As a player, how do you keep combats moving?

[SangoProduction]

As most of us has experienced, it's very easy for DMs to just....only ever throw melee monsters at you. Sometimes they don't intentionally do it, as the majority of the monster manual is nothing but melee, but still. So, everyone just meets at the center of the battlefield and sits in melee, full-attacking, for the next hour or 2 while everyone beats each other up.

This is absolutely boring as balls. Not having any notable terrain can be an exacerbating issue. But basically, how do you keep people moving without annoying your own team, as a player?

[DaLucaray]

Sounds to me like this is something you should talk to your DM about. Other than playing a caster/ranged attacker there's not much you can do.

[Buufreak]

By not messing with my phone. No, seriously, the amount of games I've seen where people **** around with whatever toy, then comes their turn and they haven't a clue what is happening, what the plan to do, it's just bad, and sometimes even rude.

Don't text and dnd, kids.

[King of Nowhere]

So long as the DM keeps on giving melee monsters, I don't see much the players can do to avoid going in melee. It's the DM that can add variety here

[flappeercraft]

I agree in general with what has been posted. To begin with don't get distracted and slow it down and second of all its part of both the DM's job but also the Player's job to make something that will be fun. The key is to never have two opponents that make it the same experience and for players to make something that they will have fun playing even if they do combat six hours straight. For example as a DM to avoid this issue of getting combat to be boring I make the foes be different from what you expect, I make them have something that makes them unique and something that will frequently require the players to think of how to fight against even mid combat. For example the most recent combat I threw towards my players was a dragon that the more damage he took the higher his stats became, had miracle 1/round and could phase through most attacks. While not all games are optimized or PbP like this one is so as to throw this kind of insanity towards the players it does show one thing that helps stop combats from being boring, have your opponents be unique and get your players thinking not about something else or about how boring the combat is but "what now?"

[Talverin]

Well, in last night's game, we fought a number of melee enemies, such as a huge megalodon... A very intimidating megalodon intent on eating our ship.

I uh. Fell on the back of our Druid, who was in giant alligator form, and told him to swim like hell. We then made diving attacks back and forth at their other units while tricking the Megalodon into swimming in very violent circles by me making Deception checks and using Minor Illusion to make it look like I was winding up a huge Lightning spell.

Try Intimidate checks to taunt enemies after you. Try attacking then withdrawing, to try and pull your enemies after you. Describe your actions and attacks in ways that have you moving around or taking advantage of terrain.

As long as you don't have a 'by the book, and only by the book' DM who won't let you do different stuff with your rolls, it should go fine.

But if your DM is a pure-RAW by the book sort, then stand there and full attack, so you won't have to worry about AoO's, flanking, etc.

[Jack_Simth]

First off:
1) Pay attention.
2) Have a complete plan for what you'll do by the time your turn comes up, so you can simply declare, draw, place, and roll.
3) Have the the numbers, templates, lines, et cetera all ready, with dice color-coded by associated thing (e.g., if you're casting a 15th level Wizard casting Quickened Fireball and a Greater Shadow Evocation Forcecage, you have two d20's of different colors ready for the SR penetration checks, ten d6's of the same color, recite the DC's as you roll, place your template, and draw the line for the wall - because you were getting ready on the other folk's tuns, and already decided everything).

Oh, wait: You meant in the "don't stand still" sense. Combat controller wizard. Many, many critters are melee brutes, so play against their strengths: Force your opponents to move to get to your allies. Wall spells (Wall of Force, Wall of Stone, Wall of Ice, Wall of Fire, et cetera) to make your opponents go in non-straight lines (prevents charging), terrain nastiness spells (Transmute Rock to Mud, Grease, Web, Black Tentacles (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/blackTentacles.htm) (fluffed as you like (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0020.html))) to punish your opponent when it moves, Dimensional Shuffle (PHB II) makes a nice rearrangement spell to get your allies all in different spots (and get your allies out of full attack range when the baddie closes). Then just have your allies build for ranged effects.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Build something that keys on mobility; spring attack fighter, scout, dervish, etc. It would be unreasonable to expect you not to move frequently. Be sure to pick up options that let you retaliate against foes trying to close on you; a guisarme and imp trip, a long spear with stand still, defensive throw, etc.

