Tanner Weyland (00:01.046)

Hello and welcome to How to be a Better DM, the official podcast of, wait, I should probably not say that anymore, shouldn't I?

Justin Lewis (00:09.162)

So as of this recording, you should still say, well.

See, that's part of the logistics that I wanted to talk about tomorrow, but I'd say just say it until we decide on anything specific tomorrow with Kayden.

Tanner Weyland (00:27.446)

Okay, cool. Sorry, you'll have to cut this all out. Okay. Hello and welcome. Oh, sorry. You're good.

Justin Lewis (00:33.352)

No, it's fine.

Justin Lewis (00:37.354)

.

Tanner Weyland (00:40.534)

Hello and welcome to How to be a Better DM, the official podcast of Monsters .Rent. My name is Tanner Weyland and I'm here with Justin. Say hi, Justin.

Justin Lewis (00:52.042)

Hey, how's it going?

Tanner Weyland (00:54.644)

Oh man, so good. So good. How are you?

Justin Lewis (00:58.79)

I am recovering from moving, which is the worst. So I'm actually doing pretty good, though. What about you?

Tanner Weyland (01:09.366)

Good, yeah, you know, it's, my wife and I are trying to get back to the gym, which of course is its own bag of stuff. You know, you go, you're like, oh, there's so many people. I feel so self -conscious, but it's been good. So we got back from that today, but yeah, excited for that, because we used to be really into it, and then we moved last year, and we just haven't been, you know, for a whole year.

Uh, but yeah, we're doing better now with that. So excited about that. And I'm more excited to talk about our topic today, which is conditions. Now, specifically, I'm thinking like, uh, conditions that affect the status of the player, like exhausted, petrification, prone, poisoned, things like that. Uh, Justin, tell me, uh, what has your experience been either as a DM or a player in regards to conditions? Like, have they been a positive, a negative or

or something not even worth mentioning for you.

Justin Lewis (02:12.554)

I think they've been sort of both. Naturally, when you're a player, if a condition is foisted upon you, it's generally a bad thing, right? There are few good conditions. As a DM, my experience with conditions has really mostly been in combat. So I'm really excited today to talk about possibly ways that conditions can be.

Tanner Weyland (02:31.358)

Mm -hmm.

Justin Lewis (02:42.458)

expanded upon in combat and possibly outside of combat.

Tanner Weyland (02:49.414)

Agreed because I think that's a real issue, right? Where, uh, when a condition is done for the DM, it's just another, you know, plate to spin. And for the players, it's usually like against them because frankly, I think we can agree on this. A lot of time players have seen that it's not worth specking in, in the ability to cause conditions. That's not always true, but I do find that a lot of players are like, Oh,

If it's an enemy we can kill pretty quickly, it's not worth, you know, blinding them or something. And if it's a big boss, chances are their resistances are too high or something. You know what I mean?

Justin Lewis (03:31.176)

Absolutely, you definitely, this is really going into the mechanics of gameplay and this is probably, I would say as DMs, you're probably either good with the story aspect or the mechanical aspect.

Justin Lewis (03:52.042)

Or if you're a lucky DM, sorry, I just had to yawn there for a second. Or if you're a lucky DM, you're good with both. And this is definitely more commonly used with the mechanical aspects of D &D where you have to, you know, I saw on a TikTok the other day where you look at your player character sheets and understand what they're going to use. And then you create monsters that would...

Tanner Weyland (03:57.366)

You get.

Justin Lewis (04:21.21)

Challenge them, but also be excellent opportunities for them to use certain things. So for example, you know, like in the case that you just said, someone who needs to be blinded, it would be a good idea if you have a character who can use spells to blind to maybe put something in there that blinding them would be a really, really good idea, right?

Tanner Weyland (04:37.588)

Mm -hmm.

Tanner Weyland (04:42.902)

Yeah, exactly. Right. Because there's going to be, you know, I think if you open yourself up to, you know, using these more and more creatively, then you're and we'll get to this later, then you're going to find that combats are more interesting and role playing and the consequences from combat are going to be a lot more interesting too. But before we get into that, I'd like to just quickly mention the sponsor of this episode, Magic Mind.

You know, we've been talking about this for a second, but we really love this little potion. That's just like a shot of energy in the morning. For me, it really is weird because it's so small, but it really does give me that kind of kick in the pants that I need to start out well instead of just kind of dragging my feet when I get to work, you know?

