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I enjoy the RP aspect of D&D and although I play a fighter, I like to resolve situations and solve issues without using combat every single time. Fortunately, sometimes issues can't be fixed with words.

Combat starts out exciting enough. Eventually though it turns into us (the players) just vaguely describing what we do in the fight, because in the end our descriptions don't really matter...the dice roll matters. We use all our special abilities / spells up and then focus all our attention on dice rolls. Combat deteriorates to repetitive dice rolling, hack & slash, hoping we get the combat over with before it eats up our entire gaming session.

I know I'll have to get the DM in on this, but do you all have any suggestions on how to involve more RP during combat? But specifically RP that actually adds +/- modifiers to combat/damage rolls? RP that results in something substantial in combat other than taunting the orcs (for no real effect) or yelling for help from a fellow PC.

I want to be able to RP during combat and have that RP add/subtract effect on the PCs or mobs dice rolls to hit, damage, or figuring initiative. Does anyone have play tested homebrew rules for this or something similar?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Possible duplicate: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/10225/… (it's system-agnostic but so is roleplaying, and this 4e one was closed as a dupe: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/33966/…) \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 3:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ Though this is still mildly unclear. You're not looking for RP advice ("techniques"), you're looking for house rules? Note we don't like asking for rules "suggestions," we want playtested house rules in that case. But more fundamentally, why do you think rules of this sort are the solution to your problem? You may be trying to make this "less broad" in the wrong way. It's OK for the problem to be "after a while in combat people just rely on basic attacks, roll the die, say they hit; I want combat to be more like X, how can I make that happen?" \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 3:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ People may answer with house rules or techniques or whatnot. That's fine (though they should be things they've used to overcome this problem, or seen used). But filling in the "X" above is what you need to get more clear on, not whittling down the solution set. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 4:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ For example. "I am a fighter in a D&D 5e game. In our game, combats start out with people using at least a small amount of description in their actions. But as the combat wears on, it turns into people just rolling dice and making basic attacks and saying "I hit" or "I miss". Since the descriptions don't seem to help from a numerical or tactical point of view, we just start skipping them, but then combat is bland and boring. How do you keep combats lively, with the PCs describing their actions, trying maneuvers other than "I swing my sword again," and being engaged and engaging?" \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 4:16
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    \$\begingroup\$ yes, if that's your question. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 4:44

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