My combat encounters are really bland. Help me spice them up!

[Totema]

In my neverending quest to becoming a fun and competent DM, I've come to grips with an unfortunate truth: whenever I direct combat, it's always long and usually pretty boring.

Here's an example from this weekend: My 3-PC party is exploring the Lost Temple of Doomy Doom and wandered into a spacious chamber with 4 sarcophagi lining the walls. The party carefully slinks into the room but the stone door shuts behind them, the torches begin to burn with purple light, the lids of the sarcophagi burst open, and humanoid skeletons creep out to attack! And everyone rolls initiative! Exciting, right?

Well, this is what the skeletons do. One of them goes to hit the monk. Another one goes to hit the same monk. The other two move closer to the rest of them. When the cleric fails his turning check to drive them off, they focus their attention on them... and move in to hit him. They move, and make melee attacks. That's kinda it.

I know my options with humanoid skeletons are pretty limited but I find myself doing this with just about every combat session I direct. It can be skeletons, goblins, town guards, frost giants, freaking red dragons... Move and attack, move and attack, move and attack.

The point is, even though my players usually have a good time with dice rolls and basic tactics, I'm not having fun with my combat. It's extremely basic and almost never memorable. I'm not entirely sure what the source of the problem is, though. It could be that I'm stuck with Big Stupid Fighter sensibilities when I really should be rid of those by now. And it could also be that I'm just not really familiar with what certain creatures' tactics should be sometimes. I mean, what does a giant do other than traipse around clumsily and smash heads?

Another problem is that my combat is also usually really slow. That skeleton encounter I described? It ended up being the only thing we did for the whole session. I was planning on a little more combat and even a climax to the adventure where they clear out the whole place of baddies while uncovering some cool conspiracy crap, but nope, simply fighting four humanoid skeletons somehow took up three hours. (My players are somewhat new to D&D but at this point killing a few skeles should be done in minutes.) I'm not really sure if this problem falls into the same category but it's prominent enough for me to bring it up.

So, I ask: how can I make my creatures' tactics less formulaic and boring, more varied and interesting, and (hopefully) faster?

[jaydubs]

A few random bits I've enjoyed as a player:

-Put a goal in the combat other than "kill them before they kill you." Maybe a baddie is escaping, and the PCs are trying to stop him. Or they're trying to kill the guards before they can alert someone else. Or they're trying to take someone alive for questioning, or break into a building while avoiding attention. Or the PCs are protecting someone/something. This can really add urgency to a situation, and force players to think creatively.

-Make the environment a factor. Pits, fire, cover, objects or buildings to climb on, ships to board, etc. A lot of memorable fights involve unusual or changing terrain that comes in to favor one side or another.

-Try to get inside the heads of your monsters, and think about what tools they have to win fights. Goblins might attack at range behind difficult terrain, forcing players to make climb/acrobatics checks. Town guards run for reinforcements, or attack from towers/walls. Besides which, killing guards can trigger problems with reputation or bounty hunters. Giants can throw boulders from on top of cliffs, or abuse their greater reach. Dragons might refuse to land, strafing with breath and casting spells.

Making combat faster seems to boil down to two things - making decisions quickly, and knowing what to roll without too much though. For the first, ask players to consider their actions before their turn, rather than coming up with it on the spot. For the second, write down the most common numbers on notecards (or use a macro if this is on roll20 or similar).

[NoACWarrior]

In my neverending quest to becoming a fun and competent DM, I've come to grips with an unfortunate truth: whenever I direct combat, it's always long and usually pretty boring.

Here's an example from this weekend: My 3-PC party is exploring the Lost Temple of Doomy Doom and wandered into a spacious chamber with 4 sarcophagi lining the walls. The party carefully slinks into the room but the stone door shuts behind them, the torches begin to burn with purple light, the lids of the sarcophagi burst open, and humanoid skeletons creep out to attack! And everyone rolls initiative! Exciting, right?

Well, this is what the skeletons do. One of them goes to hit the monk. Another one goes to hit the same monk. The other two move closer to the rest of them. When the cleric fails his turning check to drive them off, they focus their attention on them... and move in to hit him. They move, and make melee attacks. That's kinda it.

I know my options with humanoid skeletons are pretty limited but I find myself doing this with just about every combat session I direct. It can be skeletons, goblins, town guards, frost giants, freaking red dragons... Move and attack, move and attack, move and attack.

