Intermission: The Monsters (Don't) Know What They're Doing

 I currently have, on my bookshelf, two books by Keith Amman: The Monsters Know What They're Doing, and How to Defend Your Lair. They sell themselves as tactical guides for the DM (as both are most definitely written with D&D 5e in mind), for individual monster combats and the task of building and defending a home base, respectively. Right up my alley, I thought - as would anyone that reads this blog - but while the books were enjoyable enough reads in and of themselves, I found them far too specific. 

The first, titled after the author's blog, concerns itself with picking apart the individual stat blocks found in the 5e Monster Manual, using them to construct playable tactical advice for the GM. (If this sounds like a lot of work for the average 5e DM, you would not be surprised to learn that the foreword reveals that Amman cut his teeth on GURPS, only agreeing to run a 5e game at his wife's request on behalf of her co-workers - a conversation all GURPS GMs have had.) This isn't a trivial task by any means, especially as many of the stat blocks aren't especially internally consistent, and many of the abilities are hard to use in combat or actively unhelpful. Indeed, I suspect that Amman put more effort into justifying these monster abilities than the authors of the Monster Manual did, and I'm by no means trying to put the man down. It just wasn't quite what I was searching for. 

What I was searching for - as are many GMs, I imagine - was generic advice. The D&D combat system blurs out many of the identifiable combat tactics that we see in real life, on occasion reintroducing them as feats (such as Battlemasters have available) or animal traits (such as Pack Tactics). This leads to a very undifferentiated "core" combat experience, which teaches some odd habits. Carrying these over to GURPS, or other similarly tactical games, can lead to absurd results - frequent misses, combats that end within a second or two, wolves diving onto the party's blades face-first. This essay is for GURPS GMs (or anyone running a tactical system) who want their monsters to behave like thinking beings rather than XP dispensers.

But first! An aside to clarify the scope of my thesis. Enemies (shorthand here for any entity in the game world that might plausibly engage the PCs in combat) can be categorised in any number of ways, but for our purposes, the primary distinction is between irrational and rational. 

The former, of course, are far more intuitive to play: simply Move until you're in range, then All-Out Attack until one of you is dead. This suits zombies, or berserkers; they might exist naturally as roving hordes, or be summoned, directed or whipped up into a frenzy by a smarter enemy that's using them as a weapon against the party, but the main identifying feature is that their lives (or unlives, more likely) are already forfeit. They're like bomb squigs in Dawn of War or flaming pigs in Total War: Rome, the equivalent of a guided missile. There are intelligent and unintelligent ways to use irrational enemies, but as a GM your only real choices are around the environment: combat conditions, such as darkness and terrain effects, and chokepoints the players can use to limit their exposure. 

Hordes of irrational enemies can be fun in moderation, but a rookie mistake is treating all enemies like them - just taking Attack manoeuvres instead of All-Out Attacks. Yes, this technically gives the enemy a chance to defend, but not meaningfully, especially against a party that outguns them, which is usually the case. This brings us to the main point of this essay: how to play rational enemies. 

Rational foes - and this doesn't exclude wild animals, most monsters, or even fanatical cultists - do care about their own lives, even if only in the abstract as objects of value to someone else. A cult initiate or worker bee is willing to give their life for the cause, but certainly won't do so preferentially. The trade needs to be worth it. Other foes, like predators, bandits, or town guards, are fundamentally fighting for personal gain. They are prepared for the possibility of death, but they'll only die as the result of a cost/benefit miscalculation, or simple bad luck. If they think their attack is likely to fail, they won't do it in the first place!

This is all a long-winded way to get to the fundamental point that rational foes won't fight fair. They will back down from bad odds and stack the deck in their favour as much as possible. Intelligent foes can do so in unpredictable ways, but even animals (especially animals!) have suffered under eons of natural selection ruthlessly culling the poor sods that picked their fights wrong. They'll use every advantage they have over their prey, and that's what these rules are for. Think of them as guidelines, similar to my treatise on dungeon rooms: general principles that inform how your game evolves. 

