D&D is a combat heavy RPG. During the average game session you can expect to go through at least one combat encounter. This is as it should be for a fantasy themed RPG; they don't call it Swords and Sorcery for nothing! However, even though 4e has been designed to maximize the fun that can be had in melee, fights can still drag. Most guidance on stopping the grind focuses, rightly, on the role of the DM. But even the most wonderful DM can't prevent ponderous play if the players aren't doing their bit too. This simple guide is aimed at players and already assumes a DM doing all she can to provide exciting and cinematic fights.
BUILT FOR WAR
To ensure fun combats some work has to be done before ever sitting down to roll. As a player you have already spent time crafting a character which will be fun to play, which has a convincing backstory, which will provide a deep role-play experience. But this is not enough. To deliver an authentic cinematic combat experience, your character must be built for it.
Optimize: Fighting's fun when your PC can hit things. It's not enjoyable spend the whole encounter missing your attack rolls and draining the resources and good will of the rest of the party. Your character must pull their weight in combat. This doesn't mean you have to be min/maxed to the nth degree - just make sure that your PC can do the business.
Diversify: Combat's more fun when every character in the party brings a different flavor to the table. Your character should fill a niche, not crowd a hole. Be a different class and race to the rest, or at least choose a different build and different powers.
Be Versatile: A melee becomes more memorable if your character can do more than just spam a vanilla at-will. Can your character attack at range as well as hand-to-hand? Do they have any area attacks? What items do they carry that can be used in a ruckus? Try to ensure that your PC is trained in at least one skill that has combat utility, like Acrobatics or Intimidate.
FAST AND FURIOUS
Watch some movie battle sequences: they're all fast! A boring, slow-moving two hour fight scene would have cinema goers queuing for a refund. You must make sure that your clash of D&D steel is fast paced and intense, not snail-like and sluggish.
Know the rules: If you know the rules, and know your PC's capabilities and stats, then combat will move a lot quicker. Make an effort to know your bananas.
Use play-aids: Whether official Power Cards, or hand-written notes, decent play-aids will speed up melee. There's a wide variety of tools on offer, from the CB to Post-It notes, so use them!
Do, don't think: D&D is a roleplaying game, not a tactical war simulation. Would your character, facing the sting of battle, be able to sit and computate the optimal move in every circumstance? You should use other people's turns as your thinking time; when it's your round just do it and hang the fact that it might not be the best possible move.
Don't give advice: Play your own PC, not other people's. Don't criticize their battle plans or try to tell them what move is 'better.' Less chat, more play.
No books: Don't settle rules questions at the table. Let the DM make a judgment call then move on. You should never, ever have to open a book during combat.
Multiply Strikers: If the party has to double-up any role, I suggest increasing the number of Strikers. High damage output shortens combat encounters. The typical five person party should have two Strikers and one of every other role.
MOVE IT!
Have you seen how movie heroes fight? They run, they jump, they dodge about. So why is your character stuck in one place all the time? It's time to get busy.
Run: There's a lot of movement options in 4e: walk, crawl, run, double move, charge, shift etc. If you haven't moved your character in three rounds then move them. Risk some OAs, risk not being in the 'optimal' position, move anyway. It's fun.
3-D Fighting: Your PC can move up and down as well as from side to side. Is there something to jump upon, like a table or tavern bar? Is there something to jump down from, like a balcony? Run up the stairs, swing from the chandelier, climb the rigging. After all, you know what happens when you get the high ground!
I WANT TO LOOK AT THE TAPESTRIES
Combat encounter environments should, if your DM knows what he's doing, be full of interesting terrain features that your party can utilize. Using terrain makes for fun fighting.
Look: While waiting for your turn, have a look at the environment. Is there any location or feature which looks like it can be used in a scrap? Can a monster be pushed into or over something? Would moving somewhere else get you cover, or a better line of sight, or closer to a key enemy?
