5 Monster Fights That Can NOT be Won By Sword & Spell Alone| Game Master Tips
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
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5 Monster Fights That Can be Won By Sword & Spell Alone| Game Master Tips
Creative encounters during adventures is what this video is about. Giving the Game Master or Dungeon Master better options for their players than just beating on a monster during fights. It makes for a more interesting game and will keep the players on their toes. It also adds depth to the campaign world by offering a variety challenges at the gaming table. DnD in large involves a lot of combat and fights, but it is nice to switch it up now and again give different ways for a player to interact with a NPC monster, beast, or creature.
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Cool ideas guys. Also the last one such as the Sphinx/monster may want them to defeat it in a game or have task them to get an object. :)
'maybe it's an undead or something but they need it alive......'
"Our employer didn't think this through very well, did they?"- The dnd party.
In our last session my players really surprised me when they completely subverted my encounter.
Their objective was to track down a flail snail for its shell (I had the idea actually from your video on flail snails). They were going on a rumor that one was in an old castle ruin. When they arrived there they found harpies roosting on the battlements. One of them made a good nature check and remembered that harpies like shiny baubles. Instead of fighting the harpies, they bartered their way into the castle with gold and shiny baubles.
Inside the castle there were two ettins and an ogre who kept the flailsnail in a cave with a piece of the castle's portcullis as the cage door. The snail just feeds by expanding its cell. In addition they had two howlers as pets, which were just sleeping there. The three giants all had their ears plugged because of the harpies outside and so they would usually converse by shouting, making them very easy to notice long before they would notice you. The giants were just talking about that they had run out of meat and need to get more. The arcane trickster tried to sneak in, but despite the giants' disadvantage to perception failed his stealth check and was spotted. So he tells them they are in luck because he is a wandering meat salesman. And he gets the ogre to follow him outside, where the party waits with a tripwire. They trip the ogre and take it out swiftly.
Then the rogue returns to the giants' lair, this time sneaking in successfully, he hides in an old storage crate and starts using his mage hand to make the ettins mad at each other, by pulling one's bowl of gruel over to the other one. He then proceeds to minor illusion a leg of meat next to the seat of one ettin and mage-hands the other's bowl off the table. As the ettin stoops to pick up the bowl, it sees the illusion meat and thinks the other has been hiding it, so they go at each others throats. Them being ettins and already at odds enough between their own heads, I decide two of them would just be waiting for an excuse to murder each other, so they draw their weapons and start wailing. I quickly roll a few to hit rolls (not rolling for damage but using averages) to see which one would win and with how many HP left. Turns out the winner came out of the fight with about 2 HP, the rogue quickly sneak attacks it with a hand crossbow bolt and finishes it.
The collapsing ettin falls into their table construction (which was four tables stacked on top of each other, two by two) sending one table flying across the room and waking up the howlers. At this point however the howlers were all that was left to fight, and the party succeeded of course. They killed off the howlers, took out the flail snail and harvested its shell and made off with their prize.
On the way out, the harpies were way too busy fighting amongst each other to notice the party, because one of them actually got way more shinies than the others and so the PCs could leave unmolested by a flock of harpies which would've probably just waited to go back on the deal and ambush them on the way out, hadn't they been so distracted.
I loved how they completely took the entire encounter off its hinges and gave them full XP for all 6 harpies, 2 ettins, 2 howlers (CR 2), ogre and flail snail.
They were a party of 4 level 4 characters so according to encounter creation guidelines they blew through a deadly and a quadruple deadly encounter.
Negotiation's always an option. Even if you're fighting something you can't normally negotiate with such as a bloodthirsty monster, you can always use Talk to Animals or something like that to tell the beast "Hey, don't waste your time destroying this little village, there's a town three times the size of our village just down the road!".
Hey, the mayor only said we needed to protect this specific village. He didn't say anything about other locations.
Doctor Strange certainly proved that.
Perhaps the other village is in on it, and had engeneered a trap for the moster when it arives.
Or, you make a deception check to lead them into a trap, discised as a larger village.
trapped in a church surrounded by zombies. We cut the ropes off the church bell, create water into the bell till it's full, bless it into holy water, dump it off the side of the tower onto the zombies. Then we chuck the bell at them just for good measure.
A fart you shouldn't have trusted this is a great idea. Love it.
This reminds me of some of the stories (On message boards) I was reading why trying to find out the *best RP words to used when using Prestidigitation.*
One player used it to stop a summoning by using it on the alter cleaning it so that no blood hit it.
Another dousing a campfire of the enemy to send them into confusion
Creative solutions are always appreciated by a good DM. The problem is there are a few player types that mess with this:
A. - Single Solution. These players mash the big cherry red Attack button like a 1980's arcade game. They either refuse or do not care to listen to other solutions. These players tend to have characters with a great initiative and a favorite attack - and they use it every chance they get. This is normally not a problem when you have foes that respond to only one solution. It can be a really big problem when you either need to negotiate or think your way out, though. I've played with a lot of these players, and whereas it can be hilarious, it becomes detrimental when it leads to a party wipe because "Hey, that King dude was staring at me. No one stares at The Guy."
