Why all players but no DMs?

[Hussar]

I think part of it is some people think that they MUST do all the work. Take Agback's example of keeping track of tactics.

The average DnD combat lasts 5 rounds. 10 rounds is a very long one. Thus, the only thing you need when statting up an enemy wizard is 5 spells plus buffs. Add in three or four more spells just in case and you're done. Doesn't matter what level the wizard is now, you only need to be concerned with a small handful of variables.

Unless you truly need to, there is no reason to do a full makeup of an 18th level wizard NPC. It's not important. Figure out the tactics of the encounter first and then tailor the spells to that. If you want the wizard to summon lots of fodder then stand back and blast, have two or three summon monsters ready (the stats are available online), the DC's for a couple or three more spells and then simply repeat. The only thing you need now are the buffs on the wizard.

Takes about fifteen minutes. And that's for a very high level encounter with one of the most variable encounters there is.

Don't get bogged down in minutia. Why bother doing up all the bad guy's skills? They aren't going to matter. Maybe spot and listen, but, other than that, don't worry about them. Same goes for lots of things. Yes, that 19th level fighter is going to have a bazillion feats. But, he's not going to use all of them at the same time. You likely only have to worry about the three basics - TWF, Power Attack, or Combat Expertise. Beyond that, it's all gravy.

Learn to use a computer. Have a stat block prepared and simply cut and paste it into your adventure text. Fill in the blanks. Repeat as needed.

I think that people who complain about the mass of work needed to DM fail to take advantage of the huge amount of shortcuts there are.

Heck, need an NPC fully statted? The NPC wiki has somewhere near 1000 NPC's right now, sorted by level. What more do you need?

 

[Temmogen]

My Deal

I am a Dm, but I rarely get to run a game. Too many distractions from the real world interfere. So I have a deal worked out with a friend of mine, he also happens to be a DM, and finds it hard to schedule time to come up with the ideas and adventures to keep games moving. This is of course what I enjoy most, writing the adventures, so I write the adventures and he runs them. I go watch when I get the chance, and play NPC's while I'm there. I find this arragement very accomodating, we both get what we want. And as an added bonus, I get regular reports of which of my creations has the most kills, what evil thing they did to the PC's, etc...
If any of you have the chance to find an arrangement like this one, take it. It can be good for everbody involved. I get to be a Killer DM, without having to do the really hard parts, like act as 15 different people in a night, keep track of 30 orcs vs. 16 Pc's during a battle, stuff like that.

 

[Psion]

Um, yeah... if anyone loves to play and hates to DM in the south DC metro area, send 'em my way.

What's typical here is competing for players...

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Put simply: Being a DM is work. It may be work that you enjoy, but it is not atypical for A DM to spend four hours working on a game for every hour running it. (This drops if you are able to run the same adventure for several groups.)

And you don't get to kill things, grab their stuff, and brag about it afterwards (except to other DMs, where the players can't hear you... )

On the plus side you do get to make pretty maps, play the fiendish villains, and watch the look of dawning comprehension as the players realize what is really going on.

The Auld Grump

 

[ForceUser]

I'm with Piratecat - I love to play, but DMing is just a bit more fun for me.

Agreed, for the same reasons.

 

[Glyfair]

I actually prefer playing, but find myself almost exclusively DMing.

Don't get me wrong, I love to DM and I don't think I could play for long without DMing. I just have a lot of ideas that I need to express in a campaign. But, I'd rather share the load and DM about half the time, or slightly less.

I've been part of groups of all types. Right now I'm in a group where there are few DMs, mostly players. I have been a part of groups where everyone wanted to DM, and we took turns rotating.

 

[harmyn]

I think part of it is some people think that they MUST do all the work. Take Agback's example of keeping track of tactics.

The average DnD combat lasts 5 rounds. 10 rounds is a very long one. Thus, the only thing you need when statting up an enemy wizard is 5 spells plus buffs. Add in three or four more spells just in case and you're done. Doesn't matter what level the wizard is now, you only need to be concerned with a small handful of variables.

Unless you truly need to, there is no reason to do a full makeup of an 18th level wizard NPC. It's not important. Figure out the tactics of the encounter first and then tailor the spells to that. If you want the wizard to summon lots of fodder then stand back and blast, have two or three summon monsters ready (the stats are available online), the DC's for a couple or three more spells and then simply repeat. The only thing you need now are the buffs on the wizard.

Takes about fifteen minutes. And that's for a very high level encounter with one of the most variable encounters there is.

Don't get bogged down in minutia. Why bother doing up all the bad guy's skills? They aren't going to matter. Maybe spot and listen, but, other than that, don't worry about them. Same goes for lots of things. Yes, that 19th level fighter is going to have a bazillion feats. But, he's not going to use all of them at the same time. You likely only have to worry about the three basics - TWF, Power Attack, or Combat Expertise. Beyond that, it's all gravy.

Learn to use a computer. Have a stat block prepared and simply cut and paste it into your adventure text. Fill in the blanks. Repeat as needed.

I think that people who complain about the mass of work needed to DM fail to take advantage of the huge amount of shortcuts there are.

Heck, need an NPC fully statted? The NPC wiki has somewhere near 1000 NPC's right now, sorted by level. What more do you need?

