For my D&D group we like to use battle mats and terrain for encounters as it allows us to bring the encounter to life and immerse ourselves into the game more. When confined to a dungeon or indoor combat, this isn't an issue as the combat has clear boundaries and obstacles which keep the party and the enemies on the battle mat.
However, when running encounters outside (such as in a forest or on the King's Road), my players who excel in close combat charge in and the Ranger just moved 300ft outside of combat and then flings arrows into the fray from afar. Now I don't see anything inherently wrong with this but this usually takes their character off the map and essentially out of combat where they can sit back and fire arrows from their safety as if anyone charges them, they just fall back and continue firing. In addition to this, if I do get some baddies into close combat I then have 2 combats happening hundreds of feet apart and I then have to either create an impromptu map or just run a theatre of the mind encounter whilst managing another encounter.
Now I don't think there is anything wrong with this in itself and there certainly should be combat encounters where a player can fully use their skills to their advantage, but for the encounters where I want to put the pressure on the party and create a challenge, I don't want them to sit back atop the hill in complete safety.
In these instances, how would you recommend keeping the party on the battle map and keeping the pressure on the ranger when they fall back to safety?
I would go with your suggestion of Theatre of the mind with the Ranger and run the combat as normal on the map. If things get close with the ranger then create a small 10x10 gird once they get into melee and run it as a separate battle map. Key here is do the least amount of work to keep focused on the main battle and not divide your attention too much is possible.
You could tell the player that moving the character that far is unwieldy and ask him to just please stay on the map.
And how is he moving that far away? Is he just starting out very far away? I mean if he starts nearby and dashes, it would takes 5 (ish) rounds just to get 300 feet.
Anyway, you can have the fights in wooded areas where there lots of cover do he can’t get line of sight from that far away. Of course there’s the old rule of don’t split the party, if the ranger can fling arrows from 300 feet, so can the enemies. If the bandit archers have a choice between firing into melee, or shooting at that one guy standing by himself in a big field with no cover, the ranger quickly becomes a pin cushion who is well out of range for healing word. Or while he’s getting into position very far from help, he stumbles into a pit trap some hunter had dug, or he happens upon the bandit reenforcements. Or just hint at possible consequences “Are you sure you want to be that far from your allies?” and say it like you have something up your sleeve. I realize Some of these kind of gets into the territory of punishing him, which I generally oppose. In this case, I prefer to think of it as keeping him honest. His tactic working for him sometimes or most times is ok, but every now and then, it should backfire. Nothing works every time. After it fails once or twice, now it becomes a risk v. reward if he wants to take the chance.
In these instances, how would you recommend keeping the party on the battle map and keeping the pressure on the ranger when they fall back to safety?
By not running combats in areas with unrestricted line of sight. Even if you get ambushed on the King's Road, it will happen at a turn, a grove of trees, or something similar (this is not being mean to the PCs, this is absolutely normal tactics).
You could tell the player that moving the character that far is unwieldy and ask him to just please stay on the map.
And how is he moving that far away? Is he just starting out very far away? I mean if he starts nearby and dashes, it would takes 5 (ish) rounds just to get 300 feet
He's getting that far away as they're currently travelling on riding horses which have a movement speed of 120ft per round so even if the encounter is right in front of them to begin with, his first turn he's 120ft away, next is 240ft...
I realize Some of these kind of gets into the territory of punishing him, which I generally oppose. In this case, I prefer to think of it as keeping him honest. His tactic working for him sometimes or most times is ok, but every now and then, it should backfire. Nothing works every time. After it fails once or twice, now it becomes a risk v. reward if he wants to take the chance.
I perfectly agree that most of the time this should work given the right terrain and I'm not asking this so I can punish the players or railroad them into having to stay in this arbitrary box just because I can't have a massive battle map. I just don't want him to get comfortable and think he's completely safe and rely on the same tactic every time as I want him to be incentivized to come up with new, creative tactics which should hopefully make combat a little more interesting for him.
