Web DM's Guide to Fighting Dirty | 5e Dungeons and Dragons | TTRPG 

Thanks for watching! Get DUNGEON NOTES: www.kickstarter.com/projects/1985games/dungeon-notes?ref=dwpsfn Get Way more Web DM: www.patreon.com/webdm

I love the idea of adding mechanical flaws to a character. Like, instead of just simply saying that you are suspicious of everyone....make it so that there's a mechanical consequence of it. Like now the player can't end their turn within 5ft of another character. Or now the player can only cast spells that benefit only him.

I love how Davis and Pruitt have basically exchanged beards at this point

Pruitt is becoming Jim, and Jim is becoming Pruitt. They're going to merge into one mega DM.

They see me rolling, They hatin', Their action holdin' and tryna catch me fightin' durdy.

Great episode! I had a player with lycanthropy who also was a wizard, so I worked with my a player that when they took a long rest, if they failed a save. They could recover only up to half their spell slots. To recover it they had to devour a portion of a creature with a CR equal their player level enough to appease the beast boiling their blood. They loved this attack on their character sheet and it helped reinforce that they had a curse.

The only way to fight.

I remember in 1st Ed. If you fell in a pit, or got hit by a fireball or acid, you were making saving throws for gear to see if it was damaged/broken.

This is some great inspiration. Especially against a high level party, where they are a lot less concerned about dropping from HP loss. Though a monster that takes away their ability to make death saves or starts them with two failed death saves could change that.

Spell curse I just thought of: basically a necrotic damage version of Burning Hands. It's prepared automatically. If you don't cast it by the end of the day, the next day it's prepared as well but also at second level. And so on, up to your maximum spell level. From there it cascades down, starting to require being cast multiple times using up multiple spell slots at given spell levels. It only goes away if you use it to kill creatures. Not injure, but kill.

The spell slot virus idea was one of the coolest things I've heard in a while.

Aberrations are a great time to dust off the old madness rules.

This is good content. Thank you. I would love to see much more DM-centric tools (I know you guys already do a lot, but MORE!), such as: how would you create a ruined city, how would you run a thieves' guild, how to make Orcs more threatening, etc. One of the topics I would love to see is how to deal with experienced players. There's a lot of content for new players and how to introduce new players but little for challenges to experienced players. I have been DM'ing for close to 30 years, and my current group has been (with a few exceptions) playing with me for 20 of those. Coming up with something to challenge them that's not obviously dickish is quite tough. PS: Thank you for your fantastic, wonderful content. You guys rock!

Always an exciting day when you get to watch the new WebDM video when it’s drops!! What a great follow up to your Combat as Sport vs. War episode from a while ago!!

"They took your knowledge." Sounds terrifying.

Love the hit dice stuff. We're considering a home rule of being able to use a hit die per 10 minutes of rest/downtime. Gives other characters something to be doing while the caster is doing a ritual.. or while that rogue is picking a lock. Having enemies and environments that attack the hit dice will also bring more focus on their usage and conservation.

One of my favorite memories from any tabletop game was from a Level Zero Death Funnel, in DCC. One of another player's characters had eschewed his dagger in favor of a large longsword, which seemed sensible at the moment, until the party was faced with a large beast-man. During the fight, the beast-man had pinned the longsword-bearer onto the ground with his left foot. The longsword bearer may have been able to attack before, but, due to his choice in equipment, had no weapon small enough to reasonably jab at the beast's foot, and thus, he died, then and there. Since that one campaign, all of my characters carry at least one dagger.

That thumbnail should be remade into a T shirt. I’d buy it

I think DMs need to tread carefully when implementing a new mechanism that it not within the base or agreed upon rules that is punitive, particularly when the players are provide no alternatives. So, crossing a desert and applying a level of exhaustion, that's fine ... part of the rules. Crossing a desert and then telling the players now that they've done this the consequence is a loss of a hit die, I wouldn't be OK with this. Telling a player before they cross the desert that if they do so they will lose a hit die, maybe. Better would be that while the players are at the tavern in town planning their approach to get to the next town, the DM says their a mountain path with dangerous yetis or a desert crossing, which would result in losing a hit die. Knowing the mechanics while the players are planning is always better than surprising them while they're in the mix of a situation, which is better than this is what the consequence is after the fact. Granted, one should apply proper context. If losing a hit die for crossing a desert is meant to represent the wear on the character, I would expect that my character would know this. If losing a hit die is a result from interacting with a demon, then this very well might not be common knowledge in the world, therefore it is reasonable to not be known beforehand. Implementing new rules and mechanics, particularly punitive ones, is tricky, and it should be done thoughtfully and with tact.