The point is, even though my players usually have a good time with dice rolls and basic tactics, I'm not having fun with my combat. It's extremely basic and almost never memorable. I'm not entirely sure what the source of the problem is, though. It could be that I'm stuck with Big Stupid Fighter sensibilities when I really should be rid of those by now. And it could also be that I'm just not really familiar with what certain creatures' tactics should be sometimes. I mean, what does a giant do other than traipse around clumsily and smash heads?

Another problem is that my combat is also usually really slow. That skeleton encounter I described? It ended up being the only thing we did for the whole session. I was planning on a little more combat and even a climax to the adventure where they clear out the whole place of baddies while uncovering some cool conspiracy crap, but nope, simply fighting four humanoid skeletons somehow took up three hours. (My players are somewhat new to D&D but at this point killing a few skeles should be done in minutes.) I'm not really sure if this problem falls into the same category but it's prominent enough for me to bring it up.

So, I ask: how can I make my creatures' tactics less formulaic and boring, more varied and interesting, and (hopefully) faster?

You could use a bit more varied monsters with different abilities, and do a mixnmash with said monsters. You could also play NPCs making sure their stuff gets blown up after they die.

But both don't solve your issues you face. Combat takes forever - where is most of the damage coming from, how likely are the PCs to have something which solves the encounter, how likely are the PCs to speed up an encounter when given the option? Besides the suggestions by jaydubs which will greatly help you enjoy combat scenarios, you'll have to come at the PCs with intent to kill, but not with the blade to do it. Sure your PCs will be mad at you on the encounter, but at the same time when they win due to tactics, and you coming at them with full force it will be gratifying. And when I say with intent to kill I mean using charge type monsters, ability damage / drain, save or suck spells, mass battlefield control, and tactician level tactical decisions. You'll need to be careful on most of those though, you don't want to kill the PCs, you want to rile them up and make them play more efficiently and creatively (which is why I didn't include postman builds / true lockdown / save or die). The only issue then is you'll start playing rocket tag where combat lasts for at most 4 rounds (but still around 1-2 hours) and its an initiative check to win (at higher levels especially alot of monsters have near instagib abilities).

[Bugworlds]

Sounds like you need a mix up. Use some foes which have different tackits. Get some highly intelligent strategies by weaker foes, so if or when their plan fails their extermination is a bit faster. Explore some magic, psionics, traps and dynamic environments. Sure fighting a bunch of skeletons on flat ground is standard, but what about in free fall, or if the ground is moving? Experiment with some puzzle styled combat. I threw some low CR skeletal creatures at my players once, which they had no issue with; but started to discover they reformed three rounds after being broken. The new challenge wasn't to kill them but prevent their resection before they had nipped away PC health, 1 at a time. Perhaps forcing the players to fight differently would change the dynamic with you not needing to figure out how (as much). Sunder, disarm, imobalize.

All in all, find something which makes the fight interesting. With this fun will come about. Don't be afraid to use some hilarity if needed. In the same campaign I had regerating skeletal creatures I had some freefall combat which had a powerful caster (who was making the fall last an unlimited time) summoning creatures into battle. There were plenty of laughs as a rhino was introduced with a charge attack which was straight down (and one squished fighter).

[Deophaun]

I know my options with humanoid skeletons are pretty limited but I find myself doing this with just about every combat session I direct. It can be skeletons, goblins, town guards, frost giants, freaking red dragons... Move and attack, move and attack, move and attack.
Aside from the Red Dragon, that's what all these creatures do. But that said, there's a lot of variety in how they move and attack:

Skeletons: Move to closest living thing. Stab closest living thing.
Goblins: Shoot weakest enemy. Run away, scatter. (Lead players to further ambushes)
Town Guards: Form up as a unit, surround, subdue. (Probably have reach weapons)
Frost Giant: Crush with rocks. OK, they don't really have to move.

Your Red Dragon? He's going to Flyby Attack strafe with a breath weapon, or maybe Snatch an unfortunate party member and fly away with his meal.

[Xerlith]

If I say "Give your monsters a dip in an Initiator class", how quickly will I be kicked? :smallbiggrin:

No, but seriously - give your a sprinkle of ToB maneuvers. Be it Martial Study feat, a Crus/Warblade class dip, it will give them something more than just move+attack combo in a round.
Extrapolating - give your monsters class levels.

