is not just a you know
a dragon I use injured and ready to be
killed like no this is a dragon at its
height of its power and you’re all gonna
experience that right now yeah yeah yeah
that happened in my home game several
actually more than several sessions ago
the player characters wandered in this
mystical place through this portal that
allowed them to see a possible future
for the campaign and a possible outcome
should they fail in their great quest
and so they actually got a glimpse of
doomsday and they appeared in the midst
of this epic battle and they were on
this airship being attacked by an
ancient dragon and I really wanted to
drive home for them that like this is
not a place we were just gonna stand and
fight and so exactly as you say the
dragon first thing breathed and one of
the characters was almost instantly
killed and so my my players are
experienced they got the message loud
and clear they’re like we are getting
the hell out of here because this is not
a fight we can win that’s cool that’s
good signpost yes use the miraDry of
glad real to to show how terrible your
life will be if you go down that path
yes they ran out of that possible future
really fast don’t want to do that yeah
so so after all we’ve talked about here
then what are some
you know guidelines that you’ve used
that that makes an encounter memorable I
know you said like oh that’s the only
real measure is are people talking about
it is it did they have fun doing it
which I totally agree with then what are
what are some ways that you can use the
stuff it’s in our books as well as some
your personal ways to like alright
really spice up those encounters so one
one thing that I like to do is ramp
encounters up it it’s very easy and this
is a this is a fine way to start fights
where you basically you roll initiative
everyone is there and like if you’re if
you’re if you’re using miniatures you
know you’ve placed all the miniatures
out on the grid and fight I like to vary
that sometimes of having fights we’re
not all the combatants are there at the
start so I like that the rising tension
of the fight getting a little more
difficult as it goes along or less
difficult if it turns out the people
showing up or actually showing up to
help the player cow right yeah
because that’s that’s another thing that
I really love to play with is not just
your fighting might notify more foes
which happens quite a lot actually in
D&D adventures you know and in many
publish adventures even it will say
things like if you make too much noise
then the monsters in the next-door rooms
come running in yeah well particularly
cuz I run a lot of urban games I run
lots of a lot of adventures that take
place and also in wilderness areas but
then also in dungeons where there are
potentially friendly creatures as well
I’ll like sometimes for there to be a
chance for helpful people to show up or
for I also like when it comes to sort of
changing circumstances to have the
environment change over the course of a
fight whether you know it’s the classic
that you know the place is collapsing or
this portal is opening or you know
there’s some kind of timed element where
there is some MacGuffin in the room
where you know if it’s allowed if all
three gems light up over the you know
the course of the next few rounds then
something awful TM is going to happen so
again I liked I’m Dell
I also another way I actually introduced
this of circumstances changing is I love
having villains who inch they themselves
introduced complications a great example
of this is the villain who loves
monologuing so much that they say so
this the normal way of monologuing where
it basically you know the villain I’m
going to kill you yeah all the things
you’ve done let me list all of them
right now yeah and and then sometimes
will I give away part of the plot so
that’s the classic villain saying too
much so I do that sometimes
partly just cuz it’s fun but I also like
sometimes adding twists in the mists of
combat where over the course of
monologuing a villain might suddenly
plant a seed of doubt in the player
characters about why they’re fighting
this person hmm but particularly because
in my home game I often have multiple
villain groups like in my current game
there are at least four and if any of my
players are listening to this this is
actually a slight spoiler because I
think they have figured out there at
least two villain groups it actually
turns out there are four villain groups
you’re saying at least yes there could
be more we got more later and but the
villain groups are actually all at war
with each other
and some of them are less evil than
others in fact one of the villain groups
is not actually evil it just has goals
that are different and often opposing to
the player characters so I like to
sometimes if they’re up against a foe
have the foe let’s slip some piece of
information that plants a seed of doubt
of like wait a second this person might
not be as bad as we thought this is the
right should we even be fighting this
right yeah and then you have those great
moments of like okay let’s let’s let’s
redirect redirect because when you
realize suddenly the real Big Bad is
someplace else who might actually be
delighting in the fact that these two
that the player characters during my
rivals are taking each other out exactly
playing into their pants I also have a
group of villains called the priests of
OC boosts who are actually mentioned in
the curse of straud
who my players oh god do they hate them
