“The only reason the DM rolls dice is for the sound they make.” - Gary Gygax

@justineberlein5916

3 жыл бұрын

Interesting, interesting... *rolls dice*

@jacksonschumacher175

3 жыл бұрын

did he really say that?

@stevenle9960

3 жыл бұрын

@@jacksonschumacher175 who knows, unless the person who the quote is attributed to is alive no one can really ever be sure if they said it. People misquote or make up quotes all the time lmao

@migueldelmazo5244

3 жыл бұрын

That wasn't Gygax. It was Albert Einstein from an early episode of Critical Role. :)

@andrewbernal9957

3 жыл бұрын

Truer words were never spoken.

Fun fact: video games also do this. Several game makers have come out to say how the game will temporarily change difficulty to help struggling players. E.G. the enemy's aim in a shooter will get worse if you're on critical health so you aren't immediately finished off and can run to cover. It's too subtle for you to notice in game but it does happen. Sometimes it just makes for a cooler story. Worse case scenario, you blame it on luck rather than the forces that be throwing you a bone.

@fakesmile172

3 жыл бұрын

Resident Evil 4 does this silently. God Hand does it on the HUD.

@ebros5758

3 жыл бұрын

The first shot most enemies shoot misses every time

@Gamersvids23

3 жыл бұрын

In 2016 DOOM, the last 10-20 hit points are worth a lot more health than the other 80-90 points, among other little things the game does.

@coyraig8332

3 жыл бұрын

There's also probabilities being rolled weird to make things feel better, like a "90% chance" to hit is more like 99%

@lorekeeper685

3 жыл бұрын

@@coyraig8332 pokemon If it isn't %100 Its %50 Therefore sheer cold

Letting player solutions to puzzles work is a win win. The players feel clever and as the DM I don't have to put loads of effort into puzzles having a solution, I just imagine a fucked up situation and see what they do.

@chainer8686

3 жыл бұрын

I agree, too many times I've seen or participated in a party that wasted so much time, because they couldn't get the singular hyperspecific answer to a puzzle or situation. It bring the flow to a complete stop and players start to disconnect.

@defensivekobra3873

3 жыл бұрын

Wait you do not even have a solution in mind?

@Isambardify

3 жыл бұрын

@@defensivekobra3873 sometimes not. I think it's natural with combat encounters not to think about how exactly the party will fight their way out. It can be fun to extend that to puzzles and traps. Had a great one with a chest that gushed unending water into a small room (was genuinely a bit worried they'd all drown) but they ended up using all sorts of transmutation flow diversion, and locked it closed with some looted shackles. Was a good session. As long as the physics are consistent I think it works.

@codyramsey7217

3 жыл бұрын

I’ve been calling this method “organic problem creation/solving.” When I was a teenager, I had a few friends who wanted to play DnD, but didn’t like the whole “rules” thing (which sucked for me, since I was a walking rules book. Lol.) So we started just role playing. And dumb as it was, I learned soooooooo much about role play theory and DMing just looking back on it over and over again through the years, and one thing I definitely did was set up problems that I didn’t have a solution to. At first I thought I was just being lazy, and it would flop, but it was totally the opposite. By not having a fixed solution in mind, the players could actually use their creativity. I think the problem is that most people don’t really know how to think outside of themselves very well, like... They imagine themselves in the party’s situation, but don’t think about how they think, or better phrased; just because you walked a mile in my shoes, it doesn’t mean you saw that mile with my eyes. Anyways, TL;DR, just remember that as a DM, you’re entrusted with determining the logic of an entire multiverse, and you are but one person. Don’t think too hard about it, and have a good time. Lol.

"They might screw up the statblock so that my weapon breaks against the gelatinous cube's chiseled abs!" New monster concept: a gelatinous cube that recently engulfed a marble statue, and so it literally has chiseled abs, giving it a higher AC.

@dragonmothership1714

3 жыл бұрын

Yes

This is actually an adaptive difficulty technique. It's used for video games to help people in struggling situations.

@prettycoolguy3206

3 жыл бұрын

I know in the recent XCOM games they fudge the percentages 'behind the screen' so that when players have missed too many times in a row they have a greater chance of hitting and the opposite when they consistently hit. It's why almost all XCOM players have a story where they had a 99% chance to hit and missed.