Very handy, 15 minutes. 18th/19th level character. Now your players have slain the dastardly bad guy and loot him. What is his 130k to 170k plus worth of gear that an NPC of that level has? Bought all of that in the 15 minutes? What was his touch AC? Magical armor adjustments or is it just Greater Mage Armor? All skills need stating for the wizard? no. But you should jot down Concentration, Spellcraft, and any other skills that might be relevant. Did he permanence any spells on him? Most would have by that time if they could have. Is this a wizard or a sorcerer? Fighting in his home? If its a wizard the players might just go searching for his spell books. And at that level they just might have the capacity to locate them. Did the wizard have any wards in place? Did he know they were coming? Was he prepared or just knocing about the house enjoying a cup of tea and the newspaper (you know, taking the day off from doing evil)? What did he Contingency on himself? Anything? What triggers it? This would probably affect the spells he knows. Any Quickened Dispels on hand to counter player magic? Cause that would up your spells needed a bit. You really don't need to note all this down, but at the same time its wrong to just arbitrarily rule against party creativity because you didn't commit yourself (this can happen as you intuitively give abilities and spells to wizards and clerics).

That may sound like a lot of "minutae" bit it is all stuff you need to consider when creating a 18th level wizard. How common are they in your world? Such a character does require some thought if there is supposed to be a climactic resolution.

I do track NPC's, reuse stats, make only minor tweaks, use the books as a basis, but there is still a good deal of crunch work involved as ou get to higher levels, especially in the new edition of D&D. That's just a fact. I have winged it plenty, it just gets harder at higher levels because the variables increase so much.

The fighter is easier than the wizard as BTB he only has 17 feats to spend (18 if human) and all his gear. Now you can resuse a lot of these kinds of characters with only a little tweaking, but if there is any sort of a template or variation involved then it gets a little more time consuming. Also is it a straight fighter or a prestige class. Any special notes you need to know about?

Don't mean to jump at your or take some personal offense at your comments, I don't. Its just that I frequently hear of all the available "short cuts" out there, but they only do so much, and most of the time its players who have never DMed who are trying to point out such "aids". There is just a lot to high level characters, no way around it.

 

[Particle_Man]

Players Handbook II has some "Statted up" NPC's that might make things easier. DMG II has a few "multi-class/prestige class" examples, which are useful to steal and use.

Also, "adder feats" might be an easier way to go (+2 to saves, +3 to a relevant skill, etc.).

Iron Heroes (in the Beastiary and the Mastering IH books) has "villain classes" which are simplified versions of baddies.

Complete Arcane has the Warlock class which makes a great and easy to generate "magic user bad guy".

But yeah, getting all the gear and stuff together for the NPCs can be a pain (and I have no laptop, and we don't usually play at my place, alas). As is having to take high level PC abilities into account. That is part of the reason I am drifting towards Iron Heroes (where magic items are less necessary, so less of a problem), Castles and Crusades, and Savage Worlds (two rules light games that I currently am in love with).

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Dungeon Masters are special people. Let us have a moment of silence to honor them.

They spend their free time coming up with ways to entertain you.

They listen patiently as you, yet again, yammer on and on about your character.

They give you just enough reward to make the adventure worthwhile...yet not too much as to spoil you.

They need to play EVERY single other person in the game, while you only need to play one.

They all realize that no matter how much they might want to, they are never allowed to win.

They are benevolent gods, men among mice, self-sacrificing martyrs that are concerned only with the enjoyment of their fellow players.

*Squeaky, happy noise*

Thank you. I feel so much more special all of a sudden

QFT!

 

[kigmatzomat]

Very handy, 15 minutes. 18th/19th level character. Now your players have slain the dastardly bad guy and loot him. What is his 130k to 170k plus worth of gear that an NPC of that level has?

18th level mage's magic items? A set of bracers, two rings, a cloak, pair of boots, a periapt, two wands, a staff and a dagger. What do they do? Oh, does the party want to identify them right here? No? Good, you have time to decide how to allocate the items.

What was his touch AC? Magical armor adjustments or is it just Greater Mage Armor? All skills need stating for the wizard? no. But you should jot down Concentration, Spellcraft, and any other skills that might be relevant. Did he permanence any spells on him? Most would have by that time if they could have.

ACs are scaled off of players. I tend towards mages having fairly high ACs due to paranoia, so 23 touch, 31 regular (35 with shield), 18 flat-footed. I can go back and adjust the ratio of magic items/stats/spells retroactively if need be. High level BBEGs are likely to burn XP in stat wishes, which gives me more flexibility in their loot.Very few mages IMCs use permancy, especially as BBEG. Too many dispel magics to waste it.

Is this a wizard or a sorcerer? Fighting in his home? If its a wizard the players might just go searching for his spell books. And at that level they just might have the capacity to locate them.

Sure. Party finds books. Books are warded (possibly just Nystul's aura) and it will take a some time to read through them all and compile a list. I'll get that to the party via email after the game, mmmkay?

Don't mean to jump at your or take some personal offense at your comments, I don't. Its just that I frequently hear of all the available "short cuts" out there, but they only do so much, and most of the time its players who have never DMed who are trying to point out such "aids". There is just a lot to high level characters, no way around it.

I agree that high level casters should not be "spur of the moment encounters" but I have players that will occassionally take a flying leap of logic and decide to do something insane. This means that the "Wizard of Wha", who had been a rumor that I expected to flesh out over the next month, is now starring in the day's session. If they players take a significant tangent, DMs should be prepared to wing it now to make a good game session and then figure out the hows & why-fors afterwards.

Very few players will really take the time to reverse engineer a BBEG to decide if it is legal or not. As long as it played well, have fun.

And if you really didn't like the way the quickly cobbled-together-BBEG folded, have the body dissolve into a puddle of water, ala simulacrum. Poof, you've just indicated he is at least 25% more powerful and the party won't have the same element of surprise next time.