and they’re supposed to I designed them
to be hated yeah they are they’re a
group of necromancer’s who have the sign
in burned somewhere on their body called
the mark of Elath on their God as Elath
on that when they die if this mark is
not destroyed after a certain number of
rounds it will illuminate and they will
come they will rather Auto resurrect as
some form of Undead and this just will
keep happening until the the mark is
destroyed so really that’s just a kind
of like fancy special effect for me to
add more monsters to an encounter right
and and so I like coming up with fancy
ways of more basically just some version
of more dude show up yeah but there were
many ways you can have more guys show up
and again have this amped up tension so
that not every fight is simply they here
are my pieces on this side here your
pieces on that side we roll through a
fight and we move on yeah which is
that’s perfectly acceptable and it’s
also good to have those sorts of fights
sometimes really what I’m where I’m
going with all of this it’s a variety is
great you want a mix of the encounters
that are kind of easy and
straightforward ones that are a bit more
complex ones with surprises if if only
as a DM to amuse yourself so you don’t
get bored that you’re always introducing
something that makes your players feel
that oh my gosh are we going to get
through this or it’s also great to
sometimes give them that feeling of food
this is a cakewalk we’ve got it yeah
there’s that idea they’re like you you
can feel powerful if you just you know
throw a bunch of minions were great for
this and fourth edition for that reason
we’re like oh you’re mowing through
these goblins that you know at first
level we’re a substantial threat to you
but now you know you’re at six level
they’re nothing and you one fireball it
takes rid of all of them and there’s
some times that builds that up and then
it’s great way to do that right before
the big bad that’s gonna be the big
dragon that’s gonna blow them out the
way so they feel real powerful and oh
wait by the way let me cut you down to
size right and all that – so and I love
that you bring that up
great storytelling involves as we know
showing not telling and I do really like
to show in a campaign occasionally that
the player characters have gotten more
powerful and and as you as you said it
is great to bring back foes they fought
before types of foes they fought before
who gave them trouble and now are easy
it’s such a satisfying way for the the
players to see oh yeah we did get more
powerful this yeah we’ve got it
because you you want as a DM to give the
players victories so that you can then
also give them a struggles and slip that
that carpet right out from under them
yeah exactly yeah you because again
every any good story has sort of this
rising and falling action then you know
where the the rising tension and then
you know the tension dissipates and
right it’s a roller coaster and there’s
the idea that you know we brought it out
of the beginning this conversation we’re
like if there’s a CR guidelines and
those are the ones that you need to
follow for every encounter to make sure
that they’re the exact amount of
challenge that will put players up
against the wall but won’t kill them
right and if you do that for every
single encounter then that isn’t doesn’t
have any tense moments anymore you like
you’re losing the the idea that okay
there’s going to be crests and Falls and
narrative tension will come and go and
so yeah there’s a danger you can fall
into two making you know perfectly
crafting encounters too much exactly
because if you do that if if you took
our encounter building guidelines and
said all right I’m gonna make my third
level group only go up against CR three
monsters there’s a good chance your game
is gonna start feeling a little
monotonous a little boring very it but
you know have some encounters that are
gonna be tougher have some encounters
that are going to be easier in the
encounter building guidelines and in
XANA thar’s guide in the dmg are there
to help you assess that beforehand but
it but again it’s not gonna be an exact
science um those are tools that you can
use in the craft of encounter building
yes and often you’re gonna find yourself
wanting to adjust difficulty on the fly
because and this is the beauty of having
a game that’s run by a dungeon master as
opposed to sand you know it’s not run by
the rulebook it’s run by the DM who can
see how things are actually going and
play in a room and yeah read see you
know we’ve talked about this before that
you know read your players see what
what’s causing them excitement what’s
fun for them you might have calculated
things in advance and thought okay this
encounter is gonna be really tough but
then in play because of the die rolls
and the decisions made it’s a cakewalk
for the the player characters sometimes
just give them the cakewalk
let them savor that victory other times
you can do things to make things a bit
more difficult on the spot one of the
easiest things DMS can do because I get
asked a lot you know well how can you
know if I see things are going too
quickly and it’s because sometimes that
easiness can be narrative ly
unsatisfying one of the easiest ways
that you can add a little difficulty a
kazakh combat that maybe it feels like
the group wants it to go on a little
longer is just raise the hip points of
the monsters in every monster there’s a
number of hit points
printed but then next to the hit points
