I'm a DM with a little experience, but I've realized that I need a better method of managing encounters, especially where monsters are located in relation to the PCs. Most of it is just me making stuff up, or just giving up and saying one monster rushes up to each PC. I don't have the stuff to use miniatures, so how should I go about fixing this issue? The rules seem to neglect how this should be done in 5E.
The rules don't mention it because, for one, it's something that is impossible to determine as a DM unless you have all the variables there Some of them in the Monster Manual list some of their tactics, but unlike 4e they don't go in-depth, yeah. However, it's your job as the DM to decide the personality of each monster and NPC, and there's no way to say how each encounter with something should play out. It's pretty borng if it's the same tactic every time anyways. One monster per person might seem to make sense, but it's also unrealistic. Some monsters would totally gang up on people and brutalize them. Just don't go too hard on your players.
There are a few methods to handle this:
1) Handwave everything. Assume everyone can always freely reach anyone, but that ranged people can manage to step back and fire without penalty. In this method, you do lose a lot of the subtle nuance of positioning, but it's way faster.
2) Use miniatures anyway. In my day, we just used coins, or dice, or anything that you could put on a flat surface and have them distinguished from each other. Dice are great because you can use numbers to represent which orc is which. If you're using something of roughly uniform width, then set that to be five feet, so something that is about roughly five-die-widths away becomes 25 feet away.
A simple description such as: the monster is positioned between you and your companion or you both stand facing the enemy should be sufficient. Failing that just draw a simple map and mark the location of players and enemies. The tactical combat of 5E is reduced to bare minimum (are you within reach, is it behind cover?) so you shouldn't need much in terms of visual aids (if at all).
Haer wrote:
Saelorn wrote:
Yeah, when I first started and wasn't using Roll20 to play D&D, I just had a bunch of those eraser toppers for penciles of different colors to represent monsters, and even to map out areas on grid paper without having to actually draw on it.
Gnollbane wrote:
Welcome to Theater of the Mind, my preferred way to play, personally. While I do use miniatures, I don't use a grid, and if the miniatures come our it's solely to represent where players are in relation to monsters.
You are on the right track - you describe the situation, and you will need to keep track, mentally or in your notes, where everyone is. Playing through Lost Mines of Phandelver, the group fought about 16 goblins in a row, in a moving battle that started in the banquet hall as goblins ran back and forth and hid under tables, reinforcements arriving from nearby attracted to the sound, then the fight shifted west into the barracks/watch towers as goblins ran for their friends. Goblins poking their heads out of the watch rooms and shooting arrows down the hall. We did this entirely through description, with no miniatures. Theater of the Mind!
Don't worry about precise positioning. Think of it as groups of combatants going at each other - the Fighter and Rogue together are engaging 3 hobgoblins, while the Cleric fights off 3 goblins who tried to rush the Wizard, who is himself standing at the back lobbing spells...
It takes practice, but you will get used to it.
Rather than putting one monster against each PC, think about how the monsters act, and how the PCs are organized. Are the monsters intelligent, or animals? Will monsters go for the biggest threat, or the easy target? Will they group up, or spread out? Will they fight to the death, run away, surrender?
Animals/beasts will attack what is in front of them if provoked, focusing on a single target, but won't fight to the death unless cornered. Packs of animals will mix grouping-up with spreading out, but usually going for what's "in front" of them. Some animals who attack for food (e.g, a grick) will go for the smallest/easiest thing it can carry off.
Goblins will gang up on individuals, try to be sneaky, and go for the weakest targets. They will Disengage and do hit-and-runs, and Dodge otherwise (remember these bonus actions for them). They will run away if too many of them are taken out, or if they're leader falls. They will surrender if cornered, if they think it will get them out alive.
Hobgoblins, however, may be related to goblins, but they act entirely differently. They will fight like a trained military unit, using tactics. Tie up the tougher threats, overwhelm the weaker ones. Group up as necessary, but split up.
Orcs are savage, and will fight whats in front of them for the most part, but will utilize some tactics like hobgoblins. Orcs are more inclined to fight to the death, but they aren't entirely suicidal.
Dragons are smart... think like Smaug. Grab (grapple) PCs, fly away with them and drop them from heights. Don't stand and take a beating, be constantly moving.
One final note - not every enemy wants to fight to the death, not every enemy feels like they need to kill the entire party, and not every enemy wants to kill their target. Enemies may choose to retreat if they feel they've made their point - why risk further injury to yourself if you don't have to? Most monsters don't live just to kill everything they see.
Goblins, for example, are less likely to kill things that aren't invading their lair (killing people attracts more unwanted attention than just robbing them, and you can't rob a dead person twice). Even then they might just knock unconscious, and try to ransom.
Hobgoblins might actually respect their opponents and hit to knock out, take prisoners, and accept a surrender/parley.
