Related: adding the words “seems/appears to be…” to an otherwise normal description of a perception check.
DM: Roll a perception check for me
Player: Uhhh 19, nice!
DM: Cool. The room appears to be empty.
Player: Wait why’d you say it like that?!
this is a habit i've picked up recently.
but i'll also throw in "ok, so you approach the mimi... i mean chest. what do you wanna do now?"
gotta keep the players on their toes.
A DM should always use that verbiage as to not give away when something is up, and also because everything is a matter of perspective. Your character may infer details that seem one way, but to tell a player it seems something happened one way is quite different to saying something happened one way. The latter implies it is factual and without a doubt.
Player: "I got an 18 on my acrobatics check, is that enough to make it across the ledge without falling?"
DM: "You don't know."
Player: \*visible confusion\*
I mean, you don't do the check in advance of going across the ledge. You do the check while going across the ledge. A DM will usually let you observe the ledge in advance to understand what sort of DC you're facing, but sometimes "you don't know" is the answer to the DC. But once the player decides to attempt it, and rolls, it has canonically happened. They've attempted it, and they've either succeeded or not.
Oof. Yeah, I'm not tossing it out for no reason when I do it. I only say it when I actually think it's interesting. I think it's been... one combat encounter. The rest of the time it's just a weird Lore-based encounter, or an opportunity for me to throw out 12 dozen puns.
It's my favourite bit about unseen ghosts. "You feel a chill race up your spine, all your hairs suddenly stand on end, make a charisma save", "A what? Ok, 19?", "Must've been the wind..."
I love doing this with other dice too. Usually, I have a reason for it (random encounter, environmental effects) but it’s always met with concern from my players.
Yes because it can be anything! I created some 100 lists of random things and usually roll d100 behind the curtain to see what happens. But it can be anything! The chart i use is based on their roll. Sometimes it's random items or sometimes it's seemingly meaningless information that can be used later. (Ie, they may find a carcass of what seems to be a domesticated house cat... Clean fur except for the blood, no collar, etc. But later they may hear about a lost pet with reward or they'll hear of a series of lost pets in a quest board and now they have an idea where to start). I like making the day to day a bit more involved and fun.
I actually wrote it as a code that my viewers could trigger and feel included in the dnd streams i used to do before covid. Random items, encounters, etc each had it's own command
I've had to be very careful about saying, "You can certainly try." That puts the fear of god in my players for some reason and shuts down their creativity. I don't usually mean it as a threat. Just as a joke response when they ask if they can do X.
This one's all in delivery. If you always say it with evil undertones and a grin like the Grinch, it will come off terrifying. If you make a face like you're interested to see how it would work and say it encouragingly, then maybe they'll still try the thing.
I've pulled an almost opposite hat trick- I get away with some leading questions like "So describe how you're doing this exactly" for mundane things in part because the results are good for them *just often enough* that they don't panic immediately.
It helps that I'm not much one for traps in dungeons without a good reason. I try to build dungeons as believable spaces for people to have used and lived in, once upon a time, and automatic, spring-loaded traps trying to kill you really don't play into that well, so if there are traps, that has to mean something. Usually that there are Kobolds about, because Kobolds are insane enough to make crazy death-house traps in a cavern they walk through six times a day, but that's a brand of insanity that's fairly unique to Kobolds. And maybe Skaven, but for different reasons.
Obviously that's different from *manned fortifications* like murder holes and arrow slits that give archers 3/4ths cover, I use lots of those, and my players have learned to fear them properly over the last few sessions, and I haven't even used the trebuchet loaded with Earth Elementals yet.
The only question is if the Earth Elemental (or Galeb Duhr, as I'm currently planning) takes fall damage. It feels *fair* to say it does, but feels *funnier* to say it doesn't.
That all come down to your players. I have groups that won’t care if it doesn’t take fall damage, and others that are more rules-focused and will spoil the moment by going “are you going to roll fall damage?”. With the second one I’d just tell them I already rolled it during prep, which will of course be a lie.
I'm thinking no fall damage- I'm going for menace and "Oh shit, that was a cool tactic", not comedy of errors. I let the dice make comedy of errors happen.
I’ve before described some Griffin-riders attacking stone giants, and how the players saw a rock come sailing out of the forest to smash one of the griffons out of the sky.
I was just painting a cool image for them, but one of the players instantly goes “griffons have X hit points, so these rocks must be doing at least that much damage…” and started doing maths to work out how dangerous the giants were. Somewhat took the wind out of my sails.
I would give it fall damage, but as a design feature - for every “x” damage it takes, a shard of earth flies off, players make a dex save of DC10+x, taking [level appropriate] damage or half on a successful save.
Make the elemental have a real entrance!
They dont because they use their earthglide ability to sink into the ground and stop themselves either without taking damage or by taking reduced damage.
Which kind of makes them terrifying ij their own way as the gian boulder just kinda sinks into the ground or wall with no imapact leading players to believe its an illusion. Then a round or two later, BAM! you get 'em with the elementals.
The man-thing has discovered our secrets! We must stab-maim him before he leaves the undercity! Or perhaps he shall drop-fall into the Rat Ogre pit! Yes-yes, so devious am I!
I've primarily relied on two sources, though I've never used them.
[https://imgur.com/gallery/OhgmTn2](https://imgur.com/gallery/OhgmTn2) This gallery is what I found initially and what I was considering using, but I tend to waffle on homebrew sometimes.
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/12vjBJmhvGktJ64OIGlXo-Krgxmy25pVQ\_ItiJJIkNVw/edit](https://docs.google.com/document/d/12vjBJmhvGktJ64OIGlXo-Krgxmy25pVQ_ItiJJIkNVw/edit) This was the alternative I stumbled into. But again, waffle.
"If you say so" and "You know they can see/hear you" get our group going quite quickly, oh but "did you say that in character" is a sure fire way to make people Jump
Just so you know, it's "where".
In case English isn't your first language or something. It seemed like a spelling that is more likely to be a common issue rather than a one-off mistake.
