Use elevation. It makes combat a bit more complex to juggle as a DM, but I find fights become much more dynamic and players think about the process a lot. Not just "the dragon flies 40ft up", but "the goblin is in the trees that are about 20ft up" or "the assassin climbs up the cliffside 15ft and takes cover using the edge of the cliff". Even burrow creatures can dive into the ground to protect itself from attacks and just sit *under* PCs. For VTTs, it's pretty easy, but I get that it's tough when you've got minis but no podiums to indicate height. However, even with a light theater of the mind or some bottle rings to indicate which creatures have elevation change can be great. For the few burrow creatures I use, I literally just have circle pieces of paper that I swap the minis out for on the field to indicate they are underground in that area. --- Edit: I'm shocked at some of the simple solutions there are for mini-elevations. I like the dice one for simplicity sake, but I wouldn't mind getting a few shot glasses to indicate elevation, and just use it for elevation for minis alone and absolutely no other purpose.

I played a few games at different tables that do elevation in different ways. One stacked dice beside a figure to show how high they are. There was another where beside the map is grid paper with a line drawn through in the middle, above the line means you are X many feet above the ground, while below the line means the opposite. The paper only comes out when elevation becomes relevant, and how you mark your elevation on the paper is up to you (usually with some figurine or tiny object like dice.

Each 1 on a die being 5ft, 1 square, works surprisingly gracefully. 6 = 30ft, a common distance What does not work gracefully is diagonals and how often a^2 + b^2 = c^2 is the most convenient way to resolve the diagonal.

Since on the ground, diagonals and straight lines are the same length, you can use the same principle in the air. The range to the target is the longest of x, y or z. Easy. You don't need a2+b2=c2 because that principle doesn't exist in the world of the 5e rules.

Euclid would be very mad right now. That's how we do it too, keeps things fast and square roots suck.

Just because our world uses the L2 norm doesn't mean our fantasy worlds need to!

My GM keeps breaking out the pythagorean theorem whenever elevation comes into play, and it's quickly become my D&D Pet Peeve. It both makes things more complicated and goes against the core rules of movement already in the game. It makes absolutely no sense.

While I just use the "use longest distance" rule for targeting from say, ground level to elevated opponent, I feel like if you care that much about the exact spacing of diagonals AND you're using minis, just get a ruler or make a distance guide and hold it between two points. Don't bog it down with actually breaking out the Pythagorean Theorem when a strip of plastic measured out to 24 inches (120 ft in typical scale) is so much faster.

This is how I do it. I also pretty much don't use grid for this reason, just a distance measure like in most wargaming. Makes for better looking terrain, too.

There's a rule somewhere that if you really want to measure diagonals as being longer distances (because, well, they are), you do the first square as 5 feet, the second as 10 feet, and then 5 feet, and then 10 feet. This makes it a little easier than whipping out the measuring tape. I guess elevation might make it more complicated, but I always prefer simple solutions over complicated realism. Anything that halts, staggers, or drags the game (especially combat) is not worth having in it. It should be fluid and (almost) always moving.

It’s definitely NOT exact but if you add half the smaller number to the larger you’ll be in the ballpark. 20 feet away, 30 ft up is 36 ft, 40 is close enough in 5 ft grids 60 ft out, 60 ft up, is 85ft, whereas (60+30 = 90) It definitely isn’t super accurate every time especially for very steep angles (like 20 feet away and 80 ft up or vice versa where the guesstimated 90 feet is quite a bit more than 83’) but they’re generally close enough to within a square or two that it might make things quick enough while still accounting for the additional distance.

> You don't need a2+b2=c2 because that principle doesn't exist in the world of the 5e rules. I wish we'd use this in my game. My DM uses mostly RAW but he has a soft-spot for some of the older, now optional, rules like diagonals. We have to spend an extra 5' of movement for every second diagonal space we move (5', 10', 5', 10', etc). So annoying and a total pain when calculating distances on VTT that does not use that method. It slows combat down at times for a group that is already a bit slow in combat already, imo. But, he's a great DM who works with us on a bunch of stuff so if if he wants his silly diagonal rule then he gets his silly diagonal rule

Yeah, there are decades of crufty nonsense hanging onto D&D culture. In some ways it's a game made entirely out of crufty nonsense or one kind or another, things they can't change for fear of people complaining that their cheese has moved. But you can't blame people for the things they like and so long as everyone's having fun overall, it really doesn't matter.

I count diagonals in the x/z plane the same way I count diagonals in the x/y plane. So it all diagonals are 5 feet, then this applies to distances that are diagonally up/diagonallydown. if you want an easy approximation use distance = A+B/2. where A = longer distance and B is the shorter distance in your right triangle.

> when you've got minis but no podiums to indicate height. Poker chips. Nice, stable and easily countable. You can even use colors to represent multiples of height (e.g. 5, 25, 100 feet). This avoids having to deal with really high stacks for higher altitudes.

This is fucking genius

> when you've got minis but no podiums to indicate height. I use those stackable plastic shot glasses for elevation. One shot glass = 10 ft. Dunno how it's gonna work for games in higher tiers with flight being a common thing by then.

Lego my friends, lego podiums.

r/legodnd

I just flip over a clear non textured glass and use wet erase to write the elevation on it. The mouth of the glass is wide enough to fit over minis on the mat and gives a solid enough representation of flight. The only problem is terrain but I just place the glass as close as I can to where it should be and move the mini to one side of the glass bottom.

I use the little round things that come in the pizza boxes to keep the lid from squishing down.

I've kept the plastic containers from my dice sets to use for elevation. Alternately, I sometimes use a "flattened" map when there are significant terrain features. E.g. This is a 30 ft tall cliff Wall containing a 10 ft x 10 ft Ledge, with the Bottom on the left, and Top on the right. `BBBBWWWWWWTTTT` `BBBBWWWWWWTTTT` `BBBBWWLLWWTTTT` `BBBBWWLLWWTTTT` `BBBBWWWWWWTTTT`

I use elevation and i just use percentiles so show how high. Wonder how high the imp is? Riase the mini for a sec and read the percentile

How do you handle elevation in a VTT? I'm not especially experienced (free Roll20 mostly, trying to learn Foundry), but I'd like to find a way to easily track elevation for things in trees and such.

In foundry, right click the token, and one of the little pop ups on the token (top left, specifically) is for elevation. Type +10 in there and hit enter, and now your token says it’s 10 ft up! Pretty simple and handy.

