Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 203 - Smart and Dumb Enemies

Episode Date: December 3, 2023

We GMs have a certain way of thinking, sometimes lightning quick and nimble, and sometimes more methodical and measured.  We need to learn how to get out of our own heads and think like enemies do during combat.  In this episode, I give you some tips for running very intelligent and very unintelligent enemies for your players.   #dnd #pf2e #DMTips #rpgtips   Resources: 3D Crafts & Curios etsy store - https://etsy.com/shop/3DCraftsAndCurios  Keith Amman The Monsters Know What They Are Doing:  https://www.themonstersknow.com/intelligent-enemy-tactics/

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. They bit the wizard last round, but the paladin just sank a spear into their flank, so they turned to face the heavily armed paladin. Never mind that they could probably kill the wizard in a couple of good solid hits, that isn't weighed into their calculus. The thing behind them made them go ouchie, so thing behind them needs to feel ouchie back. needs to feel ouchy back. Thank you for listening to the Taking 20 podcast episode 203, the first of a couple of episodes on tips for DMs on how to run enemies in a more varied way. I want to thank

our sponsor 3D Crafts and Curios. They print beautiful, epic quality geek and gaming gear for sale on their Etsy store, and they would make fantastic holiday presents. Head over to etsy.com slash shop slash 3d crafts and curios, or look for a link in the resources of this episode. While there use the coupon code taking 20 that's T A K I N G, no spaces, and get 20% off your order through the end of the year. Also want to thank our other sponsor, Massages. I tried to be a masseuse, but I just didn't have the skills for it. I guess I just rub people the wrong way. If you like this podcast, please help spread the word about it.

Even just linking an episode and putting it on your social media profile helps get the word out, and if you wouldn't mind, I would greatly appreciate it if you did it. I am a tiny podcaster, and I don't have the money to sponsor anything big like an episode of Critical Role or anything, so word of mouth is all I've got. Please help me get the word out. A listener called attention to the fact that I've been using a word with a double meaning that I didn't intend.

Sometimes when I'm referring to enemies, I'll use the term baddie. What I mean is anything that's antagonistic towards the party. For example, if the party's ambushed by enemies on the road, I've often used the term baddie to refer to the ambushers. Evidently, baddie can also mean a good-looking girl. For anyone who was confused by my use of the term previously, let me clarify. Not all baddies

are baddies, but some baddies can be baddies. But that doesn't mean that just because someone is a baddie, they're automatically a baddie. They don't have to be a baddie. It's their choice to be a baddie. Clear? Good. Let's move on. If there's one thing we GMs do a lot, it's run combat. Bandits and zombies and goblins, skeletons, kobolds, ghouls, trolls, rats. Lots of rats. Lots. Way too many rats. Individual rats, giant rats, rat swarms, and the list goes on and on. We run a lot of different combats from behind the screen, and for DMs, myself included, it's very easy to fall into a bit of a rut where most of our enemy combatants are the same, with just a different skin on them. Combat starts to feel samey, and it's all repeated over and over again. The enemies charge the party, and maybe

some use abilities against them and try to wear down the PCs with a frontal assault. Maybe if the DM's feeling really creative, there's some range combatants that stay distant and pepper the PCs from behind cover. That's all well and good. Maybe your rank and file combat should follow that formula. But today, I want to ask my DMs out there to think about fights against foes that are smarter than average, and how those combats would be different. And while we're at it, let's think about those opponents that are below average intelligence. Wouldn't those foes fight a little differently as well? Wouldn't the smarter combatants use good tactics against the PCs, or at least better than average? I think they should, and I have some ideas on how you can make that happen. I've mentioned it before, and I'm sure I'll mention

it again, but one of the best sources for monster tactics is the blog themonstersknow.com. Keith Amon's blog and books of the same name are some of the premier sources for monster tactics anywhere you can find. Most of his advice is tailored towards the 5e stat blocks of monsters, but if you play Pathfinder or Starfinder, Original D&D, or whatever, you can extrapolate those ideas about monsters by reading his examples. Let's start with creatures of low intelligence. I mean those creatures with intelligence scores down below 6, so modifiers approaching minus 3 or even minus 4 or maybe even lower. The temptation is to always play them as stupid and hit with a club, but not all low intelligence scores automatically mean they're dumber than a bag of