B.- The Oddball - These players have an entirely different reality going on in their imagination and either cannot or will not communicate their intent before acting upon this reality. Typical actions by an Oddball are pouring a waterskin on an attacking Zombie, thinking that their god will convert it to Holy Water...without ever saying anything to the DM. Or they'll try to tame a mindless ooze with a piece of bacon. Or they'll jump off a cliff "because the Wizard has Feather Fall...or at least they should, Good wizards do."....without telling the Wizard player. I've seen a moment at a table where everyone was desperately scrambling to find a solution or to stay alive, and the Oddball looked through her inventory and character sheet for 15 minutes because she wanted a rule on how to pour water on a Fey creature. I can still see the entire group slowly looking at her...then at the DM...then back at her....and the Single Solution guy slowly gestured that he was drawing his longbow at the Oddball.....
C. - The Gainsayer - These players are never happy with any plan that isn't their own. They are a general wet blanket on any plan and always argue about why anything won't work. A DM could write the solution on a card with a black marker and the Gainsayer would still try to debunk it. Many Gainsayers are DMs at their own tables and can't seem to let go of "the chair" in their heads. Other Gainsayers are either also Rules Lawyers or are generally unhappy people in their personal lives. I've seen this one a few times. We had a Gainsayer playing an Illusionist who had zero creativity, a giant chip on his shoulder, and made the table a stressful place to be. He eventually spat out a string of vulgarities and quit.
D. - The Rules Lawyer - Rules Lawyers will discount any solution that isn't "From The Book". They've taken the time to research a lot and have a hard time deviating from their knowledge. Rules Lawyers are often verbal about this fact and can and will educate anyone who'll listen about what is "right" and what is "wrong".
I can honestly say that I do struggle with this aspect myself. I consider myself well versed, and can see when the DM is "pulling a fast one". Fortunately though, I have brand new players beside me, and their wonder and amazement at the world is more valuable to me than my Law. I want them to discover the game the same way I did, by stumbling around in it and learning as they go. Maybe it's because I'm a Dad now. To help keep myself in check, I'll text the DM and let him know when I know what the monster or trick is, but I won't say anything to the other players. I'll let them lead the encounter. Our DM actually hands out bonus XP for those who will not Metagame. It's not much, but it's a little appreciation for trying to stick to "the character".
My brother in law, however, is a full-on-rules-lawyer and won't budge an inch when he plays. It's caused a lot of tension and contributed to myself and my current DM quitting his game. Perhaps that experience is the reason I'm trying so hard to STFU about rules....and yet I still struggle.
Mike Gould Hence this video comes with a warning.
Nerdarchist Dave
I am playing with a group of friends with the starter campaign, with the DM being someone who can't really improvise (it is his first time, so I don't blame him). I am playing a cleric, and took Create/Destroy Water, and specifically bought a bucket just to try to find a use for throwing water on something.
Sadly, I have yet to find any fire elementals since it the starter campaign.
Monsters could order the PCs to fetch them a shrubbery.
For everything else, don't underestimate the socializing potential of killing PCs.
Boris Stremlin
what would be the DC on the strength check to cut down a tree with a herring?
Probably lower than the DC for persuading the herring to do it by itself.
Boris Stremlin OMG you are the best
A shwubbewy ????
It
This is actually the main philosophy I have when designing encounters. I emphasize that (nearly) everything can be solved with simply attacking and slaying the enemies, but that this option is the least fun. (And occasionally actually impossible) One of my favorite examples of this was building a fight with a mechanical Lion that had an AC of 30 against non-magical weapons (fought at level 4, naturally). It was also fast as shit and had the noticeable characteristic of ramming things.
Basically, there were multiple ways to counter the beast, but the players eventually got it to ram into a pillar that crushed the beast, destroying its armour and severely reducing its fighting abilities. (AC went straight down to 12 and it lost attack power as well as speed) Then someone jumped on the fucking thing and began to ride it while stabbing it to death. It rammed into a wall and died from impact shortly after. Man, I love this game.
But it's important to understand that hinting at things is incredibly vital to let moments like this happen. I once had a friend who needed to let the players in his campaign know that the boss he designed would explode violently upon death, severely damaging anything near it. I told him "just make them fight a few enemies in the area beforehand. Enemies that look like the boss, only smaller and weaker, whos explosions hurt far less." Needless to say, the players immediately understood to get away from the boss of the area once it started to glow after death.
I dunno what I think I was gonna say with this rambling comment other than I love 5E.
- Awsm Chimera
The Git Gud Neighborhood we love 5e as well. Thanks for sharing tales from your table.
Nerdarchist Dave
I broke my players of the whole "he wouldn't send it at us if we weren't meant to be able to beat it." mentality pretty early. I sent a kraken at them when they were still level 6.
MatthiasCorvinu We got a dryder at level 2....I killed it but then two rat kings killed me. NEVERTHELESS WE DID KILL A DRYDER DEGREE AT LEVEL 2
Every time I see Dave I I hear this in my head: "Vegeta, what does the scanner say about his kneckbeard level?" "It's over NINE THOUSAAAAAAND!!!"
