Combat

Introduction
There are two basic approaches to combat which can almost be attributed to two different schools of DM's. Each has their own way of dealing with combats, and both have aspects which are praiseworthy. The best combat, as an experience for the players however, involves something of both worlds. Here follows a description of the two main schools of theought concerning combat, and perhaps even DM'ing in general. The difference however, shows up most acutely in combat.

  1. The Planners. These DM's want to know every detail before the combat starts, they want to know every statistic of everybody, have scaled maps of the entire battleground and like to work with miniatures so no confusion is possible. They do not pull punches, as everything is balanced out in advance. After all the work is done, they are simply administrators, guiding the process to its logical conclusion. Ofcourse working out a combat like this in advance is a hell of a lot of work, and spontaneous combats and encounters are not likely to occur with these DM's. These sort of combats are generally painstakingly slow, with a decent battle taking up several hours. The slowness often means that non-fighters get bored, and those people who are not directly involved in the combat start becoming disinterested. Military logic becomes important, rather than showmanship... the winner is the thinking fighter.
  2. The Wingers. These DM's don't write anything down... the entire combat is about cinematics. What looks good, what sounds good, and what kind of neat tricks do the players think up to make the combat work. Rules are less important, and mainly the combat is run as a type of show... there is no real thought about the enemy's stats and these can be fluid throughout the battle. This style of combat is very spontaneous, and individual coolness is more important than it making any sense. These combats are often fast paced, but they can start putting a strain on suspension of disbelief relatively easily.

Naturally, these two examples above are extremes of both styles of combat DM ing. Both have their merits, but neither of them is really better than the other. The best system is probably a combination of both, but balancing such a mix is difficult. To start with, I'll indicate some problems with each of these two styles.

The Planned Style
The problem with such extreme planning is probably familiar to many - it becomes an exercise in numbers. It's tedious slow and misses the frantic action that combat should be. The averages of numbers mean that bored players will start working out average damages per round and show how many hitpoints they can destroy in what amount of time. The close shave with death that every combat ought to be is completely lost. Another problem with administrating a pre-planned encounter is that not everything can be defined by CR's. A good plan on the part of either party can make an encounter disproportionately more difficult or easier. This means that the role of administrator, simply doing the numbers is not adequate... it doesn't really adress all the possibilities. A DM cannot sit back and purely administrate the pre generated numbers he was worked out to be a challenge for the players... it almost never works out.

The Winging Style
The biggest problem with this style is its lack of consistency. While such a battle can be extremely cinematic, it doesn't neccesarily make it believable or enjoyable. Players start wondering when how hard it is to hit someone changes during the course of a battle... they start wondering when they have hit an opponent so many times it should have felled a demi-god, but the DM keeps him standing in the interest of cinematics. Ofcourse the frantic speed of such a style of play is pleasant... but... the concessions done to logic and believability often become too much.

The Solution
So, how do you combine these two techniques to make a fast moving, but still believable and logical combat situation. Here are a few guidelines which should allow a combination of the two without losing the positive elements of each while managing to limit the negative elements of both.

  1. Do not bother with the numbers for those in combat with non-PC's. Just describe the fight. This saves you alot of administration. If you want to run a big battle use a simple mass combat system... but in most cases anyone other than the PC's fighting is just backdrop. Treat it as such, and use it as an oppurtunity to set the scene. Obviously, this is a little more complicated if the PC's have henchmen. You can allways choose to simplyfy them too, simply rolling 1d20 + the character level of the henchman vs. the same thing for the other guy to determine the outcome of a combat.
  2. "Punish" players who behave in a non-sensible way on the field of battle. It's great that paladins run out and want to be in the front line all the time. But, if they don't learn to fight smart, don't pull punches. Just kill them. Warfare is a situation governed by certain do's and do-nots. If players ignore them, feel free to let all hell loose on them. Players who don't get down in a gunfight... warriors who run forward unsupported... just let 'em have it. You don't want to create a situation where high level idiots find it possible to survive on the battlefield. If someone takes on a high profile, feel free to divert a disproportionate number of attacks onto that person.
  3. Set stats once. You don't need to know what some NPC's hitpoints and AC are when they enter the combat. But, once you've set them, don't change them. And if you have set them, stick by them. The players see you fudging them, whether you like it or not. They notice the irregularities, so try and avoid them.
  4. Move fast... force players to state their course of action or make them forfeit the round. This keeps the pace up. It's OK to put time pressure on the players... it gives them the idea something is going on. It makes them think fast... in combat there is no room to change your mind. You simply have to do. You need to project this. Force quick decisions, limit long discussions between the players.
  5. Don't work out too much in advance... simply note it down as the PC's encounter it... you can even use standardised forms to do so. I will be adding some to this site in the near future. Feel free to throw in some more badguys if the PC's are having it easy... but don't give the guys already there more hitpoints.
  6. Use overwhelming force. Make the players understand that it's possible there are situations they can't win. Not all potential combats have a CR set so the players can win from them. They need to stay out of the meta-game idea that "there must be some way we can win, otherwise the encounter wouldn't be here".
  7. Important NPC's are the only thing which need to be worked out in advance. The rest you can do as you go along. But do do it. Don't make it up again every round. Work as you progress, and stick by it. Once again, the critical factor here is to make notes.
  8. Initiative by group. When you have many badguys, split them into groups. Work initiative by group, and keep track of where the groups are on the map. You can even put members of every group in different places, so the PC's get simultaneous attacks from different directions. Once the PC's have done some damage, feel free to take a short break and reassign the bad guy groups on a new sheet of paper... this strengthens the credibility of the whole thing.
  9. Describe! Last but not least... don't allow yourself to get caught up in the numberfest. Keep remembering that it's a fight and not a maths class. This means you should describe what is happening, make it go fast, and try to keep up the pace... you must project the desperation of the situation on the players... this is extremely difficult, but it makes for the greatest battles.
Conclusions
Combat is one of the most difficult disciplines of DM'ing. You have to steer clear of losing track of what's happening and at the same time not get bogged down in the administration of everything. Don't worry about things which are not directly important. Decide stuff as it becomes important to the situation, thus lightening the load of restrictions you have. Keep the time pressure on the players. They can't say or do a hell of a lot in those 6 second combat rounds, and by keeping the time pressure up, you can create the suspension of disbelief to make the players experience the chaos of combat.
Last Update Wednesday, December 18, 2002