Hello there.

The one weak point I have in being a DM is combat. If it’s anything non-magical, I’m alright at it. But the moment magic is thrown in, with non magic combat, and you have a party of 6 players with multiple enemies, and players with character abilities that are all over the place, it gets overwhelming to the point where I’m intimidated.

I’ve read guides, watched videos, read the official 5e DM book, and it’s still not clicking for me.

Please give me your tips on how to tackle this!

  • Maharashtra
    11•1 year ago

    Try these tricks (providing they are applicable!):

    • Lower down the number of enemies under your control, but make them stronger. This way, you won’t have to deal with so many pawns.
    • Don’t force your NPCs to fight to death. Assume that once, say 25% of your pawns are wiped out, their leader halts the fight and asks to parlay, or that if 75% of them/their leader go to the ground, the rest escapes.
    • Tucker’s Kobolds.
    • If a combat action leads to multiple dice rolls one after another, roll all of the dice at once - this speeds up the game.
    • Use combat managers/helpers - Excel file, dedicated software, whatever helps you in math, use it.
    • If the combat becomes too overwhelming, introduce some unsuspected elements. Sudden earthquake, volcano eruption, castle falling down, incoming of a truly powerful enemy, etc. Have some good in-game explanation for such an event!
    • @Candelestine
      5•1 year ago

      To add to that last point, I always like to have a few quest-specific Deus Ex Machinas that I’ve got up my sleeve, in case I really badly miscalculated a battle.

      Once I realize things are going badly for the PCs, I switch to playing as if they were supposed to lose this battle the whole time, so I can introduce this cool new thing. I try to make it seem like I planned it, but really, I’m just pulling a Deus Ex to save my party from my own dumb ass.