...I feel like the title was a typo. pretty much everything *CAN* be handled with swords and spells. As far as outside the box solutions go, I encourage players to think of them, but my group is pretty battle heavy. I throw riddles and puzzles at them only on rare occasions because they don't usually like to have to spend time working out a problem. For instance, "A heavy iron door with a very intricate lock blocks your way, what do you do?" the vast majority of my players would try to either break down the door, pick the lock, or use magic to try and get around the lock (although I do have to give props to the wizard who tries to cast shatter on the locking mechanism, that is one time I have to look at my notes and see if that would even work or if it would cause the door to just be an immovable iron wall).
clericofchaos1 Agreed only light puzzles and very few of them.
Bit of fighting bit of story bit of puzzle/mystery, lots o variety to keep the players happy.
one good way i found to make the players aware that the monster they are facing is beyond their means of defeating is by setting up some narrative clues. for instance have the players fight some mildly challenging creatures on the way. when they encounter the super deadly creature have them observe it destroying some of the creatures they encountered earlier with almost no effort. Important note is that good description is key
A recent Critical Role had a great example of this: the players were tasked with getting three elemental orbs guarded (and produced) by a Kraken in order to maintain the size of a rift to the Plane of Water... but if, in doing so, they killed the Kraken, it would doom the nearby settlement to eventual destruction, since no more orbs being produced would lead to eventual uncontrolled expensing of the rift.
Cue a close fight as a party of high-level adventurers with a frankly obscene damage potential trying desperately not to get eaten by something they could probably have slaughtered fairly handily if that had been an option. It was a good session. :)
I've definitely done some of these, like the 'hold em off for x turns' where, essentially, we had to fight off a deity-esc character long enough for the......well, to make a long story short 'chosen one' to fire off his attack that could actually defeat him
also, there's protecting the dwarven city from the drow/scion alliance's invasion by killing a certain number of them, so they'll decide to retreat (only keeping that number to myself, of course, but still conveying that general information to the players)
Situations of combat where we would have likely been annihilated, instead being avoided by charisma skill use is always a fun one, and a good way to really reward the skill-heavy characters
and puzzles....I've definitely used some of those types of things as encounters, like having to figure out the right sequence of pulling levers to stop the summoning circles, while, naturally, having to fight off the stuff coming out of them
I like to use stealth and subterfuge as a mechanic. For example presenting a force that is much too large for the party to defeat, so instead they are forced to break the will of the army. I usually have the same basic set up where an army is marching on a small town or city that has no way to properly defend itself so the party has to either defeat the force single handedly or delay it long enough for help to arrive. I have had groups try both, always in different ways.
I usually love to use monsters as npcs, allowing social interactions whenever they're tried.
Anyway, my solution for players who are not creative is to build the encounter so it can be dealt with combat if it goes that way, but are more satisfing if resolved elseway.
Lately I've created a one-shot game that can tecnically be solved with no combat at all. The following are the scenes.
1. Zombies under a thunderstorm. If the players take shelters in a building and hide/keep zombies outside they are just gonna be fried by wheater (good use of your previus video ^^ ).
2. Mercenaries barricated on a mansion. Social skills and/or gold are the easy way here.
3. Giant artic spider near a portal. The beast (who's an animal but knows some languages) just wants to go through. Break a rune, enlarge the portal and the boss just go it's way.
4. Wildlife around the party. Don't attack and you will not be.
5. Ice zombie caster. Killing it won't solve a thing, and it has no reason to attack either.
To never fight requires a weird party composition, but I'll see how it will unfold.
I am always of the mindset that we MUST FIGHT to the last breath, the last bolt, the last bone not shattered. Unto the bitter end with no fear of death. I play a barbarian tho so maybe not great at non combat stuff
Back in second edition (I think), we beat the Tarrasque like this. We wished him to be teleported without error to the surface of the sun. The DM said that he's immune to fire . We pointed out that it was nuclear fusion and he wasn't immune to that. And yeah, there's the distance, but we snuffed out the worldbreaker.
In D20 modern I had a party defeat a beholder by using tear gas or pepper spray on it i cant remember which.
Lord Neraxis That's kind of funny. A lot of crying eyes.
Nerdarchist Dave
Beholder should've had Clear Eyes on him...and had Bill Steiner as it's head attendant.
In my Only War (Warhammer 40k RPG from FFG) game i was used undying (instantly regenerating) tyranid super killer organism against squad of Imperial Guardsmen in remote outpost on Frozen World (it was reference to John Carpenter "the Thing"). They cannot leave this complex and vox is jammed by blizzard (of course!)) and was stalked by this ultimate killing machine i called Apex. Victory condition was simply just survive 72 hours when weather start to clear and EVAC will eventually came.
Easter Bunny Nice! How'd your players do? Mine always want to fight everything no matter how over whelming the odds.
