D&D 5E Solving Static Fights

[Xeviat]

Hi everyone. With the quarantine, I've been able to play more games, and something's starting to really bug me about 5E; it bugged me about 3E as well.

The fights are getting to be really static. I don't know if this is all the fault of attacks of opportunity, encounter design, or the lack of more push/pull type basic effects, but too many fights are just becoming lock down stand out slug matches. This has been happening with both an almost entirely new group, and with a group of veteran players.

I've been wondering if other people have been feeling the same thing. Pathfinder 2 has tried to tackle this by removing the opportunity attack as a basic thing, giving it only to the Fighter and highly trained monsters. Encounters can be better designed, such as having a monster be an obstacle rather than a wandering beast. Monsters can be designed differently, such as things with damaging auras and devastating melee attacks that discourage locking it down in melee (but this punishes certain builds).

I just a hydra fight that felt suitably challenging and a little scary (A CR 8 in favorable circumstances against a party of 5 level 5s should have felt threatened), but they met it in melee and no one moved the whole fight (except the ranger's hawk that had fly-by attack).

Just looking for some ideas. I'm tempted to remove opportunity attacks. I'm tempted to reintroduce acrobatics checks to avoid OAs or diverse Move Actions. I'm definitely going to be rethinking encounters more as well.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Fanaelialae]

Hi everyone. With the quarantine, I've been able to play more games, and something's starting to really bug me about 5E; it bugged me about 3E as well.

The fights are getting to be really static. I don't know if this is all the fault of attacks of opportunity, encounter design, or the lack of more push/pull type basic effects, but too many fights are just becoming lock down stand out slug matches. This has been happening with both an almost entirely new group, and with a group of veteran players.

I've been wondering if other people have been feeling the same thing. Pathfinder 2 has tried to tackle this by removing the opportunity attack as a basic thing, giving it only to the Fighter and highly trained monsters. Encounters can be better designed, such as having a monster be an obstacle rather than a wandering beast. Monsters can be designed differently, such as things with damaging auras and devastating melee attacks that discourage locking it down in melee (but this punishes certain builds).

I just a hydra fight that felt suitably challenging and a little scary (A CR 8 in favorable circumstances against a party of 5 level 5s should have felt threatened), but they met it in melee and no one moved the whole fight (except the ranger's hawk that had fly-by attack).

Just looking for some ideas. I'm tempted to remove opportunity attacks. I'm tempted to reintroduce acrobatics checks to avoid OAs or diverse Move Actions. I'm definitely going to be rethinking encounters more as well.

What are your thoughts?

Players are unlikely to move their characters without being given some reason to do so. Even if you make OAs easier to avoid, was there a any benefit to moving in the hydra fight?

The simplest approach is using terrain. You could have damaging terrain (geysers that randomly start steaming and then erupt the next round, damaging everything in the vicinity). You could have beneficial terrain, like cover or some kind of power up (a ley line node that increases the level of a spell cast on it by 1 level, but then is either used up or moves to another location).

Basically, give them a reason to move either through positive or negative motivation. Although decreasing the frequency of OAs in conjunction with that couldn't hurt.

 

[atanakar]

You are aware that with 5e a character can use the Disengage Action to avoid OAs? My players use it all the time. I don't find AOs a problem with 5e. There is no need to remove OAs.

In 5e PCs can also move freely around an enemy as long at they don't leave Reach. That is very flexible and makes combat less predictable. I often have one PC attack then move to the side of the creature. This opens the spot for another PC to moves into the exited square to attack. It also means, if you plan it right, your creatures can do movement shenanigans and become much more dangerous.

 

[Xeviat]

You are aware that with 5e a character can use the Disengage Action to avoid OAs? My players use it all the time. I don't find AOs a problem with 5e. There is no need to remove OAs.

In 5e PCs can also move freely around an enemy as long at they don't leave Reach. That is very flexible and makes combat less predictable. I often have one PC attack then move to the side of the creature. This opens the spot for another PC to moves into the exited square to attack. It also means, if you plan it right, our creatures can do movement shenanigans end become more dangerous.

Yes, I am aware, and no one but rogues ever use that because people don't want to give up their attack. And I'm aware how opportunity attacks are triggered in 5E.

 

[jgsugden]

Environment: Different battlefields can have different elements that promote different responses by the monsters and PCs. Rivers, hills, hidden traps, rock slides, moving vehicles, fires, swamps, etc... can change things up.

Timed Hazzards: If you put things into the environment that are on a clock, it often gives more urgency and focus to an encounter. Stopping a ritual, translating runes to stop the dead from rising, flooding rooms, collapsing ceilings, etc... can give your fights more juice.

Remove the Battlemap: Some battles just don't require minis and a battlemap. Going to the theater of the mind for these tends to alow for more evocative descriptions and a greater focus on the story or over the strategy.

Change the Goals: Too many battles are about survival. Kill them before they kill you. Change it up with battles where the enemy wants to take something and get away, where they want to destroy something the PCs are protecting, where the enemy is protecting something from the PCs and have a vastly superior force (forcing the PCs to get in, destroy the target and flee before the full enemy force can find them).

Change the Pace: Changing how you describe a battle can change how it feels. When the PCs are going to need to wade through three rooms of orcs, one of the things I do is describe the orcs in the middle room very differently than the first and last room. The orc leader will be quite and focused, directing his troops with an eerie quality. He may have the exact same stats as every other orc, but just giving him some unique characteristics changes things up. I'll also adjust my cadence when I speak to literally change the pace of the encounter to give it a different feel.

Descriptions: Even if you change nothing substantive - changing the fluff around an encounter can give it some different life. If the first room is in the foyer, and the second in the kitchen, describe dishes being broken, pots falling off tables, etc... to give the room a place in the battle.

Encounter Design: Change up the types of foes they face. Burrowing monsters in one battle, flyers in the next. Brutes with big weapons in one battle, ranged creatures with spells in the next.

 

[Fenris-77]

Yeah, what he said. Environment, Hazards, clocks, goals and pacing. Not every encounter that might end up with combat needs to be designed as a combat encounter. Depending on your tastes in adventure design, encounters should never be designed as combat encounters, combat just being one way to overcome the obstacle presented in the encounter. When you change the design focus it opens up a lot of options.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Our DM doesn’t seem to mind running monsters right through our group, OAs be damned. That induces a lot movement in our group. Maybe, if your the DM, just have the monsters not worry about OAs and let them move.
If you want I can ask our DM his thoughts.

 

[Nebulous]

I use a flanking rule that does +1 damage or +2 damage at the next tier. That might encourage movement to get the bonuses. In general though, D&D is not really designed for cinematic combat unless the DM goes out of his way to describe it as such.

 

[atanakar]

Our DM doesn’t seem to mind running monsters right through our group, OAs be damned. That induces a lot movement in our group. Maybe, if your the DM, just have the monsters not worry about OAs and let them move.
If you want I can ask our DM his thoughts.

Yep, also send the creatures in combat in waves from various directions.

 

[atanakar]

Creatures using range attacks from good cover will make your PCs move from the main engagement.