TorgoTheWhite
Explorer
Discussion for some DM tips, tricks, scenarios for "spicing up" combat.
D&D (2024) Spicy combat
- Thread starter TorgoTheWhite
- Start date
Incenjucar
Legend
Make the environment matter - make it worth trying something new and engaging with the specific battlefield and scenario.
Boredom happens when combat becomes a generic routine with the battle map being, at most, a collection of soft or hard barriers.
Provide alternate win conditions. "Pull the lever across the room and flush the giant spiders down the drain" or "pull the thorn from the angry lion's paw" can be an exciting change from "turn everything into corpses".
Boredom happens when combat becomes a generic routine with the battle map being, at most, a collection of soft or hard barriers.
Provide alternate win conditions. "Pull the lever across the room and flush the giant spiders down the drain" or "pull the thorn from the angry lion's paw" can be an exciting change from "turn everything into corpses".
Last edited:
TorgoTheWhite
Explorer
In the last month I have run very flavorful combat with the following elements:
1) High level NPC with dialogue prepped.
2) Party split mechanism, a trap effectively stranded the party, using up mobility actions
3) Secondary NPC motivations (NPCs cousin showed up and stole his life sustaining medication). Beta direwolves sensed the storm and dipped out on the baddy.
4) A "timer" a supernatural storm alluded to long before combat.
5) Recurrent NPC with plenty of "outs"
This lead to a bunch of sub optimal moves for the "baddy" and accordingly motivated my PCs to also take non-attack actions (force a door open, or handle Animals to get stupid
out of the storm)
1) High level NPC with dialogue prepped.
2) Party split mechanism, a trap effectively stranded the party, using up mobility actions
3) Secondary NPC motivations (NPCs cousin showed up and stole his life sustaining medication). Beta direwolves sensed the storm and dipped out on the baddy.
4) A "timer" a supernatural storm alluded to long before combat.
5) Recurrent NPC with plenty of "outs"
This lead to a bunch of sub optimal moves for the "baddy" and accordingly motivated my PCs to also take non-attack actions (force a door open, or handle Animals to get stupid
out of the storm)Storyteller Hero
Adventurer
I cast "Magic Red Hot Chili Pepper Missile".
jgsugden
Legend
Answer 1: Book of Erotic Fantasy (D&D 3.5 - Supplemental) : Valar Projects : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Answer 2:
If D&D is just a series of "you're slightly favored in the battle, but there is a chance you all die" it gets stale.
This is a primary contributing factor in why D&D fails for many DMs and campaign fatigue sets in ... because it is all the same. Players get bored with the same type of combats over and over and over and over and over ... and eventually need a new PC to feel refreshed so that the combats can at least involve different mechanics for their PC for a bit.
If you want your campaigns to last, and for them to all feel spicy:
1.) Make sure every combat has something about the environment that is different, new and interesting. It does not need to be a hazard - it could be beneficial to the PCs or just something different.
2.) Make sure the PCs feel heroic and powerful by giving them those easy encounters and medium encounters. They serve an important role. However, make sure that these encounters are not just an opportunity for the heroes to be bullies - give them win conditions that are not just survival. Protect something, stop something from happening (like a ritual or an escape), give them situations in which they need to be quiet or unseen while still taking out foes. Give them a situation where they need to take out a few guards all at once to prevent the alarm being raised. Think about what heroes in books do other than just bully enemies - and do those things!
3.) As you advance in level, advance the combats. Do not run low level adventures using high level abilities. A murder mystery is good at level 1 to 4 - but by 5th level they can solve it with magic - and should! A wild wilderness that has to be crossed to reach a goal is great at levels 1 to 8 ... but 9th level PCs can bypass it with magic easily. Let them. Give them level appropriate challenges. Level appropriate challenges feel spicy because the PCs get a chance to use their abilities without feeling like the DM is denying them their due by saying, "No teleportation because ..." or "No flight because ..."
Good encounter design that includes interesting features (and foes that make sense), 'alternate' challenges and win conditions, and building adventures that are level appropriate are the right way to keep the magic alive in your games. I promise.
Answer 2:
THIS. 100% This! 1000% This.
If D&D is just a series of "you're slightly favored in the battle, but there is a chance you all die" it gets stale.
This is a primary contributing factor in why D&D fails for many DMs and campaign fatigue sets in ... because it is all the same. Players get bored with the same type of combats over and over and over and over and over ... and eventually need a new PC to feel refreshed so that the combats can at least involve different mechanics for their PC for a bit.