Justin Lewis (05:36.842)

Absolutely. Speaking of conditions, there are two conditions that I think in real life we've all, well, maybe three, we've all sort of dealt with. First of all, exhaustion, right? That's a condition we'll be talking about later. And in D &D, it's very severe. Magic Mind is great for exhaustion with a lot of really helpful ingredients, including ashwagandha, lion's mane mushrooms. And, you know, it's full of adaptogens and

Tanner Weyland (05:52.296)

Yep.

Justin Lewis (06:06.826)

really helpful.

Justin Lewis (06:12.458)

really helpful ingredients. More than that, they actually have this awesome deal going on. So first of all, if you want MagicMind, you can go to Sprouts, Farmers' Markets, anywhere and get them. But the better place to get them, and I might be a little biased, in fact I am, but the best place to get them would be to go to magicmind .com slash Jan, that's J -A -N, better D -M, B -E -T -T -E -R -D -M. So MagicMind.

dot com slash Jan Better DM and then use our code betterdm20. It's like giving us a little bit of extra credit if you do that. So we really appreciate it. But doing that gets you either 56 % off of your first subscription or 20 % off of your first one time purchase. So that's a great deal in and of itself. But in the month of January 2024,

Tanner Weyland (06:51.998)

Mm -hmm.

Justin Lewis (07:10.058)

while we're recording this. So this will come out on the 25th. You have six days left. You can get an extra 20 % off, meaning on a three month subscription, you get the first month free, right? So that can be almost up to 75 % off just with these deals. And it only lasts for the rest of January. Again, better magicmind .com slash Jan, better DM, better DM 20 at checkout.

But the other two conditions that this helps with is slowed. So if you're slowed in D &D, you can only do one action or a reaction. Casting spells takes twice as long, essentially. You can't run. Magic Mind does the opposite. So you essentially get hasted, where you can take two actions. You can move twice as fast, and things just are so much better. So don't be slowed, be hasted. Go get Magic Mind.

magicmind .com slash better the sorry magicmind .com slash Jan better DM back to you Tanner.

Tanner Weyland (08:18.934)

Perfect. Thanks, Magic Mind. Now to continue with our talk about conditions, like I really want to dive into the ways that they could be utilized better. Because let's take exhaustion. When was the last time that you used exhaustion like against your party or or with any campaign that you've been in?

Justin Lewis (08:47.338)

Honestly, it's been a very long time. And I say very long time probably because I don't actually remember. I think I might have used it within the last six months, but they probably only gained one level of exhaustion, which is still something, but also in the context of what they were doing, not very much. And personally, I think my issue is,

I'm sort of afraid of the consequences myself, right? And this kind of goes back to what I was saying about needing to understand the mechanics because when you tell a player that they have a point of exhaustion and then you throw them into a combat encounter, that could seriously, they're at risk of dying, right? Just because their roles are gonna be so hampered.

Tanner Weyland (09:19.752)

Yes.

Tanner Weyland (09:39.988)

Yeah.

Tanner Weyland (09:44.758)

Yeah, and that's kind of what it, that's what keeps a lot of DMs from approaching or utilizing exhaustion. I think it's that, you know, just like, oh my goodness, this is kind of big. But then also it's the fact that I think most DMs think, oh, this is mostly going to happen if they stay awake longer than 24 hours. And how often does that happen? Like, frankly,

there's usually enough going on in the story that they're having multiple combats, like in a row or just like in a day. And so they're just begging to have a long rest by the end of it so that they can get, you know, there's, there's everything back. Right. And so if you think of it kind of within that box, it's exhaustion feels limiting. It feels like it's unlikely to happen, but think about it from, from the terms of.

like an adventure, right? When would you be exhausted? It would be when you're going through really extreme weather conditions or something that's physically or mentally, you know, hard on the players or taxing. So think about this. Your players are on kind of a more an expedition type like campaign where they're traveling, you know, through jungles, forests, things like that. Those are perfect times to

to have them get the exhausted condition. And if you don't know, exhaustion has six levels. At the first level, you get disadvantage on ability check. Second, speed halved. Third, disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws. Fourth, hit point maximum halved. Fifth, speed reduced to zero. So they basically can't move. And then sixth, death. So that's where like...

