Scary Combat Choreography

I'm not a big fan of wargamey PvE or PvP (PvX?) fighting.

I want something quicker, more cinematic, more desperate and brutal.

So this.

I'm giving you the 5e version here, but it's pretty adaptable if you shove hard enough. Some steps have different settings; so just do you.

STEP 1: ROLL INITIATIVE
Everything is normal. Breathe.

STEP 2A: A PC WON INITIATIVE

1. Ask the player what they want to do.
2. If it's attack, say "Set up your finishing move." 
3. Freeze the action at the moment of uncertainty before the finishing move happens, when it could go either way.
4. Judge: do we even need a roll here, based on what happened in the setup and what's happened with the fight so far and who the PC is and who the monster is? If not, it just happens. Return. Else, proceed.
5. Judge advantage or disadvantage.
6. Have the player make the roll (or rolls if they're using multiple attacks: multiple mechanical 'attacks' can and should group into one fictional attack)
1. On a hit, they do the finishing move. If the monster could reasonably still be up and kicking, apply hp damage and other effects as normal. 
2. On a miss, apply miss effects as normal. If this kills the monster, then of course it's killed. If it doesn't kill the monster: 
1. If this is a melee engagement, the monster seizes initiative. 
2. If this was a missed ranged or spell attack and the monster isn't in melee range, initiative passes to the next character in order. 

What's a finishing move? It's whatever they intend on doing to the monster when they get in position to do it.

What's 'setting up' that move mean? It's whatever's involved in getting to the moment of uncertainty before the finishing move might happen.

Example
Jansen, you have the initiative.

I attack the goblin. 

Okay, set up your finishing move.

I run up to it and sweep its legs out from underneath it with my glaive.

And? [The player didn't set up a finishing move. This happened in my game tonight. It's more choreography-authority than people are used to; so the player stopped short.]

I want to drive the blade down into the middle of its back. 

[There's our finishing move and set up. I would judge that the goblin may turn the situation around; so we do need to roll, but the PC will have advantage since the goblin's on its face.]

OBJECTION! Won't the players just put themselves in an advantageous position every time? 

ANSWER: Yes. That's the point. They will have to engage the fiction at every point because they will want to find a way to give themselves advantage. There is fictional friction all the time. They can ask you questions about how the monster is reacting; you can just offer this information; it's not a problem for the PC; this is still part of their setup. But don't worry, we're making it harder on the PCs too; read on.

STEP 2B: A MONSTER WON (OR HAS SEIZED) INITIATIVE 
Note that you can use monster-groups as a single monster here to simplify things and make them a little easier on the players. But feel under no compulsion to do so.

1. Set up their finishing move. Beat up the PC a bit in the process (not applicable to ranged or magic, of course; that's just chanting and aiming). It's okay to break gear here, put them in precarious positions, make them bleed. Or just to put them on their backs, crawling away. 
2. Freeze the action at the moment of uncertainty before the finisher. (Before the spell goes off, before the arrow flies, before the blade falls.)
3. Ask if anyone who has held their initiative wishes to jump in now to interrupt; if so, resolve as 2A; if a missed attack wouldn't put the monster out of position, a miss might mean that the monster's attack continues straightforwardly—the arrow just flew past them. 
4. Make your attack roll. 
1. On a hit, subtract hp as normal. If they're dead they're dead. Otherwise, make things irrevocably worse in the most interesting way you can think of. If you can't think of anything, default to injury. If death is the last interesting and honest thing, then they die. Any special effects might proc here as well, like a ghoul's paralysis. You'll have to think about the fiction: how does the paralysis work? It may warrant a second save (the "AC save" being the first), depending on how you conceptualize it. 
2. On a miss, the targeted PC seizes initiative if this is a melee engagement; otherwise, play passes to the next in the initiative order.

OTHER SITUATIONS

Other saves or dangers work the same way: choreograph to the moment of uncertainty, then make the save or attack roll (which is basically an armor save) to see what happens.

AN EXAMPLE FROM THE CINEMA

Roll for initiative!

Orc wins, sets up finishing move by tossing Aragorn against a tree the better to slice.

Orc misses; Aragorn seizes initaitive by ducking out from under the shield

They fight and tumble as part of Aragorn's setup

 

Then Aragorn stabs orc in the leg to set up his finisher

But misses. Orc headbutts Aragorn, shoves him away, pulls knife out

Throws it for his finisher; we freeze here to roll

Miss; Aragorn blocks it (really?) and seizes initiative

Aragorn starts his 18 hit combo and does a bunch of parried strikes that puts orc off balance

Cuts arm off (I'd allow that as setup) then goes to decapitate; freeze; hit

That just happened.

