21 Tips to Master D&D Combat: How to Run RPG Fights That Balance Fun, Challenge and Time Investment

3 Wise DMs

Combat is such a central part of D&D 5E, but it’s also a part of the game that can take forever! And not all players are down for a 4-hour fight every game session. What can the DM do to keep the fights fun for everyone, even if some players in the party want fast combat and others want to take their time and enjoy the tactics? How do you make sure you’re not the one slowing combat down and killing the vibe?

It’s not just a D&D question, either. DM’s who stumble running combat encounters can make even the fastest combat systems seem like a slog. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about how they run combat, from what makes a good or boring fight to how they manage their monsters, how they decide who gets attacked next, and how hard they try to kill the party. It’s everything you need to know to make your RPG combats, especially in D&D 5E, as fun as they can be.

2:00 Is D&D combat unique? In any system, you need to keep it moving and know your NPC/monster abilities, so you don’t bog the fight down.

6:00 What makes a combat encounter good or boring? It’s about the time invested and the context.

12:00 Encounter building: How we prep our combats, whether they’re planned or improvised.

16:00 An aside about our Curse of Strahd party making deals in the Amber Temple.

18:00 How you manage your monsters says a lot about how you DM.

24:00 Nothing kills combat faster than a DM trying to cast spells they’ve never read: Know your NPC abilities.

29:00 Treasure: Random rewards or planned gifts for every party member?

35:00 Too many easy fights are boring, but so is the party getting beat down every combat.

38:00 What do you do after initiative is rolled?

39:00 Why Call of Cthulhu combat runs much faster than D&D 5E.

45:00 Balancing what different players want from combat: Some want fights to go faster, others want to take their time and enjoy tactical combat, and new players are still figuring it out.

48:00 Players need to feel like they’ve accomplished something with the game, not wasted all night on one meaningless combat

50:00 Understanding players’ mental ability to grasp D&D combat, their options and theater of the mind

53:00 Is theater of the mind (combat without maps) a good way to make combat run faster?

55:00 How aggressively should you try to kill the party?

61:00 Fight about 1 in 3 encounters on the NPCs’ terms, not the party’s

65:00 The monsters should know what they’re doing (h/t Keith Ammann) and fight that way

70:00 DM Dave breaks Tony’s heart by saying Strahd won’t deign to wrestle Hawk Morgan

72:00 How DM Thorin decides monster tactics on the fly

74:00 Sometimes the party crates opportunities for the monsters … seize them!

76:00 When is it OK to run large, all-night combats, and how do you keep them from bogging down? (There may be no right decision.)

92:00 Final Thoughts