Let's Talk Tactics - 2nd Round
As I was kicking around ideas on what to write this week, it was brought to my attention that I needed to follow up with our intrepid adventures fighting skeletons in the dungeon. It seemed like as good as an idea as any, so let’s get back to our friends and see if they can take out the rest of the skeletons and find out what is in the chest.
Here’s our party with some additional information to flesh them out a bit more. The current hit points for each character are listed in parenthesis. I didn’t mention before, but all rolls are being done on DnD Dice Roller. Finally, we will be using the optional flanking rules found in the DMG.
Helga the Human Barbarian (Blue skirt)
HP 15 (11)
Greataxe
AC 14 (Unarmored defense, Dex. +1, Con. +3)
Str 17 (+3), Dex 12 (+1), Con 16 (+3), Wis 11 (+0), Int 10 (+0), Cha, 11 (+0)
Tomas the Goliath Fighter (Blue Tunic)
HP 12 (5)
Longsword
AC 16 (Half Plate, Dex. +1)
Str 18(+4), Dex 12 (+1), Con 16 (+3), Wis 10 (+0), Int 10 (+0), Cha, 9 (-1)
Harry the Drow Rogue (Red Tunic)
HP 8 (8)
Rapier
AC 14 (Leather, Dex. +3)
Str 11 (+0), Dex 17 (+3), Con 13 (+1), Wis 13 (+1), Int 10 (+0), Cha, 11 (+0)
Frank the Elven Wizard (Gray Cape)
HP 6 (6)
Dagger
AC 12 (Dex. +2)
Cantrips: mage hand, light, and ray of frost. Spells: burning hands, charm person, feather fall, mage armor, magic missile, and sleep.
Str 9(-1), Dex 15 (+2), Con 12 (+1), Wis 11 (+0), Int 16 (+3), Cha, 11 (+0)
Jill the Tiefling Grave Cleric (Red Breastplate)
HP 9 (9)
Mace
AC 14 (Chain Mail, shield)
Cantrips: guidance, sacred flame, spare the dying. Spells: bane, false life, guiding bolt, healing word, and shield of faith.
Str 16 (+3), Dex 10 (+0), Con 16 (+3), Wis 16 (+3), Int 10 (+0), Cha, 11 (+0)
The first round has ended and we are at the top of the 2nd round. The average combat lasts 2-4 rounds, and the hope is that the party make this a two rounder. The initiative order is as follows: Harry, Frank, Skeletons, Tomas, Helga, and Jill.
Taking a second to look at the positioning map, the party looks in fairly good shape. The two big issues facing the party. First, Tomas only has 5 hp remaining and is standing directly in front of a skeleton. Luckily for him, there are 2 party members who go before the skeletons, so things aren’t as bad as they could be. The second issue is that the party is some distance from the two skeletons that were firing arrows at them. Helga can slide over to one and either Harry or Jill can reach the other with their movement and be in range for a melee attack. They will need to kill that skeleton in front of them first. Let’s take a look at what our adventurers will do as the second round begins.
Since its the top of the round, our rogue Harry is up. The skeleton is front of him has two remaining hit points, but Harry knows that it needs to be taken out before the skeletons attack since Tomas has 5 remaining HP. Fortunately, Harry has sneak attack, which is defined as:
Beginning at 1st level, you know how to strike subtly and exploit a foe’s distraction. Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon.
You don’t need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn’t incapacitated, and you don’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.
The amount of the extra damage increases as you gain levels in this class, as shown in the Sneak Attack column of the Rogue table.
Player’s Handbook
Harry attacks with his rapier and rolls a 17, and does a total of 8 points of damage, more than enough to kill our poor skeleton. He debates using his full movement to get in front of one of the remaining skeletons to distract it from attacking Tomas. Here we come to an interesting dilemma. Should a party member sacrifice themselves for another player? Given the current situation, Harry decides not to and backs up 10 feet into the hallway. Harry’s logic is this; there is a 2 in 5 chance of Harry being attacked, maybe only 1 in 5 depending on what Frank does. He’s fairly confident the DM won’t target him, not wanting to kill a party member this early in the game. Harry’s logic is sound, as it makes no sense for another party member to take damage when they don’t have to. Now if Tomas dies, it may seem selfish, but looking at the odds of that happening, you cannot blame him for moving back and taking some cover from a ranged attack.
One more skeleton down, two to go
Frank is up next and he’s quite happy that the skeleton that was in front of him is dead. There is no way in hell that Frank will move into melee range. The question he faces is whether to cast ray of frost again, knowing that it has no chance to kill a skeleton or use one of his two spell slots to cast magic missile and hope for three good rolls. Once again it comes down to using one of his precious spell slots. Knowing that he can recover 1 after a short rest via Arcane Recovery, he asks the party if they are going to take a short rest after this. Tomas votes an empathic yes, but the rest of the party is unsure. Helga is fine after the 4 HP from Jill’s healing word last round, the and other party members have yet to take any damage. They do not want to take one this early in the game as they want to keep dungeon diving and take a short rest later. All eyes turn to Jill, who sighs and says she will use her second spell slot and cast healing word on Tomas if needed. With the chances of taking a short rest slim, Frank is concerned about using a spell slot. Frank decides to cast magic missile anyways, hoping to take out one of the two skeletons. He rolls for damage and does 12 points, just one short of killing it! Frank made a good decision, even though it cost him a spell slot. Sure, a 1st level wizard is limited, but as he showed in the first round he can always use ray of frost as his offensive attack. Way to put the party first Frank!
