D&D Has 8 Types of Combat, Actually

[@LollerTrollers]

17 years of running D&D and I've only ever considered combat as a way to resolve stories, not to create and expand them. Reminder that there's always more to learn.

[@Xenibalt]

good luck on ending more campaigns, hope your players find the time too =]

[@karatekoala4270]

@@LollerTrollers I began thinking of ways too use combat in expanding the story more after I started writing.

[@jerryliu5375]

You don’t even have to make the objective to win. Having players run from a monster or escape from a group can be just as fun and rewarding for them.

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

@@LollerTrollers for me it’s where the bad guys shout out all of the exposition of all the clues that the players skipped because they wanted to spend time shopping or asking about the barkeeps dogs name.

[@dragonfan8647]

Tip for the ambush: allow smart players to learn about the ambush ahead of time. Once my players took the time to climb up a wall to look through the high windows and saw the cultists hiding inside waiting for them. This changed the entire situation, as they knew where the enemies where, but those were also aware of them and in advantageous positions, so they had to figure out a strategy. It became a great combat

[@techwizsmith7963]

Exactly. Don't explicitly decide which of these combats it will be, set the scene for one and let the players interact with the ability to flip the script if they have the appropriate planning and care. If nothing they could have done would have helped them, then their investment takes a nosedive

[@thomasbourchier8715]

@@techwizsmith7963 don't even need to explicitly let them see the attackers beforehand, give them some narrative foreshadowing, an innkeeper who warns them about travelling merchants going missing along this part of the trail, that there's unusal goblin activity and they're being bolder than normal. Give your party a reason to be suspicious and to prompt them to make those rolls.

[@Muireachgaming8957]

Well, that depends on the party's decisions... do they have the foresight to scout?

[@techwizsmith7963]

@@Muireachgaming8957 They'll learn to consider it afterwards, I believe

[@dadofthedead1094]

And the Ambush becomes a targeted strike...or vice versa! Great ideas.

[@negative6442]

I propose a ninth: The all-out battle. Characterized by hordes of weaker enemies alongside bigger ones and even possible elite-tier badguys. But it's not just the players fighting them, they also have allies. This could be an army of their own or collection of elite NPCs, likely allies they've built up over the course of the campaign or just relevant to a particular story arc. There might also be a set of actual objectives here. Kill the commander, defend a point, hold a point, take a point, route the enemy, buy time, capture a target. You name it. For inspiration for these, I like to look to wargames and movies. 40K and Lancer (yes I know its an RPG) both have a number of tactical objectives you can borrow whole cloth. I've even ran a naval battle directly inspired by the maelstrom battle at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean 3, where the players and their allies were tasked with taking down a treasure fleet carrying tons upon tons of gold. Anyway, subscribed.

[@ZarchAlDain]

You would never run the larger battle as a combat though. You would narratively describe the wider battle and then only use the D&D mechanics for anything where the players get involved. Otherwise you just spend an hour with the players watching you roll dice with yourself.

[@ScaredJade]

these battles can be a lot of fun, but you definitely have to use them sparingly because huge amounts of enemies and allies really slows down the game, so it could easily leave players not engaged

[@negative6442]

@@ZarchAlDain You can absolutely run larger battles as a combat, or at least segments of them that are still fairly large. Troop-type NPCs as seen in Pathfinder (swarms made up of Small or larger sized creatures) can take a dozen+ entities and make them a single enemy, allowing you to keep the battle densely populated while requiring far less micromanagement and dice rolling, and can be used for both allies and enemies. There are also minion types, which are normal statblocks but will go down in 1-2 hits regardless of where they came from, if you wanna get more in on the micro. I've also heard of people pre-determining the actions that troops can take and full-on eliminating the dice rolls between allied and enemy NPCs. Another strategy is to simply let the players command or even directly control allied NPCs (usually these troops) so that they're always playing and not watching you fight yourself. Effectively, they're playing a Warhammer game against you. Pathfinder 1e (idk if 2e has these rules yet) also had a large-scale combat rule system. I don't particularly enjoy it personally, but I'm sure someone can and has gotten mileage out of it. I know it's a large part of Wrath of the Righteous at least.

[@negative6442]

@@ScaredJade Absolutely. I wouldn't recommend running these particularly often, maybe just a few times per campaign at most. Any more than that and it becomes a bit of a chore for your players, and a bit of a headache to prep for.

[@jeg2826]

This is where you'd use the mass combat rules from older editions of D&D e.g. BECMI that are just straight up missing from modern editions 😢 Wouldnt be too hard to convert, but a simpler approach is just to treat each unit of troops as a single statblock with an attack and damage roll and a number of HP equivalent to the number of soldiers in the unit, and every time they get "hit" they lose a number of troops equivalent to the damage roll, and their attack bonus is reduced. Use morale rules, so roll for morale when half the troops in a unit are dead, etc

[@FigN06]

There's another type of fight that gm's should plan for- ones where the players' goal is separate from killing all enemies. Easy examples are retrieving an item during combat, destroying or activating several structures on the playing field, protecting a npc, freeing a trapped npc, or even escaping from the combat location. Any non-combat goals within combat vary play immensely, and are also really great for creating stakes if player characters are more or less narratively invincible. So with extra goals you get to have real fail states that players care about but are not life and death for them.

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

I completely agree! I want to make a video on adding objectives into combats, because I think that's separate from a combat's type. Any combat type can have any objective. And then you can mix and match depending on your story's needs.

