"Have the monster fight ITS fight, not your PLAYERS fight." I am going to inscribe that on the inside cover of my Monster Manual with a silver Sharpie magic marker. Well said, Dave.

When you get down to brass tacks, consider what combat encounters actually are: bags of hit points and actions vs. other bags of hit points and actions. There are ways as Nate says late in the video to increase solo monster capabilities, but like Dave says, you also need to be mindful that big bads are only ever one saving throw away from getting really smashed. So what can you do to make single monsters tougher? (1) Paragon hit points: this is based on something various Redditors have come up with, essentially making big single monsters multi-stage fights where each stage is a different bag of hit points. Want to kill the Tarrasque? Well, first you have to whittle down its plating (stage one). Then you have to get it onto its knees to attack its weak spots (stage two). Then you actually have to kill the thing (stage three). And if you really want to go for broke, you have to go inside and kill the "core" (stage four). Once one bag of hit points is depleted, you can change the nature of the encounter, but if the critter has even 1 hp in its current paragon stage, any leftover damage does not apply to the next paragon stage. This makes encounters de facto longer. (2) More legendary resists: I've had players cheeseball my big bads with polymorphs and the like, but spell slots are a valuable resource, and making players burn them is a big deal. Giving enemies proficiency in various various or something like magic resistance (advantage on saves) adds more layers to this. Controller/Debuffer-type spellcasters are going to be more careful about spending their action economy and slots to try and hose the enemy if they only have like a 30-40% chance of success. (3) Soften up the players: if the PCs have already been through a few tough fights with no rest, the big bad will seem bigger and badder. This is a variation on the "minions" theme you guys elaborated on. (4) Action economy: this is why parties massacre single monsters. Big bads need to have a more diverse and extensive action economy. That means they get multiple attacks, an array of bonus actions, maybe multiple reactions, legendary actions, and lair actions. The tools are actually there--you just have to remember to use them. I had one Frost Giant Jarl who got to use Armor of Agathys as a bonus action. This had the effect of adding de facto regeneration (thus a bigger bag of HP), as well as an additional damage source for the PCs without burning a reaction. Little tweaks like that can add up. (5) Range and status ailments: Any good single monster needs to have ranged options to defeat the cheesy "kiting" technique that is easy for even low level characters to use. They also need ways to deal with magic, and probably magic of their own. The best spells and magical effects at their disposal, however, are not damage-dealers. They're ones that impose status ailments. Poisoning, paralyzing, restraining, and stunning players is often way more annoying than smacking down their HP, and changes the nature of the combat. Having zones of Silence, Darkness, Anti-magic, etc are other ways to force the PCs into tight spots without just making the combat a matter of trading blows until one side's bag of hp reaches 0.

@ryanrhino2318

7 жыл бұрын

Some great ideas #1 is really cool you can have alot of fun with.

@zdog058

7 жыл бұрын

another point on the phases, Which I actually use, have each phase be the anti-thesis of what each member is good at. Crit fishers? give em immunity to crits, ?wizard? anti magic zones Tank tanking? aoe lair my personal preference is to also have the last phase be a dpr race the big bad gives up trying to defend and goes all out on attack.

Throw in a spell caster, even if he's just a minion. Every character is going to have saving throws that he doesn't have proficiency in.

I used a solo monster, but it was just an old wizard/illusionist. All of my players were new so I had him casting illusions; and sending messages to the players to create lies and strife. By the end of the fight my wizard was at 4hp and my entire party was trying to kill each other.

Our group almost got tpked by one of our DMs monsters. It wasn't a solo encounter though. We had a 7 members all level 10 and the DM sent a paladin with the oath of conquest with a few demons as lackeys to attack us. All the lackeys couldn't really hit us so the barbarian who had been rolling max health on his level ups with over 115 HP rushed towards the paladin but was one shotted the next round with his 3 attacks with smites. then the next round reduced the fighter to single digits and started wailing on the second barbarian who couldn't reach his armor class. the cleric kept healing the first downed barbarian while the druid awakened 3 trees to help fight and sent its shield guardian to try and take out the pally. The barbarians were pretty much doing sit ups as the cleric would mass heal and the paladin would knock them down again while using his third attack on something else. We finally managed to widdle him down thanks to the druids call lightning, shield guardian and the barbarians and fighter being corpse wall until the druid polymorphed into a T-Rex and ate the paladin. Afterwards we found out the big reason why we weren't doing too much damage to him was that oath of conquest pallys get resistance to all damage. After what that paladin did our DM decided oath of conquest was too powerful and he won't allow it in his game again. Because the DM was portraying the paladin as an edge Lord the entire battle lasted long enough to play the entire hybrid theory album as well as nearly the entire Korn's issues CD just on one enemy.

