How have you used terrain to make combat more tactically interesting & exciting?

[DrSpunj]

Forked from: How long are your 4e combats taking, real time?

What's more of a problem - and I've yet to see any DM pull it off - is to *really* use terrain to make combat more tacticly interesting and exciting. 4e promised this, and yet all the combats I've seen (including those DMed by me) have been fairly standard toe-to-toe slug fests.

Since I got such an excellent response to my first forked thread I'll try another!

So what have people tried at their table (or seen as a player) that really worked well? What was dynamic, fun and really added a lot to make the combat more interesting?

Also, to try and improve everyones' games, what did you try but didn't work as well as you'd hoped and what did you learn from it?

Flipping through the encounters to date I've tried (with mixed but overall less than stellar results):

• Desert Ruins (from Skeleton Key Games) where the party was ambushed, some Goblin Sharpshooters & their Hexer were protected on nearby rooftops while the party was swarmed with Warriors, Cutters, a Skullcleaver & a Blackblade. The Sharpshooters could keep hiding & sniping which really frustrated the party until they'd cleaned up the melee mob though Readied actions were used by PCs at least a couple times to try and retaliate. The Hexer, too, was well protected until the Rogue scaled the wall and put some pressure on it, forcing it to flee.
• A large underground cavern where the party was at the bottom and had to climb up. Combat with ochre jellies & shadowhunter bats occurred before the party tackled the cliff which in hindsight was a waste of a much more dynamic fight
• A couple undead/crypt battles using WotC's Dungeon Tiles with sarcophagi, pillars, an altar and other trappings; all of them looked neat but only the pillars really played any role during combat and that only minimally. One battle had a Lightning Field which blocked the only entrance/exit for the room; it damaged & dazed creatures trying to move through it which really effectively split the party up and added a lot to the combat because of the dazed condition which was a bit heavy handed, it affected the combat more than I expected or wanted.
• A series of three interconnected caves with a stream running through the middle chamber (which caused at least 1 PC to fall prone!). More goblins with some fire beetles. Again in hindsight I think this could've been a lot more fun but I was still following the DMG guidelines & using "easy" encounters; but I don't think there were enough enemies moving around to make this battle worthwhile. A Doomspore hazard also made a showing.
• Another mausoleum with a pile of bones at the base of two stairways going up to a second level, then another stairway from there going up to a third level balcony. The bones created 3 waves of skeletal minions as 3 Blazing Skeletons fired down from the 2nd & 3rd levels while 3 Chillborn Zombies guarded the stairs. Here I think the Chillborn Zombies, as Soldiers, did their job a little too well as most all of the combat took place on the ground floor rather than up & down the stairs which is what I was hoping for.
• Another room with one of WotC's 8x8 tiles, it's the one with a ring of twelve 2x2 squares around the outside of the tile and a plain 4x4 square centered in the middle. The outside rim of all the 2x2 squares are lined with runes and I used a 4x4 rune tile in the middle as well. As a trap/hazard once each round (based on initiative) I rolled a d12 and any living creatures on that 2x2 square took some necrotic damage, so kind of a roulette thing. Anyone standing on the 4x4 rune in the middle would automatically take damage when I rolled the d12. The party was battling a team of constructs which could safely ignore it. This did add a dynamic item to the fight and I was pretty happy with it.
• Last session used the Desert Bluff tiles from SKG with the bluffs being 20' high, Climb DC 20. I put a Kruthik Controller (built on the Goblin Hexer's blinding ranged attack vs a single target) on top of a bluff and had the party ambushed & surrounded by Kruthik Adults, Young & Hatchlings. As Nail can surely attest, I did get the party out of their standard frontline/backline formation which threw them a bit off their game (periodically I believe that's A Good Thing (tm) ) but it largely ended up being a slugfest again at ground floor until most/all of the melee mobs were dead and the party felt like they could finally focus on the annoying Controller with the blinding spit up on the bluff. Taking a hint from the forked thread linked above I should have (& in the future plan on) just treating him as a minion at that point (dying on the next hit since the PCs were victorious).

