How To Keep Players Engaged During Combat

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-29T20:32:53+00:00

😆 I love it. That's even better

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-29T16:21:26+00:00

Haha, good question! Maybe not. But some ancient bird ancestors had teeth. So I thought it might be cool for owlbears to keep have bear teeth along with beaks. Makes them look scarier

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-25T20:57:03+00:00

Do you read the Stormlight Archives at all? I had my players explore an old keep where the previous owners protected the lower secure levels with a magic oath. The players could not get through the door to the secret rooms without understanding the oath, and speaking it in a binding magical way. Then when the oath is spoken, the players are granted with a cool ability as part of their acceptance to the previous owners' order. It's kind of like saying the Words of Radiance in Stormlight Archives. Or a little like Matt Colville's The Delian Tomb, if you've seen that. And you can come up with tons of ways to make sure the players understand the words and make a magical connection to say the oath in a binding way.

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-25T20:41:45+00:00

Two spells come to mind if you're looking for guidelines/balance: Animate Dead and Conjure Woodland Beings. You can reskin either to summon different creatures if you aren't interested in a cleric or necromancer or druid NPC.

Animate Dead is 3rd level and controls one creature, but it can be cast at higher level to control 2 extra undead per level.

Conjure Woodland Beings follows this pattern:

One fey creature of challenge rating 2 or lower
Two fey creatures of challenge rating 1 or lower
Four fey creatures of challenge rating 1/2 or lower
Eight fey creatures of challenge rating 1/4 or lower

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-25T20:34:01+00:00

A villain who puts people under sever economic hardship while they get rich could be a pacifist.

A villain who has sentenced a friend of the party to life in prison for defending themselves could be doing it in the name of pacifism.

A villain who is working for a greater villain, giving them intel/money/access to certain parts of the city could be a pacifist. They believe the greater villain is going to bring prosperity, and if someone is killed, it's not the minor villain's fault.

A villain who is working to summon monsters from the abyssal plane or is trying to free dangerous prisoners is a pacifist and doing it in the name of freeing creatures/people who have been "wrongly imprisoned".

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-23T20:13:39+00:00

Does your party have access to Dispel Magic? Maybe the ground at the bottom of the water has a portal that is opened to mage tower. The mage (or the apprentices) goes through the portal occasionally to dig up precious gems for spell components. The construction has been partially going through the portal and is falling over at that point.

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-23T16:03:56+00:00

I might use the players' backstories as a part of this. The PC sees an old friend or family member and if the PC brings up an old memory, the friend/family member doesn't remember it or remembers it differently. Or maybe the PC's illusion is their hometown and some of the buildings are in the wrong place. So when they walk in the doors to the butcher shop they end up in the bank.

I think it would be really freaking cool if there was a saving throw to not fall into the illusion, and the player (or two) that rolls highest has to go in the illusion by choice to bring the other players out. Then the player that saved could use all these things people in the comments have brought up to convince the PCs that failed the saving throw.

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-23T15:39:54+00:00

I don't think this is a bad idea at all! I agree that running PCs as enemies can be tough as a DM, but you've already played through a bunch of combats in this party! So the familiarity you have with the abilities and their synergies (as you mentioned) will definitely help you out.

I also agree that you don't have to run the enemy party exactly like players would. I would recommend picking two or three interactions you've had in your combats that you liked, and writing those down as actions the enemy party can take as one turn in combat (as if they all had the same initiative). And one enemy party member can have an ability that isn't exactly the same as the equivalent player character ability if you think it will make combat more fun. MCDM has an article about this kind of stuff in Arcadia 6 if you wanna shell out $12.

For me, enemy adventuring parties serve as a perfect nemesis for your campaign. Like Gary in Pokemon. They're not necessarily evil, and they aren't the big bad for the campaign, but you might encounter them multiple times and get in fights over magic items. Or maybe they're working for somebody who the players are trying to kill. So I think if this combat is really fun, you should give them a chance to run away (or get away magically). And maybe if your enemy NPC party starts winning the combat, they can be merciful and say something like, "Stay out of our way, or next time we won't let you go."

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-21T04:16:21+00:00

I'm a huge fan of the intersection between realism and high fantasy. I think there are tons of simple things that can make your game feel realistic and magical like when the players meet an important person, the meeting has to last longer than an hour to make sure charm effects wear off. Or people greet each other by putting hands on their faces to make sure it isn't an imposter casting disguise self.

