Before I started DMing my group I was the Party Leader. Believe me, wiith that group someone had to do it 
! My character was a wizard who would insist on debriefing the team after every fight. Too many times he would bring up how folks would only start considering their actions on their initiative (yeah, sort of metagamey but it was couched well for proper roleplay 
). In most cases they should be watching the flow of battle and already have a plan for at least the next two actions. Of course no plan survives contact with the enemy so adapt but still, think ahead and be ready!
Next I would mention their often disjointed attempts to oppose the enemy. Too many folks would charge in and then get cut off. Or the rogue was busy taking easy flanks when he should be stalking the enemy's rear rankers. Etc. Of course no one likes to be criticized and most roleplayers hate the thought of coming up with elaborate attack strategies that fall apart when the bad guys make their saves or have twice the AC than was thought. The question was then how to get them to act somewhat in concert?
The answer was simplicity itself. Everyone got a BUDDY! Barring extreme circumstances each PC was expected to fight in coordination and support of that partner. They were to explore ways in which they could become more than the sum of their parts and make it work in battle. In combat it was Fighting Pairs that got tasked with specific missions("Rurk, Iklo! Hold that door!"). If nothing else they would quickly decide upon their own goal in combat and work together to do it until something else came up.
The first and primary rule of Fighting Pairs is this: KEEP YOUR PARTNER ALIVE! In battle, as long as your partner was up, it was your responsibility to haul their butt out of danger. If your partner fell, you stabilized them. If they were flanked, you moved to eliminate the threat. If they needed help you couldn't provide it was up to you to find someone who could. My Party Leader PC began to praise folks more for their actions in supporting their partner in battle than their heroics against the enemy. And guess what? It works...
People began paying much greater attention, actions were far more coordinated and characters were much less likely to find themselves isolated and overwhelmed in combat. It's simple to implement and encourages better role play IHMO. No one is necessarily the leader in a Fighting Pair, although if one person or the other wants to lead, to use a dancing term
, its' easy to work out from fight to fight. I have a pair that rock-paper-scissor's it as they rush into battle!
So far the best combos are Melee Fighters & Clerics and Ranged Weapon Fighters & Wizards. Rogues work best with Rogues but we haven't had a Monk in the mix yet.
So if your combats seem tangled and uncoordinated give this simple tactic a try. DMs, give a TEAMWORK XP BONUS after each battle for the best Fighting Pair (get's them competing!). Have fun!
! My character was a wizard who would insist on debriefing the team after every fight. Too many times he would bring up how folks would only start considering their actions on their initiative (yeah, sort of metagamey but it was couched well for proper roleplay ). In most cases they should be watching the flow of battle and already have a plan for at least the next two actions. Of course no plan survives contact with the enemy so adapt but still, think ahead and be ready!Next I would mention their often disjointed attempts to oppose the enemy. Too many folks would charge in and then get cut off. Or the rogue was busy taking easy flanks when he should be stalking the enemy's rear rankers. Etc. Of course no one likes to be criticized and most roleplayers hate the thought of coming up with elaborate attack strategies that fall apart when the bad guys make their saves or have twice the AC than was thought. The question was then how to get them to act somewhat in concert?
The answer was simplicity itself. Everyone got a BUDDY! Barring extreme circumstances each PC was expected to fight in coordination and support of that partner. They were to explore ways in which they could become more than the sum of their parts and make it work in battle. In combat it was Fighting Pairs that got tasked with specific missions("Rurk, Iklo! Hold that door!"). If nothing else they would quickly decide upon their own goal in combat and work together to do it until something else came up.
The first and primary rule of Fighting Pairs is this: KEEP YOUR PARTNER ALIVE! In battle, as long as your partner was up, it was your responsibility to haul their butt out of danger. If your partner fell, you stabilized them. If they were flanked, you moved to eliminate the threat. If they needed help you couldn't provide it was up to you to find someone who could. My Party Leader PC began to praise folks more for their actions in supporting their partner in battle than their heroics against the enemy. And guess what? It works...
People began paying much greater attention, actions were far more coordinated and characters were much less likely to find themselves isolated and overwhelmed in combat. It's simple to implement and encourages better role play IHMO. No one is necessarily the leader in a Fighting Pair, although if one person or the other wants to lead, to use a dancing term
, its' easy to work out from fight to fight. I have a pair that rock-paper-scissor's it as they rush into battle!So far the best combos are Melee Fighters & Clerics and Ranged Weapon Fighters & Wizards. Rogues work best with Rogues but we haven't had a Monk in the mix yet.
So if your combats seem tangled and uncoordinated give this simple tactic a try. DMs, give a TEAMWORK XP BONUS after each battle for the best Fighting Pair (get's them competing!). Have fun!