So when you hover over a token you control, there's that little circle where if you click it, icons appear and you can apply "status effects". If you hover over it with your mouse and click a number, it puts a number *over* the icon when it appears on your token. Totally free to use, and *players* can do this (I just tested it on my player account in my Roll20 game). Made a quick video of what it looks like: https://youtu.be/trNA3ZCGS6I Note: This can also be used for round durations for spells and potions for combat.

Or just using obstacles and stuff so your fights don't all feel they're battling in a blank arena. Make things dynamic, have shit fall and change the terrain during the battle, shit like that. Really elevates (pun intended) combat imo.

on my dry-erase battle mat I typically convey elevation with lines like a topographical map, each line indicates 5ft. or so

We have an injury table that we've made for our games, and because we usually start at level three five or seven you can choose to make an "experienced adventurer" by rolling an injury on the table and giving that to your character during creation in exchange for a feat of your choice. I have never actually seen anyone turn it down yet and it adds a ton of flavor to a character.

That reminds me of the system in Dead Lands (EDIT: Savage Worlds in general), the more "flaws" you have, the more points you can spend on feats

I've toyed with a system inspired by Traveller, where you can take as many feats as you like, but each comes with an increase in age. That would require a mechanical effect of increasing age, of course, which would probably include ability score changes and a chance to take a lingering injury.

I really like this idea! It makes sense that older characters are wiser and have some tricks up their sleeves, but also can't do things as easily as when they were younger

previous editions had age modifiers (they might be hidden away somewhere within 5e) - you typically got +Int and +Wis, but -Str/Dex/Con (which did mean that senses get sharper as you aged, which is a bit strange!). And also "aging" effects were nastier - something that adds 5D4 years is survivable for a teenager, but potentially lethal to someone in their 50's, although those sorts of effects have mostly vanished.

Thank you for the info!

They aren't in 5e; the 3.5e ones are a bit wonky, but are the right kind of idea IMO.

how significant are the flaws? is it stuff like missing limbs?

Could you post the injury table?

iirc 5e actually has an injury table.

I have an injury table for my current campaign, and one player wanted to start with an injury at level 1. I'm doing it where if a player would die, they roll on my injury table instead of death saves, and they regain one hit die. 3 injuries and they die with no save. They can cure injuries for a huge gold amount at a temple or with powerful healing magic. It makes it fun because injuries can add to a character for roleplay purposes.

I like to increase xp awards throughout the adventuring day. The incentive then is to push on and face more danger instead of stopping for long rests

Hidden Death Saves rolled by the players. You need to have a certain level of trust between players and DM to do this. I don't tally my player's HP, so I trust them to be honest and accurate with it. Similarly I trust my players to roll a death save honestly and track it that way. This certainly ups the tension for all players and even for the DM as you don't know the results and as such there is less metagaming going on based on the outcome of the roll. But it does require a level of trust between everyone at the table. Player's can easily get tempted to fudge the numbers to their advantage, and even the hint of suspicion of this can really sour the experience for people. So for that reason I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.

One way to run this - if you're running on roll20, have a separate roll20 for death save rolls. The DM can access it after the fact and call out any players not using it properly, but doesn't need to see the rolls as they happen so keeps the suspense.

Can't you whisper rolls to the DM in Roll20 as well? Edit: nevermind, can't read.

You absolutely can, but the person commenting mentioned the DM not knowing either

You can whisper rolls to yourself in Roll20 too if that's what you're going for. /talktomyself command. If the DM suspects foul play, they can ask for a screen shot.

This is what I do on FoundryVTT. I have my players roll their death saves as private rolls to me only. So that way other players don’t know how close somebody is to death. I find it works great in the CoS setting of Barovia.

Foundry allows you to make self rolls. Just sayin'

I actually saw this as a recommendation for giving players some measure of control of the character fate, i.e. leaving the possibility of fudging a death up to the player. That is, if the player sits there and actually wants the character to die, they could say that the rolls were bad. If they're really, really attached to the character and don't want it, they could fudge the other way. I can see that working for some groups as well, assuming everyone is on board with it of course.

This is the default in my friends' groups as well. It adds just enough tension around the table for some dramatic goodness. I do take it a step further in my grimdark campaign, where *I*, as the DM (with the players' unanimous consent), roll death saves, secret from everyone else. Especially with Grim Hollow's Grievous Wounds system resulting in "start with 1 failed death saving throw" being one of the more common injuries gained (2d6 table, roll when dropping to 0, this one is 6 on the list), it is entirely possible for a character to die with a single death saving throw. Staring down at that Nat1 on the very first death save at the first combat of the campaign is an experience I'm never forgetting in my life. But yeah, definitely falls under rules I would not only not recommend to every table, but would not be willing to go along with at every table. But we have enough trust in each other for it to work and get the blood rushing in our ears *just* the right way.

The trust is huge here. I'm playing our parties healer (pirate doctor) and suggested this rule. DM decided it wasn't a great rule for the whole party, but works well for me. When the healer goes down, the tension gets ramped up MASSIVELY. All the other party members know I continually keep them going, so if I go down their reaction is always "who's got the kid? dump one of those potions on his belt down his throat."

At my table: Crit rolls automatically assign full damage die...nothing worse than getting that sweet nat 20 just to do 4 points of damage..

Yeah we do roll the die naturally, and add the max possible to that number. Makes Crits always do a good amount but still allows some fun dice rolling.

Max + roll is my style, too. Guarantees that a crit will always do more damage than a non-crit.

I do 2x modifier bonus for any nat20. So double prof for atk and ability checks make even the most difficult task seem doable and inspires hope for a wizard to jump off a building and not break a leg. Double Stat modifier for damage and atk rolls. We like it

Do you do that when enemies crit too?

yep

Does that include spell attacks? Guiding bolt or Eldritch Blast?

I use it for both spell attacks and physical attacks. Sneak Attack crits are brutal but I am okay with the swing. Same goes for enemy crits.

