What makes a fight last longer?
- Thread starter the Jester
- Start date
blackshirt5
First Post
Aftershock(a great drink, BTW).
If the players can't read their own dice, the fight lasts as long as the DM wants it to.
If the players can't read their own dice, the fight lasts as long as the DM wants it to.
jgbrowning
Hero
letting each player have more than 6 seconds in Real Time to move their mini and tell me what theyre doing.
I dont give my players more than 6 seconds and i sure as heck dont let them communicate other than using their 6 second free action to speak to the other players. And then the enimies know just as much as the other players do.
speeds things up wonderfully.
joe b.
I dont give my players more than 6 seconds and i sure as heck dont let them communicate other than using their 6 second free action to speak to the other players. And then the enimies know just as much as the other players do.
speeds things up wonderfully.
joe b.
Sir Whiskers
First Post
One huge factor concerns how many members of the party can attack effectively. I recently ran a battle with the main bad guy last for (game time) several minutes. He was a lycanthrope, the party had exactly one magic weapon, the wizards had cast most of their damage spells earlier that day, and no one thought of using things like burning oil or torches to do at least some damage to him. Because of his DR, once he realized the party could not really affect him, I played him overconfident and the rogue finally backstabbed him with the magic weapon. Result: one dead bad guy who'd taken out all but two party members and nearly TPK'd them. This is a low-level example, but the principal applies easily to higher levels.
Note: this can be *very* frustrating to players, so I recommend using this tactic very rarely. In this case, the party had other options (some of which they used, such as Power Attack to try to exceed his DR) so it wasn't too bad, but it certainly was a challenge.
I can't wait until the next session - they're taking on a boss who *should* have time to buff himself completely before the party makes it past his minions. As others have mentioned, that's another way to keep the fight going more than a couple rounds total. And if they're smart enough to prevent it, they deserve the easy victory...
Note: this can be *very* frustrating to players, so I recommend using this tactic very rarely. In this case, the party had other options (some of which they used, such as Power Attack to try to exceed his DR) so it wasn't too bad, but it certainly was a challenge.
I can't wait until the next session - they're taking on a boss who *should* have time to buff himself completely before the party makes it past his minions. As others have mentioned, that's another way to keep the fight going more than a couple rounds total. And if they're smart enough to prevent it, they deserve the easy victory...
Alcamtar
Explorer
A favorite trick of mine is to run a fight in stages. Often if the party can only see part of the enemy force, they'll charge... and when more suddenly pop around the corner, the PCs suddenly backtrack and try to salvage their tactics. I'll also often send out the cannon fodder first, then bring out the big bad guy. Out of sight out of mind, and sometimes the players will waste extra resources trying to finish up a cannon fodder quickly, not realizing there's more to come.
Related to this: keep track of other enemy forces nearby. Nothing drags out a fight as much as when the orcs from room #5 hear the noise and come to help, followed by the orcs in room #6, followed by the orcs in room #8... and even when its over it may not be over: if the party is weakened they may be hunted. And of course the best time to roll for a wandering monster is during an ongoing fight...
Another favorite trick is a flanking attack. Even a few pesky goblins showing up behind the PCs can distract them, harry the spellcasters, and so forth. If you can't manage a rear attack, have some enemies charge through to engage the spellcasters, even if they have to take some AOO. A mixed up battlefield is a dangerous battlefiend, with AOO opportunities galore.
Lots and lots of minor enemies take longer to chew through than a few big ones, and they get more attacks too.
Another trick: have the big bad guy concentrate his attacks on one PC until the PC is down (negative hp), then move on to the next. This keeps the cleric busy, forces the party to change tactics, and reduces their firepower temporarily. You have to be balance this carefully or you'll kill characters, either by dropping them too far negative or by disabling so many characters they can't hope to win.
Give the bad guy(s) a few potions of uber-healing, or similar aid. Potions are nice because they don't fall into PC hands afterward and can't be interrupted.
Any sort of gas or poison which reduces the party's attack rolls can REALLY lengthen a fight, since it becomes much harder to take down the enemy.
Anything which separates the party greatly complicates a fight, given the way character classes complement each other. If you can get them on two sides, with the enemy between, or can manage to get a wall between them, they cannot support each other nearly as well and will have a difficult time.
Related to this: keep track of other enemy forces nearby. Nothing drags out a fight as much as when the orcs from room #5 hear the noise and come to help, followed by the orcs in room #6, followed by the orcs in room #8... and even when its over it may not be over: if the party is weakened they may be hunted. And of course the best time to roll for a wandering monster is during an ongoing fight...
Another favorite trick is a flanking attack. Even a few pesky goblins showing up behind the PCs can distract them, harry the spellcasters, and so forth. If you can't manage a rear attack, have some enemies charge through to engage the spellcasters, even if they have to take some AOO. A mixed up battlefield is a dangerous battlefiend, with AOO opportunities galore.
Lots and lots of minor enemies take longer to chew through than a few big ones, and they get more attacks too.
Another trick: have the big bad guy concentrate his attacks on one PC until the PC is down (negative hp), then move on to the next. This keeps the cleric busy, forces the party to change tactics, and reduces their firepower temporarily. You have to be balance this carefully or you'll kill characters, either by dropping them too far negative or by disabling so many characters they can't hope to win.
Give the bad guy(s) a few potions of uber-healing, or similar aid. Potions are nice because they don't fall into PC hands afterward and can't be interrupted.
Any sort of gas or poison which reduces the party's attack rolls can REALLY lengthen a fight, since it becomes much harder to take down the enemy.
Anything which separates the party greatly complicates a fight, given the way character classes complement each other. If you can get them on two sides, with the enemy between, or can manage to get a wall between them, they cannot support each other nearly as well and will have a difficult time.
Corinth
First Post
I'll second the seriously-given suggestions. My experiences with such things is that a fight will commonly go into double-digit time keeping (i.e. rounds) so long as manuever, tactics, reaction (and reaction time) of nearby reinforcements, etc. remain foremost in the GM's mind.
This is probably a huge reason, top of the list probably. Haste allows characters to increase their damage output by 30-70%, depending on the character. Casters get the most obvious benefits, but melee fighters still get an extra attack at their highest bonus. Clerics can whip out more buff spells per turn. Rogues can get away with nasty feat chain tricks to get massive sneak attack damage, etc.
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