Welcome to Monster Mechanics, your ultimate guide to mastering Dungeons & Dragons! Dive deep into the world of D&D monsters and learn the mechanics, strategies, and lore behind every creature. Whether you're a seasoned Dungeon Master looking to challenge your players or a new adventurer eager to understand your foes, our channel provides comprehensive breakdowns, battle tactics, and storytelling tips to bring your campaigns to life.
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Your videos are very interesting, you have potential to be a big RPG channel
Thank you so much for the support and excited to bring you even more great videos!
Please keep these coming. These type of advice are valuable for many types of DMs. Thank you 🎉
Of course and thanks for the motivation! More great info to come for you!
Solid video, keep up the good work! :D
Absolutely and thank you for the motivation!
Great video. Definitely gonna keep this in mind next time I run an owlbear encounter
Appreciate the nice comment and feedback! Any other monsters you’re interested in for future videos?
@@MonsterMechanics A litch video would be interesting since they’re so intelligent
@@Twist3d_fox already got one for you on the channel. Great minds think alike!
@@MonsterMechanics yea I guess so lol
Going back to Kobolds, I’m kind of surprised they can even *use* Pack Tactics and traps with only 8 intelligence and 7 wisdom. Maybe it’s instinct for them? Or perhaps they were taught by the dragon they serve, and are relatively “dumb” in all other regards?
@@peterbillings3276 I agree with this logic, and touch on my thoughts in my Kobolds video if you’re interested!
This was really helpful (I have a session in three days and one of my players just narrowly survived an Ancient Red Dragon encounter)
Dragons are no joke, ESPECIALLY Ancient ones! Glad you enjoyed and thank you for the kind feedback.
Um what about a 20. So I’m a human cleric with the telekinetic trait and I rolled a 18 in wis, my party keeps ranting me for playing him the same or similar to my previous 16 wisdom mage. Some ideas please.
Hey there! Sorry that your party is giving you a hard time on this. As far as stats go, it's tough on the player's end because we act differently than NPC creatures do. I recommend leveraging your Wisdom more to focus on spells that require Wisdom saving throws and boost your perception and insight. You can use spells like Guiding Bolt, Spirit Guardians, and Healing Word effectively.
Rol play wise, you can go with the knowledge by books is intelligence and knowledge by experience is wisdom trope. You can roll play as someone with a great deal of experience and intuition. Wisdom is also tied with perception, awareness and reading people. That's just a generalizations that you can use to build your character. Now, put it together with the traits your character has and you have things like: the one that don't trust strangers on their first meeting and always second guess their intentions (insight and perception are key skills), the nanny of the group, loving, giving wise advice and babysit the barbarian, the "I love more animals than people because people lie or are not honest like animals" having animal handling and survival as key stats. And etc, etc, etc.
It certainly is hard to RP as a character wiser than yourself… but you have an unfair advantage: you’re familiar with TTRPGs and fantasy tropes. Time to *metagame!*
taking notes
Agreed
@@zapmansi107 Glad you liked the video!
Awesome info and to the point. Thanks!
Of course, any monsters you’d like to see next? Thank you for the positive feedback!
Its more so them cleaning the dungeon rather than then creeping towards the party and when in combat range theyre much quicker than most give it credit for. And in older editions when youre in armor even your leather wearing players have at most a 12 movement unless theyre a monk. Theyre a fun monster to place around and lore players into a room if they see it has magic loot in it. Thanks for covering this one
@@Bluejsa1 cleaning the dungeon I’m stealing that!
Very nicely said! I am only thinking about the intelligence part, all the way to 7 for instincts.. I am trying to think of examples. Perhaps chuuls with an intelligence of 5, while being heavily instinct based, they have a long interconnected memory and they also follow a chain of commands if an aboleth master exists. Ogres can form a weak civilisation but they are based on instinct yes. Anyways forget my yapping trying to think, great video!
@@thetreatment498 true and I suppose there are always exceptions. I haven’t toyed around with chuuls much, do you?
Good audio quality, clear and concise answers, keep it up and the algorithm might pick you up!
Really appreciate positive feedback! More to come!
Except the paralyzing touch is con save for the barbarian, which at a level where they fight a lich they’re going to be pretty good at. Though still, must agree, not the worst opening but having a lich get in melee with the barbarian is in and of itself a bad idea. I’d rather have minions slow the party down so that the lich can set up the battlefield as they want it with a few spells.
