Dungeon Design Tips: Cover, Firing Lines, and Dynamic Arenas

If you've played RPGs long enough, chances are you've been in your share of scrapes and scraps. And while there might have been one or two memorable events, chances are good that a majority of these combats were in wide open fields, square or rectangular rooms, and with an occasional circular chamber mixed in for variety. But while the shape of these arenas might change, many of them suffer from the same problem; they're wide open spaces with clear sight lines.

So if you want to make your arenas more dynamic, consider changing that up.

Who's up for a little crossfire?

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Cover, Firing Lines, And Changing Up Your Formula

Let's use the humble tavern as an example. It's one of the most infamous places in fantasy RPGs, because it feels like this is always where your adventure takes place. And while we often think of taverns as little more than long, rectangular rooms, consider all the potential aspects of them. There's the bar itself, which provides cover for those standing behind it. There might be heavy support columns that could do the same throughout the room. There's also the benches and tables that one could leap up onto in order to claim the high ground, or flip over in order to hide behind them in the event that arrows, crossbow bolts, or spells start flying.

And that is just a single example of how a relatively "normal" location for a combat could immediately become a more dynamic arena. But ask yourself what could happen if you introduced that same kind of philosophy to other places where it's likely that steel and spells will come into play.

This is where creativity can really alter the challenge.

Consider the goblin cavern that most adventurers will venture into at some point in their careers. Are there small niches higher on the wall where said goblins can station archers to fire down on intruders? Are there lower ceilings that make their home difficult to invade for anyone Medium-sized, forcing them to fight at a disadvantage? Are there stalagmites that break up line of sight along the cavern, making it hard to target individual enemies as they converge? You could even take this strategy and apply it in outdoor areas, using tall grasses, underground burrows, and even simple hills to give some targets high ground, cover, and so on.

And this is before you have players assault locations that are specifically built to give the advantage to defenders.

This isn't just castles, though they're the most obvious location. Narrow bridges and hallway choke points, stairways, balconies, fences and barricades can all add dynamic aspects and elements to your dungeons and encounters, while also making particular powers more viable and interesting than they would otherwise be in a game where all your arenas are empty, square rooms with no real strategy involved except swinging a sword or firing arrows until all the enemies fall over.

For example, say you have a castle courtyard where there are melee warriors down in the dirt with the party, but there are archers or spellcasters up along the ramparts directing their aggression downward. At this point, characters who have access to spells like spider climb, or abilities like shadow jump could use those to immediately close vertical distance, shifting their position up to threaten the ranged enemies who thought they were safe. Alternatively, if you had an evoker with a spell like chain lightning or fireball up their sleeve, they could use those to clear the upper deck, while the party melee brutes kept the other enemy fighters busy.

And if you had a particularly acrobatic/mobile party, they might all be able to clamber up to the ramparts, keeping themselves out of melee reach while using their new, more protected position to their advantage by slinging spells, firing arrows, or just hucking bombs down at an enemy that can no longer reach them.

These will fix a VARIETY of problems...

The more dynamic you make an area with things like cover, difficult terrain, high ground, low ground, and so on, the wider a variety of tools and strategies your players will be able to use to achieve their goals. And, on top of that, it can stop combat from feeling like just another slog... which is what this whole series is about!

Lastly, when designing these arenas, keep in mind that this also adds to the CR of the encounter. So keep in mind that fighting a squad of orc berserkers and a single shaman in a knock down, drag out brawl is a very different matter than crossing an area of difficult terrain with cover, Czech hedgehogs, and so on that forces the party to get... creative with their solutions!

If you enjoyed this article, and you'd like more ways you can change things up as a GM, make sure you grab a copy of 100 Tips And Tricks For Being A Better Game Master!

 

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Crunch post! To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Game Masters, When Running Army Men, Avoid White Rooming At All Costs

Since my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic recently dropped (and I'm hard at work on supplemental material for it) I've had it on my brain quite a lot recently. Which is why for this week's Crunch post I wanted to highlight something for the Game Masters who are planning on running a campaign (or even just a handful of missions) with this game.

Namely that under no circumstances should you be running your encounters in open, white rooms that are utterly disconnected from one another, with perfect lighting and fire lines. Because dynamic combat and strategy are the name of the game.

