This video is in a 5 part series of how to improve your DnD 5e Combat and Boss Monsters. If you want to see more, drop a like, comment about your D&D game, and subscribe! / discord
I think a good defensice mechanic i used in one of the best solo fights i ever ran was giving the boss a "overheat" mechanic. the players were in a fight with a giant robot, and it was so unstable it could overheat at any moment. the ability was "if the robot starts its turn under any condition, it can gain 1 level of overheat and remove all effects. but for every level of overheat it lowered it's Ac by 2, at 5 level of overheat, the robot loses 1 legendary action". that gave the encounter a more dynamic vibe, because at the start the robot had super high Ac and the only real way to damage it was with saves. but after about 4 rounds, attacks became much more effective than saving throws because the robot was super easy to hit. a mechanic that changes the strength of the boss ir reavels new weaknesses during the fight is a fun way in my opinion to spice up combat
yeah, I can concur on this one. One thing I used in the past that I didn't really think was that impactful, but my players told me later was super interesting was a monster's specific ability: it had vulnerability to a certain damage type but whenever you hit it with that damage type, it'd get a huge speed buff. now, behind the screen, this effectively did nothing, but the players in the moment felt like that completely locked off that damage type, so after the first instance of it, they never attacked it with that type of damage again. even if the buff is minor, it can feel significant to the players. they don't know what that creature could've done with that speed boost, maybe he gets an OP charge attack. Of course, I know at best he can kite them now, but it's still an interesting interaction that changes how they play or think about the game. it's not just "how can i maximize damage this fight".
I dislike legendary actions on principle, but this is a pretty cool mechanical idea. Translate failed saving throws into a less debilitating stacking debuff.
I would like to suggest an addition for the replacement for legendary resistance for it to *require the dragon to spend more Firepower to resist an effect proportional to the level of the spell slot used.* Something like [slot level] / 3 rounded up. That would make the cost from 1st to 9th be 1/1/1/2/2/2/3/3/3. If it costs the same to resist a Slow or a True Polymorph, it would be very wasteful for the PCs to use their high level save spells until the dragon has clearly ran out of juice, which would take many failed saves to happen and the dragon would recover enough for 3 more on their turn. *On top of that, it would be awesome to tell the player when the dragon spends it to resist a 7th level spell that "The dragon flinches. Panting. Almost losing balance for a moment. It looks like it took a lot out of them to resist your spell!".*
Exactly this, also having to force the dragon to resist 3 saving throws every round would just end up keeping the casters in the party too busy to do anything else, the general idea of the video is really good though
@@andreavitiello3762 If the spellcasters are using their turns to 'suppress' the dragons ability to use its breath weapon, many parties would consider that a good trade. And mechanically, that ALSO balances the action economy in favor of the dragon. So needing extra points of firepower just (again) skews the fight and action economy back in favor of the PC's.
This would be a great system if the idea was that players get like 1 shot if the dragon ever uses his breath. If you make it so easy to reduce his fire power then if you are unable to keep it off of 10 it should appropriately punish you. Otherwise you end up with a dragon who never gets to use his breath if there are two casters, and even when he does it's pathetic for how much build up it had. Or you could also make it so he doesn't expend fire power on his breath. Overall i like the videos approach more. The breath is a signature part of the dragon and you'll have to deal with it at some point. This just makes it so your cc abilities can delay the breath, or with a good number of casters you can stop it entirely. It doesn't feel like your intended to fully stop it from breathing although it's possible.
@@cybercyrus6402 I think that the video kinda expects you to bump up the damage on the dragon's breath or add another devastating effect to it, because otherwise it just feels meh compared to what it takes for the dragon to cast it.
I think that the main problem with Legendary Resistance is that a lot of the time it feels like the DM telling the players "No" with no interesting description to back it up. As long as it is described in a way that feels impactful and makes it clear that the character who triggered it used up the monster's resources and reduced its capacity to continue fighting in a way similar to how a fighter does when they hit the monster with their sword I think it works. Your solution is a good one, but I think fundamentally the issue with Legendary Resistance is that DMs often describe it poorly and therefore the players perceive it poorly, not that it is a bad mechanic. "You cast Hold Monster on the dragon and you can feel the spell taking hold and see the dragon begin to go rigid. Suddenly its eyes lock with yours and you can feel a well of magical energy spilling out from the monster. The spell is shattered but the creature is left panting. Throwing off your magic clearly took a lot out of your foe." Something like that versus "It fails, okay it uses legendary resistance"
I'm a big fan of making Legendary Resistances still make the creature take damage, generally at a d6 per spell level(or equivalent for non-spell abilities) implying that it hurts them to overcome the magic. Flavor it however you will, telling the player that their spell failed but they still get to roll damage dice makes it feel like they still contributed on their turn.
Coming off a game where we fought three legendary monsters back-to-back-to-back, our GM was particularly guilty of that. "I cast [Spell] on the Meatball!" "Legendary Resistance, it doesn't work. Just gonna mark that down..." From my perspective though, it was forgivable because he also always made sure to mention how the monsters' pools of Legendary Resistances were decreasing. While it wasn't very narrative, it at least made me feel like we were worming away at the monsters' defenses, slowly making them more vulnerable, before we could hit them with our ultimate abilities. These more unique defensive mechanics would've been even more interesting by far, though. As would proper descriptions.
i remember the first and most impactful boss i've ever had was a mirror knight in a room of mirrors. there are two enemies to the encounter, the mirror knight itself and a reflection of the mirror knight made of mirrors. they would act on separate turns but whatever one did the other also did which often lead them to being on opposite sides of the map. i changed this problem by making walking into mirror walls or shooting a projectile into one would cause the thing to appear on the opposite side of the room. to my surprise one of my players was dumb enough to stand on the central square while trying to reach the other enemy. he got swung at 8 times total with the two attacks on each of the enemies' turns. i gave in some obvious hints that once one was "killed" it was still active because the other one was active too. eventually they killed both and they raved about it afterward.
Another idea for a monster mechanic was an extremely powerful feature that charges over the course of a few turns, before unleashing a devastating effect when finished. However the effect can be reset if the monster fails a concentration check similar to if it was casting a spell. I used this for a Aberrant monster I made; where it would screech at a higher and higher pitch over 3 rounds, until out of the range of human hearing on the 3rd turn, then unleashing an extremely powerful blast of thunder damage on the 4th turn, potentially exploding a grappled creature's head on a failed con save. After the first boom goes off the party immediately realties that 'oh crap, we can't let this thing's attack go off'; which due to their relatively low health and the fact they can fail a concentration save isn't all too hard to end it's screech. Also because it goes off at the beginning of the 4th turn, prepared creature can duck for cover to save themselves from the blast.
This seems iffy because the counterplay is just... murdering it. Which is what the party was probably going to do anyways. It is nice to see parity between player and monster mechanics though. If a spellcaster can blow a concentration check then surely some monster abilities can be thrown off? It does add some neat flavor, and probably creates interesting strategic considerations when paired with other enemies that are more threatening on a per-turn basis. Do we try to kill off the screechers now, or do we kill the more immediate threat and then weather the storm?
@@anachronity9002 I agree with you, the mechanic is a bit crude if the party can't interact with it and it forces the party to do something they already plan to do. Also the only ways to deal with them is to kill the creature or cast "silence" However, if instead of exploding theirs head. The constant buzzing would either put them at a "disadvantage" or prevent them from concentrating on spells (or both) or make them confused, or simply inflict damage on them. It could have its uses not as a defensive mechanic per se, because if the sound is canceled the encounter becomes a regular combat. But it can be a good puzzle for the party, finding some way to deal with the buzz before engaging the enemy. P.S. Excuse the strange grammar, my English... let's say I just read and listen :P
lovely video, tried this with my dnd group tonight after i watched it last night. Had to overtime a bit to change my encounter but my party really enjoyed the fight, my wizard often gets disappointed when their big spell just get legendary resisted and he told me it felt much better using your mechanic. Glad i found this channel
I had a an “ice sorceress” fight that while it did include a pair of ice golem minions, any time she took melee damage she would use a reaction and appear one of 8 random locations. This made the fight a bit more tactical, and required the highly mobile party to have to deal with the golems as they were a bit spooky left alone. The golems themselves had ice armor which had a damage threshold, and their arms could change to a shield to increase AC and defend against fire attacks, turn into a maul to crush enemies (extra damage), a sword to cleave enemies, or a javelin to throw. It was a bonus action to change one hand per turn. As they took damage the ice armor chipped away and they became more vulnerable, though a strategic cone of cold was able to restore them a bit. The sorceress had a bit of randomness and wild magic element so some teleports were very good, but some did happen to place them in worse danger.
Holy crap this is just what I have been looking for. I have no clue how to make interactive monsters and I have really wanted to put some into my games. Having fights be like this, where the players have some control over the monsters, is way more interesting than basic combat.
This series better blow up. This is a great video. I love your ideas for making things more interactive, and while I could see players getting upset, I think this approach is better for the game than allowing things like forcecage to make encounters trivial.
You took the words right out of my mouth! Every now and then, just when I think I've exhausted YT for useful content for running my games, it shows me an absolute gem with fresh concepts and takes like this very video. Looking forward to more from Hero!