Other than that:
1. Introduce enemy casters. Goblin shaman, kobold sorcerer, stuff like that- it gets the combat spiced up for both you and your players.
2. Make use of combat maneuvers. Charging, tripping, grappling (*shudders*), bull rushing...

[John Longarrow]

There are several tricks you can use for speeding up combat.

1) Talk to your players. Explain to them what you expect and ask them to concentrate on what is happening when it is not their turn. If a player is watching combat unfold, they should be working out their next turn and should not take a lot of time deciding what they are going to do on their turn.

2) Talk to your players. Advise them to look up what their characters can do and how the rules work prior to game sessions. If they are debating if their character should bull rush and enemy in combat, that is NOT the time to read the rules on how bull rush works.

3) Talk to your players about the six second rule. If it takes them more than six seconds to start taking their turn, skip them. Normally this only needs to happen once for players to start paying attention.

4) Description of results. "OK, you swing, you hit, roll damage" is rather boring. "What did you roll? OK, your sword bites deep into the orcs side! Gimme damage, As your blade slides from the gaping wound in the orc, the orc slides to the ground as a pool of blood begins to surround it". Not only is this more fun for you and the players, it generally builds excitement and helps keep the game flowing.

Once you can get combat flowing fairly quickly you can start affording to add tactics and planning to your monsters. Until then, a smart fight by the monsters will only make things take longer.

NOTE: As you are talking about your players taking several hours to beat four skeletons AND you include "They go for the Monk", I'm under the impression none of you are very experienced. If you can, try to find other DMs in your area and ask if you can sit in on a session (no character) to learn from them. You'll be surprised how often gamers are nice that way, especially when you bring Frito's and Mountain Dew...

[Eldariel]

Traps can function well in conjunction with monsters in locales where this makes sense, such as a Lost Temple With Skeletons. Resetting trap of some type of a negative energy burst (Mass Inflict Light Wounds or so) can keep healing the skeletons and hurting the players; the PCs then have the option to try and figure out midcombat why that keeps happening and what's the source (pressure plate, movement, clockwork, etc.). Illusions can make life a lot more interesting; some skulking enemy (Goblin Bard/Cleric with Domain, Necropolitan Adept, Duergar Illusionist, etc.) using small murderhole style holes in the walls of a temple to maintain line of effect and sight and raise e.g. extra Skeletons or such in the middle of a combat can make things a lot more interesting. Then enemy has to deal with figuring out which are real and which aren't. The fakes could intentionally miss to remain harder to detect for a longer while, for instance.

Overall, as stated before it's mostly spells, environment, combat maneuvers. Note, Goblin Warrior 1 doesn't need to be the baseline. You can customize as many of the monsters you use as you have time; give them different weapons, feats, etc. With enough practice you can do that off the bat in few minutes; switch out feat sets and abilities alongside equipment to focus each creature differently. Skulking hit'n'run Goblin Rogues, Wizards or Wizard/Rogues using invisibility spells and such can make life a lot more complex and for an entirely different kind of an encounter. They can even combine with melee brutes.

So, what can e.g. Giants do? Well, they have rock throwing as a basic option; give them Brutal Throw from Complete Adventurer to use Strength for it, have them wait on a mountain pass and throw rocks from hundreds of feet away in cover. Or if they're in melee they can always use stuff like Grapple or Awesome Blow or Tripping using their strength and size to create advantages. All enemies have access to charging; what if you have some Roc-riding Frost Giant Barbarians using Mounted Combat feats alongside a buffing/dispelling Frost Giant Cleric or Druid (a Roc is a possible Druid animal companion too)? If they live in mountains, taming wild animals and using them makes perfect sense and Rocs are big enough for Giants to ride and tameable.

And Giants are often depicted as close to nature anyways. Giant Adepts can also learn a certain interesting magic set; you could create a shamanistic society where every giant is more or less spiritually aligned mostly still enjoying impressive martial ability thanks to their stature but wielding spells as their primary offense. Maybe some terrain is formed so that there are only certain paths available. You have infinite options. Magic really helps tho, as well as tools.

[Yawgmoth]

Yeah, it sounds like you're stuck in, as you called it, Big Stupid Fighter methods. if move+attack is boring, stop using move+attack! You're the DM, baddies have what you say they have and fight where you say they fight. Give them spells, give them 3.0 Haste, give them initiator levels and/or martial study. Give them the special attacks/qualities of other creatures. Give them weird new abilities you came up with in the shower. If you want more interesting enemies, all you really need to do is give them the tools you want them to employ and then use them.