Now for some memes.

COMPLEMENTARY HACKS
(Without the stackable and expanded inspiration hacks, players are going to be getting injured and killed left and right when you run out of interesting way to make things worse for them. It also lets you really incentivize whatever it is you require in order to get inspiration hint hint.)

Stackable inspiration: make inspiration stack. You can have as much as you can get.

Expanded inspiration use: you can spend inspiration after any d20 roll to reroll it: your attacks or saves, attacks made against you, attacks by teammates, whatever.

Inspiration marks: for some actions, don't award an entire point of inspiration but only a mark or tally. When the player has acquired X of these tallies (I'm thinking 3 for my game), they erase the tallies and gain another inspiration point. Recommended to incentivize those little things you want to see so badly, you pitiful control freak.

Despair: monsters have despair (like PC inspiration, get it) for use on attacks against them or saves they make. They have a number equal to HD (ignoring any pluses to HD, if you're running old school). So a 4 HD monster can force 4 rerolls for attacks against it or on saves it makes. Without this hack, humanoid creatures with discernible anatomy should be pretty quickly dispatched by the PCs, which may or may not be as you wish. Recommended for terror.

Add HD to initiative: I like this because winning initiative is really important, especially in this variant; so better fighters should win it more often.

HP damage on setup vs players: Roll damage as if you hit against PCs as part of setup, before the attack roll. If you kill them, kill them before the attack roll. Do not add any ability modifiers to this damage, just the dice. If you hit, reroll the dice and add the modifier this time. If you crit, roll the dice again. (This makes archers nasty: they do damage just by aiming at you; better hit the deck where you can't be a target.) Highly recommended. 

HP damage on setup vs monsters: as above. Makes monsters even easier to kill. Not recommended.

Heroic setups: if you want a more LOTR vibe, just say that, as part of setup, your PCs can wipe out creatures of HD equal to their own. Not recommended; you should work for every goblin.

Heroic finishers: as above, but you get to take out the mooks after a hit only. Not recommended; you should work for every goblin.

Heroic half and half: as above, but maybe kind of split it up before and after the hit? Not recommended; you should work for every goblin.

Heroic randomness: as above, but roll a die with enough faces to accommodate your number of hit dice. This turn, you can take out the result in HD before the roll, up to your max number of HD. Not recommended; you should work for every goblin.

SOME CONSIDERATIONS
B-B-B-Balance! Yeah, it messes with everything. Some spells won't be as useful anymore. Some spells you might actually have to think about: what does this thing actually do, fictionally? You're a grownup, work it out. You can't tank as well now. But maybe you can kill multiple things with one melee attack action if you narrate it right? See, I'm sure it'll be fine, in the end.

It is not very wargamey. This is true. If the wargamey style of man to man combat inherited from Chainmail floats your boat, then just keep being awesome. It's how Gary intended, after all.

Cinematic Fights: Skeleton Warriors Example

From this post, we extract these principles, with some revisions and additions:

RULES SUMMARY
Whenever you attack a creature, before you roll, just make sure we know who you're attacking and with what (e.g., keep using my sword, attacking the zombie in the funny hat).

When you miss, your opponent takes control; you mark a death slash (1/2 a death save failure—a whole death save failure is two slashes, an X), and the GM escalates the brutality of the fight.

When you hit a creature, roll and apply damage as normal.

When you hit without advantage, you may take control against them, providing you can think of some way in the fiction to do so that doesn't render the creature incapable of fighting.

When you hit with advantage or reduce a creature to 0 hp, what you intended to do to them happens.

When a creature attacks you, the GM makes it act against you at the current level of brutality (determined by the number of your death slashes). This is before any attack roll from the GM.

When a creature misses you, the GM will ask how you take control of the situation.

When a creature hits you, you lose hp as normal, mark a death slash, and the GM escalates the brutality of the fight.

When a creature hits you with advantage, you lose hp as normal and mark a death save failure (two death slashes), and the GM escalates the brutality of the fight.

When you hit zero hp, you fall, and we are agnostic about your fate (as long as you have less than 3 death save failures). The normal death save mechanic kicks in.

Whenever you use the environment to your advantage, the effects (however resolved) should bypass hit points and instead use your intent. 

When you hit an enemy with a magic effect that could kill, resolve hp, etc. as usual. In addition, it does indeed kill the creature if you have advantage or the enemy is at disadvantage; otherwise, it's about to kill the creature; say how the effect is putting the creature at a disadvantage. 