Orcs... all bets are probably off, unless they have a reason to want the party alive.
Kobolds will take try to take slaves.
Use this. It's a Theatre of the Mind Map I just drew. The party is understood to be the center of the action and the monsters' positions are relative to them.
Adventurers barely have to move in order to attack "close" monsters. In fact, "close" monsters are basically right next to you. When a monster and an Adventurer are actually fighting each other, let's call that "engaged." If you use dice as minis, put the monster die and the adventurer die right next to each other, touching, on the border.
Next we have monsters that are "Near." Near monsters can be hit with reach weapons, ranged weapons, and spells like cones or Dragons' breath. At that distance, monsters need their own reach, ranged weapons or spells to hit the adventurers. Anyone can cover the "near" distance in one move (think of it like 15 -30 feet away). So if an adventurer or monster moves, they go from "near" to close.
Next we have "far" range. At far range, thrown weapons are in their second range category (and get disadvantage on their attack rolls), bows and crossbows can hit practically anything at far range, as can most spells. It takes at least 2 moves to go from Far to Close. Think of the distance as anywhere between 60-500 ft. Whatever you need.
Last, we have a category called Unreachable. A monster might be unreachable bc they're simply too far away, behind total cover, or invisible/hidden/protected to the point that nothing can harm them.
These are intentionally abstract distances, so you can more or less quit worrying about precise position. A player is Engaged with an enemy, some other enemies are closeby fighting their friends, while some enemy archers are far off, shooting from behind cover.
On each players turn, begin by describing the situation: "Bob, Helezar is engaged with an Orc Warrior, but nearby, Colin the Wizard is about to be mobbed by goblins. What do you do?"
Find out what happens next, Mark your map, and move along. "The Orc Warrior follows Helezar (moving from Near, back to Close) and Engages Colin! He strikes hard! (Dice dice dice, and you're done).
I use maps like this bc I'm terribad at theatre of the mind. I'm fairly visual. This helps me keep Everything in its proper place so I don't lose track. Just draw a new one every fight. For larger, set piece encounters, I use maps, minis, terrain, etc. But half to 2/3 of my fights are quick and dirty, so I use this instead.
Engaged, Close, Near, Far, Unreachable. ECNFU. Easy.
Others have some great suggestions and there are, of course thousands of lines on this topic out there just a google search away.
One of the things I like to do (even when using minis, which is my preferred style) is to keep combat dynamic and descriptive. The wolf doesn't just go up to the PC and knock it prone, it streaks up to the PC clamping his slavering jaws on the PCs leg and gives a vicious shake knocking the PC off balance. People are always jumping on tables, knocking over chairs, interacting with the environment in interesting descriptive ways that may or may not have any in-game effect.
As far as grid vs theater of the mind I started using tokens for monsters and people long before minis were an assumed part of the game. I just used pieces of paper (I cut up different colors of construction paper) and put numbers on them. They were color coded for groups of monsters and PCs. We used an old chalk board, but you can probably find a white board pretty cheaply. Decide on a scale and use a string to measure distances if there's a question of how far away things are. There are also packages out there you can buy for a reasonable cost to print out tokens.
Fights can frequently be done totally theater of the mind, but I find that with bigger groups and a significant number of monsters having at least a rough positioning really helps me. Try different styles and see what works for you.
My last peice of advice? Keep at it. DMing is a learning process, no one is ever perfect. Good Luck!
With theatre of the mind, I find simply describing rough distances works best. I only break out the tokens for very complicated battles.
Eg: there are 6 goblins directly ahead of you, about 30' away. To your right is another group of 4 goblins, one of whom is riding a worg, they are about 60' away.
I do tend to keep to increments of 30', since that equates to about 1 move action for medium size PCs. But using 100' or 200' or 50' is not much of a stretch. It's all just relative distances, which change as the participants move around. If in doubt, I tend to be generous to PCs and less generous to the monsters.
We either use dungeon tiles, or simply draw a crude map of the area, and then position cheap plastic pawns of different colors (the kind of pawns you use for boardgames). In complex battles, there are often height differences, objects that grant cover, and of course range matters too. So illustrating the battle becomes rather important at times. You don't need a lot of detail. In fact, less is better. An initiative tracker is also a helpful aid.
If you don't use minis but instead use something like dice or coins, you don't have to worry about them being knocked over. Then you can freely use a 6" ruler to measure short distances of 30 scale feet. Or use a 3x5 index card marked off in 1" increments along both edges. Easy measurements for 15" and 25". Use an 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper to measure (almost) 60 feet. Every one has one and it won't knock anything over.
You don't have the rigidity of using perfect squares on a grid and you don't waste time drawing stuff.
I use a map and minis, but not a grid. I'lll draw a crude map and anything that is further away I'll draw an arrow with a number for how many rounds it is away things are. For distance I divide the distance by 30 and say it will take about that many rounds to reach that position.