0:00

Today on the Lazy RPG talk

0:02

show, we're going to look at

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the free 5E Kickstarter. We're also

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going to look at the alien

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RPG Kickstarter that's going on. Are

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there new minis for Sigil? We

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have a little bit of news

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about the 5.2 system reference document

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for D&D 2024. Memoirs of Adrockilage.

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I am going to talk about

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my experiences having run the CR-17

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droplets from the 2025 monster manual.

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What happened and what ways would

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I modify it in the future?

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Today's tip is going to be

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slow, medium, and fast monster initiative.

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And we're going to cover more

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questions from the Patreon Q&A all

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today on the Lazy RPG talk

0:42

show. I'm Mike Shea, your pal,

0:44

from Sly Flurge, here to talk

0:46

about all things in tabletop role-playing.

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The Lazy RPG talk... is brought

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to you by the patrons of

0:52

Sly Flurish. Patrons get access to

0:54

all kinds of tips, tricks, tools,

0:56

a whole bunch of scenarios, a

0:58

whole bunch of adventures, downloadable tools

1:00

that you can run yourself to

1:03

help you run your games, a

1:05

whole separate podcast, access to our

1:07

wonderful Lazy DM community overrun discord,

1:09

and patrons support me directly in

1:12

putting on shows like this to

1:14

the patrons of Sly Flurish. Thank

1:16

you so much for your outstanding

1:19

support. My pal Dale over at

1:21

Wormworks is doing free fively and

1:23

it's a wonderful a wonderful idea.

1:25

The idea here is to take

1:28

the various system reference documents that

1:30

exist for 5E, which include the 5.1

1:32

SRD published by Wizards of the Coast,

1:34

the level up advanced 5E system reference

1:36

document published by EN World Publishing, my

1:38

own lazy GM documents that I have

1:40

released under the Creative Commons, and more,

1:42

and put them together into a full

1:44

role-playing system. So if you actually look

1:46

at the system reference documents, they are

1:48

missing a lot of what you need

1:50

to actually run the game if you

1:52

were going to sit down and run

1:54

the game. They don't have any of

1:56

the instructions on how to do it.

1:59

They don't have any. advice on how

2:01

to do it. It's just the rules. It's

2:03

very very basic because it's not intended to

2:05

be a system. It's not intended to do

2:07

you take the SRT and you run games

2:10

with them. They are intended to help publishers

2:12

publish games with them. So what Dale is

2:14

doing is he's taking these, he's putting these

2:16

all together and then releasing all of it

2:19

under a Creative Commons license. In other words,

2:21

we will have a full version of 5V,

2:23

a full RPG, not a system reference document,

2:26

but a full RPG released under a Creative

2:28

Commons license. Some of the advantages of that

2:30

mean that it can be... very easily transferred

2:32

into different formats, both formats that make it

2:35

easier for people to use, but also formats

2:37

that make it far more accessible for people

2:39

with better vision impaired, you know, all different

2:41

kinds of systems to make it easier for

2:44

people who typically don't have good access to

2:46

the materials to make it easier for people

2:48

who typically don't have good access to the

2:50

materials that we do or have trouble with

2:53

the kind of format that we're using for

2:55

a lot of these material. You can grab

2:57

the text and off you go. So he

3:00

is going to be releasing it under many

3:02

of these versions, including Braille and Markdown and

3:04

EPUB and Word documents and PDFs and everything

3:06

else. And then also making versions that are

3:09

locally printable. So across the world, the economy

3:11

for individual countries can vary drastically. An example

3:13

is a player's handbook in India costs about

3:15

$500 US. That's kind of the equivalent. Imagine

3:18

you went to a game shop and you

3:20

wanted to play 5E, you want to play

3:22

D&D 2024, and it costs you $1,500. That's

3:25

sort of the way it is now in

3:27

India. But if you are able to take

3:29

the free version and print it at your

3:31

local printer, you're paying local, the local costs

3:34

for it, which could be significantly less because

3:36

you're doing it local using your local economy

3:38

rather than trying to print off of a

3:40

Western economy in a country that doesn't sit

3:43

on a Western system. So it makes the

3:45

entire 5E system more accessible. the world in

3:47

so many ways. So as a Kickstarter though,

3:50

it's a little weird because the way we're

3:52

typically used to kick starters is you go

3:54

to Kickstarter and you back the Kickstarter and

3:56

you get the product. In this case, you

3:59

are funding the development of a free product

4:01

that's going to be given to everybody. So

4:03

when you look at the actual rewards that

4:05

you're getting, the rewards are not these books,

4:08

because everyone's gonna get these books. Instead, it's

4:10

things like dice trays, bookmarks, key chains, printable

4:12

cards, pens, all different kinds of accessories that

4:14

you can get that are really there to

4:17

kind of remind you about why we love

4:19

this game and what we love about this

4:21

game. But you're already gonna be getting access

4:24

to the whole thing. So this is much

4:26

more, instead of you sort of pre-purchasing a

4:28

product, this actually gets far more like the

4:30

original Kickstarter idea of like funding an idea,

4:33

funding a human being to help them with

4:35

an idea, rather than buying a product. And

4:37

the next Kickstarter we talk about in a

4:39

minute here is definitely of the side of

4:42

like buying a product. And that's how I

4:44

do it too. I'm not bashing that that's

4:46

the way it's done, but we are kind

4:49

of used to a new model of Kickstarter,

4:51

which is essentially like a pre-order campaign. In

4:53

some cases, like in the case of the

4:55

end world, the product's already done. In my

4:58

case, like the whole book was written and

5:00

was already going, the whole book was written

5:02

and was already going, and was already going

5:04

through editing. I think we were a good

5:07

chunk through editing, but I hadn't yet funded

5:09

like art and getting everything stuff. In this

5:11

case, we're actually back in the idea. And

5:14

the idea is making 5E accessible to everybody.

5:16

You've heard me talk about 5E as a

5:18

platform. You know, that 5E is no longer

5:20

one single game system. 5E isn't just D&D.

5:23

5E is now a wide range of different

5:25

stuff. And it's all an open platform. And

5:27

this is an example of taking that and

5:29

saying here is the reference level version of

5:32

5E that still remains completely open, completely open,

5:34

and how we're using it. lot of my

5:36

material is in this book, but the material

5:38

that is in this book is material that

5:41

was taken from my system reference documents. I

5:43

have been talking to Dale for a while

5:45

about this. He convinced me to take parts

5:48

of fantastic adventures, including the first sample adventure

5:50

and the description of White Sparrow, so that

5:52

there's actual like a playable town and a

5:54

playable adventure. also released under a Creative Commons

5:57

license. So you can actually build off of

5:59

them, rather than not only can you take

6:01

those adventures and copy them and move them

6:03

wherever you want, send them to your friends

6:06

or whatever, you can expand them yourself and

6:08

you don't ever have to come to me

6:10

for permission. And those are going to be

6:13

in these books as well. So you can

6:15

see what's going on here. You can find

6:17

a link down in the show notes. This

6:19

is definitely, I think, a really good cause.

6:22

I know Dale has done a lot of

6:24

other campaigns. His heart is in the right

6:26

place. This is a fantastic way to support

6:28

the RPG hobby, I think. And I'm a

6:31

huge fan. So take a look. Link is

6:33

down in the show notes for it. And

6:35

you can take a look at the free

6:38

5E. Kickstarter going on and help support a

6:40

true open version of 5V. I mean free

6:42

in a lot of different ways. Free is

6:44

in, you can go download them for free

6:47

and use them, but free is also and

6:49

you can take that material and you can

6:51

build off of it. Other people can build

6:53

off of it. People in other countries can

6:56

build off of it and build their own

6:58

product lines. It's a really great way to

7:00

have this open so that no one group

7:02

is in control of what this system can

7:05

do. Fantastic, fantastic project. The Alien RPG certainly

7:07

doesn't need my help. It is doing very

7:09

well. 1.6 million dollars on the new Alien

7:12

RPG evolved edition. This is definitely, wow, I

7:14

just watch it and the numbers are going

7:16

up. 8,000 backers so far, 18 days to

7:18

go. I haven't backed it yet. I'm probably

7:21

going to back it and I'm probably going

7:23

to get the starter set, because the starter

7:25

set looks really cool. I like it a

7:27

lot. And I think that like, as RPGs,

7:30

like as RPGs. I think that from what

7:32

I've heard the system that they use is

7:34

a really fun system. I have not played

7:37

it myself, but I think I think it

7:39

looks really cool. And obviously lots of people

7:41

think it's really cool. So this is a

7:43

whole new version of the Alien RPG, available

7:46

from Free League. Again, they're doing very, very

7:48

well. And just in case you are interested,

7:50

look at that starter set. Yeah, I got

7:52

it. You know, look at all this stuff

7:55

in there. I got to buy that. I

7:57

got to, you know, I'm going to back

7:59

it. I'm definitely going to back it. Am

8:02

I have two different accounts for back? Okay,

8:04

okay, I'm on my backer account. I'm on

8:06

my backer account. One of the things I

8:08

don't like that Kickstarter does is Kickstarter will

8:11

let followers of yours know what things you've

8:13

backed. And I don't necessarily want to promote

8:15

everything that I back, because I back all

8:17

kinds of stuff. So I don't want to

8:20

say, if I'm going to promote it, I'm

8:22

going to do what I'm doing right now.