While I've tried to throw some active environmental pieces in with most every combat most of them really haven't felt all that special or dynamic, not nearly as much as I'd hoped anyway. Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Negflar2099]

I had the PCs fight a bunch of harpies on a bridge overlooking a massive drop but I was afraid to really use it for fear that the PCs would die (the fall was a little more than they could take at their level). I regret not using it more but it did limit the PCs to fighting at range and it did make the battle more interesting. If I could do it again I would really play up the dramatic aspects a lot more and even have a PC lured to fall off the side.

Other than that I haven't had anything.

 

[babinro]

I do not consider myself to be a good DM by any means considering what I've read from other people on these boards. But for 4E, I've been far more comfortable incorporating more action elements in the terrain. Namely incorporating traps in battles, or having pits/windows to push/fall through and more difficult terrain to allow for potential acrobatic stunts.

I found in 3E it was harder for me to track implement complex terrain..and since most characters simply stood in the same place all day, it wasn't fulfilling to make use of the environment.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

I arranged a fight inside of a two storey water-driven millhouse. They were fighting along the rickety stairwell leading upward, until it collapsed underneath the weight of all of the foes and allies aligned upon it. In the aftermath, the forces that were weighing down against the allies inside set the outside ablaze, and the players had to climb OUT of the mill along the massive driver that turned the grinding stone below and make their way onto the waterwheel and into the river.

It was a combat/skill challenge all in one!

 

[Rechan]

My players really haven't utilized the terrain at all.

But, I had them battle an earth spirit. Every round at the 0 initiative, I had a battlefield effect; a 5 square wall would form, or a 10ft 2x2 pit would form.

It definitely changed things up, especially preventing the warlock and bard from standing back and shooting.

At another point, I had a room that was filled with a necrotic gas that filled the room a foot off the ground (so PCs could crawl under it safely). It was heavy obscuring. The room had a crossbow turret trap, two pit traps, and a corruption corpse (Which I allowed to see through the gas). So the PCs had to decide if they wanted to take the damage from the gas, crawl (and thus move very slow), while under fire from the CC and crossbow turrets.

 

[chaotix42]

Most recently, the PCs fought (another!) pair of dragons in an old sewer. Since they were facing two solos I filled the sewer with things they could use to their advantage. They were just leaving the area when the dragons attacked, so the PCs sent their NPCs running ahead while they covered their retreat - since the PCs had just traveled through this area I took a minute to hint at the various possibilities...

- Though not really to the PCs advantage, a pair of canals ran through the map, filled with chest-high slow-running water bordered by narrow catwalks and a few bridges leading to adjoining passageways. The water was difficult terrain for everyone but the halfling (who had to swim) and climbing up and down required an Athletics check. The paladin jumped down into the water ASAP and took the battle to one of the dragons without hesitation.

- I set several portcullises around the area. Each could be raised/lowered with a minor action, and if one was dropped on a dragon it did damage, knocked it prone & restrained it. When a dragon escaped from a portcullis it shattered it, so it could no longer function - passing through the resultant wreckage counted as difficult terrain. One of the dragons fell for this trick the first time while charging head first, but they wised up to the tactic, at which point the PCs resorted to forced movement. A total of 3 portcullises were dropped on dragons.

- Pressurized pipes ran through several spaces on the map, and they could be easily broken with a minor action. Steam was then released in a close burst 2, filling the area with total concealment until the start of the vandal's next turn, at which point it thinned to normal concealment for the rest of the encounter. The wizard and the rogue used these to great effect, facilitating temporary retreats to more favorable areas.

- A few barrels filled with a suspicious alchemical substance were sitting nearby. The PCs could spill the barrels and a few sparks would create a burning slick, or they could attack the barrels and detonate them for big damage (both in a close burst 2). The rogue slid one of the dragons into a cluster of barrels with a sneak attack then popped an AP and blew the barrels up for over 100 total damage on his turn. There was much rejoicing.

- Nearby in a cramped chamber was a large boiler, straining under long years of use and disrepair. With a simple attack the boiler would go off like a bomb, doing big damage and stunning anyone in a close burst 3. The blast would also destroy the wall the boiler was mounted on, creating another entrance into the chamber. The PCs lured one dragon into the blast, and the other flew in through the new hole in the wall while several PCs chased it down. The fighter, carrying one of the explosive barrels from earlier, hurled it into the room through the hole while everyone hightailed it out of there - the wizard blew it up once everyone got to a safe distance.

