Utilizing cover by flipping over tables, standing behind pillars, and ducking around shelves is a great way to boost enemy AC. If in ambush, prepare traps in key choke points, like pits and tripwires. Giving variety to henchmen adds flavor to the fight and allows different players to play to their strengths. Give the enemy a magic item which will then be the loot once they are vanquished. Essentially, examining the environment and using it to its full potential.
An example encounter I enjoyed running that proved challenging for my party: The party had antagonised a tribe of goblins by murdering one of their members. The party soon left the area and continued down the road.Traveling along the road in the forest, the party stop to set up camp. They find a servicable clearing in amongst some trees. They camp under a slight hill, in case they need to jump to higher ground, and begin to rotate between sleeping and keeping watch.
During one of the watch shifts, a player notices a blue flag popping out of a bush 80ft away, the flag shakes a bit in the air before popping back down. The player grabs their bow, but doesn't yet alert the rest of the party. A moment later, a deer frantically gallops through the campsite, a rope tied around one of its hindlegs and large fish attached to the other end of the rope, being dragged by this deer as it runs past the party and away into the forest. The party is awake but confused by this, until a moment later when a n owlbear charges through the treeline and crashes into the camp. It is angry and in a frenzy. The party can attempt to calm the beast, but if they fail, the owlbear will attack them.
While this is going on, a squad of goblins are shooting arrows from behind trees and moving to surround the party. Goblins get a bonus action to hide, so as long as they can find new cover in amongst the trees, they'll be hard for the players to deal with while fighting the owlbear. There may be an opportunity for the goblins to offer to spare the party if they throw out some gold. However, once it is obvious that the party have the upper hand and the goblins are in mortal danger, they should begin to retreat and run for their lives.
There are lots of creative options to mix up combat.
The use of feats is a pretty good one. See how the players like it when an enemy uses polearm master and sentinel[ or worse an enemy with the grapple trait that grapples enemies on hit. Here are some others
mobile or bonus action disengage and booming blade. move around and if a melee enemy chases they set off extra damage
sharpshooter and fighting at long range or flying
Other player abilities like spells and class features can work well too though I only recommend taking one at a time to give a t monster and consider making it at will on recharge so you can really stretch the limits of the ability and make it interesting. Its also better to pick abilities that change combat significantly rather than those that a straight numerically powerful as those are more fun.
An illusionist with at will silent image or similar illusion spell whos obscures players vision and hide the location of enemies. It's not crazy powerful but blocking vision gives disadvantage on attacks, prevents attacks of opportunity, can stop some spells like counterspell and help enemies hide. I've toyed with the idea of an illusion support caster that uses these functions to assist monsters. You could make this appear how ever you like, for example it could be a fog cloud or an enemy appearing to turn into a dragon when it really hides.
Arcane shots from the arcane archer and maneuvers from the battle master are easy to port on to monsters too. The shadow and grasping arrows can be really debilitating to players even if shadow isn't often a popular choice for players.
Terrain is another way to really mix things up there's allot of rules players don't think of like water combat or squeezing that can make combat quite difficult. Monster should pick terrains that suit them.
Squeezing. Small creatures can squeeze into a tiny space that medium creature cant fit or they could lure players into small spaces where medium creatures would be squeezing and have disadvantage.
Dirty water. Dirty water can completely block vision and put players at disadvantage having to use swimming. Pulling unprepared players into this situation is very deadly as a water breathing creature can simply dive into the water dragging a player while hiding the muck relatively safe.
Thick fog. It blocks vision and prevents advantage. It can force ranged players into melee and prevent advantage very reliably forcing a change in tactics for some players
There don't need to be rules, there's just the simple fact that if your enemy is shooting you from behind cover in a platform up in a tree, you can't get them unless you first climb the tree, during which you will provide plenty of chances for them to kill you.
Or maybe instead of a tree, maybe they're on top of a really steep hill, and climbing up that steep incline counts as difficult terrain, slowing the player down on their approach up the hill, providing a target. Or to use a classic example, you're floating on a piece of scrap metal in a river of lava and your enemy is above the riverbank on stable ground, and you have to use your whole action as you leap up to him, opening yourself up to attack without being able to retaliate until next turn, and oh no he cut off your limbs with his lightsaber before your next turn!
These kinds of tactics are deceptively simple. They don't involve complex rules interacting with each other to create innovative loopholes, they more often come down to 'Where can I stand where the enemy will have a hard time getting to me?', 'Where is cover so ranged attacks won't be as effective?', or 'Where can I lure the enemy where they can't maneuver freely?'.
