I am trying to find more ways to make combat more interesting. In my group of friends, I feel combat all too often turns into a lot of repetitive actions. I believe there is a lot of untapped potential to make combat more interesting and exciting. Especially for warrior type characters, I see all to often they just run up to the monster and hit it. In a sense, yes that's what characters like that do, but there should be more to combat than, 1 - Move to a Monster, 2 - Stand still beating Monster until it dies, 3 - Go back to Step 1. I feel there must be a lot of options that just aren't being used. Yes, there are things like combat maneuvers, but friends feel like while options like that are there, it tends to be "more effective" to just smash face and hit things.
I've focused a lot on melee, but its not just them. Same goes for magic casters in the sense of, I'd like there to be "things to do" other than 1: Cast Most Powerful Spell, 2: Cast Next Most Powerful Spell, etc. This is a lot less of an issue for Magic Casters because every spell they have is a "different option" they have available. I just feel melees often suffer from "I just hit it with my sword" syndrome.
I didn't mean to focus so much on warrior type specific issues for this post. I'd also love any tips, tricks, advice to make combat, in general, more engaging, and less of a repetitive grind. Perhaps more ways to use non-combat skills, inside of combat? Something to spice it up and give players options that are worthwhile.
Thank You for the Help!
I am trying to find more ways to make combat more interesting. In my group of friends, I feel combat all too often turns into a lot of repetitive actions. I believe there is a lot of untapped potential to make combat more interesting and exciting. Especially for warrior type characters, I see all to often they just run up to the monster and hit it. In a sense, yes that's what characters like that do, but there should be more to combat than, 1 - Move to a Monster, 2 - Stand still beating Monster until it dies, 3 - Go back to Step 1. I feel there must be a lot of options that just aren't being used. Yes, there are things like combat maneuvers, but friends feel like while options like that are there, it tends to be "more effective" to just smash face and hit things.
I've focused a lot on melee, but its not just them. Same goes for magic casters in the sense of, I'd like there to be "things to do" other than 1: Cast Most Powerful Spell, 2: Cast Next Most Powerful Spell, etc. This is a lot less of an issue for Magic Casters because every spell they have is a "different option" they have available. I just feel melees often suffer from "I just hit it with my sword" syndrome.
I didn't mean to focus so much on warrior type specific issues for this post. I'd also love any tips, tricks, advice to make combat, in general, more engaging, and less of a repetitive grind. Perhaps more ways to use non-combat skills, inside of combat? Something to spice it up and give players options that are worthwhile.
Thank You for the Help!
Terrain can be your best friend. Bullrushing people off a cliff is fun. Barrels filled with explosive liquids. Traps. Awesome villains who don't want to kill you with a dagger but want to terrify you by pouring boiling oil on your group and their own. Grappling, webs, walls, etc. If everyone is a power attack focused TWF dwarf with twin dwarven waraxes, it's going to be a lot of swinging. I think the key here is variety. I think that's one of the best things about the combat manuevers.
Including destroyable objects to a combat field is fun, such as paper screens, rickedy wooden walls, tables, chairs, and full or empty barrels.
Include short walls, boulders, ladders, or hanging ropes... to allow for climbing and height advantage in combat.
For some inspiration, watch The Musketeer for fun action scenes involving medieval style swashbuckling wire-foo in D&D combat.
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for low levels, things like Balancing areas, heights, climbing, fighting on stairs, and the like are key. Also, having terrain that can be utilized (flipping tables to take cover from missile fire, throwing chairs/barstools, knocking over boiling cauldrons of soup)
Truth be told, though, a lot of what makes fights fun is the descriptive part of the attacks. I am loath to say "you hit him for x dmg" unless its a "throwaway" fight, one where nothing important is supposed to happen.
For example, in one game, the Gnome barbarian routinely chops peoples' legs off, while the TWF Fighter from the Curse of the Crimson throne was prone to Arm/Arm/Leg/Leg/Head attacks.
That comes from the DM, most of the time, but feel free to add in your own description of the attack when you roll the dice. Then, when it is adjudicated (hit/miss, # of dmg, etc), the DM has something to base his/her description on.