[@benjucius5275]

I think your describing the puzzle genre

[@Synfang]

@@FigN06 Agreed on this, and "protecting a NPC" is actually a combat objective I used regularly in my one campaign. For context, the BBEG of this campaign has the capture and/or killing of a few particular NPCs as his personal win con in the long term, so between this and the fact that he initially kinda just feels sorry for the player characters' circumstances more than anything (from his perspective, the player characters are just cannon fodder to be tossed aside once the party's done the dirty work by the people in charge who should actually be taking this fight), the player characters are in many (but not all or even most, as the BBEG's faction aren't the only antagonist faction) encounters the enemies' secondary targets.

[@Xgya2000]

In the 3.5 Elder Evils book, there's one particular fight against an Inevitable that's attempting to end what it thinks an unawful imprisonment... that'll destroy the Universe if the prisoner is freed. So the Inevitable spends most of the fight defending itself, and hacking away at the prison itself. I've played through that encounter many times. Playing through that fight and having players attempt to move the Inevitable away from the crystal, grappling it, trying distracting spells, none of them ever really feels similar, because the encounter forces non-standard tactics to play out.

[@skorpikion]

How do you make the players flee a combat? I played several encounters where it was clear to me that the gm wanted us to retreat, by sending a seemingly unending flow of monsters. But the other players always wanted to stay, or even explore during the fight because "the players are always supposed to win, so why would I retreat".

[@babzm.1666]

12:37 imagine being named Lazarus and being the one PC who doesn’t come back lol

[@MumboJ]

I feel like there must be a story there.

[@kiritotheabridgedgod4178]

"His name is Lazarus, of course he has a self revive." "Actually, I don't..." "... Well, we're out of diamonds."

[@Kirk9019]

Literally killed a PC named Lazarus last session I ran. Took 2 failed death saves from a melee strike and then got ice stormed before he even rolled 1 death save. Thankfully the druid had revivify and diamonds.

[@MumboJ]

@@Kirk9019 In my experience the majority of deaths do not involve rolling death saves, but maybe that's just me.

[@denismatveev3584]

Named a Paladin char Lazarus. First ever death roll - nat 20

[@warprail]

I recently did a 'Bait and Switch', which I would characterize as a blend of the 'Targeted Strike' and 'Puzzle, Actually'. Party were taking out a nest of ankhegs; hatchlings, adults, and a brood mother as a boss. The nest was underground, and the vibration of the battle attracted the attention of a bulette. The party are tired, and have almost killed the brood mother. Victory is assured. It is then that a portion of the ceiling collapses, the bulette crashes through, and handily kills the last of the ankhegs. The bulette then detected the party and came after THEM. They're low on resources. They have injured followers. They have to run, back through all of the tunnels and traps that brought them down here. Their goal was not to defeat the bulette, but delay it long enough to keep their most vulnerable away from it. They used narrow passages to their advantage, turned the traps they had avoided against the bulette, and managed to escape with every NPC they had rescued intact. Very proud of my players.

[@GlacialScion]

@@warprail My players would be fighting to the death immediately.

[@SamLabbato]

I always love doing something like this as a last hurrah for every dungeon or "mega-dungeon" i throw at my party. something that forces them to leave quickly, either through natural disaster, boss, or both

[@bookworm3696]

I think i have different ways of viewing combat. Here's how i would define them. Skirmish: 2 opposing forces meet randomly Ambush: enemy gets the drop on the party. Assault: party gets the drop on enemy. The duel: enemy and party knowingly enter combat in a specified place The arena: boss fight on enemies home turf. Good to add lair actions to. The last stand: party fight an enemy where they have home field advantage. The hunt: enemy wishes to leave combat, the party cannot let them. The escape: party for one reason or another needs to leave combat the enemy isnt to keen on letting them. The scramble: both the party and the enemy have a 3rd objective to complete. Winner is the one to complete it.

[@CrissaKentavr]

Oh, yeah. The scramble and escape... Like his description of the 'The Ambush' - having the map suddenly get bigger or smaller is a keen way to change the dynamics of a fight. And big spaces let characters play on their movement.

[@MarvelOfRain]

I think your view should really depend on what you want to get out of it. Your example is nice if you struggle with motivation of enemies and combat goals for pre-determined encounters. I have some nice Scrabmles and Hunts planned and agree that thinking in this way is awesome! But if you are planning for example a goblin hideout you don't know how your players will approach it and there are more important things to prepare. Stuff like do I want for this fight to be challenging and if so then in what ways? You can easily improvise the actual fight type to make it correspond with what players decided to do (add hostages, bugbear ambushers, messengers to ran off and inform other hideouts). However thinking about the general tactics of your monsters and adding some ways to challenge your players is much more important in that case (like a wizard with counterspells if they are all casters, area of darkness to limit range characters or battlements to bombard the melee characters).

[@sanemalk9957]

I had immediately thought of The Duel too. Besides the possible high stakes for the character in the duel, it can be a great way to pressure the rest of the party if they should intervene or not. Or it could be an interesting way for an NPC to test if the party is worthy of their aid. I'd be very careful not to overuse it, but a good duel can really give a player their spotlight moment in the campaign.

[@sketter1775]

I think there's another type of fight: The Chaos. 3 or more parties each opposing one another.

[@bookworm3696]

@sketter1775 i think the big difference of both our classifications is focused by our perspectives. He goes for narrative feel and mine as the answer to 4 questions. Question 1) who knows about the coming conflict? Question 2) do either party have prep time? Question 3) Do either party have a home field advantage? Question 4) does either party have a good reason to stay fighting? By building around the answer to those 4 questions can add a little bit of dynamic flair to your encounters.