8:24

I'm going to talk about it on my

8:26

show. I don't want my act of... backing

8:29

a kickstarter to be promotion for that kickstarter

8:31

when I don't even know, you don't know

8:33

why I backed it. I could be back

8:36

in for a dollar just because I'm like,

8:38

want to watch the paint dry or I

8:40

want to watch trains run into buildings. I

8:42

don't know why I'm backing it, I don't

8:45

know why I'm backing it, I'm back in

8:47

the buildings. I don't know why I'm backing

8:49

it, or I don't know why I'm backing

8:51

trains, or run into buildings, or I don't

8:54

know why I'm backing why I'm backing I'm

8:56

back trains, or run into buildings, or run

8:58

into buildings, or run into buildings, or running,

9:01

why I'm backing why I'm backing why I'm

9:03

backing why I'm backing why I'm back, or

9:05

run into buildings, or running, why I'm backing

9:07

why I'm backing why I'm back, why I'm

9:10

back, why I'm back, why I'm back, why

9:12

I'm back, or run into, why I'm back,

9:14

why I'm backing, or buy a product, a

9:16

physical product, unless I'm pretty sure I'm going

9:19

to run it. But this looks really good,

9:21

and it looks like a good deal. So

9:23

I'm going to pick it up.

9:25

New miniatures for sigil? As I

9:27

mentioned, I think last week or

9:29

the week before, we found out

9:31

that it was like 90% of

9:34

the development team is like, I

9:36

think. 27 out of 30 members

9:38

of the development team that were

9:40

working on Sigil, the 3D virtual

9:42

table for D&D, were fired and,

9:44

or I'm sorry, separated from the

9:46

company, I think is how they

9:48

said it. And then like all

9:50

of a sudden we start to

9:52

see 3D miniatures like the mimic

9:54

being promoted for Sigil. Why? I

9:56

don't understand. Clearly. the

9:58

investment of that

10:00

is no longer

10:02

there. Why would you

10:04

spend, you know, I know this

10:07

kind of like, I'm running my own, my wife

10:09

and I run this life lawyer's empire and we

10:11

have a company. One the things we know about

10:13

is that you have a marketing budget. The marketing

10:15

budget isn't just money, it's sort of the how

10:17

much marketing of what kind of things you wanna

10:19

do. If I blasted you with marketing all the

10:21

time, you'd never follow me. You'd never wanna hear

10:23

anything I have to say. So we know that

10:25

like we only have so much of your attention.

10:27

And if we wanna show you a new thing

10:29

we've made, we wanna focus that on the thing

10:31

that we want you to get. Why would you

10:33

focus on the thing that you just killed? Why

10:35

would you spend your marketing

10:38

capital here, your attention economy, showing

10:40

off 3D miniatures for things that are already dead? I

10:43

guess it's because they were done and you might

10:45

as well put them out there, but do

10:47

you really want anybody investing in Sigil, including like

10:50

me, to go there and use Sigil? Would

10:52

I wanna do that? I don't understand. So that

10:54

was really confusing. And then people brought up,

10:56

hey, you now have the animal packs for Sigil.

10:58

And by the way, they are quote unquote

11:00

unpainted. Why

11:02

are they unpainted? Why do you

11:04

have unpainted miniatures? Is this

11:06

to truly capture every

11:09

aspect of your tabletop

11:11

role -playing game, including

11:13

the shame that you have of

11:15

not having yet painted your miniatures and

11:17

having to put a gray

11:19

miniature on the table, breaking the

11:21

illusion that your players have,

11:24

disappointing your players with your lack

11:26

of commitment for having not

11:28

painted your minis. We wanna capture

11:30

that and put that in

11:32

our 3D version as well so

11:35

that you are filled with

11:37

the same shame of putting a

11:39

gray unpainted miniature on your

11:41

table. And then there's the big

11:43

question. Where's my gold dragon?

11:46

If you recall during when the D

11:48

&D 2024 books were on pre -order

11:50

and D &D Beyond, one of the

11:52

pre -order exclusives that you could get

11:54

was a 3D model of the gold

11:56

dragon that would be available to

11:58

you in Sigil. I remember many

12:00

people when they heard about Sigil's demise

12:03

cried out, where's your gold dragon? To

12:05

which, I will now apply that if

12:07

Wizards of the Coast does not immediately

12:09

release the ancient gold dragon in a

12:12

downloadable, self-hostable, docker that I can then

12:14

download and put on my raspberry pie

12:16

so that I can open it up

12:19

in my own local browser window without

12:21

having to go to the man to

12:23

be able to look at my gold

12:25

dragon mini and just spin it around

12:28

and look at it. and examine, then

12:30

it will be an outrage. I'll be straight.

12:32

I have been, I missed, I forgot to do

12:34

that joke when Sigil was out, the

12:36

idea that Wizards should immediately create a

12:38

downloadable self-hostable docor installation so I can

12:40

put my Gold Dragon mini on my

12:42

raspberry pie. I forgot to do that

12:44

joke, and I was sad that I

12:46

forgot to do that joke. So I

12:48

was very happy to see them put

12:50

out advertisements. for 3D minis for a

12:52

platform that is now defunct, just so

12:54

I could do that segment, just so

12:56

I could do that joke. The answer

12:58

is I don't really care about any

13:00

of this. The answer is, I mean,

13:02

I don't know. I sit and leave it

13:05

up and running. I'm not sure. People can

13:07

do it. But I, you know, it cracked

13:09

me, it cracked me up that they were

13:11

marketing minis for a system where like literally,

13:14

like, I could see like it a little

13:16

while. The ink isn't dried dried yet on

13:18

the ink as dried yet on the news,

13:20

on the news that 27, that 27 people

13:22

lost their jobs, lost their jobs. Andy Collins

13:25

who worked there twice got fired twice. Sad,

13:27

right? These are people's lives. And then you

13:29

immediately put up like an ad for, oh,

13:31

we still have this mimic mini. You're

13:33

like, for what? Why are you

13:35

doing this? And then I love the

13:38

unpainted miniatures. That

13:40

just cracked me up. And then

13:42

I got the opportunity. So thank

13:44

you. I'm sorry you had to

13:47

listen to that. More joke about

13:49

me. by the way, then a joke

13:51

about them. I don't really want that.

13:53

I'm good. I'm good. Thank you. I thought

13:55

that was funny. So thank you

13:57

for putting up with my super. long

14:00

joke. But let's talk about something that

14:02

I do think matters. And that is

14:04

whether or not we're going to see

14:06

a 5.2 S.R.D. The good news is,

14:08

this is really the new. You want

14:11

the news? This is the news. The

14:13

news is that over on the D&D

14:15

Beyond form, you can find a link

14:17

if you want to see it, there

14:19

was a conversation about the 5.2 S.2.

14:21

The system reference document published by Wizards

14:24

of the Coast that will cover the

14:26

new rules for D&D. What it's going

14:28

to have in it, we don't know.