Break It: Watch any decent bit of movie mayhem and you'll see the environment getting trashed. When cowboys have their bar-room brawls everything gets broken. When kung-fu stars or comic book superheroes duke it out glass smashes, walls break, statues topple and things explode. Why not inject some of that into your D&D? Pull a curtain down over an enemy; set fire to something; push a heavy objet d'art on top of the necromancer; drop a chandelier onto a goblin; smash a bar stool over a dwarf's head; kick a cauldron of stew over... When the dust settles the insurance agents should have heart-attacks!
MIX IT UP
Spamming a boring at-will might make good tactical sense, if you calculate that on average it does 3.2 hp more damage than any other option, but it's as much fun as watching a Halfling sleep. Watch Legolas in the LotR films; he switches from ranged to melee attacks, he moves about, he does all manner of acrobatic stunts - he's interesting! Play your character like Legolas.
Combine Ranged & Melee: Yes, it probably sucks tactically. But boy is it cool to start a combat by throwing an ax at a minions head before running into melee. Make sure your character's got ranged and close combat options; consider things you wouldn't normally think of, like using heavy thrown weapons or the Quick Draw feat. Fun trumps munchkinism.
The Wonderful Thing About a Fist: Cinema action heroines don't just rely on their giant swords to batter the hordes of darkness. Think about the Jedi battles in the various Star Wars films (and TV series). Swing, swing, punch. Kick, somersault, slash. Sure, you'll have less chance to hit and do less damage - but that's what minions are for. Taking down a minion with a well-timed Glasgow Kiss is a lot more cinematic than yet another use of your vanilla at-will. It's clobberin' time!
Show Me Your Moves: Remember you can do more than just use your powers. What about a charge? Or a bull-rush? Or a grab? Or even aiding another's attack? Go over the various combat options again and see if you can fit one into every combat encounter.
Don't Horde Your Resources: What are you saving all those Action Points up for exactly? Every battle should see you use all the encounter powers available to you - after all, you can't store them up for later. And use your Action Point as soon as you can, you'll soon get another one. Use your magic items, use your alchemical gadgets, use your potions, use your scrolls! Don't be a battlefield Scrooge, let 'em 'av it!
Vary Your Attacks: You've got more than one power - use them all. Don't rely on Old Faithful every time, mix it up. Humans have an advantage here, but when building your adventurer make sure that you're prepared to use all the powers you pick for them.
WE CAN BE HEROES
D&D 4e assumes a generally good aligned party, and fantasy is built around rather simplistic notions of good and evil. Heroes on the screen shine with angelic acts of altruism and personal sacrifice, and even the vigilante style anti-heroes still put the good of others over their own comfort. The chances are that you as a player will never get a chance to do truly heroic stuff in combat, so play your character as the hero you wish you were - it'll make combat far more fun!
Self-Sacrifice: True heroes don't concern themselves with their own safety, they risk their lives to help others. Run into the burning building, take the bullet for your friend, run across no-man's land, carry your wounded comrade - take the damage and suck it up, 'cause you're the hero. Be bold and do it for the children!
A PALPABLE HIT
Table-top RPGs are primarily auditory and linguistic affairs. The passion and danger of war can only come alive in your imagination if people put effort into their action descriptions. Like Renaissance theatre there's no special effects at the table, you have only your words. Use your words to make rolling-dice seem like the most dramatic event of the century.
Describe the Event: "I use my encounter power to try and reduce this miniature's hit points to zero. I roll a 12. That's a hit because I get +6. I will now roll for damage; please pass me the d12..." Aaarrgggh! No, no, no! You can do better than that. "With a shout of anger, I use Sure Strike to ram my blood-stained sword into the Kobold's gut. A 12! I sink my blade to the very hilt into his belly; 13 damage. I gloat over his eviscerated ruin of a corpse." O.K, maybe that was a little hammy, but you get the point. As did the Kobold.
