I am quite an experienced DM - but I am coming from more Story Driven Systems like the World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu or even Paranoia. Where combat is much faster and can be dealt with more creatively than in D&D. In Paranoia for example the Combat system is 10 lines - called the "Dramatic Tactic Combat System" - quintessential, the cooler and more creative you describe what you do, the more likely is a success in what you are doing.
In D&D - which I DMed also many times I feel, that the combat due its many rules and tactic approach wears off pretty fast. You can only tell the people how awesome shining the sword swinging at them so much... I find it extremely difficult to make combat more exiting as a DM in D&D than in the other System.
At the extreme in Paranoia a Combat lasts exactly one "round"... and either everyone is laughing their asses off or have died and a new clone is coming their way while laughing. In Cthulhu the people are frightened and in the WoD they do badass shit around every corner. In D&D it feels like: "Yes, I attack the creature over there on the grid with a Magic Missile" - "Oh marvellous, then roll the dice for damage" "8" "Ok, it looks slightly baffled, but is still standing and trying to fix you with its fierce eyes"... And in round 10 of the combat: "I attack this".. "Damage?" "12" "OK - Not dead - Next" :D
You know what I mean? What are you doing to keep battles more fun? Sure I have players who vastly enjoy the tactic approach and wouldn't even mind to skip the story but level up ;) But I as DM would really like to have a much more creative approach...
Sure, I could simply ignore all rules and stay with the creative approach I am used to, but would this not destroy all balance within encounters and strengths of the characters?
The combat rules themselves don't have to be exciting; it's the scenario that matters. Some ideas:
Use enemies that are completely alien to your players. Being ambushed by monsters they've never seen before adds tension.
Throw encounters that are above their level. Giants, dragons, and other beasts that a low level party can't handle do roam the countryside. Resolving these encounters can involve hiding, begging, bargaining, or running for their lives.
Give players a goal that doesn't involve killing every enemy. e.g. Preventing a villain from completing a ritual, escaping or killing an NPC; destroying a magic item or part of a dungeon the villain is trying to protect; escaping from a collapsing dungeon that still has monsters in it.
Add twists to an encounter as it progresses. Maybe reinforcements arrive, or one monster tries to break off to warn the others. Sometimes the inverse happens and the players run into a friendly NPC.
Treat combat as another opportunity to roleplay. Use enemies that players can meaningfully interact with. Even "evil" humanoid races have wants and needs; combat doesn't have to end with one side dead. Intelligent enemies can and should have flaws, and enemy parties don't need to be cohesive. Maybe one of them turns tail at the first sign of trouble, or secretly wants to get one of their allies killed in combat. Xanathar's Guide To Everything has good suggestions for this.
If you like more narrative combat, highlight parts of the environment players can use. Place tables, furniture, columns, and other sources of cover. Place flammable things in the room. Add chandeliers they can swing from or drop on enemies. Add traps to the room the encounter is happening in. The combat rules do allow interacting with the environment, using objects or improvising an action altogether.
You could also consider experimenting with some of the alternative initiative systems in the DMG. They have different benefits and drawbacks; you might find something you and your players like better.
Personally I almost exclusively use Theatre of the Mind because it avoids what is known as the "Tyranny of the Grid". A lot of my players have a lot of Strategy Board game experience, so the moment I bring out the Grid they remove their "Role-play" hats and put on their strategy hats. Suddenly their Barbarian with a Wisdom of 9 and an Intelligence of 8 becomes a master tactician.
As a DM, it starts with you. How do you describe what the baddies are doing in combat? During the baddies turn are they using free actions to chat among themselves? How are you interpreting the player's die rolls?
Sometimes it is the simple things:
DM: "As you approach, out of the corner of your eye you see the reflection of light off a small glint of metal. You aren't fast enough to react before an arrow goes flying and *Rolls* ricochets off of Player 2's armor. The sound echos through the hallways. You hear the stirring of more creatures, alerted by the sound made. Everyone roll for initiative"
DM: "The bolt of fire scorches through the air, hitting the monster square in the chest with the flames licking up and around the monster's leather armor. The light from the Fire Bolt reveals a badly burnt Kobold, now hissing at you and saying something in Draconic that you can't understand"
After a few rounds, the players should begin to want to participate in the shared story telling, adding their own descriptions.
Hm... reading both of your posts it seems that I let myself bother too much with what D&D originally wanted to be. A Tactical Combat Simulator
@InquisitiveOrder: Thank you for your ideas. I will definitely note them down.
@Gruzzlebub: Yes, exactly. But the guys I am playing at the moment with said that they would like to see exactly how far their cone goes and so on... I personally also don't really like the Grid. And "Tyranny of the grid" is exactly right.