If you want a tactical game then, when designing battle maps for combat encounters, you want to include features like hills, trees, rivers, cover, debris, hazards, etc-- that stuff will shape the combat around them and offer players opportunities to use terrain smartly, or use their abilities to interact with the terrain in cool ways, and if the players don't realize that's an option then the enemies will, and the players can learn that "ooh hey, when fighting in a large mead hall, you're apparently able to tip over tables to use to block arrows! Never thought of that!" or "ooh hey, when fighting next to a river, you can use your action to shove them and possibly send the enemy tumbling down the bank!" when the enemy uses these tactics against them.
There don't need to be rules, there's just the simple fact that if your enemy is shooting you from behind cover in a platform up in a tree, you can't get them unless you first climb the tree, during which you will provide plenty of chances for them to kill you.
Or maybe instead of a tree, maybe they're on top of a really steep hill, and climbing up that steep incline counts as difficult terrain, slowing the player down on their approach up the hill, providing a target. Or to use a classic example, you're floating on a piece of scrap metal in a river of lava and your enemy is above the riverbank on stable ground, and you have to use your whole action as you leap up to him, opening yourself up to attack without being able to retaliate until next turn, and oh no he cut off your limbs with his lightsaber before your next turn!
These kinds of tactics are deceptively simple. They don't involve complex rules interacting with each other to create innovative loopholes, they more often come down to 'Where can I stand where the enemy will have a hard time getting to me?', 'Where is cover so ranged attacks won't be as effective?', or 'Where can I lure the enemy where they can't maneuver freely?'.
If you want a tactical game then, when designing battle maps for combat encounters, you want to include features like hills, trees, rivers, cover, debris, hazards, etc-- that stuff will shape the combat around them and offer players opportunities to use terrain smartly, or use their abilities to interact with the terrain in cool ways, and if the players don't realize that's an option then the enemies will, and the players can learn that "ooh hey, when fighting in a large mead hall, you're apparently able to tip over tables to use to block arrows! Never thought of that!" or "ooh hey, when fighting next to a river, you can use your action to shove them and possibly send the enemy tumbling down the bank!" when the enemy uses these tactics against them.
Yeah, playing with line of sight and where players can move can make a big difference to combat. High ground is one way but you can use any kind of obstacle from an obvious danger like a 3rd party monster like a sleeping dragon , a flaming wall or deep pit.
Are you good at strategy and tactics? If not, well, it's an uphill battle. The most important thing to understand is that Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder was right: "No plan survives first contact with the enemy."
Our old Hero GM hated myself and Hand of Bobb because each of his carefully-planned combats were quickly turned around because we could out-think him tactically (couldn't do much about the extra active-points the villains had, though). The first time he said "you notice they're using the same tactics you are" he couldn't have been further from point, because my tactics changed, depending on what the situation was. The fight against the cloned party was particularly embarrassing for him as Bobb and I told the other party members to hang tight, we'd take care of this--and Bobb's character didn't have her powers!
Watch how your players fight. Make notes. Figure out what they do when things are going well, and when things aren't going well. Have your monsters hit them when they're weak and when they turn around to hit them, have them not be there. Hit and fade. Be willing to pull out of combat to goad PCs into wasting their reactions to hit minor monsters.
Shorthand notes: Hit the casters and ranged characters first. If there's a buffer in the party, hit them with extreme prejudice. Keep the meat shields moving around, and don't let them cluster. Keep them from getting back to back--flank them and keep them off balance. If you've got cannon fodder, use them as party thermometers, and don't be afraid to target them with AoE spells to ensure that they go off.
Never put all your forces in play. Keep some reserves to hit them when they're reeling and to keep pressure on them.
Another point, if you want them to feel pressured, a big bag of easy-to-hit-points. One target with a lot of HP. They feel pressured, but, really, it's inevitable. If you actually want to threaten them, use a lot of medium foes that keep distance with each other and the party has to split up to effectively fight. Add in a self-/team-heal on them, and watch the party panic.
Unfortunately I can’t find the reference but there’s an old adventure about kobalds versus adventurers. It should be a foregone conclusion but the kobald’s are prepared. They set up for a siege, barricades, shooting holes, traps. And every time the adventurer’s break through the kobalds retreat to the next choke point.
if I really wanted to play monsters clever I’d assume they were there long enough to be dug in and prepared to defend their homes, remember even though the players are the “heroes “ when they raid a monster camp they’re actually killing families and destroying monster dwellings. So clever monster would fortify their homes and retreat when the odds are not in their favour
What I really love about kobolds is their size and tendency to use traps. They can pop in and out of tunnels too small for most of the party to use meaning the entire path of a human sized tunnel can be trapped more than most dungeons without any inconsistency. They can also force players into small spaces that give kobolds even more combat advantage.
