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<blockquote data-quote="Kalshane" data-source="post: 7040583" data-attributes="member: 9505"><p>Lots of good advice here. The biggest would be talk to your players and find out how the felt about the session: what worked and what didn't and what they would like to see more of.</p><p></p><p>I'm actually running the same AP myself right now (I've run it once before starting in PF and converting to 5E at the start of Chapter 5. This time I'm doing 5E the whole way.) and my players are likely entering the dungeon the BBEG is in (though not the level she's on) next session.</p><p></p><p>I assume by "playing catch-up" you mean she spent the whole fight healing herself. Which is generally a bad tactic for a bad guy unless they can heal themselves for more than the party can do in a round (A minion providing the healing works better and gives the party more choices of what to do, though I realize that as-written there is no such minion in this fight.) or have a way of healing themselves AND do something else that contributes to either damaging the PCs or granting themselves a tactical advantage. If all the enemy does is heal then yes, you're going to have a grindy fight where the PCs just beat on a sack of HPs until it finally runs out. If you encounter a similar situation in the future, I'd suggest having the BBEG focus all their attention on taking out the paladin (or whoever did the devastating attack) as quickly as possible, or, depending on their tactics and capabilities, retreat to regroup and come at the party again later when they're not knocking at death's door. Also, a nice (annoying) tactic for a divine spellcaster is to attack the PCs and then hit themselves with Sanctuary as their bonus action. Next round they can either heal themselves (if the PCs are struggling to circumvent the Sanctuary) or repeat the same tactic (as long as their spell slots hold out.)</p><p></p><p>As for "adding more RP to combat", are you talking about adding more description or more back-and-forth dialogue between the NPCs and the PCs during the battle. For the former, rather than describing every blow, focus more on describing the flow of the combat (much like the Angry GM dolphin article linked above) "The lead hobgoblin looks heavily-wounded but determined to fight on. Meanwhile, three of his soldiers are wearing down Bob the Fighter's defenses. What do you do?" saving the detailed description for big hits or tide-turning events.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kalshane, post: 7040583, member: 9505"] Lots of good advice here. The biggest would be talk to your players and find out how the felt about the session: what worked and what didn't and what they would like to see more of. I'm actually running the same AP myself right now (I've run it once before starting in PF and converting to 5E at the start of Chapter 5. This time I'm doing 5E the whole way.) and my players are likely entering the dungeon the BBEG is in (though not the level she's on) next session. I assume by "playing catch-up" you mean she spent the whole fight healing herself. Which is generally a bad tactic for a bad guy unless they can heal themselves for more than the party can do in a round (A minion providing the healing works better and gives the party more choices of what to do, though I realize that as-written there is no such minion in this fight.) or have a way of healing themselves AND do something else that contributes to either damaging the PCs or granting themselves a tactical advantage. If all the enemy does is heal then yes, you're going to have a grindy fight where the PCs just beat on a sack of HPs until it finally runs out. If you encounter a similar situation in the future, I'd suggest having the BBEG focus all their attention on taking out the paladin (or whoever did the devastating attack) as quickly as possible, or, depending on their tactics and capabilities, retreat to regroup and come at the party again later when they're not knocking at death's door. Also, a nice (annoying) tactic for a divine spellcaster is to attack the PCs and then hit themselves with Sanctuary as their bonus action. Next round they can either heal themselves (if the PCs are struggling to circumvent the Sanctuary) or repeat the same tactic (as long as their spell slots hold out.) As for "adding more RP to combat", are you talking about adding more description or more back-and-forth dialogue between the NPCs and the PCs during the battle. For the former, rather than describing every blow, focus more on describing the flow of the combat (much like the Angry GM dolphin article linked above) "The lead hobgoblin looks heavily-wounded but determined to fight on. Meanwhile, three of his soldiers are wearing down Bob the Fighter's defenses. What do you do?" saving the detailed description for big hits or tide-turning events. [/QUOTE]
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