Clash and Conflict: Combat Made Compelling!

Combat in tabletop games has often been a thing of some contention in the gaming community. Combat can go awry very quickly and plenty of sessions could crumble all because of overly long or too drawn out fight. Some GMs try to combat this by making combat faster by making it more dangerous, or others by adding an interesting environmental elements to the encounter.

Consider the following narration from my homebrew setting, Tylvein. Stick around after the show; that is where the real discussion starts. Enjoy!

Duel in the Clocktower

Daerthalion hurriedly climbed the spiraling stairs up into the clock tower that stood high above the bustling elf city of Silvereign. The summons he had received warranted every ounce of energy he could muster be put into his flight towards the confrontation that awaited him. With every step, a wicked dread grew in the pit of the elf’s stomach. As he reached the steel doors at the end of stairs, he found the lock discarded, broken—cut in two. The hollow clunking of the giant gears of the great clock greeted him as he pushed the door open. He climbed the stairs further into the heart of the mechanical wonder, each step concealed behind the grumbling of his surroundings (1). He scanned the atrium of the clock for his challenger, Arrador (2). A greater danger became painfully obvious to Daerthalion immediately after spotting Arrador. Arrador’s threat became clear as Daerthalion’s mind leapt back to the letter he held, crushed under the tension of his grip:

                Come to the clock tower, or your heart might not take it.

        ~Arrador

The drops of blood that followed Arrador’s signature had only made Daerthalion panic. His usual confidence was already shaken, but now that his worst fears had only been confirmed as he saw who Arrador had chosen as a hostage.  Gagged and hanging precariously over a network of gears from a catwalk next to the platform where Arrador stood, was Nyra. As Daerthalion crept up to the wide platform suspended by chains, just barely connected to the metal stairs, Arrador turned notice Daerthalion. (3) Nyra’s red eyes widened as she saw Daerthalion in a mixture of hope and fear. Faking his best confidence, Daerthalion give her a small smirk and nod, doing his best to ignore the crimson blood dripping from her lavender-colored cheek.

“So, to think you spend all of your time these days, with a half-drow outcast,” Arrador said, as he lifted the curved elven blade in his hand and pointed at Nyra. “Your sun elf ancestors would be disappointed, wouldn’t they? Then again, you were never a normal elf, were you, Dawntracker?” Arrador’s emerald eyes glowed with malice as he stared at Daerthalion.

“Let her go, Arrador,” Daerthalion’s voice remained calm. Doing his best not to let his anger and fear betray his façade.   

“Tell me why the bastard of a moon elf and drow is so appealing to you first. Do your own people dissatisfy you so?” Arrador’s wicked smile creeped wider and wider. “Tell me how much she means to you, tell me so I can enjoy taking her away.”

“Why are you doing this?!” Daerthalion shrieked (4), his anger and fear taking over. He didn’t care that the black haired elf in front of him had once been his friend, He threatened to destroy someone Daerthalion cared about, and anyone who knew him would surely know that was his greatest weakness.

Arrador’s grin reached its full span as he knew he had full control over the situation. He lifted his sword higher, aiming to cut the rope that held Nyra. (5) As he did Nyra disappeared in a burst of mist; his eyes widened as he heard a roar of a radiant energy as he turned to see Daerthalion was already charging him, his rapier-styled sunblade drawn. Arrador’s quick reflexes allowed him to parry Daerthalion’s weapon, as he moved his own weapon erupted with fire as the two blades met. (6) Daerthalion’s smirk was back in full force as the two blades locked together, both elves driving their might behind their swords. Daerthalion found his footing on the metal platform and drove Arrador backwards away from him. (7) Arrador caught himself from stumbling, quickly picking his momentum back up, swinging the flaming sword forward at his long-time rival. (8-9) Before Arrador could fully extend his weapon, Daerthalion blocked early, stifling the stroke into a feeble swish. Knocking the glowing beam of energy from him, Arrador readjusted, spinning the opposite direction for the parry and slashed out blindly into the opening offered by Daerthalion’s parry. The flaming sword hissed as it cut into Daerthalion’s shoulder. Where there had been fabric and reinforced leather, there was now blood and cinder. Daerthalion stepped back, his free hand swiftly moving to the wound, instinctively trying to hush the pain. Another hit like that in a more vital spot would quickly spell his end. He summoned one of the few magical talents he had; his form began to shift and waver, and Arrador’s rage simmered into a scowl in response. Arrador recognized the spell and knew it would now be harder to hit his foe. (10)

As Arrador honed his senses to accommodate for the magic Daerthalion used to obscure himself, something caught his attention: the platform they were on creaked as if someone’s weight had been set upon it. (11) He took his free hand and quickly clapped his palm to his chest while uttering an arcane invocation. In an effortless stride, twice as fast as he had moved before, he closed the gap between himself and Daerthalion, swinging wildly. (12) The blade would have cut Daerthalion’s forehead clean open had he actually been there. The sword clipped a lock of Daerthalion’s copper-colored hair, away; the smell of burnt hair briefly permeated the air. From Arrador’s perspective, Daerthalion hardly moved, yet in reality, he had ducked around out of the way of the strike. He struck fast, deftly swinging his sunblade towards Arrador’s face. The blade of energy met Arrador’s cheekbones and nose with a loud crackle. He cried out, pulling his face away with his supernatural speed- his hand clasped over the smoldering cut that lay neatly across his in a straight line. Daerthalion quickly capitalized on Arrador’s distraction and lashed out aiming for his calf. With a quick flick of Daerthalion’s sword, and kick to the back of the bloodthirsty elf’s ankle, Arrador’s back quickly met the grid work of the metal platform. (13)

Daerthalion stood over him, hovering the bright blade of energy under his adversary’s chin, “It’s over, you lost! As usual.” The copper-haired elf growled the final words, reminding Arrador who had always been the better swordsman. Arrador’s blood stained free-hand came up open in defeat.

