And with so many of us trying to keep our games going digitally these days, I figured I'd take a moment to make some suggestions for strategies I'd recommend we all leave by the wayside.
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| You have the power. Use it responsibly. |
#1: The 5-Foot-Step and Teleport
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| And they're gone again... what a surprise. |
Wrong.
Though this tactic is effective at achieving its goal, it's cheap. There's almost no way to prevent it from happening, so the party gets robbed of a genuine victory because you put an unstoppable ace up your villain's sleeve. In my experience you can pull this stunt precisely once before your players start getting frustrated, wondering what's the point if you're just going to teleport out every time they get close to winning.
What You Should Do Instead
Instead of simply plucking your villain off the board with a magical deus ex machina, make them work for their escape. Have them turn themselves invisible and try to sneak off, for example, or make multiple, illusory copies of themselves and run out of different hallways. Or, if you're not averse to adding accessories to your table, get a chase deck. I seriously cannot say enough good things about this tool, and the Ultimate Chase Deck Bundle is the answer to your prayers as a DM.
You also need to remember that even if your bad guy doesn't get away, and the heroes win, so what? If the villain is important and dead, resurrect him and bring him back again. If he's captured, have him escape and come back for vengeance. And, as the Dungeon Keeper himself points out, you can even add a template for the next go round. Now the heroes are eager for a rematch, because you didn't rob them of their victory before, and very little has changed, mechanically.
#2: Fear Effects That Force You To Flee
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| Oh god, it's coming right for us! |
The reason for this is two fold. First is the fact that a lot of players have characters who have seen some of the worst things the setting can offer, and they've stood toe-to-toe with monsters of all sorts. Fleeing, even under magical influence, makes them embarrassed because it's their characters being forced to act like cowards. Secondly, in practical terms, failing a save like this means the players may as well just take out their phone and wait for everyone else to finish the fight. Because if they have to spend three rounds running away, and then three more rounds running back, either the monster will be dead, or the party will be. Either way, they don't get to participate, and that's a serious problem.
What You Should Do Instead
If you really want to use fear specifically, focus on the kind of fear that gives PCs a negative, but which doesn't dictate their actions for them. Stacking debuffs onto that fear, whether it's a short-term spell or a long-term curse, is infinitely preferable to just not being allowed to participate.
And remember, just quoting a number at someone and saying, "So now you're scared," never brings a player deeper into the game; it just annoys them. If you actually want your players to be scared of a situation, you need to build the atmosphere and work for it. Using details like what you find in 100 Cults to Encounter or 100 Graves and Grave Markers For a Fantasy Graveyard is going to go a lot further than just demanding everyone make a save, and dictating to them how scared they should act.
#3: Actually, Ditch Mind Control in General While You're At It
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| No, really guys, I think they're friendly! |
Players who came to the table to play the game are being told they can no longer participate because they failed a save.
In small doses, this is annoying. When done in more heavy-handed ways (such as turning the fighter against the party's spellcasters) it can seriously damage trust. Because while it's true that the wizard is dead because of what the villain did, part of the reason they got killed so effectively is because the barbarian built a wrecking ball. As such, at least some of that animosity is going to splash back onto the player, who had no say in the matter. It's messy, it's icky, and it ruins a lot of enjoyment.
What You Should Do Instead
Illusions. If you want to confound your players, or create bizarre and awful visions that might get them to act in ways counter to their own best interest, use illusions. Whether it's making innocent townspeople look like ravenous zombies, or the villain taking on the appearance of one of the party members to sow confusion, illusion magic sets off scenarios where the players (and only the players) decide how to move forward. And because the dungeon master isn't essentially puppeting the players, there's no chance of getting backsplash on each other if something really bad happens.
Enchantment is still a totally viable option, just don't use it to control the players' actions. Use it on important NPCs, like getting the mayor to turn against them Grima Wormtongue style. Poison the well of the town's goodwill if the party doesn't stop what's happening... but if you're going to pull a Bela Lugosi and have the fighter look deep into the vampire's eyes before he just goes and murders his comrades, that's going to lead to serious trust issues, and everyone playing paladins who are immune to compulsion effects from now until you get out of the DM chair.
#4: Slapping Unfixable Status Conditions Onto Your Party
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| Oh boy... that's going to leave a mark... |
The problem occurs when you hit your players with something that cripples them, and which they can't actually remove. That's bad enough if it happens for one fight, but if they're stuck with a status condition they can't get mitigate while they're in the middle of hostile territory, then you're basically setting them up to fail.
