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Combat Clarifications

I use a wide variety of 3rd party monsters.

Instead of legendary resistances, I use Sly Flourish's Dreadful Blessings. For the sake of transparency, I do not really use any effects besides the ones listed as examples there.

Maps (No Grids)

I do not use gridded play, as I have found it causes more friction than it solves. Instead, I used miniatures to represent relative positioning and the distances are more rough estimates in feet, rounding in favor of the players. Generally, things are either 5, 10, 30, 60, or some larger increment of 30 feet away; or very far away but within sight.

AOE Without a Grid

I use this as a rough heuristic in my head rather than a hard and fast rule for AOE abilities.

  • Tiny Area: 1 or 2 creatures (cloud of daggers)
  • Small Area: 2 creatures (burning hands, thunderwave)
  • Large Area: 4 creatures (cone of cold, fireball)
  • Huge Area: Everyone (circle of death, earthquake)
  • Short Line: 2 creatures (wall of fire)
  • Long Line: 3 creatures (blade barrier, lightning bolt)

From the Lazy GM Resource Doc

Initiative

I want to try out a few different initiative systems with the goal of speeding up combat and making it more interesting and dynamic and less predictable. Below I detail the initiative system I would like to try out first.

Randomized Table Order

  1. Players roll initiative (d20 + modifier) as normal
  2. The GM decides the initiative for the monsters based on their ability and the circumstances