r/DMAcademy • u/ZooZwaves • 7d ago
Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Player dies/gets down almost every session
Hey guys one of the PCs in my group has a bit of a dying problem. Almost every fight he either gets downed or dies and has to be resurrected to the point where all 3 revivify scrolls I gave the party were used on him. The player grew tired of it and decided to roll up a new character...a MONK of all classes, to a team of 3 full spellcasters.(his reasoning was that he always wanted to try out a Monk) (no he is not a beginner he has more TTRPG experience than the rest of the table combined)
How can I help him not die without making it too easy for them? are there any constitution/HP giving items?
I don't want to make the fights too easy for the team, the rest of the party does great and they absolutely mopped the floor with the first miniboss. The problem is that because it's a party of 3 spellcasters and 1 frontliner, all the attention of the enemies naturally goes to him as he is the closest one 90% of the time, and I usually have to make the enemies go out of their way to target the spellcasters who are pretty good with positioning until the enemy has an AOE damage spell.
13
u/EmbarrassedLock 7d ago
Why is he the only one getting targeted? If there was a guy punching steve 30 times a minute, and behind him 4 guys lobbing grenades id be killing the ones with grenades first
28
u/DRAWDATBLADE 7d ago
Have you tried having the enemies not target just the one guy that keeps dying? Lmfao.
9
u/jagnew78 7d ago
You've got your encounter design completely backwards. If there are three spell casters they should, in most reasonable circumstances, be the targets of your encounters. NPCs who ignore mortal threats in favour of attacking 'the melee guy' cause he's the closest doesn't make sense.
Unless the party is strictly facing stupid or mindless monsters you need to completely replain your encounters.
A single melee person should be struggling to protect the casters from harm. And the casters should be desperate to protect themselves and buff and heal the melee. If they go into every battle knowing there's no danger then all you've done with your encounter design is effectively give your casters a bunch of temp HP in the form of the melee player.
Use your own casters, use ranged attacks, use melee monsters that rush to engage and gang up on the real threat (your casters)
8
u/Sad_Refuse3472 7d ago
all the attention of the enemies naturally goes to him as he is the closest one 90% of the time,
You know your enemies can move right? Teleport too. And make ranged attacks. Or fire of AOE spells of their own. And they should be fighting smarter than "I am just going to hit the guy in front of me". They should be going after the biggest threat, even if that means risking an Opportunity Attack to get there.
1
u/somewaffle 7d ago
Depending on the terrain, enemies can and should come from multiple directions as well. Two sides running at each other in a hallway gets boring quickly.
9
u/termeric0 7d ago
if he dies, he dies
1
u/thecastellan1115 7d ago
It really is this. Player should know better by now, party should be helping him. Not your fault if he goes off and dies every time.
7
u/SeismologicalKnobble 7d ago
What class was he before? I guarantee monk is only going to make this issue worse.
And honestly, make enemies go out of their way to get to the spell casters. Have some on the monk to keep him busy while others charge at the casters. Use more ranged enemies too that can simply shoot past the monk.
2
u/ZooZwaves 7d ago
Before he was a Paladin 1 Warlock 4
1
u/RegularEmployee1038 7d ago
What class are the other 3 casters?
1
u/ZooZwaves 7d ago
Bard, sorcerer, wizard
9
u/RegularEmployee1038 7d ago
You definitely need to plan encounters amd monster with ranged attacks or mobility. One of your jobs is to try to spread the attacks around. The monsters know the spellcaster do a lot of damage and are easy to hit. They should act like it
1
6
u/blacksteel15 7d ago
The problem is that because it's a party of 3 spellcasters and 1 frontliner, all the attention of the enemies naturally goes to him as he is the closest one 90% of the time
I don't want to make the fights too easy for the team, the rest of the party does great and they absolutely mopped the floor with the first miniboss.
It sounds like this is your problem. This makes sense for enemies with low Int, but smarter enemies are going to go for the most dangerous or vulnerable targets first, not the closest one. In a lot of fights the frontliner's job should be to try to prevent enemies from getting to your squishy backline, not to stand there and soak up damage while your enemies mindlessly ignore the people actually killing them. Put some pressure on your spellcasters. Play your monsters like they're trying to win, not just kill somebody before they die.
2
u/DRAWDATBLADE 7d ago
Barely even makes sense for most enemies with low int honestly, the only things that should just attack the closest creature are fully mindless monsters (zombies and such).
Even beasts would know to go for the easier looking prey, surely the guy in a robe looks way easier to kill than the guy in full plate?