That's initiative! Go! Go!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

"Tactical" is in The Title, After All

When you sit down to design a game, you build in certain assumptions of play. For example, if you make a high fantasy game where magic is commonly available, then part of the challenge rating of your encounters assumes that players will have access to spellcasting, magic items, and so on. If a Game Master decides to then restrict the availability of magic, that's going to throw off the game's balance and challenge because players are now being forced to participate with one hand tied behind their backs in a way that the designer never intended.

The same thing will happen if you try to run Army Men in an open field where two lines of enemies line up, and keep rolling dice until one side or the other is dead.

Cover! Where is my damn cover!?

When I sat down to create Army Men, I wanted to make a version of the DND 5E ruleset that had more options when it came to combat tactics. From a morale system, to expanded rules for cover, to a wider variety of weapons, there's a lot of stuff in here... but one of the assumptions that I made was that Game Masters would create dynamic encounters that put a lot of different battlefield conditions into play in order to get the most out of the game. It's why there are so many rules for all of these different aspects.

And it's why I would strongly recommend that Game Masters use those rules! Because tactics and strategy is a big part of the challenge your squad will have to face, so remember to consider:

- Lighting Conditions: None of the resinous peoples have darkvision without the aid of gear.

- Cover: A huge concern, everything from trenches and sandbags to trees and chest-high walls.

- Height: Higher ground has always been desirable.

- Ammunition: From the Hollywood Guns rules where you don't bother with ammo tracking at all, to low-ammunition situations where every round is valuable, this is a big deal for challenge

- Time: When a mission is time sensitive, you can't spend days raiding, retreating, and resting.

- Alerting The Enemy: Gunfire travels, and if your squad opens up that's going to attract more threats to their position.

And in addition to all of those reminders, Army Men's first supplement Threat Assessments recently dropped, which is full of additional enemy types with their own, unique abilities that can cause serious problems for your squad (in case you needed more tools to do so).

It Helps To Think Big Picture

When designing encounters in most games, but particularly for Army Men, it's important for a Game Master to look down at the full map, and ask what might go right or wrong when determining challenge for their squad. Because too often we just end up looking at a creature's CR, and plopping them down on the map without utilizing their full breadth of abilities and stretegies that makes up that challenge.

Which is why so often your encounters end up feeling too easy, or you have to bulk up enemy hit points or numbers just to challenge your players. Because this time it's the monsters who have one hand (or other miscellaneous limb) tied behind their backs.

What do you MEAN it's still up?!

As an example, many of the vespoids (the huge, insectoid creatures that are one of the prime antagonists in Army Men) have a hive mind feature. This means that whenever your squad attacks, that information is immediately conveyed to the hive, and it can make decisions based on its available data. That might mean that your squad has 1d6 rounds before more enemies show up. Even if they manage to ambush these bugs and kill them before they know what's going on, their deaths will still be registered to the hive mind... they just won't know the precise nature of the threat.

That feature is a large part of what makes these specific kinds of vespoid such a threat to a squad, because if you fight one of these creatures, you're fighting all of them. There is no way to take out an individual cluster of drones or soldiers without putting all of the others on high alert unless it's done at a range where they're not connected to the rest of the hive. They can act in perfect coordination, and even worse for a squad, hive minds are often immune to fear... which means that the squad has to struggle with Morale effects, while their enemy does not.

Consider, if you will...

It helps to picture a mission from a bird's eye view, and to see all of these separate encounters not as disparate, unconnected events, but as parts of a whole. What a squad does, and how well they succeed or fail, should organically effect the rest of their mission in important ways.

For example, say your squad was tasked with dealing with a criminal syndicate who has been stealing ordnance from the military, and trafficking those arms. If your squad poses as corruptible members of the military, and makes the right overtures to sell additional weapons, they might get in close with the customers. If they pass all the social checks, they might even be able to get everyone drunk enough at a post-sale celebration that they pass out, or are severely hampered. This puts the enemy at an extreme disadvantage when the squad starts cuffing the criminals to hand over for prosecution.

Strategy carried the day in this example, without a shot being fired.

However, say your squad instead snapped up a criminal contact and squeezed them for the information about who was buying guns. Yes, they might get the information about who is behind these crimes, where they are, etc., but that contact going missing could put the gun runners on high alert. And if the squad chooses to go after the war profiteers with their fingers on their triggers, now they're facing a group of people who are ready for a fight, and who have prepared themselves accordingly with a booby trapped and reinforced warehouse where they store their merchandise, body armor, heavy weapons, and other threats that put the squad at a dangerous disadvantage. This version is much more difficult as far as challenge goes, but that challenge is a direct result of actions taken (or not taken) up to this point.

