D&D 5E Is D&D combat fun?

[Jmarso]

I personally find combat to be one of my favorite parts of the game, provided it's done right. Combat can be dull or fun depending on the players, the setup, and most importantly, the DM.

If everyone gets animated, excited, and looks to make combat cinematic and 'story telling' as much as role playing a conversation in town, it can be awesome. Vibrant descriptions, big arm movements, swinging from the chandeliers, and having the players describe their killshots in fun, gory detail can bring it alive. It's even more awesome when there is a genuine threat to the existence of the party, and the DM plays the monsters smart. Nothing ruins combat for me in a game more than the DM playing the monsters 'stupid' or going soft on tactics because he's afraid of killing a PC. There's no sense of accomplishment for the players when the DM deliberately nerfs the opponents and worse, lets the players see him doing it.

There is a 'sameness' to the mechanics and character builds of 5E that detracts from the overall experience, I think. The effort to create balance also creates a blandness of sorts. I currently play in two campaigns, one 5E and one 2E, and the combats in the 2E game are definitely more exciting, faster-resolving, often unbalanced (forcing creative, even sometimes desperate solutions), and always potentially deadly. Surviving them is Capital F Fun, because we know with that particular DM, the threat is real. If you die, you roll a new character using Method 1 and rejoin the party as a new guy at first level. Which just increases your risk as the campaign rolls on. Storytelling games are all well and good, but in my book, a DnD game of any stripe with no actual threat to the players is boring. This issue is one of the reasons I'm really looking forward to exploring the tweaks in LevelUp.

 

[Oofta]

I agree


Um no. No one is saying that combat in 5e can sometimes be boring in order to be "edgy and progressive." They are pointing out aspects of the game that, in certain situations, are not fun and could be improved.

Is it ok to talk about how 5e games could be improved?

Maybe I'm just tired, maybe it's a bad mood. But there have been a lot of "D&D sucks" threads lately. Or maybe I'm imagining it.

[EDIT: deleted some stuff that will probably be taken wrong. Everything can be improved, I'll just leave it at that.]

 

[Monayuris]

As a player, I’m not a super big fan of combat. It happens and it’s a part of the game, but it gets in the way of the primary focus of exploration and discovery.

The times combat is most fun for me is when there are stakes that can cut into our ability to continue to explore. If combat is an just an exercise and you end up recovering all your health and abilities afterwards then it is no fun to me. If combat actually has some meaningful effects that can inhibit us going forward then it is more exciting.

I voted “Generally, No” since this is about 5E. Combat in 5E is pretty boring. Monsters have too many hit points, you can’t really die, you can heal too easily, there are not stakes at play. I rarely feel threatened.

I used to like combat more. I used to like 4e as a great combat system.. But my tastes have changed and what excites me about D&D now is much different than what did in the past.

 

[Oofta]

Mod Note:

You’re skating close to the edge of “political” with your words, here.

Sorry if that came out wrong. It was meant to be humorous, not directed at anyone, and obviously missed the mark.

People are obviously entitled to their opinions and thoughts.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Maybe I'm just tired, maybe it's a bad mood. But there have been a lot of "D&D sucks" threads lately. Or maybe I'm imagining it.

[EDIT: deleted some stuff that will probably be taken wrong. Everything can be improved, I'll just leave it at that.]

When 50% of the poll options are negative I'm not sure why you are suprised there are posts supporting those negative opinions.

Or alternately, if you expected to see negative posts and you aren't interested in reading negative posts then perhaps don't follow the thread?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

One person’s “better” is another’s “worse”.

I'm not sure if that's true, or at least not 100% of the time. For example: I think most of us can agree that D&D has an action economy problem and that it would do better to fix this (possibly by doing something like Pathfinder 2e's Three Action System). That's not a subjective issue, there are serious, objective problems with 5e combat. Some of it is down to a matter of tastes, but some of it can get better without making it worse for other people. That's what I was meant.

 

[Lanefan]

And some of us want the game to improve for the better. The game is fun, but it isn't perfect. How the hell is the game supposed to get better if the bad parts of it aren't criticized?

Agreed.

The problem is we can't agree on what the bad parts are now and-or were then, never mind on how to fix any of 'em.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm not sure if that's true, or at least not 100% of the time. For example: I think most of us can agree that D&D has an action economy problem and that it would do better to fix this (possibly by doing something like Pathfinder 2e's Three Action System). That's not a subjective issue, there are serious, objective problems with 5e combat. Some of it is down to a matter of tastes, but some of it can get better without making it worse for other people. That's what I was meant.

Or make it simple. You get to do one thing a round. “What do you want to do?” “I want to move over there and attack.“ “That’s two things. You can move this round and attack next round. Next.” It would speed things up a lot. At least in terms of getting around the table. You wouldn’t get to do less in a fight, the round is just a smaller increment of time.

 

[Raith5]

My views of 5e combat have been shaped by liking some of the combat elements of 4e. I have also played so much 5e that I am slightly burnt out by it and my problems with 5e grate now in a way they did not in my last 5e campaign.

I like the flow of 5e combat but I would really like to have a few more tactical choices on my turn when I play a martial character. I also wish that some of the monsters were a bit more interesting and challenging.

One other thing is that I only play WOTC adventures and I am struck by how non-challenging the combats are. I can see how 5e combats could be a bit a lot more interesting if they had more opponents or tougher opponents. I am not sure why this is the case or whether it connects with the number of encounters per day and whether the party has short rest or long rest members etc.

 

[Yaarel]

Maybe I'm lucky, or maybe I just have low expectations but I find D&D 5E combat fun. The times when it's a slog is so rare that I voted "yes" even though I have had bad combats.

Yeah.

I actually love noncombat too.

But combat is fun! So, for me it is a hard yes.