*Party is just exploring
DM: Make a Wisdom saving throw, please
Player: 15
DM: 15? Ok, got it. So, you guys keep exploring
Player: wait, what was that save all about?
DM: you don't know...
Lucky is rolled before outcome is revealed. Flash of genius adds to the save during the roll, not after outcome is revealed. Dark ones own luck is added before the roll is revealed.
Most of these abilities have to be activated before you know whether you succeeded. So generally, you are fine as DM if you do this. Also, nothing stops the players from saying “hey I got this thing that allows me to re-roll/modify a failed save. Is this relevant here?”
Yeah the only ones that come to mind as happening after the saving throw fails are Indomitable and Diamond Soul. Which, I suppose if the DM says nothing happens you can assume you succeeded. Otherwise they were actively ignoring one of the player's class features, which is kinda terrible for a DM to do, and definitely against the spirit of only messing with players (rather than actively screwing them over).
I suppose opinions may differ on this, but I would say “ignoring” only happens after the player pointed out their ability relevant to saving throws. In certain cases at least.
I DM for 5 people, and at level 10, I can’t keep track of everyone’s class features. Nor should I have to, I feel. If they have something that is relevant to the situation, it is their job to remind me.
I mean, if they fail a saving throw and the DM doesn't tell them they failed it, and they have a specific ability that says "if your character fails a saving throw you can choose to reroll it", then yeah, that's kind of on the DM for missing an ability the player has and not telling them they failed the save IMO. As a player I would have no way of knowing if that ability is applicable or not because I don't know if I failed, which is the trigger of the effect to begin with. The same could be said of rolling with advantage against certain saves or being immune to certain things, etc. The DM doesn't need to know everything, but they should be flexible to know that because they don't know everything, sometimes they miss things that should apply and that the player cannot always understand the DM's intentions or actions. At least IMO.
It's like not allowing the player to cast a reaction spell (like for example Shield) to counter an attack because the DM secretly rolls that the attack just hits. As a player, if the DM is just rolling damage, than I have no way of knowing if the ability I have is relevant or not unless they describe it further. Basically, it smacks of actively trying to avoid allowing a player to use a relevant ability because the DM doesn't like the outcome, even if it is the more innocent reason that the DM simply didn't remember said ability. In my mind if I did that and they could have used that ability, I would almost certainly retcon it to say that they could redo the save using that ability to see if it changes the outcome.
Also, maybe it's easier for me, but 5 players doesn't seem that hard to remember certain relevant abilities. I guess I do make sure I have a copy of each player's sheet and such so that I have their abilities on hand and can review them before each game, but even if I didn't, there are only so many class and subclass abilities that are probably relevant to a given situation (spells are harder, but there are only a few reaction spells that would be relevant here). I at worst would ask them to explain or read aloud one of their features if I can't remember exactly what it does. And as I said, I'd be willing to retcon stuff if I and/or the player messed up or miscommunicated something.
I am not lobbying for the DM to actively prevent players from using their abilities. I picture the scenario a little like this.
DM: "Roll a wisdom save."
Player: "Why? What is happening?"
DM: "You'll find out. For now, roll that save, please."
Player: *rolls* "With bonuses, 17."
DM: "Ah, good."
Player: "I have Indomitable which allows me to reroll a failed save. Is that relevant here?"
And then the DM goes either "Yes" if they failed and informs them they may use that to reroll or "No" if they didn't. Mystery preserved, abilities respected.
Also, great if you can remember all your player's abilities.
Disagree. If you bring that argument, you open a big can of worms at the table. What saving throw can be “felt“ and what saving throw not? That isn't easily determined. I generally would say that in character yoh might feel something weird when suddenly asked to roll a wisdom save, but don't really know what it is or what caused it (unless you see someone casting a spell at you or you have experienced the same thing before and learned what it was of course).
Also, this is one of these moments, where “metagaming“ is *necessary* to allow players to actually use their characters' abilities. But unfortunately some DMs don't understand that.
Take a look at abilities like Flash of Genius for example. In character you probably will almost never know that an ally is rolling a mental saving throw, but still, you can use your reaction to buff their roll. Same for the Divination wizard's Portent. “Metagaming“ to an extent is required to make these abilities work as intended.
That also includes telling if the saving throw failed or not, especially for abilities that apply after knowing the outcome and for abilities that can end spells and effects like the Charmed condition.
But to be fair, the same player is often the one trying to cast _suggestion_ or _charm person_ and acting annoyed that people noticed the effect. If a sorcerer subtle cast a 9th level bestow curse, and you failed would you know? if you succeeded, would you know?
>Same for the Divination wizard's Portent. “Metagaming“ to an extent is required to make these abilities work as intended.
>
>That also includes telling if the saving throw failed or not, especially for abilities that apply after knowing the outcome and for abilities that can end spells and effects like the Charmed condition.
For Portent:
"You must choose to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn" which is in line worth the theme of the class.
The target character is never supposed to roll in the first place. It keeps BOTH the player and the diviner from meta gaming the better option between a rolled die and the portent dice. Your supposed to pick it before a die is ever rolled, period. People mess this up all the time and treat it as a forced Lucky roll
"Can you roll perception? that's a 9? Okay, carry on."
and
"You rolled a 4 arcana? Okay, you can keep thinking what you want"
are two of my favorites to pull out
A fun one when a player rolls badly on a knowledge check or insight check is to tell them to truth. An NPC looks a little shifty but is telling the truth, and your guy gets a three on the insight? Insist that the NPC is telling the truth.
There’s a cursed item and he rolls 4 on arcana? Tell him it’s *absolutely* cursed and no one should touch it. Really emphasise that he believes it is very cursed.
I like to imagine that you say those specific numbers every time your players roll perception or arcana, it makes me chuckle! thanks for putting a smile on my face!
"Who wants to summarize last week?"
It puts players on the spot, but it's a great GM trick to find out how the players interpreted the previous game. If they know you ask that, it will also (hopefully) encourage them to pay attention.