This was a pretty interesting way to make it stronger without giving it a million hp good job. Also wow I did NOT expect you to be a new channel. Your content is so well organized. Hope to see more of you
A simple one I like to use at low levels is to give certain bosses a rage mechanic a little like the barbarian, if they take too much damage in one turn or they reach a certain amount of hp they become enraged, gaining appropriate damage resistances (usually bludgeoning piercing and slashing) and slightly higher melee damage however this means that the creature now fights more recklessly either attacking the nearest target or focusing the creature that enraged it. For sentient bosses, this means that the players might need to switch objective and protect a certain player and if the boss has minions this now makes the players decide if they should try and kill the boss ASAP to save the targeted teammate or if they should deal with the minions so the party as a whole takes less dpr. The good thing is that if the party has some really bad rolls, you don't HAVE to use it, but having the option there has enabled me to make encounters a bit more interesting.
Great content! That was a really good example of haw an epic battle can turn into a painstakingly long sequence of turns. And the solution was pretty well thought, nice job!
I agree it was a good example of why lone boss monsters are bad, but the solution is actually terrible. It's just legendary resistance that recharges. Realistically you are *not* going to meaningfully deplete that resource when your save-or-suck polymorph spell only reduces their firepower by *one*.
@@anachronity9002 I see what you mean and I partly agree with you. In some way it is just a legendary resistance that recharges. But in some way it makes the use of the spell have some meaning instead of it being completely useless or rendering the an otherwise epic enemy completely useless. But the thing that I really would want to change is the legendary resistance part. Even if your spell has some use (in this case reducing the firepower by a tiny bit) it still negates the spell completely, maybe reducing the impact of the spell or something could be also good. But would you suggest another way to deal with the problem? As a striving to be better DM it's always good to hear new ideas. Thanks for the reply btw!
I like adapting a concept from the anime Jujutsu Kaisen: domain expansions. Basically, powerful monsters (or any with the right knowledge/magic/lore) can transform the map into a lair and have new lair actions. For a red dragon, something like transforming this treasure hall into a raging inferno or volcano. Or for hags, creating a large arena/cage made of thorns. The idea is it shifts the nature of the combat and unlocks surprising lair actions and terrain features. However, the point you make about the combat shifting every time there is a counter is a good one, and the visible traits of powering up can add some good tension. Going to be thinking on this more.
I don't disagree that the mechanics introduced are fun, I just find it weird they consider it adversarial to in-game mechanics, this functions almost exactly like legendary actions and legendary resistance, just combined into one ability with neither name, which is cool but weird that they don't just admit that is a barely edited version of rules that 5e has, like the ability to give nearly any dragon spellcasting, this edition was designed to be homebrewed into whatever someone wants, not to give the perfect boss for Adventurer's league players.
@@LadyHearth Well if whatever someone wants Is a good boss fight, this video Is a great guide. Game designwise thing all the mechanic to one resource has huge implications. Is because It vives more choices to the way to fight the dragon, contrary to normal legendary resistance or no legendary where battles can boil down to the sme strategy every Time
I don't know if it would be considered similar, but I made a demon that was very slow, but could attack through and instantly travel through blood. So through the combat it would kill npcs or hurt the players, and expand it's area of control like an evil Splatoon boss.
I really like this! Utilizing that sort of firepower mechanic as "ancient bloodlust" or something of that sort can really spice up the vampire BBEG of my game One of my favorite new things that I as a DM like to play around with is the Mythic State thing introduced in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, that sudden surge that makes a fight that much more, giving new abilities and actions in a legendary monster's potentially final moments. It's not really a defensive thing on it's own, sure, but it wouldn't be hard to imagine a collapsing star in creature form can tear through space and time (deliberate or no) to get through the magic tricks
Just cuz I like giving credit where credit is due, the mythic traits actually debuted in Mythic (yep, the thing) Odysseus of Theros. Really cool ideas in that book imo. Mythic traits, and the piety system. Not to be that guy, just so that book can get some love :)
@@abracadabruh5718 I don't blame you. Not much in there worth remembering minus as I said, the piety system and mythic traits. Cool monsters and gods I guess. Hope you like it though lmao
I have found that often times giving my bosses player feats such as sentinel or mage slayer, really catches them off guard and makes the fight far more interesting. Also using terrain and environmental effects adds to the sense of danger and realism.
This was an awesome video. The form was great, and the idea was awesome. Having an ability that feels powerful, yet feels fun for the players to interact with and learn as they play is awesome. Definitely adding this to any red dragon in my games. Can't wait to see more content from you! A welcome edition to my watchlist of D&D content. Honestly some of my favorite right now.
This is absolutely amazing, i love this idea. another thing i heard somewhere and love to do, is modify legendary resistances to weaken the creature as they use their resistances. For example, a Dragon could use their legendary resistance to block a powerful spell, (as in: chooses to succeed), but instead of just "haha you fail", the dragon has to use a powerful resource to do so, maybe it blocked the spell using one of its wings. In return, the dragons fly speed is halved, or down by one third. This gives the players a better feeling than "o thanks, i just wasted my most powerful spell for nothing". Instead, they have a feeling of "oh no, this is bad. My spell was really powerful, but at least _Something_ happened and it was worth to do". sure, a more knowledgable group/player might be like "oh yes, we need to burn through 3 legendary resistances", but that doesn't solve the problem of the mechanic being unengaging. although i have to admit, its sort of the opposite of a defensive mechanic, but it makes fights a lot more fun imo. Now i need an idea of how to combine my usual approach with this idea as well. especailly since it solves one of the most imminent problems i have with creature in D&D: recharges. As a DM, it's sort of fun rolling more dice, but it can just screw both you and the party over so so so much. The Dragon doesn't get to use the breath weapon more than once the whole 10-15 turn fight? wow, amazing hurray. The Dragon just incinerates the party in the first 3 turn with 3 breath attacks? amazing, much fight. I think the idea of running monsters, especially bosses and legendary creatures more like Video Game Raid Bosses and not like, well, D&D Monsters becomes more and more appealing to me, the longer i DM.
Greatest idea I've heard in a long time, here's the elegant "universal" version. [Legendary Power: As a legendary action, the creature ends an effect or condition currently affecting it. This replaces Legendary Resistance.] Players can now interact with a monster's action economy more directly. And there can be "openings" between the monster's last turn and the subsequent player turns. (IE, a wizard wants to cast faerie fire, all martials upstream ready their actions to attack when it lands) On group taste, the Legendary Power ability can be limited to 1-2 times a turn instead of 3 "legendary resistances" a turn. EDIT: Been testing this for months now and it's been a rousing success since start! Legendary Power costing 2 legendary actions is just enough to feel impactful, and give both sides of the fight meaningful cost-benefit analysis. In addition, I had to add 1 other ability to pair with it: [Legendary Recovery: If this creature would make a saving throw to end the incapacitated condition, it has advantage on the saving throw.] Due to one night a group casting non-stop stuns and paralyzes, Legendary Power can't be used (it is now an action), and Legendary Resistance isn't available. Still respects the group as there is a chance to fail and they'll get 1 turn of it, but it's just highly unlikely to get extra turns without more casts.
I think the best implementation would be for Legendary Power to cost 3 Legendary Actions, making it a substantial investment for the monster to use and therefore they have to be a little more conservative with it like Legendary resistance, high level bosses already usually have 3 or 4 incredible saves and having even one Legendary Resistance every round would mean they can use it way more reliably because they know it will recover in 6 seconds rather than an entire day.
@@matthewmoran1866 Aye I think that fixes it up nicely. 2 cost on resistance should be just fine for most groups (still gives the boss ONE extra action per round). And means I don't have to hold in my head whether or not it has the juice left to fire. I'll be testing it tonight so will see how it goes.
@@matthewmoran1866 Not a bad idea to build upon: I'd be tempted to go with 2 legendary actions (assuming a 3 legendary actions monster). That way, the boss monster cannot use it more than once a turn, which leads to an opening for other player effects, etc. and that would severely limit their actions out-of-turn. I'd suggest pairing that with making their more powerful legendary actions cost 2 actions (i.e. casting a spell, using a more powerful attack, advancing toward their goal in a dynamic fight, etc.), leaving them to a single, less powerful ability to use this turn (such as a dragon's Detect ability).
@@matthewmoran1866 Lots of months playing with it, 2 has honestly been perfect across many groups. Monster still gets other things it can do, but they are far less impactful making it feel very worth it. Being able to simply end a negative condition isn't always worth it when you can down someone and has made DMing just as much more fun! 1 extra thing though, add [Legendary Recovery: If this creature makes a saving throw or check to end the incapacitated condition, it does so with advantage.] As I had one group full pull all the stops with Hold Monsters and similar, which completely removes Legendary Actions from the equation anyway. The ability still respects the players, but makes it far less likely I sit there for literal hours doing nothing but watching my players wail on a boss.
Perfect timing for this type of content, as my party will be running into their first boss fight very soon. Initially, it was going to have a few mobs. Now, you've inspired me to try and make an engaging solo boss encounter. I can't wait to see more of your content. 🖤
FYI, Forcecage doesn't allow any matter nor spells to enter the cage as per the second paragraph of the spell, despite the 1/2in bars. The spell creates a magical forcefield - the bars are aesthetic. Specific overrules the general rule of "you can cast/shoot through the bars cause you can see through them" Sorry, that was just nagging me :') Great video and tips! Keep it up!!