And that is a decision you made, as the DM.
What You Should Do Instead
The easiest way to negate this problem is to look at your players' capabilities, and to look at the thing you want to hit them with. If it's going to be a serious complication that could lead to them being totally ineffectual, and they can't actually remove it, then it's something you should either not use, or modify in some way.
For example, if you're using monsters that cause ability damage, and the party has a cleric who can heal said damage in short order, then it's a perfectly viable tactic. If the party is going to have plenty of time to rest after the fight, so the damage will heal itself naturally, that's also not a big deal. But if you're going to hit the fighter with Strength drain, for example, and the party is far too low level (or lacks a caster with the necessary spell) to undo that damage, you should either not use that tactic, or make it clear there's a way to get it back. Perhaps laying the vampire's ashes to rest releases the harm it's done, undoing the damage when the ritual is complete. A modification like this lets the players feel like they didn't get a freebie, but they also don't have to walk around with a big, fat, permanent negative that impedes a character's ability to do their job.
#5: Purposefully Negating PC Abilities All The Time
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| Well what are the odds? These ones aren't melee fighters either. |
Now, as a dungeon master you should totally change up the challenges your party faces from encounter to encounter so things don't get boring and samey. At the same time, though, it is extremely bad form as a DM to just throw stuff at your party that you know certain characters simply won't be able to engage with at all. Because, as with previous examples, you're just going to wind up with players who pull out their phones and wait for the people whose powers do still work to solve the problem.
What You Should Do Instead
Honestly, this is a complicated issue that's going to vary a lot based on who is in your party and what their capabilities are. But as a for-instance, say your party has a paladin. That paladin is geared to fight evil creatures, so when it's time to throw down with undead and demons, they're ready to go. In that situation there is absolutely nothing wrong with throwing golems, neutral mercenaries, or angry animals at the character. However, if the paladin never gets to cut loose with their holy powers and smite the wicked... well, shouldn't you have told them up-front to play a different character?
An occasional fight where the barbarian can't close with the flying enemy, or the archer is at huge negatives from the cover the enemy is standing behind is fine... but when that turns into every fight, it creates a serious problem. Which is why it's generally a good idea to make sure there is something for everyone to do in a fight... especially because it evens up the action economy.
So by all means, have a flying spellcaster hucking down lightning bolts from on-high. But while the sorcerer and the ranger are trying to shoot them down, add some big angry minions on the ground for the barbarian and the fighter to contend with. Now everyone's got a dance partner, no one feels left out, and the fight is far more epic than it was going to be.
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Man, I hear you on #5. I played a Pathfinder campaign and the DM loved to throw at us what I called "Legion of Doom" enemy parties- they made no sense even being together, but they were designed precisely to counter the main abilities of each PC, so every fight was an exhausting slog that took way longer in real time to conclude than it should have. In an entire year of playing at least a few times a month, I don't recall every getting to do something awesome. I was always plinking away ineffectually trying to wear down enemies full of crappy free-action or at-will abilities designed to pile on the debuffs. Bleh.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that you're almost always 'full of it' when it comes to some handy tips, great advice and some time-tested wisdom. Great post that I've shared all over the place. Thanks for the insight and alternative ideas!
ReplyDeleteNo offense, but I wouldn't personally want to play in your game. What I hearing from each of your points (in order)
ReplyDelete1.) Your players shouldn't have to devise any strategy to defeat the teleporting bad guy. Just throw another villain or come up with some contrived way to bring them back.
2.) Let them utilize effects that make victory easier for them, but don't challenge them with the same abilities.
3.) Encourage Min-Maxing and don't use those weakness in their design.
4.) I actually kinda agree with this.
5.) Cater to their Archtypes. Let them use all their abilities and never hamper them. Let them exploit the rules, but don't use the same rule against them.
While I can get what your doing, it makes for a baby-proof game which doesn't seem to encourage any type of problem solving, which is an element my and my friends actually enjoy. No battle should ge gone into knowing your going to win, but you seem to want to stack the odds in the players favor. Good for you and if your players never play with a GM who actually likes to uses and level playing field it would be great.
But odds are, one of those players one day is going to play in a game where the GM plays it by the book. And they are probably going to hate it. Not because he ran it bad, but because you coddled your players in a bouncy house campaign and they never had to actually put effort into the win.