Nerdarchist Dave
Mechanically Apex was not so tough enemy for party of six (12 including NPC squadmates) but he was relentless "grinding" monster, sponge for las-shots and bolter rounds. After they spent half of their ammunition and all frag and krak grenades they realised that killing it by conventional way is not a option and start running. They even sacrificed one NPC with Death Seeker Personality and he blow up entire section of building with demo-charges. Entire game i was teasing them with hints of ways to destroy Apex. For example they found log of Guardsmen from wiped out garrison (who they must relieved by mission briefing). He thout that he can lure 'nid in blizzard and kill it with extreme cold. So he must find thermo-gear in west wing and moto-sleigh in east part of complex. It was false lead) They almost all die trying fulfil this plan)) Only two of them survived - Medicae and Stormtrooper - and was picked up by Valkyrie. Sorry for my bad english. We played in russian language
almost a year later, i see this comment, wants to make something similar cause i know most of my players have seen The Thing.
y must you tempt me so.
Had a 3.5/Pathfinder campaign once where stumbled across this super powerful warlord who offered to train us for our upcoming adventures. He told us that he was giving us a test of intelligence and tactics, and dropped us into a Colosseum with a giant shadow construct, 4 smaller enemies, and we were all within a giant bubble of negative energy that kept out all light and caused damage to anyone who touched it.
Very quickly realized that the shadow construct was WAY too strong for us (we were level 4, and this thing would have given a whole team of level 15 heroes a challenge), but since we were told that this was a test of intelligence, we figured there must be a way.
We found out that each of the 4 little guys were holding a greatsword that could be charged with positive energy, which helped get past the big guy's ridiculously high AC, but still were doing pittance as far as damage goes and the only reason this thing wasn't killing us all was because of piss-poor rolls.
We eventually realized that we could use the positive energy greatswords to damage the negative energy bubble that we were all in and after 1 round of hacking at it, the bubble popped and light started pouring in, doing massive damage each turn to the big guy and causing him to writhe in pain so every turn it had to make a Fortitude save just to be able to move or attack.
Died in about 2 more rounds and we got some awesome loot plus the DM awarded each character a plus 1 to any mental ability we wanted. It was pretty glorious.
Love the video, a recent example of my current game: My PC had to solve the problem of an Annis hag coven and an imp causing havoc in our town in which we are trying to build a guild hall, we ended up "winning" against them by outsmarting them and striking deals in our favor.
I like the idea of defeating an enemy by closing a portal of some sorts. I think you guys gave me the idea for the final battle of my ongoing campain :-)
Use the Monty Python method for crossing chasms...answer 3 questions or be cast into the chasm. 1. What is your name? 2. What is your quest? 3. What is the airspeed velocity of an unladened swallow?
Once (as a ranger) I lead our party through a forest full of assassin vines and ran into an army of ghouls. The wizard turned invisible, the rogue hid and I led the army back to the vines.
I really like the Ghost as a monster concept. You can bring it down by sword and spell, but it will always come back until the spirit can truthfully rest in peace. And for that to happen, the players need to discover why the ghost is a ghost in the first place. They have to investigate and care for the live or lives of NPCs.
And to an extent, I try to make that a rule for every monster. The investigative part. Another example : A rabid bear storms into town and starts mauling the peasants. You kill the bear, but now one of the peasant has rabies and the village's elder mention an acute increase in animal attacks in recent months. The players could simply ignore that a move on, or take the hook and figure out why so many animals have gone crazy. This becomes a Challenge that can't be overcome by swinging a sword or launching fireballs anymore.
I've done a few of them. I've had the enemies preforming a ritual that would alter a site of ancient magic and weaken all magic in the land if successful. I've also had them encounter a curious young dragon out exploring the world for the first time that just wanted to talk because one of them was a dragonborn. Also done a sea serpent that could shatter the ship they were on but just wanted tribute for sailing in its waters.
Totem Monster thing was well from Trollhunters I'm guessing. Damn golems. And yeah I love encounters where you do different things. The "I run up and hit it" stuff starts to become a boring slog of endurance over an exciting encounter a lot of the time especially when facing enemy's with large health pools. It's like beating something with a spoon over and over for hours until the thing gives out.
I once had a skill challenge where characters had to set up defenses for a temple but I would allow them to just simply say "I will guard a door" and then let them make a attack role and use that as a victory or fail in the skill challenge
Had a party going across the sea in a small ship. Rolled a critical for weather conditions and decided to throw in a storm with a whirlpool. What good is a whirlpool without a giant ship-eating whirlpool monster? Didn't have any particular solution in mind, since it was just done spur of the moment, but the group decided to try and lull it back to sleep with music. All of them had bought instruments as a sort of gimmick at the beginning, so it was nice that they got use. A couple of rounds of good rolls, and that monster went back to sleep. Whether it makes sense or not, it seemed satisfying, and no NPCs had to be thrown overboard as a sacrifice to the giant monster.
The best monsters to use in 'holdout' scenarios are ones where the party has it in their heads that you're out to kill them. One monster out of the gate are chaos beasts. Once the team starts botching saving throws, they're looking at a TPK. In this scenario, i'd reskin the critter and tease them with the effects early (eg, losing control of a limb), rather than OHKO party members and have to asspull or commit to a TPK.
