Professor! I’m stunned haha, I just finished editing a video that brings up the “cleaving through creatures” rule AND I also used two goblins for my example! Great minds, I guess 🍻

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

I finally beat YOU to the punch! I was editing my "hooks" video when you put out yours!

@deez4free

Жыл бұрын

You guys need to run a one shot together like Chris(treantmonk), Colby (d4) and the dungeon dudes Kelly and Monty did. Would be great to see your gameplay rules in action. Thank you both for putting out such greatly informative videos for us.

This has quickly become my favorite DnD channel

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

You have quickly become my favorite viewer!

@seekingfurtherlight34

Жыл бұрын

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 bwah, you said you looved me!

@Frederic_S

Жыл бұрын

More like TTRPG channel in my opinion. I am a 5$ patreon and I don’t play DnD at all.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

@@Frederic_S thanks for your support! Lots of stuff going up soon. Maybe later today.

@Frederic_S

Жыл бұрын

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 you are welcome and thank you for everything you already taught me.

0:35 #5: Damage follows through 1:15 #4 Hero points 2:58 #3 Proficiency dice 4:25 #2 Static initiative 5:18 #1 Average Damage for monsters

Rolling to Cast. Not a common rule but it works great, even in 5e.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

YES!

@MrSteveK1138

Жыл бұрын

I like doing that. Arcana skill check against DC of 8 plus x2 spell level (advantage if spell matches your magic school). And works best with proficiency dice.

@professorsimian1458

Жыл бұрын

Same, though I have my players just roll a d20 + spell mod vs DC (14 + relevant mod). Same probability as me rolling a save vs magical effects. Nat 20 doubles the effect, nat 1 is a misfire with consequeneces.

@absolstoryoffiction6615

Жыл бұрын

Kind of a bad rule... Mechanically speaking... It's like rolling per step for walking.

@GlacialScion

Жыл бұрын

@@absolstoryoffiction6615 It's like rolling to succeed at your combat action.

Mine is the Overrun mechanic, as a DM with a couple of players who like to stay well behind their tanky teammates.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Cool!

@Loki-

Жыл бұрын

Never heard of this! I'm adding it!

The idea of average damage speeds up the game. Another that I like is giving monsters either minimum hp or maximum hp. If an encounter is trivial give those Orcs minimum hit points so the fight is faster. If an encounter is epic give that Orc Chieftain and his body guards maximum hit points so the fight goes a few rounds. It's far better than average hp and less time consuming than rolling individual hp.

@opaqued2039

Жыл бұрын

I've done this one, and it works for me as well. Solid advice.

@ryanreeves4712

Жыл бұрын

One thing I’ve started doing is either rounding hits to nearest 5 up or down and it avrg out over a fight or just not even tracking actual hp for mooks and just track number of times they’ve been hit over a toughness level. Say orc mook can take 2 hits as long as the hit does more then 5 damage and a crit takes them out in one hit. Then orc mook veteran takes 4 hits over 5 damage or two crits. Then the boss has an hp pool I track. More or less taking the principal 4e minions and ranking them up

@keithkannenberg7414

Жыл бұрын

I've never rolled monster hit points. As DM I can just choose the values I want using the hit dice range as a guide (not a hard and fast guide either).

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Cool ideas. Thanks!

@danielinthewolvesden

Жыл бұрын

Good for mooks, not for BBEG.

I know one rule to few people seem to use: The official 5e rules are just guidelines. The dungeon master always has the last saying.

@johnstuartkeller5244

Жыл бұрын

That's right, the rules are basically the Pirate Code.

@jasongunstone3212

Жыл бұрын

Agreed. Even using modules I always add some stuff or skip some stuff

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

YEP

@The-0ni

Жыл бұрын

“The Dungeon Master always has the last saying” It just baffles me how players love to argue against the DM though after they’ve put their foot down because the players want their house rule.

@darrylhodgson8764

Жыл бұрын

A GM who is consistent in their "rulings," applying them to the PC's and monsters alike will have a great "party!"

Superb as always, Professor! Deathbringer's comment at the end was a real blast from the past! ;) I do think your suggestions are good; however, on occasion, I do think DMs rolling dice for damage can be a suspenseful moment. One of my favorite things is a particular mechanic called the "exploding dice" rule, which I'm sure you've heard of, for certain either very strong enemies or particular magical weapons that are something of a gamble to use, where if one rolls the max on a die, one rolls it again, and can continue doing so until that winning streak is broken. It can mean on one round, an enemy gets 3 points of damage on a d6, and then the next round, they can get a 33 if the rolling streak is good! We see heroes suddenly unlock the inherent magic in a weapon or item, or their own "inner strength" as the crux of so many narratives...why might one of their enemies not have the same chance on occasion? It certainly ups the stakes, and for higher-level encounters (I'm currently playing a campaign in which the characters started at 10th level so that they could face very difficult and interesting opponents and actually stand to die much easier!), it can add that incentive to, perhaps, resolve certain encounters via other means than combat, which is my preferred method anyway. ;) New School in NYC? One of my friends is an alum of there, actually! That's awesome that their mascot is the Narwhals! When I was at Sarah Lawrence in the mid-to-late-90s, we voted on the mascot because they finally got an athletic center, and we decided on the Griffins, which was my own vote out of the options given! Hurrah for classic mythical creatures as mascots for a liberal arts college! ;)

Great video. I am one of those DMs that is resistant to average damage, but you make some great points for using it. I gripe a lot about WotC products, but you just highlighted one of the best parts of their DMG: Mechanical ideas/options that DMs can implement (or use as inspiration for their own ideas) to make the game their own. To me, there is something great about each group or DM having their own home-brew mechanics and/or style, making the experience unique to each table.

