This poste is for general advice on how to spice up combats because I have realized that combat is actually my weakness as a DM. My NPC's are great and noncombat DMing isn't lacking much, but when a fight breaks out my players actually get bored. I have alot of players and its hard for me to hold their interest before their turn. How do you all give your combats kick, and how do you keep the pace up without nagging your players to think faster? Any advice would help.
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I'm a bad combat DM
- Thread starter Stahn Li
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TalonComics
First Post
How many players are we talking about?
~D
~D
Flyspeck23
First Post
First : let combat take place in unusual settings.
I'm not necessarily talking about a dance on a volcano, but just the usual 30x30 feet room with a bunch of orcs gets pretty boring pretty fast.
Use slopes, chasms, platforms, walls and so on. Make every combat unique, as far as possible.
Second : Describe the action, in as much detail as you can handle.
Third : Take your players by surprise.
That kobold over there is actually a powerful sorcerer. That bugbear is a rogue/assassin with poisoned blades and a really mean sneak attack. That ogre is raising the morlae of his companions, because he's a bard. And so on. Don't just use the monsters directly out of the book. Give them class levels or more hit dice. Give them unusual equipment.
Fourth : Roll attack and damage dice together (not only you, but your players too).
You won't believe how much this speeds up combat until you try it.
Fifth : Some advice for really large groups (my own consists of seven players at most).
- make the group of opponents large enough so that everybody has his/her hands full (a single opponent with lots of attacks and at least good maneuverability might suffice)
- spread your attacks, so that even if it's not the players' turn, they know they should pay attention ("is that me lying on the floor?"). If you think that this will weaken their opponents, add levels/hit dice/more opponents.
Sixth : Show your players that you mean business.
Make your encounters tough. Let them hit the ground on a regular basis. From time to time oppose them with an encounter they can't possibly win (they can still run, though). Let someone die in an encounter if you must (this ain't got to be one of the player characters, but a friend (NPC) of them).
Hope that helped.
I'm not necessarily talking about a dance on a volcano, but just the usual 30x30 feet room with a bunch of orcs gets pretty boring pretty fast.
Use slopes, chasms, platforms, walls and so on. Make every combat unique, as far as possible.
Second : Describe the action, in as much detail as you can handle.
Third : Take your players by surprise.
That kobold over there is actually a powerful sorcerer. That bugbear is a rogue/assassin with poisoned blades and a really mean sneak attack. That ogre is raising the morlae of his companions, because he's a bard. And so on. Don't just use the monsters directly out of the book. Give them class levels or more hit dice. Give them unusual equipment.
Fourth : Roll attack and damage dice together (not only you, but your players too).
You won't believe how much this speeds up combat until you try it.
Fifth : Some advice for really large groups (my own consists of seven players at most).
- make the group of opponents large enough so that everybody has his/her hands full (a single opponent with lots of attacks and at least good maneuverability might suffice)
- spread your attacks, so that even if it's not the players' turn, they know they should pay attention ("is that me lying on the floor?"). If you think that this will weaken their opponents, add levels/hit dice/more opponents.
Sixth : Show your players that you mean business.
Make your encounters tough. Let them hit the ground on a regular basis. From time to time oppose them with an encounter they can't possibly win (they can still run, though). Let someone die in an encounter if you must (this ain't got to be one of the player characters, but a friend (NPC) of them).
Hope that helped.
RangerWickett
Legend
Hey Michael.
At GenCon, my friend Jessica got to play in a Spycraft game run by the famous Kevin Kulp (aka Piratecat). From what I hear, Piratecat would describe dramatic situations by pretending the game was a movie; he'd say where the camera angle was, and what all you could see going on at once.
For instance, (I'm probably making a bit up here) at the end of the game, they jumped a speedboat up a ramp, over a gate into the courtyard of a riverside castle, and he described the camera angle from the point of view of a guard standing beside a munitions dump at the corner of the courtyard. The man sees sparks flare on the ramp in the river, and then notices a gleam in the sky as the castle spotlights turn toward the commotion. Then the poor guard sees the bright flash of a rocket being launched from the side seat of the boat, and the missile streaks toward him and the munitions dump.
