D&D 5E DM combat tactics

[Nevvur]

I know this thread is more about damage and optimization combos.

But I just want to say that as a player the thing that freaked me out the most at a fundamental level was when a room full of zombies all grappled me. Just having the DM say "and hes going to attempt to grapple you" over and over and over again.

A single grapple is annoying. But when it was 3 and then 4 on me, my brain frazzled. I wasn't taking any damage at all, but it got under my skin in a way that damage can't. I felt vulnerable and it just magnified with every grab. And then she started trying to Trip me and all I could do was scream at my party in a panic to please save me.

And if you can get a player to scream "save me" with fear in the hearts, then I think you can chalk up that encounter as a win.

Totally. Something similar happened in one of my games, though it was a peasant militia rather than zombies. The players decided to enter a hostile fortress while the main division of soldiers were deployed elsewhere. However, a large group of new recruits were performing calisthenics in the practice yard. A patroller stumbled upon the party and raised an alarm. The tank decided to charge at the recruits to keep them occupied while the rest of the party dealt with the interior. The recruits were having trouble hitting him (+3 ATK vs 20 AC) the first couple rounds, so they ended up surrounding him, then using the help action on each other to grapple and push him to the ground.

The party had wanted to avoid inflicting too many casualties. It was primarily an intelligence gathering mission for one, but I also made a point of describing these recruits as appearing rather young. However, when the commander joined the fray and started pummeling the tank on the ground, the tank called out for help. The sorcerer responded by fire balling the whole lot of 'em. It got the tank out of the grapple with plenty of HP to spare, but it also vaulted the party from enemies of the state to the nation's most wanted criminals, and I think they honestly felt bad about how it all went down.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Just noting for the record that the 20th level barbarian in my recent campaign would definitively not be killed by such a fall....but has a pretty decent chance to not even be unconscious.

High level 5e characters can be really really tough.

Really?

200d6

Most commonly rolled number on 2d6 is 7, so if we assume the average is going to match that you will have close to 100 7's rolled.

Your barbarian had over 700 hp? Is that even possible?

(12*20) + (7*20) + (40) is Level 20, always rolled 12 for hp, took Tough feat and has a con of 24

(240)+(140)+(40)

That's only 420 hp, so how did he get almost twice that?


I'm honestly curious

 

[hejtmane]

So protecting America and Americans isn't the militaries goal?

When I was in the Military we called that our Mission

 

[neobolts]

A smart dragon disguises its color when flying about terrorizing villages, so the adventurers that eventually show up will prep all wrong.

 

[Erechel]

Another successful tactic that make the players scream is an aquatic combat, specially when they are unprepared. A well placed water weird or chuul grappling a character and dragging it under water is terrifying. Specially if you impose disadvantage on the checks to escape, because maneuvering under water is more difficult.

 

[FesterJester]

I used a similar thing recently with the goblins on wolves, but had the goblins as archers and the wolves would ready actions to charge in at the same time to take advantage of pack tactics. It was fun to have the goblins pepper the PCs from across the map, then when they close the distance to be instantly surrounded!