Being Dm can I..... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Being Dm can I..... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
dark_brand553
07-29-05, 07:05 AM Being Dm can I bend the game to fit my every wish?
If so can I make a vampire that has less then 5 hd when it was turned?
and it didnt become a "vampire spawn". Or can I just flat out create my own monster? if you can have you ever made your own monster or made your own anything thats not from the book. If so whats the best thing you have ever made?? decribe please. :)
nyysjan
07-29-05, 07:09 AM yes you can
but your players can also stop playing with you
so when doing the changes ask yourself "Is this absolutly necessary, can i do this without bending/breaking the rules"
if you can't abide by the rules play World of Darkness
it has rules that are made to be broken (it says so in the rules) :P
dark_brand553
07-29-05, 07:14 AM thanks for the tip :). But while making new items/charatures ect. What things should i try to avoid doing when making my own thing? if there is any major key things & what kind of stuff unballances the game for the players?
strcpy
07-29-05, 08:00 AM Whenever I want to add a new spell / monster / item.

I first run through the hand books and look for something that matches the item or effect I wish to create. Power wise, or description wise.

Usually I find something that does something I want to do only in a differant way. Then work from that example.

Most of what you're looking for is in the original DM guide. Rules and guidelines of how to create your own stuff.

In the Monster Manual you will find the rules to creating tougher monsters, and enchancing the ones you have. Something else I usually do is change the feat selection of monsters in the Monster Manual to make them play differantly.

I also found by equiping monsters with cool items does a few things for me. Ups the CR quite a bit, gives the monsters some new scope and the players are normally happy to strip off the neat equipment and use / sell it themselves.

EG. Simply strapping half plate, giving a skeleton a greatsword, and making the skeleton Frost enchanted creates a very interesting encounter for your players. Of course you have to keep in mind this will bump up their challenge rating 1 or 2 levels, but that's part of the fun.
SwitchUK
07-29-05, 08:10 AM Yes, quite simply (See Rule 0, in my Sig)

A sub 5HD vampire spawn certainly is possible - perhaps, in this case, the vampire in question made a deliberate effort to turn the victim into a Spawn, rather than kill him/her. Just come up with a plausible reason, and youre laughing.

preferably an EVIL laugh.
Liwmial
07-29-05, 09:38 AM Yes, yes you can. You can do whatever pleases you ....

I recently created a warforged / human hybrid - basically a child died of a wasting disease and was placed in the child style of body by his grieving mother .... good times.
FriendoftheDork
07-29-05, 09:38 AM yes you can
but your players can also stop playing with you
so when doing the changes ask yourself "Is this absolutly necessary, can i do this without bending/breaking the rules"
if you can't abide by the rules play World of Darkness
it has rules that are made to be broken (it says so in the rules) :P

The GM can make whatever rules he may, and change anything he want. As long as it's fun. If you can't abide by the rules, change them. You're not going to prison for it. And how many of you don't have house rules?

That said check the DMG for changing rules, it's easy to change something and later regret it as something becomes unbalanced. That way it's best not to change the rules unless you're sure it will make the game more fun for everyone.

PS rules in WoD are not MEANT to be broken... but they're more like guidelines really. Arrrh :)
High Octane
07-29-05, 10:19 AM "Being a DM can I..."

Answer is YES!
Sir Todd
07-29-05, 10:54 AM You can do whatever you want as a GM.
The rules even say your will over rules (rule 0) any written rules.

A few things to keep in mind when doing your own thing:
- Properly balance the encounters. Increased power monsters or newly made up ones NEED a new CR rating. You should look over the monsters and items that already exsist and try to get as close to the actual CR your monster has by comparison. You will make mistakes, everyone does. But the more you practice the better you will get.
- Create backstory on all your new things/monsters. It helps players with suspension of disbelief if there is a solid story they can hear, about the new 'thing' and how it came to be.
- Don't play favorites. It's very easy to find yourself making a lot of cool new items and encounters for paladins (for example) when you really like that class. This will lead to a situation where any PC paladins gain more story time and cool gear, than the other PCs. So try to build new stuff with the entire party in mind.
- And lastly, Alter things with great hesitation and care. The rules are written this way because a lot of experienced people thought they worked best this way. They couldn't think of everything. But when changing the way something works, do it slowly and carefully. Always ask yourself: 'Do I really need to change that to get the job done?'. Players can be very crafty and sometimes a simple thing you changed could result in an unforseen combo or an unbalanced PC.
Moonflyer
07-29-05, 10:59 AM Being Dm can I bend the game to fit my every wish?