@ryanreeves4712

Жыл бұрын

One thing I do is have multiple numbers for damage so if I match ac or close to ac it does avrg -3 if it’s over that it does avrg if I roll a 17-19 on the dice it does avrg +3 same thing with like saves so if the make the save by a lot they take 1/4 damage and if they fail by a lot then they take more then avrg. I also like to run almost purely homebrew monsters and this lets me really hone down to how much damage I’m in avrg putting out a round and really control the difficulty of a fight instead of ooops rolled Max damage on this 2d12 I guess the regular hit does 80% of your hp. I still roll damage for boss fights out in the open to add more impact and tension to the fights. I’ve noticed that once I’ve started to do this style of pre damage math I can start adding more special abilities like for example my hobgoblins being very much based off hoplites and shield walls of the old I give them +1 damage and ac for every other hobgoblin they are next to with a shield and spear. This allows me to make sure the damage is in the window I want while adding flavor to where the damage comes from while not having to stress about rolling high in dice and having fights spiral to fast

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

The best stuff in that DMG is that section. It's all the wild stuff they were afraid was too far out--but a lot of it made it into other games.

Average hit is clutch for saving time. Static Initiative for monsters is a really great idea- a bonus from that is since AC is mostly built off of dex, you can use initiative order to communicate AC to players.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Crawford probably picked that up from Warhammer--he worked on 2nd Ed.

I use Proficiency Dice on weapon damage rolls. It levels up damage and is a bit of an equaliser. A dagger stabbed to the hilt is not much different than a sword, at least in a human. And yes, a nat20 doubles those dice too 😎

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Cool!

The thing I love about your videos, and I feel you summarize best here, is to take all kinds of inspiration to keep the game more exciting and fun for my players. Thanks for all the great ideas.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Thank YOU for watching!

I play on RPOL and I have an initiative rule similar to Crawfords - the baddies have a static initiative. Players that beat the initiative get to act before the monsters, then the monsters act, then everyone acts, then the monsters act etc. Play by Post kind of benefits from less opportunities for players to be waiting around to do stuff. This way, Initiative becomes a kind of 'save' that they have to make to get the drop on the baddies. When monsters would be likely to surprise the players, players roll with disadvantage. Fast. Fun and keeps the post-rates up.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Cool!

I played in a game once where a DM had a list of all hits, and damage pre-rolled and then read them off in order for each combat. It made things run a lot smoother. He also had a list of pre-generated NPC names so he could quickly reference it and move on.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Wise GM.

@josephbradshaw6985

Жыл бұрын

Ah yes. Ye Olde Name Lyst. A must have.

@josephbradshaw6985

Жыл бұрын

@@canaryinacoalmine1759 Yet, somehow, my name list says it right there at the top, "Ye Olde Name Lyst". 🙂

@KnightsoftheRedDragon

Жыл бұрын

And yet Ye Olde is still fun, also the e is silent so I mean its actually The Old, but thats even less fun when being silly and imaginary. :P

@michaelfoye1135

Жыл бұрын

Excellent. Glad to see that I'm not the only one.

I think the best thing about proficiency dice is you just have one less modifier to add and remember to add. Also love the damage follow through. Definitely gives that Conan the Barbarian feel.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Yup!

@jaykobstorey4789

Жыл бұрын

How is adding a number on the die any easier than adding a static number for proficiency?

@happy911

Жыл бұрын

@@jaykobstorey4789 How is adding a static number easier then rolling an extra die? Definitely sounds less fun...

Encumbrance and Ammo count rules are my favourite! Your ranges characters can’t carry tons of arrows and very quickly run out. Really adds to the drama and the encounters. Also keeps the Armour classes to a less crazy level.

@JimMonsanto

Жыл бұрын

Angry GM made an excellent point about ammo counting rules: it's the price you pay for not being up front, risking being hit by the baddies. Yes, you get to stay safely behind cover, pop out and shoot, but only so many times. It's not fair to the guy with the sword, taking all the damage in combat that you just have infinite ammo. I like his compromise system, though, that helps make it easier: you only mark off a hit (arrow ruined in body), or a crit fail (arrow lost over somewhere where it can be found, or maybe busted against a rock, or whatever). Then, regardless of however many arrows you shot, you must buy a new quiverfull when you get back to a town. You don't mark off a non-critical miss because it's just assumed that you recover the arrow after the fight.