I like these thoughts too! Honestly a huge fan of minions as a phase 1 of a boss fight too
Seems like that Overlord scene
Which one is that?
@@MonsterMechanics Ainz vs workers
Nice channel 👌 What are the next monsters on the horizon?
Appreciate your kind words! We release every Monday - any suggested monsters?
@@MonsterMechanics Being still under the influence of BG3... mind flayer? Furthermore, I am playing Phandelver and Below, so mind flayer sounds very attractive for me at the moment. But anyone will be, for sure, really interesting.
First. And bro really out here saying, "duck around and find out: lich edition."
That’s what we do 🤣
My dm threw kobolds at us, i had a mount and i kept out of their 30ft range so they had to attack at disadvantage was a super fun fight.
That’s some great player tactics! Did you kite them basically?
@@MonsterMechanics yeah I had gotten separated from the party so when I came in I was on the opposite side of the map so I went along the edge picking them off and flanked the ones fighting my party. Btw big group of kobold and some harder things was attacking the temple and we showed up. But basically I used magic stone and entangle. I shut down like 6-7 dudes for like 4 rounds then they started to get out. I had 3 people still in it at round 10.
Bro forgot meteor swarm
A lich typically does not have meteor storm, at least in RAW. Still would be fun though!
@@MonsterMechanicsI usually give my liches spells and magic items that fit their circumstances. Since they were once wizards I give them a list of spells that they can switch between like a spellbook. I also use a lot of my own homebrew though and like to make liches recurring villians, so they usually have lots of backup plans. Doing this, sometimes I forget that liches are given base spells in RAW. My b lol
@@williamgreene8878 I actually love you idea! Might be stealing that in my campaign
@@MonsterMechanicsfeel free! And while you are at it, this video is always a great reference. I don't do all of this stuff, but it is a good baseline for an epic level (20 and up) adventure. kzread.info/dash/bejne/X2aqxNGlYpe-nLw.htmlsi=9qTEvqbbkZvr2ECv (not my vid btw)
Just fireball
That’s what I’m thinking too…
“There is no I in team, however there are 6 I’s in Fuck it, I don’t care how big the room is, I cast Fireball”
YES IM A SIMP: SUPER INSANE MAGICIANS RADIO. 101.5
Truer words ever never been spoken
I am going to cast fireball no matter the situation
If I cast anything else I will die of 1d4 knowing to many spells damage
@@Turtle_on_da_skateboard this is the way!
@@Turtle_on_da_skateboard 1d4 overload of nerd damage
1d4 picking up spell book damage
Ok you got my attention =D
What’s your favorite monster?
@@MonsterMechanics i'm a simple man, mimic or beholder
That’s what you think until I’m running down an entire hallway to a lich with my battle ax
@@Kb24-neo go for it haha!
Great demonstration!
@@noxiouslion thank you Noxious!
Kobolds my beloved
@@frostytheiceberg1127 🤣🤣🤣
@@MonsterMechanics my lizard boys! My little scaly friends!
any tips on how to make a lich encounter for a party of a lower level? i was planning to make my 5 man party fight a lich at level 12 as the campaign bbeg and i know a lich would be too powerful for them at that level, i was thinking of tweaking the dmg numbers a bit, or make them fight it outside of its layer, even tho that sounds pretty lame. What do you think? I was also thinking about giving them the help of another level12 npc, on paper it sounds like it should balance things out but my players are pretty new and their characters are not great so idk.
@@AnonyMeowr Great question, and I would highly recommend having it fight outside of its lair. You could have the lich flee as well or not be in its final form to give the opportunity for your players to fight the lich again at its lair once they are a higher level to finish it off. That really depends on what your narrative is though. Additionally, you could lower its HP, but I wouldn’t decrease damage personally. A lich should be a fearsome foe at any level really.
if you're building this up as the BBEG, maybe you should build your campaign around getting the party to the point where they can reasonably take on the lich. Maybe as a sidequest, they go to the ruins of the town the Lich was born in to discover their true name, and once they do so, they gain a bonus so saves against the Lich's spells. Maybe breaking the phylactery lowers the Lich's AC and/or hit points. A god with a grudge against the Lich could bless each party member with Death Ward right at the start of the fight (after the party has performed some task to gain the god's favor). I'd prepare a few different sidequest hooks and see which ones my party chooses to pursue, while communicating to them that this is gonna be a big and dangerous fight and if they don't prepare in some way, they're walking to their deaths. If your party's pretty cocky, you could have them fight one of the lich's apprentices or other underlings well in advance. This gives you a chance to see how the party operates, and gives the party a chance to potentially make mistakes and get an idea of just how dangerous this final encounter will be!