Answer: Yes and No... if your changing a rule then make it a house rule that not only you know about but your players know about. Don't change rules to make it work for you one session then change the same rule for the next session. Sit down, figure out what you want change and why you are changing it then let your players know the new rule.

I and the entire party recently quit a group because the DM, a good friend of mine, had a habit of changing rules from week to week.

Example and the last draw: Our party got into a fight with a group of guards (no insignia so we were not sure if they really were guards or hired thugs) because our "Goodly" party was accused of murder and rape by them... we asked to see proof of their authority and a warrant... they had none and tried to club the elven mage. Of course we were having none of this so I used sound burst against the guards, stunning a few of them, but they were all still alive with a few still coming for us... sound burst again... now I only did 4 points of damage + 7 on the first sound burst + the subduel damage the other party members were doing and we, no my LG cleric of Moradin, killed them with my 4 point soundburst... he wanted us to become fugitives so he change the rule that NPC go to -10 hit points before they die and never told us about the change. We all looked at each other with "railroad in our eyes" and began to pack up our things.

Guess my point is let your players know ahead of time if you are changing a rule that will effect them... changing a monsters hit dice or adding level to a monster isn't something that fall in this realm. Changing how combat works is.
DragonDeadite
07-29-05, 11:02 AM That's funny... I just recently did this myslef. Created a 4HD halfling vampire... with a bunch of halfling zombies as minions... the party laughed at them more than anything else, so it was all good!! ...that is, until the pixie NPC turned into a 5 headed Hydra and the vampire took it over... that was cool!!! In other words, yes, you can do whatever you want.

I think the coolest monster I ever made was a crab-like creature that was attached to the ceiling. The characters had to sit there and beat at this thing as it used it's claws to attack them, then once it was down enough hit points it flipped around and attacked with the other half of it's body with a central eye stock that worked just like a beholder's eye, it was pretty cool! The friggin cleric killed it on a lucky crit with a magic stones spell that took off it's central eye while they were still fighting the front side!! Talked about one POed DM!!!
xlawedjeanne
07-29-05, 11:18 AM dm can do anything they want
rememember that
you can make ppl guess wat number ur thinking of instead of rolling dice
you can kill em all off for being alive
you can lvl em up to lvl 1000
u can do ANYTHING
but if they leave u, dont say i didnt warn u
chrisnd
07-29-05, 11:28 AM I say do whatever you want, as long as it enhances play and MAKES IT FUN.

Heck, I cheat, and my players know it (they don't know WHEN I cheat, only that I do cheat if I need something to happen). My cheating is usually "on the fly", like when I need to change the number of HP a creature has due to them just whooping on it too fast (i.e. two consecutive crit hits with a greataxe that does x3 damage), or if I need to add a few more monsters to the battle if it appears as though my original number just isn't large enough.

However, the key thing is to make sure that your cheat or modification is within reasonable expecations of your players. If you want to have a vampire with less than 5 HD, then go for it - the players might not even recognize the difference between a 4HD vamp that should have been a spawn under RAW and a 5HD vamp that misses an attack only 5% more often. Regardless, I say go for it, as long as it isn't completely outrageous, and still adds to the "FUN"

Hey, Spongebob said it best in a song he taught Plankton:

"F is for friends who do things together
U is for you and me
N is for anywhere, anytime and always
Down here in the deep blue sea."

Cheat to your heart's content, but remember to keep it FUN.
xlawedjeanne
07-29-05, 11:32 AM I say do whatever you want, as long as it enhances play and MAKES IT FUN.

Heck, I cheat, and my players know it (they don't know WHEN I cheat, only that I do cheat if I need something to happen). My cheating is usually "on the fly", like when I need to change the number of HP a creature has due to them just whooping on it too fast (i.e. two consecutive crit hits with a greataxe that does x3 damage), or if I need to add a few more monsters to the battle if it appears as though my original number just isn't large enough.

