DM Advice: quicker encounters

[Aaedimus]

I run a table with 7 to 8 well equipped players (over equipped, but that's not my fault lol) and allong with having to be creative to make encounters fun and interesting for the group, I have run into a problem I've heard about allot: combat encounters tend to take forever.

I want to ensure all the players feel invested at all times, and that the game doesn't feel bogged down when that happens. What are your tips on running smooth, quick, and enjoyable encounters for large groups?

[CantigThimble]

#1 thing I suggest is pick a player and put him in charge of initiative. Have him write down the whole list and let people know "Your turn is coming up next" as well as letting you know which enemies are about to take their turn. This REALLY helps keep things going quickly.

Rolling attack and damage dice at the same time can also speed things up by a surprising amount.

For more specific advice, I'd need more specific information about the kind of encounters you're running.

[nickl_2000]

One of the most common bits of advice I see on here is that each player gets about 6 seconds to make their decision on their turn over what they are doing or else they take an automatic dodge action.

[SiCK_Boy]

I run a table with 7 to 8 well equipped players (over equipped, but that's not my fault lol) and allong with having to be creative to make encounters fun and interesting for the group, I have run into a problem I've heard about allot: combat encounters tend to take forever.

I want to ensure all the players feel invested at all times, and that the game doesn't feel bogged down when that happens. What are your tips on running smooth, quick, and enjoyable encounters for large groups?

If your players are "over-equipped", it should make encounters take less time, not more.

As for running smooth, quick, and enjoyable encounters for large groups, my own experience with a 7 players group (made up of mostly new players) is that you can get smooth and enjoyable, but quick will always be difficult.

Things I've found help to make the encounter run more smoothly include:

- making sure everyone can see the initiative order (I use flaps with player / monster names hanging on my DM's screen)
- knowing the abilities of your monsters beforehand
- having prepared your monsters and a quick encounter sheet in advance (list all monster hp and other critical info)
- knowing your monster strategies beforehand (so you don't spend half your time as DM deciding which PC to attack or what ability to use, or how to react when faced with a given PC ability)
- with new players, offering them options when their turn comes up in combat

Enjoyable has a lot to do with what your players expect from the game, so it's harder to provide generic advice without fully knowing the players themselves.

As for quick, there is only so much you can do to accelerate the speed of things. I'm not a fan of imposing a strict limit on player decisions; if players waste too much time weighting their options, maybe you can speak with them outside the game to try and find solutions to help them. But assuming a fight with 7 PC and 7 monsters, and even with a fast DM, you are still looking at rounds that will take between 10 to 20 minutes, so that's 45 to 60 minutes per fight. It's just the nature of the game and the laws of physics (there are only so many words a person can speak in a given period of time while remaining legible; there are only so many dices you can roll in a given period of time, etc.), so the best solution is to try to accept it and have players who are willing to live with this.

Critical Role is a good example of a show where they have a large cast of players (6 or 7 most games), and yet the players seem involved enough in any given situation (even outside combat) that it never feels like it is an issue for them (and that is in a group with a DM who does make long narrative description of every combat action for the PCs). If your players are unable to sustain their concentration, focus on what others in the group are doing, and such, your solution is probably to cut the number of players. The more players you have, the more generous each of them has to be with the spotlight.

[strangebloke]

#1 thing I suggest is pick a player and put him in charge of initiative. Have him write down the whole list and let people know "Your turn is coming up next" as well as letting you know which enemies are about to take their turn. This REALLY helps keep things going quickly.

Rolling attack and damage dice at the same time can also speed things up by a surprising amount.

For more specific advice, I'd need more specific information about the kind of encounters you're running.

All good advice.

Especially rolling dice and damage at once. Once you do it, you never go back.

"I take the attack action."
*rolls a d20 and five other dice*
"crit"
*reroll other dice*
*under-the-breath-counting*
"36 damage"


One of the most common bits of advice I see on here is that each player gets about 6 seconds to make their decision on their turn over what they are doing or else they take an automatic dodge action.

6 seconds isn't much; I'd say 30 seconds is more fair. But this is a good rule.

---

I would also say: make sure that you control any summoned/controlled creatures. You're the DM, you're probably a lot faster at running NPCs than your players are.

Anything that isn't a PC or a boss/miniboss uses average damage. Way cuts down on rolls.