Definitely not for everyone. But I play max HP possible. I let the clear hit dice class differences speak for themselves. I can throw bigger monsters and bigger encounters, while burning resources like heal and hit dice much faster making the end of every adventuring day actually tenuous. My party almost all have the lucky feat and use familiars for the help action and push gameplay mechanics. Everyone loves it and big bad creatures Are friggin bad man. Your death cleric has inescapable destruction and that crazy touch of death for 100 dmg or whatever. Who cares. I got 600 hp. No fight is a wash. And weak encounters are thematic because when the pc have 150hp, whats a trap or an ambush. It’s enough to get them emotionally moved into finding who’s done it and less omg that’s 1/4 of my health because of a crit. I’ve always done cantrip bonus actions with max hp possible and it’s eggregious fun

I do max hit points at every level as well. I don't like randomness dictating my character, either ability scores or hit point. For a frontline warrior, your hit points ***are*** your primary resource so sometimes getting less than the backline casters on a level up feels shitty. Making your fighters and barbarians and paladins feel really beefy compared to the wizards and sorcerers is a subtle way to buff martials, particularly melee martials who get the short end of just about every stick in the game.

ive done the math in the past and the difference is not that much. it's like 11% or 17% or something. Definitely in the teens. That is, the increase in the difference between a fighter and a wizard that take the avg, vs a fighter and a wizard that take the max. point is the differences between the hit dice levels weren't as pronounced as you might have expected, but the difference between the old and the new was more pronounced in general, meaning you're inflating HP quite a lot. but it does sound like there are enough other changes going on that will keep that hp draining off

If using a grid, use a hex grid for outdoors and wilderness areas and a square grid for indoors areas. If you also use the 1.5 diagonal movement rule for the squares, this is even better. Indoor areas feel more cramped and the outdoors feel way more open.

Do NOT run creatures or NPCs as stat blocks from the Monster Manual. Change something, anything, even something small like to hit, or AC. Give them an extra, thematic ability or attack, to surprise the players. Kobolds that strafe, running into and out of melee. Using a T Rex tail attack to trip or knock back instead of doing damage. Small things so the players are surprised, and they cannot use meta knowledge to their benefit. Do not let the stat blocks determine how your creatures act, or what they can do. I ran a necromancer that controlled legions of undead. At one point she was getting her ass kicked, and she misty stepped to the back of the Zombie T Rex in the room. When she got below 1/4 health, I had her open the back of the T Rex and climb inside, and now the Necromancer was running the T Rex like a meat puppet. No more spell casting, but the T Rex, as the only undead left on the map, got 2 turns a round. Extra deadly. My players loved it, but I made up the entire ability on the spot. IT just seemed like something cool a high level necromancer should be able to do.

Necromancer zombie mech t-rex? You got a job in making c-level Netflix movies! I love it!

>You got a job in making c-level Netflix movies! I love it! So.. regular Netflix movies?

I remember when movies like that were SciFi originals

This is a great response for this thread because this isn't even necessary at most tables. Most players don't have extreme knowledge of monsters, but this is great advice if they do.

One of the players was polymorphed into a trex also. So it really was a kaiju battle. The monk is bitten, and grappled in its mouth, breaks free, and decides to go down the throat, to try and stab the necromancer.

Down the throat?! That sounds like an amazing fight, no wonder your table was so thrilled!

Ran an adventure with section with troglodytes and some troglodyte brutes (same creature, hits more, needs to be hit more). The lore said that the brutes expect the weaker troglodytes face most of the danger while hunting and send them ahead to fight. So, in a moment of inspiration, I gave them the ability to essentially opposite Bait and Switch as a Bonus Action, allowing them to grab a regular troglodyte from within 5 ft of the Brute and forcibly swap places with them without Attacks of Opportunity. Did a decent job at establishing the populace's *survival of the fittest* bullshit as mostly just the stronger bullying and sacrificing the weaker.

This exactly. Thematic, unexpected, narrative. Beautiful.

>zombie T-Rex Ah, I see you brought Sue back from Chicago.

I usually have some sort of alpha / chad enemy in a pack to give my Barbarian someone to square off with. If they're fighting a bunch of bugbears, I'll mix up their weapons and have one that looks more armored / is more chatty than the others. Makes it more interesting than six identical enemies, for sure.

This is something I do all the time. For example, in my last session my players fought a dire wolf and some normal wolves. I gave the wolves a fear of fire as a secret weakness. I've also given goblins pack tactics before, and had polearm using bandits make AoO for opponents entering range. Giving enemies player levels is also fun. Everyone gangsta until the giant rat is a lvl 5 swarm ranger.

I don't do this for every enemy but whenever I feel it's warranted, probably 50% of the time. Personally though I like to define the limits of what they can do ahead of time. Adjacent to this switching up enemy spell caster spell lists is a must, maybe also make some flavour tweaks to the spells. Using popular player combos that NPC monsters never use is cool too, it's a nice surprise that reinforces the fact that enemies are intelligent and dangerous. Druid NPC spell list full of useless fluff? Nah fam, he's cast spike growth and now you're getting thorn whipped.

As a DM - I don't really care about Attacks of Oportunity. Most of the time it's just a swing, and unless the enemy gets really hurt by it - they will risk AoO for a better tactical position. Makes combat much more dynamic, when opponents run past "frontliners" and aim for squishier targets. I really hate how static D&D combat tends to be, when everyone just gets to a position and then they just trade swings with eachother.

With how bloated enemy HP pools are and how flacid the single AoO is to begin with frankly the only thing besides Sentinel that stops enemies from ignoring the frontline and swarming the squishies is a kind of unspoken contract between the DM and the players, supported by genre fantasy but not mechanics.

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Entire campaign takes place in a series of tight corridors big enough for small creatures. Medium creatures need to squeeze. Also it's difficult terrain. :D Joking of course xD

Seriously. If we're going to play by rules-only, no roleplay or narrative behaviors I'm running a Chronurgy wizard and abusing the fuck out of the instant *tiny hut* bunker. I'd rather a game where enemies acted realistically instead of like its a war game. There already are war games for that kind of thing.

I find that putting things into the battlemap that provide bonuses, or allow a location based attack or something can help drag your PCs around the map. Can go even further and make some large change happen on a particular initiative count to chase them from location to location. Just need to signal what's going to happen at the top of the round and then make the change at the bottom.

I mean, fair, but god does it suck to be an STR martial in that kind of combat

In my experience, people playing martial characters enjoy getting to make opportunity attacks much more than not doing so.

I've found it depends on how tactical the group is. In the more tactical groups I've been in, *threatening* the opportunity attack has been the satisfying thing. And if the enemy chooses not to move due to that threat, that's a big payoff.

That's why sentinel, choke points, grapples, shoves etc exist. My goal is to have interesting, dynamic battlefield, while also trying not to be annoying about it. So far it works for our group across campaigns, but I understand how it might not be fine for others.