@krispalermo8133

Жыл бұрын

I started with AD&D2ndE along with TMNT d% skill base system and Whitewolf/World of Darkness(WoD) vampire which had one hit kill rules. AD&D had optional rules of weapon speed initiative modifier rules along with, Call shot hit locations, and Weapon type vs Armor type, where crossbows gain a +4 to hit plate armor. Problem heavy crossbows take nearly forever to load along for best speed heavy crossbows takes two people to crank load within time. Or by the time the crossbow guy reloads for a second shot, melee is over. Back in the early 1990's there was a bit of Vietnam era war books to read through along with history programs. They was a light anti-aircraft cannon that require four men to carry and six men to carry a single minute worth of ammo to defeat themselves against Chinese Mig air support bombings. So we created a giant heavy crossbow that took four men to crack load and six men to hold down the recoil. It was an ambush weapon that did constitution dmg to dragons and giants. So you had a dozen adventures carrying the G.H.Xbow in parts and took around ten minutes to set up. Also we did WEG west end games Star Wars d6 rpg, where we ran mortar teams taking out walkers. Then WotC 3rdE D&D/Star Wars came out, .. Star Wars magazine Prestige class : Sharp Shooter snipper one hit kill rules. 2.) Other jokes I seen and heard over the years, seen a video where they stated a heavy crossbow hits with the same amount of kinetic impact force of a .45 within 30yards. Excuse me, but a crossbow bolt has a larger mass diameter is thicker than a .45 so you have a larger hole in the other guy's chest. A video I seen where they took a block of ballistic gel, put padded armor on it then cover with plate armor, topping it off with a melon and great helm. Well part of the reason armor works is the target is moving so full force of the weapon can not make complete contact. Well the target was just sitting there, .. the bolt struct the breast plate then snap off and the splitter shaft implied into the face of the helmet. After the shot they pick up the helmet with the melon within dripping juice and nailed together with a piece of wood and the metal bolt head was buried nearly 4in through the sternum into the heart. So it was a double hit kill. Best make Fort save vs mass dmg, follow up with two spells of Cure Critical Wounds. Also a heavy crossbow hits with the same amount of force as receiving a punch from Mike Teson to your head holding a screwdriver, the difference is the bolt is moving x3 faster than what Mike can punch. If target is Flanked and Flate-Footed allowing rogues to make use of their Sneak Attack dmg, bows and crossbows are murder weapons when factoring initiative to dodge attacks.

I am a big fan of using average damage for monsters as a GM. It’s much more efficient. As a tip though, there are a lot of players that enjoy the uncertainty from damage rolls. If you’ve got a couple of those at your table, you can roll a d4 and add or subtract it from the average damage to simulate that uncertainty without much of a time cost.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Good idea.

@anthonynorman7545

Жыл бұрын

I'll normally base it on how much they beat the AC by

@hodgepodgesyntaxia2112

Жыл бұрын

@@anthonynorman7545 That’s a fantastic idea.

@futuza

Жыл бұрын

I tend to use average damage for mooks, but not bosses. I feel like to players that uncertainty from damage rolls is more desired when the boss is doing the damage vs the minions. Eg: casting disintegrate, vs what happens when a couple of skeletons stab you.

I've got one gripe with the monster initiative rule and that is whenever there are more than 5 of the same typee of monster in a combat encounter, I feel that having them all act on the same initiative leads to some potentially crazy nova damage. I always divide enemies that are the same type into groups of 5. it's much faster than rolling each monster individually and trying to track that, but at the same time it prevents 20 goblin archers from all shooting at the same time and doing up to 100 damage to that poor unlucky player who is the one guy who got spotted a the start of the combat encounter.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Solid advice.

The follow-through is potentially huge for horde fights, sharing that rule alone would have made this video worth it! Many thanks for sharing these. I swear I read the DMG but I seem to have forgotten every rule in that dang book.

@moritzhackl2575

Жыл бұрын

Kinda strong if you use 1HP minions tho

@digitaljanus

Жыл бұрын

@@moritzhackl2575 MCDM's minion rules still treat minions as having their full hit point pool for the purposes of follow-through or hit point targeting spells like Sleep.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

That's why I exist. Thanks!

MVP. At the end of each session, each player must chose other player as the MPV and give a reason for it. The player chosen gets 5xp extra. This helps players to give feedback to each other and have an incentive to pay attention and contribute to the game.

This is great! I’m going to be using most of these when I run my first game next week! Thanks!

I have always used the first rule, usually splitting the damage dealt to affect more than one target, and we now use Deathbringer Dice, although you only get one. But I have a house rule, "A good description of your action is better than a good dice roll" which is adjudicated ad hoc, and this gets the player's creative juices flowing. We use the Moldvay edition of the rules and having that d6 Deathbringer Dice to absorb some damage can sometimes, but not always save you.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Moldvay! You will like our 2023 content, I guarantee you.

I like rolling damage for monsters. I'm not in a rush when at a playing table so a little more variation in monster damage is just fine with me. I could imagine using it in a one-shot or a game with strict time limit (convention). But my players and I enjoy the "outsch! That really hurt!" or "Phew, that's just a scratch!" - moments when the damage is rolled.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

If it works for you, I'm all for it.