Of course, that's an odd mentality to game in, and I think I'd probably go nuts trying to think of cinematography on the fly, but it might be fun for dramatic scenes.
Other tips for keeping pacing up, if nothing else:
* Get some note cards, and write the names and a few key stats for each of the PCs on these cards. Whenever you have a major NPC, write their stats on a card too. When the group rolls for initiative, put the cards in the proper order. Matt takes his turn, so you put his card from the top to the bottom, and you see it's Captain Dramatic's turn. Captain D goes, and you put his card on the bottom. If you make sure to include AC, saves, and hps on this card, it makes it easy for you to keep track of whose turn it is while also avoiding the need to ask your PCs whether a 25 hits, and so on.
* Enforce a 'thinking time limit' rule on the players. Encourage the players to have their actions in mind as soon as it gets to be their turn. If they don't know what they want to do, move on to the next person, setting aside the player's notecard (see above) until they figure out what they want to do. Also, players playing mages should always have the PHB open to the spell they're casting.
* Try to have dramatic locations for fights, where the terrain can be used to the advantage of either side. Think of weird places you've been, and imagine how fighting there would be different from fighting in the open. Imagine fighting in a restaurant with long, semi-circular balconies instead of a flat design (I'm talking about the DUC, for Emory folks out there), or have a fight in the middle of a poker tournament, with lots of innocents in the way, and possibly money to steal in the confusion.
* If nothing else, always try to put one point of interest in a battlefield. If they're fighting in a town square, mention that there's a big fountain, or a huge pothole, or a flock of birds on the local statues. Inventive players will come up with weird ideas on how to take advantage of mundane things.
* Make sure the PCs are getting to use their abilities. Occasionally, tailor encounters for them. If a mage never has really had a chance to use dimensional anchor, have a monster that keeps teleporting across the battlefield and hitting for annoying small amounts of damage.
* Generally, fights against single foes are boring, unless the foe has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, or that foe is really powerful. Single foes, even fairly strong ones, go down pretty fast. Try mixing things up by having a few dozen mooks, one or two tough bodyguards, and the main baddie of the encounter.
* Buy a copy of the ENWorld Player's Journal, and look for the article "The Adventurer's Guide to Surviving Anything." It gives rules for all kinds of things that can happen in dynamic battle environments, like how hard it is to fight while hanging from ship's rigging (and why you'd want to climb up there anyway), how hard it is to avoid being crushed in the gears of a giant clocktower, and what benefits you can get from swinging on a chandelier in a ballroom. (Michael, if you're actually interested, just tell me, and I can send you the files).
* If the players have a crazy idea, have the default assumption that it will work, or that it's at least possible. Make it hard if you don't want the fight to end quite yet, but let them use their tricks. For example, if the villain is riding an elevator cable upward, and the dashing paladin wants to use his teleportation axe to get above the villain and cut the cable, let him, even if the axe really is only supposed to be able to teleport outdoors.
Of course, now that I've tried to give advice, I need to make sure when I get back to Atlanta that I don't bore my players.
Anyway, I've got a game in 11 hours, and I need to make stats for two dozen bird-men assassins who will harrass the party as they do research in a library filled with exotic monsters and bookcases that hang from the ceiling.
At GenCon, my friend Jessica got to play in a Spycraft game run by the famous Kevin Kulp (aka Piratecat). From what I hear, Piratecat would describe dramatic situations by pretending the game was a movie; he'd say where the camera angle was, and what all you could see going on at once.
For instance, (I'm probably making a bit up here) at the end of the game, they jumped a speedboat up a ramp, over a gate into the courtyard of a riverside castle, and he described the camera angle from the point of view of a guard standing beside a munitions dump at the corner of the courtyard. The man sees sparks flare on the ramp in the river, and then notices a gleam in the sky as the castle spotlights turn toward the commotion. Then the poor guard sees the bright flash of a rocket being launched from the side seat of the boat, and the missile streaks toward him and the munitions dump.
Of course, that's an odd mentality to game in, and I think I'd probably go nuts trying to think of cinematography on the fly, but it might be fun for dramatic scenes.