Well, it's a monster I made up myself, (insert 1st ed Munchkin joke here) but I presented it as a sort of a splash zone monster. It's basically an accursed aberration able to shoot out bone shards whenever its head (a misshapen ribcage) is hit with a normal melee strike. I based it off of a monster from the Silent Hill 2 video game. It also spits nasty stuff.

I had a 10th level group that ripped an adult shadow red dragon in one turn before it even got a turn... then the 150 cr3 minions went in and they got ripped over 9 turns

@joshuanewbeck6226

7 жыл бұрын

the dice weren't on their side.

@jackrabbit4907

7 жыл бұрын

A many players were in the group?

This is a really good point. Like the Fighter class, I often up the number of actions a powerful monster can have. When this happens the players jaws just drop! "What do you mean it goes again?!? Oh Shi****!"

I just find it important for the monsters to be doing lots of things instead of just slash and shoot. This automatically leads me to more monsters.

My GM can't wrap his head around this. The only time I've ever used a solo monster was in a cinematic moment- or per say the introduction or furthering of plot lines. We just slaughtered some kind of mummy lord because I've got an Int dex fighter with AC through the roof, and hes tanking for a mage and ranger who make themselves damn near untargetable. And that was with his "Power" being multiplied by the number of events we failed and traps we triggered... its like... eh? His big bads are pretty small when they're standing by their self...

personally I have a few ways around this 1- hordes. what's scarier than a giant dragon? a clutch of horse-sized ones. it won't seem like those wolves are worse than the troll, but my players have grown to fear them. Why? more creatures means more attacks, more hits, and more damage overall. also means they take AT LEAST X many hits. if a monster has 50 hp and they did 27, that's over half. if it's 5 enemies with 10 hp, that's only a 5th. 2- too many AoE? big bad with minions. two ways to go with this. first is a SUPER big guy with tons of minions. their purpose is to slow, to block, to harrass with a dozen attacks. pair with either a duelist or a ranged bad. there's also the classic 'big bads with biggest bad' approach where the big bad is actually not that much tougher than the minions. conditioning makes the party ignore the minions, and then the minions wreck everything. that's how I had a hanniver become one of my campaign's most remembered villians, they ignored him and he dropped 2 players while they were focusing the boss 3-tricks/terrian. the spider's mobile and its web slows. its riding something that flies and has a bow. the area's littered with traps. or my favorite, dominate a party member. have the chokers grab the last party member and drag them into the darkness. my players will always remember the time all but one of them got hypnotized, and had to keep escape thier own party while freeing each other, all while the caster kept trying to re-dominate those who broke free. it was the deadliest game of freeze-tag. until enough got free to sprint in his face but seriously, as you guys said, just make it interesting. should it be deadly at times? of course? there's nothing like overcoming insurmountable odds and winning with that brilliant seat-of-your-pants strategy. but there are plenty of other ways to make a memorable moment, and that's what we're all after. it's chasing down that flying enemy by hijacking his minions' mounts. It's realizing the pally can throw the monk, who can throw the fighter mid-flight, who can throw the barb mid-flight, who can bring the hammer of justice down upon the flyer.

Can always make the solo monster your parties tank or op damage dealer or whatever. If you find solo monsters getting stomped, a few things to check on, one was the party just rolling insane that night? if so just let em have it and move on. Two, if they weren't rolling insane, why was it so easy to swat? Boost that for next time. Or three, make the solo monster more interesting than just a stat check.

The best use of a Solo monster I ever had was in 4e with a Young Red Dragon and a Succubus. The party I believe were a level higher than the Dragon so it looked to be an easy fight. But... The succubus stayed high in the rafters and the party completely ignored her, focusing on the Dragon. So every round, the Succubus would charm one of the melee fighters and have them charge attack the healer. It wasnt until the Healer went down after the 4th or so charge that the party went 'Humm we might want to deal with her...'