Read the actual spell before commenting. The spell barrier CLEARLY applies only to the box variant of the spell, not the cage variant, which can have line-of effects enter the cage as it is “a prison in the shape of a cage can be up to 20 feet on a side and is made from 1/2-inch diameter bars spaced 1/2 inch apart.” The specifics this case only applies to a singular mode of the spell instead of both, so your interpretation of the RaW is null.
@@tai-cx5vj what about the fact that gargantuan creatures can't be trapped inside of force cage anyway? The spell specifically says if the creature can't completely fit into the cage then it is pushed outside of it. Did you read the spell before commenting? Gargantuan= 20 ft high minimum Force cage=10 feet high maximum So the scenario in this video couldn't even happen. Also if the bars are half inch thick and half inch wide the fighter better be making a high DEX attack to be able to fit an arrow through that. The wizards fireball would also have a really hard time fitting perfectly through half inch spacing and not just immediately dissipating on impact on the bars which wouldn't hurt the creature
So I played around with it for a little bit and fire power felt like it would invalidate spells, especially high level ones (1 FP to cancel a 7-9 lvl spell?), especially when compared to how fast it regenerates and how expensive counterspell is. Also the Magic Resistance would only work on the dragons turn, which might be intended, but felt underwhelming so far. And the dragon definitely has more FP at their disposal, over a fight, than the players will have spell slots. So I changed it (for now, first draft) to: - Start with 5/10 FP - Gain 3 at the END of the first turn of the dragon (I like Boss monsters with 2 turns so First Turn is important) - When Subjected to a continues effect or saving throw, spend 3/4/5 fire power to end the effect or succeed the save (for Spell level 0-3/4-6/7-9) (Yes, way more expensive, but I also would give that dragon max hp, so it should average out. Also that might give the players a turn or two of force cage, which will then break at some point, instead of just breaking, as an example) - The Dragon can end any permanent magical effect in the attack range, on their turn, by spending 5 FP - When the Dragon has 10 FP, they gain Magic Resistance (Now for a round, as they gain FP at the end of their turn) - If the dragon starts their turn with 10 FP, they have to use their breath weapon, consuming 5 FP in the process. Also, maybe the recovery should be lowered to 2 per turn at 50% HP and 1 per turn at 25%, so that the dragon can't outpace a party at a certain point. Also I just realized, that for lower CR monsters, this might be too much, so CR 12-15~ monsters with LR could be changed to: - Max Fire Power is 7 - Recovery is 2 per Turn - They start with 3 - Their breath (or similar feature) costs 4 - And if they choose to destroy an effect, they need to spend 5, the destruction happens at the start of the next turn, and they don't regenerate FP for this turn and the next. Imagine an adult white dragon starting to freeze the spell around them, exerting everything they got and then some to freeze away the magic, as they don't quite have the power and experience the older, more vicious dragons have. On their next turn, the spell shatters into empty shards of ice, but the dragons body is still covered in sweat like droplets of moisture, as cold vapor is fuming out of the body. At the end of their next turn, the droplets freeze and the mist vanishes slowly, as the dragon regenerates their internal temparture. Not sure if I am happy with that version either, but that's my current take.
Loved the firepower mechanic. Besides getting more firepower with each passing turn, I would establish things that the boss could accomplish to get more firepower. These things should be in tune with the flavor of the enemy, for example: A legendary vampire with the firepower (bloodpower, bloodfuel, bloodcharge) trait could get 1 - 2 charges of firepower per turn, but get more charges anytime they draw blood from their victims (dealing enough damage to half one of the players hp), or whenever they bite a creature. This way, the creatures will have reason to be played in tune with their themes, the players will be encouraged to play in a way that deny the enemies of the actions that fill their firepower and each combat could be a lot more dynamic. This mechanic could be used in order to create a potential second phase that would happen if the creature got their firepower to a certain threshold. The more I think about it, the more I find interesting ways to implement this idea. Excited to see what other ideas you have to share, keep up the good work!
THIS. This sounds so interesting, basically creating a threat tracker that lets the fight move through phases! You can see the strength the vampire spent to overcome the spell and their eyes go from the blazing red to normal again as they expend power and lose the teleport they had just a moment ago.
I think you did a really good job on this, I’m a bit new to being a GM and this does really speak to me. Campaigns can seem quite dull with basic legendary resistances and such, this makes me want to rework multiple boss encounters I have because this is amazing, thank you
Second video of yours I’ve watched and man oh man is this good stuff! Can’t wait to see more! Something that would be cool to see is more stuff like this - changing monster blocks to make things more interactive for both dm and players 👌🏼
There aren't enough channels and videos that talk about the mechanical economy of RPG combat!!! Instantly subscribed, I badly want to learn more about this.
I always like to surprise my players when a boss has surprise spellcasting, especially when it is a creature you would not expect to be intelligent enough to do so. When they realize the Chimera or displacer beast is smart enough to talk and has spells, then you see them realize they may have bitten off more than they could chew, (though the spells you give the monster may not actually make it more lethal, the players don't know that)
Well those are like my two favorite monsters so I love the examples. ;P I love to give them new ways to see monsters they are familiar with, even if it's as simple as you're level 1 and there's a displacer beast. And in my opinion chimeras definitely should talk and have magic
Dael Kingsmill has a great video on dragons where she recommends "legendary reactions" as responses to this kind of problem - i implemented some of her ideas and my players loved it. Specifically for a case like this, i gave the dragon the ability to essentially try and shout so loud it cancels out the verbal component - prompting a CON check from the player to try to raise their voice above the roar. They loved it, and fwiw i did too.
This has SUCH great flavor! I love it! I put a spin on Legendary Resistance in some of my home games. Instead of passing a save automatically, my monster's Hit Points are reduced each time they use it, usually by 1d6 for each point their failed save would need in order to pass.
My good sir, you just got yourself a new subscriber. I -love- this idea, and I will certainly be using it for the next three big fights in my game. I -do- like video-gamey mechanics such as telegraphs, so I may add a visual representation to this just so that the players are aware of the mechanic.
A boss I used was a worm of ice and fire. It was like a weakened purple worm stat block, though had an ever shifting tones of frosty blue and fiery orange. When a player hit it with either ice or fire damage, it changed the scales of the creature, changing the combat. Bright orange gave resistance to fire damage, dealing extra fire damage with their ranged attack, and having a searing touch if anyone did melee. A mixture of blue and orange gave it 2 attacks, one of each color, making it scary to keep in the middle. Blue made it deal more cold damage (overall less than fire), resistance to cold damage and reduced movement by half if hit. It worked well to keep the players focussed on the monster and trying to adapt to the changing scenario, rather than trying to catch it. It also worked well with the spellcasters, as they had to cooperate since nobody had both a fire and ice spell.
I actually ran a boss monster once with a lair action that functioned defensively. The entire arena was flat to start with, and was separated into a grid. He was given 30 feet of lair action to move the squares of the grid up and down on a turn, and would also summon 1d6 cultists made out of the mist that he had been creating monsters out of throughout the game. They had to choose between attacking him and attacking the cultists, because at the end of each round the cultists would all be sacrificed and their remaining hit points added to the beholder's life force. The melee crew had the choice to rush in and actually attack the beholder and then be trapped by the beholder building a wall between them and the bard, or to stay behind and help defend the mostly-helpless bard vs the cultists. The walls also hurt in the form that the bard had to keep pivoting and climbing to get line of sight to the people who needed healing and/or to cast control on the beholder, but it was dangerous to be on any particular pillar since he could move it upwards and trap you with threat of fall damage or being crushed into the ceiling on a failed Acrobatics/Athletics check of DC 25. The party was only level 9 though, and didn't have any crazy spells so I think it worked out. The boss didn't have legendary resistances and they ended up using a magic item to kill him through some interesting uses of the mechanic so I think it worked well.
You’ve inspired me to modify the dragon from Dragon of Icepsire peak for my newbie group. This defensive change and some other new abilities via Matt Colville are gonna (hopefully) make this memorable! Thanks dude!
Very slick and pleasant presentation, will happily watch future videos. I guess I don't 100% fall within the target demographic for this sort of breakdown as I just wouldn't let a climatic encounter fizzle because a spell unintentionally broke it (unless the players got there by being very clever or very funny). I'd have the spell have a sizeable but not crippling impact that is befitting of its target, and move on. That said, I fully agree that all or nothing spells while sometimes great for drama/comedy can really be frustrating if your group isn't as willing to accept homebrew effects as a sort of default expectation when fighting big threats, and legendary resistances are very boring. I do think the example you give is neat and functional, despite the ever present twinge of fear I get every time someone mentions encouraging more summons over big splashy spells :D As to the separate issue of creature sizes being silly on a grid and making some spells way too good I've always handwaved it away when it didn't seem to make any sense, let the big lads be proper big, you're not gonna trap an ancient dragon with a 6meter cage, you'd be lucky to catch a youngling with that kind of net! Of course once again this requires a group that is willing to trust each other and roll with the whole common sense > rules compromises philosophy, and not everyone has that luxury from the get go
Absolutely phenomenal video. Presented well and quickly instead of sitting there with a camera on your face talking forever about vague ideas like most dnd "advice" channels
I designed a combo of two keywords for mechanics regarding "boss" creatures that are more revolving around melee. The aim is to make the fight more dynamic and possibly reward players to move around during the fight more - especially ranged attackers. "Stance" and "Charged attack" Imagine Borb the Giant. A giant blessed by own gods with a blade that can split rocks. Mechanically Borb has potential to put to 0 lots of classes with a single attack, especially casters. And even if he cant do that now one lucky initiative roll and he will likely reach the party with Dash and create a threat of an attack on opportunity. Being not a dumb giant he wont leave it for clearly welladjusted melee and he will surely decide to land his blade on weaker rangers. Instead, when creatures like this get to them being close the enter "Stance'. It consumes reaction - which lets people run away if they chose to. They see that he raises his arms with weapon, ready to deflect projectiles and kick whoever tries to hit him. Ranged attacks get disadvantages vs him and get reflected back if they miss, melee attacks get punished with immediate weaker attacks - kick - to face. During stance he does "Charged attack" that will hit everyone around him immideately when his turn starts. Combine that with terrain, minions and hazards and it will turn into more dynamic fight. It also gives enough pause to do defensive actions as well instead of locking and bursting the creature down.