Other tips for keeping pacing up, if nothing else:
* Get some note cards, and write the names and a few key stats for each of the PCs on these cards. Whenever you have a major NPC, write their stats on a card too. When the group rolls for initiative, put the cards in the proper order. Matt takes his turn, so you put his card from the top to the bottom, and you see it's Captain Dramatic's turn. Captain D goes, and you put his card on the bottom. If you make sure to include AC, saves, and hps on this card, it makes it easy for you to keep track of whose turn it is while also avoiding the need to ask your PCs whether a 25 hits, and so on.
* Enforce a 'thinking time limit' rule on the players. Encourage the players to have their actions in mind as soon as it gets to be their turn. If they don't know what they want to do, move on to the next person, setting aside the player's notecard (see above) until they figure out what they want to do. Also, players playing mages should always have the PHB open to the spell they're casting.
* Try to have dramatic locations for fights, where the terrain can be used to the advantage of either side. Think of weird places you've been, and imagine how fighting there would be different from fighting in the open. Imagine fighting in a restaurant with long, semi-circular balconies instead of a flat design (I'm talking about the DUC, for Emory folks out there), or have a fight in the middle of a poker tournament, with lots of innocents in the way, and possibly money to steal in the confusion.
* If nothing else, always try to put one point of interest in a battlefield. If they're fighting in a town square, mention that there's a big fountain, or a huge pothole, or a flock of birds on the local statues. Inventive players will come up with weird ideas on how to take advantage of mundane things.
* Make sure the PCs are getting to use their abilities. Occasionally, tailor encounters for them. If a mage never has really had a chance to use dimensional anchor, have a monster that keeps teleporting across the battlefield and hitting for annoying small amounts of damage.
* Generally, fights against single foes are boring, unless the foe has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, or that foe is really powerful. Single foes, even fairly strong ones, go down pretty fast. Try mixing things up by having a few dozen mooks, one or two tough bodyguards, and the main baddie of the encounter.
* Buy a copy of the ENWorld Player's Journal, and look for the article "The Adventurer's Guide to Surviving Anything." It gives rules for all kinds of things that can happen in dynamic battle environments, like how hard it is to fight while hanging from ship's rigging (and why you'd want to climb up there anyway), how hard it is to avoid being crushed in the gears of a giant clocktower, and what benefits you can get from swinging on a chandelier in a ballroom. (Michael, if you're actually interested, just tell me, and I can send you the files).
* If the players have a crazy idea, have the default assumption that it will work, or that it's at least possible. Make it hard if you don't want the fight to end quite yet, but let them use their tricks. For example, if the villain is riding an elevator cable upward, and the dashing paladin wants to use his teleportation axe to get above the villain and cut the cable, let him, even if the axe really is only supposed to be able to teleport outdoors.
Of course, now that I've tried to give advice, I need to make sure when I get back to Atlanta that I don't bore my players.
Anyway, I've got a game in 11 hours, and I need to make stats for two dozen bird-men assassins who will harrass the party as they do research in a library filled with exotic monsters and bookcases that hang from the ceiling.
Adjectives! Have a few you can use, get your players to use them too as it takes two or more to combat. Use alternate words for actions, you don't 'hit', you wack, slam, pound, rain blows on, etc. You don't miss, you come within a hand of gutting, flys wide, whisles by, quivers into the tree next to you, so on.
Practice; take some time to work on combat phases. Things like: the sword swing is low, slashing toward you! The spear comes from the right, high, a burr!
Take from others. Look in books and movies, take actions and use them.
Practice; take some time to work on combat phases. Things like: the sword swing is low, slashing toward you! The spear comes from the right, high, a burr!
Take from others. Look in books and movies, take actions and use them.
Cedric
First Post
Others might disagree with me, because this is kind of a controversial method.
But I think new GM's and GM's in need of spicing up combat can benefit by bringing more gunfire to the fight then they need too and then adjusting things accordingly.
In other words, plan for a very tough fight, very difficult encounter...but adjust the tactics, decisions and sometimes die rolls of the monsters to compensate.
It swings both ways though..if the players are cleaning house, make the monsters fight smarter.
