Ideas for things happening during a fight

[ChaosGenerators]

I'm looking for ideas for things that happen during a fight!

Weapons breaking, someone stepping on a snake, a spillage of liquid...

Things that will be memorable or interesting but (probably) shouldn't effect the outcome too much.

I've started on a generator called Something Happens! During the Fight but need more outcomes!

 

[Satyrn]

A dragon flies by, indifferent.
It starts raining heavily.

 

[Odysseus]

someone falls over, knocking down who ever is next to you.
environment hazard (part of the terrain starts doing damage, falling roof, gas leak,crumbling wall, something catches on fire etc )
reinforcements arrive(for either side)

 

[Richards]

Guh! Who farted?

Johnathan (That's not the answer to the question above, by the way.)

 

[MNblockhead]

• Weapon gets stuck in armor.
• Blade breaks off in the target (I've been listening to a lot of true-crime podcasts recently and it is surprising how many times knives break during a good stabbing)
• Disruptive natural event (dust storm, locust plague, blizzard, mud-slide, flash flood, as appropriate to location)
• The smell of blood attracts a swarm of stirges
• Solar eclipse
• An elderly, senile man with a long beard stands between the combatants just before they engage in combat and warns that they must join together to fight the greater threat of the goblin hordes, he points to a nearby hill. No goblin hordes are to be seen. No goblin hordes ever arrive. If the party is about to engage in combat with goblins, this event is even more likely to occur.
• Sinkhole opens! (treat as pit trap)
• Brush/grass/forest/building fire!
• A member of the antagonist's side realizes that the party or one of its members has spared/saved his or her life (or that of his/her family or village). Tie in with your campaign history. Member may switch sides, subtly help the party, convince his/her side to stand down--whatever the DM determines is appropriate.)
• Land Shark! The combat attracts a Bullet

 

[Imaculata]

My favorite is a situation in which the combatants lock weapons together and they are actually too close to each other to effectively wield their weapons. Their fight turns into a wrestling action, which may require strength checks to resolve.

 

[pemerton]

My favorite is a situation in which the combatants lock weapons together and they are actually too close to each other to effectively wield their weapons. Their fight turns into a wrestling action, which may require strength checks to resolve.

Is this in D&D? If so, how are you establishing and adjudicating this in fiction terms?

(I have seen this in other systems, but not D&D.)

 

[Imaculata]

Is this in D&D? If so, how are you establishing and adjudicating this in fiction terms?

(I have seen this in other systems, but not D&D.)

Yes in D&D. It will occasionally happen if the space in which the two combatants are fighting is very small, and one of them fumbles an attack. The person making the fumble then locks weapon with the other combatant, with the situation then described in his disadvantage. I then let both combatants compete in a test of strength to resolve what happens next. The result may be that one of the combatants pushes the other over the edge of a balcony, or into something unpleasant, there by raising the stakes.

I usually take inspiration from typical Hollywood movie fights, such as that fight on the conveyor belt in Temple of Doom. I try to inject tension by having these cinematic moments happen during the fight, and resolving them with ability checks.

 

[Chad Hooper]

Horse thieves, or thieves/opportunists stealing other equipment combatants might have put down in preparation for the fight (e.g. backpacks).

 

[ChaosGenerators]

Horse thieves, or thieves/opportunists stealing other equipment combatants might have put down in preparation for the fight (e.g. backpacks).

I now have image of a shapeshifter pretending to be a cute animal and hanging around party until they can make off with some loot at good opportunity