D&D 5E DM combat tactics

[Erechel]

I propose using this thread for cooperation among Dungeon Masters, and demonstrate the tactical capabilities of DnD 5e besides feats. Let's share some tactics for NPCs and intelligent monsters to beat the crap out of the characters. I will propose 2 "moderate" tactics, and 1 "common" one. First, my favourite (used this very day with success),

"The Spinner".

This intermediate formation isolates a melee character (or basically any character without Reach weapons). At least 2 pikemen are granted with an Opportunity Attack if the character moves or tries to reach a NPC.

Note that if you are using Flanking and Facing rules all the pikemen have Advantage on their attacks, and characters from behind negate the benefits of a shield. Even if the character uses its action to Disengage and then walk away, the pikemen could still follow and isolate again the character. Bonus points if the pikemen are Sentinel or Polearm Masters (Variant Humans, basically, but any custom made NPC works). I've used this tactic today, with custom beefy NPCs called Legionarios Aliasinos, which basically have Banded Mail and halberds, 60 hit points and multiattack x2 (CR 3). They almost annihilate the lvl 6 tanky Shield Master fighter of the party in 1 round, and he only could escape by using Disengage with an Action Surge, with only 5 HP left, and then he attacked the most injured of the enemies (he has almost all their HP prior the attacks).

(Of course, this works better with a scattered party, EG tonight the companions were a rogue and a ranger archers, busy with other 2 legionaries... yes I know it was a Deadly fight, it was the only fight of the day, and there was another 2 characters on the hold, and they blew away their stealth possibilities).

Orc Guerrilla
This is a more complicated one, but again I've used polearms. Basically, the orcs start with an ambush with pikes at 35 feet of the PCs, and use their Aggressive trait to run to the PCs and attack them. Other orcs use javelins and shields, and protect the pikeorcs with them. Then they use their movement to retreat at 35 feet again, ideally behind cover so the melee characters should use a Dash action or lose the opportunity to attack next round. The melee characters should use throwing weapons or else they don't attack at all. Then the orcs move again. Clever positioning (such as the Spinner, above) could potentially grant OAs to the orcs. When the tanky characters are away, the other orcs attack the squishies with their pikes and javelins.

I've used this tactic a few times and it works like a charm if the characters aren't very tactical in their thinking. It improves a LOT the survivability of the orcs.

The Shield Wall
This is a devious one, but useful nevertheless. I, as a DM, grant Half Cover to anyone in a shield wall formation, and total cover to anyone behind it (or at least 3/4 cover). Granted, it doesn't work well against flanking, and the formed characters move at half their speed and attack with disadvantage if they aren't using a spear, but shield formation + dodge action grants a superb effective +7 to AC and Dex saves (because of the +5 equivalence of Advantage/Disadvantage). And then, polearms from behind the formation are the way to go.

Goblin Ambush
An easy one: high ground + cover + prone position + poisoned arrows. Basic goblins with 17 AC (3/4 cover) that grant Disadvantage to ranged attacks to their enemies (prone characters are hitted at disadvantage with ranged weapons). And the goblins can hide behind big rocks as a bonus action, and disengage and move away too.

Of course, they are all battle tactics that can be worked around by players, and even be beaten by brute force, but they are costly to circumnavigate.

Thoughts? Ideas?

 

[Nevvur]

Is magic allowed?

Regardless, the best DM tactic is to pick about 30-50 of something and send them all in at once. Works well with zombies, goblinoids, and beholders.

 

[Erechel]

Is magic allowed?

Regardless, the best DM tactic is to pick about 30-50 of something and send them all in at once. Works well with zombies, goblinoids, and beholders.

Magic is allowed, of course. But it isn't enough to say "Casting spells". There is no really a tactic there (at least not a creative one). Also, sending big numbers of creatures isn't also a tactic per se. You aren't really saying anything about how do they fight.

 

[Voort]

Area of Effect spells + melee opponents immune to those spells. The necromancer who sends out his zombies & then casts stinking cloud or cloudkill, for example. Simple but potent. Becomes even nastier if the enemy isn't just immune to the damage, but heals from it.

 

[Oofta]

Is magic allowed?

Regardless, the best DM tactic is to pick about 30-50 of something and send them all in at once. Works well with zombies, goblinoids, and beholders.

Particularly zombie beholders. Because who doesn't love a CR 5 monster that can disintegrate PCs?

 

[Oofta]

On a more serious note, I use a couple of simple tactics

Mounts that knock prone. Yes those goblins are annoying, but want to up their damage potential? Give them wolf mounts/allies that give them extra mobility and knock opponents prone for advantage.

