Hobby Quest

A small tavern fire can reach the liquor shelf, fill the room with smoke, and push the whole fight outside. On this episode of Hobby Quest, Cody walks the table through seven ways to make a D&D map part of the combat, including choke points, elevation, cover, and hazards that grow, then tells DMs to pick about two per fight so the table doesn't lose track of what's happening.

Recorded live at Hobby Quest in Elk Grove, the panel adds its own tricks, like dropping opportunity attacks for unnamed monsters and giving a dragon bonus action disengage so it can reposition and breathe fire. Cody also makes the case for secondary objectives that pull a player out of the Eldritch Blast routine, and the table shows why Lego and Dollar Tree toys can do the same job as painted 3D prints.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Hobby Quest
• 0:38 Why Maps Make Combat Better
• 1:32 Creating Choke Points
• 3:59 Using Elevation
• 6:05 Adding Cover, or Taking It Away
• 8:27 Hazards That Spread
• 10:35 Secondary Objectives and Story Mechanics
• 14:17 Bringing NPCs Into the Fight
• 16:40 Keeping Combat Moving
• 17:31 Fixing Opportunity Attacks
• 20:19 Lego, Tiny Ducks, and Dollar Store Monsters

Key takeaways

• Save the bigger map changes for fights that matter. A random encounter on the highway can stay in the forest, while a boss battle can change the terrain mid-fight.
• Choke points can appear during combat. The ground can fall away, enemies can knock over trees, and a barricade should be breakable in case the fight stalls.
• Removing cover works too. If a squad of archers is waiting in an open desert, the rogue has nowhere to hide.
• Important fights can carry more objectives than the party can finish. Once players choose what they value, the others can fall apart.
• A powerful NPC can join a fight, but keep the spotlight on the players unless stealing it is the point.
• One panelist's fix for stalled melee is to remove opportunity attacks from unnamed monsters, which frees players to move and makes named enemies feel more important.

Quotes

• "Silence is mean. But in a really good way." (Cody)

• "Give them a broom of flying and watch your campaign get ruined." (Cody)

• "The more you move the enemies, the more the players will move as well." (Cody)

• "Think of them as your own set of player characters, instead of just a set of throwaway bandits." (Cody)

Follow Hobby Quest

Follow Hobby Quest wherever you get your podcasts, leave a rating or review, and send this episode to the DM who still runs every fight on an empty grid.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hobby_quest_eg/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hobby_questing?lang=en

Listener questions

What's the strangest thing you've ever used as a mini? Send your stories, questions, and topic ideas to Hobby Quest on Instagram or TikTok.

Episode art

Thumbnail image comes from Dwarven Forge: https://dwarvenforge.com/collections/all-products/dungeons

How do you make a D&D boss fight your players still talk about a week later? In the first episode of Hobby Quest, DM Volt breaks boss battles into five tools: the boss, minions, secondary objectives, the map, and stage hazards. Their argument is that every one of them should serve the big moment you want your players to experience, even if that means your boss has to cheat.

Recorded live at Hobby Quest in Elk Grove, the panel swaps stories from real tables, including a broom that defeated a party, goblins breathing fire on a swarm of spiders, and a whale that returned a favor at the perfect time. Volt also explains why their first T-Rex chase fell flat, how to avoid one-shotting a level 5 warlock, and why the table disagrees on how much danger players should face.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Hobby Quest
• 0:38 The Five Tools of a Boss Battle
• 3:43 The Broom Boss
• 6:05 Goblins vs. Spiders
• 8:18 Why Boss Monsters Cheat
• 10:30 Improvising When Players Get Clever
• 12:36 A Goodbye That Made the Table Cry
• 14:08 The Whale That Came Back
• 16:04 Building Encounters From Backstories
• 18:01 Giving Fighters a Job in a Chase
• 19:56 Is Death on the Table?
• 22:05 How Hard Should a Boss Hit?
• 26:50 Splitting Damage and the Lava Octopus
• 28:09 Keeping Bosses Alive Past Round Two
• 31:22 Boss Fights as Puzzles
• 34:42 The Boss That Never Misses

Key takeaways

• A boss battle doesn't need all five tools, or even a traditional boss. Dennis's self-sweeping broom worked as a stage hazard.
• If a chase loses its tension, give the monster a bonus action dash. Volt's players got away from the T-Rex and hid the first time Volt ran it, so Volt gave it more ability to stay on their tail the second time.
• Volt aims for boss hits that take 30 to 50 percent of a player's health, then gives the monster reasons to go after the beefier characters.
• Several smaller attackers can match a big monster's damage without one-shotting anyone. Volt's lava octopus had eight tentacles, each with its own initiative.
• Secondary objectives can raise the stakes and give every player a job. Destroying a giant spider's front legs lowered its AC by three, and a failing cart gave melee fighters something to repair during the T-Rex chase.
• Dennis wants players to pay for bad choices, while Volt says it depends on the game your table wants. In a game without character death, consequences can come from the story.

Quotes

• "The epic moment is the goal of the boss battle." (Volt)

• "My monster is not a player." (Volt)

• "Scared can be fun, especially if the combat is supposed to be scary." (Volt)

• "You don't want to kill your players, but you want to put them in a position where they can kill themselves by bad choices." (Dennis)

• "Do you have a warlock? Have they been keeping up with their warlock deal? No. Have fun." (Volt)

Follow Hobby Quest

Follow Hobby Quest wherever you get your podcasts, leave a rating or review, and send this episode to the DM who just one-shot your warlock.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hobby_quest_eg/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hobby_questing?lang=en

Listener questions

What's the best boss fight you've ever run or played? Send your stories, questions, and topic ideas to Hobby Quest on Instagram or TikTok.

Episode art

Thumbnail art comes from Wizards of the Coast: https://www.wizards.com