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Atar Kelith
2010-11-13, 11:53 PM
I've recently started DMing a D&D 4.0 game with a group of my friends. Most of us haven't played any table top RPGs before. This is my first time DMing I'm about 10ish sessions in.

Can anyone direct me to a good resource about how to describe combat? Or share some gems of your own? (We're pretty combat centric.) I need some help on how to talk about it. My assumption is that DMs tend to have the players describe what they do and then describe what happens?

How do you convey bloodied status with out explicitly stating it? Also how do you describe a decent hit vs a devastating hit vs a miss vs a close miss?

So far the best thing I've come it with is a description of a zombie dodge, "The player attacks the zombie. You swing at the zombie! Gaahhhh, (I pantomime a zombie lazily/inadvertently swaying from straight up to tilted and back.) He slowly, yet deftly dodges your attack."

fireinakasha
2010-11-14, 12:09 AM
A good way I've seen used and used myself is: fluff the attacks as if hit points are less a character's physical durability than their ability to avoid fatal blows.

So, attacks that miss, obviously, can be described as such. "The archer fires at you, but you're not even sure where the arrow went."

Normal attacks that do small to moderate amounts of damage could be described as "the bolt buries itself in your armor, just a few inches away from the hole, and you feel a rush of excitement mixed with fear." Or "you hear a high pitched whine as the sword flies inches from your face." Or what have you. Something that implies a very near-miss sort of situation, an attack that it really took some effort and expenditure of endurance to avoid.

Critical attacks are attacks that actually make physical contact, such as "you try to dodge the blow, but his blade passes through your sleeve and a large spurt of blood goes flying." Or "the flail crashes into your thigh and for a second that leg goes numb." This is also a good way to describe the attacks that make you bloodied.

Attacks that drop you to 0 or less are the real painful and deadly descriptions. Getting swords through your abdomen, taking a mace full-force to the temple. That kind of thing. Save dismemberment for three 20's in a row (unless you're using a custom critical effect table that actually allows for dismemberment).

Obviously, adjusting the description for the character is always a good idea. A frail mage may have near-misses on a crit, and close-but-not-immediately-dangerous misses on a normal hit. A half-orc barbarian might have blood drawn on a normal hit, and teeth flying on a crit, just to be badass. YMMV.

Edit: I see now that you were asking more for descriptions than when to use a description. Whoops. Well, a good place to start is; where does the attack come from, and how does the attacked avoid it/survive it?

For instance, a sword just getting swung is okay an all. But a sword crashing down from over your head is way cool. Or, a finesse fighter might spin and lash out. Then, the zombie lurches to the left, out of the way. Or stumbles backwards. Or ducks, etc. Or, if the target has a weapon or shield, maybe they block or parry.

Also, in the case of undead and constructs and muscle-bound characters, don't discount the possibility of innefective blows. Maybe the sword hits the zombie square in the side, but at an odd angle that prevents it from cutting into the flesh. Maybe your mace hits the half-orc full-force in the temple and knocks out some teeth, and he just recovers immediately, unphased and smiling.

Atar Kelith
2010-11-14, 12:34 AM
A good way I've seen used and used myself is: fluff the attacks as if hit points are less a character's physical durability than their ability to avoid fatal blows.

Gah! That's a good idea but when I've tried to 'fudge' things like this before I've gotten needled by my players. It might be possible to adjust their perspectives....


Obviously, adjusting the description for the character is always a good idea. A frail mage may have near-misses on a crit, and close-but-not-immediately-dangerous misses on a normal hit. A half-orc barbarian might have blood drawn on a normal hit, and teeth flying on a crit, just to be badass. YMMV.

That is an ubergood point! I've got an undead barb PC that keeps running in to every thing he can reach. Half the time he gets whipped bad, half the time he kills everything. I think describing his loss and regeneration of various bits can't help but be a fertile ground.

fireinakasha
2010-11-14, 05:01 AM
It might be possible to adjust their perspectives....

If they're having a hard time going for HP as battle endurance, maybe you could switch over to the wound points and vitality system from Unearthed Arcana: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/vitalityAndWoundPoints.htm

Not only does it make it easier to work out how to describe the results of the attack, but it adds an extra level of excitement to any given combat, and it provides a mechanical system for the whole idea of "near-misses and firm blows", for the rule sticklers in the group.

Admittedly, this can be a pretty big game-changer, so you might not want to use the whole system. For example, you could just ignore the whole "fatigued after even one point of wound point damage" bit. You could also tweak it so that this actually makes your characters tougher, by increasing the rate at which vitality points regenerate (maybe to con mod per hour), thereby allowing them to survive more encounters in any given period of time, so long as they haven't suffered grievous wounds.



I think describing his loss and regeneration of various bits can't help but be a fertile ground.

Oh most deff. Plus it will make him feel especially cool, and then that's one less player bothering you about how you're fluffing things.

Also:


It might be possible to adjust their perspectives....

You are the DM. There is no "might be", there is only "is." :smallbiggrin:

Dr.Epic
2010-11-14, 05:37 AM
How do you convey bloodied status with out explicitly stating it? Also how do you describe a decent hit vs a devastating hit vs a miss vs a close miss?

You could just say that they are: the opponent rips at your chest and a great flow of blood comes forth. Just tell the PCs what you imagine. And don't worry about explicitly stating it: if you do that the players will get a clear idea of what's going on.