D&D 5E Just played one of my D&D board games and there's one thing I think could greatly benefit the current edition (or any really)

[Evenglare]

So I have Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon and haven't played them in ages, the other night I actually got to whip them out and play a game. After we finished I realized that it would be absolutely fantastic if Monster Manual entries had action sequences for DMs who are new, or DMs who just want to run enemies without thinking TOO much. I understand that the books may have some brief guides on how to play the monsters, but I think it would be awesome to explicitly lay out actions and priorities of each monster, perhaps something similar to...

Orc Archer
-If you have less than half HP move away from opponent
-If opponent is farther than 30 ft attack with bow.
-If opponent is within 30 ft move and attack with dagger

Clearly that could be expanded on, but I think I got my idea across. Anyone even the least bit familiar with computer programming should find this familiar. Now I'm not saying this should be how every battle should go, but like I said, I think it would be fantastic for newbie DM's. It would also have the extra benefit of being able to run DM less dungeon crawls, like the board games do. Just throwing this idea out there.

 

[Iosue]

Sounds like a great idea for a DMs Guild product!

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Such action priority lists like that work when the scenarios that the monster is encountered in are limited enough to be predictable, or they quickly lose their usefulness.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Good adventure modules often have this, but maybe not the neat simplicity of the board games. But yeah would be great, for new DMs or just when you're struggling for whatever reason!

 

[Evenglare]

Such action priority lists like that work when the scenarios that the monster is encountered in are limited enough to be predictable, or they quickly lose their usefulness.

Clearly there's no possible way to anticipate every possible combination of things to do in D&D. You wouldn't have things like... this monster picks up a bucket of water and throws it on the heroes assuming a bucket of water was around. There would be an infinitely long book of things to do. I guess it might be a good idea to have some sort of "set up" for the really big monsters, so you can sort of restrain and control what happens to some extent. Red Dragons would have a room that was X by Y squares, molten lava pool and 3 minions (or whatever). But I think just focusing on combat mechanics of enemies should pretty much cover almost every basic situation (bandits attack the heroes on the road and that type of thing). I just think it would be immensely helpful to draw in new DMs. I sure as hell would have LOVED to have something like this when I was learning to play.. 16 years ago. (Holy crap has it actually been that long for me?)

 

[Evenglare]

Good adventure modules often have this, but maybe not the neat simplicity of the board games. But yeah would be great, for new DMs or just when you're struggling for whatever reason!

Oh yeah, that completely slipped my mind, I don't use modules very often, but this is a great addition. It's really nice because the scenarios are usually set up so there's minimal randomness.

 

[devincutler]

Well, while I think this was useful when they did this for some of the more complicated monsters in 3e, I just don't see 5e creatures having that many options in combat to merit this. In other words, a waste of space if included in the actual Monster Manuals.

 

[Evenglare]

Well, while I think this was useful when they did this for some of the more complicated monsters in 3e, I just don't see 5e creatures having that many options in combat to merit this. In other words, a waste of space if included in the actual Monster Manuals.

It's not just about how many options X creature has in combat, the majority of the idea is portraying -HOW- a creature acts in combat regardless of what they can do. An Orc, and Elf, and a Beholder are all going to act extremely differently than one another in battle. I know that if the MM had entries like this for every single monster it'd be like 453789015 pages big, it could be a great 3rd party product or something like that. You wouldn't have to have art, or special abilities spelled out for you, it would just be entries with the enemies names and a series of actions they would take.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think it would be awesome to explicitly lay out actions and priorities of each monster, perhaps something similar to...

Orc Archer
-If you have less than half HP move away from opponent
-If opponent is farther than 30 ft attack with bow.
-If opponent is within 30 ft move and attack with dagger

Absolutely. It was something I suggested during the playtest, hoping we would see it in the MM at least for the higher-complexity monsters which have more than one special ability to choose from. It doesn't have to be more complicated than 2-3 lines like your example.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Usually I play monsters as smart as I possible can think of. When in doubt, I take the 2/3 most optimal strategies and roll which of those to take.

But yes, I often find myself wondering how a certain monster would act. Would it fight until death no matter what? Would it run the moment it gets dangerous? How much does it prioritize money/food over fighting? How open is it for negotiation?