When you attack from range, resolve hp, etc. as usual. If you have advantage, you hit just where you intended. Otherwise on a hit, the GM says where you hit. 

Here are the levels of brutality or escalation:

• 0 = no slashes: pressure/threat
• 1 = /: battered
• 2 = X: bleeding
• 3 = X /: screaming
• 4 = X X: broken / torn / disfigured / disabled
• 5 = X X /: maimed / permanently disabled
• 6 = X X X: dying / dead

Note that, although this is written for 5e, it's really system agnostic. Tracking HP just possibly makes it more deadly.

If you read the previous post, you'll notice I've replaced the "seize advantage" verbiage with "take control". I feel it's clearer and less mechanical.

Say we've got three skeletons as in the picture above. We're fighting in an unlit tomb with pillars and coffins everywhere.

To keep things simple, I'm not going to use fancy powers and such. I'll give AC, hp, attack bonus, and damage in the statblocks and then update them as the fight goes on. I'll be using a dice roller and not fudging.

I'm making one change to the monster: instead of having skeletons be vulnerable to bludgeoning, I'm having them be resistant to slashing and immune to piercing. And you have to break their spines to kill them.

Skeleton (mace + shield): AC 15 ATK +4 (1d6 + 2) HP 13
Skeleton (axe + shield): AC 15 ATK +4 (1d6 + 2) HP 13
Skeleton (dual wielding mace + sword): AC 13 ATK + 4 (1d6 + 2), +4 (1d6) HP 13
Fighter (L1, shield + mail + defensive + mace): AC 19 ATK +4 (1d6 + 2) HP 12
Wizard (L1, robes + out of spells, ray of frost cantrip): AC 12 ATK +5 (1d8) HP 7

I'm worried for my party. I think they should have run. But maybe they've triggered a trap that keeps them locked in the tomb until the skeletons are dead. Let's run with that. Time for initiative. Skeletons are +2; my characters are +1 for fighter and +2 for wizard.

INITIATIVE
Wizard: 15
Skeletons: 9
Fighter: 8

So that's it. In 5e, initiative order is static; so each round it will remain the same. Glad my wizard goes first :\

ROUND 1: FIGHT
Wizard: I'm shooting ray of frost at the dual-wielding one. [ROLL: natural 1]. Of course. You said there were pillars and sarcophagi around here, right? I'm going to go take cover behind one of those.

GM: The one with the mace is going around to get at the wizard, but the rest are converging on the fighter. We'll do the wizard first. You'll have cover for being behind the sarcophagus. [ROLL: natural 1 again]. So it swings and misses you, and chunks of marble are spraying everywhere; how do you take control?

Wizard: I'll reach out and freeze its hand to its mace, shatter them both on the lid of the sarcophagus, and kick it away from me.

[Notice that the player disarmed the skeleton and cut off its hand. That's fine. We don't care about the bodily integrity of the baddies. They are playgrounds of destruction, and the PCs are fragile as well. We don't need to carefully monitor things so that nothing awesome happens. Also note that the wizard will not have mechanical advantage against the skeleton because of this; he's just created distance and reduced the skeleton to unarmed damage. It's debuffing without having a power that tells you that you can debuff.]

GM: Cool, you do it. Now the other skeletons are coming up on the fighter. [DUAL WIELDER ROLLS TWICE: misses both times. AXE misses as well; fighter's AC is too good.] How do you take control?

[Notice I didn't even narrate the attacks of the skeletons at all. I'm not concerned about that. That they initiated an attack is assumed and will of course be incorporated into what the player says. If the player needs more info, they can just ask.]

Fighter: I'll block the dual wielder's attacks and shove him away while I break the knees of the other one with my mace. I want him on the ground when I attack him.

[Again, bodily destruction of the opposition is A-OK as long as they still might pose a threat.]

GM: your turn, fighter. [Previous action was just the fighter's response to the misses of the skeletons; now it's the fighter's turn proper.]

Fighter: I've got advantage, right? [Yes, he does.] I'm just going to stomp his skull with my boot.

GM: Okay, and go ahead and roll your mace's damage for this; I don't want to penalize you by making you do unarmed damage.

[Fighter ROLLS with advantage and hits, does 1d6+2 = 7 damage.]

[Notice, though: the player doesn't know that delivering a headshot doesn't matter for these skeletons. Their spine must be broken or crushed. I don't let on, though.]

GM: Okay, you smash his skull; go ahead, wiz.

ROUND TWO
Wizard: I'm going to keep skirting around the sarcophagus and shooting at its legs. [Hit for 5 damage.] Okay, I hit it; so I'm freezing it to the floor, and the frost is spreading up its legs.

