Interest/Suggestions thread: The DM's Little Handbook of RAW

[Saintheart]

Hi all--

I'm not sure if this request is going to come out coherently, but I'll give it a whirl anyway: since I've had some fun slowly building and maintaining a thread about how to improve the Red Hand of Doom for DMs, I thought I might try my hand at another handbook.

This one, though, is a lot wider in scope and hopefully might attract a bit more comment than the RHOD one does.

Essentially, ithe concept is a handbook of tips for 3.5 DMs to use to really challenge their players. Think of it as a shadow-y version of what we mostly do here: build characters or tricks to challenge DMs. :smallbiggrin:

I'm not interested in creating grand unified theories of GMing as such, more producing a catalogue of tricks, tips, and tactics under RAW and metagaming theory. Some the topic headings I was contemplating include:


Tactics for DMs in closed quarters
Tactics for DMs in open ground
Terrain uses and tricks to use against players (concealment, cover, etc.)
Rebalancing the action economy
Addressing powerful spell options like Glitterdust, Slow, etc.
Challenging or shutting down certain powergaming builds (how do I stop the Ubercharger? The critfisher?
Challenging certain overpowered classes
Building better BBEGs (alliteration is optional - we're talking here about mathematical or RAW improvements, not characters or personalities.)


Hopefully that gives a sense of what I was looking to achieve.

What the purpose of this thread is, is to see if there's some interest or people who might be willing to impart their wisdom in a good cause.

So ... over to you guys? What do you think? Good idea, bad idea?

[DonEsteban]

I think this is a really good idea and I would contribute what I can. (Though I fear it wouldn't be too much.) Come on DMs, share your wisdom and your best-kept secrets!

[Dralnu]

Well, here's a couple resources that I have open when running a campaign:
Monster Knowledge Checks (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19546370/Monster_Lore_Compendium?post_id=332152486#33215248 6) (includes DCs)
Encounter Resource Thread (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19880278/Encounter_%28VillainNPCMonsterTrap%29_Resource_Thr ead) (simply amazing!)
Riddles And Traps (http://www.adnddownloads.com/riddles_traps.php)
More Traps (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19903478/1001_Clever_Traps_for_Beginners_%28DMs_especially% 29?pg=1) (not the best, but there's a couple gems)
Maps! (http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/maps/)

Quick Monster / NPC creators:
www.dinglesgames.com
http://www.monsteradvancer.com/


That covers most of it. If you want, I also have a pile of challenging encounters / NPCs that come with suggested tactics and environment that I made myself for various camapaigns and are floating around the interwebs.





Tactics for DMs in closed quarters

At low levels, kobolds are ideal. Run the PCs through small tunnels that hamper their mobility while taking advantage of the kobold's slight build.

At higher levels, incorporeal creatures fit here as well.

AOEs are always fun when the PCs are clumped together. At low levels, alchemist's fire, tanglefoot bags, pew pew with crossbows. At higher levels, switch to spells. PCs lined up in a tunnel? Lightning Bolt.


Tactics for DMs in open ground

Things that fly. Things that are big. Things on a higher platform shooting down.


Terrain uses and tricks to use against players (concealment, cover, etc.)

Pair up blindsight creatures with Obscuring Mist. The creatures can attack normally inside, the PCs can't.

Cover is something all long-range attackers should be using if they have a decent INT score. For example, in Red Hand of Doom, the very first encounter has the PCs ambushed on a dirt road flanked by forest. Archers are standing at the edge of the forest, gaining the benefit of cover and concealment due to undergrowth and trees, but are free to fire on the PCs without any of those penalties. Even better, the PCs must move through difficult terrain (a slope at the edge of the road) just to get to the archer's squares.

In dark areas, use things with darkvision. There's a whole bunch of things that have it, and at low levels they can be a major pain in the rear. Or, if you want to use a creature that doesn't have darkvision, slap the Dark template from Tome of Magic, or the Shadow template from Lords of Madness, the former is minor LA +0/1 adjustment and very easy to do on the fly, the latter is more powerful and more complicated.

Example of using concealment and difficult terrain to your advantage can be found with an advanced shadow mastiff encounter that I built for my campaign. The mastiffs had their HD advanced so they could gain Spring Attack. Note that the encounter is EL 10, but there are four Mastiffs each at CR 6, so you can use more or less to change the encounter level.

