Combat 101: Ten Tips for Better Combats - Playing RPGs

Some basic strategies to help you and your party survive combat in Tabletop RPGs.
If you want to support my channel, or just enjoy some action-packed fantasy fiction about modern day monster-hunting knights, you can find my novels and audio books here: amzn.to/2RqEuVn
Guest starring Mike, Todd, and Dweebles
00:00 Intro
01:35 Stick Together
02:51 Combine Attacks
05:26 Retreating is OK
07:24 Use Your Terrain
07:56 Plan Your Move in Advance
09:31 Make a Plan and Be Willing to Change It
11:26 Strategize Attack Order
12:52 Remove Their Ability to Attack You
14:24 Don't Be Afraid of the Penalty
16:26 Know Your Group's Assets
17:54 Sometimes You Need to Take the Hit
20:04 Closing

[@SSkorkowsky]

For those wanting more Player Combat Tips, and even Game Master Combat Tips, check out my Combat 201 video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nanJlqGefbt_fK8

[@xeltanni8999]

Seth: "Imagine if every player at the table took ten seconds to make their action." Me: "OMG right?! That would be *amazing*! I can only dream of my group acting that quickly and..." Seth: "Yeah that's way too long." Me: "............"

[@CainLatrani]

I know, right? I'm use to ten minutes as they all take turns digging through their character sheets, reading spells, again, or trying to figure where the optimal place for them to stand is. I swear, I could smoke an entire cigar while waiting for one them to take a turn.

[@jacoblocke9113]

Lol omg yes.i dm for my kids 9 to 21 and my oldest will take 5 minutes to say I swing my sword...and he's a wizard..yeah the pain lol

[@jenningscunningham642]

When I played in the 80s we lost our turn if we did not state our action in 10 seconds.

[@andrewfreshwater1843]

I use a 6...5.... 4.... 3... Countdown. PC's will always decide quickly! 😂 😂 😂 Rather than risk losing a turn.

[@iknothatukno]

From the angry gm If they're taking too long "um" ing and "err" ing then role play that, state they are overtaken by the encounter and take the parry action. It'll only happen a time or two before they get it.

[@kickingbird6114]

Combat 101: Ten Tips for Better Combats - Playing RPGs (Summary) 1. Stick together. 2. Combine Attacks on one Enemy. 3. Retreating is OK. 4. Use your terrain. 5. Plan your move before your turn. 6. Make a Battle Plan and be willing to change it. 7. Strategize your attack order. 8. Sometimes the best option is to remove an opponents ability to attack. (knock down, disarm) 9. Don't be Afraid to Take the Penalty. Love of bonus can lead players to take bad choices. 10. Know your Group's assets. Ie know what your allies can do (spells, powers, special ability) 11. (bonus) Sometimes your job is to take the Hit. Distributing enemy hits allows everyone to surive.

[@wildreviews7412]

i like suriveing

[@taragnor]

While combining attacks is going to make you more effective, I don't really think it makes for "better" combats. I mean from a narrative standpoint it's kind of stupid if a big group suddenly ignores everyone to single out and focus target one creature unless there's a really good reason to do so, and it's likely to get your DM to start doing it back to you, which really isn't much fun at all, especially if you're the poor guy getting focused fired all the time. Really I kind of thing it's best to have a gentleman's agreement not to just focus things down and play it more like an action movie where the heroes generally pair off into their own fights.

[@kontrarien5721]

@@taragnor - Analogous to the argument against critical hits doing some massive damage or special effect up to and including decapitation. If it works both ways, eventually one of the PCs is going to have their head lopped off.

[@renookami4651]

"I hold my action" is something GMs should always teach newbies they can do. Most of time players just play by the default turns and expect the retreat scenario to take into account the dissonance between coordinated actions and turn based gameplay. Same for "alternative methods of action" like disarm/deflect, alot of players fear actions to not be allowed because they're not listed in the chara'sheet, and players who started like that may become too rigid when come their turn to GM.

[@jeanne-emerycoleman214]

I need a gif of Todd thinking, its too perfect.

[@jeanne-emerycoleman214]

@@Dorian_sapiens I just came back here to recommend this to my players for an upcoming event and damn brother you pulled through.

[@marcar9marcar972]

John Coleman this is really good

[@orrinellis856]

Use the right weapon for the job; fire for trolls, silver for vampire, cold iron for fey, bludgeoning for skeletons.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Or flamethrowers for shoggoths, shotguns from Crawling Ones, axes for Dark Young, and machine guns for T-Rexes.

[@orrinellis856]

@@SSkorkowsky Kryptonite for Kryptonians, Yellow for Green Lanterns

[@Brodka4Realz]

Or axes for enemies. Sheesh.

[@Valandar2]

And flashlights for politicians.

[@zacharybosley1935]

Silver for monsters. Steel for humans

[@BTsMusicChannel]