Damn I actually thought you guys were at the same table for a second. Your editor does good work

Great ideas. One of my own that I’d like to share is a field of magic compulsion. A field that forces every magic item that has an active ability to use it. It wastes resources, can cause problems, destroys stealth, reminds characters of items they’ve forgotten about and intelligent foes have a better idea of what their dealing with.

I love the thought of a Lich using a spell or ability that connects them to a players spell slots. Basically the player needs to take an action to make a CHA save each round to break the connection and until they do the Lich can use the PC’s spell slots to cast spells. Basically leeching the Magical power right out of the spell caster and using it against them.

I love the idea of attaching flaws to attacks and encountering certain enemy types! It's sorta reminiscent of the sanity mechanic in Call of Cthulhu

This is a super dangerous topic though. Like advice to newer GM's, please be sparring this can suddenly imbalance or unnecessarily become excessively punitive and not fun if wielded to much

Why do you need to “think outside the box” to adjust difficulty? You already control, the enemy composition (stats, level, type, synergy, tactics), the difficulty of skill checks, magic items available, and you can flub the rolls. Let the player have some sense of (within the rules) control over one variable, their ability scores.

Ideals, bonds, flaws, hit dice, and encumbrance are woefully underused official mechanics. LOVE the idea of damaging player’s equipment and resources!

These ideas have to be approached very carefully. Some DMs would use them to such an extent as to basically rewrite their players' characters.

A lot of very cool ideas! How about one in turn? I run a simple alt ruleset for Death Saves. The basic gist of it is that characters don't become unconscious while at 0HP, but every death save corresponds to gaining one level of exhaustion. It makes players more likely to survive fights by escaping, but punishes those who go to 0hp too often. It really enhances the health/rest economy. Also, Curse of Strahd's Death House needs some mods in order to be a good dungeon, but NGL the ghost possession part that involves gaining some flaws was pretty fun!

I only JUST NOW found this channel from a recommended video, and seeing the thumbnail, I went "Holy CRAP is that *_Pruitt?!?"_* This may or may not be a deepcut, but *_Three in the Afternoon_* and *_Six in the Morning_* are some of my personal favorite fan films EVER. The world-building and character motivations were really cool and bizarrely insightful in hindsight. -is it weird that at one point I wanted to do a fan film about -_-a fan film-_- lol- Until looking back on them, I never realized how much they actually inspired me in my storytelling when I saw them as a young kid. Funny, huh? Keep on keeping on, man!

Now, we need a video on how to take away DM abilities!

You guys are freaking mind readers. My players hit 5th level and the monk is dumping 45 points of damage a round, the rogue is doing 37 and the cleric won't let them even get below max hps.

damn, that beard looking mighty good on you Pruitt!

You guys have made some really amazing vids, but this might just be my favorite by far. Love this!

I had one DM who only used bad guys who attacked things other than HO. I got real tired real fast of combat after combat where I couldn't do anything except use melee attacks as a spell caster. Oh, and because we were low level, trying to fix it knocked me out (surprise!) and the only reason I didn't bleed out was DM hamfisted fiat (I would rather my character died than be saved that way).

