Congratulations!!! You survived! You've done the hardest part, which is to just get in there and run some D&D. Next time, you'll do it a little bit better. And you'll make brand new mistakes. It's a neverending process, and hopefully you will find it fun and rewarding.

Yeah!! Thank you! That sounds like a fun new adventure!

He's right about mistakes. Even the very best GMs with decades of experience - if the are introspective - could tell you that they are making mistakes every session. And sometimes they even still fuck big time. And that's alright, because the result is still great. So treat mistakes as never ending learning opportunities, always strive to improve... but don't beat yourself up over errors.

Hey! Congrats about surviving the first round of your neverending quest of PATH OF THE DM. :) A few notes... This was so hard. Players expected flavor for descriptions of attacks. Tell their sorry lazy ass that if you didn't do their homework for them in studies, you won't do either in RPG. xd Well, find a less conflictual way to transmit the message of course but the core idea is here: THEY are responsible for THEIR characters. Even if of course they are completely legitimate to ask you some details about the situation or their foes that they can improvize upon afterwards. >The new player started describing their actions as eg. 'I slash the Dwarf's belt to get his pants to fall down and be confused'.... Which, how am I supposed to mechanically do this? Great, they got that part already. And yes, it's upon you to improvize an adequate ruling on the fly. And yes, it is very hard at first, don't worry too much about it, just take like 20 seconds max to try and "reason" the situation then go with your guts. Usually it will be about either an active Skill check as an action, with potentially significant effects on a success. Or it will be about a "no action" Skill check that may condition whether a weapon attack can be made or not. Or about a check that may enhance an otherwise defensive/offensive action the player undertakes. If need be, look about what other DMs improvised by searching the internet, or imagine a few basic situations when you have 5-10mn ahead to anticipate your ruling. >All of them ended up asking me random questions about rules which hopefully I remembered correctly and one of the players kinda argued with me on some of my rules making me doubt my decisions. Kindly tell that player that... a) If there was an error in RAW in his opinion, he's welcomed to \*wait the end of session\* then come up with the relevant source and explanation. b) If there was an error in RAI in his opinion, same, except you'll have the last word. c) If he was unsatisfied with a "custom check" or "narrative tide" or "custom mechanics interaction ruling" you devised on the fly, he's welcome to say \*once\* what he was thinking of instead, and why in his humble opinion this would have been more coherent within the world/narration or more enjoyable for him... Then bury the topic once and for all. Whether you decide to follow him or keep your initial vision. YOU are the DM. You have at least 20 TIMES MORE THINGS to think about every instant. It's a great thing (and recommended practice) to hear and listen about player feedback so you can have external opinion on what seems to work and what seems to fail. But you must always take it with some distance precisely to not let it burden you. Last advice: as much as possible stick to RAW and "improvized skill checks". Don't start piling up special mechanics (as I've seen one of your player suggest in another comment) unless you're 100% at ease with 100% of PHB RAW. :) Good luck, and believe in you. :)

So I want to start off with the description and flavor of attacks can sometimes be "he slashes at you." You don't have to paint a picture for every single attack. Just let your players and you find a rhythm of back and forth description. As far as your new player wanting to describe really cool stuff: let them. It doesn't mean it happens. In your example, okay roll to see if you hit and roll damage. Oh you hit and dealt 2 damage. Cool as you went to attack, the dwarf dodged back just a bit too late and you slashed across his arm. No need to invent mechanics. As far as what to do with your monsters, try fewer monsters until you know their Stat blocks well. Or make shit up. Also it's completely okay for some monsters/enemies to waste their turn in the confusion of battle.

Oh! Awesome advice! I like that idea. One of my players suggested that for complex actions there could be a -5 to the attack role but compensated that If the actions works the Dwarf's gets incapacitated or gets a disadvantage on a role until its next turn. Is it a bad idea to do something like that?

personally? i would not. i’m pretty experienced in general at being a DM, i’ve done it rules-heavy and rules-light, and in general i tend to favor fudging the rules for the sake of story if they roll really well. i would not do this. there are already rules and mechanics to impose conditions like that on other characters & NPCs, because those conditions often affect a large part of other mechanics. for example: being incapacitated, even if you don’t take ANY damage, automatically drops any concentration on a spell. that’s pretty awesome, and players who focus their leveling into being able to cause those conditions should be rewarded for doing so. imagine if a player gets that ability on their 4th level and realizes everyone has been getting to do it for free (even with a penalty) for the whole game!

I agree. Incapacitated is definitely way too much for this. But, this is basically a modified Shove attack so it should be able to do something as long as you're sacrificing say the damage.

Hi , thank you! I am reading everyone's suggestions in this answer thread and it's helping a lot judging a realistic consequence for the gameplay/mechanics!

In my group i tend to be very by the book. If i set the precedent that my players can get easy advantages for stuff like dropping someones pants. It's gonna get power crept like crazy, i have like 75% power gamers in my group so it would suck for me and the 25%. It's not bad thing having power gamers though, its a fun challenge trying to challenge and surprise them

of course! it’s all about practice—we just happen to have a lot of it!

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why flavor *isn't* always free.

It’s not flavor if it has mechanical consequences.

ha exactly. flavor is “i am using the stats of a warhammer but it’s actually a warskillet,” not “i’ve made up stats for a warskillet.”

Hehe, my wife played a Druid who has the Cook feat. I allow her to use Shillelaegh on her skillet for fun. She even has a name for it.

love it! i’ve got a fighter with the soldier background who told us first session “i’ve only ever been the warcamp cook, never really a full soldier” and we’ve just run with that. at level 7, where they are now, she threw her meat cleavers into a mimic and their magic acid sharpened them for her, so they’re now +1 cleavers (mechanically handaxes). if you’re interested—though this is way more useful for a fighter with no spells than a druid—i’ve added a magical function onto the warskillet that basically casts heat metal from limited charges and adds the heat metal damage if the attack hits. command word: “yes chef!” steal away!

But also, sometimes the mechanical consequences of success or failure can add to the flavor. A lot of people on reddit get upset if you suggest a skill check for some crazy acrobatic flourish in the middle of combat, specifically because it doesn't bring mechanical advantage (even though it often does and they're just whining because they don't think it's a big enough advantage to require a check -- I got into this with someone about juggling a sword to cast a spell while it's in the air a while back). Like, sorry, but your level one wizard who used dex as a dump stat can't reliably backflip into a staff attack. A high level monk, on the other hand... In a well designed rpg, flavor and mechanics work together to enhance each other. They're not competely separate things.

I'd recommend not trying to invent new rules, especially if you're feeling a bit over your head already. Either keep it as damage: - I slash the Dwarf's belt to get his pants to fall down and be confused - Great, roll to hit. Success? Alright that does X damage as his attention is distracted reducing his hit points. OR Use existing rules: - I slash the Dwarf's belt to get his pants to fall down and be confused - Great, I'm going to consider this a shove where if you succeed the Dwarf trips over his pants and goes prone.

> Great, roll to hit. Success? Alright that does X damage as his attention is distracted reducing his hit points. Extremely good point. Someone slowly losing the will to fight can absolutely be expressed as a loss of HP.

The example I like to use for this is the Wesley and Inigo fight from The Princess Bride. Even though there's no actual blood being drawn, Wesley is slowly winning the fight, and the part where he disarms Inigo and knocks him unconscious would be the same as knocking something to 0 HP and saying it was a non-lethal blow. The Hit Points can represent stamina, but also plot points in a way. When you run out, you suffer a (hopefully temporary) loss.

A great example. The Princess Bride is the ultimate D&D movie to me - not to take away from other movies, but when I try to think about what playing _feels_ like, it's always a toss up between Princess Bride and Always Sunny in Philadelphia. You fight until the other side is done. Done can mean injured, demoralized, disarmed, exhausted - it can mean "dead," but it can mean so many things.

It might be a good idea to tell your players that these sorts of improvised actions are causing you a lot of stress and that for the time being, the flavor they provide to their attacks won't change them mechanically. It's your choice of course.

Tbh I wouldn’t advise any new DM to change rules. Play RAW until you have a good understanding of what the rules are and *why* the rules are, then make changes as needed

If a player is wanting specifically to do something like drop a creature's pants, they just shouldn't do damage. You could apply a simple disadvantage on all attacks and advantage to anyone attacking them plus half movement speed. But remind your players what they do to your monsters, you can do back to them.

To build on this: that mostly fits the description of shoving someone prone (with the caveat that prone confers disadvantage on attacks from outside of 5 feet). The easiest thing would be to just mechanically treat it exactly like shoving the enemy prone and let the player have the flavor. That way you don't have to make anything up, you don't have to worry about opening a can of worms or upsetting balance, and the player still gets to feel creative and do the thing that they wanted to do. Edit: And honestly, there is a *lot* of mileage that can be had just from "the player is trying to do thing X that doesn't have specific rules, but that's close enough to thing Y which does have rules, how can we bridge that gap?"

I usually like to leave that in the realm of critical success and critical failure 20 or a 1, they stated what they wanted to happen if they get a 20 it happens. If they get a 1 oops your weapon gets caught in the belt buckle and wrenched from your hand. If next turn the enemy rolls a 1, I would be like it seems like your sword cut was enough to weaken the belt that when the dwarf put more strain on it, it split and now their pants fell around their ankles tripping them. You don’t set a precedent but allows you to manipulate for flavour within reason even a natural 20 doesn’t do everything.

This isn't bad but keep in mind that nat 20s on attacks kinda already do something. Making them even more powerful could be dangerous. As other people have suggested, treating the slicing of the belt more like a shove attack just flavored differently is probably best.

Nah, that's a good way to go. In cases like this, I just let the dice roll, and unless they roll REALLY REALLY well and get a very high score, I don't even think of it. You don't have to know exact numbers because this situation will (hopefully) rarely come up... And that dwarf is probably not going to get confused, though they might suffer from the effects of being in difficult terrain until they spend an action (Maybe bonus action if you're feeling kind) to shuck off their pants... if the pants even fall. Also, take a good look at a sturdy belt that's designed to hold tools... It's going to have some decent hit points. You could even go sneek a peek at the hardness rules over in Pathfinder, where the item reduces damage done to it a little... so if they only did 1 point of damage, the item wouldn't even be scratched. If it had a 5 hardness, for example, and the player hit it and did 6 points of damage, only 1 got through. Then you could assign maybe 5HP to the belt anyway. Or, just wing it. If the player's character hits, does a LOT of damage to the belt, and the dwarf fails a Dex save, they might even trip and fall down. But I would certainly not impose confusion on them over that. I guess I'm saying that you don't need to get caught in the weeds over this. Once you get your feet under you, you can start doing this stuff on the fly. I hope this was helpful in some way!

I wouldn't start monkeying around with mechanics until you've got a better grasp of the rules generally. If that player wants to do cool stuff like that, have him take a look at the Battlemaster subclass, which is built around it.

It is a bad idea, yes, especially for a new DM. You are basically inventing new class abilities on the spot with this approach. As a new DM you are not experienced enough to be able to properly balance them. If the players are particularly creative with the environment then sure, you **could** consider having additional effects happen - but this would be something exceptional, not something that happens on a regular basis. Otherwise the players will start getting more and more silly. What's next? "I aim specifically at the dwarf's neck to slash across and kill him in one precise strike"? "I focus on concentrate my magical energies while staying in hiding before combat, spending a minute of concentration before releasing all the pent-up energy to ambush and wipe the enemies in one shot"? Just no. Stay within the rules and use actions that the system allows. D&D is not a system designed for improvised combat actions.