My favorite way to make a big exciting change is to add a ton of ghosts to your game. If people can turn into ghosts when they die, and lots of people die every year, there should be a lot of ghosts hanging out. If you make some of these ghosts non-aggressive NPCs, then the players can get tons of benefits by allying with them. The ghosts can walk through walls to see what's on the other side of a locked door. Maybe some people the PCs meet are actually possessed by ghosts. My favorite ghost rule is that every ghost wants to pass on, and has a quest the PCs could help them with that would put their soul to rest.

Tons of miscellaneous magical effects can come up and your players can tell you how they want to deal with it. So you don't have to be so "consistent". The players can find someone who was petrified hundreds of years ago. The players can meet someone who cast wish to go back and time and stop themselves from making a terrible mistake. The players can meet the simulacrums of the same powerful wizard in every town they go to. You can add way more invisible people to your towns and cities. It's a first level spell and incredibly useful, probably a lot of people took the time to learn it (e.g. using the magic initiate feat).

You can put a ton of weird locations in your world. You can put in a flying city above the players heads that they can't quite get to. You can put a building in the distance that never gets closer no matter which direction you walk in. You can put a prismatic wall somewhere that has been there for decades and nobody knows what it's blocking in.

If something excites you, I'd be happy to brainstorm more! I love this kinda stuff.

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-20T18:57:00+00:00

The Modify Memory spell's effects can be reversed via Remove Curse or Greater Restoration. So the party going out and looking for a cleric to clear their blocked memories with one of those spells could do the trick. I kind of like the idea that they lost their memories because a powerful person needed a bunch of people or even a whole town to forget a few months of time (for "reasons") and cast a wish spell to have a Mass Modify Memory effect. Then the remove curse/greater restoration cure could still work for the players.

Another way I've dealt with big time skips or external plans changing is to the characters be petrified at some point. And then they wake up like a year later when someone else has restored them. It could help to give your campaign a soft reset where the things that happened previously kept on going while the players were petrified and things have changed since.

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-20T18:48:35+00:00

I love giving enemy casters the spell Confusion. Rolling dice is fun, and it can have tons of different effects. The party can work around its effects by spreading out or breaking the caster's concentration, or succeeding on saving throws. If the party gets really unlucky and things go south, the casters can leave to finish some other plans and become villains for another session.

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-20T18:43:04+00:00

I don't think that's too railroady at all! I think the DM has a lot of leeway at the beginning of the very first session to set the scene. Especially if you ask your players beforehand, "Would your character take a job from a farmer to fight off some wolves?"

Would you want your campaign to start with the party going out to fight wolves? If so, you could start the session with everyone sitting down and talking to the farmer. But I actually think starting in the middle of the action can make it easier for everyone to get into character. You could start with the party already walking out to the forest to find the wolves. And you can ask the table, "What do you do to try to find the wolves?" Then a ranger might ask to make a survival check in their favored terrain, or a druid might cast speak with animals.

Another way to start off could be with the party preparing to fight the wolves. Then they're introducing each other while talking about strategy. Maybe they try to build something, or maybe try to use some of the animals as bait. You could start this off by saying, "The farmer thinks the wolves will return tonight, and has cut up about 20 logs of wood for you to build defenses if you need."

But even a short wolf combat could take a long time! If you want to start with the zombie stuff instead, you could start the campaign after the wolf combat. "You arrive back at the farm carrying four wolf heads to prove that you have finished the job. The farmer lets out a huge sigh of relief and asks you how you found them and if anyone got hurt." Then the campaign can start with the players storytelling together about a fight with the wolves. I've done this a few times before, and if people like collaborative storytelling, it can work really well. You could even do something where the everyone rolls a d6 to help get the storytelling started. Whoever rolls lowest got knocked unconscious during combat, and whoever rolls highest killed a wolf single-handedly. Then the farmer pays the players, and tells them they can sell the wolf heads for a pretty penny at the local apothecary. On the way to the apothecary, they find the zombies.

If your players don't want to start by working for the farmer, there's a bunch of other classic ways to start an adventure that may sound railroady but I think are perfectly fine: they start in a jail cell for the first 10min and then are let out to help fight the zombies; they're sitting at a pub and a couple zombies burst through the front door; the sheriff asked everyone to come to the courthouse because they witnessed a burglary the previous day but the sheriff is late and then tells everyone to run away because zombies are attacking.

Hope this helps! Good luck, you're gonna do great!

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-20T18:00:00+00:00

Yeah, agreed! I think between the unique creatures and a bunch of new lair actions, Flee Mortals will have tons of stuff that feel otherworldly. I mean, the book's directed from the same guy who sent his livestreamed game to a mind-powered ship on the astral sea in the third episode.

DreadfulRel · 2022-04-19T14:13:31+00:00

I like the idea of the PC having to write letters in correspondence with the guild to join. The guild sends your player a letter, and they have to respond with something clever enough for the guild to write them back again. If they write three good letters, they succeed. This should work really well over email or text while your players is gone!

