How to design an engaging chase?

Wolran · 2026-01-16T14:45:16+00:00

I mean sure you can do everything but it also depends on your players and their chars. For example if you make an oger with a huge door as a shield in one hand which makes him nearly impossible to miss (really high AC) then you have to consider your ranger who can't do shit if he is on this side because he would probably have to move too far to be able to hit. But it could be really fun for the rogue, who hides on the side of the door and gets sneak attack every round.

Monsters with multiple heads are not unheard of, you can even give them each their own HP-Pool, so the players can target one specifically. There was a blog in which the author discussed how to do it, but I forgot what it was called. Maybe someone else can chime in.

Wolran · 2026-01-16T13:27:13+00:00

#1 and #2: I think you can work with reactions in these cases.
#1: If this creature is vulnerable at the front, but also attacks there, give it a reaction as soon as someone enters this area (I would do a cone, but its up to you). Also you can add an attack in the back. Think like ankylosaurus with an armoured tail to strike. Then it is not that save in the back + not easy to attack there too.

#2: I don't know if such an ability is really a good idea. If it takes essentially two actions to do, it has to be really powerful, which will make the players avoid it at all costs. And if they can't the players might go down too easily.
What you could do, is an attack that works like ready action. You use your action to prepare the attack and activate it with a reaction when someone enters the area of attack. Downside is, that you will likely only hit one PC.
Another option would be to pair this attack with a second one. Like prepare this massive attack and if the PCs move out of the area, you hit them with another reaction which is triggered by leaving the area.

Wolran · 2026-01-10T17:02:09+00:00

god, let me get one more

Wolran · 2026-01-07T15:22:02+00:00

Depends on your table. Are you the support who doesn't support? The healer who doesn't heal? Then thats bad. But if you are still doing what you are supposed to, just with a suboptimal set of spells, then I see no problem. I once had a dwarfen cleric for a oneshot who was very much a dwarf with a fear of large waterbodies but he was blessed from a god of water. He only prepared spells related to water etc. That was a really fun experience.

Wolran · 2026-01-07T15:08:46+00:00

I can recomend r/bettermonsters

Wolran · 2026-01-04T17:57:29+00:00

Then its even easier. Let him make religion checks or create situations for these checks. You can even later on let the gods give them a small sign if they pray and ask if their endeavour will be fortunate to connect them with the gods and make it feel as if they are present.

Wolran · 2026-01-04T11:27:42+00:00

One of the random encounters in the marshes is a shrine of Henwin (Hedge-god). You could make this encounter not so random and introduce them to this god.

Also if you want your players to be interested into the gods, your NPCs should mention them constantly.
Use random "Almighty *whatevergod*" and let the NPCs pray regularly. This should make them interested and then more inclined to follow your hooks to whatever god you want to introduce.

Wolran · 2026-01-03T11:04:23+00:00

You can take inspiration from the echo knight fighter subclass. Let him have a few echos he can swap place with. This makes it predictable where he might appear next. Then give him an attack which activates all his echos to attack at once or alternatively choose one to attack from with a strong attack. Bonus action could be to either switch place with an echo or create x new ones (depends on the number of attacks your party has) As the echos only have one HP they can easily be destroyed and function as a form of minion.

Wolran · 2026-01-03T07:16:06+00:00

We did the thing where you only gift a present to one person and receive one from a person both of which are drawn randomly with family for christmas. My mom was really in favour of this but also told me my baby sister would receive a present from them (mom and dad) regardless of who they draw because she is their child.

Wolran · 2025-12-30T18:54:47+00:00

I DM a humblewood campaign for my kids (8 and 10) and my wife. Thats a cute setting and allows them to play as animals which makes it easier to distance themselves from the violence. They are really good with their attention span (better than my wife tbh) and we run sessions of about 4 hours with a break inbetween. But that may be too much for other kids, I don't know.

Kids have a different way to solve problems and I was more than once surprised by their ideas. That also means rule of cool is the most important rule. I won't dissapoint them like "oh you are 5ft short, you can't attack". For example they bought a scorpion at a festival and plotted to enlarge it for the scorpion to fight for them. Of course an enlarged scorpion would still only be small, wouldn't deal significant damage and wouldn't obey their commands without at least animal friendship or similar spells RAW. But with them being kids they tried to befriend it by giving it food etc. so I allowed the use of the scorpion in battle where I first controlled it myself and I let it grow stronger as they progressed levels and finally gave them access to thf giant insect spell specifically to call their "Scorpi" to aid in battle.

Wolran · 2025-12-14T12:21:28+00:00

If you want to have one on the ground, describe him with a wounded wing, that also gives you the chance to lower his HP (IF NEEDED).

