Tactics and Strategy | Running the Game
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- čas přidán 10. 06. 2024
- Episode 70. Fighting monsters can be fun! It better be fun, 'cause you're gonna do a LOT of it!
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#RunningTheGame #MattColville - Hry
Correction: there are morale rules in 5e, but it is an optional rule located in the back of the DMG.
Just like there are ethical rules, but they're optional and located in the very back of the players' brains.
@@BlommaBaumbart
Oh, you ...
But here's the thing. Why do you need morale rules?
Just roleplay the monsters as NPCs. What do the monsters want? How much are they prepared to sacrifice to get it?
The only reason to use morale rules is if you like rolling dice (which is also cool).
@@nickwilliams8302 Who are you talking to?
@@Troglodytarum
Is this a literacy problem?
@@Troglodytarum pretty obvious who he is talking to
For my own future reference:
03:23 Patrols
05:52 Scouts
07:23 Guards
09:03 Bosses
10:10 -- Infantry
10:47 -- The Glass Cannon
11:49 -- Artillery
13:29 -- The Brute
14:12 -- The Boss
17:24 The 30-Foot Rule
19:06 Using Cover
20:28 The 15-Foot Rule
Thank you
My favorite encounter i created was a wizard in a dining hall. It looked like she was all alone, until they got into initiative and discovered that everything in that room was enchanted. Animated armor, flying knives, animated tables, an enchanted portrait, etc. One of the players likened it to beauty and the beast, which i hadn't meant to do, but yeah...
That’s really cool! And I love when players make a connection that wasn’t intended, it’s the best… wait… they spot a REFERENCE that was coincidental… the WORST thing that can happen is a party making a CONNECTION that isn’t there lol… a la The Mighty Nein vs “THE CHAIR” and the like
This is an excellent idea and I will likely steal it
Dude, I've DONE THIS! Awesome, awesome fantasy encounter. And it makes the players want all this super cool stuff. Her being able to cast spells through her portraits as points of origin for her spells were the things my players had the most difficulty to adapt to, lol.
I've don't it with a library of flying books for another encounter in a library. Also dope.
I am here from the future. I stole this and it was great. Thank you.
I love that so much!
The only problem with “the monsters know what they’re doing” is that ME THE DM does NOT know what they’re doing lmao
IKR?! My tactical insight is akin to that of a Columbus leek!
It’s a good thing there’s an actual site called “The monsters know what they’re doing” that has tactical guides for every type of monster in D&D.
@@DimaJeydarThank you!
Read Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Like, genuinely. It'll put some meat on your brain.
@@ZarHakkar I've read it yeah. It's like, not relevant to actual game design at all. My comment was a joke I'm great at running encounters, I'm a game designer. The book is about *commanding* an _army_, nothing more nothing less. Which is great if you're in an actual war, but DnD is not a war sim.
The most smart but unfair patrol is the one that alerts the big enemy by not reporting in.
While smart and unfair, there is still a set amount of time between when they should be reporting in and how far the party has moved since then that still lends an advantage to the party in that while the big enemy may be alerted by the lack of a report, they do not know the following: the size of the party, their location, their equipment, their goals, or even the nature of what they are.
Unless a big bad in this situation keeps sharp tabs on its patrols through magical monitoring, a party that moves swiftly can still overcome this hurdle.
In our last session, the players had to deal with the consequences of killing off all of the goblins at an outpost. See, there was a smoke signal between that outpost and the next encampment. They set it up to burn for as long as possible, but eventually the other camp began to signal "All okay?" The ranger noticed this and alerted the party. After an hour of travel, the signal changed to "We're coming", which let the players know they had a patrol coming up the trail. Plus it tells the players that these goblins are smart enough to have protocols and set responses if any are broken. This will serve them well going into this area.
If you give them information that allows them to learn and make choices, then you are not being unfair. You are just adding to the list of things they need to consider when they start to make plans.
A "Dead Man's Switch" patrol style. That sounds like an interesting concept. If the players have some way to find out beforehand that that's what's going on, that would make a really cool encounter.
I think you can do that pretty fairly if you have 3 tiers of alert and have killing the patrol before the report be a less severe alert than it would be if the scouts had reported in.
Very clever, will steal. Thanks
An extra tip for DMs new to the idea of tactically efficient encounters who want to up their game once they have the basics under their belt is adding intentional deficiencies. Your big bad's (dis)honor guard is probably a tactically perfect killing machine as described by Colville, but those rowdy goblins raiding Old Man Jenkins' farm probably won't have perfect spacing, or may not protect their spellslinging shaman as well as they should.
Adding imperfections can give the players a nice reward for using their noodle when against weaker foes and conversely a naturally occurring sense of imminent threat when they realize the same tricks won't work anymore.
It can also be used in conjunction with some behavior on the part of the enemies that might be either of a certain _alternative_ tactical value, or reveal aspects of their character.
For an example of both of these, consider the Goblin Boss (MM p. 166), which has the Redirect Attack reaction. Which means it can use one of its allies as a -human- goblin shield to protect itself. This has a sort of tactical value to the Goblin Boss, in that it can avoid damage intended for it. It's also indicative of his treacherous nature, as he feels no compunction about sacrificing an ally to save his own skin. Regardless, the reaction can only be used if the Goblin Boss is within 5 feet of an ally, meaning it must make the tactically sub-optimal move of sticking close to another NPC in order to benefit from it.
Came here to post this. It has always been successful for me to deploy varying difficulties of enemy strategy. Very quickly the party learns that when fighting an organized band of Humans or Elves, they need to get real serious and make sure they're coordinating with each other and finding the best tactical advantages, whereas when they come up a couple dozen Goblins and Kobolds, they become excited because they just know the creatures will inevitably do something stupid, and that the party can pretty easily outwit them and be in control of the battle. It's a great give-and-take that lets the players feel powerful, but not invincible.
