ENEMY DIALOGUE IN COMBAT: Keep your Players Engaged in D&D: DM Academy

We've all had combats that have become a boring slog. Enough of that! With this simple technique, Dungeon Masters can better keep the attention and enthusiasm of their players. We'll talk about the benefits of enemies talking, barks vs. monologues, and how to implement awesome dialogue that will make your combats memorable.

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[AggroJordan]

Good advice! Doesn't even have to be straight up talking. Make it obvious gestures, describe the facial expression of monsters, describe effects vividly. It's work and needs practice, but it makes for such an effectful experience. Just don't over-do it or you won't be able to give the big moves the stage they need to have to feel rewarding.

[kybateman]

Brennan Lee mulligan does this all the time in Dimension 20 and I never made the connection that *this was why his combats were so good.

Fantastic video, man. Love what you're setting up.

[utkarshgaur]

Words of despair sounds amazing. I do enemy barks (usually to telegraph enemy tactics) and I also do villain actions / legendary actions whenever a solo boss is involved. Never thought about combining those two things. I'll be using Words of Despair (and create variants of it) in the future for sure.

[WinningSidekick]

Combat dialogue is a really good way to make fights more engaging and memorable. One of my PCs ended up forging an epic rivalry with a minor villain because the DM had said villain throw my paladin's plea for him to surrender back in his face before grievously wounding him (bringing him down to 0 HP). Paladin left that fight with a new scar and a grudge that completely changed his character trajectory.

I loved that game so much that I ended up running the same module for some of my other friends later. That's how I found that if you run that combat encounter by the book, is pretty generic. But my DM elevated it into one of the most memorable encounters I've ever played in, and she did that almost entirely by using dialogue. Needless to say, I emulated her approach. Though my party actually ended up killing that particular villain way earlier on in the game.

[CatOnACell]

i use the talking enemies to convey health as well sometimes. a quick bark from a soldier saying "dammit! commander this is hopeless" is a wonderful indication that his health is too low for him to continue fighting and that 1-2 more hits will send him running for the hills.

[Asadarion]

so simple yet so helpful well done brother! You gave a whole new idea in my mind...

[Stopher]

Imma implement this next session. This was great!

[diegonilson]

Great video, that legendary action will be a nice addition to my combats

[ADT]

I've wanted to do this several times, but I have trouble with it in combat, I usually say something the first round, then near the end, and forget every round in-between. Mainly because I get focused on running all the monsters

[KrustalHersh]

Great advice, I am definitely going to try some of this. Do you find descriptive attacks and actions helpful?