Categories: Geek; Humor

Live by the Die, Die by the Die: Surviving a Tough D&D Fight

By Mitch.Kocen
updated 3 months ago

Sure, the average roleplayer will tell you that Dungeons and Dragons isn't about "winning" and "losing." That the game is about developing a character and advancing a story, and working as a team. But sometimes the game is just about killing that Red Dragon and making sure it stays dead. If you've been playing your Half-Elf Ranger/Scout/Rogue for too dang long to let it be Lizard-Kibble, this is the guide for you.

FYI: I'm using 3.5E Rules here. All you nerds out there know what I'm talking about.

The Big Decision

Right from the get go you’re going to need to make a difficult choice: How many party members do you want to make sure survive? Getting out of a tough encounter alone is pretty easy, but if you need to make sure that your buddies walk away too, it’s going to be a lot more difficult. I’ll break down the basic survival tips, and then get into specifics regarding an “everyone for themselves” approach vs. “no gnome left behind”

Be Mindful of Attack of Oppertunity

Whenever you are
directly adjacent to a foe, you run the risk of giving them a free
chance to hit you. Because the goal of this exercise is to minimize the
damage you’re taking, you want to limit the number of times the Rust
Monster gets to hit you. Here are the times that you can trigger an Attack of Opportunity (AoO):

Any time you move out of a threatened square
Whenever you cast a spell, make a ranged or unarmed attack, bull rush, make a dying character stable, sunder a weapon, use a spell-like ability or grapple

You can avoid some of these situations. If you move a five foot step or if you do a “full round retreat” where you do nothing but run in the opposite direction you wont provoke AoO. However, sometimes you don’t want to run, and taking a five foot step puts you in the wrong place. You have some additional options:

Tumble: It’s a skill that you need to be trained in based on dexterity. If you hit at least 15, you can move wherever you want and take a standard turn
Concentration: Lets you cast a spell or spell-like effect without triggering an AoE
Feats: There are a handful of feats that let you perform specific maneuvers like grapple or trip or sunder without provoking AoE. If you intend to grapple all the live long day, you’re going to want to take that feat so that you don’t hand that Orc an engraved invitation to sock you one.

It also pays to be mindful of reach. Not every monster needs to be next to you to give you a whupping. Things with tentacles, things with pole arms, and Dire Apes can strike you from a distance. Be mindful of where you’re going.

Be Ready to Heal Yourself

Especially in larger combats you may not always be near enough to the party healer to get topped off. If you can use scrolls, carry a couple cure lights. If you can’t use scrolls, have potions around. When the Displacer Beasts and Blink Dogs start popping out, the Cleric will have enough on his hands without you hassling him to run across the map to give you a handful of hit points.

Also, don’t loudly announce that “Ranknar the Barbarian needs healing.” Clerics hate that.

Game Kastle

1350 Coleman Ave, Santa Clara, CA 95050

My local game store, so I’m a bit biased. Good selection, and room to play if you don’t feel like cramming a bunch of gaming geeks into your apartment. They tend to devote a larger selection of their stock towards miniatures as opposed to RPG books, but it’s still a good place to go in the South Bay,

Games of Berkeley

2151 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704

A huge game and toy store that manages to find a good balance between standard board games and roleplaying games. They have an abnormally good selection of out of print books, making it a better stop than Ebay for when you need to pick up something obscure.

Gamescape

333 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, CA 94117

The biggest and best game store in San Francisco. I try to make a stop here every time I’m in The City to see what new stuff they have.

Running

Did you know that if you do nothing but run in a straight line you can do four times your regular move. That’s almost always enough to get away from anything horrible. If your party pitches a fit, just tell them that you’re giving yourself enough room to charge next round. Next round tell them that you need more room.

If everyone in your party is running, you’re in luck. You don’t need to be the fastest party member, you just need to be faster than the slowest party member. Don’t be afraid to trip your friends.

Hide

Monsters can’t eat what they can’t see.

Well, most can’t. Some have blindsense or scent or tremorsense.

Still, for the most part, if you can make yourself unseen, the monster wont attack you. You can either hide using the skill, or turn yourself invisible which is even better because then you can move around.

Attacking monsters will make you visible again, so don’t attack! Heal yourself or cast some defensive spells. Tell people you’re waiting for the big guns to show up. Stay hidden until you’re less outnumbered or when everyone else is dead. At that point, run away.

Suck it up: Being the Tank

Look at everyone else’s character sheets. Do you have the highest AC? Are you the only one wearing Full Plate? Do you have an axe that is larger than you are?

Congratulations: You’re the Tank.

It’s your job to stand there and soak up the damage while everyone else makes a get away. Sad but true. No one really expects the Tank to come back from the encounter, that’s why they use Half-Orcs. No one will miss them when they die.

It’s a sick world in Dungeons and Dragons.