Anything that flies. In my last campaign I had hobgoblin archers on wyvern mounts that would fly overhead, have the hobgoblins pepper the group with arrows or cast spells and then fly off behind cover. Especially effective against a melee heavy group.

Flanking. Have that annoying archer that always hides in the back? Have a distraction to get the attention of the group while other sneak around back.

Don't use open fields. Many of my combats take place in complex environments. There are many, many ways to use this but the archer that pops up, fires and then ducks back is an example. Monsters that attack from all sides, coming out of the darkness or from total cover. Don't give the group open lines of site, set your fights in cramped quarters now and then.

Home field advantage. Goblins are small so why would their corridors be 10 ft wide? Make them at most 5 ft with spots where even they have to squeeze. Let the dumb barbarian follow them, then attack from murder holes.

The list goes on, but basically for me it boils down to: don't always have enemies charge straight into melee in fireball formation. Split the party if you can and then focus as much fire on an individual as you can.

As always, mix it up and remember that the goal is for everyone to have fun.

 

[Oofta]

Area of Effect spells + melee opponents immune to those spells. The necromancer who sends out his zombies & then casts stinking cloud or cloudkill, for example. Simple but potent. Becomes even nastier if the enemy isn't just immune to the damage, but heals from it.

I forgot that one. Like the time I had flesh golems and a lightning-bolt casting mage. Ah, fun times.

 

[FrogReaver]

I propose using this thread for cooperation among Dungeon Masters, and demonstrate the tactical capabilities of DnD 5e besides feats. Let's share some tactics for NPCs and intelligent monsters to beat the crap out of the characters. I will propose 2 "moderate" tactics, and 1 "common" one. First, my favourite (used this very day with success),

"The Spinner".
View attachment 89695
This intermediate formation isolates a melee character (or basically any character without Reach weapons). At least 2 pikemen are granted with an Opportunity Attack if the character moves or tries to reach a NPC.

Note that if you are using Flanking and Facing rules all the pikemen have Advantage on their attacks, and characters from behind negate the benefits of a shield. Even if the character uses its action to Disengage and then walk away, the pikemen could still follow and isolate again the character. Bonus points if the pikemen are Sentinel or Polearm Masters (Variant Humans, basically, but any custom made NPC works). I've used this tactic today, with custom beefy NPCs called Legionarios Aliasinos, which basically have Banded Mail and halberds, 60 hit points and multiattack x2 (CR 3). They almost annihilate the lvl 6 tanky Shield Master fighter of the party in 1 round, and he only could escape by using Disengage with an Action Surge, with only 5 HP left, and then he attacked the most injured of the enemies (he has almost all their HP prior the attacks).

(Of course, this works better with a scattered party, EG tonight the companions were a rogue and a ranger archers, busy with other 2 legionaries... yes I know it was a Deadly fight, it was the only fight of the day, and there was another 2 characters on the hold, and they blew away their stealth possibilities).

Orc Guerrilla
This is a more complicated one, but again I've used polearms. Basically, the orcs start with an ambush with pikes at 35 feet of the PCs, and use their Aggressive trait to run to the PCs and attack them. Other orcs use javelins and shields, and protect the pikeorcs with them. Then they use their movement to retreat at 35 feet again, ideally behind cover so the melee characters should use a Dash action or lose the opportunity to attack next round. The melee characters should use throwing weapons or else they don't attack at all. Then the orcs move again. Clever positioning (such as the Spinner, above) could potentially grant OAs to the orcs. When the tanky characters are away, the other orcs attack the squishies with their pikes and javelins.

I've used this tactic a few times and it works like a charm if the characters aren't very tactical in their thinking. It improves a LOT the survivability of the orcs.

The Shield Wall
This is a devious one, but useful nevertheless. I, as a DM, grant Half Cover to anyone in a shield wall formation, and total cover to anyone behind it (or at least 3/4 cover). Granted, it doesn't work well against flanking, and the formed characters move at half their speed and attack with disadvantage if they aren't using a spear, but shield formation + dodge action grants a superb effective +7 to AC and Dex saves (because of the +5 equivalence of Advantage/Disadvantage). And then, polearms from behind the formation are the way to go.

Goblin Ambush
An easy one: high ground + cover + prone position + poisoned arrows. Basic goblins with 17 AC (3/4 cover) that grant Disadvantage to ranged attacks to their enemies (prone characters are hitted at disadvantage with ranged weapons). And the goblins can hide behind big rocks as a bonus action, and disengage and move away too.