The Rules

Part 1: Before Combat Starts

Rule #1: Strength in Numbers

Mustering more guys than the other guy is the most basic and foolproof rule on this list. The action economy in GURPS (and many other games) makes it all but necessary, especially to challenge heroic PCs with Extra Attack and such. Don't engage unless you outnumber your targets at least 2:1, ideally 3:1, to enable effective flanking manoeuvres. If this isn't possible, try splitting your foes up with tricks or traps. A barrier like a portcullis or cave-in can go a long way in giving you time to jump anyone who strays from the pack. Even if you can't outnumber them, never - but never - let them outnumber you. 

Rule #2: Location, Location, Location

The ideal place to fight is somewhere your opponents can't fight back. If you have appropriate abilities, an ambush in the dark, underwater, or glomping around in sticky goop or Mystic Mist is most effective. More mundane opponents might take advantage of high ground or cover to launch ranged attacks. Only go into melee when your prey is weakened (maybe even down a couple of combatants), or when you've run out of ammo - and if they just ate all the arrows you have and came back for seconds, consider whether you really want to have this fight!

Rule #3: Pick Your Targets

Have a plan for each target, even if it's only "avoid if possible". A hungry predator might pick the smallest, weakest member of the group to pounce on (the wizard, usually). Intelligent bandits will go after the member with the most dangerous, unpredictable powers (also the wizard, funnily enough), while bizarre, mana-sensing slimes, demons and non-sentient fungus might have more esoteric methods of identifying the wizard. If you're in a group - and you should be - communicate this to your team. Select threats you can't deal with without overwhelming numerical superiority and make it so they can't move freely with traps or with combatants. 

Rule #4: Tilt the Table

You probably can't overcome the heroes' party with brute force or skill, so cheat with traps. These don't have to be fancy, expensive Indiana Jones-cum-Rube Goldberg contraptions. Glue, pitfalls, marbles and tripwires can lock a fighter down long enough to kill safely, and it's important to have a backup plan in case your assault fails. Retreating past traps might be your only option if you don't have enough combatants to build a second line. If in doubt, remember: how do guerrillas deal with armour? Bog them down, hit them with traps, surround, cripple, and kill.

Rule #5: Sneak Attack

Always attack from surprise, if you can help it. If you're lucky you might get a kill on your first turn; if not, you've at least bought yourself a second to attack freely. Hide wherever suits your abilities: in darkness, or in a bush, or in a hole. You might even hide in plain sight, appearing to negotiate in good faith before striking when the party's back is turned. But only fools have a stand-up fight. Note that you don't need to be evil to take advantage of this! The greatest good might come from surprising your foes into surrender. Remember: the ultimate strategy is to win without fighting. 

If you're lucky enough to be close enough for a sneak attack, quickly go for a vital area or reduce their defences with a grapple. Biting is almost unique in that it does both things at once. A neck bite from a big cat or equivalent is hard to get out of; even aside from the base damage, an SM +1 predator's mouth (or that of an SM 0 with Born Biter 1) counts as a two-handed grapple, giving +5 to resist attempts to break free. Damage that penetrates - even blunt trauma - automatically starts strangling (B370), and if you're not patient enough to wait for them to suffocate, you can always try a neck snap (MA77) - one of the few ways to take advantage of the swing scaling for high-ST monsters!

Rule #6: The Thirty-Sixth Stratagem

If you can't win, withdraw. Maybe your initial attack didn't have the intended effect. Maybe you saw the party beat up something stronger than you and you don't like your chances. Or maybe you just have a bad feeling. Regardless of your reason, often discretion is the better part of valour, and an important part of tactics is maintaining the ability to retreat if you need to. Maintain plausible deniability in negotiations, always have a man in reserve, and always have an escape route - ideally filled with nasty things that you know about but your opponents don't to make it hard for them to follow you. If you can move in a way they can't - flight, or effective swimming, or tunnelling - take advantage of that! If they follow, you can punish them, and if they don't, you can come back with more guys later; but you can't come back later if you're dead (assuming the necromancer doesn't find you). 

Part 2: When Combat Begins

Rule #7: Move with Purpose

Combat is all about positioning. Move manoeuvres don't penalise your defences, so those should clearly be your bread and butter until you arrive within lunging distance. Remember not to rush ahead - if nothing else, you make yourself a bigger target than your buddies - and when you get near your target, slow down. Use All-Out Defence manoeuvres on the close approach, and stop just outside of their weapon range. Either they break their formation to move out to you, or you have time to co-ordinate a more effective assault. Wait for at least a local 3:1 numerical superiority and surround a foe before moving in for the kill. Remember, if their back is to a wall, you can't surround them, but they also can't retreat - which is almost as good. 