For more typical fighting types, it's a bit tougher to justify but not impossible unless you're the party's only melee character and the GM gives you nothing but featureless battlefields.

[Troacctid]

Dropping damage-over-time effects under anyone's feet will usually get them to rethink their positioning. A dragonfire adept with the Exhaled Barrier feat is great for this sort of thing.

[Incorrect]

Player: Hey GM, Im working on my skills at setting up encounters, would you mind if I drew the battlemap in the cases where you dont have an exact plan? Just give me a general outline like big cave, and I will do the rest while you get ready.

Then you add lava, bridges, mine carts and so on.
Just offer to help make the combat more dynamic. Its more than just melee vs mobility.

[jdizzlean]

on top of the above,

pay attention to what everyone else is doing. immerse yourself in the action, and the clock won't matter.

if your preplanned turn needs rethinking when it comes to your action, that's ok. not having to ask about what's going on because you've been buried in pre-planned actions is ok too

[Malphegor]

As a wizard player, I've found myself working under the 'This is combat, sub-optimal decisions can be made in the heat of the moment' logic.

So, if I haven't figured out a plan in the time it takes for the party to make their turns, I will cast the first spell that catches my eye in my prepared spell list, even if it makes no tactical sense, because otherwise I can spend upwards of 5 minutes flicking through a book to compare the damage output/how that interacts with other stuff.

sometimes, it's better to do something than hold up the game deciding what the best thing is to do.

[DeTess]

Can I just say how funny it is to see a bunch of people give very good and thoughtful advice regarding what they think the thread is about, as opposed to what it actually is about? :P

OP, I recommend putting 'mobile' in the thread title instead of 'moving'.

Anyway, as a player I'd start using abilities that force movement. Things like static aoe's that last for several turns, involuntary teleports and setting sun martial maneuvers should break the big melee clump up.

[lylsyly]

Can I just say how funny it is to see a bunch of people give very good and thoughtful advice regarding what they think the thread is about, as opposed to what it actually is about? :P

OP, I recommend putting 'mobile' in the thread title instead of 'moving'.

Anyway, as a player I'd start using abilities that force movement. Things like static aoe's that last for several turns, involuntary teleports and setting sun martial maneuvers should break the big melee clump up.

You mean like this?

"As a player, how do you keep combats moving?" By killing everything as quickly as possible.

Seriously, some good advice as been given. Engage with characters that focus on skirmish/ archer/ fast movement. Use illusions/BFC to get the enemy to move where you want them/need them to be ect.

[Necroticplague]

Can I just say how funny it is to see a bunch of people give very good and thoughtful advice regarding what they think the thread is about, as opposed to what it actually is about? :P

OP, I recommend putting 'mobile' in the thread title instead of 'moving'.

Yeah. Especially as they mention the 'two hours' that make it sound like the problem is that combat is taking forever, as opposed to the fact that combat is boring.

And sadly, there is a strong point to is compaints. AoO's, trip, and grapple can make melee in 3.5 incredibly 'sticky', where any attempt at movement just opens you up for more punishment without much reward.

[Mordaedil]

I usually make plans during the other players turns, usually try to make assumptions about what the others will do and adapt on the fly as we go.

[chaos_redefined]

There is also the debuffer style of wizard. This will end up encouraging your DM to switch, because his melee monster isn't as impressive when it's been Ray of Enfeebled, Exhausted, sickened, blind, etc... Suddenly, that fireball SLA on that monster is much more tempting.

[Goaty14]

In order to keep everybody moving, my solution is to run away from my problems so the DM stops sending big bad (slower-than-a-turtle) brutes at me. Works every time.

[Knaight]

Yeah. Especially as they mention the 'two hours' that make it sound like the problem is that combat is taking forever, as opposed to the fact that combat is boring.

These are related problems. What stays interesting for thirty seconds is not what stays interesting for two hours. Simple decisions slowed by computationally expensive randomization and calculations is nobody's idea of good game design; simple decisions resolved quickly and complex decisions paid for by computationally expensive randomization and calculations both are.