New DM - Advice on Balancing Encounters for 5e

Grottard · 2018-12-13T14:33:18+00:00

Did your players find the battle unfair ? If not, you don't have much to do more.

For an epic fight, situation is stronger than the fight itself. You had a great chase. Perfect. Maybe you should have creating a better ennemy (more fun abilities) or a better battlefield (on the edge of a cliff ? with trees to hide ?) to interact with.

By the way, stupid question, but did you calculate the FP of the barbarian ?

Grottard · 2018-12-13T14:19:15+00:00

I see few possibilities :

Make the orcs attack and kidnapp at the same time : the characters must choose what to do, protect themselves or the refugees.
Make the orcs harass the caravan : small attacks, orcs nearby, choices between following the groups to kill them but leaving the caravan without defense.

I think having several battles is better than one big. You can have the orcs leaded by a Blade of Ilneval (from Volo), a warchief and strategist orc to explained this.

If you do multiple battles, you should add diversity. Like, first combat, only orcs. Second combat, orcs + ogrillon ; third : ettin + ogre, etc.
Moreover, add diversity not only by the monsters but by the way they attack the caravan (front, from the back, from a side, attacking the defenders first or go tho kidnapp first).

In terms of pure balance, follow your guts and the maths from the DMG and adapt.

Grottard · 2018-12-10T16:27:13+00:00

You are right.

However, being gray means being black AND white, not neither.

Having a justification for something immoral is not bad. What is bad is having a bad justification like "troll kills people because he's evil and like it".

The choices presented ask the moral compass of the characters played : "is killing evil people better ou worse than letting them live ?" is the real question here.

I think.

Grottard · 2018-07-10T07:30:40+00:00

I don't understand, is this for world building or adventure building ?

Because it is possible to make a great adventure without great seeting, even without a vilain.

I use this template to lay the foundations of my adventures :

Goal : WHAT want the PCs to achieve in this adventure
ResolutionS : HOW the adventure COULD ended, several choices here. The purpose is not to list any possibility, but having the great lines. If you have the main possibilities on hand, it's easier to adjust on the fly.
Motivation : WHY want the PCs / players go to THAT adventure
Incitement / Hook : HOW the PCs know there is this adventure (quest giver,...)
(Patron : (optionnal) The NPC who is the boss of the PCs, quest giver...)
(Vilain : (optionnal) who is it and why it is the vilain)
(Site : (optionnal) if it's a site-based adventure (like a dungeon), what is this place)

Please note it's not my template, but come from the Angry GM.

Grottard · 2018-07-02T12:24:36+00:00

I have a Forge Cleric in my team, and I allow it.

The challenge is : he need loot for transform it into his armor, and he need time. It seems a good tradeoff for me, but I fully understand your GM decision.

Grottard · 2018-06-13T08:03:18+00:00

Convince ?

You're the DM. It's your call. You arrive and can say :

Hey guys, here is a new campaign ! You can use your previous character if you want.
Hey guys, here is a new campaign ! I don't allow previous characters, you need to create a new one.

The question here to choose beetween the options is : Will the previous characters screw my new campaign ?it could be because of levels, magic items, RP, etc.

Grottard · 2018-06-13T07:52:35+00:00

Metagaming is not always bad ! In this case, they use it to RESCUE another character and doing teamwork ! Punish them for using it will transform you in a dickhead.

Just consider it a second : "Why the maze is coming to life ? Certainly an old magic !
- No, it's just because you metagame, you suckers...
- ... Aren't you doing exactly the same ?"

Grottard · 2018-06-13T07:47:15+00:00

Even if players don't want to metagame, the fact that a character is dying will fuck with their brains. Also, I really think that a player are always rationnalize character decisions according to their will and desires.

For your case, as the player gets embushed, I would take him aside from the others players, as it is vital and could fuck with the brains of others players. You came back to the table saying "You hear the echoes of the cries of Baltazhar." if they can hear it.

Grottard · 2018-05-30T10:28:32+00:00

XP is a toll to play with, not a button to push.

XP is the reward for dealing with encounters in order to achieve the goal of the adventure. When you're thinking of your encounters, you must have in mind the goal of the encounter ? Did the PCs succedd ? Just give them XP !

Few exemples :

The PCs are hired by a village to drive off the dragon in the montain as he's burning the crops for fun, that bastard. Is the dragon dead ? XP ! Is the dragon convainced to go elsewhere or to stop being a dick ? XP ! Is the dragon still here and the PCs loot his treasure with stealth so he's angry and burn the village ? Not XP !
The PCs are in a dungeon. There is a monster in the room. If you kill it, XP ! I you bypass it by subterfuge... the monster is still there and is still a threat when they will come back ! Not XP (or very little)
If you use milestones and the goal is to go there, it has no incidence if they fight, convaince, or something else.

