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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 387906" data-attributes="member: 2785">Battle mat = goodWe use the combat mat religiously, and I will gladly crusade in its defense! The advantages of using a mat are numerous. First, it's a weight off the DM, greatly reducing the number of arbitrary decisions he must make on the fly regarding distance and position. This results in less book-keeping, which in turn speeds up combat encounters. Second, it's a relief for players. Many feats and spells that would be utterly dependant on a DM's descretion without a mat are more valuable when the player is allowed to control his character's exact position on the mat (Example: Combat Reflexes, Point Blank Shot, Sneak Attacks, Flanking, Summon spells). This leads to fewer he-said-she-said arguments over movement, position, and intent between the players and the DM. We used to have those sorts of conflicts all the time - now we can look at the mat between turns and know exactly how far we can move and what we can do without having to ask the DM. Third, 3E combat is designed with miniatures combat in mind, and many of the examples of play and spell descriptions use a tactical grid to illustrate what characters can and can't do. Simply put, the battle mat makes life easier for us. Are there problems with the mat? Sure. My personal pet peeve is that people sometimes focus more on the mat than on roleplaying. I swear, people are always fiddling with those minis! As DM, that can get annoying, because while I view the mat as a valuable tool, it is not the game. Also, as characters get higher level, the mat becomes less useful as movement rates increase via magical or supernatural means. When you can swoop around at a base move of 90' and blast people from 700 feet, and your opponents can dimension door at will, it sort of renders the mat meaningless, since the thing is only so big. Also, higher level combats tend to end up using the third dimension quite a bit as everyone and his brother has some means of flight, not to mention encounters underwater or on other planes. The mat models these poorly. Overall, though, thumbs up. It's a great tool.</blockquote>

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