Consider a trio of wolves (Move 9) approaching a fighter from 10 yards away. We'll refer to them as A, B, and C, starting from the top. A naïve GM might have them take a Move manoeuvre right up to the fighter in one turn, putting at least one of them within immediate striking range and leaving the others useless. 

Instead, move at half speed. The wolves can move 5 spaces with an All-Out Defence (Increased Dodge) or an All-Out Attack, so aim to be that distance away within the first turn but as far from each other as possible so as to encircle the opponent. 

Turn 1: Wolves A and C use Moves to approach. B can Move, or use an All-Out Defence.
Turn 2: All three wolves use All-Out Defence (Increased Dodge) to circle. 
Turn 3: Use the half-move range of All-Out Attack to strike.

This is clearly an idealised scenario (as the many permutations of the defender's response alone would take far too much space to describe, let alone his allies'), but demonstrates the concept. The centre attacker has the most risk here, so all other things being equal, he should be the most dangerous. This encourages the target to focus on him, making the flankers' jobs easier. If you're lucky, your target might even step towards him after turn 2, making a back attack easier to achieve. 

This might seem indulgent, especially to the GURPS GM looking for a way to shorten combat, but counter-intuitively, taking more turns to position yourself before engaging actually speeds things up. You're spending turns without rolls to reduce the number you spend rolling attacks and defences, which is what takes the time. 

Rule #8: Focus Fire

Once you've picked a target and made your approach, your job is to bring them down as fast as possible. A competent combatant can, under ideal conditions, defend themselves for a very long time against a single attacker using retreats, defensive tactics and cinematic combat options like Luck and Extra Effort - so don't let that happen. Co-ordinate with your allies using the Wait manoeuvre to ensure all of your attacks land at once. Even when not using Limiting Multiple Dodges (MA123), the more attacks land within a single turn, the better. A hail of arrows is hard to defend against - you can only Block one! 

Melee combatants have it harder. As described above, don't open with an attack. This is unlikely to achieve anything; if you're in attack range, keep your defence strong with All-Out Defence manoeuvres until you're in numerical control. Once you are, use a Wait to step into an advantageous position and attack in time with your allies. If you're lucky enough to be in the back or weapon-side hex of an opponent, consider a grapple. 

Our wolf pack above has gotten within attack range on the second turn. Turning to put wolves A and B in the fighter's front hexes will inevitably put C in his back hex, which is why a three-man flank is ideal. Since these wolves are identical, they all act in a row, but there's an ideal sequence: 

1. The wolf on the target's weapon side should attack first. This is the first and best defence, so removing any Defence Bonus from a shield is important. As mentioned above, a grapple (or an equivalent bite) here is ideal to penalise further defences and prevent retreating or turning. 
2. The wolf on the shield side hex should attack second. This is less likely to succeed than the first, but the target either can't parry (because his weapon is on the other side) or suffers a repeated-parry penalty (if he used his retreat to turn towards the second attackers). 
3. Finally, the central wolf should attack. Despite being in front of the target, he's now burnt through his Block and his Parry is heavily penalised. He's left with Dodge, which is usually lower than Block or Parry and doesn't risk harm to the attacker. 

Fundamentally, once your position is good enough, it's now or never. Which leads us to the next and probably most controversial rule...

Rule #9: Commit to the Bit: In Defence of the All-Out Attack

Now, you've hopefully achieved positional dominance, so it's time to decide how hard to play ball. A skill-12 "professional" combatant has a 74% chance of landing a hit with an Attack manoeuvre (2% chance of a critical hit, allowing no defence), and a 38% chance of defending himself with the same weapon (assuming no shield or retreat bonus). Doing two things at once is hard. He has only a 28% chance of doing both of these things in a turn, and a solid 16% chance of doing neither. Make your life simple: go for the All-Out Attack.