@Frisbeehat

Жыл бұрын

The current campaign I'm in, our DM started out using average damage which was fine since the combat encounters frequently had many little (or not so little) mooks that may or may not be led by a miniboss, but as we've progressed in the story and levels lately we only have one small-scale, intense combat encounter per session so averaging hasn't been necessary. On one side it does help the dm save time and brain power for high enemy counts or sessions with multiple combat encounters, and as a player it certainly helps speed along the enemy turns back to us. That said, when each hit does pretty much the same amount of damage, or exactly the same damage, it's REALLY hard to not feel gamey (I know it's technically a game, but experiencing a campaign that isn't combat-centric for the first time feels more like a story we're helping the narrator/writer tell through and with us). When combat isn't frequent, and/or enemy counts are reasonably low, and when a particular combat encounter is supposed to be meaningful, for these I would argue against average damage. At the end of the day though, yeah do what works best for you and your group.

@jenschristensen1774

Жыл бұрын

@@Frisbeehat I agree and will add, that now my players are level 8 and I often need larger groups of enemies, I tend to use 2-3 different types reskinned to look alike. The different attacks, feats and AC's are not that hard to keep track of, and the players are highly entertained when an enemy does something unexpected.

10' Pole! 10' Pole! 10' Pole! OMG. That brought a tear to my eye. Ah, nostalgia. 😃 Thanks!

Following PinkDiceGM a bit, I award hero dice on any Nat 1. You can have a total amount equal to your proficiency bonus and you can use them on ANY dice roll, but only one at a time. When you are awarded the hero die for rolling a Nat 1 in combat a "neutral negative" complication is added to the encounter. These vary greatly but I try to weight them in neither the enemy or the party's favor, but still to some detriment. Keeps me on my toes and creates epic and interesting encounters.

Yes it's a little more bookkeeping, but I'm not too interested in running or playing in a campaign without variant encumbrance. (Maybe a one-shot would be okay). I use variant encumbrance for several reasons, one is versimilitude and trying to create a believable setting, and another is for game balance because I want there to be drawbacks if someone dumpstats an ability score.

@Reaver34567

Жыл бұрын

I agree. Same reason I don't use 'group initiative', because it allows the DEX dumper more slack.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Very cool.

@opaqued2039

Жыл бұрын

I also like encumbrance for the verisimilitude (love that word) and to add a little depth in the game. As a player, I'm also that nerd that likes the bookkeeping. As a DM, my favorite part is when the players discover a massive treasure hoard and cannot possibly get (most of) it back. "I told you we should have bought some mules.." I probably shouldn't get as much joy out of that as I do...oh well, it's the little things in life. I love the follow up quests that occur when they go back to get the means to transport the treasure and then return.

That video quality is finally matching the advice quality. Keep it up prof!

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Thank you. The video quality will jump around. I have 5+ episodes with the old camera in the tank.

I have tried static initiative, but I don't like it because it tends to create walls of activity. When all the monsters are scattered through the players' turns it means the DM is acting for a minute or 2 at a time, but when you're using static initiative a whole pack of wolves will end up moving all at once, causing a big pause while the DM plays out half the game. This might work if you have a group that's okay waiting for a bit while the DM builds tension, but if you're worried that someone's going to start looking at their phone, or that two players are gonna get bored and start goofing around, a wall of DM activity is a surefire way to derail an encounter.

I’ve added the damage overrun on critical hits and my players loved it! Love your content!

Background Proficiency instead of set skills is my favorite. Instead of having your skills limited to just the (I think it is) 19 WoTC predetermined, your character can be skilled in anything you can think of, so long as you can describe it in your background.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

yes! Great rule. Made it into Shadow of the Demon Lord (R. Schwalb worked on both)

Always glad to hear and see ideas to breath life into my own games. Some great ones here!

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing!

Love the cleaving through creatures rule. We always used this one. Static Initiative I like.

I use spell points. They make more sense than spell slots to me, but they can have unintended consequences. For example, I limited paladins to 1 smite per round, because spell points makes using midrange smites easier. I also use static initiative - but I give martial classes, rogues, and monks proficiency in initiative (as well as carnivores and stabby type monsters like orcs and goblins).

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Cool!

Top rule nobody uses in 5e but should definitely be used in 5e is taking 10-breaking up combat and exploration so that out of combat, actions are done narratively in 10 minute increments. Exploring a room, checking for traps, scouting ahead, all the non-combat things that get hand-waved away as players gallop from one room to another riding roughshod over the game master’s carefully prepared dungeon. Yeah, you can make a dungeon super-lethal to stop players moving at combat-speed through exploration, but having ten minute increments slows down that progression and makes every room matter without creating an antagonistic GM-player relationship. Of course, that means that the GM has to fill every room with content, but that’s fine-we like doing that anyway. Another mechanic to add on to this is the old school wandering monster table, where each 10 minute block adds 1 to the d6 roll. On a 6, a wandering monster appears. So delving multiple rooms without taking 10 to rest, reset stealth, or avoid detection with spells makes it more likely monsters will appear. Dungeon delvers should be slow, methodical, and SILENT as much as possible. Like the Mines of Moria, too much activity wakes the Balrog.

@NefariousKoel

Жыл бұрын

Nice. As for the wandering monster and a roll of 6, with +1 for each additional block of time, you could also do something else to cut down on bookkeeping for it. Add a d6, for each additional block, into the running dice pool. Roll that d6 dice pool when needed and keep it sitting to the side in the meantime, growing each time block. When one of the dice roll a 6, it's a random encounter. Don't have to keep track of the +'s. Set it back to 1 die when resetting and start upward again.

