Fighting is a key aspect of Dungeons & Dragons, and it’s one of the most fun parts of the game, too. Taking powerful foes down with your skills and the power of friendship – aka with the party’s help – makes for many of the most memorable moments you’ll have at the table.
There’s nothing wrong with spicing things up, though. If you think your games have been too battle-focused, with everyone just taking turns in saying “I attack” over and over, you may want to do something different when designing an encounter. Hazards, vulnerable allies, chases, and many others can happen instead of an ordinary battle encounter in D&D.
Consider the party’s level; some of these may be too easy or too hard depending on how strong they are.
Chases
There Are Even Rules For It Already
Chases are an often overlooked part of D&D, as most enemies tend to fight the party rather than run away. Still, an encounter can be used to make them try to escape, and the players attempt to prevent it.
The Dungeon Master’s Guide even tells you how to run a chase sequence, and you can get some more elaborate mechanics and ideas simply by searching for other people’s takes online. And your players will likely use all their features to stop the enemy, so it can go many different ways.
Escape The Monster
Horror Is A Nice Change
Why not trap your players in a secluded environment with a monster whose CR is way above their pay grade? Or even a large area, like a jungle, where a gigantic, predatory monster hunts them down?
It can be somewhat similar to a chase sequence, but the roles are reversed, or it can be more of a stealth-type challenge, with players sneaking around and creating distractions so they can escape the big monster.
Infiltration
From Stealth To Charisma
Speaking of a stealth-type challenge, you could have something where the players need to go fully unnoticed. Something like a heist, where they need to keep going through a whole dungeon without being seen.
Alternatively, they can be seen but not look suspicious, which opens the room for deception or other charisma checks to come into play, or the place can have innocent people, which may affect how potential opponents are seen if the party is unwilling to kill an innocent guard who’s just doing their job.
Environmental Challenge
From Collapse To Natural Disasters
Imagine the party on a boat, completely taken by the currents or strong waves. Or a whole place collapses, and they need to survive. Instead of just a few checks to see if they escape, make a whole thing out of it.
Describe every small danger that is happening through their escape, and you can even limit their actions by actually running initiative during it, so they can only do so many things at once.
Skill Check Gauntlet
A Few Checks Aren’t A Bad Idea, Though
Despite us mentioning that something more elaborate was good in the previous entry, running a series of skill checks in a row isn’t such a bad thing – though a rogue or a bard can easily go through these.
You can have a list of checks that need to be made in order to solve certain issues, and going poorly on one of them can make the next one harder or apply disadvantage – while going well can apply advantages. Alternatively, there can be multiple checks that need to be done simultaneously, so the party needs to divide and conquer.
Timed Puzzle
It’s Like A Puzzle, But Timed
Puzzles are already a popular way to break the pace of combat. After all, throwing a logical challenge for them to progress by throwing them a riddle from a children’s book is enticing in itself. Why not take it a step further, though?
You can roll initiative and limit their actions to solve the puzzle while also creating consequences if they take too long. Something like a room being filled with poison, and they need a way out, or an unkillable monster that needs some logical way to be deactivated. Whatever it is, they can find or create a solution.
A Siege
Or Troops Management
What if the players themselves aren’t the ones fighting? Instead of combat, they are in a situation where multiple places are being attacked (or multiple places need to be attacked), and their goal is to manage the countless NPCs who’ll do the fighting.
Something like a siege (regardless of whether they’re making one or fighting against one) can be an interesting scenario. You can even have them be part of the fight directly, albeit still ordering soldiers to other locations because they can’t handle everything at the same time.
Competition
A Game Inside The Game
From performances to sports with magic, king of the hill, or whatever comes to mind, the party versus another group in a friendly competition is a fun way to run combat, but without the actual combat.
You can even go as far as stating that the competition doesn’t allow people to hurt one another, so they need to get creative with pushes, shoves, grapples, or control spells. Alternatively, you can make this a Free For All and have the PCs ‘battle’ one another.
- Original Release Date
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1974
- Player Count
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2+
- Age Recommendation
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12+ (though younger can play and enjoy)
- Length per Game
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From 60 minutes to hours on end.
- Franchise Name
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Dungeons & Dragons
- Publishing Co
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Wizards of the Coast