I consider it healthy maintenance to sometimes throw an unwinnable fight at the party to keep their attitudes in check, whether it's a regenerating golem, revenant (Jason style!), or a vampire whose real body is always in another castle, or a (gasp!) smarch lich with decoy phylacteries, or an NPC that simply grossly outclasses them. Drop a rock on a player, he'll take damage. Drop a boulder on him, you kill him. Roll that boulder at him, and watch him run!
When I saw the title I thought Shadow of the Colossus... but them I remembered that the colossi are killed with sword and magic (that sword is magical, even if it is just a +1 in D&D terms)...
Dragon Sorcerer X But you had a challenge just reaching the weak points on the colossus. The point is how are your players going to reach the weak points.
Maybe have the players lose fighting first time then have to research the monster and come back.
Things like this were one of the reasons I preferred 3.0/3.5 to what 5E did with a large number of low-level spells that were far greater than most folks tended to give them credit for. Spells like Ray of Enfeeblement back when it caused Strength damage (albeit a small amount) could be used to subdue monsters without killing or harming them (though a deity's chosen may have supernatural protection from spells like this one so they simply don't work on it, that's up to the DM though).
I have a great example that fits this video. In one of our DM's adventures, we're tasked with taking down seven individuals based on the Seven Deadly Sins, our mot recent one we defeated was Lust. She was a master illusionist and plant lady. (massive regen abilities) We figured out that we were basically fighting the land itself and all the plant life on it. Our solution? drop the dragoon, from 1,5030 ft. He's immune to falling damage and does massive damage from great distances. I a pschic have a combo with him where I pull him down harder than gravity would allow adding my standard Psychic damage to his attack as a reaction. We ended up destroying the Continent, and confined her to a small island, after some more fighting, she failed with a nat 1 to hit the dragoon with five attacks and plunged her plant-like fingers/arms into the surrounding ocean. Saltwater is dangerous to land based plants, she ended up dehydrating herself into incapacitation. where we were able to capture her.
That is awesome. Was the dragoon a homebrew class or is this some other rpg?
Once in a campaign, a group of ogres surprised our party and knocked us
unconscious because they wanted to eat us later. SO we woke up in a big
pit without our weapons (but with all our other gear). My half orc
berserker barbarian started a conversation with one of the ogres when he
talked about eating us. Because my half orc barbarian had a fairly low
intelligence (6 or 7) he told them that he was not food. Since his job
in his tribe was a hunter (before it got destroyed leaving him as the
only survivor) he managed to convince the ogres that there was bigger
and tastier things than the party and that he could help them hunt them.
So after a long rest the party got their weapons and was accompanied by
the ogres. They brought us to a herd of dinosaurs (forgot exactly what
type) and then my half orc barbarian convinced them to distract most of
the herd with large flaming torches and to send one of them towards the
party to kill. So the ogres managed to follow the instructions, the
party killed one of the dinosaurs and then booked it away from the
ogres. The ogres noticed a few rounds later but by then we had gotten
far enough away that we managed to get away.
I love this new set, I like how it makes you guys more centre focus. Keep up the great work!
talking to it or charming it, not all monsters are bad, a Goblin and Kobolds could turn good. a Kobold could work with a Dragonborn if that Dragonborn shows the Kobold respect and gives it a chance.
Matt sure why not. My players even took part in a kobold sporting event.
Nerdarchist Dave
I, too, am wary of making any intelligent race completely, irredeemable evil. Save, of course, for devils and demons, as "Evil" is a defining aspect of their very nature. And if you managed to redeem a devil or demon - with great difficulty, I'm sure - it wouldn't be a devil or demon anymore.
For everything else, it's more compelling to make adversaries that have reasons for doing what they're doing. Even if the reason is "because I find it funny" or "I hate them so much", or even just "it seemed like a good idea at the time, and I'm committed to my course now".
I actually convinced my party to talk our way out of an encounter with Banshees instead of just... slice and strike
Wait, you say there are infinite monsters and ask me what I do? Of course I am going to fight them all, after all that will be then also unlimited experience points for me!
Exactly why I award XP for encounters not handled by rolling initiative as well as if they were handled with battle
"Infinite number of monsters" is a gift that keeps on giving XP. Players will just farm it on purpose. Besides, infinite number of monsters is absolutely unacceptable, good heroes would fight them until their number drops to manageable levels.
What if the infinite number of monsters separate into multiple groups? What if those groups start attacking the infrastructure of the area? How long before the PCs are tired of broken bridges, burned out farms, slain farm animals and dead villagers? Does it matter how much treasure your PCs have if the merchant is dead, the Inn is burnt down and the Tavern is a smoldering pit? What if your unlimited monsters are infected villagers who are contagious? If the PCs have to start making Saves they may start being concerned.
What if the GM let them just fight an infinite number of monsters? How many weeks will this be entertaining? No time to level up, no time to recover spells and eventually Saves vs exhaustion.
The DM could tell that the ceilling was falling and will bury the party alive in X turns, while a horde of zombies is coming at them and they still haven't found an exit to the dungeon.