Wow this is your first video but it's really good! It's super engaging, informative, and interesting. The way you showed the difference in effect between the RAW dragon and your homebrew version was excellent. Can't wait to see more content!
IMO, if the players are using the cage option and firing into the cage, the dragon should be able to fire back, or, since huge monsters can squeeze into smaller areas, the fighter should expect their weapon to get taken by the dragon, if they are lucky. Forcecage prevents it from leaving, not from firing outside of the damn thing. AND, if forcecage is the solid box option, then the PCs have only bought time as that prevents things from going in or out. They can't attack it and it can't attack them, but that angry dragon sure can still use its frightful presence ability. If you are letting a dragon of all things get defeated by a cage, then you aren't being very creative in the first place.
By default the ranged attack of a fire dragon is his cone of fire. Ranged weapons have more range than it and some spells too, so by default the dragon has little to nothing to do.
@@lucaslepesteur7846 Unless the dragon uses the coins it is sitting on as an improvised thrown weapon, like a dart or something. Shovel sand in your general direction. Also, Dragon Fear; the dragon can pump that out and nobody gets the ability to attack it accurately unless they pass the save. Finally, Lair Actions; if the dragon is in their lair, they can still use lair actions even though they are in the cage. A dragon in its lair should never be helpless.
According to force cages rules, you can't fire into it, and something in it can't fire out. This includes magic as well (hence why you can't teleport out of it) Meaning all force cage does is just remove it temporarily from combat. Like a stasis in a way
@@VexedVergil TBF, if it wasn't specifically a dragon in its lair, you'd be right. With the way they word Lair Actions and Dragon Fear, the dragon just becomes an active area hazard. That doesn't go away until you kill it.
Making boss mechanics like this is one of my favorite parts of designing or revamping a monster. I ran an encounter a while back where my players were fighting an altered version of Yeenoghu along with a pack of gnolls and a gnoll shaman that was buffing him. Whenever he failed a saving throw against a spell or magical effect, the shaman had the option of remotely sacrificing a gnoll fodder bozo to shatter the spell. It could also do the same thing to buff his attacks or restore health to itself or Yeenoghu, which forced them to actually focus on bursting down some of the smaller enemies.
This is awesome, thanks for reminding me to stop shackling myself to the combat mechanics of established stat blocks and create thematic mechanics to make a cinematic and engaging battle.
This is a brilliant concept and definitely something that I will more than likely use in most if not all future bossfights that I design if I ever get back to DMing. I haven't really thought to create interactive defensive mechanics of this sort in the past and mostly just focused on giving my bosses extremely powerful offensive abilities or making my bossfights consist of enemy parties designed using the rules for character creation. Here's what I managed to come up with after thinking about it for a little while, this one was somewhat inspired by the MTG card Mother of Runes. The mechanic would be Boss who can choose to have protection from any school of magic or damage type, but can only have protection from one thing at a time and can only change it once per round using their reaction. You'd probably also want to make it so the boss automatically uses its reaction to end the relevant effect if it becomes incapacitated as soon as it is able to. Protection from a damage type would grant immunity to that type of damage, and having protection from a school of magic would render the boss entirely unaffected by any spells cast of that school, as well as end any spells of that school currently affecting it. In the Forcecage example, you could get something like "The dragon's scales suddenly begin to glow and shift across its massive body and take on a new pattern. As the dragon begins walk forward the Forcecage that was once binding it bends and flows around its body like oil against water. 'Your magic will not bind me so easily he says'". Perhaps an arcana check could reveal that the new pattern of scales on the dragon is that of Evocation magic. I do think this could initially lead to some "wasted turn" feelings the first time it happens, however I also think there could be a lot of interesting counter play to a mechanic like this. For example, if the fighter swings his Greatsword only to have the Boss gain protection from Slashing, then a clever player might think to pull out one of their Javelins after the first attack and do their remaining attacks with that instead in order to inflict piercing damage. This mechanic also becomes really interesting to interact with once you consider the ready action. Any spellcaster trying to get in a powerful spell could take the ready action and attempt to wait for the dragon to use their one reaction for the round on something else in order to get it off unobstructed. Or if they're really clever and have a deep enough spell pool they could ready one save or suck spell and cast it at the start of the boss's turn to force their reaction; then on the caster's next turn they can cast a different save or suck spell of a different school of magic once the boss's defenses are down. On the flip side, a spellcaster with an early enough initiative could choose to ready a low level spell or even a cantrip to try and bluff the dragon into saving their reaction for nothing. Of course, even if a save or suck effect does manage to go off, the boss would still be able to use their reaction at the start of their next turn to end the effect in order to keep fighting, however doing so would leave them exposed for that entire next round.
This is a very interesting way to grant your bosses some power instead of just saying “oh yeah this one has spells” or pulling something from no where, I might actually steal this dragon one as it’s somewhat relevant to a campaign I’m running currently, but I never thought of just giving it something to replace the boring things or rather a better way to explain why they happen
Wow, after watching this I got really excited to watch your other videos only to realize this was your first! Good job. Would love to see your idea turned tinto a supplement at some point, maybe offered on patreon
One mechanic I have thought of is to give certain enemies a defensive mechanic which is basically the shield spell, except +1 instead of +5 and goes off every time you'd be hit and it stacks (and goes away when the monster takes a turn like shield) . This type of defensive mechanic seems nice to build encounters with multiple enemies where you want to discourage focus firing, and can also tip the fight in favor of big splashy damage vs lots of little damage. The reverse mechanic is also a neat idea. Giving an enemy +5 AC, and having it's AC go down by 1 for a round every attack that misses could be a neat way to have some kind of crumbling armor that the PCs have to chip away at to get hits in.
Fuck yes. This is a genuine ingenious way to way to balance and have the party be more engaged at higher levels. Instant subcribe, hope to see more content.
I think a good defensice mechanic i used in one of the best solo fights i ever ran was giving the boss a "overheat" mechanic. the players were in a fight with a giant robot, and it was so unstable it could overheat at any moment. the ability was "if the robot starts its turn under any condition, it can gain 1 level of overheat and remove all effects. but for every level of overheat it lowered it's Ac by 2, at 5 level of overheat, the robot loses 1 legendary action". that gave the encounter a more dynamic vibe, because at the start the robot had super high Ac and the only real way to damage it was with saves. but after about 4 rounds, attacks became much more effective than saving throws because the robot was super easy to hit. a mechanic that changes the strength of the boss ir reavels new weaknesses during the fight is a fun way in my opinion to spice up combat
I love this one, I might steal it!
@@ahero8101 glad you liked it
also sorry for any spelling mistakes, my english is not that good
yeah, I can concur on this one. One thing I used in the past that I didn't really think was that impactful, but my players told me later was super interesting was a monster's specific ability: it had vulnerability to a certain damage type but whenever you hit it with that damage type, it'd get a huge speed buff.
now, behind the screen, this effectively did nothing, but the players in the moment felt like that completely locked off that damage type, so after the first instance of it, they never attacked it with that type of damage again.
even if the buff is minor, it can feel significant to the players. they don't know what that creature could've done with that speed boost, maybe he gets an OP charge attack. Of course, I know at best he can kite them now, but it's still an interesting interaction that changes how they play or think about the game. it's not just "how can i maximize damage this fight".
I dislike legendary actions on principle, but this is a pretty cool mechanical idea. Translate failed saving throws into a less debilitating stacking debuff.
I would like to suggest an addition for the replacement for legendary resistance for it to *require the dragon to spend more Firepower to resist an effect proportional to the level of the spell slot used.* Something like [slot level] / 3 rounded up. That would make the cost from 1st to 9th be 1/1/1/2/2/2/3/3/3.
If it costs the same to resist a Slow or a True Polymorph, it would be very wasteful for the PCs to use their high level save spells until the dragon has clearly ran out of juice, which would take many failed saves to happen and the dragon would recover enough for 3 more on their turn. *On top of that, it would be awesome to tell the player when the dragon spends it to resist a 7th level spell that "The dragon flinches. Panting. Almost losing balance for a moment. It looks like it took a lot out of them to resist your spell!".*
Exactly this, also having to force the dragon to resist 3 saving throws every round would just end up keeping the casters in the party too busy to do anything else, the general idea of the video is really good though
@@andreavitiello3762 If the spellcasters are using their turns to 'suppress' the dragons ability to use its breath weapon, many parties would consider that a good trade. And mechanically, that ALSO balances the action economy in favor of the dragon. So needing extra points of firepower just (again) skews the fight and action economy back in favor of the PC's.