Awesome! Tactics I like to teach people, based on what I have learned in the military and applying them to D&D type games... (1) "Battle of Thermopylea" -- Do not rush into a confined area, especially when you can be outnumbered there. Use terrain to set up a choke point with the tanks up front to block a door to limit the number of attacks against you, and let the ranged characters blast. Plus it leaves you a retreat route behind you -- always leave an exit route! (Just as the outnumbered Spartans did in Thermopylea to prevent being surrounded.) (2) "Fling fuel on the fire. Stand back to back!" -- If surrounded, stay together in a small pack with the strongest characters on the outside of the huddle. The party becomes like a little multi-headed monster. (Go back to Gandalf's orders on top of Weathertop when surrounded by wolves.) (3) "Protect the quarterback." -- In 5e D&D, tanks should use "dodge" to extend their ability to block for other players who do damage. Tanks don't have to damage, but they do have to protect the others by pinning down the monster or restricting their ability to move or attack defensively weaker party members. (In my opinion, the most tactically smart player should be the tank until the others learn how to do it by watching. Most players I see do not have the foggiest idea what a tank is; they see a fighter as a damage dealer instead of an enabler for others.) (4) "Air forces disperse troops." -- When being attacked by something that drops big area of effect bombs (e.g., fireball, dragon breath), then you need to disperse (rather than stick together) so that they cant get the whole party in one blast. (5) "Hit and run." -- If fighting things that move slower than you, then used ranged weapons and wait for them to come to you. As they get closer, move away. (6) "Decoy and destroy." -- Another split up tactic (if you have at least equal speed to the monster) is to have one character (or small group) "kite" by running one way, and the another going another way. Force the monster to chase one group that keeps running away while the other pelts it with ranged weapons. Lastly, always remember your objective. If your job is to retrieve a magic ring, then don't worry about killing monsters unless they put you in a position where you must kill them to attain your objective. Just go around them or leave. Don't waste resources and risk death when you don't need to. If you can get the ring without killing any monsters, that's efficient. (No one who has been in the military really wants to fight if they can avoid it.)

[@greggyp8265]

I would love to play DnD with you.

[@BTsMusicChannel]

@@greggyp8265 Thanks! When I DM i use a set of tactics too. My fav is to intentionally put monster encounters that are to be avoided or run from. I love the sense that you (i.e., your character) could die, that sense of intense fear. Infinite monster spawns are a great trick to do that -- a few monsters becomes overwhelming after a few rounds. Soon the payers realize that trying to kill the monsters is not going to be possible, and they get on with what they were there to do in the first place (if it is not too late). If you do that, you have to give them an escape route (and they have to be smart enough to preserve it).

[@greggyp8265]

@@BTsMusicChannel Most of my player would just be stubborn, and try to kill all of the monsters😂

[@anthonynorman7545]

This is great advice! I noticed you didn't say which edition of D&D nor do I know how you build encounters, but for protecting the football in 5e a tank dodging is typically suboptimal because of the importance of action economy. It's hard for tanks to draw the attention of enemies and not attacking enemies lowers the tank's percieved threat level. Dodging also has the action economy result of a negative if the tank isn't targeted or is the victim of a saving throw that's not dexterity.

[@BTsMusicChannel]

@@anthonynorman7545 I think dodging is great in 5e if you have others that can do damage while the blocker blocks. These are tactics I tend to like as player. As a DM, many of my encounters so that they are obstacles to attain milestones more so than objectives themselves. I like it when players do NOT attack things, but find other ways around them. The only exception is a quest where the players are tasked by a quest giver to rid the world of something. The rest of the time, I see encounters more as a problem to solve and they are often too hard to win by fighting. They are there to kick the intensity up a notch. In general I do not like 5e though -- too many player options that break the game, too much emphasis on power gaming super-hero individualism (i.e., level up and gain more power as the object of the game, rather than team problem solving/going to war with the army you have rather than the army you want, not enough mystery in the magic or rich enough description to make people feel awe or fear), and preference for farcically flawed (rather than heroically brave) characters. I am more partial to my own home brew systems that borrow form different games. My goal is to to create a sense of wonder, awe, and fear -- which means that a lot of stuff players can't know, such as a spell list with all the rules in the Player's Handbook. I think that is the biggest mistake Gygax made, and all other D&D editions have that same problem. In my opinion, the players should not know what magic is until the DM reveals it to them. Magic is the source of mystery in fantasy, and player's rule books turn it into a tool or new weapon for the power gamer instead of something that is "unknown" (in the HP Lovecraft sense). As a side note, if you read the details of the fantasy stories and to whine about how long winded Tolkein is (for example, as people like Matthew Colville have), you can learn a lot of things you can adopt or adapt for your game -- whether it be flavor, hardcore content, or even game mechanics.

[@BeaglzRok1]

I can definitely attest to the power of using the terrain and removing the ability to hit you. In a semi-recent D&D game, my Barbarian had some beef with a corrupted angel after she showed up out of nowhere (really the Greater Invisible Monk used an item to summon her, but no one thought to explain that to her and the party actively kept the item a secret from me in-character) while we were fighting some devil cultists. She was claiming not just the cult's entire stash of treasure, but also the party's indentured servitude for her deigning to help out when she arrived. Initiative was declared by the DM at my outburst, and the other party members chose to not roll, as this was my action and they don't want any of the consequences of picking a fight with a celestial, especially a mean one. Winning initiative, my Barbarian (who had seen her fighting with a wicked battle scythe not ten minutes prior, talking 2d4+6d8+4 on two attacks) disarms the angel of her weapon, grapples her, and then drags her away from her weapon. The DM, not really expecting that to happen, has the angel try to escape the grapple, (as by 5e rules when you're grappled you get no movement, even flight) but fails in the attempt due to massive Barbarian strength. I then drag her to a nearby lava fixture (as this cult is wont to have, devils generally being immune to fire damage so it's a good place to hide) and lower her in, doing obscene amounts of damage and killing her in the follow-up hit. This was a creature that was intended to be a match for a party a full 8 levels higher, and while she was moderately wounded from the prior fight, so was my Barbarian after being SET ON FIRE and basically being the Wall of Damage Sponging between the cultists and the party's casters. So even with whatever factors may or may not have made it easier, it was still a one-on-one fight with a far stronger opponent that was effectively beaten by thinking outside the usual strategy of just hitting things. "This thing is great at fighting with this weapon, maybe don't let her have it." "It can fly, but I can't, so try to keep it on the ground." "Lava does lots of damage to bad guys, maybe it does the same to used-to-be-good-guys." All thoughts that even an 8 INT tribal Barbarian can think of if you remember half their lives are spent fighting in harsh conditions where every edge is necessary.

