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Ahh as a fellow maths teacher I super appreciate you telling the mathy bits. I think system mastery and clever maths help any GM for any ttrpg. Also, if you get enough tiktok vids out, possible compilatiom later?
Jordan Nguyen math teachers unite!! Thanks, gotta spread the knowledge! And that... is a GREAT idea!! I’ll totally do that once I get like 15+ of them!
I prefer this format, the live streams have good info but it's also a lot of scrubbing through joking with the audience, off topic comments, and donations. They are fun if you can watch live, but less so in the recordings.
Thanks for the edited-down stream. Full recording of archived live stream is pretty unwatchable. This solves that! Also, some awesome content here. Love your initial sanity check of monster hp vs party DPR, to make sure they won’t likely kill something in one round that you don’t want them to kill in one round.
As an aspiring DM who’s also a non-exercising (practicing?) math teacher I ask you please, please, do not stop teaching math on your D&D videos. I love them, I love it, it’s fun, it’s helpful and it’s enlightening!
Just recently found these videos and they are full of great information! I also feel like if he was my math teacher I probably wouldn't have struggled as much as I did back in high school lol.
Bikzimus Maximus glad to hear you liked it better, my intent is to keep things as efficient as possible so whenever I’m filming, anytime I pause or hesitate or stutter, I redo it or cut it there to keep things moving quickly. But from what a lot of the feedback is saying I should be more relaxed, and if it takes a little bit longer that’s OK (to get the information across)
I am amazed that I was in the same ballpark as you for the stats of these creatures! I have been DMing for just a little over a year, but seeing how close I was to your stats it was very encouraging! (I had guessed between 70-120 hp, nailed that 14 AC Natural Armor, I was thinking 2d8s for damage, but you did consider it! And obviously that ram attack with knock-back! I like the idea of the Rammer + Piercer, since druids like lightning one of my ideas would be make them immune to Thunder Damage, and their horns act like lightning catchers/rods (3rd caster goat can cast lightning spells and there could be some cool stuff there that could be done)) Thanks for the video!
I have been running a campaign for 3 years. My players consistently roll high, to the point that I am known at my university for saving other dms from tpk's. If I run combat, players will never roll below 7 and within 3 rounds of combat there will be at least 2 crits from thier side. Because of that, CR 1 monsters I run rarely have less than 18 AC if I want my plyers to miss them at least once during combat.
I really appreciate your content, as a new DM it is hard for me to know how to spice up my games. I appreciate the understanding that you need to make the world dynamic and reactive. I like the idea of crossing the bridge while being chased by the shapeshifted druids. Maybe the environmental effect would be that every time the pc's missed they caused damage to the bridge, so you have the pc's roll damage anyway, but don't tell them what the damage is for. Dealing too much damage to the bridge would cause the bridge to be destroyed, and thus them fall into the canyon, which could set up a skill challenge.
I love the idea of the bone encased head on the goat. Very Del Torro . I would even make it eye less with tremor sense and give razor sharp cloven hooves to give it a secondary attack option and because this thing specializes in ramming and probably collides with other males over territory and mating rights make it resistant to bludgeoning damage
This video was incredible. The math breakdowns of how you balance encounters is so helpful. I went through and calculated my party's average damage per round, spell DC's and AC. Going off your video, I've now got a short hand for how many actions, average damage per round, and AC for different types of enemies so I have pseudo stat blocks ready to go for any improvised encounter I have to come up with (players are in a very sandboxy section of the campaign). Super helpful! And I'll second the other thoughts about how this less scripted format suits you really well. It's obvious how creative and energized your feeling during this livestream.
Ryan Rodgers wow thanks man! I love that you have another tool in your belt 💪🏼👍🏼 And yea I want to keep loving towards this style too, I’ve gotten good feedback from it!
More DnD math quick tips please. I don't consider myself bad at math. Not great but not bad. You don't always see what's right in front of you. If there are other quick math tips that help you plan better/faster, please share. lol Your content has been SUPER useful for me. I'm hoping to start DMing soon and the homebrew stuff has been exactly the style of DnD I enjoy.
Combat is definitely my weakest DM skill mostly in balancing encounters. I have been looking all over for tips on how to do it better. This is easily the most helpful video I have watched on how to effectively balance combat. You explained things so well in how to keep things alive and how to the damage works. Thank you very much for explaining it. It is already helping the boss fight I am running tonight!
I do like this format every now and then. I love the idea of you met a gaming out to combat encounters and creating your own monsters. Have you ever tried a game called dungeon world? This is a great game that allows for a lot of the more free scripted things that you like to throw in your games.Anyway, great content! I’m definitely continuing to follow your posts every Saturday. Help me to become a better dm
Jason that’s awesome man! Thank you for that! Glad to have ya here! I have heard of it and it sounds like something I’d love from multiple sources directing me there! I’ll have to check it out!
Great to see this conversation again: I remember well the goats at the bridge! And how well you explained the figuring of the math of the encounter on the fly!
As a person from outside the US, to whom 6pm CST means 1 am, I appreciate this format. I usually won't be able to watch your live streams live and this makes it easier (shorter) for me to do afterward
I have to say by far that this is my favorite D&D channel, hands down. You've helped me become a better DM than I could've imagined. My players absolutely love playing every Sunday and I can honestly say it's all thanks to you, man. You've helped me with so much on improving my game, and just an overall amazing source of information and inspiration! I can't thank you enough, brother!!!
Rustam that’s what my thought was too, but I had a lot of requests for it, and have gotten some good feedback too, but I want to hear this type as well! Don’t worry, back to normal next week!