in parentheses we give the hit the hit
dice of the monster and so if you’re
looking at parentheses you’re basically
seeing the potential range of hit points
for that creature it means you could go
lower and you could go higher so play
with that range DMS
look there and if you want if you want
your standard goblin to be a bit tougher
just look in the parentheses next to its
hit points and you’ll see that that
goblin could indeed go up a bit yeah and
it could also go down if you’d like to
let’s say you’d like to have monsters
that sort of pop like balloons the way
fourth edition style minions do will
then you know just bottom out the
monsters hit points because you know
again you have a range there in in
parentheses yeah and you can and because
here’s the thing the players are never
going to know you’re doing it
right hopeful you don’t have that one
player is like looking over your screen
and be like and but I bring this up
because it might be easy for a DM to
think well is that cheating or is that
fudging in some way and know what I’m
telling you is no that’s actually you’re
using the monster as intended if you
play with that hit point range yeah the
the number that appears as the number of
hit points for a monster and the monster
manual or Volos guide to monsters or in
one of our adventures is the average for
a monster of that type it but it is not
like the monster must you know must only
have that number of hit points to start
right you can vary so that and you can
also go the other way though to like if
a fight is taking too long it feels like
they’ve already kind of bested the the
strategies needed to make it happen and
you know you’re like three rounds left
at the current thing to get all the
monsters hit boys down just lop them off
exactly because you can go it’s the if
that’s the average you can go at a
lesser number and then you’re
everybody’s happy like oh yeah we did it
and you defeated the monster yes yep
yeah cuz because I’m sure every DM has
had that experience or sometimes it’s
exciting that that monster has only one
hit point left and everyone’s going to
enjoy that extra round of combat that’s
now necessary to shave away that one hit
point yeah but then there are those
other times where the person does this
awesome blow they describe it really
well but because of their role their hit
is going to leave the monster with one
hit point and many DMS I know have just
made that one hit point quietly
disappear and said the monster dies
never exist it never existed a
Schrodinger’s hit points alright and and
again dm’s when you do it you’re not
cheating because our monsters are built
for you to have some flexibility yeah
when it comes to how many hit points and
now it comes down to what you said like
what is the what is the guideline for
whether an encounter is is a successful
or not was it fun was it fun now one
thing I also want to talk about before
we close is this question of what’s the
right number of combat encounters in the
adventuring day this is a this is a
question
get sometimes the Dungeon Master’s guide
has a section about the what what’s
called the adventuring day and it
mentions that a typical party can
withstand six to eight encounters before
they’re gonna need a long rest this this
bid in the Dungeon Master’s guide
sometimes gets misread as saying sort of
a correct adventuring day has six to
eight encounters that is not the intent
of that text really again all that text
is telling you is if you’re curious DM
about how much can they take in a day
six to eight encounters is the limit now
this is assuming that they are
encounters of sort of typical difficulty
if they’re all cake walks well then you
know a party might be able to take more
yeah but a typical group up up against
you know average difficulty combat
encounters is gonna tuck her out around
six to eight encounters again we do not
design the game thinking the correct
adventuring day as sixteen encounters
like because many adventuring days might
have only one some will have three some
will have four that’s fine
those are all legitimate ways to
construct a D&D adventure that’s six to
eight numbers just basically the ones
that where resources begin like spells
and consumable things will start to get
low yes exactly yeah exactly and then we
also tell you that you know in
especially in an adventuring day that
that runs on that long you’re then a
group is also likely to have one or two
short rests but that’s again highly
variable and that’s fine the game is is
designed to accommodate that variability
well that’s why I only schedule six to
eight meetings per day is because that’s
the limit I can only have six to eight
encounters in my my working day right
tell my boss I’m like no I’m sorry I
can’t have any more the workday only
take that sounds like I didn’t even get
a short rest I know have you been
trapped in this room the whole time
this is only my fourth encounter of the
day so I think I’m okay it’s been a
great
I’m talking to you those were there was
a great nuggets of sage advice if people
want to get in touch with you and ask
you more about encounter building or
anything but the D&D 5th edition rules
how can I do so best way is on Twitter
where I can be reached at Jeremy eke raw
furred awesome I am at Gregg Tito you
can ask me some of those things and
maybe if Jamie’s busy I’ll walk him over
to him and do these things called
letters that’s crazy
but thank you very much for listening
we’ll be back with another different