Second, put them in interesting places that actually interact with the encounter. That description of the sarcophagi is amazing, but give it some teeth; maybe the purple fire is poisonous and the skeletons have Awesome Blow (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm#awesomeBlow). Or maybe its light pumps out negative energy, healing the skeletons and harming the PCs. Environmental effects are a great (and easy) way to take an off-the-rack monster and make it memorable.

Lastly, do not use Longarrow's "six second rule" unless (a) the problem is that the PCs are taking too long to do their turns, AND (b) every single player is on board with it. Otherwise you'll just be another douchebarn DM. Any fight that is at a suitably challenging is going to take a session. It's just the nature of the beast that is D&D combat. This is especially true when you have multiple combatants, because every enemy adds a few minutes of rolling. One quick way to speed things up is to have everyone roll attacks and damage all at once. If you have multiple attacks with different bonuses, use different colored dice. Ultimately, if your players are having fun and you're enjoying making the game, everything is as it should be.

[KorbeltheReader]

One quick pointer: monsters with an ability other than simple melee attacking will generally favor that ability over a simple melee attack. That on its own should help a little, at least.

Spellcasting baddies have a way of spicing up encounters, especially ones that cast offensive spells.

You can also start thinking up encounters where "beat that guy's head in" isn't the sole objective. Perhaps the PCs are fighting a bunch of charmed townsfolk that they don't want to kill; they're in a chase scene; it's better to sneak past the baddies; they have to kill the baddies quickly the rest of the dungeon is alerted; some of their friends are being held hostage and the captors will start killing if given a chance; there's a giant honkin' trap they have to fight around or disarm, etc.

As for the long combats, why is it so long? Are your players not ready when their turn comes up? Do y'all veer off into joking/conversations about other stuff/movie references frequently or for long periods of time? Does someone keep breaking for smoke breaks? Do y'all spend an hour every combat looking up rules or spells? If you can figure out what the hold up is, you have a better shot of speeding up your game.

[Trasilor]

Spicing it up
Use non-combative options - don't just move and hit. Learn how to Trip, bull rush and overrun -grapple when you are huge+. Giants on a mountainside wouldn't move and hit, they would move, grab and toss said adventurers.

Speeding it up
Miniatures can speed up the process - players don't have to ask if they have line of sight or line of effect. And they can learn to flank.

Another thing, is the no-rule-book-on-the-table-during-combat rule. Pretty self-explanatory but enforces the idea that you do not look up stuff during combat.

Also, instead of skipping a players turn, have them automatically defer until they can figure out what they want to do.

Finally, delegate. as a DM you have tons to do. Let one of the players (a volunteer) handle keeping track of initiative. I use initiative cards - every player and monster/group of monster has a card. After initiative is rolled, cards are placed in order and we simply turn over the cards to see whose turn it is.

[John Longarrow]

Lastly, do not use Longarrow's "six second rule" unless (a) the problem is that the PCs are taking too long to do their turns, AND (b) every single player is on board with it.

Yawgmoth,

Hence why I stated to talk to the players about it first. I've seen a couple games that did benefit greatly when the players had to start thinking about what they were going to do BEFORE they started their turn. The players had to pay attention instead of mentally checking out. It made combat much faster. It also should apply to the DM, so the DM only has a couple seconds to start getting the monsters going. Some times people make tactical mistakes, but you don't have people mentally check out nearly as much. Also funny when the DM forges about a monster...

[JimboG]

One thing I've always found that helps spice up otherwise standard encounters is giving your monsters some ulterior goal when in combat that is more interesting or more effective than running up and attacking. Examples:

Some Goblin archers have decided, instead of running up and getting bopped by your fighter, they've flipped a table in a narrow hallways and are shooting arrows through the slits while using the table as cover, and there's a low-level "Boss" goblin behind them throwing out fireballs when you get near. All of the sudden these simple goblins have become a challenging obstacle that you can't just rush at.

There's a pit in the center of the room that the monsters are far more interested in knocking the players into than they are beating them to death. Make the monsters some zombie Bulls or Rhinos and suddenly the amount of damage they deal is way less relevant than their ability to shove the squishies over the edge of a pit.