Skeletons swarm Helga
The skeletons are up next and the DM wonders why the party was so concerned when it was Helga that was standing well within melee range. With a 6 Intelligence, the skeletons aren’t going to use much in the way of tactics and attack the close target. They both move within melee range and swing away. The party immediately realizes their error in judgment and watch nervously as the DM picks up his dice and starts to roll. The first skeleton rolls an 8, missing Helga and the party breathes a collective sigh of relief. The second attack is a 21, which most definitely hits for 4 points of damage. Helga is still raging, so the damage is halved down to 2, leaving Helga with 9 hit points. Helga has survived. This situation could have been much worse, but we’ll get into that in a second.
Tomas moves up to assist
Tomas is up next and even though he is hurting, he charges forward to assist Helga. He moves 30 feet and flanks the skeleton, gaining advantage. (The reason that the skeletons did not flank is they may not move in such a way to give themselves that option due to their low Intelligence. Could they, sure but they did not in the situation.)
Tomas’ higher of the two rolls is a 23, hitting the previously unharmed skeleton for 8 damage. Realizing that they most likely will not be taking a short rest anytime soon, Tomas uses his Second Wind ability with his bonus action, regaining 11 hit points. Second wind is defined as follows:
You have a limited well of stamina that you can draw on to protect yourself from harm. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d10 + your fighter level. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. This puts Tomas back at maximum HP.
Tomas maximized his turn, using his movement, gaining advantage, doing damage, and regaining hit points. While using second wind this early isn’t great, he’d rather burn the ability and have Jill retain her last spell slot.
Helga is up next and she really wants to hit something. She’s confident that she can kill either of the two remaining skeletons. Taking a second to think about the math, Helga can do a maximum of 17 points of damage without a critical hit (Greataxe max 12, +3 damage bonus, +2 rage bonus) which is way more than she needs to send either skeleton to a second death. She opts to attack the skeleton she is flanking, increasing her odds of hitting. It turns out that was a good decision as her highest roll is a 13, meeting and beating the skeleton’s AC, doing 12 points of damage, turning it into bone dust. Seeing no reason to move, Helga decides to remain where she is. Thankfully, Helga made the right choice, attacking the target with a higher probability of being hit and killed.
Finally, we come to Jill. While she has committed to casting healing word if needed, but Tomas is now back to full hit points and Helga is not yet bloodied. She is out of melee range but within range for the two spells, she is debating between, sacred flame and guiding bolt. There is decent chance that sacred flame will destroy the skeleton as it does 1d8 damage. Guiding bolt and its 4d6 damage almost guarantees killing the skeleton, as the average damage for the spell is 14 points. It will however use up her last spell slot and with this being the first encounter of the day she loathes using it now. She decides that the party can survive one more round and a single skeleton is not worth the spell slot. Casting sacred flame, the skeleton falls it’s Dexterity check but only takes 3 points of damage. Jill also decides to move forward her entire movement, staying 5 feet out of melee range. If things go terribly wrong next round she is then in a position to either cast another cantrip or makes a melee attack. Jill did damage, and while she didn’t eliminate the threat, she saved her spell slot, and used her movement to effectively set up for the next round (if needed).
End of the 2nd Round
The round is now over and our party and one lonely skeleton have survived. If we step back for a second and look at our previous adventurers turn, let’s take a second to re-evaluate the second round. Taking a look at the map at the end of the second round, it looks like our poor skeleton is doomed. The question is it going to be able to get off one final attack before it perishes. If so, this is damage the party most likely did not need to take. Where Jill and Tomas positioned themselves well on their turns, they will not have an opportunity to attack until after the skeleton has an opportunity to attack. Frank can cast a spell from his current position. Harry however has no ranged attacks and is out of melee range for his next turn, limiting his options for the next round and with no chance of attack. While Harry’s logic was sound in not wanting to take damage, his lack of foresight has opened up the party to an additional attack. Selfish? Maybe. With only 8 hit points, it is possible that Harry could drop on a single attack. But with Helga in the position she was in, he may have wanted to have moved closer so that he could attack in the third round if needed.
Let’s see if the skeleton can get off one last attack in the 3rd round. Harry realizes his mistake and decides to move 30 feet closer but that is all he does on his turn. While he could Dash to get in front of the skeleton, he is still wary of being hit and decides to stay back, out of melee range. He does, however, ready the Dodge action, just in case. Frank crosses his fingers and casts ray of frost, hitting with a 17. The moment of truth arrives and he rolls 7 points of damage, just enough to drop the last skeleton and taking us out of initiative. Harry’s potential miscue is forgiven and the party gathers around the chest. Harry, mumbling apologies, pulls out his thieves’ tools.
Our party has survived their first combat and is hopefully wiser because of it. Some mistakes were made, but tell me of a time when that is not the case. Helga’s ‘Leeroy Jenkins!’ maneuver in the first round could have ended in tragedy, and Harry’s movement faux pas may have had some negative consequences. Overall, it was a good learning experience for the party. Communication opened up in the second round (Tomas asking about a short rest), and they will hopefully continue to build on this, starting with talking to Helga about not being so reckless all the time.
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