Extending Combat

[Provengreil]

So here's a question.

A lot of combat in D&D last only a few rounds, even boss battles. combat is quick and incredibly lethal. but this leaves very little time for anything epic: even the bbeg just gets stabbed a few times and falls over, he just stabs back a little harder than most. how could one turn a particular fight into some kind of drawn out deathmatch like you'd see in, say, a golden sun boss without homebrewing something with 500 hp that's immune to fortitude and will saves, but less ability to kill PCs in one or two hits?

[Xodion]

Our DM had this problem, even when we tried to not optimise so much. Adding more hitpoints to already tough enemies seems to do a decent job, but his homebrew stuff occasionally massacred us. His best attempt was an octopus thing that kept grappling us and trying to eat us - without the eating (fort save or die) bit, I think it would have made for a long epic battle, trying to fight our way out of its grappling tentacles.

[IthilanorStPete]

The problem I've found with making battles extended by just adding HP is that it gets boring - there's not much improvement from fighting 2-3 rounds to fighting for 15 rounds if they're all the same thing. To extend combats, I'd suggest using highly mobile monsters/NPCs, often casters, and skirmish with the party - don't go for a straight-up slugfest with them.

[Provengreil]

heh, you read my mind. I'll have ways to keep combat moving, like enemies using spring attack, running around and luring PCs into trapdoors or something. I just need combat to last long enough to make that mean anything.

[NichG]

I think the only real way to do this in D&D (without homebrewing) is to have large numbers of spread out combatants on the enemy side including a certain number that come in at staged points of the fight, with no lynchpin target that makes the whole thing crumble.

You have to be careful, especially if the enemies have ranged attacks, since statistics can kill the party if they have no way to protect themselves from the majority of the combatants at a given time. You'd probably want to put this on a field with lots of cover/etc, so the party can deal with only 5 of them at once or something.

An example might be:

First wave: 40 orcs riding wargs, supported by 20 orc longbowmen

Second wave: 10 griffon riders optimized to use grenade-weapons from above or lances against airborne targets. 10 lower level support wizards that magic missile anything that comes into view.

Third wave: 5 elephant riders with a high level druid supporting.

Fourth wave: BBEG riding on the back of a dragon.

[Provengreil]

While the big battle idea would definitely extend combat, the PCs kicking like 90 people's asses at once is not really the kind of extended combat i'm trying for.


I suppose there's always the tarrasque, though that thing kills pretty well IIRC.

[IthilanorStPete]

Actually the Tarrasque is rather pathetic for a monster of that CR, though giving it Brutal Throw and Throw Anything for some range helps a bit.

[dob]

A large battlefield with a variety of terrain and features helps. Waves of enemies are good, especially if your player characters tend to go nova at the start of every fight, and subsequent waves wait until the rounds per level buffs have worn off before striking.