Advanced Shadow Mastiffs (CR 10)
The party presumably enter the forest following the main road. Five minutes walking brings them to a thoroughly destroyed corpse of a cleric, as identified by a holy wooden symbol of Pelor. His bloodied cloak is in tatters and his skeleton is smashed and strewn about the road. A spot check (DC 10) reveals one of his dismembered skeletal hands beside the road still clutching a divine scroll of daylight.

Shortly after this, a pack of 4 shadow mastiffs take note of the party and begin following them through the undergrowth. A spot check opposed to their Hide reveals faint red eyes watching them in the undergrowth, 20ft. away from the road.

The shadow mastiffs are advanced and have a feat change so that they can Spring Attack, which make them far deadlier adversaries. Here are their stats:

Advanced Shadow Mastiff:

Size/Type: Medium Outsider (Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 6d8+12 (39 hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (+1 Dex, +3 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+9
Attack: Bite +9 melee (1d6+4)
Full Attack: Bite +9 melee (1d6+4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Bay, trip
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., shadow blend, scent
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +7, Will +7
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 13
Skills: Hide +9, Listen +9, Move Silently +9, Spot +9, Survival +9*
Feats: Dodge, Mobility, TrackB, Spring Attack
Environment: Plane of Shadow
Organization: Solitary, pair, or pack (5-12)
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral evil

This creature has the body of a large dog, with a smooth black coat and a mouth full of sharp teeth.

A shadow mastiff is slightly more than 2 feet high at the shoulder and weighs about 200 pounds.

Shadow mastiffs cannot speak, but they understand Common.

Combat
Shadow mastiffs prefer fighting in shadows or dark conditions, which gives them a great advantage.

If a magical light source negates the shadows around them, shadow mastiffs are cunning enough to either move out of the light or back off and break up the opposition with their baying. They have been known to seize and carry off items enspelled with daylight spells.

Bay (Su)
When a shadow mastiff howls or barks, all creatures except evil outsiders within a 300-foot spread must succeed on a DC 13 Will save or become panicked for 2d4 rounds. This is a sonic mind-affecting fear effect. Whether or not the save is successful, an affected creature is immune to the same mastiff’s bay for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Trip (Ex)
A shadow mastiff that hits with its bite attack can attempt to trip the opponent as a free action (+3 check modifier) without making a touch attack or provoking an attack of opportunity. If the attempt fails, the opponent cannot react to trip the shadow mastiff.

Shadow Blend (Su)
In any condition of illumination other than full daylight, a shadow mastiff can disappear into the shadows, giving it total concealment. Artificial illumination, even a light or continual flame spell, does not negate this ability. A daylight spell, however, will.

Skills
*A shadow mastiff has a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent.

Tactics:
Shadow mastiffs have a cunning pack mentality, and this pack is particularly experienced at hunting. Their tactic is to stealthily follow the party and wait for the opportune moment to strike, attacking if their guard goes down or if a member splits from the rest of the group. Alternatively, they start baying and pick off anyone who runs from the group.

They employ their Spring Attack when attacking, lunging at a vulnerable target and then jumping back into the undergrowth. Anyone who gets tripped becomes top priority for the others to attack.

Shadow mastiffs will retreat if their shadow blend is countered or if they're being overwhelmed, perhaps resuming to stalk their prey from a distance for another opportunity.



Rebalancing the action economy

?

Tell the fighters to use ToB?



Addressing powerful spell options like Glitterdust, Slow, etc.

PID6 had a good houserule on both those spells. I stalked one of his PbP's that addressed them. I think Keld Denar would know. Something like a full round action to un-blind yourself, but suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls?



Challenging or shutting down certain powergaming builds (how do I stop the Ubercharger? The critfisher?

Uberchargers can't charge through difficult terrain, unless they can fly. Or you can throw in some monsters that don't care about massive damage, but I'm drawing a blank on that currently.

Critfishers can be easy. Constructs, undead, things with strange anatomy are immune to crits unless the fisher uses some spell or feat or whathaveyou.



