Faster Combat Review

One of the biggest–and to me, more legitimate–criticisms about Dungeons & Dragons is the length of combat. I remember how, back in 3rd Edition, combat was often resolved pretty quickly, allowing us to plow through a good chunk of dungeon in a given sitting.

When 4th Edition came out, though we were excited by all the options and changes, we saw immediately that combat could drag, especially if monsters took reduced damage or could heal. The kobold ambush at the start of Keep on the Shadowfell? That could eat up 30-60 minutes of game time, and that is just for kobolds.

Faster Combat is just over 260 pages of advice and methods on how to speed up combat in your game. Some of it are things that you probably already know, like pre-rolled initiative charts, average damage results (which is featured in D&D Next‘s monsters), and reducing monster hit points by 25% or more, but there is a lot of other stuff in here, like noting how long individual players take (along with a variety of ways to establish a time limit, as well as a reward system), ways to identify character strengths and weaknesses (along with ways to challenge or pander to them), and combat terrain to use/not-use.

Even better is that is is not just about combat efficiency; there are sections on how to design more exciting encounters (along with a list of 20 random and fantastic encounter locations), run “cannon fodder” and boss monsters, 50 monster quirks, numerous linked resources relating to whatever it is you are learning about, and more.

It is, in a word, extensive, which is good because even if a DM is not willing to invest much time in an attempt to resolve any of the issues mentioned (which not every group suffers from, or even identifies as such), there are still other things that he or she might find useful, like the aforementioned random encounter and quirks, and encounter building advice.

The ebook runs $20, but whether or not it is worth it depends on what kind of games you play (it is intended for Dungeons & Dragons and D&D-related games), and if you have any issues with running combat and/or building encounters. If so I think it is worth the buy, though even experienced DMs might learn a thing or two. You can preview the book’s mind map, but this is where I think a few preview sections would help gamers on the fence.

Swamp Ambush Map

I’m a fan of doing the random encounter bit while players are going from plot-pertinent area A to plot-pertinent area B, or at least making my players think that its random. I’m not really a fan of actually random encounters because all too often they are not relevant to the plot at all, and when the players know that it seems like so much padding and pointless grindage. Since 4E isnt a fan of throwing out ludicrous amounts of treasure, in most cases you can’t even throw them a +1 enchanted bone to tickle their fancy.

The first encounter in At The Mines Of Madness appears to be a random encounter, but is in actuality carefully planned. Well, its not “carefully” planned, but I at least but enough forethought into it to draw up a map and populate the encounter ahead of time.

The caravan that the party is on gets ambushed by bullywugs and their trained battle-frogs (Monster Manual 3). The caravan is being guarded by more than just them (since the party might not all be hired to protect the caravan), so I decided to make it pretty damned hard.

Swamp Ambush (858 XP)

• 8 bullywug croakers (level 3 minion brute)
• 3 bullywug muckers (level 1 brute)
• 2 murklord frogs (level 2 skirmisher)

Treasure: crude gold bracelet (20 gp), crude gold necklace (15 gp), 3 gp, 20 sp. The jewelry is graven with an abstract fish motif (these were taken from the characters killed during the prologue).

The bullywugs will leg it if reduced to half their number or less. The frogs will also book it if they are bloodied and no bullywugs are within 3 squares of them. Depending on the player’s character, I will have the players control some or all of the guards (minion soldiers) and just give them the stat blocks to make it easier on me (in particular characters with a history of making caravan runs, Shadow Marches guides, or leader-types).

Lets talk about terrain features.

• Shallow Water: Difficult terrain for anyone without a swim speed. It also grants an attack bonus to creatures with the Aquatic keyword (ie, bullywugs and frogs). Characters taking ongoing fire damage can fall prone to immediately end the effect.
• Deep Water: Characters in deep water need to make Athletics checks to swim, and it still grants the aforementioned attack bonus. Creatures in deep water gain resist 5 fire, and ongoing fire damage automatically ends at the end of their turn.
• Trees: The large black dots are big trees that fill the entire square. Characters can climb them, and particularly devastating attacks might destroy them or knock them over. They also grant cover. The small dots are smaller trees that count as difficult terrain for everyone, and can also be destroyed.
• Bridge: Its mostly level with the ground. Characters pushed off of it make a save to avoid falling prone, but dont take damage if they fall in the water. It could be lit on fire, I suppose.

Stables Encounter Map

Once the party arrives at Shardpit, the first major building they’ll bump into is the stables. Like almost every other building in Shardpit, its elevated (1 square) on thick posts, but otherwise looks “normal”. However, normalcy isn’t something I’m going for here, so I want the town to appear normal in every way with the exception of a minor detail or two.

Liiike, empty streets. They don’t see anyone. If they approach the stone in the middle of the path, they will discover that it merely points out the most direct (and safe) route to the House Tharashk enclave (north). A moderate Perception check reveals blood on it despite the rain.

