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Get the timing right. Announce what's happening while you place bad guys on the map.
Try to peril initiative. Nothing breaks immersion more,
Have some terrain. Draw it in advance if at all humanly possible.
I played in a campaign where most fights took place on a blank battle mat. This invalidated perception and stealth, many kinds of battlefield control, and more than a few skills. Some types of characters became very suboptimal, and we found out after character creation.
Lego trees work well for me, as do regular sticks and rocks.
Countour lines are easy to spot, as a player, but indicate which side is up, and which down.
Descriptions. Descriptions. Descriptions.
They are that important. Being a descriptive storyteller is what turns a bunch of numbers and dice rolls into a nail-biting combat. When the fighter attacked you don't say "Yes, a 23 will hit so you do 12 damage". Instead, say "The fighter swings forward and brings down a mighty blow, pushing aside the cleric's shield and burying his axe deep in the unholy man's collarbone!"
Do not report to the players what is happening mechanically. It is important to let them know mechanically what is going on, but you are not computers. Give it as much personal spin and flavor as you want. You're not comparing die rolls to see who dies. You are building a detailed and elaborate and climactic battle!
I like to mix 2 or 3 different types of monsters in an encounter. Giving PCs different types of opponents is fun. Especially if there are consequences or really significant tactical benefits based on target choice.
I also like to mix up terrain and action economy. I ran a really fun encounter with many goblins and a few bugbears in an area with three 15 by 15 rooms with a 5 foot wide door in the middle of each wall. The whole complex was surrounded by a 5 foot wide corridor with some other rooms and corridors off it, of course.
PCs AND NPCs had to use their move actions to open and close doors a lot, which emphasized teamwork and placement and cover and timing. For such a simple map, it was a really complex fight.
The PCs were 3rd or 4th level, so I wasn't taking Full Attacks away from them by forcing lots of movement and/or move actions. There might have been a 2-weapon fighting rogue, though, that had to be particularly cunning with his 5 foot steps and flanks.
Be prepared. Know your NPCs and their abilities. Understand the terrain and any special effects in play.
Ensure your CR is adjusted appropriately to the APL. Download Alex Augunus' pdf on creating challenging encounters and implement it.
The players will throw curve balls at you no matter how prepared you are, so knowing your part will ensure that the encounters is as memorable as possible.
Variety is also good.
Some encounters should be easy, some should be difficult.
Some should be melee, some should be ranged, some should be magic.
Use different types of creatures: aberrations, dragons, magical beasts, undead, giants, fey, humanoids, animals, vermin, plants, constructs, monstrous humanoids.
Some should be in wide open spaces, some should be in constraining terrain.
Some should have hazards, some should have traps, some should have advantageous terrain features.
Some should have different levels and terrain features, some should have pillars and trees and boulders and difficult terrain.
Some should be mobs, some should be a single BBEG, some should be a small group of 2 or 3.
Some should be high AC with low hit points, some should be low AC with high hit points.
Some opponents should use combat maneuvers.
Some should be fast and some should be slow.
Try mixing up the different schools of magic. An enchanter that charms the fighter, an illusionist that fools the cleric with fake undead, an evoker that uses lots of wall spells, a conjurer that bounces around the battlefield, a transmuter that de-buffs like crazy, an abjurer that keeps counterspelling and dispelling, a necromancer with tons of minions.
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I once had the PCs fight a giant frog, swallow a PC, and then hop away. I changed the scale of the grid to 1 inch equals 30 feet for the chase. They ended up rescuing one PC and then another got swallowed almost immediately! And hilarity ensued.
A good thing to include in the statblock of your critters is "Morale". What will make them flee? 7hp or less? 15hp or less if their leader is dead? If more than half of their numbers fall? If a cleric presents a holy symbol? And why are they fighting? For a lot of critters it's ok to have the simple "Fight to the death because they want to kill the party and take their stuff", but a large amount of creatures aren't suicidal levels of greedy like that.
