Monkeying With Monsters | Running the Game
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- čas přidán 31. 07. 2017
- Episode 41: Using a Medusa against a 3rd level party?? They called me MAD! Muahaha cough *cough. Ahem.
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"I couldn't contribute because I was stoned." Matt Colville - 2017
Was about to comment the same thing hahahaha
Didn't know Medusas had that effect.
lmao :P
I was gonna contribute, but I got stoned...
I was gonna turn and aim and shoot, but I got stoned...
Now I'm living life just like, a garden gno-ooooome...
Cuz I got stoned, Cuz I got stoned, Cuz I got stoned... Laaaala-lala.
I literally play a dragonborn paladin who is addicted to tobacco, so I can relate.
One neat thing about the Medusa is that although she has a low bonus to her attack rolls, she will oftentimes be attacking targets who are averting their gaze and are thus blinded--she'll have advantage. Likewise, her low AC is helped out by the fact that oftentimes her attackers will have disadvantage. She's designed pretty well around this fun gameplay choice. Take full advantage of her lowish defense and offense, and you subject yourself to her petrifying gaze. If you protect yourself from her gaze, you enable her to turn her middling offense and defense into a threatening range.
And her high con helps her survive her own gaze once someone pulls a Perseus! She's a great monster.
i like the idea of her unfreezing the old heroes and offering them freedom if they kill your pcs instead of animating the statues, then you have a neat social flair to the combat.
Sweaty Heart wow
This would only work, if she is able to partially unstone people. Else it would be pretty likely, that those previous ones fight alongside the PCs.
@@Alresu Not if you had the hero who was defeated by the hero consider the fact that HIS party was defeated and thus assume that this party looks too weak to put up a fight, you could then let the players, if they ask, try to persuade him so either they get a fighter on their side or she gets one.
@@charliericker274 Assuming this hero knows that they lost. As far as I remember it would be RAW that they are unconcious while petrified. Those they would still see the Medusa as a recent enemy. A way would of course be, if she unstones people from time to time to bargain. One by one so they are no threat.
I like the twist of having the pcs fight them as animated statues, but the tweak is that the statues are very weak to being broken if attacked. Meaning the heroes have a dilemma on their hands, they can make the minion part of their battle easy by striking down these animated statues, but then they will have no way to restore these petrified former adventures.
You could also say that a Medusa became blinded in one eye by a previous adventurer! This could make her stone gaze effective area smaller as she can't look at more people in the eye. Or it could effect DC, as it becomes easier to avoid looking her only left eye.
That's clever!
Or, have the medusa be smart, she knows about her own curse, she knows if she sees her reflection she will be destroyed, so she averts her gaze at the start of any encounter encase her foes know this. Instead then of an AOE effect, it becomes her legendary action to once a round force a PC to look at her. Way more personal, way less deadly overall.
@@chrism6315 Ok now make the final boss a Medusa who has controlled large bodies of humans with her ability to restore stoned individuals to life to have soldiers as well as magic items and one for touchsight so she can use her eyes with deliberacy. Now she can be a pirate lord and have naval warfare. Eyepatch on both eyes.
Amazing idea, I ll steal it, do you mind?
Higher level version, a fully blind Medusa who has learned how to petrify, possibly over multiple turns, with her voice. A piercing screech, sweet-talking, etc. She starts off sweet-talking a group to stone, they start fighting her and she starts shrieking as people make saving throws against the process of turning to stone. You can also say it's not necessary to hear it, it's a quality of her voice, since of course experienced players or high-level players will be able to pretty easily stop themselves from hearing something they don't want to.
1:25 Clearly, a medusa table is made of stone. :P
You mean made of dwarf
oh. well played sir.
Was it made of stone or did it turn to stone?
Jonathan Herzog My god... ingenious
Just a coiled round table of stone snakes?