GM: I'm going to have the skeleton try to come at the wizard. [Makes a STR check to have it break free of the ice; fail]. But it can't; its leg is frozen into the ground, and it only manages to break its leg off—which means your ice isn't creeping up its body anymore, wiz. It's crawling toward you, but can't reach you yet.

GM: The dual wielding skeleton is coming at you, fighter. [I'm also going to use the now headless skeleton at the fighter's feet, but I'm not giving that away yet. It'll attack with advantage because the fighter doesn't know it's still a threat.]

[Dual wielder rolls, hits with the main hand, misses with the off hand. The other skeleton attacks with advantage: miss. Since at least one attack hits, we use the hit rules rather than the miss rules: 5 damage, two death slashes, escalating to bleeding. I don't know if the fighter would have noticed the attack of the skeleton on the ground; I see that he does NOT have Perception trained. So that will mean he doesn't notice the skeleton's bump against his greaves. If he had been wearing no armor on the legs, maybe I would have ruled differently.]

GM: The skeleton drives you back against a pillar, and you're just barely able to keep him off you, and then he brings down his mace onto your thigh, and you can feel the broken mail biting in. [Note: if we were using an armor repair / damage system, here's one way you can bring it in.] It's angling its sword to stab you right in the face; what do you do? [Transitioning to fighter's initiative count; I'm still judging that the fighter wouldn't notice the other skeleton rising and approaching.]

Fighter: I'll keep fighting. I hit for 7 damage.

GM: Okay, how do you take control?

Fighter: I block the sword then smash its legs so it can't walk.

GM: You do, and then you notice [because the skeleton's not in the way anymore] the one whose skull you crushed advancing toward you. He's charging with the tip of his spine toward you.

ROUND THREE
Wizard: I'm going to try to freeze the headless one to the ground while running away from the one that's been fighting me; I'll circle around to try to get cover behind a pillar. Miss again!

GM: [I've got to think about what the skeletons are going to do now. I think the one engaged with the wizard would be crawling toward him. So he'll be crawling toward the dropped torch, putting himself between the wizard and fighter. I don't think he'll be able to threaten anyone this round.]

GM: wizard, you see the skeleton who was chasing you crawling toward the torch, but he can't get in range of either of you yet.

[Now, for the other two. Since the fighter's legs are armored, I'm thinking the main threat is the charging skeleton, but the other skeleton on the ground might hold him in place. So that's the situation I'll present. I'll be at disadvantage to attack from the ground but not to grab; so I'll try a grab and an attack.]

GM: fighter, the charging skeleton is coming right for you, and you can see the skeleton whose legs you just smashed stirring at your feet.

[The dual wielder successfully grabs, but the charging skeleton misses by 1.]

GM: as the skeleton gets even closer, you can feel the other one's hand grab your ankle; you're grabbed. How do you take control of the situation?

Fighter: I brace for impact and shove the charging skeleton on its back, then turn and stomp the arm of the skeleton that's holding me, then jump on top of—

GM: That's enough. We'll start your initiative with your breaking free of the skeleton.

[There's an art to knowing what's too much for one take control.]

Fighter: Well, obviously crushing their skulls isn't enough; so maybe I need to crush the spine? I've already got advantage since he's prone; so that's what I'm gonna do, just bring it down straight through the ribcage onto the spine. Hit for 4 damage.

[Note that this brings the dual wielding skeleton down to 2 hp; but, since the fighter already had advantage, it's treated as if the creature were at 0 hp, which means he gets to do whatever he wants. Crushing the spine will indeed kill the creature.]

GM: that's what happens. You break through the spine, and you can feel the impact on the stone beneath, and sparks fly up off your mace [insert weapon breakage/degradation rules here]. It's not moving.

ROUND FOUR
Wizard: I want to keep running from the one that was originally attacking me and keep trying to freeze the one to the ground that's grabbing at the fighter. Hit for 8 damage.

GM: [noting that it takes the skeleton to 0 hp] you do freeze it in place and can finish it.

Wizard: Okay, I close my fist, and it shatters.

GM: [judging that the remaining one really isn't a threat]. The last skeleton can't move quickly enough to threaten y'all.

Fighter: Okay, I just break it's spine like the other one.

GM: Done.

AFTERMATH
The wizard didn't get touched, luckily.

The fighter took one good hit to the leg, which broke some of his mail and caused bleeding. You can (and should I think) call in any subsystem you wish to handle this business. Maybe a surgeon needs to extract the broken links that might have been embedded in the flesh. Maybe it needs to be cauterized so there's no infection.

