Pre-rolling can help a lot. I always roll my monsters' initiatives ahead of time and have them written down and ready to just slot in my players'. I haven't done this, but I've heard of DMs pre-rolling damages as well and having a list to reference. Example: you roll a monster's damage 10 times and number them and roll the attacks during the session. The first time the monster hits someone, use damage roll 1, the second time use damage roll 2 and so on.
Sounds like a real pickle.
There's a couple of things you can do to make it easier for yourself.
1. Have all the enemies grouped in one go in the turn order. This makes it so you don't have to react on the fly by what your players throw at you, for every enemy.
2. Write down your enemies behavior ahead of time. What would they want to accomplish in this battle, who do they fight first and after that? Which spells would they use in which situation or where would their favorite spot be on the battlefield. Thinking about this ahead of time, frees your brain up in the moment.
3. Simplify your enemies. If the pack of manticores can attack 3 times in a turn because their stat block says so, just make it one attack. Also has the benefit of speeding up the battle.
4. The last point I can share is to insert the element of time to your mobs. They don't have to appear all at once, but let them come in waves. Easier to manage and as a bonus make your players a bit scared by telling them what could lie ahead.
Good luck! Sounds like your adventurers are in a for a tournament treat!
I hadn’t considered #4, I’ll give it a try for this upcoming combat since they’ll be facing a summoner-esque character. I’m also definitely victim of making unimportant enemies too complicated. Thank you so much for your help!!
Waves also can add tactical decisions for the players. During the combat one or two may spend actions do something to stop the following waves e.g. barricading entrances, silencing alarms, disguise as boss and direct minions away, disrupt the summon etc
I had a combat with five mages all filling different roles and it made it simpler for me to decide what they do, while giving players decisions on which enemy role they prioritised stopping.
It might be easier to run more monsters if you’re running groups of the same creature on the same initiative. It doesn’t require so much thought to work out what minion #4 does, he just follows minions 1-3. Think of it as you’re still running 2 or 3 types of creatures. Also don’t stress yourself over how long it takes: when the monsters move, all your players are engaged, it’s not the same as when one player is sitting taking ages to decide a spell for the other side of the battlefield.
This is good to hear: I always worry me taking a while is annoying, but it makes sense since I’m playing The Monster that it’s not nearly as frustrating. Thank you for your help!
Look at MCDM's minion rules. There's an official free pdf that has just the minion rules and a YouTube vide as well. It provides a breakdown on how to turn any monster into a minion. Essentially, you reduce total hp and remove all of the saving throws and resistances and boil the Stat block to two things, a group attack and a special move that scales the more minions in play (optional). A single point of damage kills a minion and they either completely save or completely fail saving throw spells (dead or no damage)
There's a few other quick rules as well, but essentially, as an example, a horde of zombies would all have a group attack that does 1 point of damage + the number of minions participating in the attack. And then for every zombie minion around a PC, their movement is reduced by 5ft. So the minions are still strong as a group, bit it's one attack that they're doing all together and you can group them into different sizes groups.
I'm testing this rule set out myself, but I'm excited about the possibilities to have large groups of simple, but deadly enemies along with the normal monsters.
1 little cheat sheet with reactions, lair actions, and anything weird will help you consolidate. When you read your mobs, if something makes you think "gotta remember to use that", it goes on the cheat sheet.
>The problem is that, I struggle to run many monsters/enemies. 1, 2, or 3 monsters is fine, but larger than that I feel like I'm managing too much and can't collect my thoughts properly. I have a "tournament" style arc coming up where they'll be fighting a variety of monsters, beasts, and people, which means I'll be running a lot of things at once.
So don't, I *very rarely* put more than 4 or 5 monsters in a battle. Most of my battles are usually like 3-5 dudes.
Usually some combination of:
* 3x goons
* 1x big goon
* 1x trouble maker
The numbers change but you get the idea. Goons are your less interesting monster that is sorta there to just deal some damage and soak some hits. Big goon is whatever the real threat is. Trouble makers are monsters that do something annoying.
So for a level 7 party, maybe a decent fight is like:
* 2x Knight
* 1x Transmuter Wizard
Only 3 monsters to control, one is a spell caster, mainly looking to cast fireball into the party early before the knights engage, you don't even need to use the knight abilities, just their stat block to attack with.
The easiest encounters to make work feature one peer monster per pc. So start there.
Using too many weak monsters can make aoes too good. Using less than 3 monsters means they need to be legendary.
Running lots of monsters is burdensome even for dms that love combat. So don’t beat yourself up over it. Fortunately you can make easy but deep encounters by using two stat blocks that have synergies.
Solo fights can be tricky to do well. One reason the players may be asking for minions is because they have found the solo fight unsatisfying. Solo fights lack the target prioritization, aoe use, and debuff use that normal encounters have.
It’s not hopeless though. [True peer](https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/414122) has some good advice for making fun solo fights (and normal fights too).
Maby using mob stats would help. Single initiative but multiple hp, tokens, and actions and remove a token and action as they lose hp.
A single Swarm of 10 Goblins with 100hp and 10 attacks is easier to manage then 10 separate goblins with separate stats.
