Our most powerful PC is our Battle Master. Up to level 5, nobody else even comes close for damage and survivability. Since he almost never goes unconscious, he also rarely misses a round of attacks.
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D&D 5E Tactics in combat
- Thread starter JWO
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Our most powerful PC is our Battle Master. Up to level 5, nobody else even comes close for damage and survivability. Since he almost never goes unconscious, he also rarely misses a round of attacks.
Nebulous
Legend
Yeah, like the Iron Kingdoms Monsternomicon which was essentially a field manual from a bunch of dudes who went out and killed stuff and then wrote about how they did it. With stats!
Psikerlord#
Explorer
I played a sword and board fighter level 6 and it was a blast. Maneuvers are great. I also had lucky feat though, so that added some complexity, more choices.
My group has 4 fighters out of 21 characters (3 campaigns).
2 Half-Orc Champions w/ Great Weapon Fighting
Dwarf Battlemaster
Elf Eldritch Knight (Arcane Archer)
All are good and fun to play.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
I think you're underestimating the tactical versatility granted by the new action economy, especially move-attack-move. Tactical options for weapon-using characters include hiding behind total cover between turns, using poison on weapons for enormous damage spikes, firing from behind partial cover, opening up range, manipulating difficult terrain, grappling, pushing, disarming, mounting, overrunning, and environmental manipulation (hard to generalize, but basically anything that uses your free object interaction-per-turn). Plus all the extra stuff you can build into your characters via Battlemaster/feats/etc., but I'm just talking about the free stuff that every weapon-user gets.
I see tactics as decision points with a cost, and simplifying move attack removes decision points. In that sense all the melee combat starts to become repetitive without many options for martial characters to change things up, where casters can always lean back on a spell to add a new twist.
It is often mentioned that ad hoc determinations made by the DM allows martials characters to do more, but the same principle applies to casters with spells. So that is a constant in any game depending how generous the DM is.
It is often mentioned that ad hoc determinations made by the DM allows martials characters to do more, but the same principle applies to casters with spells. So that is a constant in any game depending how generous the DM is.
Darion W Brainerd
First Post
There are some tactics that stand true to D&D over the years, and I have found apply to almost every turn based RPG. Focused Fire is a good example. In many games with Hit Points a character or monster is exactly the same at full HP or half HP, all that matters is if they are participating in the fight or not.
While you may be enticed to have the party each take up the time of their own opponent in a brawl-a tactic that would reflect real life pretty well-in D&D if you ignore the Goblin shooting arrows he doesn't become more of a hassle than he already was. By focusing fire and having the entirety of the party's damage hit a single enemy at a time, you can fundamentally change the balance of an encounter into your favor once or twice a round.
Even in an empty vacuum of a fight this applies, turning a fight of 4 vs. 4 into a fight of 4 vs. 3 is a better result than a 4 vs. 4 but one side is at half HP now(the former reduces the overall damage the party will take each following round). This can also influence spell choices and how they are used. If the wizard casts a spell like Sleep (unlike in previous editions sleep is one of the best spells at low levels) the fight can suddenly shift from a 4 vs. 4, to a 4 vs. 1 four times, which is significantly easier due to the action economy (the encounter may end before the enemy even acts).
There are some other vital tactics but they are pretty straightforward, prioritize enemies with special abilities over those with just HP damage, don't heal during a fight unless it's to raise an ally back from 0 to 1 or so, etc.
This is stuff DMs should be aware of as much as the players, a big scary monster is that much scarier if it ignores the party and only attacks one PC, or if the archers in the treeline all focus on one target at a time, stuff like that can dramatically shift the difficult of an encounter.
While you may be enticed to have the party each take up the time of their own opponent in a brawl-a tactic that would reflect real life pretty well-in D&D if you ignore the Goblin shooting arrows he doesn't become more of a hassle than he already was. By focusing fire and having the entirety of the party's damage hit a single enemy at a time, you can fundamentally change the balance of an encounter into your favor once or twice a round.
Even in an empty vacuum of a fight this applies, turning a fight of 4 vs. 4 into a fight of 4 vs. 3 is a better result than a 4 vs. 4 but one side is at half HP now(the former reduces the overall damage the party will take each following round). This can also influence spell choices and how they are used. If the wizard casts a spell like Sleep (unlike in previous editions sleep is one of the best spells at low levels) the fight can suddenly shift from a 4 vs. 4, to a 4 vs. 1 four times, which is significantly easier due to the action economy (the encounter may end before the enemy even acts).
There are some other vital tactics but they are pretty straightforward, prioritize enemies with special abilities over those with just HP damage, don't heal during a fight unless it's to raise an ally back from 0 to 1 or so, etc.
This is stuff DMs should be aware of as much as the players, a big scary monster is that much scarier if it ignores the party and only attacks one PC, or if the archers in the treeline all focus on one target at a time, stuff like that can dramatically shift the difficult of an encounter.
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CapnZapp
Legend
Harzel
Adventurer
The applicability of focused fire doesn't depend on the game being turn based. Almost any time a creature does not suffer loss of offensive effectiveness by being wounded but not killed, focused fire is going to be a good tactic. The only exception that I can think of right off the top is if attacks are simultaneous (or effectively so) and there is a good probability of one-shotting opponents.
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