I've been running Princes of the Apocalypse and the running joke with my group is that boss fights are over in 18 seconds, but those secondary encounters will cause a near wipe LOL. I need to start changing up my tactics, using combos and more strategy with support for the boss.

Don't think I've ever had a problem with using a solo monster. Then again, perhaps my players are just tactical oafs xD

I ran a two year campaign, 1-20. Toughest monster they ever fought solo? Pit Fiend. TPK. He just stayed airborne and focused down the characters with ranged attacks with fireball. I've learned that if your monster is a pure spellcaster (I'm looking at you, Lich...) then he's essentially worthless. Even after I house-ruled a ban on counterspell, spellcasters monsters are drastically inferior to hybrid or pure physical monsters. Best monsters have powerful AoE spells, hefty AC, and three or more attacks. Death Knights are also pretty potent. Also, if you want a real fight, make sure they are softened up some prior. Prior to the Pit Fiend, they party had to fight a host of chain devils. Solo monsters need answers and defenses for everything the party has, otherwise it gets smashed hard. But ya, Pit Fiend.

I remember in one of the games I played the DM had us(lvl 3 wizard and cleric) go up against a stunted adult dragon on a ship in the middle of an ocean with fog. The dragon had the same amount of hit points as an adult dragon, but its size was that of a smaller dragon, except its tail, and wings. I guess the dragon was cursed, because it couldn't use a breath attack, but honestly it was more maneuverable than an adult dragon, and it was also using the ocean as a place to attack from. It took almost no penalties from attacking underwater or from going from underwater to flying in the sky. All the we had to fight it was our characters and about 20 or so dwarven fighters who only lasted about 3-4 rounds before dying or jumping overboard. Yet we still ended up in a draw with the dragon, but I will always remember the dragon diving into the water and tearing the ship apart from beneath our feet. A different encounter on the other hand was a lone manticore invading a village. The DM home ruled that the leadership feat along with small unit tactics on my cleric allowed me to order guardsmen/soldiers/civilians around in times of battle, as long as they were allied with my character, and if I passed a persuasion check. Lets just say my character passed his check, and ordered the guardsmen to use bows and arrows to shoot the manticore. Needless to say the battle lasted less than 2 turns with ~10 dwarves peppering it with arrows.

For my dragon encounters, I always use Self Defense for Dragons from Dragon Magazine #50. "The dragon really ought to be more formidable in melee, a veritable whirlwind of destruction, the likes of which should rightly frighten anyone in possession of all his wits." That article recommends not just beefing up the weak basic attacks; but using their higher intelligence and the rest of their body. Use a wing buffet to fan their breath weapon or to whip up sand and ash from the floor to blind the party. The wingslap from a goose can kill a grown man...A GOOSE. Imagine getting wingslapped by a large dragon.

I will generally only use 'solo' monsters as 'random' encounters. To give them a fight but not cost them too many resources. Because, 'events' happen in the 'real world'.

What's a Cray-kin? Is it anything like a Kraken?

@SkyNinja759

7 жыл бұрын

I'm pretty sure it's a "potato, poe-taught-o" type of misunderstanding.

@DethStruck

7 жыл бұрын

I winced every time he said it.

That's why all self-respecting villains use minions... and why they get so upset when the minions fail. There are two substantive issues here. One has to do with DMs pulling punches. I often feel after combat that if I played the monster the way I play my PCs (pulling out all the stops, killing people to get rid of extra enemies, trying my best to use surprise, reconnaissance, etc.), that the monster, if not winning, would have certainly caused a great deal more damage. I'm not saying DMs should do this, often, but if the problem is, the boss monsters are going down too easily, most people could certainly use them more effectively even without minions. The second issue has to do with the way XP is awarded. Definitely, lots of low CR monsters give parties more trouble than one high CR monster, but the latter is usually worth more XP. Now, some people use milestones (partly in response to this), but I think the choice of using XP vs. not using it is largely an aesthetic one. So given bounded accuracy, perhaps XP should be reconfigured in the edition, if you use it (or else, you should figure out other factors that deserve XP awards than just killing or defeating monsters).