When you have a large group of humanoid NPCs, give each one a different weapon.
Firstly, it's enough of a mechanical difference that they can have identical character sheets (well you probably want to switch dex and str for the ranged ones) but keeps them all feeling different in how they fight. Especially if you mix in a variety of reach, two-handed, light, shield, etc. weapons.
Secondly it's enough of a difference for your players to remember them and identify them simply. Identical opponents tends to lead to the whole "wait how many are left? I attack... is that the one John attacked?" conversations. Much easier if you can say "I disengage from the guy with the sword, move around the one with the mace and attack the archer".
The different weapons can also vary what effects a given NPC has on the battlefield. A foe duel-wielding scimitars does less damage per hit than, say, a longsword, but can divvy that damage up between multiple opponents because of two-weapon fighting.
Meanwhile, the NPC wielding the pike or halberd has Reach, allowing them a wider threat radius in which to restrict PC movements. That same halberd user can employ hit and fade tactics, since they can get into range to strike and then leave, without provoking attacks of opportunity from most PCs. Heck, it all gets more impressive if that Reach-using NPC happens to be a Bugbear, because they get 5 extra feet of reach with melee weapons automatically, on top of the normal weapon reach.
And obviously, an NPC wearing a shield can get right up in the faces of the PCs, while being harder to damage. Indeed, getting really close to PCs can be beneficial, since it prevents a magic user from as easily employing AOE spells, lest they hit a comrade.
@@Bluecho4 Except for evocation wizards. Because screw evocation wizards and their fancy magics.
@@mollymauktealeaf
Honestly, I find Evocation to be the most boring Wizard subclass. Like, you just hit them with strong spells, and do damage. That's it.
@@Bluecho4 Yeah, and their special ability is just "I remove strategy and risk from my fireball spell". Somehow they feel both boring and op. I much prefer divination or war magic.
@@mollymauktealeaf
Agreed. My favorites are Conjuration and Illusion, as far as subclasses go. I just like being able to summon any item I want and teleport, or be able to make better illusions. It just seems more fun to me.
My arm sometimes blocks the mic, sorry. We'll reposition it next time.
It's okay.
Matthew Colville out of curiosity, what is a Phanlanx? It's an interesting villain minion ability name
@@Devynwithawhy The phalanx was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. Most notably used by the Ancient Greeks and well you know Spartans.
Laughingpug - and don't forget the wall of overlapping shields held by the troops around the perimeter
Love me a good hoplite phalanx. Also, I love the Strongholds and Followers pdf! Great work! Super excited to put those mechanics to use! 😁
The thing I loved about 4e was how it denoted these monster classifications, and provided monster stat blocks for an artillery goblin that was very distinct from a brute goblin, and so you could easily design tactically deep encounters straight out of the monster manual and all out of the same variety of creature.
some battlefield tactics could be fun to use in D&D, like having a large amount of "dolls" made to look like a small army and a fog spell to make it harder to discern that they're just dolls in order to fool the enemy.
That feeling when you take a break from writing an assignment on de Certeau's (1984) conceptualisation of tactics and strategies... and then you see this.
Like a river into his people
"Unto"
"Into" has an entirely different connotation.
But I'm thirsty for Colville's knowledge
I love this comment, thank you 💛
As another idea for infantry, when you give them spears rather than swords, you can double the distance between them to the same effect for even less risk of area of effect abilities, or add 5 additional feet between them and get an additional attack of opportunity chance. I believe that spears should be the primary weapon type of guards whenever possible, and swords or axes or cudgels are secondary weapons for close range, and this is borne out by historical warfare methods as well.
@Colin Deal I don't mean the weapon that is listed as "spear" under the rules of the book, I mean spear in the sense of a "reach" weapon that can be used with your choice of blunt or slashing or piercing damage type, if applicable. If that is a voluge, or a naginata, or a pike, or, rarely, a macehead on a long chain, just having a way to threaten more space than typical melee weapons is more real-world like, and gives both sides a greater depth of tactics, and most parties won't be able to muster the SOP of using these tactics against the bad guys because most groups don't bring enough front rank infantry guys to do that.
Or be like the greeks, and use giant spears.
Macedonians with their Pike walls. Using huge numbers of sharp point objects in a tight pack, with heavy armours.. Using terrain to their advantage.
That sums up a-large majority of my brother's fighting styles in huge melee's.
@@BryantVonMiller A giant spear would probably just be a glaive for the purposes of D&D 5e.
All that said, the standard guard from 5e is said to wield a spear. I'm definitely not opposed the idea that a spear isn't much if at all better than a sword for the kind of skirmishing adventurers do, but might be the better option when used in conjunction with an entire military unit in a larger scale battle. As such you can give it reach under those circumstances.
All _that_ said, I also wanna advice caution against going full history nerd in a game that doesn't really support it. In fact, even when it does support it, I wouldn't weigh that over a player's sense of fun.
I'm only bringing up this part because I saw a stream in which a newish player had her character become a Death Cleric. The DM was kind enough to allow this and if she appeases her new god, I even get the hint that she'll be allowed to respec her ability scores. She also likes anime and stylized combat so when asked what new martial weapon she wanted, she asked if a scythe was okay. The DM, somewhat reasonably, said the scythe is not a martial weapon and that it would realistically be very impractical to use in fights. I believe he basically reduced it to a two-handed improvised weapon (1d4 damage). The player was then sad and disappointed, but choose not to press the issue. I would just have allowed her to use either a greataxe or a battle axe if not a halberd and have her visualize it as a menacing scythe, if that's what she wanted.
