Looking for some combat advice

[sithlordnergal]

So. a few tricks I have learned:

1) If you're having trouble with limiting rests, limit them artificially. I do this with my games. I warn my players at the very stat that they will gain the effects of a rest, be it short or long, when I say they do. This prevents the ever present "5 minute adventuring day" or the "Short Rest after every encounter". That said, you do need to have a good idea of how many resources your party is expending after every encounter. You don't need a perfect tab mind you, but you still want to be able to recognize if/when your party is tapped for resources. D&D is a resource management simulator, and encounters will become more and more difficult the fewer resources the party has.

2) The environment is key. Which is a deadlier fight that requires more resources? Three oozes in a large room with plenty of space to maneuver, or three oozes in a room filled with an acid pit that hurts you, and that room is constantly shifting and moving forcing the party to make strength and dex saves to avoid falling into the pit?

3) Going with the environment, vision limitations. People dislike Fog Cloud because they feel its a terrible option when you want to make cover that makes it harder to hit you. They're right, it is terrible cover against ranged and melee attacks. but it shuts down casters hard. Find ways to impair vision, movement, ect. to make battles more difficult.

4) Make use of the spell Slow. I cannot overstate how AMAZING this spell is on NPCs. In fact, I'd be willing to say it was designed specifically for NPCs to use against the players. It debuffs literally everything the players do. Movement? Halved. Attacks? You only get one. Casting a spell? It might not go off any time soon. And to top it off, you can choose the targets in order to avoid hitting your allies.

5) Swarms, and by that I mean large groups of enemies. 12 Goblins will be far more difficult then a single CR 3 most of the time.

6) the composition of NPCs and how they work together. This is a bit trickier, but with practice you can get down a pretty good system. Look for NPCs that compliment each other to make good combos. And this isn't just restricted to the enemies you put down. Two of my favorite encounters I ever ran involved how the NPCs worked off each other:

The first was a Ghost Ship piloted by a Merrenoloth. They have a special ability that makes it so whatever they pilot never sinks, even if the hull is breached, remains on course, and the people within the ship are not adversely affected by the weather. I added in Vamperic Mist that attacked the players from a distance, and had a pirate crew of Sword Wraiths, a Corpse Flower, and a deathlock as their leader. It made for a very dangerous Ghost Ship, especially when the players realized it wasn't sinking no matter what they did.

The second, even cooler battle, was when the party had come ashore. They had discovered a Shield golem, which heals every round if it has taken damage. so I tossed some ghouls, ghasts, some Rot Trolls, and The hungry. Now, The Hungry is a creature that gains advantage on attacks and deals an extra 4d10 necrotic damage if it sees someone or something heal. The party quickly realized what was going on, and had to figure out a way to prevent the Shield Guardian from healing.