This would be a great system if the idea was that players get like 1 shot if the dragon ever uses his breath. If you make it so easy to reduce his fire power then if you are unable to keep it off of 10 it should appropriately punish you. Otherwise you end up with a dragon who never gets to use his breath if there are two casters, and even when he does it's pathetic for how much build up it had. Or you could also make it so he doesn't expend fire power on his breath. Overall i like the videos approach more. The breath is a signature part of the dragon and you'll have to deal with it at some point. This just makes it so your cc abilities can delay the breath, or with a good number of casters you can stop it entirely. It doesn't feel like your intended to fully stop it from breathing although it's possible.
@@cybercyrus6402 I think that the video kinda expects you to bump up the damage on the dragon's breath or add another devastating effect to it, because otherwise it just feels meh compared to what it takes for the dragon to cast it.
@@andreavitiello3762 firepower says every turn, not at the start of the dragons turn. That's 3 legendary resistance each turn lol.
I think that the main problem with Legendary Resistance is that a lot of the time it feels like the DM telling the players "No" with no interesting description to back it up. As long as it is described in a way that feels impactful and makes it clear that the character who triggered it used up the monster's resources and reduced its capacity to continue fighting in a way similar to how a fighter does when they hit the monster with their sword I think it works. Your solution is a good one, but I think fundamentally the issue with Legendary Resistance is that DMs often describe it poorly and therefore the players perceive it poorly, not that it is a bad mechanic. "You cast Hold Monster on the dragon and you can feel the spell taking hold and see the dragon begin to go rigid. Suddenly its eyes lock with yours and you can feel a well of magical energy spilling out from the monster. The spell is shattered but the creature is left panting. Throwing off your magic clearly took a lot out of your foe." Something like that versus "It fails, okay it uses legendary resistance"
exactly, the effect they described is just a more flavorful version of legendary resistance and legendary actions/lair actions
I'm a big fan of making Legendary Resistances still make the creature take damage, generally at a d6 per spell level(or equivalent for non-spell abilities) implying that it hurts them to overcome the magic. Flavor it however you will, telling the player that their spell failed but they still get to roll damage dice makes it feel like they still contributed on their turn.
Coming off a game where we fought three legendary monsters back-to-back-to-back, our GM was particularly guilty of that. "I cast [Spell] on the Meatball!" "Legendary Resistance, it doesn't work. Just gonna mark that down..."
From my perspective though, it was forgivable because he also always made sure to mention how the monsters' pools of Legendary Resistances were decreasing. While it wasn't very narrative, it at least made me feel like we were worming away at the monsters' defenses, slowly making them more vulnerable, before we could hit them with our ultimate abilities.
These more unique defensive mechanics would've been even more interesting by far, though. As would proper descriptions.
So your issue isnt with legendary resistances then. You just want the dm to flavor it. Nothing wrong with asking for that flavor
I like Epic Legacy's design. It has the Mythic Resistance Trait, which costs a legendary action to succeed.
i remember the first and most impactful boss i've ever had was a mirror knight in a room of mirrors. there are two enemies to the encounter, the mirror knight itself and a reflection of the mirror knight made of mirrors. they would act on separate turns but whatever one did the other also did which often lead them to being on opposite sides of the map. i changed this problem by making walking into mirror walls or shooting a projectile into one would cause the thing to appear on the opposite side of the room. to my surprise one of my players was dumb enough to stand on the central square while trying to reach the other enemy. he got swung at 8 times total with the two attacks on each of the enemies' turns. i gave in some obvious hints that once one was "killed" it was still active because the other one was active too. eventually they killed both and they raved about it afterward.
Another idea for a monster mechanic was an extremely powerful feature that charges over the course of a few turns, before unleashing a devastating effect when finished. However the effect can be reset if the monster fails a concentration check similar to if it was casting a spell.
I used this for a Aberrant monster I made; where it would screech at a higher and higher pitch over 3 rounds, until out of the range of human hearing on the 3rd turn, then unleashing an extremely powerful blast of thunder damage on the 4th turn, potentially exploding a grappled creature's head on a failed con save.
After the first boom goes off the party immediately realties that 'oh crap, we can't let this thing's attack go off'; which due to their relatively low health and the fact they can fail a concentration save isn't all too hard to end it's screech. Also because it goes off at the beginning of the 4th turn, prepared creature can duck for cover to save themselves from the blast.
This seems iffy because the counterplay is just... murdering it. Which is what the party was probably going to do anyways.
It is nice to see parity between player and monster mechanics though. If a spellcaster can blow a concentration check then surely some monster abilities can be thrown off? It does add some neat flavor, and probably creates interesting strategic considerations when paired with other enemies that are more threatening on a per-turn basis. Do we try to kill off the screechers now, or do we kill the more immediate threat and then weather the storm?
@@anachronity9002 I agree with you, the mechanic is a bit crude if the party can't interact with it and it forces the party to do something they already plan to do. Also the only ways to deal with them is to kill the creature or cast "silence" However, if instead of exploding theirs head. The constant buzzing would either put them at a "disadvantage" or prevent them from concentrating on spells (or both) or make them confused, or simply inflict damage on them.
It could have its uses not as a defensive mechanic per se, because if the sound is canceled the encounter becomes a regular combat. But it can be a good puzzle for the party, finding some way to deal with the buzz before engaging the enemy.
P.S. Excuse the strange grammar, my English... let's say I just read and listen :P
The silence spell sounds pretty good against him
lovely video, tried this with my dnd group tonight after i watched it last night. Had to overtime a bit to change my encounter but my party really enjoyed the fight, my wizard often gets disappointed when their big spell just get legendary resisted and he told me it felt much better using your mechanic. Glad i found this channel
Thank you for trying out my mechanics! Glad to hear it went well. :D
I had a an “ice sorceress” fight that while it did include a pair of ice golem minions, any time she took melee damage she would use a reaction and appear one of 8 random locations. This made the fight a bit more tactical, and required the highly mobile party to have to deal with the golems as they were a bit spooky left alone. The golems themselves had ice armor which had a damage threshold, and their arms could change to a shield to increase AC and defend against fire attacks, turn into a maul to crush enemies (extra damage), a sword to cleave enemies, or a javelin to throw. It was a bonus action to change one hand per turn. As they took damage the ice armor chipped away and they became more vulnerable, though a strategic cone of cold was able to restore them a bit. The sorceress had a bit of randomness and wild magic element so some teleports were very good, but some did happen to place them in worse danger.
Now this sounds like a wild fight
Okay, the random TP boss ability is something I WILL be stealing.
Holy crap this is just what I have been looking for. I have no clue how to make interactive monsters and I have really wanted to put some into my games. Having fights be like this, where the players have some control over the monsters, is way more interesting than basic combat.
This series better blow up. This is a great video. I love your ideas for making things more interactive, and while I could see players getting upset, I think this approach is better for the game than allowing things like forcecage to make encounters trivial.
Thank you so much for the kind words!
You took the words right out of my mouth! Every now and then, just when I think I've exhausted YT for useful content for running my games, it shows me an absolute gem with fresh concepts and takes like this very video. Looking forward to more from Hero!
This was a pretty interesting way to make it stronger without giving it a million hp good job. Also wow I did NOT expect you to be a new channel. Your content is so well organized. Hope to see more of you
THIS!
A simple one I like to use at low levels is to give certain bosses a rage mechanic a little like the barbarian, if they take too much damage in one turn or they reach a certain amount of hp they become enraged, gaining appropriate damage resistances (usually bludgeoning piercing and slashing) and slightly higher melee damage however this means that the creature now fights more recklessly either attacking the nearest target or focusing the creature that enraged it. For sentient bosses, this means that the players might need to switch objective and protect a certain player and if the boss has minions this now makes the players decide if they should try and kill the boss ASAP to save the targeted teammate or if they should deal with the minions so the party as a whole takes less dpr. The good thing is that if the party has some really bad rolls, you don't HAVE to use it, but having the option there has enabled me to make encounters a bit more interesting.
My problem about these kind of gimmicks on sentient bosses is justifying not using it later, especially with smarter characters.
Great content! That was a really good example of haw an epic battle can turn into a painstakingly long sequence of turns. And the solution was pretty well thought, nice job!
I agree it was a good example of why lone boss monsters are bad, but the solution is actually terrible. It's just legendary resistance that recharges. Realistically you are *not* going to meaningfully deplete that resource when your save-or-suck polymorph spell only reduces their firepower by *one*.
@@anachronity9002 I see what you mean and I partly agree with you.
In some way it is just a legendary resistance that recharges. But in some way it makes the use of the spell have some meaning instead of it being completely useless or rendering the an otherwise epic enemy completely useless.
But the thing that I really would want to change is the legendary resistance part. Even if your spell has some use (in this case reducing the firepower by a tiny bit) it still negates the spell completely, maybe reducing the impact of the spell or something could be also good.
But would you suggest another way to deal with the problem? As a striving to be better DM it's always good to hear new ideas. Thanks for the reply btw!
I like adapting a concept from the anime Jujutsu Kaisen: domain expansions. Basically, powerful monsters (or any with the right knowledge/magic/lore) can transform the map into a lair and have new lair actions. For a red dragon, something like transforming this treasure hall into a raging inferno or volcano. Or for hags, creating a large arena/cage made of thorns. The idea is it shifts the nature of the combat and unlocks surprising lair actions and terrain features.