14:30

Is it going to be as expansive

14:32

as the original one was? We can

14:34

hope so. I would assume so, but

14:37

we'll see. But mostly, when is it

14:39

coming? And the answer is we don't

14:41

know. And the answer is it doesn't

14:43

sound like they really know either. They

14:45

had mentioned quote unquote weeks, and then

14:48

people are saying, it's been weeks. Where

14:50

is it? I said it on the

14:52

show last week. So people have been

14:54

talking about on D&D Beyond. I guess

14:56

there's been a couple of YouTube videos

14:58

where people have been talking about it

15:01

as well. But Latia, who is the

15:03

community manager for D&D, a Wizards of

15:05

the Coast employee, had this quote, which

15:07

I think is important. That being said,

15:09

and I'm taking one part of a

15:11

quote, where she was mostly talking about

15:14

what weeks, and I don't think we

15:16

need to get in the conversation of

15:18

weeks. Right? I don't think that's the

15:20

important part. The important part is this.

15:22

That being said, though we are still

15:24

on track to release within weeks of

15:27

the monster manual, there is much work

15:29

being done to make sure the SRT

15:31

is just the right for the community

15:33

and you will get to see it

15:35

soon. They are still committing to releasing

15:37

the 5.2 SRT. That to me is

15:40

the news. Do I need it like

15:42

right now? No. The only urgency for

15:44

this is Wizards Wizards has a tendency

15:46

of sometimes changing their minds and they

15:48

shift direction and I don't want them

15:50

to shift direction before they commit to

15:53

the thing that they said they were

15:55

going to do. So I am looking

15:57

forward to it and I am glad

15:59

to hear. I had heard this as

16:01

well. I had heard from other folks

16:03

that they really are interested in putting

16:06

out the five... I had mentioned this

16:08

last time too when I brought it

16:10

up that it is definitely in Wizard's

16:12

interest to put out a 5.2 S.R.D.

16:14

because they want people to develop for

16:16

D&D 2024 because they want more material,

16:19

they clearly are interested in third party

16:21

material for D&D 24 and clearly are

16:23

interested in third party material for D&D

16:25

24 and 2014 because they continue to

16:27

publish it on D&D beyond. So if

16:29

they put at the 5.2 Surd, to

16:32

D&D Beyond. That is definitely in their

16:34

best interest. In our interest, it's good

16:36

because it means another great big rule

16:38

set that's 5E compatible that will be

16:40

open in the Creative Commons that we

16:42

can use to make all different kinds

16:45

of things. So it's valuable, I think,

16:47

to everybody. How does it matter for

16:49

DEMs? I've heard some people saying, like,

16:51

I don't care, why does a 5.2SRD

16:53

matter to me, matter to me as

16:55

a DEM? It matters to you because

16:58

you are going to see more material

17:00

that you can. Essentially what this is,

17:02

when you look at what a 5.2

17:04

SRT is, and there's still people that

17:06

argue about whether you need one at

17:08

all, and it's a reasonable argument. But

17:11

the one part about it is if

17:13

they release it, you know that they

17:15

know that they've released it. So you

17:17

know that they're not going to come

17:19

after you if you use Lingo, that

17:21

sounds like something that you would have

17:24

found in DD 2024. There are a

17:26

lot of publishers, and I've talked to

17:28

many of them, who are worried about

17:30

getting smushed by Wizards of the Coast

17:32

if they go too far. Well, in

17:34

this case, if they publish this, we

17:37

are saying you can do whatever you

17:39

want with. You can build tools around

17:41

it. You can convert it into different

17:43

formats. You can send it around to

17:45

players so they have lots of material

17:47

or they haven't to buy anything. You

17:50

can build products off of it. You

17:52

can take pieces of it and use

17:54

it wherever you want. There's a lot

17:56

of advantages and a lot of those

17:58

advantages directly impact DMs because you get

18:00

tools from different providers. You get a

18:03

PDF that you can send to your

18:05

players so that they don't have to

18:07

download anything at all. get it in

18:09

different formats. You can get it in

18:11

a markdown to stick in your notes.

18:14

You can get it in all different

18:16

kinds of ways. And that comes from

18:18

the system reference documents. So it is

18:20

definitely a good thing for us. It

18:22

is also definitely a good thing for

18:24

Wizards of the Coast. I presume they're

18:27

very interested in it. And I'll be

18:29

honest, like I am in the thing

18:31

like any day I feel like we're

18:33

going to see it. And maybe I'm

18:35

wrong. There's one you can mark me

18:37

on. I'm not going to pick a

18:40

date. I think I have a bet

18:42

on those Slifler's Discord server that will

18:44

be out, I think, by June. But

18:46

I would, you know, I'm waiting around.

18:48

I expect that any one day we're

18:50

going to see a thing come up.

18:53

But it's a big deal. Think about

18:55

it from their side on this. And

18:57

one of the things is if they

18:59

released it, it's done. They had released

19:01

the old one. characters from intellectual property

19:03

that you know they didn't really want

19:06

to release and they ended up in

19:08

the system reference document by accident almost

19:10

certainly. So they want to be careful

19:12

about what they are putting in there

19:14

because once you put it and I

19:16

know this because I put out stuff

19:19

in the Creative Commons I double and

19:21

triple check this stuff that I put

19:23

out stuff in the Creative Commons I

19:25

double and triple check this stuff that

19:27

I put out this stuff that I

19:29

put out this stuff in the Creative

19:32

Commons I double and triple check this

19:34

stuff that I put in there. I

19:36

really hope to see it soon. But

19:38

I'm glad to hear the main thing

19:40

about this that I think is a

19:42

good deal, is they are still doing

19:45

it. This past week, I ran the

19:47

CR-17 Droccalich from the D&D 2025 Monster

19:49

Manual. and I wanted to offer some

19:51

notes, memoirs, I'm calling it memoirs of

19:53

a drachalich. I ran the drachalich and

19:55

I wanted to talk about it. So

19:58

the drachalich is a CR-17 monster. I

20:00

ran it against five tenth level characters.

20:02

Now according to my own encounter building

20:04

guidelines, that would be above deadly because

20:06

a single monster could potentially be deadly

20:08

if its challenge rating is higher than

20:11

150% of the average character level, according

20:13

to my... lazy encounter benchmark. I also

20:15

measured it using the encounter building guidelines

20:17

for the D&D 2024. Dungeon Master's Guide.

20:19

And what I learned from that is

20:21

that it is also above deadly. So

20:24

this was not a fair fight. The

20:26

drachalich against five 10th level characters was

20:28

not a fair fight. 12th level characters

20:30

it would have been. 11th, almost. 10th,

20:32

it's a little powerful. But I was

20:34

like, oh, the characters are powerful. These

20:37

are smart players. Everything would be fine.

20:39

Boy, was it hardcore. So I will

20:41

say this. So far, running higher challenge

20:43

rating monsters rating monsters from the DD'

20:45

2025 monster manual. Boy, do they hit

20:47

hard. I gave a lot of criticism

20:50

for many years about the D&D 2014

20:52

monster manual monsters not hitting at their

20:54

appropriate challenge rating, particularly at higher challenge

20:56

levels. I do not have that concern

20:58

anymore. And the funny thing is now

21:00

my concern kind of goes a little

21:03

bit in the other direction. And I'm

21:05

going to talk about why. There were

21:07

two things with this drochilage that made

21:09

it particularly deadly. And the first one

21:11

will surprise you. It was its initiative.

21:13

So I love that the 2025 monster

21:16

manual now includes static initiative in the

21:18

box that it tells you instead it

21:20

has initiative of plus 12 with a

21:22

parentheses that says 22. What's interesting is

21:24

why that one's plus 12 and 22

21:26

and then hit points are static but

21:29

then the dice equation is the optional.

21:31

So that's funny but whatever. But 22

21:33

for initiative is really high and when

21:35

I ran it it went before all

21:37

of the players did. And what this

21:40

meant was the players all walked into

21:42

the room. The drochlech won the initiative

21:44

and it blasted them with its necrotic

21:46

breath. The necrotic breath is a DC20

21:48

constitution saving throw for 52 necrotic damage

21:50

saved for half. Four of the five

21:53

characters failed their save and one of

21:55

the five made their save taking 26.