Idea: Out in the wilderness when the players are fighting, if the ranger tries to back up, spike traps will spring up in a circular manner around the arena forcing the ranger to have to potentially take damage by leaping over, having to climb over without getting hurt, or by having to actually fight in combat without running away.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi guys,
I'm looking for a bit of advice and suggestions.
For my D&D group we like to use battle mats and terrain for encounters as it allows us to bring the encounter to life and immerse ourselves into the game more. When confined to a dungeon or indoor combat, this isn't an issue as the combat has clear boundaries and obstacles which keep the party and the enemies on the battle mat.
However, when running encounters outside (such as in a forest or on the King's Road), my players who excel in close combat charge in and the Ranger just moved 300ft outside of combat and then flings arrows into the fray from afar. Now I don't see anything inherently wrong with this but this usually takes their character off the map and essentially out of combat where they can sit back and fire arrows from their safety as if anyone charges them, they just fall back and continue firing. In addition to this, if I do get some baddies into close combat I then have 2 combats happening hundreds of feet apart and I then have to either create an impromptu map or just run a theatre of the mind encounter whilst managing another encounter.
Now I don't think there is anything wrong with this in itself and there certainly should be combat encounters where a player can fully use their skills to their advantage, but for the encounters where I want to put the pressure on the party and create a challenge, I don't want them to sit back atop the hill in complete safety.
In these instances, how would you recommend keeping the party on the battle map and keeping the pressure on the ranger when they fall back to safety?
I would go with your suggestion of Theatre of the mind with the Ranger and run the combat as normal on the map. If things get close with the ranger then create a small 10x10 gird once they get into melee and run it as a separate battle map. Key here is do the least amount of work to keep focused on the main battle and not divide your attention too much is possible.
I'd also track how the ranger has adequate LOS to make this work. Also, goblins and other critters use bows too.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
You could tell the player that moving the character that far is unwieldy and ask him to just please stay on the map.
And how is he moving that far away? Is he just starting out very far away? I mean if he starts nearby and dashes, it would takes 5 (ish) rounds just to get 300 feet.
Anyway, you can have the fights in wooded areas where there lots of cover do he can’t get line of sight from that far away.
Of course there’s the old rule of don’t split the party, if the ranger can fling arrows from 300 feet, so can the enemies. If the bandit archers have a choice between firing into melee, or shooting at that one guy standing by himself in a big field with no cover, the ranger quickly becomes a pin cushion who is well out of range for healing word. Or while he’s getting into position very far from help, he stumbles into a pit trap some hunter had dug, or he happens upon the bandit reenforcements. Or just hint at possible consequences “Are you sure you want to be that far from your allies?” and say it like you have something up your sleeve.
I realize Some of these kind of gets into the territory of punishing him, which I generally oppose. In this case, I prefer to think of it as keeping him honest. His tactic working for him sometimes or most times is ok, but every now and then, it should backfire. Nothing works every time. After it fails once or twice, now it becomes a risk v. reward if he wants to take the chance.
By not running combats in areas with unrestricted line of sight. Even if you get ambushed on the King's Road, it will happen at a turn, a grove of trees, or something similar (this is not being mean to the PCs, this is absolutely normal tactics).
He's getting that far away as they're currently travelling on riding horses which have a movement speed of 120ft per round so even if the encounter is right in front of them to begin with, his first turn he's 120ft away, next is 240ft...
I perfectly agree that most of the time this should work given the right terrain and I'm not asking this so I can punish the players or railroad them into having to stay in this arbitrary box just because I can't have a massive battle map. I just don't want him to get comfortable and think he's completely safe and rely on the same tactic every time as I want him to be incentivized to come up with new, creative tactics which should hopefully make combat a little more interesting for him.
If he’s mounted, somebody should totally shoot his horse. Now he is stranded 300 feet away.
Idea: Out in the wilderness when the players are fighting, if the ranger tries to back up, spike traps will spring up in a circular manner around the arena forcing the ranger to have to potentially take damage by leaping over, having to climb over without getting hurt, or by having to actually fight in combat without running away.