Dungeonscape for 3.5 has good advice for designing encounters. Basically, it lays out an inerative process where you test a battle with various tactics to cover up the obvious holes in the setup, giving you a solid and challenging battle for the players. This is expressed in the form of a template, which can then be varied by using different settings and monsters, and modified by differing conditions.
A good thing to include in the statblock of your critters is "Morale". What will make them flee? 7hp or less? 15hp or less if their leader is dead? If more than half of their numbers fall? If a cleric presents a holy symbol? And why are they fighting? For a lot of critters it's ok to have the simple "Fight to the death because they want to kill the party and take their stuff", but a large amount of creatures aren't suicidal levels of greedy like that.Fun fact: Basic D&D (You remember, the simplified version of AD&D, for kids) HAD a Morale stat, so it was possible to send enemies running, or negotiate or bribe them. Meanwhile, 3.x players often assume everything should fight to the death. Go figure...
That might be more of a Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest/JRPG thing than a 3.X thing to be fair, as almost every JRPG out there has suicidal enemies aside from one or two with super high exp yields.
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Try to peril initiative. Nothing breaks immersion more
I don't know what this means.
When the fighter attacked you don't say "Yes, a 23 will hit so you do 12 damage". Instead, say "The fighter swings forward and brings down a mighty blow, pushing aside the cleric's shield and burying his axe deep in the unholy man's collarbone!"
Do not report to the players what is happening mechanically.
Is this a popular playstyle? I've never done it or seen it done. It seems to me there are far too many damage rolls in the average battle to be able to make up interesting non-repetitive descriptions for all of them. It's also got to be difficult if you're making things up as you go along to avoid describing crippling injuries that don't make sense in the context of non-crippling hit point loss.
(Also, why would the GM tell the fighter how much damage he does? The standard language used is:
Player: "Does a 23 hit?"
GM: "Yes."
Player: "12 damage.")
Is this a popular playstyle? I've never done it or seen it done. It seems to me there are far too many damage rolls in the average battle to be able to make up interesting non-repetitive descriptions for all of them. It's also got to be difficult if you're making things up as you go along to avoid describing crippling injuries that don't make sense in the context of non-crippling hit point loss.When the fighter attacked you don't say "Yes, a 23 will hit so you do 12 damage". Instead, say "The fighter swings forward and brings down a mighty blow, pushing aside the cleric's shield and burying his axe deep in the unholy man's collarbone!"
Do not report to the players what is happening mechanically.
It's easier to do in online campaigns where you can use attack and damage macros and add flavor text to them.
Descriptions. Descriptions. Descriptions.
They are that important. Being a descriptive storyteller is what turns a bunch of numbers and dice rolls into a nail-biting combat. When the fighter attacked you don't say "Yes, a 23 will hit so you do 12 damage". Instead, say "The fighter swings forward and brings down a mighty blow, pushing aside the cleric's shield and burying his axe deep in the unholy man's collarbone!"
Do not report to the players what is happening mechanically. It is important to let them know mechanically what is going on, but you are not computers. Give it as much personal spin and flavor as you want. You're not comparing die rolls to see who dies. You are building a detailed and elaborate and climactic battle!
Can't agree more. My GM do this in a really nice way, and I always see the fight in my head and project myself in my character.
But ... the players have to do the same things otherwise it break the immersion and the GM should encourage (or force) them to do it.
Of course we are always going to ask "did a 18 hit ?" or "he need to make reflex save DD 16" or things like this but we should describe all our action.
I think the best way is to describe the action as much as possible whitout using any rules or technical terms, and the other person in the table should understand what is happening mechanically.
I think the GM should note AC and saves of the player and don't ask it during fight. But I never find a nice way to know (as a player) if you hit or no without asking the GM. I don't want to know the exact AC of the opponent, the only things I can do is extrapolating from previous hit/miss on the same target.
