How to Make Combat More Interesting

My favourite part of DND is the Roleplaying and a session filled with purely combat would be torture for me. Okay, not torture but not great either. Although if my Game Master can come up with an idea to spice up the combat, it could make the experience more fun and engaging for me and the other players.

A Cool Environment

Creating a cool set piece or environment for combat to take place in can make the combat more engaging for the players. Describing cool or unique locations for your Players to fight in will will paint a clearer picture of the combat in their head and will help the players to focus on the combat and be more engaged in your game. An example of a memorable location is: perhaps a floating island in the sky, with pools of lava splitting off into small streams in every direction with the source of the lava being a large lake in the centre of the island.

Environmental Hazards

The Environment I have just described is interesting, but there is also something else good about it. This environment has environmental hazards that the players could interact with, the players could throw their enemies into the lava and they would also have to avoid falling in the lava during the combat. In order to inspire your players to use your environments in interesting ways during combat, you should demonstrate what
would happen to an NPC who falls into the lava (or whatever environmental hazard you have chosen) by having one of the bad guys slip into the lava, this may spark the idea in the Player’s head that they can use the environment to their advantage in combat.

Enemy Variety

Your Players may get sick of fighting nothing but Goblins for the past 3 sessions, If you were to switch it up and have players run in to the Goblin’s Giant Spider pets, then this variety will help to keep the combat fresh and more memorable than if the combat was just another fight with the Goblins.

What Is the Goal of the Combat

Some combats will be a fight to the death where the goal is to kill the enemies before they kill you, this type of combat is good, and if the fight is difficult , it will make the stakes of the fight higher. This would engage the players as if they have the fear
of death in their minds they will take the combat more seriously and therefore be more engaged in the combat.

But there are other ways to make the combat more engaging without having the Player Characters lives on the line. Changing the goal of the combat from simply trying defeat the enemies to something more unique will make your combat more interesting and fun for the players. Although be sure not to overuse the same goal for your combats over and over, as this could cause your unique idea to become the new norm.

Below are some Examples of Having a Different Goal for your Combat:

• The goal of the combat could be for your players to defend an area from enemies before the enemies reach the location and slaughter the innocent townsfolk taking refuge behind the Players. If your players care about the lives of these NPC’s then they will still be engaged in the combat even if their Characters are not likely to die.

• Perhaps the combat will end automatically after 6 rounds and the Player Characters will have to survive an onslaught of enemies for 6 rounds.

• Your Evil NPC could be immortal when he is holding his sword and the Players have to first find a way to remove the sword from the Bad Guys hand before they can damage him. Or, perhaps if the Bad Guy is separated from his sword for 6 rounds he instantly dies, this would make the combat turn into a game of hot potato where the players have to pass the sword between each other during the combat.

Evolving Combat

Another way to improve your combat encounters is to have the combat change halfway through, for example, a new enemy could be introduced or the environment could suddenly change due to an earthquake or avalanche which changes the landscape the fight takes place on, or perhaps a thick fog rolls in which give disadvantage to ranged attacks due to the poor visibility. The change in the combat doesn’t have to affect the mechanics of the combat, it may just affect the way you describe it, but either way this will peak your players interest and keep them paying attention to the combat.

Outroduction

If all Game Masters used these tips, then perhaps I wouldn’t cringe every time I hear “roll for initiative”. That is why I encourage you to use these tips and any other methods you can think of, to spice up your combat encounters.