However, the point you make about the combat shifting every time there is a counter is a good one, and the visible traits of powering up can add some good tension. Going to be thinking on this more.
I don't disagree that the mechanics introduced are fun, I just find it weird they consider it adversarial to in-game mechanics, this functions almost exactly like legendary actions and legendary resistance, just combined into one ability with neither name, which is cool but weird that they don't just admit that is a barely edited version of rules that 5e has, like the ability to give nearly any dragon spellcasting, this edition was designed to be homebrewed into whatever someone wants, not to give the perfect boss for Adventurer's league players.
@@LadyHearth Well if whatever someone wants Is a good boss fight, this video Is a great guide. Game designwise thing all the mechanic to one resource has huge implications. Is because It vives more choices to the way to fight the dragon, contrary to normal legendary resistance or no legendary where battles can boil down to the sme strategy every Time
I don't know if it would be considered similar, but I made a demon that was very slow, but could attack through and instantly travel through blood.
So through the combat it would kill npcs or hurt the players, and expand it's area of control like an evil Splatoon boss.
I have a DM who did this exact same thing, made for some very difficult boss fights!
I really like this! Utilizing that sort of firepower mechanic as "ancient bloodlust" or something of that sort can really spice up the vampire BBEG of my game
One of my favorite new things that I as a DM like to play around with is the Mythic State thing introduced in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, that sudden surge that makes a fight that much more, giving new abilities and actions in a legendary monster's potentially final moments. It's not really a defensive thing on it's own, sure, but it wouldn't be hard to imagine a collapsing star in creature form can tear through space and time (deliberate or no) to get through the magic tricks
Yeah, you get the idea. Sell the fantasy of your monster and sell it as a threat!
Just cuz I like giving credit where credit is due, the mythic traits actually debuted in Mythic (yep, the thing) Odysseus of Theros. Really cool ideas in that book imo. Mythic traits, and the piety system. Not to be that guy, just so that book can get some love :)
@@roark914 I'mma be real, forgot that book existed
Gotta give it a read, thanks for pointing that out :)
@@abracadabruh5718 I don't blame you. Not much in there worth remembering minus as I said, the piety system and mythic traits. Cool monsters and gods I guess. Hope you like it though lmao
I have found that often times giving my bosses player feats such as sentinel or mage slayer, really catches them off guard and makes the fight far more interesting. Also using terrain and environmental effects adds to the sense of danger and realism.
This was an awesome video. The form was great, and the idea was awesome. Having an ability that feels powerful, yet feels fun for the players to interact with and learn as they play is awesome. Definitely adding this to any red dragon in my games. Can't wait to see more content from you! A welcome edition to my watchlist of D&D content. Honestly some of my favorite right now.
This is the way to do CZcams right. Professional and highly entertaining content that hits the algorithm just right. Great job!
This is absolutely amazing, i love this idea.
another thing i heard somewhere and love to do, is modify legendary resistances to weaken the creature as they use their resistances. For example, a Dragon could use their legendary resistance to block a powerful spell, (as in: chooses to succeed), but instead of just "haha you fail", the dragon has to use a powerful resource to do so, maybe it blocked the spell using one of its wings. In return, the dragons fly speed is halved, or down by one third. This gives the players a better feeling than "o thanks, i just wasted my most powerful spell for nothing". Instead, they have a feeling of "oh no, this is bad. My spell was really powerful, but at least _Something_ happened and it was worth to do". sure, a more knowledgable group/player might be like "oh yes, we need to burn through 3 legendary resistances", but that doesn't solve the problem of the mechanic being unengaging. although i have to admit, its sort of the opposite of a defensive mechanic, but it makes fights a lot more fun imo.
Now i need an idea of how to combine my usual approach with this idea as well. especailly since it solves one of the most imminent problems i have with creature in D&D: recharges. As a DM, it's sort of fun rolling more dice, but it can just screw both you and the party over so so so much. The Dragon doesn't get to use the breath weapon more than once the whole 10-15 turn fight? wow, amazing hurray. The Dragon just incinerates the party in the first 3 turn with 3 breath attacks? amazing, much fight. I think the idea of running monsters, especially bosses and legendary creatures more like Video Game Raid Bosses and not like, well, D&D Monsters becomes more and more appealing to me, the longer i DM.
Greatest idea I've heard in a long time, here's the elegant "universal" version.
[Legendary Power: As a legendary action, the creature ends an effect or condition currently affecting it. This replaces Legendary Resistance.]
Players can now interact with a monster's action economy more directly. And there can be "openings" between the monster's last turn and the subsequent player turns. (IE, a wizard wants to cast faerie fire, all martials upstream ready their actions to attack when it lands)
On group taste, the Legendary Power ability can be limited to 1-2 times a turn instead of 3 "legendary resistances" a turn.
EDIT: Been testing this for months now and it's been a rousing success since start! Legendary Power costing 2 legendary actions is just enough to feel impactful, and give both sides of the fight meaningful cost-benefit analysis.
In addition, I had to add 1 other ability to pair with it:
[Legendary Recovery: If this creature would make a saving throw to end the incapacitated condition, it has advantage on the saving throw.]
Due to one night a group casting non-stop stuns and paralyzes, Legendary Power can't be used (it is now an action), and Legendary Resistance isn't available. Still respects the group as there is a chance to fail and they'll get 1 turn of it, but it's just highly unlikely to get extra turns without more casts.
I think the best implementation would be for Legendary Power to cost 3 Legendary Actions, making it a substantial investment for the monster to use and therefore they have to be a little more conservative with it like Legendary resistance, high level bosses already usually have 3 or 4 incredible saves and having even one Legendary Resistance every round would mean they can use it way more reliably because they know it will recover in 6 seconds rather than an entire day.
@@matthewmoran1866 Aye I think that fixes it up nicely. 2 cost on resistance should be just fine for most groups (still gives the boss ONE extra action per round). And means I don't have to hold in my head whether or not it has the juice left to fire. I'll be testing it tonight so will see how it goes.
@@matthewmoran1866 Not a bad idea to build upon: I'd be tempted to go with 2 legendary actions (assuming a 3 legendary actions monster). That way, the boss monster cannot use it more than once a turn, which leads to an opening for other player effects, etc. and that would severely limit their actions out-of-turn. I'd suggest pairing that with making their more powerful legendary actions cost 2 actions (i.e. casting a spell, using a more powerful attack, advancing toward their goal in a dynamic fight, etc.), leaving them to a single, less powerful ability to use this turn (such as a dragon's Detect ability).
@@matthewmoran1866 Lots of months playing with it, 2 has honestly been perfect across many groups. Monster still gets other things it can do, but they are far less impactful making it feel very worth it. Being able to simply end a negative condition isn't always worth it when you can down someone and has made DMing just as much more fun!
1 extra thing though, add [Legendary Recovery: If this creature makes a saving throw or check to end the incapacitated condition, it does so with advantage.]
As I had one group full pull all the stops with Hold Monsters and similar, which completely removes Legendary Actions from the equation anyway. The ability still respects the players, but makes it far less likely I sit there for literal hours doing nothing but watching my players wail on a boss.
Perfect timing for this type of content, as my party will be running into their first boss fight very soon. Initially, it was going to have a few mobs. Now, you've inspired me to try and make an engaging solo boss encounter.
I can't wait to see more of your content. 🖤
My man has 64 subscribers and ended up in my recommended. For the first time I think the CZcams algorithm is working!
FYI, Forcecage doesn't allow any matter nor spells to enter the cage as per the second paragraph of the spell, despite the 1/2in bars. The spell creates a magical forcefield - the bars are aesthetic.
Specific overrules the general rule of "you can cast/shoot through the bars cause you can see through them"
Sorry, that was just nagging me :')
Great video and tips! Keep it up!!
Read the actual spell before commenting. The spell barrier CLEARLY applies only to the box variant of the spell, not the cage variant, which can have line-of effects enter the cage as it is “a prison in the shape of a cage can be up to 20 feet on a side and is made from 1/2-inch diameter bars spaced 1/2 inch apart.”
The specifics this case only applies to a singular mode of the spell instead of both, so your interpretation of the RaW is null.
@@tai-cx5vj what about the fact that gargantuan creatures can't be trapped inside of force cage anyway? The spell specifically says if the creature can't completely fit into the cage then it is pushed outside of it. Did you read the spell before commenting?
Gargantuan= 20 ft high minimum
Force cage=10 feet high maximum
So the scenario in this video couldn't even happen. Also if the bars are half inch thick and half inch wide the fighter better be making a high DEX attack to be able to fit an arrow through that. The wizards fireball would also have a really hard time fitting perfectly through half inch spacing and not just immediately dissipating on impact on the bars which wouldn't hurt the creature
@@Odande Where are you getting the 10 foot maximum? That's the box variant again. The cage variant can be up to 20 ft on all sides.
So I played around with it for a little bit and fire power felt like it would invalidate spells, especially high level ones (1 FP to cancel a 7-9 lvl spell?), especially when compared to how fast it regenerates and how expensive counterspell is. Also the Magic Resistance would only work on the dragons turn, which might be intended, but felt underwhelming so far.
And the dragon definitely has more FP at their disposal, over a fight, than the players will have spell slots.
