Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2014 21:57:30 GMT -8
For those of you who like 4e still, here's the top 5 suggestions that I have for DMs and players.
1. When in combat, call out the player who's next in line after the current player's turn. That way they are ready to go when the current turn is finished.
2. If you don't know what to do within 2 minutes of your start of the turn, you do a melee basic against the enemy. For god's sake people
3. Encounters don't need to be prepared ahead of time. I'm a DM who prefers the on-the-fly style of dming (pretty good for someone who's started dming less than 2.5 years ago) and let me tell you how quickly my encounters go when I simple make powers up. Bugbears grab benches and do a burst 1 in front of them, that hobgoblin in front of you? Yeah he tackles you and pummels you into the ground, you are now prone and restrained, ongoing 5 so long as the hobgoblin is adjacent. On-the-fly is exciting for the DM and players since we're taking time to explain in game our actions
4. House rule in fate chips or bennies from either fate or savage worlds (or other system of choice). A simple re roll makes for faster combat since they want to
5. Who cares about the map? Mapless games are fun too. Just make sure you tell everyone exactly where the monster is away from the closest ally. Typically I prefer this for solo encounters so its easier for tracking
Anyone else have things to input?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2014 21:13:25 GMT -8
I never gave my players more then a minute to decide their action. I also used a house rule where monsters always did max damage but had half the hit points and would do double damage on a crit. I also tracked the players hit points and never told them how much damage they were taking, only letting them know when they were bloodied or within five points of zero. This kept the combat tense and sped things up immensely. Even so with six players by level ten an average combat was an hour or more.
As for mapless combat I tried it probably a dozen times over the course of a two year campaign and it doesn't work if you have more then two players in the fight. The mechanics of the player powers simply rely to much on their being a map, especially for the casters since you have so much friendly fire with the AOEs. I tend to be fairly loose with the rules but even so the combat took twice as long because the players weren't really sure where everything was and thus couldn't use their abilities effectively.
I also tried a bennie mechanic, and it works okay, I didn't notice it speeding up combat any, I did however notice that the players got more creative with what they attempted because they knew they could reroll.
|
|
tomes
Supporter
Hello madness
Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
|
Post by tomes on Mar 19, 2014 9:38:59 GMT -8
One thing I've noticed in d20 especially (but other systems as well) is that if you have monsters attack each round, then players will feel like they need to attack each round (even if that means being less strategic, working less with each other, doing less interesting things). Otherwise they feel like their turn is 'wasted'.
I have tried making combat quicker by doing less fight every round. E.g. in a first round the goblins might just growl menacingly, and start surrounding the party. DONE. Now the PCs get to go and, because they didn't get attacked, they might start doing something more interesting, like positioning themselves, preparing spells, finding cover, one sneaks off to the right, etc.
If your monsters do "prepare" in this manner, as in some systems, give them an "active defense" modifier, if the players attack. In general I have more active defence stuff going on, monsters circling for position, when it makes sense, etc. Obviously doesn't work for all or many encounters, but still.
Another one is having monsters that are "overpowered" for the PCs by a little bit, but have the monster less violent or active. E.g. if the monster is too strong, but being slower, or doing less active attacks, if gives the PCs a better fighting chance, allows them to be smarter about their actions and more strategic, and can allow the combat to develop in a more interesting manner (as well as feel like it could be more deadly, since the monster is just overall more powerful).
|
|
|
Post by Houndin on Mar 28, 2014 4:43:42 GMT -8
So my biggest problem with 4e was the "solo" monster. They only get one turn a round compared to the 4 to 6 the party gets. So I would often use environmental effects or have the solo spawn minions at the start of the round to even the odds. Otherwise it was too easy for the solo to get prone-locked or stun-locked by the party.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using proboards
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2014 18:31:30 GMT -8
Yes, a buddy had us in a fight with a Solo Minotaur that I knocked down round one and who never had a chance to stand back up. He dealt with that later by giving solos more attacks per round.
Number of players divided in half rounded up, so four players the solo got two attacks. Five players the solo got three attacks. Made it much more interesting.
|
|
zoepax
Initiate Douchebag
I am here...you are there...where shall I find da beer?
Posts: 9
|
Post by zoepax on Apr 23, 2014 8:05:53 GMT -8
3. Encounters don't need to be prepared ahead of time. I'm a DM who prefers the on-the-fly style of dming (pretty good for someone who's started dming less than 2.5 years ago) and let me tell you how quickly my encounters go when I simple make powers up. Bugbears grab benches and do a burst 1 in front of them, that hobgoblin in front of you? Yeah he tackles you and pummels you into the ground, you are now prone and restrained, ongoing 5 so long as the hobgoblin is adjacent. On-the-fly is exciting for the DM and players since we're taking time to explain in game our actions Shoot, I love this idea...I'm going to give it a try on my next encounter.
|
|
|
Post by jonas on Jun 13, 2014 0:07:08 GMT -8
One tip they talked about in the show was to halve the monsters' hit points and double their damage. Sure, the math sort of worked out okay in the end but I never liked the idea.
There is a great adventure module called 'Courts of the Shadow Fey'. It's not made by WotC but instead a third party called Kobold Press, and is a fantastic mix of atmosphere, combat and roleplaying (WotC's own adventures are mostly a string of rooms with different monsters waiting to be killed by the first adventure that happen to come by).
In Courts, they recommend that you lower the hit points by 25% and up the damage 30%, which I think works rather nicely since it makes the monsters feel more like they follow the same rules and logic as player characters and aren't just mobs in a video game.
|
|
lordvanduu
Initiate Douchebag
The Inventor
Posts: 13
|
Post by lordvanduu on Jun 18, 2014 10:23:26 GMT -8
3. Encounters don't need to be prepared ahead of time. I'm a DM who prefers the on-the-fly style of dming (pretty good for someone who's started dming less than 2.5 years ago) and let me tell you how quickly my encounters go when I simple make powers up. Bugbears grab benches and do a burst 1 in front of them, that hobgoblin in front of you? Yeah he tackles you and pummels you into the ground, you are now prone and restrained, ongoing 5 so long as the hobgoblin is adjacent. On-the-fly is exciting for the DM and players since we're taking time to explain in game our actions Shoot, I love this idea...I'm going to give it a try on my next encounter. Yeah, this tip really jumped out at me too. I am definitely going to give this a shot in my game and see how it goes. I'm curious how experience is awarded when using this way of running combat?
|
|