A Broken Gamer that Failed His Save VS. Boring Combat

The battle continues…the players groan.

Combat is an integral part of many role-playing games.  It adds an element of risk, tactics and randomness to an otherwise sedate hobby. There is, however, the possibility of too much of a good thing. More precisely, combat encounters that go from challenging to tedious in a few short rounds. Often it is not the fault of the DM when the encounter goes stale. A combination of bad luck, bad encounter design or unforeseen game mechanics can make a good combat go bad.

Here are my thoughts on how to identify when an encounter goes flat and possible solutions besides just “calling it.”

I refuse to set a “10 round” limit on an encounter. That is too arbitrary and many systems just take longer than others. Instead, I suggest that certain characteristic clearly mark when the encounter needs a “nudge to completion” from the DM.

Combat encounters are all about winning. Therefore, every round their must be a winner. One of the main reasons players lose interest is when they do 10 points of damage per round and the bad guy regenerates 10 on his turn.  Endlessly pounding on a bad guy with no results is disheartening and most importantly, dull.  Even if the bad guys wins for a few rounds, at least that will focus the player attention better than a dull status quo round.

Change is good in a combat encounter! Keep some variety flowing and keep the players motivated and interested.  I played several encounters where the monster, clearly doomed and incapable of significant threat to the PCs, insisted on fighting to the death. Normally this is fine by me, but game mechanics (insubstantial/regenerating creatures) greatly limited our damage. Many rounds later, with little threat of them damaging any PC, the entities died. For DMs, when there is no threat to death to the PCs, move on to something else.  Even if you want the PCs to expend resources during the adventure, do not make the players spend three hours of real time for the sole purpose of draining their healing potion supply.

Power/resources expenditures are also a great way to gauge how much longer the combat encounter should last. When the PCs are down to throwing rocks and harsh language at the enemy, a good DM will end the encounter. Not to pick on 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons, but the extremely limited encounter/daily powers make for  incredibly dull combats after about 10 rounds. I played in a couple of games where most of the combat was every player using the same “at-will” power, over and over again. They simply had nothing else left.  Other systems have more options in terms of attacks, but you get the idea.

This last item is a personal pet peeve. It is so simple, yet I have countless examples of module writers and DMs repeating this mistake over and over again.

They make the monsters too hard to hit.  PCs that optimized their characters for combat have a blast. The remaining players sit on their hands for 3 hours during the combat waiting to roll a natural “20.” This being the only way to hit the monster. Do not make your players go watch TV, keep them in the game. You are the DM, fudge the numbers and make the game fun!

Bottom line is that the DM needs to take control and really manage more than the NPC hit points. They need to manage the entire table so that everyone has fun. As long as you do that, everything else will go just fine.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Sadly, creating a complex maze is quite tedious and I think it limits their appearance in most campaigns.  With that in mind,  I put together a few links that will aid you in maze creation. Some are links to existing maze designs, such as the European hedge mazes that were often the focus of 19th century party games.  The remainder link to software or other resources that aid maze creation.

Labyrinthos.net — The best site I found, as it discusses history and has an excellent collection of images and publications related to labyrinths.  The entire site is excellent, but the images page is most useful to gamers. I thought the native American designs particularly interesting.

MazeMaker 1.0 — A clever java maze creator.  You can create complex mazes with a few keystrokes.  A click of the space bar shows a 3D view of the maze and the you can “walk” through the maze with a first-person view. Be sure to read all the instructions for a full list of options.

Astrolog.org — A links page with  with a technical bent. Several of the links are software related, but others cover design and the psychology of mazes. Also has a section dedicated to running a life-sized maze.  Tips are not really applicable to  a dungeon, but still useful in a corn maze.

The Labyrinth Company — Not really useful for gaming, but this company sells labyrinths for your backyard, which is just cool. They also sell portable “finger labyrinths ” for meditation.   I never found running a maze relaxing, but then again I am usually being chased by some demon or another, so that might be the reason for my stress.

Now that I have given you the tools to easily create mazes, be sure to get your  PCs well and truly lost in one.  If they get frustrated and angry, blame me.  Torturing PCs is one of my favorite past times. I love to hear their howls of anger. :-)

Out of pity to the players that will suffer from this post, I will put up some techniques for defeating a labyrinth tomorrow.  I have to be fair, after all.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Primarily, my interest peaked on some tactics that struck me as gameworthy.  Rather than the standard “get close and board dramatically” there is an exciting alternative to add spice to your game’s naval combat.