@aaronsirkman8375

3 жыл бұрын

@Michael Johnson Okay, dude, is your capslock stuck down or something?

I feel dirty clicking on this video but I love Davvy's content

@deoxyplasmic

3 жыл бұрын

That means it's working.

Sometimes failure can be funny. Like Will Wheaton playing any game with dice

@craigh5236

3 жыл бұрын

I get that reference

@micanikko

3 жыл бұрын

Don't touch that man if u ever meat him. His curse will spread to you.

@craigh5236

3 жыл бұрын

@@micanikko But I want to meat him so much. Salami, pepperoni, brisket, all good ones to meat him with.

@micanikko

3 жыл бұрын

@@craigh5236 That sounds like a big mis-steak sir. But your plans sounds Ham-bitious

@bionicdragon5

3 жыл бұрын

@@craigh5236 All it takes is one person using the wrong version of a word for a conversation to get strangely sexual.

One of my new players accidentally cheated by rolling a d20 for damage (I assumed he knew because he was the only one not asking). This went on for several sessions because he consistently rolled 1-3 every time for what was supposed to be a d6 weapon, so I assumed he was rolling correctly

@bongibot1104

3 жыл бұрын

Lmao, that's unlucky as hell. Or the dnd gods didn't want him to deal absurd damage ha ha

@cybergothstudios94

2 жыл бұрын

Here's a fun mistake that took me too long to catch.. One of my players first characters was a monk, and in the speed chart he saw a number and thought it was additive.. It lasted a level or two before I had to ask"you have HOW much speed???"

Fudging the rolls is the one thing I can’t bring myself to do. Happy to change just about everything else, but for some reason the dice feel sacred.

@evandugas7888

3 жыл бұрын

We must worship the dice gods

@MaB1235813

3 жыл бұрын

Math rocks know best!

@myrojyn

3 жыл бұрын

Shiny click clack!

Whenever there is a D&D/TRPG story of the party accidentally destroying the final dungeon containing the BBEG without even knowing that the BBEG was in there, my comment is always "why didn't you just move the encounter? The party doesn't know and they don't have to know."

@Zulk_RS

3 жыл бұрын

I think that might work in more Sandboxy games. You beat the BBEG on accident. So... now what do you do and how do you deal with the fallout?

One of the most commonly overlooked traits of a great DM is selflessness. The ability to find joy in giving enjoyment to others, despite the personal cost, is something that the world really needs more of.

@codyramsey7217

3 жыл бұрын

This! This right here! I’ve been playing with a new group of people for like, almost two years now (new to me, and I guess not that new anymore), and it’s finally gotten to the point where we had to tell the DM that we’re just not having fun with his game anymore. After weeks of thought on the matter, I’ve come to realize that a lot of DM’s come in with the mindset of wanting to impress their players. That’s not good. All the DM is supposed to do is entertain, and if you happen to impress ass well, all the better. But that mindset of needing to be the smartest person in the room has killed more games than I can count.

@jacobsargent5367

3 жыл бұрын

@@codyramsey7217 I'm sorry to hear that you had to have that talk with your DM. I know I've tried to run games on my own intelligence or brilliant storytelling, only to have players lose interest after a few sessions. It's the times when I just put something in front of my players and let them do whatever was most fun for them, without trying to be the most impressive or the most tactical or the most creative person at the table, that the best memories happened. I hope your DM just needed a little change in perspective, or that someone else steps up to DM and you guys can keep playing.

One of the most important lessons to learn early in GMing is "The Monster have as many HP as you say they do."

*Its funny how Davvy makes cheating sounds so heartfelt endearing*

I literally didn’t even realize people considered scene-swapping cheating. It’s an integral part of my dming tool kit because my friends like to say “fuck you” to the dm

So many questions answered in a single thread.

Backwards swamp logic is my favorite way to explain players encountering plans

Davvy would never lie... *wink*

Scene swapping is a very simple trick that allows you to only prepare so much, while still giving the players the impression of the world being much larger. Same with scene saving. They didn't go to that cave you prepared? Use it for another scene. It's an advantage that video games don't have, as everything has to be put in place for players to explore and try different things. D&D adventures are a one-time thing, so the players will never know that you did a scene swap, because they cannot replay the game and pick the other location.

