This is exactly why you don't want six PC's fighting 12-20 creatures in a battle. Logistics. [...] thumbs while you are trying to figure out who is where, who went last, how many hitpoints Gnoll #6 had or whether you remembered to add the flanking bonus for the Rogue given the Bard was fighting defensively.
Yeah, apart from the fact that half of those issues are solved by either the use of miniatures or because of the fact that the players should be keeping track of them, the whole point of using "squads" is that you don't have to track a large part of that stuff.
Consider what actually happens when you run that combat with 20 badguys -I'll go with orcs, 'cause why not?, so 6 orc archers, 4 orc spearmen, 6 warriors, 2 orc swordsmen, an orc shaman, and an orc commander - against the 6 PCs.
When setting up the combat, you sort the orcs into squads - there's a couple ways of doing this, depending on how much trade-off you want between speed and flexibility. I'd probably do it as:
- 3 archers
- 3 archers
- 4 spearmen
- 3 warriors
- 3 warriors
- Commander and a swordsman
- Shaman and a swordsman
So, I'm running a combat wherein I have 20 badguy miniatures on the ground, but for which I only need to track 7 badguys - or, roughly, 1 per PC. I could further collapse the archers and warriors into single squads if I wanted fewer monsters, but I am pretty practiced at running larger combats, so the additional badguys aren't really an issue for me.
Even without collapsing them, though, I have dramatically reduced the number of combat decisions I need to make as a DM; the archers, each round, are going to shoot - so that's two attacks from them - but they're all going to shoot
at the same target (well, two targets, for two squads). The spearmen are going to form a line somewhere, and not really move much; they're providng support for the more-mobile warriors and cover for the archers. Etc.
In fact, the complicated guy here is the Shaman, because he's a spellcaster - and that can be sped up by making a list in advance of the 5 spells he'll cast during this combat. While, presumably and after the intro levels, he'll have access to a lot more, the chances of him actually getting that far into his "batting order" are not enough to worry about. Having an electronic spellbook on hand can really help with this.
The commander, additionally, is going to be a more-complicated combatant, because having one-or-two complicated types per combat allows the DM to have fun. I'll spend more time statting him up and thinking about his move.
As far as handling initiative, that's what the cards are for (just use normal 3x5 cards). For the PCs, I have them fill it out with commonly referenced information: player / character name, Spot / Listen skill bonuses, their various ACs, max HPs, save bonuses, etc. This is my "I need this information but don't want to ask the players for it every time" quick reference. I also have 3 or 4 (blanks) on-hand for the monsters, and note at the beginning of each combat which monster group it represents and what their init result is. Then, we go around the table once, everyone says what their init result is, and you sort the cards appropriately. The card on top is the current turn. When a character's turn is done, you put them on the bottom of the pile. When a character readies or delays, turn their card 90 degress, and put it on the bottom of the pile; when their action triggers / they undelay, pull the card out and place it on top to show their new position in the initiative order, the shuffle it to the back as normal after resolving their action(s).
In this case, I'd probably go with 4 cards for the monsters: archers, spearmen, warriors, and commander / shaman. I could go with 1 card per squad, but that would spread the monsters out a little further than I want. I could go with 1 card for all of the monsters, but that makes the monster turns too lumpy. I might additionally add the commander to the spearmen init card, and keep the shaman alone, in order to spread out my "complicated" turns.
The whole combat, including all my notes on monster ACs, saves, special abilities, etc., fits on a single sheet of paper,
if I want to track individual monster HP (I usually do). [Made-up stats below!] Starting at the top left of the page, I'll write "Archer Squad #1," then their defense (AC: 15; T: 12; FF: 13; F: +4; W: +0; R: +3) and attack lines (CL Bows (1): +4 1d8+1; PBS, RS). To the right of the Squad #1, I'll have "Orc 1, Orc 2, Orc 3" with their current HP underneath. I'll draw a little box around the whole thing, and under it put "Archer Squad
#2 Same as 1; Orc 1, Orc 2, Orc 3" and their current HP.
Now, here's the trick to keeping it all straight in your head: lower numbers are closer to the DM (or to my left, if the battle is drawn up the other way). So, Archer Squad #1 starts the battle closest to me, and within that squad, Orc 1 starts closest to me. However the battle plays out, that's how those orcs are going to maneuver. This lets me
easily track specific damage. The orcs of a given squad will always stay more-or-less together, and they'll always stay distinct from those squads of similar make-up (e.g., don't have the two archer squads standing next to each other; put, e.g., the spear orcs inbetween them). If they "break and run," they'll break and run together.
Here's the
other trick: most players, if given an option, will prefer to shoot at / attack the already damaged monsters, especially if they were the one who damaged it the last round. Accordingly, the difference, the vast majority of the time, between tracking individual damage and "squad damage" is minimal. If you want to track squad damage, then all you have to do is total up the HP for the squad, and make a note of the break points. If each orc had 10 HP, for instance, then I'd write "Archer Squad
#1 30 HP (20, 10)", and at each break point, knock over an orc mini on the table.
D&D is not set up for efficient large scale tactical combat. If you add a bunch of newbies to that dogpile you're going to get people tuning out.
That's why it is so important to keep things moving, but also to make sure that on any given player's turn,
meaningful progress can occur. Killing an orc is meaningful progress - you can see the changes actually happening on the battlefield. Taking off 25% of a still-standing monster's hit points is really, really hard to actually notice.
The beauty of it....you can try it both ways. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.
Yeah - try both ways.