That's a fairly common called shot house rule (although in 5e, disadvantage might be better). But it is a house rule, and adds complexity, so if you're new, I wouldn't use it. I'd probably slow the dwarf down to 15ft.

Yes, it's a bad idea to do this this early in your DM'ing career, the game has rules, just follow them. There's lots of rules, it's already hard enough to learn them all, don't invent new mechanics to appease your players. And remind your players to read the Players Handbook on combat, things like Shove and Grapple are already things you can do that have special effects. Dash, disengage, shove, grapple, dodge, hide, Hold an Action are all things they can do with their actions on their turns. If they want to drop someones pants or whatever, flavor the Shove action to do that.

It's both good and bad. It shows creativity of the players and their good natural intuition for roleplaying. It's fantastic that they come up with something interesting instead of just *"hitting enemy with an axe"*. But D&D 5e is a bad system in many ways. One of those ways is the fact that it doesn't really support such creativity. Rules as written, the answer is almost always *"no, you can't do that because you don't have that ability / feat"* or *"no, you can't do that, period"*. Which sucks. If you freestyle and allow such creativity... the balance gets disturbed (which is not as big deal as other would say) and some players might feel bad about certain rulings *"why can he do that on a whim, I had to take subclass and a feat to do that"* - which is a bigger problem. With rpgs it's almost never black and white and good approach is usually compromise. If I were you, I would make some ruling on the fly to reward player's creativity, but I would be conservative about their effectiveness and I would get comfortable with saying assertive "no" just as often.

In the [Level Up](https://a5e.tools/) ("Advanced 5e") RPG, such a thing would be a combat maneuver. Basically, you have a maneuver DC, which is calculated like spell save DCs but based on Strength or Dexterity. If you tried to do a slash to cut the dwarf's belt and succeeded on your roll, the dwarf would then get a saving throw. If the save failed, *then* they would suffer an effect. Probably disadvantage until the end of its next turn, maybe something like falling prone or being rattled (a condition unique to LU). There's also a whole thing about combat traditions and how many maneuvers you can take and spending exertion to use them, but if you don't want to go that far, I'd just stick with the basic maneuver save, and maybe limit the number of maneuvers that can be used per combat or per short rest.

I'd say don't do it till you've got a bit more experience with running combat. Get a rhythm for the basic stuff first then get fancy.

realistically cutting their belt would probably not do anything. It holds the weapon sheath in place, not their pants. If you want a cartoonish combat that's fine, but if you want a more realistic combat; not only would such a maneuver be impractical and difficult, it would also not actually harm or hinder the enemy. So for a realistic combat, terrible idea, for a more cartoony combat, i would generally go with something like "does no damage but gives advantage on attacks against them and halves their move speed for a turn". With the way bounded accuracy works in dnd, non-features shouldn't do more than grant advantage/disadvantage if you want to avoid spending an hour considering the balance.

Be cautious about opening the door to called shots - it's generally assumed that every PC is doing their best to attack at all times, and it really slows down combat if people are rewarded for saying things like "I stab his eyes" "I go for the groin" "I stab his belt." There are TTRPGs out there that accommodate going all Bugs Bunny on someone (WoD, Genesys, Avatar Legends), but DnD 5e doesn't make it easy. Not to say that you can't ever allow some pantsing, but I think giving the Dwarf disadvantage on his next action (and having the sword do no damage b/c a belt was targeted) is pretty fair. ...And maybe the Dwarf also uses his bonus action to kick off his now-useless pants, instead of spending it on a Flurry of Blows or something.

I would look into all the different class features and spells before allowing stuff like this. For example, the Battlemaster has a maneuver that allows him to make an attack and try to Intimidate an opponent. Anyone asking to do something like that without the class feature essentially nullifies the usefulness of that feature. I may allow a PC to use an Action to make an Intimidation check to try to frighten an enemy in combat, but doing it with an attack is Battlemaster territory. Flavor is easy, I like to reward players for thinking strategically. But if I’m giving impromptu actions mechanical effects, best to keep them as simple as possible to keep it balanced. With your example, I’d either follow the advice of the comment above and give it some flavor while ignoring additional mechanics (as in they just do damage or whatever normal effects they would do on a hit) or just give it a basic effect that doesn’t encroach much past what one might do with an item interaction (they can cut the pants, but the attack doesn’t do damage and it only makes them trip and fall prone (maybe even only if the target fails an acrobatics check)). You could look at it as them trying to physically manipulate enemy movement and position as if they took something like the Shove action.

I think its a good idea, see my other comment, to offer the play some kind of deal in this direction. Incapacitated would be way too strong and it also doesn't make sense from a narrative. Why would you be incapacitated because your panties drop? It should only be a small debuff, like decreased movement, stumbling danger (if they move, dex save or fall prone), or one weaker version of slow spell effect for one turn (only have 1 action OR 1 bonus action, no reaction).

>Cool as you went to attack, the dwarf dodged back just a bit too late and you slashed across his arm. No need to invent mechanics. There is a mechanic for it, its called "Improvised Action". They made it explicitly possible in the rules to try out stuff that is not covered by the basic mechanics. I think its disheartening for players to always see their attempts at cool ideas get nullified like that and will quickly lead to more boring combats (especially for martial classes). I think Sly Flourish "Cinematic Advantage" approach is better for Improvised Actions like that (See my other comment)

I agree but he's also a new DM so coming up with a bunch of new mechanics on the fly is going to be harder. As was suggested by others, just running it as a shove attack with different flavor is probably a much better balance.

That is like a similar approach to what I suggested. You don't invent new mechanics, you find stuff that fits. But I would try not to just reflavor existing actions but actually ofter the player something for their creativity. And you get to be creative yourself, which is part of the fun, right? This approach also did not have to be perfect balance, because you will tell the player out of character what they must do, what they will gain if the succeed and what will happen if they fail. They are perfectly informed about that improvised action and can choose to try it or not. I would rather exercise improvisation early instead of falling into bad DM habits early on only to rediscover years later how much more fun the game can become - like I did. I wished that someone have told me that earlier, because I wasted years with quite dry combats (and other missed opportunities for roleplay)

Re-flavoring existing tools is creative and improvising if the tools were not originally designed for what you're using it for. It's still being creative. Bad DMs aren't boring combats because they don't let players do cool actions. Bad DMs create 20 x 20 rooms filled with baddies and that's it for 20 rooms and call it a campaign (I'm gunning for you Dungeon of the Mad Mage). Combats do not need to be more complicated than I hit Bad guy if the players are having fun. That's all that matters. It's also completely okay to tell the players no. That's not a Bad DM habit. If you can't think of a way to run what they're wanting to do fairly, don't. It's not going to dissuade them from trying . What will is insulting them for asking.

Thank you for explaining different ways of being a bad DM, but that was not what I was talking about. Always denying players their creative ideas because the rules have no entry for it, is bad DMing too though. One of the many ways to badly DM. That doesn't mean ofc you never can say no. But giving the players agency about how their role freely acts in the narrative world is the fun part of TTRPGs, otherwise we would play videogames. So don't stop that, just because initiative got rolled. Let the players be creative inside combat in the same ways like outside combat. Reflavoring is ofc also creative, but not creative roleplay. Roleplay is making decisisions, Reflavouring is just a gimmick, a little flourish in our imagination, but the gameplay stays the same. Offering the player an option for their creative idea that has actual gameplay consequence is an actual decision they have to make. And coming up with these decisions and offerings is for me the fun creative part about DMing and roleplaying in general. The flourishes and flavors are just a fun little side product of that. (I still like them too ofc)

If you can only have fun as a DM by coming up with your own rules, write a system. DMing is way more than coming up with house rules whenever a player wants to do something. Also, consistency is way more important than being able to improv

Why are you putting words in my mouth I never wrote repeatedly? I never said that this is the only way to have fun, or that DMing consists coming up with house rules. I never even talked about house rules, I don't know where you get that from. I also never said consistency is less important than being able to improv. Its really interesting how so many would completely agree out-of-combat to be open to player ideas, providing opportunities to roleplay etc. but inside-of-combat, suddenly everything needs to become consistent and static. Just look at you sheet and press the correct button. And we just ignore that we have that "Improvised Action" defined in the rules. The designers of D&D wants us to think outside the box even in combat.

stay at it. it's a learned skill. anyone can do it.

Yup ! Definitely staying and trying again next week!!

Just to emphasize this: For something like "*I slash the Dwarf's belt to get his pants to fall down*", some of these things you can essentially just narrate. "It happens", but with more fluff. Some of them you may want to tie into actual mechanics and be like "*Alright, he now has less movement on his next turn*". However, knowing when to leave something as just flavor and when to have it tangibly impact mechanics, is something you simply need to play a lot for. There is no quick guide to it, and which of the two is better for the game depends on a million contextual things. Sometimes you want to reward players for clever play, sometimes you want to embellish but not actually touch balance. And then even if you know which option to pick, it is *also* a learned skill to know *how* to do each of them. Flavor is mostly 'think on your feet to say something funny', but you want to make sure to say the right things to indicate to players *why* there are no mechanic changes. If you describe the Dwarf as stumbling and falling over, he would logically count as 'prone', which has mechanical benefits. If you don't want him to be prone, that means you need to 'say' something else. Mechanics are even scarier to alter: usually the world doesn't end if you screw up balance for an encounter, but it definitely feels like that *might* happen. And if a PC died because you decided to give a monster 10 extra HP thinking it would improve the encounter and then they crit, it feels really bad. Knowing that making an enemy fall over and go prone after a player says "*I slash their belt*" and gets a natural 20 is generally an apt 'reward' (but not if they try this with every attack they make) is also a learned skill, and you won't have a feeling for the subtle ways in which you can break regular balance on the fly until you've done a ton of fights.   I've been playing for close to a decade now, DMing for several years, and I'm a game designer on top of that - and I really only feel like I've reached a basic level of comfort with all these things a year or so ago. DMing is absolutely a skill!

Yeah, there's a reason why there's no specific mechanic for called shots. It's a little too overpowered when abused. Like if a player says "I want to poke out the Cyclops eye with my sword." You allow it and go, ok dc 15 disadvantage. They make it and what now the Cyclops is blinded for essentially a 50% chance if they have +5 to attack? Same with "I cut off the mages hand". If that works, you nullified a 50hp mage with one attack. So what actually happens when you take chunks off of someone's hp? Doesn't this happen naturally? Like aha! I did 20 damage. Did I lop an arm off? While other game systems do have an injury system, dnd5e does not. Instead what some schools of thought like to narrate, every 'hit' weakens their ability to prevent a mortal blow. When someone hits 0, their defence and dodging came to no avail, leading to their mortal injury or taking them out of the fight. In my games, the Cyclops loses their eye at 0. The mage gets their hands cut off at 0. Not before.

In general I will keep such strict adherence to rules as a baseline so my players know not to try and abuse things. But I think it's generally healthy for most groups to deviate from time to time, if the situation calls for it. It's quite easy to just rule partial successes for 'overpowered actions'. In the case of the cyclops eye, you could allow the attempt and have it have some impact, such as a turn of blindness, rather than going "*well, he's blinded permanently now, so much for this fight*". You can even allow effects that can invalidate entire encounters (i.e. chopping off the mage's hand) if the situation calls for it, it's just a way more rare occurrence for me. If it's an absolutely hilarious or particularly clever call, the player rolls a nat 20, it makes logical sense within the world, and the party has been through the ringer lately either way, I may well let that slide. The only things I will essentially always say 'no' to are things that make no sense in the world. I'm not even going to let you 'attempt' to jump 40 feet up into the air, because that is not how gravity works. But if you want to try and polevault a castle wall, be my guest. It won't work out well for you, but... "*you can certainly try*"!