It can get really serious very quickly because the first one's like, Oh, disadvantage on ability checks. That sucks to speed half. Okay. You can still make it work after that. That's it's kind of a lot. And, but it's kind of a really cool mechanic because think about it. You know, if your players are kind of going through this journey and you know, you're like, Oh, you're in a really cold, you're on a cold tundra and the winds, you know, biting at them and you know, roll, uh,

Tanner Weyland (12:00.01)

role constitution saving throw to see if you do okay. And, and basically it's like, Oh, it gets harder the longer they're out there and then they start failing. And some players are doing worse than others, you know, like the, uh, the mages who don't have much constitution, they're over there just, you know, they're walking a half speed. Whereas the, uh, the barbarian and everyone else is doing pretty good. That's a great storytelling opportunity and they haven't fought a single monster, right?

Then if you do throw in like a combat then that you know kind of ups everything You know the the stakes and I think that's just a great thing and it doesn't even have to be when they're on an expedition think about if they were in the city and They were you know They were supposed to go through the sewers and kind of wade through the sewer water to find you know Missing girl or something right wouldn't that be a great time to be like, okay?

real constitution saving throw because they're wading through like this stuff. They've got, you know, it's really dark kind of rough conditions and they didn't have to be out in the wilderness. It was right underneath their feet. You know what I'm saying?

Justin Lewis (13:11.594)

Yeah, absolutely. I love the picture you've painted. If you need a great example of this situation, you can think back. If you haven't had a chance, Critical Rules, second campaign, spoiler alert, there's a part where the Mighty Nein are basically, they find themselves in a tundra situation. So really, really cold. And they gain

levels of exhaustion because they're traveling through this cold situation. They're stepping through deep snow. That's a really great example. But I really love the picture Tanner painted. You if you need to think about this in simpler terms, maybe you can think of Oregon Trail, right? The video game that we all played in computer class when we were younger. Or, you know, the Donner Party. Like these people are real life examples of

Tanner Weyland (13:55.988)

Yep.

Justin Lewis (14:08.842)

having to essentially deal with levels of exhaustion, right? Even up to the point of death. Now, another alternative rule that you might be interested in using, and I sort of just came up with this, and I don't know if this would be a good idea, but allowing spell casters to cast two spells in one turn in exchange for receiving a point of exhaustion. And...

Tanner Weyland (14:35.092)

down.

Justin Lewis (14:35.69)

You know, you might play with that a little bit depending on the spell level or whatnot and obviously who they're fighting, but that might be an interesting way to basically be like, yeah, you can definitely cast another spell. It's going to cost you this much. And you know, you're actually going to feel the effects because now, you know, their roles are going to be at disadvantage and then soon their speeds are going to be halved.

and things like that, but that might be another interesting way to add more exhaustion into combat itself.

Tanner Weyland (15:02.846)

Yep.

Tanner Weyland (15:08.31)

Yeah, I love that, especially where, you know, if you want to homebrew a few things, then I mean, not only spell casters, but it's like, okay, let's have, you know, the the melee characters, they can make maybe, you know, two, maybe even three actions.

You know, in, in, uh, in a turn, but they're going to increase the thing of, uh, a level of exhaustion. And while that might feel like, Oh, that's broken. It's like, well, they need to have a long rest to get rid of that. So that means until they have that next long rest, they, they get disadvantaged on their ability checks. You know, that's, that's a rough time. Um, so play around with that. I don't want to spend all of our time on exhaust exhaustion, but I think it's a classic example of.

You know, of DMs feeling like it's just not practical when it could have so much story implications, you know, and I just love it. Um, but let's move on to some of the other ones like poison. Uh, if you're poisoned that that's common condition, right? You're fighting some spiders in the forest. Uh, they start singing and they take, and you take not only the normal damage, but also some point at poison damage. I think that this one, you could really stand to do a lot more homebrew.

with it, right? Where, where it's like, okay, yeah, they're poisoned, but it's not just adding points of damage, right? It's like, oh, it's poisoned, but the effect is every this many hours, you know, they take a temporary point of condition damage, right? Where like, there's a lot of different effects that poison can have in real life. And we should let that actually show, you know, when someone becomes poisoned.