@TheLyricalCleric

Жыл бұрын

@@NefariousKoel Love it! I’ve always been enamored with the Momentum and Threat mechanics of the 2d20 system by Modiphius, although it doesn’t work as well in DnD. I like the leveling and character growth mechanics of DnD, but having that threat pool growing by a D6 is great for offering a growing danger/possibility of being spotted. I think there would have to be a limited action pool to reduce threat, such as using up an inspiration die. Having it be governed by in-game mechanics might make threat easily bypassed. I think the new 1dnd inspiration mechanic could be paired well with the threat pool!

I used to use the avg HIT number when we played at the table, and I loved it. Now that my group is all online, VTT's auto calculate all those things for us now.

I use the old school method of d6 rolls to determine who sets off a trap. Most traps a 1 or 2 would work and it is assumed that the players enter the room in their marching order. If someone searches a door or furniture for a trap and fail I roll a d6 to determine whether they have set off the trap in the process of searching for it. I also do a 10 minute interval for wandering monsters. At slow speed (which requires no stealth rolls to travel through the dungeon undetected) the party can travel 50 feet per minute, room searches take 10 minutes, lock picking takes 1d10 minutes on a success but 10 minutes on a fail, searching furniture or a door for traps takes 5 minutes, searching bodies for treasure takes 2 minutes etc. I also use passive perception or perception checks for simple traps and investigation checks for complex traps (as Moldvay probably intended when he included 2 different ways of searching for traps) and the dice results are not seen by the player to prevent metagaming. I also use the old monster reaction table and morale checks table to determine how the monsters behave.

Couple thoughts: melee going through is 100% going on my next game and I've literally read it and still never remember hearing it's existence. Luck Dice is great but who is surprised by that DM Scotty is the man. Average monster damage is icky, and they probably use it during playtesting because it's intent is to make sure things are balanced as can reasonably be expected over many many playthroughs (aka taking the average is the best way to fake having done it many times).

I love that luck dice concept. One of the things I've seen put off new players is getting screwed over by a run of bad rolls, having something to counteract the frustration of failure is such a good concept I kindof think it should be in the base game. From a dramatic standpoint it works too, picture it: a hero is in a desperate fight for their life, the enemy is only one shot away from defeat but they have to make a 1 in a million hit. Their first attacks misses, they wind up for another attack, it misses. The enemy is about to get away! At the last possible second the hero scores a miraculous hit.(by spending all their luck die) Very reminiscent of Bard hitting the single missing scale of Smaug in the Hobbit.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Yep. My son just rolled four 3s!

One thing i did to save taime during game was pre-rolling initiative for monsters during prep. one roll per monster type. Gain the time saving during the game but keep the inpredictability of when the monsters are going to go. I also like to DM with a laptop. So i use a digital inititative traker where i can quickly write the initiatives for each player and have the program sort them for me instead of asking arround by thresholds i just ask one by one their score and put the numbers in. I have prepared multipe lists before the game, with the initiatives for the monsters pre-punched. I can also quickly create a new one or add new monsters to one while the characters are rolling initiative. Even while playing in person, digital tools can help a lot.

Another great video PDM. I use the Damage follow through rule but I'll definitely try the others now too. You've opened my mind to using avg. damage for monsters lol. I'll try it in my next session

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Cool!

I’ve fallen in love with Flanking giving a +1 to hit. It still gives you the more dynamic combats without giving the over the top bonus of advantage. I’ve run 4 campaigns with it and all my players have loved it

Aloha Professor DungeonMaster - First time commenter, long time watcher. I absolutely love your videos - I like that they are short and focused pieces on reviews, rules, predictions, and table stories. I learn something new (or maybe something I forgot) every time - just as I learned about the follow-through hits in combat if you kill one monster and have extra damage. One other general piece of feedback on Deathbringer: when I first started watching, I used to skip the opening comments by Deathbringer to subscribe, buy my T-shirt, don't forget to recycle, etc... but slowly, his wit and charm won me over. Perhaps it was the love advice episode he did and the life-changing effect it had on me. Now I cannot wait for his hot takes on the current topic, deep thoughts on one DnD, favorite sonnets, and why the kids these days don't have to roll their own dice uphill to the DnD game in the snow like we did... and I definitely want to buy his T-shirt. Thanks again for everything you do for the community!

Another great video. I'm ramping up to run my first campaign in 5E, and some of these rules I had seen in the DMG. I think I will go ahead and implement some of them. Follow through and hero dice are great. I was already planning on going with the average damage, or varying it up and down , but glad to see I'm not the only one with that idea.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing!

Be it hero points, luck dice or burning luck/spellburn in DCC the game needs some mechanic to bump your probability up in crucial moments. Nobody remembers cool stories where you ALMOST made a roll.

I didn't even realize "cleaving through" was an optional rule, but I have done this inadvertently on many occasions.