[@link090909]

This is the first time seeing a video from this channel. Within 90 seconds, I have a strong suspicion this guy has watched a lot of Matt Colville, and I mean that as a high compliment!

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

You got me.

[@Cenitopius]

@@Mystic-Arts-DM The "boss battle" figurine of the floating golden dude reminded me of Ajax the Invincible actually

[@PatricioJones]

lil matt colville

[@ruolbu]

I feel like your delivery, intonation, emphasis is very similar to matts presentation style

[@TrevorLima-Bybell]

@@link090909 it wasn’t this video that the algorithm suggested to me first, but I got the same vibe from Mystic Arts as I did Matt Colville. And that’s why I stuck around.

[@seeranos]

I think the fundamental mistake DMs make around combat encounters is making the goal of both sides be merely destroying the opposition. You lump them into puzzle fights, but its a basic tenet of storytelling to give characters clear motivations. Every battle should have at least one parallel goal for players and npcs. Each side can have the same or different goals, but their opponents' choice to deny them their goal is merely an obstacle between them and their goal. What this does is it means every battle can have more outcomes than just "you win or you die." DMs tend to not want all their players to die to an encounter, so a simple battle boils down to "You win, eventually". But with parallel/orthogonal goals, each side always has the choice to retreat, either to regroup for another attempt at the goal, or to preserve their strength once their goal is achieved.

[@GodofChaos45]

Stomping grounds can be fun. I love making terrified goblin noises as the paladin rushes straight for a heavily outmatched little minion.

[@gamewrit0058]

4:00 The most paranoid my main 5e group has ever been was when in my sister's campaign, the description of the way forward included a cute little white bunny rabbit. We immediately froze in fear, and our PCs spent 5 or 10 minutes with skill checks figuring out that, no, it wasn't the Monty Python rabbit, and it was safe to continue down the trail. 😂😂😂 She hadn't even intended for that detail to be dangerous, but she has caught us unawares with other ambushes.😊❤

[@gusteinnfannar7019]

I like how you link the combat and the story together. That's definitely something I could use more of

[@ReadyMack-g]

" No matter how good the story wont survive /or be to be quality iif the DM is saddled with a Lame'o group of players" - Chris Perkins

[@ShirotoraGodsbane]

There's an irony that the one PC that couldn't be resurrected was named Lazarus

[@Dimble_Gobblefern]

@@ShirotoraGodsbane yeah

[@deltnira]

Haha not everybody can get this one but it is a great one 😂

[@DoubleCritFail]

This is amazing. One of the best and well-presented videos on combat encounters I've seen.

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

Wow, thank you!

[@798Muchoman]

The types of combat you identify, and the terms you used for them, are great. It's a very useful architecture for looking at it. Helps remind us as DMs that the enemies have different goals.

[@azurewraith2585]

The one I would add to this is the chase scene. fights where mobility is paramount to winning the battle

[@Alex-tx7ih]

And where the actual combat isn't necessary, or is only strategic . Call of Cthulhu uses a pseudo board game to detail out a whole path, with the potential for branches and obstacles along the way.

[@emrek99205]

While out shopping in town one or two of the party notice townsfolk getting robbed. They're too late to stop the robbery but must chase down the thief through the streets of the city. How this ends could be different. Perhaps the thief turns to fight. Maybe they hole up in a house on the edge of town and make a stand there. Either way, the party members aren't going to be launching fireballs or shooting arrows around because literally the residents are in the way. Best they can do is give chase and hope they can out-maneuver through the obstacle course and capture the dexterous speedy thief.

[@Alex-tx7ih]

@@emrek99205 My sweet summer child, this is how you realize that your friends *will* literally shoot fireballs in the street around civilians. (only partially joking lol)

[@MarvelOfRain]

On lower levels sure, but on higher levels this breaks easily - with teleport spells flying and such it very quickly outgrows anything you can bound within the limit of a board or even theater of mind combat arena. I have special rules for chase scenes - essentially recording the distance difference and introducing complications along the way.

[@emrek99205]

@@MarvelOfRain Anything the players can do, the NPC can do before them. If the players teleport in, have the NPC teleport out. If the players tag them with a Wizard Mark, the NPC Erases it. If they divine where the NPC will be, have the NPC divine how to not be there. Just cause the players have options, don't take options away from the NPCs unless you really want them to win the chase with near zero effort or stress. It is supposed to be a challenging chase scene, not an out-smart-the-idiot scene.

[@lootgoblinmarketplace]

This is great! Sometimes just have a name for encounters you already intuitively know exist makes it just that much easier to be mindful of it when planning your next session. Never would have known how to word the stomping grounds encounter, but hearing you say that name it definitely clicked.

[@innocentBystander19]

You level up as a DM the day you realize that combat doesn’t have to be hordes running at your PCs. Super basic military tactics work in-game and many parties are not expecting them. Stuff like cover and terrain can be used so effectively to double or triple the threat of an enemy.

[@Drekromancer]

Well said. Tucker's Kobolds are infamous for a reason.

[@jakodar]

I spent quite a bit of time with this video - I watched it multiple times. Once for enjoyment, once for analysis and notes and a final time to outline it. It really is a good video. I am looking through my typical game-styles to see where I could benefit from this and plan to try more variety. There are already some combat encounters in our recent sessions where I can identify where my players would have had more fun. Thanks!

[@Chodor101]

I also like: hopeless Players encounter a monster that CANNOT be defeated at their level or current point in time, but what they can do is run and slow it down so they can escape and hide. It works as great introduction to a big fat boss that they will want to beat later.

[@MrFlashpoint1978]

Very much CR and the arrival of the Chroma Conclave... "19 misses?!?!"