So that that's kind of my two cents on that, where it's like, okay, make the what happens, play around with it. Don't always make it just straight damage that happens every, you know, every six seconds, but also make it have interesting effects and also interesting cures. Right. Cause if you have that kind of situation where it's like, Oh, this poison isn't going away, but also you don't have to solve it immediately. Cause it's not going to kill you in a minute.

Tanner Weyland (17:24.566)

then that gives your party a chance to you know, that it gives the chance for the ranger to have an Aragorn moment and be like, okay, I'm going to use roll nature and see if I can find these herbs that will heal it, right? Or something like that.

Justin Lewis (17:40.938)

Absolutely. One thing I will say around herbs is, well first of all with poisons as a whole, you need to kind of make the punishment fit the crime. And that's the weirdest way of saying, make sure the poison fits the level the characters are at. So if they're higher level, then if the poison is really going to like impact them at all, it should probably be kind of quest worthy. Whereas if they're lower level,

Tanner Weyland (18:08.342)

Yeah.

Justin Lewis (18:09.418)

it makes sense for them to get bit by, you know, just, you know, a lower level spider and have to find an herb in the same forest they're in to fix it, right? Because it's going to be a little bit harder for them. Also on that note, play around with the location of the antidote relative to the location of the poison or venom, I guess, technically speaking. In D &D it's the same thing, but, you know,

Tanner Weyland (18:20.66)

Yes.

Tanner Weyland (18:32.97)

Yes.

Justin Lewis (18:37.034)

you might put the antidote in the same forest, or you might put it somewhere else. If you put it somewhere else, have the presence of mind to make sure that the effects of the poison don't outright kill them before they have a chance to get the antidote, right? Like Tana was saying, make it pressing, but not pressing to the point that they die. Last thing I'd say is, in real life, poisons, they sort of...

Tanner Weyland (18:49.118)

Yeah.

Justin Lewis (19:04.906)

kind of overcome your body, right? And Lord of the Rings is a great example. Frodo descends more and more into becoming a wraith, right, because he was poisoned. At first, you know, his effects, his symptoms were not as severe. So if you're home brewing it, that might be something you could also play around with. You know, however long it takes, their symptoms start to become more severe because the poison is reaching different parts of the body.

Tanner Weyland (19:35.03)

Yeah. And I think there's just to speak also to the effects. There's some effects that's like, Hey, you could totally have so much fun with this. Like, think about it. Does a barbarian need, you know, uh, do they need charisma? Not really. But imagine if they got poisoned with something that kind of eats away at their flesh, or at least just models it like, like it makes it modeled where they just look bad. And so like over time, day by day, they're looks are looking worse.

And they need that kind of antidote and they don't know where it is. And that's a great story thing where, oh, they've got to do this whole thing. Like this is built into the character now where they're looking...

Hello and welcome to How to be a Better

DM, the official podcast of, wait, I

2

should probably not say that anymore,

shouldn't I?

3

So as of this recording, you should still

say, well.

4

See, that's part of the logistics that I

wanted to talk about tomorrow, but I'd say

5

just say it until we decide on anything

specific tomorrow with Kayden.

6

Okay, cool.

7

Sorry, you'll have to cut this all out.

8

Okay.

9

Hello and welcome.

10

Oh, sorry.

11

You're good.

12

Hello and welcome to How to be a Better

DM, the official podcast of Monsters

13

.Rent.

14

My name is Tanner Weyland and I'm here

with Justin.

15

Say hi, Justin.

16

Hey, how's it going?

17

Oh man, so good.

18

So good.

19

How are you?

20

I am recovering from moving, which is the

worst.

21

So I'm actually doing pretty good, though.

22

What about you?

23

Good, yeah, you know, it's, my wife and I

are trying to get back to the gym, which

24

of course is its own bag of stuff.

25

You know, you go, you're like, oh, there's

so many people.

26

I feel so self -conscious, but it's been

good.

27

So we got back from that today, but yeah,

excited for that, because we used to be

28

really into it, and then we moved last

year, and we just haven't been, you know,

29

for a whole year.

30

Uh, but yeah, we're doing better now with

that.

31

So excited about that.

32

And I'm more excited to talk about our

topic today, which is conditions.

33

Now, specifically, I'm thinking like, uh,

conditions that affect the status of the

34

player, like exhausted, petrification,

prone, poisoned, things like that.

35

Uh, Justin, tell me, uh, what has your

experience been either as a DM or a player

36

in regards to conditions?