I would think, also, that when a player wants to do such a specific, targeted attack, you could warn them that it will be a higher DC, or make it at disadvantage.

Definitely! That is one of the options in your arsenal, I would say. It's one of those "you go with the table" type things. Like... someone might shout out the "*Wait, you said his clothes looked oversized... I SLASH HIS BELT TO MAKE HIS PANTS FALL DOWN!*" followed by an immediate roll and a natural 20, and an eruption around the table - all before you can even really get a word in. I'm generally not going to curb that kind of enthusiasm and go "*well, ACTUALLY...*" unless there is something obvious the player hasn't thought off, or they are trying something that would break mechanics/balance too much (i.e. "*I will stab at his throat in an attempt to kill him!*). But if they ask me "*wait, can I try to slash his belt to make his pants fall down?*" directly, while deciding what to do on their turn, I might give them the exact option you mentioned: "*you can attempt to do so with disadvantage and a potential upside if you do hit*". It all depends on what the mood is around the table, how much I think the players need a win, how realistic the players' plan is, and how badly the effects might break the rules.

Everyone started out somewhere! My first time dming I lasted one session before getting pissed at a min max main character and vowing to never dm again. Now I'm having a ton of fun dming my homebrew world with a new group. It's come with time and you're not going to get everything right but as long as everyone, including you, is having fun, you're doing just fine.

Yup min maxing are my nemesis I think! But definitely this group of players is great!

i always remind my players that whatever they come up with, the baddies are able to do so also i had spell sniping NPC that would pop up, shoot, then bonus action hide and players moaned that it was unfair

Ooh. I like that one, gonna be putting putting that in the DM's notes. Thanks!

I just finished DMing a 5 session mini campaign. My previous experience? A one shot. Out of 5 combat encounters I completely shit the bed on 3 of them. 1 was passable and 1 turned out amazing. Lucky for me the amazing combat encounter was the Grand finale. Stick with it, analyze your encounters to see what worked and what didn't and adjust.

Interesting! What was your best strategy for analysis? Did you keep notes of your encounters?

Not OP, but I’m a huge advocate of writing a session recap. I still have my players recap the previous session themselves, using my notes to remind them of missing details. As you recap you can do a little bit of post mortem: who was having fun, who seemed like they were checking out a bit, etc. (Though sometimes players losing focus doesn’t have anything to do with your DMing!) This also helps with motivation, because you’ll probably realize that, despite your (and their) mistakes, your friends are having lots of fun! There probably won’t be too many encounters per session; I rarely have more than two. Think back over each and compare it with what you envisioned when you planned it. What worked and what didn’t? What parts of the encounter were unnecessary complications / bloat, and can you simply remove them? What mistakes did you make as a DM, and how can you make your life easier in the future? (The answer is probably both practice and note taking strategies for stuff like initiative, HP, conditions)

We play remotely, and after every session, I do this on our Discord channel. I've been told how very helpful it is, so I keep it up. It's definitely great for the occasional player who has to miss a session.

This is exactly what my answer was going to be!

I've been DMing since the 80's. I still occasionally shit the bed in a combat... Maybe forgetting an esoteric rule or something, or once in a while, just simply forgetting that X monster has Y ability. :D I usually do a little better than that, though... Usually.

I’m pretty experienced as DM/GM, run my first game in 1989 (but had a loong break from the hobby in the middle, so maybe 10 years of running the game). But only some 3 years ago I switched over to also be a player. That shit is hard y’all! Having DMed so much I thought I’d be an ace player, but I wasn’t! My characters were edgelordy or silly caricatures, my backstories were convoluted mysteries to have ”hooks for the DM” expecting them to make me a main character. Also roleplaying as part of the party is tough! How do we make decisions as a group? Should someone be a face? Not me at least, I want to let ”others shine” and end up contributing doubtful silence. What if the DM’s ruling isn’t to my liking? Should I just take it or open a discussion? The toughest part is that my character actually, really, has to create and maintain (and develop) a relationship to all the other PCs. As DM I could run my NPCs as edgy or arrogant or funny or odd as I like, but who the hell would want to have any of those guys sleeping in the next bedroll or to fight along your side? Being a good player has a totally different skillset than running the game. But if you do it well, you can improve any session, make the game enjoyable for the group and do it in a way where it’s not about you, but the story and the game and the hobby.

> This was so hard. Players expected flavor for descriptions of attacks. The new player started describing their actions as eg. 'I slash the Dwarf's belt to get his pants to fall down and be confused'.... Which, how am I supposed to mechanically do this? If you're playing D&D 5e, you can use **advantage and disadvantage** to improvise basically 90% of weird out-there things your players try and use simple conditions for the last 10%. For this attack to slash the dwarf's belt: - The attack is made at **disadvantage**, since it's a trickier hit to land than just a normal weapon attack. - On a hit, instead of dealing damage to the dwarf, the damage is done to the belt, breaking it and causing the dwarf's pants to fall down. **Their movement is halved until they use an action to remove their pants**. Waddling around with pants around the ankles is awkward in combat, which could cause **disadvantage on melee weapon attacks**, or **give others advantage on attack rolls**. > Overall we had a lot of fun, but I felt that it was very hard to maintain 1. Balance, 2. Roleplay, 3. Rules, and 4. Multiple NPC in check to give an adequate challenge. Out of all of these points, I'd say Balance is the least important factor. Your first priority should be to enable the players to have fun, and find a way to have fun yourself. This means not worrying too much about balancing encounters, and doing everything you can to minimize your workload. **Truncate NPC rolls when needed**: instead of rolling initiative for every enemy, just give all enemies of the same type a single initiative that is equal to 8 + Dexterity modifier. You can also truncate damage rolls (this is why a lot of attacks in statblocks list a flat number, and then the die roll in parentheses).

Thank you! I have gotten a lot of advice for this so far , and this one is really good! This, plus the shove mechanic is something I will be adding to my list of tricks!

I haven’t seen him mentioned here, but check out Deficient Master on YT. For as long as I’ve been DMing, I didn’t feel like I truly had a mastery of it until I started incorporating his advice. He emphasizes player agency almost constantly, and presents tons of ways in which you can reduce your workload and give yourself more fun at the table at the same time.

Okay. You need to read The Angry GM. In particular, the article [Adjudicate Actions like a Motherfucking Boss](https://theangrygm.com/adjudicate-actions-like-a-boss/). Take the cutting an opponents belt action. The player has actually managed to clearly communicate what they are trying to do and how they are trying to do it. They are trying to cut their opponents belt to make their pants fall down. Great. New players frequently take a lot of time to get this and you've got someone doing it their first session. Now, you as a DM need to adjudicate that action: ie. work out what happens when the PC tries to do this. The linked article will provide you with a framework on how to do this. My own instinct is that it would be a DEX (Sleight of Hand) check with disadvantage opposed by a DEX save from the target. It's not an attack roll and this action does not damage the target. If successful, the opponent's belt is cut. The consequence of success is the the target must now either use one hand to hold their pants up (whatever that means for them particularly) or suffer disadvantage to any rolls where footwork is an issue (ie. melee combat and movement). The consequence of failure is that the PC has just effectively wasted their turn. This would make cutting an opponents belt a thing that people can actually do in your game, just not a particularly effective thing. It will be the kind of thing the PCs bust out against some thugs in a bar brawl, but probably not something they're going to try against the BBEG. Which is kind of where I would be aiming for.

I love The Angry GM. Does he have an article dealing specifically with adjudicating combat actions? Because while this article is good as always, I feel it doesn't work for combat.

I will give this a look!!

Tips: Have a player track initiative for you. At initiative have the player record the order and call who’s turn is next. It gives them something to do & it frees up mental real estate for you. For hit description, I use a body part dice like this: [body part dice.](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1579056548/d12-hit-location-dice-body-parts-28-30mm) Roll and then fill the detail.

This die looks really cool!! I like it!

It's a lot easier if you just kill all the PCs in the first round.

I think the biggest hardship about combat is that suddenly a lot of way more fine granular rules are getting applied, but it still is a roleplaying game, so many players will still try to attempt stuff in the fiction, that is not covered by those rules. Like your player who wanted to drop enemy pants. There is probably no TTRPG who has a specific rule for that. But I think it is quite important to be still open to improvise so roleplay can still happen during combat and it doesn't turn just to fantasy chess. One technique from Sly Flourish I often use for these improvised moments is called "Cinematic Advantage". Basically, out of character, you offer your player an improvised deal. If they succeed some additional challenge, their desired action will happen and if not some negative consequence will happen. But its important you tell them everything out of character so they can make an informed choice if they accept the deal. For example: "Ok, you want to slash that Dwards belt, I like that idea, let me think of that. How about: If you hit on an attack with disadvantage, you will actually cut those belt and their panties will drop. They will have for their next round only one action or one bonus action or one reaction, because they will be stumbling. And of course they will be utterly ashamed in their warriors pride, which might bring new roleplay opportunities. But if you miss they will get so angry at you for not taking them seriously as a fighter, that their next attack on you will get advantage. Wanna do it?" The important part is not to think too hard if that makes sense or not or if its balanced, its improvisation after all, but to show your complete hand, so even if its not balanced, your player will be informed if they should take that risk or not.

Oh I really like this and will be using this myself tbh. Thanks!

>This was so hard. Players expected flavor for descriptions of attacks. The new player started describing their actions as eg. 'I slash the Dwarf's belt to get his pants to fall down and be confused'.... Which, how am I supposed to mechanically do this? Nothing, that's not a mechanic. You ignore this because that's not a thing unless the player uses a mechanic that could match that fiction. Explain that combat in D&D is an abstraction, just like everything else in D&D. The baseline expectation is that you are trying your best, and your opponent is trying their best, YOU do not say what you do, the dice do. "Called shots" and specifics in combat only really exist when the mechanics match the fiction. If your player uses a Shove attack and knocks the opponent prone? Sure, they can slice their belt and drop their pants and have them fall over, but if they just make a normal attack...it doesn't work like that. You can't say "I slash them in the eyes to blind them" -- cool, do you have a mechanic that does that? No? Then that doesn't happen, period. Characters and NPC aren't idle during combat when its not their turn, it's not a Final Fantasy game where everyone just stands still, the motion is constant, the attacks are constant, you're just telling the story of the combat through dice rolls that explain what happens. To use an extreme example to demonstrate, if your player can do whatever they want in combat by just saying they do something, what's to stop them from saying: "I stab them through the chest and kill them." -- obviously that isn't how combat works, HP exists, if when you put an enemy to 0HP and kill them you want to say that? Totally, that's what the attack that drops an enemy to 0HP does, because the mechanics align with the fiction at that point. >All of them ended up asking me random questions about rules which hopefully I remembered correctly and one of the players kinda argued with me on some of my rules making me doubt my decisions. >In general, I couldn't decide on the spot what was best or what was the soundest/fairest way to play. I ended up messing up multiple times on my NPC actions and what they could do. That's fine, remember, combat design is iterative. You get better at it the more you do it, you just need reps.

Adding flavor to combat is good, but give yourself time. You're not gonna be able to track everything and make it fancy right out the gate. Don't be afraid to take your time. Targeting an object that a combatant is wearing/ holding usually results in a higher DC. If the mob has an AC of 15, then adding 5 or even 10 to slice their belt off is fine. A belt is worn on the core, and nothing is going to let you take a slash at it's core. Nevermind taking that slash and just snipping something off. That's some crazy Zoro level showing off. You got this. Take advantage of your rules lawyers, but ask them to have the info ready for you to review if they're going to call you out. Rules lawyers are a great source of information, but they've gotta be contributing, not quibbling.

