I know I’m a bit behind in my writing, but I’m going to play catch up this week. I’m also going to be getting new articles from yourdorkmaterials for the end of this week. He’d been under the weather and unable to post. There won’t be a post for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. When last we left our intrepid band of heroes, such as they are, they had just helped the town of Dugan’s Hole. Looking at their options, the party decided to head out towards Brynn Shander to resupply and to see what other information they could find out about the area. After a few hours ride, the party arrived without incident.  After resupplying and heading to the temple to get the curses removed that they picked up while plundering the tomb, the party was asked by the gnomish cleric at the shrine to go and take supplies to a friend of his up at a cabin northwest of Lonelywood. The party agreed to do it after they took care of the moose that was terrorizing Lonelywood.

So I wanted to tell you all a quick story. I wanted to surprise my wife this Christmas with something I thought she’d appreciate and wouldn’t think that I’d be able to get for her. You see, she’s been on a HeroForge kick of late. She’s been designing characters left and right. She’s even had the kids design their own characters for our home campaign. Of note, however, was one she designated “Sky,” her air genasai bard. She absolutely fawned over this design, wanting to play her in our next campaign. Here is the link to it. I took careful note of this fact and filed it away for later use. Then it happened: the perfect storm. She was busy, away from her laptop, and unlikely to show up while I did my thing. Oh, I was slick, Dear Readers! I got on to her laptop, logged into her HeroForge account, bought the STL file, emailed it to myself, and deleted all evidence of it, down to deleting the emails in her trash. I contacted a dear friend of mine who had been printing Battletech minis for himself and me to use when we play said game. I asked and he delivered…the Sunday before Christmas, three copies: one flawless copy exactly like the original picture, one flawed copy of the same (it had a strange flat section under the arm so I would have to create an elbow with green stuff), and a mirrored copy of the same. In a previous conversation, I had told her that if she ordered it, which I told her she should but she declined, that I wouldn’t be willing to paint it for her. she told me that under no certain circumstances did she want me to paint it for her. That bothered me. But I let it go.  Remember how I ordered three copies? Well, I did this for a reason. I fixed and painted one of the flawed copies, the one that was exactly like the original flawless one but with the missing elbow. I fixed the elbow. I primed the mini. And I began my painstaking labor of love to paint it. Here are my steps of progress although I did not take a lot of pictures along the way.

I thought long and hard about continuing posting this week. Due my own family activities, and likely the activities of you, my Dear Readers, I have decided to take this week off, so that all of us may enjoy our holiday. I, for example, have soooooo much wrapping to do.  In the mean time, here are some awesome holiday-inspired D&D Monsters!

So I finally did it! I finished Manshoon!

Hello, Dear Readers!  I only have a short post as my recent MS relapse has had me in near constant doctors appointments! That said, I have something to show you:

