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107 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown
107 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown
+++
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date = '2026-05-26T16:00:00-06:00'
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draft = false
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title = "How a dragon runs his monsters"
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tags = ['ttrpg', 'tutorial', 'dnd']
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+++
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## How to make a punching bag
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{{< typeit
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tag=h3
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speed=50
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breakLines=false
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>}}
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"Can I roll to attack the barrel?" — Random player
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{{< /typeit >}}
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How does a dragon run **DnD?** Have you ever wondered how to build and come up with creatures on the fly?
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I'll outline some of my tips and tricks below on how I run completely random encounters based on the situation and players.
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## Coming up with a monster
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There are lots of beasties available via the **Monster Manual** and a pleathora of other sources including homebrew and third party monsters. **So why bother?**
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**I'm an insane person.**
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Anyways, I always like the personal touch of bringing creatures players have not seen before. Meta-gamer's cant take advantage of their *out-of-character* knowledge about monster stats, and players get a unique experience. That still leaves the question, **how do you make a monster?**
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### Read the situation
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One of the main keys is to **read the situation**, literally. If players are in a tavern, what kind of things could they end up fighting in a tavern? How about in a forest? It doesn't have to be something crazy, nor does it not have to be something crazy. Some monsters I make up I really let go wild.
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For example, one such monster was a fungus monster that had one attack, eat. The players were in a forest with a bunch of mushrooms, Ureka!, let's have them fight a fungus.
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I also like to take inspiration from media and even existing monsters, watching too much **Gravity Falls**? Add some chaotic demon for the players to fight. Need an interesting city showdown? Why not pull in a sharp shootin outsider wearing all black.
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Of course, keep in mind whether you care about **consistency in your world**. Some things make less sense than others. But let your creativity soar.
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## Running a homebrew monster
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One of the tricks to homebrew monsters is how I run combat. I find combat, in **DnD** specifically, quite tedious; so doin the least amount of math and rolling works out best for me.
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### Gauging difficulty
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There are a few ways to quickly gauge a monster's difficulty.
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- **The Monster's AC,** *how hard they are to hurt*
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- **The Monster's Attacks,** *how hard they hit back*
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- **The Monster's HP,** *how long they can fight*
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- **The Amount of Monsters,** *how overwhelmed players will feel*
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The first thing I usually decide is how hard do I want this fight.
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This unfortunately usually takes a little feel for the game. I start by figuring out how I want to direct combat. Some key things to keep in mind for directing combat would be, **Is this a Boss fight? Are the players going to be fighting a large group of enemies or just one?** How you construct your encounter will greatly impact how you have to manage monster difficulty.
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For instance, if you want to run a **Boss Battle**, you need to consider some key things: if there are lots of players, you will want to give your monster some **[Legendary Actions](https://arcaneeye.com/mechanic-overview/legendary-actions-5e/)** or give them some **Minions**. You will also need to consider how tough the boss is or how powerful are its attacks?
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If instead you want a scuffle in the woods with bandits, consider the amount of bandits and how hard they should be to kill, **which leads me to my next trick...**
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### Deciding the AC and the HP
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**Armor Class** is essential to certain combats, it makes a difficult monster truly difficult. But I also try to make sure it makes sense, if a **Monster is a big fleshy beast** the size of a barn, it probably **will not have that great of an AC**.
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Conversely, **Health Points** are the yin to the yang of **AC**. They truely make the fight either shorter or longer. Every monster stat block will have the **Dice roll** for **HP** such as `2d8+20 (29)` which is helpful in drafting up random health. I personally don't like that approach and instead I usually measure a fight in a **"How many times can this enemy be hit?"** approach.
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If it is a weak enemy like an enemy raider, perhaps he will have an **AC of `14`** with his default armor, and perhaps **he can take about 2 hits**.
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I usually only track HP for enemies as a show for players, sometimes I actually roll out the **HP**, but it honestly takes gauging the feel. Sometimes it is necessary, like for a boss, other times it is unnecessary, for instance a swarm of bats.
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### How much damage should my monster do?
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Do NOT go nuts with damage. If your average **player has `30` HP**, your monster's attacks generally should not do **more than `60-80%`** of the average player's health. We generally want to have a fun and engaging fight, not to **[TPK](https://blackcitadelrpg.com/dnd-acronym-list/)** the party.
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For instance, I like to scale my damage off of existing weapons, or using a [dice calculator](https://dice.clockworkmod.com).
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| Device | Damage Dice | Average Damage |
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|------------|--------------|----------------|
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| Flail | `1d8 + mod` | `4.5 + mod` |
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| Glaive | `1d10 + mod` | `5.5 + mod` |
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| Greataxe | `1d12 + mod` | `6.5 + mod` |
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| Greatsword | `2d6 + mod` | `7 + mod` |
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I also use existing monster features a lot, if your monster only does an average of `8` damage a hit, but you need twice that, have your monster get **Multiattack** for instance on the [brown bear statblock](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16816-brown-bear).
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Back to my previous example with the **Giant Fungus** the attack and method for which players can escape was heavily inspired by the **[purple worm](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16987-purple-worm)**, I however nerfed a few requirements, dropping the `30` to `16`, and the damage to `3d6`.
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### The tiresome fight
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The final thing I try to avoid, is a **tiresome fight**.
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What I mean by that is **when combat gets too drawn out, it needs to end**. A thrilling combat should not devolve into **play fighting with foam swords**.
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If your enemy is **not doing enough damage**, perhaps he had some **friends lurking nearby**. If the enemy is too hard to fight, perhaps **every hit now counts for two hits or double damage**.
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## Why do we do what we do
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**We do it for the players.**
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While it is fun to dream up horrific monsters that players have to fight and have no chance winning against, we want everyone to have fun. **Your monsters should be a challenge**, but they should not be a death sentence.
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We want to tell a story and we want to give the players something memorable that keeps bringing them back.
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Of course, this is not the only way to create your own monsters, heck, you don't even need to run combat the way I do, my hope is that perhaps my words will inspire your future games.
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Happy rolling!
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