BUT... yes I am doing all these combat descriptions... the first couple of rounds in combat. After that it wears off... because I also don't get much feedback in the same manner from the players in the group I am DMing at the moment. They seem to play more like "Stones ;)". But you are right.. perhaps.. getting rid of the grid and thinking about more ways for the players to be creative without bending the rules too much might work...
It definitely requires a change of mindsets for players. Players have to ask more questions instead of being gridlocked (pun intended) on "maneuvering" their characters around the Grid to optimize a Burning Hands.
It does require a good memory from the GM's perspective. I often do a quick recap at the start of each round where everyone is at in the "Mind's Eye" and always give helpful "warnings" so that a player isn't caught off guard.
Player 2: "How close is the kobold with short bow in front of me?"
DM: "He is about 20 feet away from you"
Player 2: "Great, I move forward and attack."
DM: "Okay if you do that you will provoke an Opportunity Attack from the kobold next to tou, are you okay with that?"
Player 2: "Yea, Player 3 can handle that one, if we don't deal with the ranged kobolds their Pack Tactics will eat us alive"
I'd recommend trying a small combat using Theatre of the Mind. See how it feels and how the players deal with it. I typically have small maps for reference, but almost exclusively use Theatre of the Mind.
Ok, with that out of the way, let's get into this.
Question...is it you who feels like combat is an issue, is it your players who find combat an issue, is it both of you?
The DM finds combat boring: This will never change, mostly because there's no surprise in it for you. You've anticipated 15 different ways things could go, you have a strong sense of what your players are able to pull off, so what excitement is there? I had a creature which was part troll and part ooze, nasty thing, but even a custom built creature only made me excited for the first 4 or 5 rounds. Eventually every combat will reach a point where you know almost every possible outcome. We DMs relish in the rare instances where the players pull off a stunt that makes us scratch our heads, or throw our well crafted story in the fire. If you want combat to be exciting for you, then make it exciting for you, do the things you enjoy, heck I have removed some of the rolls in combat because they felt redundant. I added a secondary hp pool to my players so they had a reason to run from combat. I narrate the turns almost as robustly as Tolkein. Because that's fun for me.
The players find combat boring: This is usually because combat has become predictable, or dry. I had one campaign where the DM literally ran combat as: Roll to hit, you hit, roll damage, ok, next. I almost beat him with a thesaurus. Then there's the people who always, without fail, populate the hill caves with kobolds, troglodytes, and goblins. You know to draw your sword, pull out your bow, and ready that fireball the moment you hear "...and as you round the path you see a cave opening a few yards off the way". Give your players real reasons to fight, give them reasons not to fight, make combat purposeful, and make combat have consequences (good and bad). Just because you can roll a d12 random encounter doesn't mean you should. You've got your players walking through an abandoned mine, you've layered on jump scare foreshadowing so thick it's palpable, the players are anticipating something dastardly, and they find a Dwarven Monk practicing his kata in the seclusion. Give your players something in the narrative as well, I've had players come to me and say "I like so and so better as a DM, except for when it comes to combat, you really make it come alive". Those aren't sacks of XP, they have a reason to fight, or not, just like the players.
Everyone at the table thinks combat stinks: It's time to talk, find out what each person wants from combat. Take the time to figure out why each person is turned off by combat and start to tailor those events. Some players just want to smack things with an axe or fireball. Some people want to use their imagination and start tossing the random objects in the room around. Some want puzzles, some want a more social action. Gather all that information and start shining the spotlight on each of those likes and you'll find the game more entertaining.
I am using Theater of Minds in all other systems I am Dming... so for myself that would not be much of a change ;) The only thing I have to pull myself doing is to remember all the rules myself. Because in all of the other systems I use the rules mostly as... benefits and not as facts. In DnD this might be tricky with all the Features Players and Monsters have.
Lets say the group encounters a pack of wolves - lets say it would be a hard encounter. How do you guys manage those battles? Because they tend to get very long and my feeling was always that the longer a fight is ongoing the less roleplay is going on among the players - even if one as DM tries to be creative.
I am using Theater of Minds in all other systems I am Dming... so for myself that would not be much of a change ;) The only thing I have to pull myself doing is to remember all the rules myself. Because in all of the other systems I use the rules mostly as... benefits and not as facts. In DnD this might be tricky with all the Features Players and Monsters have.
Lets say the group encounters a pack of wolves - lets say it would be a hard encounter. How do you guys manage those battles? Because they tend to get very long and my feeling was always that the longer a fight is ongoing the less roleplay is going on among the players - even if one as DM tries to be creative.
It is important to head the words of Mike Mearls, one of the lead creators of 5e, and his preface within the Player's Handbook:
To play D&D, and to play it well, you don’t need to read all the rules, memorize every detail of the game, or master the fine art of rolling funny looking dice. None of those things have any bearing on what’s best about the game.
