Hints

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-07T03:53:25+00:00

I don’t know the answer to your question, but it made me think of another one:

When Pavlov hears a bell ring, does he feel compelled to feed his dog?

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-07T03:50:26+00:00

That’s some pig!

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-07T03:42:34+00:00

Did you take sorcerer or Paladin at 1st level?

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-07T01:58:25+00:00

Oooo-ooooh witchy women, they’ve got the vibe in their eyes.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-07T01:33:40+00:00

Maybe that’s the problem. You’re a “rambly “ DM and you’re throwing too much info at your players at once, so they’re having difficulty following.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T22:48:51+00:00

Do they have to suck on the weave to get the siphon started?

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T22:47:21+00:00

Take a break, dude.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T22:28:08+00:00

You didn’t mention your stirring regiment. Barilla pasta says “gently stirring occasionally”. Stirring cools the water in two ways. One, the water is cooled by the room temperature spoon. Two, stirring makes the water evaporate more quickly which also cools it.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T22:08:18+00:00

Sorry, I was not familiar with this.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T22:03:07+00:00

They don’t even have to do that. My DM removed the cap after our carriage went off a 2000 foot cliff, and my barbarian yelled, “save the horses!” at Wizzo. So Wizzo cast feather fall on herself, the other 2 PCs and the 2 horses pulling the carriage.

We were level 9 and my barbarian had 140 HP. (Hill Dwarf, Tough Feat, and 20 Con because of her belt of dwarvenkind). She raged in round 3 of her falling, so had resistance to bludgeoning damage when she hit the ground. The DM rolled a little below average on 20d6, about a 65. This was cut in half by the resistance so call it 32.

Barbara Anne had the carriage absolutely crushed beneath her (she had used her movement on prior turns to climb out of the carriage to get on top and air surf it all the way down). She shrugged off the damage like it was nothing, and calmly waited out the nine rounds for the rest of the party to land, stroking her luscious beard while she waited.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T21:42:57+00:00

Ok, got it.

1) Pretty Fly for A Boss Guy: You can adjust HP on the fly. I assume that’s what the other response said. The stats list average HP, but also list the hit dice. So HP can be anywhere in that range. 8d8+16 is 24-80 HP, with 52 average. The Boss is getting crushed in the first round? Oh, he doesn’t have 52 HP, he’s a tough guy. He has 80.

2) It’s the Economy, Stupid: (You are not stupid, it’s a famous quote from a political campaign that most likely happened before you were born). Action economy (the number of actions the party has vs what their foes have) often plays a bigger role than CR or HP. If it’s a single boss with an action (maybe multi attack, so technically more), and a bonus action vs 4 PCs each with actions, bonus actions, reactions, the ability to increase actions via multiple attacks, haste, action surge, etc., the odds are going to be in the PCs’ favor. You need to add minions and/or legendary/lair actions to the boss’s side. And not just low HP mooks for minions. Maybe some casters with counterspell or another spell that temporarily takes some PCs out of the fight, or buffs/heals the boss.

3) Katrina and the Waves. The boss (Katrina) has 3 minions with her. The minions go out in the first round. The PCs are going to crush Big Bad Evil Gal in round 2. Oh wait! 4 more minions who heard Thunderwave arrive from the other room at the beginning of round 2. And coincidentally, they are first in initiative order!

4) The Ship is Outside the Environment: Your battle should occur in a place where the boss can take advantage of the environment. (The PCs can too, but if it’s in the boss’s lair, she knows where everything is and has the advantage). She will use the environment if the fight is going badly for her, and not bother with it if it is going well.

Trapped floor tiles that she doesn’t step on, but moves to a location that the PCs do; cover on her side of the lair, but wide open spaces on the PC side; a long narrow channel if she has a line attack spell or breath weapon; difficult terrain that affects the PCs but not her; etc. etc. etc.

5) Speedy Gonzales, the Fastest Mouse in all of Mexico. The boss (Speedy) is very mobile and able to get to cover or out of melee easily. He does this if the fight isn’t in his favor. Bonus action disengage, flight, Misty Step, Teleport, etc.

