Wish you had less to track during D&D 4e combat encounters, especially as a DM? Or as a player?
Do you wonder why the typical 4e combat often moves so slowly from turn to turn, and if there is a better approach or tool – through a bird’s eye, whole encounter level view – to track all of its phases, triggers and Not So Immediate Actions? You’ve come to the right place!
Memorial Day weekend essentially means summer is here, and after all your delicious BBQs, drinks of choice, lawn games and whatever crazy dancing you may or may not throw in, it’s also a great time of year to try some new things, including new games or returning to some gaming passions you’ve taken a break from.
Now that D&D 4th edition has been out a few years, if you have some friends you’d like to introduce to D&D 4e or want to start a new playgroup of your own or simply get everybody together again and relaunch one, it can be a little daunting or unclear as far as how to start, what to buy, and where to buy it.
Want some help? Here’s a few quick and simple lists:
Retreat, fleeing and withdrawing from combat could use more clarification or guidance as a standard part of the D&D 4e game rules. So could other encounter strategies like parlay and surrender.
Sure, lots if not most creatures will flee, to live and fight again, or just to live. Many are willing to or are compelled to talk – for a variety of noble and practical reasons. And some will even surrender, expecting their lives be spared per an arrangement or the unwritten rules of battle and war.
However, while all these alternatives to combat are quick and dirty to execute in many forms of cinema or literary works… doing so smoothly in D&D is hit or miss.
Your characters’ social or interaction skills are flexible tools and creative weapons against the monsters and opposition you face throughout your adventures.
It’s important to remember that you can and should flex your reputation, physical presence and silver tongue to influence not only complex situations and help make critical greater-scope decisions, but to apply those same ideas in influencing the starting conditions or makeup of encounters.
Armed with Bluff, Insight, Diplomacy and Intimidate, you can directly affect the odds and victory conditions of the encounters that stand between you and victory, glory or even simple survival – before an encounter begins or combat even breaks out.
Just this past April, Wizards of the Coast asked the Character Optimization Forum folks – people and D&D 4e players like you and me – what the good, bad and ugly is in D&D 4e. They’re listening to and interacting with the D&D community more than ever, so it’s no wonder hundreds and hundreds of posts came back.
What about DMs? No worries, Popesixtus and Wrecan have us player/DMs and full time DMs covered! Or even full time players who are curious what DMs think! What I really like most about the DM version of this effort is that DMs tend to think at and communicate a more macro level view of D&D’s core principles, elements and features.
After all, DMs run games, so they experience quite a lot from many different perspectives.
And player/DMs? Is there a greater state of D&D enlightenment?
Recognizing and reducing game slowdown caused by a proliferation of triggers or immediate actions and interrupts isn’t just a player character issue in combat encounters. Dungeon Masters must also do themselves and the playgroup a favor by analyzing monster complexity and making smarter monster selections when encounter building.
The (unfortunate) reality is, monster or encounter themes, flavor and atmosphere don’t always mesh with a smooth and easy-to-run encounter. It’s important to look over monsters and understand their complexity and potential slowdown impact when put together, not just individually.
To illustrate where monster complexity and selection can easily cross the slowdown line, allow me to briefly recount a thematically flavorful early paragon tier encounter I created and ran a few months ago.
One of the major problems with D&D 4e combat is its average length, typically caused by the tremendous slowdown that occurs during combat due to the multitude of options the all-important action economy offers. Consider that a character has at least three actions he or she can take on every turn (standard, move and minor, plus a few free actions).
Now add in the immediate action every round, the opportunity action per other creature’s turn, and other immediate action-like or triggered free actions a character can take, and you’re looking at one bloated action economy. It’s no wonder turns – either yours or someone else’s – grind to a screeching halt.
How many times have you forgotten this or that small buff, temporary bonus, or helpful feat, racial or class feature in your games? Make it stop with Kilsek’s D&D 4e Buff Cards!
The Problem
We’ve all been there. While Weem’s D&D 4e Condition Cards are absolutely fantastic references and reminders for all the ever-present conditions in play, I found myself needing more help and visual aids for those other common game situations where we have all these cool little buffs or temporary modifiers that are harder to track and easier to miss or forget, especially between turns, as Robert Schwalb talks about in Reasonable Choices.
The Solution
And so, inspired by both Weem’s condition cards and this critical 4e gaming need, I created my own custom Buff Cards!
We all know by now that the average 60 minute encounter in D&D 4e is far too long. It’s an eternity compared to prior editions, but worst of all, it has a negative impact on the smoothness and progress of play and adventure pacing.
That dark road eventually leads to a non-immersive experience and disenchanted and bored D&D players and DMs – if you let it. Even D&D 4e lead designer Mike Mearls has admitted to seeing combat length as an issue in retrospect.
However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Here’s a Leonine Six – the Corvette of Leonine 12’s – to get your playgroup’s combats back on the fast track!
This is part of a series of articles surrounding character death in D&D 4th edition. For related articles, go here.
Dealing with character death shouldn’t stall or end a game or story, especially if you’ve already planned for it as a playgroup. As you and I both know, adventuring is dangerous – heroes die, even in 4e. Here are some ways to be ready for it and manage character death smoothly in your campaign, whether you DM or play: (more…)
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