Quick Kills to Speed up Combat

 

One of the problems most iterations of The Game has is scalability. This is especially problematic as characters reach higher levels. Ever notice how combats can be a slog of die rolling? It is not always the case, but it does happen. Hit points can get to ridiculous levels in the race to make an encounter challenging for a party or character. Armor class increases, spell resistances increase, damage reduction, and a whole host of other machinations are necessary just to challenge the characters. Slog….

It is not always a slog, often the encounters go quickly and are quite cinematic and who doesn’t like tracking hit point loss? Adds a sense of urgency and danger. So, I think the overall concept is fine and as a mechanic is quite sound. However, in some cases it is just pesky, especially when higher level characters are dealing with low hit die creatures. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run games where a horde of irritating low hit die creatures have stymied or stopped high level parties. 

I used to be ok with that. I used to be ok with low level monsters killing high level characters. That is no longer the case. Essentially these low hit die creatures exist for cinematic moments. I like the idea of a single character going toe-to-toe with dozens or more opponents or a party going head on into an army of enemies. These monsters may wear the party down a bit, slow them down, distract them, but rarely exist as The Encounter! Ok, sometimes.

I developed this rule in my head years ago and I have used it without anyone noticing or caring really. Let’s just say, most players never question a ruling in their character’s favor. I’ve never written the rule nor given much thought to it until today. I am still in the nascent stage of creating a ‘rule’ that should probably not be a rule but rather a guideline. However, as I am in a ‘ruling’ mood, a rule it shall be. In all fairness to those who read this, I will never follow my own rules.

With that said.

Basically, the rule I use is that if any fighter classes or roguish classes and who are 5^th level or higher, when fighting a group of creatures 3HD or less, they pretty much get a one shot kill. All the character has to do is hit the creature.  I also lower the AC of any creatures so that they are much easier to hit. I still allow the players to roll damage even knowing full well the creature is dead no matter what they roll. In the case of a natural 20 or critical hit, the player can take down two creatures. As the characters advance further in level, anything 4HD less than them is killed in two hits. 

I save the real fight for the Boss.

 

In this manner I don’t have to track a lot hit points and monsters, I can just let the bodies hit floor, so to speak. Piles of dead and heroic moments abound. It’s nuanced though and difficult to write a rule for it because there are spell casters and other aspects of play that need considering. As these come into play, I change and switch things up. But I like my nascent idea. Along with shield use, I plan on shaking things up a bit, at least for my campaign.