InDungeons & Dragons, the dice tend to tell the story, while the players and DM improvise around the outcomes to allow the campaign to unfold in unpredictable ways. While this is an ideal way to play, it can lead to less-than-desirable situations in rare cases.
As a DM, I’m unashamed to say I will fudge the dice if I can see the rest of the session will either be ruined, or it will make my job much harder when preparing for the next one. While fudging dice is always something that should be handled with care, sometimes blurring the lines just feels right. Sometimes I also do it for entirely petty reasons, too.
The Boss Took Too Much Damage
Boss fights are meant to be hardcore challenges with everything on the line that requires careful planning and dumping all of your class resources. That is, until the multiclassing rogue paladin crits on a sneak attack and uses their smite to deal three billion damage in one turn.
Especially if this is during their first couple of turns, maybe the boss suddenly has much more health than they started with, and their subsequent saving throws are much more successful than they should be. This is all in the hope of creating a more cinematic boss fight, even if it takes a little longer than usual.
They Cast Detect Thoughts On The Secret Villain
A secret villain is a long con you’re able to use to set up an epic reveal that blows the party’s minds. Unfortunately, if you don’t balance this well enough, they might become too suspicious and start using spells to read their mind or force them to reveal their secrets.
You have to make it so that the villain passes their saving throw, lest the cat be let out of the bag too early. You don’t want to have to scramble to change your big bad, so any mind can be a steel cage if the campaign requires it to be, even if they have to roll a few unnatural twenties to get there.
The Trap Rolled Too Low On Damage
The party walks across a crumbling bridge suspended over a river of lava. As they step on the wrong stone, the bridge collapses, and they land in the molten rock… but somehow only take 18 points of damage after rolling all ones. If adeadly trap against high-level adventurersdeals less damage than a fighter with a sword, it isn’t exciting enough.
This also works if a potent poison was poured into a player’s cup at a dinner party, or a giant log slams into them in the woods. Sometimes the dice just aren’t that good at representing the true stakes of the encounter, and need to be rounded up in order to give the damage some oomph that the players feel.
The Heist Is Going Too Well
Once in a blue moon, the party will come up with and execute a well-thought-out and carefully constructed plan that works flawlessly, even despite the dice. In an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist with everything on the line, if nothing goes wrong at some point, then it was more of a quick smash and grab.
This is when a guard becomes suspiciously good at their job or the alarm trap had a higher DC than originally planned, forcing players to improvise an escape route or a new plan. While this isn’t meant to make them fail, it can just add an element of suspense that every heist needs in order to be more memorable.
Heists are especially hard to design. You will need to beextra prepared to handle onein your campaign.
The Monster Failed Their Coolest Move
Some monsters in D&D are known for a special attack action or thematic ability that makes them stand out from the battlefield. A mummy using its rotting fist will inflict a curse on its victims, slowly whittling away their maximum hit points over the course of days until they die or find a way to remove the curse.
That is unless the mummy is one hit away from dying and hasn’t been able to make a single one of its cursing attacks, leaving behind the potential to introduce a unique challenge to give to the party. More often than not, a beholder hitting its eye-beams and a cloaker smothering a player makes the fight more exciting.
The Players Were Being Distracted
Jokes, bits, goofs, and gaffs are always welcome at the table when friends are having a good time, but it can sometimes come at the expense of the campaign or game in general if overdone. Sometimes, as the DM, you want an in-game reminder to your players to maybe start paying attention, or something bad might happen.
Perhaps a pickpocket spotted an especially inattentive party member with juicy loot hanging from their belt, or an ambushing group of bandits picked the perfect targets chatting it up on the open road. This is much pettier than having an out-of-game conversation, but can be much more fun when used correctly.
The Villain Failed To Get Away
In a campaign with a central villain, it’s usually best to introduce them to the party early so that they can match a face to the name. Be careful, though, as this can backfire when the party uses some clever spells and attacks to trap them from escaping, and puts the villain at risk of dying before they’ve had the chance to do anything.
Not only is this the most anticlimactic way for a campaign to change course, but it makes the big bad evil guy more like a decently sized mid-tier boss. This is when the villain’s dexterity saving throws always roll above 20 and their movement speed gets an additional zero tacked on to the end.
It helps to have a backup plan for this exact scenario, such as a magic item that they can use to teleport or replace them with an illusory copy.
I Trusted The Challenge Rating
Balancing an encounter is hard enough with having to consider all of your player’s class abilities, spells, saving throw DCs, and feats, so sometimes it is quicker to rely ona creature’s challenge rating. However, this magic number can’t account for everything, and will usually leave you with too strong or weak of an encounter.
A party with Grasping Vine and strong ranged attacks will take down a Roc with ease, but struggle against a Horned Devil, which has the same CR. These encounters require more fudging than most, as the dice will constantly remind me that balancing fights is much harder than it looks.
I Accidentally Killed A Character
Low-level characters have enough trouble with poor saving throw bonuses, easily passed spell save DCs, and low proficiency on their skills without also having barely more health than a commoner. A single shot from a longbow is enough to put most level one characters in the ground, and sometimes the dice are feeling bloodthirsty.
Especially if the player seemed especially attached to their character, or if we were five minutes into the first session, then that bandit didn’t actually just role a critical hit. This also goes for when players make poor decisions, such as hoping to land in the water instead of a cliff face, and end up splatting from the fall damage.