Long side rant, I know. Just something I've had on my mind recently .
@@oOPPHOo A giant spear would be a pike. Piercing, not slashing damage.
Is Threatening Reach a thing in 5e?
THANK YOU FOR MAKING SUCH AN AWESOME BOOK!
Well said!
Awesome video. Wonderful book. Thank you, Matt.
P.S. We all love you too
So you saw it too? Nice.
Watching this for perhaps the fourth time. You have done such a service to fans and hobbyists through the years Matt. You’ve done so much for this game.
Short and punchy video!
24 mins of short punches :)
Multiple normal punches.
Yes! Very easy to take notes on.
@@Ephsy consecutive normal punches
My mind has shattered. I never thought about combat this way and its insane. I think a lot of DMs I play with struggle on making battles difficult because they have to balance the encounter so that the enemy dies when everyone is low. Your video offers and entirely different approach which is that this combat actually IS deadly, so long as the actual boss is alive. And then to think of the other creatures in this fight as things stopping them from just slaughtering the boss, thats so clever. I am preparing to DM my campaign and though I have been playing for a while, I had been focused on how to make combat interesting and difficult by trying to give my bosses insane abilities that were perfectly balanced. But in actuallity I shouldve focused on the enemies that arent the boss to enhance the encounter. I clicked on this video cause I wanted to hear what you had to say. I believed I had a solid grasp on it. But you are amazing at making your videos teach everyone. 10/10 will be watching again
If you haven't yet (or don't already) you might also consider Jim Murphy's channel (also on YT) and his "Monster Mambo" series... where he details some of his favorite purposeful pairings of monsters and situations to utilize both sets of abilities, even when you wouldn't necessarily already think of that. ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 ok thanks I will
People rag on 4E a lot, but it did an excellent job of making this stuff explicit. Every enemy stat block had a label like the ones Matt uses here, and nearly every kind of enemy had a sidebar that gave suggestions on grouping enemies into challenging encounters. Consequently, 4E was also the easiest version of D&D for a novice DM to design interesting and challenging encounters.
@@Terrendos 4e was the first version I ever played. Honestly I still use Striker to describe a heavy damage output character. But I agree I really enjoy combat and I think 5e gave people so many abilities it forced you to toss around where you needed to be and I think it kept people moving and more invested in combat.
An encounter is a single monster.
A Kobold in a mech suit.
In between each turn, it fires a gas grenade that stuns the party, or shoots a magic missile, or uses a scraped together buzz saw or repairs itself with blowtorch/magic. As it takes damage, it loses the function of one of its weapons. So, it starts the fight with many tools to deal with the party and slowly loses them until its just, a rather simple to destroy, maybe tougher than average kobold.
Could just as easily be 5 little dudes working together with different weapons / magic.
I like building bosses that are secretly 3 or 4 bad guys in a trench coat. :) That's another way to go if you're looking for an elite solo badguy.
One special feature I made for my infantry guys is a passive that I call Phalanx Formation: the get a +5 bonus to saving throws cause by being in an aoe, but the monster needs to be holding a shield and be in a formation surrounded by 4 other monsters with this feature who also hold a shield and are within 5ft. This way I can have big blocks of troops moving forward with spears and shields.
Here's my formula, which I call the "Rule of Threes". There are three encounters, the first two serve to introduce at least two elements from the third fight.
In the third encounter, three elements come together as a sort of puzzle. In, say, the first encounter, the players were introduced to lightning-wielding mutants and in the second encounter, the players were introduced to water-spitting lizards. Then, in the third encounter, the players would be facing both at the same time, but with a third element that impedes something or someone in the encounter, such as a cliff face or cover.
This way, I can build up tension for my third encounter by giving players the mechanical knowledge to deal with problems separately, but not yet telling them how they would work if combined.
In this case, the lightning wielding mutants would be able to benefit from the water-spitting lizards by targeting wet ground underneath the players, while also having to worry about not falling off the cliff or accidentally hitting the lizards.
This is great! I want to be able to save this somehow
Screenshots? And agreed, brilliant!
I got Zelda flashbacks while reading this. Really cool technique!!
Funny enough that's how things like, classic Megaman games were designed as well. You'll be introduced to an Enemy. Then an Obstacle in the Environment like dropping platforms or something. Then both enemies AND the platforms at the same time. So it's a pretty time tested intuitive way that prevents the need for constant tutorials or steep learning curves.
Jim Murphy does some nice videos on his youtube channel on tactics and how to introduce your players to them (without overwhelming them and catching them off guard) for those interested in more. Jim is the guy Matt mentions in this video with the split-move fire tactic.
And I am sure Jim is Mordenkainen. Are we mere neophytes too late to stop him?
Link please.
@@GameMasterToolbox czcams.com/channels/dMl19aDv5e_2l_AeJRXp2g.html
I like to have enemies taunt the players or actively try to make combats which include RP as a tactical dimension.
Simple examples: Have infantry actively try to cajole and provoke the players into focusing on them if they’re meant to be particularly cruel or cunning, and have your brutes be brutish enough that your party will demand immediate retribution, giving your artillery another free round. Especially if your artillery is medium/low dmg I’ve seen players leave them alone in favor of taking out a particularly spiteful and foul-mouthed infantry.
Indeed, distractions can justify, in-universe, why particular characters might act in a flamboyant or attention-grabbing manner.
Why is that one guy in the red bandana wielding a whip, and cackling and quipping like a loon? Well, side from the tactical advantage of using the Whip as a Reach weapon to deal small increments of damage from outside normal attack range, it's really distracting. That guy has the attention of the whole party. Making it easier for the artillery to remain at a distance and plink away for consistent damage.