hammers. A low intelligence score could easily mean that they are just slower to grasp new concepts, but the ones they do know, they're really, really good at them. Even in the 5th edition player's handbook, intelligence is defined as including memory, mental acuity, accuracy, and the ability to reason. Low intelligence enemies may be ones that act purely on instinct. They may only understand a limited range of inputs that they can respond to. Think about low intelligence creatures a lot like dinosaurs, vermin, or animals like bears or crocodiles. Bears may have an intelligence modifier of minus four in fifth edition, but they are relatively smart, can tear open containers to get food inside of them, or if you watch that one movie,

get jacked up on cocaine and learn how to open doors. Somehow. In Pathfinder 2E, guard dogs have an intelligence modifier of minus four as well. They can be trained to learn tricks and protect humanoids. They're not stupid. Heck, I had a dog when I was younger pull open the zipper on my school backpack to get at the beef jerky I had stashed there for snacks. Smart little bugger. She didn't rip the backpack at all, by the way. She just opened the zipper and tore open the sealed bag and had herself a feast. She had a bad day the next day when she had, let's just call it, digestive issues, but for about 30 minutes there, she was having a grand old time. She's not stupid. As a matter of fact, she was probably one of the smartest

dogs I've ever had in my life, and I've had quite a few. Not all of them ate beef jerky, but that one got a rare treat. What she couldn't do very well is think about consequences of her actions. Her thought processes didn't go further than smell food, get to food, eat food. Now, for some reason, I'm pooping so violently that I can hover off the ground all the next day. I'm not sure why. I'd probably eat all that jerky again. A lower intelligence can show itself in a number of ways. It could mean any or all of the following. Limited ability to reason. This is the traditional view on low intelligence. They can take on new information but can't do much with it. For example, a low intelligence creature may not know what a wizard is, what magic is, how it works, and that magic-wielding PCs have a lower armor class.

Lower intelligence could mean poor impulse control, aka the Jeremy dog example. They're smart, but they have a blind spot and react emotionally in non-optimal ways about something, like in my dog's case, food. Inability to process new stimuli. Once they decide to do X, they don't change that decision, even when the situation changes. For an example of this, I recently saw a documentary that talked about a certain species of ground wasp. They know they need to return to their nest, find the hidden entrance to their nest, and go down a tunnel to their young, for lack of a better term. When scientists expose the young to the air, thereby taking out the requirement to find the hidden entrance and go down a hatch,

the ground wasp will literally land on its own young and look for that hidden entrance to the nest, not recognizing that they have already reached their young. They're like computer programs that execute instructions in order and don't have error-catching routines. Now here's where you could say, yes, Jeremy, it's like the scripts you write to automate some of your work. To which I couldn't say much because you're right, but shut up anyway. The creature uses the same tactic over and over again. That might be another

indicator of low intelligence. They have one skill they use, and by jove, they're going to use it over and over and over again, even when a different tactic might work better. They have a hammer, everything's a nail to them. They bite things that hurt them, but the flame oracle is currently wreathed in fire and burns things that attack them, which makes the creature bite them even more, which hurts them even more, even though it might be better for the creature to wait for the flames to go out or attack someone else. Low intelligence may mean that they make choices that aren't necessarily optimal for a given situation. I've used examples earlier. They don't use great tactics. They attack when they should defend. They double down when they should retreat.

They go after suboptimal creatures that are harder for them to hit or could hurt them back rather than someone soft and squishy. A low intelligence may indicate more recklessness and willingness to put themselves in harm's way. They take risks that might not be worth the reward, but they make the decision anyway. Lower intelligence creatures may react with more emotion than logic. This one might seem to contradict what I said earlier, but all things being equal, I tend to play lower intelligence creatures as tending to attack the thing that hurt them last. They bit the wizard last round, but the paladin just sank a spear into their flank, so they turned to face the heavily armed paladin. Never mind that they could probably kill the wizard in a couple good solid hits, that isn't weighed into their calculus. The thing behind them made them go ouchie, so

thing behind them needs to feel ouchie back. If I'm running lower intelligent enemies when they're surrounded by multiple foes, I'll sometimes roll randomly to see who they attack. If they aren't specifically driven to drop an enemy as fast as possible, I'll let them snap or claw or spear whatever enemy catches their eye for that given attack. This means that enemies spread their attacks out across multiple PCs and the PCs survive even longer. Now, motivations for combat are always important to keep in mind. I'm going to speak in very broad terms here because I have an entire episode dedicated to this next week. They may want to eat what they're fighting. They may be protecting an area. They may want to prove that