37

Like, have they been a positive, a

negative or

38

or something not even worth mentioning for

you.

39

I think they've been sort of both.

40

Naturally, when you're a player, if a

condition is foisted upon you, it's

41

generally a bad thing, right?

42

There are few good conditions.

43

As a DM, my experience with conditions has

really mostly been in combat.

44

So I'm really excited today to talk about

possibly ways that conditions can be.

45

expanded upon in combat and possibly

outside of combat.

46

Agreed because I think that's a real

issue, right?

47

Where, uh, when a condition is done for

the DM, it's just another, you know, plate

48

to spin.

49

And for the players, it's usually like

against them because frankly, I think we

50

can agree on this.

51

A lot of time players have seen that it's

not worth specking in, in the ability to

52

cause conditions.

53

That's not always true, but I do find that

a lot of players are like, Oh,

54

If it's an enemy we can kill pretty

quickly, it's not worth, you know,

55

blinding them or something.

56

And if it's a big boss, chances are their

resistances are too high or something.

57

You know what I mean?

58

Absolutely, you definitely, this is really

going into the mechanics of gameplay and

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this is probably, I would say as DMs,

you're probably either good with the story

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aspect or the mechanical aspect.

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Or if you're a lucky DM, sorry, I just had

to yawn there for a second.

62

Or if you're a lucky DM, you're good with

both.

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And this is definitely more commonly used

with the mechanical aspects of D &D where

64

you have to, you know, I saw on a TikTok

the other day where you look at your

65

player character sheets and understand

what they're going to use.

66

And then you create monsters that would...

67

Challenge them, but also be excellent

opportunities for them to use certain

68

things.

69

So for example, you know, like in the case

that you just said, someone who needs to

70

be blinded, it would be a good idea if you

have a character who can use spells to

71

blind to maybe put something in there that

blinding them would be a really, really

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good idea, right?

73

Yeah, exactly.

74

Right.

75

Because there's going to be, you know, I

think if you open yourself up to, you

76

know, using these more and more

creatively, then you're and we'll get to

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this later, then you're going to find that

combats are more interesting and role

78

playing and the consequences from combat

are going to be a lot more interesting

79

too.

80

But before we get into that, I'd like to

just quickly mention the sponsor of this

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episode, Magic Mind.

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You know, we've been talking about this

for a second, but we really love this

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little potion.

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For me, it really is weird because it's so

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dragging my feet when I get to work, you

know?

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Absolutely.

89

Speaking of conditions, there are two

conditions that I think in real life we've

90

all, well, maybe three, we've all sort of

dealt with.

91

First of all, exhaustion, right?

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That's a condition we'll be talking about

later.

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And in D &D, it's very severe.

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lot of really helpful ingredients,

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But the other two conditions that this

helps with is slowed.

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So if you're slowed in D &D, you can only

do one action or a reaction.

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Casting spells takes twice as long,

essentially.

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You can't run.

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Magic Mind does the opposite.

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Go get Magic Mind.

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magicmind .com slash better the sorry

magicmind .com slash Jan better DM back to

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you Tanner.

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Perfect.

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Thanks, Magic Mind.

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Now to continue with our talk about

conditions, like I really want to dive

135

into the ways that they could be utilized

better.

136

Because let's take exhaustion.

137

When was the last time that you used

exhaustion like against your party or or

138

with any campaign that you've been in?

139

Honestly, it's been a very long time.

140

And I say very long time probably because

I don't actually remember.

141

I think I might have used it within the

last six months, but they probably only

142

gained one level of exhaustion, which is

still something, but also in the context

143

of what they were doing, not very much.

144

And personally, I think my issue is,

145

I'm sort of afraid of the consequences

myself, right?

146

And this kind of goes back to what I was

saying about needing to understand the

147

mechanics because when you tell a player

that they have a point of exhaustion and

148

then you throw them into a combat

encounter, that could seriously, they're

149

at risk of dying, right?

150

Just because their roles are gonna be so

hampered.

151

Yeah, and that's kind of what it, that's

what keeps a lot of DMs from approaching

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or utilizing exhaustion.

153

I think it's that, you know, just like, oh

my goodness, this is kind of big.

154

But then also it's the fact that I think

most DMs think, oh, this is mostly going

155

to happen if they stay awake longer than

24 hours.

156

And how often does that happen?

