DM Lane | @tyrennii on Twitter

I had a question a while back about simplifying complex combat. The question came up after an article and it was a good one.

I was asked, ‘Do you have an article on how to simplify complex combat; such as 3+ variety of creatures? Especially campaign specific creatures. I kind of mean when you have to flick through the monster manual, monster cards, apps or campaign monsters, sometimes all at once. As in, running a lot of resources at once.’

Let me try and tackle a few of these issues today.

I recently ran a combat where the current party of 7 players were fighting, as a final ‘test’ against a Sphinx. The Sphinx in her lair had ‘statues’ of lesser monsters at her disposal. Every round a statue would turn back into a monster and attack the players under the Sphinx’s control. This meant that not only as DM, was I controlling the Sphinx, I could have been controlling several other monsters as well.

In a different combat I was running a Minotaur Cleric, two Minotaur sidekicks and also a couple of skeletons. It sure can get confusing but there are a few different ways you make it easier for yourself.

Have a Organised Initiative Order – One of the things I’m most happy with is my Initiative Tracker. It does everything that I want it to do. Not only does it shows me and the players who is up next with names written on both sides of the pegs, but it also easily allows me to insert more people/monsters into it without interrupting it or having to move things around much, if at all. This helps you in large fights, as everyone knows when their turn is happening and can prepare for it. All it takes is a few pegs and a some dowel on the top of your DM screen.

Group Monsters Together for Initiative: Let’s say that you have one Big Bad along with 3 skeletons and 2 zombies. Give the Big Bad their own initiative because it is your Big Bad, it deserves its own turn – and it makes the BB seem more important to your players as well. The other monsters though, try grouping them together depending on how many and their size and numbers. In my example above, I would run an initiative for the skeletons and then a separate one of the zombies. What this also means, especially when it comes to finding the stats and abilities of each monster, is that you only have to look them up once per round, which means less flicking back and forth in the monster manual. It also means that you don’t have to remember which Zombie is zombie 1, Zombie 2 and so on. With my Sphinx and Friends encounter, I had 1 initiative for the Sphinx and another for all of her ‘friends.’

Photocopying is your friend: When I know I have multiple creatures to run, I’ll often photocopy the monster from the MM so I don’t have to flick through pages. I’ll usually use the MM for one of the creatures (In my example above, the Big Bad) and then photocopies for the Skeleton and Zombie statistics. It can be tough knowing all of the abilities, damage amounts, movement speeds along with everything else, so not only does this speed up initiative turns, it also means your not going back and forth each time. If you can’t photocopy, pop some bookmarks in your MM, which will allow you to flick back a forth easily.

Conditions Trackers: I saw these online and had to get them…. well, convince a friend to 3D print them for me and then I painted them up.

They great to track conditions, but the real trick is to get someone else, one of your players, to use them in the game and not to do them yourself. They can be put over the pegs on your DM screen (as above) or, if you use mini’s, draped over them. A great reminder for everyone. Assign one of your players the role of Condition Master and take that responsibility, and the remembering of them, out of your hands and head. I also use headbands to remember ‘concentration’ as I always otherwise forget. Both my players and I wear them if we have a concentration spell going. In addition, using condition markers is a great trick of keeping a player engaged.

A Notepad: Yup, the humble notepad. I think this is the key to how I really structure my fights. I have a notepad with the bad guys names written down the left hand side. Beside their name I have their 3 main stats written down. Armour Class, Speed and then Hit Points, with HP always last.

Use a different colour pen after this to refer to any changes such as Hit Point and the like. This way, no matter where your Monster Manual is, or what page it is on, you can refer to the entire battle on one page with plenty of room to track changes. If you are using the bookmark system (and you’ve had time to prepare) in the MM, try colour coding your bookmarks – Red for the Bone Naga, Yellow for the Skeleton and White for the Zombies. Highlight the notepad names the same colour.

If a Big Bad has spell slots to inflict upon your players, write those spell slots on the line under the name and just cross them off as they use them.

Laptop: This comes back to personal preference. I hold most of my session notes on my laptop in Microsoft OneNote. It’s great for organising everything for D&D, you can hyperlink to websites and other pages in you OneNote Document. As I do mostly homebrew I have different plot points for different PC’s everywhere and OneNote allows me to link them all. My laptop also allows me to link to YouTube for Battle Music or use Syrinscape and also quickly look up any rules text via the internet – it can sometime be a lot quicker than finding the right page in the book.

If you can organise yourself and you know what combats are around the corner, it’s a lot easier to prepare. If not, tell your players to give you a minute while you set up. Optimally, you will already have your initiative tracker set up prior to the session, and at least a note-page ready at hand. Group those initiatives together maybe even look up one set of monsters on your laptop while having the other open in your Monster Manual, or use bookmarks. With little effort, you will be ahead of the game with very little extra set up required.

Hopefully these little tricks help. If you have your own, let me know in the comments below. I’m always looking to improve, speed things up and make things run a little smoother.

UNT

Other Articles:
DM Burnout
My DM Screen Information (+PDF)
The D&D Escape Room
DM’s Die Rolling for Players Skill Checks
Concentration Q&A’s
Encouraging Players to ‘Roleplay’
Character Creation: Why Adventure? (on d10again)
Metagmaing – Players Looking up the Baddies
Be a Better Role Player (Pt.3) – How to Improve In-Game
Be a Better Role Player (pt.2) – What your fellow players want from you
Be a Better Role Player (pt.1) – What Your DM Wants From You
5e Combat Cheat Sheet
Temporary Hit Points Q&A’s
DM Disappointment: Players Don’t Follow the Story?
Be a Better Role Player (pt.1) – What Your DM Wants From You
Session 0
DM Hints: Beefing Up Combat
Tips for New Players
New Years DMing Resolutions