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

Boris Stremlin XP not an issue in our games. Nerdarchist Dave

@borisstremlin4577

7 жыл бұрын

I know you guys don't use it, but many people do. And for those of us who do, the disjuncture between CR level (on which XP is based) and the toughness of the encounter is a problem that needs to be addressed.

@joebonar

7 жыл бұрын

The issue with XP and CR and whatnot, is that the system assumed X fights per adventuring day, and that rests are a commodity granted on a schedule, rather than whenever the party decides they'd rather wait. Since DnD is about choice (otherwise, why not play an MMO you all like and just grind on dungeons and quests?) I think DMs feel that they should let the players determine the pace most of the time. A lot of groups really enjoy the lower levels, so the story is paced much like we used to pace low level stories in previous editions; deal with the low CR threat to introduce the players and get them some XP and loot, fight a moderately higher CR "boss" come back to town, start working towards the main quest. With the low level XP requirements set so low (largely due to the perceived slow progression of player power at levels 1-3) the initial adventure tends to propel characters up in levels quicker than is expected. When a DM applies a logical progression of monsters the PCs jump in power makes quick, low resource use, work of the monsters and then the party is collecting XP faster than they're burning up their resources. Combine arbitrary rest application with low-resource v logical monster progression usage and it's not much of a surprise that PCs are able to have the extra resources to use on big boss monsters and burn them down quickly. This is largely the reason I suggest using lots of very low CR monsters (low compared to the PCs; PCL - 8 roughly, a lot of interesting CR 0 and 1/8 monsters to use for a good long time); the pcs will feel like they have reason to use their resources to clear space for the melee, you can chase ranged characters and still have the mobs to swarm melee and harass casters, and they drop like flies thanks to crap AC and saves, so the characters rarely feel like they've wasted those resources. When they do finally get to the big bad, they've saved all their really powerful stuff since the low level crap is useful vs the monsters they've been fighting, it feels tense because all they have left are the big flashy stuff that is going to drop the big bad anyway. Who cares if they end the combat at full hitpoints, so long as they're almost out of spells and their short rest powers are spent. You just have to completely ignore the encounter building guidelines in the DMG and actually look at monster stats and abilities to see what will challenge your PCs. It's perfectly fine to play your monsters dumb, I don't suggest it, but so long as you can keep a steady swarm on the heroes on their way to the boss monster (obviously throw in CR appropriate monsters that can actually cause real harm to the PCs, just accompany them with swathes of enemies for the PCs to burn through) then they'll have used resources if for nothing more than to speed up the encounters. A horde of goblins vs a PCL 7 party is going to not be super effective at actually hurting the PCs in terms of damage, but they will get them to cast things like shatter, burning hands, sword burst, flaming sphere, the wall spells, etc. Give your enemies favorable terrain and a lot of really weak allies for the PCs to one-shot and have your tougher enemies do exotic stuff. The hobgoblins behind the 5 deep wall of goblins are launching flaming glue-pots from what are basically big sling-shots. The giant-lizard riding lizardfolk are throwing nets on the PCs while the velociraptors are swarming them. You only need a few guys who can take about three hits (not rounds, 3 PC action investments) to do interesting things to the party while your minions keep them busy, and suddenly your combats have a lot more chance to be memorable, because the party can't just send in the melee and rain spells from above; the melee can't move through enemy squares, and the casters and ranged are surrounded so they can't attack effectively where they are. When I say 5 deep wall, when I say swarm, I really mean it, too. There