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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 4748461" data-attributes="member: 44797">For me, I'm pretty bad at combat tactics as well.  I finally found there are just 5 things that help me to do much better:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Actually read the monster notes in each module.  My habit (for the first year I got back into DMing) was to skim the stat block and then initiate combat.  Instead, I found that I needed to read the whole monster description, even if it was a monster I assumed I knew.  Modules, at least, often offer tactics such as "they won't swarm until the player is separated from the group" or "they unleash a volley of arrows and flee."  These things, along with seeing the magic items that are unique to each critter, help to paint a better picture of what they can do in the current situation.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Assume monsters want to live.  "They fight to the death" is absurd.  How often does any creature do that in real life?  Death only happens when overwhelming forces leave cornered enemies with no choice but to go down swinging.  Once I understood this, it helped me to realize that most NPCs would have something as a token gesture for escape -- a potion of invisibility, the Expeditious Retreat spell, some kind of polymorph spell that allows unusual escape (burrowing, flying, swimming), or even just a back door.  Even if the token gesture fails (I can't tell you how bummed I was to see my players use the Scent feat to track down an invisible enemy), players will often mistake "he's getting away" for "he was tough and/or tactically adept."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Remember that encounters are interconnected.  Sometimes the bad guy that got away tells all his friends.  Sometimes even when no enemy gets out alive, combat is loud enough to alert... pretty much everyone.  And then there is a reckoning.  It isn't always that the players get a surprise round.  Ambushes & makeshift traps can be something of a surprising consequence.  Enemies with that advantage can come off as especially dangerous, even if the rest of combat is ordinary.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Start using copies of my own PCs.  I didn't think about this at first, but every character that is discarded by players, and every character I ever used when I was a player, has more time and consideration given to it than a dozen generated NPCs.  These player character sheets are usually optimized for something cool, even if the player has never been a min/maxer.  Pitting players against other players -- even if those enemy players are now just NPCs -- is very dangerous, because you're talking about characters that are intended to typically win combat.  What happens when 2 characters of equal ability fight each other?  It's tense.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Use feats, spells, and special abilities first.  This is the real-world equivalent of puffing up and using a show of force to scare off enemies.  Besides, in mid-combat, you may forget all the subtle features of a creature.  So make that first round or two scripted a little bit, in the sense that you pre-determine what the first/second attack will be.  Don't "wing it" until you get things humming along.  For example, if the enemy is a spider, get that spider climbing walls so that only ranged combat hits.  Or if the enemy is a vargouille, don't engage until the shriek attack has been made.  I typically put a mini post-it note next to each monster's stat block, with the 1st/2nd attacks noted.</li> </ol></blockquote>

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