I love the proficiency dice rule, but static damage for monsters? I'm not sold; I prefer the tension that comes up when the PCs are low on hit points, and genuinely can't predict if they'll still be standing after the orc swings its axe... I don't find the expediency worth the trade-off. If we're talking mass combat, on the other hand, with dozens or scores of mooks firing volleys of arrows at the PCs, I could be persuaded to use the faster variant, but for a brawl on roughly equal (we all know it's not *actually* equal) footing, I'm rolling for damage. More exciting for everyone.

@B.-T.

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Also shouldn't we DMs also get to enjoy rolling all those clickety-clackers?

@BrazenBard

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@@B.-T. That, too.

I use my own Dungeon initiative: At start of dungeon/session the players roll normal 5e style. It stays that way. I roll the monsters in 3 tiers: Fodder, Specials, Boss. We reroll only if the characters get a rest or if it’s a new session in same dungeon. ‘Boss’ needn’t be the boss of the whole dungeon, it could just be the biggest threat in the room. ‘Fodder’ is minions and ‘special’ if there’s something in between Example: cragmaw cave. I roll 3 d20, Klaarg takes the highest 17, Yeemik and the vicious wolves take 13, while all the lazy,sniveling underling gobbos take a 4. This has been very helpful in my long running online game for 7 players

Variant encumbrance is my favorite unused rule. It really makes players seek out items to reduce weight. My players were thrilled to find a Bag of Endless rope, or a ring which stored 1000 coins. Lighter armor is routinely used; we have a Paladin in leather armor who still has a 21 AC with his high DEX build, a shield, and Ring of Protection; he uses his stealth all the time.

A DM I know has reservation about Proficiency Dice on the policy of 'If you aren't prepared for making rulings regarding results of 35+, don't use Proficiency Dice'.

I didnt know until today how much i needed to hear deathbringer say "Rice o Roni"

Since watching your channel over time I use YOUR suggested: Group Initiative, Player Facing Attacks, and Average Damage

I would say the two big ones are with crits damage is maxed plus an additional roll instead of simply rolling dice twice and flanking. The fact that enemies also use these rules in a lot of game I played in also makes things more interesting.

The DMG is such an incredible resource full of super-cool ideas.

Great video. All of these are good suggestions, particularly in a 4-5 player game. But there are some considerations for each that DM's might want to consider: FOLLOW THOUGH MELEE DAMAGE: One concern might be additional damage from things like sneak attack and smite. I might add the stipulation that the conditions required can be met with the follow up attack. So for sneak attack, they have to be surprised or adjacent to an ally. For smite, if you took the bonus for being undead, fiend, etc, that all opponents are of a type that gives you the bonus. HERO POINTS: This is something that is adding dice and math to calculations which (like rolling damage) slows the game down. Granted, it the dice and math aren't going to be on every roll, but it's still there. It's also another resource to manage and take into consideration during a player's action. A cool rule, but something to consider. PROFICIENCY DICE: This is another thing which requires additional dice and math. Unlike Hero Points, this affects almost all die rolls. STATIC MOSTER INITIATIVE: Not really much of a problem here, other than maybe the resulting bunching of initiative. When one side goes all at once, there are fewer opportunities to react to what's going on in a combat. Characters might whirlwind through a fight before any opponents have a chance to respond resulting in an anticlimactic fight, or the players could roll poorly and opponents might swarm a character and off him before anyone has a chance to heal or position against their advance. This is something that is more of a problem the larger your group is. AVERAGE DAMAGE FOR MONSTERS: I will likely be using this when we return to an actual tabletop. Using a VTT, the VTT does the rolling and calculations, so there really isn't a time cost associated with rolling the dice and doing the math. I run a large game (8 players), and with more players in a combat, I need to use more (or bigger) monsters to challenge them. I might still reserve rolling dice for big enemies ... bosses and lieutenants, that kind of thing. But I think this will help a lot.

I'm using bunch of home rules that been picked from various places: 1) Nat 1 fail attack - if someone (monster or characters) rolls Nat 1 on their attack any nearby (in 5 ft.) creature might use their reaction to attack that creature. 2) Size prerequisits for flanking. Depending on a size of target, it requires different ammount of people to effectively flank it: - Tiny / Small size target could be flanked by 2 and more creatures - Medium size target requires 3 - Large / Huge requires 4 creatures for flanking 3) Potions could be used with bonus action, if target uses them on itself. If someone trying to use potion of other creature it uses action. These 3 home rules are my must have in any campaign that I DMing.

I think they should do Hero Points like The One Ring: you lose one every other level. High-level characters are heroic enough. The scrappy low-level ones succeed because they have been chosen by destiny. (Also, back in the day you never went into a dungeon with a ten-foot pole. A ten-foot ladder was cheaper and made two poles once you'd removed the rungs.)

I only get to run a game every once in awhile when our regular DM can't or not everyone in the group can make it. I certainly appreciate anything that speeds up the experience so I can cram as much in as possible. Average damage, HP in blocks of 5 (or just saying a monster will die after X amount of good hits), and fixed initiatives are perfect for me.

I'll add one I just recently rediscovered by accident: Slower Natural Healing in the DMG. Instead of getting HP back on a Long Rest, you just get Hit Dice and can spend them, meaning it will take multiple long rests to get back up to full HP. I like so much I had already half-incorporated it into my house rules for my next game. But now I can back it up that its an official option and I'm not just being a dick!

