DMing help - no looking, Tallarn!

[randomling]

I'm still a new DM. And I have a friend coming over to throw the most creatively DM-harrying characters at me, in order to test my skills.

I need to harry him back. In every way I (and the rest of you?) can think of... monsters, traps, devilish puzzles.... but I'm limited to PHB, DMG, MM and whatever I can find on the web. Only been playing a year and not got round to buying Dragon ever.

Oh - I have S&F, S&S, and T&B.... and Psionics Handbook and Manual of the Planes if they might possibly ever help me.

Does anyone have evil-DMing type tips?

 

[Nightfall]

Get Book of Vile Darkness. Believe me when I say, after reading this, you WILL make your players tremble as the evil at your finger tips.

 

[randomling]

Get Book of Vile Darkness. Believe me when I say, after reading this, you WILL make your players tremble as the evil at your finger tips.

I have not the time or the money to buy new books.

 

[Nightfall]

Well then I have nothing else to add.

 

[Balgus]

sneak attacks-

and not a band of rogues either. i mean, sneak attack him long, hard and often. Don't let him sleep or prepare spells. Keep him on a time table- where he has to do everything within one day (or two), but do not let him have a cance to rest up and regain HP and spells.

If you do have a long adv (more than one day) then have random things happen in the night to hinder his rest. A couple of hobgoblins/ ogres that raid their campsite. A fire, or even a fireball in a hit and run tactic.

Have multiple foes attack at once (or in succession). Try to split the group up. Have the fight be out in open land with barriers. Trees are the best cover. (but give them cover bonus too)

Use lots of lesser enemies rather than one big one. He has a group coming after you (and from his thread- i think it is a druid, cleric (warpriest) a specialized fighter, a rogue and a blaster of a wiz (even sorc).

So use that in preparation. When fighting, have something that can dilute the influences of all these- which is very hard if you have a team that works well together.

A caster has lots of offense, but little in defense (low HP and low AC) so use a monk or clr to go against them. A fighter has low saves- so hit him first with a suggestion or command spell- or even a disintegrate/ phantasmal killer/ destruction. Command is best cause you can command to sleep, run, or even defect (my fav).

The cleric will be hard to deal with- high AC, good HP, saves and spells. I would counter him with a ton of undead- wightsand vampires with energy/level drain. for a caster- losing a level is deadly (sorry- )

oh yeah- and lastly- give them an encounter that they should run away from- or find another way besides fighting. In life- you don't always get paired up with something you can handle. a mark of a true hero is knowing what fights you can win, and what fights you should walk away from.

 

[Wicht]

My tips for a new DM would include

- Restrain yourself from telling your players what a monster is. Only tell them what a monster looks like (unless it is a PC race monster - such as an orc). Never use the word zombie if you can use the term shambling corpse. Trolls are "Green skinned monstrosities with hooked noses, vile looking claws and drooling toothed maws." Etc. This does wonders for keeping them on their toes.

- Make sure you use monsters abilities to their best advantage. Flying dragons are much deadlier than land bound ones. Kobolds should not rush people in broad daylight - they will wait for cover of night. And if the PCs are asleep at the wrong time its their fault.

- In most dungeons make it harder for the players to simply retreat in order to come back when healed up. Make them have to work their way out.

- Don't kill the PCs for the sake of an ego boost. Its much more effective in game to nearly kill them and then let them crawl away from the fight. Of course if they are stupid about it and refuse to crawl away let them die.

 

[randomling]

Nightfall, I apologize if I sounded rude. I didn't mean to, just have very little money. What I meant to say was, thanks, when I have some cash I'll see if I can get hold of it!

Like the timetable idea and the no let-up. I'm thinking of testing out an idea of mine actually. Send the PCs to investigate a vast castle that houses an evil cult sacrificing young women. Only, unknown to them, the cellars lead into the Underdark...