Great video Matt! Really solid wisdom about messing with the monsters in the book. Can't wait till my level 3 party fights the tarrasque next week!
what did you do to a tarrasque that made it easier for a third level party to defeat it? I desperately want to use on ut my players are too low a level to defeat it yet
babies
Wow, I'm also making a tiny tarrasque, because an evil god is trying to destroy an artifact that was created with tarrasque hide.
Yes, real solid advice on how to use petrifying gaze. Get it solid
@@ethanscottcree2844 3rd level seems a bit low fo. But let me help you out. It can´t be an adult so we make it a baby tarrasque. Why not? First you should lower the armor class. The current 25 should be set to 12-16ish. Of cause it also hasn´t a stregh of 30 but maybe 10 or 15. Also all the other stats should be lower. The hitpoints should be way lower. Around 90 if you like. You tarrasque has no Frightful Presence and cant swallow Party members, because its too little. Of cause you have to lower the attack of the tarrasque but remeber. It can still attack 5 times per turn. One attack with its bite, two with its claws, one with its horns, and one with its tail. That should be it. You should check the numbers and it it seems like a very weak version of a tarrasque then you can use it. Have fun!
He really did change shirts
Can't have people thinking us streamers only own one shirt! :P
He also switched the painting in the background
find the differences in Matt's videos is the new game, let's go people! :P
It's a fun game to play.
Where's THAT video?
I was kicking myself when you pointed out that you can adjust hit points on the fly when a battle has started. I ran Lost Mine of Phandelver for some friends and had managed to ramp up nicely to the Black Spider, the ultimate villain of the adventure. Problem was, when they finally confronted him, he got a low initiative roll and my druid turned into a bear and absolutely decimated him with a critical hit. It hadn't even been a full turn yet and my main villain was dead having done absolutely nothing to the party (I was really excited to finally cast some spells on the party, but it was not meant to be). Now I know that if a major villain is too easy for the party, I can just boost their hit points on the fly. This seems so obvious now but I was so bummed at the time. Thanks Matt for your insight!
I usually give them resistances and legendary actions to beef them up and improve the feeling of a climactic battle.
I think this is an interesting happening in its own right. Or at very least an interesting DM'ing challenge.
Same thing happened to me my plays kill him with a lucky inflicted wounds and a single great axe swing before he did anything
The fall of Brian.
Alternatively, give the creature the equivalent of a half-orc’s relentless endurance. This prevents the players from figuring out that you are changing the hp, and it gives them the idea that they are about to beat the creature (until it uses its action to teleport away).
"I don't know what a medusa table would look like"
Maybe like an eeriely realistic stone statue of a frightened human knight crawling on all fours and looking upwards?
Am I the only one who grew up calling the race "Gorgon" and the specific Gorgon "Medusa"?
I also thought they were the same thing or similar, then suddenly gorgons are metal bulls that petrify with breath! (started playing at pathfinder)
In the mythology, the race was called Gorgons. You are correct. D&D is weird though, 'cause they already tagged the name Gorgon to a poisonous iron bull like thing
The bull creature that D&D calls a gorgon is called a catoblepas in actual mythology. For some reason, some ancient authors did conflate catoblepas with gorgons, which I guess is why D&D decided to call it a gorgon. (Though weirdly, I think there was also a D&D monster called a catoblepas that was nothing like the mythological one...)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catoblepas
But the catoblepas is also a D&D monster (which is something like a stinking camel-giraffe swamp monster)! Man is it scambled.
I always assumed it was a single creature, "THE Medusa", because she was cursed, which is why she looks basically human. Never fought one as a player, never used one as a DM. Probably because I never had a mini to put on the table.
I appreciate that the RAW method for petrification is the party looking at her, not her looking at the party. That's the classic mythology good stuff.
Still watching video at the point when he says how to change hit points.
Just justify it but the monster getting a high or a low roll, creatures with large number of hit die have a very large variance in minimum and maximum rolls.
Medusa for example can have anywhere from 68 (17 1s +51 from constitution) to 187 (17 8s +51 from constitution).
This seems like a pretty easy way to justify hit points if you have those by the book players.