Challenging certain overpowered classes

Easiest fix? Don't allow them. Seriously, if they'd muck up your party balance or your campaign, you don't need to let them have it in the first place.

Alternatively, try one of Jaron K's proposed fixes. (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5293.msg176410#msg176410)

For suggested houserules, I use PID6's from here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156656):
Skill Consolidation:
Balance/Escape Artist/Tumble = Acrobatics (Dex)
Climb/Swim/Jump = Athletics (Str) (provides synergy bonus to Acrobatics)
Spot/Listen = Perception (Wis)
Hide/Move Silently = Stealth (Dex)
Open Lock/Disable Device = Thievery (Int)

You start with 4 extra skill points to spend on Craft, Profession, and Perform skills related to your backstory. These shouldn't have obvious mechanical benefits (that means you, would-be Fatespinners and Bards!). You may treat these as class skills for this purpose only.

Iron Heart Surge is purely a mental action, and has reasonable limits. A charmed/dominated character with IHS ready can make an additional will save at their first action; if it succeeds, they automatically use IHS that action to surge away the charm/domination.

Each character may be affected by White Raven Tactics once per encounter. It does not work on yourself.

Fractional BAB/Saves
LA Buyoff
Giant's Diplomacy Rules (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/jFppYwv7OUkegKhONNF.html)
Intimidate functions off Strength or Charisma, whichever is higher.
Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange/Polymorph Any Object/Metamorphosis/Greater Metamorphosis do not exist.
Detect Magic does not work on creatures you can't see.
Orb spells are Evocation.
Intelligent undead aren't immune to mind-affecting.
Factotum's Cunning Surge limited to one extra standard action per round.
Cunning Strike adds 2d6, but does not stack with itself.
Unarmed Swordsage exists. AC Bonus works unarmored and does not stack with monk.
Swordsage gets Adaptive Style at 3rd level.
Sorcerer gets Eschew Materials at 1st level, and a bonus Sudden Metamagic, Reserve, or Heritage feat at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th.
Shapeshifter druids only. You can spend a feat to regain animal companion.
Metamagic does not increase spontaneous casting time.
Smite Evil is per encounter.
Paladin spellcasting is solely based on Cha.
Paladins get bonus feats at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. These may be any paladin-specific feats (like Battle Blessing or Improved Smiting), Divine Feats, or Domain Feats.
Light Cavalry Scouts can skirmish while mounted (and may take the ability at 3rd level).
No Divine Metamagic.
Nightsticks does not stack with itself.
Divine Power only exists in War Domain.
Weapon Finesse has no BAB requirement.
Extra Invocation only requires that you know an invocation of the same level as the one you want to learn. You may also use this to gain an invocation from another class's list, but that requires knowing an invocation of a level higher than that of the one you want to learn.
No Flaws/Traits; instead, you start with one extra feat, and you gain feats at every odd level rather than every level divisible by 3. (So feats are gained at 1st (x2), 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, etc).

Tower Shield Rules:
You can begin a shielding stance with a tower shield as a standard action, creating a line of total cover from any one corner of your square to another corner of your square. This action does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Maintaining the stance does not require further actions.

While in a shielding stance, your shield does not provide its bonus to your AC.

Your shield adds its enhancement bonus to any cover bonuses it provides. (This works both ways.)

You may change the facing of the shield as a swift action. You may drop the stance as a free action.

You may move along with the shield while in a shielding stance, but your land speed is reduced to 5 feet. (Difficult terrain, for example, will force you to take full-round actions to move. Note that you may no longer take 5-foot steps.)

Moving does not allow you to shift the shield's direction without spending a swift action. AoOs are resolved from the square movement started in, so if you had total cover already, you don't provoke an AoO. (You might lose it after the move, however. Take a swift action to fix that.)

You may not Hide using the cover provided by the tower shield, you idiot.

Any condition that would cause you to fall prone, become stunned, or become panicked ends the shielding stance. It will take another standard action to begin anew.



General Tip: Try avoiding monsters that can kill your PCs in one attack, either via SoD's or just massive damage per swing. They're not fun. Instead, try to play with weaker creatures and use their abilities to their maximum advantage.

