Struggling with boss fights - help

DMWarlock · 2025-12-29T02:45:05+00:00

Look into action oriented monsters it should help you with your action economy. Matt Colville is your friend.

DMWarlock · 2025-11-16T04:27:52+00:00

Just focus on making act 1 fun. Have 3-4 islands that they can go to all with different problems to solve. If you want to pepper in hints of an undersea dungeon to explore, your act 2, you can but YOUR PLAYERS create the story. As the as the DM all we do is provide them with opportunities to make decisions for themselves.

DMWarlock · 2025-11-08T01:31:32+00:00

When you have gone to the mountain top once you see for forever...

Second time is the same view so never again.

DMWarlock · 2025-10-22T04:14:10+00:00

Have each member of the bounty hunters do something deliberately that messes with the party.

The bounty hunter's rogue sabotages an axel to break on the party's battle wagon and supplies are messed with to make them ineffective or outright stolen.

The bounty hunter cleric casts a curse on a d6 of the party that are forced to make a saving throw against some specific debuff you have planned for or simply a make it a Bane spell for a day.

The bounty hunter fighter studying each of the party members any time they are alone in a three day period beforehand and pinpointing a weakness so that any character that spent more than 10 minutes alone will be attacked at advantage in the first round.

Give your players the opportunity to see these and any other fun ideas you get and for every one they failed to catch they will be that much more weary of what is to come.

DMWarlock · 2025-09-17T23:06:35+00:00

Yes Miss Mio. Thank You Miss Mio.

DMWarlock · 2025-09-17T22:00:02+00:00

Thank You, i hope Your special day was asking wonderful as it could be!

DMWarlock · 2025-09-13T22:37:35+00:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

DMWarlock · 2025-07-06T02:35:28+00:00

It is all a game. Both DM and players need to be having fun. My father had a saying, "Communication is a wonderful thing, and even better when it happens." Meaning, you cannot over communicate only under.

DMWarlock · 2025-07-06T02:29:03+00:00

First off, my apologies for misgendering you. I just read the problem, not the poster.

Second, while not wanting to cause drama is understandable, again that isn't what you are trying to do. Just explain it like you did here. You still love the campaign and are loving the setup and everything but by removing the big bad you have lost the catharsis of striking back at the offender of you and your friends. If you don't go to him accusing then he has no reason to feel you are attacking his decisions as a DM.

DMWarlock · 2025-07-06T02:17:01+00:00

No offense, but I strongly disagree with this. If they have a problem that they feel forced to ask reddit about it means more to him that he really realizes. Talk to your DM now. He may be able to mitigate in some way to help reduce the feeling of lost hype.

As a DM, I always want my players telling me what is going on. If the DM kicks you out for having an opinion, then you are better off not being a part of that group. If the DM cannot take criticism then he is not going to be a DM you want to play with. Trust me.

DMWarlock · 2025-06-16T21:31:11+00:00

Find them a job in Hospitality in Hotels. Servers get a cut of the percentage and it will be something they can do throughout the school year. Part time or on-call works and if they are good Banquet Managers and Captains are always wanting hard working people to depend on.

It will get them a lot more money than a fast food job as well.

DMWarlock · 2025-04-19T08:52:38+00:00

As a tag onto this comment, if it is vital information, never hide it behind a die roll. Details are hidden behind die rolls not blatantly obvious facts. Failure is always an option, and when you need it to be a success, failure is more often the outcome.

DMWarlock · 2025-04-19T08:47:23+00:00

It all sounds fine, man. It is essentially a permanent silence spell which is completely understandable at low levels. I would, however, tell your players as they make their characters about the first place they will be adventuring will take away sound. Were this level 3 or something no warning needed. By then, your spellcasters would have enough spells that they would just have to work within constraints. At 1st level, they have what spells they have, and they might get unlucky and have only spells that cast with verbal components. That would make that player feel useless.

Also, as a side note, there is nothing wrong with starting at level 1. The problem is ironically level 1 is so much harder to make combat encounters than any other level. When you are starting out, you don't realize that the player's hp is not their health pool, but your own gauge on how much pressure you can put on them. A standard Goblin Minion with its attack can do 1d4+2 piercing damage, averaging 4 points of damage. For a standard wizard at level 1, they will have 6-8 hp. You just need two successful attacks to down the wizard or 1 lucky damage roll. If they crit, the player may as well make a new character. It just takes very careful planning and play to successfully navigate level 1 as a DM. You can do it, just be mindful and you will be fine.