For the casters, I don't do a lot of description, unless they get the kill shots. In the CotCT game above, the Wizard routinely ended combat with enemies possessing new, smoking holes in their chests (Lightning Bolts and Empowered versions.)
It makes the fights seem more dramatic and "action-y" when you get the details, also; they feel less divorced from reality without numbers and stat effects being directly stated.
-t
I'm one for shortening combat, myself. BUT what you asked for was help making combat more interesting....
Nate's Nifty DM Combat tips!
1. Missing. Remember, just because they miss doesn't mean they failed to hit...maybe the enemy caught their blade, parried them or sidestepped. If they're a monster, try describing it in a way that makes the monster appear more intimidating. (Shadara shoots an arrow at an ghostly undead, body made of mist with a skull where it's head would be. She rolls low and misses. I describe it as "Your arrow flies true, but when it reaches the creatures face it's jaw clicks open and it swallows the arrow...."
2. Hitting. Dont forget your the DM. If something really powerful hits the player, don't be afraid to move them around the battlefield to shake things up. Knock them to one knee, slide them 5 feet, daze them. Disarm them. If a player rolls max damage, and the attack was described well, let them make a follow up attack or add damage to the next swing. The rules are mutable. If they hit someone really hard, you could even move them down the initiative scale to represent it.
3. Know your baddie. If it's massive and strong don't just rely on the stat block for abilities. Try to picture the first round or two in your head and then make it happen on the mat...as long as the players don't know what you're doing behind the screen, they can't call foul ball. It's not a sport, and you don't have to play fair...they just need to HAVE FUN.
4. Team work, team work, team work! Let your players actions help each other! If the fighter takes a big swing and knocks the enemy off balance, give the mage a bonus to hit and vice versa...or at least describe it that way.
Altering the terrain they fight on is a good idea too, just remember that armor check penalties can make even simple balance and acrobatic checks almost impossible for low level characters, so try to find ways to reflect the condition without making the character useless.
That's all I've got off the top of my head, if I think of more later I'll post it.
As I and other posters have said... adding in terrain elements is good. I've thought as to widen my reasons why.
If you lay out terrain elements and tell your players where everything is, then they have a easier time seeing how to use those elements for the purposes of cover or concealment for stealth, features that require acrobatics to move across/around/over/under/or balance on.
Elements like partially damaged or collapsed tunnels or pillars might be rigged to collapse in combat with the proper use of a Knowledge (engineering) check.
Pools of water and the like might have moss around them that could be spotted and identified as "slick" with the proper use of Knowledge (Nature)
Like people mentioned: Terrain
Example: A 1st level character of mine in a recent PbP is doing a house-invasion at the bad-guys' lair. He's really cautious, so when there's a bruiser of a Half-Orc who discovers them when they go in the 2nd floor window, I'm looking for any defensive advantage (1st level is scary). The DM described crates of smelly, rotten fish nearby, so parallel with 5' stepping back after attacking him with my Glaive, I use a Move Action to kick over a crate, creating Difficult Terrain, giving me an extra AoO when the Half-Orc tries to step up to me (and shutting down any possibility of a Full Attack).
Another way to make Terrain matter is determining how "tight" the fighting quarters are. D&D is a game that stereotypically involves lots of corridors, tunnels, caves, etc. In tight quarters like those, certain weapons are intuitively going to be less easy/impossible to use. In a tunnel, spears and 'close' weapons will be easy to use, but Great Axe/Greatsword won't have room to swing. You can either give an attack/damage penalty (-2/-4) to 'bad weapons' in such scenarios or even make their use flat-out impossible, depending on the specific locale. You basically just need to consider weapon size/reach and damage type (Piercing involves thrusting while Slashing/Bludgeoning involve swinging, i.e. need lateral space to use effectively).
Maneuvers: If your PCs don't like them, then let the opposition 'school' them on the topic.
PRPG's changes to Maneuvers actually make them no more difficult than normal Melee attacks at low level (and even easier vs. non-combat-optimized opponents who are in substantial armor). The worst thing about them is without the "Improved Maneuver" Feats, they provoke AoO's, but against a physically weak Caster-type, this isn't such a threat: even if their AoO hits, it won't be much damage HP-wise, and the DC increase will only balance out their low CMD.