The enemies in question didn't change in both scenarios. All the NPCs you had at the beginning are still there, as are all the weapons, armor, traps, etc., that could have been brought to bear agaisnt your squad. But what options the players chose, the strategy they used, and how well their dice rolled (as they would have a serious fight on their hands if their cover was blown while they were in the middle of enemy territory, and the gang had to get rid of them) all play a part in how events go down.

This is the sort of mindset a Game Master should adopt in order to make their games feel more organic, and to give as much power to their players as possible. Think of the mission as a clock. You choose the pieces, you fit them together, and you set it in motion... from that point onward, you're just watching what your players do, and making sure that all the moving pieces act in accordance to the abilities and strategy they bring to bear. Everything should be connected, because that's what's going to lead to an overall better game.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Crunch post. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

DMs, If You Want To Provide A Tougher Challenge, Alter Your Arenas

Earlier today I was on a group talking about my recently re-homed character conversion guide for Hawkeye, when I had a strange exchange with someone. This person said, as a DM, they do everything in their power to take archers out of a fight completely. They hate them, they don't want to deal with them, and nullifying them is a primary goal they have when they're at the head of the table. While I see that as extremely bad form (after all, if you approved the character to play at your table, why are you taking away that player's ability to participate?), I decided to ask why they felt this way.

Apparently, to paraphrase, they felt that archers were too powerful because they can just wipe an encounter before the monsters ever have a chance to get close to the party.

My guess is this DM had never heard of tower shields.

Sarcasm aside, though, this is something that I see DMs run into time and time again. They always complain that this class, or that spell, totally destroys any challenge and lets players walk right through every fight... but when I ask about what kinds of fights they're presenting they miss the obvious solution.

In short, don't have every combat take place in a well-lit meadow with no cover and smooth terrain underfoot. Alter the environment, and you change the fight completely in many cases.

Change The Arena, Change The Game

A majority of combats in a lot of RPGs I've played/ran take place either in open rooms, or outside in open fields. Sometimes there are hallways, or an occasional nighttime ambush, but a lot of DMs just figure that if they throw enough monsters (or big enough monsters) into the arena then challenge will just happen.

Well, they wiped one of them... so I guess I'll throw THREE of them in this time!

While what you're fighting is important, there's no doubt about that, a lot of DMs forget that where you're fighting can make a huge difference in just how much of a challenge it is. I talked about this back in 3 Ways To Spice Up Combat in RPGs, but I feel like it might be helpful to expand the concept into areas that a lot of dungeon masters don't seem to consider.

To get started, let's use an example I just mentioned a little bit ago; the nighttime ambush. The party has bedded down for their rest, taken off their armor (in some cases, at least), and they're as vulnerable as heroes get. Sure, someone is on watch, but if they don't make the proper checks then they're going to be just as surprised as everyone else. In situations like this the darkness becomes a major asset to the ambushers. They can actually sneak up unseen, in many cases, and they can stand beyond the firelight to sling spells and shoot arrows at the party, making the attackers a much bigger threat because the party can't see them in the darkness (unless, of course, everyone in the party actually brought PCs with darkvision, which is not as common as some folks seem to think).

The difference that single environmental penalty makes can be stunning, and if you haven't tried it you should give it a whirl. The amount of actions it takes to create light, or to reveal enemies (the faerie fire spell was basically made for this) adds a whole new aspect to the challenge, and favors some strategies and characters (the half-orc with the crossbow can basically shoot back with impunity, while the human archer can barely pick out a target, for example) over others.

But that's just one example of a potential environmental penalty that players have to deal with. So ask what else you can do to change up the arena, and alter the challenge instead of just putting more, or bigger, monsters into play.

Who Has The High Ground?

The battlefield is about more than just whether or not there's darkness, mist, or smoke concealing enemies, and the fog of war is something that can go both ways. Everything, from whether the crumbling walls throughout this stretch of woods can be used for cover, to whether there are snipers up in the trees where the bruisers can't reach them, alters the challenge of a battle. Difficult or damaging terrain (in case you want to have fires blazing to control people's movements), slick ice, or even temperature that's hot or cold enough to exhaust those who aren't tough enough to take it are options you have at your disposal.