they're stronger or they're afraid or they react and fight in certain ways out of self-preservation. Admittedly, I'm not going to have a comprehensive list, but you could add by accident. You could add others. I'm going to talk about this a lot next week, so tune in for that. Before I leave lower intelligence, though, I want to switch over to mindless creatures for a minute. Mindless creatures are usually raw read and react, input stimulus leading to action. They are borderline objects. They have no memory, no higher learning capability, but they do understand what they can do, just not those of others. Think of oozes and constructs and even some undead that are listed as completely

mindless, maybe with an intelligence score of zero. They have a hunger or hatred and they will react to stimulus that supports that. Mindless undead, for example, tend to hate the living. So if they're not controlled, they will attack the living that they see close to them. A lot of oozes simply want to consume. They will react to whatever method they have of sensing potential prey, like sense or motion sense or tremor sense or whatever they have, and move or lunge to eat it. They're not considering possible alternatives or the fact that they just killed something five minutes ago and are in the middle of eating that. They are, sorry to use the example again, but very simple computer

programs. Living thing within 60 feet equals I'ma go stab it or pseudopod it or whatever. Low intelligence creatures are relatively easy to run in combat. Now what I spend more time on when I'm preparing are highly intelligent creatures. Intelligent creatures are those with a relatively high intelligence, you know 12 to 15 ish for a score or a modifier of plus one to plus two. These creatures are smarter than the average human and understand the concept of advantage when they attack. They use smart tactics. They generally won't leave a position of cover or advantage unless they have to, like to rescue a fallen ally, retreat from the battle, or to take advantage of a better position they could occupy. They look for opportunities for a tactical advantage.

They will flank or put their opponents off guard whenever possible. Melee combatants will work together to move to the opposite side of opponents, or will use maneuvers to put the creature they're attacking at a disadvantage, like tripping them. They have a general capability to recognize dangerous combatants, and will focus fire to knock one of the PCs unconscious. They will use ranged allies to their advantage, firing from long range if the PCs don't have a lot of long range options to counter it, and flipping that script, if your game system gives ranged attackers a disadvantage or penalty while in melee, if they have primarily melee fighters, they will close to melee the dangerous ranged weapon users and spellcasters as soon as possible.

They are smart. They will gang up on enemies to bring them down faster. That doesn't mean it automatically kills them, but they do try to knock them unconscious. They will set traps around their base to get an alarm when someone is sneaking around, and maybe even hopefully damage their foes badly before they have to engage with them in lethal combat. Intelligent enemies will choose to fight where they have an advantage. Classic example, kobold warrens. Kobolds are smart combatants who use their smaller size to their advantage. Even in their description in the monster manual, it says that warrens are built just high enough for kobolds to walk upright, while medium-sized creatures will

have to crouch, squeeze, and would be easier to hit. They also fight at choke points where only one PC can get to them, but three or maybe even six kobolds can attack the PC back. If there's a support creature that heals their allies or boosts their allies capabilities, intelligent combatants will recognize this and try to take them out to make the more dangerous opponents even easier to kill. And intelligent combatants work together, with frontline fighters blocking the way to the squishier healers or arcane casters behind them. Now, let's shift gears to highly intelligent creatures. Now, when I say highly intelligent, think 16 intelligence score or plus 3 modifier or higher.

Think 16 intelligent score or plus 3 modifier or higher. These creatures can think and plan and scheme and are in many ways the opposite of the list for low intelligent creatures I mentioned earlier. Think creatures like vampire lords, dragons, storm giants, and mind flayers. Highly intelligent creatures are prepared well ahead of time. They do all the things I talked about for intelligent creatures, and they've thought about fights and planned accordingly. They have contingencies, and sometimes contingencies for that. For example, dragons in their lairs. Most dragons are highly intelligent, and not only have their lair memorized, they've created locations that give them a tactical advantage. High ledges that they can fly to.

Secret entrances that they don't even tell their minions about. Traps that they know by heart and can bypass at will. Or one of my favorite tricks, traps that don't affect them, but would do harm to any do-gooders trying to break in. For example, some sort of lich that has a lair with a necrotic damage trap. It doesn't affect them at all.

It doesn't affect their minions at all. But a party wandering in, they're going to take serious damage from it. Another thing I think about with highly intelligent creatures is that I start using tips that I learned playing chess. I love playing chess with my son and with others. I'll play highly intelligent creatures on a battle mat like I do chess. I will try to set up scenarios where big bads or their minions will threaten more than one creature at a time without being flanked itself, without giving up some sort of advantageous position.

