cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/1339512
As a GM I’d like to feel like I fully understand how to utilize my monsters tactically, but over the past couple months as I’ve been running the beginner box and now leading into Abomination Vaults, I feel as though I’m very often just making three strikes with an enemy or moving and striking twice unless the enemy has a very specific action in its statblock which is obviously better. Like a dragon is obviously supposed to use its breath weapon, but then I ran goblin warriors last night and I couldn’t even figure out how to use their scurry reaction beneficially.
I like to think “what’s the most narratively appropriate actions?”
Then I take reactive actions based on the players input. So for example a player just crit for 50 damage +20 cause of weaknesses. What did they do on their turn? Grabbed and tossed that player, jumped out the window and started prepping traps in the woods nearby.
I also like to think of major fights like a story. There’s a beginning, a middle, and the end. Each Act should have a strong start and a lead in to the next. Now sometimes you get a Ranger critting for 113 damage with Gravity Weapon causing the fight to be over near instantly and that’s okay.