That’s why I moved to a system of only awarding xp for completing quests.
Also I reward “drama cards” for good role playing. Those can be fun. Google that one if you’re unfamiliar
Adventurer 1: We need it alive!
Adventurer 2: It's undead...
Adventurer 1: We need it /alive/!
Adventurer 2: Yeah... I think we're a bit too late for that one. It already died... And then came back.
I like the time when I made a small army that couldn't be defeated if the players just walked into combat but I designed it so it could be defeated if they isolate small groups at a time and kill them without drawing attention to themselves. The players sent a scout ahead (they had a Chainlock with an invisible imp familiar) and they knew the approximate number of enemies, they discussed avoiding it but then the scout spotted the item they were sent to retrieve...around the leaders neck. The imp couldn't retrieve it because the leader was in his tent with bodyguards stationed inside and out; anything it interacted with would be spotted. None of them were the same race and none of them knew the language they spoke, no disguise would work to get them in either.
The way in was doable, they killed patrols on surprise rounds (patrols consisted of two or three enemies) and scouted a path that avoided sightlines to the tent. The bodyguards stationed outside were simultaneously sniped and they quickly dispatched the indoor guards. Then...they realised they had no escape plan other than leg it from a tent situated right in the middle of an army camp that was just realising that their patrols were missing. So they lit a fire arrow and fired it at the place they recognised to be where the food was prepared, setting the place ablaze. Then they got down and ran, the Rogue subtly took out a few passers by. They got out with most of the army still alive but the camp was partly destroyed and the leader was dead. So much for defeating the army, but they did bypass it.
Well, killing the leader is sometimes just as good or better than defeating an approaching army.
My party took out a spectator (mini-beholder) at lvl 3 with no damage just by hitting it with pyrotechnics over and over. It eventually went completely blind and killed itself on the fighter's greatsword
Diplomacy in general is always my groups go to method of dealing with problems, we always at least try to talk them down before the fight
If the creature is more of a wild beast instead of "fight," or "flight," you can "friend." Once I was playing a Gnoll Sorcerer & one of the creatures in the first level dungeon was a starving leopard, we had just defeated another monster, some goblins I think, in the previous room so I threw it the corpses as fresh meat. As good a way as any to find a Familiar for a level 1 character.
I tend to find objectives in D&D 5e combat are more important at very high level. I've had catapults being attacked by dragons, and the party has to stop the catapults being destroyed.
Uh oh a new old ep! They keep comin!
for the infinite bit just set a number so that if characters do decide to mow down the horde, and then when they get to it they can get a short/long rest/ few rounds and the fight just starts up again.
Good idea
The first sounds an awful lot like an unintelligent Lich to me; I'm not the only one thinking that, right?
I've seen a similar idea to the 2nd one, where we had to use healing magic, holy water, etc to cure a couple people who had been partially turned into vampires (they hadn't fed or killed or whatever yet which was what our DM considered the point of no return). That same encounter also involved a vampire lord who was quite beyond our level, and we only survived because the DM had us rescue a "prisoner" who was ultimately revealed in the middle of the fight to be a succubus who went apeshit on the vampire lord (not helping us per se, she wanted his position of power within the dark ranks) allowing us to focus on restoring the partial vampires.
Just because the main objective isn't killing monsters doesn't mean that killing monsters will not help achieve it; the party tank, who might not have much in the way skills, could contribute by keeping the monsters off the rest of the party, after all.
I'm mildly surprised the Tarrasque wasn't brought up, given that you have to Wish it to stay down and even then you only put it to sleep, not kill it. Even if it was only mentioned as the wrong way to do this lol.
Ow, you guys just gave me the best idea for my next session.
What happens if you turn ethereal while in one of the outer planes?
I threw a Galeb Duhr infront of my players path, and it just kept rolling back and forth. One of the players is a homebrew fire phoenix lady thing, and she went over and talked with it using Tongues, then proceeded to make it laugh long enough to let the rest of the party slip by
players tracking down and trapping a Ochre Jelly to use in a pit fall trap
its acid only dissolves flesh and moves at a 10 reach 5
so trapping and moving it was no problem
vertical smooth surface can't be climbed
rain arrows down on it and now you got around 32 jellies
doing 32d4 acid at the bottom of your pit trap +64d4+96 auto slam if it grapples
if the fall + impaled on spikes didn't kill the epic monster this trap was used for, the jellies definitely would finished it off
Ochre acid only dissolves flesh so any loot would be safe to recover
after a rest the jelly can recover some hp and you can make more if needed
threw some random encounter in to shake things up but they just out ran them from the horse drawn wagon
I guess you can do the same with a cube but the cube wont split into multiples
and the others dissolve metals
so unless your wagon is made out of stone I guess you can do this to an iron golem
or some thing similar like an Iron Colossus
Samurai Jack episode 23, Demongo, samuraijack.wikia .com /wiki/Demongo:
It's a demon that summons the souls of warriors it has defeated and captured the souls of, and once they're defeated, he can just resummon them again. Jack has to enter into Demongo and frees the warriors within, who then turn on and slay Demongo... I may have written up a campaign level villain (with maps of his internal plane and the soul prisons) who functions like this, semi-deific with a domain and some magic items, a few different ways to kill him, and ways to fake-die to trick the party... Excellent episode, reeked of a non-combat solution encounter (well, really, lots of combat, but the specifics of defeating him doesn't rely on dealing damage). Your Totem bit at the beginning made me think of this.