[@Kwiatekbe]

Loving this so far, but had to comment on a coincidence that happened because my ISP is trash. Just after you said, "each player spends an average of 10 seconds at the beginning of their turn deciding what to do." my network had lost connection and the video had only buffered to that point. So I thought, "Wow that's a great way to emphasize how long that is" with the YT buffering 2/3 circle and everything. So I hover over the video and that time has stopped. This might be one of those you had to be there things, but it seemed pretty funny to me. Thanks for the effort you put into all of your videos, always informative and entertaining!

[@joshbecka6110]

As a “veteran” player these tips and advice as always welcome. I like to think I know what I am doing, but there is always places to improve

[@SSkorkowsky]

What's weird is how quickly veteran players forget. Part of that is due to strategies changing as a group and game becomes more powerful and a world of new options becomes available. It's dramatic to see when they switch from a powerful High-Level game to a weaker Low-Level one, and all of a sudden all that strategy they used to use when they were low level before is forgotten. It can take them a while to remember how they used to deal with swarms of bad guys before they had their fireball miniguns. Then you have the change of systems. Very often I've seen players either A: Forget all strategy altogether and they flail around like they've never played a TTRPG before until they begin to re-learn it, or B: They rigidly stick to a tactic that worked in the previous system and fail to take into account the mechanic differences until after they've gotten their teeth kicked in a few times.

[@inomad1313]

Seth Skorkowsky Thanks for all the great advice. It’s nice to have these refresher courses. I’ve seen many veteran players (myself the included) fall into these pitfalls because they didn’t adapt to the situation. One example: I was late joining a group of newbies. (2e DnD). The group was struggling with the basics (like tying knots in a rope to make the climb up a mountain) and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. So, the DM made me create a character. So, quick, down and dirty, I rolled up a one trick pony double scimitar specialist. My characters first encounter was with a aerial gargoyle that had been his captor for several years. He picked up his scimitars (ignoring the +1 magical longsword. I never thought to check the longsword) and went to town dealing multiple attacks and massive damage on a creature that regenerated anything but magical damage. When the party finally arrived, the fighter picked up the longsword and killed it in two hits. I ran with it. From that point on my character refused to use anything but scimitars...until he was forced to use a hammer by a god. It forced him become its cleric. Ty Windswords hated that god. But, that’s another story for another time. I miss Ty Windswords and his magic scimitars Gyre and Gimble.

[@danacoleman4007]

I've been playing for 35 years and all these videos do is make me realize that I know nothing!

[@Striker2054]

Another helpful tip for combat: Kill the "Force Multiplier." It's a variation on the Shadowrun classic "Geek the Mage." Find the enemy that can drop the most damage or can keep others fighting and end them quickly. In a lot of fantasy inspired games, this is the caster classes. In more tech heavy games, this is the person either lobbing or directing explosives, or firing the automatic weapon. If the enemy has low intelligence and a single director, kill them. Assess the situation and find the thing causing the most trouble on the field, then put the boot to them.

[@Tony-dh7mz]

Bingo,

[@WylliamJudd]

I like what you said about taking penalties. New D&D players will almost never incur opportunity attacks on themselves, even when doing so will give them a huge advantage.

[@randyman410]

Imagine skipping a game to have a baby, priorities dude

[@Sofus.]

It's their own lack of imagination, there are no rules against RPG's in the hospital baby.

[@Tony-dh7mz]

I’m not sure he’s a “dude” if he’s “having a baby” I’m not great at geography, but i’m pretty sure that’s not how it works...

[@Sofus.]

@@Tony-dh7mz It's just a sign of lack of commitment

[@Tony-dh7mz]

@Sofus, I thought it was about math and biology,

[@CaptainXJ]

You're gonna be stuck with that kid the rest of your life. The adventure comes but only once.

[@knight_gabriel]

14:55 this opponent clearly has seen Surviving Edged Weapons

[@xeltanni8999]

How does this not have *any* likes?! I'll fix that egregious error.

[@SteeleOkami]

Remember: SMENS

[@jasonnewell7036]

The battle plan section reminded me of one of my Earthdawn parties. They were so in sync that they fell into roles during combat, adapting to situations and opponents, all without any discussion. They just trusted each other to cover their roles no matter what they are up against. It was beautiful.

[@jeffbrownstain]

Dude.. I don't even play tabletop and I cannot get enough of this channel.

[@sarahdale9968]

That last advice is pure gold. I love playing ranged characters, but in D&D, I was recently playing a Ranger for a three sessions game and I figured that damned they can be an excellent "switch-hitter". Ranged at first, then when needed drop the bow, draw the sword and plunge into melee. Mixed with their small spellcasting abilities which allows them to heal themselves and boy can they take a hit. Much more than I would have expected. My go to from now on whenever I play a ranged character in D&D(specifically)

[@lordilluminati5836]

Rangers are good off-tanks and even pure tanks if built for it

[@crazyeyes8962]

Believe it or not, in AD&D many rangers were pure melee fighters that excelled at killing dangerous monsters quickly, usually with the biggest greatsword they could find. They were much more directly tied to the "Aragorn" style of ranger than the "Legolas" style of ranger. They do have a wide and useful array of skills that come in handy, and are also excellent at going solo for periods of time if need be.

[@nickwilliams8302]

#2 is a point that even experienced players can miss. I think it's because people instinctively operate on the assumption that wounding an enemy reduces their effectiveness. That _can_ work in systems that track damage effects. In games like D&D though, a Goblin with 1HP hits as accurately and as hard as an uninjured Goblin. The way I explained it to my current group was to think of a group of adversaries as a single creature with multiple attacks per round. Each adversary they take out of the fight means one less attack to a party member.