21:57

That was a total of 234 points

21:59

of damage on Turn 1. of round

22:01

one. The very first thing that happened

22:03

was all of the characters took 234

22:06

damage. and they had no ability to

22:08

do anything about it. There was no

22:10

opportunity to move, no opportunity to kind

22:12

of cast a spell to help protect

22:14

against it. They just immediately took 234

22:16

collective damage on turn one. that changed

22:19

the battle. And honestly, immediately upon taking

22:21

that, I went, oh my God, am

22:23

I just going to teepee them? Because

22:25

he hadn't even done his legendary actions

22:27

yet. And his legendary action is pounds

22:29

and rend, and bounce and rend, and

22:32

bounce and rend, which means he does

22:34

an additional 22, so 66 damage on

22:36

top of the 234. closing in, I

22:38

think, hitting exactly 300 damage on turn,

22:40

on round one. 300 damage at CR

22:42

17. That is, let's just do some

22:45

math here, 300 divided by 17. That's

22:47

17.6 damage per challenge rating. My benchmark

22:49

is seven per challenge rating. And now

22:51

that's circumstance. But the circuit, the drochlich

22:53

is particularly set up to inflict that

22:55

kind of circumstance, and that's because its

22:58

initiative is so high. So that's the

23:00

first lesson is I keep track of

23:02

that initiative and I honestly would change

23:04

it and I'm going to talk after

23:06

this about an idea I have for

23:08

slow medium and fast monsters for initiative

23:11

instead of using the initiative bonuses that

23:13

exist inside monsters or even static initiative

23:15

that you can instead decide when monsters

23:17

should go based on the story that

23:19

they've got or the circumstances and drop

23:21

them in at three different levels. I

23:24

would have done this for this. I

23:26

think a droch having an initiative of

23:28

15 would have been fine. But for

23:30

legendary monsters, it doesn't matter what their

23:32

initiative is, because they get legendary actions,

23:34

which means he could have started pouncing

23:37

and rending and pouncing and rending right

23:39

away anyway. He didn't need an initiative

23:41

of 22. And I would rather him

23:43

be lower in the initiative of order,

23:45

and I would rather him be lower

23:47

in the initiative of order, and do

23:50

those legendary actions first, and then set

23:52

up, and then breathe, and then the

23:54

characters have an opportunity to run around,

23:56

scramble, scramble, do stuff. or something like

23:58

that. So, you know, that blast is,

24:00

you know, that is a big deal.

24:03

Now, I was going to give you

24:05

a secret. I'm actually a pretty

24:07

bad GM in one particular area,

24:09

which is I forget to

24:11

read the stat block for

24:13

things. And I either selectively

24:16

forgot or actually forgot to

24:18

read about his life suppression

24:20

ability. Life suppression is creatures

24:22

within 60 feet of the

24:24

drachalich can't regain hit points.

24:26

60 feet. That is a huge,

24:28

as 12 squares out from the

24:30

dragon, the dragon is already four

24:32

squares. So that is a huge range

24:34

on the dragon's ability to stop

24:37

healing. If I had used that, I'd

24:39

a TP-kade those guys. Absolutely. I am confident.

24:41

If they had no ability to heal, and

24:43

it's so easy to move the droplet around

24:45

the area and make sure that no one

24:47

in it can heal, and 60 feet is

24:50

so big that it takes at least two

24:52

rounds for a character to get outside of

24:54

it to be able to heal, and your

24:56

healer needs to be outside of it. I

24:58

guess the healer can still be inside of

25:01

it and cast spells, but the person getting

25:03

healed has to be outside of it. Now

25:05

that's not a bad strategy, that's actually

25:07

kind of cool, but it's so big and

25:09

it's so much. So the second thing, the

25:11

second thing I would offer of running the

25:13

dropletch is instead of a 60-foot no heel,

25:15

I would turn it into a 30-foot half

25:17

heel. That's still tactically interesting. It still means

25:19

that characters have to move around to decide

25:21

how they're going to get healed. They still

25:24

get a little bit of healing, but they'll

25:26

get so little that the amount of damage

25:28

the drachlich does is just going to chew

25:30

right through it again anyway. So you're really

25:32

only getting enough healing till I get back

25:34

on your feet, but you're not going to

25:36

survive a hit, unless you manage to get

25:38

outside of the area, and then you can

25:40

take a big heel and actually get enough

25:42

hit points to heal. But I think that

25:44

60 foot was too big. So those are

25:46

the two immediate things that caught my attention

25:48

was the initiative, having an initiative so high

25:50

that he goes first is really not only

25:52

unfair to the players, but kind of boring

25:54

too, because they don't even get a chance

25:56

to do anything. You're really kind of taking

25:58

agency away by blasting them. with 234 points

26:00

of damage without them being able to do

26:02

anything at all. Hitting them with 234, when

26:05

they've had an opportunity to move around a

26:07

little bit and you can kind of skip,

26:09

now they're ready for it. But just hitting

26:11

them right away with 234, I know looking

26:13

across the table at them, they just felt

26:15

defeated. They were like, you know, why? Like,

26:17

it was kind of lame. So I really

26:19

think that like, even having the droch go

26:21

on a 10. and then bounce around and

26:24

pounce and do some other things, do with

26:26

terrifying presence and then hit him with a

26:28

breath, is a far more interesting pacing to

26:30

the game. I don't mind doing the 234.

26:32

I think you should do 234 after the

26:34

characters have moved around a bit. All right,

26:36

I think that changes the pacing in the

26:38

game and can make it far more interesting.

26:40

So that and the life suppression, I think

26:43

the life suppression is really, really rough. And

26:45

if you stack it with everything else it's

26:47

got, you could totally TBK a party, I

26:49

think, turning that into a 30-foot diameter, 30-foot

26:51

radius that halves the amount of healing you

26:53

can do. If you want to be hardcore,

26:55

you could still have it only not allow

26:57

people to heal within that. area, that's really

26:59

tough and you're in serious danger. Now one

27:02

other funny thing though is its hit points

27:04

is actually pretty low. 225 hit points is

27:06

CR 17 is below 15 per CR. 15

27:08

to 20 CR is my general idea for

27:10

how many hit points a monster should have.

27:12

225 is actually pretty low and I actually

27:14

beat it up to 300 but I also

27:16

put other creatures on the map that when

27:19

they were defeated did 50 damage to the

27:21

drochilage so they had ways to kind of

27:23

chew through its hit points. faster by hiding

27:25

other guys in the battle that I ran.

27:27

So of course you can sort of move

27:29

that 225. up and down depending if you

27:31

want. 225 might be good. You could say

27:33

like, is it a glass cannon? Like maybe

27:35

it's 225, but it's only going to last

27:38

a couple rounds. And it's only going to

27:40

last a couple rounds is good because no

27:42

one can heal. So everybody's getting down. So

27:44

perhaps like if you look at it as

27:46

exact design, maybe that's exactly how the design

27:48

is going to work. However, I do feel

27:50

like for me, I would rather have the

27:52

battle be a bit more epic than fast

27:54

and give it more. a lower initiative and

27:57

limit the ability of that life suppression. Otherwise,

27:59

wholly counted that thing hit hard. I just

28:01

wanted to offer up some of those thoughts

28:03

for running the drochalich. I will probably do

28:05

this with other D&D 2025 monsters, sort of

28:07

probably big monsters as I run them. Now

28:09

my my 2025 mix game where we're running

28:11

A5E, D&D 2024, and D&D 2014, and we

28:13

have all characters from all those sets in

28:16

this game, I'm running many more monsters at

28:18

higher levels and higher tier. They just hit

28:20

level 11, so they're gonna start to hit

28:22

a lot of tier three sort of monsters.

28:24

I will be more experiences like this like

28:26

this as we go as we go. I

28:28

actually think there's a new way that we

28:30

can treat initiative for monsters, that I'm going

28:32

to try out more, but I wanted to

28:35

share it here and get your thoughts on

28:37

it and see if it was something you

28:39

wanted to try at your table and we

28:41

see how it goes. And that idea is

28:43

this concept called slow medium and fast initiative.

28:45

So instead of... having monster's role for initiative,

28:47

you instead look at the monster and look

28:49

at the circumstance and decide, do they go

28:51

slowly, medium, or fast? Are they kind of

28:54

on the average? Are they slow? Are they

28:56

fast? And I treat this as 10, 15,

28:58

and 20. So a slow monster would be

29:00

an initiative of 10. A medium monster would

29:02

be an initiative of 15, and a fast

29:04

monster be initiative of 20. And you can

29:06

decide which initiative they move on. Maybe you

29:08

want to change that DC a bit. You

29:10

could go 510 and 15 if you wanted.