There's a room full of zombies that appear to just put up a standard fight, but every time they take damage they miraculously heal without and explanation. Eventually the Rogue succeeds a perception check to hear someone whispering magic words, and you soon realize there's an invisible evil cleric healing the zombie minions you're attacking.

These are just some examples, but the point is give your monsters some sort of gimmick or extra goal to work towards that drastically changes the circumstance of the battle. Monsters don't have to be mindless attacking machines. They can be clever and tricky just like players, and they often have the advantage of knowing the adventurers are coming! ;)

[Talos]

Brother it is all about description. You can make the most boring fight exciting with a little flare.
Remember the five scents. what do they see, hear, smell, taste and touch.

yes they stumble into an open room with coffin lining the walls and the door shuts behind them.

or you could say. ahead looks clear from your torchlight, you enter a caverness room, the aroma of rot fills your noses. as the torch light fills the room several coffins are revealed. Chills are felt as grating stone is heard from behind you the hair on your neck stands. when you turn you see the passsageway behind you diappears behind a huge stone at that moment heavy stone slabs hit the floor as magled skeletal remains rise form their resting places.... ROLE INTIATIVE!!!

give them the feeling that they are there.

Cinamatic scenes are great PRACTICE !!! our DM give us xp for roleplaying how we fight and how we do certain things. make a poition or check for traps, open locks.

Ham it up !!

[ace rooster]

Variation in objectives is a good start, starting with the fact that mostly creatures just want to stay alive. They will not commit to a lethal fight without a very good reason.

In addition to the point about using intelligent enemies well, there is also using stupid enemies well. A colossal scorpion rampaging through a city attacking every person it can find will not prioritise killing the PCs, so can be overpowered for a straight fight.

[ImaDeadMan]

Adding a variation of monsters to the combat can be fun since that means more special things can happen in combat. If a monster you're looking at is outside the party's CR range then just give them a nerfed or buffed version of the monster to accommodate that. This can create some far more interesting combats with all the cool things that can be going on like SLA's, utilization of items, and maybe add an extra goal to the combat such as capture the enemy alive or prevent them from alerting others.

[VoxRationis]

Give an enemy low-level rogue, bard, or caster a wand of summon monster with full charges (in addition to some non-summoned minions). Suddenly the fight becomes about neutralizing that enemy before they get worn down with a nigh-unlimited supply of minions.

I second the idea of varied terrain. Fight on an icy road overlooking a perilous cliff. Fight in a cave filled with giant stalagmites that allow flanking tactics, choke points, etc. Fight in an ancient hypostyle hall filled with traps that work against both sides. Ideally, you want to have terrain that the NPCs have prepared for more, but the PCs can use to their advantage if they're quick and clever. It's easy to set up one-sided terrain advantages that destroy parties entirely; try to avoid that.

Have disciplined enemies that follow intelligent, pre-made combat strategies. Have a couple bards with tower shields inspire courage while blocking off the PC's access to the archers who are making use of that extra damage. Have enemies attempt to sunder or steal PC equipment, so that the PCs start worrying about the consequences of melee long before they're in danger of dying. Give some ogres some nets and disrupt the party formation.

Hell, make an NPC adventuring party and have them fight the PCs, using all the same tactics (maybe at a lower level) the PCs do.

[Totema]

Thanks for all the terrific feedback. Let me address some things that have been brought up:

1. I need to mention that I'm playing on roll20.net. I can't find any 3.5 players around my small town, so I've settled for playing long-distance with my group of friends from back home. And I frequently get the impression that they're only sorta playing D&D while also eating dinner, doing chores or homework, or just plain spacing out on the web. It's very challenging to get them to stay focused on the game while they're miles away in their own homes. I've tried before to get them to only sign on when they have no other responsibilities that evening, but with that I would only get to play a session every few months.

2. It's hard to pin down why exactly the combat takes so long. Yeah, there's the fact that I think they're not focusing on the game. But I've also played a few games of physical D&D where the combat would be, again, long and dull. (Not quite as long though, we're talking about 30 minutes of laborious miniature-shuffling instead of hours and hours.) If I had to guess I'd say it's due to a combination of them not being familiar with their options and me being too caught up in the move-and-attack routine.