What you need are two things, the first being friends with whom you can share the game. Playing games with your friends is a lot of fun, but D&D does something more than entertain.
The second thing you need is a lively imagination or, more importantly, the willingness to use whatever imagination you have. You don’t need to be a master storyteller or a brilliant artist. You just need to aspire to create, to have the courage of someone who is willing to build something and share it with others.
Yes it is important to have a good grasp of the rules, but it is more important to keep the story flowing and ensure everyone is having fun. As Dungeon Master you are the game's lead storyteller and referee. It is your job to make rulings in the heat of the game. You aren't your player's enemies, you want them to succeed as much as they want to.
If I am unsure about a rule, I typically try to find the rule in the rulebook. If I can't find it in 30 seconds, I make a quick ruling that typically always leans in favor of the players. I then make a mental note and look up the actual rule after the game. Then moving forward I follow the rule as it was written.
Lets say the group encounters a pack of wolves - lets say it would be a hard encounter. How do you guys manage those battles? Because they tend to get very long and my feeling was always that the longer a fight is ongoing the less roleplay is going on among the players - even if one as DM tries to be creative.
I think it is important to remember that in real life, rarely does a creature fight to the death. There are exceptions, obviously, but what are the wolves reasons for "fighting"? Are they defending their young, chances are they would fight to the death to protect their young. If not, wolves would probably disengage if they are outnumbered or very badly wounded.
I use pre-painted miniatures and cool maps. And when I'm not DM'ing, I have my Druid conjure different creatures each time (and I have those miniatures ready).
As for the creative approach: you can still describe attacks anyway you wish. So can players, and the DM can even give them Advantage or Inspiration if it sounds cool. Players can say they're kicking over a brazier, chandelier swing-kicking, releasing a nearby horse to trample someone, etc. (without the DM's permission, or any indication that those items are even available)... they just happen do the exact same damage that they normally would with their weapon.
Everyone thinks magic and precision archery when they think of exciting combat. Do you want to know what can be even more exciting (although it's still hard to beat spells, even magic missile)? Melee. Everyone seems to play melee combat as a hit-you-hit-me exchange. The only time it gets good is with rogue sneak attacks or dual-wielding.
If you want melee to be excting, pick up a stick, a dowel, or, hell, get a damn practice sword (woodenswords.com) and really experiment with melee. It's the most exhilarating feeling in the world to fight in close combat. I've been fencing for years and if you think Hollywood, Olympics, or Kung Fu when melee comes to mind, do a YouTube search for HEMA (weapon type). Welcome to the relatively-new world of Historic European Martial Arts, where all your fantasies about knights in shining armor get realized, crushed, then rebuilt into something new and marvelous. I recently started playing a dex-fighter with a rapier and shield. The first impression may be a delicate flower bouncing around with a torso-sized shield and a slender little poker. My actual build made her closer to a modern athlete (fit, yet nimble) with a larger-than-normal buckler and a blade only slightly smaller than a D&D Longsword" (longer discussion over the need for quotes, won't get into it), because that's what a rapier was: a fighting sword designed for the same lethality as other battlefield weapons.
Another example of good melee comes from Monks. Everyone seems to default to a more-realistic version of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. One of my favorite characters was a monk based off of Ip Man, a master of Wing Chun. In narration, his attacks were simultaneous block, disable, strike combinations. Someone may say "that's multiple attacks!", but I say, use one hand to block a punch and the other to punch at the same time. Did it feel like two separate actions? In combat rounds of 6 seconds, an enemy's miss could easily be translated as a block and opening for a riposte by a player (or vice versa).
On a final, ranty note: let's talk about damage. Has anyone been stabbed? Been severely cut? Been scorched, electrocuted, or exposed to extreme cold by contact? I can't say I have except in very minor, manageable situations (deep cut on a finger, touched a wire by accident, hot stove, etc.), but it tends to be on a level considered as bodily trauma; something most people are at risk of dying from. Therefore, I say stop describing your 2 points of damage with a dagger as "I stabbed him". At 2 points, you got a decent cut on their arm at best. Save those bodily-penetrating, mortal-wounding, scar-inducing blows for kills, criticals, and maybe max-damage rolls.
Armor is also incredibly effective at stopping blows, which is why people wore them as, you know, armor, instead of just fashion statements. Even a max-damage roll with a warhammer from someone with 16 strength against platemail may not break through the armor, but it will still hurt like hell and stagger them. Very specific example: SWORDS CAN'T CUT THROUGH PLATE. If you land damage with a sword against plate, you either A.) Delivered concussive force to the head or a joint and B.) Slipped a thrust into a gap (again, I would reserve this for spectacular rolls or death blows). Know what is also amazingly durable for armor? Cloth. Yes, cloth armor. Throughout history you will find 100 instances of cloth armor for every example of leather (no exaggeration). This is because cloth stops a reasonable amount of blunt force, consequently prevents a moderate amount of slicing, is very easy to produce, is worn under armor anyway (good way to describe the rise of a character's arsenal), and is very comfortable since it's on the level of heavy street clothes.