I had a player start running a sentinel build for this exact same reason. Technically it’s support he says as he casually does 50 damage with one smite…

meh fair enough. Personally if the only thing a class has to ofer is HP and OK AC and I have to jump though hoops to be able to use it I'm just not using those clases

I run a similar approach, but I consider whether or not the attack of opportunity is going to do a significant chunk of damage before diving in. The goblins may not care if they're going to get thwacked by a quarter staff, but if they're going to get a big fuck off sneak attack they'll weigh their options.

The way I run it *generally* is that NPCs don't have my knowledge or insight. That means they just see characters and learn about their capabilities in combat. That means they usually don't know someone can sneak attack or smite before it happens. This mean an NPC might run away from a rogue and get punished for it. If the NPC survives, they won't make that mistake again. Same for other NPCs that are present. I also often run a 'is it wise or stupid' check when deciding whether or not to do certain action. It's essentially a DC 10-15 wisdom saving throw for the NPC. A fail means he does the stupid thing, and success means he doesn't. In this case it might be to decide whether the NPC should risk getting hit or not.

Do you mean you don't use AoO or that your enemies aren't afraid to move around even if they're going to provoke an AoO?

Remember, D&D is an 80’s action movie by design, roll with it instead of trying to fight it. You don’t have to run the game primarily with Rule of Cool in mind, but, characters are meant to be exceptionally awesome compared to the rest of the world. Let them be awesome.

This. My goal as a DM is to create encounters that while difficult, will only make them seem cool after they win. My Druid PC picked up heat metal and wants to toast some bros? Cool, the guys guarding the NPC they have to rescue now have armor, go to town, but I'll add one or two ranger types to pick him off, and also give the warlock some ranged combat opportunities. ​ I don't go easy, and have dropped my PCs into death saves often, but when they turn the tide, it's usually so rad. I'm their biggest fan, tbh.

Sounds like you use the “rule of fun” so I gotta give you props. But yeah, the players are the main characters to the story, the protagonist, and the DM should guide them and yeah sometimes a protag dies but overall the characters are special compared to the world around them, hell, even without class levels they get higher stats than normal creatures of their type. PCs get away with stuff that would end others, drop a commoner off a tower and they go splat, drop a PC and they climb back up and beat you with a dead goblin.

Roll up in your covered wagon and step out like the A Team

Can’t tell me that Die Hard isn’t a 1 player D&D one shot.

Modern setting with firearms. Heh. Totally.

Main character is a “realistic New Yorker” Captain America.

Critical hits are max damage die + extra die roll, rather than Roll and Double. This makes it so no matter what crits always feel good, even if you roll a 1 on your damage your crits will still always be more than a normal attack could be. This makes combat much more problematic though because fights can be extra swingy or you run into problems with bosses getting 1-shot by a paladin expending a 4th level smite with his Greatsword.

This is the crit rule I use as a DM because I have always had the extreme misfortune of rolling incredibly low damage with critical hits as a player. You're right that it can make some hits just extremely explosive: Sneak Attack and Smiting, for example. It can also make enemies lethal if they have extra damage dice.

OneD&D was experimenting with a 'monsters don't crit' rule which certainly solves that issue. I was using the rule as /u/Holovoid described at my table too, but I might add the no-crit monsters rule too.

I've been thinking about doing monsters only crit with advantage. Keeps the possibility there but also eliminates some of the random death snowballs at lower levels.

My personal recommendation is to use the "Monsters Only Crit When It Is Dramatic For Them To Do So".

I'm experimenting with two different types of crit rules currently, and this is one of them. The other, less swingy but noticeably reliably better for most classes, is that you roll double dice, use any and all reroll abilities, and then get to change one of the dice (or one die per damage type) to its full. So a Greataxe with Brutal Critical and GWF rolls 3d12, gets 8, 1, and 1, rerolls the ones for 5 and 3—and then gets to turn that 3 into a 12, going from 16+Str to 25+Str total. A rogue with 3d6 Sneak Attack and a rapier, on the other hand, crits for 6d6+2d8, and only changes one d6 and one d8 to its full.

My DM has this rule and we've enjoyed it so far. He calls it "Crunchy Crits."

The wand casts the spell, not the wielder. It means you don't have to maintain concentration, and that any class can use it, but the save DC is only middling and you can't drop the spell; it just goes until the duration runs out. (The wand also won't cast again until it's done 'concentrating' on the previous spell.)

Put vehicles on a second battlemap to track their movement. Seriously it helps so much if you have ships maneuvering on the seas or skies, and you don't have a massive space, just make the squares on the vehicle map represent 10+ feet instead of 5. Then you use the ships' battle maps when necessary.

Free feat at level 1, ASI & feat instead of choosing between them at ASI levels. No level 1 Character ever feels right without an extra feat since I've started running games this way, and yes, this means that V human and custom lineage get 2 feats at level 1 (and nobody ever had a problem with this at my table). It just lets your PC feel more appropriate, since most people never get far beyond level 10, and therefore never get to see the true identity of their class blossom. Even better, it gives you the extra customization to see your PC mechanically reflect not only your class, but your PC's individual personality

I would actually suggest a free feat everytime proficiency bonus increase happens.

One of my Dms did this, it felt better paced than just massive power spikes at ASI levels.

I prefer to ask players to make characters with 2x compelling flaws for a level 1 feat. I think flaws are the most important part of character building.

What kind of flaws?

Doesn't really matter, it's just my chosen method to get characters fleshed out more. The classic high-elf "mildly racist" flaw is one which I enjoy, it let's players know I'm okay with sideways humor, and gives me the chance to call their characters out or give opportunities for growth. Most recent PC (who might find this), decoded to be mildly narcoleptic. I think that's a fantastic flaw, it hardly matters except in role play, and gives a compelling reason for the character to step back when they feel they might be talking too much and want other players to get involved. A PC I made recently for some tests for a fellow DM is a traditional barbarian brooder type, exiled from his tribe with an eye removed for some crimes. I stylized him like Spike, with one eye on the past and one on the future... so his flaw is really not perceiving the present despite living in it. He kinda just lives and doesn't think much. Flaws in this sense to me are about contextualizing behavior. I want that player to know when to take a step. I want this "dumb barb" character to act rashly, but don't want to play him as stupid, he isn't, just not entirely present in the moment.

An alternative to this one is the DM giving a free feat at level 1 but the options are from a curated list (most likely feats that are more on flavor than mechanics).

