Is combat a slog in your Dungeons & Dragons games? Does everyone get bored waiting? If that sounds familiar, never fear, adventurers. I’ve got five tips to help you achieve lightning fast DnD combat.
- Prepare and organize.
- This is just part of the job for a Dungeon Master, but it bears repeating. Before the game begins prepare everything you’re going to need, and have it organized so you can easily reference those monster stat blocks, character sheets, and anything that you’ll need to reference quickly over the course of the game. That way, you can keep up and avoid any unnecessary delays.
Personally, I use Microsoft OneNote to keep all of my DM notes, and that allows me to keep all the information I need right in front of me. I can link from one section of notes to another – as well as to external websites – making it really easy to quickly access a lot of information. It’s worth taking a look at if you’ve never used it
- This is just part of the job for a Dungeon Master, but it bears repeating. Before the game begins prepare everything you’re going to need, and have it organized so you can easily reference those monster stat blocks, character sheets, and anything that you’ll need to reference quickly over the course of the game. That way, you can keep up and avoid any unnecessary delays.
- Use initiative trackers.
- Keeping up with whose turn it is sometimes gets ridiculously confusing, especially if you have a large party and they’re fighting a lot of monsters. So use either physical initiative trackers (here’s a fun one you can make), or use an app like Kobold Fight Club or DND Beyond‘s Encounter Builder. This may seem like a little bit of a no-brainer, but taking a little extra time to make sure you can keep track of initiative will really help you avoid unnecessary delays along the way.
- Use side initiative.
- This is one of my favorite ways to speed up combat in DnD. It’s a variant rule found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, but it’s really, really straightforward.
Essentially the party as a group rolls 1d20 for initiative, and then the DM rolls 1d20 for the enemies’ initiative. The initiative roll simply decides which party goes first. The party members decide who goes when within the party, so they can strategize and do things differently based on the situation. So, in addition to helping speed things up, it gives some advantage to the players, too.
I like to use a particular variation of this when my party is fighting a group of monsters that are all the same. The party rolls initiative as normal – each player rolls a d20 for initiative. I roll 1d20 for the entire group of monsters. Remember, they’re all the same type of monster in this scenario. It doesn’t work very well otherwise.
So all of the monsters act at once in the turn order. When the time comes for their turn, I roll 1d20 for the attack, and any character who would be hit by that roll then takes the hit. Then, I roll damage one time for the enemy side, and any player who took that hit takes that amount of damage. Of course, you can vary this any way you see fit as a DM, but I feel like it’s a really effective way to speed things up.
- This is one of my favorite ways to speed up combat in DnD. It’s a variant rule found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, but it’s really, really straightforward.
- Encourage planned actions.
- Typically, it’s going to be a player’s instinct to decide what they’re going to do as they’re starting their turn, but you as the DM have an opportunity to encourage them to plan ahead. You can give them a chance to start thinking about their move while the previous player is taking their turn. When one player is getting ready to roll damage, you can simply tell the next person to start thinking about what action they’re going to take. When their turn arrives, they’ve already been thinking about it.
It just takes a simple prompt from you. This is really effective at keeping things flowing, keeping downtime to a minimum, and helping people stay engaged because it feels like things are really happening.
- Typically, it’s going to be a player’s instinct to decide what they’re going to do as they’re starting their turn, but you as the DM have an opportunity to encourage them to plan ahead. You can give them a chance to start thinking about their move while the previous player is taking their turn. When one player is getting ready to roll damage, you can simply tell the next person to start thinking about what action they’re going to take. When their turn arrives, they’ve already been thinking about it.
- Use a countdown timer.
- There’s a thing called excessive deliberation. Some players just think about things forever and never do anything. There are also a lot of unnecessary discussions about rules. Don’t get me wrong – we want to follow the rules, but D&D is also a game of improvisation. The rules aren’t always the most important thing.
These things can lead to a lot of lag, and adding a countdown timer adds a sense of urgency. You can use the countdown timer on your phone or or a little hourglass.
What I like to do is initiate a three count. When I feel like things are starting to take too long, I just say, “Three.” And if the thinking or the discussion continues for a bit longer, then I say, “Two,” until I get down to zero. And then bad things happen – for example, the player may now have disadvantage on their attack. (I don’t do anything too brutal!)
It’s not done in a rude way or to punish anyone. It’s done simply to create a sense of urgency and to keep things moving, and it does that well. It creates excitement and engagement because it gives your players the sense that something needs to happen right now.
- There’s a thing called excessive deliberation. Some players just think about things forever and never do anything. There are also a lot of unnecessary discussions about rules. Don’t get me wrong – we want to follow the rules, but D&D is also a game of improvisation. The rules aren’t always the most important thing.
Well, there you go adventurers, five tips for lightning fast DnD combat. Do you have tips to share with our community? Questions about any of these tips? Please put them in the comments.
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