It happens. Sure, the heroes are cautious. They keep quiet. They avoid suspicious boulders. They negotiate with bandits. But eventually they’ll get ambushed by a hungry spridjan or accosted by shambling skeletons.
Skeletons rarely negotiate.
So, a fight breaks out, and that’s the end of our loose-y goose-y style of play. Time to get serious and TAKE TURNS.
Not entirely. So what do we do first? If you’re like me (and you’re probably not), you’ll be very relieved to hear that the first thing you do is not roll for initiative. You never have to roll for initiative. I don’t believe in calling for dice rolls that don’t have interesting results. Dice rolls should almost always represent actual danger.
The first step of combat is exactly the same as any other scene: Set the scene, tell them what’s going on, then ask the all-important question: “What do you all want to do?”
The next step is where we have to be a little more orderly than normal. You’re going to have a bunch of players and non-player characters all trying to take action at the same time, so you need to do things in a certain order.
Without rolling for initiative.
The fact is, most combat actions should be simultaneous. If you and I are wrestling, we’re not taking turns. We’re both grappling and scrambling and moving at the same time. So we break up combat into a few logical steps, with everyone in the same step going at the same time. Everyone already declared their intentions at the start of the “moment” (what other games call a round), so now we follow through.
Here is the order that we resolve actions:
Ranged Attacks Outside of Melee, Non-attack actions (like spells, drinking potions, etc)
Movement and Melee (all movement is happening throughout these steps; we don’t worry about exact positions)
Attacks in melee that Strike First (like pole weapons)
Standard attacks in melee
Attacks in melee that Strike Last (like big, slow weapons) and ranged attacks in melee
And honestly, that looks more complicated than it usually is. Most of the time, you’ll just need to know that ranged attacks and healing are first, close-up attacks go after. The players (or monster stat blocks) will tell you when their attack strikes first or last, if that’s a factor.
So, one thing that is a barrier to so-called “theater of the mind” combat (that is, in-game battles where you simply describe what’s going on and roll dice, rather than setting up a battlemap and miniatures) is the issue of distance and positioning. If your rules require you to know the exact distance between a character and a monster, for example, you need to either have very detailed information about that, use a gridmap and minis or just make it up as you go (which can sometimes lead to players having an image of the scene that conflicts with the GM’s, creating frustration). To avoid this issue, our rules keep the issue of distance abstract: two creatures or objects or whatever are either close or far from one another. It should always be clear whether you are close or far, especially in combat. Once a creature performs melee attacks, they are close to their target (and thus close to anything they are close to). Moving far from a close creature requires a conscious effort or special event.
A lightning spell doesn’t target “all creatures in a 15-foot cylinder”; instead, it might just affect “all creatures close to the target”.
In combat, you’ll still describe positioning narratively, and that narrative matters. If characters are locked in a small room with a ten-foot tall rock monster, we know that they are all close to the monster (and, as a result, close to each other). They can’t just say, “I want to move far from the monster” unless they have a way to escape the room. To this end, some of the party might fight the monster, while one character might try to beat down the door so that they can escape.
Here’s an example of a moment of combat:
(Agorak the pilgrim, Jana the warrior, Tony the vagabond, Lendel the magician, Forram the magician and Kisreth the pilgrim are exploring a few abandoned houses. Tony is looking at one house that has collapsed into its own basement.)
Tony: I’m going to look closer at the fallen house, but I don’t want to get too close. I’m not going to lean over the edge and fall in.
GM: Okay, Tony walks next to the intact house next to it. He sees that the fallen house collapsed in on itself, and he can see some furniture down there.
Tony: Cool…
GM: Everyone hears a scraping sound on the roof of the intact house next to Tony. Everybody needs to make a Notice save plus 5.
(Everyone grabs a twenty-sided die and rolls it, adding their Notice bonus plus 5 to it. Kisreth, Jana and Tony roll at least twenty, succeeding at the save. Everyone else rolled less than twenty, failing the save. Agorak curses.)
Agorak: I want to use my Protect prayer to succeed at my save.
GM: Sure. You feel the spirits warn you, and you look up to the rooftop. Kisreth and Tony also take notice of the rooftop, and they all see a big wildcat up there. Its coat is shimmering, camouflaging it. The cat is leaping off the roof, claws out, right at Tony! Kisreth, Tony and Agorak, what are you all doing? Everyone else is caught off-guard. They see the cat, but don’t have time to react yet.
Agorak: I’ll summon my faith shield on my arm and my fire flail in my right hand, and charge the cat.
Tony: I’m jumping back to avoid it.
Kisreth: I’ll use my Harm prayer.
GM: Okay. Kisreth’s prayer is ranged, so we’ll do that first.
Kisreth: I ask the Mother of Death for her blessing, and the cat is struck with pain. (She rolls 4D8, getting a result of 15.) 15 damage to the cat! It needs to Resist+5.
GM: (Rolls the cat’s save, succeeding.) Success. The cat is tough, so it only suffers half damage; it loses 7 HP.
GM: The cat is leaping toward Tony, claws first! Agorak, make your attack at the same time. The cat’s AC is 6. What is Tony’s AC? He’s taking cover from the attack, so he gets a -5 bonus to his AC.
Tony: -2! Pretty good, huh?
Agorak: (Makes his attack roll: rolling a D20 and adding the cat’s AC 6 to the result. His total is less than 20, so his strike misses.) Crap. Missed.
GM: (Rolls the cat’s 4 strikes against Tony.) The cat moves swiftly through the air, avoiding Agorak’s burning flail, and it lands on Tony with a THUD. Tony, you tried to dodge, and that helped, but the cat’s claws are good at tearing through hide armor, like your vest. You are hit twice. (Rolls damage for each strike that hit.) Tony, you suffer 4 damage from one claw, and 6 from the other.
Tony: Oof. I yell to Forram, “Help! I’m not feelin’ so good!”
GM: It gets worse. You are staggered backward, toward the collapsed house. Roll Avoid+10. You might fall in.
Tony: (Rolls the save.) Phew. Close one. I succeed.
GM: You hit the ground and roll, the cat landing next to you. You were pushed right next to the fallen house.
GM: Okay, Tony is on the ground next to the collapsed house, and this mean-looking wildcat with shimmering fur is next to him, hissing, prepared to strike again. Everyone has had a chance to catch their breath and react. So, what are you going to do next?