Ask that players have flash cards for the 2-3 spells they use most often, especially for buffs like Haste. Lots of time is wasted by players looking up the text of each ability.

If a player is often getting rules wrong, talk to them about it. Don't be harsh, just encourage them to make flash cards or something similar. Maybe offer to talk with them about ti sometime. Maybe ask another player (best if it isn't someone in the group) to give them strategy lessons with their character. Some characters like rogues are really hard to play until you get a feel for it.

[Vrakk]

Having initiative so everyone can see it seems to be the quickest speed up to me. That and "ok 19, Fred you're up - Tom you're next." Particularly with your problem/slower player(s) warning them ahead of time that their turn is coming up ensures that they are thinking of what to do/looking up spells/etc. Large combats can take a long time but they don't feel long if everyone is engaged and thinking ahead. As a player if someone at the table is on their phone or chatting with another player it frustrates the **** out of me because their turn pops up and then they look at the board/ think about what to do/look up spells --- is it legal to jam them in the eye with a d8???

[GreyBlack]

is it legal to jam them in the eye with a d8???

Depends. What's the damage die for a d8?

[Atalas]

one DM I had had slips of paper, folded mostly in half, that he wrote every character's name on, as well as other scrap paper he would write enemies name's down on. Then, during combat he'd have everyone in order of initiative going from left to right, hanging on his DM screen. Names would be on both sides so he could quick reference it himself, and moving things from side to side as turns passed. It became very satisfying to see a creature's turn representation be taken off and put aside.

[DnDegenerates]

I run a lot of AL, often with the 7 player maximum. In tier 3(11-16th levels) and beyond everyone has a pretty good grasp of their class, as well as a good amount of magical goods/rewards in the form of roleplay or mechanical boons.

An adventure that is written to be 2 hours can often be come a 4+ hour if not careful. The same for adventures that are written to run 3-4 hours.

Obviously knowing the story and NPC, as well as alternative paths are going to help you moving the adventure along when you need to. Or know what to leave out.

Combat is way more tricky.

Initiative trackers in all forms do help. However, the fastest way to move through initiative is to do averages. Most of my tables are fine with doing initiative orders based upon their initiative (Dex+any class or feat bonuses) . With ties going to players instead or monsters. And same initiative among party members being changed per encounter as appropriate.

By doing averages your players always in the same lineup and don't have to spend time rolling and the DM saves time by memorizing where they belong or marking it, instead of having to rewrite it each encounter. Then you just add monsters wherever they belong as per their stat block.

It isn't for everyone, but for us it hasn't taken any of the traditional d&d spirit from our games. If the low initiative fighter wants to go before another, or a mage wants to set a spell combo up, they verbalize it in character and hold actions appropriately that round.

It also groups the monsters together so their hp is easier to track.

It doesn't seem like much, but it really does save time. Adventures known to run over their time expectancy due to combat are almost always completed considerably sooner. Some an hour or so has been shaved off using this alternative.

Another thing is that as a DM it's a useful tool to introduce unexpected occurrences such as NPC intervention, natural or magical effects/disasters, etc. in order to cut down combat time if it's getting kind of dry or drawn out.

If the encounter is long because of amount of foes clogging up the initiative order, consider killing off a couple in a fun way or by fudging hp so that it's just the party and the main foes left.

Dropping the boss's hp is a common tactic, but make sure to supplement it with a last harrah. A memorable action, occurrence, or flury that makes the players last few actions that encounter seem so much more important. Have it unleash some abilities, a spell it had hidden in it's sleeve, a trap, a terrain changing effect, anything striking and vivid or terrifying that leaves an impression. Emphasize lights, vibrations, smells, sounds, expressions, even more than usual. So that the lack of monster hp doesn't make for an anticlimactic finish.

Another scenario is replacing minion monster hp with interesting abilities and buffing the main boss. This makes the initiative unclog faster, while not belittling the peons. Buffing the main boss with more hp, abilities, area effects, lair obstacles or actions makes it so the depleted fodder doesn't make the encounter too easy.

Probably the easiest is to be prepared. Having your monsters for the night mostly memorized or noted on cards with the encounters / hp already written down is going to save you a lot of trouble mid combat. I have small index cards with basic monster stats and attacks/abilities that I prepare for each session and reuse. Then I just write their hp down with the initiative order.

Others simply have a better memory than I. Or are better at using tables of contents or bookmarks on the fly than I.

