I have talked before about victory conditions or combat objective style fights. Here is a good list that I like to refer to when building these fights. It was compiled by Halivar at EnWorld in this
Thread.
It takes some practice for your players to get good at recognizing these situations and seeing a way to clear the board without slaughtering every thing in sight. As always be sure to let your players know that this is an option in your campaign, and make sure that is the type of campaign they want to play in.
Use these sparingly and let the players' actions decide how oft they want this type of combat. In my campaign, this is something I throw at my players about twice a level or about 2 out
of 7 combat encounters. The option is always on the table for a clever
player, but only those few encounters are structured that way.
Scenario: Breakout
Objective:
The party is encircled by a horde of enemies. To escape, they must
reach an objective (an exit, a door, a magic portal) on the battle mat.
Setup:
The party begins in the middle of the mat. Depending on the setting
there may be obstacles (buildings, trees, rocks) and rough terrain. The
encounter begins with the players surrounded by 40-50 minions of
comparable level to the party. There are minions between the party and
the objective.
In Play: Minions slain by the party return to
their initial entry point at the beginning of the next round. Minions
will keep coming until the party is either dead or has escaped.
Ancillary Skill Checks:
Terrain and obstacles should force Acrobatics (moderate) checks if
double-moving. Otherwise players must make Athletics checks (easy) to
overcome said obstacles.
Scenario: VIP Escort
Objective:
The party must ensure that a helpless VIP (a merchant, a courier, an
injured nobleman) reaches an objective on the other side of the battle
mat.
Setup: The party begins surrounding the VIP on the
opposite side of the battle mat from the objective. The mat should be
covered in obstacles and cover for assassins to hide in (a town with
streets and alleys is perfect for this). The encounter starts with 10
lurker minions and a non-minion leader (controller or artillery) hidden
among the obstacles. The VIP has artillery monster stats, but with no
attacks. Unlike monsters, the VIP obeys PC rules for death and dying, so
if he falls he can be revived.
In Play: The VIP only moves 5
squares and cannot double-move (he is either injured or encumbered). If
attacked, he will stop and cower, and will not move until intimidated
to move forward. Slain assassin minions and ringleaders return to new
starting points when slain, and will not stop until either the VIP is
dead, or the VIP escapes. Assassins will try to avoid the PC's as must
as possible to get straight at the VIP.
Ancillary Skill Checks:
When the VIP cowers, the PC's must make an Intimidate check (easy) to
get him moving forward again. Perception checks (against monster stealth
rolls) determine if the PC's get early warning of attack. Players can
identify likely ambush areas with a hard check in the appropriate skill
(Streetwise in the city, Nature in the woods, Dungeoneering in a
dungeon).
Scenario: Last Stand
Objective: The
players must hold a defensive position (a building, a palisade, a
section of castle wall) against a horde of enemy minions for 10 rounds
(until activation of a super-weapon, until extraction, until a group of
refugees has time to escape).
Setup: The party begins inside
the defensive position, with 20-25 enemy minions at the edge of the map.
At the front is a non-minion ringleader (controller or artillery). The
defensive position should be such that party members are (or can be) in
an elevated position and have cover bonuses.
In Play: The
ringleader will lead the minions only as far as just outside a move away
from the defenders, from which position he will spur on the minions. If
the ringleader dies, all minions are demoralized, and may only take
standard actions on their turn until a new ringleader shows up. At the
end of the enemies' turn, fallen enemies (including the ringleader) are
replaced at the edge of the map.
Ancillary Skill Checks:
Athletics checks are useful if minions are scaling defenses with
ladders. A hard check will push ladders off the walls and stun the
climbing minions for a turn.
Scenario: King of the Hill
Objective:
Last Stand with a twist: players must first assault the defensive
position and wrest control of it from enemies before they defend it.
Setup:
The party begins at the edge of the map. The defensive position is
occupied by 5-7 non-minion enemies, which are not yet aware of the PC's
presence.
In Play: At the first sign of attack, the defenders
call out for backup (thus setting the stage for the Last Stand portion
of the encounter). Other than that, this is a pretty straight-forward
combat encounter. If players elect to damage the defenses during the
course of the assault, the difficulty of the second part of the
encounter will increase.
Ancillary Skill Checks: Stealth will be essential, as will be Athletics (for scaling defenses).
Scenario: Capture the Flag
Objective:
The players must capture the enemy “flag” while defending their own.