Best episode sense the “cooking monsters” one. I love the creativity

My favorite is in curse of Strahad I take away most divine skills until the final battle so that I can impress upon my clerics and paladins that the gods have abandoned this place, just so that they get that feeling at the end when I give it back that this is the FINAL FINAL battle

I do love changing effects for terrain. for instance when my players went to the feywild, they had an option with every spell- either you roll on the wildmagic table, or you have to cast at a level higher to combat the turbulent magic in the air. I've had drained magic zones that downcast spells, and for a one-shot I once Iad a creature that attacked your vision. no not the CHARACTER'S, YOUR vision. It attacked your connection to the gods and fate itself. basically I threw something at your character sheet and you lost the ability to keep track of whatever it landed on. HP? Congrats, I don't tell you how much damage you take from attacks, I'll be keeping track of that now. A Spell or ability? I cover it with a scrap of paper, and it fizzles if you can't tell me what it does.. Lose 3 and you're playing blindfolded until you get the debuff cured (or alternately I take the character sheet, you're not dead you just can't see it). It was hilarious to fight against, though only cause it was a nice little one-off. Though on the 'to get casters' side I love enemies that get a reaction for spells. Like the Nivix's cyclops getting a dash+attack when a spell is cast near it. I've had enemies that heal when spells are used as they sap the lingering energy, enemies that can pocket the spell and throw it back at you, wilfmagic enemies that randomize spells cast on them to a random other of its spell level, and I've always loved the Flail Snail antimagic ability.

An infectious spell that takes the place of a spell slot is BRILLIANT! I'm taking it and I already know how it will be incorporated. I have little bits of really old magic (because I love that junk lol) which they have been exposed to. This is just another layer to showcase how far beyond current mages these old civilizations really are.

"Fighting dirty". Can that be a fighting style?

I'm all for attacking the whole character sheet. Maybe a poison/curse that removes your proficiency bonus. An autoimmune disease that makes your con save +0.

Cleric fell in this nasty swamp water last session. Going to spoil all the food in his inventory now, thanks for the tip, muahaha

I remember throwing an aboleth at the party who bartered hints about the dungeon in exchange for treasured memories. The fighter actually lost all memory of his mother's face. Unfortunately this video didn't exist three years ago, so all that meant was a shrug from the player and moving on. Next time I bring in that aboleth, he'll take bonds.

One of my favorites was using large packs of wolves that just howl during a fight, creating a cacophony of howls that prevents players from hearing each other speak, as they are unable to out-shout the howling pack. It was a way using free-action in new way could create a different challenge. Wolves not in the front line used their Reactions to howl whenever a PC would speak.

*Makes the rogue unable to pick locks "Oh look, the rogue player is proficient in Table-Flipping."

This is a good video you guys. Keep it up! I've used magical locks and elaborate rituals that requires X levels in arcane or divine spell slots to work. Or magic items that unlock abilities/bonuses when sacrificing Hit Die. This is not so bad when outside combat but when in the middle of a dungeons...it can put players at a disadvantage when they're in combat. Or another thing I've seen somewhere: a powerful desert creature can dehydrate an area, so no potions and maybe exhaustion if you failed a CON save in that area. A green dragon's lair can be filled with a noxious gas that affects the nerve system, giving the party disadvantage or stacking minus to attack rolls. Or it weakens one's might so STR-based attacks do half damage.

Wow a lot of these ideas are found in Dungeon World.I fully recommend Dungeon World for experienced but jaded 5E DM's looking for less superhero inspired and time-consuming player turns and more improvisational, swift, old school play.

I had my hight-level players fight red caps that had full immunity to magic damage and spells. It was a lot of fun having them pull out their old metal weapons that they forgot about and fighting with those.

A note about the proficiency removal: poison already gives disadvantage on both ability checks and attack rolls. Keep that in mind when you do that.

How's about a curse or poison that makes it impossible to concentrate for a while? I think that would make a lot of casters shaken down to their bones.

I personally learned alot about non-lethal failure from Quests in Armello. While the effects are less lasting, the way you fail quests but still move on are great examples of how to fail forward. Thank you for reading my comment.

Fireball is that infectious spell you were talking about. I let my players turn crits into regular hits by sacrificing an equipped item. This gives helmets a reason to exist, armor is only one item, and weapons/shields must be in your hands to count as “equipped.” Magic items have a much better chance of surviving the hit. I’ve also always enjoyed *playing* as characters that carry all their inventory as best as I know how. So I really keep track of that stuff, and it took a load off the other players in Lost Mines of Phandelver. Know where your tinder pouch is and keep it dry.