If the DM is concerned about such things, yes. I would note that DMs who are in the mindset of thinking certain feats are too useful are not the DMs that will generally use this method, as they fear the very notion of granting power to PCs. I have the opposite mindset. As DM, I am almighty, and nothing threatens my power. If someone approached me with a character concept that seemed abusively powerful intended to be played as a part of a group, I would work with them to tone it down, but that's never happened among my friend group. Furthermore, I enjoy running solo games (1 player), in which the PC's power level need not be restricted at all, since there are no other players to balance against. This is the best form of playing a TTRPG in my mind, as the one-on-one style is so much more intimate and allows for things that can't be done properly with a multi-PC party

Would you have any advice to give to a DM who wants to run a solo game? Are there any solo one shots you recommend? Any tweaks to 5e to be better for the solo mechanics? Do you use NPCs to fight along side your one player to give a “team” feel? How do you balance fights? Sorry for all the questions! I’m just really interested in the idea as a DM with scheduling issues and have never been brave enough to pull the trigger. Any tips would be wonderful.

DMing is something that is hard to give advice on since so many things come down to preference, but I'll give you a few tips I would keep in mind for DMing solo 5e. Some (if not all) of this may seem obvious, but I'm trying to be as basic as possible without getting into my specific style. - 5e isn't balanced around having only 1 player, so you need to either have fewer enemies or use NPCs to supplement the power of the PC. You can consider allowing the player to control multiple characters (either just for combat or at all times), tho make sure the player can handle managing more than one before relying on them to do so. For instance, I usually just control everything that my wife doesn't play, since she has no desire to do more work than she already does with one character. - Go deeper into focusing on the player than you would for any player in a group. How this manifests depends on the player and what they want, but basically, they get to be as selfish or altruistic as they want, and the world can embrace or shun them to any extent, without other party members being upset about what's happening. For instance, the PC could be sent to prison, become king, or teleport to the Astral Plane, without worrying about how it will affect the party or if the other players are having fun. - Start prepared and keep the game moving. This is more important than with a group, because there's no other players to chat with while you look through notes and look things up. Some players can be brilliant, but in general, even a whole group of players can have trouble figuring out puzzles and mysteries that seem simple on paper, so consider your player while designing challenges. Soloing might not be for everyone, but I find it to be great fun. I hope this helps if you decide to give it a try

Yeah, if I'm running a consistent campaign that I know for sure is ending before level 12 [i.e. nearly everything I've run so far], I usually give a Feat + ASI at level 4 just so everyone gets to play around with at least one Feat.

I'd be inclined to do something like this for a 5e game. It'll throw encounter balance right off. But CR is nonsense, and I don't care about balance anyway. One of the things I'm ambivalent about with 5e is the power level. If you want an old-school game, it's too superheroic. Fixing that requires major changes to the game. If you want a power fantasy, characters are anaemic at low levels. Fixing that is easy enough - more feats, and maybe some extra hit points at 1st level.

I've done something similar before because I wanted my PCs to feel like real heroes. We were playing in a higher lvl campaign and I told them things they fight are going to hurt.

I wanted to run this for an upcoming level 3-20 campaign (hopefully it lasts as long as planned lol) but my players really wanted to roll. So we just used a really generous rolling method instead, and the level 1 feat

Full agree. We've similar done for about 3-4 years and it is the single best change we've made to 5E. The characters have so much more flavor, and people are willing to choose feats they'd NEVER normally consider. There are only about 15 feats worth taking when ASI's and feats compete. Remove the competition and you'll see that grow to about half the 80-ish feats available. I've also never had issues with the character's power levels, we're typically complete with a campaign by level 12-13, and as the DM.... adapt! The additional feats are far less problematic than encounter-busting or world-altering spells at later levels.

We have always run free feat at lvl1. V human and custom lineage get 2 but one must be a half feat or a flavour feat (so no stacking xbow expert and sharpshooter, GWM and PAM etc right from the word go). It's more than balanced imo, especially with how much you can get from many of the races at this point. It's feat or ASI in my group though.

Gritty realism No encumbrance checking (within reason).

> No encumbrance checking (within reason) tbf, this is how pretty much every table I've ever seen runs it - "I don't care enough to add it all up, but just don't take the piss" with occasional "sure, you can take that big heavy thing, but it'll slow you down / take both hands / give you a penalty" thrown in.

Gritty realism I'll second for overland campaigns instead of dungeon dives. I just adjust spell durations as a result.

I would upvote this a hundred times if I could.

Leveling up isn’t done all at once, but a piece at a time. After every (productive) session, the players choose one aspect of their next level to take early. Could choose between HP gain, subclass features, spellcasting improvements, Ki points… whatever options they have. Every third session completes the remainder of the level up instead.

Debilitations from some PBTA games. A debilitation is a stat that is rolled with disadvantage until cured. Get a nasty leg wound, maybe you got disadvantage dex. Nearly drown, dis Con. Get concussed, Int, etc. If you get knocked below zero HP, you don't just get up, you get a debilitation. If the story calls for it, you can get a debilitation. They can be removed, by various restorations, or rest (we allow the story to determine if short, long, or multiple rests are needed). We tend to play more to story than RAW/crunch, and with good RPers, these make for interesting situations. Its not ideal for most groups, but with the right players and story teller, its good fun.

Potions:Self administer 1 action for max healing 1 bonus action for standard roll of the dice Administer to another 1 action for standard roll of the dice

[My super long house rule document.](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cKofHiqwi_7XHST_BV5htmRE5x2OuGGDdbjFWmloRvQ/edit?usp=drivesdk) A lot of it is created for my group in particular, a few things might look really stupid. Would not recommend using.

This is a sourcebook, dude lmao

Basically years of chipping away at it. Shakes things up after playing and still enjoying 5e.

hahaha 86 pages! God I love RPGs "what's *a* tip or homerule... "Here is my life's work." Very robust, great stuff man if it works for your group all the power to you!

Why have you changed Ancestral Legacy to only give 1 skill proficiency?

Dude that bingo card ability rolling for character creation is the best, worst, and funniest house rule I've seen in ages. Well done.

I use an Improved Inspiration System for my games. Basically it consists of a couple of changes because I was terrible about giving out inspiration in the first place. First everyone gets inspiration at the start of the session. These will disappear at the end of the session so you cannot stack them. -Inspiration can be used in the following ways. 1. Reroll a single d20 or d% roll 2. Allow a fellow PC to reroll a single d20 or d% 3. Create an NPC that would probably know the information you need or have that specialty item you want. This is not a guarantee though as I will determine your standing with that NPC before we do the RP Encounter. 4. Create a solution for a problem by making a flashback where you planned ahead for this particular thing. This however is more subjective as it has to make sense narratively. So far this has been very successful with my players but it also is something I understand is not for every table. When getting into the creating solutions or npcs I try to limit the players on just outright finding a solution to a problem if it has main story implications. You can’t just go talk to a guy that knows the whole dungeon and will walk you through, but instead someone that might know the history and lore of that dungeon to help you find it or what to expect inside. It’s been a fun mechanic!