Kobolds can make a path where medium players need to crawl through a tunnel of full of glass and rusty nails while they are poked with spears through murder holes. It would be an easy design for them too , just a small sized tunnel with a tiny tunnel running next to it. Line the small tunnel with sharp trash acting as caltrops (bag of 20) while the kobolds move through the tiny tunnel. It could easily be designed so players have to squeeze and the kobolds don't, giving the kobolds: additional ac from cover, advantage on the attacks and disadvantage on attacks against them while the players need to move at 1/4 speed or risk taking damage and having their speed reduced more.
Squeezing is one of those often forgotten rules that can be really brutal. It stacks really well with difficult terrain, dex saves, plant growth and caltrops (bag of 20). Many speed adjustments stack because they increase cost additively while caltrops and many spells adjust speed. By combining these effects you can easily create a situation where players need to choose between taking an action to move, staying put or risking the save. For example Plant growth + difficult terrain means that movement costs 5x as much which means at base most player could move 6ft a round but if there are caltrops and they want to avoid a save they need to move at 3ft a round which on a grid may mean they cant move at all. Squeezing instead of difficult terrain is even harsher as now they would also make the save against the caltrops at disadvantage. You can also combine it with things like being under water or burning metal to make the squeeze through that narrow tunnel really nightmarish.
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Does anyone have any good battle tactics I can use for my enemies
Utilizing cover by flipping over tables, standing behind pillars, and ducking around shelves is a great way to boost enemy AC. If in ambush, prepare traps in key choke points, like pits and tripwires. Giving variety to henchmen adds flavor to the fight and allows different players to play to their strengths. Give the enemy a magic item which will then be the loot once they are vanquished. Essentially, examining the environment and using it to its full potential.
An example encounter I enjoyed running that proved challenging for my party: The party had antagonised a tribe of goblins by murdering one of their members. The party soon left the area and continued down the road.Traveling along the road in the forest, the party stop to set up camp. They find a servicable clearing in amongst some trees. They camp under a slight hill, in case they need to jump to higher ground, and begin to rotate between sleeping and keeping watch.
During one of the watch shifts, a player notices a blue flag popping out of a bush 80ft away, the flag shakes a bit in the air before popping back down. The player grabs their bow, but doesn't yet alert the rest of the party. A moment later, a deer frantically gallops through the campsite, a rope tied around one of its hindlegs and large fish attached to the other end of the rope, being dragged by this deer as it runs past the party and away into the forest. The party is awake but confused by this, until a moment later when a n owlbear charges through the treeline and crashes into the camp. It is angry and in a frenzy. The party can attempt to calm the beast, but if they fail, the owlbear will attack them.
While this is going on, a squad of goblins are shooting arrows from behind trees and moving to surround the party. Goblins get a bonus action to hide, so as long as they can find new cover in amongst the trees, they'll be hard for the players to deal with while fighting the owlbear. There may be an opportunity for the goblins to offer to spare the party if they throw out some gold. However, once it is obvious that the party have the upper hand and the goblins are in mortal danger, they should begin to retreat and run for their lives.
https://www.themonstersknow.com/
You're welcome.
This. 100000000% this.
There is a pretty inexpensive Patreon that is regularly updated, https://www.patreon.com/dmdavetactics/posts
There are lots of creative options to mix up combat.
The use of feats is a pretty good one. See how the players like it when an enemy uses polearm master and sentinel[ or worse an enemy with the grapple trait that grapples enemies on hit. Here are some others
Other player abilities like spells and class features can work well too though I only recommend taking one at a time to give a t monster and consider making it at will on recharge so you can really stretch the limits of the ability and make it interesting. Its also better to pick abilities that change combat significantly rather than those that a straight numerically powerful as those are more fun.
Terrain is another way to really mix things up there's allot of rules players don't think of like water combat or squeezing that can make combat quite difficult. Monster should pick terrains that suit them.
Try to employ high ground and low ground when designing your maps, giving players and enemies more advantageous positions to fight over
Are there even rules for high and low ground?
There don't need to be rules, there's just the simple fact that if your enemy is shooting you from behind cover in a platform up in a tree, you can't get them unless you first climb the tree, during which you will provide plenty of chances for them to kill you.
Or maybe instead of a tree, maybe they're on top of a really steep hill, and climbing up that steep incline counts as difficult terrain, slowing the player down on their approach up the hill, providing a target. Or to use a classic example, you're floating on a piece of scrap metal in a river of lava and your enemy is above the riverbank on stable ground, and you have to use your whole action as you leap up to him, opening yourself up to attack without being able to retaliate until next turn, and oh no he cut off your limbs with his lightsaber before your next turn!
These kinds of tactics are deceptively simple. They don't involve complex rules interacting with each other to create innovative loopholes, they more often come down to 'Where can I stand where the enemy will have a hard time getting to me?', 'Where is cover so ranged attacks won't be as effective?', or 'Where can I lure the enemy where they can't maneuver freely?'.
