A dragon can outwit a party of adventurers. Can you?

[WyzardWhately]

Tactical ability is a learned skill, not something innate. Some people are more or less talented, but rarely should a GM have a problem of being totally incompetent. If you're just bad, then *practice.* Start Q&A threads, watch what happens in fights and learn from them. In other words, the answer is to get better. You may find the Art of War is actually a pretty useful text for this endeavor, I know that I did.

But, as said above, if you're really, really bad, to the point where you just can't learn to do it, just run a different game. I mean, if you're bad at tactical combat, don't run a tactical combat game. The same way that if you're bad at mysteries, don't run a mystery game. I don't see why this is so difficult of an idea.

 

[italianranma]

I'm sorry if somebody mentioned this already. You've been giving some pretty sound advice on how to make the encounters more challenging, but you're forgetting one important thing: cheating. As the DM feel free to cheat. I do all the time, and the players like it that way. Now a very important aspect of cheating is preventing the players from knowing that you are doing so.

Back to your example, if the players manage to slide your dragon and subsequently pin him. Have the dragon lash out with his tail and knock down the player about to give him the death blow. If the player tells you that dragons can't do that, then you tell him that they can, and that his character slipped in a puddle of urine.

Sometimes the rules as they're written prevent a good story from being told. Having just watched Serenity (again), imagine if during the last fight between Mal and the Operative, Mal slipped into the generator fans, or pushed the operative down during the first scene. That would suck. Feel free to bend the rules as you see fit to save the narrative. Always roll behind your screen (and sneak some extra rolls in there sometimes for no reason to keep your players guessing).

Now, a very important aspect of cheating (other than not getting caught) is to never tell the players 'no.' If they came up with some brilliant plan utilizing the rules and their characters' abilities, the buy all means let them have their fun. If they kill off the big bad guy too quickly, just give him extra hit points to compensate. D&D isn't a competition among the players, or even between the DM and players. it's a narrative.

Unless you're playing a tactical board game. In that case don't cheat.

 

[italianranma]

Oh, I forgot one last bit of advice:

I often found myself rushing my monsters' actions/turns to speed combat along, while my players had a pow-wow for each one of their turns. The fact is that they've got one character to worry about, and you've got one monster for each of them in a normal encounter. The answer: get a small sand timer from a board game, and make the players describe their actions to you within that time frame. If they can't finish what they want to do, then their character fudges his turn. If a character wants to use an ability/cast a spell, make the player look it up and show it to you (he should have it ready by the time his turn comes around). If he can't find it before the timer runs out, his character spend the turn thinking about it.

DO NOT hold yourself to this rule. That evil mastermind of yours is probably more intelligent than your players anyway and should have more time to plan.

Also, I try not to let my players talk to each other while combat is going on: it lets them overthink everything and slows the game. As an added bonus, you'll find they'll make a lot more mistakes and be less effective overall in combat. This will allow you to do more with lower level monsters.

Finally, set the mood by having a DM Fiat! gavel or some other prop that looks threatening. Use it to beat them if appropriate.

 

[CleverNickName]

Finally, set the mood by having a DM Fiat! gavel or some other prop that looks threatening. Use it to beat them if appropriate.

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[loseth]

Something I've always wanted to try:

-Each player has a chess clock which determines how long he is allowed to take for each action (so 3 in 4E).

-The amount of time each player has is based on his character's Int score (e.g. 5 seconds plus your non-level-adjusted INT modifier).

-If the clock runs out before you act, you lose your action.

This way, even clever players would make mistakes when playing dumb brutes that only got 2 seconds per action.

 

[smathis]

Something I've always wanted to try:

-Each player has a chess clock which determines how long he is allowed to take for each action (so 3 in 4E).

-The amount of time each player has is based on his character's Int score (e.g. 5 seconds plus your non-level-adjusted INT modifier).

-If the clock runs out before you act, you lose your action.

This way, even clever players would make mistakes when playing dumb brutes that only got 2 seconds per action.

That's a great idea. I'd like to give that a try too!

 

[KarinsDad]

That's a great idea. I'd like to give that a try too!

Actually, that's a pretty bad idea. This is an RPG, not some type of game show. Not everyone can force this level of behavior on their friends and expect them to continue playing that campaign. I know of at least one group where the group would vote in a new DM over something like this. It's one thing to urge players to be a bit faster, it's another to time them.

 

[dm4hire]

Definitely would add to the tension of the game, giving a sense of urgency. I don't know how many times I have passed playing Scrabble because I was mind blanking and worry about the clock instead of working on a word. Slight difference though as you most often get 10 minutes to do all of your moves; when you finish your play you stop your clock and start your opponents clock. So what might work is to use a chess clock and have one side be the time for the monsters and the other time for the players. This gives the monster the same amount of time as all the players combined but throws emphasis on working quickly as a group. One player taking too much time takes away from everyone else and encourages them to act fast for the benefit of the whole group to keep time available for everyone else.

 

[dm4hire]

Actually, that's a pretty bad idea. This is an RPG, not some type of game show. Not everyone can force this level of behavior on their friends and expect them to continue playing that campaign. I know of at least one group where the group would vote in a new DM over something like this. It's one thing to urge players to be a bit faster, it's another to time them.

Actually if you did as I suggest it wouldn't be too bad. If you give everyone a pool of say 30 minutes, which stops while the DM acts who also has 30 minutes on his clock, at worst you'd be keeping combat to within 30-60 minutes.

I understand what your saying though, but I have actually seen players pass because they couldn't think of anything and they didn't have a clock. When I was playing a ranger in a home campaign I watched a friend have his character sit down in the middle of the fight. He did it because he was getting frustrated so bad trying to figure out which mob to fight he let himself get overwhelmed by the tension of the moment instead of focusing on playing the game. I've also seen DMs that if you didn't act fast enough would skip you and if you were lucky they might come back and just give you a different spot in the initiative.

As for using the clock, it would just require a group decision and a couple of sessions getting use to it. Once you get use to it and the awkwardness is out of the way I think it would work nicely.