All right... I don't think they've seen us yet. Twenty more yards, and they're ours!

The key thing to remember, as the DM, is that terrain should be neutral a majority of the time, and favoring the monsters only if they're preparing for something. Obviously the orcs defending a stronghold from invasion are going to have walls to duck behind for cover, snipers behind arrow slits, etc., but those kinds of encounters should be stand-outs, not the norm. A fight in the forest should allow the party to duck behind the trees for cover just as easily as the bandits they're fighting, for example, turning it into a game of tactics and movement instead of a head-to-head fight where they line up and quote numbers until someone dies.

You also shouldn't be afraid to toss the party an advantage with the environment every now and again. Because yeah, they're fighting a dragon, but the rubble strewn around the cavern is big enough to give them a cover bonus against its breath weapon, and if they properly utilize the area they can surround it rather than all getting crushed in a narrow hallway. And perhaps the biggest gimme in this scenario, the cavern is too small for the dragon to take to the air and strafe the party with fire, ensuring that the fight is contained to a ground-level battle... assuming that would be more of an even match (as well as more fun) for the style of party your group is running.

Use All The Rules, and Stuff Tends To Get Tougher

I mentioned this back in No That Class Isn't "Broken" (You're Just Throwing The Wrong Challenges At It), but it bears repeating. If you play right into the strengths of your party every, single time, then of course they're going to crush whatever threat is standing in front of them. You put a Pathfinder paladin up against a mummy? He's immune to its disease, you can't make him afraid, and it takes all the damage from his smite and holy weapon... that lawful neutral mercenary, on the other hand, is going to give him a run for his money, because none of his holy powers come into play. You clustered your enemies together in a hallway, and then put them in front of the sorcerer who specialized in lightning bolt? Of course they got fried... but in a place with some cover and mobility, it would have been a lot harder to get that straight line of kills.

And so on, and so forth.

It takes extra damage from piercing weapons, you say? Hoo buddy, this will be over fast.

While you shouldn't be actively nullifying your players' abilities, you should be throwing in occasional challenges for them to deal with. Have them brawl in a theater where there are archers up in the box seats that have to be taken out, for example. Put an enemy at the top of the hill, and force your party to make tactical decisions about movement, cover, and range. When a fight breaks out in the bar, flip some of the tables over to block spells and crossbow bolts while the enemies return fire... at least until the barbarian sunders the table with her battle ax.

Lastly, remember that this is a two-way street. With all of the spells and alchemical items out there, it's possible for players to change up the environment as well as your monsters. Whether it's a tiefling lowering the lighting in the room with his darkness spell-like ability so he can get a miss chance on attacks coming his way, or the fighter hucking a smoke stick into the doorway so he can enter the room without presenting a clear target to the waiting enemies, don't get mad at them for using the rules and tactics available to them. Instead, take notes, because they might do something you didn't think of.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you've used run these kinds of games before, leave us a comment to let us know what worked for you!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Still More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Pathfinder is a really dense game as far as rules go, so it's only natural for players to miss a few here and there. This is the fourth installment of a series covering often-overlooked, obscure, or mis-remembered rules, and the previous installments are:

- Playing By The Book: Some Pathfinder Rules That Players Keep Forgetting
- MORE Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- Even MORE Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- Still More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- 5 More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting

Some of these rules might not be new to you, particularly if you're the sort of player who reads the entire rule book cover-to-cover. If you're just a casual player, though, hopefully these rules will help you bring your A game to the table.

Let's get started with this latest installment, shall we?

#1: Powerful Magic Weapons Ignore Damage Reduction

Damage reduction is the bane of low-to-mid-level combat characters. If you don't deal the right kind of damage, or your weapon is made from the wrong kind of material then you're going to find even your mightiest blows reduced to little more than cuts and bruises. DR doesn't represent as big a threat at higher levels though; mostly because particularly powerful magic weapons ignore it.

They also deal bonus damage to non-magical rocks!

According to the chart on page 562 of the Core Rulebook a weapon that has an enhancement of at least +3 overcomes cold iron/silver damage reduction. A +4 overcomes DR that would require an adamantine weapon, and a +5 or higher overcomes alignment-based DR. It should be noted that if a creature has a flat damage reduction (as you get from wearing adamantine armor or being a high-level barbarian) there is no weapon powerful enough to overcome it. You're just going to have to hit them really, really hard.

