Designing combat encounters that are fun, interesting and challenging
is not easy. I don't claim to be perfect at it, but I hope that I can
at least help a few people by sharing my general method for thinking
about combat encounters. It will be high level so that it can be used
for any system.
Time
The concept of time and timing is an important part of plotting a
campaign. For that reason, it is a far broader topic than I will
cover today. Still, the timing can have a great deal of
impact on a combat encounter. For the purposes of this piece, I don't
mean the physical time (night, day and visibility in general could be considered as part of the environment) but instead the timing of
elements in the encounter and the timing of the encounter in regards to the campaign itself. A showdown with the villain may actually
be 3 encounters where in the first encounter the players are just trying
to escape, in the second one they will try to escape but first
do something that will inhibit the villain, and in the third and final
one will be when they finally win (the timing in the campaign that these encounters happen can contribute to the tension and excitement). It's also important to note that
not every enemy needs to be there at the start of an encounter. They
can call for reinforcements instead, which can make combat easier but
also more dynamic (4 soldiers followed by 4 reinforcements in 3
rounds is easier to deal with than 8 soldiers at once).
Theme
In a campaign, there will be an overall theme. I won't go into too
much detail here today, but themes that can be incorporated into an
encounter help tie it into the rest of the world. If themes are
broken, it can even be jarring (though sometimes that is the aim). It can include things such as enemy
types (undead, for example), locations and ways combat will play out
(do you reward retreats?).
Now that I got the context out of the way, let's talk about designing the
encounter itself.
The Players
The composition of the party as well as their general experience will
play a role in what is considered a good encounter. If the players
are too inexperienced, an encounter designed for experience players
may be too difficult for them. At the same time, some encounters that
end up being fairly dynamic for one party may break down because of
certain abilities or strategies a different party could employ. When
designing an encounter, be careful to consider possible holes that
the party has that may make things harder than you intend (missing
healing, magic, etc.). Also note the strengths of the party, their
general experience and their ability to think outside the box.
The Enemies
The things that the party will fight will contribute to how dynamic
the fight is. Mixing different abilities together can create
completely new situations for players to tackle even without
considering other factors. As the Dungeon Master, you can also add a
couple of modifications to the creatures to change things up a bit
(maybe some enemies will use nets, or there's an eldritch knight who
uses teleportation to get close to wizards). That's not to say that a
crowd of kobolds can't be fun to fight. However, if they've been
doing this for multiple encounters in a row, some variety may help
(even if it's through a wizard kobold).
The Environment
Fighting in an open plane is distinctly different to fighting in a 20
foot by 20 foot room which is distinctly different than fighting on a
10 foot across bridge. Thinking and implementing good environments is
partially an art. However, at the very least cover and elevation need
to be considered. Both of these are instrumental in breaking up
static strategies (fighters block the tunnel). It's also important to
make sure the baddies you populated the environment with use the
environment to their advantage if they are intelligent or don't at
all if they are unintelligent. You can also throw in a couple of
unique features into your environment. Teleporting environment
features are a good example, since they help break up the usual
environment and break the rules. I've also seen special material
deposits that reflect magic, make magic weaker or even empower magic.
The point it to consider how the environment will change tactics and
to use it to make combat more interesting (this also means that there
needs to be a benefit to using the environment in creative ways or at
the very least it should be memorable).
Twists
I previously mentioned reinforcements coming after 3 rounds. That
would be an example of what I call a twist. It also related to timing
but there is no problem with multiple parts of my model overlapping.
In my model, a twist is a feature of the encounter that is outside
the enemies, players and environment that helps make the combat
different. An earthquake every 1d4 rounds is an example (it may sound
close to environment and ideally all of the elements should combine
together to make a seamless whole, but I tend to consider the
environment as a bit more static). It could be a plot point as well
(big bad wizard turns out to be a big bad lich wizard in disguise).
The most common thing, however, is to add some kind of goal besides
beating the other guys. Interrupting a ritual, chasing after a
certain character, or even destroying the entire room could all be
used to change the flow of combat (obviously, if the players are
trying to bring the entire place down it will be a different
experience than just beating the bad guys). The twist, depending what
it is, could make the encounter easier or harder (bringing down an
entire temple by knocking out the support pillars could make it
easier since the players wouldn't need to defeat all the cultists, or
could make it harder because of how hard a pillar is to destroy and
that more shadows will come until the temple is destroyed). It could
also be a non-combat puzzle that needs to be accomplished to seal
away the demons (I'm quite fond of non-combat + combat encounters).
Conclusion
I hope my model of using time and theme as considerations as well as
the players, enemies, environment and twists helps plan, analyze and
inspire combat encounters. It is still challenging to come up with
dynamic and memorable encounters, but I think every little bit helps.
As always, feel free to comment.
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