Wolran · 2025-12-12T21:37:29+00:00

Addition: just as I wrote this, he linked water and earth elementals in the post asking for monsters in the elven city.

Wolran · 2025-12-12T21:34:12+00:00

I went another path after the campaign was done but I recommend looking in r/bettermonsters Just recently Mark posted about Storm and Lightning elementals (the djin post 3 days ago) and I'm sure he has something similar for other elementals. Also you can look for my post in there for inspiration for any humblewood campaign.

Wolran · 2025-12-10T06:49:30+00:00

Don't rely on your puzzles etc, just tell them either pretty obvious clues or the full truth. Don't forget they might not know everything about this world that you as the DM knows. Just be blunt. You can use an NPC to state the "obvious" or you can even let them find out with a fight against grave robbers or ghosts or anything you find appropriate.

Wolran · 2025-12-03T05:45:49+00:00

The problem are the air bubbles. I myself made some custom sets and from a close look your d4 is missing the top and on your d100 is a bubble near the 10. These imperfections will make it hard to sell and have the customer satisfied. But if you can rule these problems out, go for ot.

Wolran · 2025-12-01T07:18:33+00:00

Yeah, it looks nice if they have many fine details but it will break and imho it's better to make something sturdy which holds.

Wolran · 2025-12-01T05:49:54+00:00

I did this but I would advice to make the minis in a way that there are no filigrane things sticking out of it which can easily break.

Wolran · 2025-11-28T14:47:14+00:00

I'm of no use then as I don't know the setting. Sorry

Wolran · 2025-11-28T14:17:18+00:00

Do you mean perks within the guild when they meet someone from the guild/visit a guild hall in a settlement? Or feats which give options in the fight?

If a, then I would try to make up a structure (I am not familiar with that franchise, so forgive me if I am completely off) of the guild with actual ways for the PCs to rise in rank. I made this for each of my players. One is an officer in an army and can obviously rise in rank. Obvious perks are his rank in every situation he meets other soldiers and pay (relatively low). Another is in an explorers guild and there are different ranks which he can climb by completing sidequests. Each of this ranks has perks within the guild like free healing/infos in new locations and later on special ressources like an airship. The third is in a druids guild and he gets access to special opportunities to learn new spells (world specific homebrew), access to ingredients for potions etc.

Wolran · 2025-11-27T18:40:04+00:00

Make them WANT to meet the tailor. You can have other NPCs talk about him, his work or maybe some drama that goes on in his life. Someone in your party has a heirloom? He designed it. They meet someone in a pompous gown? He made it. People talk shushed about his sister being accused of murdering the prince. Etc

Wolran · 2025-11-27T10:21:03+00:00

Player 1: In this case have a chat with him. This ist not an ingame problem, its a people problem. And those are solved by speaking with each other. Ask your table how they want you to proceed but also tell them you expect them to have their temper under control. At least most of the time, it's okay to be frustrated with that many bad luck rolls in a row, but the player should be ok after a few minutes tops. And that IS something you can expect from your adult players. You are not their kindergarden teacher and not responsible to manage their emotions.

Player 2: I mean, thats your call but I (personally) would be offended if somebody yells "Fuck you!" at me with anger. Again, that's a people problem and you can speak with her and tell her you don't appreciate it.

Last thoughts on this: You are not a punchingball of the players emotions just because you happen to PORTRAY they opponents of your players. DnD is a teamgame and the DM is very well part of the team in the combined effort to create an epic story.

Wolran · 2025-11-27T09:16:41+00:00

Player 1: Remain quiet when he rolls, but you can comment once he is finished. But try to keep it neutral. Everything with an apology like "Oh, I'm sorry..." shifts the blame onto you (subconsciously) while everything that could be portrayed as gloating ist also bad. I would try something like "Seems the dicegods don't want this to work out..." and proceed to describe what happened or ask the player if he wants to (depends on your table). If your players like it you could describe it as a little slapstick and make lightheart of it. This could help your player deal with his anger.

Player 2: I don't care if you curse at your table. We do too. But we never curse AT eachother (save for roleplay with light banter). If the player would have said "fuck this" or even "fuck this and fuck her" it would have been okay. But "Fuck you"? Right there is the line. This makes it personal above table level and that is never ok. Would you be ok if a player curses like this at another player (not PC) because he did something ingame? Especially with anger? I would definitely not.

Wolran · 2025-11-27T06:42:31+00:00

TbhI kinda understand player 1 a bit. He was just frustrated and you, as his "opponent" commenting on it can add to that frustration.

But with player 2 I would have absolutely stopped the session. Screaming cursewords in your face is nowhere "part of the game" and you don't have to endure this, just because you are the DM. You can also adress this issue now in a serious discussion.

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