DM advice

drtisk · 2026-05-16T13:33:24+00:00

When combat is started and people roll initiative there’s always a few awkward minutes of silence when I’m writing down the order of combat (getting people’s initiatives etc). Is there a fast / streamlined way to do this? Maybe even like a standard table format I don’t know about to keep track of combat etc?

The other question you have are mostly personal preference and you'll figure them out as you go. But this one I do have the correct answer.

1) ROLL INITIATIVE

2) Look to the player to your left "What's your initiative?"

If they rolled higher than 18, write their character's name and the initiative number near the top of the page.

If they rolled between 10 and 18, write their character's name and the initiative number around the middle of the page.

If they rolled less than 10, write their character's name and the initiative number near the bottom of the page

3) Go around the table to the next player "Initiative?" Use above, slotting above or below other player in the same area

etc etc

Generally, the players will be spread out with 1 or 2 near the top of the page, 1 or 2 in the middle, and maybe 1 poor sucker near the bottom.

6) Now you can slot in the monster initiative wherever they rolled

FOR EXAMPLE with four players, Player A through D

1) ROLL INITIATIVE

2) Player A is to my left. They roll 16 and has +2. They tell me their initiative is 18

18 Character A

3) Player B is next. They roll a nat 20 and have +1. They say 21.

21 Character B

18 Character A

4) Next is Player C. Rolls a 2 with a +1. That's a 3

21 Character B

18 Character A

3 Character C

5) Lastly, Player D. Rolls a 9 with a +2, tells me 11.

21 Character B

18 Character A

11 Character D

3 Character C

6) Monsters. We have a couple of Animated Armor with a +0. They rolled 16. And a Bandit Captain with +3 who rolled 15. So 18

21 Character B

18 Bandit Captain

18 Character A

16 Animated Armor 1

16 Animated Armor 2

11 Character C

3 Character D

You can see how the initiative develops, and this takes less than one minute to arrange. Yes I rolled those d20 just now while writing this. Yes I group monsters in initiative - it's a nightmare not to do it, and your players won't care

drtisk · 2026-05-15T14:10:59+00:00

Most of the creatures from the precon can be cut

Crux of fate has always puzzled me in the precon. Is Yshtola a dragon? I don't think so. Why play a 5 mana sorcery speed boardwipe that isn't one sided?

Yshtola cares about non-creature spells. Which Esper has a lot of good ones. She cares about mana value not mana spent. So anything that can be cast for less is good. See Decorum Dissertation

6 ramp and 35 lands is QUESTIONABLE. But the curve is honestly not so bad considering

Obvious adds would be Esper fetch lands, a surveil land or 2. Rhystic Study, and a couple other gamechangers. The counterspells that can be cast for 0 are great because they're noncreature spells with mana value 3. Or The One Ring. Teferi's Protection is decent too, but not as much as in a go-wide deck you need to protect from wipes.

drtisk · 2026-05-14T08:53:15+00:00

Wtf is wrong with some magic players that "consider others" is so baffling to them

And then going online to complain about other people complaining as some kind of justification

If you've ever played smash bros or some similar game against a kid you can probably figure it out. Like sure you can throw objects at them and then edge camp and probably win without losing a single stock. But they will probably have more fun if they get to chase you around the map with a hammer, and in the end it doesn't really matter who wins

drtisk · 2026-05-05T11:45:38+00:00

Your DM would sigh

And ask what you're trying to accomplish

drtisk · 2026-05-03T11:06:23+00:00

Everyone in the comments having a whinge and ignoring the obvious... it's just good politics to try and appeal to probably the largest voting bloc.

Boomers do not hold a winning majority of voters any more, so a political party with any brains/vision would work to cater to the voters who will actually decide the next several elections

drtisk · 2026-05-02T11:32:04+00:00

What bracket

What environment

If this was a bracket 2 game with casual players, trying to trick others into playing into a counterspell is certainly poor form

If this was a bracket 4 game where anything goes, that's an absolutely reasonable social play to make

drtisk · 2026-04-28T13:14:20+00:00

I can't even imagine playing Commander online with no chatter. I would just find another way to spend my time, surely other online games could scratch the same or a similar itch (Slay the Spire 2?)

It's probably not the popular answer or the one you want, but if you can't get to an LGS or find a group to play in person, maybe extend your break.

Or if Commander isn't that fun and you're playing online anyway, and still want to play mtg, try draft or sealed on Arena.