This might seem at odds with the other rules here, but I'm a firm believer that most combatants should be using All-Out Attacks when deciding to engage, and here's why: 

1. When moving into melee, you should remain outside of weapon range until you are ready to strike. This probably means that you can't reach your foe with a step (unless they come to you, which is beneficial in other ways), so an All-Out Attack can really help close the gap. 
2. The average soldier as described above taking a All-Out Attack (Determined) for +4 to skill is almost guaranteed to be on target, preventing wasted turns, and maximises his critical hit range, allowing no defence on a 1-6 (or a 10% chance). With a couple of buddies, the chance that at least one of them will land a critical hit goes up to almost 30%!
3. You are restricted by combat time. Each turn this guy stays standing is another turn that your allies risk combat against foes that might outmatch them. The in-character psychological pressure to make a risky attack is very real. 
4. Weapon techniques that attack and defend in the same motion are unintuitive in real life (hence the low chance to do both in GURPS, as described above), and barring dwarven weapons, are impossible with many popular militia weapons such as axes, maces, mauls and heavy spears. Make a virtue of necessity by putting your all into the attack. 
5. Combat in GURPS tends to run long: the attack/defence system means that many turns can be spent on missed attacks and successful defences. This is unsatisfying, boring, and simply doesn't feel real. Fodder using an All-Out Attack means either they do something or bow out early. It means they don't need unrealistic skill levels to be threatening, saves game time and GM brain-space, and makes fights both lethal and rewarding for players. Assuming they survive the initial assault, they get to practice fun techniques on helpless goons without slowing the game to a crawl. 

That's not to say All-Out Attacks suit every enemy. Skilled or important opponents will try and defend themselves, as will those specifically aiming to stall or defend for others; Shield-Wall Training is a powerful tool in the right hands. But if they don't need to hang around, go All-Out for death or glory. 

Rule #10: Tactical Flexibility

If you're following all the rules as above, your first attack is likely to be your best. If it doesn't achieve a good effect on target, and you're somehow still alive, don't sit in the kill zone! Pull back as defensively as you can. Your options are Move or All-Out Defence. Spending movement points to turn around is silly and inefficient; you don't gain much distance on your first turn and are opening yourself up for a stab in the back. Exactly which option is best for you depends on your defences and your Move score, but a Move is often sensible: 

Distance moved backwards for most combatant Move scores.

In short, you'll almost always cover more distance with a Move, as you'd expect, but at Move 6 and below you might as well take a manoeuvre that allows a step if you want the defence bonus. 

Whatever way you get out of the immediate danger, use the chance to reassess: pick a different target and regroup, or run away. Smart combatants have a rear line to cover a retreat (or threaten anyone that retreats too early). 

Rule #0: Lose a Little Bit

For all the rules above, remember that the goals of the GM, and the varied goals of the equally varied monsters and marauders that populate his world, are not entirely in alignment. They want to win; the GM wants to run a fun game (we must assume). Make sure that the player characters have at least a chance to get out of these situations. A sufficiently advanced bandit ambush is indistinguishable from rocks fall, everyone dies. So, some tactical slips to give your players a fighting chance: 

• Always roll the enemies' Stealth, Camouflage and Traps. This encourages the players to scout ahead to formulate a plan. 

• Use enemies' Observation and Tactics skills to make decisions, and make their intentions clear using the players' Tactics skills. Don't make identifying the parties' weaknesses automatic (unless it's really, really obvious). 

• Even if the plan is perfect, the execution might not be. Under-trained and over-enthusiastic levies and thugs might not have the discipline to wait for their friends to surround a target before engaging. Similarly, archers might not be able to tell if a foe is dead or just dropped to the ground and change targets prematurely. 

• In the heat of battle, enemies might forget the traps they've placed. Avoiding a trap you know about is only automatic if you're not under duress; when running away or in combat, you have to roll, but at +10. If using Per-based Traps at default, this is all too easy to fail!

• Make the enemies a little skittish, even if they're apparently winning the battle. The omniscient GM might be aware that the mage is about to die, so they just need to stall the fighter a couple more turns, but that might not be obvious to bandit thug #2, who just saw thugs #3 and #4 be decapitated in the space of a second. 

Not every fight needs to be a slaughter, in either direction, but you don't want fights to be between a bored party and a heap of loot piñatas. Treating your monsters as thinking beings with survival instincts makes your world richer, your combats more exciting and your players more engaged.