True! I didn't even mention that I often just give the monsters Max Hit Points!
Another way to justify it is to say that's meta-gaming and that if a barbarian can have 150+ hit points there's no reason why other monsters couldn't have higher hit-points.
Andrej Bosiakov exactly what I was thinking. I personally roll for every creature so my players can't tell exactly what the hp of 2 of the same creature is
Same!
In the 5e published adventures, some NPCs use pre-existing stat blocks but have additional HP. The books never explain why they have more HP; they don't get extra hit dice or anything, they just have more HP.
I always assumed they were implied to have just rolled exceptionally well when "levelling up". :P
Quick tip for any boss: Add legendary actions! Give the "boss" 2 Legendary action points and 3 options to choose from:
- Additional attack
- Cast a low level spell/cantrip
- Evasion/movement ability
Mattia Salvetti you could also throw in a special ability that they don’t normally use (think this is what liches have)
What i did was give my hobgoblin warlord sniper boss was throw Disengage and summon reinforcements. 1d4 hobgoblins at initiative 20, or the ability to fuck off and gain distance and keep fighting with her bow
Matt really should make a series to parallel called Ruining the Game, in which he highlights negatives and how to fix them. Of course if he can, time constraints of course provided for.
Higher Five lol. Ruining the game .1 Reading the box text out loud in a monotone voice!
consider: it's just how to make the shittiest april fool's one-shot your players have ever had the misfortunes of experiencing
"This is the HOLOTYPE of a Medusa"
My taxonomist brain has just been blown away!
You sir... you are AMAZING!!
I wrote an adventure with a good-aligned medusa who used to be a cleric. She was trying to figure out how to cure a plague, and was going to die before it was completed. It was her pride in her work that drove her to ask the gods for more time, and was transformed into a medusa.
The "animate statues" ability should be done by the Medar, that way they're like a mated pair. OR to make it different, a single Medusa with a harem of Medar would be cool.
Or make it a legendary action. Also, if someone gets stoned, animate them, hand them the stats of the statue and have them attack the party. Now the party has to deal with it and avoid breaking the statue of their friend. Or fix him later before casting restoration.
Matt casts "2 Videos in a Week" and I fail all my saving throws.
3 if you count his guest appearance on Geek and Sundry's DM tips
Sneak attack. Suffer an extra 2d6 pleasant surprise damage.
This content has made me a better GM and my players love my new campaign, thank you so much!!!
I think that's the best cimpliment Matt can get!
The medusa can have a lower AC because the party has disadvantage on atracks from keeping their eyes averted.
A Madusa table is actually just four creatively posed statues holding up a table top.
Hey Matt. Didn't know where else to write this so figured i would do it here. Just finished "Preist" and I was hooked from the start. Couldnt put it down. Just ordered Theif and can't wait to read it. Great job. And to anyone who hasn't read Matts books do yourself a favor and go buy them.
"She was eager to get flanked"...nice lol.
TWO VIDEOS IN TWO DAYS??
HOLY S H I T.
You could have a multi-staged battle, with the medusa wearing a helmet, thus focusing or negating her petrifying gaze, that gets taken out by the party or removed by the medusa once a certain hitpoint threshold is reached, OR if a party member scores a critical hit.
The effect of the helmet could result in a cone effect and/or a visor needing to be lifted to activate the gaze at a particular attacker.
Once the helmet comes off, that could cause the DC to go up by 1, since it's less obscured or something to that effect. This might result in a lower AC for the medusa at the benefit of making it easier to defeat her enemies.
Offense vs Defense
A few of my players just saw this video and groaned as I already heavily customize the monsters in my home games. One said "Oh lord, now he can say its Colville approved"
LOL
I often have high level creatures for lower level parties that have been injured by countless battles. And nice shirt Matt!
I do the same, or I did. I started my current group out with an emaciated vampire (with some spellcasting, legendary and lair actions) as the second and final encounter with in a drifting slave ship. Then again the party is was seven characters (starting at level three).
