Help me make D&D easier to DM

[Philotomy Jurament]

When you wing the stats, do you ever have issues with players questioning you? Like, "We've done over 50 points of damage to that creature, it has a max of 35 HP" or anything along those lines? How do you handle it when the players know the rules/monsters better than you do? (Hope that I'm not derailing the thread, I thought it might be something that the OP - and others of us reading for the same reason (me) - would be interested in knowing.)

I treat the MM entries for monsters as "typical" specimens. So the stats for a goblin are for your "average goblin." That doesn't mean all goblins are typical. The same goes for any other monster.

To answer your question, though, it's been a *long* time since any players have asked a question like that, but has happened in the past. I just answer that apparently their assumption about this creature seems to be in error.

 

[jdrakeh]

I bought UA last night and it seems that there are a bunch of options in there that you could use to make D&D easier. For starters, those generic classes which function as True20's three core classes look very cool. And the spell points system seems to be both more dynamic and considerably more elegant that the slots per day thing.

I also bought Iron Heroes a few weeks back -- and they have a nifty rule in there where the only conditions that provoke an AoO are:

• Taking a standard action or full-round action; and
• It is not an attack action; and
• It does not specifically have a note that it does not provoke (such as Aid Another, or using Concentration to defensively cast a spell).

This makes what is potentially the most cumbersome minutae in actual play a total non-issue. I'm not a huge Mearls fan, but the man did great work with Iron Heroes.

Between these three options, you can streamline D&D a great deal.

 

[Warbringer]

Play Core only. Seriously. It is amazing how many issues dissolve when you play the unbloated version of the game.

I'm doing this with Eberron (I am adding Eb stuff though) so I'll let you know how it goes

 

[JustinA]

- Magic (buffs, some overly complicated spells, polymorph spells are a nightmare)

Prep multiple stat blocks. One for the NPC unbuffed; one for the NPC buffed.

- Skills (creating a high level NPC takes an insane amount of time)

Don't spend so much customizing.

1. How many skill points do they get at each level? Call this X.
2. Pick X skills.
3. They have max ranks in those skills.

The only thing which can complicate this is boosts to Intelligence (since they don't retroactively add skill points). Simple solution? Let Intelligence boosts retroactively add skill points (just like Constitution boosts add hit points). You get a more consistent ruleset which is easier to use: Double win.

- Grappling rules

Get rid of the bull rush maneuver and use these simplified grapple mechanics:

1. INITIATING GRAPPLE: As an attack action you can initiate a grapple by moving into an opponent's square and making an opposed grapple check. This provokes an attack of opportunity. If the attack of opportunity deals damage or if the opposed grapple check fails, you have failed to initiate the grapple and must move back into the space you came from.

2. IN A GRAPPLE: Characters in a grapple are considered flat-footed and can only move at one-quarter their normal speed. Characters in a grapple can attempt any action they could normally take, but they must make an opposed grapple check. If the opposed grapple check fails, their opponent has prevented them from taking the action.

3. PINNING: You can attempt to pin a character you are grappling by making an opposed grapple check. A pinned character can do nothing except take a move action to attempt to escape the pin (by making an opposed grapple check).

4. ESCAPING A GRAPPLE: You can escape a grapple by making an opposed grapple check.

5. JOINING A GRAPPLE: You join a grapple the same way you initiate a grapple, but since the characters in the grapple are flat-footed they cannot take an attack of opportunity against you.

6. MULTIPLE GRAPPLERS: When there are multiple characters in a single grapple, a character's grapple check to take any action is opposed by the grapple checks of all the other grapplers. (Grapplers can voluntarily fail their grapple checks just like they can with any other check.)

This gets rid of all the little special-case rules which make grappling an absolute nightmare. And basically you just have to remember:

1. AoO.
2. Opposed grapple check.
3. Grapple check to do anything (including escape or pin).
4. They're flat-footed and move at quarter-speed.

I also recommend resolving trip attacks using an opposed grapple check. This simultaneously removes the lack-of-scaling problem inherent in the current trip attacks, and also make them little more than a special case of the grapple rules.

It's pretty easy to fold overruns into this mechanic, too.

- High level characters becoming demigods (it feels like I'm playing a different game at higher levels)

You are playing in a different game. Pick the range of levels you enjoy playing at and then slow down XP accumulation to keep the gameplay in that range for the duration of the campaign.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Play Core only. Seriously.

He said he's already playing Core only.

 

[Dross]

When you wing the stats, do you ever have issues with players questioning you? Like, "We've done over 50 points of damage to that creature, it has a max of 35 HP" or anything along those lines? How do you handle it when the players know the rules/monsters better than you do? (Hope that I'm not derailing the thread, I thought it might be something that the OP - and others of us reading for the same reason (me) - would be interested in knowing.)

I've always played with groups that rotated the DM so basically everyone had monster knowledge. The players SHOULD be saying: Hhhmmmm, that is one unusually tough monster.
As mentioned, a critter could be unusual for it's type. It could have been advanced, picked up class levels, been buffed, had a template added, is actually something else, or the DM just gave it more HP to make it last longer.

I trust my DM's not to screw me over. There will be a reason why this critter is different so I never ask the Q in the way you mention, it's always "that's strange" instead.

To come slightly back on topic. I don't stat out everything for an NPC unless it is really important, say a BBEG. I know what the max ranks are, assume a scattering of other skill choices then guessstimate skill levels. I just make sure that it can do something I want it to, say a feat chain with a couple of pre-reqs. I also use the PC's themselves (I have copies of their sheets) and old PCs from other campaigns with serial numbers filed off (that was an interesting battle).