I would *_love_* a dedicated video to calculating player damage output if you haven't done that yet. I'm a DM whose group is on session 17 and I have 6 players at level 5 currently in my own campaign I've created. Having ADHD is great when I world build and get detailed and hyper focused, but ADHD makes math frustrating and encounter balancing hard. If you've already made a player damage output video exclusively, I'd love a link! I just subbed today and I LOVE your content. Thanks for doing what you do :) -Roselyse
Are there any other DMs out there who's group only meets around once a month? I have a hard time keeping the campaign moving because we meet so infrequently due to schedules. I wonder if that would be a worthwhile video topic?
With your Expertise in Math, I would love to see DC do a break down of Advantage/Disadvantage. Knowing of the Gambler's Fallacy is Advantage a lie? Or is there actually a statistical advantage to 2 dice?
Firstly, great work and the less scripted feeling is excellent. Secondly, I love the way you were calculating HP for the goats, but I think there might be an easier way. What are your thoughts on just disregarding hit points entirely and modifying "minions" from previous editions. Fodder is killed in 1 hit.. and the party feels like they can wade through anything, but then they start running into 2 hit minions ... or maybe the really tough 3 hit minions. Way less tracking by the DM, and no monster lasts any longer than you want it to (unless the party just misses a lot, but that is another issue). Only the "boss" fight is going to care exactly how many HP the villain has. Keep up the great work, cant wait for more in year 2.
I really enjoy your livestream vibe. Somehow chill and energetic at the same time? It feels like brainstorming with friends in the living room. I would love more of this. Even if you just archived unedited livestreams, it would be great. Catching livestreams is always tricky for me (and others, I'd wager), but watching them later is still engaging.
So me and my friends are playing a 100% homebrew for our first. We've pretty much come to the conclusion we haven't got the rules down perfectly but we've got them consistant for our own game. I was placed in the DM Seat. I came up with a boss where each member of the party would have entered the room - but the party would have disappeared entirely for one another. So our Rogue couldn't see the fighter or the ranger, the fighter couldn't see the rogue or ranger and so on. We also have no dedicated healer and have so far just gotten really lucky. The Boss Encounter went along the lines of even though the party couldn't see the other members - the boss had a huge health pool compared to each of our characters and was double our total health as a combined team. But the boss could only attack each party member once. What set this boss apart was the reaper's attacks as well which were basic swings of a scythe, until it made contact with someone. THEN the attacks were boosted by a blood frenzy which made them do double damage. Further more if a character tried to get in close and was unlucky with a role then the various souls that the reaper had taken would reach their boney arms out and attempt to grab the party member to drag it inside. It would have been an instant kill if it had worked. What the team didn't realise until a good while in, was each of their attacks were actually chipping away at a mutual health pool. Which they were of course super relieved to find out when the beast went down. Defintely one of the great highlights of my D&D experience thus far. Received all sorts of praise for the creativity and the periferals, I had them listening to music for the fight. Specifically the Pursuer's Boss theme from Darksouls 2. If anyone has any ways that I could have improved this or you see a glaring flaw that you or your party would have absolutely taken advantage of - please let me know. I'm new to this and really want to make the best things I can for my Campaigns.
I like multi stage combats. Where the enemies go through 2 or 3 'phases' like in a video game when they take so much damage. Either in tactics or a physical transformation or environment change. An example would be popping buffing potions like fly or levitate after so much damage or enemies down to change it up a bit
Coach! I am liking this format! The live stream was fun but seeing this condensed version really solidifies everything. Also I wish the math teachers when I was in school used your teaching methods.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This format is great! I so often stay away from live streams because 2/3rds of it is just waffle and filler. Cutting it down to the actual useful information is great. Cutting in little Time Out explanations is even better. Good job.
Also, I do like the more relaxed version of you much better. The high energy strong presentation style of your shorter videos is good for an opening or an accent but after a few minutes I stop really listening to what you are saying. Which is a pity because you have some good ideas. This video though: a very enthusiastic 2 thumbs up!
Explosive Carnage I agree... except when I am preparing for encounters where I am trying to prevent things from dying in one round. If I am estimating I want to err on the side of it having a few more HP and still being alive than just barely being deal 😆 But in general, yes I always round down
@@TheDungeonCoach Guess it's just difference of opinion. I personally would rather go a bit under because those few extra hit points could be what allows it to TPK, if the "goats" are rolling extremely well. And if you low ball it, hey the players don't know their hitpoints ;)
never say always in D&D: the MM uses .5 when calculating avg HP; the rule right after "round down" is "specific beats general" which can apply AND the DMG on page 4 give explicit permission to change any rule
@@Silkspar That only applies if there is a current or next attack. Besides which, if you have to cheat to not kill all your players (and I say this as someone who has done the same plenty) then you have fucked up, and it is a practise that should only be encouraged as a last resort. A maybe, if you have to. It should still be avoided at all costs. But anyway, I have always rounded down for average HP for my monsters, and as far as I can tell so do WoTC. If you don't want to, then don't XD
I was recently working with a boss I was writing, who the players encounter alone. Currently I have the boss at 944 HP but starts with only 377 (I workshop this depending on the group) as he's been trapped for some time, having his life force siphoned from him to power a facility where he is magically restrained. I gave him a 23 AC since he's designed for a level 10 encounter. +5 Ability modifier, +4 PB, +5 effectively from Advantage due to the restrained condition, gives a +14 to rolls before considering magic weapons, spells like Bless, etc. It's balanced, but when they ask with a smug look on their faces "Does a 22 hit?" and I tell them "No", their reaction is priceless. ^_^