[@HLGJammer]

I tried that but it didn't work. I debuffed the enemy too much. 2 of the 4 lvl 6 party members were playing, intro'd an adult gold dragon in human form. He almost killed 1, and had about 20 hp when we ended the session.

[@Chodor101]

@@HLGJammer That's why I called it hopeless, my party of 5 lvl 7 killed an adult green dragon in it's lair along with his dragonborn guard, giant hydra guardian and goblin ambush, all in one session with no rests [fights were separate though]. For this to work you have to pick something that could WIPE them turn 1 and make it spend that turn playing with them / killing other stuff / mocking them. Critical role and chroma conclave is a good example of that like someone mentioned.

[@sleepinggiant4062]

Players usually don't make heroes that run away from fights. This needs to be bluntly telegraphed.

[@HLGJammer]

@@Chodor101it likely would have worked if I didn't dumb down the stats, but they also have some goodies they likely wouldn't have if we started at lvl 1 (first time players, we started at level 5 for the halibut).

[@nikkoelven]

As a professional GM, I cannot put in words how much I love this: your style, narration, information, humor, everything. Top notch, from start to finish. I bet it is a blessing to be a player at your table. Instantly subscribed!

[@justinarreaga4731]

20 year TTRPG veteran here, keep up the good work. I consume A LOT of TTRPG content, yours is high quality. Thank you.

[@processedsoy]

This is absolute fire. Great video! Especially helpful for new GMs like me. The way you organize the information, articulate the words your speaking and the points you're presenting, fantastic.

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks so much!

[@BlackGarland]

I really appreciate the thought process here. I think it's important for combat to serve some sort of purpose, and this video illustrates that very well. It's really easy to throw around combat just for the sake of combat, or to kill time. Combat is a narrative tool as well, and it certainly takes some finesse to utilize it effectively.

[@moogamooga2100]

This is BRILLIANT and I agree with your points! I especially like and appreciate your examples. Too many D&D channels talk about the principles without giving good examples; your examples were INSTANTLY understandable and recognizable. Made me say “ohhh, yeah, I know how I can do that in MY game.”

[@rickyetter]

“If the party thinks they’re safe, show them they’re not” you think like me. That sentence alone got my like

[@noahrice3362]

That was pretty eye-opening, actually. I've never really thought too deep on all the different combat niches. But that's honestly really cool. That said, I do feel like you probably could have pointed out chase sequences as well, not all of them count as combat, but if you know how to use them effectively, I feel like they could be even more engaging than a normal battle! Honestly, I'm glad I happened upon this. Thanks for a cool new look at things.

[@mikec64]

This was concise, FRESH, and so helpful. Subscribed!

[@thomaspoteete4119]

Something I'd also recommend as a way to help build encounters is "Objectives and Scenarios," which plays very nicely with the ideas presented here. Objectives are what you think if you've played any shooter. "Do this task to win." Think of this as win conditions for both your players and their opponents. The simplest objective is Rout, where you just kill every enemy. However, there's also Escort, where you protect something/someone from the other team. There's Capture, the obvious counter to the Escort objective. There's also the Survive and the Beat the Clock objectives, where you either try to survive a certain amount of time until you're saved, or accomplish something in a certain amount of time, halting a much worse situation. There's also the Scenarios, which are more like specific enemies or battlefield hazards that make situations more perilous or tactically interesting. Maybe you have the Specialist scenario, where the opponents are much better equipped right off the bat, like Mounted enemies who's objective against the player is Capture. There's the Dynamic Terrain, where the battlefield shifts as the fight goes on, such as trying to escape down a mountainside being blocked by Fire Elementals as a stream of lava slowly encroaches behind you. There's also Mixed Units, where you combine multiple different combat units together with a tactical plan, such as skirmisher enemies blocking the exit to a canyon, archers on the cliffs, and cavalry heading up the exit, all lead by a powerful wizard that casts save-or-suck spells. Combining these Objectives and Scenarios is different ways makes every single fight different. Do you find yourself throwing your players against only Rout objectives? Give them a big "Beat the Clock" map where they have to ring a sacred bell that seals demon gates, and if they don't by turn 10, they have to deal with significantly stronger enemies. Keep throwing the same generic goblins at them? Put those goblins on the backs of Giant Vultures and have them circling their airship, peppering them with arrows, fire magic, and bombs, and the only way to beat them besides killing them all is for you to survive long enough to cross into a Bronze Dragon's domain to chase them off. I love the ideas presented in the video and hope my ideas can further bolster what you can do at the table. Stay safe, have fun!

[@restoredtuna8264]

Another kind of puzzle fight is a stealth mission. Like the rogue and Druid infiltrating an enemy stronghold for an item or piece of information. This puzzle is completed best if initiative is never rolled, but second best if no widespread alarm is ever raised. Although technically it might only cost more resources and time to make it a fight, if the players want to do it this way it gives them easily one of their campaign highlights.

[@spiritandsteel]

I highly recommend taking a look at the SitRep system from Lancer (a tactical mecha ttrpg with heavy influence from 4e d&d.) Sitreps are a series of, essentially, templates for combat that pilots may encounter in a mission. Each sitrep represents a different objective for combat, very few of which include “defeat everyone”. Instead they’re things like: control this point for x number of rounds; escort this npc safely to the extraction zone; survive against overwhelming odds for long enough to let someone else escape; enter this fortified area, grab the objective, and flee with it; etc. There’s a bit of legwork to make this kind of template work in a non-sci-fi, non-military setting, but the thing that I find so compelling about sitreps is the way that those objectives just ooze story possibilities. If the pc’s job isn’t just “hit all the baddies till they stop moving” it immediately lends itself to more immersive storytelling. What are they protecting? Who are they escorting? What do they need to retrieve? In short: one should always look towards varying the objectives of a combat, not just the particulars of it.