3. Longarrow got it right - I'm generally pretty inexperienced with 3.5 myself. But like I said, I don't have any other local groups to learn from. (I used to play with a group but everyone went their separate ways when they graduated. And we weren't exactly the optimizers I read about here!) I'm not trying to justify my crappy combat encounters but I do feel I need to clarify that I'm frequently not familiar with my breadth of options.

I've already got some ideas on how to make the next session's combat more interesting. The party is still in the Evil Temple of Evil but they've just descended to the lowest floor. It is absolutely crawling with plantlife. I'm going to reflect this by treating the floor as rough terrain, so the monk won't be able to just dash over and grapple the nearest moving thing. I'm also going to give the enemies - plant-infested skeletons (wow I'm so creative) - reach weapons (vines of some kind) to capitalize on the party's loss of mobility. This should be a little more interesting!

[deuxhero]

You don't need to go full Tucker's Kobolds, but terrain really adds a lot. Arrow slits are a basic part of any defense (and the monsters are the defenders the super majority of the time) and force loads of tactical pressure: Do you have some form of spell that can close them? Maybe your hardness bypassing weapon can cleave through it like butter. Prehaps you can Baleful Transposition out one of the defenders and put your melee guy in so he wreck up the place. (yes most of these solutions are spells, blame the system)

Remember that favorable terrain does boost CR.

[Raezeman]

I think a very simple answer is just to have a read through the monster manuals. Have a specific look at the monster description of how they attack and what special qualities they have, so that you can find something interesting and different. Don't forget that a lot of other books have scenario specific monsters that are useful, like the libris mortis for anything undead related.

Also, encounters with character levels. Have them fight a group with (for example) a fighter with a greatsword, an archer character, a sorcerer type and their pet polar bear. Have the sorcerer throw around spells like ray of enfeeblement against the melee types of the group, while the bear is instructed to protecting the sorcerer. The fighter charges in while the archer aims at the spellcaster of the player's group. This might take up more time to prepare as you have chose feats and calculate to hit and damage and stuff like that, but it also brings versatility.

[Mordokai]

Take a page from Tucker's kobolds (http://www.tuckerskobolds.com/).

With less lethality, of course :smallsmile:

[KorbeltheReader]

Thanks for all the terrific feedback. Let me address some things that have been brought up:

1. I need to mention that I'm playing on roll20.net. I can't find any 3.5 players around my small town, so I've settled for playing long-distance with my group of friends from back home. And I frequently get the impression that they're only sorta playing D&D while also eating dinner, doing chores or homework, or just plain spacing out on the web. It's very challenging to get them to stay focused on the game while they're miles away in their own homes. I've tried before to get them to only sign on when they have no other responsibilities that evening, but with that I would only get to play a session every few months.

2. It's hard to pin down why exactly the combat takes so long. Yeah, there's the fact that I think they're not focusing on the game. But I've also played a few games of physical D&D where the combat would be, again, long and dull. (Not quite as long though, we're talking about 30 minutes of laborious miniature-shuffling instead of hours and hours.) If I had to guess I'd say it's due to a combination of them not being familiar with their options and me being too caught up in the move-and-attack routine.

3. Longarrow got it right - I'm generally pretty inexperienced with 3.5 myself. But like I said, I don't have any other local groups to learn from. (I used to play with a group but everyone went their separate ways when they graduated. And we weren't exactly the optimizers I read about here!) I'm not trying to justify my crappy combat encounters but I do feel I need to clarify that I'm frequently not familiar with my breadth of options.

I've already got some ideas on how to make the next session's combat more interesting. The party is still in the Evil Temple of Evil but they've just descended to the lowest floor. It is absolutely crawling with plantlife. I'm going to reflect this by treating the floor as rough terrain, so the monk won't be able to just dash over and grapple the nearest moving thing. I'm also going to give the enemies - plant-infested skeletons (wow I'm so creative) - reach weapons (vines of some kind) to capitalize on the party's loss of mobility. This should be a little more interesting!

Don't beat yourself up, dude. GMing is hard and a lot of people phone it in, but you're coming over here to improve your game. Admitting the places where your performance is less than you'd like and doing something about it are admirable qualities. GMing is a skill you improve by practice and input.

From your description, it sounds like the players are kind of confused and listless during combat, and this might be making the combat more boring. Is there a lot of looking stuff up when somebody's turn comes up? It sounds to me like the players are taking a long time to take their turns, and that's leading to boredom from the other players while they wait an interminable amount of time for their turn to come up. 30 minutes for a fight between 3 PCs and 4 skeletons makes sense; multiple hours does not.