However, the key thing is to make sure that your cheat or modification is within reasonable expecations of your players. If you want to have a vampire with less than 5 HD, then go for it - the players might not even recognize the difference between a 4HD vamp that should have been a spawn under RAW and a 5HD vamp that misses an attack only 5% more often. Regardless, I say go for it, as long as it isn't completely outrageous, and still adds to the "FUN"

Hey, Spongebob said it best in a song he taught Plankton:

"F is for friends who do things together
U is for you and me
N is for anywhere, anytime and always
Down here in the deep blue sea."

Cheat to your heart's content, but remember to keep it FUN.

fun for the dm
make the players suffer :devil: :evillaugh :schemes:
dark_brand553
08-01-05, 01:42 AM HEhe sorry I took so long to reply but very interesting and helpful stuff thanks for the replys. Any other examples of monsters or things you changed/created would be great to hear :).
nephtis
08-01-05, 02:28 AM I guess you can do it.

But consider the people you play with.
Personly, I love to invent a monster every now and then or change an existing one (trade feats, give it a class or template... whatever).

In my case, it's due to the fact that my fellow players and I take turns DMing and so naturally they know their monsters as well as I and it's hard to surprise them with anything.
You present a monster and get comments like... "Oh, I know that one, it's vulnerable to electricity..." I know this is meta-gaming, but instead of starting a discussion about it every time they do it, once in a while I add a monster of my own invention or surprise them with one that doesn't react like expected.
So far I've had no complains about it, but that depends on your players.

One of my own 'monsters' I loved was a swarm of mini dragons (think tiny) that shared a common mind and were actually one entity.
There were three 'agegroups' representing different abilities. The Youngs for Charisma and Dexterity, Middle aged Constitution and Strenghth and the Old ones Intelligence and Wisdom.
The boni to those abilities depended on the number of indiviual of that age group. (So the players could reduce the effectiveness of abilities/spellcasting/fighting power by killing individuals. On the other hand, the spellcasting dragons didn't have to make Concentration checks when the PC fought against the warrior caste.)
The young and old ones were hidden and protected by the middle aged 'warriors'. Quite fun but not easy to play...
dark_brand553
08-01-05, 03:06 AM nice sounds fun want to go into greater detail on that?
like the attacks/spells n bonuses it gets saves
what happened. Also thanks for the post :)
COPUS Chief
08-01-05, 09:41 AM Ive only ever made one monster (Ive editted others as needed, but never made another one.) It was used in Issue 2 of a 6 part Downloadable Adventure I wrote called 'Empress of the Wild' and it involved a magical wolf-like creature that had taken up residence in the woods surrounding a small mining town. People who had recently begun working at a gem mine that the players were to clear out in Issue 1, were being mauled and dragged off by enormous wolf-like creatures. Player had to go in and deal with the threat, face off against a few of them, and then met up against the Empress of the Wild. It was a very cool low-combat adventure.

The things were 'Spirit Wolves' and were sentient spirits taking on the shape of beasts. All lesser Spirit Wolves (like, 4HD and down) were children of the Empress and stood like 7 feet tall at the shoulder. Vicious things. My players' monk punched straight through one (one of those Critical Double Damage "Hey Look, I rolled Max Damage!" situations.) The Empress was huge, had like 15HD and stood 14' at the shoulder and resided deep in the woods. If you didn't -somehow- kll her (it was a lowlevel adventure) then she gave you a gift once you negotiated with her if you didnt offend her. It was one of her nails and it was their first real magic item. It forced all Wolves in a 60 ft Radius to make a Fear save or flee in terror of the Empress' wrath.

If I can find their numeric stats Ill try and get em to ya.
spoogemonkey
08-01-05, 11:02 AM yeah, you can do it.... but just be sensible about it. If you DESCRIBE a rhino..... it should FIGHT like a rhino. Likewise, a Vampire....

If you are playing a one-off monster.... it should be described differently, so they will KNOW it's not the same. If your goblin has regeneration, for example, describe his wounds closing up BEFORE the combat. THEN, they will know "he's special".