Re-Skin Powers: You don't have to keep the power flavor text, you know (PHB pp.54-55). Use down-time to re-jig the flavor text of your combat powers. Set yourself apart from the rest with personalized details.
Annunciate to the Back Row: Be hammy. Raise your voice. Inject dynamism into your body-language and intonation. Invoke the spirit of Brian Blessed. Make this combat an energetic affair - just like in the movies.
Say Something Cool: Every combat encounter, try to get in a cool, in-character line. As a good little role-player you should be speaking in character often anyway, but try to get a cool line into every melee. "Stand firm lads, we've faced worse than this. Remember the words of the ancients,..."; "By the beard of Odin, I will not yield! My ax, Skull-Fracturer, will teach you not to defile my sight."; [after kicking a Sorcerer into lava] "Hot enough for ya?" *groan*
YOU HAVE BECOME SKILLED, YOUNG APPRENTICE
4e positively encourages the use of skills in combat. From monster knowledge checks, to closing a portal as part of a skill-challenge, to performing an improvised acrobatic maneuver, there's a load of skills with combat utility in D&D.
Fit a Skill into Every Fight: Try and work at least one skill check into every encounter. Consider the following: Acrobatics for a combat stunt; Athletics for a jump; Bluff to feint; Heal to administer first aid; Intimidate to get bloodied foes to surrender; Stealth to creep around a creature's back; Thievery to pick a pocket whilst in combat. What could be more cinematic than creeping around the back of a group of baddies unnoticed; jumping onto a chandelier to swing-kick one over a balcony before dropping in front of another, feinting a move and stealing her purse; then cart-wheeling down some stairs, before making the rest flee before your terrifying threats. And all without a single power use!
If you have any comments, or other ideas as to how to make D&D combat uber-fun, please contribute.
Hey looks like you have been watching my Dragonborn Warlord play!
Very well written and excellent advice all around. Thanks for sharing this, I hope it makes a difference for all those folks that don't realize all the possibilities.
Great advice. I particularly like the fists against minions and brian blessed approach! Ham it up peeps!
Great, enthusiastic post! There was an article of a similar vein in Dragon several years ago, though it was probably more needed then when melee classes only had a set number of strikes and virtually no combat moves with real flavor; players had to provide their own.
It's very easy for combat, which should be one of the most exciting points in the game, to get bogged down in mechanics and dice-talk. Like other elements of the game, too, getting too energetic or trying to actually role play will sometimes just garner mocking laughter from others at the table - sometimes including the DM!
I'm currently playing a wizard, so it's hard to actually pull of many of these ideas, since acrobatics, athletics and daring maneuvers that put one into the thick of battle are generally not good ideas for me. This is a good reminder that I should still find ways to spice things up in battle - any specific ideas? The one I have been working on so far is renaming some of my basic spells to have more flavor of my wizard's guild and making some trademark spell effects, instead of the often generic ones in the power descriptions. It seems it's either that, or develop an ego the size of Jim Darkmagic's!
Thanks for the positive response folks.
Can we help CaptainX, folks?
I think it's a shame that you get odd looks when trying to roleplay in combat - I'do it anyway, let the others go play Warhammer if they want.
As to what can a wizard do? Hmmm.
In terms of mixing-up attack options, I like staff wizards for the smack-the-minion effect (plus the flavour), so that might be an option. Can you take the feat that runs your basic melee attack off another stat - that'd sort the punching dilemma and allow you to knee a lot of Kobold groins. Do you sometimes throw daggers at minions?
Wizards also have access to really cool cantrips (and familiars) - can any of these be put to use in combat? They should be great for distractions, sorting out lighting, and as for the options offered by mage hand and presdigitation! Have a read over those spells and think in advance of some possible uses. Also, if you time to prepare before battle some rituals might be interesting in prepping an environment beforehand.
Wizards have some great at-wills: do you vary which ones you use? Are you using all your encounter powers and action points? Wizards are good at setting things on fire - so look for combustibles in the terrain. If you use a spell with a push/slide effect, look to move critters into.over things for added fun! Does you PC race offer you any more interesting options?
