Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Clockwork-Deity 03-29-05, 08:10 PM	Hey. Recently my RP group and I have started to tire a bit of d20 combat. No words have been said about it yet, but I think the opinion is clear judging by the bad vibes going around in the room when a battle becomes too prolonged. Since we're comming up on a combat-heavy adventure in the next couple days, Im looking for some tips to help spice up and/or speed up combat for my games. Oh great DMs of the forums, please bestow upon this newbie your words of wisdom. :D
Thorak 03-29-05, 08:28 PM	Describe each blow. It's not "I hit, and deal 13 damage", it's "I swing and...connect with his chest, opening a ... large slice from shoulder to hip (I did 13 damage)" Just be sure that every hit's not to a vital spot, and assign barely-hitting cuts to spots like arms or shins or something, to maintain some realism. My DM also houserules in-game effects from critical hits, or even just a succession of brutally hard hits. Things that don't significantly affect combat, like severing an ape's hand (but allowing it to still use the limb to batter you with, dealing the same damage but bludgeoning), or tearing a large hole in a critter's wing, impairing it's flight. It balances out, because he does the same to us. If you get nailed real hard, you might get knocked back a few feet, or start favouring your foot that just got smashed, or what have you. It's all stuff that'll come back with healing, though, he mostly leaves the severing of limbs to enemies that it's pretty clear aren't going to survive. Though the barbarian did go around one-handed for a while, which was a pain because he had been wielding a greataxe up till then.
mvincent 03-29-05, 09:00 PM	Hey. Recently my RP group and I have started to tire a bit of d20 combat. No words have been said about it yet, but I think the opinion is clear judging by the bad vibes going around in the room when a battle becomes too prolonged. Since we're comming up on a combat-heavy adventure in the next couple days, Im looking for some tips to help spice up and/or speed up combat for my games. Oh great DMs of the forums, please bestow upon this newbie your words of wisdom. :DGood question. I hope you get a lot of replies. My suggestions are: 1) Use interesting battlegrounds: inns with balcony's/chandaliers, fragile ice flows, altered gravity, etc. 2) Use interesting situations/goals (must rescue/move/attack a specific items, etc.) 3) Make it go fast. Use opponents that you can handle swifly and simply. "Go around the table" instead of using initiative. Don't slow down for rules checks, etc. 4) Use combat only when needed (if the PC's will easily overwhelm the opposition, why play it out, or for that matter: why include it?) 5) Resolve to never plan a standard "just kill everything in this 20' x 30' room" encounter ever again. 6) As a house rule; let the PC's freely perform cinematic-type 'stunts'. Allow them to just as easily to do something in a flashy manner (i.e. spinning jump kick or swing from a chandelier) that they could do just the same in a mundane manner (i.e. unarmed strike or standard move). Indeed, the flashy method should possibly even grant bonuses if it's entertaining.
PhaedrusXY 03-29-05, 09:12 PM	I make up detailed notes on the NPCs tactics before-hand, and figure out the average damage on spells and attacks they use. Then I just use these averages instead of rolling it all, unless they get a critical hit or something. It greatly speeds up my end of the combat. I also roll multiple dice at once, and encourage the players to do so also. For example, if I were attacking with Bob the fighter, I'd roll whatever damage dice I needed to at the same time that I rolled the d20 for his attack roll. If he was attacking something with a Blur effect, or some other miss chance, I'd roll the percentile dice at the same time, as well. And the thing that will speed it up the most: make the players decide what their characters are going to do before their turn comes around. If when you get to them, they are sitting there going "Uhmm... I... er... Let me look up something.", skip them and go on to the next PC. Come back to Mr. Indecisive after everyone else has gone. Edit: The above was to speed things up. To spice them up, use fun feat combos and tactics like Disarming, Tripping, Sundering, Grappling, etc. Use area affect spells that reduce mobility in tactical ways. Use NPCs with reach weapons guarding their soft-target allies, etc. Use Skirmish tactics, instead of having the NPCs just charge in and fight to the death. Have them attack and fall back repeatedly. If the PCs try to follow, lead them into some horrible situation like a trapped series of tunnels, complete with murder holes, etc.
Xeion 03-30-05, 06:18 AM	I have a DM that does the whole dramatic fights, it makes it much more fun. He works out the bonus and stuff as he sees fit. As an example an ememy tried to run away from me in combat. When I made my AoO he ased me to show him how I swing. I get up swing similar to a baseball bat. (I don't want to hear any "thats not how you use a sword crap"). My char. proceeded to get a really good hit. (off the crit by 1, -2 from my max damage) He has me nail the guy in the spine nearlly breaking it and causeing him to stumble some (he gets 15 ft.). Then on my go I charge, he askes again how I swing. My reply "I'm going to try and take his head off." I crit and he proceeds to discribe how I decap the guy. Another way to speed it up is have the bad guys go in groups. Also ask what the min damage a char. can do. Sometimes a hit with out the roll can drop them, I have even had DMs say that if your min. is close to killing it the it does.
Xeion 03-30-05, 06:35 AM	Ignore Double post
Vahenir 03-30-05, 07:04 AM	One-hit kills are also a good way to speed along combat. If the PCs are fighting minions that have barely any HP compared to the average damage output of the second best fighter in the group, then a hit is a kill. No damage rolls necessary. Minions die when hit - period. It's a good way to speed through the bodyguards so they can fight the more important person. Also, resolve to no longer use odd groupings of monsters. The ol' "You get attacked by three gnolls, a dire ape, a katana-wielding monkey, and a 3rd level Sorcerer Dwarf" is a good example of this. Because there are no minions to fight (see: Minions die from one hit) the combat tends to drag as the party has to fight all the different creatures. Also, using more varied creatures means more rules checking and thinking. Try it out for yourself in your next encounters. First try having the PCs fight four totally different creatures at once (appropriate CR of course, not something that together is totally beyond them). Then have them fight 7 or so NPC Warriors of the same level and using roughly the same equipment. The second fight, at least 7 times out of 10, will go by a lot faster.
Rulebook 03-30-05, 12:33 PM	try to not kill everything you encounter. you can often capture humanoid enemies and either turn them in to the athorities, or sell them for a nice little profit on markets the paladin's best not knowing about...
chocobochicken 03-30-05, 01:44 PM	Change up the terrain. Have duels fought over narrow, hanging bridges that require balance checks. Have snipers out on the rooftops shooting at anyone that moves, requiring your party to think of a strategic way to get closer. Put the PC's in the position to shove a boulder to go tumbling down the mountainside for a little Orc Bowling! One of my most memorable encounters dealt with light and darkness. We were in some sort of inner cavern chamber room with lit torches on the walls and large stone pillars holding up the ceiling. Suddenly, we got ambushed by two drow, who cast magical darkness and began randomly sniping at us. Since we map out our miniatures on a white dry-erase board, we used markers to draw which areas of the room had good lighting, which areas had shadows (because of the pillars), and which areas had magical darkness. It made combat very intriguing as we tried to position ourselves in the best locations to get the jump on the enemies.