Incidentally, that Reach weapon makes Red Bandana better at controlling enemy movements, since his threat radius (and thus the range for taking opportunity attacks) is much wider. Make Red Bandana a Rogue, who uses the Whip's Finesse property to deal Sneak Attack damage, and you have a pretty potent striker. Especially if he's got some ridiculous AC as a result of his high Dex.
One of the things I really love about 5e is that it uses relatively simple mechanics to create tactical depth and complexity. Opportunity attacks make positioning important in an easy to understand way and can lead to more advanced tactics (eg, the high ac character is going to intentionally trigger an AOO and use up the target's reaction so that the low ac character can run past safely). Concentration is similarly not mechanically complex but forces players to make complex choices about what spell effect is most important in a particular scenario, what they need to do to preserve their concentration, and how to get rid of their enemy's effects.
5e combat design is (relatively) elegant.
Honestly I'm just glad the grappling rules take up less than a page.
Or 2...
or 4....
No one had ever grappled correctly before 5e, and I'm okay with that
@@portalMaster299 To be fair, grappling in 5e is about the same as in 4e, so equally uncomplicated compared to... before
I’m so happy to hear this from Matt! I love D&D but some, but people get bent out of shape when I suggest there may be another system that does things that might fit different groups better than D&D. D&D’s mechanics and rules ARE combat heavy, but some people refuse to acknowledge that because “but you can do anything! You don’t have to fight!.” True, and maybe you can bend D&D and have a blast making it work for you, but there are also a lot of other cools games out there to try!
I agree. It's like saying "You can use a spoon to paint a portrait". Sure you can, bit it was made for another purpose.
Exactly this.
Don't forget Logistics, which is part of the whole triangle with tactics and strategy. Smart defenders will seek to wear a party down with guards and patrols, but will also know how many of their forces they can afford to lose. If a tribe, even a chaotic one, starts taking heavy losses they will react by hunkering down or relocating to a new part of the dungeon (if possible). They may even summon allies. This can be taken advantage of by a clever party. Certainly the bad guys will seek to make the party use up its own sources of supply, magic, and healing. (This is why I have players keep track of arrows and javelins carried by their PCs).
There is no reason infantry cannot use pole arms that give reach, even if you want to keep the damage level down. That adds another 5' around each member of the infantry.
Infantry should also have simple missile weapons, like javelins. Action - throw javelins or axes; Movement - move into contact with the players. With reach weapons they may be able to reach spell casters and archers in the second ranks, or simple make like hell for the PC tanks. The Romans are the best known but infantry did this before and after as well.
Infantry should also use Shove attack, especially to push PCs back.
Pet spiders and snakes make for a potent gun line, especially with poison or web attacks. A pack of wild or trained dogs will use up that sleep spell the PCs throw.
Speaking of sleep... smart experienced bad guys will have ways of awakening fallen comrades. Perhaps even trained spiders that deliver a small but painful bite to awaken the fallen. OR a designated "morale" officer who slaps sleeping warriors awake. An Orc commissar perhaps?
Be inventive and have fun. Not every dungeon needs to feel like a siege, but the tactics can be useful in a number of situations.
" Smart defenders will seek to wear a party down with guards and patrols"
Not really, smart defenders will try to slow down or pick off attackers with hit and run archers or rogues, or use heavily armoured patrols to 'herd' attackers into a choke point or to flank them. Throwing out weak guards to be cut down isn't a smart tactic unless the baddies have an essentially unlimited supply of them (e.g. necromancer), you're just helping the attackers divide and conquer yourself.
Unless your baddies have a way of knowing what skills your PCs have then tailoring their tactics to counter them is DM-metagaming.
Infantry with missile weapons is fun, IMO all intelligent characters should have both melee and ranged attack options, though using ranged attacks then running forward into melee usually doesn't make sense mechanically - why not run forward and attack with melee if it is a melee-focused character? or run back to get an extra turn before the PCs can use melee on them if it is a ranged-focused character?
Hit and run tactics wear down the party and both guards and patrols are made to do just that. And the defenders will have an idea of many of these units they can lose, if casualties occur, before needing to switch tactics.
It's not DM-metagaming unless everything we do as DMs is meta-gaming. Playing your bad guys as smart or experienced offers a good challenge to the party. And you don't have to play every bad guy that smart if you choose not too. However, adventurers are a dime a dozen and likely at least the mini-bosses and bosses have seen their fair share of parties and survived.
Every maneuver does not have to have a mechanical effect. The throw and charge offers the possibility of psychological warfare, since most players are used to one dimensional enemies. Running up to the line, deploying to crowd the PCs or get into position to make the PCs choices more difficult is a nice way to get the players reacting to you as opposed to you reacting to them. However, you could throw and remain in position, or even back up. A lot would depend on the terrain, numbers, surprise. There is no one tactic that covers every situation.
I would argue that certain tactics are less meta-gaming, and more just a reflection of flexibility and planning for general purposes. Like, a squad of orcs won't have a _dedicated_ guy for waking up sleeping allies. The Sleep spell won't come up that often. But it's entirely reasonable for one orc to see his allies sleeping on the job, and breaking off to revive them.
Moreover, having attack animals is a tried and true strategy, even in the Real World. Plenty of people, in the past and right now, employed trained attack dogs. If those dogs were capable of shooting webs to pin down enemies, you bet your behind humans would have used those, too. Hence, why trained spiders and the like are reasonable for settings that have them. Ditto with other kinds of monsters. They not only contribute to the damage their side can dish out, but their presence pins down foes, who must contend with _their_ opportunity attacks, and sometimes features like Pack Tactics.