“You’re right, O mighty warrior of all that is good and just,” the black-haired elf sneered, despite the pain aching in his face, his wicked grin flashed again. “You beat me, but you still haven’t saved her….”
The last words Arrador said were lost as Daerthalion’s eyes locked onto the black ring around Arrador’s finger. How did he not notice? Arrador had always been curt, abrasive, brash, but never murderous. Never this mindlessly aggressive. The ring resting around his finger, glowing an ominous red was a slave ring. Someone was controlling him. (14)

Daerthalion snapped to attention as Arrador fired a small gold bead towards the far end of the platform from his open palm. In a single, silent fraction of an instance, Daerthalion flinched, hesitation locking him in place as he anticipated the explosion that would follow. The bead, in an anticlimactic sizzle, blinked out of existence as a black boot slammed onto Arrador’s wrist (15). Daerthalion turned to see Nyra standing with her heel planted firmly holding Arrador’s arm in place against the floor.

Nyra shook her head. “Nice try. Now let’s get that ring off of you,” she said as she conjured a way to dispel the ring….

So, this whole story was done using D&D 5^th edition to create it, and was essentially an encounter with one major difference. I did the storytelling! Combat tends to break down into a game of “Declare, Roll, Damage” for hours on end but it can be more entertaining than that. I do not generally use many more tools than the usual GM, but for combat I use a 12-sided body die to place hits for extra flavor in the fights. Called shots are usually difficult to deal with in 5e so I will release how I handle special circumstance hits in another post later this week.

The fight played out like this:

1.) Daerthalion makes a stealth check to avoid Arrador seeing him.

2.) He makes a perception check to spot Arrador in the atrium of the clock tower.

3.) Arrador notices Daerthalion. Surprise attack is now harder to achieve.

4.) Daerthalion makes a Charisma (Deception) check to illicit Arrador’s focus away from Nyra.

5.-7.) Nyra uses Misty Step with her Undetectable Casting Spell Formula (Yes, she’s a Thaumaturge). As Arrador is destracted by her disappearance, Daerthalion attacks as part of the surprise round created by the team work between him and Nyra. The three characters then roll initiative while Daerthalion rolls his second attack which is a shove attempt.

8-9.) Arrador attacks Daerthalion, Daerthalion uses his Defensive Duelist reaction to parry the first attack. The second attack connects and deals 26 damage (nearly a quarter of Daerthalion’s health).

10.) Daerthalion uses his action to cast blur on himself. Arrador makes a successful Arcana check to recognize the spell.

11.) Nyra moves to get around Arrador, and behind Daerthalion after making a Perception check to see that Arrador has a slave ring. Arrador notices her movement with his passive perception.

12.) Arrador casts haste on himself and uses his spare action to make an attack against Daerthalion.

13.) Daerthalion makes two attacks against Arrador. Both use a class feature that allow him to target individual body parts. The first attack to the face temporarily blinds Arrador, while the second functions like a trip attempt.

14.) Daerthalion notices Arrador’s ring, and makes a successful Arcana check to recognize it as a slave ring.

15.) Nyra casts counterspell as a reaction, and uses her action to pin Arrador’s arm. She makes the check with advantage as Daerthalion has him at sword point.

Albeit brief, a full fight scene was constructed in 15 steps. It was up to the GM to illustrate the fight in a way that made it interesting. That is where most GM’s fail. They don’t properly illustrates fights so that they are compelling. These fifteen lines could have been the normal table talk, but creating a story out of the fight is where the disconnect starts for most GMs. It is rare that we share stories about something that happens in combat. Normally our recollections of tabletop games come from something amusing in social interactions. The narrative is generally heavier in the social interactions than combat. If combat boils down to stating what rolls we make or attacks we try, it causes the session to suffer. This will often irk players like your Actors and Fighters. These players enjoy combat for the sake it allows them to illustrate what they are doing and come up with creative methods to approach combat. With this highly illustrative method, it keeps these players invested in the combat, but they do not need to do anything overly creative, unless they really want to, and it will be easier for the GM to come up with because the GM is thinking in the terms of a fight rather than only math and dice. In the case of the “Declare, Roll, Damage” model of combat, when these kinds of players want to be creative, it disrupts the combat simply because they are trying harder than the other players. 

In Friday’s article, we’ll explore the dos and don’ts of combat for both sides, while introducing my method of handling called shots, and revisiting the 3.5/pathfinder method of handling combat maneuvers. Don’t worry Battle Masters, we won’t invalidate your class features.