157

Like, frankly,

158

there's usually enough going on in the

story that they're having multiple

159

combats, like in a row or just like in a

day.

160

And so they're just begging to have a long

rest by the end of it so that they can

161

get, you know, there's, there's everything

back.

162

Right.

163

And so if you think of it kind of within

that box, it's exhaustion feels limiting.

164

It feels like it's unlikely to happen, but

think about it from, from the terms of.

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like an adventure, right?

166

When would you be exhausted?

167

It would be when you're going through

really extreme weather conditions or

168

something that's physically or mentally,

you know, hard on the players or taxing.

169

So think about this.

170

Your players are on kind of a more an

expedition type like campaign where

171

they're traveling, you know, through

jungles, forests, things like that.

172

Those are perfect times to

173

to have them get the exhausted condition.

174

And if you don't know, exhaustion has six

levels.

175

At the first level, you get disadvantage

on ability check.

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Second, speed halved.

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Third, disadvantage on attack rolls and

saving throws.

178

Fourth, hit point maximum halved.

179

Fifth, speed reduced to zero.

180

So they basically can't move.

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And then sixth, death.

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So that's where like...

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It can get really serious very quickly

because the first one's like, Oh,

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disadvantage on ability checks.

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That sucks to speed half.

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Okay.

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You can still make it work after that.

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That's it's kind of a lot.

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And, but it's kind of a really cool

mechanic because think about it.

190

You know, if your players are kind of

going through this journey and you know,

191

you're like, Oh, you're in a really cold,

you're on a cold tundra and the winds, you

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know, biting at them and you know, roll,

uh,

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role constitution saving throw to see if

you do okay.

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And, and basically it's like, Oh, it gets

harder the longer they're out there and

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then they start failing.

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And some players are doing worse than

others, you know, like the, uh, the mages

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who don't have much constitution, they're

over there just, you know, they're walking

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a half speed.

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Whereas the, uh, the barbarian and

everyone else is doing pretty good.

200

That's a great storytelling opportunity

and they haven't fought a single monster,

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right?

202

Then if you do throw in like a combat then

that you know kind of ups everything You

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know the the stakes and I think that's

just a great thing and it doesn't even

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have to be when they're on an expedition

think about if they were in the city and

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They were you know They were supposed to

go through the sewers and kind of wade

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through the sewer water to find you know

Missing girl or something right wouldn't

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that be a great time to be like, okay?

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real constitution saving throw because

they're wading through like this stuff.

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They've got, you know, it's really dark

kind of rough conditions and they didn't

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have to be out in the wilderness.

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It was right underneath their feet.

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You know what I'm saying?

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Yeah, absolutely.

214

I love the picture you've painted.

215

If you need a great example of this

situation, you can think back.

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If you haven't had a chance, Critical

Rules, second campaign, spoiler alert,

217

there's a part where the Mighty Nein are

basically, they find themselves in a

218

tundra situation.

219

So really, really cold.

220

And they gain

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levels of exhaustion because they're

traveling through this cold situation.

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They're stepping through deep snow.

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That's a really great example.

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But I really love the picture Tanner

painted.

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You if you need to think about this in

simpler terms, maybe you can think of

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Oregon Trail, right?

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The video game that we all played in

computer class when we were younger.

228

Or, you know, the Donner Party.

229

Like these people are real life examples

of

230

having to essentially deal with levels of

exhaustion, right?

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Even up to the point of death.

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Now, another alternative rule that you

might be interested in using, and I sort

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of just came up with this, and I don't

know if this would be a good idea, but

234

allowing spell casters to cast two spells

in one turn in exchange for receiving a

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point of exhaustion.

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And...

237

down.

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You know, you might play with that a

little bit depending on the spell level or

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whatnot and obviously who they're

fighting, but that might be an interesting

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way to basically be like, yeah, you can

definitely cast another spell.

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It's going to cost you this much.

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And you know, you're actually going to

feel the effects because now, you know,

243

their roles are going to be at

disadvantage and then soon their speeds

244

are going to be halved.

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and things like that, but that might be

another interesting way to add more

246

exhaustion into combat itself.

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Yeah, I love that, especially where, you

know, if you want to homebrew a few

248

things, then I mean, not only spell

casters, but it's like, okay, let's have,

249

you know, the the melee characters, they

can make maybe, you know, two, maybe even

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three actions.

