D&D (2024) The Focus Fire Problem

[MarkB]

How often do you see things like complications of shooting missiles into a fight do you see in the inspirational media?

Pretty much any time there's a designated one-on-one fight while there's an ally present with a ranged attack, it suddenly turns out that they're shifting position too much for a clear shot. That bit in Avengers when Captain America first tussles with Loki and Black Widow is hovering there in the Quinjet waiting for an angle, for example.

How often do you see wizards running out of spells and resorting to a crossbow or darts?

Gandalf spends most of his time rocking his sword-and-staff dual-wield combo.

 

[James Gasik]

Pretty much any time there's a designated one-on-one fight while there's an ally present with a ranged attack, it suddenly turns out that they're shifting position too much for a clear shot. That bit in Avengers when Captain America first tussles with Loki and Black Widow is hovering there in the Quinjet waiting for an angle, for example.

Gandalf spends most of his time rocking his sword-and-staff dual-wield combo.

Gandalf though, as has been long pointed out, is definitely not a D&D Wizard, lol.

 

[billd91]

And need I remind you that Legolas missed that big torch bearing orc when it was most inappropriate...

Legolas didn't actually miss. He hit. Twice. He just didn't drop the orc.

 

[James Gasik]

Legolas didn't actually miss. He hit. Twice. He just didn't drop the orc.

It was a 5e Orc, obviously. A big bag of hit points!

 

[ad_hoc]

For those concerned about this are there 5+ PCs at the table?

5e is well designed for 4 PC parties but runs into issues like these with bigger ones.

If we are going to have a game with that many PCs there are some things that could be tweaked to make for a better experience.

Bigger spaces for combats with more stuff in them is one such change. If we increase the number of everything but we still have a 20x20 room then we're going to have a bad time.

 

[Helldritch]

Posted before I could answer... wonder what happened. Delete please

 

[CleverNickName]

"Problem"? I'd do cartwheels if my players were coordinated and attentive enough to focus their fire (or their attention) on any one thing for any length of time. No matter how carefully the players plan for battle, it always ends up looking like that SNL Ninja Pep Talk sketch from the 90s.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Posted before I could answer... wonder what happened. Delete please

Happens to the best of us!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'd do cartwheels if my players were coordinated and attentive enough to focus their fire (or their attention) on any one thing for any length of time. No matter how carefully the players plan for battle, it always ends up looking like that SNL Ninja Pep Talk sketch from the 90s.

Vimeo link here:
Also the cast here is amazing.

 

[Helldritch]

Not in a "constant problem" way, though, that's just wrong.

Of course not, it was not my claim either.

Friendly fire is only ever an issue in war movies when it's Very Dramatic. It's huge deal when it comes up, whatever the cause. A whole scene will pivot on it. But most of the time? Not an issue.

This is a dramatic scene. So yep, it can. It is even talk about it documentaries. So yep, it can be an issue and it should it the game.

Examples?

Sniper, NCIS, CSI New York, Las Vegas and Miami, and soooo many others.

No, in bad and unrealistic movies we see that constantly. That's absolutely classic trope of '80s-style action. Don't pretend this is a "good" or "realistic" thing. In "realistic" stuff it'd much harder for people to lose their weapons (certainly trained professionals rather than beat cops). You're calling Supernatural and the A-Team "realistic" here, dude.

Do you know the 10 feet rule? If a crook, opponent is within 10 feet of an officer. It is almost a 100% chance that the officer will not get its gun out in time and will be stabbed by the knife holding criminal.

No we do not. If you disagree provide examples. Usually this is only the case if the Good Guy has the Magic Sword or whatever that counters the Bad Guy, and that's why it's bad for the Bad Guy.

Conan novels are such an example. Read them. Always Conan finally get to the evil wizard and Conan do not have magic sword. Legolas in the LotR running of arrow during the battle and so on.

Examples? I've seen plenty of terrible movies where people ran out of ammo, and plenty of good and even great ones where they didn't. This is just silly nonsense that has no bearing on whether a movie is good/bad, and it's easy to show.

Mmm quite a few actually, usually used for dramatic effect. And you also have the reverse where the hero will throw empty shells and kill a bunch soldiers at la "Hot Shot".

May be that instead of using good, I should have use "more realistic".