So I changed it (for now, first draft) to:
- Start with 5/10 FP
- Gain 3 at the END of the first turn of the dragon (I like Boss monsters with 2 turns so First Turn is important)
- When Subjected to a continues effect or saving throw, spend 3/4/5 fire power to end the effect or succeed the save (for Spell level 0-3/4-6/7-9) (Yes, way more expensive, but I also would give that dragon max hp, so it should average out. Also that might give the players a turn or two of force cage, which will then break at some point, instead of just breaking, as an example)
- The Dragon can end any permanent magical effect in the attack range, on their turn, by spending 5 FP
- When the Dragon has 10 FP, they gain Magic Resistance (Now for a round, as they gain FP at the end of their turn)
- If the dragon starts their turn with 10 FP, they have to use their breath weapon, consuming 5 FP in the process.
Also, maybe the recovery should be lowered to 2 per turn at 50% HP and 1 per turn at 25%, so that the dragon can't outpace a party at a certain point.
Also I just realized, that for lower CR monsters, this might be too much, so CR 12-15~ monsters with LR could be changed to:
- Max Fire Power is 7
- Recovery is 2 per Turn
- They start with 3
- Their breath (or similar feature) costs 4
- And if they choose to destroy an effect, they need to spend 5, the destruction happens at the start of the next turn, and they don't regenerate FP for this turn and the next.
Imagine an adult white dragon starting to freeze the spell around them, exerting everything they got and then some to freeze away the magic, as they don't quite have the power and experience the older, more vicious dragons have. On their next turn, the spell shatters into empty shards of ice, but the dragons body is still covered in sweat like droplets of moisture, as cold vapor is fuming out of the body. At the end of their next turn, the droplets freeze and the mist vanishes slowly, as the dragon regenerates their internal temparture.
Not sure if I am happy with that version either, but that's my current take.
Brilliant video! I can't wait to implement this in future games! I look forward to seeing the rest of your Monster Workshop!
Awesome idea! Appreciate the use of Foundry VTT as well to showcase your encounter!
Man! this is such an awesome video, you just changed completely the way I see combat in d&d from now on
Loved the firepower mechanic. Besides getting more firepower with each passing turn, I would establish things that the boss could accomplish to get more firepower. These things should be in tune with the flavor of the enemy, for example:
A legendary vampire with the firepower (bloodpower, bloodfuel, bloodcharge) trait could get 1 - 2 charges of firepower per turn, but get more charges anytime they draw blood from their victims (dealing enough damage to half one of the players hp), or whenever they bite a creature.
This way, the creatures will have reason to be played in tune with their themes, the players will be encouraged to play in a way that deny the enemies of the actions that fill their firepower and each combat could be a lot more dynamic.
This mechanic could be used in order to create a potential second phase that would happen if the creature got their firepower to a certain threshold. The more I think about it, the more I find interesting ways to implement this idea. Excited to see what other ideas you have to share, keep up the good work!
THIS. This sounds so interesting, basically creating a threat tracker that lets the fight move through phases! You can see the strength the vampire spent to overcome the spell and their eyes go from the blazing red to normal again as they expend power and lose the teleport they had just a moment ago.
I think you did a really good job on this, I’m a bit new to being a GM and this does really speak to me. Campaigns can seem quite dull with basic legendary resistances and such, this makes me want to rework multiple boss encounters I have because this is amazing, thank you
Love this channel! Just found out about the videos you make and thank you so much for the advice on monsters. Can't wait till the next one!
Hurry! More I’m on the edge of my seat due to your epic mechanics+story! Love it keep it up
Awesome stuff! Been planning a video about just like this, but with a bit of different ways to tackle the problems you outlined here.
Second video of yours I’ve watched and man oh man is this good stuff! Can’t wait to see more!
Something that would be cool to see is more stuff like this - changing monster blocks to make things more interactive for both dm and players 👌🏼
There aren't enough channels and videos that talk about the mechanical economy of RPG combat!!! Instantly subscribed, I badly want to learn more about this.
This is some great advice, as this is a new channel... we will be watching your career with great interest.
This is a cool little first video, I endeavor to see the rest when it’s released, good work.
You deserve a bigger following. Great content with solid tips!
I always like to surprise my players when a boss has surprise spellcasting, especially when it is a creature you would not expect to be intelligent enough to do so.
When they realize the Chimera or displacer beast is smart enough to talk and has spells, then you see them realize they may have bitten off more than they could chew, (though the spells you give the monster may not actually make it more lethal, the players don't know that)
Well those are like my two favorite monsters so I love the examples. ;P
I love to give them new ways to see monsters they are familiar with, even if it's as simple as you're level 1 and there's a displacer beast.
And in my opinion chimeras definitely should talk and have magic
Dael Kingsmill has a great video on dragons where she recommends "legendary reactions" as responses to this kind of problem - i implemented some of her ideas and my players loved it.
Specifically for a case like this, i gave the dragon the ability to essentially try and shout so loud it cancels out the verbal component - prompting a CON check from the player to try to raise their voice above the roar. They loved it, and fwiw i did too.
This video is criminally underrated, it's amazing and useful information!
This has SUCH great flavor! I love it!
I put a spin on Legendary Resistance in some of my home games. Instead of passing a save automatically, my monster's Hit Points are reduced each time they use it, usually by 1d6 for each point their failed save would need in order to pass.
Wow! Very informative and really gives a good jumpstart for DMs who have running their games following RAW and are looking to homebrew!
Watched this video and thought this is a well thought out and edited video. Wondered why I’d never seen you’re channel before. Great work
My good sir, you just got yourself a new subscriber. I -love- this idea, and I will certainly be using it for the next three big fights in my game. I -do- like video-gamey mechanics such as telegraphs, so I may add a visual representation to this just so that the players are aware of the mechanic.
This is great, having a resource used for offense & defense together really helps make for a dynamic fight, great stuff!!
Fantastic concept, ill be adding this into my games! Cant wait for the next videos!
Man that is awesome! Can't wait to see ALL of your futur videos!!!
This is just want I needed! I have been trying to figure out how to make combat more interesting. This is a great help!
A boss I used was a worm of ice and fire. It was like a weakened purple worm stat block, though had an ever shifting tones of frosty blue and fiery orange. When a player hit it with either ice or fire damage, it changed the scales of the creature, changing the combat.
Bright orange gave resistance to fire damage, dealing extra fire damage with their ranged attack, and having a searing touch if anyone did melee.
A mixture of blue and orange gave it 2 attacks, one of each color, making it scary to keep in the middle.
Blue made it deal more cold damage (overall less than fire), resistance to cold damage and reduced movement by half if hit.
It worked well to keep the players focussed on the monster and trying to adapt to the changing scenario, rather than trying to catch it. It also worked well with the spellcasters, as they had to cooperate since nobody had both a fire and ice spell.
Great video! Looking forward to watching your channel grow 👍
Honestly, one of the best and most unique mechanical Ideas for 5e I have ever seen!
Likes, subscribed and waiting for the next vid! ;)
Yo this is sick and helpful to develop my games. Subbed and eager for more. Amazing quality too
There are few channels I've seen with a first video as clean and well polished as this. Looking forward to your content.
I love this so much! I can’t wait for part 2!
This was awesome and really inspiring, I've been looking for videos like this for a while lol
I actually ran a boss monster once with a lair action that functioned defensively. The entire arena was flat to start with, and was separated into a grid. He was given 30 feet of lair action to move the squares of the grid up and down on a turn, and would also summon 1d6 cultists made out of the mist that he had been creating monsters out of throughout the game. They had to choose between attacking him and attacking the cultists, because at the end of each round the cultists would all be sacrificed and their remaining hit points added to the beholder's life force. The melee crew had the choice to rush in and actually attack the beholder and then be trapped by the beholder building a wall between them and the bard, or to stay behind and help defend the mostly-helpless bard vs the cultists. The walls also hurt in the form that the bard had to keep pivoting and climbing to get line of sight to the people who needed healing and/or to cast control on the beholder, but it was dangerous to be on any particular pillar since he could move it upwards and trap you with threat of fall damage or being crushed into the ceiling on a failed Acrobatics/Athletics check of DC 25. The party was only level 9 though, and didn't have any crazy spells so I think it worked out. The boss didn't have legendary resistances and they ended up using a magic item to kill him through some interesting uses of the mechanic so I think it worked well.
Fantastic ideas. Subscribed and looking forward to more
Great video. Great ideas and although chill,still very entertaining.This channel will blow up quick.
Another successful D&D channel out of thin air, glad to have you!
You’ve inspired me to modify the dragon from Dragon of Icepsire peak for my newbie group. This defensive change and some other new abilities via Matt Colville are gonna (hopefully) make this memorable! Thanks dude!
Very slick and pleasant presentation, will happily watch future videos.
I guess I don't 100% fall within the target demographic for this sort of breakdown as I just wouldn't let a climatic encounter fizzle because a spell unintentionally broke it (unless the players got there by being very clever or very funny). I'd have the spell have a sizeable but not crippling impact that is befitting of its target, and move on.
That said, I fully agree that all or nothing spells while sometimes great for drama/comedy can really be frustrating if your group isn't as willing to accept homebrew effects as a sort of default expectation when fighting big threats, and legendary resistances are very boring.