Examples:
- darkvision creatures in dark environments (eg. drow)
- blindsight creatures in areas that give concealment (eg. grell casting Obscuring Mist before attacking with lightning rods)
- creatures immune to a particular element fighting in an environment with that element (eg. a white dragon breathing down its frost breath on the PCs that are engaged in melee with its frost giant minions)
- creatures that heal from a particular attack in an environment with that attack (eg. wizard BBEG tossing fireballs at the PCs that are engaged in melee with its iron golem minions)
- incorporeal creatures in environments that are difficult to move in (eg. water, close-quarters)

Good start?

[Saintheart]

Some of those links are really, really cool stuff!

On the "rebalancing the action economy", basically what I wanted to do was give a short rundown on why single monsters suck (i.e. because in terms of an action economy, they are paupers whilst the party, which necessarily works combined, is Bill Gates). And then some suggestions for trying to put creatures back where they're competitive with parties. Presumably this would be by building monsters which are like optimisers or use slightly less-known features or spells to make them more competitive -- for example, the Ruby Knight Windicator tactic of "burn undead turning for extra swift actions per round". Alternatively the tactic might be to keep putting monster "parties" against the PCs -- fight fire with fire.

Thanks for the responses, guys. I'm going to look further into this. :smallsmile:

[tyckspoon]

Some of those links are really, really cool stuff!

On the "rebalancing the action economy", basically what I wanted to do was give a short rundown on why single monsters suck (i.e. because in terms of an action economy, they are paupers whilst the party, which necessarily works combined, is Bill Gates). And then some suggestions for trying to put creatures back where they're competitive with parties. Presumably this would be by building monsters which are like optimisers or use slightly less-known features or spells to make them more competitive -- for example, the Ruby Knight Windicator tactic of "burn undead turning for extra swift actions per round". Alternatively the tactic might be to keep putting monster "parties" against the PCs -- fight fire with fire.


The method that involves the least homebrewing/required build mastery is to simply move away from the 'one big monster of X CR' paradigm of encounter design (although it does trade for the headache of having to get familiar with how CR interacts with multiple monsters to generate Encounter Level as the important number.) Something like a 1+2 setup as the base template (I think 1 enemy of 1 CR lower than party and 2 of 2 CR lower officially works out, adjust numbers to actual strength of your party) should work better; the 'typical' 4 character party still is contending with fights that are worth the same XP and treasure, but their action advantage is only 4:3 instead of 4:1.

[tiercel]

If you want to challenge your players, don't just use a monster entry straight out of the MM/MMII/MMIII/MMDCCLXVI. Look at the feats, skills, and ability scores (use the non-elite array to move higher scores into more relevant scores, or even the elite array by adding a PC level). You can optimize a monster quite a bit with CR+0 or even CR+1 adjustments.

The point isn't necessarily even just to optimize the monsters for maximum power, but to make enough monsters *just different enough* from the standard that it keeps your players guessing. Sure, reward PCs who have invested in the relevant Knowledge skill (albeit at a higher DC for specific subsets of a given monster, not the general monster "the Bloodfist clan of ogres are known for their propensity for flying into a lethal rage" e.g. this ogre probably has barbarian levels, higher than usual Str, etc), but otherwise PCs can't make detailed tactical plans if they don't know if *this* giant has Combat Reflexes (for example), unless they do research/have knowledge/find out the hard way.

Also, most opponents will naturally seek to encounter PCs in a way that gives them some advantage -- with numbers, with terrain, with ambush, with self-buffing abilities. Even if the creature isn't unusually intelligent will tend to its strengths and will flee if it perceives it is outmatched.

Creatures which are at least moderately intelligent and have access to a marketplace at all analogous to what the PCs do will use at least some of their resources/treasure on useful equipment. Organized ogre tribes, especially ones that work for someone, shouldn't be stuck with hide armor and greatclubs while having (on average) hundreds of gold pieces each worth.

[Dralnu]

Creatures which are at least moderately intelligent and have access to a marketplace at all analogous to what the PCs do will use at least some of their resources/treasure on useful equipment. Organized ogre tribes, especially ones that work for someone, shouldn't be stuck with hide armor and greatclubs while having (on average) hundreds of gold pieces each worth.

