The purpose of this thread is to provide examples for people of combat's you ran (not just thought of) that went very well. Combat's that were interesting and exciting to your players. This provides a nice reference for DMs who want to add more spice to their combats.
For people's convienience, please use spoilers to keep the posts tight and allow a person scrolling to go through them more easily.
LASTLY, to keep this thread nice and tight, I created a seperate thread specifically for commentary or questions: D&D General - Commenting on "The Big Thread of Interesting Combat Examples"
Lets keep this thread just for actual examples, and then any feedback we can reference in the other thread.
Split Screen Combat - The Dual Mirror Room (Challenge for 4 lvl 7 PCs)
For people's convienience, please use spoilers to keep the posts tight and allow a person scrolling to go through them more easily.
LASTLY, to keep this thread nice and tight, I created a seperate thread specifically for commentary or questions: D&D General - Commenting on "The Big Thread of Interesting Combat Examples"
Lets keep this thread just for actual examples, and then any feedback we can reference in the other thread.
Split Screen Combat - The Dual Mirror Room (Challenge for 4 lvl 7 PCs)
Setup
The players move through a mirror in a 30 by 30 ft room that leads to an identical looking room. However, only two of the PCs are able to make it through, the mirror solidifies and the other two are left behind. Emerging from the mirror in each room is a "glass golem" (see below). So there are now two fights going on simultaneously. Both fights are run together, but the PCs have no true knowledge of what is happening in the other room. If one side beats their golem, the portal reopens and they can move to the other side to assist.
In addition to the golems, on a single initiative both rooms experience a lightning burst that emanates from the mirror. The burst starts as a 1d6 lightning damage DC 15 (reflex negates not half). And the burst gets stronger each round (2d6, 3d6, 4d6) until it caps at 4d6 damage.
Glass Golem - A reskinned Flesh Golem. Aversion to Fire is changed to aversion to Sonic damage (and things like Shatter). Also when bloodied, the creature will leave glass shards in the PC when they are hit. The glass does 5 damage at the end of a player's turn unless they take an action to remove the glass.
Why it Works
In a "splitscreen" combat, both combats are run simultaneously. I use a single initiative list, but I switch back and forth between the rooms as initiatives come up. This lets players enjoy watching their fellows fight, and creates some tension when one side sees the other doing poorly and wants to help. This creates a unique experience not seen in most combats.
By splitting the party like this, it really shakes up the normal roles. Suddenly your tanks have to switch to damage, your spellcasters are right in the front of the action, everyone has to rethink what their characters normally do.
The lightning both heals the golem (keeping the combat going) and does a steady stream of damage to everyone in the room, creating a time tension beyond just beating the monster. The players can try to disrupt the lightning, or just try to wreck the golem. Then when the golem goes to half health and things are stating to look up, the new glass shard impact adds a new injection of damage and tension that forces the players to really push themselves to win.
This is a fairly simple combat to run (just two monsters and an effect) but it generates a lot more threat than normal and leads to a much longer combat in terms of number of rounds, allowing various kinds of effects that normally aren't all that great to really shine (like spending a round to cast certain buffs that normally wouldn't be worth the time in a 3 round combat).
The players move through a mirror in a 30 by 30 ft room that leads to an identical looking room. However, only two of the PCs are able to make it through, the mirror solidifies and the other two are left behind. Emerging from the mirror in each room is a "glass golem" (see below). So there are now two fights going on simultaneously. Both fights are run together, but the PCs have no true knowledge of what is happening in the other room. If one side beats their golem, the portal reopens and they can move to the other side to assist.
In addition to the golems, on a single initiative both rooms experience a lightning burst that emanates from the mirror. The burst starts as a 1d6 lightning damage DC 15 (reflex negates not half). And the burst gets stronger each round (2d6, 3d6, 4d6) until it caps at 4d6 damage.
Glass Golem - A reskinned Flesh Golem. Aversion to Fire is changed to aversion to Sonic damage (and things like Shatter). Also when bloodied, the creature will leave glass shards in the PC when they are hit. The glass does 5 damage at the end of a player's turn unless they take an action to remove the glass.
Why it Works
In a "splitscreen" combat, both combats are run simultaneously. I use a single initiative list, but I switch back and forth between the rooms as initiatives come up. This lets players enjoy watching their fellows fight, and creates some tension when one side sees the other doing poorly and wants to help. This creates a unique experience not seen in most combats.
By splitting the party like this, it really shakes up the normal roles. Suddenly your tanks have to switch to damage, your spellcasters are right in the front of the action, everyone has to rethink what their characters normally do.
The lightning both heals the golem (keeping the combat going) and does a steady stream of damage to everyone in the room, creating a time tension beyond just beating the monster. The players can try to disrupt the lightning, or just try to wreck the golem. Then when the golem goes to half health and things are stating to look up, the new glass shard impact adds a new injection of damage and tension that forces the players to really push themselves to win.
This is a fairly simple combat to run (just two monsters and an effect) but it generates a lot more threat than normal and leads to a much longer combat in terms of number of rounds, allowing various kinds of effects that normally aren't all that great to really shine (like spending a round to cast certain buffs that normally wouldn't be worth the time in a 3 round combat).
