Giving Monsters as Many Hit Points as the Plot Needs
I’ve found, as of late, that I simply don’t have time for long encounters. We only have about 2-3 hours a week we’re together, so getting through multiple scenes is essential. There’s no time to spend the whole session whacking away at a pair of wyverns, so I’ve begun ignoring the monster’s HP and killing the monster off once I think it’s time to move on.
An example: the heroes enter a room with three animated statues. They begin attacking. A half-hour into the assault, the players are looking bored, and all I really wanted the heroes to do was discover the secret passageway in the corner of the room. One of the heroes makes an attack, and knocks one of the statues backwards, which I conveniently have fall back into the hidden door, collapsing the weak stonework. Hey, look! The statue is destroyed in the collapsing rubble. Within the next round, the monsters are dispatched by the heroes. As soon as the plot point is figured out, the monsters simply run out of HP.
Is this cheating? Sure, but it doesn’t cheapen my players’ victory, since they aren’t aware I’m doing it. It’s simply advancing the plot.
I’m even lazier in Star Wars. Since most NPCs you encounter are humanoid, I just give them about 10-15 HP, an overall defense of 15 or so, then bump things up or down based on race and type of NPC. A Wookiee bodyguard might have 30 HP and a Defense of 20, whereas the pathetic Nemodian merchant they encounter and decide to dispatch has a Defense of 10 and 5 HP.
How about all of you? Do any of you do this?
I don’t do this, but then, I’ve never had encounters degenerate into the grind that so many people seem to have trouble with (especially in 4e). My personal theory for this is that it has less to do with my brilliant DMing and more to do with my players’ hilarious incompetence keeping the fight interesting.
I’m experimenting with more minions. Your secret passage scenario made me think of another way to add drama: have a monster/npc snag an item of value from the room or party and escape through the secret door. Now you’ve spiced up the action with a chase. Adding an objective (a hostage, or hazard to avoid–like spreading flames) will often create a sense of urgency that motivates players to get through or even avoid combat.
Hell yes I do! I’ve heard this debate many times before and I’m in the camp that it isn’t “cheating”, you are the referee (DM) after all, so you can’t really cheat. The rules and game mechanics are there to give the players an even playing field in regards to each other and the NPCs, usually. If the DM ignores the rules from time to time, for the good of the game play and to keep things interesting and fun, then I’m all for it.
I have managed to stave off grind by changing the monster maths so that Monster HP’s are equal to the PC’s HPs (using the equations for a Fighter, Rogue and Wizard to serve as high, medium and low) and reducing their defenses by 1 or 2 points, while increasing their static damage by 2 or 3 points or so. This makes monsters slightly easier to hit, monsters that consistently hit harder (2-3 extra points of damage add up when monsters double attack or area attack and so on, which mine tend to do) and monsters which last a shorter amount of time on the battlefield.
.-= Wyatt´s last blog ..Obsession With Optimal Capacity =-.
[...] Monkey talks about Giving Monsters As Many HPs As The Plot Needs. I’m in the camp that likes to tweak the mathematics of the game. I have done so for my [...]
I don’t reduce HP per se, yet, but I find myself considering how the last monster standing is going to flee/surrender. Not applicable to solo fights, obviously.
I agree with Swordgleam – haven’t experienced the “grind issue” either, but I hear alot about it on various boards I read. The idea of lowering the HPs is certainly one way of handling it. Another that I have heard alot of success with is to keep the number of equal level and Level+N mobs to a minimum – I use alot of minions and Level-n mobs in encounters and they seem to be fun and still challenging, mainly because I try not to be as cagey as possible as to which mobs are minions.
.-= Neuroglyph´s last blog ..News in Review for Dec 7 to Dec 13 2009 =-.
I like the use of the cover art from “The Ruby Knight” by the late David Eddings. That particular piece got me interested in the series!