I've also done that. My players were third level and exploring a dungeon when they walked into a battle involving a troll fighting some rat folk. The rats had poured liquid fire over the troll, weakening it. I kept it's stats almost entirely the same but gave it only thirty hit points and it had no regeneration.
It's a really good way of justifying why THIS particular monster is weaker and also gives the players an idea of what such a creature can do if they meet a healthy one, which makes them feel cool and smart when they do.
Absolutely love this. And it also makes the world feel bigger: this monster has a previous life, and there are other adventurers out there.
"I don't know what a medusa table would look like"
Well with the art for Kingdoms and Warfare that you showed the other day on stream, now you know what a medusa table looks like!
For anyone wondering, that Ecology of the maedar article is from Dragon Magazine #106
"You can modify this in a number of different ways. Well... two. Two is a number!"
Has someone made a page full of Colville-isms yet? I motion to add “Jerry, I said to my friend, because that’s his name.” To the list.
Not a huge point, but i just checked and in 3.5 natural armor stacks with regular armor bonuses. Thanks for the video!
Also one thing to consider, and you briefly touched on, is to consider what factors you can include beyond the raw stats that can adjust the difficulties of the encounter. What sort of arena are you engaging in? As the ability has triggers based on light, what sort of lightning are you engaging in? what time of day? Are their any tools at your disposal or within the dungeon you've acquired that are specifically made to work with factors of this environment or arena? Any that work against the party? You might not need to adjust the stats at all, and instead can just figure out how to make the fight more of a puzzle, one with many solutions that don't necessarily involve just having to beat AC, a Con Save, and a lot of hit points.
You forgot to mention the Medusa (and all intelligent creatures) using any treasure against the party. So per-generate the loot and make sure to use then against the party.
Yep, hmm medusa with a vorpal blade !
hamanu666 if your medusa has a vorpal sword in their treasure hoard then you’ve got bigger problems
Lorgrom use those items, the treasure has lost charges by the time it’s found
Loved this! one of my Dungeon masters just used animated statues in his medusa fight. I loved how we instantly knew what was in the dark lair. Great video great hair and great advice!
In 3rd edition, 'Natural AC' and 'Armor' do stack.
Call me paranoid, but I always assume statues will come to life and attack or are trapped.
Players passing by a bunch of "lifelike" statues...
Not mine. They smashed every single one of them on the way. I don't even blame them.
Well, could be reasonable. When you walk by lifelike statues another possibility would be, that they start moving and attack you....
Alresu yeah there are 3 real options
1. You’re approaching a master statue maker
2. You’re approaching a Medusa
3. The statues are gonna weeping angel on you the second they’re at your back
The DMG page 274 has suggested number of HP range, AC, damage, attack bonus and save DC for monsters for each Challenge Rating, and explain how to go if you want to change the balance of offensive and defensive capabilities of the monster for that level. It's really easy to use and makes a good reference point if you want to just take a monster and convert to a different level.
I was going to say this exact thing. That chart's great for newer players who don't have Matt's experience with the numbers of the game.
You are one of the few people I have notifications for on CZcams
I like your way of making the Medusa's gaze an attack, that's what I've been planning. I also concluded that a blind Medusa cannot petrify anyone.
Side-note: Why does a Medusa's gaze work in a reflective surface? Greek mythology happens to be a particular strength of mine. I know the story of Perseus, that is not how it worked.
Probably so she would be a solitary encounter since nothing living would be her companion unless it was blind. I ignore that part of the MM and give her giant snakes as companions/pets and sometimes two sisters for company.
I'm really relieved that you condone changing HP on the fly. I always feel so guilty whenever I do that.
Alternatively, give your monster death saving throws and have an ally of the monster have access to healing word (maybe foreshadowing this by having that ally have a shield with the holy symbol of Vecna, Orcus, Lolth, a Yuan-Ti anathema, Anubis, etc, so the ally has a level in cleric of one of those).
This then shows the players how close they were to defeating their enemies, which is more fun than just facing something with an endless pool of hp.