[@magiv4205]

I'm a relatively new player playing in two different systems with two different groups. One is vanilla D&D, which, like in this video, requires us to gang up on enemies and not try to solo them especially if outnumbered, but otherwise, isn't very complex mechanics wise. The other one is a much less forgiving system where everyone has a pretty constant, but much lower overall pool of hitpoints. Not only do you gradually become less effective depending on your health percentage, but it also has a wound system that will cripple your future attacks, parries and movement speed with just one wound. The more you get hit, the worse you fight, and the more likely you are of going down. This is hell for an unequipped and unprepared party, but we can also use it to our advantage on our enemies. In such systems, it is much more important to play tactically and try to get the drop on our enemies, especially if they hit harder than you and we know that one hit from an orcish waraxe or one bolt from a heavy crossbow WILL cause a wound, that are a bitch to fight with and also a bitch to heal afterwards.

[@The_Murder_Party]

Nick Williams Nick Williams speaking of that, I have someone in Shadowrun who I allowed to have a few abilities that make called shots amazing to try to encourage others to learn that not only do they exist, but that they’re awesome.

[@crazyeyes8962]

@@magiv4205 Yes, Shadowrun is another popular system that uses this sort of game design. You have a "Damage track" which starts at 0 and goes up to a value based on your stats before you fall down and are in danger of dying, and for every 3 damage you take, you get -1 die to all tests. This also adds more mechanical depth to the game because you can use things like drugs to increase pain tolerance and remove those wound penalties, while still being actually wounded, much like a "berserker" effect.

[@magiv4205]

@@crazyeyes8962 First of all, I really have to play Shadowrun sometime, and second of all, I love the berserker effect! Not only because it is very useful, but also because it is an awesome rp element. In my system, DSA, after you recieve a wound, you have to make a saving throw after every wound recieved to not be immediately incapacitated by the pain for 5 rounds. You are still conscious, but pretty much only able to crawl. First of all, 5 rounds is a LOT, often an entire combat, and second of all, It's hard to correct, as there are very few effective healing spells in this system. And all but the most expensive ones heal gradually, and not instantly. There are several insta heal potions, but you still need someone to administer them in the middle of the fray. So if you go down, it's likely you stay down for the rest of the combat. If you manage to stay up and make a second successful grit save, you can ignore the penalty caused by the wound alltogether, and fight on normally. So it is very important to level up your grit and pain tolerance if you plan on doing any kind of melee combat, and always use buff spells before combat. Or do it like us, and have one character invest in alchemy/brewing to make potions of what we scavenge in the wilderness and on quests, to keep us supplied on drugs, buffs and heals.

[@mauriceanderson5413]

Thats why I homebrewed the fleeing/faking death/begging for mercy for majority of npcs when npc has low health while also giving them disadvantages on majority of actions and removing their modifiers from actions during it. Some creatures that go berserk or hellbent on killing, of course, ignore it, but for others its much more natural and immersive to see common animals to try to run away and bandits dropping their weapons begging for forgiveness, and even undeads like ghosts try to shift the planes and disappear or possess the item or tiny creature and hide in it. So far my players love it, and the choice deciding the npcs fate is a great roleplay fuel that also cuts and forms the alignments better.

[@JakeSweeper]

"Step up and take one for the team!" said the player who never does. :)

[@braddoc4087]

Says the wizard while he turns invisible and is about to cast flight to go back to town becaus ehe burned all of his spells in the first 5 rounds of combat and he doens't want to use a crossbow. True story, sadly, wasn't that fun to play with.

[@TERMINATOR3900]

@@braddoc4087 Did he not have any cantrips? O.o

[@braddoc4087]

@@TERMINATOR3900 Yes, but since they lacked punch he did not waste time casting them,...so our adventurers were basically we fight once, got to rest 8 hours, fight again, rest for 8 hours etc etc...needless to say it was boring as hell...not to mnetion he was metagaming @Oh, it's a dire wolf, they only got XYZ hit points, you can fight them alone...oh no a Gooey Blob! Got to use fire for that one since he's immune to anything else!@ etc etc...

[@SpySappingMyKeyboard]

It was so weird seeing 'you' as a player and one of your characters as the GM.

[@Lobsterwithinternet]

Maybe his ‘problem player’ wanted to switch seats again.

[@samsampier7147]

I love the skits, so creative.

[@hammrshark9881]

Oh man! Now I want a full video with Todd as DM! That would be hysterical! Good advice as usual! :)

[@SpidermanandhisAmazingFriends]

Todd should pick on Seth the whole time.

[@theatheistbear3117]

Spider-Man and his amazing friends! Nah, Todd would spread it equally throughout the group. Though not to be an asshole.

[@thekalechipsvendetta]

That would be great! An episode on how to guest DM!

[@jsilver9700]

Seth, you have such an excellent voice!

[@MrFleem]

DM: I know you are specialized with the greatsword, but this monster is resistant to edged weapons. Player: Mordhau!

[@AvangionQ]

Halfswording is the solution ♣

[@MonkeyJedi99]

In the system my group uses, Rolemaster, most of the weapons have the ability to be used in non-optimal ways for a minor penalty, such as hitting with the flat of a blade or throwing a short sword (NOT a minor penalty!) or using a spear like a staff to help with that skeleton.

[@bladeofhel]

I am that player.

[@patrickchapman8583]

This is why all my characters have a mix of weapons to be able to deal all the different physical damage types. In Pathfinder that is Slashing, Bludgeoning, and Piercing. If nothing else, a dagger gets you piercing or slashing. and in a pinch a gauntlet get you the bludgeoning. But I usually include a kunai which does P or B, can be thrown, and can be used as a piton or crowbar without being damaged.