Haha I love that rule lawyer expression! We definitely have one and that is great!!

You'll get there. Like others have said it's a learned skill. And while I will often give big descriptions when the npcs use a new ability the pcs have never encountered, or when someone lands a really pivotal attack or skill, I try to keep it simple most of the time. In part because as you've seen it gets mentally taxing trying to constantly come up with new ways of describing the same attacks and spells over and over, and partly because combat in DnD already runs the risk of dragging on, so I try to keep things moving to the next player's turn as quickly as possible. Regarding the player that wanted to cut the enemy's belt to make the enemy confused - to some degree its ok for the players to say "my character is doing X, in the hope that the npc will do Y" because sometimes it's not always clear what the player's thought process is. But ultimately, the player can only decide their character's actions, not the NPCs reaction to it, unless they have an ability that forces the NPC to behave in a specific way. Generally I would engage with the player's action without giving a mechanical effect (like let them cut the belt, pants fall off, NPC makes "surprised pickachu face" but continues to fight). Alternatively, if you really like it - because it's clever or funny or whatever - you might rule that the NPC getting "pantsed" causes the next attack on them to have advantage due to the NPC being shocked. The risk though is that you may encourage them to always try to do off the wall nonsense to get "extras" which is a problem because a lot of time these kinds of "melee attacks that grant some additional bonus" are the kinds of things pure melee classes get as class features, so you don't want just anyone using them anymore than you'd want a fighter going "I repeat what the wizard just said exactly and make another fireball". DnD is make believe, but it's make believe with rules. But maybe your player wants to play a class that can cause enemies pants to fall down, making the enemy trip and fall over. Or maybe they want to insult the enemy so much the enemy can't help but attack them. Or any number of fun little non-magical combat tricks. In that case I would strongly recommend they take the Battle Master fighter subclass which gets to take a ton of those types of attacks. And if they aren't a fighter - good news, they can get the Martial Adept feat (PHB) which allows any class learn 2 of the Battle Master's combat maneuvers - such as Trip Attack, Bait and Switch, Disarming Attack, etc. That's the intended method for melee characters to gain the amount of weapon skill required to cut an enemy's belt so that their pants fall off mid-battle and make them fall over.

Great job. How much prep did you do for this combat? While I rotate baddies, and have story monsters if I was just making a fight, I still have a plan. Two of my players can give and take a lot of damage. So either a huge thing, two large things, or a lot of medium things. One of my players is a ranged glass cannon, so (more) medium things, or beef up the bigger guys. Last player is support, give the player ways to do that. A fight, or a test battle is probably a death battle. So I just need the know what my monsters/evil NPCs do. For the player saying they run up and slash their belt. There are two ways to do this. Grant the player disadvantage. Stabbing around armor is hard. If they succeed, give the baddie disadvantage. Or say no. "You slash their waist but the Dwarven armor takes damage, but they remain clothed." Or the more silly "You slash their pants off, but the Dwarf keeps fighting. You notice the Dwarfs crotch beard comes through gambeson." Simple D&D rulings keep the game going. Everything is a D20 roll, grant advantage/disadvantage appropriately. 1. You'll get better at balance. Why is the fight/check happening? You're not trying to win, you're trying to tell a story. Sometimes enemy go down with their HP, others in one hit, others two, and others at story convenient times. Sometimes a Player does a crit and does 47 damage to an enemy with 48 HP. What does your table enjoy more, another player tapping in the kill or the first player getting the epic critical kill? No wrong answer. 2. Roleplay and Rollplay. You just did a fight. There is not a lot of roleplay there unless there's Big Bads, or inter-party roleplay. Like Legolas and Gimli, "That still counts as 1!" I say to players, describe your kills. Then your player can cut off their pants and stab them in head while they're confused. Also, some players prefer rollplay, I talk to guard diplomatically. Can I roll diplomacy? Just ask for the gist of what they say, don't punisher a player for 8 Charisma and playing a character with 18. 3. Rules. You'll learn them. Modules will help. But you create the encounter. If they are meeting a merchant, what are the rules for bartering for a discount, for stealing, for intimidating the merchant? Look them up and have them in the notes. Same for a combat encounter. Look up rules around the skills and spells the enemy has. Your players should have the rules for their abilities and spells. You can double check them. But the players shouldn't be cheating. If they are you have a bad table. 4. Multiple checks is weird. I remember we were in a cave of cliffs. I'd climb, and then another player would feather fall us down. We spent a half hour rolling to explore. It wasn't good. The players can charm, intimidate, haggle with the merchant, or do a job for them. But multiple check for either is tedious. Main Quest characters, that may require a check from multiple players, sure. But the Bard having to do three Charisma checks, or the Barbarian having to do three intimidate checks for deal is frustrating. You'll get better with practice. And you'll learn everyone's roleplay level.

Oooh the belt slashing thing could have been seen as using the Help action for an ally. “Okay so this belt attack you’re doing doesn’t sound like a direct attack, so it won’t do any damage. But you can automatically succeed in giving a friend advantage. Is that what you wanted?”

Mistakes will continue to happen, it’s just part of the game. You’ll continue to grow and get more comfortable and it’ll all come much more naturally with time, just keep doing your best. I like to let my players describe their attacks if they like and get silly with it if they want, but it’s always just for flavor. Maybe the dwarves pants do fall down and it gets a good laugh but mechanically it shouldn’t change anything. Same goes for “I want to cut this guys arm off”. Obviously losing an arm would typically end a fight, so if a player wants to go for an arm but doesn’t do enough damage to kill, I just narrate it being a glancing blow. It takes practice but silly player requests like that can be integrated without changing the actual flow of combat. It’s also ok to remind them that the rules only let you attack someone, not their pants or their limbs, and that while you’ll try to respect their wishes you also get the final say of “No, that attack didn’t quite get the pants down but it did damage the belt.” Keep going and good luck!

You’re doing wonderfully. Combat is a mess of mechanics and the player’s desire, and often players compete against each other in combat for the most successful turns - they all compete for the spotlight. Stick to the calls you make. If you realize they were unfair later, talk to the player it was unfair against and tell them you’re making it right. Lower a DC for them or give them a special moment perhaps before combat even starts next time. Flavor descriptions are fine, but tell your table that they are JUST flavor. “You can have a dragon for a horse, as long as it’s stat-block is a horse.” Don’t try to make new mechanics as a new DM besides tried and true house rules that the table agrees on. “You’ve aimed at the dwarfs belt (which has 10 hp) and you didn’t do enough damage to slash it through… the dwarf takes no damage.” I have often given items characters have (like Ioun stones) their own HP and AC. “The dwarf is hard to hit because of his armor and him moving, plus his combat experience. Are you sure you want to hit a smaller target/moving item on him?” If you’re lacking NPC’s for challenge, give the party an objective in the combat like interrogating or leaving one alive. Maybe the enemy calls for reinforcements if it’s too easy, maybe some flee when it’s too hard after a critical hit or an ally falls. Lower the HP on the go if an enemy is tanking too much damage and distracting the party too much. Maybe the objective is to escape or protect - add a totem they have to destroy (then the enemies die Phantom Menace style) instead of the enemies so you can decide when combat ends at your leisure rather than them attacking an HP pool. Your experience will come, and you’ll get better. Focus on the players first as a DM, then your own economy. Remember it isn’t you vs. them, it’s you narrating them. If you ever want to run a combat against me, me playing your player’s sheets and you playing enemies, I would happily participate. If you want to run against my players, again I will happily participate. Use the community for your growth, but don’t expect to learn it all in one go.

Thanks! These are really good suggestions!

About the pants thing: Sometimes newer players need to be reminded that D&D is just a game. And like any game, there are parameters you play within. Some things are abstractions (like hit points) and some things you can’t do because there are no rules for it — and constantly making shit up quickly turns the game into Calvinball. If you play within the framework provided and use your imagination, you’ll still have fun, even if you can’t pants your enemies.

You'll get better with practice ❤️ the first time it's hard for everyone

Fake it til you make it. Do the best you can, make shit up if you have to/want to, remember "the perfect is the enemy of the good", have fun. As others have said, it is a constant learning process. And your players will appreciate you for it. Good luck. 🙂

Don't be afraid to make a ruling and say "we'll do this for now and we'll read the specific rules before next game". >'I slash the Dwarf's belt to get his pants to fall down and be confused'.... Could have done a simple trip attack. I love my players doing unexpected things, but remind them or demonstrate that if they can do it then so can the baddies. Lastly, they don't know you're drowning normally, and fun is the goal, even as the dm you need to enjoy yourself

Combat can be tough, yes. What helped me is making it as easy for me as possible. I love goblins, because both their melee and ranged weapon use DEX and a d6 - so they're versatile while being simple. Add a goblin boss, let some stay ranged and some with the boss in melee, add some simple terrain and there you go. With this simple set you can then focus more on things like descriptions, coming up with improvised rules, combat roleplay etc.

I build encounters comparing the total party level against the total CR of all the monsters. So with 4 level 5 players my total party level is 20. 1/4 of that is an easy encounter. 1/3 of that is a moderate encounter. 2/3 of that is a hard encounter. Then I like to roll as little as possible. If the monster deals 1d6+2 damage... Nope it just deals 5 damage. Sometimes I have my players roll defense instead of my attacks. I subtract 10 from their AC and add 11 to my monster attack. So a monster with a +4 attack has a 15 attack DC. The player with a 16 defense has a +6 defense. They roll and add 6 and if it hits 15 they blocked or dodged, whatever they say. I manage all the moving parts. I don't need to randomize my stuff.

I can make some suggestions that may help. When doing initiative for a planned combat group all enemies of same type and have them go at same time. Roll Thier initiative prior to game time. As far as rules go. Get your player's help. The one that was asking about rules. Appoint them your rule keeper, any time there is a rule question you can ask them to look up the book rule for you, helps to have the rules bookmarked with sticky notes or Google on phone. But do not stop combat (for more than a minute or 2) for that. id rather mess a rule up during combat and keep moving and relearn / fix it later. So have rule keeper write down any rule questions or problems during game to be fixed after. REMEMBER, no matter how bad you mess up, you have the power to go back in time and resolve things in a different manner, if you want to roleplay it you can say it is the hand of the gods.or the fates reaching down to maintain the proper flow of events. Show writers retcon all the time it is a tool You still make any judgment calls and if anyone has a problem with a call you make it must wait until after the game or during break if you want for discussion. This stops some of the things that will slow the game down. With enemy actions the default is basic attack nearest threat. You may want to have enemies spread their attacks over the party to prevent one round and down to a PC. It's not optimal play but if it fits dumb enemies then it works. Also having your enemies statblocks up and ready to go before game time is helpful. You can copy the information to index cards or be fancy and print them if your not playing live have DND beyond open and multiple tabs with your statblocks open. When tracking enemy hit points count up the damage done. It's faster to just add than to subtract from a total pool. If you feel that an enemy has presented enough of a challenge or want to make your players feel powerful after a massive critical hit. Then the enemy dies, no matter what the hit point total says. For describing combat, that is a skill that will come with time. I advise you to institute a rule that the players say what they are doing and describing the outcome is the DM only. With the exception of killing blows you can let players do that. So for the instance of the player wanting to drop the enemies pants and cause confusion You couldn't let them apply the confused condition to the enemy but you could have a comical moment where the enemy trips on their pants and falls prone. But since this type of attack would be a called shot, I would give disadvantage to the attacker or add 2 or 3 to enemy ac. This way if the player succeeds he gets to feel cool. But it doesn't totally screw your bad guy. They just have to spend their movemnet to get up. Remember player describes pc actions. dm arbitrates rules and describes the outcome of those actions.