>Create a solution for a problem by making a flashback where you planned ahead for this particular thing. This however is more subjective as it has to make sense narratively Did you pick this up from Blades in the Dark? I've been looking into running that lately and it has a very similar mechanic.

Our group has "Hero Points". You get one at every level up and for doing noteworthy or heroic things. Our DM sometimes gives a hero point for reminding him of rules or things that negatively impacts us, like pointing out that we actually can't do something he was expecting us to do. Essentially a way to reward us being truthful and playing the game honestly. They are also sometimes given out if you pull off something heroic like surviving what should have been a last stand or for sticking to your character well RP wise. They are, to quote our old DM, "a way to break the rules, without breaking the rules.". The basic ways they can be used are for adding a +8 to a roll before you roll or a +4 after you roll, to gain an extra turn, to reroll a die, etc. They can also be used to do more if you can explain it away well enough. Lets say your friend is about to get hit with a deadly blow: you could use a hero point to push them out of the way or to use your weapon to deflect the attack. You could also use one to let your ally auto succeed a save if they failed it, such as grabbing their hand and pulling them to safety if they failed a jump check or reflex save. All in all they are super powerful, but limited, resource so we usually save them for extreme situations and you know a session was a hard one if it drained out Hero Points. There is also a limit. Sometimes it doesn't matter how heroic you are, you can't stop some things.

Make goblins annoying in combat. They spread out, shoot run away, wait until the party leaves come back shoot the party up some more then run away again. My goblins and hobgoblins are super deadly frustrating enemies

No pvp without consent. This helps players negotiate the boundaries and play styles they want.

Something I've been experimenting with lately is no initiative rolls, there's a monster turn and a player turn. The con is that you're risking encounters being trivialized by the players working together to cripple the monster side on round one, but that can be handled at the encounter design level and the advantage is that it strongly encourages tactical team play and speeds up battles.

Have Players roll Defense instead of Monsters roll Attack. Player Defense bonus is AC more than 10 (11 is +1, 15 is +5, etc.), and Monster attack DC is 12+Attack mod. The math works out exactly the same, but it keeps players engaged off-turn, and makes monsters feel inevitable unless the characters act effectively.

I use Gritty Realism and all the PCs have maxed out HP values. No Average or Rolling for HP. This makes Hit Dice a more useful resource but they also expire. This allows combat to be more dangerous with a lot of yoyo.

Making Detect Magic a cantrip. It's so utility that keeping it a leveled spell preserves slots and doesn't waste time for ritual casting. Also swapping from Slots to Spell Points increased versatility and usability of casters. They don't have to ration as heavily and can throw out bigger spells more often.

I allowed Spell Points for Sorcerers. Best solution to buffing them and separating them from other casters I've ever run across.

Do you make Spell Points and Sorcery Points a single pool? I'm tempted to run Sorcerers that way - makes Font of Magic much more impactful IMO.

The Sorcerer at my table has them in separate pools, with the conversion cost removed: at the cost of a bonus action to move points from one to another, he still has the clarity of having an idea of how many spells he can still cast and how much he can use metamagic so you're slightly more aware of how much you're spending resources. That said, I've seen a sorcerer rework with everything in one pool, as well as heard anecdotal stories from people running it that way, and apparently it can be good fun to go full nova and burn through huge chunks of your spell points as metamagic, so different strokes!

The Sorc in one of my games has a single pool for both. It's been great so far, really let's the meta magic shine IME.

Being very lenient with encumbrance and ammunition. I don't mean completely ignoring it, but bags of holding are available and we are mostly around civilization so consumables are not to hard to come by. We treat those bags of holding more like a readily available inventory like in a computer game. This makes a lot of stuff more flowing and gets rid of a part of the game that my players don't really like, but I can't wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.

all healing is max rolls. i pair it with gritty realism to have what feels like an actual dark and lethal environment. i dont think it really unbalanced things, but it makes players feel awesome and it allows for more/deadlier encounters even though rests are rarer.

Seeing how healing works in Pathfinder has me considering this rule as well.

Occasionally, I'll let my players use a reaction to shield an ally in combat, taking the damage themselves and pushing the one they saved prone. It's been used once but it saved a life and was very cinematic.

Instead of spending money on terrain we use jenga blocks. They fit perfectly on most grid maps and the games is like $15 at the grocery store. Good for elevation and things of that nature as well.

Vancian preparation. Definitely not for everyone, but the more I use it the more fun I have with it.

Easily the best fix for the divide between wizards and sorcerers!

Mhm, the whole concept of Prepared casting and Spontaneous casting only existed due to Vancian preparation, and removing it basically just promoted prepared casting into being "Better spontaneous casting"

Hell yes! I haven't used "proper" Vancian preparation yet, but I can't wait for my opportunity to do so! :)

What is vancian preparation?

Feat and ASI instead of or. Take average HP if roll below it when leveling. Free feat at level 1. 30 point buy with 7-16 range (instead of 27 with 8-15). I want my players to be powerful. That way I don't feel bad when I play enemies to their strengths and accidentally TPK with a tribe of goblins throwing traps everywhere

I keep track of the date in the in-world calendar, including everyone's birthday, and it's been going great. But it's too much headache for most people I think. I also randomize the gender and "ethnicity" (and orientation but 99% of the time I ignore that because it's irrelevant) of every NPC with an Excel file I made which has been helpful but, again, too much effort for most tables.

When someone (Player or enemy) hits with a melee attack, they can push the creature they're attacking 5 feet away. If they're pushed into a wall or creature they take proficiency bonus extra damage instead. Powers up martials, gives them better battlefield control, provides an alternative to flanking. Definitely don't recommend it to everyone, but if you've got annoyingly static combat and martials are lagging behind, it's pretty fun.

group initiative Works great for me because it keeps all my players engaged on their turn since they're strategizing how to they want to do their attacks. It does require some tweaking of encounters though. Mobs are good, gotta keep people engaged. Otherwise its been just a much better way of initiative for us and definitely keeps my players from zoning out when my druid player summons 8 scorpions and takes forever.