are over 30 CR0 creatures, and you can fluff a commoner pretty much any way you want, they all go down in one hit, they all are worth 0-10 XP, or, basically 2 XP per PC in a party of 4 or 5, 1 XP in 6 or more parties.They don't abnormally affect XP progression, they make encounters a lot more complex, but not unfair, and they eat up PC resources. At any level above 3, 20 commoners are practically not a threat (assuming avg. PC ac of 16, .35x2=.7 avg. damage per commoner, or, 14 damage from all 20 commoners, PCs drop them at a rate of 4/round (.8x6=4.8 from the pcs assuming 1d6+3 damage and +5 to hit) , avg. damage drops by 2.8 every round as commoners die, so 14 - 11.2 - 6.4 - 3.6 - .8, whopping total average damage from a combat with 20 commoners will be 26 damage across 5 rounds vs 4 level 3 PCs on average). At levels 5+, cantrips are almost guaranteed one-shots, plenty of cantrips hit multiple targets (sword burst, thunderclap, greenflame blade, acid splash, eldritch blast at lvl 5+) and a lot of 1st level aoe spells would get great effectiveness out of having patches of monsters where their whole area is occupied by an enemy creatures, so long as they are save vs half you're still basically dropping all of the creatures in the area. You simultaneously let your players feel powerful and important, force them to use their resources, and explain why the town doesn't just send their mundane NPC guards out to clear the goblin den or the cultist's keep or take back the mines from the orcs/kobolds/lizardfolk/etc. They don't have the skill or the numbers, they need heroes, just like the PCs. Heck, you enable all sorts of spells to become a lot more powerful, but without hurting your important NPCs and creatures, and they'll stay useful through all tiers of play because there's always going to be swarms of little minion creatures that are easy to hit and can't save for crap, and even if they do save, they don't have the hit points to survive a big spell anyway. Think of how much more effective fireball would be, and how much more impressive your tougher monsters are going to appear, if it devastates a whole swathe of creatures and from amidst the smoke and ash stands your big-bad NPC, beckoning the party towards him for combat as his allies fall beside him, seemingly unphased by your spell. Suddenly, spells like spike growth, fog cloud, web, grease, a bag of ball bearings, all become EXCEPTIONALLY useful. In a fight against 5 creatures, you're lucky to affect one or two and even more so if you get 3. In a swarm type of encounter you're having a bad day if you don't affect at least 3 targets, which makes the players feel like the usage was actually useful, rather than a wasted resource. Also, since they're weak monsters, it makes sense to have things set up that make the terrain deal damage. PCs wanna roll a boulder down a cliff onto the horde of monsters? Cool! Easy to resolve; can you push it? What path is it taking? Roll a few saves, any that fail die, the others are pushed to the side out of the path, prone. Give them a less than even chance (DC 12 dex since 11 would be an even chance), heroes feel smart and rewarded for creativity, like they have choices that have meaning, and you get an excuse to always have a bunch of creatures on the field with the big bads doing story stuff you want them to do. Finish that ritual, sacrifice that virgin, execute that captive, snatch the artifact, activate the great machine, whatever. There's 40 pirates/cultists/brainwashed commoners/whatever between the heroes and the objective, you've got time to Bond-villain it up with speeches and gloating. Another especially good thing about the low CR swarm is the lack of book-keeping. No need to track hit points, no need to remember huge lists of abilities, no great bonuses to anything, you can just leave it up to the die and if they die, it literally doesn't matter, that was their whole purpose anyway. Roll initiative, remember their AC, to hit and damage (commoners are 10 AC, +2 to hit 1d4 damage, club, +0 across the board for everything else), and have at. Position your guys how you want, they're not bright so provoke the at-ops, who cares, then roll a bunch of d20s in rapid succession, you're rarely gonna hit anyway so just find what you need to roll and check for that X times.

