First off, the title isn't talking about trap music, but I want everyone to walk along that road with me to begin. The picture of a tall, lithe squid monster wearing gold chains and a do-rag, standing in front of a low-rider car and drinking cough syrup. You're welcome, because that's been in my head all week.
This is another semi-random discussion on design minutiae. I hope nobody's upset I haven't done a big overview in a while; these are way easier to write and hopefully, when the overview comes, you'll remember this little thing we discussed. Our semi-permanent elephant in the room is the RPG books themselves. On one hand I always say you should go with the book and its rules first and foremost. On the other hand...I make a habit out of pointing out everything that's stupid in them. The reason I try to drum it in your head that you ought to use the book and its rules is to combat people acting like armchair game developers. It creates a double standard that will, at BEST, trash your game's flow and make players second-guess themselves. At worst, it creates bickering and promotes the GM acting like the Lord High Master of Games. People need to be able to make decisions based on the rules of the game as they know them.
But.
You have to be able to identify problems with published source. Depending on the game you're playing (COUGH. 3.X D&D. COUGH.) there could even be a lot of them. Today we're talking specifically about monsters, since it's the absolute easiest thing for a GM to handle: Either don't use the monster or remove the offending ability. We'll be looking at the mind flayer so we can discuss how a published monster can end up being a big problem and what you need to look for. My discussion on "bottom line" philosophy is very relevant, so feel free to refresh yourself.
Before we begin. Some problems crop up due to interactions between two monsters, and that's also an easy problem to avoid. I need everyone to remember that they're running a pen and paper game, and not playing Magic: The Gathering. You should be creating a robust and interesting encounter, not looking for "combos". I've even seen these in Dragon Magazine and it made me want to vomit. A red dragon healing iron golem minions with his breath. Howlers reducing will saves to make a succubus's charm land easier. The list goes on. The short answer? Don't do this. It's okay for an encounter to have some interaction between the monsters. It's even okay for an encounter to have complex tactics to it. It's not okay for you to think in terms of making an "unbeatable" encounter or trying to "win". This isn't MTG.
A mind flayer is a CR 8 monster, so I'm going to whip up some quick stats for what a CR 8 party is likely to have. I'm not going class by class, since plenty of these stats are going to be interchangeable. 33k gold for level 8 means we can assume anyone in our party has a +2 cloak of Resistance, +2 armor and a +2 weapon.
Fighter has a will save of +4(+2 cloak, 2 base) and a grapple check of +14(8AB, 6STR). His AC is 21(8 full plate, 1 dex, 2 enhancement).
Wizard has a will save of +8(6 base) and a grapple check of +4. We'll be nice and give him a 16 dex and Bracers of Armor 4 for a total AC of 17.
Cleric has a will save of +14(6 base, 2 cloak, 22 wis for a +6) and a grapple check of +10. We'll assume he's got a STR of 18 and I'll go into his buffs later if I need to. We'll say his AC is 21 too.
On the surface the players sure do have a numbers advantage. I'll go over the relevant things a mind flayer does below.
Mind Blast: This is a DC 17 will save vs 3d4 rounds of stun. It's also a 60 foot cone. This seems mitigated by the low save DC: Cleric has a 10% chance to fail, Wizard has a 40% chance to fail, and fighter has a 60% chance to fail.
Improved Grab and Extract: the mind flayer gets 4 tentacle attacks at +8. They do minor damage and initiate a grapple check to attach a tentacle. I'm fairly sure this means he gets four improved grab procced grapple checks since the grapple is a free action. If, at any point, he's got all four tentacles attached, your brain is sucked out and you're instantly killed. If he begins a round with even one tentacle on, he can attach the others with a single grapple check. He gets +2 for every tentacle attached. Again this may seem mitigated by numbers: His grapple check ain't great, and only the wizard is likely to fail.
His spell-like abilities are detect thoughts, charm monster, levitate, plane shift, and suggestion. They're all at will.
But here's what's going to happen. He's going to open with mind blast. Right there, it's a good chance that any 'fighter' types are smoked and the wizards might be too. It's in his best interests to spam it until there's two or fewer people still up, and then try to lay charm monster on one of the remaining ones. He'll order the charmed person to protect him and start eating a stunned person's brain. In 3d4 rounds if everything goes well he's promised to kill at least one person. If not, he can plane shift away, possibly taking a victim with him. So that guy's probably going to die too.
Let's unpack the problems with that. If you've been watchin' da show you already know a 3d4 round stun is completely fucking ridiculous at any save DC and no self respecting designer should have let that slide. His preferred tactics leave everyone uninvolved with the fight if it goes well and look completely pointless if they fail. The average roll on 3d4 is going to be ABOUT 7 rounds, and even with a snappy, ultra-fast group it means anyone who fails might as well go order the pizza or something. In addition, he's not only got an instant kill attack, but it's one that synergizes with his abilities: A stunned monster is easier to grapple, and a charmed monster might even relent to it. After all that, the party's not even very likely to feel satisfied with the monster's death: Soon as the fight goes south, you can bet on a plane shift.
Before I go into what this means, I want to address the tactics the average mind flayer is going to be using. I feel these tactics are obvious and guided simply by his abilities, but if you disagree with me, I urge you to read page 188 of the 3.5 Monster Manual.
So why is the mind flayer a "trap" monster? First off, ask yourself if this fight is going to be enjoyable for the whole group. Notice that a lot of character types are going to be EITHER vulnerable to his mind blast OR his grapple. What's likely to happen is one or more people are uninvolved entirely by virtue of stun, one is uninvolved or worse from charm, and one guy(cleric or monk) is racing to beat the mind flayer's face in before he kills someone. BTW, he's got three rounds to deal about 44 damage at level 8. Any longer and someone is guaranteed to die. Adding minions or more mind flayers amplifies all of these problems.
When choosing challenges, always start with if it's going to be fun, interesting, or compelling to deal with. Most monsters you see, you're going to be able to say yes. Look for overly synergistic abilities, long crowd control, or instant kill attacks. See them as red flags regardless of any mitigating factor. An easily made save DC, low AC, low HP or time limits do not necessarily mitigate the impact of these abilities. Look for anything that will cause the players to feel cheated or uninvolved. I find that nobody likes being charmed or dominated, and using these as "punishment" for building a very strong character is asinine. Keep an eye on abilities that disable some or all of the party's cool tricks like anti-magic zone. Even golem immunities can feel like this sometimes, but immunities are often easier to swallow. Also try to keep in mind that you might need to give the party some kind of way to prepare for the fight if it's going to feel good. A lot of undead or outsiders are like this after CR 8 or so. Also look for any ability that doesn't involve the victim's defenses or actions: Be wary of effects with no save or simple, flat percentage chances.
Really though, all you need to do most of the time is put yourself in the player's shoes. It can be deceptively hard to do, so try to remind yourself how you felt the last time you were chain-stunned, charmed, died to a single D20 roll, or whatever else you need. Don't miss the forest for the trees: Your bottom line is FUN. Challenge is very important, but it's more important that the players feel involved and engaged.
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