29:13

So, or you could even do 510, 15,

29:15

and 20 have a very fast. So slow

29:17

would be DC5, medium would be DC10, fast

29:19

would be DC15, and very fast would be

29:21

DC20. And what it lets you do is

29:23

it lets you space monsters out in the

29:25

initiative order. You don't have to roll. And

29:27

it treats it like. A difficulty class. It

29:30

actually treats it like the characters are doing

29:32

an ability check rather than rolling initiative. It's

29:34

like they're beating an initiative. If they beat

29:36

that DC, if they beat that DC, they

29:38

go ahead of it. If they don't beat

29:40

the DC, they go after it. It actually

29:42

reminds me a bit of the initiative from

29:44

Shadow of the Demon Lord. Shadow of the

29:46

Demon Lord had fast turns and slow turns.

29:49

They changed this in Shadow of the Weird

29:51

Wizard. Robert Schwab changes in shadow of the

29:53

weird wizard. But it was an interesting idea

29:55

that essentially do you want characters to do

29:57

less stuff quickly or more stuff but take

29:59

longer. And in this circumstance, you instead have

30:01

this base DC and it works. I've had

30:03

a joke for a long time, not really

30:05

a joke, I've actually done this, but my

30:08

players all knew it, that all the monsters

30:10

always went on DC12. I just picked DC12

30:12

and that was my default. I would say

30:14

DC12 and they would pick it. That works

30:16

really well. It gives a little bit of

30:18

an edge to the monsters, right? It makes

30:20

them a little bit higher. You could just

30:22

as easily say DC10 and it wouldn't be

30:24

a big deal. And if that's your medium

30:27

initiative, you say most monsters go on DC10.

30:29

Some people go before. But I have a

30:31

feeling because a lot of people take dexterity,

30:33

a lot of people have other kind of

30:35

bonuses to initiative that if you make DC10

30:37

the median, the medium, that a lot of

30:39

people are going to beat it most of

30:41

most of the most of the time. that

30:43

you're going to have players go a lot.

30:46

15 feels a little high to me, but

30:48

you could kind of probably say if you

30:50

were doing a harder game, you could have

30:52

monsters that tend to go ahead a little

30:54

bit more often by having them go on

30:56

a 15. I've kind of split the differences

30:58

go on at 15. I've kind of split

31:00

the differences to DC. But I want to

31:02

try this one a little bit more fast

31:05

initiatives and I don't know if I'm going

31:07

to do 510, I don't know if I

31:09

can default to see how it. and say

31:11

DC15 is the medium, and that means the

31:13

monsters are gonna go in the middle of

31:15

the pack most of the time, which is

31:17

really where I want them. I typically want

31:19

some characters to go, then the monsters go,

31:22

then some characters go, then some characters go.

31:24

That's sort of the pacing I want, so

31:26

I'm trying to drop it in the middle,

31:28

which is why 12 has worked out so

31:30

well for me. Maybe I'll just stick to

31:32

12. I don't know. But I wanted to

31:34

offer that up because I think it's a

31:36

really interesting way to kind of think about

31:38

monsters, look at them and say, oh, this

31:41

is a zombie, they're slow, they go on

31:43

five. Oh, this is like a quickling, a

31:45

quickling assassin, they go super fast, they go

31:47

on 20. And you can just pick that

31:49

5, 10, 15, and you can just pick

31:51

that 5, 10, 15, maybe default into 15,

31:53

maybe, you pick a number like 12, and

31:55

decide for yourself, and decide for yourself. But

31:57

I wanted to offer that for yourself. But

32:00

I wanted to offer that up. But I

32:02

wanted to offer that up. But I wanted

32:04

to offer that up. as a trick because

32:06

I think it is a really fun way

32:08

to go. Let's cover more patron questions. Every

32:10

quarter on the Sly Flurge Patreon, I post

32:12

a new thread. We have one coming up

32:14

here pretty soon. When we go to April,

32:16

we're gonna do our second quarter, Patreon, and

32:19

we go to April. We're gonna do our

32:21

second quarter, Patreon, but patrons can ask questions

32:23

all throughout the month, all throughout the quarter,

32:25

and I answer every question, every question, every,

32:27

on this show. James says, I play online

32:29

a bit as a player in one shots.

32:31

The dams are typically fine, but many times

32:33

the players drag the game, such as metagaming

32:35

or telling other players what to do. What

32:38

can I do in-game as a player or

32:40

as a DM? And when I DM a

32:42

one-shot with strangers, how do I mitigate, I'm

32:44

adding some words, how do I mitigate that

32:46

when I'm acting either as a DM or

32:48

a player? The first thing I would recommend

32:50

is that Ginny D, this is a particular

32:52

issue for online gaming that's different than in-person

32:54

gaming. And it has a lot to do

32:57

with how conversations take place online versus in-person.

32:59

In-person, we can have side conversations that don't

33:01

completely eat up. a table. If two people

33:03

are whispering to each other or pointing, that's

33:05

not going to distract from everybody else. Our

33:07

ears are able to kind of pick up

33:09

these things. Too much of it, though, too

33:11

much table chatter can be really grading for

33:14

people. And you could say, like, hey, can

33:16

you guys hold this, let's have this, let's,

33:18

let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, go. But

33:20

generally, there can be, really grading for people,

33:22

and you can say, like, like, can say,

33:24

hey, can you, can you guys, can you

33:26

guys, hold this, hold this, let's, let's, let's,

33:28

let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's,

33:30

let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's,

33:33

let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's,

33:35

let's, cross chatter and things like that. But

33:37

in online games, it's a far bigger problem.

33:39

A lot of us who played over Discord

33:41

or a lot of us who had like

33:43

online meetings and stuff, we learned about like

33:45

keeping your mouth shut when other people are

33:47

talking and we learned about the lag. And

33:49

there's certain behaviors, but unfortunately one of those

33:52

big behaviors is we all tend to shut

33:54

up. That those who are paying attention don't

33:56

say anything because we know that if we

33:58

talk over somebody else, we're gonna interrupt them.

34:00

So we try to wait until we have

34:02

that opportunity to learn until we're called upon.

34:04

Ginny D has a wonderful video where she

34:06

talked about this. Her title was Online D&D

34:08

Socks. The better time was how to make

34:11

online D&D suck less. She publishes four years

34:13

ago in the, I think it was right

34:15

in the height of COVID, where she offers

34:17

very good practical tips. So I highly recommend

34:19

this video. Very good practical tips for working

34:21

with your other players, for having like physical

34:23

signals that say it's your turn to talk,

34:25

other ways to kind of, you know, make

34:27

sure that you're talking to their groups, so

34:30

they're aware of this, all this

34:32

kind of stuff. So when you're

34:34

a player in a game, you

34:36

can talk to the GM and

34:38

say, hey, I'm having a really

34:40

hard time because we have people

34:42

talking over, you know, would you

34:44

be willing to implement some suggestions

34:46

like these and offer some suggestions?

34:48

Some suggestions, like these and offer

34:50

some suggestions. Some things you can

34:52

do are like have a text

34:54

chat where if somebody needs to

34:56

talk a text chat, rather than

34:58

in the main chat, or about life

35:00

events. and things like that. So any out-of-game

35:02

talk can happen then. Taking a break during

35:04

the game, having a 10-minute break, and letting

35:06

people chat during that 10-minute break can be

35:08

very valuable as well. So giving them those

35:10

pressure valves where they want to talk, particularly

35:13

because we're doing this for social experience, we

35:15

want to be able to talk. having those

35:17

breaks can really matter. Then having other kinds

35:19

of signals or ways to like raise your

35:21

hand, a lot of people swear by being

35:23

on camera so that you can see some

35:25

kind of body language with people to know

35:27

when it's their turn. If you don't have

35:29

that or you don't, not everybody's on a camera,

35:31

having some other like a text chat where somebody

35:33

can jump in and say, hey, I have something

35:35

I want to bring up here, stuff like that.