All this is to say, I think speeding up combat is the key here for reducing boredom and getting your players more engaged. Personally, in my experience "6 seconds or you lose your turn" rules tend to result more in hurt feelings and drama than anything productive, but YMMV. I'd start with minimizing the amount of rules consultation during combat. If you don't know a rule when you need it, make it up and move on. You can look it up later and know it for next time. If someone doesn't know what a spell does, it's on them to look it up between turns; otherwise you make the call on what it does and move on. You the GM don't stop to look stuff up during combat; you need to keep the pitch and action going. Focus, have some coffee for a jolt of energy, and unleash hell!

[John Longarrow]

Totema,
Depending on your location and mobility, you may be very pleasantly surprised at how many gamers there are in a 50-100 mile radius of you...

Check out your local gaming store to see if there are group posts. Likewise check online sites for local groups. Barring that, start your own local group. Trying to play over the internet is not a very good way to play a social game like D&D.

[Karoht]

Two Words.
Tuckers Kobolds.

Some more words.
While I am not saying you should take that encounter and do everything they did (google it), take elements from it.
Guys with crossbows shooting at the party? Meh.
Guys with crossbows in a library shooting between the bookcases and being mobile? Maybe even running on top of the book cases and shooting down at the party? Now we're talking!

Illusions can be fun. Combo with Spider Climb.
There is an Illusion of a false ceiling. Standing upside down on the real ceiling is a bunch of dudes with flasks of oil or acid, and crossbows or even slings.

Fighting in the ruins of an old church or castle? Great, the goblins who have been hiding out here start shoving walls onto people.

In a swamp? See the scummy ponds on both sides of the road? With some Aboleth Mucus, a bunch of dudes with ranged weapons can hang out under the black brackish water. Break them up into pairs on either side. On left side, Team one stands up and shoots while on right side, team 2 shoots. Next action, they duck back under the water and reload the crossbows while on left side Team 2 shoots and on right side Team 1 shoots. Repeat.

Tactics are hard to account for in terms of CR, but they really liven up combat. Sometimes a column of orcs is a column of orcs. Sometimes those orcs are smart, they are the diversion while the rest of their force cuts you off and attacks from behind, targeting casters first. Sometimes those orcs are an illusion from a single caster designed to bait you into a series of pre-dug pit traps covered by the illusionary orcs.

The key is to not overuse tactics. Sometimes your players want a turkey shoot, sometimes it's darned fun to hold a choke point and let that charge of 1000 goblins funnel down a tunnel into your shield wall. Sometimes it's fun fighting a group of angry and stubborn Kobold kommandoes who have the cover and terrain advantage who prepared for your arrival and have tricks and traps arrayed in every room, and aren't going to give you this cave/castle/dungeon without a bitter and deadly fight for every 5ft square of it.

[Oko and Qailee]

--Create enemies with options. A lot of my favorite encounters have involved me having made custom character sheets for enemies. Spellcasters, TOB, and monsters with lots of abilities.

--Make the setting for the fight interesting. This can change a lot. Is the room slowly catching fire? Maybe have the enemies effect the terrain as well (zezir + anything with fire means that you have to constantly move out of flames)

--Give enemies other priorities than "kill that guy". Enemies can use ropes, try to escape, etc. Remember, anything with an int score is as smart as the PC's.

--To speed up your game, pre-rolling can help. You'll also get much faster with just time and practice.

[Yawgmoth]

Yawgmoth,

Hence why I stated to talk to the players about it first. I've seen a couple games that did benefit greatly when the players had to start thinking about what they were going to do BEFORE they started their turn. The players had to pay attention instead of mentally checking out. It made combat much faster. It also should apply to the DM, so the DM only has a couple seconds to start getting the monsters going. Some times people make tactical mistakes, but you don't have people mentally check out nearly as much. Also funny when the DM forges about a monster... Six seconds is far too short in any case, even with people who have been playing since 2e. These are relatively new players who are likely still figuring out that damage isn't the only way to win a fight. A minute would be much more tenable.

[eastmabl]

1.) Sometimes, things that get back up when after they die are fun and memorable.

Perhaps the most memorable fight I have had (for something other than its duration) had the baddie in a room. Outside the room, there were four braziers of fire.