[@jmpar4]

"Rest in peace Lazarus" made me lol. How appropriate hahaha

[@theterrarian1486]

I'm a big fan of doing "stop the ritual" or "destroy the artifact" puzzle encounters, and just having ridiculously powerful bad guys until the puzzle element is solved.

[@Pramerios]

Love this!

[@tubebobwil]

At 1.25 speed, if I close my eyes, I feel like I'm listening to a young Bernie Sanders

[@celadoncitynative]

@@tubebobwil lol!

[@inrisd3704]

Ran a boss fight recently where the boss started attacking while they rolled initiative Told them they have 20s to take a turn or the boss gets a free hit Immediate panic and scramble, very memorable

[@itsamine4840]

That’s a great way to plan chase action too. Where if they don’t do anything automatically take dash action call it a turn.

[@canned_arbys]

This channel is a brilliant gem, and I am so excited to learn more from you! I struggle with setting up battles that don't bore my party and this has completely changed the way I think about building them! Thank you 🙏😭

[@kirailove4207]

I’m shocked how few subs you have, awesome video, you’re going to do amazing on this platform man

[@michaelguth4007]

I had a chase scene combat through a canyon. Using modular terrain blocks (RP Archive inspired), I always moved the board further, disassembled the parts too far behind and assembled what was ahead of the players. In front of them were dozens of wounded enemies who used the canyon to retreat from a battle, while from behind, they were chased by fresh enemies. Wounded meant that enemies died by taking any hit larger 11 damage or two hits of any damage. The goal of the players was to reach the camp of their allies.

[@bennie1079]

I know this might sound obvious to some but the BEST thing our dm has ever done for our encounters, is letting us interact with the world and letting the world interact with us. He sometimes has a "room" initiative during combat, where a cave collapses or skeletons are summoned from the ground. Or the other way around, we had a spell caster attach their spell medium to a crane, while having our fighter man the crane and steer it around to hit several enemies with a usual stationary damage spell (I don't remember the spell). But details such as "on the battlefield there are two large operable cranes, most likely used haul ship containers, but now abandoned due to the ensuing fight." is a great way to give us out of the ordinary tools to use during combat! :)

[@elishamorgan]

Loved this. Thank you. It's good to get a refresher on how to expand and adapt combat and the story.

[@dapperdarlingdm5723]

With my party at level 20, i regularly use hordes of monsters. I created stat blocks based on low cr monsters and modified their stats to reflect that it is a Gargantuan sized mass. As their hp reduces, they become less effective, even flee. It also great narrative. Having the barbarian swing their hammer and smash half a dozen rat men to the floor in a single bloody swing is appealing, or the ranged fighter unleashed a blizzard of arrows. Yes, it's one attack, but it's more fun to describe. If you need help with descriptions, read gotrex and Felix books 😂

[@TalesFromElsewhereGames]

Great video! Excited to see what else comes from your channel, it's off to an excellent start!

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

Thanks so much! And welcome along!

[@unseensounds]

I never saw your channel but my recommendations insisted I watched this and boy am I glad I did. Amazing job on the production value I’m subbing!

[@aramislucas3281]

Some combats I runned as a dm that I remember to this day: 1. Possessed wolves at night: As the players are supposed to take their armor off so they can sleep confortably, the camp is attacked by a huge pack of wolves. Ok, that's an ambush, but the thing is, even if the players are alerted before getting jumped, they are not well prepared without their armors and their items still on their bags, not ready to be drawn and used. The best they can use in this encounter are their main weapons and skills, adding an extra level of difficulty to the fight. However, in my story, the wolved were being controled by a misterious npc that didn't want the players to get to their destination for some reason and turns out, when all wolves are dead and the party think they are safe, the corpses start shaking and groaning and despite the horrible wounds, they come back to life. In my story, I had an npc within the party who was guiding the pcs by the forest. This npc sees this happening, quickly figures out what's happening and screams for them to run, because blades and fire would be useless against it. Wich brings us to the second memorable encounter I threw on my players. 2. Blind race against the eviroment: As the players had to quickly grab their stuff and run, due to their weapons and magick having no use against vicious, multiple enemies that simply can't die, they run desperatly trough the forest in the dark. Some may have night vision, some may grab a torch or a lamp, but probably not all of them. I made them make perception, reflexes and athletic checks to see if they left something behing in the rush, if they can see stones, branches and of course, one each other while they run so they don't get lost or isolated from the group, and to see who is running faster, leaving the slower ones behind. After some checks and caos, I asked the one who is in the front line to make a perception check to see if he figures out early that they are heading to a cliff. I let them freak for a bit, holding onto each other so nobody falls without seeing where they were running and worried about the pack of possessed wolves right behind them and then I said my npc could hear water, and as he remembered, that cliff was right over a river. They don't know how high is the cliff or how deep is the river, but I say my npc screams for them to jump, as he jumps first. Most players usually follow their friend (and the plot lol) and I obviously ask them for some more checks to see if they are ok or if they lose some item as they fall into the water. Light sources fueled by fire, obviously go off and the group is back in the dark. The wolves don't follow them, but the river is strong and quickly drags them on it's course. They have to make more athletics checks to see if they can swim well enought to keep their heads above the water as they are dragged by it. I ask for some more perception and if everybody fails, well, there is allways the master's npc to save the day. They hear that the river is getting to a waterfall. Again they don't know the hight of it and the objective becomes to find some way to fight the river itself, avoiding to be dragged to a possibly letal fall over sharp rocks. I watch them figure out a way out of this situation for themselves and if they can't make it to safety in a few turns and eventually fall off the waterfall, you can still be a troll, if you don't want any of them to die in a silly way like this one, you can say >dramatically< that they, or at least some of them, ultimately couldn't make it to safety before falling.. and then you reveal that the waterfall was a little more than 2 or 3 meter high, and that they are perfectly ok after falling, as the day rises. 3. Goblins with wargs and black powder: As a random ambish encounter, I like this one when the players are going throug mountains. As they are going throug a canyon, the gotta make perception and reflex checks as a black powder keg falls from the mountain on their heads, followed by more and more explosive kegs. Unless they have a really powerfull ranged artillery, they are on disadvantage because of the place the goblins are attacking from. Eventually they will find a way to fight back and face the goblins in a more equal position. That's when you bring the cavallary. Warg mounted goblins come from the flanks to attack the group as the minions continue to put preassure. Personally I liked to put an elite enemy in this encounter as well, a goblin captain with a banner and a name that the minions scream in a chorus when he arrives. The captain is mounted on a warg and has unique javelins modified with explosives, causing damage in a small area around where the javelyn lands and preventing the party to throw them back at the monsters. I like to make the goblins fight in the most kamikaze way possible, exploding their allies or throwing themselves off the cliff on the party with their weapons pointed to the players or while holding the explosive charges. The captain must be, obviously, the less suicidal, prefering to sacrifice his minions instead of himself. You can reward the players after that encounter with some of that misterious blackpowder that the goblins invented and a few of the explosive modified javelins. My players used to say they didn't ever feel that desperated on an rpg encounter on my campaings, especially on the waterfall session ;P Thank you for reading this big comment, I hope you can use some of this ideas with your players. Safe travels, my friend.