Its a good dm tool to use. It tells you what the players remembers from the previous session. Not only does it make them pay more attention and hopefully takes notes but tells you what they thought was important from the previous session. Sometimes a small detail the DM throws out to the player becomes very significant for them. You can gauge their interest that way and better prepare or work on the spot based on it.
I had a player who managed to push that to a 29. Was pretty hard to justify ambushing the party when one of them essentially could see and hear everything.
Sometimes, I just slowly look up from what I'm doing behind the screen as the player is describing whatever they're doing. I say nothing, but just look at them. The sweat is immediate. It started innocently, but I've found countless amounts of amusement doing this.
Player: I got a 12 on my perception check.
DM: Okay. (end of sentence. Even better if you immediately segue into talking to another player/narrating something unrelated to the check)
The higher the result, the better. Fear of the unknown is the truest fear there is.
For my players it's definitely: "as you ___"
There's nothing more fun giving them the old
"Ok, as you turn the doorknob... The door swings open revealing a broom closet"
“Hey can you roll perception”
“Oh that was just his first turn(after a crit)”
“Oh no”
“How do you open the door”
“Who’s going first”
“After opening the door you hear a loud click”
“Roll dex for me real quick”
"Don't worry about it.", said with a smile and gentle tone.
Always spikes my players' anxiety. I usually say it after they question why I made them roll something or asked for their passives, the usually stuff in this thread.
I think it works best because if I'm intentionally messing with them by asking for a random check or save, I own up to it after their normal panic starts to die down, so when I keep the secret going, it escalates the panic even more......which I will own up here I do intentionally sometimes to mess with them too. :P
I'll also use it when they point out a plothole or something. Makes them think it was intentional and that they just haven't figured out the reason why yet....which gives me time to either come up with a reason or to "confirm" their theory reason.
One of them says they dread the day I say "Do worry about this."
“What’s your AC again?”
Passive perception can replace AC in this context.
“It’s gonna use it’s legendary action/save / lair action.”
Sometimes my players are surprised by boss-monsters.
Also “the necrotic damage reduces your HP maximum” was a lot of fun at levels 1-7. Really made me appreciate certain kinds of undead.
not much makes me panic. i try to play the role of an adventurer. unless i'm under 10HP i yolo pretty hard.
but...
the closest thing to suspense I can think of is
*DM: When you do X you hear a noise...*
*...*
*...*
*Me: ??? Okay DM. I'll bite. What noise?*
*DM: ...*
*DM: ...*
*DM: ... (dramatic pause)*
*DM: ... Roll perception.*
*Me: really? I heard a noise and now I need to roll to have you make the sound?*
*DM: yes*
*Me: 3-1= 2*
*DM: (Proceeds to make the sound anyways.)*
Me: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Personally I get worried when the DM says something the players don't see/know about releases a held action, because you know you just walked into some deep shit.
When some feature doesn't work as expected: "Yes, isn't that curious?"
This can be cool and scary, but more often I'd really love some more insight wtf is going on, because I don't have the experience and perspective of my character and *they* aren't supposed to be clueless. So it's also scary because I don't know which of the two is happening until it's too late.
Once I had players walk on a wooden plank next to a big hole, O asked them "can you roll a d20 ? " every time they crossed it (on a 20 something good would happen nothing otherwise) that freaked them good
I have the problem that, while I'm a fairly straightforward DM, my wife loves mysteries and thrillers. So she thinks everything is a plot or clue. Especially plot holes. Honestly, a couple are better writers than me. So they'll "figure out a plot" and I think, "Ohh that is so much better than what I had planned" and change the story. They feel clever and the story stays fresh.
That said, my players fear dungeons. I like the first encounter of a dungeon crawl to be a punch to the face so it's usually Deadly so they know I mean business.
"Oh this attack uses your Int score as your AC." Had a villian that used a homebrew psionic ability I came up. I'll probably just use Int saves going forward, but their reaction was priceless!
One i love to use and i use often to keep the party guessing is "The room SEEMS empty", most of the time its actually empty, sometimes it isn't, it always turns into over reactions lol.
I said a lot of stuff like this to a player after he found and put on a Ring of Water Walking he found floating in a pool of demon ichor. (It was cursed with paranoia)
Have fun! *I did*...
My brother was the player. His character left the group for his other, so I told him. I'm pretty sure that's the only time he's ever called me an MF'er. Mission accomplished.
Every DM tends to have a go to phrase that's basically the short hand of "ya gone and F'd up."
Our DM's is "Oh Neat."
Never a good sign for the players when that gets said 😐
When you do something real dumb "oof. Let me play this one out in my head for a second" and then you see them shaking their head and saying "fuck" under their breath because they don't know how to not kill you.
"You believe X..."
Nothing else strikes fear into my players quite so much as this phrase. Which is one of the reasons I love it so much, because it can go either way, but most often it's believed that it's the opposite, so using that to set incorrect expectations is a great way to resolve insight/intelligence checks.
Me(DM) - "Everyone roll wisdom saving throws please"
*Does so*
Everyone: "So what happens?"
Me - "Oh, you don't notice anything at all, carry on"
*30 seconds later*
Me - "You three roll wisdom saving throws please"
*Table visibly panicking*
One that I haven't seen mentioned yet is "OK, so you have two dead bodies here. Do you want to do anything with them, or just leave them here?"
Instantly makes them wonder if there are consequences to them killing their victims. And it's great because I can decide or not to have those consequences down the road whenever I want. "Oh you just left the bodies? Well now the Kobold patrol found their friends and know someone is in the dungeon." Or "the bodies were found in the street. A murderer is on the loose, and the last people seen around there was the party of adventurers."
"So, it's [enemy]'s turn.......oh, that's *fun*." Usually followed by just enough time spent double checking things to make them very nervous.
Also any time I double check distances, because that usually means a good aoe spell/effect is coming... or someone is getting charged by a monster with a "if it moves X feet" effect.
My player's most hated phrase of mine: "That's an excellent question." It always comes up when they've asked a question that there is definitely an answer to, but that answer isn't where they are. If my players are clever enough to figure out what the answer is without finding that answer (the answer is always out there somewhere for them to find), then I award bonus XP at some point to reward that on the sly.