Others might have more ideas for you. My generl advice is try things out and take risks - and ignore the naysayers at the table who play their D&D like a board game instead of a RPG.
I think a wizard's magic is one of the strongest RPing elements in the combat side of the game: getting to describe torrents of searing flame, roaring thunderblasts and summoning creatures is just awesome. I'm sure just detailing your effects (with a touch of personal flavouring, of course!) will take you far. Otheriwse though trash talking your foe is always fun, or maybe you could add a familiar to spice things up a little. Your spellbook will also allow for changing things up. And as Pog suggested, using those cantrips could add a lot of nice RPing effects (I have always been partial to the self "high five", using magehand, or the cheesy grin with added tooth sparkle, using presdigitation). 
I don't have anything to add, just wanted to say that's a great post; covers all the bases I think. I'm gonna make a copy to keep with me at the table. We can all use some helpful hints and tips once in a while. Thank ya ;).
This is so creative! Thank you for sharing it.
This is the kind of thing that I value in Dungeons and Dragons; if I wanted to crawl through a dungeon for two hours as people mutter dice results, I'd just look for more things to do in Final Fantasy XI.
I must say, well done!
I've already emailed this to several players. It should hopefully open a few eyes.
Great idea LC. Just sent it to my group too.
1. Sorry but "self-sacrifice" doesn't fit an opportunistic Rogue and fighting recklessly isn't for the cunning wizard. Your character's style of fighting should fit her/his personality.
2. And no hero wants to become, let alone be a hero. They do not aim at being heroic, they pursue their own agendas and therefore they often just can't help it to become a hero.
3. No real person ever sees him-/herself as an "adventurer". They would give themselfs labels like "businessman", "political activist", "protector", "rebel", "agent", etc but the most heroic of them all call themselfs "a simple person".
4. The most important quality your PCs, every character has and needs to keep save is "congruence" or if you like it better "consistence" that makes a character's authenticity. Contrary to common belief, your character's lifeline aren't her/his hitpoints it's his/her authenticity. What makes a character's existence continuing isn't her/his ability to prevent his/her in-game death. It is her/his ability to sustain your own interest.
I give you an example. My cleric of the silver flame has one clear goal in his mind no matter what he is doing. He is looking to replace Archbishop Solhar Dariznu, since he can't stand by watching while the administrator of his home-town Thaliost commits one atrocity after another. To accomplish this he needs to step up in the church's hierarchy. To him self-sacrifice is no option, he needs to succeed. There is no shame in succeeding anyway, especially not if everyone else is going to profit from it as well. He doesn't see himself as a noble hero, he perceives himself as a person who has to do something to end the terror that holds his community in its grip.
If your character-background sets up this sense of tension between the character's goals and the means she/he is willing to employ, then you are on a good road. Whenever things have to be done to achieve something the question should be hanging in the air:" Does the end justify the means?"
1. Sorry but "self-sacrifice" doesn't fit an opportunistic Rogue and fighting recklessly isn't for the cunning wizard. Your character's style of fighting should fit her/his personality.
Much clipped...that's all very true from an RP point of view. I think the point of the post however was basically "stop being so damn analytical and have fun in combat already....sheesh", or at least that's what I took from it. There's no reason you can't combine the two, because if your character doesn't have at least a little sense of heroism and adventure then why the frak are they knee deep in dragon dung in a godforsaken dungeons 200 miles from civilization facing down an Orcus underpriest and his undead minions? They could be at home, arguing for legislation to give the local serfs free health care, or convincing the baron to lower the proposed new tax on corn and potatoes.
