Cinematic Combat: Fun abilities for high CR opponents

[Nagog]

I'm currently running a campaign right now in which many of the enemies are humanoids, which, now that we've entered Tier 3, there is a noticeable lack of breadth for difficult enemy stat blocks. Some of my homebrewing efforts in that department have fallen either flat, or feel wrong somehow. But here are a few newer ideas I think would be interesting to add, but I'd like some feedback or input first from those with similar and different experiences:

Weapon Block: Typically for martial enemies, this allows a martial character to, a few times a round (# of times can be adjustable to difficulty/skill of this combatant) roll a competing attack roll against somebody attacking them. Whether this reaction is declared before or after the player's attack roll, I haven't decided yet, but this can create a more scenic combat encounter, something akin to the Darth Maul fight in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: tons of attacks are flying, many of them are anticipated and blocked by the opponent. This type of defense also grants more of an advantage to Fighters and Monks, as they are more capable of exhausting the number of reactions quicker or without needing to double team an opponent.

Reflexive Rebound: As a magical ability, I see this one activatable once or maybe twice a day, or once per combat. When subjected to a spell attack or saving throw, the target may rebound some of the magical energy back to the caster. (This can be done if it hits or misses, or if they save or don't save). The caster of the spell is also subject to the same saving throw or attack roll (the same attack roll used initially, if applicable). For spells like Fire Bolt, this is trivial, but for something like Banishment or Lightening Bolt, it can be really dangerous.

As a general rule, enemies with these kinds of defenses will typically have lower HP than enemies that don't to compensate for being harder to damage. This is more to make combat feel like an active activity rather than everybody taking turns doing the same stuff they always do.

[J-H]

Reflexive Rebound is similar to the Ring of Spell Turning.

Dragon bites get a "grab and throw." A bitten target has to make an Athletics check against the dragon's D20+Str+PB. On a fail, the target is grabbed, shaken, and thrown in a random (1d8 around the clock) direction for 1d6x10', taking falling damage on impact, and potentially dealing said damage to anyone the target hits en route.

[Sparky McDibben]

For me, I let monster abilities do something else in addition to what they already do.

For example, a red dragon's breath is so supernaturally destructive it has a 1-in-6 chance to destroy non-artifact magic items.

A balor's whip grapples and restrains, dealing damage over time, but also opens a portal to the Abyss through which the grappled creature can be dragged.

Air elementals can try collapsing your lungs, dealing levels of exhaustion. Wights eat levels. A version of the manticore has tail spikes tipped with giant spider venom (if targeting hirelings) or wyvern venom (if targeting PCs).

I also recommend targeting things other than hit points. Eat the party's horses. Spoil their rations. Deal levels of exhaustion. Etc.

[BoutsofInsanity]

I have an awesome ability I like to use.

This is an example.

Lair Ability

At initiative count 20 a rune appears on the ground. It takes up a 30 foot radius.

At initiative count 15 it glows bright and the air above it begins to shimmer and vibrate.

At initiative count 10 a massive energy column shoots into the air from the ground. Blasting everything in the radius with 8d8 fire/cold/lightning/psychic whatever damage!

Tons of fun. Lots of ways to interact with it. Dispel magic might allow you to disable it for a round or change it's location. Arcana check and a burned spell slot of sufficient level might allow you to move it. All sorts of fun things you can do with it. But it happens every round as part of a lair ability or boss ability.

[Tanarii]

D&D isn't really designed for cinematic duels. Unsurprising given its war gaming roots. Honestly, you're better off switching to a different system if that's what you want.

If you play with battlemats, you can get a lot of the general feel with difficult terrain, objects of varying heights, and pits. Mobility becomes key.

If you pay TotM, you can try to get some of the feeling by hamming up the descriptions of actions. The problem is that slows down resolution even more, which generally backfires, making combat less cinematic.

[JackPhoenix]

I have an awesome ability I like to use.

This is an example.

Lair Ability

At initiative count 20 a rune appears on the ground. It takes up a 30 foot radius.

At initiative count 15 it glows bright and the air above it begins to shimmer and vibrate.

At initiative count 10 a massive energy column shoots into the air from the ground. Blasting everything in the radius with 8d8 fire/cold/lightning/psychic whatever damage!

Tons of fun. Lots of ways to interact with it. Dispel magic might allow you to disable it for a round or change it's location. Arcana check and a burned spell slot of sufficient level might allow you to move it. All sorts of fun things you can do with it. But it happens every round as part of a lair ability or boss ability.

And if they roll more than 20 (so the everything happens after their turn) or less than 10 (so everything happens before their turn) initiative? Lot of fun things they can do about that.

[Unoriginal]

I'm a big believer in the principle that special abilities are less important than well-presented abilities.

A simple Multiattack that showcases the NPC's personality and themes is infinitely more cinematic than a complexe homebrew that is described just with "make a STR save. Alright, your PC is disarmed."

That being said, if you want special abilities for humanoids, my suggestion is to look at feats and PC abilities for inspirations. Wrestling and martial art moves are also a great source of inspiration.


D&D isn't really designed for cinematic duels. Unsurprising given its war gaming roots. Honestly, you're better off switching to a different system if that's what you want.

Cinematism has nothing to do with the system. It's all a question of presentation.



