As my players reach higher levels, I have to throw more and more enemies at them to keep things interesting. This makes rounds quite long. That's unavoidable, but what's causing me problems is stunning (in any way) my players and counterspelling them.
By doing so, I make them miss their turn, and the rounds last so long that some of my players are becoming bored as a result. But I can't remove the turn-skipping effects without massively nerfing my forces.
How can I make between-turns in combat more interesting for players? And I don't mean tactical planning or anything like that, the players that want to do that do it already. I need some way to spice things up for players who need more.
You don't need to throw a lot of creatures at them all at once. Keep everyone in play, and keep the tempo up.
A fast encounter with brutes to beat them up, a quick bushwack with a horde of minions to draw out their big spells, a tough skill check situation to mix it up, maybe a nasty trap with poison, no time for a long rest, and then throw a tough encounter at them when their resources are low. This is where they will have to dig deep on the character sheet to survive.
That's all well and good generally, but when you have 8 players there's still a delay, especially when you have a boss fight they know is coming.
I can make them challenged in all sorts of ways, but I'm talking specifically about fights that drag on, how I can give them a sense of still being connected to the fight when there's a delay before their turn.
This is why the DMG recommends a party size of 3-6 characters. Your two options are enforcing a time limit on turns to keep rounds moving quickly or using a different initiative system that lets players act together or randomizes the turn order (see the DMG.)
Keep people moving. With a big party you can't let people have time to, when their turn starts, figure out what they're going to do. If turns are currently taking about 3 minutes, limit it to 1 minute. Once they get close to that limit tell them you need to know what they're doing, or they lose the action. They'll say something quickly then, and it'll have the added side effect of increasing tension. As your players get more used to the shortened time, you can shorten it a bit more. As long as the player is actively describing what they are doing, it doesn't need to have a firm limit, you want to curb the 'Okay so... Hm, well I could... Or I could... Maybe I'll... No, I'll...' and instead have them go right into 'Okay, I want to (x)'. It will make a world of difference if they're not already doing this.
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As my players reach higher levels, I have to throw more and more enemies at them to keep things interesting. This makes rounds quite long. That's unavoidable, but what's causing me problems is stunning (in any way) my players and counterspelling them.
By doing so, I make them miss their turn, and the rounds last so long that some of my players are becoming bored as a result. But I can't remove the turn-skipping effects without massively nerfing my forces.
How can I make between-turns in combat more interesting for players? And I don't mean tactical planning or anything like that, the players that want to do that do it already. I need some way to spice things up for players who need more.
You don't need to throw a lot of creatures at them all at once. Keep everyone in play, and keep the tempo up.
A fast encounter with brutes to beat them up, a quick bushwack with a horde of minions to draw out their big spells, a tough skill check situation to mix it up, maybe a nasty trap with poison, no time for a long rest, and then throw a tough encounter at them when their resources are low. This is where they will have to dig deep on the character sheet to survive.
That's all well and good generally, but when you have 8 players there's still a delay, especially when you have a boss fight they know is coming.
I can make them challenged in all sorts of ways, but I'm talking specifically about fights that drag on, how I can give them a sense of still being connected to the fight when there's a delay before their turn.
This is why the DMG recommends a party size of 3-6 characters. Your two options are enforcing a time limit on turns to keep rounds moving quickly or using a different initiative system that lets players act together or randomizes the turn order (see the DMG.)
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Keep people moving. With a big party you can't let people have time to, when their turn starts, figure out what they're going to do. If turns are currently taking about 3 minutes, limit it to 1 minute. Once they get close to that limit tell them you need to know what they're doing, or they lose the action. They'll say something quickly then, and it'll have the added side effect of increasing tension. As your players get more used to the shortened time, you can shorten it a bit more. As long as the player is actively describing what they are doing, it doesn't need to have a firm limit, you want to curb the 'Okay so... Hm, well I could... Or I could... Maybe I'll... No, I'll...' and instead have them go right into 'Okay, I want to (x)'. It will make a world of difference if they're not already doing this.