The last point is the reason why I've been planning fewer and fewer 'win scenarios', and just writing in the general consequences and difficulties for various rooms based on the classic stats. Much easier to improv with wild and diverse solutions while keeping it grounded to some set numbers.

I used to roll all my stuff out in the open for my players. They loved it, but it did end up tpking them a few times. They loved the high risk and high reward. And they really felt like they won when the fight was over....i dont recommend it for every group. Lol

@Zulk_RS

3 жыл бұрын

I play on DnD Beyond and I do this. This has the bad effect of boss encounters becoming my own challenges where I'm wondering how am I going to stop a TPK.

I'm curious, the "buuuuuut that'll about do it....." Is that re-recorded every video? Or do you have a clip saved?

@DavvyChappy

3 жыл бұрын

I do it each time. I’ve just done it 200 times, so my voice is just super used to it.

@sarkysuchus8350

3 жыл бұрын

@@DavvyChappy LIIIIIIIEEEESSS! LIES FROM THE DICE FUDGER! BURN HIS INTERESTING NPCS!

ngl,,, I DM entirely online games, and I role the dice for the sound over the mic, thats all. I Know the situation and will limit myself of what happens as to make it fair on everything. but like I want it to be a good story for everyone, and I know the basics of what happens because of this. I have learned I am good at improvisation, so its pretty easy to just go with what I think meets the needs of the situation for it to have a good story and more importantly fun. so I just wanted to say thanks for validating what I have always kinda thought as bad DM-ing on my part.

As a new dm, this is important for me to note, thank you

@umbracolt6364

3 жыл бұрын

Another note I had to figure out myself is that a random T.P.W. (total party wipe) doesn't have to be with a little creative thinking. Example: My players where beaten by a group of Gnolls. This was not my plan. It was just some bad dice rolls for them and even with fudging I couldn't keep this from happening. My players have read the monster manual alot so they knew like I knew the that Gnolls will eat people. What they didn't know is how Gnolls where created, so long story short, I cursed the my players into be coming cannibals and they had find away the remove this curse. Made for some crazy sessions and I had my players feeling bad for Gnolls, making them sympathetic villains.

@pavelzak3603

3 жыл бұрын

Please don't do this. It's really bad to do this things and once your players will discover you are doing this, they will be really angry.

There's an old saying; Players roll dice to get results. DM rolls dice to make noise.

This video is encapsulates my thoughts perfectly. Last Night when DMing I rolled a 1, 3, 5, 8, 7, and 7 in a row for a monsters attacks, but in that situation it made the players feel cooler for avoiding the attacks and overall gave them a batter experience.

@rustlepalace-inn7229

3 жыл бұрын

Does the batter experience make them rise to the occasion?

I was skeptical clicking on this, but it ended up being really wholesome! Thank you, and hopefully you're having a great day

what a lovely sentiment behind such an outwardly diabolical tactic

the dm: keep it moving, keep it fun. these have always been my main goals and the players always like the results.

Brilliant video as always Mr.Davy C. Happy, thank you for making this video. You always have such a good perspective on the game and I always learn so much from your videos. Plus they always leave me with a smile on my face, so thank you for that.

A surprise to be sure but a welcome one

On note of secret rolls, fantasy grounds is cool for that as it has a dice tower where players can drop a die into it, showing you the results, but not them (though you can reveal it with a middle click). It's super great if you desperately need to fudge a little. That said I like figuring out ways to fail forward, both as a player and a DM. Some parts of plans should still succeed even with failures, and not require rolls if they're well-enough prepared. If the dice aren't in the favor, it can provide an out to try again later, and maybe give a bit more intel in the process.

@wh3nderson95

3 жыл бұрын

The dice tower helped me fudge a roll when an NPC saved the party in a fight that would have ended in a TPK.

The best way for anything to happen is with metal or otherwise heavy dice. Did finally share the power with one of my players, who has changed their one shots into a campaign. They were talking to me after a session and I could tell the only thing they needed to do was to add some cinematic moments and he was like, "Yeah. But the dice." So I paused and said, "hey" rolls metal d20, "look at that, with a modifier of negative 13, I just rolled a 30 on a d6; begins to describe epic cinematic player moment his character said in my game earlier in the week." And with that, I felt another forever DM being born, and the phlogiston growing. So I rolled again and said, "shit...does a..., *grabs some napkins and crushes them next to my mic, one less than you AC hit?!!? With practiced and feigned panic in my voice. Lastly, I told them, this is not to "win" this is to bring the fights back to life if you feel like it might be dragging or the players need a win...or they really need a loss to check them...