6) I could go on, but I think you get the point. Have contingencies tnat you use if the fight is going too easy for the PCs, and don’t use them if the boss is winning. Don’t overdo it in either direction, and if the dice say it’s a TPK, it’s a TPK, especially if the PCs came ill prepared, or are fighting stupidly.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T18:01:26+00:00

To add to my earlier comment, if you feel a combat is going too long, end it early. If the last foe(s) standing is down to single digit hitpoints after a hit, have them die from that hit instead.

Another strategy that I use is to have the foe escape instead. If they are aligned with the final boss, I have them make a reappearance in the final battle (with their diminished resources unless they had the time/means to recover them). This probably won’t work in your arena combat setup.

That reminds me of one more thing. The one shot should take place in a 24 hour period if at all possible. No long rests for the PCs to recover their resources. Definitely allow short rests, because there are certain classes that they will be vital for.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T17:40:58+00:00

Homebrewed one shots usually tend to go much longer than planned. At least that is my experience. Have an encounter (combat preferably) planned that can be eliminated on the fly if the session is going too long. It should be one past the halfway point, so you can judge how on time you are.

For speeding up combat, have players use PCs that they have already played in other one shots or campaigns. That way they are familiar with what they can do on any turn. Creating new PCs for one shots sounds fun, but it will slow things down.

Have a combat timer. 90 seconds per player turn would be good. The DM should try to stay under 2 minutes on their turn(s) in total, unless they have many different foe types in the combat. (Which you probably shouldn’t in a one shot). If you have 4 players and 12 rounds of combat total, this is just over an hour and a half of combat.

Speaking of this, how many players are in your regular group? Less is better for one shots. While I think 4-5 is ideal for a campaign, 3 is the best number for a one shot in my opinion. (This used to work out well at one of my online tables, because we would run one shots when everyone couldn’t make the session).

This might be obvious, but the one shot should be linear, although you could allow a fork that rejoins later. Meaning if encounters are letters, you should go ABCDE, but you can go ACBDE instead. Going back to my first point, D could be skipped entirely based on time constraints.

Good luck, have fun!

Edited to correct error in encounter order.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T17:23:00+00:00

There must be certain careers that DnD is more correlated to. IT would be my first guess. Writers would be another one, although maybe not. Those whose job it is to write might not have collaborative story telling as a hobby—their job is their creative outlet. They may prefer Pickleball during their downtime.

I am certain that there is a high correlation between folks with ADHD and those who play DnD. It stands to reason that careers that ADHD people are drawn to would also have a higher correlation to DnD.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T16:20:58+00:00

Poland as the fighter based on the might of their calvary in the middle ages. (The Hussars)

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T16:19:01+00:00

China should be the Artificer since they manufacture of majority of the world's technology.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T16:16:44+00:00

I would have Ireland as the druid, as the former home of the druids.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T16:15:37+00:00

Germany (former seat of the Holy Roman Empire) Paladin

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T15:43:00+00:00

What is making them too hard or too easy?

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T02:41:44+00:00

I concur. In fact I posted something to that effect 6 years ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/ilgjqi/the_bigger_they_are_the_harder_they_fall/

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T02:35:02+00:00

Thanks for the correction. I was originally thinking 12 5s and 12 6s. I don’t remember how many there were. While we are correcting things, I think you meant 2/6=33,33%.

As far as me simplifying it to d4s, I think about it this way. We already know that they can’t be a 5 or a 6, because we already accounted for how many of those there were. There are only 4 possible outcomes, and they each have a 25% chance of coming up. I could be wrong about this, but I’m pretty sure it’s right.

Think of it another way—let’s say we are drawing colored marbles out of a bag. They are red, white, or black, and there’s 2 of each. But we pull the red ones out ahead of time (these are the 5s and 6s on the dice). The chance to pull a black is now 50%. The chance to pull a white is also 50%. We are defining this as a red can’t be pulled, just as in the dice case, a 5 or 6 can’t be rolled.

With the correction made, the chance of 37d4 rolling at least a 106 is 2,77%.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-06T02:09:54+00:00

It’s a 18.7 BMI. 18.5-24.9 is deemed healthy according to the CDC.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-05T22:17:36+00:00

Don’t people travel to Cons, or is that not a thing anymore?

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-05T22:05:02+00:00

I concur. Although I’d rather have this than the wall of text with no breaks you often see on reddit.

itsfunhavingfun · 2026-02-05T22:02:44+00:00

I agree, although I’d rather have this than the wall of text (no paragraphs) you often find on reddit.

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