60
"Focused Fire" is a legitimate technique.
But there are many ways to deal with it.
If your Combats are small skirmishes, with all participants within reach of each other then the PCs all piling on to one foe at a time will work. And this sounds like the "less fun" problem you are having
Some of the techniques I have used are:
Use the same tactic ...
33
The problem is this part of the falling rules:
The creature lands prone, unless it avoids taking damage from the fall.
You are suggesting you give the PC advantage on the attack and no damage when they really should be landing prone after taking damage.
The question then is whether negating the damage is fair or not. The problem with the falling rules ...
31
As long as the fight is solely about killing the enemy before they kill the PCs, focussing is a strong tactic. So look for ways to make it about something other than just attrition.
For example, one that I ran a while back involved PCs (plus a few helpful NPCs under their command) helping to retake a dwarvish fortress that had been overrun by traitors. The ...
30
Know Your Enemy
The "Know Your Enemy" Battle Master Fighter feature (PHB, pp. 73-74) does exactly that:
The DM tells you if the creature is your equal, superior, or inferior in regard
to two of the following characteristics of your choice:
Strength score
Dexterity score
Constitution score
Armor Class
Current hit points
Total class ...
18
Aside from a few class features, it is very table-dependent
A Battlemaster Fighter, at level 7, can
spend at least 1 minute observing or interacting with another creature outside combat [to] learn certain information about its capabilities compared to your own.
A Mastermind Rogue, at level 9, can
spend at least 1 minute observing or interacting with ...
16
RAW: Roll the damage dice twice
The standard rule for critical hits from the basic rules states:
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack's damage against the target. Roll all of the attack's damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage ...
14
D&D is not a videogame
Monsters don't exist only to die, monsters aren't punching bags, monsters aren't a handful of lines of AI. You, the DM, are responsible for making these monsters behave in the way you see fit. Strategy is only meaningful when there are multiple valid choices.
A monster at low hp is less effective than one at full hp.
To a ...
13
Backgrounds aren't built to provide mechanical combat features
Should I simply give him advantage on the attack roll, ignore fall
damage, and call it a day?
If you did that, your PC is doing something like "Slow Fall" which is a class feature (4th level) of a Monk and, when you offer advantage, is getting part of the Assassin (Rogue) archetype from 3rd ...
13
The trick here is he is trying to get a mechanic, (a class feature) for free. There are ways to mitigate falling damage so you could do this.
Slow Fall
Beginning at 4th level, you can use your Reaction when you fall to reduce any Falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level. (PHB, Monk, p. 78)
Monks get a class feature ...
8
RAW, anything a player character can do
The caster decides, what action the animated object will take:
You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command
This action does not have to be an attack. According to the Monster Manual (page 10 "Actions"), besides actions from the stats ...
6
I think the language is clear enough:
if there’s nothing preventing you from doing so, you can move one zone in addition to your action for the exchange.
(emphasis mine)
"In addition", not "before" or "after". To me, this definitely means that you can move and act, or act and move, or even act while moving, whichever makes sense, given your specific ...
6
Insightful Manipulator
Depending what you want to know, a Mastermind Rogue obtains a feature at level 9 called Insightful Manipulator (XGtE, p. 46):
Starting at 9th level, if you spend at least 1 minute observing or interacting with another creature outside combat, you can learn certain information about its capabilities compared to your own. The DM ...
5
The critical hit rules are under "Rolling a 1 or 20" on PHB p.194 and "Critical Hits" on PHB p.196.
The long and the short of those say that rolling a 20 on your attack roll hits no matter what, and that the damage roll is increased by rolling your damage dice twice.
Your GM's method--just doubling the number on the damage die (dice?)--isn't quite the same ...
5
Mathematically, it's not a great choice
The higher your skill becomes, the more it costs to keep increasing that skill. You can, in theory, just keep sinking experience into weapon skill forever and ever, but there comes a point where you're only increasing your skill every 5 sessions, while you could have been improving 5 other skills in the meantime.
...
4
I don't play D&D so I'm not sure if these suggestions can be applied, but even if they can't perhaps they can shed light on alternate tactics:
Attach negative effects or enemy buffs that are applied upon enemy death, encouraging the players to spread the damage and eliminate them as close to each other as possible along the timeline.
Treat the enemies ...
2
You're meant to restrict it when appropriate, yes.
The relevant part of the rules is just a little after your quote:
If you want to move more than one zone (up to anywhere else on the map), if a situation aspect suggests that it might be difficult to move freely, or if another character is in your way, then you must make an overcome action using ...
2
If there's a narrative reason which would tend to enforce any of the various possibilities, then that's what determines how you then play it out.
Fate isn't interested in dictating order. It's whatever makes narrative sense.
Citations:
The Golden Rule (FC p. 185)
Decide what you’re trying to accomplish first, then consult the rules to help you do it.
...
2
There are no variants on "standard" arrows for Rolemaster in either Arms Law or Character Law, arrows are just "Arrows" with a possible bonus for quality/materials that is averaged with the bows bonus to give the overall OB bonus (5.24 p16 Arms Law #1100)
However the Arms Companion (ICE #1120) introduces some variants of arrows that give range and OB ...
1
In ranged attacks, this is totally valid and good tactics.
In melee though, you and they are missing a key factor, which is that if they focus on one opponent then they aren't defending against any others. All starting at one flank is good tactics for them because they can nail one or two whilst the others can't reach them. But as the other opponents pile ...
1
In addition to the great answers already here, I'd like to add my two cents.
If the enemy uses AOE spells/attacks then everyone ganging up on him may not be a good strategy since all 4 of them (depending on the PC's attack range and the NPC's AOE range) would get hit at the same time.
1
The players can coordinate this easily, because they're sitting across the table from each other in relative comfort, and they can take their time deciding what to do.
But the actual characters don't have that luxury.
Rule that to coordinate fire once the fight has begun, one of the player characters must declare the next target, so that everyone knows who ...
1
Not much more than what the PHB details
Jumping comes out of your normal movement distance, so I wouldn't think there are special considerations. But let's do this by the numbers and see, shall we?
Your maximum jump distance is determined by a combination of factors. Off the top of my head, you need to consider the character's Strength modifier, whether it'...
1
The grapplee can only do something if they succeed their Int save. On a success, they would have the option to attempt to escape the grapple as an action, or do some other ability that removes them from the grapple (eg teleportation or forced movement such as misty step or thunderwave). But on a failed save, they're utterly doomed unless someone else can ...
1
Dex-based classes like rogues and rangers will typically have the highest initiative bonuses, but winning initiative is helpful for many reasons. Some of these reasons matter more to certain classes than others:
Enemies who haven't acted yet in combat are flat-footed. This makes them easier to hit with attacks, and especially vulnerable to rogues, who can ...
1
It's a legacy rule that comes from Original D&D. People are used to it from D&D (though Basic D&D used Dexterity based order instead) and so add it to other games as well. Pathfinder got it from D&D 3.x.
D&D and Pathfinder are turn based games. You need to know what order characters will act in and who strikes first. It's ...
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