My players are not good at combat. I try not to say that sounding arrogant or to belittle my friends, but they cannot think outside of a slugfest. If it's not "I roll to attack/spell, do I hit, I do this much damage," then the fight is so much more challenging than I think it should have been.
In the spoiler tag, I rant a little about my party and my frustrations. It doesn't REALLY pertain to the question, just provides backstory to the question.
Last session, there was a room with 5 knight statues in it. After a turn, the party would have the knowledge that the statues move 10 feet per movement towards them. There are colored tiles on the ground that match the colors of the knights. The "Puzzle" was when a knight is standing on its color, its AC went from 18 to 1. The party walked into the room, said OOC "Oh, color puzzle, let's get the knights on the right colored tiles." and then let the knights slowly creep towards them and slugged it out, almost absolutely disregarding the colors. Granted, looking back I could've made it more obvious that they were easy to hit on their own color, but that is only barely the point. They OOC said "Everyone just attack one enemy until it goes down then move to the next one." Fine plan. Great strategy. I approve. And then they did not do that. At all. I think each one attacked one knight. So the opposite of the plan.
In my mind, they had 5 slow moving enemies that can ONLY melee attack them. Even if there wasn't a puzzle involved, why wouldn't you just keep doing ranged attacks at them? You can outrun them by 3x! 6x if you Dash! We don't keep up with ammunition!
I'm not sure they know any of the actions allowed during combat besides attack and cast spell. I've tried so very very hard to get them to learn the actions via me saying "Well this enemy is going to use his action to Dash. This one is going to use the Help action to do this. This one is going to Hide as an action." It has not gone well.
Without seeming like a condescending jerk to my players, how do I tell them about the different things they can do during combat?
If you hold an after session discussion you could tell them how you would have employed this or that tactic if you old party were facing the same challenge. This will show them they can use tactics and the environment to their benefit. I assume you are also prepared to have the 'monsters' do the same thing. So maybe they'll learn the hard way.
Simple. Have an encounter where the enemies use advanced strategies against them.
Use goblins or something they should be able to handle, but that you can throw a large number without it being unbalanced. Use cover, difficult terrain, shove off cliffs for a little fall damage, grapple and gank, hit and disengage, disarm and steal weapons, drop prone to avoid ranged attacks, trigger traps, throw in some cattle/mounts to use as mobile half cover, and whatever else you can think of. Teach them how to use strategy by kicking their ass with it.
If you TPK, just capture them then give them a pop quiz by having them find their stuff and escape using the tactics you taught them.
Its possible they missed that the AC went down. So it might have been that they did not catch the clue or in the heat of the moment not associated clues with AC.
Typically I make a call whether they need a nudge or not in game. Remembering that the Barbarian's player doesn't have a 20 strength in real life when he wants to smash a door he rolls dice. Likewise, if something tricky or potentially arcane and they are just plain not getting it. I might ask for a perception check or offer an arcanist an arcane check and give them a chance to figure out a puzzle.
If its tactics in general starting using tactics against them. Start having people flip tables and use cover. Back down corridors so they can't be surrounded. Use spell combos, creative uses of items and so on. Teach them the tricks they will start to use them.
I play with a crew some are long-time players some are new. One, in particular, is brand new. He loves hack and slash and playing gonzo tough characters but out of character, he is terrified they might lose their character. The juxtaposition is hilarious. When is clear that he is stuck. I often rather than give him suggestions (I am another player not the DM) I will ask him characters from the mindset of the confident Conaanesque character he is trying to play. "Would Kazerock just cower there or would he step into danger and destroy his foes?"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
My players are not good at combat. I try not to say that sounding arrogant or to belittle my friends, but they cannot think outside of a slugfest. If it's not "I roll to attack/spell, do I hit, I do this much damage," then the fight is so much more challenging than I think it should have been.
In the spoiler tag, I rant a little about my party and my frustrations. It doesn't REALLY pertain to the question, just provides backstory to the question.
Last session, there was a room with 5 knight statues in it. After a turn, the party would have the knowledge that the statues move 10 feet per movement towards them. There are colored tiles on the ground that match the colors of the knights. The "Puzzle" was when a knight is standing on its color, its AC went from 18 to 1. The party walked into the room, said OOC "Oh, color puzzle, let's get the knights on the right colored tiles." and then let the knights slowly creep towards them and slugged it out, almost absolutely disregarding the colors. Granted, looking back I could've made it more obvious that they were easy to hit on their own color, but that is only barely the point. They OOC said "Everyone just attack one enemy until it goes down then move to the next one." Fine plan. Great strategy. I approve. And then they did not do that. At all. I think each one attacked one knight. So the opposite of the plan.
In my mind, they had 5 slow moving enemies that can ONLY melee attack them. Even if there wasn't a puzzle involved, why wouldn't you just keep doing ranged attacks at them? You can outrun them by 3x! 6x if you Dash! We don't keep up with ammunition!
I'm not sure they know any of the actions allowed during combat besides attack and cast spell. I've tried so very very hard to get them to learn the actions via me saying "Well this enemy is going to use his action to Dash. This one is going to use the Help action to do this. This one is going to Hide as an action." It has not gone well.
Without seeming like a condescending jerk to my players, how do I tell them about the different things they can do during combat?
If you hold an after session discussion you could tell them how you would have employed this or that tactic if you old party were facing the same challenge. This will show them they can use tactics and the environment to their benefit. I assume you are also prepared to have the 'monsters' do the same thing. So maybe they'll learn the hard way.
Simple. Have an encounter where the enemies use advanced strategies against them.
Use goblins or something they should be able to handle, but that you can throw a large number without it being unbalanced. Use cover, difficult terrain, shove off cliffs for a little fall damage, grapple and gank, hit and disengage, disarm and steal weapons, drop prone to avoid ranged attacks, trigger traps, throw in some cattle/mounts to use as mobile half cover, and whatever else you can think of. Teach them how to use strategy by kicking their ass with it.
If you TPK, just capture them then give them a pop quiz by having them find their stuff and escape using the tactics you taught them.
Its possible they missed that the AC went down. So it might have been that they did not catch the clue or in the heat of the moment not associated clues with AC.
Typically I make a call whether they need a nudge or not in game. Remembering that the Barbarian's player doesn't have a 20 strength in real life when he wants to smash a door he rolls dice. Likewise, if something tricky or potentially arcane and they are just plain not getting it. I might ask for a perception check or offer an arcanist an arcane check and give them a chance to figure out a puzzle.
If its tactics in general starting using tactics against them. Start having people flip tables and use cover. Back down corridors so they can't be surrounded. Use spell combos, creative uses of items and so on. Teach them the tricks they will start to use them.
I play with a crew some are long-time players some are new. One, in particular, is brand new. He loves hack and slash and playing gonzo tough characters but out of character, he is terrified they might lose their character. The juxtaposition is hilarious. When is clear that he is stuck. I often rather than give him suggestions (I am another player not the DM) I will ask him characters from the mindset of the confident Conaanesque character he is trying to play. "Would Kazerock just cower there or would he step into danger and destroy his foes?"