D&D 5E Making Combat More Mobile

[Xeviat]

Hi everyone. 3rd Edition had a tendency to have static combats. Full-Attack Actions made it so people didn't want to move. 4th Edition has a lot of powers with movement built in, and I felt there was more movement then; defenders/soldiers locked people in, but they weren't in every fight. 5E doesn't have full-round actions, but my experience has been that fights are more static than 4th but more mobile than 3rd.

Today, I started to question if universal attacks of opportunity were the problem.

What have your experiences been?


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[Tormyr]

Players generally try to avoid AoO, but our combats have been fairly dynamic. I think that at least some of what keeps fights static is that it is most effective for everyone to focus fire, move on to the next target, and repeat rather than bounce around.

 

[CapnZapp]

Special attacks that also allow you to move is the solution

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[Satyrn]

Removing opportunity attacks might just be the perfect, simplest solution.

Although you might want to introduce a Sticky Tank feat your fight could take if he wants to block foes from moving past him to the wizard. The cool thing about such a feat, though, would be that you can make it significantly usefull, more interesting than just an attack, and thus characters with the feat could feel more like a 4e Defender.

 

[Ath'kethin]

I find that removing the boardgame aspect (that is, miniatures) tends to get people to be more descriptive with how their characters are moving and interacting in combat.

 

[Xeviat]

I find that removing the boardgame aspect (that is. miniatures) tends to get people to be more descriptive with how their characters are moving and interacting in combat.

Interesting thought. I have always played with miniatures.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Interesting thought. I have always played with miniatures.

Back in the early 90s (before I started playing D&D), one of my favorite games was called HeroQuest. HeroQuest was a board game system very similar to D&D in many respects, but had an innovative way of placing doors, furniture, monsters, etc only when characters could see them (an effective fog of war feature for a boardgame). Playing that game was awesome and had many great adventures, but once I was introduced to D&D a couple of years later, I never really looked back. A description can do more to engage players and inspire heroics than any miniatures game I ever saw. HeroQuest is a great game (I still have my set, with all the supplements and notes and additional minis I added to it over the years), but I think it's really hard to get into a character and envision what things are like from their perspective if you're viewing the situation top-down, from above.

Now, there are some quirks to non-miniatures play that some people don't enjoy. Managing large groups becomes far more challenging, and the DM needs to be pretty good at coming up with stuff on the fly and comfortable with winging it a good chunk of the time. For those who like to have precise distances and placements of things - though in my experience those who whine the most about these features are largely just trying to eke out as much advantage as they can in a situation without taking chances or thinking outside the box - this kind of approach is not ideal. Fair enough. My preferences are not the same as everybody's, and that's fine.

I will say that I have had multiple players over the years tell me that my campaigns were the most enjoyable they ever played in, but it's possible they just wanted me to keep bringing snacks.

 

[Warbringer]

Create interesting objectives within the combat that requires, or encourages movement.

 

[Raith5]

Agree with the OP. 5E is more like 3E and lacks the fluidity and forced movement of 4E. But you can always use the way 5e allows you to split your movement before/after attacks.

 

[abirdcall]

I find combat to be plenty mobile. Characters can move around a lot without provoking. Also, provoking an OA isn't usually a big deal anyway. It is only with the big heavy hitting monsters that you want to really avoid it.

When I DM I often have creatures moving about, sometimes provoking OAs to hit the lower AC characters and the like.