That beard is getting pretty epic, Pruitt! Rock on! PS: Your Patreon pitch in this episode finally made sense of your "save way more than $5" comment in the Web Demons segues in older episodes. I was always like: "That figure seems arbitrary, yet oddly specific..."

I've never had the opportunity to use it, but a monster of mine has the ability to leech spell slots off of casters it attacks, then immediately use them to cast off of a list of predetermined spells. Attacking people's spell slots is a fine and fantastic way to fight dirty.

i used a blue ring octopus that made players forget how to hold their breathe underwater. It was a nautical campaign.

New to your channel... truly insightful, intelligent, clearly presented content. Delivered by TTRPG GAMERS informed by mechanics of a multitude of TTRPG's & delivered wit that doesn't distract! If only there were an PathFinder YT channel that could deliver like y'all😭! Top Fkn Tier boys. SETTING THE BAR HIGH.

I am happy to say I recommended you guys to several people taking their first steps into Table top rpg's. You guys are terrific. Thank you for what you're doing.

One thing I did to my players is an assassin swapped out one of their rations with a poisoned one. Cleric's PP let him notice someone had gone through their packs but everything was accounted for so they shrugged it off. I though kept track, and every time they ate, I'd roll a dice to see if they ate the poisoned one. 4 sessions later, the barbarian dropped from full to 0 making death saves in the middle of a dungeon far from civilization. Party saved him because there was a cleric, so I didn't even expect it to kill him to begin with; but the fact it burned a ton of resources still had the desired effect.

My party is not into gear. They just dump my cool items. So this topic is gold. Maybe even platinum. Thanks.

Cool ideas, especially since the ease of recovering HP takes away from feeling truly threatened.

The first example, a poison that takes away a rogue's ability to open locks, makes no sense. Why wouldn't the baddie just use a poison which KILLS the rogue? Any of these ideas need to not just be rando effects the DM throws in the change things up, but instead need to be firmly grounded in the motivations of the party's opponents, etc. Otherwise the players are just going to feel like the DM is attacking them directly, instead of the DM creating an interesting world.

In the immortal words of a saint: "hit em with the ooolll dicktwist" *twisting claw hand gesture*

I had a swamp with enemies that would rot the party's food. It was also pretty hard to find things that were edible and not poisonous or diseased. To top it off, in this swamp, anyone who dies rises up again as an undead creature, and the party met some starving travelers. They had to decide between giving up precious food reserves or going into combat again.

A curse that infects a caster and causes pain and damage if they don't cast. This really opens up my ideas on my blight in my magic heavy world.

I kinda worked this into the story. The main baddie is in the business of killing deities, and one of the tools he uses is a mineral from the Far Realm that shuts down divine energies and magics. Whenever it shows up, my Pally, Cleric, and Druid beg the Warlock and Rogue to get rid of it asap. Even more desperately when it shows up mid-combat.

Noob DM moment on the "Yeah, this is awesome, but it's the size of a master bed: Hadn't played since 2e when I was in high school. Got made the DM randomly at the FLGS. Was looking for cool/fun magic items and ended up accidentally giving them something from Pathfinder -- the EXTRA LARGE bag of holding. I rolled randomly on a table to find it, but I was terrified what could potentially be inside of this thing. They got it, and at the end of the session decided to turn it inside out, so I had all week to decide what was in it. I brainstormed with a friend who (at the time) wasn't in the campaign. We did the math of what a 2,000lb capacity bag of holding could potentially contain. We came to the conclusion that inside of it......was an upright piano. The noise of an upright piano falling into the (now emptied) snake pits brought enemies from two other rooms. It was glorious.