What you don't want to do is Trick your players. It will anger them.
nephtis
08-01-05, 11:19 AM nice sounds fun want to go into greater detail on that?
like the attacks/spells n bonuses it gets saves
what happened. Also thanks for the post :)

I'll look if I still have the stats somewhere in my realm of chaos ;-)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
dark_brand553 07-29-05, 07:05 AM	Being Dm can I bend the game to fit my every wish? If so can I make a vampire that has less then 5 hd when it was turned? and it didnt become a "vampire spawn". Or can I just flat out create my own monster? if you can have you ever made your own monster or made your own anything thats not from the book. If so whats the best thing you have ever made?? decribe please. :)
nyysjan 07-29-05, 07:09 AM	yes you can but your players can also stop playing with you so when doing the changes ask yourself "Is this absolutly necessary, can i do this without bending/breaking the rules" if you can't abide by the rules play World of Darkness it has rules that are made to be broken (it says so in the rules) :P
dark_brand553 07-29-05, 07:14 AM	thanks for the tip :). But while making new items/charatures ect. What things should i try to avoid doing when making my own thing? if there is any major key things & what kind of stuff unballances the game for the players?
strcpy 07-29-05, 08:00 AM	Whenever I want to add a new spell / monster / item. I first run through the hand books and look for something that matches the item or effect I wish to create. Power wise, or description wise. Usually I find something that does something I want to do only in a differant way. Then work from that example. Most of what you're looking for is in the original DM guide. Rules and guidelines of how to create your own stuff. In the Monster Manual you will find the rules to creating tougher monsters, and enchancing the ones you have. Something else I usually do is change the feat selection of monsters in the Monster Manual to make them play differantly. I also found by equiping monsters with cool items does a few things for me. Ups the CR quite a bit, gives the monsters some new scope and the players are normally happy to strip off the neat equipment and use / sell it themselves. EG. Simply strapping half plate, giving a skeleton a greatsword, and making the skeleton Frost enchanted creates a very interesting encounter for your players. Of course you have to keep in mind this will bump up their challenge rating 1 or 2 levels, but that's part of the fun.
SwitchUK 07-29-05, 08:10 AM	Yes, quite simply (See Rule 0, in my Sig) A sub 5HD vampire spawn certainly is possible - perhaps, in this case, the vampire in question made a deliberate effort to turn the victim into a Spawn, rather than kill him/her. Just come up with a plausible reason, and youre laughing. preferably an EVIL laugh.
Liwmial 07-29-05, 09:38 AM	Yes, yes you can. You can do whatever pleases you .... I recently created a warforged / human hybrid - basically a child died of a wasting disease and was placed in the child style of body by his grieving mother .... good times.
FriendoftheDork 07-29-05, 09:38 AM	yes you can but your players can also stop playing with you so when doing the changes ask yourself "Is this absolutly necessary, can i do this without bending/breaking the rules" if you can't abide by the rules play World of Darkness it has rules that are made to be broken (it says so in the rules) :P The GM can make whatever rules he may, and change anything he want. As long as it's fun. If you can't abide by the rules, change them. You're not going to prison for it. And how many of you don't have house rules? That said check the DMG for changing rules, it's easy to change something and later regret it as something becomes unbalanced. That way it's best not to change the rules unless you're sure it will make the game more fun for everyone. PS rules in WoD are not MEANT to be broken... but they're more like guidelines really. Arrrh :)
High Octane 07-29-05, 10:19 AM	"Being a DM can I..." Answer is YES!
Sir Todd 07-29-05, 10:54 AM	You can do whatever you want as a GM. The rules even say your will over rules (rule 0) any written rules. A few things to keep in mind when doing your own thing: - Properly balance the encounters. Increased power monsters or newly made up ones NEED a new CR rating. You should look over the monsters and items that already exsist and try to get as close to the actual CR your monster has by comparison. You will make mistakes, everyone does. But the more you practice the better you will get. - Create backstory on all your new things/monsters. It helps players with suspension of disbelief if there is a solid story they can hear, about the new 'thing' and how it came to be. - Don't play favorites. It's very easy to find yourself making a lot of cool new items and encounters for paladins (for example) when you really like that class. This will lead to a situation where any PC paladins gain more story time and cool gear, than the other PCs. So try to build new stuff with the entire party in mind. - And lastly, Alter things with great hesitation and care. The rules are written this way because a lot of experienced people thought they worked best this way. They couldn't think of everything. But when changing the way something works, do it slowly and carefully. Always ask yourself: 'Do I really need to change that to get the job done?'. Players can be very crafty and sometimes a simple thing you changed could result in an unforseen combo or an unbalanced PC.
Moonflyer 07-29-05, 10:59 AM	Being Dm can I bend the game to fit my every wish? Answer: Yes and No... if your changing a rule then make it a house rule that not only you know about but your players know about. Don't change rules to make it work for you one session then change the same rule for the next session. Sit down, figure out what you want change and why you are changing it then let your players know the new rule. I and the entire party recently quit a group because the DM, a good friend of mine, had a habit of changing rules from week to week. Example and the last draw: Our party got into a fight with a group of guards (no insignia so we were not sure if they really were guards or hired thugs) because our "Goodly" party was accused of murder and rape by them... we asked to see proof of their authority and a warrant... they had none and tried to club the elven mage. Of course we were having none of this so I used sound burst against the guards, stunning a few of them, but they were all still alive with a few still coming for us... sound burst again... now I only did 4 points of damage + 7 on the first sound burst + the subduel damage the other party members were doing and we, no my LG cleric of Moradin, killed them with my 4 point soundburst... he wanted us to become fugitives so he change the rule that NPC go to -10 hit points before they die and never told us about the change. We all looked at each other with "railroad in our eyes" and began to pack up our things. Guess my point is let your players know ahead of time if you are changing a rule that will effect them... changing a monsters hit dice or adding level to a monster isn't something that fall in this realm. Changing how combat works is.
DragonDeadite 07-29-05, 11:02 AM	That's funny... I just recently did this myslef. Created a 4HD halfling vampire... with a bunch of halfling zombies as minions... the party laughed at them more than anything else, so it was all good!! ...that is, until the pixie NPC turned into a 5 headed Hydra and the vampire took it over... that was cool!!! In other words, yes, you can do whatever you want. I think the coolest monster I ever made was a crab-like creature that was attached to the ceiling. The characters had to sit there and beat at this thing as it used it's claws to attack them, then once it was down enough hit points it flipped around and attacked with the other half of it's body with a central eye stock that worked just like a beholder's eye, it was pretty cool! The friggin cleric killed it on a lucky crit with a magic stones spell that took off it's central eye while they were still fighting the front side!! Talked about one POed DM!!!
xlawedjeanne 07-29-05, 11:18 AM	dm can do anything they want rememember that you can make ppl guess wat number ur thinking of instead of rolling dice you can kill em all off for being alive you can lvl em up to lvl 1000 u can do ANYTHING but if they leave u, dont say i didnt warn u
chrisnd 07-29-05, 11:28 AM	I say do whatever you want, as long as it enhances play and MAKES IT FUN. Heck, I cheat, and my players know it (they don't know WHEN I cheat, only that I do cheat if I need something to happen). My cheating is usually "on the fly", like when I need to change the number of HP a creature has due to them just whooping on it too fast (i.e. two consecutive crit hits with a greataxe that does x3 damage), or if I need to add a few more monsters to the battle if it appears as though my original number just isn't large enough. However, the key thing is to make sure that your cheat or modification is within reasonable expecations of your players. If you want to have a vampire with less than 5 HD, then go for it - the players might not even recognize the difference between a 4HD vamp that should have been a spawn under RAW and a 5HD vamp that misses an attack only 5% more often. Regardless, I say go for it, as long as it isn't completely outrageous, and still adds to the "FUN" Hey, Spongebob said it best in a song he taught Plankton: "F is for friends who do things together U is for you and me N is for anywhere, anytime and always Down here in the deep blue sea." Cheat to your heart's content, but remember to keep it FUN.
xlawedjeanne 07-29-05, 11:32 AM	I say do whatever you want, as long as it enhances play and MAKES IT FUN. Heck, I cheat, and my players know it (they don't know WHEN I cheat, only that I do cheat if I need something to happen). My cheating is usually "on the fly", like when I need to change the number of HP a creature has due to them just whooping on it too fast (i.e. two consecutive crit hits with a greataxe that does x3 damage), or if I need to add a few more monsters to the battle if it appears as though my original number just isn't large enough. However, the key thing is to make sure that your cheat or modification is within reasonable expecations of your players. If you want to have a vampire with less than 5 HD, then go for it - the players might not even recognize the difference between a 4HD vamp that should have been a spawn under RAW and a 5HD vamp that misses an attack only 5% more often. Regardless, I say go for it, as long as it isn't completely outrageous, and still adds to the "FUN" Hey, Spongebob said it best in a song he taught Plankton: "F is for friends who do things together U is for you and me N is for anywhere, anytime and always Down here in the deep blue sea." Cheat to your heart's content, but remember to keep it FUN. fun for the dm make the players suffer :devil: :evillaugh :schemes:
dark_brand553 08-01-05, 01:42 AM	HEhe sorry I took so long to reply but very interesting and helpful stuff thanks for the replys. Any other examples of monsters or things you changed/created would be great to hear :).
nephtis 08-01-05, 02:28 AM	I guess you can do it. But consider the people you play with. Personly, I love to invent a monster every now and then or change an existing one (trade feats, give it a class or template... whatever). In my case, it's due to the fact that my fellow players and I take turns DMing and so naturally they know their monsters as well as I and it's hard to surprise them with anything. You present a monster and get comments like... "Oh, I know that one, it's vulnerable to electricity..." I know this is meta-gaming, but instead of starting a discussion about it every time they do it, once in a while I add a monster of my own invention or surprise them with one that doesn't react like expected. So far I've had no complains about it, but that depends on your players. One of my own 'monsters' I loved was a swarm of mini dragons (think tiny) that shared a common mind and were actually one entity. There were three 'agegroups' representing different abilities. The Youngs for Charisma and Dexterity, Middle aged Constitution and Strenghth and the Old ones Intelligence and Wisdom. The boni to those abilities depended on the number of indiviual of that age group. (So the players could reduce the effectiveness of abilities/spellcasting/fighting power by killing individuals. On the other hand, the spellcasting dragons didn't have to make Concentration checks when the PC fought against the warrior caste.) The young and old ones were hidden and protected by the middle aged 'warriors'. Quite fun but not easy to play...
dark_brand553 08-01-05, 03:06 AM	nice sounds fun want to go into greater detail on that? like the attacks/spells n bonuses it gets saves what happened. Also thanks for the post :)
COPUS Chief 08-01-05, 09:41 AM	Ive only ever made one monster (Ive editted others as needed, but never made another one.) It was used in Issue 2 of a 6 part Downloadable Adventure I wrote called 'Empress of the Wild' and it involved a magical wolf-like creature that had taken up residence in the woods surrounding a small mining town. People who had recently begun working at a gem mine that the players were to clear out in Issue 1, were being mauled and dragged off by enormous wolf-like creatures. Player had to go in and deal with the threat, face off against a few of them, and then met up against the Empress of the Wild. It was a very cool low-combat adventure. The things were 'Spirit Wolves' and were sentient spirits taking on the shape of beasts. All lesser Spirit Wolves (like, 4HD and down) were children of the Empress and stood like 7 feet tall at the shoulder. Vicious things. My players' monk punched straight through one (one of those Critical Double Damage "Hey Look, I rolled Max Damage!" situations.) The Empress was huge, had like 15HD and stood 14' at the shoulder and resided deep in the woods. If you didn't -somehow- kll her (it was a lowlevel adventure) then she gave you a gift once you negotiated with her if you didnt offend her. It was one of her nails and it was their first real magic item. It forced all Wolves in a 60 ft Radius to make a Fear save or flee in terror of the Empress' wrath. If I can find their numeric stats Ill try and get em to ya.
spoogemonkey 08-01-05, 11:02 AM	yeah, you can do it.... but just be sensible about it. If you DESCRIBE a rhino..... it should FIGHT like a rhino. Likewise, a Vampire.... If you are playing a one-off monster.... it should be described differently, so they will KNOW it's not the same. If your goblin has regeneration, for example, describe his wounds closing up BEFORE the combat. THEN, they will know "he's special". What you don't want to do is Trick your players. It will anger them.
nephtis 08-01-05, 11:19 AM	nice sounds fun want to go into greater detail on that? like the attacks/spells n bonuses it gets saves what happened. Also thanks for the post :) I'll look if I still have the stats somewhere in my realm of chaos ;-)