Being able to cheat as the GM is literally what makes tabletop gaming so great. It's reflexive in a way that video gaming could never be (given the GM is good, of course).

I have a system as a dm for in game combat called crit storage, when I roll a crit sometimes I don't want it to happen for reasons so i store it, then at any point after I can use the stored crit to upgrade a miss to a hit or a hit to a crit, its nice and allows for the probability to still matter while giving me some more control over timing

I agree with some of the points made in this video, but I also know that when me and my group won, and mightily so, an encounter that was multiple times the CR to have it count as deadly, and because the DM was showing us his rolls, and we had an understanding that he never changed the statblocks, that victory felt sooo much more earned, than if there was a doubt that it might have been handed to us. Also the fact that he multiple times before the combat had mentioned how we were unlikely to succeed and we might die trying. :D

The players defenetly solved *a* puzzle. Maybe not the solution or even the puzzle you planned but defenetly *a* puzzle

I'm calling the cultural center/capital of my Empire "Sexy Moose" I was in a campaign the year before 3rd ed was released.....We just hit 2nd level and the DM who hadn't DM'd in a while, had a troll ambush us. I was by far the most experienced player outside of him. However I had never gone up against a troll before. Nor had he. We new nothing about them save for Tolkien. TPK in 2 rounds......DM sat there not saying anything. Then "You wake up in a Grove with a beautiful young elf girl watch over you." " I am Alandara. You brought here by the Tree Ent, Grey Bark. He asked that your wounds be healed, no small task as you were at Death's very door, and your equipment repaired as a reward for your brave yet vain attempt to rid his forest of a vile beast that had trespassed." Over the years, He added such techniques as random rolls and uttering the phrase "Hmmmm. Interesting......."

Thank you for teaching us the optimal way to play D&D.

Awwww, that outro.... you good people Davvy

Gary Gygax: What do you mean, “help” your players?

It is important to know when, where, why, and how to pull your punches so that the party doesn't loose that impending sense of dread in combat, but they know they have a safety net if I mess up.

Honestly this is one of the reasons i love Through the Breach more than D&D and other TTrpgs. its way easier to balance encounters which means that its way easier to make fights fair and hard. add on top that it is literally impossible to cheat the players. There's no rolls for the gamemaster to do its all on the players and the games meant to be played out in the open like this because when you ask the players for a flip(uses a deck of cards instead of dice) you have to give them a target number(what they have to hit to succeed) this is great because there are TONS of ways for players to affect that outcome from cheating the results and turning failure to success, turning horrible failure to normal Failure, and from failing completely to failing with benefits. You can even fail to succeed which is wild.

@madmanwithaplan1826

3 жыл бұрын

@Michael Johnson yep I'm johnny through the breach I get paid 5 cents for every book I sell. You'd think not have any links or that this isn't my channel would make it difficult to prove I sold a book but they know somehow.

I don't usually fudge rolls (but I still do it from time to time). Instead my preferred methods of altering the difficulty of encounters is by either giving a boss more or less HP, or by saying something has legendary actions or resistance, or magic resistance, when its original stats didn't have that be a thing

"Backwards swamp logic" so that's what it's called. I too am a master of backwards swamp logic.

I can completely agree to a point... The player dm agreement is for you both to have fun and engage with the event. To constantly end up having bad luck in dnd is frustrating. I have terrible luck. Like constantly rolling lower than a 6... and at a certain point you just feel like an ai companion that the dm can't touch. But I also don't want EVERY time I have a bad luck day be a fudge the dice moment... I'd say give 1 awesome moment for every2-3 oh shit that failed moments... I understand ultimately this is high fantasy and nothing is real. But if people aren't having fun. Then it truly isn't fun. That becomes the reality. Tldr. Don't do it every time. Characters develop with struggle. But make sure players can attach and grow too. Otherwise what's the point

Who viciously mocked your bathroom? You can tell daddy.

One of the best fights I ever played was against an Ogre, in plate armor, who could cast Animal Friendship on my war dogs.

