5 Strategies Dungeon Masters Should Consider Removing From Their Playbooks

I have played under my share of dungeon masters, and I've seen a lot of old standby strategies that get the job done in the most frustrating, least fun way possible. As a dungeon master myself I have removed basically all of these strategies from my tables, and I've found only positive impacts in doing so.

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.

You have the power. Use it responsibly.

#1: The 5-Foot-Step and Teleport

And they're gone again... what a surprise.

If you've ever played a Paizo adventure path, especially Rise of The Runelords, you are no doubt familiar with this tactic for preserving a recurring villain. You fight until the bad guy is seriously threatened, and then as the party closes in you take your 5-foot-step back, and poof, you teleport away to some safe location where the party cannot follow. The party wins, and they still have a villain out there to hunt down, right?

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

Oh god, it's coming right for us!

Fear is a core part of most games, at least in theory. You can make an Intimidate check to force compliance, or to give an enemy a negative during combat. But there are some games that outright force you to flee from the source of your fear if you fail a saving throw against certain powers. Many a hulking bruiser or stalwart fight has been sent screaming from a battle from the glare attack of a deadly beast, or the scream of an undead haunt... but I guarantee you there is no faster way to piss off a player, and take them right out of your game.

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

No, really guys, I think they're friendly!

Another of the tools in your arsenal that is effective strategically, but which will torpedo enjoyment of your game, is mind control. Whether it's a basic enchantment that says, "You are now friendly toward this character," or something more complicated like the domination used by vampires or mind flayers, the effect is the same at the end of the day.

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

Oh boy... that's going to leave a mark...

Managing your wounds and conditions is part of the game. Heroes go into dangerous situations, and those situations usually result in them coming out with some battle scars. Generally speaking, though, part of the game is managing your resources so you can reach the end of the line in one piece. How many healing potions do you have, what spells can you cast, and so on, and so forth.

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

Well what are the odds? These ones aren't melee fighters either.

Generally speaking, characters in a party are going to be built to accomplish certain tasks. The ranged fighter riddles the enemy with arrows, the spellcaster uses magic, the holy warrior fights evil, the melee brute smashes things in hand-to-hand, and so on, and so forth.

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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