[@aisushitai2680]

One of my favorite combat encounters is the minecart madness cliche, where a group of 2+ enemies are getting away on a minecart that can be accelerated by pushing a lever on it back and forth. The cart moves at a speed reliant on the character(s) whose pushing the lever, at a factor of 10x their strength modifier. The lever takes an action to pump/accelerate and the cart can fall off the rails at some sections if moving too fast (but give your players ample warning with a visibly broken guardrail in front of a sharp turn.) This new dynamic of action economy / movement through atypical means is always guaranteed to stick in your party's collective thoughts.

[@Gidonamor]

This is a great video! I really like the categories you presented! Gives me new ideas for the horde encounter next session...

[@expychristian]

May I suggest "the Duel?" Where the party besides their chosen duelist do not engage in combat, but actually in espionage and social "combat"; wherein they might parry any attempts to sabotage the duel. Its less combat-oriented for the entire party as a whole, sure. But it gives the others, who might not actually excel in combat (think a bard or illusionist wizard) a way to test their skills outside of actual combat while giving them the tension and engagement that can really show how decisive and/or creative they can be. Great video. I like that you touched upon how combat encounters can gradually tell a story over time, without even missing a beat.

[@reedber]

Great video! I was checking to see if anyone said "duel" :) The Duel is excellent fun. Here, for some reason, you can't rely on your teammates and they can't help you. All they can do is watch helplessly as their wizard faces off against a similarly leveled wizard. It can be a friendly contest, or an epic battle with the weight of the world riding on it. I love the idea that everyone's all geared up for a big battle and turns out, it's all down to the Bard. "Wait, what?!"

[@expychristian]

@reedberkowitz583 @reedberkowitz583 It brings that gladiator-swashbuckling energy that I feel can play along any plot line, especially if a bunch of the party are more utility in power and ability than actual combat. Its also far more open ended than just your typical battle. So yeah! I would agree, it's great fun and all-round versatile.

[@reedber]

@@expychristian agree! Also turns the spotlight on some players that might feel lost in the background :)

[@tolvomondronen6701]

Amazing video! I love your style of storytelling/teaching. You explained things in a digestible and engaging way. Not too much fluff, just enough embleshiment and context to sell each bullet point.

[@shaunbrender]

This video deserves way more views. Very high quality, great presentation, and fun ideas I hadn't considered yet.

[@ChocoliThunder]

Bro I love how serious you are! Passionate, concise, and very knowledgeable. *subscribed*

[@JeffreyParrishJcap]

Its surprising how few subscribers you have for how great your content is. I hope you get the channel you deserve if you keep this up.

[@glaedrludos]

been running games for my best friends around 4 years now. i've watched so many different content creators, read tons of books, and i think your method of explaining and just overall feel to your videos are fantastic for how i take in information! already binged the videos you've got so far, and definitely gonna be watching whatever stuff you put out next! :DDDD

[@jordanw3109]

I'm so glad you covered the puzzle battle. I've been GMing for years across a number of systems and settings, and every single time I run a puzzle battle my players take me aside after the session to rant and rave about how awesome the session/battle was. Puzzle battles, when done well, are an absolute GAME-CHANGER. To any aspiring GMs, or vets that want to up their level, refine and practice these types of fights. If you do them well enough, you'll have your players literally BEGGING to have more of them. But you should understand that they can't have more. Use these sparingly so they don't become saturated and expected. You can even sprinkle puzzle fights into other types of combat in order to spice things up. A skirmish with a time limit. An elite team in a lair that has a unique gimmick that can be turned against them (think electrified floors that hit certain sections based on some verbal command or technological apparatus). Also, if you build up, or WANT to build up, named villains...consider having them run away when things get bad. A lesson I've learned is to make these villains have very good escape methods so that it's not a question about when they're caught...but if. That way if the players are really on the ball, perhaps even lucky, they can catch a particularly bad dude before he gets away, but generally these villains get away if extreme care isn't put in to prevent it. Recurring villains is an excellent way to increase player investment at your table. Wonderful advice!