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
I'd certainly suggest trying combat without a grid. If you like, use counters or miniatures to represent relative positions, but not to the extent where you're actually measuring anything or slowing the game to start fiddling over exact positions or distances.
Other than that, there's a few things you can do to keep things exciting.
Mechanically, keep fights brief and keep them varied. This is easier at lower levels as the total HP in play is lower, but for instance, if you're fighting a pack of Wolves, a dozen regular Wolves is the same difficulty bracket as 2 Wolves and one Winter Wolf for a Level 4 party, but it's a quarter of the dice to be rolling. The basic Wolves will probably go down fast, leaving a brief but interesting fight with the Winter Wolf, which has some cool abilities and such. Same for Goblins, why do 10 Goblins when you can do 4, a Goblin Boss and a Hobgoblin as a bodyguard? Same XP, same difficultly, more interesting and less complex fight.
Also keep them necessary. Outside of extended periods of overland travel, I've cut random encounters from my game entirely, as it's far more satisfying for myself and my players to craft bespoke, and crucially relevant, encounters in their place. If you come across a roving band of Orcs, give one of them a map to some treasure the party can then go and search for, or have the group overhear a conversation about some Orc Warlord who's banding the tribes together for a war, setting up a future boss. That's far more interesting than just 'there are now 5 Orcs attacking your camp'. You'll get through less fights a session this way, but I'd say that's a good thing if they're all more interesting (I'm more than happy to run sessions with little or no combat in them).
Make sure your environments are interesting as well. Pitch a fight against assassins in darkness, so it's chaos until someone gets the lights on. Have a magical storm throw lightning at the battlefield, striking a combatant at random. Fight atop a treasure horde, where players might slip and lose their footing or spy a useful item among the surrounding loot. So on and so forth. Fights can be memorable on account of where they happen as much as how.
Remember that a lot of enemies can speak at least some language, and use this to make them interesting. A Goblin Boss offering amusing taunts from behind a Hobgoblin shield-wall as he sits atop a throne of his previous victims. A Vampire delivering imposing threats and growing increasingly frustrated with the characters daring to survive him. A Paladin offering prayer to his god with every smite. Players get a few seconds of speech a round, so there's no reason monster's shouldn't, and your players will remember a menacing threat or humorous remark long after any memories of who did what damage to who have gone.
Also, keep in mind that as the DM, you have the ability to end fights whenever you like. You can tweak HP on the fly, of course, but more than that, you can dish out injuries, trigger events elsewhere that cause the enemies to flee, have a superior give orders to retreat ect. An enemy might have 20HP left, and on the last attack of the round someone deals 11HP to it. Now, you can either play another round, or you can say that the strike breaks the leg of this creature and sends it stumbling to the ground, it drops its weapons and begs for mercy. Combat is over, the players can now interrogate the creature if necessary, prompting some good roleplay, or they can execute it, or they can just move on. If your players are beginning to lose interest in a fight, bring it to an end early in a believable way.
In fact I find as a player that when a DM is too descriptive it actually robes me of that personal experience as I'm spending less time imagining and more time listening and the more detail I get the more critical I become of the definition of that narrative. I don't like it for example when the DM tells me what my character does, or how he goes about slicing people up. I have my own image of that.
Out of interest, why not share that image with the group via your own narration? I know you said you discuss it post-game, do you feel it slows combat too much or something like that?
As a DM, I take the stance that I'll describe actions if my players don't, but if they want to embellish their actions I'm perfectly happy to let them. It took them a while to get used to it, but now they get that they have first dibs on describing their character's actions in as much detail as they like. Particularly dramatic moments and final kills are usually preceded by the classic 'how do you want to do this?', but even outside of those instances, if you want to take a few lines to describe how your Hellish Rebuke takes the form of a stream of fire billowing from your cursing mouth or how you deftly break a Goblin's guard then cleave him from skull to sternum, feel free!
On the other hand, if my player just says 'I do 8 points of damage', I'll embellish that as I do not like just reducing the game to a mathematical/mechanical exercise (though I appreciate many people do). I do tend to focus more on enemy reactions rather than player actions so as not to take away agency, so for example instead of describing the character's exact sword motions, I would narrate the Hobgoblin scampering backwards to avoid the onslaught of blows as your blade opens cuts along its outstretched, flailing limbs.
This is very much a matter of preference, but I personally feel the moment you take the narration and description out of combat, the game loses so much of what makes it great.
