I have recently been reading and getting into 5e and I am loving every minute of it. As I am planning out some games to run, I have watched a few dungeon dudes tips and tricks.
Which has got me thinking about the way I should DM and somethings that I could do to change the playing environment.
To start, I have never killed any of my players. It was the first rule I set forth when I DM, which means that I would falsely say something did not hit, or reduce damage to 'save the feelings of the people playing characters.' I am thinking that I should take the kids gloves off, and let the damage and dice decide that fate, but let everyone know before hand that there is always a chance of death in the game.
Second, the group that I DM for would be very bad power gamers to the point that in 3.5 I threw a monster that was 15 CR rating higher than the characters and they killed it on the surprise round. I have homebrew that no character rolls for hit points, you always get max 'because you are a hero.' I am thinking about modifying this a bit. I think this lends itself to the power gaming nature of my players. Any suggestions if I should continue or change this for 5e. Secondly, when I throw a creature out when I would allow characters to get max hitpoints, I would not allow the creatures to have full hit points either. What ever the average were in the monster manual they would get. Should, the boss monsters at least have full hit points? Also, any tips of making the game more challenging or have a sense of danger while DMing. Lastly, I have been very liberal on giving out magic items (sometime powerful ones) even before they were level 6. They would have a vorpal sword, they would have rings with wall of fire, or even 3 bags of holding. I am learning that each tier may provide magic weapons or items. Like 1-6 may allow for one, magic item per player that isn't more powerful than a +1 or 1 bag of holding, etc. From some of the tips that were given you do not have to make an all powerful weapon to players if you can add flavor to the weapon. Any tips on this?
Lastly, for those players that outright want to try and break your world or do something against the normal would you kill their character, or just have them suffer any dire consequences. I had an under dark campaign, and they were visit a shop keeper which I placed a legendary character that I placed in there for interaction, and hopefully prevent people from messing with. I had the rogue purposely say, I want to steal his whole inventory. I advised that he most likely would see him do this. He didn't care and tried it anyway, and I had the 'shop keep' auto crit non lethal damage the person down. I feel like I was going easy on the person.
I am just seeking advise, and tips that could help me as a DM.
I almost never kill my player's characters, and if it happens, there are normally ways around it. My games are more deadly than most, I normally throw the game's first CR 7 monster at the party at level 3, but they can take it. Get into the habit of not fearing PC death is hard, it takes a while, but eventually you realize that no matter how attached the party is to that character, the game isn't fun if there aren't some serious consequence, and death is about as serious of a consequence that you can get.
Don't give them Maximum hit points. This is too powerful, and will likely make it harder for you as a DM to actually make the games fun, as a game with no consequences isn't fun. (Joy cannot exist without misery. This is why my player's like my games so much and are so excited when they kill a monster, because they know from experience that if it went the other way, it would have been super bad for them.) Another rookie DM mistake is to give the player's too many magic items at too early a level. My very first campaign was destroyed because of this (R.I.P.). What I've learned as a DM is that if you want to give 1 powerful magic item to the party at around level 5-7, you can do so, as long as it is limited. It has charges, or is one use, or it makes them do something evil if the use it too much. Make them not want to use it, and they'll have more fun using more powerful magic items. (There is also a table in Xanathar's Guide to Everything about how many magic items the party should get at certain levels, check it out, it should help with your situation a lot)
You were going easy on the character, but it depends on the NPC's personality. If one of my party members was to do this, I would cut off a limb, or take out an eye, to show them that there are consequences to being stupid. All you showed that character is that they couldn't get away against that NPC the first time, and will soon regain all its hit points. Make a lasting (not permanent, limbs and eyes can be restored through magic items and spells) consequence, and this will likely help with the problem. (Also, if you do cut off a body part, make them wait to regain it back. They need to learn how terrible it is to not have one to persuade them not to do this ever again.)
Thanks for your suggestion on the fixed HP rules instead of Max. Secondly, the Goliath would have done 80 damage to a level 4 character. Though I understand what you mean. Thank you for your input. :)
Thanks for your suggestion on the fixed HP rules instead of Max. Secondly, the Goliath would have done 80 damage to a level 4 character. Though I understand what you mean. Thank you for your input. :)
Vettatori
I don't know what stats your were using for that goliath, but even CR7 creatures would have a hard time doing that much damage in a single hit with a crit and max damage rolls... So I'm guessing that was a deadly encounter difficulty, which is why it was deadly difficult.