Shortly after continuing on, characters with a passive Perception of 10 or higher automatically notice dead horses in the stable yard. If they investigate, an easy Heal check reveals that they were bludgeoned to death despite the fact that they were also eaten. A moderate Heal check reveals that the bite marks are human in nature, and that the horses have been dead for about two days.

At this point, characters with a passive Perception of 17 will hear something growling from inside the stables. If they investigate the stables, they find that the gates have bloody hand-prints on them, blood stains the hardwood floor, and several pens have dead horses as well. In the last one, they find a stable-hand eating a freshly clubbed horse (the bloody shoeing hammer is on the ground next to him).

Now, if the players just barge on in and make a lot of noise, the stable-hand instead tries to ambush them. His Stealth isn’t that hot and I figure the best I’ll get out of it is having him take a swing at the first person to look into the pen he’s feeding in. That’s okay, because I want to surprise them since I’m hoping that they keep thinking back to the Epilogue session where they controlled random NPCs fleeing from something that they couldn’t ascertain. Excepting from his extra mouth, the stable-hand also isn’t anything too fancy (level 1 skirmisher), so once combat begins the noise attracts other townsfolk who come-a-callin’.

Most of the everyday citizens dont suffer from any extreme mutations, though there are exceptions like the poor, poor stable-hand (I think I’m going to say that those who are in possession of treasures taken from the shrine are at high risk of contamination). His slobbering maw is a shark’s mouth and grows from his stomach. He seems to go into a frenzy at the taste of blood.

Human rabble will fill the niche I need for rushes. Most of the humans in Shardpit look perfectly normal, except for a deranged look in their eyes. They are all very dirty and smelly, having spent the last few days reduced to an animal-like state. They tend to cluster together with a pack mentality, avoiding the townsfolk that possess major physical deformities. Their stat blocks dont need any change.

Guards were sent into the shrine to investigate it for traps and monsters. Since they all share the barracks, they infected eachother and now possess tentacles growing from some part of their bodies. Their fingers have begun to grow suckers and bond together, and their skin has become splotched.

Along with the guards went the hounds. Again, they share a kennel and have some shared features: guard dogs have chitinous growths and spines (emphasizing the soldier role better), while the hounds just have multiple sets of eyes. Down here, they all teleport.

Thinking of changing the names, but frankly I don’t care too much since the players wont see the names: I just want a normal dog and then an armored one.

Songs of Erui: Encounter Features

I didnt want to write about this because it relies on a lot on the stuff I’ve thought of for The Hydra’s Grave, and I’m concerned that some of my players might read it. The Hydra’s Grave is your basic dungeon complex, built with the resources of three eladrin houses. The following are constant features that can be found in almost every room:

• Glowing motes of light, that as far as Grynn can determine provide a cold illumination in most chambers, but mostly seem to be an effect of heavy magical “bleeding”. The light is just a useful side-effect. I kept pressing the fact that they were unharnessed magical residue, and I’m surprised that no one has thought about trying to channel it as part of a magical effect or ritual. I havent decided on a hard effect for these, instead waiting for some player input and creativity on its usage.
• Illusionary walls that monsters like to come charging through, since the creatures that have been there awhile (mostly carrion sprites) have learned which walls are real, and which are false.
• Roots that grow through the walls and ceiling. The basic function of these is to ramp up fire-based attacks (which Maev has with fire seed, but even Grynn is packing some alchemist’s fire). Big ones can be used as cover, but if you are in a square with a root that gets lit on fire you take fire damage. Very simple and easy.
• Crumbling pillars that could be used for cover and/or pushed on top of adjacent monsters. I put these in a lot of rooms. Sure, the eladrin put a lot of effort into the place, but after a thousand years and roots growing through everything, something is going to give. I would run this as a Strength attack/check that deals basic damage and can either prone or immobilize and prone depending on size.
• Piles of bones or stones that act as difficult terrain. Simple but appropriate. Pillars that get knocked over would count as such, as would the larger undead baddies.
• Sarcophagi that could be used as ranged cover, or stood upon for a simple melee attack bonus (yes Josh, you can haz higher ground). They are also difficult terrain. Sometimes, I like to have monsters spring out of them (mostly skeletons or ghosts).

However, I did add some unique features in specific chambers:

• A massive shard of ice that characters trained in Arcana could use to make powerful ranged attacks. Grynn was able to pull this off in session three. The shard also granted resist 5 fire and slowed creatures that werent proficient with cold-based magic.
• There was a room filled with wolf spirits that made it so that if you hit a flanked creature, that it was knocked prone.
• A room with a charnel pit that imposed a penalty on living creatures, granted everything inside concealment, and also ate healing surges.
• A room with two walls filled with demonic remains that did random shit to creatures caught between certain sections: sometimes it was energy bursts, sometimes it ate energy attacks. Other times it caused a creature to randomly attack someone if it beat their Will defense.

Thats it, so far. At least, all that I want to reveal. The party has dealt with all of this shit already, and I dont want to reveal features that they havent seen, yet.