If you find that combat is going on too long, and are not really interested in the tactical side of the game, here's a simple trick - double all damage.
Because this makes casters more effective, you might want to impose a one round delay (or a round resting and regathering magical power) on every spell they cast - this weakens cantrips, but they are only there to counter the old system of a mage running out of spells after 2-3 rounds of combat (Anything pre-4th Edition.)
Lets say the group encounters a pack of wolves - lets say it would be a hard encounter. How do you guys manage those battles? Because they tend to get very long and my feeling was always that the longer a fight is ongoing the less roleplay is going on among the players - even if one as DM tries to be creative.
Remember that RAW you roll initiative once for each group of identical monsters. In practice I group them into groups of 4 because letting 8 creatures go all at once is brutal. Also skip damage rolls for enemies and take the average. If that's still taking a while consider skipping the attack rolls as well and using the mob rules in the DMG (though these rules don't handle advantage and disadvantage so they won't work well with wolves.) When all else fails...
If you find that combat is going on too long, and are not really interested in the tactical side of the game, here's a simple trick - double all damage.
Just lower their HP mid-combat. Enemies can have any HP total their Hit Dice can roll; you're not forced to use the average. Giving them the minimum will roughly halve their health.
I had a creature which was part troll and part ooze, nasty thing, but even a custom built creature only made me excited for the first 4 or 5 rounds.
I'm curious how your combats are taking so long. Mine rarely last 5 rounds unless one side's stopped fighting back.
There were 2 of them so: troll regeneration + splitting into copies of itself = tons of troll gummy bears running around regenerating HP. Fighter with slashing weapon, 2 druids taking on beast forms that use slashing attacks, and a rogue using a slashing weapon. In one turn the creatures split a lot, then it used hit and run tactics as well as the environment to harass the party. Took them a while to figure out what was happening, then they mopped the floor soon after.
If you find that combat is going on too long, and are not really interested in the tactical side of the game, here's a simple trick - double all damage.
Just lower their HP mid-combat. Enemies can have any HP total their Hit Dice can roll; you're not forced to use the average. Giving them the minimum will roughly halve their health.
You are too soft - I meant double All damage! (Cue demonic grin!) That includes the monsters.
Keep the settings varied. Create terrain that is not only unusual, but is a feature or obstacle in the battle itself. A swamp with exploding pockets of gas? Fighting in the branches of enormous trees where they have very limited areas to fight ( top of branches ) but if they dare, they can leap from branch to branch ( don't fall! ), aerial combat while falling miles through the Elemental Plane of Air ( skydiving combat!), etc.
Keep opponents varied. Don't just have "a tribe of orcs" . Figure out what is this "Orc stronghold" really is. There's likely an entire ecology of creatures living here: other goblin species, scavenger creatures, tamed guard beasts, pets, etc. Have them all be present for the battle. Have them work together - but know the tactics, tendencies, and limits of each. Maybe you can use ranged attacks enough to make the cowardly goblin archers flee, and leave the solid Gnoll infantry without covering fire...
Fight enemies smart, and fight them to win. Know what they want, and have them work towards that. Maybe the Orcs just want to PCs to go away - and do whatever it takes to drive them off - but won't pursue if the PCs leave. Maybe the Orcs need living PCs for something - and have them concentrate on capture. Maybe the Bugbear chieftain is smart enough to send his Kobold scouts through tiny passages to engage the party from the rear. Maybe the Orcs release the last resort "doomsday weapon" of a captive young dragon while they flee for bolt holes and hiding places, and hope to wait it out until the party and/or the dragon kill each other off ( and then maybe polish off the wounded victor ).
Create inventive tactics for your enemies! Watch your party freak the hell out when the first PC goes down, and the enemies drag him/her away. Have the enemies use fallen PCs as hostages " ... The Orc captain holds the knife to the unconscious throat of Revnar and barks in broken common .... your leave, you take this one ... you fight ... he dies .... ". Have them use the environment to their advantage - rock falls, flooding, etc.
Create time limits, and changing conditions, to add urgency to the battle - maybe the PCs falling miles through the air in the Elemental Plane of Air, need to capture the KeyStone from the falling Githyanki warrior, so that they can open the portal which awaits at the end of this fall, and fall through the gate into the Feywild, instead of slamming into the floating mountain on which the gate rests. Maybe the ship is sinking, and the amphibious creatures blocking the exit are happy to fight a holding action until the party drowns.
Combat can be dull, if you do the same patterns over and over ... so keep the patterns ever shifting.
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these are so many great posts! I will definitely come back to you, when I am back in front of a computer. But answering from a mobile to such a topic is quite tedious! :)
Thank you VERY much!