35:37

And then I implemented like pause for a minute,

35:39

like pause for a minute. you know, I have

35:41

an issue, can we talk about this issue, and

35:43

that everybody else should be quiet where you bring

35:45

up the issue, and then you can talk about

35:47

it, after it goes on. So there's a lot

35:49

of tricks like that, but mostly I would recommend

35:51

taking a look at Ginny D's video, it's a

35:53

fantastic video, it got almost a half a million

35:55

views, and it's a really, really good source. Delaney

35:57

says now that you spent time with all three,

35:59

if you... had to pick one, knowing that all

36:01

three have their pros and cons, which would

36:03

you choose? The D&D 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide,

36:06

the D&D 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, Level Up

36:08

Advance Fivee's Trials and Treasure, or The Tales

36:10

of the Valiant Game Master's Guide. So this

36:12

is really hard question for me, but I'm

36:14

going to answer it. And the answer is

36:16

probably the Level Up Advance Fivee Trials and

36:18

Treasure Guide. I feel like that book in

36:20

particular has the most stuff, the most table

36:22

usable stuff that I will reference over and

36:24

over again. But it is really close with

36:27

the Tales of the Valiant Game Master's Guide,

36:29

and I think that either of those books

36:31

do a good job. Each book has something

36:33

the other book doesn't have. So neither of

36:35

them are truly complete. I will say that

36:37

at this point, you're asking me, and it's

36:39

my own opinion, this is just like my

36:41

opinion, man, and just like my opinion, man,

36:43

is that both of those books are better

36:45

than the D&D 2014 and D&D 202024 Dungeon

36:48

Master's Guide. I think the D&D 2024 Dungeon

36:50

Master's Guide does an excellent job of walking

36:52

new game masters through the process of being

36:54

a game master. I like the rules references

36:56

a lot. There's a lot I like in

36:58

there. There's some advice I bristle on, but

37:00

everybody's got something they don't like. And there's

37:02

sections of the book that I think they

37:04

didn't really have to spend the time on.

37:06

It could have better spent time on other

37:09

things. But I do feel like they're missing

37:11

a lot of stuff in particular. There's no

37:13

random encounter tables in either the 2014 or

37:15

2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. The D&D 2024 Dungeon

37:17

Master's Guide lacks a lot of random dungeon

37:19

filler material and I really find that material

37:21

useful for helping me improvise locations when the

37:23

characters are traveling through like dungeons or caverns

37:25

or whatever. Tales of the Valiant Game Master's

37:27

Guide has an excellent section for that and

37:30

the Trials and Treasure Guide does not. So

37:32

when I said that like I like the

37:34

A5V Trials and Treasure Guide, I do, but

37:36

it's missing things like a random dungeon generator,

37:38

like a random dungeon, like that's like that.

37:40

a separate book and you didn't ask me

37:42

about separate books. you asked me about these

37:44

particular Game Masters guides. The Trials and Treasure

37:46

Guide has wonderful exploration, wonderful and detailed exploration

37:48

rules, lots of like cool things that the

37:51

characters might run into on their journeys, a

37:53

much better journey system than any of the

37:55

other books, and really good random encounter tables,

37:57

and a really good treasure system and random

37:59

treasure system and magic items in that book.

38:01

It is a very, very good book. The

38:03

Tales of the Valiant Game Masters Guide doesn't

38:05

have a treasure section. It doesn't have a

38:07

magic item section or it has a very

38:09

limited one because the Player's Guide has that.

38:12

So that's why I'm saying like these in

38:14

some way we're kind of comparing apples to

38:16

oranges. The Tales of the Valiant Game Master's

38:18

Guide though has much better optional rules for

38:20

lots of different circumstances guide though has much

38:22

better optional rules for lots of different circumstances.

38:24

And a lot of different circumstances guide though

38:26

has much better optional rules for the two

38:28

books and treasure. It has lots of stuff.

38:30

That said, I am running a Tales of

38:33

the Valiant game, and I use the Tales

38:35

of the Valiant Game Master's Guide, and it

38:37

works just fine. It's a very, very good

38:39

book. So it's very hard for me to

38:41

say, and I would say that two of

38:43

them are really, really close. The one thing

38:45

that sort of edges up trials and treasure

38:47

above is the very good detailed exploration system

38:49

that they have in there. And I think

38:51

a better random treasure tables, random treasure options

38:54

in trials and treasure than the Tales of

38:56

a Game Master game master's guide guide have.

38:58

But it. But it. But it hurts me

39:00

to say that. But it. Delaney, you have

39:02

brought me pain. Michael L. Mike L. says,

39:04

in combat, how do you motivate or give

39:06

options to PCs built around range weapon attacking

39:08

to do something other than stay put and

39:10

shoot? There is a carrot and stick approach

39:12

to this. The carrot is make interesting areas

39:15

for them to move to that offer them

39:17

a better spot than hugging the doorway. Hugging

39:19

the doorway is a major problem in encounters

39:21

in D20 games in general, certainly in 5E

39:23

games that I've run, where the characters open

39:25

a door and they just. in that doorway

39:27

and they just fire and they duck out

39:29

and they fire and they stay in the

39:31

hall and that way they can't. And you

39:33

have to do something. I usually, I literally

39:36

sometimes say the hallway is filling with fire.

39:38

Like you're gonna burn to death if you

39:40

stay in this hallway, you're gonna have to

39:42

run in that room. Sometimes I'll just literally

39:44

move their minis in the room, like I'll

39:46

just like shove them in, you know, and

39:48

be like you gotta move around. But there's

39:50

carrots and sticks and sticks. And the carrots

39:52

can be put positions out there put positions

39:54

out there that they put positions out there

39:57

that they want positions out there that they

39:59

want to that they want to that they

40:01

want to that they want to, that they

40:03

want to, that they want to, that they

40:05

want to. that are better than hugging the

40:07

doorway. Like high ground, where they can get

40:09

it, if they can get there, and it

40:11

might take them a round or two to

40:13

get there, but if they can get up

40:15

there, they get advantage on their attacks while

40:18

they're on the high ground above targets that

40:20

are in another area. That's a really extreme

40:22

one, because you're going to a couple of

40:24

targets that are in another area. That's a

40:26

really extreme one, because you're gonna give advantage

40:28

on another area. That's a really extreme one,

40:30

because you're gonna give advantage on, because you're

40:32

going to a couple of rounds, a couple

40:34

of rounds to a couple of rounds to

40:36

get a couple of rounds to get a

40:39

couple of rounds to get a couple of

40:41

rounds to get a couple of rounds to

40:43

get a couple of rounds to get a

40:45

couple of rounds to get a couple of

40:47

rounds, if they can. where if you're in

40:49

this arcane circle, even if you're not an

40:51

arcane class, you can do an extra D6

40:53

force damage on your ranged attacks if you

40:55

go over there. So then you kind of

40:57

move them in the room with these like,

41:00

oh, I want to get over these spots.

41:02

For rogues or rangers who are sneaking around,

41:04

cover, it works, it works really well. You

41:06

can set up positions of cover so that

41:08

like, oh, it's way better if I'm over

41:10

there. terrain elements that are advantageous to them

41:12

is a good one. And then there's the

41:14

stick, and the stick is you're all going

41:16

to get fireballed if you sit in that

41:18

corner. Right, like I'm gonna, you're gonna get

41:21

hit with area attacks, so they're all gonna

41:23

go, spread out, get away. So they all

41:25

kind of move away in order to not

41:27

get hit by big area attacks. You could

41:29

also have, like, I love Donodora's. Donodora is

41:31

a thing that I, I don't know if

41:33

I invented, I'm sure somebody else did, but

41:35

I give it the name Donodora, and I'm

41:37

pretty sure I haven't heard anybody else talk

41:39

about it. And I first figured this out

41:42

designing a officially published fourth edition monster published

41:44

by Wizards of the Coast was cryonax a

41:46

level 35 solo monster that right at the

41:48

end of of the fourth edition days. And

41:50

I gave Cryonax a donodora. And the donodora

41:52

was essentially an aura that surrounded him, where

41:54

if you were outside of the aura, you

41:56

were gonna die. You were gonna get shredded

41:58

by black ice. You know, he had this

42:00

unholy ice that was whirling around like a

42:03

storm around him. And you had to get

42:05

into the eye of the storm so as

42:07

not to get wrecked by the donodora. And

42:09

I think it had a 20 foot, or

42:11

like a, I think it was a 10

42:13

square range. So you had to be within

42:15

10 squares of him. And then when he

42:17

got bloodied, it turned into five squares. And

42:19

five squares was within the range of his

42:21

attacks, which meant by halfway through the fight,

42:24

he would be able to hit you with

42:26

melee attacks. Or you would get shredded by

42:28

his crazy donut aura. So if you can

42:30

find an in-world way to create a donut

42:32

aura, like I'm in my droplets fight this

42:34

past week, I said the whole, like the,

42:36

there were three hags that had, that had

42:38

cursed the droplets to make them a droplets.