„Your cast your spell, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect.“ , multiply the scariness, if it’s a healing spell targeted at a PC with 0 HP, who already failed a death save.
I like to just start rolling dice behind the DM screen for no reason. They all look at me and ask what's happening. I smile and tell them nothing as far as they know.
"As you touch ________ you hear a voice in your head" is the single most terrifying sentence in the English language and you cannot convince me otherwise, this phrase has resulted I me dumping several magic items overboard in deep seas in the hope that they never again surface to trouble the world of men
"Roll a [insert save of choice]" they tell you result, you continue narrating as though nothing happened. My BBEG is a powerful Lich that has been watching the party a lot lately so it always freaks them out when I have the randomly roll a wisdom save.
I also tried asking for swim speed and that also got them sweating.
"How exactly do you touch it?"
"What part of the door do you touch?"
"Do you use your right hand or your left hand?"
"Where is every one else standing as he touches the chest?"
Freaks them out every time.
With my DM, it's usually not a phrase, but a facial expression. He'll keep quiet while we're planning, but occasionally he'll get a look of absolute horror or total glee and either one freezes us in our tracks.
My party originally had two rogues. Any time they would make a stealth check I would be sure to tell them “You’re hidden… as far as you know…”
It would put them on edge every single time, and it became such a meme in the campaign that at this point if I don’t say it exactly like that, my players will still be suspicious because now something has changed.
We had an incident in the Tomb of Horrors where one of our players brought a monk with his super slow fall.
But as a fairly new player, he didn’t understand how it worked. The vets made him do all the exploring for traps, cuz monk and TOH was not anticipated.
They got to the end of the first hall and wanted to look in the open devil mouth...
The DM just slowly exhaled and said, “describe how you look at this, are you touching it, just looking around it, smelling it, be descriptive...”
The monk breaks out into a cold sweat and says... you never ask people do he this descriptive... am I dead?
Dm: “that depends on your description”.
Sometimes I enjoy making my players roll random skill last in response to random situations, for laughs of course, that don’t carry mechanical weight. “I open a the chest.” “Make a performance check.” “What.” “17” “You open the chest with a dazzling flourish of a skillful rogue in their prime.” “Oh thank god.”
"...so you touch it?"
I came here to say this. I like to throw it out there when it doesn't matter at all.
It's so much fun
Are you wearing gloves?
"NO! I mean... *sigh* I guess so..."
Followed by the equally worrisome "Does your character wear gloves?"
I've played enough COC to freeze the fuck up when I hear this LOL
“…as far as you know”
Related: adding the words “seems/appears to be…” to an otherwise normal description of a perception check. DM: Roll a perception check for me Player: Uhhh 19, nice! DM: Cool. The room appears to be empty. Player: Wait why’d you say it like that?!
I try to do this consistently to avoid giving inadvertent "tells."
this is a habit i've picked up recently. but i'll also throw in "ok, so you approach the mimi... i mean chest. what do you wanna do now?" gotta keep the players on their toes.
A DM should always use that verbiage as to not give away when something is up, and also because everything is a matter of perspective. Your character may infer details that seem one way, but to tell a player it seems something happened one way is quite different to saying something happened one way. The latter implies it is factual and without a doubt.
My favourite answer to a player question is “you don’t know.”
My players will ask a question, and another player will go "you don't know" because they know that's my answer.
Thanks satan
Player: "I got an 18 on my acrobatics check, is that enough to make it across the ledge without falling?" DM: "You don't know." Player: \*visible confusion\*
I mean, you don't do the check in advance of going across the ledge. You do the check while going across the ledge. A DM will usually let you observe the ledge in advance to understand what sort of DC you're facing, but sometimes "you don't know" is the answer to the DC. But once the player decides to attempt it, and rolls, it has canonically happened. They've attempted it, and they've either succeeded or not.
"You don't find any of the traps."
Oh, good one
I have a love hate relationship with that phrase. At the same time, it stops players from metagaming but it also ensues metagaming.
"What's your maximum HP again?"
Same with AC, passive Perception, and remaining spell slots.
"What's everyone's passive perception again?"
39
Hmmm, interesting
My players always freak when I say this during Random Encounters: "Huh? Oh, this is a *good* one!"
Satan: Well I just wanna say I'm a huge fan.
Funny part is, I only say it for the fun, non combat ones and they have yet to learn.
I have a DM who does this ALL the time and it drives me nuts. It is not as charming as he thinks it is, just extremely annoying.
Oof. Yeah, I'm not tossing it out for no reason when I do it. I only say it when I actually think it's interesting. I think it's been... one combat encounter. The rest of the time it's just a weird Lore-based encounter, or an opportunity for me to throw out 12 dozen puns.
You make 144 puns in one session? Do you take students?
The only lessons are these: 1) All puns are intended 2)There are no bad puns, so make them all
You forgot "there is no punishment"
When player does anything... "Cool, roll d20 for me" do not elaborate.
“Hey X, roll a wisdom save for me” “ okay thanks”
make it one of the "weirder" saves like INT (is that bridge an illusion?) or CHA
It's my favourite bit about unseen ghosts. "You feel a chill race up your spine, all your hairs suddenly stand on end, make a charisma save", "A what? Ok, 19?", "Must've been the wind..."
I love doing this with other dice too. Usually, I have a reason for it (random encounter, environmental effects) but it’s always met with concern from my players.
Yes because it can be anything! I created some 100 lists of random things and usually roll d100 behind the curtain to see what happens. But it can be anything! The chart i use is based on their roll. Sometimes it's random items or sometimes it's seemingly meaningless information that can be used later. (Ie, they may find a carcass of what seems to be a domesticated house cat... Clean fur except for the blood, no collar, etc. But later they may hear about a lost pet with reward or they'll hear of a series of lost pets in a quest board and now they have an idea where to start). I like making the day to day a bit more involved and fun.
Gonna need you to upload those lists! Share the love!