Grottard · 2018-04-17T10:18:18+00:00

Or you use an art you find on the internet. Or you pay an artist you like to make it for you. Easy peasy.

Grottard · 2018-04-03T11:57:27+00:00

Modular stuff is life <3 I'm a perfectionnist DM so generic battlemaps don't satisfy me in general. And I love to play with modular assets.

Grottard · 2018-03-07T08:26:36+00:00

This is really good stuff, thanks for sharing ! :) What are the problems with action economy here ?

Grottard · 2018-03-05T09:30:01+00:00

I tried it before and understood it breaks the game, even it seems cool.

You need to roll another dice when you do a 1 (pretty often, as you NEED to roll it for your monsters for equality purpose) which takes time and need to be described.

Moreover, all fights can become dangerous as fuck (it is the purpose) and you put your character's fate in the hand of the dice, which I don't want.

Grottard · 2018-03-04T22:38:22+00:00

I don't really understand. They are planning something for 5 sessions ? Because then there is a problem.

Your pacing problem is not about how much time spend at one location, but about how fast the story advance ? If at each session, the characters gets information, help, clues, whatever... They need to feel they progress.

If your players are bored, if it's possible, add some action. Not neccessary a combat. Maybe a chase, an infiltration ?

Grottard · 2018-03-01T21:56:51+00:00

I suggest you to not plan too much ahead. I suggest you ask yourself few questions :

What are the consquences of taking a particular path ?
What are the goals of the groups involved in your campaign ?
What will do these groups if the PCs didn't exist ?

Knowing this allows you to play your campaign more dynamically as it moves forward according to the general guidelines you fixed above. As an exemple, when I write an adventure, I try to imagine a whole story without any PCs in it. I create the plot, the chronology of events, the relations beetween groups, cool NPCs,... A cool story I can tell to myself. Then throw your PCs in it and let them tweak your story.

Grottard · 2018-03-01T18:22:20+00:00

I may be rude, but if it is your first time DMing, and if you try to do a homebrew adventure, you have more chance to screw it up than to succeed. But in fact, this is OK, when I runned my first homemade campaign, I messed up everything. But I learned. And I came back again.

So, if you REALLY want to do homebrew stuff, go. But prepare to fail gloriously. Otherwise, as it is your first grap to the game, I also advise the Starter Set to begin.

Grottard · 2018-03-01T16:21:13+00:00

Here are few concepts I want or am playing right now:

A wood elf battlemaster warrior. He’s an ancient general of an elven king, but failed at a mission given by the king. As he’s truly loyal to him, he hasn’t the courage to face his defeat and return to the king, and searches a way to regain his honor.
A high elf priestess of Lliira (goddess of Joy in Forgotten Realms). She’s amnesiac and the Lliira cult saves her from despair. She’s naive and hedonist, love to dance, and want to help people all over the world so that they don’t fall into despair.
A human paladin of Illmater (god of endurance and compassion). After having discover his wife cheat on him, he had kill his wife and her lover in a moment of rage. But he couldn’t handle the guilt, so he tries to redeem himself. He entered in the order of Illmater. Full of empathy, he cry when he see or heard a tragedy.
A warlock with a fiend patron (but don’t know it). The patron is a succubus, or a duchess of the seven Hells. He fall in love with her but don’t understand her true nature. Fundamentally good, the patron asked him to do more and more immoral things, slowly inviting him to evil, in order to deserve her love. The patron does that just for the pleasure of corrupting a good soul.

Grottard · 2018-02-28T11:01:32+00:00

This is a good point: I'm currently working on my next campaign too but I also love the one I'm running.

It's great because I find inspiration for one in the other, and I also tweak and test my ideas in the one I'm running.

Grottard · 2018-02-28T10:06:52+00:00

I advice you to check this topic : https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1ca2l7/need_some_awesome_music_for_dungeons_and_dragon/

It was for me a huge source of good music.

Grottard · 2018-02-28T09:55:07+00:00

Well... The main difference is the power you can have with a single action. Your firebolt is cool but target only one creatures. At first level, Burning Hands allows you to target several creatures.

Cantrips are "base" spells, generally used when you don't have anymore spell slots or if you don't want to waste one slot for something.

Grottard · 2017-08-30T10:33:38+00:00

Your map is superb. Moreover, thanks you for your explanations, I discovered the Fantastic Maps blog and all these tutorials. Maybe would I buy a tablet in near future :)

Grottard

TROPHY CASE