42:40

It was a silver dragon that got conversant

42:42

to droplets, you got converted droplets by these

42:45

three hags. I'm trying to be as fast

42:47

as possible, talking into energy from other worlds,

42:49

three other worlds. before they fat the drachalich.

42:51

They were actually resurrected at the drachalich and

42:53

they had to fight him again. But the

42:55

walls were crumbling in and like tendrils from

42:57

other worlds, fiery tendrils and weird things were

42:59

coming out, which meant the hallways and everything

43:01

behind them. were impossible, like you would get

43:03

shredded and killed and grabbed by tentacles and

43:06

would be really bad. And I just had

43:08

to describe that. And the players all like

43:10

rolled their eyes at me and then ran

43:12

into the room, but they knew like, oh,

43:14

this is Mike's Donut aura, so that we

43:16

have to go into the room. So it

43:18

doesn't matter, like, they have to go into

43:20

the room. So it doesn't matter, like, you

43:22

know, they have mechanics, I have mechanics. And

43:24

you know, but I came up with a

43:27

story reason why the whole rest of the

43:29

whole rest of the realm, the realm, and

43:31

why, and the realm, and they were, and

43:33

they were, and they were, and they were,

43:35

they were, they were, they were, they were,

43:37

they were, they were, they were, they were,

43:39

they were, they were, they were, they were,

43:41

they were, they were, they were, they were,

43:43

they were, they were, they were, they were,

43:45

they were, they were, they were, So

43:48

hopefully that helps Bravo T says you

43:50

recently mentioned that you would soon be

43:52

taking the opportunity to play quite a

43:55

bit of D&D 2024 I wanted to

43:57

see if you'd run into any trouble

43:59

with a new hide action during play

44:01

I have not, but I do recognize

44:03

that people have. Merrick Blackman wrote on

44:05

his blog, Merrick's Musings, about the difficulty

44:08

of the stealth rules in D&D 2024,

44:10

and that as written, they kind of

44:12

fall apart. And the idea, a lot

44:14

of it has to do with the

44:16

use of the word invisibility, that it

44:19

kind of creates invisibility, and it has

44:21

things like. you in order to have

44:23

the invisible condition you cannot be seen

44:25

but if you're behind three quarters cover

44:27

that means you can be seen so

44:29

you know there's like contradictory guidance in

44:32

the rules for how it works just

44:34

in Alexander So if you want to

44:36

read, I'm going to link to it

44:38

in the show, because I didn't do

44:40

like a detail, I'm not like a

44:43

super rules nerd. So I would recommend

44:45

taking a look at Merrick's explanation for

44:47

exactly what's wrong with the rules in

44:49

the book. They are, he's correct, they

44:51

are wrong. They just have these weird.

44:53

you know, weird things going on. Justin

44:56

Alexander wrote an article where he offers

44:58

his house rule version of how to

45:00

deal with this, which I think works

45:02

very well. He has, you know, kind

45:04

of very straight, and this is pretty

45:07

much what I've been doing. There's a

45:09

bit of like what the intention is,

45:11

what you think the intention is, versus

45:13

like what the rules specifically say. Right?

45:15

And so, Justin Alexander's version of it

45:17

is, you take the hide action. With

45:20

the hide action, with the hide action,

45:22

you try to prevent people from knowing

45:24

where you are. This is his replacement

45:26

for the hide action. With hide action,

45:28

you try to prevent people from knowing

45:31

where you are or possibly that you're

45:33

there at all. To do so, you

45:35

must be in a conceivable location, such

45:37

as being behind heavily obscured, three quarters

45:39

cover or total cover, or otherwise out

45:41

of the observers. with a passive wisdom

45:44

score lower than your check. If any

45:46

new observers ended in the area, you

45:48

also gain the hidden condition against them

45:50

if their passive wisdom perception check is

45:52

scored or lower. When an observer takes

45:55

the search action, this is people trying

45:57

to find them, they can. attempt a

45:59

wisdom perception check against the DC set

46:01

by the hidden character's dexterity stealth check.

46:03

You lose the benefits of the hidden

46:05

condition against any creature who succeeds at

46:08

the wisdom perception check or who can

46:10

otherwise see you because they're on the

46:12

same side of the wall or you're

46:14

hiding behind due to a magical fact,

46:16

for example. Observers remain aware of where

46:19

they last saw you or detected you.

46:21

Hidden is a condition. When you have the hidden

46:23

condition, you experience the following effects. When

46:25

you're hidden from a creature, they don't

46:27

know your location. If you are no

46:29

longer in a concealable location or benefiting

46:31

from another condition that allows you to

46:33

take the hide action, you immediately lose

46:35

the hidden condition. Concealed. You can't be

46:37

affected by any effect that requires this

46:39

target to be seen if you are

46:41

hidden from the effects creator. Surprise! If

46:43

you are hidden from all enemies when

46:45

you roll initiative, you add advantage on

46:47

the roll. Combat Advantage. Attack roles against

46:49

a hidden opponent have disadvantage, and an

46:51

hidden opponent attack roles have advantage. Detectable

46:53

actions. If you make an attack or

46:56

some other loud or overt actions, such

46:58

as talking louder than a whisper, kicking

47:00

open the door, casting a spell with

47:02

a verbal component, other creatures will pinpoint

47:04

your current location, allowing them to, for

47:07

example, aim attacks at you, although you

47:09

would still have the benefit of your

47:11

combat advantage. In addition, taking a detectable

47:13

action allows any observer you're currently hidden

47:15

from to make a wisdom perception checks

47:17

to spot you, removing the benefits of

47:20

the hidden condition. Observers can use a

47:22

reaction to gain advantage on this check.

47:24

That's a little weird. Some of that is

47:26

extra stuff. That's a little weird. Some of

47:28

that is extra stuff, being able to take

47:30

the advantage on this check. That's a little

47:32

weird. Some of that is extra stuff that

47:34

being able to take the hidden condition. If.

47:36

after being revealed, you take the hide action

47:39

again, you can immediately regain the hidden condition

47:41

after losing it, but observers will remain aware

47:43

of where they lost saw you or detected

47:45

you. If you ready an action triggered by

47:47

something that would reveal your location, you lose

47:49

the hidden condition at the end of your

47:51

ready to action. For example, if you hide behind

47:53

a closed door and stab someone that come in, you lose

47:56

it after where you go. And then he has

47:58

modifications for the invisible condition as well. all

48:00

that below. There was some issue with the

48:02

2024 guidance throwing the word invisible in there

48:04

but then having conditions where invisible wouldn't work.

48:06

And I think that's where the issue goes.

48:08

The intention really is, and it's mostly like

48:10

when you think about rogues, rogues should be

48:12

able to take their cunning action which allows

48:14

them to hide and then use that to

48:16

hide from somebody in order to attack them.

48:18

Most people don't have any problem with them

48:20

being able to do so with ranged attacks,

48:22

but some people say that if you go

48:24

behind three quarter cover and you attempt to

48:26

hide and succeed, but then you leave the

48:28

cover to go stab somebody, as soon as

48:30

you step out from behind the cover, they're

48:32

going to see you. and then you won't

48:35

be hidden anymore. What Justin says is like,

48:37

if you had the hide action, you have

48:39

it until the end of your turn, even

48:41

if you leave that cover. And that's not

48:43

a bad way to go, because I don't

48:45

think we want the hide action to only

48:47

work for ranged attacks. I think you want

48:49

rogues to be able to run up and

48:51

attack. One of my little house rules has

48:53

been, if you're going in a, if you

48:55

take the hide action and then run up

48:57

behind a target that is engaged with one

48:59

of your friends, they're not gonna see you.

49:01

I've actually added facing rules and facing rules

49:03

is weird. But if there's a guy and

49:05

he's standing there as a veteran standing in

49:07

a room looking around and you're behind a

49:09

rock wall that's three quarters cover and you

49:11

hide, you should not be able to come

49:13

around that rock wall run up and stab

49:15

him while he hasn't done anything yet. He's

49:17

going to see you coming at him. Right?

