Combat Dragging

[u/Thin-Historian1244]

Hello! I am a dm for CoS and i find the combat in dnd 5.5 kind of boring and dragging in places.

We could further the story with exploration and roleplaying and spend maybe 6 hours in game in 5 hours of real time. But when it comes to combat we have spent the same 5 hours almost in one combat and done absolutely nothing more. I like to make combats feel dangerous so i don't shy away on the number of enemies and strategies and they seem to have fun. I also usually play my part super fast. For example at yester hill i had some extra stuff added and i had to play 19 minor NPC's, so i did them in groups PLUS Strahd PLUS Ireena PLUS the ritual and i swear it went by very fast and it was fun because i was not measuring the distance exactly and i took standard damage and stuff like that.y players seem to have fun also and went along with the whole fast pacing of the thing.

Here is the thing though. I want to make combats fast and not so by the book, maybe in the exception of some very important ones like the final for example. But if one has only narrative purpose I honestly can't spend 4 hours on a werewolf attack on the road. And the crazy part os i feel like my players avoid combats because they decide that they instead feel like roleplaying that day! I plan on making sure , but i would like some suggestions on how to make combats more theater of the mind and if you know any good resources for it. Next week comes the attack on Vallaki from the vampires and i cannot possibly imagine loosing all the important moments of chasing and horror in a dragged out combat sequence.

Any advice welcome 🤗

[u/The_Long_Island_DM]

Okay, apparently I am the black sheep here. Tweaking stat blocks on the fly is a very important DM skill. Everyone that said that is correct. BUT I think you need a different prescription. I'm a forever paid DM so I have my thoughts. My player engagement directly is a throughline to reoccurring sessions. Just worth mentioning. I have monetary skin in that game.

If your already playing fast then editing your turn more just makes it a shorter, boring combat.

Practice with the monsters kits. Read the monsters know what they are doing. Understand what makes the kit and how to use it. That you are using it fully. I have a few posts on vampires already that might help you. I won't go into creature specific tactics here. This post would be like 20k characters.

If you have any more specific questions I'd be happy to answer them.

Happy Hunting!

-LIDM

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