If you want your campaigns to last, and for them to all feel spicy:
1.) Make sure every combat has something about the environment that is different, new and interesting. It does not need to be a hazard - it could be beneficial to the PCs or just something different.
2.) Make sure the PCs feel heroic and powerful by giving them those easy encounters and medium encounters. They serve an important role. However, make sure that these encounters are not just an opportunity for the heroes to be bullies - give them win conditions that are not just survival. Protect something, stop something from happening (like a ritual or an escape), give them situations in which they need to be quiet or unseen while still taking out foes. Give them a situation where they need to take out a few guards all at once to prevent the alarm being raised. Think about what heroes in books do other than just bully enemies - and do those things!
3.) As you advance in level, advance the combats. Do not run low level adventures using high level abilities. A murder mystery is good at level 1 to 4 - but by 5th level they can solve it with magic - and should! A wild wilderness that has to be crossed to reach a goal is great at levels 1 to 8 ... but 9th level PCs can bypass it with magic easily. Let them. Give them level appropriate challenges. Level appropriate challenges feel spicy because the PCs get a chance to use their abilities without feeling like the DM is denying them their due by saying, "No teleportation because ..." or "No flight because ..."
Good encounter design that includes interesting features (and foes that make sense), 'alternate' challenges and win conditions, and building adventures that are level appropriate are the right way to keep the magic alive in your games. I promise.
TorgoTheWhite
Explorer
How about scenarios that have shaken up combat nicely? Like a "gentleman's challenge" or honor challenge? Or specific terrain + situation combos that have proven great? I would think fighting your way to a boat during a flash flood could be great
Quickleaf
Legend
I did a reverse yuan-ti dungeon. PCs managed to get an agreement to "parlay with the leader." They were led blindfolded into the dungeon. Provided slight sensory cues.
Revealed map - they were at center surrounded by "black" unknown.
When things went pear-shaped (yuan-ti infighting), PCs had to locate prisoners they were trying to free, then find/create an escape route (drawing on those sensory cues and their own ingenuity) in the thick of combat. Good session.
TorgoTheWhite
Explorer
I like this. I should drop some characters into a cultist dungeon pumped full of magic darkness, maybe with a way to deactivate it. I have a '24 legacy character with Devil's sight. Then it could be a sortof sadistic Darwinian test to find "the chosen one who can see through the eyes of their overlord"
aco175
Legend
I try to provide places for each PC to add to something. Something more than just attacking. Maybe the fighter is attacking, but there is also a trap going off that the rogue can disarm to make the rest easier, or it could be locked door that leads to escape or aid somehow. The wizard might be able to aid the rogue or decipher the runes that allow something cool to happen. There is always the option to just attack, but figuring out the other things make the combat easier.
I know may suggest doing this with the Big Bad and search for the McGuffins that allow the PCs to defeat him once you get the kryptonite, but I like to so something at least once per dungeon. If it is each combat, it gets harder to make cool opportunities and the players start to look for them. Which is not a problem at all and rather cool once they are thinking this way.
I know may suggest doing this with the Big Bad and search for the McGuffins that allow the PCs to defeat him once you get the kryptonite, but I like to so something at least once per dungeon. If it is each combat, it gets harder to make cool opportunities and the players start to look for them. Which is not a problem at all and rather cool once they are thinking this way.
BookTenTiger
He / Him
This tip isn't necessarily for making combat any more dangerous, but I find it increases the narrative tension:
Don't have an enemy attack unless they have advantage. Make them jump up onto higher ground, or flank (if you use the rule), or knock a character down. If they can't get advantage that round, have them do something that will give the enemy advantage on their next attack, even if the characters can negate it.
If an orc knocks a character to the ground and raises its axe, you as a DM know that there's no way the character is still going to be prone by the time the orc goes again. But it creates narrative tension, and when another character kills the orc, or the prone character rolls away, it pays off that tension.
Don't have an enemy attack unless they have advantage. Make them jump up onto higher ground, or flank (if you use the rule), or knock a character down. If they can't get advantage that round, have them do something that will give the enemy advantage on their next attack, even if the characters can negate it.
If an orc knocks a character to the ground and raises its axe, you as a DM know that there's no way the character is still going to be prone by the time the orc goes again. But it creates narrative tension, and when another character kills the orc, or the prone character rolls away, it pays off that tension.
Similar Threads
Trending content
-
-
-
-
-
Thread 'Happy Haggert Hurried Hungry Hitch Hiking Hired Henchmen Hivers.... apply within'- megamania
Replies: 17K