@santiagovarela681

7 жыл бұрын

This movie is now available too watch here => twitter.com/f8b314c7f6fe50004/status/795843315140702208 Is Your Solo Monsters Geetting ccccaught in a D D Monster Mash Game Master Tips

you could always use tucker's kobolds

Krayken. Nice tips, guys; I was planning to use a solo monster for my end-of-campaign encounter, but I'll now make sure to have a few waves of minions to go with him, just in case.

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

What good's a big bad without cannon fodder? -Nerdarchist Ryan

@byrneiv

7 жыл бұрын

No good! Plus I love the idea of the PCs scrambling to barricade doors, or gulping at the inevitable arrival of another wave of baddies, all while trying to quell the primary threat. If your players aren't scared for their characters lives, you're doing it wrong. :D

I draw inspiration from video game bosses when I want an epic fight against a 'solo' monster. I will often gestalt several monsters behind the scenes to make things more interesting and to make the fight last longer. In my current campaign I had a fight with a Yuan-Ti who was actually three re=skinned NPCs. When the player's dropped her to 0 she would 'smoke bomb' out but would come back on her next initiative using the new NPC's stats. In the fight I played this as her trying different tactics against the players. I threw in some minions to make the transitions more interesting. A later encounter was with a giant inter-dimensional hermit crab. It attacked the players as they were crossing an alchemical dumping ground and the creature attacked by reaching through barrels. Its claws were two giant scorpions without the sting or multi-attack and I'm not sure what I used for the eye stalks but I gave them a confusion gaze attacj. Once they had defeated the for appendages the crab itself (which was based on an Umber Hulk) emerged from the muck to attack the party.

great content guys, I love cracking into the old AD&D monsters to get big psyonic bads, or levels of magic dragons to pull out as the big bad. I especially like doing this by going strictly 5th edition until the big bad is encountered (monster wise) Sidenote: Dave looks jacked, and like he has been lifting lol

I've done a big ooze that looked like Venom with skulls on his body and when he took enough damage, one of the skulls popped off into an acid skeleton. It also had a rage mechanic after a certain amount of hit point damage and a lair of web structures it used to basically teleport around the battlemap, along with legendary actions and area attacks. needless to say, its anatomy provided it with a good deal of immunities to statuses and elemental damage.

@clinthazzard7397

7 жыл бұрын

also, one word: divine...word, I guess lol

I once put a party up against a Rust Dragon...the Warforged Warrior hid behind a pillar with the constantly complaining crossbow item familiar of the Artificer.

The beholder is an amazing place to start. Honestly, just scale it to your party and give it some different abilities and you should be good. Add in some extra lair actions or legendary actions and legendary resistances on top of magic resistance. Especially if it's the end of the campaign and t he creature knows they're after it, have the BBEG throw his wall of disposable minions at the party on the way to the boss to drain them of resources. There are plenty of ways to do it as long as you know what your party is capable of.

"Have your monster fight _its_ fight, not your player's fight." [Emphasis mine] Exactly. Monsters would not fight in a way that casually accommodates the humanoids they are fighting. They would fight in a manner that plays to their strengths. A dragon, for instance, would never plop down in front of a bunch of fighters and stay within sword range. Not unless it had no other choice. If it has room to maneuver, it's going to prefer to crawl along ceilings and breath weapon from a distance. And that's assuming the dragon is indoors; if it's outside, it's going to stay in the air and only swoop near the ground to breath weapon its enemies. If it has magic, it will be pelting the humanoids with that for every round it doesn't have its breath weapon ready. Because if you can fly, why would you ever sit on the ground where the vermin can swat at you?

Is my monsters caught? No. My monsters is not caught.

@dddmemaybe

7 жыл бұрын

On a side note, wouldn't it be cool if there were other adventurers? Maybe getting the prize for defeating an awful necromancer is not only a challenge to catch and down him, but also to do it before other adventurers(of your alignment or not) take the loot and achievement, or they tell the badguy of the danger about to come about him. (Other ideas I just had: Bump into other adventurers returning to town with large amount of loot. How do PCs interact with that? Reoccurring groups of creatures that grow and prosper or weaken over time. BBEG is a group of powerfully terrifying individuals working together due from and to acts of charisma, with information about their specifics varying in difficulty to obtain.)

I never really had a problem with a single enemy combat, I put hazards and other combats beforehand and make sure the boss has a high damage output and a strategy. This way the pcs will spend resources before the big fight and a lot of tension will be created when they see that they won't last long. Another cool thing is to use all sorts of crazy mechanics to completely change the encounter.

I Am playing a homebrewed version with about 4 player. The few times I use solo monster, it always ends up as 4 player with about 30-60 hp(60 is the fighter tank) versus a 800 hp golem or the likes and over 3d10 damage. They have not lost a single member yet...

I have a sentient zombie in my modern campaign, he has been going after the players for a while now and is intent on killing them and taking their heads and has even blown himself up just to try to kill them, he got put back together eventually.

I've been using the 4th Edition idea of minions in my game in order to keep players busy with my big bads

I'm running my first game as a DM, and I tried a solo boss monster. It was actually two back to back fights with two solo boss monsters. One of my players got a critical and use extra effects on critical hit and fumble tables. Well the first monster was stunned for a round and they just murdered it. Then the next boss I really wanted to challenge them so I threw some lower CR minions in for good measure. It was at best a mid level encounter. Still not really "boss" encounter feeling. The next set of encounters I have designed I am hoping the final boss encounter does better at that epic feeling. I had already decided on sending variable size waves depending on how my players are doing. Hopefully it goes better.