I do think the example you give is neat and functional, despite the ever present twinge of fear I get every time someone mentions encouraging more summons over big splashy spells :D
As to the separate issue of creature sizes being silly on a grid and making some spells way too good I've always handwaved it away when it didn't seem to make any sense, let the big lads be proper big, you're not gonna trap an ancient dragon with a 6meter cage, you'd be lucky to catch a youngling with that kind of net! Of course once again this requires a group that is willing to trust each other and roll with the whole common sense > rules compromises philosophy, and not everyone has that luxury from the get go
Amazing stuff man. Can't wait for the next episode
so glad i found your channel, this is sick.
Love this style, looking forward to next vid soon!!
This... oh my God this is incredible. I can't wait to see what you have next.
First video already abanger! good luck on the next ones!
This was really well done. I look forward to the rest of the series!
I can't wait for the next episode! This was great!
I for one really enjoyed the visuals why you talked. 10/10 job
Absolutely phenomenal video. Presented well and quickly instead of sitting there with a camera on your face talking forever about vague ideas like most dnd "advice" channels
I designed a combo of two keywords for mechanics regarding "boss" creatures that are more revolving around melee. The aim is to make the fight more dynamic and possibly reward players to move around during the fight more - especially ranged attackers.
"Stance" and "Charged attack"
Imagine Borb the Giant. A giant blessed by own gods with a blade that can split rocks.
Mechanically Borb has potential to put to 0 lots of classes with a single attack, especially casters. And even if he cant do that now one lucky initiative roll and he will likely reach the party with Dash and create a threat of an attack on opportunity. Being not a dumb giant he wont leave it for clearly welladjusted melee and he will surely decide to land his blade on weaker rangers.
Instead, when creatures like this get to them being close the enter "Stance'. It consumes reaction - which lets people run away if they chose to. They see that he raises his arms with weapon, ready to deflect projectiles and kick whoever tries to hit him. Ranged attacks get disadvantages vs him and get reflected back if they miss, melee attacks get punished with immediate weaker attacks - kick - to face. During stance he does "Charged attack" that will hit everyone around him immideately when his turn starts.
Combine that with terrain, minions and hazards and it will turn into more dynamic fight. It also gives enough pause to do defensive actions as well instead of locking and bursting the creature down.
Great video! Looking forward to seeing more!!
Wow this is your first video but it's really good! It's super engaging, informative, and interesting.
The way you showed the difference in effect between the RAW dragon and your homebrew version was excellent.
Can't wait to see more content!
IMO, if the players are using the cage option and firing into the cage, the dragon should be able to fire back, or, since huge monsters can squeeze into smaller areas, the fighter should expect their weapon to get taken by the dragon, if they are lucky. Forcecage prevents it from leaving, not from firing outside of the damn thing. AND, if forcecage is the solid box option, then the PCs have only bought time as that prevents things from going in or out. They can't attack it and it can't attack them, but that angry dragon sure can still use its frightful presence ability.
If you are letting a dragon of all things get defeated by a cage, then you aren't being very creative in the first place.
Yeah I was thinking, fire breath out and start throwing coins or whatever else you've got inside the cage.
By default the ranged attack of a fire dragon is his cone of fire. Ranged weapons have more range than it and some spells too, so by default the dragon has little to nothing to do.
@@lucaslepesteur7846 Unless the dragon uses the coins it is sitting on as an improvised thrown weapon, like a dart or something. Shovel sand in your general direction. Also, Dragon Fear; the dragon can pump that out and nobody gets the ability to attack it accurately unless they pass the save. Finally, Lair Actions; if the dragon is in their lair, they can still use lair actions even though they are in the cage. A dragon in its lair should never be helpless.
According to force cages rules, you can't fire into it, and something in it can't fire out. This includes magic as well (hence why you can't teleport out of it) Meaning all force cage does is just remove it temporarily from combat. Like a stasis in a way
@@VexedVergil TBF, if it wasn't specifically a dragon in its lair, you'd be right. With the way they word Lair Actions and Dragon Fear, the dragon just becomes an active area hazard. That doesn't go away until you kill it.
Making boss mechanics like this is one of my favorite parts of designing or revamping a monster. I ran an encounter a while back where my players were fighting an altered version of Yeenoghu along with a pack of gnolls and a gnoll shaman that was buffing him. Whenever he failed a saving throw against a spell or magical effect, the shaman had the option of remotely sacrificing a gnoll fodder bozo to shatter the spell. It could also do the same thing to buff his attacks or restore health to itself or Yeenoghu, which forced them to actually focus on bursting down some of the smaller enemies.
Easy sub, really looking forward to seeing the next one
More to come!
Excellent video. Hope to see more from you in the future.
Liked and subscribed. Well made and presented.
This is awesome, thanks for reminding me to stop shackling myself to the combat mechanics of established stat blocks and create thematic mechanics to make a cinematic and engaging battle.
This is a brilliant concept and definitely something that I will more than likely use in most if not all future bossfights that I design if I ever get back to DMing.
I haven't really thought to create interactive defensive mechanics of this sort in the past and mostly just focused on giving my bosses extremely powerful offensive abilities or making my bossfights consist of enemy parties designed using the rules for character creation.
Here's what I managed to come up with after thinking about it for a little while, this one was somewhat inspired by the MTG card Mother of Runes.
The mechanic would be Boss who can choose to have protection from any school of magic or damage type, but can only have protection from one thing at a time and can only change it once per round using their reaction. You'd probably also want to make it so the boss automatically uses its reaction to end the relevant effect if it becomes incapacitated as soon as it is able to. Protection from a damage type would grant immunity to that type of damage, and having protection from a school of magic would render the boss entirely unaffected by any spells cast of that school, as well as end any spells of that school currently affecting it.
In the Forcecage example, you could get something like "The dragon's scales suddenly begin to glow and shift across its massive body and take on a new pattern. As the dragon begins walk forward the Forcecage that was once binding it bends and flows around its body like oil against water. 'Your magic will not bind me so easily he says'". Perhaps an arcana check could reveal that the new pattern of scales on the dragon is that of Evocation magic.
I do think this could initially lead to some "wasted turn" feelings the first time it happens, however I also think there could be a lot of interesting counter play to a mechanic like this. For example, if the fighter swings his Greatsword only to have the Boss gain protection from Slashing, then a clever player might think to pull out one of their Javelins after the first attack and do their remaining attacks with that instead in order to inflict piercing damage.
This mechanic also becomes really interesting to interact with once you consider the ready action. Any spellcaster trying to get in a powerful spell could take the ready action and attempt to wait for the dragon to use their one reaction for the round on something else in order to get it off unobstructed. Or if they're really clever and have a deep enough spell pool they could ready one save or suck spell and cast it at the start of the boss's turn to force their reaction; then on the caster's next turn they can cast a different save or suck spell of a different school of magic once the boss's defenses are down. On the flip side, a spellcaster with an early enough initiative could choose to ready a low level spell or even a cantrip to try and bluff the dragon into saving their reaction for nothing. Of course, even if a save or suck effect does manage to go off, the boss would still be able to use their reaction at the start of their next turn to end the effect in order to keep fighting, however doing so would leave them exposed for that entire next round.
I made some edits for my own version but I love this idea! Thank you! Using it for sure and maybe even making other versions for other monsters!
genuinly good content, cant wait to apply some of this on my games!
Great video, gave me a ton of ideas, thanks!
This is amazing! Can't wait for the next one
Thank you! 😄
That was a really great video I hope to see more in the future.
Bloody great content man! Can’t wait for another one!
For sure, I'm trying to upload weekly.
This is a very interesting way to grant your bosses some power instead of just saying “oh yeah this one has spells” or pulling something from no where, I might actually steal this dragon one as it’s somewhat relevant to a campaign I’m running currently, but I never thought of just giving it something to replace the boring things or rather a better way to explain why they happen
Instantly subscribed, your content is EXTREMELY high quality for your low subscriber count. Amazing work and keep it up
That is quite interesting. I am looking forward for the next tactics and tips ^^
I need this entire series asap DX is so so good!!
Wow, after watching this I got really excited to watch your other videos only to realize this was your first! Good job. Would love to see your idea turned tinto a supplement at some point, maybe offered on patreon
One mechanic I have thought of is to give certain enemies a defensive mechanic which is basically the shield spell, except +1 instead of +5 and goes off every time you'd be hit and it stacks (and goes away when the monster takes a turn like shield) . This type of defensive mechanic seems nice to build encounters with multiple enemies where you want to discourage focus firing, and can also tip the fight in favor of big splashy damage vs lots of little damage.
The reverse mechanic is also a neat idea. Giving an enemy +5 AC, and having it's AC go down by 1 for a round every attack that misses could be a neat way to have some kind of crumbling armor that the PCs have to chip away at to get hits in.
Interesting ideas, I'm eagerly waiting for another video!
Fuck yes. This is a genuine ingenious way to way to balance and have the party be more engaged at higher levels. Instant subcribe, hope to see more content.
Someones cooking amazing new dnd channel - keep it up
Holy shit, that was an EPIC idea! My man, you're a genius!
I love this so much, you have no idea how much I wanted something like this but didn’t know how to implement it
Yeah, the DMG encourages you and enables you to make custom monster traits. I believe it's on page 273/274.
This is great! Well done
No suggestions, but AWESOME CHANNEL!!! I NEED MORE VIDEOES!!! YOU'RE AWESOME!!!
This video was so helpful!! I’ve got so many new ideas!! Thank you!!!
Nice video, hope to see more in the future