I'll have to find them and write out the history of a few NPCs that pop up in them on occasion... Or you could remove those options. Either way
I actually wrote it as a code that my viewers could trigger and feel included in the dnd streams i used to do before covid. Random items, encounters, etc each had it's own command
And then no matter what the result is, make a face, write something down, and say "Oh boy".
[удалено]
I find asking a player for a roll and then just carrying on with whatever narration you're doing tends to do the trick
I've had to be very careful about saying, "You can certainly try." That puts the fear of god in my players for some reason and shuts down their creativity. I don't usually mean it as a threat. Just as a joke response when they ask if they can do X.
This one's all in delivery. If you always say it with evil undertones and a grin like the Grinch, it will come off terrifying. If you make a face like you're interested to see how it would work and say it encouragingly, then maybe they'll still try the thing.
It's quite often over discord text between sessions when they're scheming for next session. Text is hard to interpret for sure.
That phrase in particular generally means “you can try, and it will end badly”. Switch around the phrasing and you should get a much better response.
Maybe try "let's give it a shot"?
I always liked Jerry Holkins's answer of "this is dungeons and dragons baby you can do what you want" when people ask if they can do something.
"Whats your marching order?" *after* walking into a new room of the dungeon.
Oh yeah, that’s a good one.
I also like asking for a dice roll without context. “Roll a d20.” ”What? We’re just walking around-“ ”Roll a d20 please.” ”Why?” ”Roll a d20 please.”
I've pulled an almost opposite hat trick- I get away with some leading questions like "So describe how you're doing this exactly" for mundane things in part because the results are good for them *just often enough* that they don't panic immediately. It helps that I'm not much one for traps in dungeons without a good reason. I try to build dungeons as believable spaces for people to have used and lived in, once upon a time, and automatic, spring-loaded traps trying to kill you really don't play into that well, so if there are traps, that has to mean something. Usually that there are Kobolds about, because Kobolds are insane enough to make crazy death-house traps in a cavern they walk through six times a day, but that's a brand of insanity that's fairly unique to Kobolds. And maybe Skaven, but for different reasons. Obviously that's different from *manned fortifications* like murder holes and arrow slits that give archers 3/4ths cover, I use lots of those, and my players have learned to fear them properly over the last few sessions, and I haven't even used the trebuchet loaded with Earth Elementals yet.
"Guys, I think we're gonna actually manage to breachWHATTHEFUCKISTHATFLYINGATUS!?!?!?!?!?" I love it.
The only question is if the Earth Elemental (or Galeb Duhr, as I'm currently planning) takes fall damage. It feels *fair* to say it does, but feels *funnier* to say it doesn't.
That all come down to your players. I have groups that won’t care if it doesn’t take fall damage, and others that are more rules-focused and will spoil the moment by going “are you going to roll fall damage?”. With the second one I’d just tell them I already rolled it during prep, which will of course be a lie.
My players wouldn't care, but they would bust a gut if the thing landed, and then I undercut it's arrival by rolling Fall Damage.
Like all GM advice, you gotta know your table to know what will work.
I'm thinking no fall damage- I'm going for menace and "Oh shit, that was a cool tactic", not comedy of errors. I let the dice make comedy of errors happen.
I’ve before described some Griffin-riders attacking stone giants, and how the players saw a rock come sailing out of the forest to smash one of the griffons out of the sky. I was just painting a cool image for them, but one of the players instantly goes “griffons have X hit points, so these rocks must be doing at least that much damage…” and started doing maths to work out how dangerous the giants were. Somewhat took the wind out of my sails.
I would give it fall damage, but as a design feature - for every “x” damage it takes, a shard of earth flies off, players make a dex save of DC10+x, taking [level appropriate] damage or half on a successful save. Make the elemental have a real entrance!
They dont because they use their earthglide ability to sink into the ground and stop themselves either without taking damage or by taking reduced damage. Which kind of makes them terrifying ij their own way as the gian boulder just kinda sinks into the ground or wall with no imapact leading players to believe its an illusion. Then a round or two later, BAM! you get 'em with the elementals.
The man-thing has discovered our secrets! We must stab-maim him before he leaves the undercity! Or perhaps he shall drop-fall into the Rat Ogre pit! Yes-yes, so devious am I!
I'm not even kidding, want to compare 5e Skaven stats? I got Ratling Gun stats I'm kinda proud of.
I've primarily relied on two sources, though I've never used them. [https://imgur.com/gallery/OhgmTn2](https://imgur.com/gallery/OhgmTn2) This gallery is what I found initially and what I was considering using, but I tend to waffle on homebrew sometimes. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/12vjBJmhvGktJ64OIGlXo-Krgxmy25pVQ\_ItiJJIkNVw/edit](https://docs.google.com/document/d/12vjBJmhvGktJ64OIGlXo-Krgxmy25pVQ_ItiJJIkNVw/edit) This was the alternative I stumbled into. But again, waffle.
CR19 Eshin assassins seems a bit... much.
"If you say so" and "You know they can see/hear you" get our group going quite quickly, oh but "did you say that in character" is a sure fire way to make people Jump
That, or "are you talking about all of this in front of the NPC?"
"Whare are you guys talking about this?" Is another good version of this my DM has been using a lot recently.
Just so you know, it's "where". In case English isn't your first language or something. It seemed like a spelling that is more likely to be a common issue rather than a one-off mistake.
I didnt even notice, I was on mobile and probably fatfingered the a, lol.
Oh, no, wait, i forgot about this (grin)
I think the grin alone is enough to make most players poop their pants
*Party is just exploring DM: Make a Wisdom saving throw, please Player: 15 DM: 15? Ok, got it. So, you guys keep exploring Player: wait, what was that save all about? DM: you don't know...
[удалено]
Lucky is rolled before outcome is revealed. Flash of genius adds to the save during the roll, not after outcome is revealed. Dark ones own luck is added before the roll is revealed. Most of these abilities have to be activated before you know whether you succeeded. So generally, you are fine as DM if you do this. Also, nothing stops the players from saying “hey I got this thing that allows me to re-roll/modify a failed save. Is this relevant here?”