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You know, in, in, uh, in a turn, but

they're going to increase the thing of,

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uh, a level of exhaustion.

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And while that might feel like, Oh, that's

broken.

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It's like, well, they need to have a long

rest to get rid of that.

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So that means until they have that next

long rest, they, they get disadvantaged on

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their ability checks.

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You know, that's, that's a rough time.

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Um, so play around with that.

259

I don't want to spend all of our time on

exhaust exhaustion, but I think it's a

260

classic example of.

261

You know, of DMs feeling like it's just

not practical when it could have so much

262

story implications, you know, and I just

love it.

263

Um, but let's move on to some of the other

ones like poison.

264

Uh, if you're poisoned that that's common

condition, right?

265

You're fighting some spiders in the

forest.

266

Uh, they start singing and they take, and

you take not only the normal damage, but

267

also some point at poison damage.

268

I think that this one, you could really

stand to do a lot more homebrew.

269

with it, right?

270

Where, where it's like, okay, yeah,

they're poisoned, but it's not just adding

271

points of damage, right?

272

It's like, oh, it's poisoned, but the

effect is every this many hours, you know,

273

they take a temporary point of condition

damage, right?

274

Where like, there's a lot of different

effects that poison can have in real life.

275

And we should let that actually show, you

know, when someone becomes poisoned.

276

So that that's kind of my two cents on

that, where it's like, okay, make the what

277

happens, play around with it.

278

Don't always make it just straight damage

that happens every, you know, every six

279

seconds, but also make it have interesting

effects and also interesting cures.

280

Right.

281

Cause if you have that kind of situation

where it's like, Oh, this poison isn't

282

going away, but also you don't have to

solve it immediately.

283

Cause it's not going to kill you in a

minute.

284

then that gives your party a chance to you

know, that it gives the chance for the

285

ranger to have an Aragorn moment and be

like, okay, I'm going to use roll nature

286

and see if I can find these herbs that

will heal it, right?

287

Or something like that.

288

Absolutely.

289

One thing I will say around herbs is, well

first of all with poisons as a whole, you

290

need to kind of make the punishment fit

the crime.

291

And that's the weirdest way of saying,

make sure the poison fits the level the

292

characters are at.

293

So if they're higher level, then if the

poison is really going to like impact them

294

at all, it should probably be kind of

quest worthy.

295

Whereas if they're lower level,

296

it makes sense for them to get bit by, you

know, just, you know, a lower level spider

297

and have to find an herb in the same

forest they're in to fix it, right?

298

Because it's going to be a little bit

harder for them.

299

Also on that note, play around with the

location of the antidote relative to the

300

location of the poison or venom, I guess,

technically speaking.

301

In D &D it's the same thing, but, you

know,

302

you might put the antidote in the same

forest, or you might put it somewhere

303

else.

304

If you put it somewhere else, have the

presence of mind to make sure that the

305

effects of the poison don't outright kill

them before they have a chance to get the

306

antidote, right?

307

Like Tana was saying, make it pressing,

but not pressing to the point that they

308

die.

309

Last thing I'd say is, in real life,

poisons, they sort of...

310

kind of overcome your body, right?

311

And Lord of the Rings is a great example.

312

Frodo descends more and more into becoming

a wraith, right, because he was poisoned.

313

At first, you know, his effects, his

symptoms were not as severe.

314

So if you're home brewing it, that might

be something you could also play around

315

with.

316

You know, however long it takes, their

symptoms start to become more severe

317

because the poison is reaching different

parts of the body.

318

Yeah.

319

And I think there's just to speak also to

the effects.

320

There's some effects that's like, Hey, you

could totally have so much fun with this.

321

Like, think about it.

322

Does a barbarian need, you know, uh, do

they need charisma?

323

Not really.

324

But imagine if they got poisoned with

something that kind of eats away at their

325

flesh, or at least just models it like,

like it makes it modeled where they just

326

look bad.

327

And so like over time, day by day, they're

looks are looking worse.

328

And they need that kind of antidote and

they don't know where it is.

329

And that's a great story thing where, oh,

they've got to do this whole thing.

330

Like this is built into the character now

where they're looking physically worse.

331

And that becomes something that other

plays can mention and NPCs.