Wholeheartedly agree. Monsters with a decent intelligence / wisdom are going to use every resource they have to make sure that they live while the PCs die. This means using their inherent abilities to their maximum potential while trying their best to locate the PC's strengths and neutralize them. If a smart monster is going to enter a life-or-death battle, you can bet that it's going to use its resources to buy potions and decent gear instead of wading into a fight with a loincloth and a sack of gold. That's just dumb.

Also, as a lazy DM, I don't like making too many custom monsters or "optimized monsters" blah blah if there's no shortcut / it takes too much time. So here's a shortcut for buffing smart monsters: potions. Easy buffs that don't require changing feats or adding more gear that the PCs can later pick up. A simple potion of Bear's Endurance goes a long way for a BBEG and it requires minimal stat tweaking on your part. Let the PCs find the empty flasks on their body maybe with a tiny remnant of the liquid that they could potentially identify. No free amulet of constitution for you! :smalltongue:

[Bob the DM]

As the DM you are required to cheat to make the game fun. That's why you have a dm screen. As a rule, I never adjust a to hit roll or damage roll to injure/save a pc from death, but a great thing is to play with initiatives. To counter a charger have another fighter with damage feats/trip and "cometary collision" readied. The best trick for fights is to group up your npc's and roll for their initiative as a group. If there are 10 hobgoblins (3 rogues, 3 ranged fighters 3 melee fighters and the boss), you roll 4 dice and assign whichever dice you want to whichever group. That way you can play with the order and you'll have the ability to use teamwork feats

[SamBurke]

Saving.

One good trap that I found was as follows:

The PCs enter a circular room, very basic. Door at the other side, room rises in the center to a little dais/pedestal with very obvious trigger plates. As they start to walk in, the movement (or any type of trigger) starts around one hundred Create Water wands/wards (might need homebrew/special rules), spilling something like 500 gallons of water into the room every round. This is all at the edges. So, the PCs go to stand on the pedestal, obviously trying not to trigger the plates. If they do trigger, it drops a rope which, with every pull, drains water at 1,000 gallons per round.

However, here's the kick: the door on the other side won't open until there's sufficient pressure on the floor. Thus, the PCs must stay in the room until the water gets up to, say, ten feet. When it does, the floor opens, the water drains, and the door opens.

ALTERNATE: Could have the floor push down as a cool way to reveal a specific door or region of the dungeon.

[Olo Demonsbane]

When in doubt, I add one (or more) of the following to a monster to make it vastly more useful:

Monster of Legend template. This not only greatly increases a monster's offensive and defensive ability (+5 hp per level, +8 AC, +10 Str), but it gives it a few special abilities that can be used to counter a particularly overpowered player while still giving the others time to shine.

Swordsage 2. The monster gets light armor, Wis to AC, the elite array, 2 stances, and a wide selection of maneuvers. Grab Shadow Jaunt, Counter Charge, Burning Blade, and Moment of Perfect Mind (or whatever, depends on your level) and you have a much more versatile monster.

Warblade 1. Grab the elite array, a bonus to saves, medium armor, and some maneuvers.

Wizard 1/Cleric 1. The wizard dip gives you abrupt jaunt, which can extend a monster's longevity by a good amount. The cleric dip gives you Knowledge devotion (so you can actually do something with those skill points), Law Devotion, and the Travel Domain for easy escaping.

EDIT: Bob the DM, I greatly disagree with you. It's in the DM's arsenal to cheat, but it shouldn't be something he does regularly; otherwise the players get wind of it and it feels like railroading; if you cheat to save a character's life, you not saving a different character's life feels like you killing that character on purpose. I have cheated twice in my career as a DM, and with proper planning it shouldn't need to happen more than that.

[Dralnu]

EDIT: Bob the DM, I greatly disagree with you. It's in the DM's arsenal to cheat, but it shouldn't be something he does regularly; otherwise the players get wind of it and it feels like railroading; if you cheat to save a character's life, you not saving a different character's life feels like you killing that character on purpose. I have cheated twice in my career as a DM, and with proper planning it shouldn't need to happen more than that.