Returning to dogs, specifically, they can be useful utility animals, because of their powerful senses of smell and hearing. A band of patrolling NPCs or scouts might employ dogs to track scents, or as an extra set of eyes, ears, and noses for noticing danger. An adventuring party trying to sneak up on such a patrol would not only need to roll Stealth against the humanoids, but also against the dogs. Creatures who have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that involve hearing or smell. (Jackels and wolves also get this Advantage). That these beasts sap the potency of a Sleep spell is just an accidental fringe benefit.
@@Bluecho4, it's a fine parallel with dogs, particularly in settings heavy with wolves and wargs and the like...
Note also, that at least modern humans have also trained CATS... Which unlike dogs make very little personal noise, themselves... AND enjoy at least a modicum of the same benefits (being pure predators)...
It's worth note here, that there would be specific advantages and disadvantages to trained cats as opposed to dogs... Among both, the generally quieter demeanor of cats.
For the more rogue and ranger-esque types, a silent partner is a net-benefit, so the cat won't disturb their personal stealth, unlike a dog with a proclivity to growl, snarl, and raise all manner of hell to "tell master" when there's a threat approaching.
For the conventional (non-beast smart) type of character, this same silence poses a death sentence, as the cat will require that character to PAY ATTENTION to his side-kick or risk getting "caught unawares"...
You also have the fierce independence of cats in general, forcing an aspiring "beast master" to learn that you make friends with a cat the way you do with a human, or you don't get a cat... Cats will do for you IF (and only/ BIG IF) they WANT to... otherwise, you can teach all you like, and be ignored. They don't HAVE to care.
Cats even very rarely vocalize (meow) just around other cats. They read each other, far more than humans are want... SO the "message to master (buddy?)" that there's a threat coming, is probably more like "ears shift toward threat, and cat moves out of sight... even against commands...
...things like that...
My point is, that you have the options (when tinkered with appropriately) to present a WIDE range of variations on the same old "master/beast" relationships that have tactically served militias and militaries over the centuries... AND even sticking within some reasonable parallel with "irl" logics, one can definitely spin the depth greatly...
OH... and for the record, I HAVE trained a cat for hunting. He was a long-haired white cat, a rescue from the shelter where someone had left him after a faulty "bobbing" his tail... BUT he would POINT, and then FETCH squirrels for me... AND he'd come RACING TO BEAT HELL on the sound of a breech-loading shotgun being loaded. AND before you ask, no... he was most certainly NOT deaf. Harley could hear as well as any cat. ;o)
I had a cat that always brought in a snake into the house when my mom came over. I have no idea why. I have never been able to train a cat before!!
If there is a spellcaster present why not make some infantry or the brute an illusion. The players will waste some effort on them and the enemies might decide to retreat once the players realise that there is only two orks and not five
It’s 11:15 PM, I’m already in bed, and a 25 minute Matt Colville video just got uploaded?
...I guess I didn’t need that extra half hour of sleep *that* badly...
I just had this exact thought process
Sleep is for the sleeping
I ended ended up only watching part of the video before exhaustion forced my hand and then I had to see the rest in the morning.
Why not just watch it later and get needed sleep?
With ya there brother.
༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ NEW COLVILLE VIDEO! ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
This advise is almost as fantastic as your hair.
@Matthew Colville - I really like your breakdown of encounter types because the players retain some agency in the scenario. I had a DM who almost exclusively used ambushes to initiate combat encounters. No matter what we did his planned fights were going to take place. At that point we might as well have always just been gladiators in the Coliseum instead of ever bothering with campaigns.
One of the things people who've played a lot of wargames kind of know instinctively is the value of positioning and using terrain. The great thing about supernatural enemies is that they can often make that terrain themselves. One encounter I had in my recent christmas adventurer was with three snow hags in a snowglobe type environment. The encounter seemed pretty standard until the hags caused sleet to turn the terrain difficult (but only for the players), and start casting fog cloud. This allowed them to harrass stragglers, and limit the angles that the ranged players could effectively use for sniping.
I love teaching my players when they're new how good area of effect is. Giving them a bunch of kobolds that are dealing a bunch of damage, until the cleric remembers they have thunderwave. Thanks as always for the content!
Combat is easy when you ask yourself this one question: what would this foe plausibly do?
Is that creature:
Hungry?
Scared?
Wary?
Under orders?
Protecting its young?
Monsters act as monsters do because of their nature, environment or role. Consider their motivations and things become a lot easier.
One last thing: remember that the monsters act on what THEY know, not what YOU know as DM. The key to making encounters fun and engaging for the players is getting the players to believe and accept that what the monsters do makes sense, and that you’re not giving the players the impression that they’re omniscient.
The commentary on where characters start the encounter is really useful, both for increasing the difficulty/keeping your enemies alive longer, but also for making level 1-2 encounters seem scarier than they are by letting the PCs basically get a free turn by having the NPCs spending their whole turn moving.
I've been reading a lot of old modules, and DDA3 - The Eye of Traldar starts like this -- a friendly NPC (or PC played by someone who agreed to play the role) comes barging into the PC's camp followed by bad guys pursuing him. Most of the mooks will spend their first turn dismounting from their horses and getting into melee with the party, giving the party some time to damage some of them before more than their one archer can hit the PCs. I'm pretty new to DMing so I was really pleased with the simplicity of using movement to give the PCs a free round.
Thank you for the shout out to different systems! I really like 5e, but if you don't like fighting, trying to make D&D fit will be not ideal
Kobolds were one of my favorite creatures in 4th edition, they had a great variety of units to make engaging tactical encounters. I would usually put a line of shield-bearers up front protecting a line of slingers, with a few shamans in the back casting hexes. Also since kobolds are supposed to be crafty, I would usually throw in some tricks like oil on the floor which the slingers would ignite with fire pots.
