My DM is fatigued, so I thought I would take over with a oneshot for her!
The problem is that I have Dyscalculia, and know nothing about Dm'ing! I have a good imagination, but have a hard time understanding how to create enemies and bosses. I have a concept in mind, but not sure how to execute it.
There are 3 players, lvl 5. They find themselves in a seemingly abandoned village.
They will then discover that the villagers are all lying on the ground around the town, along with the animals, with yellow liquid coming from their eyes, mouth and nose. The are all puppeteered by a lich-like entity, and will attack the players, and get up after a period of time, if they have not been dealt with in some way or another. I am not sure how to create these enemies, and what stats I should use. It would be intresting if they had some sort of 'puking' ability if the players got grappled. Maybe it could blind them, or "charm" them for a round. Maybe some zombie stats would work, but I am not sure how to CR and lvl them accordingly...
Then there's the Boss, which I'm also struggling with. Seeing as I don't get how to CR it accordingly, I am scared of making it too strong, or too weak. I would like it to be challenging, but not impossible. I would like it to have a 'puppeteer' ability, that the players would have to roll against, like one would with charm person. Other than that, I do not know...
If anyone could help me with making some stats or enemy/boss cards, I would be ever so grateful!
Well first I recommend not typing in super large print. Also I have a form of Dyscalculia as well. My recommendation is to find out the appropriate CR lv a group of specifically 3 lv 5 pcs should be facing. Then do a search for monsters that are that CR or a group of weaker CRs that fit the appropriate lv.
By doig this you’ll give your dm a break but also not have to make/build custom encounters. I suggest using dndbeyonds monster search thing.
I didn't know "bad at math" was a diagnosible learning disorder until today, *the more you know*.
Anyway, the encounter balancing math is actually a little confusing. I recommend using kobold fight club to calculate encounter difficulty until the encounter builder tool is complete.
Yeah it has to do with how your eye to brain processing works. I use to think I was dumb as hell with math till a professor of mine showed me I flip numbers and equations without even noticing. Turns out I can write a number like 37 down and think I wrote 73 even if I’ve double checked a few times.
Ok, I am going to let you in on a little secret...
All you players just run along now. Go on!
:peers: Are they gone yet?
Good.
The simplest answer to your question is to not calculate anything at all. Just wing it. Say for instance you want a "super-zombie thing" for the PCs to fight. You only need to think about 3 things: How easy is it for the PCs to hit? How easy can it hit the PCs? and How much damage can the hits do to the PCs? For a level 3 party somewhere in the range of 13-15 AC with an attack of +6 or so to hit and deals 10 or so damage a hit would not be unreasonable. Nor would granting the monster multiattack so that it can deal damage 2x a round.
Don't record hit points. Don't deduct hit points as the players "deal damage", just allow it to drop when dramatically appropriate.
Just make all the numbers up! Someone had to in the beginning, so no harm or foul in continuing this tradition.
Hawk
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My DM is fatigued, so I thought I would take over with a oneshot for her!
The problem is that I have Dyscalculia, and know nothing about Dm'ing! I have a good imagination, but have a hard time understanding how to create enemies and bosses. I have a concept in mind, but not sure how to execute it.
There are 3 players, lvl 5. They find themselves in a seemingly abandoned village.
They will then discover that the villagers are all lying on the ground around the town, along with the animals, with yellow liquid coming from their eyes, mouth and nose. The are all puppeteered by a lich-like entity, and will attack the players, and get up after a period of time, if they have not been dealt with in some way or another. I am not sure how to create these enemies, and what stats I should use. It would be intresting if they had some sort of 'puking' ability if the players got grappled. Maybe it could blind them, or "charm" them for a round. Maybe some zombie stats would work, but I am not sure how to CR and lvl them accordingly...
Then there's the Boss, which I'm also struggling with. Seeing as I don't get how to CR it accordingly, I am scared of making it too strong, or too weak. I would like it to be challenging, but not impossible. I would like it to have a 'puppeteer' ability, that the players would have to roll against, like one would with charm person. Other than that, I do not know...
If anyone could help me with making some stats or enemy/boss cards, I would be ever so grateful!
Well first I recommend not typing in super large print. Also I have a form of Dyscalculia as well. My recommendation is to find out the appropriate CR lv a group of specifically 3 lv 5 pcs should be facing. Then do a search for monsters that are that CR or a group of weaker CRs that fit the appropriate lv.
By doig this you’ll give your dm a break but also not have to make/build custom encounters. I suggest using dndbeyonds monster search thing.
(*Why do people change fonts? It hurts my eyes)
I didn't know "bad at math" was a diagnosible learning disorder until today, *the more you know*.
Anyway, the encounter balancing math is actually a little confusing. I recommend using kobold fight club to calculate encounter difficulty until the encounter builder tool is complete.
Yeah it has to do with how your eye to brain processing works. I use to think I was dumb as hell with math till a professor of mine showed me I flip numbers and equations without even noticing. Turns out I can write a number like 37 down and think I wrote 73 even if I’ve double checked a few times.
Ok, I am going to let you in on a little secret...
All you players just run along now. Go on!
:peers: Are they gone yet?
Good.
The simplest answer to your question is to not calculate anything at all. Just wing it. Say for instance you want a "super-zombie thing" for the PCs to fight. You only need to think about 3 things: How easy is it for the PCs to hit? How easy can it hit the PCs? and How much damage can the hits do to the PCs? For a level 3 party somewhere in the range of 13-15 AC with an attack of +6 or so to hit and deals 10 or so damage a hit would not be unreasonable. Nor would granting the monster multiattack so that it can deal damage 2x a round.
Don't record hit points. Don't deduct hit points as the players "deal damage", just allow it to drop when dramatically appropriate.
Just make all the numbers up! Someone had to in the beginning, so no harm or foul in continuing this tradition.
Hawk