Another thing.. too many random encounters can burn a group out. Even in the published content there are often adventures that suggest skipping all but the encounters important to the story in order to save time. Don't be afraid to have a session with only a couple.of meaningful encounters as opposed to a group of hostiles at every opportunity.

Often less combat means more roleplay and thus more character development.

These are just things that work for me or others I know who run a table or three every week. Every table is different, we all know that, so these may be terrible advice for some or they could compliment a DM style/player preference enough to save tons of time.

Happy dice rolling!

[Tanarii]

It's all about DM pacing. You set the speed of making decisions in combat, to keep things tense.

The six second rule is a good one to implement. That means six seconds to announce what you are going to do, and start resolving. That's plenty of time for a player who has been paying attention. It's also tight enough that it puts some pressure to decide what you're going to do next if the situation changed fairly drastically, which keeps combat tense. Nothing kills pacing like a player taking 30 seconds to figure out what to do when their turn comes up.

An important collary of that is making sure players are aware when their turn is up next, so they are thinking about their turn on the previous players turn.

Spellcasters in particular will take forever to poor over their spell lists and pick the 'perfect' spell if you give unlimited time to make decisions at the beginning of a players turn.

Personally I don't find rolling attack dice and damage dice at the same time to be a big time saver. What does take forever is if the player has all their dice mixed up and need to pick them out for their action, especially big spells with lots of dice. They should have the dice ready to go when their turn comes up.

[opaopajr]

Cut down on the Tactics mini-game and use Timers as a tension builder. It's combat, it should be chaotic and stressful. Mistakes should be made from lack of talking ahead of time and working together as a unit. That the penalty is PC death is a good motivator to learn once outside of combat how to be cohesive, and thus the value of party trust.

Ask players to Declare beforehand, and give little time to decide. Cut crosstalk to 6 seconds max -- and have that info only actionable on the following turn.

Even better, since each player would ostensibly add 6 seconds to the crosstalk conversation and plotting, have Declarations and Crosstalk at the top of each Round only. Then the rest of turns are just processing, with the occasional reactions to opportunity. Have logical assumptions baked in, such as dead targets just shift one's attack to the next nearest unless otherwise stated.

Easy peasy! :smallsmile:

Make combat quick and tenser by shrinking its time frame to plot. Think quick or plan ahead. Then watch the consequences of players changing their behaviors accordingly. Even if you lose a recalcitrant player, yet overall speed up your game, in the end you are ahead because you all got more playing time! :smalltongue:

[PhantomSoul]

Depends. What's the damage die for a d8?

I think it counts as an improvised weapon attack at range, so I'd say 1d4 bludgeoning damage. But you'd better have rolled that d4 alongside your attack roll, or it's the dodge action for you!

We have changing initiative every round, but our initiative after the first round is entirely tracked with a Python script, so you get the benefit of people needing to pay attention (their turn could come up at any moment!) while having initiative tracked automatically to make that side of things easier! (Damage dealt to monsters is also done by script so there's no math for the DM to do, but obviously we're weird.)

[xen]

We run a fairly large group and use side initiative. Multiple players can resolve at the same time, roll to hit and damage at once, and just tell you the results. It also helps encourage some teamwork.

We tend to run a high magic game. In those types of games, one thing that helps if you want to up the CR of a challenge don't up HP. Just use more monsters or increase damage/to hit.

[NaughtyTiger]

You don't need dice to kill a monster. Once the boss goes down, the mooks won't kill a PC (or even injure)
Just say the party mops up. The players keep the high from the battle without the tedium of clean up.

Group attacks/average damage for bad mooks, summons.

[youtellatale]

We use stoplight damage. Basically damage comes in tiers (5, 10, 15, 20) so if you roll 1 for damage it still does 5. Helps speed up needlessly long battles.

[Laserlight]

We use stoplight damage. Basically damage comes in tiers (5, 10, 15, 20).

I do something similar. Round damage to the nearest increment of 5. I have all my monsters for the encounter on one sheet, and their HP is in 5pt bubbles. For example, a monster with 63hp has its HP shown as OO OO OO OO OO OO O, and if it takes 8+6+13 damage, I cross out 2+1+3 bubbles.