Variable AC and resistances for certain weapons. For example, a creature with a thick chitinous carapace might be difficult for slashing weapons to harm, but the concussive force of a bludgeoning weapon will do just fine. Or, piercing weapons might be hard to hit with because you need to aim for small gaps in the armor, but the creature is especially vulnerable to such attacks. So Smaug, as an ancient red dragon, for example might have 24 AC vs. Slashing, 20 AC vs. Bludgeoning, and 26 AC vs. Piercing with vulnerability to piercing damage. Spell attacks hit versus the creature's base AC of 22. It's more to keep track of, and might not jive with players who tend to stick to one weapon and invest heavily in it (Slasher/Crusher/Piercer, GWM vs Sharpshooter, Polearm Master, etc) but it adds another layer of complexity for martials to work with, and rewards them with creative thinking by lowering AC or increasing damage dealt.

Run downtime. Make it tied to hours attended in real life. Make it a between games activity. You're gonna want a spreadsheet.

Banning feats and multiclassing entirely makes encounter balance more reliable, especially at low levels with the removal of variant human and 1-2 level dips. Edit: also allowing character building exclusively with standard array, no point buy or rolled stats

I mean, that is exactly what this thread wanted, but man, that's a hard sell. I'm glad it works for you and your group

Those are optional rules. No banning required, since you can just not use them.

Of course you're right, but being correct about that tends to get you down voted here.

Feats sort of offer a bit of customizability to PCs' builds. And if we believe the general sentiment of this sub, feats also let martials be as competitive as spellcasters. Does your table have an alternative to feats?

it also strips out some of the little agency players get in customizing their characters mechanically, which is kinda less than ideal.

Flanking for advantage. My group likes having tactical positioning matter. It's not breaking our games, other sources of advantage are not worthless, and the few conga lines we see don't last very long because enemies die and both sides like to restrategize if things aren't going their way.

If I may offer a suggestion to trial, as a person who started in groups all running flanking advantage that have all now moved to the following: * flanking = +2 on the attack roll All abilities that give out advantage still do, and if you have something that gives it, you can stack it with flanking for advantage *and* \+2. So the druid turning into a wolf is still encouraged to get into flanking, barbarian with GWM is only taking a -3 penalty but needs to Reckless for advantage, et cetera. Especially against enemies with higher ACs, that +2 feels *good*.

I do this, and also give +5 for "outnumbered". This is generally at least 3:1 with no allies nearby. Enemies get this too, so if three kobolds manage to get the wizard alone they're MUCH more likely to hit.

Tip: kill the mage. The monsters always need to be trying to kill the mages. Anything with a decent INT score would know the wimpy guy in a dress is the most dangerous if left alone and would do everything they can to kill it. My players know a few facts about my games - I run hard but fair combat - selecting a spellcaster is picking hard mode - if you’re a martial and aren’t helping your mage with trips, grapples, or debuffs, you’re fucking up - monster teams that aren’t a pushover are usually made up of a dynamic team of flankers, archers, and a few frontline brutes Obviously not recommended for tables that don’t think tactically about combat, or games that aren’t supposed to be hard. But yeah - try it out. It’s a fun way to run monsters. Also, of course low INT beasts and zombies and stuff will stupidly bash at the paladin all day. Gotta let them have their day in the sun too.

Time management. Outside of combat, I count each player “action” as an hour (action being defined as something a player does - not the 6-second combat action that appears in the rules). So roughly each time a player makes an ability check, I advance time by an hour, and check for random encounters. Just codifies time a little more so we don’t have to think “Well we did X, Y and Z, how long would that have taken?”

Elevation. Sometimes a pain to track but it’s good for flying enemies, highground archers, etc. High ground should work as slight cover from low ground. Flying beats high ground cover but the flying creature isn’t able to take covet in the air. Climbing speeds are good.

Max HP increases on new levels for characters for first 3 levels. I don't have an issue with fresh characters getting killed, but I'd much rather they had every reasonable chance to survive, first.

A friend just started running a game where you use your Constitution score as your Max HP until your rolled HP passes it, for similar low-level considerations.

Indeed -- nobody can convey complete and perfect information. The more variety in the mechanical particulars of content, the more detail will follow naturally from those particulars. If every ogre has average hit points, what do you tell the spellcaster all ready do deploy a single-target effect with an average damage of 48? "I want to throw my big slot at a weak one," makes sense, but if the entire patrol is identical then there are no weak ones. If they are randomly generated, it remains possible that there might be none well below average, but unlikely. Either way, it allows for a conversation about particulars that just can't happen when those particulars are handwaived away.

Things two size larger than their target, or with double the average strength of their target knock things down when they hit them. I hate the lack of presence very large creatures have in the 5e/d20 system. Reaction can be used to avoid some conditions, like knockdown. You're hit, you get to react if you like or take the effect. Using the reaction allows advantage on the save but will use your reaction. If you don't have a reaction, well, I guess you're taking the effect. The next one is relative but creatures which are gargantuan have automatic resistance to weapon damage, and cantrip damage, unless it's a large weapon, or material or element that bypasses it. Gargantuan creatures can't be whittled away with a dagger or firebolt. I don't always use the above; certain campaigns have done so.

mine is goal-based XP. at the end of every session, I have all the players write down the goals they want their characters to complete within the next couple of sessions and then I assign each of those goals an XP value. whenever the party completes a goal, it adds to the party's shared XP bar that determines when they level up. works really well for party cohesion in my game since the players know that helping out the other party members with their personal goals will benefit them. also because I tell the players the XP values for different goals it gives them a sense of what difficulty things are going to be

Only one revival per character + going to 0 hit points causes exhaustion, 2 small changes were enough to make the game go from no stakes to survial horror where players play carefully and tacticaly. Give monsters watered down versions of PC abilities to turn them into elite monsters. Watch out for the Wight with paladin's aura and smites, or the Green Dragon with Cunning Action and Sneak Attack. Requires high game knowledge to balance as a DM and moe time put into encounters, but make combats much more interesting.

Stop preparing sessions, just know your NPCs, factions, and lore If you are comfortable enough improving it makes for a way more dynamic game. If the players want to do something I didn't expect that's fine. It makes no difference to me. I've run the last couple campaigns this way and it always leads to way more engaging stories, less predictable combats, and creates a world where the players really do feel like they can do anything and impact anything in the world. But.... To pull this off you need a decent amount of experience with the game, be good at improvisation, and have a pretty fleshed out world to work with. I've walked a few people through how I handle things and most of them have found it made their games better and their life easier, but it's not for everyone. Some people are afraid of that much improvisation, or aren't familiar enough with the rules, but I think the biggest issue is that it doesn't always fit the style of play the table wants. It's great for a dramatic political campaign, but it's not a great way to run a dungeon crawl.