[@StilvurBee]

@@MonkeyJedi99 i dunno why but hitting with the flat side of a sword is my favorite thing. it's like slapping someone except you're doing it with something that very well could be lethal. obviously, the only proper term for hitting someone with the flat of a sword is to "clap" them.

[@vezrial]

I'm going to share this with my friends, we've just started a new d&d campaign with a lot more players that we're used to

[@Loalrikowki]

This video validates my decision last session to charge into combat with my warlock and do some knife work. Huzzah.

[@markmedinabattletrix781]

I've plowed through all your videos ever since I stumbled upon your channel. I've mostly played D&D and not once have I encountered anyone who has heard of Call of Cuthulu other than the movie oh so long ago. You, Jack & co. have a great place. Thanks for the tips, reviews & fun for us who have a hard time getting groups together or just the time for said gaming sessions.

[@inomad1313]

Mark Medina There are people who have not heard of CoC RPG?!? All my gamer friends know of it, but none of them are mad enough to run it. (Well, there was the one guy in college). When I run it, my player don’t like me much. They keep coming back, though. Except that one person. If you read this, I really am sorry about that. I didn’t know you had that trigger. :/

[@pattyviggers3581]

Dear Seth: has been a while since I commented on your videos but thanks for this, I truly appreciate your efforts, andyou are alife saber, I Will make all my players watch this, our main game is cyberpunk, but we Branch out to D and D and now we start Pulp and Call of Cthulhu, but really we need more videos like thanks alot Seth, you are the best and say hi from me to Jack and the BoneSaw and the agent from Scott Bronw kisses and hugs

[@AdamRowe]

Great video, Seth! Definitely gives me some ideas next time I run combat.

[@patrick2231]

Found your videos today and got to say i absolutely adore them. it's easy to follow. you edit fairly well. good job.

[@MaxWriter]

Awesome as always with some great advice. My favorite part was the bit where one of your players took over your game and you got to play. That made me happy. I never get to play, it seems. I'm always running. Both characters looked so stoked!

[@Zacknafin]

Great examples and love the use of simple math explanations.

[@dukejaywalker5858]

wonderful video, thanks! Some of these I already knew, and others I kinda knew through instinct and common sense, but it helps to reinforce them when they're verbalized like this.

[@sweetblazincronic9]

Great video as always Seth. I have to admit that I was actually expecting a video for combat on the GM's side of the screen, and any insight you had on how to run them more smoothly and efficiently without taking away from the players. I hope you do something like this soon!

[@FrankyDCrafter]

This is my first time here on this channel. I love it. Great tips and great video. Can’t wait to check out the rest of your videos.

[@MindSlain]

This is fantastic! I know who to share this with.

[@sapientmuffin]

Seth, love your videos man. Came back to rewatch this one so I can keep the concepts in mind as I plan certain encounters. You get me excited to sit down and work on my campaign for my players. Soon as I'm done reading the Neuromancer series your books are next. Need to support my favorite D&D youtuber. 👊🏻 I think I'm also going to send this vid to my players a few days after a more roleplay heavy session just so they don't think I'm bashing them. 😂 They aren't bad by any means but they could be a little more tactical.

[@ryandornan8698]

this is one of the best dnd videos i have encountered. good stuff. Lots of sage advice and sincerely funny, too.

[@motherpenn_7087]

I come back to this video now and then when I'm designing bigger combat scenarios, it would be really cool to see a combat video from a gm point of view, thanks so much for the wonderful videos

[@NodDisciple1]

06:02 Aww Dweebles. I'm sorry. :( But yeah, as Seth said, you need to remember the importance of covering fire while trying to fall back.

[@braddoc4087]

Oh yeah the high point of that vid!

[@suerainey9250]

Seth! I totally needed this! I am about to be able to play and this was some great advice!

[@Christopher-rp3bi]

Great Job, I have forwarded this video to all my players to remind them of some basics.

[@gustavo_agibert]

Dude, your videos are awesome, definetly one of the channels that most help me as a dm

[@davencasi]

Great job on this one, Seth. My players just accidentally started a war during thier last session. Something tells me that these tips will useful for them. 😁 I'm going to show then this video before our next session.

[@andysimmons2648]

Excellent video, Seth, thanks for making it. As a gamer for more years experience than I care to admit, I can honestly think of war stories to each of your 10+1 examples and it was nice to be reminded of them. (An instance where a PC with a large 2-handed warhammer refused to switch to a silver dagger whilst fighting a lycanthrope comes to mind.) I can also remember more than one occasion when my group totally failed as well. It’s always good to be reminded on how to play smart.

[@alecluna4921]

Thanks for making the video. Inspired!

[@rossy3486]

What exceptional videos. I know Seth doesn’t play 5e as often as other systems, but I treasure his takes on D&D. But videos like this transcend systems and are truly invaluable. Please keep making these universal rpg videos! Thank you again!

[@JustBarbarianThings]

Brilliant advice. This is a great asset for any player/group.

[@albaker5418]

Thank you Seth! I have players who have not figured out these moves. Any of these moves. I say things like, "Remember the creature with one hit point can still kill you." Then I sigh and watch them injure each opponent, but not take anyone out. Aaaaah! I will suggest this video to all of them. Hopefully someone will watch this before this Thursday Game night. I have only been gaming 42 years, yet I still Found this great!

[@goncalocarneiro3043]

Grand job. These are useful tips indeed.

[@PURPLE_SHADE_SMOOTHIE]

Wow. Insightful info. This will take my DMing to a new level. Thanks!

[@lisquidsnake]

I'm about to get into a new game and these are such great tips. Will definitely help me avoid some basic beginner errors and get the most out of my PC

[@lordzaboem]

How did it go for you?