[strangebloke]

I do something similar. Round damage to the nearest increment of 5. I have all my monsters for the encounter on one sheet, and their HP is in 5pt bubbles. For example, a monster with 63hp has its HP shown as OO OO OO OO OO OO O, and if it takes 8+6+13 damage, I cross out 2+1+3 bubbles.

Oh yeah, this is basically mandatory at higher levels.

When your critters are getting hit lots, this means that potentially you're getting way off in your HP calcs, but probably you're within an HP or two at most.

[The Cats]

I do something similar. Round damage to the nearest increment of 5. I have all my monsters for the encounter on one sheet, and their HP is in 5pt bubbles. For example, a monster with 63hp has its HP shown as OO OO OO OO OO OO O, and if it takes 8+6+13 damage, I cross out 2+1+3 bubbles.

:o

You just fixed my biggest issue with combat. Simple addition and subtraction's not hard but when i have to do it multiple times every turn it gets exhausting. Thanks buddy!

[BW022]

I run a table with 7 to 8 well equipped players (over equipped, but that's not my fault lol) and allong with having to be creative to make encounters fun and interesting for the group, I have run into a problem I've heard about allot: combat encounters tend to take forever.

I want to ensure all the players feel invested at all times, and that the game doesn't feel bogged down when that happens. What are your tips on running smooth, quick, and enjoyable encounters for large groups?

First, their are lots of mechanical ways to make the combats go faster. There are lots of threads on this, but I've give a few...
1. Initiative cards
2. Everyone has up to date, modern character sheets
3. No cell phones, no cross talk
4. Roll attacks and damage
5. Use either clockwise or counter-clockwise initiative
6. Run monsters using a small numbers of group initiatives
7. Have other players take turns helping -- tracking monster damage for example
8. Use a counter or indicator for who has initiative and who is next
9. Take a washroom break before the combat
10. Have a large table, battlemap, side tables for players, etc.
etc.

Second, avoid or limit combat. Simply don't do as much.
1. Put in easy combats with simple creatures
2. Keep the number of creatures low. Single bit opponent or a small number. Only use larger number if it is likely the PCs can area blast them down quickly.
3. Avoid any complex combats -- NPCs with spells, nerfing effects (fog, terrain, fighting in water, etc.), narrow hallways, flying, movement heavy combats, etc.
4. Limits unusual or strange creatures. Don't have players agonizing what it is or how to fight it
5. Have creatures surrender rather than fighting to the end.
6. Only have one per session, or even one per two sessions.

Third, and something I would seriously consider...
* Divide the group into two * Find another co-DM to run the combats. Have a second DM, break the table into two groups. Have the two DMs each run two sets of initiatives and each control half the monsters. Share damage (have one DM tell the other if a PC hits/damages the other's monster).

[DeadMech]

1. Avoid smokers in your group. Really you can't go a full hour without disrupting the session to go smoke?

2. Ask yourself if the encounters have a point. Random encounters can keep us on our feet but if they don't add to the story, don't award treasure, and break verisimilitude then... why have it?

3. If your random encounter is right outside the next pit stop on the road maybe mention that to the party. We're an hour from town, we don't have reason to assume the town is currently under siege from orcs or undead or something. Let us know we're an hour from town so we don't hold back on abilities we have zero reason to hold back on.

[Davrix]

People have covered most of the basics but let me stress the biggest time savers.

First time saver - The initiative monkey

Putting someone in charge of the initiative order, write it down and letting them be in charge of it. This person should be someone who doesn't have maybe the most complex character to play so they can have maybe something else to do or give it to the person who loves to micro manager that's what I do at my table. They need to give clear order when each turn comes up. for example.


Monster B turn comes up.
Player in charge. - Ok Jim your up next have your turn ready.
If a player readies an action this person also needs to keep track of that and give you a que saying. Ok Jim readied his action when the monster or player did that. And you resolve the action at that point.
This might seem a little weird at first but once you get used to it, you wont ever do it any other way.



Second Time saver - Double down on Dice

As some people have said rolling attack and damage at once can save time. The other thing I will point out is if you can impose a time limit on your players then do so. Its one of the things I wish I could do but I have one player who, well survived brain cancer and can be a little slow. So adding that sort of pressure is not something I can or would do at my table because of it. So make sure you know your players before you implement a rather iron clad rule like that one. It can work wonders in some tables, horribly bad at others.