Grappling is good not just at shutting down Casters, but against 2-Handed Weapon wielders (who have signifigant Feats/Class Abilities invested in their 2-Handed Weapon, which Grappling denies them use of). Over-Run is all about by-passing combat formations, to get thru the melee fence to the Caster, to set up a Flank for the Rogue, etc (Acrobatics does the same thing but needs maxed Ranks and as good a DEX as possible). Another poster recommended 'rules-improvised' free Bullrushes: With 2 levels of Barbarian, that's a completely legal option for either PCs or NPCs. Without invoking the "nuclear option" of a near-by cliff edge amenable to a Bullrush, if the fight happens adjacent to a steep slope, you could rule that Bullrushing opponents down the slope means they move further than normal (further than the Bullrusher) because of slipping/falling down slope. Moving back up the slope to get into the fight might easily involve double movement.
But the most important thing is to use cinematic descriptions.
If a player doesn't seem to be up to the tahsk, then I don't see a problem with improv'ing your own description to PC's attackers, whether they hit or miss: If you consistently do this, then the players will probably be more motivated to make up their own unique attack descriptions - It's simply more fun than saying "I roll X, does that hit?" over and over. Make misses memorable and hits memorable - not nececssarily EVERY attack, but probably one or two remarkable descriptions per ROUND between all PCs/NPCs.
Does that help?
I am trying to find more ways to make combat more interesting. In my group of friends, I feel combat all too often turns into a lot of repetitive actions. I believe there is a lot of untapped potential to make combat more interesting and exciting. Especially for warrior type characters, I see all to often they just run up to the monster and hit it. In a sense, yes that's what characters like that do, but there should be more to combat than, 1 - Move to a Monster, 2 - Stand still beating Monster until it dies, 3 - Go back to Step 1. I feel there must be a lot of options that just aren't being used. Yes, there are things like combat maneuvers, but friends feel like while options like that are there, it tends to be "more effective" to just smash face and hit things.
I think part of this is on the players for choosing a character who just smacks things with swords. A friend of mine made a guisarm wielding battlefield controller in 3.5 with stand still improved trip, and combat reflexes that when enlarged pretty much had the run of the battlefield. Sometimes he'd stop a charging enemy, sometimes he'd trip them, other times he'd just nail them with his beat stick.
The other half is on the dm, if the monsters are uninspired, so the players will be. Why is the monster just standing there? Minotaur opens with a bullrush attempt? The enemy fighter is a disarm specialist, and that barbarian likes grabing people (and usually biting them). Best way to show people the 'other options' are good is by using it against them.
I've focused a lot on melee, but its not just them. Same goes for magic casters in the sense of, I'd like there to be "things to do" other than 1: Cast Most Powerful Spell, 2: Cast Next Most Powerful Spell, etc. This is a lot less of an issue for Magic Casters because every spell they have is a "different option" they have available. I just feel melees often suffer from "I just hit it with my sword" syndrome.I didn't mean to focus so much on warrior type specific issues for this post. I'd also love any tips, tricks, advice to make combat, in general, more engaging, and less of a repetitive grind. Perhaps more ways to use non-combat skills, inside of combat? Something to spice it up and give players options that are worthwhile.
Thank You for the Help!
Like everyone said, terrain is your friend. You also want enemies with a alternate modes of movement. Throw in a flying enemy at lower levels and you have a complex and dynamic encounter (just make sure theres a bow or two lying around for the fighter types). Ever have a fight that took place in tree tops with enemies that had a climb speed? Or in a cavern with enemies that can burrow? Suddenly just walking up to monster x and wacking him with your sword isnt really good enough is it? If you fill your game with encounters like that, players will stop looking for damage per round with sword/spear/fist/axe/spell wacking, but instead look to handle the complicated situations you put them in.