Index cards are a must for buffs, especially if you provide them for others.
Summoned/shapechanged critters should have cards (consider it part of the research of the spell).

Lower the amount of magic in your games overall. 3.x has an expectation of a certain magic level so you need to be careful

Cheat cards are your friends, use them for almost everything that you can.

Also, spread out the knowledge base. Make someone responsible to know the grapple rules and they can be the psuedo DM during a grapple. And the more you grapple, the easier it becomes.

 

[pawsplay]

When you wing the stats, do you ever have issues with players questioning you? Like, "We've done over 50 points of damage to that creature, it has a max of 35 HP" or anything along those lines? How do you handle it when the players know the rules/monsters better than you do? (Hope that I'm not derailing the thread, I thought it might be something that the OP - and others of us reading for the same reason (me) - would be interested in knowing.)

My players would probably never be so bold as to know exactly what they are fighting. One of my players has made jokes about dire rats with rogue levels, but actually, most of my foes are pretty vanilla... just kept well behind the DM curtain, and I make no apologies for any custom work. Assumptions are dangerous. In other words, any player who believes they know more about the monsters than the DM is by definition wrong, and one of the most important aspects of being the DM is realizing that what is, and what the players might want or believe, are two different things.

Just as an example, I set up two ogres and two ogre barbarians as guards (both right out of the the MM). This resulted in a near TPK, despite the low EL, simply because the PCs treated the encounter as though it were simply two ordinary ogres. They did not examine the ogres' equipment, despite ample opportunity to do so, did not bother to detect magic, and opened up the fight with a shot from a wand of fireballs, despite packing more powerful spells. The barbarian, who was not raging, died in one critical hit. With just the barest caution, they would have mopped the floor with these guys, who were intended as nothing more than a speedbump.

Conversely, they aced the CR 15 lich, carefully probing him for SR, gauging his DR, and so forth, even after being lured into attacking a decoy (an undead skeleton in a robe carrying a magic wand).

 

[Morrus]

When you wing the stats, do you ever have issues with players questioning you? Like, "We've done over 50 points of damage to that creature, it has a max of 35 HP" or anything along those lines? How do you handle it when the players know the rules/monsters better than you do? (Hope that I'm not derailing the thread, I thought it might be something that the OP - and others of us reading for the same reason (me) - would be interested in knowing.)

There's nothing to say a critter has to be the same as in the Monster Manual.

If the players wonder why the goblins can regenerate, the asnwer is simple: "These ones can."

I have a template I apply to all creatures: the DM's Critter template. It allows me to do what the hell I want.

When it comes down to it, what works dramatically makes for a better game in my opinion; and if the critter having more HP than it should, or having a skill it shouldn't, or whatever, makes the encounter more dramatic, fun, and challenging, then I have no hesitation in doing that.

It's not even "breaking" the rules (for those who like their stat blocks to be accurate to the nth degree) - just consider it a variant of the critter with a special ability.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

The idea I like best from the list is the idea of maximising spell level to, say, 6th and using higher level slots for metamagic only.

It does solve a lot of problems, whilst still allowing highlevel casters to have some serious fun. I mean, how many Disintegrates are you going to be able to get off as a Sorceror, for a start?

Plus it allows specialist NPC's to have knowledge of one or two spells that makes them truly unique, and makes high level NPC Clerics potentially very interesting - they're the only ones with the truly powerful Raise Dead spells.

Players might need a bit of convincing.

Apart from that, slowing xp down is also a good plan.

 

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

- Magic (buffs, some overly complicated spells, polymorph spells are a nightmare)

I would take out polymorph. It's probably the second house rule that I'm going to bring to my Shackled City game. There are some good replacements, another poster already mentioned the spells that allow you to take a specific form (though I don't recall where they're from) and the PHBII druid looks like a really fun character to play.

I also want to try re-working the core buffs into buff chains, but I haven't had the time to sit down and work it out yet. It would work something like the polymorph chain, in that each spell list would have a set of buffs designed to do one thing, like increase attacks, defense, alter visibility, etc. No two buffs from the same chain would stack, so you would limit the number of active buffs to the number of chains. Like ... Blur -> Displacement -> Mirror Image -> Invisibility -> Greater Invisibility ... or something. Still a work in progress .

- Skills (creating a high level NPC takes an insane amount of time)

Personally, I've yet to find a great character generator (although I haven't yet tried Hero Forge) so I'm right there with you. Making up a high level NPC takes forever, making it even worse when you forget half of his/her abilities and he/she gets killed in two rounds :\. When I get into making more high level NPCs, I'll probably be giving this a try: http://www.immortalshandbook.com/simony2.htm.

When you wing the stats, do you ever have issues with players questioning you? Like, "We've done over 50 points of damage to that creature, it has a max of 35 HP" or anything along those lines? How do you handle it when the players know the rules/monsters better than you do? (Hope that I'm not derailing the thread, I thought it might be something that the OP - and others of us reading for the same reason (me) - would be interested in knowing.)

It depends. I've had DMs wing encounters and make monsters up as they go along and it worked out great. IME, players won't care as long as they're having fun. If the made-up monster bends, bends, bends, and then at the most dramatic moment, breaks, you get a great encounter. The trick is knowing (a) where that breaking point is and (b) having a good poker face so that the players don't see the fudges. I've had other DMs that, when their plot-important monster was dying, would throw abilities on it mad-cap in an attempt to keep it alive. And it was obvious that they were doing it, i.e. "It moves here with levitiate...oh, it' can't do that with levitate? Er...then it uses fly!" I think that modifying or creating monsters and NPCs on the fly is a great way to speed up the game, but you have to be careful that you do it in such a way that it stays fun for the players.