I however find it much easier and sense most players have lots of dice. Is having your players work out there most common spells or attacks mathematically on note cards for quick reference, where you list your Hit - the dice needed and the damage modifier you add on top of it. If you only have one attack then yes rolling damage and attack at once works just fine but for people with multi-attack its far easier to roll all your hit dice first, designated a different color die for each attack (have extra die set aside for each one in case of A or D) I should mention as well at this point you should have all your damage dice set into piles for each attack to see if you roll both piles or just one.


So lets say Jimmy is paladin with 2 attacks and he plans to smite using a lv 1 spell slot on at least one of them.
So Jimmy has a note card in front of him that has a listing for His basic attack and then a lower listing for his lv 1 spell smite attack
This way Jimmy knows his +hit for each on top of how the damage die changes for the two attacks
So jimmy sets aside 2 D20's for his attacks and then makes 2 piles for his damage dice. One using the dice needed for his normal attack and then 2nd one having the same dice + the smite damage dice.
So when Jimmies turn comes he declares his movement if he needs, uses a bonus action maybe if he has the option to do so then hits the bad guy over the head with his sword. Jimmy then rolls both of his attack dice and gives the Dm his two totals on each hit. Jimmy hits with the first attack but misses the second. Jimmy still wants to smite so he takes the 2nd pile of dice he made and rolls that and then adds in his damage moldier and gives the DM his total.



This should take less then a minute to do if Jimmy is prepared.

So long story short if your players want faster combat they need to help you out so you can focus on just the monsters and their tactics. Just make sure if they do their job in helping pick up the slack that your also doing yours by being ready on game night with the plan in your hand and ready to go and not half written so your scrambling for book info 3/4th of the fight.

[Knaight]

Going to straight team initiative (all players go, then all opponents, repeat) also speeds things up, where you just need to determine which side gets initiative somehow.

[DnDegenerates]

Using average damage from monster stat blocks also speeds things along. It's built into the game for that purpose.

[Tanarii]

I do something similar. Round damage to the nearest increment of 5. I have all my monsters for the encounter on one sheet, and their HP is in 5pt bubbles. For example, a monster with 63hp has its HP shown as OO OO OO OO OO OO O, and if it takes 8+6+13 damage, I cross out 2+1+3 bubbles.
This seems like it'd take much longer than just adding or subtracting the damage directly.

That generally holds for most 'solutions' to speed up combat in my experience. Initiative tricks are slower than if the DM just says 'Alice you're up, Bob you're next ...' at the beginning of each turn. Team initiative leads to the players trying to decide what order to take their turns in, instead of just taking their turn when it comes up. Rolling attack and damage dice together adds up to no appreciable time savings, unless you've got someone who has a mountain of dice and can't tell a d8 from a d10.

The thing that 'saves' time in combat, and about the only thing that saves time, is cutting down on how long it takes people to make decisions. It also has the advantage of putting pressure on people to make decisions quickly, which is IMO the absolute best thing you can do to make things feel tense in combat.

[The Cats]

This seems like it'd take much longer than just adding or subtracting the damage directly.

That generally holds for most 'solutions' to speed up combat in my experience. Initiative tricks are slower than if the DM just says 'Alice you're up, Bob you're next ...' at the beginning of each turn. Team initiative leads to the players trying to decide what order to take their turns in, instead of just taking their turn when it comes up. Rolling attack and damage dice together adds up to no appreciable time savings, unless you've got someone who has a mountain of dice and can't tell a d8 from a d10.

The thing that 'saves' time in combat, and about the only thing that saves time, is cutting down on how long it takes people to make decisions. It also has the advantage of putting pressure on people to make decisions quickly, which is IMO the absolute best thing you can do to make things feel tense in combat.

Just how long do you think it takes to fill in a bubble?

Initiative tricks at the bare minimum save the time of having to ask everyone for initiative and significantly reduce issues with 'Alice, you're up' 'Huh? oh."

Rolling dice together saves a minuscule amount of time each time you do it, but large numbers are made up of small numbers and most tables tend to roll dice more than once or twice per encounter.

Your suggestion is helpful. Trying to invalidate the suggestions of others with no basis in reality is not.

[strangebloke]

Just how long do you think it takes to fill in a bubble?

Initiative tricks at the bare minimum save the time of having to ask everyone for initiative and significantly reduce issues with 'Alice, you're up' 'Huh? oh."

