#encounter design

[flightyquinn]

Letting Players Feel Smart in Combat

or, "Running Encounters with an Information Economy"

PREAMBLE: Something that frustrated me for a long time as a player in TTRPGs was how hard it could be to guess enemy tactics. There are a lot of things that you can do with good tactics, but a lot of the time you lack the information to use those tactics. For example, setting up a prepared action to counterspell just wastes your turn if nobody tries to cast anything. This can be especially frustrating when you're up first in the initiative, and don't have much more than just a description of who/what you're fighting to go off of.

AN ANECDOTE: One day I decided to try an experiment. Each round of combat was supposed to be happening in the same six seconds of elapsed time, right? So, the next time I went first, I asked my GM if I could see what the enemies were doing - everything was happening at the same time, so I should be able to read their body language, the directions they were starting to move, and where they were looking to get an idea of how they were going to act, right?

As I honestly had been expecting, my GM said no. It wasn't their turn yet, so they weren't doing anything yet. I resolved that I did not want to run my own games that way, so I came up with some ways that when I ran a game, I could help my players to not be going into battle completely blind.

THE POINT: Tipping players off to enemy tactics is just good GMing. When they get a "read" on an enemy, they'll feel like an absolute genius. When the party plans for what the enemy will do and uses tactics to put the odds in their favor, they will lose their minds over how cool they feel. Here's a couple things I do to make that happen.

The first is giving enemies tells for what they're planning, which sounds simple, but actually requires a change to how encounters are typically run. Basically, you should know what an enemy will do before their turn, and typically at the end of the last one. Then you narrate them doing something to hint at that as part of their action. For example, a dragon might inhale deeply before using its breath weapon, or a manticore might slowly go from lashing its tail from side to side to holding it stiff as it prepares to launch a volley of spikes.

You don't have to stay committed to a course of action once you've given a tell, but if the players do something that would cause an enemy to reconsider its tactics (or determine them, if you hadn't decided anything for it yet), that's another time to give a tell. For instance, you might have already described a dire wolf lowering on its haunches as it starts stalking toward the ranger, ready to pounce, when the halfling rogue stops taking cover behind the fighter. In that case, you might describe the dire wolf shifting its stance, licking its lips as it turns its attention to this weaker-looking prey.

There's no need to give a tell for every action, of course. That would get taxing for you, and tedious for the party. Generously sprinkling in clues as to key things enemies want to do can keep players engaged, and help them break through the indecision about what to do with their own turns, though.

That brings me to my other trick. If you read the anecdote section above, this is something I came up with as a direct result of that. I decided to add a special action type that is just for the players, the "Observe Action". Every player gets one Observe Action on each of their turns that they can use in a number of ways to get more information about the conditions on the battlefield, or to gain an advantage.

The first use is just applying their skills in the normal way. If they could use a skill to recall information about a particular creature, they now do this as an Observe Action. This one is technically an explicit nerf in Pathfinder, since recalling is stated to be no action, but I find that most groups only check on one monster at a time anyway, and on the occasions when they don't, starting combat with check spam just slows the action down, so I include it. It usually doesn't hurt anything, and having it on the list can actually remind players that doing this is a thing they can do in the first place.

The second is also more or less a bookkeeping task, and that's using informational magic, like the Detect spells. It doesn't change the cast time, but once the spell is up, any further focus to gain more information uses their Observe Action. This is mostly just to remind players they can have these going while they fight, but I do also make any part of using the spell once cast that would normally be a Standard Action into an Observe instead, as a small bonus.

The third use, and the first truly new option, is to "read" a group. This is similar to recalling information, but allows for some different questions to be asked. Use these as a baseline.

Who has the highest/lowest HP?

Who can deal the most damage with physical attacks.

Who has the highest bonus to hit?

General "lean" of the group's alignment. (Most common alignment component on a single axis.)

How challenging does this fight look? (General CR range of the encounter, described as Easy, Average, Challenging, etc...)

Individual with the highest/lowest value in a particular ability score.

Highest/lowest value in a particular saving throw.

Basically, this option is there to help players decide who to focus their attention on. Let them use it for whatever will help them get a better idea of who or what they're facing. Let them ask their main question up-front before rolling to establish the check (whatever skill and DC seems appropriate), but let them ask additional questions after if they get a high roll.

It goes hand in hand with the last option, which is gauging intent. This one should probably be done with Insight/Sense Motive, and it just comes down to that original question. What's going to happen next?

The first way this can work is that the player focuses on a specific enemy, and gets a sense of what that enemy specifically intends to do. In other words, the player tells you who they want to get a "tell" for, and if they succeed, you give it to them.

Alternatively, the player might ask if anyone in the enemy group is about to take a specific action. For example, "Is the cleric about to get targeted." or "Does anyone look like they're going to call for backup?" So basically, instead of focusing on the behavior of one individual, the player is staying alert for a particular situation. Don't let the players get too broad with this one, of course, but it's okay to be a little generous with what they can ask about.

Even more than when I advised it above, if someone successfully gauges the intent of their enemy, and that intent changes, let them know. You should treat a success as them continuing to be alert to what they were observing for until their next turn.