Depends what you mean by cheating. For example, the last game I ran was The Forgotten Forge for level 1's. The boss of the module crit'd the druid PC and rolled for nearly max damage, instantly dropping the druid from full HP to dead. The druid did nothing wrong, his tactics were sound, and he had no choice but to fight, yet one stupid attack ended his character right then and there. As a DM, I wish I'd had just cheated and said it didn't crit, or brought him down into the negatives instead.

There's also other kinds of cheating I do now and then. I make stuff up on the fly that isn't in my campaign notes. For example, sometimes NPC wizards will have a spell prepared that I didn't think of earlier, either to aid the PCs or, if fighting them, to get the NPC out of a non-dramatic early demise. Or if my players become overly cautious when entering my forest of eternal darkness and DOOM, then I'll remove/change prepared traps on the fly to keep them on their toes.

Cheating? Sure is. But I'd argue it's for a better story. I'm pretty sure it even says in the DMG somewhere that as the DM you shouldn't be a slave to mechanics or prepared notes because it can limit you.



On another note, if this thread takes off, I'd love to sig it. Let's see this expand!

EDIT: Thurbane's sig has a bunch of useful links for DMs.
Simple Q&A D&D 3.5 (by RAW) XVII (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189980)
A guide to free D&D (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=1109.0)
Consolidated Lists Archive (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/lists)
Cleric Domain List (http://home.comcast.net/~ftm3/ASMoNM/domains.html)
d20 Abilities Calculator (http://rpg.ekkaia.org/dnd/abilities.php)
d20 Town Generator (http://www.gamegroup.org/gameaids/randomville.php)
DM Tools (http://www.dmtools.org/)
Javascript D&D 3.5 Char. Gen. (http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm)

[WinWin]

A discussion on CR and Encounter levels. Examples of over/under CR'ed monsters are good, but tips for spotting problem monsters would be more useful IMHO.

Discussion of associated and non associated class levels. Particularly as it relates to CR and challenging parties of varying strengths. eg Frost Giant Sorcerers vs. Frost Giant Warblades & challenge vs. rewards of such encounters.

Other vagiaries of CR, such as CR1 level 1 human fighters vs. CR1 level 4 kobold adepts.

[Bob the DM]

I couldn't disagree more. The game always takes precidence. As a dm, dice are a choice by nessecity. You have to control the ebb and flow of the game and you need to set an exciting pace. A long run of good or bad luck can ruin what would otherwise be a fun, entertaining and/or tense encounter. The one of the big tricks to being a good DM is knowing when to tweak your numbers and by how much, and when to just let the chips fall where they may.

Edit: anywho another good trick is to have variable monster hp. Use class levels/monster manual stat lines as a guide, but feel free to adjust as nessissary. You can always add hp to prolong a fight or end a fight quicker with simple math based on what they might have rolled instead of taking the average.

You should also use things like sunder to destroy your pc's weapons/equipment ocasionaly, so you can deck out you monsters without worrying about how much gear the pc's will get. It'll make your combats more realistic if the npc fighter smashes it's opponant's weapon, or headband/amulet and you know that if the pc's survive they'll get other gear.

[Olo Demonsbane]

I couldn't disagree more. The game always takes precidence. As a dm, dice are a choice by nessecity. You have to control the ebb and flow of the game and you need to set an exciting pace. A long run of good or bad luck can ruin what would otherwise be a fun, entertaining and/or tense encounter. The one of the big tricks to being a good DM is knowing when to tweak your numbers and by how much, and when to just let the chips fall where they may.

While these are good points, a DM needs to use this in moderation. I have a DM who never comes up with a monster's hp before the encounter, preferring to have the monster die once it has done enough damage to the party. While it does lead to good, entertaining, tense encounters, as a player, I find this extremely frustrating. I like having my actual optimization and skill to have some effect, in addition to the dice rolls.

While I agree that a DM can and should cheat, I believe it should be used extremely sparingly. Because, as a player, I enjoy getting a critical hit and killing a monster in one hit. I enjoy unleashing some new power that works horribly well against the current encounter. And while it wouldn't be fun if every encounter was like this, if the DM cheats here, I feel gyped.

On a related note, I like feeling that this balance exists overall, and that the fact that my character decided to take Improved Toughness over Iron Will actually made a difference. For that to happen, my character needs to be driven to the brink of death, needs to get dominated, and needs to, however occasionally, die. If the DM doesn't usually play by the rules, it goes from a game of skill and luck to a glorified improv session.