Rolling dice together saves a minuscule amount of time each time you do it, but large numbers are made up of small numbers and most tables tend to roll dice more than once or twice per encounter.

Your suggestion is helpful. Trying to invalidate the suggestions of others with no basis in reality is not.

I'm going to dig into this a bit. There's basically two methods for recording health. One is 'count up' where you add the damage dealt to the previous total damage dealt, and write the new total. You also have to do this whenever a regeneration effect kicks in. So every time damage is dealt, you have to do double digit addition and write a number. I'm really quite fast at mental math, so it only takes two or three seconds each time, but...

"Round to five, divide by five, cross out that number of boxes" is much quicker, mostly because I have all the multiples of five memorized. Don't need to do math. 45=9. Don't need to even think about it. If you have to add a regen 5 type ability in, you just add a new box to the end. The mechanical act of crossing out boxes also takes no time.

It seems tiny, but you'll be doing this operation many times each turn at higher levels, and the numbers being added get much bigger. It's one thing when you're level 3 and you're adding single digit numbers. It's quite another when you're level 14 and every hit is 37 damage.

And yeah, all these techniques are useless in the face of stubbornly disengaged players. But making combat flow more quickly is a big part of ensuring that your players are engaged.

[Tanarii]

Just how long do you think it takes to fill in a bubble?I can't see how it could be faster to round everything off to the nearest 5, add up sets of five, and cross off that number of bubbles than to just subtract. :smallyuk:


Your suggestion is helpful. Trying to invalidate the suggestions of others with no basis in reality is not.What has no basis in reality is suggestions that make things slower. Almost as bad are ones that totally miss the ogre in the room.

[strangebloke]

I can't see how it could be faster to round everything off to the nearest 5, add up sets of five, and cross off that number of bubbles than to just subtract. :smallyuk:


You're thinking too small. Think Ancient dragon here for a moment.

321-34=287. Easy, right?

not easier than 34->35->7.

And don't underestimate the time taken simply writing '287' down.

Also, you only have to do the rounding math once per set of rolled damage. If a wizard hits three treants with a fireball, and they all have different health totals, you have to do three subtraction operations. If you use the dot method, you just cross off 5 dots on each sheet.

In any case, I'm not conjecturing here. I ran a campaign to 15th level and using this massively expedited my bookkeeping when I switched to it. There's no real need in tier 1, and even in tier 2 it's kind of whatever, but past that the HP totals get a tad unmanageable.

[Laserlight]

I can't see how it could be faster to round everything off to the nearest 5, add up sets of five, and cross off that number of bubbles than to just subtract.

I wouldn't add the sets. The fighter says "I hit for eight, six, and thirteen", I mark off two, one, three. If the rogue says "Forty three", then I mark off four pairs and one more.

Of course, YMMV, but most people aren't quick at arithmetic and the DM in particular tends to do a lot of it.

--------

Another trick is to get a small clear plastic box from a craft store and put your needed dice into it. First compartment first row, blue and white d20s, with blue as your normal one and white for when you have advantage or disad. First compartment second row, your weapon's default blue d8 and a white one for crits. Same deal for the second compartment of each row, for your second attack, third one for your bonus attack. Add any favorite spells such as fireball, plus an extra d4 d6 d8 d10 d12 at the end. No more looking for dice, you just shake the box and all your rolling is done.

I haven't used this for D&D, but we have used it for wargames with multiple rolls per attack and up to 54 players (Trafalgar scenario).

[guachi]

From my side as the DM I changed to adding up HP rather than counting down. Yeah, I'm really good at simple math but I'm faster at adding than subtracting.

The example above of "I do eight, six, and thirteen" I can have that added to 27 as fast as you can say the words. The I can say something like "slightly dead, mostly dead, dead" and then "Bob, you're up next."

I also take average damage any time I have to roll six or more damage dice. I'm not rolling an 8d6 fireball. You just take 28/14 damage.

For my players, I tell them to have attack and damage dice ready. Two attacks a round means two sets of differently colored dice. Have them ready when it's your turn. Also, you get 10 seconds to start your action on your turn. The faster combat is the more people pay attention so you get fewer questions. Slow combat leads to slower combat as players don't pay attention to what is going on and have to keep asking. I tell PCs to have a default action they can do if they can't think of anything else to do. Lastly, if you don't declare an Action you end up Dodging instead.