The thumbnail gave me a 'mother knows best' feel lol
I love that chess analogy! My second favorite game... Behind D&D of course
Congratulations on the book! Love the PDF. Can't wait for the stream to start.
Also can't wait for more world-building episodes this Saturday! Whoo!
Hey Matt, how do you reconcile (i) the 5e design philosophy that magic items aren't really needed to adventure, with (ii) the fact that players like to get magic items?
Either:
1. Give the players lots less powerful/less combat oriented magic items
2. Give them optional, dangerous quests to get powerful magic items
3. Give them more magic items, and scale the monster powers up a bit
5e shouldve included optional rules for giving/crafting/handling magic items far earlier imo. The variant should be without, not with, magic items.
I’ve been watching your videos and been dming for almost 2 years now and somehow this is the most useful video I’ve ever watched! It simplifies everything!!
No one will probably ever see this but I think you are a genius sir! Thank you!!!
I think if you want to threaten your party with an encounter, a cheat sheet can work wonders.
Each player class in 5e has glaring weaknesses:
-Barbarians usually lack mental defences. Hold person or similar spells can stop them long enough to end their rage, drastically reducing both their damage output and ability to tank.
-Bards are all-rounders, but generally lack the ability to deal with threats on their own. Isolate them.
-Clerics are usually either tanky melee supports or strong ranged dps, but always have rather low hp. Either way, effects with dex saves will usually be a threat.
-Druids excel at battlefield control, but usually need concentration for this. Target them with artillery to force many concentration checks.
-Fighters are self-sufficient and balanced, but usually can't deal with multiple opponents at once. Swarm them with infantry.
-Monks have high mobility and AC with decent damage. Impair their movement to reduce their threat.
-Paladins are generally powerful, but only within their melee range. Kite and harass, and keep them away from their teammates.
-Rangers have good damage and range with some supporting abilities, but usually pick off enemies one by one. Send in a distracting infantry to keep them off their hunter's mark target.
-Rogues are mobile and can mitigate a lot of damage indirectly. However, they can't Sneak Attack with disadvantage. Lighting rules and the Poison condition can seriously handicap their DPS.
-Sorcerers are good magical dps with some utility. Get in their face and they'll spend their turns just disengaging. Same goes for wizards.
-Warlocks are like rangers. Using Hex and EB, they have good damage at good range. Get in their face with a grunt to keep them from doing it.
You're NOT supposed to kill your party, but sometimes it can be refreshing to have a tactically sound enemy, because it will serve as a wake-up call to the party. Going from one encounter where you mow down hordes of enemies to another where every opening you give will be mercilessly exploited can teach players there's more to winning a fight than higher stats, better gear, or the element of surprise.
I have always broken my tactics and strategy to more overland strategy. I don't run a very random monsters wandering the wilderness type of game. Given this, the party encountering a "monster" like a chimera, wyvern, lone cyclops, etc - is pretty dang rare. Most of the time, I just have a set amount of enemies of one type in any given area (usually around 100 unnamed "baddies"). I divide these into patrols, battalions, and brigades.
Patrol = 1 bigger guy (in relation to the smaller guy "hobgoblin" to "goblin) and 1-5 little guys.
Battallion = 2 bigger guys (in relation to the smaller guys) and 3 groups of 1-5 little guys (usually different)
Brigade = 4 bigger guys (usually the main bad guy would run around with this group or be at base with them) and 6 groups of 1-5 little guys
Generally, battalions and brigades can have bigger scarier things in them. A group of orcs might have Ogrin as "elites" or ogres and trolls as big heavy supports. Etc. For an added bonus, when you make the groups you can find out the total XP and how hard it'll be for the party according to the XP charts. Given that, you can modify HPs, Attack bonus, whether they were in a fight already, etc on the fly to balance the difficulty.
As someone who enjoys numbers, I quite like the system you used (if intentional).
Big guys = double each tier
Little guys = 1+2+3
I use these types of increments all of the time, so seeing them together was a nice touch.
I, too, like knowing how big the entire army is and what land they are covering, and deciding how they cover it, as opposed to endless random encounters. It should be possible to both be overwhelmed by the returning forces when the siege begins (if it takes long enough for reinforcements to arrive) and wipe out/draw away as many baddies as possible before the siege starts, depending on the strategies and reactions employed by both sides. (I really enjoy detailed military strategy as a writer.)
I've watched this video before but re-watching it today helped me re-think a boss encounter for my players that's coming up in our next session. Your advice is always practical and immediately useful, and I appreciate your work, always.
The way you described the patrols sounds like the Normal, CAUTION, and ALERT states of Metal Gear Solid.
I'm so new I haven't even gotten the starts yet. Decided I'll try and run the game for my niece and nephews I'm willing to bet they're gonna be what I think you call murderhobos but that's ok. I've only been watching these videos for 2 weeks figuring out what I was gonna do with this flood of information.
Just let them fight monsters and roll dice. Dont worry about a plot whatsoever. Let em' run a massacre! Theyllhave a blast.
@@ROYBGP That that I can handle
@@darkdragonsoul99 Steal a fairy tale or movie plot, maybe one from before their time. Easy content
Later add simple objectives, kill the murderous ogre or save the farmer's daughter. And remember to have the villagers thank them, and throw a party and a reward of some sort. Heck eventually have the villagers build them statues of themselves.
Murderhoboing is a cathartic experience.
I've watched 5 videos lately about making DnD combat more interesting, but this one and your video about using 4e ideas in 5e were the only useful ones. So, thank you for that.
The other 3 can all be summed up as 'narrate more' and force your players to do the same.