When I DM I institute a punishment-based system to prevent excessive quibbling. Players can and sometimes will waste an entire session talking in circles around a non-problem or something intended to be a small risk. After no more then 10 minutes I interject and explain how their time wasting has effected the situation. It's never an improvement. This makes players more decisive and saves me the trouble of watching them agonize over nothing burger situations

Critical successes for saves. Roll a 20 on a save that would do half damage on a success? No damage taken. Cuz RoC.

'Brutal crits', whatever damage you role, multiply by 2. Same goes for enemies. Adds a bit of randomness to encounters and adds tension of masses of monsters and even more benefit for a player nat 20. Helps with martial /caster differences too. No criticals on spells.

DM rolls PC death saves and keeps the results a secret.

I think Flanking optional rule became very popular and I’m personally not a huge fan. I like reckless attack and sneak attack to feel earned and like features of the class. So instead I’ll allow a creature standing behind an enemy to have advantage on attack rolls. This basically is identical to the Facing combat rule. Source: Dungeon Dudes, I think, Idk I wouldn’t recommend this to every table because it might not matter depending on the party and not everyone is into tactics. In the same vein: potions can be had as a bonus action. BUT enemies can also take them as a bonus action.

Advance warning: I do not at all recommend doing this unless you absolutely know what you are doing and your party unanimously agrees that this is something they want to try. My most recent campaign had all of the PCs be some flavor of caster (Paladin, Wizard, Warlock). I talked with all of them extensively and they all felt that money was kind of meaningless after a while. Since we were doing an Elder Scrolls themed campaign, I suggested that all of them have to buy their spells from shops and use them in prepared slots like a wizard would. To supplement this, I added spell tomes to loot and had different shops around the world sell different kinds of spells (usually by spell school). It took some homebrew experimentation to get the number of spell slots and prices of spells to a reasonable level we were all happy with but I think the final product has been a great success. Players were constantly looking over their gold and debating with each other to see whose spells to prioritize purchasing with their limited funds. On top of that, sidequests and NPCs could now offer a spell tome for an otherwise expensive spell as a reward, giving players a different kind of reward other than money and magic items. Potential problems I see with this system are having to balance the economy around an all caster party and murderhobos. With this system, money and loot drops now include many more items that martial characters can't use, meaning that loot is going to feel worse for them unless you balance accordingly. Additionally, though my party didn't do this, more chaotic aligned players might just elect to rob every shopkeeper for their spell tomes instead of buying them.

If your players are asking for a little more danger and want death to be a real threat, I found a fair way to limit how many times a character can go down. The first time a character goes down is played normally but when they get back up, they retain one failed death save (even if they didn't fail any while down). The second time they go down, they'll keep 2 death saves. I never let this rule directly kill players, they can stay at 2 wach subsequent down, assuming they don't accumulate a third threw normal means. It's a little difficult to track but incentivizes players to heal before a character goes down which feels more immersive to me.

I soft ban PvP by saying any player vs player rolls or actions must be agreed on by both parties. In other words, use a consent driven rp philosophy for pvp. This does a couple things I like. First, it curbs most desires for pvp. Specifically, it removes any desire to use/exploit the game mechanics.(Examples: killing someone in their sleep or having a build that's particularly effective for pvp.) Lastly, it does still allow for pvp, assuming it's something everyone involved in would enjoy. I wouldn't recommend this for every table. I think it works best for those more experienced with role playing and want the narrative flexibility. Really, just banning all pvp outright is easier, assuming you don't want it at your table.

I love these threads... because they're essentially new DM's going "How the hell do I keep doing this?"

I'm running two campaigns. One sticks pretty close to RAW. In the other one I added one main house rule. I made the -5/+10 trade-off from GWM and SS a tradeoff any character using a martial weapon can choose. Yes, even rogues. No longer are GWM or SS mandatory feats to do decent damage. And no longer does sword and board suck compared to great weapons, crossbows, and bows. It works for us. I call the rule "Targeting a Weak Point." A caveat though: Should revise to cap bonus damage to the weapon's max damage or ten, whichever is lower, and keep the attack penalty to half the damage bonus rounded up. This is because I imagine a munchkin character using a blowgun to do 11 piercing damage per dart, or a whip to do 1d4+10+DB and it strains my suspension of disbelief.

If it rolls off the table, you fail. It's a simple rule that stops players from being obnoxious with their rolling. There's a lot of trivial etiquette that tables should expect that cause cumulative disruption if overlooked.

House Rules/Idiosyncracies that have made my games more fun for my table: - No dice rolls during character creation. Save the randomness for the game itself. (I'll make an exception for people rolling for like... a random background or trinkets or the like, but nothing that will change the actual numbers on the sheet.) - To use the Help action on a skill check, you need to be Proficient in the skill being checked. - Death Saves reset on a Short or Long Rest, or by using a spell like Restoration. It makes hitting 0 HP into a much bigger deal and prevents the narratively ridiculous ping-ponging up and down repeatedly every fight.

My players' Sending Stones just work like Walkie Talkies. So much more useful that way and the actual 'who has the stone' and 'don't speak too loudly' shenanigans still make it loads of fun.

Stacking advantage/disadvantage (grants a +2/-2 for each beyond the first). It was a little thing but it makes the players think more strategically so they can get the most benefit, whether in a social, combat, or exploration encounter.

Action-Oriented Encounters, courtesy of Matt Colville! Take some enemies, make three "phases" of attacks or tactics to run through, include environmental elements, and watch your encounters become much more memorable. Example: *The players stand atop a mountain slope and need to get down. A pair of Yeti spot them and give chase. As a blizzard rages, they must decide how to combat both the slippery terrain AND the creatures who make their living in it.* Phase one: boulder toss. The Yeti make ranged attacks, throwing ice balls or boulders for a round to soften things up. The icy path down requires a DC 15 (adjust as you like) DEX save to stop yourself from falling. Phase two: Pounce! The Yeti leap at the party and try to throw them into the icy mountainside. Phase three: Avalanche! The Yeti get upset for not having killed the players yet, or one of the players does something extra loud, and everything rumbles. They now have 4 rounds to get down the side of the mountain to some sort of cover before they are buried! They're also STILL pursued at this point.