Hollywood portrays naval battles as devastating broadsides from massive ships of the line, essentially giant gun platforms. These are a later development. Pre-gunpowder naval battles focused heavily on the forecastle . It was literally a shielded wooden platform on the ship’s bow. Often it was several feet above the rest of the deck. It actually decreased a ship’s performance, so they often removed them during peace time.

During a battle, ships attempted to ram enemy vessels at a 90 degree angle. That is, to strike the broadest side of the enemy vessel with your bow. This pushed the forecastle over the enemy deck. A tactic that provided both a stable, raised platform for mischief, but it also offered cover to fighters in the forecastle. Defenders had to fight from a lower position, which is a classic tactical advantage for the attackers. Marines could jump down and begin fighting on the deck, but there are other options.

Initially, bags of quicklime dumped on  to the deck blinded the enemy crew.  The vileness of this attack is truly legendary. Quicklime causes chemical burns, lung damage and permanent blindness! Once the crew started gasping and choking in a noxious cloud, the gads arrived.

Gads are large iron darts thrown from the forecastle or the mast. I cannot find a good picture of one, but there is a modern equivalent.

Lawn darts

The defends are now blind, choking and perforated by lawn darts. Things look bad for our heroic defenders. It will get worse.

The attackers, should they be English, start using the legendary English longbow on a stable platorm, with a height advantage, against blinded sailors on a small deck with no cover. Fish in a barrel. Other nations might use crossbowmen. It really did not matter.

By the time the marines actually hit the enemy deck, it was a clean up operation.

Forget Hollywood and their dramatic “grappling hook and swing  over” boarding parties. Real men ram the enemy, use chemical weapons, drop sharpened lawn darts on you and then shoot you down with bows. It may not be dramatic or honorable, but it works.

I am not huge fan of naval history or tactics  and I would be interested to hear what other gamers do in naval combats. Drop me a comment if you have a clever tactic.

Remember, reality makes for better gaming.

Trask, the Last Tyromancer

Advancement for casters is different than other PC classes. Every class receives some benefit for achieving a new level. Things like feats, a better “to hit” bonus or some new “widget” are very common. Other than that, the PC must accumulate equipment, both magical and mundane to increase their abilities. Most casting classes get some new spell slots at a new level. I have no problem with this. A fighter gets better BAB, a caster gets a couple of new spells. That actually has some parity. The problem is that casters can learn spells from other sources.

In “Dungeons and Dragons” and many other systems, casters can go to school, buy scrolls or sometimes observe a spell cast and then learn it for all time. Fighters cannot got out and buy a scroll of “Power Attack” and scribe it in their “melee book” for later use. Effectively, a caster learning a new spell before achieving a new level is getting feats, not spells. This is a powerful ability and really does not work well. Especially at the higher levels, wizards have so many spells that they are “Swiss Army Knives.” A spell for any occasion.

Give a caster 24 hours notice and triple his effectiveness. For example, you know you are travelling to a frozen waste. Load up on the fire spells and redefine “global warming” to your enemies. The best a fighter can do is put on an extra coat.

To slow this accumulation of spells and attendant flexibility, learning a new spell should be difficult. I am not talking about a clumsy restriction to a PCs ability to learn new spells by fiat. I am talking about a new mechanic with story justification and integration.

Here is my idea. As one learns a spell, there is a physical change to your body. A crystal-like “spell matrix” grows within your body. As you advance in experience you grow more crystals to represent the spells you learn through personal study. This represents the “level-up = more spells” mechanic from the base rules.

In this world, there are no spell storing devices, like scrolls. The only way to learn a new spell is either long, tedious study or carving a matrix out of a living being.

This extraction process is invariably fatal.

Even worse, you have to make a skill roll to “extract” the spell from the stolen matrix. This adds an element of chance to learning a new spell. Once a caster dies, their matrices decay within a few minutes, making storage impossible.

I know there are those that scream “that screws the casters!” True, learning new spells is much harder, but the story benefits and role-playing opportunities more than outweigh the perceived penalty.

