Radiating Gnome
Adventurer
Excellent article -- I've been thinking along some of the same lines, but of course you've said it better.
I think an important part of the sensation of grind is a lack of mobility. It feels like grinding when the combatants are just standing toe to toe and trading blows.
So, I would suggest a stronger emphasis on the non-monster elements of a combat to help reduce the sensation of grind in combat. It has been my experience that interesting, dangerous, and tactically usable terrain goes a long way to help make combat interesting. If there is an area of high ground, a few holes you can drop enemies into, magic circles or other environmental effects that add combat potency -- those all help give the players an additional thing to concentrate on other that trading blows. You've mentioned it, of course, but it has been my experience that the worst encounters I've written either had nothing at all to make the battlefield interesting, or had terrain and environmental effects designed to eliminate the PCs ability to maneuver.
For instance, I had a battle take place on the deck of a ship in a storm -- because of the rain and heaving ship, every square was difficult terrain. This one environmental effect turned the entire battle into a grind, because no one could move. Instead of swashbuckling, they were wading in mud.
-j
I think an important part of the sensation of grind is a lack of mobility. It feels like grinding when the combatants are just standing toe to toe and trading blows.
So, I would suggest a stronger emphasis on the non-monster elements of a combat to help reduce the sensation of grind in combat. It has been my experience that interesting, dangerous, and tactically usable terrain goes a long way to help make combat interesting. If there is an area of high ground, a few holes you can drop enemies into, magic circles or other environmental effects that add combat potency -- those all help give the players an additional thing to concentrate on other that trading blows. You've mentioned it, of course, but it has been my experience that the worst encounters I've written either had nothing at all to make the battlefield interesting, or had terrain and environmental effects designed to eliminate the PCs ability to maneuver.
For instance, I had a battle take place on the deck of a ship in a storm -- because of the rain and heaving ship, every square was difficult terrain. This one environmental effect turned the entire battle into a grind, because no one could move. Instead of swashbuckling, they were wading in mud.
-j