Petrification doesn't nessicarily mean instant death, you can have the other players run a quest to get a cure for it, perhaps defeating a few Basilisks for a famous alchemist, who then creates a cure, or going on a divine journey to have a god help out, temporarily letting one of the players cast Greater Restoration, or the way you mentioned.
Here's an alternative petrification mechanic:
By each point you fail the save, you lose 5 movement speed. Falling to 0 speed = you turn into stone.
Another one that fast?
If only it was in HD already, I want to see the beard in all its glory!
He did say in the last video that he was recording this immediately after the last video this was the one he recorded after the previous one.
Still, I thought it would be a few days.
There is a monster called Stone Cursed that is literally a stoned person coming alive.
Matt,
Your videos are so useful and really empowering as a first time DM. I hope that you enjoy producing this content enough to continue doing so for a long time!
Great job man! love the video! I've been DM'ing for 8 years and still haven't read all the books entirely. This really helped me with my campaign! Thanks!
As an aging DM myself, dating back to the earliest years of D&D, I find your videos amusing and informative at the same time, especially your series explaning the changes and history of the various editions, and I was wondering whether you would help me out with a question. I've recently returned to the game after a couple of years of hiatus and I'm running some classic modules for a troupe of absolute newcomers (3.5 edition rules); I find myself dithering over awarding experience points, oddly enough. How much? How often? Award to the group or to the individual? XP for monster kills? Hauling treasure? I understand the various methods for awarding XP from various editions, but what is the current zeitgeist? How do you approach this with your players?
I'd be especially keen to see you tackle this in one of your videos!
Two years late to the party but hey, maybe somebody else will read this and appreciate my (non-matt) thoughts :)
-handing out different amounts of xp to each players feels really off and can make some people feel bad.
-giving xp at the end of each encounter is too bothersome. Maybe do it at long rests, preferably at the end of each session.
-getting xp for treasure is interesting and promotes a sort of old school dungeon dive where the players are mostly just going out to rob tombs or whatever. This can certainly be awesome, but personally I've experienced that such campaigns eventually evolve beyond their premise and when that happens, gold becomes secondary to other objectives (eg personal revenge, power, ideals), making treasure-as-xp feel inappropriate.
-I can highly recommend doing 'milestone xp', that is letting the players level up on your whim. It's just so much more easy to handle and it means you can tailor different stages of your adventure to specific levels. You can also let players level up on thematically appropriate moments, for example when they have some downtime or after a great achievement.
Couldn't you call a male medusa a medudesa? ;D I'll see myself out...
mandusa
As soon as you mentioned animated statues, I thought Weeping Angels! Don’t look at the Medusa, look at the statues so they can’t get closer!
this really helped out because i was getting kind of bummed out on how many cool/awesome creatures in the monster manual were out of my players' range. This gave me the spark i needed get into gear. Thanks tons!! Looking forward to more of them.
I'll have to keep this in mind, I'm co-dming for a group of 6 or 7 depending on the day so anything relating to action economy is extremely helpful. Also does anyone know of a good way to "persuade" players into doing more recon and information gathering. We threw a shadow demon at them expecting a collected response of light spells rendering the monster useless, but instead they tried to hack at it with their swords and axes, this nearly caused a tpk, but one player decided to run and the others followed suit.
You could always have an NPC suggest that information gathering would help the party.
Ethan Bridges you could have any relevant NPCs give them hints at times. Better yet those ant NPC followers or companions could just say "guys are we really thinking this through?" Or "maybe we should look into it first." In addition prompting players with an unknown threat like a "shadowy figure who lurks in the mansion at night" or "townspeople go missing/are killed every third night" pushes them to investigate/do more research. Finally the safe way, just like your shadow demon encounter, is for the players to safely lose so they go prepare for the second encounter with the given threat.
Most important question of all: Are those animated statues immune to petrification?
Absolutely LOVE this video Matt! I recently used a lot of the advice in this to run a combat for my group. Normally they're the murder-hobo types that like to attack first and ask questions later but during this combat they actually planned ahead and coordinated! Keep up the great work on these videos!