Hello everyone! We’ve spent a good bit of time talking about it, so today I’d like to post up an actual encounter I designed and ran following these principles. Our group consists of a Goblin Totem Barbarian, a Halfling Moon Druid, A Human Fighter Archer, a Human TWF Hunter Ranger, and a Tabaxi Archer Gloomstalker Ranger. Tons of HP up front with some pretty squishy folks in the back with absolutely no real magical support. By the way, I’m running Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden for them, but this encounter is entirely my own design, so you don’t have to worry about spoilers. So, let’s talk about tips on designing encounters in this week’s How To DM! First, I wanted to add a little horror and inspire some fearsome creepiness. I picked Dougan’s Hole because it already had a solid “Lovecraftian” feel to it. If I got one good WTF! Moment out of this thing, I’d be satisfied. With a party composition like that, my players were steamrolling through most of my encounters. They don’t negotiate; they certainly don’t run. With no magic of their own, I just felt like loading up the enemy with spells was deliberately designing against them. So, I rewrote Dougan’s Hole and brought in some monsters that I knew they wouldn’t recognize no matter how long they’d been playing – the Wendigo. I pulled the monster’s stat block from Sandy Petersen’s Cthulhu Mythos which is a fantastic book that I highly recommend. This book is set up for 5e with great rules for putting some horror into your D&D campaign. The premise was – the poor town of Dougan’s Hole has resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. They have all succumbed to the influence of the Wendigo spirits. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t design encounters with a “I’ll get you my pretties for walking through my monsters!” mentality. I don’t need them to die; I just need them to believe they’re going to die. The PC’s were in Dougan’s Hole to intercept a bounty target. The innkeeper was super-friendly. Gave them great prices on rooms and bowls “of the brown” (and yes…it was Chef Boyardee with extra chef included). After a good old time, the PC’s set out to look for good ambush spots. All they had to do was figure out a way to survive the incoming blizzard until daybreak. The encounter didn’t start until they stepped outside Dougan’s Hole’s tiny little tavern. The tavern door will be bolted behind them. Just at the edge of the lamp light, the entire population of Dougan’s Hole – men, women, and children – will be standing silently in the frigid cold, armed with whatever they have…just watching. I didn’t even bother to assign these people hit points. Their purpose was to rush in in a maddened frenzy and distract the PC’s (there were some jokes about how easy this was going to be). Just so I could bring the Wendigo in after 2-3 of combat. I didn’t even bother to decide how many Wendigo there were. I brought them in slowly in small groups, had them attack and them fly off into the darkness. However, Wendigo fly. I introduced them by having one just barely fail a check to grapple a PC and carry them off. That was a nice WTF moment, and my one warning that the PC’s were not going to be able to stand there and fight it out. They’re fighting in the dark, snow swirling with only the two whale oil lamps outside the tavern to provide weak light. So, now they’re going to have enemies on the ground that they recognize, and enemies above that they don’t know. The villagers will attack and then suddenly rush off to the north. The Wendigo swoop in trying to carry PC’s off. One will land and attack in melee, but Wendigo only attack targets that are farthest away from the lamps as a hint that Wendigo are vulnerable to fire. I want to guide the encounter so the PC’s end up running through the blizzard-choked streets. If they stop, they’re attacked. If they try to duck into a building the villagers start chopping at the doors, or a Wendigo crashes through the ceiling. I want to drive them into the Speaker’s House which is the largest and best-constructed structure in the village. Of course, there is a suitably horrible tableaux inside, and – after some super-creepy dialogue – the Speaker will commit suicide in front of them by smashing lamps on the oil-soaked floor. This releases the final Big Bad Wendigo, but the fires will negate its regeneration ability, so they’ll have a fighting chance. At this point, I want them desperate and confused. I switch targets as needed to not focus-fire a particular PC. I will leave this Wendigo locked in melee so they can kill it. In the morning, the village is half-burned down, the entire population lies dead in the snow, there’s no loot, and they’ll all be barely alive. Now. Here’s a beautiful thing that happened when we actually got to the table. A fellow DM’s table had most of his players no-show, so I invited them to mine. So instead of having 5 players…I had 9. But…because I had a purpose in mind…it was very easy to elevate this encounter to accommodate such a large group on the fly. I got my share of WTF moments. My PC’s told me after how confused they were; some were already thinking of what character they would roll up next. All told…a success! What tips, tricks and advice do you folks have? Put them in the comments below, so we can all share in the info. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next week for another installment on How To DM !

So, with me going back into full quarantine to avoid getting the current Biblical-type plague that is flying across the globe, I’ve moved my games to a virtual tabletop, specifically, Roll20. That is both a blessing and a curse.  The Good It works like a charm, now that I’ve figured it out. I found out how to do dynamic lighting and how to give people darkvision, etc…so yeah, we are good to go. I’ve already run a number of sessions from Roll20 and, with the exception of the video and voice (which we use Discord for), we’ve had zero problems. I have the maps imported, the encounters built, etc…and it’s almost like being at the table with them.

Hey, Dear Readers, Due to the fact that I just got out of the hospital and am really fighting this relapse ending, I won’t likely be posting much until Monday and Wednesday. I am so sorry. I feel like I’m letting you all down. This is NOT the end of The Daily DM, though! I’ll be back in full-swing in about a week or so. I have a lot of stuff planned: -A holiday session with the adventure “How the Lich Stole Christmas” -More from my sessions on Sundays and Tuesdays -yourdorkmaterials is still doing “How-To DM” and “DM Stories”  Stay Tuned!