PCs still have opportunites to learn spells, but now it has story implications. Evil NPCs have no issue murdering innocent casters to accumlate more power. Good NPCs must now be looking constantly over their shoulder. Even worse, they face tempations kill to gain more knowledge. Being a caster is no longer a happy experience. It is a terrible burden, always one step away from slipping and murdering to learn a new spell. Or falling victim to evil casters seeking more power. It would be like a pool of hungry sharks constantly circling each other, looking for any sign of weakness or aggression. Two casters meeting on the street would never know what the other might do. It would very much be like “Highlander,” without the swords.

It also offers some quality role-playing opportunities.

Imagine a lawful good PC having to carve open a recently deceased villianous caster. Standing over his body, he tears out a matrix and glows with power as he absorbs forbidden knowledge. Turning to the rest of the party, he sees their horror at his desecration. He is still lawful good, but now forever tainted in the eyes of his friends. Great role-playing fodder by anyone’s definition.

I like this idea because it does limit casters, but it also injects some drama into your game. I hate rules for their own sake. They need to both solve a mechanical issue and integrate smoothly into the dramatic setting.

If anyone thinks they might use this in a game, or just wants to tell me I am completely nuts and destroying game balance, leave me a comment.

Trask, the Last Tyromancer

Most games have “iconic” areas that most encounters are built around. Examples include the “dungeon crawl,”  “city,” “sea/airborne” and “wilderness.” There are others, but these cover most of the common adventuring terrain.

Bottom line is horses or vehicles ( I am a big fan of the riggers in “Shadowrun”)  critical to  a mounted combat specialist simply do not fit in most of these environments.

It always felt unfair that a rogue is a rogue, no matter the environment. The mounted knight has to be in an open field, with his mount and enough room to charge and fight from horseback. The very nature of adventuring means that often the horse/vehicle gets left behind. I am sure that a census of gamers would list literally thousands of mounts “left at the camp”  (read “starved to death”) while the PCs spend six months  trying to get back from limbo. Thankfully, there are no animal rights activists in the game!

This leads players to take the mounted combat feats/skills only when their mount is “summonable” and always available. Otherwise they go with some, in my opinion, completely lame solution like a halfling on a riding dog, a la “Elfquest.” A hobbit on Cujo charging orcs  makes me slightly ill just thinking about it.

I am not sure why I am even writing this post. Short of bending the entire campaign around mounted combat, I see no solution. Although, I do feel better after complaining about it.

Trask, the Last Tyromancer

Once again, my reading habits got in the way of my long held beliefs. My local library is lean on tactical manuals, but it did have this little item.

Fighting Techniques of the Medieval World AD 500 – AD 1500

I am not through with it yet, so this is not a review. I will post a full review at a later date. I just wanted to get this archery issue out in the open. I thought it was fascinating, and to my mind, counter-intuitive.

Historically, archery units actually stopped full cavalry charges! In fact, they stopped repeated charges. The answer is so simple that I am ashamed that it did not occur to me in countless role-playing games. You can stop a cavalry charge with big sticks and holes.

The big stick idea is an old device. A long pole with a sharpened point buttressed with your foot to impale charging horses. Hollywood actually got this part correct, see “The 13th Warrior” and “Braveheart” for nice examples. This was not a surprise to me.

What did shock me were the holes. Lots of little potholes (also called pottis) dug into the field. Perhaps 1 foot wide and knee deep. They were not for the men to hide in, they were to swallow a single horse leg. For extra damage, sometimes sharpened stakes lay at the bottom of the hole.

This simple defense has multiple benefits. First, they are completely lethal to any horse that puts a leg into one. At a gallop, the leg will break, killing the horse (eventually) and throwing the rider to the ground. A dismounted, prone knight is easy prey for the lightly armored archers. Once the first ranks go down, subsequent cavalry ranks, have to slow down to avoid holes, blunting the charge. Slower charges mean a longer time for the archers to strike a lucky shot. War horses also tended to be rare, so each one killed or crippled is costly to the attacker.

Mixing the “pottis” in with ranks of archers holding long, sharp poles and cavalry suffer tremendous losses. Always remember that many of the archers are still firing at an incredible rate into the blunted charge. Losses were tremendous.