Thanks Matt, this really helps. I have wanted to use some different monsters and a lot of what you have done to make them easier or harder helps to give a template for me to use. It was what I was doing already but it's nice seeing your thought process! Keep up the great work! I love your channel!
I'm excited for the undead video. I'm DMing a undead-heavy campaign myself. Maybe you"ll talk about ghouls and zombies aswell?
This gives me an idea for a dungeon.
This is so handy. Even when I think I understand the dice math and follow along with your video for that, having the practical applications of using that dice math to tweak other beasties really helps. Much obliged!
Matt's such a nice DM, if someone looks at a Medusa and make their save they are restrained, if they don't they are petrified and that's only by my good graces.
You don't look at a Medusa or you look at her for a long time.
A "5 or more" failure means that 20% is the chance of failing without triggering 5 or more.
So, 50% to save is 30% chance to get stoned.
He changed his shirt, placed a new game under the orange box on his shelf, took away the one under the right game on his shelf and changed the picture by the light switch. Yeah that's right I'm that bored.
And people like you are the reason he does that kind of thing xD
All your videos are awesome! Thanks for all the help!
Finally up to date! These are honestly the most fantastic videos on DMing I've ever watched.
Man, whoever made the male Medusa really missed out on "Medudesa"
This is great, I have been trying to power up a sea-hag for a large party in the future.
GrimBrotherIV Well, just be aware that large parties are different from higher level parties. A large party can really wreck lone boss monsters if it's something they can hit and damage, but the individuals in the party are still lower level characters. Losing half of your fighters isn't the same as one high level fighter losing half his HP. So in trying to adjust a many vs one scenario, it gets very tricky. I'd recommend adding minions for the hag and only buffing her a little bit if at all.
Oh, that's easy. Just make it a coven of hags.
...or add ogres, call them goons, and make it the sea hag from Popeye.
GrimBrotherIV ancient queen sea hag? "The mother of hags"
And her fishmen gaurdians.
"If I were a Deep One,
Blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub
All day long I'd swim beneath the waves,
If I were a DEEEEEP One!"
- Fiddler On Devil's Reef
Thanks Matt! Love your videos. Been DMing for a few years and I always learn something new and easy to incorporate into my campaigns. I thank you and my players thank you!
Years later, the MCDM basilisk comes out with an anti-petrification gland. I kinda love how virtually all of lessons that Matt and his team have learned in terms of game design and player experience are used consistently. I love your work and and frequently re-watch your content.
Not saying you should change how you do things, and I definitely dont speak for everyone else, but I would gladly sit through an ad or 2 every video to support you. I think your content and your overall generosity with your time warrants sitting through a 30 second ad to support you.
Why not make her a rogue? bow and short sword. sneak attack....
I think mean you mean snek attack
One thing I used to do a lot when I dm'd D&D was: Lets say I want to add AC to my Medusa I give it "Evasion: +X in AC". And if they have fought a Medusa before I say she moves faster than the last one you fought. If they haven't I say "She moves with unnatural speed and precision" or something like that.
And I had that for saves and the like.
Example: "Old Wound: -10 maximum HP" and just explain it.
Sometimes the players wanted to see some enemies after the adventure or campaign or w/e and then I could show them.
One upside for me with this is it can easily be modified to, and the name of the change could just be renamed to fit the fight.
Evasive could be what Matt described here "Chainmail: +4 in AC"
Old Wound could be Old, Sickly, Small or w/e.
Great Video, Matthew.
I love all of the advice in this video. I am one of those self-limiting GMs who needs the math to work for my monsters and encounters. This frequently leads me to disappointing encounters because I feel like I can't alter the monster stats for dramatic purposes. Also, seeding the environment with things that you can chose to add (or not) as needed to make the encounter more exciting is fun too. Having it in your notes that the petrified adventurers could animate, but only using it if needed, is an amazing idea. Also, animating those statues to attack is a really great lair action.
