D&D (2024) Is Combat Tedious on Purpose?

[AlViking]

I like a heavy mix of combat in my games depending on the group. I don't think people thought it was tedious in the game yesterday with the dinosaurs decided to cut their losses and just run away while carrying off the character that they had grappled. It took some quick thinking like the sorcerer using distant spell to be able to hit the dino running away at 50 feet per round. The wizard actually found a use for his grease spell when he stopped a different dino from being able to flee.

About the only thing tedious we hit was the fact that there are too many people in that group with 8 players. But it's a family game so I'm kind of stuck with it.

As far as designed for VTT? Nah.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Oh god yes.

I admit having player other systems and even old D&D eds colors my opinion. Old School is "I attack it. I hit. Damage." Next player. There is just far to much going in in modern D&D combat.

Also lets talk about Shadowrun and combat systems.....

 

[Distracted DM]

I for one think that VTTs are actually a great way for WotC to add complexity back into D&D. As a 3.5e fan, I would love for a VTT that has built-in tools to handle things like resource management and more simulation-like combat rules. I really hope that using computer assistance becomes a way for D&D to support a higher degree of complexity without sacrificing speed of play.

However, I also think think that this inevitably leads to place where the rules for D&D as a tabletop game and D&D as a VTT game will start to diverge. What's good for theatre-of-the-mind or minis is not necesarily good for VTTS. And there's no easy way to deal with that issue. WotC is currently trying maintain users on all all sides of the fence. Time will tell how much that succeeds, and how long they can successfully straddle.

Yeah, you're either designing for a game that people are playing at a table, with their heads and paper sheets, or you're designing for a game where most of the hard work is being handled by computers over a server etc. I guess that's more heavily looking at it like a video game-lite?

 

[The Firebird]

Then just say something like..

"After a quick skirmish, the goblins lie dead at your feet. You took 10 damage in the exchange and the wizard used one of his slots".

Or use one of the more story oriented games. D&D is the biggest, but not the only one out there.

I'm not a big fan of story games, because they tend to be more about constructing a narrative than playing a game. What I want is 'game' mechanics (you are interacting with a fixed world) while having rapid combats (so those interactions are the focus). Old-school D&D does what I want though.

 

[Piperken]

...Is combat in 5th edition tedious? After a few weeks of running it with the players moving from levels 1 through 4, I can safely say, yes, combat is a bit tedious. Between movement, bonus actions, actions, and keeping track of everything, including spell effects and weapon masteries, I'm finding combat, something that should be the highlight of D&D, to be a grind...

Where some mentioned already that finding combat to be this way, is somewhat dependent on table and players to a degree prompted me to think more on this.

When I was an active player/DM, I had much longer blocks of time available to game; say like, 4-6+ hours depending. Did combat take as long to resolve as now? Probably. I didn't seem to mind if it did, likely because I enjoyed it, the sentiment of the table etc. Fun makes time go wibbly-wobbly and all that.

Now I am in a different place. I do not have long blocks of time to game; more like 2-4 hours at best. I'm personally more finicky over what I may want out of combat. I find when I run 5E (2014), I use a collection of tips like, roll initiative for monsters in set piece encounters beforehand! Which, yes, is helpful.

Yet I'm unable to shake the sense that I didn't have to do this in the past.

 

[Horwath]

I do not find combat tedious, but sometimes I do find character actions repetitive simply as character, especially low levels really lack any real options in combat

so one houserule addition to classes:
martial classes:
barbarian, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, rogue get free battlemaster subclass, starting at 1st level with d6 dice, knowing two maneuvers and having 3 dice, from 3rd level as normal battlemaster.

magic classes:
bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, wizard get metamagic feature, 1 pt per class level, 1 option known at levels 1,5,9 and 13.

 

[Quickleaf]

One observation I can make of 5e is that once you reach the tipping point (where it becomes moooostly clear which side will be victorious), the system can overstay its welcome due to hit point bloat.

There are good reasons for HP bloat, such as giving a buffer for climactic monsters so they don’t drop before they can do something scary/threatening/cool. It preserves tension.

A “working within constraints of the system” solution might be mid-combat / bloodied triggered features that up the damage once that tipping point is reached.

 

[Distracted DM]

One observation I can make of 5e is that once you reach the tipping point (where it becomes moooostly clear which side will be victorious), the system can overstay its welcome due to hit point bloat.

There are good reasons for HP bloat, such as giving a buffer for climactic monsters so they don’t drop before they can do something scary/threatening/cool. It preserves tension.

A “working within constraints of the system” solution might be mid-combat / bloodied triggered features that up the damage once that tipping point is reached.

One thing that's been considered for a long time has been upping damage and lowering HP on monsters. I never had the drive to try it til I saw that mike mearls said he did it in his home games.

I think it's a worthwhile change; about 30% more damage, and 30% less health. The higher damage ups the tension a bit for the party as well. Someone on the A5E FoundryVTT Discord is a macro master and was kind enough to make one that works for most monsters (not spells etc).

 

[DragonLancer]

I think it's a worthwhile change; about 30% more damage, and 30% less health. The higher damage ups the tension a bit for the party, as well.

This is what I've noticed with my first 2024 campaign, and the party only just hit 5th. Lower hit points means fights don't drag on too much but the characters (and their players) do feel more threatened, and it has made fights all the more enjoyable for it.

 

[MGibster]

@MGibster Have you noticed the 2024 rules leading to more tedious combats than the 2014 rules? (asking because I haven't touched 2024)

It's been a few years, so I'm not sure. I think adding weapon mastery didn't help, and I do have to give some of the blame to a few of my players who still don't really know what their characters can do even after weeks of playing. All of them, except for one, is playing the game almost entirely using D&D Beyond which I think is another factor slowing combat down. But another problem is the frequency at which PCs can take rests. Combat isn't really much of a resource drain which kind of lends to it becoming tedious.