Tips for playing D&D without Minis

[Melkor]

My weekly campaign has taken on a tactical aspect which myself and my players dislike. I'm going to try and move away from physical representation in D&D and go to a more narrative / descriptive style for handling combat.

With that in mind, I want to maintain as much "balance" as I can while not having to mentally track a 5' x 5' grid map in my head. That said, I haven't decided if I will still utilize Attacks of Opportunity, 5' steps, and the like.....but it seems like they are such an integral part of the rules that they should remain in the game.

Do any of you have any advice on how I could mantain balance with out the grid map or an exact (down to the 5' x 5' square) mental map of combat ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[navriin]

Largely it will be a question of what feels right. If everyone feels a person could charge to x in y time or whatever, go for it.

Mainly you will have to focus on providing good descriptions. While you are not mapping things you should note room dimensions, furniture, and how far away it is, etc etc. While you don't have to tell the players that the table in 8 feet away for example, you should note that it is within a few quick strides.

Additionally it would be helpful to allow the players a bit of input into describing their surroundings. For example, suppose the players are fighting in a kitchen, and you described their being a table, pots and the like. The PC's foe is on the other side of the table, and the party's fighter wants to get to him *now*. The fighter's PC may ask something along the lines of "since this is a kitchen, is their one of those hanging racks for pots and utensils over the table? If so can I use it to swing over the table and into the bad guy?" Originally in this situation you didn't mention of place such a rack, but since it pops into the PC's head-and sounds dramatic-let it be there.

You might also find it helpful to abbreivate ranges for spells, or the preciseness of them. For example you might decide spells with a range of close will generally reach any enemy in the same room, while spells of a medium range will be able to affect those that can be seen through long halls and multiple doors (generally anything in visual range withing a restricted environment such as a dungeon, forest, etc). In this scenario long range spells will generally affect any opponent which can be seen, even in outdoor settings (featureless plains non-withstanding).

Lastly I would ignore five foot steps, they are too precise for a game without a map. Instead I would say you could allow PCs to perform one action per round that normally provokes an AoO without doing so. This would simulate the 'take a 5' step back and do whatever' tactic. The second and subsequent actions would provoke normally.

 

[Wicht]

Wing it.

Keep it interesting. Keep it dramatic. Allow players to use their abilities as normal but make judgment calls based on where you see them in your head. Feel free to tell players what they can or cannot do. Be authoritative.

It helps if you just leave the minis at home for one night so you don't fall back on them as a crutch.

I have come to like minis but they do slow combat down. When I first started playing way back when we never used minis cuz we didn't have any. Me and my brother would sit and play and occassionally use dice when it came time for combat but mainly we just winged it off the top of our heads and it was all good.

 

[Psion]

I only use minis when things get complicated.

It's sort of hard to take out AoOs without rebalancing the game. That said, I don't think it is hard to do them without minis. Same goes for flanking. Simply interperet the sitution and make callings on player intent.

For example, if the player wants to flank, you might decide if they spend a move equivalent action, they can flank. Or they might need to tumble. For AoO's, you know if they charge a creature with reach, they are going to get whacked. You also know that if they charge past the wizards guards, they are going to try to stop you.

Also, check out Monte's article on the subject:
http://www.montecook.com/arch_dmonly21.html

 

[MarauderX]

Do a fall back to OD&D. The rules are simpler for combat so it's not such a strategy of how to take advantage of another using feats and such. And it inspires more roleplaying and less numbers, but I would keep skill points and other items for flavor.

 

[Aaron L]

Give the DM a sheet of hex paper and a pencil with an eraser. Let the DM map out the combat. It's what we've done since 3E came out.