I also toyed with the idea of letting players use their Observation to look for openings to improve their chance of hitting, or for a weak spot to do more damage. I like the idea of this, but felt like it stepped on the toes of other, existing options too much, and would be too tempting to players over the other uses. So I decided to keep Observation Actions as purely a source of information, and not directly pumping numbers. Still, if it sounds like it would work for you, try it out.

For everyone who read this incredibly long post of mine, I hope it helps you out. I haven't done a post like this in a long time, and I really appreciate you taking the time to read it. If these rules improve anyone else's games, hearing that would really make my day.

[another-rpg-sideblog]

River Navigation: Tools to Help You Run River Adventures by StarSailGames on reddit

[thehomelybrewster]

Involved TTRPG Combat

I just wanted to give my own two cents on "involved" combat encounters in D&D and similar TTRPGs.

Generally give your players the expectations that combats are something to be solved rather than beaten. Communicate that with them clearly in order to create more fulfilling combat that isn't hitting things until no enemies are still alive.

Give combat encounters a goal. I'll list a few examples later, but generally you should think of what an encounter is meant to achieve for the players. Sometimes it's fine if it's just "an obstacle meant to be overcome", but this shouldn't be the only goal.

Consider tipping points, when it becomes clear that victory is certain for the player characters, but the combat could still continue. Create off-ramps for such encounters, where you can have a satisfying narrative way of ending it earlier. Fleeing minions after the leader has been killed is a classic.

Consider the environment. Cover, different types of elevation, and dynamic elements (vehicles, rotating gears, a rushing stream, etc) will make an encounter more engaging. This is more challenging to run theater-of-the-mind than with minitiatures/VTTs, but still doable.

Use different types of enemies in the same encounter. A simple way is to use both ranged and melee attackers, allowing your players with ranged options to pick off the enemies further away, while the melee-based heroes have their own enemies to deal with.

Have enemies with multiple phases. In 5e, enemies with the Mythic trait (mostly found in Mythic Odysseys of Theros and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons) are one example for this, as they gain more abilities the more damage they take. Alternatively consider creating monsters that consist of multiple stat blocks, where defeating certain parts of it changes what it can do and what your players can do to it. E.g. turn Mazaal from The Legend of Zelda - The Minish Cap, into a D&D monster.

I'm not good at making monster stat blocks, but imagine a construct with two hands (each with a distinct stat block) and a head that shoots beams from its eyes. The head has a Tethered trait that makes it invulnerable while the hands (that can grapple your heroes!) are still active. Once the hands are defeated the head starts jumping around like crazy, knocking over the heroes with shockwaves as it hits the ground. That sounds like a very engaging combat encounter to me!

Now when it comes to combat goals, here are a few suggestions:

Ensuring the safety of an escorted NPC or a valuable item that the party is transporting to a different loccation.

Keeping an enemy in a magic circle that allows it to be killed permanently, since it would otherwise just regenerate or be outright invulnerable.

Waiting for reinforcements as hordes of enemies attack the party, placing a timer on the encounter.

Preventing an enemy from reaching a specific spot on the map, such as an altar or a mechanism.

[the-ashen-gm]

One thing I really appreciate about Baldur's Gate 3 is that, despite being based on D&D 5e (a game which I often criticise as being "too easy" or "impossible for PCs to die in"), you actually will get your shit rocked if you go into encounters without all your resources or with weak builds or rubbish tactics. If you get surprised and can't act on the first round, you're probably gonna face a death or two! Or a TPK!

I was shocked recently when I started a new playthrough (on Balanced mode, I might add) with no party members who could cast Healing Word. I thought that it wouldn't matter, but I was horribly mistaken.

It's strange because when I'm playing the tabletop game I nearly never take Healing Word. Why would I when it only heals 1d4 and Cure Wounds does 1d8? In BG3, I realise why: because you can do it as a bonus action and from a distance.

In most tabletop campaigns, that hasn't mattered. In BG3, it's literally a matter of life and death. So what's the big difference? BG3 has plentiful Revivify scrolls and potions you can drink as a bonus action, so why is it so much deadlier than most games I've been in? I'm willing to bet it's deadlier than most campaigns you've been in too.

[askagamedev]

When we look at FPS games that have a story or a campaign mode, one of the flaws I see is the last boss and making it "feel" like a last boss fight. It always is either make the boss a bullet sponge and take 100 headshots, he dies in a QTE, or the player has so powerful a gun it trivializes the fight. Is this an inherent unsolvable problem with the FPS genre or can you think of FPS games that have come up with interesting, climactic, and "epic" boss fights?

What you're describing is the dissonance between having a normal human (with all of the common context that carries with it, like "people often die when they are shot at all") as the final boss and the expectation of a final boss fight being a prolonged, memorable, and epic battle that tests the things you've learned so far. There are a number of clever and reasonable ways to work around these conflicting concepts. Here are a few general methods of doing this that I thought of off the top of my head. This list is by no means exhaustive.

