DemoMonkey
Hero
I wasn't disputing your thesis Frogreaver; I agree with it. I was clarifying it for doctorbadwolf.
Apologies then. I read it the wrong way.I wasn't disputing your thesis Frogreaver; I agree with it. I was clarifying it for doctorbadwolf.
That's an excellent question. I think a game can have a bit of both - but I think it will almost certainly lean heavily toward sport or heavily toward war.Do the PCs always treat "combat as war?"
But in a combat as war style game - notice the same question is seldom/never asked about the PC's - 'do they know if the monsters/enemies are coming'For me, how the opponents react has more to do with the specific situation: Do they know the PCs are coming?
It feels like you are trying to pit me into the corner of not having any of these things matter and of course they do. But the general philosophy of combat as war behavior will still tend to have different tactics than the same set of parameters with combat as sport behavior.What is their goal (both monsters and PCs)? How intelligent are they? How committed? How long do they have to plan? What defenses or useful terrain exists? Do they have a personal motive in combatting the PCs? Is a strong leader present? And so on. . . than it does some abstract idea of "Combat as war."
Not so much in a true combat as war playstyle.Similarly, there are a ton of questions PCs have to ask themselves about the situation to determine their approach, attitude, and goals.
The premise of the thread would be that you use them sparingly then, because if you actually had enemies attempt to regularly use them on the PC's then their would be no more PC's.In my D&D campaigns, enemies sometimes absolutely treat combat as war.
I had a fleet of ships ambush the players and engage them in a naval battle.
I had an enemy pretend to be an ally of the party, seperate them, and then have a small squad of guards attempt to arrest each one of them, while chaining their ships and having their crew imprisoned.
I use war tactics against the players all the time.
The claim is that monsters always act a specific way. This claim is completely, and utterly false.There is no situation in which the behaviour of the monsters is not DM fiat. The monsters aren't actually, y'know. Real.
What was your point?
Not so much in a true combat as war playstyle.
The term "combat as war" comes from this post, referring (to put it simply) to the idea that characters will approach a potential battle with the intent of leveraging every possible advantage before the fighting starts, in order to maximize their chances of crushing their enemies while minimizing their chances of taking any sort of return fire.Can you elaborate? I’ve no idea what on Earth you mean by most of that.