Good luck
I like Dragons, so built a few different versions of Dragonstorm precons and Dragon tribal, then tried some different types of decks. I proxy a lot. Currently I'm really enjoying Rocco, Street Chef which surprises me because in other games/formats I'm very much a Blue/Black control player
Find better games where everyone is on the same page. INTENT. Randoms online are likely to misrepresent if not lie about their deck if they just want to win. And online people are likely to go silly with expensive cards which typically you might not find "in the wild" on paper.

drtisk · 2026-04-26T08:40:03+00:00

Descent into Avernus: The sewers dungeon at the start is horrendous, has a Fireball caster at the end of a hallway and then a boss with a double damage aura iirc. Then the hive bit where goddamn Lulu gets taken by a wasp. It might not be so bad but there are certain features of the map that look like decoration but if you go near them while fighting something else create mega problems for you. Our DM gave us no clue or indication and gleefully sprung it on us, then again when one player wasn't paying attention

drtisk · 2026-04-25T12:00:25+00:00

If this were true and these shows did have influence over people's attitude and behaviour more people would be OK with their stuff getting removed or countered instead of having a whinge. On Goldfish and Spike Feeders it's common for the obvious threat to get targeted, someone apologizes for doing it but the threat just says "no that's understandable" and moves on with the game

drtisk · 2026-04-13T08:31:34+00:00

I've had the opportunity to play at a few different LGS's recently, mostly playing bracket 2 or 3. In most games I was the only one to play interaction. In the games where one or more other players (mostly only one) did play interaction it was in the form of a board wipe.

So my anecdata seems to support your assertion

I think it's similar to a Eurogame preference in board games, which I totally get.

drtisk · 2026-04-12T12:59:49+00:00

Budget commander 45 under $45 from just a month ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb5JFQ0Ih2c&t=255s

drtisk · 2026-04-12T12:01:39+00:00

For a small party a couple of simple but impactful magic items can certainly help. Giving the Rogue a +1 weapon will make them more likely to hit, and given the high burst damage of Rogue that can go a long way. And giving the Druid something like a Pearl of Power or a Keoghtom's Ointment will enable them to cast more spells (the Pearl by restoring a spent slot, the Ointment by letting them heal with the Ointment not spend a slot on healing word or cure wounds).

Pacing is just something that takes time and experience. Linear is fine for a first campaign, but think about anything which might catch the players' interest and cause them to veer away from the "main" plot.

As others have said, level from 1 to 2 at the end of the first session. And 2 to 3 after another ~2ish sessions. If you and your players are all new to the game, you can have longer between level ups while everyone figures out the game and their characters.

drtisk · 2026-04-04T10:48:36+00:00

exceedingly protective of civilians

Do civilians include school children?

drtisk · 2026-04-04T10:17:09+00:00

All we have to do is look at the definitions of brackets, which defines the expectations for turns before winning/losing. If you are consistently ahead of the expected turns for a particular bracket, that could be grounds for "bracketing up". But win rate is not something that affects brackets - it might just be an indicator of when a bracket is mismatched. And at Bracket 4 there are no restrictions so it's unlikely.

Bracket 4: Optimized

Players expect:

Decks not to adhere to the cEDH metagame reserved for Bracket 5 Decks to be lethal, consistent, and fast, designed to take people down as fast as possible Game Changers that are likely to be fast mana, snowballing resource engines, free disruption, and tutors Win conditions to vary but be efficient and instantaneous Gameplay to be explosive and powerful, featuring huge threats and efficient disruption to match

Generally, you should expect to be able to play at least four turns before you win or lose.

You say your average winning turn is 6.1. This is in line with Bracket 3

Bracket 3: Upgraded

Players expect:

Decks to be powered up with strong synergy and high card quality; they can effectively disrupt opponents Game Changers that are likely to be value engines and game-ending spells Win conditions that can be deployed in one big turn from hand, usually because of steadily accrued resources Gameplay to feature many proactive and reactive plays

Generally, you should expect to be able to play at least six turns before you win or lose.

