5 D&D Phrases A DM Can Use!
“How do you want to do this?”
Ok, I’ve mentioned it, you can smile now.
But, for those that don’t know what this means, it’s what Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer says when a player is about to slay an enemy in an epic manner.
Getting the killing blow on an enemy, whether big or small, it still satisfying to a player, so let the player take the wheel for a second to describe how they dispatch of their foe.
And you can simply say it back to them and the rest of the table, but in greater detail, to really show the strength and power behind this final fatal strike…
“When last we played…”
It is almost essential to recap the events of the last game, especially if your group meets up only a few times a month, or even only a few times a year…
But recapping the story to the group helps them remember what they were planning to do next before the session ended, and allows You, the DM, to bring up and highlight some of the more epic, gruesome or comedic events of last session.
It also helps the players and you to remember what happened, what new enemies they made, and what new allies they have for the next big battle they face…
“Do you say that in character?”
This one is probably the most common phrase on the list, because all DMs want their players to role-play and think in-character rather than simply looking at a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper and saying “I probably shouldn’t do that, I’ve got a -3 in Charisma.”
“Play the Character, not the Game” is common advice to players.
If you, the player, think that it’ll be REALLY REALLY NOT GOOD for you to call the Lich a “bone-y dead boy that lives in a rock”, but you just KNOW that your character would say it the first chance they get, then play the character and scream your insults to the rooftops and beyond…
Actually… Maybe that might not be the greatest of advice…
“I don’t know, is it?”
This one is just fun and let’s you play with the players a bit… mess with their minds…
A player can ask “Is it trapped?” and you can simply reply “I don’t know, is it?”.
It can at the best of times provide just the tiniest bit of tension and suspense.
Combine this with “You find nothing…” and you’ll have a group of paranoid players checking every door, window and wall in every dungeon room…
“That Hit would’ve killed you… But…”
This is my personal favorite, and one I use almost every game I DM for…
When an enemy hits a character, and drops the character to extremely low Hit Points and leaves them barely alive, this is your chance to let the player describe how they bend over backwards to avoid the immediate force of the impact, or how they take the hit, but keep on fighting.
I use this phrase a lot, take this example:
A barbarian rages, so the barbarian now takes ½ damage from almost every non-magical weapon.
The barbarian is on 5 HP, and takes 6 damage from an enemy hit, but because the barbarian has resistance, that damage is reduced to 3, so the barbarian is still alive, but barely.
If the barbarian wasn’t raging, they would’ve been knocked unconscious…
That Hit would’ve killed them, but because of their sheer strength they take the mighty blow and throw it off as if it were mere scratch across the chest, and with their own primal anger fueling their body, they fight on…
You get the point, these phrases just sound really cool…
