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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wedgeski" data-source="post: 2635185" data-attributes="member: 16212">You don't *need* the battlemat, but without it you're just the DM trying to apply battlemat-reliant effects like AoO's, reach, area effect, etc., on an invisible battle-mat in your head. Even before the 1 inch grid and the miniatures etc. we were using a scribbled map with various letters of the alphabet on, or a piece of graph paper with the little widgets from Cluedo or Monopoly laid down on them, for our 1st and 2nd Edition scraps. We now use a full Battlemat and a range of sweet-looking miniatures for the same purpose.Where the BM becomes key for me is allowing the players to strategize without them having to ask me myriad questions, and subsequently without me having to remember what the hell I've just said. If they see a kobold standing near the edge of a precipice, they can announce a Bullrush without me having to plant some egregiously blatant 'the kobold teeters near the parapet' into my combat descriptions. If they see a chance to split the bad guys in two with a well-placed wall of force or other effect, they can execute that plan without me having to calculate just who is where at that moment. And the same, of course, applies to me. If I decide to Bullrush one of the PC's off the top of Brindinford clock tower with a gargoyle, the player cannot argue with his PC's placement, and I don't have to feel guilty about whether or not his character was really standing where I thought he was.In other words, consistency and fairness comes with zero effort.Now you just smooth a layer of whacky narration over the top of these maneuvers, and you have an extremely well-designed game-within-a-game, a tactical diversion before you get back to the roleplaying. It all works for us.</blockquote>

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