 

[dangerous jack]

Most recently, the PCs fought (another!) pair of dragons in an old sewer. Since they were facing two solos I filled the sewer with things they could use to their advantage. They were just leaving the area when the dragons attacked, so the PCs sent their NPCs running ahead while they covered their retreat - since the PCs had just traveled through this area I took a minute to hint at the various possibilities...

I'd love to see your map for this. Sounds like an amazing encounter.

My best homebrewed encounter so far was a simple one using a narrowing valley, lots of deep snow, snow-covered pit traps, and some monsters that weren't affected by the snowy terrain. I wrote it up a while ago in the thread at: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...s/247001-encounter-bones-beast-level-1-a.html

In another, I allowed the party to build their own campsite in a hostile forest. They could choose to camp by cliffs, move large fallen trees into defensive positions, etc. In the end, that terrain didn't play any part in the encounter. But one interesting feature was that the attackers (influenced animals) would not willingly enter or stay in a square adjacent to the campfire. The party managed to use forced movement to move the animals adjacent, then get opportunity attacks as the animals moved away on their turns.

In the big pleasure den encounter I had crafted, with (innocent) languorous revellers that would hug the PCs as they moved by, copper braziers that could be kicked over, and three tiers with sudden dropoffs... the party used amazing rolls (2 20's) on social skills to keep the bad guy and his lackeys from attacking. But since they let him live, I may get to re-use the setup.

 

[chaotix42]

I'd love to see your map for this. Sounds like an amazing encounter.

I have yet to erase it! I'll see what I can do about getting a picture uploaded this evening.

My best homebrewed encounter so far was a simple one using a narrowing valley, lots of deep snow, snow-covered pit traps, and some monsters that weren't affected by the snowy terrain. *Snip*

That's damn sweet! The PDF pushes it over the top. I've yet to really build an encounter where the enemy has ___ walk and the majority of the terrain is ___. I've had lots of encounters with plenty of difficult terrain, but not really like yours. Well, I've used insubstantial creatures a lot, but monsters that just ignore what the PCs are having to suffer through (like your yetis) are just mean.

In another, I allowed the party to build their own campsite in a hostile forest. *Snip*

That's a neat concept that can be adapted to all sorts of scenarios! Vampires in a chamber where thin beams of sunlight are breaking through the ceiling/walls, illuminating certain spaces. Let the PCs attack weakened areas to let in more sunlight! Idea yoinked - thanks!

Also, gotta love pleasure dens.

 

[LittleFuzzy]

I try and include various features, tables that can be utilized in various ways, lots of pillars, sinkholes, small pits, swathes of ablaze terrain, etc, but my players just seem to make it a rule to stay as far as possible from any square that isn't completely featureless. The only time I've ever seen them do anything besides use pillars for cover is when a warlock in a mini-adventure used Diabolic Grasp to pick up a flame snake and throw it into the pit/tunnel that was the escape route for the dragon's lair they were in.

 

[Truename]

Most of my encounters are pretty ordinary compared to the ones people have described so far, but I do try to include lots of useful dungeon dressing (braziers, ledges, torches) that the players can use in every one. I'm also pretty generous in my rulings. It took them a while to get used to it, but now my players make use of the terrain in every encounter, and they've even started using it in ways I didn't expect. (I've also house-ruled away the 'you get a save when forcibly moved into hazardous terrain' rule. It makes using terrain more rewarding and keeps the game moving.)

For example, one of the encounters in our last session had a big tapestry in it. It was supposed to be a plot element, not a terrain element, but the cleric decided to use Command to forcibly roll a troll up in the tapestry. He rolled a hit, so I ruled that the troll was restrained (save ends). Then the ranger lit the troll on fire with Dragonfire Tar and I ruled that it did +2 dmg/rnd because the troll was wrapped up in the flammable tapestry.

(That was actually a very sad encounter for me; I was looking forward to using the troll's ability to grab people and use them as weapons, and he didn't land a single hit!)

Another thing that's made a difference is having a rogue in the party. He loves getting total concealment, so the party's often mucking around with lighting so he has some darkness to hide in. This makes the combats more dynamic, and last session they got ambushed by a cavern choker who was hiding in the darkness they created.