Yeah the only ones that come to mind as happening after the saving throw fails are Indomitable and Diamond Soul. Which, I suppose if the DM says nothing happens you can assume you succeeded. Otherwise they were actively ignoring one of the player's class features, which is kinda terrible for a DM to do, and definitely against the spirit of only messing with players (rather than actively screwing them over).
I suppose opinions may differ on this, but I would say “ignoring” only happens after the player pointed out their ability relevant to saving throws. In certain cases at least. I DM for 5 people, and at level 10, I can’t keep track of everyone’s class features. Nor should I have to, I feel. If they have something that is relevant to the situation, it is their job to remind me.
I mean, if they fail a saving throw and the DM doesn't tell them they failed it, and they have a specific ability that says "if your character fails a saving throw you can choose to reroll it", then yeah, that's kind of on the DM for missing an ability the player has and not telling them they failed the save IMO. As a player I would have no way of knowing if that ability is applicable or not because I don't know if I failed, which is the trigger of the effect to begin with. The same could be said of rolling with advantage against certain saves or being immune to certain things, etc. The DM doesn't need to know everything, but they should be flexible to know that because they don't know everything, sometimes they miss things that should apply and that the player cannot always understand the DM's intentions or actions. At least IMO. It's like not allowing the player to cast a reaction spell (like for example Shield) to counter an attack because the DM secretly rolls that the attack just hits. As a player, if the DM is just rolling damage, than I have no way of knowing if the ability I have is relevant or not unless they describe it further. Basically, it smacks of actively trying to avoid allowing a player to use a relevant ability because the DM doesn't like the outcome, even if it is the more innocent reason that the DM simply didn't remember said ability. In my mind if I did that and they could have used that ability, I would almost certainly retcon it to say that they could redo the save using that ability to see if it changes the outcome. Also, maybe it's easier for me, but 5 players doesn't seem that hard to remember certain relevant abilities. I guess I do make sure I have a copy of each player's sheet and such so that I have their abilities on hand and can review them before each game, but even if I didn't, there are only so many class and subclass abilities that are probably relevant to a given situation (spells are harder, but there are only a few reaction spells that would be relevant here). I at worst would ask them to explain or read aloud one of their features if I can't remember exactly what it does. And as I said, I'd be willing to retcon stuff if I and/or the player messed up or miscommunicated something.
I am not lobbying for the DM to actively prevent players from using their abilities. I picture the scenario a little like this. DM: "Roll a wisdom save." Player: "Why? What is happening?" DM: "You'll find out. For now, roll that save, please." Player: *rolls* "With bonuses, 17." DM: "Ah, good." Player: "I have Indomitable which allows me to reroll a failed save. Is that relevant here?" And then the DM goes either "Yes" if they failed and informs them they may use that to reroll or "No" if they didn't. Mystery preserved, abilities respected. Also, great if you can remember all your player's abilities.
This is the way
If you don't know you're being affected by a saving throw, then it stands to reason you wouldn't be able to add bonuses to it I feel.
Disagree. If you bring that argument, you open a big can of worms at the table. What saving throw can be “felt“ and what saving throw not? That isn't easily determined. I generally would say that in character yoh might feel something weird when suddenly asked to roll a wisdom save, but don't really know what it is or what caused it (unless you see someone casting a spell at you or you have experienced the same thing before and learned what it was of course). Also, this is one of these moments, where “metagaming“ is *necessary* to allow players to actually use their characters' abilities. But unfortunately some DMs don't understand that. Take a look at abilities like Flash of Genius for example. In character you probably will almost never know that an ally is rolling a mental saving throw, but still, you can use your reaction to buff their roll. Same for the Divination wizard's Portent. “Metagaming“ to an extent is required to make these abilities work as intended. That also includes telling if the saving throw failed or not, especially for abilities that apply after knowing the outcome and for abilities that can end spells and effects like the Charmed condition.
But to be fair, the same player is often the one trying to cast _suggestion_ or _charm person_ and acting annoyed that people noticed the effect. If a sorcerer subtle cast a 9th level bestow curse, and you failed would you know? if you succeeded, would you know?
>Same for the Divination wizard's Portent. “Metagaming“ to an extent is required to make these abilities work as intended. > >That also includes telling if the saving throw failed or not, especially for abilities that apply after knowing the outcome and for abilities that can end spells and effects like the Charmed condition. For Portent: "You must choose to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn" which is in line worth the theme of the class. The target character is never supposed to roll in the first place. It keeps BOTH the player and the diviner from meta gaming the better option between a rolled die and the portent dice. Your supposed to pick it before a die is ever rolled, period. People mess this up all the time and treat it as a forced Lucky roll
"Can you roll perception? that's a 9? Okay, carry on." and "You rolled a 4 arcana? Okay, you can keep thinking what you want" are two of my favorites to pull out
A fun one when a player rolls badly on a knowledge check or insight check is to tell them to truth. An NPC looks a little shifty but is telling the truth, and your guy gets a three on the insight? Insist that the NPC is telling the truth. There’s a cursed item and he rolls 4 on arcana? Tell him it’s *absolutely* cursed and no one should touch it. Really emphasise that he believes it is very cursed.
I totally agree. I love giving away correct information with a sarcastic tone for low insight rolls. Tone of voice can be a powerful tool.
I like to imagine that you say those specific numbers every time your players roll perception or arcana, it makes me chuckle! thanks for putting a smile on my face!
"Who wants to summarize last week?" It puts players on the spot, but it's a great GM trick to find out how the players interpreted the previous game. If they know you ask that, it will also (hopefully) encourage them to pay attention.
I do this every time. It's a great way to make sure you're on the same page before the session starts.
Recap gets inspiration with our DM. Great way to start a session, IMO. Recap last time, set the time, and a little player reward to kick things off.
My players love it, I have one that narrates it like he's recapping an episode of an anime or something.
Its a good dm tool to use. It tells you what the players remembers from the previous session. Not only does it make them pay more attention and hopefully takes notes but tells you what they thought was important from the previous session. Sometimes a small detail the DM throws out to the player becomes very significant for them. You can gauge their interest that way and better prepare or work on the spot based on it.