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I am quite an experienced DM - but I am coming from more Story Driven Systems like the World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu or even Paranoia. Where combat is much faster and can be dealt with more creatively than in D&D. In Paranoia for example the Combat system is 10 lines - called the "Dramatic Tactic Combat System" - quintessential, the cooler and more creative you describe what you do, the more likely is a success in what you are doing.
In D&D - which I DMed also many times I feel, that the combat due its many rules and tactic approach wears off pretty fast. You can only tell the people how awesome shining the sword swinging at them so much... I find it extremely difficult to make combat more exiting as a DM in D&D than in the other System.
At the extreme in Paranoia a Combat lasts exactly one "round"... and either everyone is laughing their asses off or have died and a new clone is coming their way while laughing. In Cthulhu the people are frightened and in the WoD they do badass shit around every corner. In D&D it feels like: "Yes, I attack the creature over there on the grid with a Magic Missile" - "Oh marvellous, then roll the dice for damage" "8" "Ok, it looks slightly baffled, but is still standing and trying to fix you with its fierce eyes"... And in round 10 of the combat: "I attack this".. "Damage?" "12" "OK - Not dead - Next" :D
You know what I mean? What are you doing to keep battles more fun? Sure I have players who vastly enjoy the tactic approach and wouldn't even mind to skip the story but level up ;) But I as DM would really like to have a much more creative approach...
Sure, I could simply ignore all rules and stay with the creative approach I am used to, but would this not destroy all balance within encounters and strengths of the characters?
The combat rules themselves don't have to be exciting; it's the scenario that matters. Some ideas:
You could also consider experimenting with some of the alternative initiative systems in the DMG. They have different benefits and drawbacks; you might find something you and your players like better.
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Personally I almost exclusively use Theatre of the Mind because it avoids what is known as the "Tyranny of the Grid". A lot of my players have a lot of Strategy Board game experience, so the moment I bring out the Grid they remove their "Role-play" hats and put on their strategy hats. Suddenly their Barbarian with a Wisdom of 9 and an Intelligence of 8 becomes a master tactician.
As a DM, it starts with you. How do you describe what the baddies are doing in combat? During the baddies turn are they using free actions to chat among themselves? How are you interpreting the player's die rolls?
Sometimes it is the simple things:
DM: "As you approach, out of the corner of your eye you see the reflection of light off a small glint of metal. You aren't fast enough to react before an arrow goes flying and *Rolls* ricochets off of Player 2's armor. The sound echos through the hallways. You hear the stirring of more creatures, alerted by the sound made. Everyone roll for initiative"
Player 1: "I cast Fire Bolt on the creature!"
DM: "Okay, make a ranged spell attack roll"
Player 1: *Rolls*
DM: "The bolt of fire scorches through the air, hitting the monster square in the chest with the flames licking up and around the monster's leather armor. The light from the Fire Bolt reveals a badly burnt Kobold, now hissing at you and saying something in Draconic that you can't understand"
After a few rounds, the players should begin to want to participate in the shared story telling, adding their own descriptions.
Hm... reading both of your posts it seems that I let myself bother too much with what D&D originally wanted to be. A Tactical Combat Simulator
@InquisitiveOrder: Thank you for your ideas. I will definitely note them down.
@Gruzzlebub: Yes, exactly. But the guys I am playing at the moment with said that they would like to see exactly how far their cone goes and so on... I personally also don't really like the Grid. And "Tyranny of the grid" is exactly right.
BUT... yes I am doing all these combat descriptions... the first couple of rounds in combat. After that it wears off... because I also don't get much feedback in the same manner from the players in the group I am DMing at the moment. They seem to play more like "Stones ;)". But you are right.. perhaps.. getting rid of the grid and thinking about more ways for the players to be creative without bending the rules too much might work...
It definitely requires a change of mindsets for players. Players have to ask more questions instead of being gridlocked (pun intended) on "maneuvering" their characters around the Grid to optimize a Burning Hands.
It does require a good memory from the GM's perspective. I often do a quick recap at the start of each round where everyone is at in the "Mind's Eye" and always give helpful "warnings" so that a player isn't caught off guard.
Player 2: "How close is the kobold with short bow in front of me?"
DM: "He is about 20 feet away from you"
Player 2: "Great, I move forward and attack."
DM: "Okay if you do that you will provoke an Opportunity Attack from the kobold next to tou, are you okay with that?"
Player 2: "Yea, Player 3 can handle that one, if we don't deal with the ranged kobolds their Pack Tactics will eat us alive"
I'd recommend trying a small combat using Theatre of the Mind. See how it feels and how the players deal with it. I typically have small maps for reference, but almost exclusively use Theatre of the Mind.
I
hate
combat.
Ok, with that out of the way, let's get into this.
Question...is it you who feels like combat is an issue, is it your players who find combat an issue, is it both of you?