That sir, IMO, is a disservice to your players.
I'm not seeing those Problems at all. In general, I don't believe that you should settle for something worse, just because "the real world doesn't work that way". If you "pamper" the players, and they someday play with a GM who does it differently, they can express their frustrations and come up with a solution together.
DeleteBut I don't feel those tips pamper the players. This post is not about making it easy for the players, it's about making it hard in a way that doesn't take away enjoyment.
Not being able to control how your character acts (be it through a dominate spell or a fear effect) sucks. You came to play that character, not watch them act on their own.
In my experience, things that remove agency from players just strongly makes them metagame in poor ways. In general I'd say things like 2 / 3 should be reserved for critical moments or in short bursts.
DeleteThere's already a lot of situations where players essentially don't get to do anything on their turn cause of positioning, setup, etc. Having that happen when they WOULD have something they could do needs to have a good reason.
Likewise, for 5, the way I describe it: not every encounter is with a beholder. While there may be intelligent villains who learn how to exploit the player's weaknesses / counter their strengths, this definitely should not be every encounter.
I dont think you got his points. The issue is that DMs use these things to intentionally make things difficult for players. It's not fun if the bad guy always runs away. It's not fun if your character is dominated and you cant play it. It's not fun if every battle is long and drawn out because every enemy grouo happens to be the perfect counter to the party. One should challenge the group players, but everything he mentioned are cheap tactics that dont create fun. Variations of all these points can be made to challenge players, but not to the degree that it sucks the life out of the game.
ReplyDeleteAll of these are valid points, but a lot of the time, the game design gets in your way that make these ideas difficult to employ.
ReplyDelete1. You absolutely did rob them of their victory if the slain bad guy turns out not dead after all. Also, I'm super uncomfortable with being chivalrous with monsters (intentionally avoiding tactics that the players struggle to deal with, especially super straightforward ones). Teleporting away can lead to the BBEG lacking the resources to fulfill their plan as the players are now free to ransack their lair. At higher levels, tracking down the BBEG trying to flee this way is far more doable, so it also depends on the optimization level (more on that in 5).
2/3. It can be pretty unimmersive for players if villains use hard controlling powers like these on NPCs but never on the players. It also makes it anticlimatic to confront enchanters as they're essentially stripped of their primary weapon, forcing them to concede the fight if their mind control powers aren't permitted on the PCs.
4. Actually a thing that's not much of an issue in 5e where most things go away after a long rest. That said, you usually won't run into this problem in Pathfinder since most parties have clerics (or it's possible to contact a Cleric NPC). Many monsters' CR keeps in mind which status effects a cleric can remove. One problem exists if the party in general lacks healing - since then even hit point damage will be a thing that's very difficult to deal with.
5. This is a huge problem in games with a balancing gap such as Pathfinder - powerful classes like Clerics and Druids have numerous ways to render the contributions of other classes obsolete, effectively causing the effect you described on their party. Which generally means you have to heavily account for the versatility and power casters can bring in your encounter design. More limited classes like Fighters and Monks likewise cause this issue - since they are more often than not good at just one thing only, you have to constantly enable these classes or force the stronger characters into babying them so that their limited mobility, range and actions isn't preventing them from contributing.
Also, the solution at the end is flawed - if the Sorcerer and Ranger beat the flying spellcaster, they can still dispatch the grounded minions. If the fighter and barbarian deal with the grounded minions, they cannot proceed to attack the flying spellcaster. So if he manages to take out the Sorcerer and Ranger, they have nothing to do but to come to terms with the fact that this is the end for them.
Re: 4. in particular it's quite easy for a party to have a 6-caster as their healer, or even a 4-caster, in which case they may be simply unable to deal with crippling effects such as ability drain or blindness that the game throws at them the moment a cleric could deal with it.
DeleteI don't necessarily take issue with repeated use of #1-3. If players have faced these tricks from you before, they will come up with countermeasures and feel the accomplishment of learning from past encounters. Dimensional Anchor (or a way of forcing a concentration check like reach AOs, entanglement, grappling, or continual damage), some 25-gp scrolls of Remove Fear, and a prebuff of Magic Circle vs. Evil (often a good idea anyway) or just cheapo Protection from Evil scrolls come to mind, and I haven't had a whole week to ponder while stewing in my juices.
ReplyDelete