Yeah for the most part, solo monsters just don't work. For lower level parties I would just often use trap rooms while the big baddie took cover and sling missiles, or spells at them.

I can't use solo monsters on my party, cleric has an AC of 19, I need meat walls to protect the casters trying to take her down haha

some very helpful tips :)

I think that solo monsters should have lair actions whenever it seems reasonable. If the players have played 4th-edition, they'll be expecting a certain kind of Minion. The 1hp idea is fine, but it may be better to sometimes to rule that the Minions in a particular encounter go down after 1 or 2 hits. You're not tracking hitpoints, just the number of rounds they can hang around. 4th-edition may not be the most popular edition of all time, but it contains useful ideas. By the way, it's KRAR-KEN not KRAY-KEN. Thanks.

I'd used a vampire once and reskined it to be the harald of a death god, they laster 4 rounds.

Whynot make it look like its a solo monster, via, deathknight on the bridge, saying none shall pass, and if someone trys to rush them they get chucked off by a poltergeist via mysterious force. but the river is super dangerous as well.

Is Your Solo Monster (singular), or Are Your Solo Monsters (plural); the title is driving me nuts. Yes, I am my group's rule lawyer lol.

I haven't played 5e at high levels yet, but with my recently started campaign my group of 4 level 3 players (monk, rogue, paladin and druid2/barb1) had some fairly well-balanced encounters against a solo otyugh and a solo minotaur, each battle lasted 3 to 4 rounds, which i think is pretty much the sweet spot. They also fought a barghest backed by two worgs, a fight that ended up being like pulling teeth mainly because the paladin didnt remember his sacred weapon channel and wasted his smites to one shot the worgs, so the barghest had resistance against almost everything they were throwing at it, making it effectively a 180 hp monster. I ended up having the goblins they were supposed to save from the barghest help out so they could kill it already. I am really curious how this works out with higher levels, just reading the classes, i never got the impression their damage output rises that dramatically (except casters), at least not compared to how hit points climb, but thats only on paper. I would like to be able to run solo monsters. I think legendary creatures are a good step in that direction, they get the action economy and if using their legendary resistance wisely cannot be just put out of the fight immediately. The question that remains is, how do their hitpoints hold up, perhaps they should have enough to tank a disintegrate or prismatic spray or two without having to burn legendary resistances. I mean you can always just quickly pile on more HP on a monster in 5e, because their other abilities are not tied to their number of HD.

You guys got a Blue Yeti? Or have you always had it out of sight before now? Love mine.

Solo monsters... yes, that is not entirely unproblematic. First game i ever ran was a pretty rough clone of 2nd edition system under a hereby not named license was a catastrophe. I doubt they ever playtested their material. It turned out that dragon attacks couldn't overcome plate armor with no specific regard about if such things as dragon breath being suspectible to damage reduction (complete negation in that case) or not, which kinda ruined the experience at its climax. After that game preperation changed, namely testing sample encounters before i actually run those in a game. That being said, Murphys Law and all, and i am not a slaugtherhouse DM by any stretch, but... ...sometimes things go south. A few fumbled rolls and the Frankenstein monster had party breakfast. And that wasn't even intended as a difficult encounter. We can add to that list a minor acid blob demon (very, very at the bottom of the power list when it comes to demonic entities) and... beholders? Antimagic abilities and Desintegrate? Lethal. Sometimes its just the lucky orc crit. *cough* It got so bad i even sorted out special die to hand them to put the players at an advantage when things got messy. Nothing beats having some low quality die around for such cases. ;) Thats why i like mosters such as the Froghemoth. Nothing beats a hunk of hitpoints which makes it really hard do get damage in. The idea is not to kill them but to get them to the "what was that???" point when things get too routine. And swallowed spellcasters do add a certain amount of tension, it has to be said. Especially for said spellcasters. Of course shutting down players really drags an encounter and such things should be used sparingly. The roots of this monster harkens probably back to the introduction of the first Trolls into D&D, wich is more or less the standart of this"hard to kill" variant. They are supposed to hack it apart, but they should have to put some efford in. Thats why for me personally a good callenge rating system, among lots of other things, is a good indicator for a well devised system. Player abilities will grow, of course. Anybody remembering the 3rd edition harm spell for clerics? From a story perspective the lone monster definetly has its place. Ultilizing environment or lair "abilities" for an encounter is an excellent concept. I am thinking about implementing Clark Aston Smith's "Dweller in the Gulf" into such an encounter. Maybe something less radical than removing eyes from their sockets but the concept seems pretty compatible (sorta a much more menacing version of an ant lion).

