How to make combat interesting

[UndyingSolon]

I feel like my combat encounters are starting to become a bit stale. The lead up to my combats have been going well, and the players are excited to take them on, but I feel like I am letting them down when it comes to engaging them after initiative is rolled.

Outside of dealing massive damage and role playing up the villains (both of which i do okay with) how can I make each combat memorable?

What are some tricks of the trade you Munchkins use? Any help would be awesome.

[UndyingSolon]

Replying so that if there are things people post that I like and try out I can edit this one to update everyone.

[Ghost Nappa]

While you could always read this (http://angrydm.com/2014/09/the-angry-guide-to-kicka-combats-part-2-battlefields-and-battlefeels/) and similar articles, the short answer is that if you want combats to feel different, they need to play differently.

Maybe you have the players encounter a horde of goblins lead by a handful of hobgoblins in an open cave area. The goblins get slaughtered, but the hobglobins fall back a little bit into a tunnel and take up a defensive position while some of the straggling goblins run for their lives. You have some stalagmites in place to provide cover and the hobgoblins pull out some ballista/cannon thing they found and take shots at the players, with no obvious way to approach. But suppose there's a Monk or a Druid in the party, and they can take advantage of either their speed (running into a side tunnel and flanking) or shapeshifting (into a mouse or a bug) to sneak behind the cannon, distract the shooter, and crumple the enemies that way...until the goblins that are left over surrender and beg for mercy.

If the enemies never flee or surrender, it becomes okay to end every fight with a rout. If there's never a defeat condition besides dying, there's not going to a change in how the players behave.

[Herobizkit]

I would strongly seek out any info floating around on making a 4e encounter interesting. A lot of that info would work for you.

5e has gone back to the "fights as speed bumps" style of adventuring, expecting players to go through many smaller encounters per day versus having a handful of large set-piece fights littered with 1 hp minions.

To that effect, I'd consider making some battles with some dynamic settings.
* Put in obstacles that limit movement. Gaps, rushing water, anything that makes difficult terrain.
* Make the area itself dangerous. Ice shards, flaming geysers, slippery footing, falling rocks...
* Throw in some items that can be used as improvised weapons or as solutions to help counter the above; sticky mushrooms to tie on your feet, tables/ladders/chairs, chandeliers, a hut mounted on stilts that can be knocked over.

[PeteNutButter]

I like to incorporate different combat aims for different parties.

If the party is guarding a caravan the foes are trying to hold up the caravan so they can rob it. The caravan is trying to run like hell and ultimately depending on how the PCs approach the situation the caravan can go speeding away leaving their on foot PCs in the dust, or some things might get looted, etc.

Basically combats where there are more than two outcomes 1) group a murdered group b or 2) group b murdered group a. Two outcome combats are dull as typically the PCs can expect to win due to their plot armor, making them essentially one outcome encounters, ergo forgone conclusions, ergo kind of dull.

Also I like big bads that are really hard to kill without using that one thing they are weak to, makes the lead up to it feel more powerful. Like the witcher, the PCs need to do their home work first.

[BW022]

Lots of ideas…

Mechanics / During Combat
• Roll initiative ahead of time.
• Look at ways of speeding up dice rolling. Roll multiple sets.
• Look at initiative cards or other systems to keep things moving.
• Limit the amount of time someone takes. If they take too long… skip them or have them delay.
• Have enemies flee or surrender. Don’t fight to the last round of initiative.
• Don’t “fudge” encounters if players are slaughtering your PCs. If it isn’t “epic”… fine. Let them get it over with quickly and worry about the next combat.
• If everyone is ok with it, meta-game the end of a combat if it isn’t critical.

Overall
• Limit the number of players. Combat with three moves considerably faster than six.
• Stay at lower-levels or be wary of higher levels. High level PC and monsters can have lots of options and long series of attack sequences. Assume they go much slow.