[@abdur-raaziqmajiet3834]

M.T Black's the Art of War for D&D Players is also very useful for party/player combat tactics. Love the video Seth

[@kellygandy8109]

Best combat video I have seen to date. Having played with many military players, even those intricately planning "L-shaped ambushes", etc., it is remarkable how often the tips here have been ignored. Sometimes it's just not realizing how the game mechanics work (vice "real-world experience"), but this video should be beneficial to ANY party finding themselves in combat together.

[@jacobstruck3582]

Great Content, as ALWAYS! Thank You Seth!

[@robertbogan225]

That music lol good stuff and the skits are always funny.

[@owenquillion3241]

A lot of these were trueisms to me even before I started TTRPGs - focus fire has been a classic tactic in basically all video game RPGs, for example. But I think the easiest one to forget is the last tip, which goes by the mantra 'HP is a Resource' in my groups. The first long-term character I played was a D&D5e Barbarian in a six-character campaign with only one other frontliner. We always did our jobs, but that other frontliner also stressed the importance of the guys in the backline to occasionally attract stray hits in big fights - where we coined the term. Now that I'm playing a ranged character in Pathfinder 2e, I play as basically a skirmisher - always able to position myself to 'peel' for my 'tanks' if necessary (and including a lot of short-ranged attacks to boot). The party was surprised when I threw an oathbow in a bag of holding specifically because to use it effectively I'd have to stand beyond my preferred range due to the minimum range penalties of longbows in that system. (though to be fair, oathbows aren't quite as amazing as their ancestral equivalents in Pathfinder 2e). also, minor trivia/fun fact related to video game RPG knowledge having cross-over: the original Final Fantasy also had mechanics that let you manage HP by controlling where damage went - the character at the top of the screen was hit 50% of the time, the next 25%, and the final two 12.5%. So if you let your weaker characters take beatings for a fight or two, then put the tankier ones in front, you could much more effectively get through dungeons without just brute-force outleveling htem.

[@worldbigfootcentral3933]

Best combat strategy vid I have seen yet. Bravo.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Thank you very much.

[@UntoTheBreach24]

Great stuff as always One thing I'd always recommend is "don't be afraid to be a little suboptimal/not do your coolest move every round" A good example from a recent game: in a fight with a grappling vine monster, who was getting dangerously close to murdering our guide, I considered taking an action to assist the guide's escape attempt, but opted to attack instead. The guide did thankfully survive, but it wasn't because of my moderately damaging plink attack. I struggle with this a lot myself cuz I'm very big on _gaaame feeeel,_ and doing something where you don't get to be quite as active or roll can naturally be a less attractive option. What helps me to counter this instinct is to put in extra work on the description: maybe my lizard warlock didn't just "help the guide," she "bit and clawed at the vines to create an opening to escape." Something like that would be more fun to act out, really places others in the scenario, and gives them stuff to possibly work with themselves.

[@ModularLanding]

All your videos are great and this one is especially sublime for being so practical and common-sense, and yet I’ve never played in a game where players did any of these things, haha! If all players watched this, the level of gaming in combat would rise suddenly and dramatically.

[@TheWarpGhost]

Good rundown of basics for combat. I'd really like to see you give advice on how to run good - and faster! - combats as a GM. I find it a bit of a struggle to get strike a balance between fun, challenge and reasonable time and would love to see what advice you've picked up over the years

[@kainshannarra2451]

get rid of the mat and figures and run a wuxia style / theater of the mind battle. Every few rounds use dice, bottle caps, etc to provide a visual of what's happened so far. Also, having PCs and opponents taking their turns at the same time can be fun.

[@Leapyean]

I like that you gave a name to many of the things that players do to help their party. We are playing through a rough modual in Pathfinder and our party has no dedicated tank! My rouge character has been doing the "take the hit" as he has the best AC in the party. He just does not have the hit points to back it up. Luckily we have 2 healers, one stays close to keeping me on my feet when my Dex is not enough while the other can cover the rest of the party.

[@jaymudie6761]

Nice seeing you again Seth.

[@archonmegas3718]

Great tips fot players. The difference between a tpk and a harrowing but survivable event is often great teamwork or a remarkably creative approach. Once your team knows how to be team its an unlimited resource. Remarkably creative plans are rare in comparison. Both are rewarding for the DM and the players.

[@Semiotichazey]

Regarding terrain and chokepoints, I had to gently instruct my players about that after an unnecessary TPK. They definitely learned their lesson.

[@saldiven2009]

On thing to consider. In the focus attacks example, if the final round had gone with the monsters attacking the more wounded character instead of the less wounded character (which is the same concept as having the players focus their attacks), it would still have been a TPK.

[@Nellemdill]

THX my players need those tips if they want to survive Barovia

[@paulh3892]

Very digestible video! You do a great job of the cutaway PC scenes

[@konberner170]

Well done!

[@TheSteam02]

If you're playing DnD, the Shield Master feat is really fun. You can attack something and then shove them or smack them onto the ground.

[@nolanddean5680]

Thank you very much Mr Skorkowsky, Thanks to this video, I could rescue one of my comrads this evening. You saved a life in Barovia!!!

[@MaPleWoRlDOrder]

In my college's DnD club I played a mastermind rogue/grave cleric. My character was effectively a utility bot. I could bonus action help against the boss and use the grave cleric's channel divinity to make that monster take double damage on the next attack. Was a lot of fun because the character could always be useful in any situation. Have various control spells ready to go and just keep throwing out bonus action helps. Managed to completely neutralize a final boss once by casting silence in a small room where the boss couldn't do much. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed playing a utility based character

[@CulpadelRol]

This video comes in the best moment 😁😁😍 Thank you soooo much 😍👍

[@evilscientistrecords]

I imagine you guys having a break during a big combat and you jumping on youtube to get some advice :D

[@CulpadelRol]

@@evilscientistrecords 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣💖 No, in fact I'm planning on a video (in spanish) about this very same topic, and Seth's analysis are usually invaluable 😊 But I will keep your idea! -OK guys, let's just do a quick break and.. In the meanwhile, maybe you want to go check this video 😁😁😁

[@Schlingelis]

Love your videos! Thank you so much. It is also always fun. Btw: Nice shirt!