Other way to cheat at d&d that should not be done because that is BAD cheating: physically change how your dice roll. In my thermodynamics class, my professor was trying to teach us how probability works, and after realizing that only one of us (in a class of about 14) understood poker, he switched to talking about dice. He then mentioned that the fact that he had to specify how many sides the die had and we didn't question it revealed that we were all nerds. (Granted, we're also all physicists but that's a different type of nerd that just often overlaps with d&d nerds). This opened the floodgates for my classmates to start talking about loaded dice, and how you could change normal dice into loaded dice by [redacted for the sake of not encouraging it] your dice. My professor told us he'd never play d&d with us (not that we were expecting him to) before taking control of the lecture once more

One thing I see a lot of in DND parties is a lack of teamwork. Making encounters that are difficult if all you are doing is running headfirst into danger, but easy if your party isn’t just having a dick measuring contest with their damage output is great, and helps prevent me from having to cheat. Or making fights they just aren’t supposed to win or fight so that they don’t walk into a combat encounter thinking they will win every time.

Literally all of the described GM cheats would make me leave the table tbh.

Be wary of changing the AC on the fly. If a 15 hit earlier in the combat, but then a 15 misses later on or vice versa, that's quick grounds for getting called out.

@Princessshamanarta

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah....as someone who has a mental disorder, I neeed to have a monster table , aka monster health bars as it is so easy for me to say 'no you haven't killed the villain yet' I need health bars and notes to make sure they do find it challenge but not too hard or they will think I'm the bitchy dm. Taking agency away can be so tempting but then no one wants to play with you. No dm vs player game ever worked, and if it did, you have a very abusive toxic dm! . In bbeg battles, if your players see they are getting easy battles, sometimes it's hard to be fun. I pull ONLY the 'you all haven't seen my final form' trope when the players have min,axing tendencies or inane main character syndrome

It's going great Mr Davvy! Howdy yourself 😎

Hey Davvy, I liked the video and thought it was quite insightful, I was planning an encounter for the party where they can not beat the boss yet, they are introduced to it at the first half of the session and I want to sell the fact that they are threatening by basically making them invulnerable, kinda like a videogame encounter where you the player run into this entity that you can not hurt and must evade, like the shadow monster from Prince of Persia 2. I wanted to make this sense of unknown about what they are fighting, only for later when they know the truth about the plot of the episode when it's identity is revealed and only then does the actual battle begins. My problem is that the people I play with are kinda gun hoe with fights, myself included, and I noticed more times then not we most of the time fight even when the DM specifically clued in to us we should not start a fight with this big grill that was different from the rest (We were playing Out of the Abyss and it was Yenogoth) How do I sell the idea of retreating from an encounter to the party without dowing 2 or members without out right telling them to run?

meh.. even software-based games have rng "streak breakers' built into them. In a PnP game, this is just the GM balancing things out. Plus I always tell players that I modify modules and monsters before we play, ahead of time. Great video!

but also because they were making fun of that badass bathrobe.

one of my favorite ways to be able to adjust encounter difficult to suit the whims of the dice is make "monster closets" so that enemies "spawn" in waves rather than dropping the entire planned encounter on top of the players all at once. Basically, I have a handful of enemies show up when initiative is rolled, and then have a couple of allies appear from outside the PCs sight lines after a few turns, or a few kills with the in universe explanation that they arrived late to the fight, or are running towards the sound of it from other rooms. That way if the party is mowing through mooks with little challenge, and having a good time describing their kills, I can feed a few more than I had planned in to extend an enjoyable combat, or if the dice just aren't with the players, I can send in less enemies than I had initially planned to help compensate for a series of nat 1s in combat.

An idea I had, it's similar to point #2 in the video but not exactly the same, because you're actually using the stats in the book still. But specifically, the HP. Thr number in the book doesn't have to be the monster's HP because it's an average value: you can see besides it how to determine a monster's HP through dice-rolling. So when you determine a monster's HP, instead of using the set average, determine a range of HP based on the minimum and maximum the monster can have through dice-rolling for it. That way, the moment your players gets to the minimum threshold of damage, you can ask yourself if that was too easy, and keep going until the fight is more balanced OR if they hit the maximal threshold of damage for that monster! I'd barely call that cheating: that amount of HP is always technically achievable through the stats in the book. It's just that we always use the set average for convenience!