We build the encounter to make it difficult to reach or attack the boss directly. The boss could have mostly-similar stats to ordinary grunts when engaged directly, but the boss constantly summons allies or obstacles. Chasing the boss while ignoring the external threats would quickly result in the player's death, so the challenge becomes controlling the reinforcements while chasing the boss down and striking when the opportunity presents itself. Another possibility along this method is to have a multi-phase fight where the boss is not initially vulnerable, and the player must tackle the different phases in order to open the boss up and make it vulnerable.

We can also make the boss do something to alleviate its human fragility, e.g. get into a mech suit/tank/giant death machine, mutate into a monster, or was never human to begin with - a demon, an alien, a monster, a robot, an angel, a dragon, a dinosaur, a god, whatever. With a reasonable in-universe explanation to why the last boss no longer has all of the normal human fragility, we don't feel the dissonance anymore and can happily fight a boss driving a scorpion tank with accompanying sonic cannon and acid drone swarm.

A third approach is to change the parameters of the encounter so it isn't just a fight. The final mission could be, for example, to infiltrate the final boss's lair, assassinate the final boss, and then successfully extract from that lair. The final mission could be obtaining/destroying the McGuffin that the player and the enemy have been chasing over the course of the game. It could just be "survive long enough" while something happens, like uploading evidence to expose the bad guy's wrongdoing to the world.

As you can see, there's a lot of possibilities to make engaging and different final boss encounters. Not everything has to fall into just standing and shooting each other until one side runs out of health. If we change the parameters of the conflict, we can make the encounter different and interesting. We can do this by adjusting other parameters within the fight, changing the boss's state to alleviate human fragility, or even change the goals so that the boss encounter is more than just a gunfight. As a design exercise, can you think of other methods of a final FPS boss fight that maintains the boss's humanity but still makes it reasonably engaging?

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[zorlok-if]

Extremely sophisticated combat design (/j)

[craigofinspiration]

Three Secret Questions for Combat Encounter Locations

When designing a combat encounter there are three questions you should add to your prep. The answers to these questions will help bring the backstory, current obstacles, and potential hazards into focus. What was it before? What is it now? What happens to it during the battle? The first question can provide a bit of backstory and context to the encounter area. What was this place before it…

[thecreaturecodex]

Hi! I’m using the darknut as the primary unit in a mercenary company that’ll be fighting my extremely well built 8th level party (I’m having some of the darknuts have class levels to buff them up) but, was looking to add another creature to the mix to act as a sniper - do you have any recommendations, made by you or otherwise?

Sounds like my take on the lerajie from Castlevania would be a perfect match for what you're looking for. If you're looking for a second choice, I can attest to the usefulness of marai rakshasas for providing ranged support in combats with powerful PCs--six touch attacks a round is nothing to sneeze at!

[yentaly]

My biggest problem with dnd 5e is probaly attack of oppurtunity

It makes designing encounters without teleporting enemies a nightmare (and I prefer to keep teleportation semi limited in monsters) as it just makes movement unvaible for players and monsters once they are close to each other and the thing is just removing it just isnt possible imo and I dont even know where to begin if I would try changing it. And I know some people will go well just give your pc's an objective in combat but a lot of times that simply isnt possible/ in the scope of the encounter/ makes sense. Beyond that there are even more problems with it. I do understand that a lot of this probaly just comes down from how I design encounters but I just felt like I needed to vent about this.

[stealingpotatoes]

hands you all this cal to announce i’ve FINALLY finished fallen order (by which i mean i finally picked it up again after those couple hours i played a few months ago and then finished the whole game in 2 days lol)

[emahriel]

as my good friend and i like to remind each other:

don't yuck people's yum. if you do so, at least keep it in the dms. no point in making people feel absolutely miserable for liking a certain thing, for having an oc you don't like - whatever it is. people constantly hating just for the sake of hating truly sour the fandom experience on social medias. there's a problem if the only way you feel better is by making others feel like crap.

and you, who shares the things you love online, who creates original characters and talks about their ships - know that you will never be able to please everyone and that's okay. don't let it stop you from sharing what you love, if it brings you happiness then keep doing it. you don't owe anyone anything, if what you like somehow upsets people, they can very easily just block you and move on. it's really that simple!

[another-rpg-sideblog]

Bog Dangers by GoblinCoach on reddit

[sicc-nasti]

Rapunzel type tower situation but the tower is a giant mimic and hunts in the way a pitcher plant does. Yes, fair knight. Climb up this conveniently long hair, follow the sweet smell, pull yourself up and over the window sill and fall in to the far below.

[hotwaterandmilk]

Seeing Wedding Peach referred to as "tradcath propaganda" on Twitter has irrevocably altered something in my psyche.

[natjennie]

GOUAAGHD the fact that they were so suspicious of bobby being their cleric before the fight started but then it was just buddy and they thought they were safe enough and got distracted fighting. and then eventually kristen gets up to check that buddy's not a threat and he's dead before they can blink. because they forgot that kipperlilly uses invisibility.............. im so..................... that's fucking heartbreaking......... fuck brennan.........

[daggerfall]

The response we have all wanted to give at least once