I'll be curious to see what, if anything, other people have to say about this idea though.
Cedric
But I think new GM's and GM's in need of spicing up combat can benefit by bringing more gunfire to the fight then they need too and then adjusting things accordingly.
In other words, plan for a very tough fight, very difficult encounter...but adjust the tactics, decisions and sometimes die rolls of the monsters to compensate.
It swings both ways though..if the players are cleaning house, make the monsters fight smarter.
I'll be curious to see what, if anything, other people have to say about this idea though.
Cedric
SnowDog
First Post
I've never been told I'm particularly good at combat DMing, but I think my players enjoy fights enough. In any case, take my advice with a grain of salt .
My biggest "trick" that can be used in every fight is to recap every so often everything that has happened since the last recap. Remember that the round-based action is just a way to simulate the way combat flows. Try to come up with a narrative that takes away that abstraction.
I usually recap once per round, and try to take everything that happened that round and put it in a smoothly flowing description, covering up as much of the "turn order abstraction" as I can. I rearrange the order of events to maximize the drama in the recap.
Then I go on to the next round, and recap after that, ending with the last thing I said in the previous recap to give a sense of this continual battle, not this round-by-round wargame.
Other things that work:
Inject some grim humor if your group is into that. Add some gore. Make your enemies talk to the party, and to each other. Play off their facial expressions. What are the bad guys looking at? Are they fanatical idiots? Are they calculating killers? Bumbling incompetents? Make the enemies real. When the party comes back to a room where they left some corpses behind, mention them -- including, perhaps, the way they died.
(And, in case any of my players are reading this, I know, I know. I should take my own advice -- hey, I'm working on it. )
.My biggest "trick" that can be used in every fight is to recap every so often everything that has happened since the last recap. Remember that the round-based action is just a way to simulate the way combat flows. Try to come up with a narrative that takes away that abstraction.
I usually recap once per round, and try to take everything that happened that round and put it in a smoothly flowing description, covering up as much of the "turn order abstraction" as I can. I rearrange the order of events to maximize the drama in the recap.
Then I go on to the next round, and recap after that, ending with the last thing I said in the previous recap to give a sense of this continual battle, not this round-by-round wargame.
Other things that work:
Inject some grim humor if your group is into that. Add some gore. Make your enemies talk to the party, and to each other. Play off their facial expressions. What are the bad guys looking at? Are they fanatical idiots? Are they calculating killers? Bumbling incompetents? Make the enemies real. When the party comes back to a room where they left some corpses behind, mention them -- including, perhaps, the way they died.
(And, in case any of my players are reading this, I know, I know. I should take my own advice -- hey, I'm working on it
. )Be prepared & organized. Nothing slows down momemtum more than a DM fumbling through notes or having to constantly flip through the Monster Manual.
Be descriptive. When a PC lands a big killing blow, don't just say, PC: "18"
DM: "That's a hit, roll for damage"
PC: "6 points"
DM: "the orc dies"
Say something like, “the huge beast lunges forward and you can feel the stink of its heated breath. You sidestep its lunge and your long sword bites into the opening created by the orc’s furious, but clumsy attack. Your sword gashes the creature open, ripping it from its stomach to its chest. Gouts of blood pour out and it screams in anger and pain, then surprise as it starts to gasp, gurgle and fall down to its knees and then forward onto its face… dead.”
Think of it as slow motion almost... you don't have to do that for every single blow of combat - just key points of the battle.
Be descriptive. When a PC lands a big killing blow, don't just say, PC: "18"
DM: "That's a hit, roll for damage"
PC: "6 points"
DM: "the orc dies"
Say something like, “the huge beast lunges forward and you can feel the stink of its heated breath. You sidestep its lunge and your long sword bites into the opening created by the orc’s furious, but clumsy attack. Your sword gashes the creature open, ripping it from its stomach to its chest. Gouts of blood pour out and it screams in anger and pain, then surprise as it starts to gasp, gurgle and fall down to its knees and then forward onto its face… dead.”
Think of it as slow motion almost... you don't have to do that for every single blow of combat - just key points of the battle.
