Master THESE strategies for epic D&D combat

Master these 10 strategies for epic D&D combat that your players will never forget!

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[rubinelli]

Announcing your tactics works well too. Having one knight ordering guards to take down a troublesome spellcaster looks less like you are picking on a player and more like a smart opponent fighting to win, and it gives your players a chance to take countermeasures.

[atlasdivide]

I remember stumbling over my words one time as DM, trying to voice shock as the players stumbled into an area where one of the villains minions had been planning a rebellion against them. He was absolutely going to be on their side and right as I tried getting to the point, one of my players yelled

"HE'S MONOLOGUING! GET HIM!"

Hilarious, but yeah, absolutely happens where they kill something before a information drop.

[trevynlane]

One way for doing big monsters with lots of abilities is to break up their hit points to different locations on the monster. For example, a dragon has it's head, 2 wings, 4 legs, tail, and body. Hits to the body deplete all other locations hit points equally, but if a location is reduced to 0 hit points, it can't be used. The head provides all casting and breath weapon abilities and a bite attack (it has the most hit points of all locations though), the wings allow it to fly (but have the least hit points), each leg is a claw attack, and the tail is a tail swipe attack. Targeting a section other then the body means taking disadvantage on the attack roll. The actual durability of the monster does not change, but how the players fight it does.

[Marcus-kien]

Goblins in a dungeon hallway - no big deal, until they form a Phalanx with several rows of spears. Just because they are monsters, they don't have to be stupid. I have always loved Warg Riders with bows riding around the party at a distance, raining arrows into the center.

[cermence]

0:55 Narrative Description
3:00 Dialogue during Combat
4:04 Increase Damage, reduce Hit Points
5:23 Special Abilities
6:30 Spellcasting
8:37 Magic Items
9:40 Tactics
10:56 Plan the Setup
11:41 Vary the Goal
12:31 Throw a Curveball - a Twist.

[IronicCliche]

I love how carefully you've created videos that can appeal to both the PF2 and 5e communities. There's been far too much derision between us.

[redredleg]

I ran an encounter this weekend that seemed well received. Basically the party had to gather tentacles from a roper without killing the roper. To do so they had to get grappled by the roper's tentacles and either pull or cut them off. I started the roper with only 2 tentacles but let it regenerate 1 per turn as normal; up to a max of 6. Players had to work together to get the roper to attack; and then remove the tentacles and carry them out of the roper's range. It required teamwork and out of the box thinking. The feedback I received afterwards was that it was really fun because it was a puzzle that made the players think of how to use their abilities in different ways.

[DungeonsAndDrams]

I'm sure you're tired of covering this same topic again, but it's good to have it drilled into people's heads.

[jonathanschmitt]

6:20 Insert sleezy plug for Luke's free PDFs.

Edit: 9:05 I've always liked the idea of a Marilith with 6 Vorpal Swords. It's an engine of obliteration until it dies and your party has 6 Vorpal Swords.

[adwenger]

Did this with a Tarrasque. Had it picking up characters to use as weapons. Sweeping attacks that required saves instead of AC. Had it lose actions (not turns) to control spells instead of legendary resistance.

Players got frustrated that I didn't play by the book entirely. Pretty sure some had the Tarrasque page in the manual open...

[wypmangames]

having a BBEG not start a monologue until the "heroes" attack, and as he is getting beat up his monologue reveals how he has done the evil deeds for the better of the world and that the players are about to unleash some sorta way bigger threat on the world is one very spicy way to mix the "dialogue during combat" and "screwing with murder hoboes" abilities lol

[Mastikator]

I once turned a iron golem into a pretty menacing boss. I gave it legendary action so it makes a total of 5 attacks per round. Then I added two arcane devices that hurled fireballs at the iron golem every round, healing it and harming nearby player characters.
It was pretty fun. But in retrospect I should've made the environment more dynamic, made the ground tiles move, made flames erupt from grids.

