[Combat] Tuning the Threat Dials

[Tequila Sunrise]

Some of you may be familiar with my Marvelous Monsters guide. Well I'd like to add guidelines for dialing up the danger level and/or length of combat. I know that some of you DMs have experience in this area, so I'm asking for it!

I think the standard house rule for shorter combats is half monster HPs and double monster damage. If that extra damage is in the form of extra dice, I imagine that it dials up both the combat speed and danger level. But if it's in the form of a flat bonus, I imagine it mostly just dials up combat speed.

I don't think there's anything like a standard house rule for upping the danger level. A DM can always just use higher level monsters, but this can be counterproductive -- higher level means more HPs, higher defenses, and hence longer combats. I've never tried it, but sometimes I find myself wanting to just raise all my monsters' attack bonuses by 2 or so.

Anyway, what are your methods? Do the details change from tier to tier? What would you suggest as the dials' '10' values?

 

[S'mon]

I think by far the biggest factor in endangering the PCs is deceptively dangerous terrain. Of the battles where I've slaughtered the PCs, the majority have been due to terrain. Three that come to mind:

1) Thirty Orcs are camped in a big cavern with a 10' cliff as its western edge. The group of 6 PCs had to climb the cliff and clamber up to attack the orcs. This disorganised and scattered them as waves of orcs attacked. PCs were isolated in small groups and defeated in detail.

2) Black dragon Nightshade is in a sewer cistern, ingress via a pipe with fast flowing water that opens out with a 5' drop down into a shallow runnel on the west side of the cistern. One PC scouted ahead, climbing onto the wakway at the edge of the cistern. He spotted the dragon, shot at it, it attacked.
Most of the PCs were wading around in water that prevented shifting, clustering at the mouth of the pipe where the dragon could breathe on them, trying to clamber from pipe to walkway, unable to support each other effectively.

3) Similar to (2), but it was a red dragon in an underground cavern bisected by a river, with a slippery bridge crossing it. The PCs had to cross the bridge to rescue the damsel chained to the far side, but the player of the party Rogue (Acrobatics, Thievery to pick locks) had not turned up that day... the dragon ate well that night.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=40398]Tequila Sunrise[/MENTION]

I'm not sure if your question was open-ended, or if you were focusing on *mechanical* tweaks to monsters?

If it's mechanical (which is how your OP sounds), then I'd throw out a couple things:

* Totally re-working solos intended to be encountered actually solo using AngryDM's 3-stage boss monster guidelines.
* Giving minions critical hits.
* Escalating damage dice (i.e. not constant, but increasing) for special monsters
* Replacing "Weakened" condition with "cannot spend healing surges"
* Mostly replacing "Stunned" condition with "loses next standard action" or an interrupt to end target's turn and all ongoing/sustained powers

If it's open-ended, there's a whole lot of things I do which I can get into.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I'm not sure if your question was open-ended, or if you were focusing on *mechanical* tweaks to monsters?

Yes, the latter. I'm particularly looking for mechanical tweaks that affect wide swathes of monsters. Because while things like 3-stage bosses can be fun, they're also somewhat labor-intensive. Ideally I'm looking for two dials that a DM can adjust at the start of a campaign, and not really have to think about again.

(I do enjoy hearing about other DM tricks, as S'mon has posted, but that's not the real purpose of this thread.)

* Escalating damage dice (i.e. not constant, but increasing) for special monsters

You mean like how some monsters get nastier when bloodied?

 

[S'mon]

Yes, the latter. I'm particularly looking for mechanical tweaks that affect wide swathes of monsters. Because while things like 3-stage bosses can be fun, they're also somewhat labor-intensive. Ideally I'm looking for two dials that a DM can adjust at the start of a campaign, and not really have to think about again.

Some quick dials:
1) Monster hp - full, half, etc. I recommend not going over by the book hp except for giving minions a damage threshold.
2) Monster damage - original, MM3 (L+8), etc. More damage = more threat.
3) Terrain - do battles often take place on hindering terrain, or cool-but-useful terrain, etc.
4) Monster tactics. Monsters that routinely CDG finished PCs vastly ups the threat level. Are monsters and/or PCs aware of Conditional stuff - Marks, Interrupts, etc before they trigger.
5) Morale - monsters that run away lower threat level. Monsters that run away and come back with friends raise the threat level.
6) Resting - are PCs entitled to short & extended rests, or do they really have to work for them. Eg are there wandering monsters or do they sit & wait in their rooms.
7) Encounter Tailoring - hardcoded to PC Level, or purely Status Quo, or in-between.
8) Encounter Level - how high is the default EL? Eg if EL is tailored to PC level, it matters a lot whether the typical encounter is EL+0 or EL+2.
9) Number of encounters per day. And how uncertain/variable this is.
(a) can the players determine how many fights they face, or is it out of their control
(b) How certain is the number of encounters. Can the PCs throw everything into the 'last battle', or do they have to hold back just in case.

 

[Pog]

Not 100% sure this addresses the exact thing, but if I want to dial the threat level up without prolonging combat, I just play the monsters (if appropriate) clever and mean. You know, focus fire, using terrain, picking on the right pc, hitting them when they're down, using traps, using action points etc.

 

[Quickleaf]

Yes, the latter. I'm particularly looking for mechanical tweaks that affect wide swathes of monsters. Because while things like 3-stage bosses can be fun, they're also somewhat labor-intensive. Ideally I'm looking for two dials that a DM can adjust at the start of a campaign, and not really have to think about again.

Gotcha, you want quick and easy ways to increase threat level without increasing combat length.

I stand by the suggestions I gave in my earlier post as examples of how I do this.

You mean like how some monsters get nastier when bloodied?

Yes, only a bit more involved. Something like 13th Age's escalation die but for damage, typically with an aura like the volcanic dragon. Auto-damage auras are a great way to up the threat level.