"A monster's lifespan is measured in rounds, whereas a player character's lifespan can be measured in years."
At least 50% of that statement is untrue 75% of the time.
Maedar huh? Our game group calls it a Medudesa
My dude, sah!
This was incredibly helpful! I’m currently adjusting/zombifying a hydra, and this gave me all the recommended steps to do so!
First time watching your video, 10/10 incredibly happy. Super useful thank you!
How are there 320 visits when I click as soon as I see the notification...
sometimes notifications are late
Do you think it's fair play to raise DCs past 17 or so if you have a high level paladin in the party? All my players get +5 on all saving throws if they're in 10 feet of the paladin (and are pretty careful about staying within 10 feet if there's saving throws in play -- half spell damage and the save throw bonus tends to mitigate the AoE problem), so I can't imagine them struggling with anything where the save DC isn't at least 16 or 17 if not higher.
roskaboska42 I would argue that if they are taking all the precautions to be safe, that they should be rewarded with safety. They are choosing to give up mobility to make themselves safer. I would argue that you should try to find ways to have the party choose to spread out, where the normal DC would have a greater effect.
roskaboska42 instead of raising save DCs, try designing encounters that make it hard for everyone to huddle together. Some thing to keep in mind:
-monsters can grapple and use the shove action too
-use tight spaces that limit movement
-use highly mobile monsters. Grouping around the paladin is harder when everyone has to move around each turn.
-spellcasters with AoE spells can make them rethink grouping up. Sure they'll make their saves but after a few fireballs/lightning bolts they'll still be hurting and should rethink staying so close together.
Just remember that this particular save is really dangerous. Save or die situations can be really dangerous. If you have 5 players and they instantly turn to stone only on a 1 then each round there is a 22% chance that one of your players is now a statue. Any save or die situation that affects the whole party every round is incredibly dangerous because with that many rolls someone is going to roll a 1.
What about a Blob monster? like the movie, not just an Ooze, but being able to wobble up to people and grab them, and they can't pull away too easy. Maybe it can slowly dissolve a person, but it's main use in this encounter is only to slow the party down. PCs now have to choose between a move action to escape, or an attack action to damage the Blob.
Or, how about a castle or cave complex, where pieces of the ceiling fall, and if they bunch up there is a high probability of everyone taking damage?
My first thought was that that sounds a lot like a black pudding, but yeah, they don't have a grapple attack for some reason.
Great content applicable to game-mastering. Loving these vids! Thanks!
As a new DM i've really been loving watching your channel to help improve my game! keep it up Matt
Regarding the Gaze, I think it would be interesting if on a nat 1 saving throw, the player isn't simply turned to stone, they're turned to stone and then *crumble into dust*. I like making botches memorable.
It's a gorgon. Medusa is an individual person who was cursed by Athena.
Dirus Nigh gorgons are actually a separate creature in the MM but I agree with you and I always homebrew medusas being called gorgons
They borrowed her from Greek Mythology, in D&D they are not constrained by it's rules. Much like something with two legs and wings that breathes fire is a dragon (not a drake) if in the world it inhabits it is called thusly.
gorgon is just an adjective that means terrible.
Was playing in a pathfinder campaign, Orc Barbarian, 15 con, 8 int and wis...
We came upon a Basilisk, I as the player recognized it as a basilisk....
As my barbarian had some ranks in Knowledge nature, I had him roll it, not the correct knowledge but it's all he had.
Nat 1. The gm said my character believed it to be a malformed version of some lizards we'd fought earlier in the campaign.
So, my characrter, who couldn't make it to the enemy in his turn, walked up as far as he could and readied an action to attack it if if got in range.
It glared at my barbarian, failed my con saving throw.
The rest of the party had quite a time taking it out with their main tank/damage being stoned.
Great videos! I'm learning how to run the campaign that my friends and I have been playing & these are super helpful. Thank you!
"petrifying gays"
I'm not sorry
Nothing stopping you to make a Gay Maedar (male medusa) encounter.