You're spoiling us, Matt. A whole book and a video, that's Christmas alright.
wow, knocked it out of the park! this is one of my favorite videos in the series thus far because I've always had issues with combat balance, and it keeps it concise and digestible, really great work
Excellent tutorial! You did an excellent job of explaining both concepts of tactics & strategy. As a new DM this video has helped me tremendously as have all of your other tutorials. Your work is very much appreciated & I thank you.
This video really gives me a drive to flip through the MM again :) Thanks Matt!
Also; bought the pdf of Strongholds & Followers!
Very useful information :)
I highly recommend playing Banner Saga for those looking to brush up on their DnD tactics. It's combat system is everything that Matt covers and helps teach better movement on a grid with an action economy. Plus it's an awesome game series!
I can't wait to use the "space infantry monsters 15 feet apart" tactic in my next combat. Great tip!
Be sure to also use space infantry monsters, which are monstrous infantry troops from space. That is what I read when I saw your comment, because I need to go sleep and it is stupid for me to still be here writing the comment instead of getting sleep.
Good night David
Nah. Give them glaives and make it 25.
@@davidm6387 exactely the same here
I love your videos,
I've been a master for decades and you definitively summarise the topics well with a touch of humor.
great job!
Leaving the option to "Fail Forward" is so awesome.
Behold, Matt Colville, inspiration for the Immortal Emperor in my campaign!
Thank you so much for this! My greatest weakness as a DM is that I struggle and generally don't get strategy. This took something that felt impossible to grasp and layed it out in simple and straightforward terms that(though I think I'll have to write it out and read it over a few times) makes me start to understand. I really, really appreciate it so much. Even before I was a DM this was a thing that more than boggled my mind, and now it's starting to come together.
Excellent advice! Very helpful and easy to remember! Thank you!
Fail forwards is something I love. Did my player fail to pick a lock? Not really, but the noise and time it took them to do it caused a patrol to find them. Did my player fail to climb a wall? Absolutely not, but you just alerted the guard to the fact that someone is there
Man, I wish 5e monster design included the combat roles like 4e did. It was a major step backwards in utility.
Many creatures seem to serve no real purpose or don't do what they're clearly intended to do.
For the third Matt Colville Kickstarter, can we get the "improving monster design" manual?
"These are not things that make a character into Sherlock Holmes..." *Inquisitive Rogues are sobbing quietly in a corner*
Love your videos man, as a fledgling DM they are an awesome resource.
Thanks so much!
Great video Matt! We recently the bought strongholds and followers PDF and love it! Found your channel two years ago and now we even host our own channel on home brewing D&D campaigns. Literally wouldn't have started playing if it we're for you man. Good on ya, keep up the great vids!
This was awesome, outstanding, enjoyable, humorous, and enlightening!
Merry Christmas Matt , really enjoying these videos
This has got to be one of Matt's best videos ever. So much good advice, all so very useful at the table. The chess analogy is absolutely brilliant, and I literally had no write it down.
Okay, the 15-foot spacing for Infantry is brilliant! This just brought a whole new dimension to how I maneuver the bad guys during combat. Thanks, @MatthewColville!
Great video! Another tip for interesting encounters (that was brushed upon briefly by Matt when he mentioned baddies taking cover) is that making sure that most encounters have a couple environmental items of interest. Maybe there's a bridge over a river or chasm, or the room they've entered has a balcony with ranged units, or perhaps the bad guys are defending a choke point, or there might just be some walls left in the ruins standing high enough for units to hide behind. Adding one or two environmental considerations to an encounter can really spice things up - especially if they DO stuff! There's an eldritch portal spewing magical nastiness, or the enemies are taking cover behind cages full of prisoners, etc
I'm about to DM my first session this weekend and I've been watching every video I can...thank you so much.
Ive been dm’ing a game for my friends who are all new to d&d (me included) and for the previous 2 sessions the combat has felt very low impact on the monster’s part and ive just been struggling to try and make it more interesting/engaging. This video has really given me some new insights, thanks my dude.
Despite DMing on and off for years I never really considered the structure of my combats. Experience meant I put in a variety of monsters but with often with wildly different outcomes to my expectations. As a result I relied on waves to manage the outcome of battle, this works well but I’ve recently taken to using the simple boss structure outlined in this video.
My boss fights have become gritty struggles that push my players to use their resources to the max.
There is nothing so satisfying for a DM than to see the last two PC’s fell the boss as their companions lie bleeding out around them.
A few frantic moments of bandages and potions and the party has survived... just!
Yet another fantastic video, thank you.
PS I still keep a wave of baddies in reserve just in case 🤫
That was a fantastic video! I've been a DM for about two years now and this is exactly what my game has been missing. Thank you for the info!
My favorite part about playing my Bard in our last full game, I had basically built his spell list to confuse/paralyze/hold/ etc. and it came in clutch in the final battle when I was able to hold the boss at bay for several rounds while the rest of my team took care of the lower-tier enemies, buying us some time before he tried to nuke us with Meteor Swarm.
The other thing to consider is how disciplined a fighting force is. A ragtag group may not have the military discipline or know-how to properly space themselves to be a nuisance or may not have the knowledge to spread out to fight against spellcasters. If you have an Infantry group armed with spears, they may bunch up because they're trained to fight Cavalry units or other large infantry groups. People don't necessarily change tactics in response to new threats if they don't have the flexibility or practice with it. They may very well carry on doing something sub-optimal even if it doesn't actually help them.
Although there IS one situation in which an experienced group of infantry might group up: when every one of them has a shield and the Shield Master feat. That feat allows them to take half damage from failed Dexterity saves, and no damage from successful ones. Basically, it's like Evasion, but with blocking with shields.