Hello Everyone and welcome! Last week we discussed some numbers and mechanics. Today, I’d like to talk about some ideas I use to balance out an encounter but still leave it challenging for everyone. For me, designing an encounter and then running that encounter are two entirely different things. So let’s talk for a minute about design balance using our 5 man party and those 52 kobolds. How Terrain Helps . This is probably not the first time some hostiles have wandered into the kobold’s home, so they probably have taken at least some measures to build defenses. They’re small and individually weak, so ranged weapons and spears make sense to me. They’re also expert tunnellers so modifying a cave is no great task. If I can put archers on a ledge of some kind with some cover so melee combatants can’t reach them easily, then that’s worth about an extra 10 kobolds or so. So, I reduce their numbers to 42. If they’ve also cleared out the entrance so the enemy has no cover, then I would drop their total by another 5. The melee characters can’t get to them, and the party’s ranged characters can only kill 2 kobolds a turn. 15 archer kobolds on a ledge is still plenty of firepower, and we’re down to 37 kobolds to assign. Surely, they would have erected some barriers or perhaps dug pits to hinder/direct enemy charges. If the melee’s can only reach them single file while the kobolds attack them from cover with spears, then that’s worth another 10 kobolds to me. So, now we’re down to 27 total, and I would put 10 spearmen up front. My party is very weak on the magic side. A kobold sorcerer with the right spells could easily be worth another 10 kobolds. We’ll talk about spells more in a moment, but a single sorcerer now brings us down to 7 “unassigned” kobolds, and I might just eliminate them all-together or just use them as reinforcements. Spells, Spells, Spells . Boy, these can make an encounter go south quickly for the party and for your monsters. I find that most of the spell selections given in a creature’s stat block to be circumstantial or useless really. I just cut them out; it’s less for me to keep up with. How to pick them fairly though? I usually avoid “save or suck” spells that just take a player out of the game. No one likes it when their bad-ass barbarian is just sitting there paralyzed and none of the other players can do anything about it. In my opinion, I would just be punishing the party because no one wanted to play a cleric. I will normally choose one useful combat spell per level and let it go at that, but spells should be useful to the monsters’ community and not tailor-made to specifically counter your party. Give Your Monster’s A Goal . Especially, your more intelligent ones. Most creatures, even animals, are not going to fight to the death unless they have no other option. These kobolds probably want to left alone. They are fighting to protect their turf and community, but they’re probably not going to be psychopathic about it. If they can drive off a threat without a bunch of them getting hurt, then wouldn’t that be the best option for them? This also can open up great role-playing opportunities as the players try to parley for information or safe passage. If the PCs are looking for an ogre’s lair and the kobolds know where it is, why wouldn’t they give that ogre up? Murderous adventurers and hungry ogre gone.  Be Realistic in Your Targeting . This is the last point I’d like to make. I like to play my monsters as smart and prepared as they would realistically be. If a kobold can safely shoot a PC, then that’s probably who they would choose, especially if there’s no strong commander. They’re not suicidal after all. Be careful about Int 7 creatures always making the most optimal choice in who they attack. This gives me a framework to use in response to the PC’s tactical choices. What tips, tricks and advice do you folks have? Put them in the comments below, so we can all share in the info. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next week for another installment on How To DM !

Dear Readers, due to my having just been discharged from the hospital yesterday, I missed getting my post out, and we didn’t end up playing. Therefore, today I’ll be giving a brief overview of what happened Sunday to make up for missing that post. Thanks for your love and understanding. ~The Daily DM We last left our heroes in Good Meade, where they were investigating rumors of giants and the flow of mead being interrupted. Getting into town and heading over to the mead hall, they almost immediately ran into a man rushing into town disturbed over finding 5 members of the town watch bashed to a pulp. Heading to the mead hall, the party found the townsfolk having issues with choosing a new town speaker due to the last one getting killed by some sort of giant who stole their last kegs of mead, leaving them dry.

When last we left our band of heroes, they had just completed their trip to Brynn Shander to remove curses, restock their gear and head out to see about the troubles of Dougan’s Hole (they also had picked up a job delivering supplies to a reclusive gnome north of Lonelywood and heading to a pirate ship that the tabaxi rogue [whose name I can’t actually put down due to him using the name of a famous cat-person in Skyrim and that’s copyrighted] used to be crew of).  The party set off across the tundra, eschewing the roads in favor of the short cut, due to the ranger’s favored terrain being tundra. Along the way, they had a short encounter with some wolves that ended peaceably with the party feeding the poor creatures. The party arrived in Dugan’s Hole.