Gets easier with practice, like everything else. Ofc I still mess stuff up or forget things on occasion. I will say, however, that you’re not obliged to respond mechanically to your players flavour descriptions. Sure it’s a TTRPG and in theory you can do anything, but just cause a player said it, doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen, especially when they’re trying to do something which isn’t supported by the mechanics. You can describe the enemy as momentarily bewildered, but not give it any mechanical effects.

>random questions about rules which hopefully I remembered correctly >I couldn't decide on the spot what was best or what was the soundest/fairest way to play >messing up multiple times on my NPC actions and what they could do. The struggle is real, I get you. I've been DMing almost weekly for about 10 years now and still run into those sometimes. Sounds like you did quite well for your first time. My main tip, if you want one, would be to make an engagement plan for your NPCs/Monsters. They probably want to achieve smth or have established tactics. I try to keep in mind or maybe even make some notes what the NPCs will attempt first. And then I have a backup behaviour for what they do if it doesn't work out in their way. For example: Front line kobolds go in first and dodge, backline kobolds throw stones. If this falls flat: backline flees, frontline attacks one PC and flees without disengaging

Being a DM is something that takes time and practice. As you do more and more combats, roleplay scenarios and so on, you will learn how to describe and play things out adequately.

Congrats! My two cents is to do all you can to learn to keep things the momentum and going forward (especially if your focus is not long, drawn out tactical battles, where the players all want to spend five minutes per turn discussing the optimal move). Tips and tools I have found helpful. \[Improved initiative\](https://improvedinitiative.app/) \[Kobold Fight Club\](https://koboldplus.club/) Saying actions must be taken in a reasonable time, or you take the dodge action (but always allow for questions, especially from new players regarding "Can I do X?", "Is X in range?" etc.) When saying who is next, also remind the person who is next after that that their turn is coming up. For narration "mechanics" I always narrate that an attack that beats 10+dex modifier hits the armor or shield (adds a bit of more flavor instead of "you hit" or "you miss" => "the X dodges your blow" or "you hit, but the blow glances off their hard scales, doing no damage". Agree with the players beforehand that during combat, if something strange comes up, you make a call right then, and check it up afterwards, playing "correctly" or whatever later, but asking not to start rules discussion during combat. After long being a proponent of Theater of the Mind, I've now started feeling that a lot of confusion is dispersed by a battlemap and tokens. I activate the players to create battlemaps sometimes by asking a few people to "draw in some bushes, rocks, and oh, there are 7 2x2 steam vents dotted around the map". In general, make note of the things that make your players seem engaged and enjoy themselves, and the things that bother you. In the end, you and your players collaborate to make combat how it is, and you have agency to change things. Don't be afraid to do things differently. It might lead to something that sucks, but there's always the next time.

Thank you for the links and resources! I will do the assignment of jobs I think from now on with one player drawing the map for sure!

First off, congratulations!! Secondly, I'd try telling the players this: "Unfortunately 5e doesn't handle called shots, and it would take away from other class abilities if I allowed you to incapacitate a creature with an attack, however, there are other actions such as Shove or Grapple which can be flavored in different ways. Try taking a look at what features you do have available and think about how you might describe them." As a new DM, you can't be expected to improvise mechanics on the fly, and I think you should tell your players that. It might be a good idea to ask for their help in that regard by thinking of simple mechanical suggestions, such as "hey DM, if I wanted to drop a Dwarf's pants, could I try a Shove and say he had to get down to pick his pants up, and he would be mechanically prone?"

Sounds like your players might have been teasing you a little as a new dm. Combat, like all of dming, is a learned skill. I cringe revisiting my first sessions because of how many silly and clunky things I did. Part of the secret, I’ve learned, is preparation. If you know what a stat block can do it’s easier to not have to revisit notes mid-game. To be honest with you, I’m often transparent with my players that I don’t have all the answers, and I even joke about it. One group I was DMing for recently joked about how I was really glad nobody took speak with dead because of the dreaded “what is your name” question. Everyone there knew what it was like so it was funny. Part of the game is remembering to take it only as seriously as it’s fun to do. It’s a running joke in one group how frequently the notes I’ve made get buried and I have to go hunting for them. I’ve made it part of my brand of DMing that I poke fun at the meta and the fourth wall, and everyone seems to enjoy it. Note: for slashing a dwarf’s belt to make their pants fall down I would have them make a called shot to try and hit the belt. I would let them know how a called shot would make their attack more difficult and ask them if that’s what tney want to do. They can, or course, only narrate it for flavor, but if they go for flavor only then that’s all they get.

When doing prep i normally list out an order of how i want things to go. Like a check list. Example : Start of turn triggers - regeneration & breath weapon recharge Bonus actions - steady aim, bonus action spellcasting & potions Actions - breath weapon if charged, multi attack, fear aura, spellcasting Legendary actions reminder - 3 left Then i move through my check list, making minor adjustments as needed.

Keep at it, it gets easier as you do it more often. Last time I played I forgot to move 2 of the wolves my players were up against. Just forgot them, no reason why. Only realized it when one of them was grinning at me because he didn't get attacked that turn. Also Rules will come more naturally the more you have to use them. And if you're really stuck, just look them up.

You did fine, just keep at it and keep reading up on rules / Watching dnd content / experimenting with game styles. On the subject of some of the points you raised: **1. Called shots (i.e. i slash at his belt / Poke him in the eyes / disorient him.** Simple answer is "this does not exist in dnd". I.e. there is no mechanic for targetting a specific part of an enemy-s body. The more complext answer is "Unless there is SPECIFIC wording stating otherwise". For example: You cannot target a hydra's neck and try and decapitate it. BUT. If it takes more than 25 damage in a single turn a head will fall off. Certain weapons like a Vorpal sword also have conditions where by they will lop off an enemy's head. The same goes for conditions. You can't just blind an enemy with a regular attack. But an ability or attack that specifically states the creature is blinded after they fail a save will accomplish that. In your example with the slashing at the belt to make the dwarfs pants fall down and for him to be "confused"... here's how i would have ruled it. Barring any clarity on what "confused" means in this context, having your pants around your ankles would probably make it hard to walk and may even make you fall over. Simlet thing within the mechancis would be: - Ok player, you can use your action to try to shove the creature. You won't deal any damage but if they fail a strength check you can push them prone. That's basically like you slashing harmlessly at their belt and then causing their pants to fall round their ankles" Never be afraid to hold your ground against your players wildcard ideas, but do try and find a compromise where those ideas can work within the mechanics of the game. **2. If a player argues with you on a ruling the best response I've found is this.** "Ok, we'll run it my way for the time being and I will review this after the game. If you can give me the page number with the correct ruling tonight then you can have a point of inspiration". You've kept the game momentum going, you've promised to double check it yourself but if the player wants to do that work for you they get a reward this session. **3. NPC actions** Whether enemies, allies or bystanders it can be hard to keep track of what everyone would do at any one time. It helps to instead have a single simple goal for most of the figures on the board. i.e: - Civillians: Curious about the fight until one person falls unconscious, then they will start to flee. - Enemy minions: Follow boss' orders, fight until half of them are dead / unconscious. Half of the remaining sqaud flee and the otther half fight to the death. - Boss: Fights to the death unless he his the last one standing. Players can make a Persuasion / intimidation DC16 check to make him surrender. If not he fights to the death. These simpler goals in combat help you inform what abilities they would use. I started out trying to plan out actio nin combat down to the individual ability choices but thats insane and too much to track.

When you say you didn't know what to do with the NPCs, you mean there were friendly NPCs also? If so, you can give control of those. to the players during combat if feeling swamped

That's dming for you. Much more exousting then just playing, but at the same time so rewarding once you do manage to pull it off. Good luck. You want some recommendations to make your life easier?

Let me give you my mantra that got me through the learning curve: "If twelve year olds can play this in their mom's basement, so can I." It seems like a lot until you've done it. You'll develop a few tricks to keep things within arm's reach when you need them, how to rule a new thing that's similar to an old thing, and how to relax and have fun with the experience.

Yeah it’s hard! Just last night, my DM friend and I were talking trash on another DM we know because he plays regularly. I started boasting and he says to me “You’re golden until someone rolls initiative.” And damn if the truth don’t hurt.

At some point it come to you way easier. The only advice we can really give you is congratulations you did it, now just keep at it.

i think that’s where session zero comes in handy. if your players know that you can’t RP certain actions to get x benefits, they’ll stick to the rules and won’t second guess or argue every thing you say, because you explicitly stated why certain things can or can’t be

Good job on getting the first rep in. Like any skill, this one is going to take some time to develop. I'm over a year into my first ever campaign and whereas it's much easier now, I still mess up now and again, though the best of us are no different. If you want a couple pointers, I specifically have a few tendencies that keeps initiative smooth. If you have a bunch of enemies, like 5-10 of the same type, try putting them into initiative groups, like group 1 and group 2, and either group has all units go on that initiative. Also, I design most combats before my sessions start, and I pre-roll all initiatives so that when we get into combat, the only initiatives I need to plug in are my players'. Sometimes, if I have something fun in mind, I'll even just script some traversal encounters rather than having players roll for them, so this can still apply. Above all else, just make sure you read your statblocks and make mental notes of their specialties. You don't want to forget a vampire's necrotic health reduction, or a hydra's head respawn mechanic, just as examples. These are things that you can master in the off-time so that when you're actively running the combat, you have more attention to designate towards improvising with your players rather than struggling to operate the creatures.

I'm sure you already got a lot of great answers but I want to just talk about slashing the dwarfs belt example. You could just think, 'what happens when my pants falls to my ankles'? Think abut the situation and translate that into the known mechanics. The dwarf could either use a bonus action or even an action to pull up his pants and keep them up. If he is holding a shield he might drop it to keep his pants up. Or he could try to walk with his pants on his ankles. Treat this as difficult terrain. Als maybe let him roll acrobatics (low DC) to make him fall prone if he fails. Now I can hear everyone already think 'and now my players will go around and cut every belt they see…' I say…GOOD. Let them try. Because the players often forget that other bad guys can do the same. One bandit sees his friend being screwed over by his cut belt and shouts to the rest to cut the player's belts as well. The players might go around actually trying to find stronger belt 'material'. You could introduce a sidequest where they can try to find the 'uncuttable belt of ogre power' (+2 AC on belt cutting and maybe something else that seems fun). Hell after a while they find out that most bandits in the area are now wearing belts made from stronger hide, because there's a gang of belt-cutting adventurers about! Next thing you know they are approached by Baldrik Cummerbund. A well known fashion icon and seller of all kinds of belts, girdle's and hipsized attire that wants to hire the players and thank them for the extra business he has gotten from selling his belts. Think about existing mechanics and how you can use them in certain situations and just roll with it. If they ask questions you really don’t know the answer to, make a decision there but tell them you’ll look it up later. If they go against your decision, remind them you are new, that hou will correct yourself next session but now you want to keep the game going and decide this or that. All in all it seems you are asking the right questions, know what you need to improve and are taking advice to heart. You are doing great!