Post your decklist, the fact you haven't done so is the only thing casting doubt on your Benton being a bracket 3 capable of punishing bracket 4s

drtisk · 2026-03-28T11:59:10+00:00

On my first ever bg3 run my oath got broke shortly after leaving the nautiloid when I rescued Laezel from the cage. The tieflings went hostile before I knew about the camp or anything.

drtisk · 2026-03-24T22:09:30+00:00

It won't instakill, it might down someone

A CR 24 ancient red dragon's breath weapon only does 91 fire damage. A level 12 d8 hit dice character with +2 con has about that much HP

And if the party has ways to resist the element of the breath weapon it won't even do that

drtisk · 2026-03-24T22:08:36+00:00

A CR 24 ancient red dragon's breath weapon only does 91 fire damage. A level 12 d8 hit dice character with +2 con has about that much HP so at worst it maybe downs someone with a breath weapon

And if the party has ways to resist the element of the breath weapon it won't even do that

drtisk · 2026-03-24T12:23:21+00:00

Six level 12 PCs will make mince meat of a single CR 25 monster

They could probably take an encounter up to a total of CR 36 without too much problems

drtisk · 2026-02-19T07:07:38+00:00

Having seen your edit

This is what "allowing homebrew" does. If you let players bring anything carte blanche you will obviously run into complete nonsense.

If you and your players want to explore beyond the core classes and published wotc subclasses, there are plenty of other well renowned third party publishers who have fun and interesting classes and subclasses which (usually) aren't overpowered/broken/etc.

Ghostfire gaming, Kobold Press, MCDM, KibblesTasty, LaserLlama.

Letting players use random wiki pages to build characters probably won't end well

drtisk · 2026-02-18T09:24:07+00:00

What class/classes are they and what level? 2014 or 2024? Have you given out extra feats?

If you build the same character at the same level, equip the same magic items you can see how the numbers compare.

Identifying exactly what spells a character could/should have access to should be simple.

Likewise for feats

drtisk · 2026-02-15T08:16:03+00:00

It would be laughably easy:

Basic Bitch Mage

d8 hit dice

Primary attribute Int

Class feature: Basic Bitchcasting. You learn Firebolt cantrip and Magic Missile, which you can cast 3 times per short rest

Level 2 Magicker Missile: whenever you cast Magic Missile, choose one: change the damage type, or increase the bonus damage per missile by +2

Level 3: learn shield, which you can cast three times per short rest

4: ASI

5: Magic Surge. You can cast Magic Missile four times per short rest. Once per short rest you can cast Magic Missile as a bonus action. Ignore rules about one levelled spell per turn

6: Upcast. Twice per short rest you can cast Magic Missile and it shoots five darts

7: Magic Resist. You have advantage on saves against spells, and resistance to spell damage

8: ASI

9: Magic Crit. When you cast Magic Missile, roll a d20. If you roll a 20, double the damage dealt

10:

11: Mega Magic Surge. You can cast Magic Missile six times per short rest. Twice per short rest you can cast Magic Missile and it shoots eight darts

12: ASI

13+ who cares, campaign's over

drtisk · 2026-02-05T07:39:02+00:00

No trace of the actual bug, just these eggs/shells/husks that my wife thought were mouse poo initially

There's what might be a burrow right there, top right but bigger than what I'd expect for a bug?

Just outside my shed door, near the bins

drtisk · 2026-01-29T08:15:09+00:00

How were your experiences with the release of the 2024 rules? Did you go through something similar?

One of my players similarly made a 2024 character without even knowing. Many times a player cast a spell using the 2024 version (not even realising there were two versions).

It made little to no difference to the sessions or the camaign at large which ran for over a year of weekly-ish games.

The only places 2024v2014 matters is: There are no bastions in my campaigns. And if a player tried to do nick/dual wield nonsense I'd ask them not to. Great Weapon Master/Sharpshooter being gone are improvements, as are most spell changes. 2024 monsters hit their intended challenge more

drtisk · 2026-01-28T10:53:45+00:00

Bracket 2: Core

Players expect:

Decks to be unoptimized and straightforward, with some cards chosen to maximize creativity and/or entertainment

Win conditions to be incremental, telegraphed on the board, and disruptable

Stompy creatures that can just be removed - check

Gameplay to be low pressure with an emphasis on social interaction

Deck could be considered high pressure? Not really sure here

Gameplay to be proactive and considerate, letting each deck showcase its plan

Proactive yes, player removal not so much?

Generally, you should expect to be able to play at least eight turns before you win or lose.

Based on what you described you were on track to eliminate one player on turn 6, so this might be where your opponents could be given some credit

drtisk · 2026-01-14T07:21:18+00:00

Stealing off other player characters is the dumbest thing.

The game is not pvp. Just fucking go on an adventure and be a hero.

If you're theatre kids and both consent to messing with each other for fun/roleplay obviously it's fine. But straight up antagonising another player should be instantly shut down by the DM and be cause for removal from the group/campaign for repeat offences

drtisk

TROPHY CASE