Of course, the cavalry can ride around the obstacles and it requires enough time to dig the pottis, so it is far from a perfect defense. That said, the ability of archers to crush a cavalry charge is fascinating to me. So much for long held beliefs.

Trask, the Last Tyromancer

Overwatch.

Essentially, overwatch is the process of using one unit of troops to “cover” the movement of another unit. Usually the overwatch unit has the high ground to maximize field of fire and terrain visibility. It is repeatedly called for by heroes in film since World War 2 with the classic refrain of “Cover me!” The overwatch unit fires to supress the enemy. It is hard to shoot straight when someone is shooting at you. This gives the protected unit a chance to get into a better position, retreat or setup heavy equipment. Killing enemy troops is not the primary goal, keeping the enemy busy is the critical task. Although, no one will complain if some of the bad guys have a terminal moment. ;-)

In the real world, it works well, but in games it has limited utility, since the players want to be in the action and not sitting on a mountain top providing supressive fire.

There is a solution, with a slight variation on the classic.

Bounding Overwatch

Same setup as before, but it is a leapfrog configuration. Assuming two units, A and B are moving through a forest. A moves ahead and finds an nice spot to cover the movement of unit B. B moves past A until it reaches the edge of A’s effective weapon range and sets up to cover A’s movement. A then moves past B and the cycle repeats.

This has several benefits, both in game terms and tactically. Tactically, some of the party members are always “on alert,” weapons at the ready, eyes scanning for enemies. Any DM worth his salt should give some “see the enemy ambush” bonuses for clever player tactics. Players also have to be on their toes, both as the bounding party and the overwatch party. Much more fun all around.

It also gives the party’s token stealthy character a break. All too often parties send the sneaky rogue out as a scout and he cannot handle what he finds. I have scraped many a rogue off the walls after the encounter landed on him with both feet.

I understand this will have limited utility in a dungeon, but outdoors it is excellent.

For further information, I suggest you consult Global Security . I linked directly to the overwatch page, but you should browse the entire site. It is chock full of gaming tactical crunch. Remember, reality makes for better gaming.

Trask, the Last Tyromancer

DM: A  Stone Golem attacks!

Annoying Player: I draw my adamantine mace and attack.

DM: A vampire attacks!

Annoying Player: I grab my holy water sprinkling mace.

I much prefer this version.

DM: A “mnemonic revenant” attacks!

Annoying player: I grab my…Wait, a what? What should I attack it with? Ahh, mommy save me! I do not know how to defeat this new and unique monster.

DM: Muwahaha!

Nothing terrifies players like a monster they do not know anything about. It really adds a level of difficulty and fear to any encounter.  Since most of the iconic monsters in most game systems are well understood by the players, a new beast can really shake them up. Game masters tend to avoid it, since it is more work.

Making a custom, unique monster is annoying in any game system. Most of the time you have to make an educated guess at its stats from other monsters in the rule set. Hopefully, you create a challenging monster without making it an automatic  “Total Party Kill” creature. Also, most new monsters do not get a “playtest” with real players, creating the risk of the unforseen.

Such unforseen problem happened to me when I wrote a module with the aforementioned “mnemonic revenants.”  They are a type of incorporeal undead that delivers a mental attack. If you succumb to their attack, you have the urge to kill yourself. The game mechanic is simple. You attack yourself with your own weapon and get a “critical hit.” This continues until your fellow PCs restrain you, cast dispel magic or a few rounds pass and the spell fades.  I wrote up their stats and ran a mock combat against some PC archetypes, the fighter, wizards, etc. The “suicide” attack worked well and the other PCs had to work to defeat the beast, but it was doable. Since each PC attacked themselves, the high HP fighters took more damage than the low HP wizards, since they each have melee weapons relative to their classes. It scaled very nicely.

Then came the horrible reality.  “Living Arcanis” player characters.

The first table I ran had a dwarven PC with a great axe and some feats to amplify his critical damage.  He killed himself in two rounds because he did so much damage. Oops. I gave him a mulligan and raised him, but felt terrible. I had not considered a purpose built crit machine in my calculations.

Bottom line: Custom monsters add excitement and an unknown element to any game. Just make sure you know the players you unleash it on and test the thing before it hits the table.

