Combat

Play

Ref: The boar is huge, like a hay bale. Its eyes dead and black like a shark. It stands taut, as if it could charge any minute.

Moss and Tal discuss a plan briefly.

Tal: Can I climb a tree? Is there one nearby?

Ref: Sure, we’re in a forest. You scramble up without any trouble.

Moss: I’ll get under the tree and try to bait the boar into charging me, then Tal will dive down onto it when it gets close.

Ref: Hm, I think moving to the tree and climbing it is already an action for this turn. If you bait the boar over then it’ll get to charge you before you can respond.

Moss: Fine, I hoist up my shield.

Ref: The boar charges at Moss and…

Rolls d10 for Damage, scoring 9. This is reduced to 8 because of Moss’s shield.

Ref: Eight Damage! So the boar…

Moss: Woah, hang on. I’ll use Deny on that, trying to take the brunt on my shield.

Ref: Okay, you use Deny. That’s a SPI Save to avoid Fatigue.

Deny removes the die and Moss passes the Fatigue Save.

Moss: Definitely worth it. Spring the trap! I Attack with my cudgel and…

Tal: I pounce with my hookhammer, which gets +d8 when leaping down.

Ref: Okay, Moss, you in too?

Moss: Yeah let’s roll.

Tal rolls her 2d8 scoring 3 and 5, Moss rolls d8 and d4 scoring 2 and 8. The highest single die is 8 and the 5 is spent to perform a Bolster Gambit, increasing the Damage by 1.

Moss: Nine Damage!

Ref: Great! Let’s see if this pig can survive that Attack.

Thoughts

I like that Ref has the boar pose an immediate threat, but gives the players time to discuss a plan. They could have gone even further by having the boar already charging toward them, giving a sense of urgency to their choice.

Some questions don’t need a roll. If your players are in a forest and say “is there a tree nearby?” then the answer is obvious.

We’ve seen Ref be generous up to this point, but here they draw a line and tell Moss that they can’t carry out their whole plan in a single turn.

What would have happened if they let Moss do all of this in a single turn? I don’t think there would be much harm done, but allowing this sort of turn in every combat might leave opponents feeling too easy to deal with. I like a cunning plan in a fight, but I also like giving the enemy a chance to respond to the players’ actions before suffering the consequences.

Moss uses the Deny feat to ignore the Damage from the boar, but had to interrupt Ref in order to do this. If they hadn’t used the Feat then they’d be facing a Mortal Wound.

A less confident player might have missed their opportunity to do this, so I’d have liked to see Ref give them a moment to consider before they start narrating the Damage, maybe even giving them a reminder that they have access to Deny.

As with so many things there’s a balance here. You want to give the players ample information and time to make these decisions, and offer guidance to new players, but no player wants to feel like the Referee is running their character for them.