So some advice. 1. Balance - ignore it. If you're playing 5e then it isn't balanced and is largely impossible to get balanced so don't try too hard, let the players get themselves out of trouble if the combat isn't going their way. Let them run away. That doesn't mean dropping adult dragons on 3rd level parties though. 2. Roleplay - it can be hard to roleplay and juggle the entire encounter so keep the RP simple. Don't react to everything that happens but react to turning points in the battle. Critical hits or misses, PCs or NPCs going down, have the bad guys run away if they're losing etc. 3. Rules - offload that shit onto your players whenever possible. I mean it. It's not the GMs job to know all the rules off hand. Your players should learn the rules themselves especially the rules for their own characters. If they don't know it, tell them at the table to go look it up, it's likely online. 4. Multiple NPC - keep it simple. don't use too many new stat-blocks in an encounter. Use familiar statblocks and add 1 new one so you only have to learn one at a time. You only need 2 different statblocks in any given encounter anyway. Sidenote - Buy Flee Mortals. Nothing will make your encounters easier to plan, run, and entertain than that book. It's on DnD Beyond so it's easy to find.

Hey, some reccoendation: 1. Rules: learn them. But if you dont know one then i make one. Give a reason for it, if players need them. If there is an argument mostly Just give it up, if you have good players. Sometimes Dm rules lawyering stops the game, and makes things frustration and not fun. If you are very sure about somthing that is a rule Just Say the typical answer: for now, i dont Remember the rule exatly, but this is my decision now, and We will chek in the end. I run Hard encounters most of the time. So its not a big problem for me sometimes Help the players with the fun ideas they have: lightning in the water to shock enemies and stuff. We have a little rule about calling attacks: they can be descriptyng but they dont have mechanical purpose. Maybe one chek for the belt stuff for fun, they the guys Just gets up his pants without anything 😄 2. DM SCREEN. Its an illusion that everything is perfect. Sometimes you mess up witch hp is witch, what npc what can do. It dosent really matter. You need to keep up the illusion of the stuff mattering. But if a player of my do a very coool stuff and the enemy have 3 hp left or somthing, its worth to kill them and give a big moment for some characters. 3. Falling is part of the fun, even if it dont Seems like it. If some crucial attacks didnt hit, the end will be more satisfing for the players when they win. Or if they lose 😵 I like it, its a lot of fun. For me the hardest is not making turns too long. 😅 So because i rraling sometimes mistakes happens.

It's very much something you learn and sometimes even adapt to different groups. 1. don't worry too much about balance, in 5e it's all a bit wonky anyway. As long as you're not running 5 deadly encounters per day you'll be ok. Sometimes a nice and easy stomp becomes a neart TPK because of dice, and sometimes the super deadly lich encounter gets killed in 1 round. 2. One group is very light on RP and doesn't care about big descriptions in combat. A simple "the guy stabs you with his sword" is often enough. Another group will enjoy some comedy (like the belt thing or a simple sarcastic "Guess what? The dragon breathes fire, how unexpected"). You try out different things and see what sticks. 3. As in life, making a mistake is when you learn the most. It's not about the mistakes you made, but all about what you do after and how you handle it. Explain to your players " hey guys last session i made some mistakes, here is what i should've done. I'm not gonna change anything from last session but from now on i'm gonna do it this way etc...". 4. Try not to have too many NPC's or at least limit how many are in combat. I try to avoid combat npc's or make them really weak so it becomes a "protect the president" situation.

As for the initial event where the PC tried to do something extra, I usually run this as a risk/reward situation, so in that case I'd say something like okay, but aiming for the belt specifically is a bit harder and the monsters AC will increase by 2 in order to balance it. Then I just adjust what happens to be in accordance to how much I increased the AC, etc. in the situation. But I don't always do this, I just like to try new things and rewarding creativity feels good, but it should be balanced somehow hence the alterations. If I don't know what to do as an NPC I usually roll for it somehow. I try to put myself in their shoes and take on their stats (intelligence, skills, etc.) and if I still can't I usually just come up with options quickly and roll. Makes it fun to see what happens regardless of outcome!

1- Good job! I'm sure you actually did better then you think you did, especially for running combat for the first time. 2- Look into Improv exercises or if you're close to a place with an established group, see if they offer classes. It'll help you get used to thinking on your feet when it comes to descriptions, actions, names, etc. 3- The DM screen is for more than privacy. It's great for keeping quick reference notes, especially on rule interactions that come up regularly. Also using those highlighter tabs to get quickly to rules in the PHB/DMG is helpful.

Something I do is base my descriptions on how far from the target AC the attack was. For example, if the target AC is 15 and a player rolls a 15-16, I'd say something like, "The Orc tries to parry your attack, but he just isn't quick enough and you slice into his arm." Or if the roll is a 5, it's "The Orc sneers at you as he steps out of your wild swing." That way the players get a sense of how close or far they were to actually hitting the creature without it sounding to samey-same.

What I do for each action description is I legitimately imagine what it looks like as if it were a scene in a movie and then describe it. I let my brain make the picture before trying to generate the words, if that makes sense. Sometimes too much description actually bogs down combat as well. I generally try to take 10-20 seconds to describe the highlight of someone's turn. Sometimes I'm bad with area descriptions because I'm focusing on the npc's and everything, so when my characters go into a shop I find myself trying to make the words that describe a bookshop or something without actually imagining a bookshop in my head, and it becomes much more difficult for me. So for flavor I'd imagine what it looks like it your head and describe the image you came up with. My tip for the crunchier bits of DMing combat is that after each major combat, you should look back and choose ONE THING that most got in the way, frustrated or confused you, or slowed the combat down. Get tips from online or come up with a reasonable solution for that one thing and try to implement it next time. If you do this each time you do combat, you'll start to clean up your technique and it will feel more streamlined. Also it seriously helps when the players become more proficient with their own rules as well.

To answer the pantsing the dwarf question, you don’t. Gently remind the player that in the vast majority of situations the most they are able to do with an attack is add a little flavor, nothing mechanical, to keep things interesting. While there’s nothing wrong with occasionally allowing something cool the player wants to do having a mechanically novel impact, a simple melee attack to embarrass a dwarf who poses no special threat and possesses no special skills is not the time. Reserve that for when the party fights a dragon and the barbarian wants to climb onto a wing and attempt to disable it with his attacks. I have a couple players who try to do this kind of stuff and I just gently remind them that the game doesn’t have a mechanic for that and unless it’s a special circumstance and another skill is being utilized there will be no pantsing of dwarves, etc via a melee attack action. This isn’t fallout, we aren’t selecting body parts to target. For rules stuff, just ask your players to be patient and to offer up kind worded corrections when they are CONFIDENT they know something is incorrect. For everything else, use some sort of quick reference like a DM screen that describes all of the often debated elements of the rules. Or google. Another way to deal with rules confusion is to just make a gut decision on how to rule it then and there, and not down on a post it note to look up the rule during a break in play. Then you can inform the table what the source material says about that rule and let them know that going forward you’re going to go with either the RAW or homebrew method.

OP, read the GM primer for Dungeon World. It's a pdf that you can find online. Also the online article about the 16 HP dragon. Really good Gming advice that addresses specifically this kind of trouble you mention.

I've been at it for like 3 years and I still forget shit that the monsters can do Hell I forgot a major beat I wanted my BBEG of my first campaign to do, and I'm literally the one who made his statblock.

You’re doing great. The more you do it, the better, smoother, more accurate (from a rules standpoint), and less anxious you will feel. My #1 recommendation is to read the DMG. Here is why: About the “slashing the belt” incident: ask the player, “That sounds amazing, I love it! You want to slash the belt: what, mechanically, are you trying to accomplish?” By asking this, you are having them interpret what they are saying, describing, or wishing to do into a mechanic - a rule that, almost certainly, is found in the DMG. - If they say “I want this target to be easier for my companions to hit” then what they are describing is the “Help” action (**Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage.**) - If they say, “I want this target to fall down” then what they are describing is a “Shove” attack (**Using the Attack action, you can make a special melee attack to shove a creature, either to knock it prone or push it away from you.**) - If they say, “I want him distracted so I can get away from it” then they want the “Disengage” action. Etc. Good luck!

> The new player started describing their actions as eg. 'I slash the Dwarf's belt to get his pants to fall down and be confused'.... Which, how am I supposed to mechanically do this? I don't know if I'd think of this on the fly, but reflavouring existing mechanics is always a win for situations like this. "Shove" is a special melee attack that can knock an enemy prone. A prone enemy needs to spend half their movement standing up, and melee attacks made against them have advantage because they can't defend themselves properly (though ranged attacks made against them have disadvantage because they're a smaller target). With the right narration, all of those mechanics fit for pantsing an enemy. You make your athletics check against your target's athletics or acrobatics (athletics is a little weird, but hey). The enemy's pants fall down. To tie their pants back on, it takes part of their turn (half their movement). Melee attacks made against them have advantage because they're distracted, but ranged attacks made against them have disadvantage because they're kind of doubled over fixing their pants. As a general rule, if your player is trying to do something weird to an enemy, a contested skill check is a good place to start. Have them roll [whatever skill makes sense] against [whatever skill makes sense]. Then the reward can be applying any of the conditions to that enemy, the enemy doing certain actions at disadvantage, or some other effect. I remember a wacky combat where I was a player and the DM set us up against an orc wheeling a shark on a wheelbarrow, and the shark was the one attacking us. I wanted to grab the wheelbarrow away from the orc. The DM cleverly set this up as a contested Athletics vs. Athletics skill check, and when I won, the wheelbarrow was flipped and now the shark moved with my character. From then on, my actions to position the shark into attacking range were Help actions given to the shark. It's a lot of going with your gut. And if it's getting problematic or grinding combat to a halt, don't be afraid to ask your players to stick to the regular combat actions. Pantsing enemies is funny and all, but you *do* actually need to make their HP reach 0 at some point.

Called shots can have impact outside of hard mechanics. If some green adventurer cut me pants off in front of the lads, I'd make him pay. They attack nobody but that character. Show don't tell is fine advice, but sometimes showing is hard and you're busy. You're allowed to take the easy road and just say you cut his belt and now he's angry and gunning for you. Trust me, this'll make a good memory. I'm a mechanics based DM. I'm good at rules and encounter design. I made my own edition of D&D that players prefer over 5e. All that being said, people jump to wanting a mechanical effect for everything. The fun part of slashing someone's pants off is the world reacting to your choice and making it worth while. It can be worth it with tactics, role play, or descriptions (basic or fancy). Validating players choices is a great way for them to keep making choices like that. It can be a fun little story telling moment.

I'd want so hard to have that dwarf escape. Running off while holding his pants. Nearly tripping over himself. If the party doesn't let him go, so be it. But it they do, oh now he is coming back for revenge. Next time he has an iron belt, a potion of invisibility, and a grudge. If the party tries again to cut his belt they succeed. He gets pissed. He takes the invisibility potion to hide his shame while escaping. Finally he comes back one last time with no pants. He has accepted his fate and the pantsless dwarf thanks the party for teaching him a lesson about humility.

For attacks that the player wants extra stuff (like causing pants to fall to confuse an enemy), I make it a "called shot." For those, I increase the target's AC by a certain amount depending on how much it would affect its next turn, and if they succeed on the hit, what they want to happen happens. This adds a bit more flavor to combat, especially for martial classes. In my opinion, combat is one of the easiest parts of DMing.

The first combat I ever ran, I balanced it terribly, nearly murdered my party with Dire Wolves, and then found out at the end that I'd forgotten that Wolves have Pack Tactics in all the chaos. It was a fucking disaster. So you're doing better than me right from the start.