[pirosopus]

Playing on a VTT, I have the Co-DM handle the improv dialogue while I focus on running the combat.
Not an option for everyone, but having a Co-DM is excellent! Highly recommend trying to find someone you synergize with.

[austinwthompson]

My players hated goblins, ever since Lost Mine. I was a novice DM, and they were the go-to XP grinders for about four months. However, I spiced it up- using different monsters- but when I wanted to use goblins again, I had an idea. Now, there were goblin shamans, who aid the infantry with area-of-effect healing, or goblin wolf-riders who would hit-and-run using disengages and quick speed. Then there were archers, barbarians, and the shield-wall; adding tactics and variety made my players go from hating to loving the little green guys.

[dogs-game-too]

I think I got this tip from one of your vids, which is let the players describe their killing blows. I do a lot of the narrative, but when they finish off a monster i have them give an epic description of how

[BarelyMonthly]

A good thing to remember is that many NPC's, including low intelligence ones, shouldn't be ready to fight to the death and can try to flee, negotiate, surrender or even just attempt intimidation only to back down once challenged. A recurring "hostile" NPC or a defeated challenger turned ally can be great for storytelling!

[joeallen]

7:33 talking about spell casters.
Most spell casters are smart. Especially if the spell caster is the boss. So it's ok to plan out what spells the caster would use and in what order / circumstance.

Example: My party sought out a Hag in the Fey realm. I made her a 15th level sorcerer. Her gig was making a fey deal (no lies but not full disclosure and be sure to read the fine print) using a ritual and one level's worth of a characters XP to cast "Wish" for the character in return for what ever they bargained for. I knew they wouldn't like the fine print and combat would happen, and so did the hag so she planned for it.

Before doing the wish she'd cast Geas on up to characters involved in the deal prioritizing casters.
When the characters start getting aggressive in conversation before the combat starts she would cast Delayed Blast Fire Ball as a fail safe to be detonated if/when she fell below 3/4 HP.
She'd save her 7th level slot for Teleport to escape.
In combat she would start with Charm, then blink, then lightning bolt, etc.

[dextra_]

For my games I literally made a worse version of counterspell and a mirror to it that allows a caster to reignite the spell they cast which did lead to someone countering a fireball that then still went of after two rounds, because my reignite Spell allowing spells that failed to work that have been cast within the last half a minute, also has the funny function of activating a sorcerers wild magic feature if they have it.

[sethb]

I do remember one combat in particular with a hydra. Players tracked it to its underwater lair, lured it out, had a four round stationary slugfest with it, artillerist flame turret made sure it never regenerated any heads, done.

Looking back, I see changes I should have made. For starters, have it use its lair, dive back into the water to regenerate, drag PCs in and stuff. Second, make it so its only ability doesn't have such an easy off switch. Maybe have it make con saves vs cauterization. Idk. Anyway, this video gave me some good ideas.

[TheAwsomeKing]

Had some interesting combat releated stuff happen my last session

So during my campaign the main city was hosting a festival and one of the events was a simulated dungeon basically a dungeon where the monsters are just actors, possible due to the city’s incredible diversity (note in this simulated dungeon all participants players included had a magic item that prevented them from killing each other so they could go all out without an ounce of worry) the boss of the simulated dungeon was an ice devil who’s combat rating should have been way higher then the party one hit from the guy could have knocked them out and he got 3 attacks in a turn, it promised to be en epic battle the players would have to think smart to win….. or I could just role like shit the entire combat, they beat the dungeon and claimed the prize oh well I’ll live I made the choice to let them have that prize I’ll live with it…. Later after the festival the party is on a trip to a neighbouring village to investigate something so I’m like well let’s role some encounters and a roll up a few cr 1/2 giant wasps which at their level any party member could basically one shot and one of the party members having a crazy high ac due to a magic item that I accept I let them have and am fine with for the record, the wasp almost knocks them out and is a way harder fight then it had any right to be