something I'm trying in dungeon crawls that my players really seem to enjoy (or at least respect) is to *make time an enemy:* 1. Every physical skill check or tool check is minutes = (20 - Roll). Group check? Average the highest and lowest rolls. 20 or above = 0 minutes. 2. If the player fails DC on physical check or tool check, they succeed in the event regardless but suffer 1lvl exhaustion, or an injury, or both depending on the situation. Also works with curses such as religious shrines, traps, etc. "Marked for death" means no death saves for 24 hours. 3. Short rests last an hour and count against an active workday. Roll encounter % chance each hour. 4. Sleeping in a dungeon is a fool's errand. Muawhahaha! Raw dogging a long rest only regain half hit die back and reduce one level of exhaustion, and only if you get the required amount of rest in an 8hour cycle, assuming there is only one ambush. 5. Every room is 15 minutes to examine, discuss, fight, investigate, take note, pack up, and travel to the next room. There is always a race against the clock. This dungeon only rises at night and sinks back into the ocean at daybreak. This hostage rescue has until the stroke midnight before the execution. In 3 days' time, the armies of Mordor will march their million locusts orcs thru here enslaving and killing everyone. The pokemon will soon be evolving beyond our strength if you don't hunt it down within the week. *Time to loot and scoot!* DM is not required to give exact time unless pc own timepiece or a spell such as druidcraft, but they should generally know the rules upfront and track their own time. Run into a dead end? Montage a backtrack at "fast pace" but still count the time. 5 minutes per room. *My goal is to have them face the main combat encounter exhausted, injured, and in forced march check. Going into combat debuffed from these things helps greatly increase the dangers of combat, especially if they were racing a sand storm, or trying to beat the blizzard, reach shore before the hurricane, find the key out of here before it floods, or make it to the cave of wonders before the volcano erupts, etc.*

In this one book called Liber Bestiarus, a WotC product with Matt Colville leading design, is a creature called Familiar Eater. It injects its eggs in a caster's familiar which consume it over the next 2d4 weeks, dropping it's constitution. It also drains the caster's magic potential through their link to the familiar so each passing week the familiar's max health drops and the caster spell DC lowers by one, as well as damage from spells (1/dice rolled multiplied by the weeks).

this episode was a banger

Pruitt talking about hit dice (around the 12-minute mark) gave me an idea for a system for Wounds; pretty simple I think: the system might want to have extended rest (a week or few days of downtown). if an attack or damage is going to inflict a wound, it temporarily locks up a certain number of hit dice, which can only be used again after, during an extended rest, time is spent to heal. a more complicated system could add additional mechanical effects for different types of wounds (reduced base speed for a major leg wound comes to mind). it just occurred to me - this hit dice thing could also be used for diseases

The spell slots one made me think of something, a cursed spell, like: when you learn this spell anytime you try to cast a spell other than it, you need to make a wisdom save or cast it. And using remove curse makes you unlearn the spell

I once DMed an Adventurers’ League epic in which the last fight was against an archlich. The archlich had this nasty trick in which he lit candles while goading the player characters into declaring their names. Any PC who told the lich their name lost a defining class feature; monks lost ki, barbarians lost rage, rogues lost sneak attack, etc. In order to get their class feature back, they would have to destroy the candles the lich had lit. I thought it was pretty mean and really fun at the same time.

Web DM hot take: How to shut down a caster, you make them a warlock

The party and I just hit level five yesterday. Think I’ll send this to our DM.

My first reaction to all of this is to work it into another homebrew rule I always use. I'm a big proponent of using XP milestones in D&D the way XP is handed out and used in Cypher System. So why not give players the same choice they get if they roll a 1 in Cypher. You've been hit with an attack that packs a different kind of punch. You can take the damage as hit points, or you can have these 2 XP and let me hit you somewhere else on your character sheet. You just failed the save for a fireball. You can take hp damage and drop to 0, or take these 3 XP and these 3 levels if exhaustion. You all failed your saves against the first mind blast that group of mind flayers over there hit you with. We can TPK and call it a night, or all of you can give 5 of the XP you have stored up back to me and then we'll all roll on the indefinite madness table in the DMG. Choices, choices.