What site is this
@@mr.cringe2.059 tabletop simulator!
@@MonsterMechanics thank you!
Hey man, clean editing for sure. For the future perhaps giving me a bit of information of how or why to use it certain actions?
Thanks for the helpful feedback Mickey, and glad you liked the edits! If you have any specific questions let me know here and I’ll answer!
What app is this and is it free
Tabletop simulator and it is not free unfortunately
@MonsterMechanics oh ok thank you
Observant is almost always the first feat of atleast one of my players, mostly to gain the passive perception bonus to avoid ambushes like this. It's not a bad idea to use on new players or if your group doesn't have a passive perception over 12/13, but above that the Kobolds will almost always get spotted without cover.
Totally agree and adds a bit of nuance to the encounter for sure!
...ahem...fireball range
That makes it easy I suppose 🤣🤣🤣
Software?
Recorded on Tabletop Simulator!
K'bolds 😂
I’m stealing this 🤣
what isthe name of the game you use please ?
Tabletop Simulator!
What's the protocol for the party bard... asking for a friend
Run, hide, play the lute of course
@@MonsterMechanics My sweet summer child XD
KZread's automated captions translated Kobold-Ambush to cabal-ambush and i was like wtf XD
you know what, that lines up still
lol that’s hilarious
True!
@@Elloliott Maybe its a secret Kobold-Cabal ? Would also explain how they are so sneaky 😏
What website/render/app are you using?
I’d love to know as well!!
Tabletop simulator!
Those two would be spotted by the first player as they closed in.
Not if they fail their perception check, or forget to ask to roll for one.
@@kadyrwildstorm3139 Passive perception should pick them up unless they have a hiding spot, which this doesn't show so we don't really know.
True!
Kobalds. Like Co bald.
Ko bold.
I’ll never get it right 😉
The way you say kobold gives me anxiety. You say it Ko-bold but you're way of saying it "K'bold", while unique is just wrong to my ears.
Honestly an old habit since DMing 20+ years ago! I can’t stop!
@@MonsterMechanics You know, fair enough. I do similar things too. Dont ask how I say Bulette. Ive gotten people wanting to end me for my pronunciation because I say it in the French enunciation.
@@Finding_My_Way_3524 ooo that’s another tough one! Hope I don’t get too roasted when I make that video haha
The big problem with this: Is that it either assumes the players are super low level or the Kobolds have access to some magic BS They wouldn't actually have access to. This whole scenario is incredibly disingenuous. Its based of Tuckers Kolbods and it basically denies PC most of ther abilities and for some reason makes the gear, stats and abilities void. A group of low level players will absolutly get wrecked by kobolds using tactics but any party above 8-9 will rock them. Their stats block is just not good enough to be a credible threat unless you overwhelm them with numbers or you purposly make them far better in an attempt to prove a point. I run intelligent enemies as well and I have them use tactics, terrain and the like to their advantage however Kobolds are no smarter or whily than the average human commoner.
Appreciate the feedback Kyle!
Hey there what software is this? It looks awesome!
Hey James! We use Tabletop Simulator which you can find on Steam.
Well said. Goblin's are more cannon fodder as that's what they were always designed to be. The Kobold since advanced DnD was always a more clever adversary ment to make the players use their wits instead of just overpowering them
BINGO! Couldn't agree more!
I organize the goblins under a hobgoblin or orcs to make them more challenging and less Cannon fodder. They're dumb, but they can understand simple commands
@@joaomarcelopinheiromagalha3355 I tend to try and do this myself. Hobgoblins are no joke at early levels either!
K... Kabowled?
It's how we've always said it... Old habits die hard!
I really like this insight. The use of VTTs is also great for having a display to easily understand the points you're trying to make. I honestly think that even if I was deaf I would be able to use this.
Really appreciate the kind words and glad you enjoyed it! We will continue to incorporate and improve upon these videos to make them easy to digest for everyone!
You're right; I usually just run kobolds like murder hobos. thanks for the insight, bub!
Absolutely!