With our recent Forged in Fire article series, DM Chris realized how many Conditions that monsters have resistance and immunity to, especially in 5e. With that, we began to discuss how much (or little) we play with Conditions in our home games, and how that might be limiting what we can do to craft engaging, thrilling, and challenging encounters.

In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave delve into the Conditions mechanic (both in and out of 5e), the issues we have with some of them, what ones we find to be somewhat limp, and the ones we would love to use

more. We also delve into what we have found is a Condition we often times inflict on ourselves as DMs: Expectations.

3:00 DM Tony returns to his problem with Stun mechanics… all the way back from Episode #4!

4:00 Making your game challenging without having them turn into “Gotcha” moments for your players.

6:20 Developing encounters with certain Conditions in mind. DM Dave’s Lair of Dragansalor from DM Chris’ 12 person Birthday game.

7:45 Seeing Advantage and Disadvantage as a Condition.

8:35 The power of Conditions through multiple systems and editions.

11:10 Using Conditions to control combat… more interesting than bags of hit points.

13:15 How Conditions, like Stun, have the players control the combat. Should you change it?

21:40 Skills, Saves, and the Rule of Cool article link.

22:45 Expectations: Conditions we place on ourselves as DMs.

32:45 Heroes of the Realm (including our Star Wars analogy): Be excited when the players mop the floor with the bad guys, regardless of the Conditions.

42:05 Resource management, Short, and Long Rests as Conditions.

46:15 Final Thoughts