#2: Cover And Concealment Are Different Things

Cover and concealment are the bread and butter of tactical combat. Whether you're tossing down a smokestick so the wizard can't pinpoint you with a blast, or you're crouching behind a low wall to avoid being shot at by archers you are taking away at least some of the enemy's ability to do you harm. While a lot of tables don't bother with them, cover and concealment can be the life or death of characters.

Also, they're very different mechanics.

Pictured: Concealment

Let's start with concealment. If you're making a ranged attack and there's anything blocking your line of sight between a corner of your square and a corner of the target's square then the target has concealment. If a target is in a square completely enveloped by a condition that grants concealment (like a smokestick) then you have a 20% miss chance. If you have line of effect to an opponent but not line of sight then the opponent has total concealment (a 50% miss chance). You can't take attacks of opportunity, or even attack the opponent; you can only attack the square and hope for the best. These conditions don't stack; so if you're attacking in a cloud of smoke in pitch blackness then the defender only gets the one 50% miss chance.

Now on to cover!

Cover is an actual, physical barrier between you and an enemy. This includes door frames, walls, and even other people! If there is any sort of barrier you can hide behind it grants you a +4 to your armor class and a +2 on reflex saves. If more than half of you is sticking out of the cover then you reduce the bonus by half to a +2 to your armor class and a +1 to reflex saves. Improved cover, such as crouching behind an arrow slit, typically grants double the bonus (+8 and +4 respectively). If a target has total cover, meaning it's completely hidden behind a wall or other obstacle then you can't attack it.

You can have cover and concealment, and in fact it's a great idea to get both if you can! The details on these states of being are listed in the Core Rulebook 195-197.

#3: Armor Check Penalty Is Hell On The Non-Proficient

Most adventurers are familiar with the armor check penalty rules; your armor makes it harder for you to perform strength and dexterity-based actions based on how cumbersome it is. It's frustrating, but combat characters have been dealing with it for years.

If you're not proficient with an armor though that check can get heinous in a big hurry.

"Guys... guys?" Wizard's Last Words

If you are using armor you're not proficient with then you take a penalty because you just aren't trained to deal with the armor, but according to page 150 of the Core Rulebook the armor check penalty for armor you're not proficient with also applies to your attacks. This penalty stacks with any non-proficiency you take for wielding a shield you're not trained with as well.

This is the reason you never see wizards putting on plate armor without at least a level or two of fighter.

#4: You Can Direct Attacks of Opportunity Against Potions

Everyone knows that drinking a potion provokes an attack of opportunity (which is one reason the Drunken Brute barbarian variant is great, as it allows you to ignore this rule). If an enemy is drinking down a game-changing spell though a single attack might not make the difference... unless you direct the attack at the potion.

And hope it doesn't blow up in your face.

According to page 478 in the Core Rulebook you may choose to take your attack of opportunity against a potion when an enemy provokes you by trying to quaff it while threatened. If you manage to destroy the container then the target can't drink the potion, since your attack of opportunity happened before the target could pour even a little of the magical elixir into his mouth.

#5: Clerics Can Seriously Ruin A Vampire's Day

We've all seen classic Dracula movies where the count is shown a crucifix and he recoils in atavistic dread. We've also been in games where the villain is a vampire, and the party is overmatched, outgunned, and needs to pull out every trick they know in order to carry the day. If you're in a party like this then be really glad you've got a cleric or a paladin on hand (though a religious fighter will do, in a pinch).

Assuming you're all out of gummy Type-O treats, that is.

If you are fighting a vampire (which is any creature with the vampire template according to the Bestiary) then you can keep it at bay by using a standard action to present a holy symbol. The vampire has to stay 5 feet away from the person presenting the symbol, and cannot touch or make melee attacks against the target. After 1 round has gone by the vampire can attempt to overcome this repulsion by making a DC 25 Will save. At that point you'll get more use out of a good gorget than you will a holy symbol, but it's still a good idea to keep something sacred on hand if you're worried you'll be set upon by undead bloodsuckers.

What's Next...

That's all for this installment of overlooked and mis-remembered rules, but I'm sure there will be another installment. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative then stop by my Patreon page and consider becoming a patron today! If you want to be sure that you don't miss any of my updates then either plug your email into the box on your right, or follow me on Facebook and Tumblr!