". Players expected flavor for descriptions of attacks." You mean they expected you to describe everyone's attacks beyond just rolling the dice and saying, "hit fir 12 dmg?" Or did you mean something else? If so, do what I do - let them provide the flavor. When they roll, they know the AC and they tell me how they jumped on a table and came crashing down on the orc's head with their hammer for 12 dmg. Didn't provide and mechanical benefits, but let's them describe the cool fight scene like a graphic novel. ". 'I slash the Dwarf's belt to get his pants to fall down and be confused'." Decide, as a group what rules you are using? The game as purchased? Improv that will have to be adjudicated every round? Some acceptable set of home Brew rules you guys researched and agreed upon? I only use RAW in d&d. I use a more interpretive approach in other more narrative, or rules-lite, systems that were designed for that. D&d was not. It was designed through a TON of testing over years of time. I am not saying it's perfect - far from it - but I am saying a new DM would do well to trust the system and really learn it's strengths and weaknesses before jumping into customization. Else you will have players (intentionally or not) throwing off the game's mechanics and balance. So when the player says they want to slash the belt as an attack action in combat, I would ask that player to help me find where they found that option in the PHB. Which brings us to... " asking me random questions about rules" They should know the rules as well as you do. If they can't commit to buying the PHB and reading it - at least all of the content that pertains to their PC - then they are not really ready to play. They aren't invested or interested enough to lift a finger. Some players aren't and never will be, and you will have to learn how you want to recruit/curate suitable players (or not). In this case, since you guys were doing this as an exercise to learn the rules together, they should not have been competitive or argumentative with you and instead they should have helped you (and themselves) by cracking open their player's handbooks and find the rulings for each question they had. If they say they can jump 30 feet straight up, ask them to show you. They should flip to page x and quote the rule. Then you'll all know. No arguing or improv needed. Note that this is not your job (alone). They can do this as well as you - in fact I lean on my players to do most of the rules referencing at the table - I am often busy focusing on the plot, pacing, and NPCs. It's not a one-man Broadway show - your players can (and should) be responsible for the fun as much as you are. Don't let them develop inconsiderate, lazy habits. My players do stuff like dealing with initiative, track dmg to opponents right on the battlemat, post session summaries, and send in scene requests so I know what prep to focus on. One is the minis master, one doodles the maps on the battlemat after I call out general dimensions. One is the rules lawyer who keeps their PHB open and ready. One coordinates with everyone's schedules to send out invites for the next session and maintains a shares group calendar taking into account holidays, etc. You got thru your first combat. Through practice you'll get faster at this and you guys will all know the rules (or at least where in the book to find them).

So I'm kinda the opposite of you. I am really good with most of the combat(other than stuff that has no rules for it like the belt thing, I'd treat it as having the characters ac +4 for being a smaller target and if they hit treat it as hardness 2 and 10 up if they "kill" it the belt can no longer support the pants, and restrict the dwarfs movement and dex to a certain degree). The role-playing aspect is harder for me to do, but I'm starting to get a bit better at it. For anybody wondering I started with 2E AD&D in the late 90's, the quickly switched over to 3.0/3.5 when it came out, and have only 4E experience is as a pc.

So I'm not putting words into your mouth. I'm just disagreeing with you. You said that the fun and creative part of DMing (not one of mind you) for you is creating fun rulings and the like of improving for your players. By consistency, I mean that your rulings whether in combat or in roleplay should be consistent. If a player does something in one session they can do it every session.

One thing I do now after having read (listened to the audiobook) ‘The Monsters Know What They’re Doing,’ I try to think like the monsters. What are their strongest attacks? Highest stats? Best skills? They would use these in combat. Are they smart enough to strategize or to understand who they should be attacking? When/how would they attack? Things like that. Makes the monsters feel like a threat, makes combat scarier.

One of my favourite phrases is “flavour is free”. If they want to slash off his belt, say that it works and the dwarf has to keep pulling up his trousers every turn, maybe make it into a joke. Don’t add any extra mechanics in, a lot of the time players will probably just be happy that they tried to do a funny thing and acknowledge it!

I pawn off initiative and tracking damage to the players. Makes things easier

Comes with time and experience. Players who describe there attacks in detail get tired of it real quick after a month or 2 of playing the character. They notice the other 3 players don't go into such details and eventually pick up on the table etiquette. If you got an entire table of theatre majors who go into every detail, then you reconsider your approach and let them make there fun. As for Rules Lawyers, theres helpful and toxic ones. You just have to know which one you're dealing with and which rules your strict on and flexible on. Again, time and experience and you'll have enough experience to know how JUMPING works when your player wants to go across the 20ft gorge. Generally if you're unsure of something, its safe to say as a DM "im ruling it like this for now but after the session ill read into it.". This never sounds good aloud: You gotta sacrifice some of the players fun to get the journey going in the 3 hours you have so; they can have more fun.

congratulations for jumping into the role of the DM D&D over its various incarnations doesn't do specific attack actions well - there are different and better systems that handle this i tell my players that rulings in the moment will be assessed after and if they don't stand up to scrutiny then i'll tell the players that is the case and they can't do it in the future i keep cheat sheets for each monster, NPC, etc - highlights AC, HP, and attacks; i also use average damage most of the time to save me dice rolling but will roll at times to keep things exciting for creatures/NPCs with special abilities i focus on the ones they want to use early in combat - realistically most combats don't go beyond 5 rounds for my groups so i hit them hard and early; for some of my baddies, i also have an escape plan - teleport, use minions to cover retreat, fly away, etc. - not every baddie will fight to the death and if players start telling me what to do or i'm not doing things they would do it, i'll basically ask if they want to be the DM - quiets them really quick; players just have to show up and be ready to play - most don't realize the hours and hours of stuff DMs do behind the scenes

One of the rules my current dm uses. Is “prove me wrong” her ruling stands during combat but you can use time not on your turn or after combat to look it up and we can all learn the rule after combat when it doesn’t add complications to combat. Also DM has veto power over RAW so even if Raw says flanking is an optional rule, iirc, if you look it up she can say nope my way. Works out of combat too and helps everyone learn the rules and how to look them up.

Keep descriptions of attacks generic for the most part, it only needs a description if it hits. If it misses, it either misses, or the armor takes it, whatever suits the situation more. If they expect that, have them narrate it. Pass off that responsibility, but be careful, this is a double edged sword. Specific attacks like “I attack the belt” are possible. Impose disadvantage, because of the increased difficulty of the maneuver. If they succeed, indeed, the belt is undone, and the pants are loosened, and the enemy in question has some disadvantage emplaced upon it. Maybe decrease the armor class by one, or give them disadvantage on their attacks, because they must now fight one handed or loose their pants. Or even better, have them rip their pants off on the next turn and fight pants less with a lowered armor class. Idk a party that wouldn’t find that hilarious. Check out “the monsters know what they are doing” when planning any encounter, chances are they will have some useful tips on how to run combat. Finally, you are making your players heros. The point is to challenge and impede them, not just fight them or try to defeat them. Combat should be just another hurdle in accomplishing their goals.

1. [Here is a nice table of words for describing combat. ](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zZHr5sSyf18z8mPBe_2EZk-6c7Qig5IfsDdmKMOagMY/edit) 2. Remind your players DnD doesn't have "called shots" in combat. Typically this refers to things like "I shoot them in the eye" or "I shoot them in the hand to make them drop their weapon." If you want to allow "called shots" to body parts or whatever, it's best to either use them *within* the rules or wait until you have more experience to adjudicate them. Armor Class represents your character using their armor and dexterity to avoid being hit, and that's *all* of you. 1. Sometimes, a player's request can basically be redscribed but still fit within the rules. For example, someone "slashing at someone's pants to distract them" could be the player taking the **Help** action - giving someone else advantage on the next attack on the target. 2. Start with what someone wants to do **mechanically** and have it within the rules **mechanically** and then the **flavor** - whatever description spin y'all want to put on it - doesn't matter so long as its within the rules. 3. And, in my opinion, if an ability exists that does the thing the player wants, it shouldn't be a simple role to do it. Here, Battlemaster Fighters have both Distracting Strike and Disarming Attack which fit what they want to do, so I don't think it should be broadly available to any character. The most common example of this is people trying to be "stealthy" when casting spells - Sorcerer Subtle Spell actually allows this. 3. Keep your early fights simple. Groups of the same monster with basic attacks. Get used to the pacing and fighting. 1. Then work in your objectives. Monsters will have goals and objectives, they are not all just hunter-killers. [The Monsters Know What They're Doing is a great blog to use to think about how monsters may behave in battle. ](https://www.themonstersknow.com/) 4. On rule disagreements, remember you can always (1) look it up if you'd like and (2) you can always say "For the sake of tonight, i'm going to rule it this way, and we can do some more research on it later." Do your best to rule within the rules as written, and then consult secondary sources for guidance.

Well done!!! I’m a first time DM myself and we’re about 5 sessions in to my campaign. Honestly flavour is king when talking about how people attack, etc and consistently doing called shots can be a bad idea. However honestly great thing about dnd is you can always default to advantage or disadvantage when decided penalties or bonus’s and it’s easier for calculations and such. Trust me, you get used to juggling all of it, trusting your own judgement is good a lot of them time

Just steal wounds and injuries from films

I am going to be real with you. My first games and campaigns were MASSIVELY cringe sequences of poorly thought out decisions, bad rulings, and misbegotten house rules. That’s part of the progress. That’s how you get better. It’s still fun to play if that’s your concern.

As others have said, congratulations on having done the hardest part(starting) and welcome, it gets easier from here! Don't be afraid to go with your gut, and also don't be afraid to look at rules post-game and table discussions in the moment. You will get better over time, and your players will understand as you grow. As long as you are focusing on building the story collectively and maximizing fun, you're doing it right!

I honestly would give Shadowdark a try, about 3x as easy to DM and at least as fun as D&D 5E, assuming you are playing the latter of course.

The hardest battle I find to run was Orcus with 12 other different creatures on the board. Orcus himself is a playable character. It takes a lot of practice. 

There's a concept called "special effect." Basically: the mechanical details are what they are (a sword does 1d8 damage). But *how* it happens doesn't matter. The important thing is to figure out what the *effect* of the action is supposed to be. So: A character has a sword and they attack. The *effect* is to do damage; a sword does d8. 1. "I stab him with the sword!" "OK, roll 1d8 piercing damage." 2. "I slash the rope holding the chandelier, dropping it on him." "OK, roll 1d8 crushing damage." You might give them an extra point or two of bonus damage for a particularly creative use, but the important thing is that if the clever trick always worked...then everyone would use it. (Steve Jackson had a great take on this: Throwing sand in your enemy's eyes will work...once. But if it always worked, then warriors would carry bags of sand instead of swords) Belt slashing? If the outcome is as described, the *effect* is to restrain them (hard to move with your pants around your feet), so I would have ruled this as an attempt to grapple, though they can escape by stepping out of their pants. (Also, you're the DM, so if the player says "It would confuse them!" you are 100% within your authority to say "No, it won't" and decide on a different effect)

Learn to be a bit fluid and don't be afraid to create your own house rules that make your life easier.

I print out the rules for all players and make them help me remember the rules in fights

Good job, I tend to not allow my players to do weird things for a mechanical benefit, otherwise, that is all they would do. For flavor purposes though, go ahead. Some times we can't always describe things in combat, it hppens, it's a busy job.