I also like the concept of traps as part of encounters, or as encounter in and of themselves. Why is it that traps always seem to be found at doors BEFORE you go in the room. Let them walk right in and spring an encounter style trap (if you want examples see if you can grab a copy of dungeonscape from 3.5). The key here is to make sure there is something to do for everyone. Sure the rogue is still going to try to disable it, but make it so only part of the trap can be disabled at once. While the rogue tries to stop the crushing walls, the fighter tries to break the nozzle spewing fire, the mage is is hitting the tiny control box that is out of reach with magic missile hoping to break it, and the cleric is throwing up resist fire to keep everyone from being cooked.
Another encounter I really enjoyed that was trap oriented was in a game a friend of mine was running in a horrorish campain set in an ancient city overun by undead. When exploring the inner reaches of the city the different sections were seperated by guard posts. When we went through the first one, there were some undead hiding among the corpses. We stepped in (rogue failed to spot the trap), rusty portculli fell, and spikes shot up from the ground injuring us and also pinning us to the floor (and making additional attacks if we moved off them with a strength check). At that point skeletons attacked us with reach weapons from behind the rust bars of the guard stations. At that point the cleric tried to heal those badly wounded by the trap, the barbarian started trying to break the bars to get at the skeletons, the scout tried to climb his way out, and I (the conjuration mage) spent 2 rounds trying to baleful transposition the barbarian into the guard house. All in all, a memorable encounter that was both fun and exciting.
Something I wrote up a while ago that I haven't had a chance to test out yet:
House Rule: Called Shot
A character may choose to target any of a creature’s extremities (limbs, head, wings, etc.). Getting an effective hit on a specific point on a target is harder than normal – your targets gains a dodge bonus equal to their Dexterity modifier against your attack (minimum +1). If the extremity is vital to the creature’s survival (a body part, usually the head, that would cause unavoidable instant death if removed), this bonus is increased by an additional 50% (minimum an additional +1). You must be able to reach the part of your enemy that you wish to attack.
If you land a successful hit on a targeted limb and deal damage, your target must make a Reflex save (DC 5 + your base attack bonus) or drop whatever they are holding in that limb (if anything).
If the damage you deal to a target’s extremity is equal to at least 1/5th of its hit points, your target loses use of that extremity for 1d4 rounds. In the case of a limb, they drop whatever they are holding and cannot use that limb for the duration (including natural attacks linked to that limb). In the case of a sensory organ (like an eyestalk), they lose use of that sense for the duration. In the case of the target’s head, they are dazed for the duration (unless the creature has multiple heads, in which case only one is dazed, and the creature takes a -2 penalty to all attack rolls and skill checks for the duration per head). In the case of a wing, the target takes a -10 penalty to all Fly checks for the duration. Magical healing ends the effect.
If a critical hit is landed on an extremity, and the damage dealt is at least 1/5th of the target’s total hit points, the target suffers the effects above and must make an immediate Fortitude save (DC 10 + your base attack bonus). If this save fails, the extremity is disabled until the target has received healing, magical or otherwise (I.E. the limb is broken). If this save fails by 10 or more, the extremity is removed or irrevocably damaged. (In the case of vital extremities, like the head, the target dies.) The target then takes 2 points of bleed damage per round until they receive healing, but the targeted body part remains destroyed. A Regenerate spell will restore the lost body part, and a creature with the Regeneration quality may grow the limb back eventually.
Creatures without discernible anatomies are immune to called shots. Undead creatures and constructs are not entitled to a Fortitude save in the case of a critical hit, and lose their limbs automatically if dealt enough damage.
Under this system, non-called shots are assumed to be aimed for the torso, or most readily available area to attack.
2. Hitting. Dont forget your the DM. If something really powerful hits the player, don't be afraid to move them around the battlefield to shake things up. Knock them to one knee, slide them 5 feet, daze them. Disarm them. If a player rolls max damage, and the attack was described well, let them make a follow up attack or add damage to the next swing. The rules are mutable. If they hit someone really hard, you could even move them down the initiative scale to represent it.
I like all the rest of your post, Nathan, but not this part.
We have rules for knocking opponents down, sliding them around the battlefield, dazing them, disarming them, and gaining extra attacks against them. We have rules for all of that.