In that event, spellcasters aren't nearly as deadly, making it more advantageous to bunch up and march forward. Allowing them to keep up pressure, envelop foes, and watch each other's backs. Especially if those NPCs are all Fighters who took Protection as their fighting style, so they are constantly covering each other.
Obviously, that assumes we're talking about experienced, disciplined combatants. Ragtag forces might have exactly one person with Shield Master, at best, let alone a whole bunch that work in formation.
"Gibbering Mouther" Pronounced "g" like "good". I've always pronounced it like a J, like Jim. That blew me away
As a fairly new dm... I live and breath by these videos. Thank you for helping me and my crew have a ton of fun!
Just realized all my combat encounters are boss fights. Great video! Will definitely put more variety and fun in my game!
Great video. I learned so much on running combat. Thank you!
Just commenting on the background, I love Whitehall Mystery that game is GAS!
And I think it's here where the 4e Monster Manual comes in handy. Because most monsters have a level, not a CR, but a level. And in the Monster Manual, they will build encounters based around what type of monster you wanna use. It helps the DM pair up creatures that would make sense for that encounter. But it also lets you mix and match stuff where something might be considered more "cool".
My son recommended Matt's videos to me. I've been a DM for many years but just came back to D&D after several years off. This video was really helpful. It gave me a perspective and reminded me of what I intuitively knew but was very well organized!! Thanks for reminding me to maximize the monsters use of the rules the same way the players do. 5e seems very "player friendly". However, if I use the rules for effect, it can bring a fun balance to the game. My players (and son) may regret turning me on to Matt and his videos!! Well done sir!
This is insightful stuff.
At first I was going to comment that not all D&D combat is against well-organized groups or armies (for me, that's like 20% of encounters I run, since I focus more on wilderness campaigns with struggles against wild creatures). But this video is a genuinely good argument to include more organized enemies. I hadn't thought too deeply about how much tactics and fun there can be in a pure combat encounter with infantry and artillery working together. Your comments on patrols and guards also hit home: A timed patrol and a guard to a great job of communicating their own risks and outcomes to the players without the DM needing to imply anything more.
Always love your videos, Matt, and this one has me itching to try some things out. Keep up the great work!
Cool video - these are great mental tools for structuring both planned and improvised encounters.
WOW so much great information in one video. - Thanks Matt 👍🏻
Thank you. My bad guys are nothing but a surround and pound for my players. Watching your series is making it harder for then.
Standard rules on Attacks of Opportunity do not allow for them just because you are within 5 ft of a creature making a ranged attack; you DO, however, impose disadvantage on that attack, so there is still a tactical reason to use your full movement to threaten a ranged attacker. The AoO against threatened ranged attackers is an old 3.5e rule. I have been loving these videos though! Super informative, so keep up the amazing work!
wow this was really informative and helpful! thank you!
This is fantastic help actually, I have never been great at strategy games but this simple explanation does seem like something that will help me with encounters
You and the team should be really proud of the book that you put together. Really fantastic stuff and enjoyable to read. Can't wait to include it in one of our games!
This is incredibly helpful! Thank you so much!!!
To be honest mark, this is just a decent description of how to think about combat regardless of the particular game you're playing. I run a Dungeon World campaign and this information is still a good look at the fundamentals of encounter design. Thanks for all that you do! Love the book!
Much more useful than I expected. Thanks!
I love this, Matt, thank you.
I feel as if I’m in a somewhat unique position as my game is set in a Modern Day setting and so All of my players use guns. They all have ranged weapons.
So I figure, since movement is a big part of this design, I’m going to try this design philosophy, but I’m going to implement a lot of cover and terrain, moving pieces in and out of cover while firing at the heroes, and allowing the heroes to do the same. Using difficult terrain and possibly things to hinder the range of weapons such as environmental affects that challenge visibility...
Obviously nothing to excess, I’m just going to try and take what I’ve learned here and modify it to fit the style of game that we’re playing in, because eventually “Big Dudes with Big Hit Points and Tiny Minions” will get pretty stale.
One additional thing you can do is provide your enemies environmental interactions beyond just cover. Do they have guns? Torches? Fire magic? Put some oil barrels or gun powder in the encounter. Maybe their cover are these flammable explosives that the party can also use to their advantage. Instead of infantry, maybe the brutes knock over tables or chairs or a stack of crates to cut off a pathway. Maybe they've rigged up some traps that lead to further complications which could fill the roll of a glass cannon. The non-living elements that complicate the encounter can lead some really memorable moments. "Remember that time we tried to board the boat and they almost BURNED IT DOWN with that flaming oil spill at the ramp? That was wild."
I love that you aren't just providing excellent content for DMs (and you are), but you're also actively encouraging the community to do the same. You are a river to your people, and a tributary to many other rivers, as well.
This is a great video Matt. I this helps me a TON.
solid advice. great video!
Amazing video-been waiting for part three of getting on the grid. I’m going to get a lot of use out of this!!
My one comment is that I would argue any of the monsters in the MM could contribute to and inform the exploration and social pillars of play as well. Yes combat takes up the most physical space in the book, but only because it is the aspect of the game which requires and benefits from a bulk of strictly systematized and balanced rules necessitating elaboration.
It is definitely a 100% necessary part of dnd, but if the idea of constant combat puts you off then you can (as a DM and after talking to the players) run a game that emphasizes the other pillars of play to the point that combat can very realistically end up less than a third of play.
Again, great video
Ive been DMing for a year and this is probably the most useful video you've made for me, thanks a ton! Can't wait for my book, minis, shirt and stickers to arrive and ill be front row for the stream! Thanks again Matt.