segment in next week okay thanks bye
everyone
all right twitch folks we’ve got done a
couple minutes early so we might be able
to take maybe just one and then we gotta
do some tests here so I think we’re
gonna do one really good question from
the the chat group we don’t have time to
do in a whole other segment obviously
right we always try like oh we can do
two or three segments at one thing but
no we use talking lock yeah we are so
chatty we want to make sure we get to
all the topics of the topic though right
no and it’s fun to talk about D&D it’s
true right exactly so when in one of
these days we’re gonna do like a whole
day I’m just you and me see then I would
get boring too like you tell about the
variety yeah it makes sense so this is
an interesting question I’m not really
sure what it means but it’s from stabby
row games I found that working as a
business analyst has helped me as a DM
do you use any UML diagrams like
sequence diagrams in your campaigns you
know what a UML diagram well if if the
questions referring to you know
different ways to do flowcharts and
whatnot or you know you can do sort of
decision trees then sometimes yes I do
do that particularly if I create a very
complex plotline I will sometimes like
to visualize it in advance to see how
things might flow and to make sure the
the decision points in the campaign are
clear to me but honestly in most
campaigns I leave so much up to the
decisions the players are going to make
that I do
of planning and course correction before
each session mmm because I’m a big
believer in preparing as little as
possible so you like before a campaign
right because yeah you can’t it’s you
get to railroad e if you do too much
exactly right exactly but you sometimes
ya doing doing some form of flowchart
it’s some form of visualization can be a
really powerful way to see how the
pieces of something fit together yeah
you UML as a unified modeling language
and it’s a general-purpose developmental
modeling language in the field of
software engineering that’s intended to
provide a standard way to visualize the
design of a system hmm fascinating I
didn’t know that at all so now now I
feel like I’ve learned something from
from you guys so thank you for that is
that where the flowchart for storm Kings
Thunder and tomb of annihilation kind of
that page that kind of was like oh
here’s how it kind of maps yeah because
we had we had gotten feedback before
working on storm Kings Thunder that some
of our adventures were quite complex and
people like help me I can’t visualize
give a give us some visual cues so I
thought with storm Kings Thunder how
about we do a flow chart early on so
that people have a visual for how they
might walk through the what is
admittedly a complex epoch for people to
adventure through yeah and I think that
helped I’ve got a lot of good feedback
from that from people just be like
alright this makes especially when it’s
so sandbox II you know and there’s so
many different things you can do at
least you can have a representation of
like oh if you’re doing this thing you
should be at this level and even though
we can throw all that out and as we just
talked about in that in that segment but
at least it’s like a visualization that
makes sense to most people so yeah that
I think it’s super helpful and you know
when the what’s prepare you know if we
were like oh they’re gonna do this well
read these two chapters that I know kind
of where they might end up going the
another thing I’ll say about preparation
for sessions and for a whole campaign is
I’ve mentioned before to people that I
do almost all of my camp in prep in
Microsoft OneNote
one reason I do that is I can access it
on all my devices and computers also I
love it because you can write all the
notes in discreet boxes which you can
then drag around which gives you a lot
of flexibility for like when things
happen in a different order than you
expected or miss Marri or this this
encounter you designed to happen here
the players had their characters route
right around it well then I just pluck
up that whole little note and place it
someplace else and I’ll reuse that get
to that later right exactly huh I wonder
if I’ve never used any of those like
Evernote or OneNote to things like that
but I’ve heard people using them for
script writing for that reason to where
you know can write a seam and then you
can change where it goes the order of
things very quickly and easier yeah
that’s makes sense yeah I know again
what OneNote in particular is fantastic
for this and it means I basically have
all of my campaign notes accessible to
me as long as I’m here phone on my phone
yeah I’m just crazy ya know it means any
where I am if I suddenly have an idea
for my campaign I can just open up one
note on my phone and yeah quickly jot
down my notes
well I’m accessing OneNote right now
with my retina projector from the chip
that is running it so once we get there
that’ll be even better right all right
well thank you guys so much we’re gonna
take a quick break now do some prepping
for the interview we’re gonna have to
Skype callers coming in Shelly and I
will be speaking to Claire Hoffman and
Travis Woodall from the DND adventurers
League very soon that’s gonna be very
exciting I can’t wait all right thanks
everybody we’ll be back in a couple
minutes
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all right bye and thank you Jamie my
pleasure as always
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