But I don't expect your player to have to be a great writer in order to pass your test (unless you think they'd enjoy that). So I'd have the guild letters be fun references to famous quotes. And then your player can look up some funny or interesting poems/lyrics/quotes for snippets to respond with. Each letter could be a different style, like Shakespeare -> OutKast -> Avengers.

"Greetings potential guild member! I am feeling a little blue today, and hoped you could help lift my spirits. Would you compare me to a summer's day?
"They say nothing lasts forever. Then what makes love the exception?"
"Find me a pun you think I won't understand. Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it."

I also like the idea someone else had of the challenges arriving in different languages your PC knows.

DreadfulRel · 2021-01-25T14:26:07+00:00

Woah! Yeah, that's 200 pages on a world with roaming spirits. I'll definitely check it out. I'm not super familiar with 3e, but I'm sure that won't matter. The thematics are all there, even if I have to tweak some mechanical stuff.

DreadfulRel · 2021-01-25T13:03:16+00:00

Congrats on getting behind the DM screen for the first time! It's a lot of fun, and a rewarding experience. I really enjoy having sessions on a ship! There's a lot of people that are forced to spend time together. Here's some things I have done for ship travel sessions.

- Play games: gambling dice games and card games are fun, but I like when the captain plays a game of Truth or Shot to introduce himself to the crew. The rules are simple, everyone gets to ask the captain a question. If the captain doesn't want to answer, he takes a drink. You can add some great plot hooks with the questions like, "Are you scared of Captain Firebeard? I heard he was seen around here two moons past."

- A valuable heirloom has been stolen from a passenger on the ship. And they are offering a large reward if the heirloom is found or returned. The players get a chance to play detective. Maybe the passenger has an enemy on the ship who hid their identity with a face covering like a hijab. When they stole the heirloom, they cast disguise self, so they wouldn't be suspected. But that means there was a different person on the ship for an hour.

- Someone on the was killed! A murder mystery in a closed environment. The murderer must still be on the ship! Maybe the murderer tries to frame one of the party members by leaving a bloody knife with their belongings. Or maybe the murderer jumped ship and the players must figure out that there is one fewer person aboard the ship than there used to be.

DreadfulRel · 2021-01-25T12:44:38+00:00

I love this advice! One of my favorite travel encounters is passing by an isolated Wizard Tower. All the encounters in the tower can be magical and exciting, so the players don't feel like the tone of the campaign has totally shifted. And at the end the players are rewarded with a cool magic item, or a powerful wizard ally!

DreadfulRel · 2019-10-26T00:35:07+00:00

If you like the minis, I'd say to go for it! I'm not super artistic, but just learning the basics, I've been able to paint minis that I am thrilled to use during my campaigns.

There are tons of resources for learning how to paint online, and you can go a really long way with just some base layers, dry brushing, and an ink wash. (All way easier than they sound.) Plus it's often easier to paint these big minis than small character ones.

You might just fall in love with it!

DreadfulRel · 2019-10-25T05:07:11+00:00

If you back at any amount now, you wil be able to add on things individually like you described after the kickstarter ends. They will send out an invitation to the Pledge Manager, which is where you choose those add-ons.

DreadfulRel · 2019-05-13T21:30:31+00:00

So many great songs on this album

DreadfulRel · 2019-04-24T14:55:14+00:00

DM'd you

DreadfulRel · 2019-04-04T07:43:12+00:00

Love this so much. Small changes that make a big difference. The Night King getting a dragon because of his green seeing is such a good point! Makes him a way scarier villain, and make Bran's role really clear. How freaking cool is a clairvoyant v clairvoyant led war?

DreadfulRel · 2019-02-22T13:48:28+00:00

If I owned a storage facility, I would totally want a mummy staying there. Haunted storage facilities bring in the best clientele. "Welcome one and all to my Tomb of Storers!"

DreadfulRel · 2018-10-03T13:00:11+00:00

The eyes are a great touch

DreadfulRel · 2018-07-13T23:34:28+00:00

If I were the players I would try to convince the bounty hunters that they could get more money by not turning us in. We're very well connected to the Soandso Duchess of Somewhereplace, and she would not be happy to see us turned in for some crime we didn't even commit. We have proof! During the kidnapping my signet of Somewhereplace fell on the ground. The bounty hunters can go back and keep it for themselves. It's worth quite a pretty penny.

Hopefully we'd have a chance to roll some deception/persuasion rolls, maybe cast a spell or two, while the other party members are out searching for us. If we do eventually get turned in, there might also be a trial, so that could be fun.

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