D&D 5E DM: overwhelmed with creatures

[Tormyr]

Post-It notes on the MM page works well.

 

[miniaturehoarder]

Got it. I thought when you wrote:



that you didn't ask all of the time.

I find the players VERY proactive in reminding me just how much damage the monsters have taken when they are keeping count on the damage.

Also by looking at the HP ranges for monsters in the DMG CRing table, it lets you know how much wiggle room the HP total for a monster has.

 

[Henry]

I use init cards for PCs and monsters also, but I dont keep track of monster hit points on the cards, i use a separate page, and count up from 0 damage, like many people in the thread. Works pretty well actually - hardest part is getting the cards in th right order at start of combat, and after that it's pretty quick and easy.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

I use 102×152 index cards for the monsters stats. I foldback-clip these to the top of the screen.

I keep track of HP and status effects on scrap paper. I write a summary of the monsters across the top and do HP down the page.

If I am using miniatures then I will try to pick different miniatures. For example if there are four goblins in the combat then I'll pick, say, a goblin with a spear, a goblin with a sword, a goblin with a cleaver and a goblin with an axe. On my piece of paper I'll write "GS", "GSw", "GC" and "GA".

If I'm not using miniatures then I'll write something about their rough position. For example, "GN", "GS", "GE" and "GW". Or maybe which PC they are attacking.

At the end of the combat the scrap paper gets crumpled up and thrown in my bag for recycling at home.

 

[KarinsDad]

For initiative, we have a magnetic board with reusable magnetic name tags that can be seen from across the table with a red arrow pointing to current PC/NPC name. Every player there can see when their initiative is getting close. We found that this is better than index cards where the information is hidden (or someone has to say "Hey Fred, you're next").

 

[KarinsDad]

Also by looking at the HP ranges for monsters in the DMG CRing table, it lets you know how much wiggle room the HP total for a monster has.

What does this sentence mean? Doesn't the DM already know how many hit points each monster has, or is this a way for players to metagame know ahead of time a rough estimate of monster hit points?

 

[miniaturehoarder]

What does this sentence mean? Doesn't the DM already know how many hit points each monster has, or is this a way for players to metagame know ahead of time a rough estimate of monster hit points?

Neither. The person looking in the DMG would be the DM, the table lets them know how much wiggle room the monster's HP total would have for the purpose of adjusting said monster's HP prior to deployment while still falling within the general parameters of it's CR tier.

Because when you get down to it, while the MM expresses monster HP as a dice range with a default average, the CR mechanics are more based on the actual HP.

 

[KarinsDad]

Neither. The person looking in the DMG would be the DM, the table lets them know how much wiggle room the monster's HP total would have for the purpose of adjusting said monster's HP prior to deployment while still falling within the general parameters of it's CR tier.

Why would he do this unless he was creating his own monster and wouldn't he do that ahead of time, not during a game?

Doesn't the MM already tell him exactly how many hit points a given monster has? Doesn't the DM already know the exact number?

I'm not understanding your point as to when or why this would be done, especially at the gaming table.

 

[EvanNave55]

Why would he do this unless he was creating his own monster and wouldn't he do that ahead of time, not during a game?

Doesn't the MM already tell him exactly how many hit points a given monster has? Doesn't the DM already know the exact number?

I'm not understanding your point as to when or why this would be done, especially at the gaming table.

I think what he is talking about is that while the MM states an exact number for each monster that is the average hitpoints it would have based on it's hit-dice. So looking at the hit-dice you can see the min. and max. hit-points it could have and keep in mind that range for the "wiggle room."

 

[KarinsDad]

I think what he is talking about is that while the MM states an exact number for each monster that is the average hitpoints it would have based on it's hit-dice. So looking at the hit-dice you can see the min. and max. hit-points it could have and keep in mind that range for the "wiggle room."

What wiggle room?

If the DM already knows that the monster has 30 hit points, why does he need to know that it has hit points in the range of 25 to 35?

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think the point is that he doesn't know. The MM says the average hitpoints is X, but gives a hit dice + bonus calculation for deriving them. A given monster may have more or less hitpoints than the average.

The player informs the DM that a monster has now taken Y damage. The DM feels like that monster isn't really adding much to the encounter, and Y is within the range of possible hitpoints that the monster could have, so he declares it dead.

Alternately, he decides this particular monster has been pretty heroic and notable, and decides that it's not dead yet, even when Y exceeds X. The monster instead falls at the upper limit of hitpoints.

Personally I don't even keep track of monster hitpoints if there's a big enough combat happening. I just decide based on a rough heuristic of approximately how many times the creature has been hit and how much damage the last hit did.

 

[miniaturehoarder]

I think what he is talking about is that while the MM states an exact number for each monster that is the average hitpoints it would have based on it's hit-dice. So looking at the hit-dice you can see the min. and max. hit-points it could have and keep in mind that range for the "wiggle room."

Possible range from the listed HD in the monster manual is often far wider than the range on the DMG CR table.