If you pay TotM, you can try to get some of the feeling by hamming up the descriptions of actions. The problem is that slows down resolution even more, which generally backfires, making combat less cinematic.

...You don't need to play Theater of the Mind to have interesting, cinematic descriptions that hype the feelings of the fight and enhance the fun.

If there is no interesting descriptions, combat is tear-generating boring.

[NecessaryWeevil]

If I were a player, I might be wondering, "Why can this skilled human combatant do these things [Weapon Block] while my character, a skilled human combatant, cannot?" or will these be available to PCs also?

[Dienekes]

Quick and dirty way to make combat slightly more cinematic/interesting is to have an ability or some trigger of some kind that drastically changes the environment in a way the players have to work around.

Attack the ground and create a chasm that the players have to figure out how to cross. Walls of ice that create a maze. Or even breaking up the combat into a small chase sequence until you reach a new location.

Frankly a lot of encounters involve getting a quick lay of the land, surround and destroy the target, whale on it until it dies. And that’s it. Finding ways to break this pattern up quite often changes what would’ve been a humdrum boring encounter into something memorable.

[JackPhoenix]

If I were a player, I might be wondering, "Why can this skilled human combatant do these things [Weapon Block] while my character, a skilled human combatant, cannot?" or will these be available to PCs also?

For the same reason why this skilled human combatant can do these things [attack 4 times with a single action] while your character, a skilled human combatan, cannot, while he can't do things [rage] your character, a skilled human combatant, can. Or you can even stay within single class and complain why one character can take multiple reactions in a turn, while your character crits on 18-20.

Perils of class-and-level based systems.

[Dienekes]

If I were a player, I might be wondering, "Why can this skilled human combatant do these things [Weapon Block] while my character, a skilled human combatant, cannot?" or will these be available to PCs also?

I mean, it’s the same narrative effect as the Defensive Duelist feat, just done in a way that seems slightly worse.

Like admittedly I share how irksome it can be to see NPCs doing really basic things with their weapons that I can do in real life but for some reason my level 11 Fighter can’t. But it’s essentially just a Parry and there are already several means of performing a Parry in this edition. Not all of them are particularly parry-like but they are there.

[Asisreo1]

I'm currently running a campaign right now in which many of the enemies are humanoids, which, now that we've entered Tier 3, there is a noticeable lack of breadth for difficult enemy stat blocks. Some of my homebrewing efforts in that department have fallen either flat, or feel wrong somehow. But here are a few newer ideas I think would be interesting to add, but I'd like some feedback or input first from those with similar and different experiences:

Weapon Block: Typically for martial enemies, this allows a martial character to, a few times a round (# of times can be adjustable to difficulty/skill of this combatant) roll a competing attack roll against somebody attacking them. Whether this reaction is declared before or after the player's attack roll, I haven't decided yet, but this can create a more scenic combat encounter, something akin to the Darth Maul fight in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: tons of attacks are flying, many of them are anticipated and blocked by the opponent. This type of defense also grants more of an advantage to Fighters and Monks, as they are more capable of exhausting the number of reactions quicker or without needing to double team an opponent.

Reflexive Rebound: As a magical ability, I see this one activatable once or maybe twice a day, or once per combat. When subjected to a spell attack or saving throw, the target may rebound some of the magical energy back to the caster. (This can be done if it hits or misses, or if they save or don't save). The caster of the spell is also subject to the same saving throw or attack roll (the same attack roll used initially, if applicable). For spells like Fire Bolt, this is trivial, but for something like Banishment or Lightening Bolt, it can be really dangerous.

As a general rule, enemies with these kinds of defenses will typically have lower HP than enemies that don't to compensate for being harder to damage. This is more to make combat feel like an active activity rather than everybody taking turns doing the same stuff they always do.
If their Tier 3-4, these humanoid enemies will either need to outnumber the PC's or do significant damage/effects.

Archmages are a good example of an enemy that can do things of significance. By himself, he's roughly a medium encounter but with allies (not exactly minions), he can be quite interesting. Say, an archmage with his apprentice mages assisting him in battle.

Now, for outnumbering, its best not to have these complex actions. You'll be doing them alot, anyways. I'd say Knights, Veterans and Gladiators. But DO NOT be afraid to mix-and-match them.

For example, you can have 3 Knights, 3 Veterans, and a Gladiator as a single encounter. Now, you introduce NPC's that can Parry, Shield Bash and use Leadership. This should be plenty complex for tier 3. Remember, you don't want to get too complex and burn yourself out.

[LumenPlacidum]

If I were a player, I might be wondering, "Why can this skilled human combatant do these things [Weapon Block] while my character, a skilled human combatant, cannot?" or will these be available to PCs also?

Because these abilities exist primarily to facilitate the DM's ability to run the game without having to carefully build NPCs the way the players build their PCs? Because, when given the scrutiny of combo-building, many of these abilities that are slightly flavorful and moderately effective in a static NPC block become titanically powerful in the hands of someone who is looking to mix abilities to increase their potency?

[Angelalex242]

DM: Make that complaint one more time and I'll build your adversaries like they were PCs, except they'll have "I swear I rolled these stats in front of my cat, who witnessed everything" stat blocks.