It would have been a CR 20 Goliath, in terms of 5e. This was 3.5 and I put him max levels past lvl 20, in 3.5. He uses uses a Huge creatures Waraxe, when the DM created the weapon in which I used it did 4d12 damage, and he has 40-50 strength. On top of that 3.5 rules for Rage. I have only three characters I put in my campaigns like this, which interact with characters, but are mostly npc's that give out random information, or provide some important news that needs to be looked at.
Oh you meant the 3.5 encounter that ended in surprise round. Yeah, you don't have to worry about min-maxing in 5e as much compared to older editions. I don't think it is possible for level 4 characters to do 300 points of damage in a single round (even a whole party combined).
Oh you meant the 3.5 encounter that ended in surprise round. Yeah, you don't have to worry about min-maxing in 5e as much compared to older editions. I don't think it is possible for level 4 characters to do 300 points of damage in a single round (even a whole party combined).
Challenge Accepted.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Hey all,
I have recently been reading and getting into 5e and I am loving every minute of it. As I am planning out some games to run, I have watched a few dungeon dudes tips and tricks.
Which has got me thinking about the way I should DM and somethings that I could do to change the playing environment.
To start, I have never killed any of my players. It was the first rule I set forth when I DM, which means that I would falsely say something did not hit, or reduce damage to 'save the feelings of the people playing characters.' I am thinking that I should take the kids gloves off, and let the damage and dice decide that fate, but let everyone know before hand that there is always a chance of death in the game.
Second, the group that I DM for would be very bad power gamers to the point that in 3.5 I threw a monster that was 15 CR rating higher than the characters and they killed it on the surprise round. I have homebrew that no character rolls for hit points, you always get max 'because you are a hero.' I am thinking about modifying this a bit. I think this lends itself to the power gaming nature of my players. Any suggestions if I should continue or change this for 5e. Secondly, when I throw a creature out when I would allow characters to get max hitpoints, I would not allow the creatures to have full hit points either. What ever the average were in the monster manual they would get. Should, the boss monsters at least have full hit points? Also, any tips of making the game more challenging or have a sense of danger while DMing. Lastly, I have been very liberal on giving out magic items (sometime powerful ones) even before they were level 6. They would have a vorpal sword, they would have rings with wall of fire, or even 3 bags of holding. I am learning that each tier may provide magic weapons or items. Like 1-6 may allow for one, magic item per player that isn't more powerful than a +1 or 1 bag of holding, etc. From some of the tips that were given you do not have to make an all powerful weapon to players if you can add flavor to the weapon. Any tips on this?
Lastly, for those players that outright want to try and break your world or do something against the normal would you kill their character, or just have them suffer any dire consequences. I had an under dark campaign, and they were visit a shop keeper which I placed a legendary character that I placed in there for interaction, and hopefully prevent people from messing with. I had the rogue purposely say, I want to steal his whole inventory. I advised that he most likely would see him do this. He didn't care and tried it anyway, and I had the 'shop keep' auto crit non lethal damage the person down. I feel like I was going easy on the person.
I am just seeking advise, and tips that could help me as a DM.
Thank you,
Vettatori
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Simply not attacking 0 HP characters is usually enough to not kill them.
Using the average HP for monsters is fine, but I recommend using fixed HP rules for characters instead of max.
DxJxC,
Thanks for your suggestion on the fixed HP rules instead of Max. Secondly, the Goliath would have done 80 damage to a level 4 character. Though I understand what you mean. Thank you for your input. :)
Vettatori
I don't know what stats your were using for that goliath, but even CR7 creatures would have a hard time doing that much damage in a single hit with a crit and max damage rolls... So I'm guessing that was a deadly encounter difficulty, which is why it was deadly difficult.
It would have been a CR 20 Goliath, in terms of 5e. This was 3.5 and I put him max levels past lvl 20, in 3.5. He uses uses a Huge creatures Waraxe, when the DM created the weapon in which I used it did 4d12 damage, and he has 40-50 strength. On top of that 3.5 rules for Rage. I have only three characters I put in my campaigns like this, which interact with characters, but are mostly npc's that give out random information, or provide some important news that needs to be looked at.
Thanks Levi! :)
Oh you meant the 3.5 encounter that ended in surprise round. Yeah, you don't have to worry about min-maxing in 5e as much compared to older editions. I don't think it is possible for level 4 characters to do 300 points of damage in a single round (even a whole party combined).
Challenge Accepted.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms