Thursday, February 02, 2006
In the Heat of Battle
When I'm DMing, I tend to forget special qualities of my bad guys. When you're in the "DM fog" you just are too in the moment to remember every little detail. I'm talking about stuff that you've even written down. When the combat is on, I tend to take note of two things--AC and hit points. If my baddie is going to attack, then I look at the weapon/spells/special attacks. But the SQ is almost always an after thoughts especially when dealing with multiple NPCs. The PCs might launch a spell at my guy and I forget all about spell resistance. The same can be said of damage reduction. I wonder if they make robot DM secretaries?
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4 comments:
Might I suggest, rearranging you bad guys statblock so
DR is next to hp
SR is next to saves
My players do this to great effect, almost many have "DODGE" written on the top of thier character sheets.
I don't know if I'm happy with either suggestion. The trouble with a notecard is, you just don't know what you might need given the unimaginable tactics PCs come up with. Best to have everything in front of you. As for pairing DR with hp and SR with saves, any particular reason, Mark?
Because when I take damage from combat I subtract hit points (then my brains see, hey wait I've got damage reduction so I don't take as much as I thought)
Whenever spells are cast, I think saving throws so when my players begin casting I immediately look there (I often forget SR myself) but not that their are in the same place there is only one place to look.
I got so bad forgetting to do certain things in comment, my wife who tends to sit opposite me at the table used to have little stickies on her name card (we keep name tags of characters in front of us for reminders to us keep in character). The stickies would be reminders for things I can do or should check ahead of time. it was kinda sad.
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