Example; MM Average hill giant has 105 HP ( 10d12+40 ), putinging it's HP at the DMG tier of CR 3 which has a spread of 101 HP to 115 HP. So if you are putting half a dozen hill giants or more on the field, having thier HP range in the zone of 101 HP to 115 HP allows for some variation without any major effect on their potential challenge.

On the other hand, the MM Dice Range though for a hill giant (between 50 HP and 160 HP) is FAR greater and thus HP amounts in that range can still represent a significant change to hill giant's potential challenge and thus could well merit a rebuilding.

DnDMontreal @DnDMontreal
@wotc_rodney how does increasing or decreasing the starting HP of a monster effect their CR? AL uses this a lot but no documentation in DMG

Rodney Thompson @AntarianRanger
@DnDMontreal It's going to vary from monster to monster; if you adjust hp significantly, you might as well recalculate the CR.
1:03 AM - 7 Apr 2015

 

[miniaturehoarder]

The player informs the DM that a monster has now taken Y damage. The DM feels like that monster isn't really adding much to the encounter, and Y is within the range of possible hitpoints that the monster could have, so he declares it dead.

Alternately, he decides this particular monster has been pretty heroic and notable, and decides that it's not dead yet, even when Y exceeds X. The monster instead falls at the upper limit of hitpoints.

Oh no, I in no way advocate changing monster HP after it is on the field.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Last night I was DM'ing a session and I was overwhelmed with creatures hp I had to keep track of. I was wondering how other dm's keep track of them. I normally use a grid and just white, black, clear or red counters. (I use them for MTG) but I found my self more focused on trying to keep track that I missed some of the story I was supposed to give them. Any advice is appreciated.

For really large combats of 40+ creatures, I stop tracking HP entirely. (Details here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?451051-Mass-Combat-Rules) For medium-sized combats of 8 to 14 creatures I just keep them on a sheet of paper for Theatre of the Mind, or if we're using a battlemap for that combat I sometimes write the HP on a slip of paper that I use as the monster counter. (Other times I will write the monster number on the slip of paper and use that to index HP that I've written on a sheet of paper.)

BTW, I don't count HP down, I count up. If you'll excuse the ASCII art, my HP tracking tends to look something like this:

[Situation: Nycaloth has 124 HP, has taken five hits of 15, 9, 16, 6, 22 points each]

Nycaloth (124)
----------------
15
9
16
6
22

When it's time to check if the Nycaloth is dead, I scratch out numbers as I aggregate:

15
15
16
22

then

46
22

then

68

Yep, it's still alive!

 

[miniaturehoarder]

One trick that might be of help is to use rubber bands or loom bands on the miniature to track damage. You can use a couple colours to represent damage increments 1, 5, 20, etc with other colours for status effects.



Or make little labels with numbers and attach these to the bands.

 

[practicalm]

But if a PC attacks a monster, don't you have to thumb through your cards to find that monster?

Sure but even with 10 players (at times) and 4-6 monster types it isn't hard to find the right card and mark the right row for hit points. It also makes sure I have the resistances and vulnerabilities right there.

It was lots of fun when the ranger was using a lightning bow and attacking flesh golem critters with it. Healing some damage while hurting it with the rest.

 

[Mistwell]

Hit Points originally meant the number of hits a creature could take before it died. You could return to that - this is a three hit creature, this is a two hit one, etc.. Players never need to know You can also give a strong hit equal to two hits.

 

[hbarsquared]

With index cards to track...

Colored ones can be super helpful.

Also, I keep PCs oriented vertically, monsters oriented horizontally, with names, hp, and conditions being the most visible - much easier to find and tell at a glance.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Possible range from the listed HD in the monster manual is often far wider than the range on the DMG CR table.

Example; MM Average hill giant has 105 HP ( 10d12+40 ), putinging it's HP at the DMG tier of CR 3 which has a spread of 101 HP to 115 HP. So if you are putting half a dozen hill giants or more on the field, having thier HP range in the zone of 101 HP to 115 HP allows for some variation without any major effect on their potential challenge.

On the other hand, the MM Dice Range though for a hill giant (between 50 HP and 160 HP) is FAR greater and thus HP amounts in that range can still represent a significant change to hill giant's potential challenge and thus could well merit a rebuilding.

Which matters if you make a encounter entirely from high or low hp total giants. It's no problem if you have as many high hitpoint giants as low hitpoint ones.

 

[Blue]

I scribble a letter denoting the monster and its max hp above it, and then ADD damage as it accumulates, that's easier math for me than subtraction. Sometimes I fudge it if it's a hit point or 3 shy of actually killing it.

I use something very similar. Besides my notes for the run I keep a steno pad for scratchpaper. When a combat starts I'll a column for each monster denoted with a letter, usually with a category over them for different monster types. As they take damage I add it (so I track wounds, not HPs), killing them off when damage > HPs. (If they heal, I subtract.) I'll also scrawl a note or symbol at the top about something other, like prone, ongoing damage, rounds left on an effect or what-have-you.