D&D 5E DM: overwhelmed with creatures

[The Grassy Gnoll]

I don't use minis.
I write a list eg fighting 4 goblins it'll look.like:
G1 Big nose 7
G2 Man boobs 7
G3 Red hair 7
G4 Tall 7
Then record totals after each hit taken. When dead, score thru the line.
I'll also put a note as to who they're attacking in another column to the left of the rest of it.

 

[Tony Vargas]

If I'm using figures or numbered tokens, I'll be sure to keep hp damage accumulating on the 'right' monsters. That's usually keeping a total for each on paper or a wet-erase initiative tracker, but you can put the monster's damage right next to it on the mat, or even let a player who's so inclined track damage inflicted on each monster.

If I'm running TotM, I'm less worried about it: without the visual reference, players are unlikely to notice if a monster has taken too much or too little damage relative to it's fellows before dropping. In fact, with 5e running TotM, it's fairly intuitive to ballpark and fudge monster hps (and even number of monsters) to keep things flowing. When you say they're jumped by "a bunch of goblins" they're not going to notice when you reduce the number from 8 to 6 to bring a boring combat to a satisfactory end, the way they would if you had put down 8 figures.

 

[EvanNave55]

This is what I originally meant in my post, but Saeviomagy put more eloquently:

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.

 

[Libramarian]

IMO damage should be randomly distributed to enemies in the same general melee area. There's no point allowing players to choose their target precisely unless you're using miniatures and facing rules to problematize focused fire.

This is RAW in 1e.

 

[steeldragons]

I haven't read everything, but my this is an artsy craftsy creative thread, isn't it? People have all sortsa systems for things. Use cards, tokens, bands, chips, clips,...

I the read the title and thought, "So use fewer monsters."...just me?

 

[trentonjoe]

There are some great ideas in here.....i really like having the players keep track of damage and using the hit point pool method. Good stuff.

 

[aramis erak]

I use one of several methods.

Note that I don't use minis, but colored cubes with numbers.

Method 1 (preferred)
I have a statblock, typed, and checkboxes beneath it to cross off as damage is taken. I use a letter to indicate color, and number to indicate specific opponent, written on as they hit the table. at zero, - or = to indicate 1 or 2death-save fails, | for passes

Method 2: plane paper
Write code as above, then HP, crossing off as it changes.
G1 20 10 4 0 -
G2 20 0 || =
R3 45 40 32 20

Method 3: dice. I put a d12 or d10 next to 1HD monsters. I change it to indicate total damage taken. gets messy.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Old topic, but I've refined my system a bit (I described how I was doing it back on page 2), and I'm really liking the results.

The assumption is difficult situations: ie, theater of the mind, with lots of mooks, maybe even some of different types.

Using some standard lined paper, I make 4 columns. Sometimes I do it ahead of time, but it only takes a minute, so it can be done on the spot. The first column lists the number of monsters. The second column lists the designation for the monsters. The third column lists which PCs are engaged with those monsters, and the last column (the long one) is for tracking damage.

First, divide up the monsters into manageable groups. If you are using mob rules from the DMG (which I highly recommend--its a real time saver and still keeps a satisfying feeling to the battle), you might take that into count when deciding how many groups to split them into. The designation for each group needs be clear and easy for you to visualize the general position of. For example, if there are 40 goblins, and a goblin boss, I might have:

10 | NG |
10 | SG |
10 | EG |
10 | WG|
1 | GB |

It's not much trouble to keep in your head in general terms which group of goblins the PCs are attacking. So let's say we have 4 PCs: Anna, Bert, Caltor, and Dirk. I indicate who is engaged with each group. Note: it is possible to be engaged with more than one! So that's what our third column tells us.

10 | NG | A
10 | SG | B
10 | EG | A
10 | WG| C D
1 | GB |

If characters move around (or groups of monsters move around) just cross off and write in your A, B, C, or D as needed to keep track of who is currently engaged. I've found that that column doesn't need to be that wide.

Then, in the final column we are keeping track of how many hit points have been dealt to individual monsters. So let's say a weak area effect goes off on 5 goblins in group NG. Three of them save and take 2 damage, while the other three fail and take 4. It would look like this:

10 | NG | A | -2 -2 -2 -4 -4

Since there are 10 goblins and only 5 numbers, we can see that 5 goblins remain undamaged.

When one of those monsters is dealt additional damage, we cross off the current value add the additional damage, and write in the new value later on the line.

10 | NG | A D |

Still 10 goblins alive with 5 wounded, and Dirk has joined the fray. Slashes are completely ignored once they are slashed. The only thing that matters are "-#" and "X". X is what we are going to do when a monster is killed. Dirk goes ballistic on his turn, Action Surging or what have you.

10 | NG | A D | X \ -2 \ X X -5

We now have 3 dead goblins and two other wounded ones (the current -5 was the second -2 that Dirk wounded after taking out the assorted three goblins).

Now it's the goblins turn in initiative. The first thing we do is a quick clean up. We subtract the dead goblins from the number of goblins, cross it off and write in the new number. We draw a horizontal line through all of adjacent Xs and \s so that the only things we are looking at in the damage section are the currently damaged goblins.

7 \ | NG | A D | ----- -2 ----- -5

Now the 7 goblins take their turn (using mob rules if possible), rinse and repeat.

Once all of the goblins are dead, you just X off the NG.

Another thing I've started doing is to write the -# values on the top part of the writing space, so that I can make notes underneath, such as a P for prone targets, etc.

The DM is free to decide which of the targets a PC hits, either having them focus fire or randomly distributing attacks, whatever works best for your group.

It's working quite well for me, though I'm always trying to find little ways of further refinement.