Design
• Limit the number of monsters. Again, keep initiatives short.
• Vary combats. Number per day, difficulty, location, times, etc. One day just an easy one. Next time, three moderately difficult ones, etc. Next one, just one really overpowered one.
• Vary the campaign setting. Look at real world settings, terrain, etc. and think about having combats in these places – on a moving wagon next to a cliff, racing across roof tops of a city with laundry lines, on horseback against a flying creature, etc.
• Look for goals outside of killing everyone. Times lines, terrain challenges, skill checks, etc. Chasing some thieves from ship to ship across a “Hong Kong” like dockyard; a fight with some griffons on a moving fishing boat (trying to get the boat to shore); a group of thugs are trying to open a sealed doorway releasing a dozen others; etc. The fight then has a goal other than just killing folks.
• Look for interesting places for fights. Mountains, hills, rivers, boats, while climbing trees, etc.
• Monsters should be ‘unique’ – or appear that way. Give them names, motivations, tell stories about them, work them into plot, and give folks clues. Try having some monsters reoccurring – a bad guy who runs away and keeps harassing the PCs over days or weeks. Combat is lengthy, so I wouldn’t use a lot of random encounters.
• ‘Play’ with the CR system. Players grow used to facing specific ranges of CRs and this gets boring. Look at putting in extremely high (or low) CRs relative to the party and having something else to even it out. A party of four, 2nd-level PCs, might typically face say 6 gnolls. They know it. However, why not have them face 18 gnolls, but in say a wooden tower (cover, height, only one able to get up the ladder, etc.). It still works out fairly even, but it looks and feels a lot scarier and the players are not used to the effects of this. The opposite can be true. 4th-level PCs might only be fighting a low-CR creature, but in say an inn full of people where they can’t use a lot of magic, or maybe while climbing ropes where they are an easy target and can’t use both weapons.
Preparation
• Prepare encounters with write-ups of the first couple of rounds of actions from the bad guys. This keeps if flowing so you aren’t deciding what to do.
• Limit the use of “nerf” spells. Fog cloud, darkness, web, etc.

[CaptainSarathai]

Messing with CR is a good start. I usually establish early on with any group that I do not expect them to fight every single thing. They won't always win. I will not hold their hands, I will not roll marshmallows, and I will not lose sleep over a TPK.
I reinforce this, and it usually ends up killing 1 foolhardy PC. I'm also very stingy about resurrection, which scares them.

I also don't often allow for short rests, or even long rests, on players' schedule. Leave the dungeon and come back? They might chase you out. Rest for an hour in the dungeon? They come after you. If you get beat up in a fight you could have avoided, that's your fault, and you should have played safer.


I usually use a grid, it makes life easier. The only time I don't, is for small encounters meant to be finished in a few rounds - but I don't use those very often because it's often just a waste of time.
Strategic encounters means that I am playing to beat the PCs. Not quite metagaming, but thinking like the enemy would think, and trying to kill or rout the PCs. Don't just stand around and wait for the Barbarian to charge you. After he turns one Goblin to jelly, have the others avoid him like the plague. His Rage might actually run out!


A good example of strategic play: my players fear wolves. Usually, a DM runs a "Random Encounter: Wolves" by just tossing some wolves on the grid and letting them get torn to bits. I like to play them like actual hungry wolves. The party will hear them stalking in the woods first. Any strays or stragglers will get pounced. A few might burst out, try to rush the front or back of the column, and then break off and disappear back into the trees. A while later, more do the same. Constant hit-and-run attacks. When they finally bring the party to fight, they surround them. Move towards the wolves, the wolves back away. If a character gets too far out of formation, they pounce them and then close the circle with the PC (and his new furry friends) on the outside. They don't seek to kill the party. One adventurer is enough food for them to eat, so that's what they focus on - find the weakest PC or weaken one, isolate them, and then kill them.

Smart enemies are not deaf and dumb. In a dungeon, a fight at the entrance might put the entire place on alert. Those who overhear a nearby melee might rush in from adjacent rooms. A defeated or outnumbered group might send a messenger to bring reinforcements or warn the others. The entire group might scatter and run for help deeper in the dungeon.

Also, strategic enemies don't fight to the death unless it's unavoidable. This helps makes fight shorts, encourages better RP by giving the PCs prisoners, and lets them know that "kill everything" is not always the answer.


I like to have one defining feature to a lot of fights. A rickety wooden bridge across a chasm, or a rapidly flooding room, or something truly crazy like a huge boulder hung by a chain, that the goblins swing from one end of the room to the other, trying to knock the PCs into the walls.
Vividly describe the environments and put things in the room for the PCs to interact with, and then encourage those interactions. Don't worry about it unbalancing the encounter or letting a character do something better than they should. I like to think of "I attack it with my sword" as the last option a PC should have. I'd rather hear, "I kick over the bookcase onto them," or "I shoot the fire-pot before they can fling it with the catapult." Sure that might mean that an archer just killed 4 hobgoblins when their normal attack could only wound 1, but it makes for a cool moment at the table and something that they'll all remember for a long time.

[Sir cryosin]

Be descriptive of your moves your actions the way that spells look like when they're cast the way that you're fighting. Keep role-playing even in combat. Try things that might not be necessary like is there is someone with a high dex have them do incorporate acrobatic Maneuvers into their fighting style and then have them roll acrobatics every now and then. Just think flashy.

[Plaguescarred]

Any hack & slash face to face combat on a plain can be made more interesting. Using monsters that just don't have basic attacks but a various effects makes it more fun than simply hack and slash, be it grappling effects or spellcasting abilities. Adding hazards, traps, or other terrain effects also adds a ton of fun and surprise. I like to spring surprises in combat, be it additional monsters or other stuff. I like the dynamic 3-way fight brings as well.