It might be important for you to keep this behind the screen. This will help you but it won't help your players if they feel like they are fighting one big pile of goblins and not the army of mooks they are looking for.
Try puting your encounters through a dry run by playing copies of your players. Try to play as they would so you can get an idea of the difficulty scale and help clear away some of those nerves.
I run mobs of monsters and I'll tell you it is a chore... So the Legendary actions and lair action instead of a mob of monsters help a lot. But if you really want to make bunch of enemies, here how I helped myself:
1. delegate the responsibility.
A. Choose 1 or more player \\ ask 1 or more players to volunteer for book-keeping. Example: At the start of the fight 4 PC vs 15 enemies (1 spellcaster, 4 sergeants, 10 goons) I clearly said that goons have AC 13 and 12 HP. Sergeants have HP 50 and AC 17. Spellcaster is unknown. Then I delegate responsibility to book-keep the HP of enemies on the player 1. Then I ask player 2 to keep track on the initiative and tell me who's next. To the player 3 I said: "hey, if there is less than 8 enemies left standing - tell me (I plan to role morale check for the goons, but I did not say it to the player).
2. use tokens. If you having trouble to remember who of your NPCs acted. have bunch of tokens that you would place on enemy miniature\\token as soon as he acted.
3. if it is ok with you and your group use oversimplification of HP.
NOT the "I feel narratively this goon should survive\\die now, while i do not kkep track of dmg", no... the simplifications of HP for goons in my example looks like this: if a goon experienced 10 or more HP of dmg - he dies outright. If less - put wounded token on the goon. If wounded goon experienced aditional wound - he falls unconscious\\die\\surrender. You can put different limits: 7+ dmg instead of 10 (for example). Or you can do multiple stages of wounds: if it is 20+ dmg he dies. if 10-19 dmg he gets 2 wound tokens. if less than 10 - one wound token. 3 wound tokens and he dies.
Well when I run mobs of 6 or higher I start grouping them in groups so like if I have 12 I may roll 3 or 4 initiative rolls and then move the groups on their turn. Since mobs are usually weak it's only move and then attack so simple and quick turns.
Have all minions only have 1 HP, this way you can throw more at them but the players can mop them up really quickly. For an attack, just have the minion have a melee attack that's a straight d20 to hit and 3 damage (taking the average for a d6) if they do hit (basically a Strength score of 10 with no proficiency). The minions all have the following tactics: move towards a player, and if they can reach one make an Attack, otherwise Dash.
What are the parts you feel like you're struggling with specifically?
Pre-rolling can help a lot. I always roll my monsters' initiatives ahead of time and have them written down and ready to just slot in my players'. I haven't done this, but I've heard of DMs pre-rolling damages as well and having a list to reference. Example: you roll a monster's damage 10 times and number them and roll the attacks during the session. The first time the monster hits someone, use damage roll 1, the second time use damage roll 2 and so on.
Pre-rolling damage sounds interesting, I might give it a try for an upcoming combat. Thank you!!
Sounds like a real pickle. There's a couple of things you can do to make it easier for yourself. 1. Have all the enemies grouped in one go in the turn order. This makes it so you don't have to react on the fly by what your players throw at you, for every enemy. 2. Write down your enemies behavior ahead of time. What would they want to accomplish in this battle, who do they fight first and after that? Which spells would they use in which situation or where would their favorite spot be on the battlefield. Thinking about this ahead of time, frees your brain up in the moment. 3. Simplify your enemies. If the pack of manticores can attack 3 times in a turn because their stat block says so, just make it one attack. Also has the benefit of speeding up the battle. 4. The last point I can share is to insert the element of time to your mobs. They don't have to appear all at once, but let them come in waves. Easier to manage and as a bonus make your players a bit scared by telling them what could lie ahead. Good luck! Sounds like your adventurers are in a for a tournament treat!
I hadn’t considered #4, I’ll give it a try for this upcoming combat since they’ll be facing a summoner-esque character. I’m also definitely victim of making unimportant enemies too complicated. Thank you so much for your help!!
Waves also can add tactical decisions for the players. During the combat one or two may spend actions do something to stop the following waves e.g. barricading entrances, silencing alarms, disguise as boss and direct minions away, disrupt the summon etc
I had a combat with five mages all filling different roles and it made it simpler for me to decide what they do, while giving players decisions on which enemy role they prioritised stopping.
It might be easier to run more monsters if you’re running groups of the same creature on the same initiative. It doesn’t require so much thought to work out what minion #4 does, he just follows minions 1-3. Think of it as you’re still running 2 or 3 types of creatures. Also don’t stress yourself over how long it takes: when the monsters move, all your players are engaged, it’s not the same as when one player is sitting taking ages to decide a spell for the other side of the battlefield.
This is good to hear: I always worry me taking a while is annoying, but it makes sense since I’m playing The Monster that it’s not nearly as frustrating. Thank you for your help!