D&D combat can drag and while there are ways to fix it (some people lower hit points but raise damage, some lower defenses etc, etc.) if the combat is lively and exciting because of the players antics and descriptions then it's less likely to be dull. I shudder when I hear a player say "I hit him with my sword (roll)...a 17, plus 6, that's a 23. I do (roll) 7+4 + 1 for my magic sword...12 damage". Imagine hearing that for the better part of an hour and a half. Even something like "I jump up on the table and spin quickly, slashing the orc across the throat" followed by the rolls and numbers is so much better.
1. Sorry but "self-sacrifice" doesn't fit an opportunistic Rogue and fighting recklessly isn't for the cunning wizard. Your character's style of fighting should fit her/his personality.
You mean one size doesn't fit all? What a gip!
2. And no hero wants to become, let alone be a hero. They do not aim at being heroic, they pursue their own agendas and therefore they often just can't help it to become a hero.
*Remembers Disney's Hercules movie* Yes, people never want to be a hero. Some people want to be a hero for the sake of something else, some people want to be heroic for the sake of being heroic ... and some people become heroes because they don't have a choice.
3. No real person ever sees him-/herself as an "adventurer". They would give themselfs labels like "businessman", "political activist", "protector", "rebel", "agent", etc but the most heroic of them all call themselfs "a simple person".
Heroic =/= Humble. You can have a terribly arrogant person who is a hero - he won't refer to himself as a "simple person." Likewise, some people will refer to themselves as adventurers - I had a character who was basically Indiana Jones for the heck of it. He was an archaeologist/dungeon delver, but his 'job' was there for the fun of it. It was an afterthought, since he was already going into these relatively dangerous places for the thrill, why not become well-known in the academic circles?
If your character-background sets up this sense of tension between the character's goals and the means she/he is willing to employ, then you are on a good road. Whenever things have to be done to achieve something the question should be hanging in the air:" Does the end justify the means?"
Alignment and predeveloped personality affects this. Good character will more often than not say "No," while Evils and Neutrals are more likely to say "Yes." And, of course, the end in particular matters as well - if the character in question seeks to end all existence within his own plane of existence, he may not particularly care *how* he does it.
Thanks for this post. I don't agree with all of it, but I do agree with most of it, and I try to play cinematically whenever I can.
Playing a Bravura Warlord is, I've found, a great way to get into the mood of cinematic combat. I played one at the MM2 World Wide D&D Game Day, and even styled him after BRIAN BLESSED'S Prince Vultan. He died in the last fight, but it was worth it to get everyone demanding "BRAVURA!" from each other by the end of the game. Who wants to live forever!
2. And no hero wants to become, let alone be a hero. They do not aim at being heroic, they pursue their own agendas and therefore they often just can't help it to become a hero.
3. No real person ever sees him-/herself as an "adventurer". They would give themselfs labels like "businessman", "political activist", "protector", "rebel", "agent", etc but the most heroic of them all call themselfs "a simple person".
These two points are wrong. Maybe in real life, but even then I'd prolly leand towards disagreement. I for one love the idea of the arrogant yet lovable batshit insane guy who's out to kick ass in the name of JUSTICE (See Kamina from Gurren Lagann)
Wizards and other magic users are great to roleplay... remember that just because your sheet only says "Burning hands" it doesn't mean that your Wizard can't know 15 different Close Blast 5 spells that deal 2d6+int fire damage, of which he can only use one per battle.
Mix it up. It's harder for the Martial guys, but a good player can never use the same attack description twice (how's that for a character? A Warlock that knows a crapton of spells, but he can only use each one once in his lifetime?)
Other then that, like, going to send it to my players 
Lots of good points! I've added this to the "Required Reading" list for my DnD group (most are @15).
Wow - I'm blush at the idea of DMs passing this info on to thier Players.
I think 4e D&D can really provide some great tasting combats, and both DMs and Players should work hard to make those melee encounters sparkle.
Wow... this needs to be stickied, or at least linked in one of the wikis. Great stuff and some new ideas for me too. Thanks. 