My idea of a Monster that can't be killed in combat:
Mother of Tarrasque, "Aquasque", heart of the rising tide, ancient artisans of the valleys and grand lakes, mother earth's college roomate, and H.B.I.C. Several hundred feet long, 6+ limbs.
Demonstrate her massive power by having your PCs fight a group of aquatic monsters *on her back*, as it cuts through the waves, without her paying any head to their brawling.
Appreciate all your content guys, Just wondering if you have plans to improve the Nerdarchy studio at all, better audio and cameras etc?
joesope52 Lol! Studio?
A good example would be shining back the Medusa's reflection. Would love to run that one day.
I tried that once. I used water stored in a pellet of Dust of Dryness to create a pool at a Medusa's feet then tried a Command spell ("Bow!") to get her to look at her reflection. She made her save. I didn't.
On the plus side, there are no pigeons where I'm at so my stony form is less molested. Silver side up. :)
Mike Gould That's a story.
Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy There's a reason why I'm playing character #4 in my game. I stick to what a character would do.
Refused to stop tanking a Fey creature so my companions could escape. Half-Ogre Barbarian Dead.
Tried to Hail Mary a Medusa and blew the roll. Aasimar Cleric Dead.
Figured a Goblin Bard wouldn't think twice about a night of debauchery with a Gnome-sized wererat. Has a strong love of cheese now. Goblin Bard Retired.
...Although my Teifling Paladin has suffered the loss of his Herald (a Gnome Bard NPC), he plugs on still.
What show was the Totem monster idea from?
Best way to defeat a monster is a sword through the ankles.
Wow, there is an invisible dragon breath firing behind you!
The WORST kind- it's colossal! -Nerdarchist Ryan
I managed to cause a TPK just by making a dragon red for a low level party.... because ONE player said chromatics are always evil... they decided that a level 3 party can take on an Ancient Red Dragon instead of doing what they were tasked with doing and trying to get it to accept a trade.
DND is a learning process for some people :P
If people throw themselves in a vat of acid enough times, they'll eventually realize that throwing themselves into a vat of acid is a bad idea... eventually...
SinerAthin No they won't... that is the scary part. You think they will.... but at most they just become paranoid and find new ways of doing it.
Though something I learned the hard way is that the entire going unconscious does not necessarily mean that they are all dead.
I would make them do the death saving throws, but if they made their successes, have them wake up because the Ancient Red Dragon had no reason to kill the unconscious foolish peasants and just few off.
You challenged an ancient red dragon and attempted to kill it...and got hit for more than your HP... no you are dead, fools are examples to each other.
I think that works better with green or blue dragons also if a player wants to try and have sex with it let them but make a child come from the union that they need to raise.
In my groups dnd they're all connected in one massive universe, just at diffrent times and the ones with out magic are a diffrent deminsion that was made after the world with magic had to be wiped (so that humanity could hide from our BIG bad). In the ones with magic there is an immensely powerful arch-demon, who becomes the king of Hell.(our BIG bad) anytime he shows up it's an encounter they have to talk through to survive. As he is as powerful at the end than even the king of the gods. So we have quite a few encounters which cant be beaten by blade or spell, but with words
Give them an npc who is clearly stronger than the party is, and have it get splatted by the monster to convey the danger of the monster.
You got to pay the troll toll to get in to this boy's soul. Lol sorry, talk of trolls always makes me think of Nightman.
Hahaha, I LOVE when Frank sings it slow and is snapping! *Troll toll/ What you say?/ Troll toll/ Hey-hey-hey!* -Nerdarchist Ryan
Always sunny just keeps getting better:)
Now I want to do a monk/cleric who's the champion of karate and friendship for everyoneXD
DAY MAN!
Arthur DeLuca AHhhhh-ahhhh!
I love a couple of greyhairs are watching Trollhunter😆
Or what about, a dragon being basically the ruler of the town and they just demand money from it at a steady rate,. but they do defend it when appropriate.
I had a character that when ever i rolled for combat I never hit. No it wasn't a gimmick I literally never succeed in my attack rolls. Yet his bluff checks where amazing. One of the several of the encounters the party had my character removed them as problems. One I caused a group of goblins to go on a rampage and clear out the area. And for another one my character seduced the evil female NPC and with a little help of a love potion, (Npc's not mine) convinced her to lead us to the big boss and while on the way to kill one of the other minor evil npc's in the dungeon.
My friend is a DM who often runs out of ideas so I gave him a cave of never ending goblins. Half an hour of poor rolls later the PCs found out what it was. There was a treasure chest they were ment to take but they only got experience from the encounter They were a little mad about it but I my friend and i thought is was a clever way to dispel the PC's they can kill anything notion. Would you be mad if this was pulled on your PC or party?
