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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8685875" data-attributes="member: 4937">Whether or not this is effective depends on the power level of the monster relative to the PC's.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; In other words, how does the monster plan to reliably gain advantage versus the PCs?&nbsp; What challenge is the monster going to present to the PC's?&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; A fight with griffins is more interesting if it happens on steep and narrow path up the side of a cliff.&nbsp; And so forth.&nbsp;&nbsp; If all the fights occur in the middle of what is effectively a large boxing ring D&amp;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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Players need to act like intelligent foes are intelligent (and that includes natural pack hunters like wolves) and adjust accordingly.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 8685875, member: 4937"] 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. [/QUOTE]

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