Arbirtrarily applying this stuff for no other reason than a whim defeats the whole purpose of having rules. Your players (and you) might as well just put your dice away and RP your combats if you're going to whimsically apply effects that are not meant to be applied.
This might be fun for your game, and your players might appreciate it, but mine would go berserk. I believe at least one of my players would go berserk if I knocked him down or disarmed him on a whim without any rules to justify it.
Some of the trust between the players and the DM requires an understanding that what happens to us all is a part of the game system, not just random events entirely out of our control.
I would suggest, when offering suggestions to a DM who wants to spice up his game, that you exercise caution and/or restraint when it comes to bringing up arbitrary DM whimsy as an alternative to following (or at least mostly following) the rules. It could cause more problems than it solves.
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It's been mentioned before, but I can't stress it enough:
Interesting Terrain.
Fight underwater. Suddenly your spellcasters no longer have Verbal component spells (unless they take silent spell metamagic). (I did this recently and had my wizard PC shove a tangle-foot bag in a shark's mouth. Took the AoO because he could hack it).
Have a vertical fight where the PCs must navigate down a shaft (crawling with Mephits) to get to the bottom of a mine. (I did this in a 6th level game, and it was the highlight of the night, the dwarf monk was dangling 20 ft beneath the air-walking ranger, like a giant fishing lure, fun was had by all).
Have a fight with Vegepygmies in a pumpkin patch, the ground would be difficult terrain, but the large round pumpkins would give a +2 circumstance bonus to CMB Checks when using the trip manoeuvre. (Let PCs know that this is the case at the start of the fight, to encourage that sort of behaviour).
Have a salamander attack the PCs from a lava pit with a reach weapon. The PCs will have to disarm the salamander to lure it out (it has move-by attack dropping beneath the lava after its action).
Trap-Filled Kobold layer complete with: Wacky See-Saw Floor Room (TM) (the heavier side of the room sinks down, giving anyone on the lighter side +1 higher ground bonus). Super Crazy Skull Flood Room (TM) (like those ball-pits you see at arcades and restaurants, all the fun of underwater combat, none of the breathing problems, with added concealment). Low-Ceiling Lair of Laughs (TM) Medium sized PCs have to crouch and fight with severe penalties while those nutty kobolds get to have all the joy of unrestricted stabbing!
Have Monsters Use Manoeuvres on the PCs
Have 6 goblins all attempting to grapple the same PC (STACKS ON! Aid another CMB ftw!)
Have a Minotaur bull-rush a PC while they are resting in an inn, they won't soon forget their defenestration (1d6 slashing damage for smashing through the window, 3d6 bludgeoning damage from a fall, the look on a PCs face when you tell him he landed in horse poo? Priceless).
Multiple Objectives
Give the PCs more than just killing monsters to do during a fight.
For example if the PCs are fighting a group of orcs in a 20x20ft room, have more orcs pounding on the other side of the door. PCs can attempt to reinforce the door while their allies try to finish off the ones in here.
Have a closing wall trap complete with Ooze guardian (he'll get squished too, but just pop back out unscathed, the joy of no skeleton), while the strong PC tries to hold the walls apart, the rogue PC attempts to disarm the trap, leaving the cleric and wizard to fight the ooze as best they can.
Hot Potato: A favourite in fantasy movies, have a group of orcs have a mcguffin that they pass to one another to keep it away from the PCs (if the mcguffin passes through a PC's threatened square they can make an opposed attack roll to catch the mcguffin), otherwise the PCs will have to try to disarm the orc with the mcguffin to retrieve it. For added fun make the McGuffin fragile. For more added fun, have terrible explosive consequences if it breaks.
I guarantee you'll never have a static toe to toe battle again.
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It's been mentioned before, but I can't stress it enough:
Interesting Terrain.
Fight underwater. Suddenly your spellcasters no longer have Verbal component spells (unless they take silent spell metamagic). (I did this recently and had my wizard PC shove a tangle-foot bag in a shark's mouth. Took the AoO because he could hack it).