Trask, the Last Tyroomancer

“Ode to Disintegrate” by Trask

my enemies die

when green death strikes them

more foes I do desire

Disintegrate, simply put, is the classic spell. Nothing screams “I AM A BADASS CASTER” like turning your enemies into a pile of dust. Although todays lesson focuses on the d20 version of disintegrate, any spell that can vaporize people or items qualifies.

Here is a quick review from the SRD.

A thin, green ray springs from your pointing finger. You must make a successful ranged touch attack to hit. Any creature struck by the ray takes 2d6 points of damage per caster level (to a maximum of 40d6). Any creature reduced to 0 or fewer hit points by this spell is entirely disintegrated, leaving behind only a trace of fine dust. A disintegrated creature’s equipment is unaffected.

When used against an object, the ray simply disintegrates as much as one 10-foot cube of nonliving matter. Thus, the spell disintegrates only part of any very large object or structure targeted. The ray affects even objects constructed entirely of force, such as forceful hand or a wall of force, but not magical effects such as a globe of invulnerability or an antimagic field.

A creature or object that makes a successful Fortitude save is partially affected, taking only 5d6 points of damage. If this damage reduces the creature or object to 0 or fewer hit points, it is entirely disintegrated.

Only the first creature or object struck can be affected; that is, the ray affects only one target per casting.

Everyone knows what disintegrate does, but few know how to use it correctly. I speak primarily of target choices.

Common usage involves shooting a low fortitude save NPC with it. Casters are particularly vulnerable to this attack. Problem is that many of them know this and take measures to “beef up” their fortitude save. Using it against a fighter or barbarian is a waste.  At higher levels, they usually only fail on a one. Trask has a far better use for this lovely spell.

Battlefield control.

Stop thinking of disintegrate as an offensive weapon and start thinking of it as a “terrain modifier.” In the SRD, I can think of no other spell that actually lets you remove parts of the battlefield.

Here are some of my personal favorites:

1. Pits are fun

Aim at the  square under a medium fighter. You only need to hit AC 10 to target a specific square.  The fighter recieves no save, since he is not attacked.  Any magical defenses that are active rarely protect the floor at your feet.  The floor, as an unattended item, does not get a save. Four squares of real estate become a 10-foot pit.  I usually give the fighter a reflex save, but some DMs do not. Even if he makes it, charging is impeded. Should the victim fail, he is at the bottom of a 10-foot hole with perfectly smooth walls. The climb check is, oh wait, look what I found under the climb skill.

A perfectly smooth, flat, vertical surface cannot be climbed.

Time to break out that potion of spider climb. You just tied up a fighter for 2 rounds, perhaps more with no save by the victim. Good times.

Bonus Carnage: have a druid create enough water to flood the pit. Nothing says “die” like swimming in full plate!

2. We do not need no stinkin’ door

Magor, the mighty magician locked his room up tight. An indestructible door bars the way. It cannot be picked, knocked or otherwise bypassed. Things look bleak for our heroes.

Until they disintegrate the wall next to the door. Even a magic door needs hinges to stay up.

3. Do you think the building needed that big support pillar in the middle?

Bring the castle down! Sappers dig tunnels under a castle to bring down a wall, you can wave your hand and save some digging.  Fair warning, messing with the underlying structure of a building can get you squashed, but it some cases it can really mess up the bad guys. Collapsing bridges, towers, building and dungeon hallways can be the difference between life and death. Hopefully their death and your ongoing life.

4. Yonder lies the key to open the demon gate! I shall get it before you. Muwahha! —Evil NPC

Unless the DM gives said item “DM protection” just make it go poof. Hard to summon demons with a pile of powder. Remember, no save for unattended items. You can also target equipment on an NPC or a PC. Great for frying spell component bags, for those times you want to take prisoners. As for PC uses, removing ropes, bindings or even soverign glue are good uses, just don’t fire into a grapple! Don’t forget wagon wheels too!

Bonus Carnage: Targeting the rope of someone climbing. It gets a save, but just think of the look on his face if he fails the save.  Not great tactics, but damn entertaining.

I hope that you can see the myriad of uses for disintegrate.  The ability to alter terrain is a powerful and often overlooked use of this spell.  Use it wisely and you will be victorious!

If you any other ideas or think my tactics came from a crackerjack box, feel free to leave a comment.

Trask, the Last Tyromancer