And then there was the final battle of Critical Role

What if the whole plan is having one great solo monster?

i made a scenario with a evil king(LE) in a magic throne with a magic crown...so when the party comes in after a campaign of traveling though his domain he will answer with. -about time (or something) them swarm them with guards and them i will have so the PC can hinder the flow bye barring the doors they are coming from and kill the army...this will go on until a player challenges the king in single man combat or until the king gets tired of them massacring his men...he will leave the chair that protected him completely and lock into a duel with the pc whom challenged him making his crown activating that stops him to be a target of any spell or effect by anyone else them the dueling target...so the team can help bye staying alive or buff that one pc so he can have a movement to shine. the crown is suposed to be calld(fore refernce ans stuff) the crown of the one king and the throne is refers to be his throne glowing runes ornaments it making it pretty clear first time a fighter charges with a meter of it that force damage might hurt..and spell shield to stop any spellcaster to get any pesky idea about hurting him in a duel or on the throne. the throne will not work fore the PC it isn't there chair, and the crown can only be activated if the player beats the king in single man combat and are crowned king bye a nation. lackeys and looks will defer depending on the campangen.

Unless it's a Tarrasque

Have any of you guys taken a look at the Paragon Stat Block for building bosses by TheAngryDM? theangrygm.com/return-of-the-son-of-the-dd-boss-fight-now-in-5e/ Awesome video!

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

Seb M. Is that where he makes multiple monsters into one monster sorta? Nerdarchist Dave

@sebm.5930

7 жыл бұрын

Yeah, the Infamous Two-Headed Two-Tailed Bifurcated Snake! But I've run with his ideas before - I ran a giant alligator with a few beefy stat bumps sporting two low-health but mean parasitic orchids that made grapple attacks with two vines each and puffed essence of ether at foes who got close. It was definitely well-received - had the cleric and barbarian pulling their hair out.

@kahzmodan1176

7 жыл бұрын

This was one I was literally about to post up mentioning. This effectively solves the biggest of issues for solo monsters, the "swarm" effect of action economy. The Paragon monster now has an action economy of multiple monsters, with several actions, reactions, and bonus actions each turn,, and TheAngryGM provides a few different ways it can be used. Having a creature get stronger as it loses hit point pools, gaining actions and such, or having start off super strong and being worn down, becoming weaker. One his specials introduced his boss fight dragon, a magma dragon (effectively) that actually went through the video game style form change each time it lost a hit point pool, losing certain abilities and gaining new ones as it progresses through forms. I've used the Paragon a couple of times in games so far, and it works wonderfully in fixing a lot of the problems a solo monster boss fight presents, and often keeps the players on their toes with just what the creature can do. Definitely recommend talking a closer look at this option as a homebrew way of handling things.

MASHED :(

Yeah action economy can be a bitch in this edition.

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

Ranger Roy Every edition. 4th and 5th are actually a little bit better about action economy, but it's still the purple gorilla in the room. Nerdarchist Dave

@rangerroy641

7 жыл бұрын

Matthew Colville did an excellent video about 4th edition and minions, however, you guys touched on this in this video.

@rangerroy641

7 жыл бұрын

Hey guys for your next movie plot, you do either Shakespeare's Henry V or Super troopers. Either one of those would be awesome. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead would be awesome too.

Love you guys, but he keeps saying Kraken wrong.lol. It's pronounced "Krah-ken" or "krack-en". It's never pronounced "Kray-ken".

@NathanRiggins

7 жыл бұрын

Listen long enough and we will pronounce everything wrong, at least twice for Dave.

NERDS!!!!