Also, we don't always use battlegrid. Only when the fight involve more than 3-4 enemy or in complexe situations.
Try to peril initiative. Nothing breaks immersion moreI don't know what this means.
I'm guessing peril = pre-roll.
Which would also be my advice. I have an Excel-based initiative calculator that I use to very quickly have initiative ready. Takes the dice out of the players hands for initiative, which some people don't like, but I've found that it is incredibly helpful for starting combats nearly instantly.
Also, terrain. Especially 3D terrain if you can swing it. Literally adds a whole new dimension to visualization.
A lot of things can be made quicker if you don't let the player roll the dice, but in my experience players like rolling dice.
A lot of things can be made quicker if you don't let the player roll the dice, but in my experience players like rolling dice.
Yup, which is why it works for some groups and not for others. The sheer length of battles in Pathfinder was one of the biggest complaints most groups I was in had.
You can really speed up things by automating initiative, setting time limits on each player, and making sure players understand their character's spells and abilities.
Some groups will find these suggestions helpful, others will decide that reduced battle time is not worth it. To each their own.
Which would also be my advice. I have an Excel-based initiative calculator that I use to very quickly have initiative ready. Takes the dice out of the players hands for initiative, which some people don't like, but I've found that it is incredibly helpful for starting combats nearly instantly.
Hmm, interesting approach. What about letting players roll initiative (for example) thrice at the very begin of the session?
Hmm, interesting approach. What about letting players roll initiative (for example) thrice at the very begin of the session?
It's possible, but still slower than my method. You could probably create a program that would assist you with this, but it would be far more complicated than mine and require a lot more development and testing time.
I took 3x5 cards, cut in 1/2 and then folded like the letter V. It has Character name, and AC on it, I also have a couple blanks for Monster. We roll INI and then I re-order those on the edge of the 2'x3' battle mat so everyone can see when their turn is coming. I can see their AC which helps me with the monster attacks.I try to help this along by saying, "You've fought ogres before, and remember they have tough hide and are tough to bring down. OOC: You need to meet or beat a 17 AC." Now they don't have to ask anymore if 16 hits.
I really like your system. Only issue for me is that I don't like the player knowing exactly the AC (then they can optimize all the mechanic like power attack). They should know it only if they already fight this kind of monster and deduced it from the hit/miss.
So I'd describe how hard they were hit, but not how many HPs they took, and as they got more injured I'd describe the fatigue/bleeding etc. Not knowing exactly how close to 0 you are - especially once you go unconscious -really- adds to making the combat more immersive and focused. When you know you're only at -1 nobody is running to drag you out of combat, but when nobody knows there is a sense of urgency to help you.
In our game the GM don't keep track of the HP, only the players. But they are encouraged to describe their physical condition, and 'act' accordingly to their current HP. Also they are forbiden to tell the other player their exact current HP OCC (or speak about any other numbers and stats).
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Just a general note on running a combat: try to keep things moving as fast as possible. Don't give the players endless amounts of time to figure out their moves. Put some pressure on, demand that they act fast and impose consequences for dithering. Be sure to constantly remind them of the immediate danger that they are in. When people are taking too long to figure out their actions, I have been known to start counting down from 10 or even 5 to provide a time limit to get them to react.
You need to be a little cautious with this approach. You have to be forceful but gentle when it comes to time constraints, and you don't want to be so overbearing that the players get upset.
Try to be well prepared for any battles that are likely to occur. I like to do little annotated stat blocks for enemies that I can track their hit points on. If they have any special abilities or spells that I haven't memorized, I copy-paste the details into the stat block.
I ran an encounter where the PCs had 1 minute (10 rounds) to stop a human (or possibly aasimar) sacrifice before the new moon rose.
With LOTS of goblins and hobgoblins (reach Pushing Assault/Stand Still build fighters) in the way of the barghest.
It was really fun, and they stopped the barghest with 1 round to spare! Excitement!