If you want a tactical game then, when designing battle maps for combat encounters, you want to include features like hills, trees, rivers, cover, debris, hazards, etc-- that stuff will shape the combat around them and offer players opportunities to use terrain smartly, or use their abilities to interact with the terrain in cool ways, and if the players don't realize that's an option then the enemies will, and the players can learn that "ooh hey, when fighting in a large mead hall, you're apparently able to tip over tables to use to block arrows! Never thought of that!" or "ooh hey, when fighting next to a river, you can use your action to shove them and possibly send the enemy tumbling down the bank!" when the enemy uses these tactics against them.
Yeah, playing with line of sight and where players can move can make a big difference to combat. High ground is one way but you can use any kind of obstacle from an obvious danger like a 3rd party monster like a sleeping dragon , a flaming wall or deep pit.
Are you good at strategy and tactics? If not, well, it's an uphill battle. The most important thing to understand is that Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder was right: "No plan survives first contact with the enemy."
Our old Hero GM hated myself and Hand of Bobb because each of his carefully-planned combats were quickly turned around because we could out-think him tactically (couldn't do much about the extra active-points the villains had, though). The first time he said "you notice they're using the same tactics you are" he couldn't have been further from point, because my tactics changed, depending on what the situation was. The fight against the cloned party was particularly embarrassing for him as Bobb and I told the other party members to hang tight, we'd take care of this--and Bobb's character didn't have her powers!
Watch how your players fight. Make notes. Figure out what they do when things are going well, and when things aren't going well. Have your monsters hit them when they're weak and when they turn around to hit them, have them not be there. Hit and fade. Be willing to pull out of combat to goad PCs into wasting their reactions to hit minor monsters.
Shorthand notes: Hit the casters and ranged characters first. If there's a buffer in the party, hit them with extreme prejudice. Keep the meat shields moving around, and don't let them cluster. Keep them from getting back to back--flank them and keep them off balance. If you've got cannon fodder, use them as party thermometers, and don't be afraid to target them with AoE spells to ensure that they go off.
Never put all your forces in play. Keep some reserves to hit them when they're reeling and to keep pressure on them.
Another point, if you want them to feel pressured, a big bag of easy-to-hit-points. One target with a lot of HP. They feel pressured, but, really, it's inevitable. If you actually want to threaten them, use a lot of medium foes that keep distance with each other and the party has to split up to effectively fight. Add in a self-/team-heal on them, and watch the party panic.
Unfortunately I can’t find the reference but there’s an old adventure about kobalds versus adventurers. It should be a foregone conclusion but the kobald’s are prepared. They set up for a siege, barricades, shooting holes, traps. And every time the adventurer’s break through the kobalds retreat to the next choke point.
if I really wanted to play monsters clever I’d assume they were there long enough to be dug in and prepared to defend their homes, remember even though the players are the “heroes “ when they raid a monster camp they’re actually killing families and destroying monster dwellings. So clever monster would fortify their homes and retreat when the odds are not in their favour
Found a link
https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/3wdq1f/tuckers_kobolds_in_5e/
What I really love about kobolds is their size and tendency to use traps. They can pop in and out of tunnels too small for most of the party to use meaning the entire path of a human sized tunnel can be trapped more than most dungeons without any inconsistency. They can also force players into small spaces that give kobolds even more combat advantage.
Kobolds can make a path where medium players need to crawl through a tunnel of full of glass and rusty nails while they are poked with spears through murder holes. It would be an easy design for them too , just a small sized tunnel with a tiny tunnel running next to it. Line the small tunnel with sharp trash acting as caltrops (bag of 20) while the kobolds move through the tiny tunnel. It could easily be designed so players have to squeeze and the kobolds don't, giving the kobolds: additional ac from cover, advantage on the attacks and disadvantage on attacks against them while the players need to move at 1/4 speed or risk taking damage and having their speed reduced more.
Squeezing is one of those often forgotten rules that can be really brutal. It stacks really well with difficult terrain, dex saves, plant growth and caltrops (bag of 20). Many speed adjustments stack because they increase cost additively while caltrops and many spells adjust speed. By combining these effects you can easily create a situation where players need to choose between taking an action to move, staying put or risking the save. For example Plant growth + difficult terrain means that movement costs 5x as much which means at base most player could move 6ft a round but if there are caltrops and they want to avoid a save they need to move at 3ft a round which on a grid may mean they cant move at all. Squeezing instead of difficult terrain is even harsher as now they would also make the save against the caltrops at disadvantage. You can also combine it with things like being under water or burning metal to make the squeeze through that narrow tunnel really nightmarish.