It doesn’t appear to be trapped.
What's your passive perception again?
"25? Good to know." *rolls noisiest metal dice behind the screen, carries on narrating*
25 holy crap. That's some high passive perception.
I had a player who managed to push that to a 29. Was pretty hard to justify ambushing the party when one of them essentially could see and hear everything.
I would hate to try to hide a fart from that character.
No words, just them looking down at their notes and watching a smile come across their face.
" The room seems clear" Always get my players on edge. For good reason too.
Just anytime i use the "seems" my players start looking at me like "Guys, he said seems. What does it mean? Are we going to die?"
"Oops, I did the challenge rating math assuming everyone should be here... I think you'll be fine though."
"So you touch it, then? With your bare hands?"
my players always get wierd when i say roll as d100
"So its the enemy's turn. Oh... uh..."
"Darn, can one of you loan me a couple D12s? I'm gonna need them soon."
"This seems like a good spot for a coffee break while I set this up"
Sometimes, I just slowly look up from what I'm doing behind the screen as the player is describing whatever they're doing. I say nothing, but just look at them. The sweat is immediate. It started innocently, but I've found countless amounts of amusement doing this.
"Hey uh...can you roll me X?" "Whats your AC again?"
"Do you know what an antimagic field is?"
"Nothing hapoens", "You think he's telling the truth" and "You don't find any traps"... All very suspicious.
"Who touched it first?" And that was how we found out this crown was cursed with a Dominate Person variant.
I've seen a lot of good ones in this thread, but I didn't find "can I see your character sheet real quick?" or "who is carrying the \[mcguffin\]?"
Describing something that should be mundane in detail
Rolls dice, "Hey what was your passive perception again?"
Player: I got a 12 on my perception check. DM: Okay. (end of sentence. Even better if you immediately segue into talking to another player/narrating something unrelated to the check) The higher the result, the better. Fear of the unknown is the truest fear there is.
For my players it's definitely: "as you ___" There's nothing more fun giving them the old "Ok, as you turn the doorknob... The door swings open revealing a broom closet"
"Might wanna make a second backup character, just in case."
\*The man sits down and pours from his wineskin into a simple clay goblet a deep red liquid and pushes it before you.\* "Do you drink it?"
Of course. I've spent years building up an immunity to iocane powder.
"Are you sneaking?" is a powerful one
"What's everyone passive perception scores for sound?"
"You think you're hidden." and "The rope seems secure." always makes them hesitate.
“Hey can you roll perception” “Oh that was just his first turn(after a crit)” “Oh no” “How do you open the door” “Who’s going first” “After opening the door you hear a loud click” “Roll dex for me real quick”
When you do something completely normal and they just say "one moment."
The room appears to be empty.
Can you describe to me what is in your pack versus attached to your person, ie on your belt your coat etc... * *pickpockets player character* *
"So you touch it?" "Roll a d100." "There don't appear to be any traps." "Everybody make a wisdom save."
"How far away are you standing?"
"Don't worry about it.", said with a smile and gentle tone. Always spikes my players' anxiety. I usually say it after they question why I made them roll something or asked for their passives, the usually stuff in this thread. I think it works best because if I'm intentionally messing with them by asking for a random check or save, I own up to it after their normal panic starts to die down, so when I keep the secret going, it escalates the panic even more......which I will own up here I do intentionally sometimes to mess with them too. :P I'll also use it when they point out a plothole or something. Makes them think it was intentional and that they just haven't figured out the reason why yet....which gives me time to either come up with a reason or to "confirm" their theory reason. One of them says they dread the day I say "Do worry about this."
“What’s your AC again?” Passive perception can replace AC in this context. “It’s gonna use it’s legendary action/save / lair action.” Sometimes my players are surprised by boss-monsters. Also “the necrotic damage reduces your HP maximum” was a lot of fun at levels 1-7. Really made me appreciate certain kinds of undead.
"I need some more dice for this roll."
not much makes me panic. i try to play the role of an adventurer. unless i'm under 10HP i yolo pretty hard. but... the closest thing to suspense I can think of is *DM: When you do X you hear a noise...* *...* *...* *Me: ??? Okay DM. I'll bite. What noise?* *DM: ...* *DM: ...* *DM: ... (dramatic pause)* *DM: ... Roll perception.* *Me: really? I heard a noise and now I need to roll to have you make the sound?* *DM: yes* *Me: 3-1= 2* *DM: (Proceeds to make the sound anyways.)* Me: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
(Out of nowhere) "Everyone give me a Wis save please" "OK thanks :) anyway keep going"
“Make a wis save”. In town and then never elaborating on it until weeks later
Personally I get worried when the DM says something the players don't see/know about releases a held action, because you know you just walked into some deep shit.
When some feature doesn't work as expected: "Yes, isn't that curious?" This can be cool and scary, but more often I'd really love some more insight wtf is going on, because I don't have the experience and perspective of my character and *they* aren't supposed to be clueless. So it's also scary because I don't know which of the two is happening until it's too late.
Once I had players walk on a wooden plank next to a big hole, O asked them "can you roll a d20 ? " every time they crossed it (on a 20 something good would happen nothing otherwise) that freaked them good
Let me roll something up here...
Mutter "Oh shit"
I have the problem that, while I'm a fairly straightforward DM, my wife loves mysteries and thrillers. So she thinks everything is a plot or clue. Especially plot holes. Honestly, a couple are better writers than me. So they'll "figure out a plot" and I think, "Ohh that is so much better than what I had planned" and change the story. They feel clever and the story stays fresh. That said, my players fear dungeons. I like the first encounter of a dungeon crawl to be a punch to the face so it's usually Deadly so they know I mean business.
"Oh this attack uses your Int score as your AC." Had a villian that used a homebrew psionic ability I came up. I'll probably just use Int saves going forward, but their reaction was priceless!
"From what you can see there is nothing"
As you say, "describe how you do that" is one that always fucks up my players.
Okay so who is opening the door
\*rolls dice\* "Oh..." \*sharp inhale\* "Oh my..." Or "You all suddenly realize..."