The DM finds combat boring:
This will never change, mostly because there's no surprise in it for you. You've anticipated 15 different ways things could go, you have a strong sense of what your players are able to pull off, so what excitement is there? I had a creature which was part troll and part ooze, nasty thing, but even a custom built creature only made me excited for the first 4 or 5 rounds. Eventually every combat will reach a point where you know almost every possible outcome. We DMs relish in the rare instances where the players pull off a stunt that makes us scratch our heads, or throw our well crafted story in the fire. If you want combat to be exciting for you, then make it exciting for you, do the things you enjoy, heck I have removed some of the rolls in combat because they felt redundant. I added a secondary hp pool to my players so they had a reason to run from combat. I narrate the turns almost as robustly as Tolkein. Because that's fun for me.
The players find combat boring:
This is usually because combat has become predictable, or dry. I had one campaign where the DM literally ran combat as: Roll to hit, you hit, roll damage, ok, next. I almost beat him with a thesaurus. Then there's the people who always, without fail, populate the hill caves with kobolds, troglodytes, and goblins. You know to draw your sword, pull out your bow, and ready that fireball the moment you hear "...and as you round the path you see a cave opening a few yards off the way". Give your players real reasons to fight, give them reasons not to fight, make combat purposeful, and make combat have consequences (good and bad). Just because you can roll a d12 random encounter doesn't mean you should. You've got your players walking through an abandoned mine, you've layered on jump scare foreshadowing so thick it's palpable, the players are anticipating something dastardly, and they find a Dwarven Monk practicing his kata in the seclusion. Give your players something in the narrative as well, I've had players come to me and say "I like so and so better as a DM, except for when it comes to combat, you really make it come alive". Those aren't sacks of XP, they have a reason to fight, or not, just like the players.
Everyone at the table thinks combat stinks:
It's time to talk, find out what each person wants from combat. Take the time to figure out why each person is turned off by combat and start to tailor those events. Some players just want to smack things with an axe or fireball. Some people want to use their imagination and start tossing the random objects in the room around. Some want puzzles, some want a more social action. Gather all that information and start shining the spotlight on each of those likes and you'll find the game more entertaining.
I am using Theater of Minds in all other systems I am Dming... so for myself that would not be much of a change ;) The only thing I have to pull myself doing is to remember all the rules myself. Because in all of the other systems I use the rules mostly as... benefits and not as facts. In DnD this might be tricky with all the Features Players and Monsters have.
Lets say the group encounters a pack of wolves - lets say it would be a hard encounter. How do you guys manage those battles? Because they tend to get very long and my feeling was always that the longer a fight is ongoing the less roleplay is going on among the players - even if one as DM tries to be creative.
Everyone thinks magic and precision archery when they think of exciting combat. Do you want to know what can be even more exciting (although it's still hard to beat spells, even magic missile)? Melee. Everyone seems to play melee combat as a hit-you-hit-me exchange. The only time it gets good is with rogue sneak attacks or dual-wielding.
If you want melee to be excting, pick up a stick, a dowel, or, hell, get a damn practice sword (woodenswords.com) and really experiment with melee. It's the most exhilarating feeling in the world to fight in close combat. I've been fencing for years and if you think Hollywood, Olympics, or Kung Fu when melee comes to mind, do a YouTube search for HEMA (weapon type). Welcome to the relatively-new world of Historic European Martial Arts, where all your fantasies about knights in shining armor get realized, crushed, then rebuilt into something new and marvelous. I recently started playing a dex-fighter with a rapier and shield. The first impression may be a delicate flower bouncing around with a torso-sized shield and a slender little poker. My actual build made her closer to a modern athlete (fit, yet nimble) with a larger-than-normal buckler and a blade only slightly smaller than a D&D Longsword" (longer discussion over the need for quotes, won't get into it), because that's what a rapier was: a fighting sword designed for the same lethality as other battlefield weapons.
Another example of good melee comes from Monks. Everyone seems to default to a more-realistic version of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. One of my favorite characters was a monk based off of Ip Man, a master of Wing Chun. In narration, his attacks were simultaneous block, disable, strike combinations. Someone may say "that's multiple attacks!", but I say, use one hand to block a punch and the other to punch at the same time. Did it feel like two separate actions? In combat rounds of 6 seconds, an enemy's miss could easily be translated as a block and opening for a riposte by a player (or vice versa).
On a final, ranty note: let's talk about damage. Has anyone been stabbed? Been severely cut? Been scorched, electrocuted, or exposed to extreme cold by contact? I can't say I have except in very minor, manageable situations (deep cut on a finger, touched a wire by accident, hot stove, etc.), but it tends to be on a level considered as bodily trauma; something most people are at risk of dying from. Therefore, I say stop describing your 2 points of damage with a dagger as "I stabbed him". At 2 points, you got a decent cut on their arm at best. Save those bodily-penetrating, mortal-wounding, scar-inducing blows for kills, criticals, and maybe max-damage rolls.
