How did you avoid spamming attacks in 3e combat?

[FireLance]

Usual "don't turn this into an edition war" caveat.

One of the more common complaints that I've noticed about 4e is that the PCs end up using the same powers over and over again.

What I'm curious to know is, how did you avoid spamming attacks in 3e combat, especially if you were not a spellcaster of some sort? I know that theoretically, you could bull rush, disarm, trip, fight defensively, etc. but how varied were the PCs' combat actions in actual gameplay?

Do you think that the perception of spamming was avoided simply because the fights lasted fewer game rounds due to the base assumption of 4 PCs vs. 1 equal-CR monster as a standard encounter?

 

[Vegepygmy]

I know that theoretically, you could bull rush, disarm, trip, fight defensively, etc. but how varied were the PCs' combat actions in actual gameplay?

For me, very. I've always been kind of puzzled by those people who say 3E fighter-types just stand there and full attack every round. Our combats never look like that.

 

[DandD]

Do you think that the perception of spamming was avoided simply because the fights lasted fewer game rounds due to the base assumption of 4 PCs vs. 1 equal-CR monster as a standard encounter?

Yepp. And we use Tome of Battle for 3rd edition combat, because doing full-attacks all the time is boring, and all the other options are suboptimal. Our battles only last 2 rounds (3 rounds, if some miss with their one attack), and they're against one enemy with many hundred hitpoints, so that the monster isn't toasted in one round.

 

[AllisterH]

Combat didn't last as long is the big thing.....With the usual 4 PCs versus 1 monster, most characters would only get 2-3 rounds of action, thus not being able to spam the same attack.

 

[Jack99]

Yepp. And we use Tome of Battle for 3rd edition combat, because doing full-attacks all the time is boring, and all the other options are suboptimal. Our battles only last 2 rounds (3 rounds, if some miss with their one attack), and they're against one enemy with many hundred hitpoints, so that the monster isn't toasted in one round.

Sounds like an awesome variety in your combats.

 

[DandD]

It helps if you're a swordsage, with some hundred maneuvers which you have to choose from, or a crusader where his attacks are decided randomly. As a warblade, you do have quite few maneuvers, but with that one feat, you can at least change all readied stuff before-hand... I just need to find a way to use Wolf-climbs-the-Mountain.

Of course, we wing the stuff with healing during combat, because nobody wants to play a cleric, and healing is after the combat with pseudo-unlimited heal potions.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Games without tripping or disarming or the like aren't games I tend to enjoy. I usually didn't see "I use the exact same attack" used often, and when it was, it was usually by players who made builds built around having one "schtick."

 

[Aus_Snow]

Plenty of manoeuvres (e.g., trip, disarm) being used most of the time, and quite a bit of movement, use of the environment, and collaboration, even before trying out the Bo9S and the Book of Iron Might (and, after a good go with each, settling on the latter).

I've never seen this 'spamming attacks' thing in 3e or other d20/OGL games. Not trying to claim it doesn't happen elsewhere - evidently, it does - but yeah, IME and all that.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I never had a particular problem with doing nothing but full attacks each round as a 3e fighter - after all, I was doing a LOT of damage as the DM ran a "fighter-friendly" game.

(By which I mean, lots of melee based foes, few fliers or weird monsters, even at levels 14 - 17, at which point the game ended).

 

[I'm A Banana]

Some of the harder monster immunities helped, too.

If the critter barreling down on you had DR 15 that you couldn't really pierce, then tripping it or disarming it became a more valid tactic, even if you had to take some damage (especially with "full BAB").

Because everything is supposed to be fully effective in 4e, there's less reason to do other stuff -- doing the same attack round after round is kind of encouraged, since there's usually no reason NOT to (unless for some reason the corner case of your other at-will comes into play).