[@Koshak87]

This was very timely and useful. Thank you. Subbed.

[@joshhighburger8869]

Wow. I'm gonna need to go through this video a few times to make sure I don't miss all the great content, instantly subbed. Thank you so much for the fantastic content!

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

Welcome aboard! 🫡

[@mactireliath2356]

I’ve always had a deep love for great Kung Fu flicks; the best of them tell a story through kinetics. The hero expresses himself with every movement; the villains desperation evident in his swordplay. It’s quite inspirational

[@TheJediMoose]

holy shit this video is incredibly well made, was expecting a massive channel. Great job keep it up i want to use these in my games.

[@lpjdrummer12295]

I'm glad I stumbled on this channel. Gladly subscribed. This is a wonderful video.

[@rulesasunintended8964]

my first video i ever see. from this guy, what an absolute banger of an opening. subscribed

[@tyrannostradamus2785]

There's also a difference between a Boss Battle as you propose it, and the Mid-Boss Battle, which doesn't end the campaign but might end an arc of a campaign or setup the climax for that arc. I also like to mix and match aspects of different types of combat in the same initiative.

[@0kieD0kiee]

Subscribed! This was concise, entertaining and informative. Really loved it! And excited to start implementing more of these sorts of varied combats in my games. I ran a combat just recently that was a combo of boss fight, puzzle fight, and horde. The players had to figure out how to dismantle an antimagic field (they couldn’t use spells until it was disabled) in order to destroy a massive creature that had been plaguing a village, all while her hordes of mind controlled zombies were after the players as well. The boss couldn’t be killed until the antimagic field went down, but she also became more powerful once they figured out how to dismantle it! Two PC’s died and were brought back during the fight, one player made a pact with a great spirit and became a warlock mid combat, it was a wild ride.

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

Yes! Mixing is so fun!

[@jonleeandrade2418]

I've often, typically in other RPGs, seen encounters defined by their end goal where the first 7 types you described get condensed down into "reduce enemy HP to 0" and the puzzle actually encounter gets expanded into "get the mcguffin, escape, protect so-and-so." It's cool to see actionable advice on how even the reduce to 0 goal can be turned into distinct experiences. Interested to get your approaches to these more defined puzzle goals.

[@danieltallent4243]

This was interesting, I had to go back and rewatch parts because your stories spawned new ideas and I got lost. Thank you

[@samuelbroad11]

protecting NPC's or innocents through multiple combats adds a layer of the Puzzle to every fight. We've lost a few we were very engaged with, to a great table reaction of disappointment. One other important combat to mention, which our brilliant DM often employs is the ability to talk to many of the intelligent creatures. We fall into this trap often because we want to roll our sleeves up and roll some dice, but when the 'world' is 'real' some of our most brutal encounters could have been entirely avoided if we had just chatted to to the enemy. Which would have added more lore, plot points, side quests and faction intrigue. In a world of never ending bad guys and character choices affecting the world this adds plenty to the experience.

[@ra1nyran]

remember us when your channel goes huge!!

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

Hahaha! That's sweet! Help us make it happen!

[@robertbengel2689]

Thank you for the video. I learn new things about DMing even 10 years into the trade, like yourself

[@JaredJuetten]

I'm happy to say that many of the points you hit I've been doing already! This makes me proud of my natural inclination to lean toward using the game to tell a story. However, this stuff and the comments section gives me a whole lot more food for thought about how to increase my creativity of encounters - and how they can both impact the story and drive it forward.

[@williamdegauven6090]

Great video -- saving this for later! I'd add the "Base under Siege" as another fight type: basically, defend a location from incoming attackers.

[@Pramerios]

Love this!

[@dstu8848]

I think you could also add the social/story battle, which is close to the puzzle battle but the fight becomes context around moving the story forward. In these, there is always another goal or purpose around which some conflict happens and complicates. It could be a chase where an enemy is getting away with the mcguffin and others are trying to delay the party. An easy battle but the party needs to sneak in somewhere and so must choose who and how to kill quickly and quietly. The fight becomes something different as it doesn't really matter about winning, rather the enemies become obstacles to be negotiated, and killing may just be one way of doing that.

[@atomatopia1]

There can also be social or political “combats” where the players need to fight a larger system that they can’t just kill, sway loyalties, convince DMPCs, etc. And within these conflicts, the other combat types can also exist or overlap in interesting ways

[@LoLo-ry8xw]

Well crafted video!! I’m starting my first campaign in 2 weeks as a DM. This video made the combat I’ll introduce more diverse and unique! I’ve seen a lot of DnD accounts but you’ll already my favorite :) keep it up!!

[@revanati222]

We had a min max player, playing a bladesimger in the old 2nd edition. Nothing his character did was particularly memorable as far as role playing until the day when he died. He challenged the ogre khan to single combat to end the war, and very nearly did it, despite him being 4th level in comparison to the 12 level npc he fought to a standstill. The players in the group were sitting on the edge of their seats despite having no involvement in the fight, and when the character died, the group were actually almost in tears. The role playing of the aftermath was amazing, an actual in game funeral, characters who had been irritated by the bladesinger's attitude were given to reflecting on his better traits, and overall, that made the rest of the campaign so good.

[@azukar8]

Love this guide, I'm a fairly new DM and always looking to find ways of making combat more varied. You've given me some great ideas

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

We've got more coming! Thanks for watching!