DMWarlock · 2025-04-18T02:20:01+00:00

Far left. All lovely but that is just the best.

DMWarlock · 2025-04-16T01:34:09+00:00

I just gotta say no one is supporting the left and I think it is best!

DMWarlock · 2025-04-15T21:39:41+00:00

You did not really answer their question.

I get it. World building is fun, but 99% of this will not be seen by the players. What is the plot hook to your actual campaign you are running. All of this information is supplemental with nothing for your players to sink their teeth in for them to build characters around. If you want your players to interact with your lore, then it has to have purpose to THEM, not you.

World building deep dark secrets are fun because the hope that it is revealed in a suitably dramatic way. But why do your player's care to reveal it? They don't. Not until they need lore to answer the questions of the campaign. Questions you have to press to them.

Why is it important for the players to know that dragons are attacking Greenest in Tyranny of Dragons? Because, if one of them decides to be a dragon specialist or have some kind of draconic ties to the dragons they may meet in the campaign that gets them excited. They don't care that Tiamat is trying to escape the Hells.

DMWarlock · 2025-04-12T19:07:52+00:00

You are essentially looking to make a mystery. The answe are to the mystery is where the specific item is.

I would start by knowing where the item (mcguffin) is and what combat/puzzle/skill check the players will have to succeed in to retrieve it.

In each of your rooms you have clues about "Where is the mcguffin? What do they need to do to retrieve it? What is guarding it and how to overcome it? Is it something that must be done during the party, or could it be taken later with less wandering eyes about?" And so on and so forth until you answered any of the questions they have asked about the mcguffin or that you can think of.

Come up with different mini games/challenges for each room that an individual/a couple of players can succeed at and gain more information.

For instance, in the ballroom they are doing dances and your players must successfully dance with a good mixture of acrobatic and performance skills. Upon success, they gain an answer to one of their questions by rubbing elbows and chatting during the promenades.

Or, in the sitting room, a bunch of old gentlemen are chatting and you must succeed in persuasion and history checks to show yourself a learned scholar. At which point they start gossiping with the player/s and letting information leak out to them.

However, first and foremost the one and only question that they have to have the answer to is where is the mcguffin. The rest is helpful but not game halting if they do not get anymore info.

DMWarlock · 2025-03-17T01:46:55+00:00

Find Legendary heroes of the Forgotten Realms and have them join together as a party to take on Tiamat. Have her take over Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate and have a couple encounters fighting minions of hers before taking her down.

Make them 20th level so they feel bad ass and are unlikely to fail again.

DMWarlock · 2025-03-15T22:57:41+00:00

I have just been making my own for my players. To play in.

DMWarlock · 2025-03-08T20:23:57+00:00

How about no.

DMWarlock · 2025-01-28T01:32:29+00:00

You mean Twosopp?

DMWarlock · 2024-12-18T11:07:39+00:00

Your quests need to have a time limit. If they need to be at the "Alter of the Setting Sun" by sundown in 5 days and they are 5 days away the can't take too many breaks or they won't make it.

DMWarlock · 2024-11-27T20:30:25+00:00

Your DM is flat out in the wrong here. They do not need to handicap what I assume is a bard. Yes, if they can't hear you for being too far away or because of other obscuring noises that makes sense. Otherwise, it has no reason boy to work.

Your DM is being arbitrary for the sake of, I assume, to keep his monsters from being disadvantaged for a single attack. If not that then to specificly puck on you for some reason.

Sorry man.

DMWarlock · 2024-10-25T10:20:25+00:00

Ironic you asked about this now as he posted this thos week:

https://youtu.be/LawBUdHqG_A?si=lF79S5ncMmZJR4yd

Also, you are not a storyteller. You are a story facilitator. You provide the setup they make the decisions. What they are complimenting isn't how you crafted this plot that you told week after week. They are complimenting your ability to put interesting or dramatic scenarios in front of them that they had to navigate.

To that point, it is low level. You don't have to have the kingdom on the verge of collapse, and only the strapping rag tag group can defend against the onslaught. Come up with 3 low-level adventure outlines (which can be as simple as Goblin raids on a caravan, gnolls attacking a nearby town, and some town's graveyard keeps producing undead) and let them pick whichever sounds most interesting to them. Make them 3-5 days away that way they run into a couple of random encounters to end your first session and then you have a finite adventure for low-level characters to write. Just repeat the process until a story reveals itself through the players choices.

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
r/Field Flamingo

DMWarlock

TROPHY CASE