Oh I don't generally thought that you're going to teach us best way to fudge rolls

Yes some good tips here as a long time DM I’ve used these ideas Good video

I don't want to click this but I'm slowly starting to watch your videos after I subscribed and seeing how many People have already watched it I am going to watch it now and feel bad about it I am sure

I typically always prepare combat encounters in sets of three where one which is what I think the party can handle, another which I think is to weak for the party, and a final one which I think is to strong for the party all of which have methods by which I can change there difficulty on the fly so I put them in a higher level encounter which they can't handle then I will have something happen which works to the parties favor. One way I adjusted a combat encounter on the fly was when the party were fighting a few to many goblins, so I had the goblins walk over a pit trap that was designed to only collapse under the weight of larger creatures which the party had seen earlier and had two goblins stand on it causing them to fall and get impaled by there own trap.

Thank you for the episode.

That last bit at 6:20 really hit hard ;'( nat 20

I love your videos!

I love doing this in games as a DM cheating, this is you said in this video most of my most memorable moments in my games with my players have been because I have had what we call the "DM graces" the "rule of cool" or would I have known for the "fuk it rule". My players love it when this is done correctly

Hell yeah! Some of these points have been stuff I've been doing for years and been fighting with people for years. Now I have something to share to people who whine about DMs cheating.

one thing you can do to make encounters more challenging if they are underwhelming is to give one of them or the boss max hp

On the one hand, I don't condone cheating. No winking, just full stop. But on the other hand, I appreciate that you're at least honest about it. Many people have outright refused to call such things you've listed cheating (also fudged dice), so it's pleasent to have someone recognize it. I'm firmly one of those people that would absolutely refuses to do it, because me and my friends get together to play a game. If they're playing a game while I'm just doing whatever I want cause "muh story" then that removes a lot of the magic imo.

Okay okay okay, to be fair, I didn't fudge anything in that fight (even the double nat 1's), I just stopped fireballing you guys.

@minchang9769

3 жыл бұрын

Exactly. You can always make the enemy behave differently to influence the outcome. Maybe the goblins decide to capture the character instead of killing them? Or the enemy spell caster chooses a different spell instead of one that would result in a TPK?

@aaronsirkman8375

3 жыл бұрын

@@minchang9769 One game, our group was waiting around for a contact to show up, but we had a couple weeks, and when we got in to town, we heard about a hotheaded young Paladin who had headed off into the Troll infested hills, and disappeared. So, obviously, most of our party stayed in town, and just my half-elf Divine Soul Sorcerer and our Thief Rogue headed out to see if we could find the guy. We did...but he was in the process of being slowly devoured by two Trolls, so we tried to rescue him. And failed. Instead of just killing us off, we were found by our Earth Genasi Bonk a few days later, stuck in a pile of bones, each of us missing a leg, unconscious. He somehow managed to knock down drag out MMA fight two trolls, one after the other, with a teensy bit of overlap, and win thanks to their cooking fire; in the end, I'd like to think that our legs being cooked and eaten played a small part in their defeat. Either way, he rescued us and carried us back, and our whole campaign took a sudden shift to a theocratic city-state so we could try and find someone to regenerate our legs, and, it turned out, prevent an incursion by Yeenoghu. Failing forwards!

One thing I often do as a player is make plans incase we run into something we can't handle for example a DM threw a puzzle at the us which we couldn't solve, and then in character I said screw it and took out shovels, hammers, and pickaxes so the party could simply dig there way around the puzzle as I expressed displeasure at having to break through something potentially important as my character was a dwarf who recently gained an obsession with history. I later out of game explained that my character would be hesitant to do it again because he rather not destroy things that could have some historical importance such as the mechanism of a puzzle lock.

not what i expected. also, great video!

Ily Davvy, always stopping me from giving up on my dnd group

He's got the JoCat Goblin!!