[@Teramis]

This is a really, really excellent breakdown of combat types and the functions they serve in the game. I used to design games for TSR and other publishers, and it would have been so helpful back in the day to have this kind of very specific framework through which to critically assess a work in progress. You've done a great job of teasing out important distinctions and nuances in combat encounters--and all in such a brief and concise vid. Kudos to you. Subscribing now!

[@tomparidge9286]

9:24 on the bit of "If you know your way around the monster manual, you can mix things together" My current dm twists the MM in his favor to make things better for us. We'd encounter something that, in all honesty, a lvl 5 party of 6 wouldn't have a chance against. But he takes that monster and splits it in half. Same damage, same health, but now there's 2 of them. I think it's a great way of catering your battles to your players' current levels and keeping them from feeling like there's no hope in this campaign. Unless that's what you want your players to feel, then go for it. Double, triple the health of the enemies.

[@GMJosh-sw9hp]

Awesome vid! Loved it! Fantastic way to break it down. Thank you!

[@MerlinFrmBerlin]

What a fantastic video! My strength as a dm is how i play in combat, but not how to prepare the story. I think using combat as story elements will make me a much stronger!

[@birdbrain4927]

thank you for this, it's a great way to restructure how i think about combat

[@camdenthompson4307]

been thinking about making it so most of the normal Monsters (stuff like Dragons, Owlbears, or a few of the monsters I'd added in my games) are a bit of a mix between a targeted strike & Puzzle, same with some of the bosses, albeit with the bosses its more just trying to find information about them. The idea is to try and make it so the party learns things about the monster, whether by hearing about it or even just observing it, and then they do whatever they can to kill it while the monster then tries to counter in any way it can, and goes back & forth (ex. someone jumps into a red dragons horde, and uses the threat of the dragon damaging its own horde to prevent it from using it breath weapon, only for it to attempt to throw the players out and away from the horde so it can use its breath weapon safely).

[@jmckay2998]

Love the video! Looks super professional and you have a very dramatic presentation style. I’ll be subscribing!

[@billybompson16]

great video, but i can think of one we’re missing: the chase. this one can work both ways. the players could be upon a wagon being chased by a horde of goblins riding worgs, far too many for them to deal with in a fight. or maybe the players are chasing down an elusive thief who tries to lose them in the city market.

[@jam14732]

Great stuff, I recognize how these various types could be applied to various encounters in my games. Thanks for out, lighting them so clearly and sharing examples.

[@stevepayne4446]

Amazing video - fantastic work!

[@Zacharadus]

All of my One-Shot sessions have Puzzle, Actually fights, they are some of the most fun, enjoyable, and rewarding fights in my opinion, especially when served alongside a boss fight. Great stuff!

[@PaladinProse]

Damn, way to come out of the gate swinging, man! This is great stuff. Welcome to the dungeontube community. Excited to see this channel grow.

[@ZarchAlDain]

Not a novel concept, but you chose your categories well. The video was well presented, and weaving in solid examples really helped.

[@edwarduribe2910]

Great job. I'll use the last one in my next encounter.

[@fireroastedfire]

As good of info as this is, there are SO many more types of combat / encounters than just these 8. Things like the Tough Choice (two mutually exclusive potential world-atering choice fights), the Total War fight (PCs involved in a war-like battle), the Timed Fight (bad things happen in X turns), the Ramping Encounter (gets harder and hard the longer you stay / survive), the While You Were Gone encounter, and SO much more.

[@berenscott9347]

Excellently paced & engaging delivery, well thought out with good attention to possible caveats. You encourage the viewer to think for themselves as well. I look forward to learning more from your videos and hope you grow in popularity exponentially - Would be well deserved based on this video. Excited about applying your ideas in my sessions - 2 years in as a DM and loving it!

[@Apastalypse]

Solid video. Helped me a lot.

[@hjaltos]

The cut to Django made me cackle out loud! These are some excellent combat scenarios!

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

It was a little reward!

[@MyWifeistheMC]

**Furiously takes notes**

[@MalloonTarka]

Very informative! As to the categories, well, we humans sure love putting things in boxes, I think these aren't mutually exclusive types, but rather labels that we can put on certain fights, some of which can co-oexist with other labels. Especially the Elite Team can /also/ be and Ambush, a Targeted Strike, a Stomping Ground (post enough character levelling, of course), a Boss Battle, or a Puzzle, Actually. A Horde of Bad Guys can be an Ambush or a Targeted Strike. Etc.

[@Xenibalt]

great video 10/10 nice pacing and well designed script

[@sub-jec-tiv]

Thanks for the super helpful conceptual suggestions. There are lots of ways to learn concrete skills. Not so many places to learn how to think about structure. Killing it folks! Congrats to you & the lady 👏 y’all are doing great.

[@smokeroftheboof]

Dope video! Looking forward to the channel's future!

[@Mystic-Arts-DM]

More to come!

[@Marabcd315]

I've found that recursive/looping dungeon design is much better for varied combats in general, but the main reason is as long as you have it written down how enemies will move through it it opens up so many more opportunities than "party walks into room, there are enemies! roll initiative!", a good ambush or targeted strike in a dungeon makes the entire thing feel so much more alive and dynamic and I highly recommend dungeons that don't follow a linear structure because of it

[@lionman8295]

Celestant Prime is quite a boss battle alright!

[@Ganjalf_green_wizard]

Those different types of combat sound A LOT like something DnD 4e supported to the great extend.

[@alexcothren5103]

"cause lord knows, you're not gonna" that for me😂