I'm having a prevailing problem in a 5e game I'm playing in, and I'm hoping that some of you might have some suggestions on how best to resolve/mitigate this issue going forward.
Our Saturday game has a problem in combat. And I'm not sure what exactly the issue is -- several of us play in a 5e game together on Thursday nights, and don't have the same problems. Before I really get into the nitty-gritty of what's going on with this group, I think it's essential to share how I personally roll in combat, because I think it gives a good idea of why I'm so frustrated with the group now. Those Unspoken Rules are:
1. Is it in-character for my character to do this? *
2. Will it contribute meaningfully to the combat and/or allow someone else to meaningfully contribute to combat?
3. Will it still allow the opportunity for other players to have fun with their characters?
Obviously, there are times where I won't hit all three, but generally I aim to strike for two at a minimum. DnD ultimately, is a collaborative effort, and while I want to have fun playing my character, I want to also make sure that other people are also able to have fun playing their characters. If I can give them the opportunity to shine or do something awesome, I'm going to try and make that happen. (I blame years of MUSHing for this, honestly.) It's worked pretty well for me so far, and while I don't expect others to live by this (they're unspoken rules for a reason!), I tend to find that I enjoy playing DnD with people who subscribe (even unknowingly) to this line of thinking in combat.
But this... really isn't happening in Saturday game.
The last two combats have been grueling for me because I haven't been able to meaningfully contribute in combat. Because the Saturday game is being run by a newbie DM who's struggling to keep the pace in combat, even a few rounds of combat can take the entire session (and sessions generally last 3-5 hours). If I don't contribute meaningfully during one of those all-combat gaming sessions, I feel like I haven't done anything meaningful the entire game, which in turn, just makes me feel awful about the campaign in general. Here's an example from the game before last:
We're in combat. My melee character double-moves to a particular opponent who has already been reasonably injured by a spellcaster's spell. There are four or five opponents, all the same species/class, all comparably damaged. The fighter, who has two attacks in a turn, polishes off one opponent, and instead of moving to the another opponent who is the same distance away from him as the one I'm obviously planning to take down, moves over to my opponent, and finishes him off, too.
Because of the way the enemies and the other characters are laid out on the battle mat, there's now literally no way for me to get to another opponent to engage in melee without having to double-move again, and by then, with five other characters waiting to take their turn, the final enemies would be polished off before I would even have the opportunity to make a hit.
I brought up how frustrating it was for me at the end of that game session, but again, we had a similar (but different) situation again during yesterday's session, when the first few combatants (including myself) began hitting the biggest threat on the board. The spellcaster threw down an AoE on the Big Threat, I rushed in with melee, and the rest of the team decided to divert their attention to the lesser threat, which was about the same distance away, but in a different direction. By the next time we moved to the top of the initiative again, the spellcaster who attacked the bigger threat at combat start elected to join the others in attacking the little threat during her next turn and I was already considerable distance away from the rest of the party, and in absolutely no position to handle the bigger threat solo.
I'm not sure how exactly to handle this. My girlfriend (another one of the players) brought our inability to work together/work tactically in combat at the end of the game session, but given how they responded after I brought it up two sessions ago, I'm not sure they're going to internalize it.
So these are my questions:
1. Why do you think this might be happening, particularly when half the players work together fine in another group?
2. Have you encountered this problem before? How did you handle it?
3. Is there anything I can do as a player to make this less of a frustrating experience for myself?
4. Do you have any other advice about combat in general that you can share?
Thanks again for any advice you can offer!
--
* We're a very RP-heavy group, and I don't stop just because we're in combat. There have been times where my melee rogue/swashbuckler in another game, upon noticing that the paladin was on her last legs, would intentionally antagonize the enemy into attacking him -- in part because it's in-character for him, and in part because I'm setting him up for when he eventually gets Panache in another few levels. Yes, I'm that much of a nerd that I actually foreshadow / build up future character skills. Yes, I'm a nerd.
Our Saturday game has a problem in combat. And I'm not sure what exactly the issue is -- several of us play in a 5e game together on Thursday nights, and don't have the same problems. Before I really get into the nitty-gritty of what's going on with this group, I think it's essential to share how I personally roll in combat, because I think it gives a good idea of why I'm so frustrated with the group now. Those Unspoken Rules are:
1. Is it in-character for my character to do this? *
2. Will it contribute meaningfully to the combat and/or allow someone else to meaningfully contribute to combat?
3. Will it still allow the opportunity for other players to have fun with their characters?
Obviously, there are times where I won't hit all three, but generally I aim to strike for two at a minimum. DnD ultimately, is a collaborative effort, and while I want to have fun playing my character, I want to also make sure that other people are also able to have fun playing their characters. If I can give them the opportunity to shine or do something awesome, I'm going to try and make that happen. (I blame years of MUSHing for this, honestly.) It's worked pretty well for me so far, and while I don't expect others to live by this (they're unspoken rules for a reason!), I tend to find that I enjoy playing DnD with people who subscribe (even unknowingly) to this line of thinking in combat.
But this... really isn't happening in Saturday game.
The last two combats have been grueling for me because I haven't been able to meaningfully contribute in combat. Because the Saturday game is being run by a newbie DM who's struggling to keep the pace in combat, even a few rounds of combat can take the entire session (and sessions generally last 3-5 hours). If I don't contribute meaningfully during one of those all-combat gaming sessions, I feel like I haven't done anything meaningful the entire game, which in turn, just makes me feel awful about the campaign in general. Here's an example from the game before last:
We're in combat. My melee character double-moves to a particular opponent who has already been reasonably injured by a spellcaster's spell. There are four or five opponents, all the same species/class, all comparably damaged. The fighter, who has two attacks in a turn, polishes off one opponent, and instead of moving to the another opponent who is the same distance away from him as the one I'm obviously planning to take down, moves over to my opponent, and finishes him off, too.
Because of the way the enemies and the other characters are laid out on the battle mat, there's now literally no way for me to get to another opponent to engage in melee without having to double-move again, and by then, with five other characters waiting to take their turn, the final enemies would be polished off before I would even have the opportunity to make a hit.
I brought up how frustrating it was for me at the end of that game session, but again, we had a similar (but different) situation again during yesterday's session, when the first few combatants (including myself) began hitting the biggest threat on the board. The spellcaster threw down an AoE on the Big Threat, I rushed in with melee, and the rest of the team decided to divert their attention to the lesser threat, which was about the same distance away, but in a different direction. By the next time we moved to the top of the initiative again, the spellcaster who attacked the bigger threat at combat start elected to join the others in attacking the little threat during her next turn and I was already considerable distance away from the rest of the party, and in absolutely no position to handle the bigger threat solo.
I'm not sure how exactly to handle this. My girlfriend (another one of the players) brought our inability to work together/work tactically in combat at the end of the game session, but given how they responded after I brought it up two sessions ago, I'm not sure they're going to internalize it.
So these are my questions:
1. Why do you think this might be happening, particularly when half the players work together fine in another group?
2. Have you encountered this problem before? How did you handle it?
3. Is there anything I can do as a player to make this less of a frustrating experience for myself?
4. Do you have any other advice about combat in general that you can share?
Thanks again for any advice you can offer!
--
* We're a very RP-heavy group, and I don't stop just because we're in combat. There have been times where my melee rogue/swashbuckler in another game, upon noticing that the paladin was on her last legs, would intentionally antagonize the enemy into attacking him -- in part because it's in-character for him, and in part because I'm setting him up for when he eventually gets Panache in another few levels. Yes, I'm that much of a nerd that I actually foreshadow / build up future character skills. Yes, I'm a nerd.