Of course, they are all battle tactics that can be worked around by players, and even be beaten by brute force, but they are costly to circumnavigate.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Keep in mind most of your tactics assume the enemies are going first. Otherwise it would be almost impossible for them to get in the positions you are talking about.

As a player
1. Spinner is countered by using either dodge or disengage and moving adjacent to an enemy. (In a situation where one melee character draws three enemies dodge is probably the right call)
2. Orc Guerilla is countered by backing up 10ft and taking the dodge action. Let the parties ranged characters force the threat to come forward or retreat.
3. Shield wall is countered by any AOE spell. It's really that bad of a formation because of that.
4. I personally would disallow firing any bow except a crossbow from the prone position. It just doesn't feel right. I'm not sure why you mention high ground as it does nothing in 5e that I'm aware of? Maybe a DMG optional rule? Anyways, a level 1 fog cloud totally neuters those goblins. Alternatively magic missle would also work great here as all the cover in the world doesn't stop it. But if you don't want to use spells then probably the best tactic is just to rush them with the melee characters while the ranged characters ready actions to shoot any goblin that stands up or moves out of cover.

 

[Erechel]

Keep in mind most of your tactics assume the enemies are going first. Otherwise it would be almost impossible for them to get in the positions you are talking about.

As a player
1. Spinner is countered by using either dodge or disengage and moving adjacent to an enemy. (In a situation where one melee character draws three enemies dodge is probably the right call)
2. Orc Guerilla is countered by backing up 10ft and taking the dodge action. Let the parties ranged characters force the threat to come forward or retreat.
3. Shield wall is countered by any AOE spell. It's really that bad of a formation because of that.
4. I personally would disallow firing any bow except a crossbow from the prone position. It just doesn't feel right. I'm not sure why you mention high ground as it does nothing in 5e that I'm aware of? Maybe a DMG optional rule? Anyways, a level 1 fog cloud totally neuters those goblins. Alternatively magic missle would also work great here as all the cover in the world doesn't stop it. But if you don't want to use spells then probably the best tactic is just to rush them with the melee characters while the ranged characters ready actions to shoot any goblin that stands up or moves out of cover.

Keep in mind that no tactic is perfect, and the fun of them is to see how the characters arrange to fight them instead of the "I Attack" action.

In 1 you are at least forcing a dodge (that still grants OAs and only negates the flanking Advantage if you use that common rule) or Disengage (that negates OA but keeps flanking advantage) instead of a spell or attack. And ranged attacks (being them weapons or spells) are at disadvantage in melee. I've used it with enemies that actually lost initiative, but against a group accustomed to fighting monsters instead of soldiers, so positioning wasn't such a great deal to them (the melee character was an lvl 6 elf shieldmaster champion with a battleaxe, that used its bonus action to shove the same soldiers against a Hail of Thorns AoE, and attacked them. The sucker critted 6 times in that fight). Battles change, and opportunities are gained or lost.

2. That's actually a clever use of positioning. But guerrilla has the bad custom to ambush people, and note that I've used also shield-and-javelin orcs. And you could retreat to a different position than before, possibly surrounding the PCs. Again, everything changes during a battle, but orcs with pikes sound good to me.

3. Half cover: +2 to Dex saves; Dodge: Advantage on Dex saves. The average fireball does 28 damage; your possibilities for a common orc group to succeed are much higher in that formation than otherwise, and thus damage is halved (effectively 14 to everyone, and an orc has 15 HP, so you need at least 2 attacks to kill them). You could keep some orcs on the back ranks (say a group of 10 orcs in total), which are protected from the fireball entirely (total cover) this way. And we are talking about 1/2 CR foes. Then you switch positions. The characters should waste at least 3 3rd level slots to kill less than half the orcs (and a smart shaman could give them Protection from Energy or temporary HP to lessen the effects of the fireballs). You could devise other sources of fire resistance (such as tiefling guards, whom only receive 7 damage from a fireball, or a fire proof vest made of asbestos or hides soaked in vinegar -historical protection against byzantine flamethrowers-)

4. About firing bows prone, seems sensible, but you could really say that they are firing crossbows or throwing javelins and rocks, or that they are kneeling. Also, there is no specific rule about high ground, but it is one really simple situation where the DM adjudicate Advantage to the rolls as a ruling. Remember that Advantage is ad hoc, and no one will complain about this.

 

[hejtmane]

Anti-magic field will wreck players day.
Delayed ambush from second wave of monsters
Used long range sniper with sharp shooter very effective.

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