So it forces the party to decide who they want to protect or give a bonus to when they can't protect everyone. Do they try to save the fallen paladin or do they try to protect or give a bonus to when they can't protect everyone. Do they try to save the fallen paladin, or do they try to drop the enemy minions, and which one would be better? I'm not going to tell you. You make the call. And at last, we're going to come to my most controversial tip, especially with highly intelligent enemies. Creatures at this intelligence range have capabilities beyond those that most of us have, and have processing capabilities that are likely beyond what most of us can mimic behind the screen. So, how do you roleplay creatures of incredible intelligence when we're not there ourselves? You metagame, and you cheat just a little bit.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey Jeremy! No, no, cheating is wrong, and DMs should never cheat. I hear you. Calm down for a second. Take a breath. Way back in episode 31, I asked the question, Should DMs cheat? In that episode, I talked about fudging die rolls behind the screen, ending fights early after heroic moments, changing armor class values as needed as buffs fall off the big bad behind the screen, whether those buffs exist previously or

not. In that episode, I made the case that GMs can't cheat, since they are the sole arbiter of the rules at the table, and advised any cheating that you ever do behind the screen be for the purposes of a fun session and enjoyment by the player. Anyway, in this case, the super intelligent monster knows what buffs the party likely has and has plans to counter them. A bane to undo a bless. Bleed damage against creatures who can't stop bleeding easily. They're aware of the PC's tactics.

If the PCs have ever fought any of their minions anywhere, even if you, the DM, have to give that monster a little bit of meta knowledge to roleplay that monster being aware of the PC's tactics. Remember, these are creatures with IQs above like 170-ish. That's Einstein level or even higher. They live in a dangerous world, and they use their brains as well as their brawn to make it in the big wide world. They're brilliant and can use that brilliance in unexpected ways. For example, the dragon sees the players approaching their lair from the south where it happens to have a secret entrance. It would likely wait right at the entrance watching the

party. If they come in, they get a breath weapon to the face followed by the entrance door being slammed shut. And if they approach the entrance and don't see the secret entrance and start to walk around the lair, it will pop out, breath weapon to the rear of the party as they're heading to the other side, and then will dash back into its lair and close the door behind it so the party can't get in. They will be prepared for magic-using creatures, will definitely take out the healer if they can, and will try to make sure if they're going to be hit with a fireball, so will one of the other party members. And if the wizard has the ability to shape their spells so it won't hit that

party member, well, wizards don't have a great armor class, and they taste really good with just a little barbecue sauce. Highly intelligent creatures will use environment, situation, and abilities to their greatest advantage. If you are running highly intelligent creatures to the point where one of your players says, this almost feels unfair, you may be running it about right. A team of highly intelligent creatures, like a coven of intelligent hags, not only know their abilities, but those of our teammates, and will position and maneuver in ways to maximize not only their ability to be effective on the battlefield, but those of their allies as well. Keith Amon of the amazing blog The Monsters Know What They're Doing has a great article on intelligent monster tactics. I've put a link to it in the resources for the episode. Go give that

a read. It expands on this whole topic a lot more than I have time to in 20 minutes. Combat shouldn't feel samey. Fighting a Mind Flayer and fighting a Minotaur should feel like vastly different fights. One of the ways you can vary your combat is the way you handle smart creatures and dumber creatures. Let them react to combat differently, take different tactics, and be prepared in different ways, and I'll bet you and your players would have fun doing it. Do you like this podcast? I really hope so. And if you do, please tell your friends about it or help me spread the word on social media. Don't forget to use the coupon code TAKING20 at the 3D Crafts & Curio Etsy shop for 20% off your entire order.

The links in the resources or go to etsy.com and search for 3D Crafts & Curios. Tune in next week when I'm going to continue my thoughts on enemy tactics, this time talking about how enemy motivation can dramatically affect the way the combat flows and ends. But before I go, I want to thank this week's sponsor, Massages. I love going to get a massage from a professional. It's nice to feel needed. I know, I know, it's a bad joke and I apologize. I couldn't find a happy ending joke. This has been episode 203, The Differences in Running Smart and Dumb

Enemies. My name is Jeremy Shelley and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media Production. Copyright 2023. References to game system content are copyrighted by their respective publishers.