Using say a trickster good type, and failing to solve its " riddle or what have you" when your group is defeated they wake up back in their beds , like the groundhog effect, and you have to restart the travel back to its location, hopefully gathering what you need to win along the way. . This time . . I bet after three or four retrips, they start thinking more and stop killing everyone and everything they come across. . ie: start asking questions, doing research
I am running a campaign in which a player most encounters by trying to befriend the foes and succeed, it get kinda rediculous
Btw if you have players who's characters are specifically the types of characters that will ''Rather die and flee in battle'' don't do this unless you really want to kill said PC. Because if they stay true to the character they will die.
I had a party who beat our monster by spending 5 sessions sidling up to it. Then it was destroyed. Quickly.
Was the Netflix show Trollhunters? It was Trollhunters wasn't it? :)
As soon as they said the totem is their heart I thought "lych phylactery".
Upon entering the lich's tomb under the tower or bones your greeted by the lich who challenges you to a fiddle off and if you win you get its falactory but if you loose your soul is his murahaha
Jonny you rosin up that bow and play that fiddle hard
Cause hells broke loose in Faerun and the Lich king deals it hard.
and if you win you get this shiny fiddle made of gold
but if you lose, the Lich King gets your sooooooooul~!
Do you mean can't?
I believe they do.
Seems, so.
Philip Philipwakeley I have expertise in typos.
Nerdarchist Dave
Wakeley There is no "can't"
Was that show "Seven Deadly Sins" by chance ??
Turn the npc I to a shadow or polymorf it into a chicken. Keep an eye on it untell it becomes a full chicken
awesome content thx
But what if I use a sleep spell
My party was once surrounded by a pack of angry werewolves, we were outnumbered and in thier territory, I talked my minotaur buddy into raping, that's right, raping the pack leader. He was shamed in front of the whole pack, and they ran away. My minotaur buddy got a new companion...the old pack leader.
what the nexfix show called
Make them your friend. Diplomancy.
You gotta pay the troll toll..
almost 30k
Somebody’s been watching Troll Hunters
That "show on netflix" sounds like one punch man
i had a group of players put a dragon to sleep...
Don't dragons have legendary resistance?
+leotamer5 you can try a bunch of times
Question, we are about to have a one session where we are basicly a ghosthunters we have a Witch (Zarieth from tumblr, Circle of power), Paladin, Bloodhunter (ghostslayer), Fighter and Ranger (Death stalker)... The thing is we know that we will fight a massive undead creature but we got that we cant kill it, basicly there is no way to kill it. So i have a question how can we defeat that monster (custom made) its resistant to radiant and he hits for like 30 damage minimum 72 is max that we saw (almost one shot me 80hp)...our paladin has high inteligence 19...and he rolled 26 on seeing what to do and our DM isnt saying anything...we know that its only him and avery 3rd round 2 wraths come from him..any help will be apretiated. Thanks
Nikola Milosavljevic Is the objective to beat this monster or stop some kind of bad thing from happening? What is the bad thing? Is GM being a dick? Did he purposely create a no win fight and is there reason? I would need more information.
Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy The objectve it to defeat the monster thats haunting the mansion out client is living, we know its an undead but the thing is its resistant to radiant and its so strong as i said 30 damage minimum, it can cast spells and it can heal itself (its like a mixture of vampire(slef heal but we cant interupt it) litch (spells but no phalactery and zombie ogre (too big)), DM ist a dick cause we have been like warned that that thing is strong and can do many things, we dont know how its created, we are hurting it but his hp is so high but the dex is low, cha is low and wis is low but other stats are 20 or higher...also im basicly im the only one that speaks with spirits(Witch class) and i spoken on the way to fiew not evil spirits that are in the house and they told me that we can only defat it when we kill him (i also rolled nat 20 on insight of the spirits and they are speaking truth)...about the client we know that he is a wizard 1.lvl (evocation) we are 11.lvl and that his house has changed and now he has undead in it and ghosts...he left the house and ask us for help (cause we are basicly a Ghost busters) also some skeletons and zombies have lvls in fighter and wizard also...basicly a skeleton throw a fireball at us and then jumed into fight and offcourse he went afrer the real spellcaster (me)...i mean those enemies are inteligent and strong but not all of them are....like if there are 10 enemies 4 are leveled and 6 are normal....if you need any more info i can send...thanks
Nik Milosavljevic can you prepare any spells that can banish it to another plane or location? Is there anything of note in the room around you? Sometimes when DMs make custom monsters they give them very specific weaknesses, like real sunlight or certain materials or attack types.
Rosseriah My class only has banishment, well the only clue we all gathered is just to kill it...i could try to dispel magic on him to at least dispell one thing at a time cause i made arcana check and he is full of magic essence, expecialy armor and neclase...so we are gonna try to disspel it
lol my little sister watches that show i didnt think you guys would watch troll hunter
We are just big kids at heart.
Nerdarchist Dave
Trollhunter
if it has stats we will kill it.
Im sorry you say unlimited monsters I say unlimited EXP