332

And especially if like the player

described them initially as like handsome,

333

that'd be hilarious, you know, but like

also like kind of growing like character

334

arc for them to be like, Hey,

335

this thing you were proud of, you got to

get this poison, you know, cured.

336

And it doesn't affect their gameplay at

all, unless of course they were rolling a

337

bunch of, you know, persuasion or, or

intimidation type checks, right?

338

But either way, I think that, I think that

you got to play around with it.

339

Look at the interesting story arcs that

can come from it, and then make your

340

effects according to that.

341

One thing, you know kind of going to

another one Petrification I don't think

342

you should use this that often but I think

that when you do use it you could use it

343

kind of interestingly For example, you

know, typically when it happens it happens

344

to the whole body the players unable to

see unable to speak Essentially the

345

character is out out right and it's

usually temporary because when it's

346

permanent you have to do you have to go to

pretty extreme lengths

347

that to get rid of it.

348

I believe it's a greater restoration spell

to remove it.

349

But but think about if you were like,

okay, maybe he's not fully petrified.

350

Maybe maybe he's, you know, an archer.

351

And his and his leg is petrified.

352

It's like, yeah, that doesn't ruin things.

353

But he's not moving.

354

You know, he's certainly not going around

unless of course, like he's hobbling

355

almost like he has a peg leg.

356

And then I think that you could almost

play with that where

357

Petrification doesn't have to be the whole

body and it or it could be most of the

358

body but like leave the head unpetrified

and then the party has to carry them

359

around, you know, until they find someone.

360

Either way, I think that you could play

around with this a lot better and have

361

better experiences with it.

362

Absolutely.

363

Real quick Tanner, after I kind of share

my next a little bit, I will probably need

364

to go.

365

So let's just basically say like, yeah,

we're going to actually do two episodes on

366

conditions.

367

So this is part one, and then we'll do

part two in two weeks.

368

So, okay.

369

And then I would just add to

petrification.

370

That's exactly right.

371

You don't have to do, you don't have to go

all the way.

372

You know, you could even do a single limb

and they might have to learn how to fight

373

using strength rather than dexterity

because now they have a club for a hand

374

instead of, you know, a working hand.

375

I actually had this happen in my home brew

campaign where the party went up against a

376

Medusa essentially.

377

And wouldn't you know it, two people in

the party were petrified.

378

And you know, like Tanner said, normally

it would.

379

just require a greater restoration spell,

which you could theoretically just go find

380

a cleric and bada bing bada boom.

381

So it could be as hard or as difficult as

you want.

382

In my homebrew campaign, I decided to make

it a full quest.

383

They had to go find something specific

that could fuel a spell powerful enough to

384

unpetrify them.

385

And they only found one, so they had to

make a choice.

386

Which player, which person are we going to

bring back?

387

And, and, you know, that was kind of a

whole fun arc.

388

I got to introduce this whole, you know,

robotic dwarf thing anyways.

389

Um, so really with even petrification and

other things play around with the

390

permanence of the condition and what it

takes to heal the condition and also be

391

cognizant of what your players are willing

to do.

392

Right.

393

So if you can sense that they're.

394

They've been kind of going on side quests

for a while.

395

They want to get back to the main quest.

396

I wouldn't do a permanent thing unless you

get the feeling that they're willing to

397

live with it for a while and you can maybe

make the effects a little bit lower but

398

still somewhat annoying.

399

Anyways, just play with the permanence and

see how that changes the story as well.

400

Yeah, absolutely.

401

And I think that that's a great place to

end for now.

402

We'll have to do a follow up episode

because there's a lot of other statuses

403

and conditions and we really want to, to

kind of dive into how each one provides a

404

different types of storytelling

opportunity.

405

But for now, you know, Justin, any final

thoughts on conditions?

406

Um, I hope that your condition listener is

tip top and 100%.

407

Uh, you know, I, I think we say this a

lot, but we don't say it enough.

408

Uh, we are very grateful to you, the

listener for your support, whether you're

409

driving to work right now, working out in

the gym, doing dishes, whatever you're

410

doing, it means so much that you've been

willing enough to put us in your ears and

411

let us talk for a bit.

412

It's just kind of this magical thing.

413

It connects us over time and space.

414

So thank you so much.

415

And again, I hope your condition is as

good as it can be and that every game you

416

play is even better than the last.

417

Well, I couldn't say it any better than

that.

418

So we're going to sign off and let's roll

initiative.