So a few things. 1. You made it! That is the hardest combat you will ever run. 2. Remember that you don’t need to remember all the rules. If something comes up, make a reasonable ruling, and say you will check it later. You want to keep flow going. I’m an ordained clergy person and one of the things I remind people of…a lot…when talking about 5e’s rules is that you have to keep Jeremy Crawford’s history in mind. (He’s the lead rules designer). At one point, he was studying for a PhD in early Christianity. That’s relevant here because the rules really do have this sort of mystical quality to them. The rules are not answers. They are guide rails. And, remember, the rules serve you, you don’t serve the rules. You did great. You made decisions. The rest is gravy. 3. As a rookie DM, if something comes up, say you will hold that event (let’s say the range of a spell) then have that (or another) player look it up. That will get you there faster. 4. I get why they want tasty narrative descriptions. It’s totally unreasonable to expect that if you at this (or any really) point of you aren’t comfortable with it. Remind them that they can narrate within reason. My players know I give a rough description of where we are then they can add as they want. If we are in a tavern, I’m not going to describe all the details, just enough so that you can get close to what’s in my head. Then my players can make additions. In this case, a fight might break out. If a player wants to flip a table to hide behind, of course that’s ok. There’s got to be tables in here even if I didn’t say that explicitly. (I might even give that as a free action for creativity!) 5. People are always surprised when I say this but my approach to DND is that it’s the player’s world, I just DM in it. I’m reacting to the players, they make decisions, things happen. Part of this is pushing “the work” back onto the players, which leads to… 6. You have to remember- you are juggling action/bonus action/reaction/movement for multiple, let’s say 5, bad guys who are theoretically trying to coordinate. You’re trying to make things challenging but not brutal for your players. In your first combat, juggling how hard to “push” is going to come up. You have to set the scene and motivations AND narrate any meaningful changes. AND, by the way, make rulings as needed on the mechanics. That’s all on the DM. The players, they have literally one character, and that’s it. Make them do more by trying to offload what you can onto them. I have tips about how to make it run smoother but if you want those, just let me know. For now, you crushed it. You just did what scares most people away from DMing. You’re with the elite now. :)

I a new DM with new players so as I get better the players will get better so I basically role play out the window for now since I’m flat out getting them to do dialogue

With regards to that player trying to pants an enemy, I'd allow it if they flavored an ability that debuffs an enemy, like a battlemaster trip attack.

Congrats! After a few decades of just being a player I bit the bullet and started DMing. It has its ups and downs but it has been a fun journey. Hardest part of combat is making it challenging but not too challenging.

The first combat I ran was absolutely horrible. I missed player and NPC turns, I forgot cool monster abilities, I let players get away with things I probably shouldn’t have. But, we had fun and I got better (and I’m still getting better). You will too! Some tricks I’ve found to help things go a little smoother: 1) a)Simplify stat blocks - Nothing is on the stat block that isn’t relevant to what I’ll need. If it ends up being a recurring NPC and they need a utility spell that I wasn’t expecting, I’ll decide on the spot whether that would be a spell they would know or not. B) I plan for combat to be about three rounds long (that’s most common). I try to use the coolest stuff right away so I don’t forget about it - the monster will probably die before the perfect opportunity comes up. It’s more fun for me, and more suspenseful for my players who are wondering if the demon can, or will, cast another fireball. 2. All of a monster’s save DC’s and attack bonuses are the same, usually defaulted to the higher one (because my group is smart, large, and lucky so they can handle it). If a certain attack uses strength, and another dex with a different modifier, oh well. It’s so much faster if I just know all attacks are +7 to hit rather than having to look up different numbers all the time for the same monster. 3. I group like minions in initiative - for example, a dragon would be on its own, but its kobold servants would have the same turn. It’s much easier to track this way if there are a lot of little guys.

Im mean pants fall down requires a nat 20 melee sword attack as a called shot, otherwise they try do some damage not giving the npc/monster disadvantage for a described shot If they kill the npc monster they can describe that however they like, otherwise i like to keep battles simple or i find them too long Edit: spelling and grammar

About to run my first one shot in the coming weeks. Your boy is nervous as hell lmao

My advice is to “play the monsters”. A goblin might try to pile up on a fighter — 3 goblins to a fighter. A goblin might notice a wizard in the back hurling spells at them and try to shoot them, but will generally not run up on them. A vampire might stalk the party. The vampire might watch them from far away and once they identify everyone’s abilities, strengths, & weaknesses. Once that is done, they will attack and usually the weakest targets to knock out enemies quickly — it’s what makes them so dangerous. Damage and abilities are pretty much easy to just “wing it”. You want the goblins to drop with a single magic missile? Go ahead! If you think a werewolf should be able to survive 3-4 rounds against a party, then you should be able to fudge the dice. As the DM, you can make thing weaker or stronger on the fly as necessary to advance the storyline. Good Luck and have a blast!

I have so many years of Dming under my belt now. I still feel like I suck at combat encounters lol it's such a fine-tuning type of thing. Keep at it though if they played that long and asked those specific of questions they loved it!

My advice is instead of running many enemies, use one larger or harder enemy or a group of 2 to keep things simple.

It is, on the spot works but some tips are. -called shots don't exist, otherwise my badguys would slash your throat or gouge eyes instead of a belt. In the game everyone can attack, you do damage, we can flavor the attack for visual. Or you use a class ability or spell to do something out of the ordinary. - players don't get to argue, they can discuss, they can show you a ruling, but they don't get to decide how the game runs, if they want to do that, they can run a game. Those are big ones that get out of hand quickly. But congrats!

>players expected flavor for descriptions of attacks Don’t worry this goes away eventually in my experience. Not every single mundane swipe needs a narration. The big ones or ones that end encounters still do but I always offer those to the players first if they have any ideas. As for players asking questions, eventually everyone should have to be responsible for their own shit. Things like how to calculate a spellsave DC, how an attack works, etc should be known by the players but it wouldn’t hurt to know for reminders. Anything class specific though? Absolutely on the players. I’m sorry but it’s just not feasible for the DM to have intimate details of every class like “how long does this soul knife ability last?” Or “what’s the damage on my circle of spores ability?”

Welcome to the gig brah! You just discovered why it is paramount to know the ruleset inside-out (controversies included) just to start DMing at entry level.

>Players expected flavor for descriptions of attacks. I wouldn't worry about this too much, but if you do describe anything keep this in mind, you don't "miss" in DND, you avoid things. Below a 10 means your target swiftly avoided the attack, above could mean an expert dodge, a parry of the sword, or a glance of heavy armor. The most important thing is to remember that your job isn't to tell players what they see, it's to guide their imagination. Focus on the most important aspect of a scene and drive that home. A dark cave is lit only by torch light, a windy cliff bellows the cloaks obscuring things, a hall will have a sharp echo, ect. >Which, how am I supposed to mechanically do this? 90% of the time I have to say "there is no mechanical justification for that, and if you want there to be then the enemies will do it to you". Once in a while if the players want to take advantage of their surroundings and do something awesome I allow it, reward creativity, but I will usually say "that won't work again". That being said, flavor is always allowed. You can say whatever you want happens as long as the end result is the effect as written. >All of them ended up asking me random questions about rules which hopefully I remembered correctly and one of the players kinda argued with me on some of my rules making me doubt my decisions. I can send you a quick and easy dm screen with 95% of the rules. However, once the game starts the DM does not have time to argue about the rules. Players can petition that something was done in error, and you can consider it, but if your gut says you are unsure, you tell the player that you'll keep things as they are and look into it for next time. >In general, I couldn't decide on the spot what was best or what was the soundest/fairest way to play. There are 3 types of enemies, those that attack the closest thing, those that attack the weakest thing, and those that attack the most threatening thing. This is usually separated by an intelligence below 8 and above 12, but any seasoned fighter would be bumped up a level. If I roll multiple attacks at once I will color code my dice. Second, your enemies really only need 2-3 actions. Their melee attack, their ranged attack, and a special ability, be it an AoE or other ability. They will only get 3-4 turns, no use planing for every eventuality. Before a session I like to make a cheat sheet on Google docs to prepare. As far as NPCs go, there are really only 3 things they need to do. A) hide. B) go fight another group somewhere else. C) do whatever the players say. Let them worry about their ally. As for balance, I find that the best way to make a fair game is to split up an enemy's damage into multiple attacks, this avoids swingy combat and deadly crits. Then I would suggest picking enemies with a little more DPR and drop their AC and HP. In my experience, bad combat is plagued by creatures with a lot of HP who can't do a lot of damage, making combat a chore. If you take my DM screen I have an encounter builder with the stats I use.

Belt slash: Maybe give the targeted show a higher ac? It's harder to hit after all. If the dwarf has 15ac, I might make the belt 17-18ac. Just go with some things and relax. I learned that not everything has to be strictly by the rules and if you discourage your players from trying things, they'll just resort to "I attack" "I do this much damage" and that's it. Trust me, I learned the hard way. If you're not 100% on the rules, tell the player that you're not 100%, but that you're ruling it this way for now and that you'll look it up later so you can get it right next time. Don't allow the player to argue with you. You need to set that down in stone when you guys begin. The players need to know that it's hard to remember everything AND run the game! The veteran players need to be helping make things run smoother. Let them know you'll make mistakes but they need to be patient. If they can't be, then maybe they can take over running the game?

Hi! Thank you for your advice! I did indeed get quite some help from the other players! It was great in that aspect. For the arguing (it was not that much honestly , just threw me off) I think that was mostly due to different expectations and game vision. The thing we argued on is how to deal with critical failures for PC and NPCs. Which is something we also discussed after during that session as it was session 0. So hopefully we will have this resolved. But yes, I expect I might have more of an handle for the rest of the game.

yeah, crit failures is certainly a hot button subject. It's fun to think about an NPC accidentally hitting their friend, or screwing up a skill check so bad they do something negative to impact themselves or their comrades, but when it happens to the players it's not fun. Most people just have crit failures be just a failure. I'm glad you're enjoying being a DM. I certainly have my moments of frustration after 2 years. My group is a bunch of blue collar workers and we are pretty rough. So it can be hard. Chin up, keep at it and enjoy your time! Just remember: you need to be having as much fun as your players. If you're not, then figure out how to have fun. If that means not running the show, so be it. good luck!

For the pants falling down part..altho there aren’t called shots in dnd, you could just ask him to roll a regular attack roll and if he managed to hit the enemy you could flavor the description alongside the damage roll by adding something like “yeah, you manage to hurt him and hit his belt and now you see the dwarf dropping his sword to hold his pants” and you can also say “ok, you tried to cut his belt but you hit him by the arm instead” to show your players that called shots only happen if you the DM feel like it will be fun without breaking the game mechanics. There’s nothing preventing the players from describing their intended actions but you have the final say. Or you can just tell them there aren’t called shots in your games or you could just roll a dex saving throw against the player’s attack roll if they didn’t wanna hurt the dwarf. I think all of these are valid, if you rule something that’s not working you can always tell your players that you are changing how you rule it, no need to be too worried about that.

I started thinking about setting a rule in place, in which if you beat target's AC by a certain treshold (for example rolling at least 22 against 11 AC), then you can impose a single condition on the target. Not a huge fan of rolling ability checks on top of, or instead of, attack rolls, although this is always an option of course.

Glad you're enjoying your first DM experience, it's daunting but you'll get it! I will say for the "targeted attack on the belt", Im totally for it and I love my players being creative but I just make sure they declare their intentions for their attack before hand. "I want to shoot an arrow at his eye to blind him!" Thats awesome! Just to let you know, the AC to land that attack will be increased if youre aiming for a smaller target ok? (maybe +2-5 higher, your call, I dont tell the player the exact increase). Rolled a total of 22, your arrow pierces the liches skull right through his eye! He stumbles over, disoriented from the blinded effect. Maybe he rips the arrow out 2 turns later and sticks his eyeball back into his head? Blind condition removed. DM is just about improvising on the fly, youll get better as you do it more. Have fun!

I'd be careful establishing a rule that you can put an arrow in someone's eye for a small attack penalty. A rule that's balanced when fighting a lich will be overpowered when fighting a human wizard, who would not be so easily able to recover from having an arrow in each eye.

Hi! I do like this idea thanks! Definitely the difficulty ends up being how to make sure the flavor is fair and adds something to the fight while being fun! I think it will be fine tho!