D&D 5E Enemies should only attack when they have advantage (and other quick tips)

[BookTenTiger]

I would rather make the combat dynamic fun and narrative by giving each enemy a unque action useable 1/combat or maybe 2 that changes the flow of the fight without sacrificing effectiveness.

This is the kind of thing I love to plan out in advance. I definitely give my enemies unique bonus actions, legendary actions, etc.

In the heat of the battle, though, if I don't have dynamic stuff like that planned I fall back on my guiding principal: don't have enemies attack unless they have advantage!

 

[AnotherGuy]

I'm definitely not doing this for the mechanical benefit... On the other hand, these are the benefits I have observed:

1) It creates more dynamic combats because enemies are moving more and not repeating the same attacks over and over.

2) It inspires the players to try things other than the same attacks and cantrips, especially when enemies start improvising or interacting with the environment.

3) It's fun for me as a DM, because I'm not just focusing on reducing character HP.

Just two questions (and this is really for @everyone), because your OP got me thinking.

1. Do you have the opponents use the Help action? AND
2. (a) Do your opponents dodge and (b) do you tell players that they are dodging, so they can look for another target?

With question 2 in my campaigns I have opponents at least attempt to hit the dodging PCs, but PCs on the other hand may decide to attack non-dodging opponents. Then with that thinking I can have opponents ignore dodging PCs and go for the targets they don't really want me to go for (thus their dodging preoccupation becomes less of tactic for them).

 

[GMforPowergamers]

This is the kind of thing I love to plan out in advance. I definitely give my enemies unique bonus actions, legendary actions, etc.

In the heat of the battle, though, if I don't have dynamic stuff like that planned I fall back on my guiding principal: don't have enemies attack unless they have advantage!

Can you give an example where this actually makes the story make sense in the mechanics of the game...one where that advantage is not a hidden disadvantage?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Just two questions (and this is really for @everyone), because your OP got me thinking.

1. Do you have the opponents use the Help action?

sometimes. I also have more creatures use pact tactics.

2. (a) Do your opponents dodge and (b) do you tell players that they are dodging, so they can look for another target?

all the time and yes I declare the action. I have even had NPC warriors action surge to dodge.

 

[Umbran]

that would be cool. Because then the 'knock prone' trick makes them choose to either eat an att of op or grant advantage, that seems great

A more reasonable use of knocking prone:
Knock enemy prone.
Use more than half movement to get behind cover.
Enemy uses half movement to get up.
Enemy now cannot reach you with normal movement - must use an action to Dash (and then likely not be able to attack), or use a missile weapon, against which you have cover.

 

[Umbran]

Can you give an example where this actually makes the story make sense in the mechanics of the game...one where that advantage is not a hidden disadvantage?

Well, when you have a Sneak Attack ability, having advantage can make a huge difference.

When what you do gets advantage for others - knocking an enemy prone in the middle of a crowd can be a good idea.

 

[el-remmen]

This is basically how I run my opponents within the context of their intelligence, the specific environment, and what they are trying to accomplish. It works best with multiple opponents working in conjunction, tho.

Of course, "only" is a bit of hyperbole. I'd describe it more as "always looking for (an) advantage."

 

[Celebrim]

Whether or not this is effective depends on the power level of the monster relative to the PC's. In general, if the monsters needed an 18 or better to hit the PC's anyway, using actions to improve the chance of success probably is worthwhile. On the other hand, if they needed some more typical value to hit - say a 14 - making two attacks is generally better than one attack with advantage because of the possibility of two lucky hits.

However, there is a strong DMing nugget of wisdom in this in that you should always try to run fights where the monsters have interesting things to do. In other words, how does the monster plan to reliably gain advantage versus the PCs? What challenge is the monster going to present to the PC's?

So for example, a fight with zombies is more interesting if there are pits in the room the zombies are trying to shove or throw the PC's into. A fight with kobolds is more interesting if they are tossing out little terrain hazards like pots of grease, hornet nests, and vials of flaming oil. A fight with goblins is more interesting if they've prepped secret passages under the flagstones of the room that allow reinforcements to pop up at various places during the fight, or if it happens in a dim bayou where the goblins are attacking from the cover of the swamp grass, on canoes, and with 'frog goblins' swimming underwater simultaneously. A fight with griffins is more interesting if it happens on steep and narrow path up the side of a cliff. And so forth. If all the fights occur in the middle of what is effectively a large boxing ring D&D doesn't have enough granularity to its combat to model why the fighters need to move, so you need to sort of force the issue IME.

When running combats I generally do not tell the PCs whether a particular foe is taking defensive actions. When the PC's are outnumbered I do like to have some of the foes take 'tanky' actions to try to get the PC's to waste actions while other foes try to take DPS type actions to try to take advantage of the distraction their allies are providing. Players need to act like intelligent foes are intelligent (and that includes natural pack hunters like wolves) and adjust accordingly.

 

[Steampunkette]

So... I really like this as a basic concept and I wanna offer two further thoughts:

1) Dodge. Enemies who don't attack without advantage should dodge to impose disadvantage on attacks against them if there's no shenanigans they can get up to on the battlefield. Particularly if they get isolated from their allies.

2) You could probably add a lot more creatures to a given fight with this in mind to challenge the players without automatically overwhelming them, which could make them feel a bit more pressed (Since fights will go back to being somewhat dangerous since there's more enemies taking swings in addition to dodging and doing battlefield shenanigans) but also make them feel more powerful and heroic (Beating 10 NPCs in a big fight rather than 4, for example)

 

[DEFCON 1]

Wow... someone throws out a suggestion for a way to make the game potentially more interesting and thus potentially more fun, and someone else doesn't think it will work.

Almost like every table is different. I'm shocked! SHOCKED, I SAY!