When we fought him initially, he was a 4 HD baddie. We were level 13, and slaughtered him forthwith.

D6 rounds later, he got back up as an 8 HD baddie. We killed him again, and d6 rounds later he got back up as a 16 HD baddie. We saw the shadows from the braziers flicker (thank you, spot checks).

My bard left the party to douse the fires while the rest of the party fought him. Once the flames were out and we killed him, he stayed dead.

Apparently, had I not picked up on the trick, we would have had a 32 HD baddie the next time we downed him --- though we were not averse to running, and he would only have been a 4 HD outside the room.

(If it sounds like a WoW boss, I believe the DM cobbled it from the game circa 2006).

2.) Spice up the description of the player's actions - especially their failures, both critical and near failures.

For example, if a player is one short of hitting the monster, describe how his blade failed against the scales of the dragon, or how the shield parried away the killing blow.

Or, if a player has rolled a natural one, describe his failure - "your piercing blow would have hit but a moment sooner, had you only remembered to lead your strike. He was there a moment ago."

Believe it or not, my players seem to like to hear me describe their failures more than their successes.

3.) Look at a thesaurus. Sometimes, big words can be a nice patch for "your swing misses."

[killem2]

For your example with Skeletons, remember while they are mindless, they can be dominated by much MUCH more intelligent and more importantly non-mindless beings.


In the first session of this, there is a necromancer who has taken up shelter in an abandoned observatory. I altered the skeletons he used. They were commanded to stay crouched for cover behind a giant table, and there were 6 of them, and they all had poison tipped bolts on their heavy cross bows.

[Azoth]

This works better at low levels, but can still be fun sometimes at mid levels. Shock tactics! I will never forget the looks on my players' faces the first time a group of Tieflings charged them only to smash the Alchemist Fire vials they were holding point blank engulfing the group in overlapping burst of fire. The Tieflings were cackling like mad the entire time while their clothes burned away in the fire. The Tieflings were fine due to Fire Resist 5 being a racial trait.

My players flipped out and instead of fighting soundly tried everything in their power to get away from them and the bombardment of fire.

Another time they were fighting a Mechanatrix in a cave crawling with Shocker Lizards. I would intentionally waste the Mechanatrix's last attack for the round swiping at a Shocker Lizard to piss it off and trigger their Lethal Shock ability for 12d8 healing (avg54 damage=18healing) every round. This is due to the Mechanatric being immune to electric damage and healing 1hp per 3 damage that would be done by an electric attack. So picture trying to not piss of a room full of creatures firing off lightning constantly while the enemy is intentionally making them shoot him full of the stuff.

Things like this make a fight memorable and if done right can take a player out of the usually objective mindset that combat causes and get them panicking.

[killem2]

This works better at low levels, but can still be fun sometimes at mid levels. Shock tactics! I will never forget the looks on my players' faces the first time a group of Tieflings charged them only to smash the Alchemist Fire vials they were holding point blank engulfing the group in overlapping burst of fire. The Tieflings were cackling like mad the entire time while their clothes burned away in the fire. The Tieflings were fine due to Fire Resist 5 being a racial trait.

My players flipped out and instead of fighting soundly tried everything in their power to get away from them and the bombardment of fire.

Another time they were fighting a Mechanatrix in a cave crawling with Shocker Lizards. I would intentionally waste the Mechanatrix's last attack for the round swiping at a Shocker Lizard to piss it off and trigger their Lethal Shock ability for 12d8 healing (avg54 damage=18healing) every round. This is due to the Mechanatric being immune to electric damage and healing 1hp per 3 damage that would be done by an electric attack. So picture trying to not piss of a room full of creatures firing off lightning constantly while the enemy is intentionally making them shoot him full of the stuff.

Things like this make a fight memorable and if done right can take a player out of the usually objective mindset that combat causes and get them panicking.

I did that once! Though I used human commoners so I knew they would more than likely die. lol

[Captnq]

Minatures.

I have little paper figures I use with pictures of funny things. Occationally I set them on fire, put them in a food processor, or other means of destruction to get the point across.

[Zweisteine]

1. Don't use skeletons. Mindless creatures don't get tactics unless they have bosses.

The best option at lower levels would be to pull out the classic mob-type monsters (goblinoids, kobolds, etc). Play them like a real party. They try to flank their opponents, and, more importantly, use tumble to try to reach casters. When the monsters start thinking, stuff gets interesting.