Spellcasting Underwater: Casting spells while submerged can be difficult for those who cannot breathe underwater. A creature that cannot breathe water must make a concentration check (DC 15 + spell level) to cast a spell underwater (this is in addition to the caster level check to successfully cast a fire spell underwater). Creatures that can breathe water are unaffected and can cast spells normally. Some spells might function differently underwater, subject to GM discretion.
normally, you don't lose spellcasting underwater automatically, you just have to concentrate to cast, even with verbal components. otherwise, i agree with all of the above
-t
I used to play a half elf monk with the throw anything feat, which neeedless to say made combat really interesting such as:
1. killing a manticore and harvesting it's spikes as throwing weapons
2. accidentally killing a werewolf with a silver piece
3. throwing a naked gnome into combat
in general, having interesting PCs make interesting combats, which is only made more interesting with creative GMs, but as far as making combat more interesting, remember this: some of the best foods have a LOT of cheese.....if you catch my drift
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Harkening back to 2nd edition ideas from the DMG, just use your imagination rather than hit/miss. Examples included an orc ducking under a table and jabbing at your ankles with its short sword, or a crazed goblin entering battle by grabbing onto the 2nd story chandelier and swinging over the astonished party below. In game terminology, the 1st orc was once a miss; now it's memorable. In the 2nd example, some comedic examples will lighten the mood and perhaps provide be the stuff of stories ("remember the time that crazy goblin...")
As noted, you don't have to go Hollywood on every swing, but some quick quip like "your blade swipes off a hair" on a miss or "the troll roars and begins slapping its flesh to put out small fires when a ballista-sized bolt of searing flame slams into its stomach" when your scorching ray connects.
I have never tried asking my players to describe to the party what happens (except on certain skill checks), but I'm curious and might open that on another thread.
2. Hitting. Dont forget your the DM. If something really powerful hits the player, don't be afraid to move them around the battlefield to shake things up. Knock them to one knee, slide them 5 feet, daze them. Disarm them. If a player rolls max damage, and the attack was described well, let them make a follow up attack or add damage to the next swing. The rules are mutable. If they hit someone really hard, you could even move them down the initiative scale to represent it.I like all the rest of your post, Nathan, but not this part.
We have rules for knocking opponents down, sliding them around the battlefield, dazing them, disarming them, and gaining extra attacks against them. We have rules for all of that.
Arbirtrarily applying this stuff for no other reason than a whim defeats the whole purpose of having rules. Your players (and you) might as well just put your dice away and RP your combats if you're going to whimsically apply effects that are not meant to be applied.
This might be fun for your game, and your players might appreciate it, but mine would go berserk. I believe at least one of my players would go berserk if I knocked him down or disarmed him on a whim without any rules to justify it.
Some of the trust between the players and the DM requires an understanding that what happens to us all is a part of the game system, not just random events entirely out of our control.
I would suggest, when offering suggestions to a DM who wants to spice up his game, that you exercise caution and/or restraint when it comes to bringing up arbitrary DM whimsy as an alternative to following (or at least mostly following) the rules. It could cause more problems than it solves.
I understand your reaction, but I would point out that we (DM's) are not meant to play by the rules. The first rule of the game, and by far the most important is that there aren't any rules that are set in stone.
You're players aren't supposed to know what's going on behind the screen at all. Normally, when applying a random effect like that I'm going to give the player a chance to save or react somehow.My stance is more this : It's not a competition between me and my players. It's a shared storytelling experience. How is what I've recommended any different from "rolling" for it behind the screen and fudging the result so that the DM's action is successful...or unsuccesful to save a players life? Your job, as the DM, is NOT to play by the rules, but to provide the framework for an experience that everyone can enjoy. Your players should never know what you've decided to arbitrarily allow or forbid.
I don't see the correlation between the rules and trust. When I sit down at a table to run a home game (NOT a society game, different entirely) I'm expected to have the adventure ready, be mindful of my players desires and expectations, and react to their decisions fluidly. There is no contract, implied or express, between a DM and the players in regards to the rules. In fact, almost all of the good advice I've ever gotten as a DM was to the effect of "If it doesn't make sense or work for you, ditch it."