The wound is certainly painful but may not have any mechanical effects (at least not yet). If you wished, you could certainly implement such a system.

But, for those who are curious, that's an idea of how it would work.

Cinematic Fights: a 5e Hack

EDIT: the mechanics in this post have been revised and expanded, with an additional extended example, here: http://detectmagic.blogspot.com/2014/11/cinematic-fights-skeleton-warriors.html.

 

D&D combat is abstract, but it doesn't have to be.

See, we're going to change it up.***

It's going to require some close reading, because the heavy lifting here is for (of course) you, the GM. It's not difficult, but it requires you to say certain things and certain times and specifically refrain from saying other things at other times.

And not only will your fight be pleasantly/disgustingly choreographed when you get to the bloody end, but it will reward players who can use the fictional environment to their advantage. So come on and sit down right here on this old tree stump and have a listen.

Wait

I was reading the details below, and I thought "people are going to freak out and think this is no fun because you wrote this like a textbook."

So, first, let me try to sell you on it.

What This Does

• Every hit or miss corresponds to something visible in the fiction
• Savvy players can use the environment to their advantage
• Savvy players can use fictional positioning re: particular configurations of armor and particular modes of attack to their advantage
• It makes fights scarier by accruing death save failures before PCs reach 0 hp
• It incorporates lasting injuries
• It has definite ideas about what hit points, hit point damage, and hit point healing means
• It makes gaining fictional advantage, which translates to the advantage/disadvantage mechanic, hugely important
• It makes missing even more scary, such that, if you don't have the advantage, it's probably a better idea not to engage at all unless you seriously outclass your opponent
• It makes fighting multiple opponents a very bad idea
• It makes fights brutal and visceral as part of the process and not some tedious and unnecessary add-on that just slows things down and is boring and embarrassing

Rules Summary

Whenever you attack a creature, before you roll, say what specifically you are trying to do: choreograph your intent. 

When you miss, your opponent seizes advantage over you; you mark a death slash (1/2 a death save failure—a whole death save failure is two slashes, an X), and the GM escalates the brutality of the fight. 

When you hit a creature, roll and apply damage as normal. 

When you hit without advantage, you may seize advantage against them, providing you can think of some way in the fiction to do so that doesn't render the creates incapable of fighting.  

When you hit with advantage or reduce a creature to 0 hp, what you intended to do to them happens.

When a creature attacks you, the GM makes it act against you at the current level of brutality (determined by the number of your death slashes). This is before any attack roll from the GM. 

When a creature misses you, the GM will ask how you seize advantage against the creature. 

When a creature hits you, you lose hp as normal, mark a death slash, and the GM escalates the brutality of the fight. 

When a creature hits you with advantage, you lose hp as normal and mark a death save failure (two death slashes), and the GM escalates the brutality of the fight. 

When you hit zero hp, you fall, and we are agnostic about your fate (as long as you have less than 3 death save failures). The normal death save mechanic kicks in. 

To Illustrate

Cato, our level 1 fighter, has 19 AC (shield 2 + chain 16 + class feature 1) and attacks at +5 with his sword for 1d8+3 damage.

He's in a filthy cave and steps too loudly in a puddle, and there's the goblin, gnawing on the meat of the kid he was supposed to rescue.

Cato drops his torch and his pack and readies his shield.

The goblin grabs the cleaver he used to chop the boy up and rushes Cato [monster has initiative, moves to Cato, misses attack], leaping up to bring the cleaver down on Cato's head, but Cato [seizing advantage] plants himself into the ground and bashes the thing out of the air with his shield.

He follows it as it rolls on the ground, and [attacking] thrusts down at its neck, but [misses] it rolls away [marking a death slash], grabs Cato's leg and pulls it out from under him and his head bashes against the ground, face submerged in a shallow puddle [seizing advantage at the / level of brutality—battered].

Now the goblin climbs up Cato's back, grabs his hair, and forces his face back into the water to drown him [acting at the current level of brutality]. Goblin makes an opposed Strength check with advantage and succeeds. Cato takes damage but still has hp. Marks two more death slashes. The brutality level is now /// or 3 or or X/ or 1.5 death save failures—screaming. The GM has the goblin in full control, pushing Cato's face deeper into the mud.

Now it's Cato's turn again. Before he rolls, he choreographs. This step, even if the attack misses, is essential because:

• it tells the GM how to respond in the fiction
• it gives the GM the information necessary to determine if advantage or disadvantage is warranted

Cato will reach back with both arms, grab the goblin's head, and slam him on his back onto the ground in front of him.