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

@10:00 There's an old joke: two men are walking down a highway with shovels. They stop every mile or so, one digs a hole, and the other fills the hole back in. Someone approaches the two and asks what they're doing. They explain that they're supposed to putting up mile markers, but their coworker - the one who places the signs - is out sick. Don't let that be your party.

[@derekburge5294]

Back to back formations are great, unless the enemy has splash damage to throw at you...

[@jianhaotoh4010]

I have idea that might counter this issue but I don't think it is practical nor would it be fun for the person who has to implement it. In the Inheritance Trilogy, magic is prevalent in the setting and powerful magicians can wipe out a whole army of non-magic users if they have the right spell. Hence armies have magicians who have the sole job to protect their squadron from magical attacks, with a lesser priority on dealing with non-magical attacks. They use a combination of protective spells and debilitating spells to do this. So my idea is that a party wizard could be given this role where they would just reserve most of their spell slots for Counter Spell and buff their team mates who will be the damage user. The problems I can forsee beforehand are... 1) Is there a Wizard in the party and do they have the required spells to do this? 2) Would the party wizard be cool with it? This job sounds boring on paper as a Wizard would simply be reserving actions or using attack cantrips if they are not Counter Spelling. 3) Counterspelling is not fool proof. If there more magical attacks than Wizards to cast reactions the party will get hit. Not to mention if the wizard can only use a spell slot of a lower level for the Counter Spell to ward of a higher level spell there is a chance it can fail. 4) I'm only level 3 so my experience is limited but based on seeing how DMs run adventure I believe they would find ways to counter this tactic relatively quickly once they got use to it. Meaning it might be a one trick wonder.

[@lostsanityreturned]

In that situation there are two things to consider. Is the splash damage small enough to only effect the players. Will this allow player characters to better assist each other? Ultimately while splash damage may go off with the party scattered, you are still risking having one or more party members going down without any chance of support and ending up in a bad position in the example above. In my experience the only way to effectively deal with splash damage is to either negate the source, or to get into a position where the source cannot use it effectively (either because of terrain or because of allies/themselves)

[@RobinNashVideos]

@@jianhaotoh4010 Man, those books are actually really good. Except the first one. But we don't talk about that one.

[@jianhaotoh4010]

@@RobinNashVideos Eh true to that. At least it is better than the film adaptation.

[@baker90338]

Jian Hao Toh there’s also the classic rule of any shadowrunner. “Geek the mage

[@anytimeanywhere7859]

Another great, useful video!

[@southron_d1349]

We had a one-shot last night where our characters are all members of the River District Watch. It reached a point where Sahuagin appeared and they were clearly wanting something or someone. In the cells were three "privateers", so my Halfling Rogue went to question them rather than standing by at the barred and bolted entrance to the Watch-house. The other two players had completely forgotten about the prisoners but at least had the sense to maintain a choke-point at the now battered entrance. Polberry (my character) spent the entire combat encounter racing around trying to find a particular object, succeeded, and threw it to the Sahuagin. Then the Sahuagin priestess demanded the privateer captain as well. My character is a rather unscrupulous sort and gladly handed over this captain. During the combat, the DM pulled a couple of tricks which PCs often do. The first was that the priestess cast "Spiritual Weapon" next to the other two PCs. The second was "Hold Person" on the prisoner as he was resisting being handed over. The choke-point worked very well, giving the two PC Fighters Flanking. The DM was on the ball with his monsters using a few of the spells often used by PCs.

[@ronosborne6855]

This is something I need to share with my gaming group. I recently started DnD 5e with noob players. I am long time player and first time live DM and am still struggling at learning the new system. I am currently having to dial back my own combat tactics to make up for the fact my players have zero sense of tactics. Hopefully, it will prove useful to them and allow me to run better combats. Thank you!

[@scottknudsen6611]

Spot on as usual.

[@bellportbattlebunker4682]

Enjoying your videos. @15:09 I own both of those weapons! lol. Thanks for sharing.

[@1jtwister]

Seth... you are a national treasure and I am a necroposter... maybe start responding to necroposters sometimes, cause we all weren't lucky enough to find you when the vids were fresh? Anyway, I have played around 80 ttrpg in my time and your insight and presentation are phenomenal---keep it up

[@SunfireGTX25]

Great tips!! I am running my 2nd campaign as DM next month and I'm going to make my players watch this during Session Zero, so they don't make these mistakes during my game!! :)

[@OMGUKILLKENNY2]

People always forget how useful a successful disarm is. One of my favorite tactics in a 5e game I had was to use the suggestion spell to make enemies just throw away their weapons. Reducing an enemy barbarians damage from the 1d12 greataxe to 1 unarmed damage can easily trivialize the rest of the fight.

[@Rabijeel]

I love your view on GMing. Shows me I am not alone thinking like this - and that there is someone seemingly having achieved sticking to all of it himself ;p

[@yakirchernin6015]

I must admit the first tip were for me.. even though, I am supposed 'veteran" so thanks!