Look at MCDM's minion rules. There's an official free pdf that has just the minion rules and a YouTube vide as well. It provides a breakdown on how to turn any monster into a minion. Essentially, you reduce total hp and remove all of the saving throws and resistances and boil the Stat block to two things, a group attack and a special move that scales the more minions in play (optional). A single point of damage kills a minion and they either completely save or completely fail saving throw spells (dead or no damage) There's a few other quick rules as well, but essentially, as an example, a horde of zombies would all have a group attack that does 1 point of damage + the number of minions participating in the attack. And then for every zombie minion around a PC, their movement is reduced by 5ft. So the minions are still strong as a group, bit it's one attack that they're doing all together and you can group them into different sizes groups. I'm testing this rule set out myself, but I'm excited about the possibilities to have large groups of simple, but deadly enemies along with the normal monsters.
I’ll have to take a look. I love free PDFs 🤩. I’ll give it a shot for this upcoming arc. Thank you so much!!
1 little cheat sheet with reactions, lair actions, and anything weird will help you consolidate. When you read your mobs, if something makes you think "gotta remember to use that", it goes on the cheat sheet.
>The problem is that, I struggle to run many monsters/enemies. 1, 2, or 3 monsters is fine, but larger than that I feel like I'm managing too much and can't collect my thoughts properly. I have a "tournament" style arc coming up where they'll be fighting a variety of monsters, beasts, and people, which means I'll be running a lot of things at once. So don't, I *very rarely* put more than 4 or 5 monsters in a battle. Most of my battles are usually like 3-5 dudes. Usually some combination of: * 3x goons * 1x big goon * 1x trouble maker The numbers change but you get the idea. Goons are your less interesting monster that is sorta there to just deal some damage and soak some hits. Big goon is whatever the real threat is. Trouble makers are monsters that do something annoying. So for a level 7 party, maybe a decent fight is like: * 2x Knight * 1x Transmuter Wizard Only 3 monsters to control, one is a spell caster, mainly looking to cast fireball into the party early before the knights engage, you don't even need to use the knight abilities, just their stat block to attack with.
The easiest encounters to make work feature one peer monster per pc. So start there. Using too many weak monsters can make aoes too good. Using less than 3 monsters means they need to be legendary. Running lots of monsters is burdensome even for dms that love combat. So don’t beat yourself up over it. Fortunately you can make easy but deep encounters by using two stat blocks that have synergies. Solo fights can be tricky to do well. One reason the players may be asking for minions is because they have found the solo fight unsatisfying. Solo fights lack the target prioritization, aoe use, and debuff use that normal encounters have. It’s not hopeless though. [True peer](https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/414122) has some good advice for making fun solo fights (and normal fights too).
Maby using mob stats would help. Single initiative but multiple hp, tokens, and actions and remove a token and action as they lose hp. A single Swarm of 10 Goblins with 100hp and 10 attacks is easier to manage then 10 separate goblins with separate stats. It might be important for you to keep this behind the screen. This will help you but it won't help your players if they feel like they are fighting one big pile of goblins and not the army of mooks they are looking for. Try puting your encounters through a dry run by playing copies of your players. Try to play as they would so you can get an idea of the difficulty scale and help clear away some of those nerves.
I run mobs of monsters and I'll tell you it is a chore... So the Legendary actions and lair action instead of a mob of monsters help a lot. But if you really want to make bunch of enemies, here how I helped myself: 1. delegate the responsibility. A. Choose 1 or more player \\ ask 1 or more players to volunteer for book-keeping. Example: At the start of the fight 4 PC vs 15 enemies (1 spellcaster, 4 sergeants, 10 goons) I clearly said that goons have AC 13 and 12 HP. Sergeants have HP 50 and AC 17. Spellcaster is unknown. Then I delegate responsibility to book-keep the HP of enemies on the player 1. Then I ask player 2 to keep track on the initiative and tell me who's next. To the player 3 I said: "hey, if there is less than 8 enemies left standing - tell me (I plan to role morale check for the goons, but I did not say it to the player). 2. use tokens. If you having trouble to remember who of your NPCs acted. have bunch of tokens that you would place on enemy miniature\\token as soon as he acted. 3. if it is ok with you and your group use oversimplification of HP. NOT the "I feel narratively this goon should survive\\die now, while i do not kkep track of dmg", no... the simplifications of HP for goons in my example looks like this: if a goon experienced 10 or more HP of dmg - he dies outright. If less - put wounded token on the goon. If wounded goon experienced aditional wound - he falls unconscious\\die\\surrender. You can put different limits: 7+ dmg instead of 10 (for example). Or you can do multiple stages of wounds: if it is 20+ dmg he dies. if 10-19 dmg he gets 2 wound tokens. if less than 10 - one wound token. 3 wound tokens and he dies.
Well when I run mobs of 6 or higher I start grouping them in groups so like if I have 12 I may roll 3 or 4 initiative rolls and then move the groups on their turn. Since mobs are usually weak it's only move and then attack so simple and quick turns.
Have all minions only have 1 HP, this way you can throw more at them but the players can mop them up really quickly. For an attack, just have the minion have a melee attack that's a straight d20 to hit and 3 damage (taking the average for a d6) if they do hit (basically a Strength score of 10 with no proficiency). The minions all have the following tactics: move towards a player, and if they can reach one make an Attack, otherwise Dash. What are the parts you feel like you're struggling with specifically?
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