Make Melees Faster With Combat Outs

How to end combats without grinding down to the last health point every time.

Roleplaying Tips GM Paul asks:

One thing that has always been difficult is that when the party have relatively low skills in combat and magic. A fight can take up to 2 sessions to get through. Fatigue playing a major part in this and making increasingly more difficult to land a hit.

I was wondering if you had experienced this in other systems and if you had any tips on how to draw it to a conclusion quicker? How to instigate a stalemate and both parties withdraw for example.

Great question, Paul. Whether you’re playing a rules-light system and players are taking too long, or you’re running something crunchy where each turn takes a while mechanically, I use Combat Outs, which I teach in my Wizard of Combat online course for GMs.

One of my GM Axioms is Begin as You Would End. Because I know how I want this to end (the Out), I need only plan the first three rounds to get us there. I usually prepare a quick list of d3 Combat Outs before the dice hit the table.

For example:

  1. A Combat Mission. The foes want something other than the party’s demise (a map, a prisoner, or just to clear the area).
  2. A CombatScape Shift. The battlefield changes (ceiling starts to crumble, tide rushes in, fire spreads) challenging combatants to change tactics.
  3. Third-Party Intervention. A second wave (common enemy appears, city guard arrives, neutral predator approaches the noise).

By having these in your back pocket, you can GM with the exit in mind rather than waiting for someone’s HP to burn down to zero.

The 3 Round Combat Plan

Let’s look at a Combat Mission example using my Wizard of Combat framework.

Say there’s four goblins in a room. I know Templeton the cleric brandishes a silver holy symbol around his neck. The gobbos want that “shiny pretty.”

Based on this, I make a 3 Round Combat Plan:

Round 1.

  • Parley. The leader barks an order to grab the “shiny”. This gives players a split-second to parley, surrender, or trade insults.
  • Move. Gobbos use Focus Fire tactic to swarm the cleric, then Aid Friend to help one goblin make a Capture the Flag grab for the symbol.

Round 2.

  • Try Again. If they fail, try one last time.
  • Escape. If they succeed, Move then Flee.
  • Morale. If 50% fall, make a Morale check to abandon the mission. Run away! Run away!

Round 3.

  • The Out. Goblins make a Combat Out by running through a door back home.
  • Delay. The leader does a Set Trap (bar the door or drop a bag of sharp stones) to delay the party and make a safe escape.

That’s the plan. Now we play to find out what happens.

Stay Simple & Practical

Note: these aren’t new rules you have to learn or look up mid-game. You aren’t adding more crunch. This leverages combat tactics using mechanics you’ve already got to drive the story forward.

We only plan three rounds because any further is usually fruitless. By round four, the variables are too many. Most creatures won’t fight to the death anyway. They want to achieve a quick Win State or a way out.

Consider every 3 Round Combat Plan a hypothesis — a playtest. Post-session, reflect on how it played out and how you might improve foe tactics next time. Kaizen!

What we get from this approach is faster combat with more roleplay potential:

  • Dynamic Worlds. Foes who have goals and a sense of self-preservation make your world feel alive.
  • Engaged Players. Teamwork and tactics from foes will surprise even your jaded veterans.
  • Pressure & Momentum. Next time, Templeton might think twice about brandishing his bling in a dark cave!

I hope this helps, Paul. Reach out again if you have any more questions.

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Dear Game Master, if you’re tired of combats that feel like a slog, check out Wizard of Combat. I’ll show you how to design, prepare, and run encounters that tell twice the story in half the time.

I’m still offering beta pricing while I work on a major update for later this year. Grab Wizard of Combat now and start ending the grind.

Cheers,
Johnn
roleplayingtips.com
https://discord.gg/6MxTRAqQ76
Have more fun at every game!

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