[@kramerfortuna7228]

Great advice as always! I feel like even veteran DMs could use an occasional reminder of things like that (not that I would consider myself a veteran DM yet...) I'm not sure if this will help anybody in the comments section, but I found a trick for running "boss fights" that works really well for me personally. If players gang up on the boss, it'll die in just a couple rounds. Giving the boss monster a lot of hit points just drags out the battle and it can get boring. Instead, I make the primary enemy only slightly tougher than the party's average stats and I throw in a bunch of minions that die in one hit. This way, my players COULD focus on the boss and kill it quickly, but they'd be at risk of getting wiped out by the dozen or so minions, since their numbers make them the greatest threat at the start of the battle. I found that this keeps combat running quickly and smoothly, and the players always feel like they're making progress instead of just mindlessly trading punches for 45 minutes. Like I said, I'm not sure if this will be a huge help for anyone (I only know that it works pretty well in my own home-brew system), but I'd recommend giving it a shot if you have a hard time balancing encounters with boss monsters!

[@OsightblinderO]

Love your skits man.

[@AlluMan96]

I do hope you continue doing these battle tutorials, both from the player's side of acting in them as well as the GM's side of how to design them. As I have been cautiously teetering towards becoming a regular GM, a big hurdle I have been faced with is finding balance in encounter design. How do I make an encounter that's fun and involving? How do I make a high-stakes, dangerous battle not feel like unfair dogpiling? How do you use mechanics to set a tone for a fight (How to split the difference between a Doomesque disorganized bloodbath and a suspenseful, methodical operation a la Rainbow Six without necessarily stating it, letting the action speak for itself)? For the moment, I have been keeping my players entertained at the very least, but I always hold the notion that you can entertain a person by just sitting down and talking or watching funny videos online, so I'm always looking for ways to push the envelope and make my games as entertaining as they possibly can be in order to make sure that the game itself was worth dedicating to for a day and getting hyped for the whole week.

[@AdventuresHobbies]

Nice review even for long time players just cause sometimes they do get tunnel vision and just slash, slash, slash.

[@kzual1]

super useful tips, thanks alot (new DnD player here). also: pretty sure I've heard you do pretty much all FM radio commercials ever.

[@Turbodog702]

Really good Strategy 101 here. As a somewhat intermediate thing, I would add to understand that a cleric doesn't have to heal, and mages do not have to do damage. The buffs, debuffs, and battlefield control spells (Hold Person, Web, Grease, etc.) are very effective at mitigating the damage and approaches an enemy can take, or turning your frontliner into a death machine (Haste, Enlarge Person, Bless). This doesn't mean you should never heal in combat or throw a Magic Missile or Fireball. Just be willing to play to the strengths of your strategy, and lessen or remove the opponents. The other thing I would mention is also related to healing and parallel to the above. There are many systems where your ability to heal damage is considerably less than the opponents ability to deal damage. A dead enemy does no damage, as mentioned in the video, so it can be considered a form of damage prevention. Strive to kill/defeat the enemy. If you cannot, then strive to control them. If you cannot, strive to empower yourself. If the battle is turning poor, then look to heal, and possibly consider running. It is a delicate balance to know when to heal, but don't do it as soon as damage occurs or after the fight has already been lost. My general rule of thumb is around 1/3 hp if we cannot end the fight that round.

[@jaredmabbutt6142]

The best form of healing is preventing damage

[@crazyeyes8962]

The control wizard is a D&D classic; the archetypal "I'm superior to fighters just watch me destroy this encounter" dick wizard. It's something I have a bit of nostalgia for but it can be annoying, even to the rest of the group, if it goes overboard. I've heard horror stories of parties that sleep for 8 hours every 15 minutes so the wizard can always have all of his spells after each encounter.

[@1217BC]

Yay, new video

[@straybard_art]

The tactical retreat is pretty genius!

[@ThePlayercoach]

Great illustration on the attacks. This a major problem in our group lol. We are all over the place

[@zephyrstrife4668]

The nice thing about my players is that they generally try to keep themselves to tactics like this. Players who have characters more likely to take an enemy out in a single hit generally jump to be the wall that defends party members that don't have as much offensive output, spellcasters try to take out groups of enemies at once or possibly even use status effects to restrain enemies or buff allies in order to keep the more powerful characters alive and able to continue defending the noodles in robes.

[@mazurkian]

One of the things a lot of new players fail to understand is the power of action economy. If you are new, action economy refers to the ratio of actions taken by two sides of a combat (i.e # of turns/actions you and your allies get vs how much your enemies get in a round) This is why focusing your attacks to bring down enemies rather than spreading your damage across them is so important, you want to lower the action economy of your opponents by reducing the number of enemies who get to make attacks. Action economy really swings the way combat goes. In this same vein I see a lot of more experienced players who say healing in combat is stupid, because most enemies deal more damage than a healer can restore. However, you can have players who get multiple attacks, some who can regularly get 4 or more. A healer who uses an action to keep an action-heavy player up on their feet is way better than the healer attacking the enemy with one action while the fighter is down, costing the group 4 attacks they would have dealt.

[@danrimo826]

Totally. I think movies are to blame. In pop culture heroes always face off against different opponents instead of focus firing, so players, particularly new ones, don't even think to do it

[@OtakuBakaNeko]

Our group ended up making an all ranged party. Between us all, we were kinda tired of min-maxing party balance, so we all just made what we wanted to. So our tank actually ended up being a ranged character. XD He has hellish rebuke too, so it works quite well. And of course he took point blank shot (homebrewed for 5e).

[@parabostonian2267]

I love the effects at 8:07 so much, lol…

[@Boss-_]

The 5:50 scenario is exactly what happened last saturday. My players were fighting a hydra (an encounter they had no chance of beating head-on at their level, they needed something resembling a tactic), except they didn't decide they were gonna run. One guy decided to run. Then the other guy, who later told me he had the idea of using readied actions to all run at the same time, figured "without him to divvy up the damage, I'm dead", and abandoned the third player. Then the Hydra, that had an 80% chance to hit him, succeeded 4 attacks and he died.

[@HowtoRPG]

Solid advice.