I did an amnesia themed dungeon once (no one had played D&D before so I had mostly amnesiacs so the dungeon was a way to justify it). It had a persistent mist effect that caused them to have to roll Wisdom saving throws or lose a random proficiency or class ability. Once you reached 0 proficiencies, you lose yourself and the dungeon starts claiming you. There was so much tension, it was amazing. They were half dead and out of spell slots and did NOT want to short rest. Rogue lost his Sneak and Perception, Barbarian lost their ability to Rage, Wizard their ability to speak and their literacy. Only one that was fine was the Fighter, oddly. Kept making the saves. Anyway, just make sure you have consent. I've done it where you take something from the players without warning, and they get maaad. If they know it's coming, it's a risk they take. And make sure you reward if they succeed well, or they will still have hard feelings about it.

I just had a boss monster that would attack magic. It could ignite the mana of the spell and act like a dispel magic that would follow the fuel back to its source and sear that spell slot closed so that it wouldn't recover on rest or class feature until the magic user took an extended rest. Like a downtime activity's worth of time passing on pure bedrest, meditation, and magical mending. It couldn't do it often, but when the wizard went for the giant ape polymorph combo and I ignited that spell so not only was there no king kong but his highest level spell slot was also just closed off to him for the imminent future, that made him sit up and pay attention to this being a *dangerous enemy*

This video has my the ideas flowing. Our cleric was cursed by an item made by the big bad that commands him to harm/sabotage the party. Until they realize he's been cursed and it gets removed, I think I'll have him cast Bane when he means to use Bless or Guidance.

Love the idea of attacking ideals boobs and flaws! It's pretty much like using the madness table in the dmg.

I have recently come across the idea of profficiancy dice rather than a number bonus. There is something about a physical dice which is much more intuitive to remember it is added to a check. Making your bonus a physical dice makes removing it a much more tangible a thing. Rather than having to minus your bonus off the number you previously added it onto.

I watched the Hag video were you discussed Razzle Sin and how Jim gave her warlock levels so now I always give my big bags at least a few class abilities.

Also, one of my favorites is a wizard that uses the spell Catapult to launch a net wrapped around two Alchemist’s Fires. Or Net + Ball Bearings + Catapult.

One of the best episodes I've seen! Great ideas.

Nuts I was really hoping for a guide on how to incorporate nut-kicking into melee combat. Also stuff like, how to set up ambushes, kicking enemies when they're prone, advantages to high/low honor fighters, etc.

Turning spell slots into weight would be a cool curse. A caster suddenly become over burdened by a curse. They can lessen it by using up their spells.

How did you know I was looking for this content today? Truly the perfectly timed vid. Love it

I think this is one of your best episodes! Thanks for all the ideas

Being a player for the first time in a while, I asked my DM if I was allowed to add mechanical parts to my character flaws and he was so happy. My character's a changeling that's basically pretending to be her best friend. Went on a 'kill giant bugs' mission and ran into a dragon on a hunt, she cowered while her friend fought, feels torn up because she never wanted to be an adventurer and was only doing this for her friend, but is determined to make the friend's dreams of greatness come true so her death wasn't in vain. Thing is, has crazy bad PTSD because she watched the only person who accepted her as a changeling get toyed with and ripped apart. So any time we fight something large and green, or if I see a dragon, my character has to make saves to keep her form together. How close it correlates to a green dragon determines the check, and if I fail my form freaks out and I revert to original self. If this happens, or she gets hit with a frightened condition, she fully gives into the obsession which caused her to throw her own identity away and permanently become someone else. mechanically it's the frightened condition, except I can't move AWAY from the creature instead of can't move towards. I'm so torn up over the cowardice in my past that haunts me every day and night that I can't bring myself to run, not again, never again...despite having disadvantage on everything and really should be moving away until I pass that save. I love it, and thankfully my fellow players have found it super interesting, some have been taken thier own flaws as well now. For instance, fey ancestry to the extreme, breaking oaths literally causes them permanent damage as they start to die from the power inherent in their words..

I recall from one of the earlier editions that had a basically undead tree that had an aura that rotted all food within a large radius of the tree.

Love these ideas, best episode in a long time (IMO)

In session zero my DM said he's not going to award inspiration. Each player can award it once per session. I awarded it once, comically, when our fighter declared an attack with no description. Outside of that, it was never used. The DM technically awarded it to me, once, because my character found and drank coffee. But he didn't award it as inspiration, he just told me I could take advantage once in the next four hours.

