7 Questions Dungeon Masters Ask and Our ‘Wisest’ Answers

How do you handle a TPK? How do you get players to do their homework? What are some good D&D 5E monster combos? From Facebook to Twitter to the 3WiseDMs.com website, these are the top Dungeon Master questions listeners have asked the wise guys at 3WD. We answer them all and more in this week’s episode. If your question isn’t here, send it to us on any of those platforms or [email protected], and we’ll do our best to answer it in an upcoming episode!4:00 DM Question 1: What do you do with a TPK?9:00 “Battle map psychosis” and TPCs (Total Party Captures)17:00 Encouraging PCs to retreat25:00 Adventuring in the afterlife27:00 DM Question 2: How do you get a player to do their homework?34:00 Love for players who pay attention and take notes! 41:00 Don’t lose sleep tracking gold46:00 DM Question 3: What are some good monster combos?58:00 Use your whole battle map, but beware too much distance in combat61:00 DM Question 4: DMing lines-of-site vs. line-of-effect for different types of spells and effects67:00 Ruling on the viability of player actions and ideas73:00 DM Question 5: How do you handle knowledge roles and metagame knowledge the player has?81:00 DM Question 6: Do you allow skill substitution during skill checks? (i.e. Can you use strength instead of charisma to make an intimidation check?)89:00 DM Question 7: How do you handle parties that are a combination of newbies and more experienced players?93:00 The players need to be invested in each other’s success, and what to do when they’re not97:00 Final thoughts