Yeah, one way to help out the spellcaster in cinematic combat sequences is to describe the spells differently each time you cast it. For example, a thunderwave might be described as the wizard spinning his staff over his head, creating a cyclone that blows nearby enemies away, or as the wizard slamming the staff on the ground and creating a massive shockwave.
Another thing that would help out in making combat cinematic is to let players describe the final attack that brings an enemy to 0 HP. For instance, a wizard might knock an enemy's head off with a magic missile (complete with a geyser of gore spewing from the neck stump), or snap his fingers and turn it into a toad. Either way, the bad guy is out of your hair.
Oh, good show! Both those are good pieces. The first, well, let's face it, everybody who plays a mage really kinda plays it so they can make things levitate upwards when they cast a spell, their eyes go white, and whatnot.
Concerning having the player describe the killing blow, that is a good idea. One of my players always wanted to describe exactly what he did, and i was like NO! Allowing them to elect to describe a (non-minion) death themselves or have me describe it would give a nice choice.
Any more ideas, people?
In my games, you get to decide their fate completely. If you want to cut off his sword-arm so he can never fight again; fine. If you want to cut his hamstrings so he can't walk for the rest of his life; why not?
You could choose to kill him, so why not be able to apply a weaker status effect instead? All it does is give the DM more options for story and recurring villains, something I think players should be encouraged to do
However it's something you'll need to discuss with your DM.
Two sessions ago my character had gone outside to chase a wraith in some haunted town that had been dragged between worlds. Outside another Encounter group wandered up so my Deva yelled he had enemy contact. The rest of the group had been inside the general store making sure nothing else was lurking in there. The Artificer hears but sees no short route out. So he does a Kool Aid man impression to the general store. The DM looks like he is going to say no so I grab the rulebook and point out the break DC for a wooden wall. The DM lets him roll.... he needs to roll 19-20. The d20 settles and we all lean in to read the 20 clearly showing... BOOM goes the Artificer out through the wall to start helping my wizard with the enemy. Thats cinematic. That is memorable.
You want to swing down on a chandelier and kick the bad guy try it!!
You want to do a flip over a wall and nail the guys behind it go for it!!
Whatever it is try for it.
Making it priceless, of course, was that he decided that, as he was hefting the skeletal minion, his character said, "You're boned."
Oh, good show! Both those are good pieces. The first, well, let's face it, everybody who plays a mage really kinda plays it so they can make things levitate upwards when they cast a spell, their eyes go white, and whatnot.
Concerning having the player describe the killing blow, that is a good idea. One of my players always wanted to describe exactly what he did, and i was like NO! Allowing them to elect to describe a (non-minion) death themselves or have me describe it would give a nice choice.
Anyone ever use a Foe Fatality chart? A randomn table to describe how the baddie goes down?
EX:
Bladed Weapons
1-2: Your blade plunges into the enemies abdomen. With a gurgle of blood yoru foe drops to the ground.
3-4: DECAPITATION!! With a deadly stroke of your blade your opponents head flies off his body and tumbles to the floor.
Anyway, you get the idea (kind of the like Critical Hit cards out there).
The Warhammer Fantasy RPG has a big ol' critical hit table. Sometimes it was cool, but I found it a lot slower than having the DM just ad-lib something cool.
Mostly you only use it when it matters, when fighting an important enemy it really matters whenever his shield is simply thrown out of his hand and a few bones broken or if his arm is ripped of with a flow of blood and he is instantly killed, but against weaker enemies I mostly say that they are dead when they reach 0 wounds.
It's bad form for me to bump my own thread, but I'm going to do it anyway (I have a giant ego). I'll let it die after this, though. So, for the last time, if anyone has any input on how to make 4e combat more cinematic, please contribute. Happy hacking!
Edit: I lied about no more self-bumps. Oh well...
But, it's always worth repeating, DMs must do the initial groundwork & play their monsters appropriately in order to get the best out of combat.
And besides, maybe other people who missed it first time round want to say something about how to make combat cool...?
Either that or I've just made myself look really dumb. I blame the people making me do this.