GM doesn't rule for advantage or disadvantage on this, and he succeeds. Damage applied to goblin as normal, but the goblin still has some hp left.

It's the goblin's turn. He crawls over to his machete while Cato is gasping for breath, swings at Cato until he cuts into his thigh [enforcing the current level of brutality], then takes a big swing for the neck: miss.

GM asks Cato's player how he seizes advantage: grabs his own sword of the ground, parries the machete, grabs the goblin's neck and bashes its head on the ground. 

Cato's turn, attacking with advantage since he's on top of the goblin with his hands around its neck and head. The choreography: break its head open. Rolls with advantage, hits: so that's what happens. Even if the goblin had hp left (doubtful), this would kill it. 

So, at the end of the fight, Cato's face is covered in grime and blood; he's bleeding from a deep cut in this thigh, and he probably swallowed some parasite while the goblin was on his back drowning him in the cave puddle.

Now Then For the Details

This comes with some rules changes baked in; so here we go. 

Death Saves

• You can mark death save failures while you still have hp remaining
• You can mark partial death save failures
• a partial failure is indicated by a slash in the death save failure circle
• a full failure is indicated by an X in the death save failure circle
• adding one slash to an existing slash makes an X
• The number/type of death save failures you have marked is significant; here are the categories
• —: pressure/threat
• /: battered
• X: bleeding
• X/: screaming
• XX: broken / torn
• XX/: maimed / disfigured
• XXX: dying / dead 

When You Reach 0 HP

• You are down
• Make death saves as normal to see how bad it is 

When You Take a Short Rest (Or: When the Fight is Definitely Over)

• Erase all death save failures and successes as normal 
• Any wounds or injuries remain until healed

Healing

• Healing hp damage does not reflect healing serious wounds
• So a cure wounds spell doesn't really have visible physical effects; it's more like a prayer for preservation, and potions of healing are like drugs
• To heal an actual injury, when the time comes at which the injury could significantly improve or worsen, a Wisdom/Intelligence (Medicine) check must be made vs DC 15:
• Disadvantage if not proficient. 
• Advantage if properly cared for by someone proficient in the proper environment 
• The one primarily treating the wound should make the check
• Miss: gets worse; eventually you'll just die
• Hit: gets better

HP Damage

• For PCs, "damage" is more like "threat". A high damage monster isn't actually hitting you with that acid spit each time; its higher "damage" output reflects its higher threat to the PC
• For human and demihuman NPCs, the same
• For monsters, damage that doesn't take the monster to 0 hp can be actual damage: lopped off arms, arterial spray, whatever. Monsters can take serious meat damage and just keep going. 

Saving Throws

• To succeed on a saving throw, you must identify the way, fictionally, that you are avoiding the threat
• If you can't do that, you suffer the full effects regardless; no need to roll the save
• Suffering hp damage even when you take cover from the dragon's breath isn't problematic; the damage just represents the ticking time-bomb threat of the monster
• Similarly, if something that would kill you (getting caught in dragon fire) is written not as save-or-die but instead as, say, 6d6 damage, save for half, then, even on a failed save, you must say how you're actually avoiding getting consumed by the fire. A failed save in this instance would just represent more narrowly escaping the immediate threat than you would have been the case had you made the save. 

Injuries

• When you receive an injury, write it down
• DM will adjudicate effects of injury and tell you them; write them down

PROCEDURES

I like monsters-go-first initiative, but do as you please. 

When a monster or group of monsters attacks a PC:

• Before the roll, enforce the current level of brutality. 
• If the PC has no death slashes yet, just threaten harm against them; put pressure on them
• If the PC has, say, three death slashes, that's screaming-level brutality. Even without a roll, you're permitted to do things to them that would make them scream. 
• And that's just the setup to your actual attack. 
• And this brutality-enforcement can come from any appropriate source. Let's say it's Goblin A's turn, but we know there are goblin archers within line of sight. You can enforce brutality by having the PC get an arrow in the shoulder before the goblin even makes his attack.
• Make it feel real and unpleasant. 
• There are two options here regarding monster initiative-groups:
• Option 1: all monsters in an initiative group are treated as a single unit for the purpose of death slashes. If a fighter is facing 3 goblins, make all the attacks for the goblins at once, and consider the fighter to have sustained a hit if at least one of the goblins hit; otherwise consider the monsters to have missed. 
• Option 2: treat each monster as a separate unit. This one is much less friendly to the PCs. 
• Hit: roll and apply damage as normal.
• Option 1: Tell the player make a death save failure slash / death slash / whatever you want to call it, and ask how many the player has now (if you're not already keeping track).
• Option 2: keep track beside the name of each PC how many slashes and Xs they have. You mark another slash yourself beside the PC's name. 
• Hit and taken to 0 hp: narrate at the new brutality level what the monster(s) do(es) to the PC, and end with the PC "down."
• If the PC has 3 Xs, obviously there's no reason to make death saving throws. Otherwise, PC will make them on PC's turn like normal.
• If they accrue failures, when the PC dies or is stabilized we will see that the damage is worse than it appeared.
• For instance, PC went down with 1 X (bleeding), has a death save failure for 2Xs total (broken/torn), and, upon stabilization, we "discover" that his shin is sticking through his skin. 
• Hit with hp remaining: mark a death slash, and apply the new level of brutality to the PC, seizing advantage if possible
• Miss: describe what the monster or gaggle of monsters was trying or about to do, and ask how the PC seizes advantage.
• It may be that the player cannot think of a way to seize advantage. That's fine: simply avoiding or deflecting is okay too.
• But, if they can't think of a way to do even that, treat it as a hit after all. 

When a PC attacks a creature:

• Ask how they are attacking, what specifically they are tying to do or are aiming for; give them disadvantage if it is weak and/or boring
• Have them roll, and note if they have advantage or not
• Hit with advantage:
• What they player intended happens
• If this takes the creature out, that's what happens
• Otherwise, say what happens and subtract hp from the creature as normal
• Hit without advantage:
• subtract hp from the target creature(s) as normal
• ask how they seize the advantage vs the enemy
• it's possible there's no way to do so, given the circumstances—or, if there is, it's possible the player can't think of a way—and that's fine
• Hit that takes enemy to 0 hp: if what they intended to do would not kill them, ask how they finish off the creature (this is important because, if the creature has an unknown weakness or whatever, they may not be able to finish off the creature!)

WHEW THAT'S IT

That was tedious to write up and feels more complex than it is. 

This really benefits from a richly described environment, or at least an environment that becomes richly described. Like, if a PC says, I grab a rock and bash his head in, and you haven't specifically said there are rocks just lying around for the bashing, you should probably say sure, okay (1) because that's great and (2) because then you can bash him right back. 

Extra points for unstable columns to push over on people, fountains to drown people in, ledges to push people off of, all that action movie stuff.

Go watch some action movies or some fight scenes on YouTube. Soak in it for a while, and it shouldn't be hard to come up with interesting things to say when enforcing brutality levels or seizing advantage. 

DO LET ME KNOW

If I haven't been clear on the procedures and output here. I'm afraid that I haven't been and that none of it makes any sense, but I also feel that it's great and makes total sense. 

So who knows what's what. 

I can give more examples of course, but they take way longer to write up than they do to narrate in the moment.

***However, if you don't want to change it up, I think really abstract is the way to go. Just blow through it until someone drops. 

Yet Another Combat Hack

This is primarily for 4E. Could be used elsewhere though.

The goal of this is to:

• speed things up
• keep players focused 
• nail down the fiction corresponding to each attack
• make monsters more interesting 
• provide more risk/reward choices

Primary Module

When monsters miss, they provoke an opportunity action from enemies that threaten them. This action is a standard action: attack, move, whatever. 

When a player misses a monster that threatens it, that monster uses its miss reaction. 

You need to give monsters these reactions. By default, it could just be a damage roll, no attack roll. You do not want the potential to whiff here. If a player misses, something bad will happen. 

You can vary miss effects by margin of failure if you want. 

Overkill Module

When a player attacks, ask him exactly what he's doing, how he's aiming, etc. if he doesn't say ("dunno just attacking") this module doesn't apply. 

When a PC crits or hits the AC / Defense + 5 (so a 21 vs AC 5/16), the PC does just what he wanted. It bypasses hp. The effect does what it does. If he was trying to cut dude's head off, it is now rolling on the floor. If he was aiming for the troll's eye, that eye now has an arrow in it. 

Ongoing Effect Module

Give monsters effects (like auto damage) that proc at the start or end of combat turns rather than rounds. 

This is perfect for a zombie that has grabbed a PC and is biting at his neck. Say that the zombie is currently biting at fighter's neck. It's now cleric's turn. Cleric! What do you do!? Fighter's about to buy it! No waiting around for next round pshaw. 

Movement Module

GM moves monsters all at once at the top of the round. They act as normal on their initiatives but do not move. In 4E terms, they use their move actions at top of round. 