Translatable Proficiencies ... I've played with a lot of Scouts, EMTs, engineers, ... people with actual skills that translate (somewhat) well to Medieval period. Scouts generally get proficiency bonuses for things using ropes, or rowing boats and canoes, orienteering, administering first aid to a character, etc. You get the idea.

We run critical hits as "max of the damage dice plus a roll of the damage dice plus modifiers". Offsets the bummer of getting a critical hit and rolling all ones

Passive Checks exist in 5e already, which is the same thing as "static initiative" as it's exactly the same mechanic, and the rule in the PHB for Passive Checks can be applied to Initiative Checks (as with any other mechanics applying to Ability Checks) as they are simply a type of Dexterity Check...

I've used hero points differently, we cap at three, you can't use on damage rolls, only skill and attack rolls, and you declare before you use them and they give a flat +8. You start with one and at the end of each session the party votes on who rp'd the best or save everyone in a fight or had a significant impact and they get one at the end of the session. I've also given them out if I felt a player really did something selfless or shot themselves in the foot by playing in character. Works great in my group.

I created a Feat to put Hero Points on the dndb-sheets of my players. Great success!

Converting the B/X reaction table to 2d10 (to account for the wider attribute modifier spread for CHA) has been the best change for 5e.

Mallormars, Rice-A-Roni, and Mr. Belvedere - Classic! But wait . . . no Turtle Wax? 😆

Average damage is nice, but I still enjoy rolling for some damaging abilities (dragon breath...) with "Oh, I'm gonna need more dice for this". It's mildly satisfying to see the players realize what they are really up against when they hear rattling of all those d8s (their characters knew it all along) and that stakes are real.

my fav is the follow through damage! i have 2 martial class players and they would hack through swathes of enemies, it's incredibly cinematic and feels awesome!

One way we have been increasing the "threat" of monsters to the PCs is by giving the PCs a number of Hit Dice based on the Proficiency Chart. So a 1st Level character will have two Hit Dice, and a 20th Level character will have just 6 Hit Dice. We DO reduce spell damages a bit to compensate, but using the smaller numbers really does help to speed up combat. Another rule we have been using is the MODIFIED Proficiency System. Now, having No Proficiency gives you DISADVANTAGE on any task. Having a *Basic Proficiency will allow you a normal roll (modified by Characteristic bonuses) BUT you do NOT get to add your Proficiency Bonus to the roll as you only practice that skill just enough to avoid the penalty. *Martial Proficiency (for weapons) or Expertise does add your Proficiency Bonus to it. So casters get only Basic Proficiency with their weapons which means that the group's Martials will be better in combat due to their Proficiency Bonus added to the attack roll. *Under this system, weapons no longer have a Proficiency Rating (ie you have basic or martial weapons). Instead, you now have Proficiency based on your class and things like a club or dagger can be used with either a Basic Proficiency level or a Martial Proficiency level.

PC's (or monsters) under the spell Bless: +2 to attack rolls and saving throws. Monsters (or PC's) under Bane: -2 to attack rolls and saving throws. Attack rolls in normal darkness (with darkvision): disadvantage. Attack rolls in normal darkness (without darkvision): you can't target what you can't see.

This is not an official rule, and I've posted it on a previous comment, but doggone it, it's a house rule I really love. Essentially, every creature has "hits" equal to their hp/5. And when a player rolls damage, 1-5 does 1 hit, 6-10 does 2 hits, 11-15 does 3 hits, and so on. This makes all actual hits do some significant amount of damage, so there's actually a point to throwing a dart.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

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I am working on a similar rule. My thought was a roll a d20 and add your bonus. If you get 20+, you score 2 hits. Otherwise, all blows score 1.

PDM perfect video, great job! Super production values and very useful gaming tips.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

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Thank you!

I have my players roll their attack and damage dice at the same time. This saves a lot of time. I also have critical hits do max damage, including magic weapon and Strength or Dexterity bonuses, added to what the original dice damage does.

These are really good, still reading my DM guide and I am in chapter 5 but these tools from the kit chapter 9 seem very cool

I wonder if you could have a momentum system for monster damage. +/- 2 would give some flexibility to boring, fixed monster damage. Did they get hit last round? -1 Did they hit last round? +1 Did a companion go out of action last round? -1 Did a PC go out of action last round? +1.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

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You could. Warhammer 1st has similar mechanic. It's a bit crunchy for me, but you might dig it!

To be fair, there is a grim satisfaction seeing the look on players' faces when you have to dip into your DM bag to grab those extra d6s to roll for that fireball damage. MWA-HA-HA!

Damage follows through is such a great rule to speed up 'minion-based' encounters

I don't know how many use the flanking rules from 5e DMG but it makes melee combat way more tactical and it buffs rogues and swarms of small creatures. Especially if after a target is flanked, any additional melee attacks on that target are also at advantage. Suddenly a kobold swarm is a real threat. Another great rule is, if you get knocked down to zero hp but survive, roll on the Lingering Injury table. Scars or missing limbs are great PC dressing.

In my game everyone had one mulligan per session. You could use this to reroll hits, initiative, damage or give it to another player and they could use it to force me to reroll as well. This works out very well defensively to survive critical hits.