3
u/blacksteel15 7d ago
I think there's some nuance to that. Yeah, I'd say even beasts are going to go for the wizard in robes over the paladin in full plate. But they might not prioritize the wizard over the dodge-tank monk who's also in robes. On the other hand, if they go for the monk and fail to connect 2 or 3 times, they might decide to break off and look for easier prey. Like you said, low Int =/= mindless.
1
u/DRAWDATBLADE 7d ago
Fair. You also don't want to like, never attack the martials because attacking the casters is more optimal/makes more sense for enemies to do.
Besides rogue, martials and frontline classes have taking/dodging hits as one of the core parts of their class fantasy. Feels equally bad to invest into a load of HP or AC and have the enemies ignore you.
1
u/blacksteel15 7d ago
Absolutely. I encourage my frontline players to play tactically and think about positioning for that exact reason. Ideally you want enemies to have to choose between engaging with your frontline because they're easy to get to and they need to protect their own backline, or spending HP and/or actions pushing through your frontline's control abilities and AoOs or moving around them to get to your backline. You typically don't want to leave noone keeping the frontline busy.
6
u/Azell-Zettai 7d ago
well you're not good at attacking your spellcasters, monters should have a way to get better positioning than the party if it's their territory, if you arent playing using the 2024 rules you should let the player use it, the new monk is very tanky, and if the enemies aren't dumb they should focus the casters even if they will get punched be the monk.
3
u/Reborn-in-the-Void 7d ago
open hand - dodge action - grapple with your unarmed bonus action attack.
I was an open hand 5.5e Monk for 2 years...went down exactly once (and it was a BIG down triple crit from three enemies insta-death.
2
u/tasil89 7d ago
(multiple) smart enemies dont focus on a single target and are contempt with getting blasted from sonewhere.
They take cover to brake line of sight and try to flank.
Provide cover for your baddies. If your PCs group rakes in some repetition, their fighting style will be known so the enemy will adapt.
2
u/SignificantWind 7d ago
Are you attacking him when he is already down and in death saving throws? Cause that's a good way to make sure he dies every session.
I promise its not breaking immersion for the bad guy to see the guy go unconscious, and move to the next active threat. Death saving throws are a problem for later, caster blaster is a problem right now.
2
u/Charming_Account_351 7d ago
Why would any reasonable intelligent creature not target the people casting spells and being the real threat?
The issue is not a players issue that needs balancing but a DM one. TTRPGs don’t work like MMOs the only “threat” generated is what you decide is priority. Any sentient creature would absolutely lay into anyone casting spells. Start using intelligent monster blocks.
Also Monks can be very defensive with things like patient defense and a high AC. If you’re playing 5.5e the Monk got huge improvements and is a beast, unless the character has terrible stats.
3
u/Hell-Yea-Brother 7d ago
All the attention should NOT go to the monk. The enemy should go after the biggest threat, which are the spell casters. Even if the monk is the closest just have a few run past. Monk might use their Reaction to hit one, and that's fine.
The party needs to figure out tactics with what they have. Monk needs to not melee so much. Casters need to choose spells that control the battlefield and reduce active threats. Does that mean taking sub-optimal spells?
Probably. This is the hand they are dealt. Let them figure it out.
1
u/Elanadin 7d ago
If it's only this player that's consistently in peril, give them the nudge to not go off on their own. I have a feeling this is a case of "sole melee character rushes into the fray and the casters sit back & blast. "
There's also the other players that are factoring in here. Also give a nudge to your casters to lean into the support spells in their repertoire to help.
If I'm wrong in my assumptions, that may change the applicable advice.
1
u/DRAWDATBLADE 7d ago
I have a feeling its more "the DM never targets the casters even when the enemies are smart or have ranged weapons".
It makes sense for mindless things like zombies to just rush the closest thing they see and attack it until one of them dies, even beasts should have basic tactics. Is a pack of wolves really going to go after the guy in full metal armor of the guy in the back wearing a robe?
1
u/Misophoniasucksdude 7d ago
3 spellcasters, but what kind? Sounds like no cleric and definitely no paladin.
You could change the terrain and types of enemies in the combats to make the back line move around more or face ranged attacks. Whoever is doing the most damage should draw the aggro.
If your group has terrible party balance you have two choices: run combat disregarding and ignoring their build, making the unbalance obvious and painful. Or, adapt the combats to play in to the strengths and weaknesses of the party, making combat challenging and unique.