I'm going to do that now, thank you.
Maedar were the ones with the power to turn stone to flesh in earlier versions. I believe the earlier versions had a petrifying appearance which was passive, but they also had an active petrifying gaze which works whether you're blind or not.
A Medudesa, if you will.
Damienov gayedar
Woah. You are EARLY. ... Or late. One or the other. ;)
Peregrine Hawthorne he is never late, nor is he early, he posts precisely when he means to.
nafman l I see what you did there
This video has CHANGED MY GAME! I have wanted to throw monsters at my players that were too difficult for them and while I knew these options were there for me to tinker with I never exactly knew how to tinker it and make it work. This is the best advice I've gotten so far. Thank you so damn much Matt!
Really great stuff. Most of this I already learned via 4e encounter builder tool (which you have spoken of before), but it's still awesome to here your philosophy behind it.
Notification squad!
Matt, there's a simpler way of doing this. Just take a monster who's appropriate for the party's level and give it's stats to the Medusa. So for example, a Young Red Dragon would be a medium challenge for a 9th level party. Replace the dragon's Fire Breath with the Medusa's Petrifying Gaze and you're done. Likewise, for a 3rd level party you could use a Red Dragon Wyrmling instead of an adult one. It's much much faster and equally effective.
I do this and it works great!
Would be kind of odd for a medusa to have a dragon's strength score
Maybe she has Gauntlets of Ogre Power or something, idk, it's just an example. There's plenty of CR 9 or 10 monsters to choose from, just choose some other that has more fitting stats. Principle still applies.
I'm really not a fan of those kinds of skinjobs, for the exact reason that they can seem really odd and ill-fitting. Tweaking stats makes for much more convincing and appropriate monsters.
That said, I will never get rid of Cockrel, the rooster with the exact stats of an Ancient Red Dragon.
As I said, the Red Dragon thing is just an example. And you have to realize, players are not able to the stat sheet nor will they know what you did. In the Medusa example above, they'll just think "damn she hits hard" and then the DM can just do as Matt said: "well, she's not a normal Medusa, she's the queen."
Another example is, say, giving a Guard (CR 1/8) the stats of a Knight (CR 3) and saying that he's the captain of the guards or something. In this example you see that all the Abilities, Skills, Features and Actions of the Knight make perfect sense for a Captain of the Guards character. It's always faster to search for a monster with compatible traits than to try and make stuff up.
If you want, name any monster and I'll give you a good example.
Great vacation gift; two videos! thanks Matt; useful stuff
Another amazing vid. Great tips for new and intermediate players and DM's. Thanks! Enjoyed the bit about including curatives in game for dangerous afflictions. That helps the world become more alive and helps the players start to explore.
Have you been trying to talk slower in the videos? If so, you're doing great! Awesome video, man, per usual.
I thought I was the only one who noticed this, I might have to start watching at 1.5 speeds.
Psst. Colville. Yes you.
Do you feel next weeks video might be a little...Political?
Luke Cox
True that subjekt is...UNDEAD!
It wouldn't be the first time he's pulled a sneaky one on us.
headbite alien Maybe the ones about... politics? ;)
Check 'em out, they're great
Reanimating the stone statues is such a fantastic idea. And the idea that the statues are kept to preserve them as good in a morbid larder is such a cool idea
Very handy information. I'm nearing the end of the starter set story and am working on the next adventure. I have noticed that some of the players had read the monster manual as well (not in depth luckily), and they kind of knew what the monsters were capable of. This might shake things up a bit :)
You are the man Matt Coville! This was quite helpful.
Finally caught up!! Thanks for all of the awesome videos!
You have so much great info and so many fantastic ideas! You're fucking amazing Matt!
Great video! I have a medusa mini I've been dying to break out, but my party is only 3rd lvl. Now I know how to tweak the medusa accordingly. So much good information on this channel.
Fantastic video, I loved the ideas you came up with, Im gonna pick a random monster and see what if I come up with.