I had a Sunless Citadel campaign for 3 players. 1 former GM, 1 moderate player, and 1 n00b. The party was a Rogue, Barb, and a Wizard. Which means the party was missing someone to help out. So on a whim when the players leave tutorial town, I decided to shorten the travel time by the mayor ordering some rando guard named Everett was ordered to help the party get where they need to go. Keep in mind, I was going to have the guard GTFO after the start of the Dungeon because the Sunless Citadel was so scary to the NPC. That was until I had my players fight OSRs (Over Sized Rodents). In the 2nd round of combat, a giant rat rolled a nat 20 and rolled max damage... the Rogue's max HP was 8, when the rat did 9 damage. I rarely do combat roll fudging because I think I do not want the players to think they have plot armor... So unfortunately, I changed the guard to support the party. To the point I give the character a name, Everett. The party continues to explore the Sunless Citadel. Removing threats with decent effort. (The Barb and the Wizard keep getting knocked out after 3 different fights. Luckily, the Rogue was smart enough to buy a Healer's Kit). Eventually, when the party arrives close to end of the first half of the Dungeon. The Barbarian sees an alarm bell attached to a door. The Barb rings the thing. Ignoring the obvious alarmed Goblins. The party traveled to a different part of the map to find clues for their adventure. So 6 Goblins show up and wipe the floor with the party. Fortunately, the Goblins think the party could be useful so capture instead of killing... The party in their cell learned they're screwed if they do not come up with anything else. That was until the party spoke to a Goblin Witch named Grenl. She orders the party to dispose of a wyrmling. The former DM player is freaking out, because she knows that the wyrmling's breathe weapon would be enough to wipe out the party. (They used up all of their short rest hit dice and they did not have a long rest in the Goblins' jail). So now, the party are in the room as the wyrmling. The Barbarian used his STR to break down a door, the Rogue tries to maneuver in a safe location, and the Wizard whom is the n00b does not fight back. The wyrmling uses his breath weapon, instantly killing the Wizard and knocks out the Barbarian. The DM player knows this is a TPK situation. The new player is bummed she died. The Barb player was about to experience her first character death. All that was left, was the guard Everett and the Rogue. The Frost wyrmling's ice breathe recharges after 5 rounds of combat. The Rogue decides to try to drag the unconscious Barb to safety in 1 turn. All that was left was Everett and the wyrmling. For 4 rounds of combat. The wyrmling misses half of his attacks, but still does significant hits when he does succeed. Everett loses about 5/6ths of his HP. (The guardlevels up with the players. I use MM and NPC abilities instead of converting the guard into a player). Everett does some damage during the recharge time of the fight. That was until I remembered. The wyrmling has 1 more turn until it's breathe weapon is recharged. Everett's HP is low enough that if he makes the save, he will still fall unconscious. The wyrmling literally has 1 HP. (I am not kidding, this happens too damn much). So what I remind the players. The next attack from the guard will determine whether or not if the party survives or dies. I stand up, hold my dice tower in front of my camera to my players through Discord. I keep a straight face, even one of my players comments that I would do well at Poker. I roll the dice, I look down... I describe how Everett the guard who is angry that he is in a situation caused by a bunch of weird strangers as he wanted to live in the middle of nowhere, shouts as he plunges his spear forward. I say the end hits the scales then pierces along through the wyrmling's jaw. The players immediately cheer for the NPC. After that happens, the guard crouches down and starts to yank teeth out of the wyrmling. The party saves the Barb and I used deity BS to resurrect the Wizard. But now, the party owes their life to a guard from hick ass nowhere. Thing is... Everett missed the wyrmling by 3. I am a hypocrite but I have not experienced genuine excitement from my players in a while. I almost forgot the feeling it gives to them and myself. So I fudged Everett's attack roll. After the party cleared the Sunless Citadel Dungeon. I figured the guard would be allowed to stay home and say his goodbyes... then I learned my players wants Everett to stick around and follow the party on their adventures... that they like the morbid and sardonic sense of humor of the guard. One of the players developed a crush on Everett. That was not supposed to happen!!! Dear god. I have write an entire storyline for the party's pet NPC. I am concerned and self conscious about the stereotype of the DMNPC inclusionary characters. I fudged 1 roll and my players get to have a 4th member of their group as they take these same characters to stop Tiamat in a Tyranny of Dragons campaign... I love this game and my players. They're having a fantastic time.

It's funny how what you are saying what to do is the complete opposite of someone else I've watch said never to do. Frankly, both of you are correct. You should never "have to" do this though on rare occasion it "needs to" happen, otherwise game over. Just need to strike up an experienced balance for the moments that need it most.