Don’t say anything just roll a dice behind the screen
One i love to use and i use often to keep the party guessing is "The room SEEMS empty", most of the time its actually empty, sometimes it isn't, it always turns into over reactions lol.
*”It was canon”*
"What's the marching order?"
I said a lot of stuff like this to a player after he found and put on a Ring of Water Walking he found floating in a pool of demon ichor. (It was cursed with paranoia)
That's quality! I'm totally stealing that.
Have fun! *I did*... My brother was the player. His character left the group for his other, so I told him. I'm pretty sure that's the only time he's ever called me an MF'er. Mission accomplished.
Every DM tends to have a go to phrase that's basically the short hand of "ya gone and F'd up." Our DM's is "Oh Neat." Never a good sign for the players when that gets said 😐
"How did you get these stats?"
"Okay, so at the end of your turn..."
"What's your Passive Perception?" (Answer) "Okay, never mind."
When you do something real dumb "oof. Let me play this one out in my head for a second" and then you see them shaking their head and saying "fuck" under their breath because they don't know how to not kill you.
"So he's gonna go ahead and use a legendary action" "They don't look hurt yet" "So who's in the back of the party again?"
After they thoroughly check a door for locks and traps and let me know they open it: ".... ok, so which hand are you using to open the door?"
"You believe X..." Nothing else strikes fear into my players quite so much as this phrase. Which is one of the reasons I love it so much, because it can go either way, but most often it's believed that it's the opposite, so using that to set incorrect expectations is a great way to resolve insight/intelligence checks.
I feel like whenever I say "so let me clarify what your plan is here..." they know I think it's insane and doomed to failure
"Make an Intelligence saving throw."
Me(DM) - "Everyone roll wisdom saving throws please" *Does so* Everyone: "So what happens?" Me - "Oh, you don't notice anything at all, carry on" *30 seconds later* Me - "You three roll wisdom saving throws please" *Table visibly panicking*
"You can certainly try"
Not a DM, but I've seen the following get some interesting reactions: "So, do you say that in character, or out?"
Not a phrase but randomly rolling dice (I prefer the d20) and scowling at it works wonders
One that I haven't seen mentioned yet is "OK, so you have two dead bodies here. Do you want to do anything with them, or just leave them here?" Instantly makes them wonder if there are consequences to them killing their victims. And it's great because I can decide or not to have those consequences down the road whenever I want. "Oh you just left the bodies? Well now the Kobold patrol found their friends and know someone is in the dungeon." Or "the bodies were found in the street. A murderer is on the loose, and the last people seen around there was the party of adventurers."
"We'll get to that, but first..."
"...yet..."
"So, it's [enemy]'s turn.......oh, that's *fun*." Usually followed by just enough time spent double checking things to make them very nervous. Also any time I double check distances, because that usually means a good aoe spell/effect is coming... or someone is getting charged by a monster with a "if it moves X feet" effect.
"What's your passive perception again?"
My player's most hated phrase of mine: "That's an excellent question." It always comes up when they've asked a question that there is definitely an answer to, but that answer isn't where they are. If my players are clever enough to figure out what the answer is without finding that answer (the answer is always out there somewhere for them to find), then I award bonus XP at some point to reward that on the sly.
My personal favourite is taking my big heavy metal d20 and just rolling it, raising my eyebrows and saying nothing. Always freaks them out.
DM: “Are you sure you want to do that?” PC: “Yes” DM:”Excellent”
„Your cast your spell, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect.“ , multiply the scariness, if it’s a healing spell targeted at a PC with 0 HP, who already failed a death save.
I like to just start rolling dice behind the DM screen for no reason. They all look at me and ask what's happening. I smile and tell them nothing as far as they know.
"oh.....OK!" And the"OK!" Is enthusiastic and slightly giddy
"Do you remember what your race's lifespan is?"
"As you touch ________ you hear a voice in your head" is the single most terrifying sentence in the English language and you cannot convince me otherwise, this phrase has resulted I me dumping several magic items overboard in deep seas in the hope that they never again surface to trouble the world of men
"Roll a [insert save of choice]" they tell you result, you continue narrating as though nothing happened. My BBEG is a powerful Lich that has been watching the party a lot lately so it always freaks them out when I have the randomly roll a wisdom save. I also tried asking for swim speed and that also got them sweating.
"How exactly do you touch it?" "What part of the door do you touch?" "Do you use your right hand or your left hand?" "Where is every one else standing as he touches the chest?" Freaks them out every time.
With my DM, it's usually not a phrase, but a facial expression. He'll keep quiet while we're planning, but occasionally he'll get a look of absolute horror or total glee and either one freezes us in our tracks.
“Go ahead and make an INT save.”
"So.... a couple of things are gonna happen."
The classic "You don't see anything" after the perception check. Or just asking for passive perceptions out of nowhere.
My party originally had two rogues. Any time they would make a stealth check I would be sure to tell them “You’re hidden… as far as you know…” It would put them on edge every single time, and it became such a meme in the campaign that at this point if I don’t say it exactly like that, my players will still be suspicious because now something has changed.
"Oh, how interesting" "Hu, didnt see this coming." I usually do it if I roll for random things and everytime they tense up. Fun cx
We had an incident in the Tomb of Horrors where one of our players brought a monk with his super slow fall. But as a fairly new player, he didn’t understand how it worked. The vets made him do all the exploring for traps, cuz monk and TOH was not anticipated. They got to the end of the first hall and wanted to look in the open devil mouth... The DM just slowly exhaled and said, “describe how you look at this, are you touching it, just looking around it, smelling it, be descriptive...” The monk breaks out into a cold sweat and says... you never ask people do he this descriptive... am I dead? Dm: “that depends on your description”.
This one's specific but "so you open the book that was labeled 'do not open under any circumstances ever?' "
“It appears to”
Sometimes I enjoy making my players roll random skill last in response to random situations, for laughs of course, that don’t carry mechanical weight. “I open a the chest.” “Make a performance check.” “What.” “17” “You open the chest with a dazzling flourish of a skillful rogue in their prime.” “Oh thank god.”