D&D General Game mechanics to keep routine combats interesting?

[overgeeked]

If routine combats are boring for the players and an extra layer of burden for the GM, just get rid of routine combats. "After defeating and evading cultist guard patrols you enter...".

Trouble is the filler combat is there to deplete resources. To compensate for skipping the boring bits you’d need to drastically beef up the boss. Which is fine, but at a certain point you’re turning the boss fight into a slog. Essentially transferring the boring filler rounds to the boss fight. Unless you want to lean into the superhero fantasy aspect of 5E and let the PCs trounce even supposedly hard boss fights.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Trouble is the filler combat is there to deplete resources. To compensate for skipping the boring bits you’d need to drastically beef up the boss. Which is fine, but at a certain point you’re turning the boss fight into a slog. Essentially transferring the boring filler rounds to the boss fight. Unless you want to lean into the superhero fantasy aspect of 5E and let the PCs trounce even supposedly hard boss fights.

Or you do major setpieces with minions, reinforcements, phases, timers, changing milieau etc etc. Ie fun bossfights. My solution was to skip D&D/obligatory resource depletion, I mostly play Savage Worlds these days.

 

[James Gasik]

Lair Actions. Most monsters only get them if they're very powerful, but you could have Lair Actions for all kinds of battles where you enter an area that could have traps, random allies showing up, or other exciting events. For example, in a recent session, the players were beset upon by Harpies who had made an aerie on the top level of a ruined tower. The harpies hurled torches and oil down at the players. The tower was also old and not completely stable, so there was a risk of debris or loose stones if you tried to climb it (which some characters had no choice about, if they were subject to a luring song). To add to the chaos, I added the following:

At Initiative Count 20 each turn, one of the following occurs (roll d4):

1- a loose stone is dislodged, striking a random enemy (edit: whenever I say enemy, I mean an enemy of the Harpies), who takes 10 (4d4) bludgeoning damage, DC 13 Dex save for half damage. If this save is failed by 5 or more, the target is knocked unconscious until initiative count 20 (they wake up if they take damage or an action is used to rouse them).

2- the floor proves to be unstable, and a random enemy suddenly finds their foot falls through the floor and is trapped! They are Restrained until they use an Action to free themselves.

3- a discarded bottle of oil suddenly ignites due to being exposed to a thrown torch. A 5' radius area of burning oil appears. Creatures who start their turns or enter this area take 5 (2d4) fire damage!

4- a broken glass under a random (non-flying) character's foot breaks, impaling them foot with glass shards. They take 2 (d4) piercing damage and their speed is halved until a DC 10 Medicine check is made as an action to remove the glass.

 

[Quickleaf]

Yup, 100% this. Even if the GM is committed to providing a buffet of fresh tactical options for each encounter (either via mob abilties/resistances or terrain features), there are issues both with discoverability and magnitude of impact. Although honestly, at this point I'd be fine if parties were curb stomping all their non BBEG fights by exploiting the specific circumstances of each combat map rather than just sticking to the same routine every single time.

I empathize with the difficulty for the 5e GM to keep combat fresh and exciting, and the desire for a one-size-fits-all house rules solution to address that.

My experience is that seeking the "one-size-fits-all" solution is like stepping into a MMA octagon with one arm tied behind your back and a stuffed animal duct-taped to your free hand. It's holding back and it's the wrong tool for the job.

For better or worse, Gygax's old quote about the GM needing to respond to superior play with even more dastardly challenges – is even more true in modern D&D versions like 5e due to the proliferation of player options. The Sharpshooter feat build has specific set of ways to complicate/interfere with it. The darkness spell+Warlock see-in-the-dark has specific ways to break it up. Alpha strikers like paladins & assassins have a set of ways they can be mucked with. An encounter specific intervention might deal with both the Sharpshooter and the alpha striker, but not the darkness+Warlock see-in-the-dark combo.

The best you can do is "kill two birds with one stone" by using encounter-specific interventions that interfere with two or more PC powers that are being spammed habitually.

Probably not the answer you're looking for, but that's my two coppers based on my GMing experience.

 

[overgeeked]

The best you can do is "kill two birds with one stone" by using encounter-specific interventions that interfere with two or more PC powers that are being spammed habitually.

Or ban them. Or talk to the players and explain how that cheese is sucking the fun out of the game. Or…

 

[bloodtide]

My three basics:

1.Environment. You want a three dimensional interactive place for battles. Avoid the flat blank places. This really does require some more movement rules then 5E has, so you will need to add some. Even just a fight on a floating log bridge across a fast moving river gives you ranged attacks from each riverbank, melee fighting on the bridge, knocking folks into the river and folks getting washed down stream. An orc tree fort is even more fun with the three dimensions.

2.Weapons and Equipment. Again 5E is a bit flat here, but you can add lots of weapons and equipment to do things beyond just damage.

3.Magic. Take the above and add lots of magic. You want "too much magic". You can have a ton of run with the ruins of a teleport terminal where each alcove teleports you to a set other alcove. Toss in a battle and you have foes running around teleporting in behind each other and other such crazy shenanigans.

For some specific rules, my players love:

The All Shields Sundered rule, where you can let your shield be destroyed in order to negotiate all damage and effects from a hit.

Action Damage is like the above except the attacker can state an effect on a target instead of the damage. But the target gets to pick if they want the effect or damage. This works great with things like disarm, trip and push. And works even better with good environments, like the log river bridge above. Where players can knock goblins into the river....