This is all IMHO, and I didn't mean to cause offense or anything. This is just from my personal experience, as well as that of my group.

Back on topic: Know the rules for nonassosciated class levels and (ab)use them. Throwing a number of wizard levels on a big melee brute turns him into an interesting gish, and without raising his CR too high.

Furthermore, adding some low level casters at the party as support for larger monsters, particularly if they use buffs and no save debuffs, can really increase the challenge for a small bump in challenge rating. For instance, a CR 15 monster supported by 4 level 9 casters is a CR 16 encounter. If they're all packing different spells, the enemies have a huge tactical advantage for a 1 CR boost.

[Saintheart]

Again, many thanks, guys, for all the input thus far. I do intend to start up the thread, but it's just a bit down the list on real life issues at the moment. :smallwink: Please keep adding! :)

[NecroRick]

Depends what you mean by cheating. For example, the last game I ran was The Forgotten Forge for level 1's. The boss of the module crit'd the druid PC and rolled for nearly max damage, instantly dropping the druid from full HP to dead. The druid did nothing wrong, his tactics were sound, and he had no choice but to fight, yet one stupid attack ended his character right then and there. As a DM, I wish I'd had just cheated and said it didn't crit, or brought him down into the negatives instead.


Eberron has action points. One of the things you can do instead of dying is to spend an action point to go to -9 and be stable.

------------------------

Tactics: formation fighting



====
oo
Key:
= wall
o monster

The monsters in the above diagram cannot be flanked so long as they stay next to the wall.



=
o=
= =sorry if the ascii art fails, but this monster _also_ cannot be flanked. Every pair of opposite squares has an obstacle or friendly troop in it.

It has implications for troop placement



xx
oxxo
xx
Even in open ground only the o's can be flanked, and only by people willing to stand next to 3 attackers for the privilege



xx
xxxx
xxxx
xxnone here can be flanked. Depending on your rules interpretation you could even take out the middle 4



xx
x x
x x
xx

If the guys in the back have missile weapons or perhaps reach weapons, then they can still participate

[Bob the DM]

Another neat trick is to have npcs use caracters in very clever ways. Play out a modify memory spell when someone goes item shopping so they don't realize that it's been cast, or introduce someone as a friend they haven't seen in a long time if a wizard approches them with a silenced/stilled charm person.

That quest your npc villain wants the pc's to enbark on for no good reason? A planar ally type spell combined with the dream spell is a good one.

Don't try to restrict classes or abilities, just work around them in a realistic manner. Let the charger with shock trooper one shot someone, and then have the other npcs charge and power attack him with his low ac. Make good use of counterspelling to tie up the wizard, even for a few rounds. Big boss is a necromancer? Flesh Golems are fun minions, instead of just undead. Use classes like ninjas that can turn invisible and attack for extra damage, or turn invisible then move out of sight and actually hide to throw people for a loop. Occasionaly have teams of two with the mage hunter feats to flank wizards so the can't '5 foot step' out of threat range.

You don't have to specifically target players with effective builds to be effective, just remember that npcs who aren't mindless will react and alter their tactics as the battle progresses.

In addition to complementary classes/monsters, your npc's can also be given complementary feats/weapons so they work well as a team. Picture the macedonian phalanx with their 15-20 foot spears, the greek hoplites with their mssive broze sheilds or the Roman legionnaires working as one. The shield wall/counter charging feats work great. What important caster wouldn't have someone who's only task is to keep melee fighters out of range. There's no reason that a vampire wouldn't "pretend to be turned" in order to draw in an opponant.

Creativity will always trump mechanics. If you as a dm are creative your players will likely try to emmulate it too. If you reward that kind of behaviour you probably won't even need to worry about mechanically overpowered pc's as often as you worry you might.

[Saintheart]

Picture the macedonian phalanx with their 15-20 foot spears, the greek hoplites with their mssive broze sheilds or the Roman legionnaires working as one. The shield wall/counter charging feats work great.

Somebody did just that! (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=4963.0)

[Dusk Eclipse]

Ra's al Ghul guide to improve monster (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11476.0) <- I think this might be an useful link for the guide