A real world weapon, that is installed in the US Presidents limo, is a gas grenade that when released causes temporary amnesi and disorientation to the people that breath it in. Applying that as inspiration for your D&D game, you can have a poison or gas that can temporarily effect a rogues proficiency with locks, a mages memory of how to cast certain spells, or any other specific stat or ability on a character’s sheet.

Today i worked on monsters which force the PCs to unattune to a magic item with each hit they land.

this was actually super good and directly useful

Damaging equipment... One can bring back the Item Saving Throw table.

I've used gear tax for failed skill challenge checks. For Example: doing a skill challenge for over land travel... player picks a skill to reflect how they're managing the trip. If they succeed they're one step closer to the destination. If they fail they have to sacrifice a piece of gear to reflect the failed attempt. A failed Athletics check results in a lost rope. A failed Survival check results in lost rations... and so on...

I've been playing dirty in our Curse of Strahd game; I introduced a new condition called *Haunted*. After harrowing events I'd have them make a Wisdom save and a failure meant the situation or encounter left a lasting mental scar on you. While Haunted they had Disadvantage on saves vs becoming Frightened, did not lose Exhaustion levels after a long rest, and only regained 1/4 of their spent hit dice. The condition could be removed by your typical means (greater restoration, etc.), becoming Drunk (My players were habitually drinking all the alcohol in sight so I made a Diet Exhaustion system to track how smashed they get, "Drunk" being the middle level) or... consuming a Dream Pastry. So far they've really integrated these traps I've laid for them into their RP and character development. One wants to start brewing his own wine specifically to combat their haunted thoughts, one is abstaining of any substance and embraces the Hauntings almost like a penance, and the sorcerer is rapidly becoming Morgantha's best customer...

Just got done watching a video on another channel and they mentioned attacking the death saves. You can have a monster with a power, like a recharging breath weapon or something, that can instill a foreboding sense of doom and those that fail a CON save at whatever DC automatically have a failed death save on the books. This makes the battle far more consequential and forces the players to pay attention to each other rather than just doing their thing against the external threat. They can recover after a long rest or something or maybe a lesser or greater restoration... or get creative and find a spell that is kind of innocuous but has great synergy with countering this doom, like calm emotions. Something I'm working on incorporating in my game but haven't quite ironed out the kinks.

Ideas: 1) A special ghoul or ghast that exudes an aura that spoils food. The creature so embodies the power of hunger, it makes food rot and milk curdle. It may even stalk travelers or communities, trying to drive people to starvation. The regular ghouls that accompany it might just be previous victims, driven to death and/or cannibalism by this arch-ghoul. 2) If a spellcaster is attacked by a demon or aberration, they must save or have one of their prepared spells replaced with some conjuration spell that summons another being from the same plane of existence. Spells like Summon Fiend or Summon Aberration. It's a spell that wants to be free - while it's in the caster's head, they must save every day or take a level of Exhaustion keeping it contained. And it's very easy to get rid of it: just cast the spell. Of course, doing so will bring this hostile entity into the world, permanently (until killed or banished), that the spellcaster has no control over. Do they dare let the being out? Or do they try to keep it contained for as long as they can? (Another way to get rid of it might be to pen it as a spell scroll. But if they try to copy it to a spellbook, they not only don't extract the spell from their heads, but anyone who memorizes the spell from that spellbook learns it as a cursed spell, with the above complications). 3) Special anti-dwarven weaponry, created by some Duergar or goblinoids, that saps a creature's resistance to poison. Even makes them vulnerable to poison. As a further twist of the knife, it might make them lose their beard hair. Attacking a character's racial abilities are fair game, especially since they have built-in story justification.

In my quite high level Ysgard campaign, I have the intention of using the drowning condition in a fight. They're fighting a coven of sea hags and their Merrow Servants, in a Swamp that has very deep sink holes at certain spots on the map. Also, their "Wizard" (warlock with the tome boon) will most definitely betray them after the battle.

Lol, the loosing proficiency reminded me of space jam when the basketball players lost their mojo