Players can spend a standard action to reroll initiative and take the higher result. 

Weird option: when you attack, reroll initiative and take the new one if lower. 

Optional Module

GM doesn't roll attack or damage. 

Instead, when you would attack a PC and they would be aware of an able to respond to the attack, describe the attack ("the dragon's chest is expanding; his mouth is about to open"), and ask what they do. 

They can counterattack or defend. 

If they counter, they attack as normal. 

If they hit, they do damage as normal and suffer as normal from the enemy's attack. 

If they miss, they only suffer. 

If they crit (or get a hard hit, DC+5), they do damage and suffer none. 

If they defend, ask them how. 

Based on desrciption choose appropriate defense (AC, reflex, etc). 

Have them roll their defense bonus (= Defense - 10)

Against DC = 10 + attacker's attack bonus (old school: 1+HD, 4E, 5+Level)

On a hit, they evade or block as they described. 

On a hard hit/crit, not only that, but they leave the enemy in poor position: PC may take opportunity action

On miss, suffer damage as normal; GM says how 

If you would make an attack of which they are unaware, make it as normal but do not narrate it. The attack roll is a saving throw to avoid the effect. This bypasses hp if it hits. Suddenly a javelin is in your side. 

Alternative to "Dying" in 4E

Use -C's On a Table for Avoiding Death with 4E to get rid of the "Dying" condition and replace it with something more interesting.

• When you attack, say what is this attack trying to do to the PC, fictionally
• When a PC hits 0 or fewer hp, make death saving throws until you hit one or until you run out
• In other words, not one per turn—just keep rolling until you get 10+ or run out
• If you run out, or if the PC is at his negative bloodied value in hp, the thing that, fictionally, the attack was trying to do happens, to its full extent, whatever that means fictionally. 
• If the PC hits a death saving throw, stop making them and have the PC roll on the table for avoiding death, linked above. 
• I use the 1d6 + negative hp method. 
• Instead of just going down and having to sit there potentially doing nothing, the player will likely still be able to contribute, just with lesser effectiveness and with increased risk that the next hit will be really really bad.
• If the player is then actually dying (fictionally) or comatose or something, roll up a new PC immediately (just take a level 1 monster and reskin it). Get that player back in the game ASAP.
• If a player rolls a 20 on the death saving throw, they DO NOT roll on the table. Instead, they can spend a healing surge immediately. Turns out they dodged/withstood the shot after all. 
• Treat injuries received in this manner as diseases per the standard 4E disease rules (check to recover after extended rest, presuming enough time has elapsed according to -C's chart). 

I did this tonight, and it worked great. Our dragonborn pally tanked a warg and a slew of goblins, got his leg bitten into (1/2 movement speed) and got his abdominal wall punctured with a gross goblin spear (dazed 1 round, sickened until healing). 

Combat Like Dark Souls

The Fundamental Tension in Dark Souls Combat

The thing in Dark Souls is pushing your luck. Sure, you could be incredibly careful, but that would take a long time; and so sometimes you gamble.

You gamble by doing extra damage but possibly subjecting yourself to extra damage yourself. 

If you're not gambling, you're rolling away or putting your guard back up.

Let's emulate that.

Whether you hit or miss, and after you resolve it, you have a choice: stay engaged and follow the normal procedures, or take a risk and press.

• If you press, make another attack roll. 
• If you hit, do damage again. If you miss, you take the monster's normal damage. 
• If you don't press, proceed as normal. 
• If you successfully pressed, you can press again!
• If you do, repeat the above.
• However, if you miss this time, the monsters does twice its normal damage, or uses its special attack. 
• Repeat, keeping track of each time you press; and, on a miss, taking at least [press] times the monster's damage expression. You can substitute 2 presses for a special attack instead (petrify, poison, dominate, whatever). 
• When a monster misses, it gives you a free chance to press. If it misses by 5 or more, you cannot miss on the first press.  
• (Optional): when you press, you can choose to switch targets or charge to a target within range of your charge. If you drop your original target, the new one still gets to do its press damage on a miss if you miss; so the common "Cleave"-type feat still has something going for it: it doesn't expose you to retribution on a miss.

What This Does

• Makes combat go by faster
• Lets you burn down mobs
• Lets you get one-shotted from full health, even in 4E
• Adds optional complexity to the game, that makes things go faster, not slower
• Lets overpowered fights burn more quickly, while still giving them the possibility of significant resource drain (from possibly catastrophic hp loss)
• Adds some light fictional texturing: after each hit or miss, you're moving/rolling back and guarding, unless you press