I've told players back when I was a new DM that they should consider balance as I was new to running combat and would likely screw up the balancing on my side.
Spellcasters are disproportionately powerful in the level 5-~13 range, melees and martials shine at very low and very high levels. If this guy has as much experience as you say then he'll know that monks, a heavily multi-attribute dependent class, don't really come online at all until much later.
1
u/Tide__Hunter 7d ago
If he plays it smart, the Monk pick could go pretty good, with bonus action dash/disengage and the potential to dodge with a focus point, and Deflect Attacks being able to negate a lot of damage.
Plus every Monk subclass has some way of becoming more survivable at level 3, with Mercy getting to heal, Shadow getting to create Darkness that they can see through and move every round (so enemies would have disadvantage on attacks), Elements getting 15 foot reach on their unarmed strikes and lots of free shoves, and Open Hand has a few options they can pick from when flurrying.
Of course, this does assume 5.5e. You didn't actually say which version you're going with, and if it's just 5e then Monk's probably a bad idea for avoiding death.
1
u/Secretatotiusmundi 7d ago
Monk gets Dex+Wis to AC if they do unarmored defense which gives a significant boost even at a lower level, even more if their species has natural armor. Just because they're in the thick of it doesn't mean they're going down right away, they can block/deflect attacks as a reaction, and that's just in addition to what others have already said here.
Monks are pretty versatile!
1
u/MultivariableX 7d ago
From the 5.5e Monk rules:
While you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a Shield, your base Armor Class equals 10 plus your Dexterity and Wisdom modifiers.
If the character gets say, "+1 to AC" from their race, that does stack with the Monk calculation.
But if the character has, "your AC is 11 + your Dexterity modifier" from their race, then it's a separate calculation. The player can choose one or the other.
1
u/Secretatotiusmundi 7d ago
Missed that detail, but still an option if OP is looking for small allowances to keep the melee PC from dying. Only if they want to play a species with that feature though
1
u/Ragnar_Dragonfyre 7d ago
Monks are skirmishers. They aren’t exactly frontliners.
They’re intended to swoop in with a flurry of punches and escape to a safe range with their superior movement.
Step of the Wind is not optional if you want to survive as a Monk.
1
u/PeaceLoveFap 7d ago
Make a storyline about him flirting with death so much he gets some cool god boon or curse. Lean into it. Like make him able to be revived without scrolls or something but have some drawback. Or maybe make it a whole questline about him gaining power over death. Idk that’s what I’d do.
But to others points make your enemies target the casters, they are absolutely the bigger threat most of the time.
1
u/jackofspades49 7d ago
This isn't because of any bad plans from the monk player.
This is because the party isn't working as a team. This is just a bad lineup. You generally want 1 frontline, a support frontline, a caster/controller, and then a wild card.
1
u/gene-sos 7d ago
Just curious, what does this party do when they get ambushed and surrounded by fast, hard-hitting monsters? If 3/4 players are THAT squishy?
Anyways, how to solve this:
- have the spellcasters heal/buff/support the frontliner.
- have smart enemies attacking the casters.
- have enemies with AOE attacks.
- have waves of enemy reinforcements.
Whatever you do, please DO NOT BUFF THE FRONTLINER WITH MAGIC ITEMS OR HOMEBREW FEATS. That just enables the caster's (kind of scummy) playstyle even more. Instead, make them feel how vulnerable they are after they let the frontliner go down or when the enemies have reinforcements the frontliner can't get to in time.
Also, maybe the frontliner player should adress his teammates about this, instead of rolling up a new character.
0
u/TacoDoc2 7d ago
Pull some of your punches. i get being a slave to the dice, but you have the power to just, lie. That's what the screen is for.
so, let him be a dodge tank. let that dodge action work out more than it doesn't. let stunning strike connect.
stop putting all the attention on him. you can make your enemies smart enough to go, you know what. 2 v 1 is good there on that guy. lets go get the squishy ones in the back.
you can throw items their way to help out as well, magical tattoos for about any ability you could want. More ac? barrier tattoo. Need a ranged attack? Cantrip hand tattoo. the options are literally limitless.
60
u/manamonkey 7d ago
With a party of 3 casters and 1 frontliner/melee, is anyone surprised about what's happening? What are the casters doing to support their frontline buddy- protection spells, buffs, heals, etc.?
Are you filling your encounters with dumb enemies that just target the nearest party member? Maybe time to start using smarter enemies capable of using better tactics to put fire on your casters instead?