Using stuff like Wild Magic or Dead Magic zone change changes how combat goes and can be fun. Using other terrain obstacles too as well as levels like having archers firing from 40 feet above on a balcony, raivne etc...

Things that unexpectedly takes everyone to a different place is fun too, be it teleportation, phasing or simply because the floors gives away and people fall.

[Gastronomie]

I am a personal fan of Ropers.

In a particular campaign I'm currently running, there's this encounter with a bunch of drow and their mind-enslaved Roper. The Roper tugs the players towards itself - into the area of an Evard's Black Tentacles spell. Or, another time, it tug the players into the area of a Web spell. And since the targets are grappled, unless the adventurers use their action to break free of the Roper's tendril, they will stay in the areas of Evard or Web for eternity, repeating the save at the start of every turn. They don't want that. They have no choice but to break free by using their action. That sort of tactical stuff. Terrain features and movement are fun gimmicks to use.

Apart from that: a DM I know ran an encounter in an abandoned warehouse, in which the enemy rogues kept on using hit-and-away techniques (utilizing walls, locked doors and stuff). This included the boss assassin which suddenly came jumping down from above the staircase, knocked my character unconscious with one shot, hid again, and assaulted the players one by one every turn (Assassinate works only once, but his next attack was a nat 20...) It almost resulted in a TPK. It was fun.

[Citan]

I feel like my combat encounters are starting to become a bit stale. The lead up to my combats have been going well, and the players are excited to take them on, but I feel like I am letting them down when it comes to engaging them after initiative is rolled.

Outside of dealing massive damage and role playing up the villains (both of which i do okay with) how can I make each combat memorable?

What are some tricks of the trade you Munchkins use? Any help would be awesome.
Hi!
Sorry if some (all?) has already been said.

1. Vary encounter settings
- use difficult terrain, height, trap, lighting and obstacles to shape different battles (such as a journey which requires to cross a swamp before cllmbing a mountain. Depending on how fast they cross the swamp, they will climb by night).
- force party to divide to accomplish some objectives.
- "always" put at least one new creature in encounter, or a spellcaster using an original spellcasting strategy.

2. Vary encounter goals
- uses NPCs as goals (find one, protect another, kill one).
- put a time limit.
- put particular conditions (don't kill anybody, stay undetected throughout)
- hint at different rewards for different ways to resolve a problem or tackle a situation, and give more or less obvious ways to do as such...

Example: quest to subdue a group of bandits, with extra reward if a carnage is avoided -they don't know it, but the bandit chief is actually a "deviant" brother of the local count-. Give them proper means to get some information on who the chief is and the general environment of the lair. Maybe they will ignore it and just rush in, too bad for them, because the count will be mad and halve the reward or even start chasing them. Maybe they will pay attention and start devising a plan to capture the chief, hoping that it will be enough to force the rest to surrender. :)

3. BE PROACTIVE ABOUT FEEDBACK
Maybe your players are perfectly satisfied anyways. But asking even just twoliners feedback on the session, or a particular encounter when you stop playing, will give you some tips on what each enjoys and dislike, and help you tailor future ones.

Here for a few on-the-fly ideas. My 2 cents ;)

[Easy_Lee]

Speed and variety.

Speed: Make players declare their actions immediately on their turn, or lose the turn if they don't act fast (this will happen maybe one time before players learn). Don't look up rules during combat (or at the table ever). Have all monster stats right in front of you. Track initiative, hp, and conditions all on the same sheet of paper behind your screen.

Variety: don't just throw stronger monsters with higher numbers at your players. Use a variety of monster tactics and terrains. Allow players to take actions that aren't just attack, use a class ability, or cast a spell. Demonstrate monsters taking non-standard actions and thinking outside the box. Combine creature types with spell effects, such as the classic undead mobs + stinking cloud tactic. Have your monsters use items like ball bearings and grease on the players. And so on.

[Laserlight]

In the wrap up session for a year-long campaign, I asked the players which fights they'd liked the most. Two common factors emerged:
a) they had to move around a lot, through an interesting battlefield. Not just "here's a flat plain, maneuver around the enemy" but "you're on little floating reed rafts and when you jump this way, the mat slides that way"; or "you're on a series of criss crossing rope bridges over a pit while enemies trie to cut the ropes" or "the monster creates portals"; and/or

b) an interesting boss (with or without minions) who did significant damage to the party, to the point they considered fleeing. The "interesting" part could be characterization rather than mechanics, eg the skinwalker was an old man who talked in a little girl voice (while eating a sacrifice victim), and the party found that really creepy.