Armor is also incredibly effective at stopping blows, which is why people wore them as, you know, armor, instead of just fashion statements. Even a max-damage roll with a warhammer from someone with 16 strength against platemail may not break through the armor, but it will still hurt like hell and stagger them. Very specific example: SWORDS CAN'T CUT THROUGH PLATE. If you land damage with a sword against plate, you either A.) Delivered concussive force to the head or a joint and B.) Slipped a thrust into a gap (again, I would reserve this for spectacular rolls or death blows). Know what is also amazingly durable for armor? Cloth. Yes, cloth armor. Throughout history you will find 100 instances of cloth armor for every example of leather (no exaggeration). This is because cloth stops a reasonable amount of blunt force, consequently prevents a moderate amount of slicing, is very easy to produce, is worn under armor anyway (good way to describe the rise of a character's arsenal), and is very comfortable since it's on the level of heavy street clothes.
Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser
Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale
Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
I'd certainly suggest trying combat without a grid. If you like, use counters or miniatures to represent relative positions, but not to the extent where you're actually measuring anything or slowing the game to start fiddling over exact positions or distances.
Other than that, there's a few things you can do to keep things exciting.
Mechanically, keep fights brief and keep them varied. This is easier at lower levels as the total HP in play is lower, but for instance, if you're fighting a pack of Wolves, a dozen regular Wolves is the same difficulty bracket as 2 Wolves and one Winter Wolf for a Level 4 party, but it's a quarter of the dice to be rolling. The basic Wolves will probably go down fast, leaving a brief but interesting fight with the Winter Wolf, which has some cool abilities and such. Same for Goblins, why do 10 Goblins when you can do 4, a Goblin Boss and a Hobgoblin as a bodyguard? Same XP, same difficultly, more interesting and less complex fight.
Also keep them necessary. Outside of extended periods of overland travel, I've cut random encounters from my game entirely, as it's far more satisfying for myself and my players to craft bespoke, and crucially relevant, encounters in their place. If you come across a roving band of Orcs, give one of them a map to some treasure the party can then go and search for, or have the group overhear a conversation about some Orc Warlord who's banding the tribes together for a war, setting up a future boss. That's far more interesting than just 'there are now 5 Orcs attacking your camp'. You'll get through less fights a session this way, but I'd say that's a good thing if they're all more interesting (I'm more than happy to run sessions with little or no combat in them).
Make sure your environments are interesting as well. Pitch a fight against assassins in darkness, so it's chaos until someone gets the lights on. Have a magical storm throw lightning at the battlefield, striking a combatant at random. Fight atop a treasure horde, where players might slip and lose their footing or spy a useful item among the surrounding loot. So on and so forth. Fights can be memorable on account of where they happen as much as how.
Remember that a lot of enemies can speak at least some language, and use this to make them interesting. A Goblin Boss offering amusing taunts from behind a Hobgoblin shield-wall as he sits atop a throne of his previous victims. A Vampire delivering imposing threats and growing increasingly frustrated with the characters daring to survive him. A Paladin offering prayer to his god with every smite. Players get a few seconds of speech a round, so there's no reason monster's shouldn't, and your players will remember a menacing threat or humorous remark long after any memories of who did what damage to who have gone.
Also, keep in mind that as the DM, you have the ability to end fights whenever you like. You can tweak HP on the fly, of course, but more than that, you can dish out injuries, trigger events elsewhere that cause the enemies to flee, have a superior give orders to retreat ect. An enemy might have 20HP left, and on the last attack of the round someone deals 11HP to it. Now, you can either play another round, or you can say that the strike breaks the leg of this creature and sends it stumbling to the ground, it drops its weapons and begs for mercy. Combat is over, the players can now interrogate the creature if necessary, prompting some good roleplay, or they can execute it, or they can just move on. If your players are beginning to lose interest in a fight, bring it to an end early in a believable way.
If you find that combat is going on too long, and are not really interested in the tactical side of the game, here's a simple trick - double all damage.
Because this makes casters more effective, you might want to impose a one round delay (or a round resting and regathering magical power) on every spell they cast - this weakens cantrips, but they are only there to counter the old system of a mage running out of spells after 2-3 rounds of combat (Anything pre-4th Edition.)
Roleplaying since Runequest.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
That includes the monsters.
Roleplaying since Runequest.
Some ideas:
Combat can be dull, if you do the same patterns over and over ... so keep the patterns ever shifting.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
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Hey guys,
these are so many great posts! I will definitely come back to you, when I am back in front of a computer. But answering from a mobile to such a topic is quite tedious! :)
Thank you VERY much!