Quick example of how changing the rules for the betterment of the game can work. My DM for this game has admitted that he "cheats" sometimes but never says when unless he actually fucked up like when he forgot that the wererats we were sposed to do a mission for but got into a fight with instead were immune to non-magical/non-silver weapons but we barely got theu the fight anyway so in the end it worked out. However our last session was last night cu we got a TPK from a bunch of giant spiders. This time he made the choice to change the rules n tell us. So instead of continuing turn order n the 6 remaining spiders auto failing us on death saves he decided that we would all make a simultaneously death save n if any of the 5 of us got a crit then he would deus ex machina the situation somehow but we couldnt n next week or the week after we start the campaign over with new PCs (it's mostly Mines of Fandelver but he has another book of side quests n oneshots that he sprinkles in so the side quests r pretty varied. Plus for me it was only my 2nd session with the group so it'll all be new for me

I'd like to join your Discord, but before I do, what all do you do on there (If I may ask)?

Such wisdom

I always tell my players that they are consequences of their own actions. The world is just a world and I am just an arbiter of that. But the best, least intrusive, way I cheat, is by having three modes for boss fights. Easy, normal, and hard. If the players are getting steam rolled, I just lower some Hp and only use certain skills, but still focus on positioning and important tactics so it doesn't look like pity. Normal is just the drafted encounter. Hard is an additional type of attack, a bit larger of an hp pool, or, only in contextual circumstances, a second/third form. The sparring implementation of this rule makes it believable and also prevents those crushing defeats for either the players or an important boss.

welcome to the champions club CD Omegalul

Pack.tactics. the players will fear the yip.

So, I will regularly alter the health of an enemy because I want to challenge the party. For example one time I wanted to run an encounter with constrictor snakes at high level, but the party would just casually one shot giant constrictor snakes without trying so I added 40 health to each snake making them an actual threat to the party. Mind you everyone in the party was doing about 50 damage per round in that combat, and the paladin even OHKOed one of the 9 constrictor snakes doing over 100 damage. The fight was challenging enough that they couldn't win without trying, but it wasn't very difficult either. I also gave the snakes a multi attack, and increased their bonus to hit to make the party have to concerned about getting hit.

Visited Lamesville, CA. Bought a shirt and a postcard 😂

As a new DM that did this on a first sess, this is very comforting. 😌 EDIT: also, that ending was very eloquent

I come from the 3.5/Pathfinder Era and so I expect enamy monsters to have random class levels and different gear than the MM would give them.

I did this last session when I rolled three crits on attack rolls against a player with only 1 hp, and they ended the encounter in a very creative way Their character is a dragon rider since that event

Wooo!

As a player, I've cheated _once_. Going "oh no, I forgot I leveled up, so I have 5 more points of lay on hands than I thought" so I could get our barbarian up

It's easier if you play with monsters stat blocks yourself, and goblins que a good place to start.

The last two I don't think is cheating, that's just good improvising on by the DM

I tend to smug dice rolls bec as a dm I tend to hit really hard crits and high rolls abound. While I cant hide my glowys crits I can hide a few in between.

to me the way to sort hand DM the World you have to have idea of the how that world reacts to your players what are the scenes we see happening in everyday life in that setting.

In summary, remember DnD is a game, make it fun.

if you roll out in the open, be prepared to accept the results of the die...if you aren't prepared to accept the worst possible outcome, don't roll, narrate or roll in secret

can I get that gelatinous cube's number?

Steve backshall with a snake around his neck on one of the first photos, love it. If it isn't, very sad

The next video is gonna straight up be how to forge your own waited dice.

I want to attempt running a one shot where the monsters have no stats and I just decide when getting hit seems cool, while trying to keep the player's believing it's just a well balanced encounter with stats. Just as an experiment.

So, if the party is doing to well in combat encounters I often just change the kinds of encounters they are getting. For example if the party is bulldozing zombies and skeletons then I'll start throwing zombies wearing chainmail with long swords and multi attack with a bit more HP to increase the difficulty. Of course I would throw a ton of these super zombies at the party, but I would throw like 3 of them at the party as a challenge.

I don't tend to cheat, but 3 nat 20s in a row against 1 specific PC are 3 nat 20s in a row against 1 specific PC. I was like "yeah, I do let PCs die, but not by RNG6".