Note, and addendum to my previous posts;
The players must never be allowed to feel that they are being treated UNFAIRLY... which is likely what DM Blake was getting at. As with all things (including the RAW, because trust me, you can rape the players with the RAW) it requires careful adjudication by the GM.
*Snip*I understand your reaction, but I would point out that we (DM's) are not meant to play by the rules. The first rule of the game, and by far the most important is that there aren't any rules that are set in stone.
*Snip*
I'm sorry... but there is something wrong about this statement. The DM's are meant to play by the rules. However, by including houserules, they can set down what the rules are ahead of time. Or, in the instance that something comes up in game, rule one way or the other how that takes effect.
Arbitrarily adding effects onto what a creature can do changes the challenge of said creature and can unbalance the game. Doing so without player knowledge or agreement, thats no fun for anyone.
Were I to sit at your table as a player not knowing that you would be having your creatures do things like this ahead of time... I'd be more than a little P.O.ed as my character was "unfairly" slapped around.
If you want to represent "powerful blows" and would like interesting things to happen on a crit. I'd suggest you use the Critical Hit Deck that Paizo sells. Its a great way to "spice" up combat whenever a crit is rolled.
I understand your reaction, but I would point out that we (DM's) are not meant to play by the rules. The first rule of the game, and by far the most important is that there aren't any rules that are set in stone.
You're players aren't supposed to know what's going on behind the screen at all. Normally, when applying a random effect like that I'm going to give the player a chance to save or react somehow.My stance is more this : It's not a competition between me and my players. It's a shared storytelling experience. How is what I've recommended any different from "rolling" for it behind the screen and fudging the result so that the DM's action is successful...or unsuccesful to save a players life? Your job, as the DM, is NOT to play by the rules, but to provide the framework for an experience that everyone can enjoy. Your players should never know what you've decided to arbitrarily allow or forbid.
The difference is huge. One is adjusting for the simple problem of probabilities. Sometimes the dice go wrong one way or another, you are just adjusting the numbers on the random rolls to keep things in line. The other is Adding completely new effects to the game. You are not shifting things up and down the probabilty scale you are adding whole new elements. Abilities like knockback and awesome blow impact how effective a monster is. These are accounted for in their challenge rating, and thus in the expected difficulty of the monster, arbitrarily adding these abilities to an enemy is IMENSLY different from fudging a die roll. The monster could have hit instead of missed if the dice were different. No amount of probability could have made that same blow knock the player off the bridge.
I don't see the correlation between the rules and trust. When I sit down at a table to run a home game (NOT a society game, different entirely) I'm expected to have the adventure ready, be mindful of my players desires and expectations, and react to their decisions fluidly. There is no contract, implied or express, between a DM and the players in regards to the rules. In fact, almost all of the good advice I've ever gotten as a DM was to the effect of "If it doesn't make sense or work for you, ditch it."
Certainly the DM should change rules to their preference, but these rule changes should be known before the game starts. Yes its a story telling experience, but its also a game. Games have rules. If you consistently break those rules for or against the players, you get a huge sense of unfairness in the players eyes. That behavior makes it feel MORE like a competion between players and dm, not reducing it. NPC's and monsters should not have abilities that the players dont have access to (assuming proper requirements) just to make a fight 'interesting'. If thats the case why have rules at all? You can just sit down at the table and talk about whats going on, no dice neccessary. The dm just decides what happens.
When designing an adventure, aside from my run of the mill combats, I add an 'iconic combat scene'.
In that scene I have three (more or less) events that take place during a given combat. They are scripted, not improvised, so unless the PC's perform some miracle wipe in one or two rounds, the events go off.
Which scripted events going off where is the only real issue though. Typically, I like to throw in an opening manoevre, with one or two 'special' events such as....
* A bandit leader scoops hot ash out oa brazier and flings it at a PC's face (Reflex DC 10+ 1/2 bandit's leader+dex avoids momentary blindness)
* A wizards familiar performs an aid another to a wizards attack, flying in the face of an enemy before flutering away to a nearby balistraude
* The quarterstaff fighter snaps his staff in two and now attacks with two clubs (this is essentially wasting an action - perhaps taking the rest of the round to go defensive but looks cool)
* Have an opponent scream something pithy and personal. A PC may engage in conversation with a bad guy - during combat - if he thinks this is a personal grudge rather than a random encounter
* Two candles get knocked over, and now the room is catching on fire. a few rounds later they may be battling a burning blaze as well as the villain.