I'm thinking of graduating quickly from evil clerics, undead and their demonic minions to high-level drow, bands of illithids (possibly with class levels), and eventually a dragon of some kind. The PCs are 10th-level.

There won't be anywhere safe to camp, really. And there will be a timetable - two or three days - before the Bad Thing happens. But what Bad Thing? And what evil, demonic/diabolic, Underdark-dwelling and truly scabby monsters can I attack them with?

 

[Balgus]

randomite:
And what evil, demonic/diabolic, Underdark-dwelling and truly scabby monsters can I attack them with?

a lone kobold. Believe you me- if he has been around here long enough- he will fear the kobold.

Oh yeah- and have a monster that has no stats- just play him on the fly. - except AC. for everything else, just wing it. when you knock a coupl epeople unconscious, and scarea couple of tyhem, have him keel over and die.

I always liked that one. my DM did that once- and when we found out about it, we laughed. That just means that he was really looking out for us, and challenging us as best he can.

Oh yeah- he had some strange powers too... prolly some random spell he saw and liked so used as extra abil.

 

[Sejs]

1) don't be afraid to change what the description of a monster's special ability or what the monsters look like, just to throw those Monster Manual veterans a curveball.

-Have a ghasts AE stink be an aura of oppressive evil instead.

-Maybe illithid look just like normal people... until the brain eatin' tentacles come snaking out of their nose and mouth when they have you grappled.

2) have monsters use tactics appropriate to their intelligence, organization, etc.

-Have goblins live in warrens that are big enough for their 3ft frames to be comfortable in, with a kennel area for the worgs.

-Have trolls that -know- they're vulnerable to fire and acid live in a watery swamp..somewhere where you're only ever one move action away from putting that fire out, or diluting that acid.

-Assaulting a hobgoblin fortress should be tantamount to suicide. They're as smart as humans, highly organized, militaristic, and can see in the dark. The old 'sneak up on the fort at night' yarn doesn't work all of a sudden. There's patrolls out at night, and they can see you way better than you can see them.

-Gnolls are pack animals. Never encouter groups less than 5, who use pack tactics.

-Why do hill giants live in caves? They're not terminally stupid, just slow. Materials may be a problem for some equipment (metal comes to mind) but it would be feasable to have them live like 8th-10th century vikings. Remeber the movie "13th Warrior"? Like that.. only much bigger.


^_^

 

[randomling]

1) don't be afraid to change what the description of a monster's special ability or what the monsters look like, just to throw those Monster Manual veterans a curveball.

-Have a ghasts AE stink be an aura of oppressive evil instead.

-Maybe illithid look just like normal people... until the brain eatin' tentacles come snaking out of their nose and mouth when they have you grappled.

That second idea I *love*. I'm stealing that. Wholesale. He's gonna think they're evil clerics. Then.....

BLAM! Suck.

2) have monsters use tactics appropriate to their intelligence, organization, etc.

-Have goblins live in warrens that are big enough for their 3ft frames to be comfortable in, with a kennel area for the worgs.

-Have trolls that -know- they're vulnerable to fire and acid live in a watery swamp..somewhere where you're only ever one move action away from putting that fire out, or diluting that acid.

-Assaulting a hobgoblin fortress should be tantamount to suicide. They're as smart as humans, highly organized, militaristic, and can see in the dark. The old 'sneak up on the fort at night' yarn doesn't work all of a sudden. There's patrolls out at night, and they can see you way better than you can see them.

-Gnolls are pack animals. Never encouter groups less than 5, who use pack tactics.

-Why do hill giants live in caves? They're not terminally stupid, just slow. Materials may be a problem for some equipment (metal comes to mind) but it would be feasable to have them live like 8th-10th century vikings. Remeber the movie "13th Warrior"? Like that.. only much bigger.


^_^

Yeah. See that one needs some thinking about. I'm going to write some notes and post them back. See what you think?

*suddenly in love with these boards*