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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 2632107" data-attributes="member: 3146">How to make the battle feel like it has ebb and flow and not just be one set of dice rolling after another?1. Vary your NPCs and tactics. If the villain has tossed five rounds worth of monster manual zombies at the PC, maybe he tries a pack of ghouls in the next few rounds.1.5 Have your NPCs vary their tactics. If the evil cleric has been having no luck with his zombies attacking, he can have them start to grapple. But grappling is a low success rate attack against a vastly higher level character, and will just be more dice rolling if you stick with that. So, have some try to bull rush him off the bridge. And others try to over-run the hero and get by him.1.75 The basic point of varying tactics in order to prevent it becoming a dice rolling contest is that you need to vary tactics and foes in such a way that the player's best options change. If the zombies are attacking, combat expertise and power attack are both good against them. (Combat Expertise only if the AC is low and Power Attack only if the character's damage is low if we're talking a level 14+ character here though). However, if the zombies start grappling, those could be disadvantages if you rule that the CE and PA attack penalties apply to grapple checks.2. Another way to simulate ebb and flow is to well, simulate ebb and flow. The bad guys try some tactics for a while and then maybe they retreat, cast a few spells and come back. The hero could move forward and try to stop the spellcasting, but he'd have to move beyond the bridge, making it possible/easier to get by him.3. Vary the environment. Maybe it's a wooden bridge and one five foot section has a rotten plank that requires a balance check to avoid. If he's bull rushed onto that section, it's a different fight all of a sudden. Or, maybe after ten rounds of great cleaving zombies, the bridge becomes slick with gore and now requires a DC 10 balance check each round to remain standing. The PC could retreat to a dry square, but he'll run out of squares before his enemy runs out of zombies.... Maybe, after figuring out that brute force won't work, the enemy conjures up a storm to blow him off the bridge. Sure, some zombies will fall into the ravine, but 50% losses are acceptable....4. Parlays and challenges. The villains should stop attacking at some point, step forward and say "very well, you've made your point. You are a worthy adversary. But you can't keep this up forever. I have 10,000 zombies. Retreat now and live another day; what are the people of this town to you that you should die for them?" Then maybe later, he says, "you are truly skilled. Drink the blood of Vol and join us. We can offer you immortality; do not choose death instead." Or perhaps, the villain chooses to challenge him to single combat instead. "You have fared well against slaves and scum, but now you face Enpeecee Vilanus. Let our duel this day decide the fate of armies." If Enpeecee Vilanus is not the BBEG, then, after his death, the hordes of darkness will rush forward again.5. Another thing to consider is magic--not just for the obvious ways. If you change the PC's abilities through magic, you will change the way he has to fight. For instance, if you hit him with a ray of enfeeblement or ray of exhaustion, he may find it harder to great cleave the minions and discover that forms of attack (like grapple, disarm, or bull rush that were formerly laughable are now very threatening). That will also force him to vary his tactics.</blockquote>

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