49:20

Now maybe if he's sitting in a chair

49:22

with his back facing to you, it's a

49:24

different story. But if he's facing you and

49:26

he's ready, I don't think he should be

49:28

able to run up and stab him. But

49:30

if you have a friend of yours who's

49:32

attacking him, now he's distracted. So I'm adding

49:34

a distracted condition. And then he runs up

49:36

and attacks. I play a lot of it

49:38

by year and I try to play it

49:40

by intention and I try to play it

49:42

by intention and I think that we can

49:44

work with our players to come up with

49:46

how it works. I think the only main

49:48

difference in D&D 2024. It makes it a

49:50

little harder to sneak than it used to

49:52

because you have to beat that DC, that

49:54

DC 15. Anyway, if you want two articles

49:56

that tell you more about what the problem

49:58

is and a possibility. solution. Take a look

50:00

at Merrick's musings. I will link to them

50:02

in the show notes and to the Alexandrian

50:04

where they both talk about these things. And

50:07

I think they have pretty good approaches. There's

50:09

also a thread on the end world that's

50:11

got like a million posts where people talk

50:13

all about it. But I think the main

50:15

thing is talk to your players, come up

50:17

with something that works for you, don't be

50:19

the rules in the book too tightly, and

50:21

instead think about what's important and think about

50:23

what matters. and they limit it when really

50:25

if you the fact that you can hide

50:27

as a bonus action is there for a

50:29

reason and as the expectation is you should

50:31

be able to do in combat so you

50:33

don't want to necessarily take a rogue's ability

50:35

to hide in combat away because you've determined

50:37

well you left cover and therefore you're visible

50:39

again. So that's the main thing that I

50:41

would consider. Ken W. says, is there a

50:43

way to use forge a foes for Shadow

50:45

Dark? I improvise all the time and sometimes

50:47

for combat encounters. I like using forge a

50:49

foes for my D&D 5E games, but struggle

50:52

with Shadow Dark to do the same. I

50:54

usually end up reskinning five to do the

50:56

same. I usually end up reskinning five to

50:58

six regular Shadow Dark monsters I keep on

51:00

hand. I usually end up reskinning five to

51:02

six regular shadow dark monsters I keep. that

51:04

are inside Forgafos are built for 5E. So

51:06

I don't think it's going to be as

51:08

useful for a Shadowdark game. Matt Dietrich wrote

51:10

up some Shadowdark, a one-page downloadable Name Your

51:12

Price guide for building quick stats for Shadowdark

51:14

monsters. It is on itch.io. I will link

51:16

to it in the show notes. It is

51:18

an excellent. If you're looking for like a

51:20

one-page, I think you can just take level

51:22

one to 30. I don't know why the

51:24

hell you need a level 30 at Shadowdarkhatter.

51:26

It Shatter. It Shatter. It Shatter. It Shatter.

51:28

It Shatter. Shatter. It Shatter. It Shatter. Shatter.

51:30

Shatter. Shatter. It. It. It. It. It. It's.

51:32

It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's.

51:34

It's. 20 levels above the character's max level.

51:36

That's pretty crazy. And then there's of course

51:39

creating modus for Shadow Dark, which is a

51:41

Kickstarter. This was done by Michael Putlack, who

51:43

I think works for arcane library as well,

51:45

put together a mini bestiary with monster building

51:47

guidelines in it. And it was just released.

51:49

I just got the PDF for it. I

51:51

don't know if it's available. for purchase yet.

51:53

If it is I will find a link

51:55

down in the show, I will add a

51:57

link down into the show notes. But it

51:59

is a really good guide. This is really

52:01

the forge of foes for Shadow Dark. You

52:03

know, that's in my opinion, this is the

52:05

forge of foes for Shadow Dark. So I

52:07

would recommend both of those. I will link

52:09

to both of those down in the show

52:11

notes. They are both some excellent, excellent guides.

52:13

John F says, I love the concept of

52:15

the deadly encounter benchmark. I have a concern

52:17

though. That formula was created taking into consideration

52:19

pieces and monsters from D&D 5E 2014. I'm

52:21

switching to Tales of the Valiant and I

52:24

wonder if the same formula applies in this

52:26

environment. So my question is, is the benchmark

52:28

formula the same taking into consideration that Tales

52:30

of Valiant monsters hit harder and TOV characters

52:32

are a bit tougher? Yes, the answer is

52:34

it works fine and not only that, but

52:36

that is the default rules for Tales of

52:38

the Valiant because I had the very awesome

52:40

opportunity to work with the design team of

52:42

Tales of the Valiant and if you look

52:44

at the Tales of the Valiant encounter building

52:46

guidelines that are in the monster vault and

52:48

also there are versions of it that are

52:50

in the game master's guide, they are in

52:52

fact the lazy encounter benchmark. They fit the

52:54

same thing, the same design, same idea, and

52:56

that is because yes, monsters hit harder but

52:58

characters are more powerful at the same time.

53:00

of the Valiant, the answer is you can

53:02

use the Tales of the Valiant guidance because

53:04

it's the same thing as the lazy encounter

53:06

benchmark. And it's right in there in the,

53:09

it's right there in the book. Your playing

53:11

rules is written if you're using the deadly

53:13

encounter, the lazy encounter benchmark for Tales of

53:15

the Valiant. But let's talk about mixing and

53:17

matching your various 5E systems, D&D 2024, in

53:19

my opinion. And there's a little bit of

53:21

differences here and there. But generally speaking, in

53:23

my opinion, the lazy encounter benchmark works fine

53:25

for all of those systems. And it works

53:27

well against the mix. In one particular, there's

53:29

one particular thing you need to keep in

53:31

mind, though, which every time I ever talk

53:33

about the lazy encounter benchmark, every time I

53:35

ever talk about the lazy encounter benchmark, you

53:37

will see of it. Every time I ever

53:39

talk about the lazy encounter benchmark, that you

53:41

will find that in the show notes. My

53:43

friend, Teo Sabadilla, did a very similar circumstance.

53:45

And I think some other people looked at

53:47

it as well and did it. I know

53:49

Sipio, who's here in chat, has a really

53:51

good spreadsheet that talks about all the comparing

53:53

all the encounter building guidelines and stuff like

53:56

that. So the, but the main thing with

53:58

the encounter building guidelines is they are a

54:00

loose guide. They are not a hardened limit.

54:02

You should not be using those in my

54:04

opinion as a budget as a budget, kind

54:06

of. but your own experience with your own

54:08

characters are going to matter more than the

54:10

benchmark will on paper. depending on there's so

54:12

many variables. I describe this in the Tales

54:14

of the Valiant version of this, I describe

54:16

it in our forge of foes, I describe

54:18

it in the LazyDM's companion, I describe it

54:20

on my own website, everywhere that I talk

54:22

about the lazy encounter benchmark, I also include

54:24

a whole section about how your own mileage

54:26

may vary. And your mileage may vary for

54:28

a lot of different reasons. The circumstances of

54:30

the encounter can change things a lot. The

54:32

composition of the characters, the number of characters.

54:34

Are they coming in fresh or are they

54:36

coming in pretty roughed up? There are so

54:38

many different variables that are going to have

54:41

a way bigger effect on that encounter benchmark

54:43

than the benchmark can account for on its

54:45

own that you always want to squint when

54:47

you're looking at it. It is a loose

54:49

gauge, not a hard limit. That's the number

54:51

one rule about the lazy encounter benchmark is

54:53

it is not meant to be. It is

54:55

not absolute science. It is just getting you

54:57

close. Its intention is to do two things.

54:59

One, give you a rough gauge of the

55:01

difficulty of a potential encounter that you already

55:03

plan to run. And two, be easy enough

55:05

to keep in your head that you can

55:07

quickly do it without having to look up

55:09

any tables and without having to look up

55:11

at anything in a book. Those are the

55:13

intentions. Make it easy to do and give

55:15

you a rough gauge. Those are the two

55:17

things that the lazy encounter benchmark do. Friends,

55:19

I want to thank all of you for

55:21

hanging out with me today. I hope you

55:23

enjoyed today's show, if you did. the

55:26

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55:56

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56:25

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56:27

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56:29

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56:31

you very much. Have

56:33

a great day a get

56:35

out there and play

56:37

there and play on our PG.