The Hero Points thing seems to be based on the OCR D20 Star Wars' Force Points which was reworked for Ebberron in 3.5

I like system shock. I know you tend to prefer a more rules-light game, but there's something very satisfying about stunning an enemy or even instantly dropping them to zero with one lucky hit. Basically, if a single hit deals more than half of a target's HP, they have to make a CON save. If they fail, there's a chart of random effects that can punish them. Lose a turn, disadvantage on attacks next turn, or even just dropping to zero immediately.

Some interesting ideas I think flanking should always be used especially for monsters it will make the PCs think before charging into melee

@adamjchafe

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If you are on a grid, it's an excellent rule. Players love it as well.

Great stuff as always Prof DM! As an old timer who started with the same Basic as you back in the day, I always get something out your presentations-though I give credit to Deathbringer for personal safety 8>D Thanks as usual! P.S.- 10 foot poles are still as much a mainstay as Beef-A-Roni on game night

Me Belvedere! Oh man... You are truly a man of my generation.. "Dungeon Craft... Come for the advice, Stay for his ad campaigns!"

Liked and subscribed for the quality content. Commenting entirely because of the Mr. Belvedere shout out. Second best TV butler of all time, right after Benson.

This was very helpful... my group has twin barbarians, a brother and sister that use matching double headed battle axes ... l know they will love Rule#5... thank you.

I've only used it in a couple sessions, but I really like the speed factor initiative variant. I think it keeps everyone on their toes.

Loved this episode. You're the channel to watch for great advice on running D&D of any variety. By the way I loved your Deathbringer Deep Thoughts for today. Mr. Belvedere ad promo was hilarious and totally unexpected.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

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Thanks. Share the video with those you love. Or are mildly friendly with.

I had a system that used something like hero points. You get two d4s a session. You may add them to any d20 roll that you feel like you need a little extra luck on. If you succeed on both, you get a third (this is to encourage players NOT to leave them on the board, gotta leave time to use the third). There were some flaws and I retired the system, but when it worked right it was a lot of fun.

Wonderful. Had no idea about some of these. I really like the carry over damage and the barbarians would too ;D

i agree those 5 are very useful rules! The Skill Die also fix the high level rogue problem that he can't fail almost impossible tasks (10 + 5 + 6x2 = 27 minimum, not counting magic items and talents). I use a variant of crawfford initative since almost ten years, the difference is that the players roll each round of combat to beat the initative DC to be in the first group, then monsters act, then second group players act. A new variant im tring these days is HP like 4e edition to reduce HP inflation, cos mod is used essentially for hit dice in short rests, while first level character have the whole cos score + class as starting hp, gaining ONLY class hp bonus each level up

Something that I like doing is going halfway on the "hits" instead of hp: We keep the hp values but we give weapons and spells set damage just like the monsters, instead of rolling. gives you some of the hits benefits while keeping the variation in strength between different damage sources

I dislike average damage, but you are still 100% right about it! Maybe the players get to choose which to take? Like a gambling thing. Use average damage. At any time a player gets hit they can say "Roll it!" in the hopes of a low damage roll. Monster crits always do double average damage.

I've been using a version of static initiative where I just use the monsters dex score. Also been using average damage. It's made combat move much more quickly and we love it. Highly recommend.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

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Thanks! Pass this video along!

I roll in the open for damage and the players love the tension. They cheer when I roll low. It takes 3-4 seconds to do it and really adds to the fun. I tried average damage and even tried it in solo play and it just doesn't speed things up and it makes the game feel more mechanical instead of unpredictable.

I've thought about using both the proficiency dice before and recently the average damage.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

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Go for it!

This is a homebrew I use. You get max hitpoints at levels 1-3 instead of just level 1. It just makes low level play less deadly, and the players do a lot more fun things when they aren't constantly worried that a couple hits are going to kill them.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

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If it works for you, it's all good!

The Follow Through rule is one I am applying immediately to my group.

The game I must recently ran used static to-hit numbers from monsters, so the players did all the rolling. I also then changed the rolls to be based off Reflex saves (or Fortitude of you're using a shield), and had armor provide damage reduction. I might go ahead and have monster damage be static as well, since the armor's reduction is now the variable in question.

A player will receive one inspiration point on any occasion where they provide the Dungeon Master with a Tunnock’s Teacake.

I have not run D&D for a while now, but when I did I used the Monster Initiative rule and the Standard Damage rule for all my "mook" bad guys. The monster initiative just speeds everything up, same with the standard damage. It also let the players kind of strategies based on damage output for the monsters (and I'd occasionally boost it or lower it depending on the narrative situation). The only time I mixed it up was for the main villains. If I wanted a bit more high fantasy feel I'd skip crits for mooks as well and only allow the big bad villains or a particularly dangerous (mid boss) bad guy (like a dragon or giant for example) to be able to roll crits. While not hero dice for D&D, my group plays a game that uses the Shatter6 System (little indie game system) that gives you Shatter Dice (hero/luck dice). But every time someone would spend them half or more would pop up as 1's (you can roll any number up to the max you have and they regenerate at 1 per 8 hours). Out of frustration we started a house rule that allowed you to reroll half of any 1's you might roll but second roll counts (so if you still get ones then your luck sucks).