* After a PC's Misses an attack (or a villain) the blow strikes a nearby object, sending it crashing to the ground. It may fall on someone, or atleast create difficult terrain. (a plate of grapes...not so much trouble, a marble bust...well that might hurt.)
Other things I like to do are
* removing critical hits. If a bad guy performs a critical hit, instead of the extra damage, I will knock a character prone, make him stunned or something else (knocking him back 5 feet is also good)
* Interesting terrain. fight on steps, on overhangs, in 2 feet of water, on treebranches, on ice slopes in a burning castle. It has been mentioned before, so this is a hearty +1.
* vary your villains. In a group of Orc maruaders, make one stand out. say he's six feet tall, or wearing armour out of human bones or has a flaming red topknot for hair. Edmund Teach lit his bead on fire to appear more fearsome, you can do it too. The guy doesn't have to be any different stat wise to the others in the group, but he will be more memorable.
* Superfluous reinforcements. Add 50% more minions to a fight. Their sole purpose is to flee as soon as the fight turns sour. Alternatively, have them arrive from off stage 2-6 rounds into the fight.
Batts
I am trying to find more ways to make combat more interesting. In my group of friends, I feel combat all too often turns into a lot of repetitive actions. I believe there is a lot of untapped potential to make combat more interesting and exciting. Especially for warrior type characters, I see all to often they just run up to the monster and hit it. In a sense, yes that's what characters like that do, but there should be more to combat than, 1 - Move to a Monster, 2 - Stand still beating Monster until it dies, 3 - Go back to Step 1. I feel there must be a lot of options that just aren't being used. Yes, there are things like combat maneuvers, but friends feel like while options like that are there, it tends to be "more effective" to just smash face and hit things.
I've focused a lot on melee, but its not just them. Same goes for magic casters in the sense of, I'd like there to be "things to do" other than 1: Cast Most Powerful Spell, 2: Cast Next Most Powerful Spell, etc. This is a lot less of an issue for Magic Casters because every spell they have is a "different option" they have available. I just feel melees often suffer from "I just hit it with my sword" syndrome.
I didn't mean to focus so much on warrior type specific issues for this post. I'd also love any tips, tricks, advice to make combat, in general, more engaging, and less of a repetitive grind. Perhaps more ways to use non-combat skills, inside of combat? Something to spice it up and give players options that are worthwhile.
Thank You for the Help!
I feel that your best tool at making a combat more interesting is your creativity. As has been said numerous times: Terrain is a great starting point… swamps, quicksand, cliffs, wind tunnels, a forest of fungus sprouting poison clouds, patches of molds, a running battle with orcs amongst a colony of assassin vines, storms, battling in a room filled with traps, etc.
Finding opportunities to use skills during combat will be helpful too. Find a reason for a rogue to pick a lock during combat. Attack the PCs, while they climb a wall. Demoralize a PC. Call for Perception checks to hear/see opponent's tactics as foes bark out orders above the din of battle. The more you use skills in combat, the more likely your players will be encouraged to do the same.
From there, I'd suggest making NPC opponents with a themed tactical scheme. Create a bull-rushing NPC, then create a Tripping NPC, then create an Electric based NPC, then a cloud-casting based NPC, then a summoning based NPC, then a trap-building NPC, and so on to build up your creativity in providing interesting options beyond mundane hack-and-slash. At the same time, look for monsters who provide interesting tactical options beyond straight damage, a choker for instance grabs and strangles, a wolf pack trips with its bite, a quasit changes shape to confound his opponents.
Finally, add your own unique abilities to monsters in the bestiary to add unexpected variety for your players. This works well when throwing monsters at them that they have already faced before, as it will break their preconceived notion of that monster. Good examples on how this works are found by looking at zombies and skeleton variants in the bestiary.
Hope that helps.