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Message: <blockquote data-quote="touc" data-source="post: 9833344" data-attributes="member: 19270">Diversifying combat goals (e.g. protect that NPC for 10 rounds, DPR doesn't matter so much as protective abilities), or as you propose change combat mechanics can shift combat strategies but likely at the cost of longer combat encounters. The longer the combats, the less roleplay / exploration you get in. Combined with "dead enemies can't deal damage" and it's built in for players to maximize DPS. For most random encounters and "routine" battles, the slugfest is expected.For combat mechanics, brainstorming:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Boost the effectiveness of DOTs and debuffs to make them more appealing. Consider boosting some, not all, special attacks to be extra lethal (e.g. AD&D days when wyvern poison was save or die).  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make up some new abilities for supervisor/leader enemies, such as "once per round block a single [insert type like melee attack, targeted spell, ranged attack, etc.] you can see, declared before the damage is rolled. You take no damage." There was a class of enemies in my Dragon Age campaign (3d6 system instead of d20) that had this. I also did the next redesign as a major complaint of the system was HP bloat and the extended combat slugfests that resulted:</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cap PC hit points. Reduce "minion" hit points to 50% and increase their # in combat. Keep bosses / leaders 100%. Capping PC hit points in some way could completely wreck a campaign if done wrong (it might take some experimentation), but it would also push characters to invest in a combination of offensive and defensive capabilities.</li> </ul>For encounters:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I've posted in the past a list of 20+ alternative objectives in combat other than beating the other guy's HP down. <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/creative-combat-objectives-other-than-kill-em-all.241614/" target="_blank">So did this community many years ago. </a></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you can make a quick reference sheet with a list of 20+ of combat alternative objectives or complications, you can spice up combats with a quick glance. Not every encounter is or should be a special "king of the hill" or "capture the flag." Sometimes there's simply orcs in the next chamber that need to die before you can move further into the castle. Even so, I like things like alarm bells, horns, etc. Someone is going to ring that bell, and you probably don't have the DPS to kill them all. But, do you have something else? (spells to silence, cut the cord, etc.) By inserting little tokens like this, diversity in spells and abilities that do more than raw DPS might be useful. <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/creative-combat-objectives-other-than-kill-em-all.241614/" target="_blank"> </a></li> </ul></blockquote>

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