The encounter ends when one individual (PC or NPC) has both “flags” (two
parts to a powerful relic, the Hand and Eye of Vecna, the Cosmic Key
from the Dolf Lundgren motion picture “Masters of the Universe” and
One-Eyed Willie's sheet music from “Goonies”).
Setup: Both
sides (the players and the enemies) have fortifications on opposite
sides of the battle mat (forts, dives in the slums, open mausoleums in a
graveyard). There can be as many or as few obstacles as the DM desires.
The enemies have 4-5 non-minions defending their flag, and 10 minions
outside. The players have the aid of 5 friendly minions who will obey
the PC's instructions. Whoever is holding a flag is magically,
supernaturally, or psychically aware of where the other flag is. There
is a problem: the flag is bulky and impedes the holder. The flag-bearer
may only take a standard action. To compensate, the players may elect to
give a minion the flag; it's a tactical decision on their own part.
In Play:
The enemies will leave 1 non-minion with the defending minions and the
flag. The other non-minions will take a circuitous route to the PC's
base to steal their flag. At the beginning of each round, replacements
for all NPC's (including friendly minions) arrive at the edge of the
mat.
Ancillary Skill Checks: If any players choose to stay and defend the base, they will need to make Perception rolls against stealthy attackers.
Scenario: Spaced Invaders
Objective:
The players are forming a thin (but porous) line of defense against
single-minded invaders whose only intention is get past them. The
players must stop them. They can be plague-bearing zombies heading
towards town, wounded enemy couriers on a battlefield trying to get a
request for reinforcements out, or cultists of Orcus trying to throw
themselves into a black abyss for some terrible ritual.
Setup: Divide
the mat in half. The players can be anywhere on the side of the mat to
which the invaders are streaming. The players should be made aware that
they will need maximum coverage and mobility.
In Play: There
are 20-30 minions who trickle in at the far end of the mat and move
unswervingly to the other side. Now because they are either wounded,
undead, or encumbered, they only take standard actions. They will prefer
flight to fight, but will stop and fight if directly prevented from
moving forward. At the beginning of each turn, roll a 1d4. This is the
number of enemies that appear that round. For each enemy minion,
randomly roll to see which edge square they start at.
Ancillary Skill Checks: Perhaps allow Perception roles, and allow players to discover, one round ahead of time, where new enemy minions will appear.
Scenario: Whack-A-Mole
Objective:
The players must scramble to different objectives on the map to stop
enemy machinations. The enemy only needs to complete one of their
objectives; the players must stop all of them. Once an enemy objective
is activated, the players are on a time-limit to stop it. This can be
evil cultists setting up idols to enslave a whole town, an enemy
defensive battery trying to set up magical trebuchets to sink a refugee
boat, or goblins in a forest trying to set up bon-fires to burn the
forest down.
Setup: The map is covered in obstacles, and
there are 5 enemy emplacements. Each emplacement is guarded by up to 6
minions, and one non-minion. By random die roll, select one to be
"activating", and inform the players (placed on the far side of the mat)
that they have 5 rounds to stop the completion of the enemy objective.
In Play: Every
3 rounds, randomly activate another emplacement. The urgency factor
will increase dramatically, and the party may decide they need to split
up.
Ancillary Skill Checks: Allow perception or insight
checks to allow players to predict which emplacement will activate next.
Place obstacles that require the use of Athletics or Acrobatics checks
to overcome.
Scenario: Assassination
Objective:
The opposite of VIP Escort. In this scenario, the enemy is trying to
protect the party's target, and get him to a safe area. The party's job
is to stop him from getting there. This can be a murderous crime lord
moving from one safe house to another, a deposed tyrant fleeing to
escape to his waiting army, or a courier rushing to give the
uber-archvillain the pass-phrase to the Book of Vile Darkness.
Setup: The enemy has dispatched
three
parties. One has the real VIP, and the others are escorting a minion
look-alike. The VIP has artillery monster stats (but no attacks). Like
in the VIP Escort scenario, the VIP will cower when attacked. Each VIP
is surrounded by 4 non-minions. In addition, there are at least 10
minion patrolling the board.
In Play: Slain minions are
replaced at the end of the enemies' turn at the edge of the mat. As in
the VIP Escort scenario, the VIP is hindered and can only make a
standard action each round, and moves 5 squares.
Ancillary Skills:
Insight and Perception are the key skills here for noticing
doppelgangers. A hard check will spot the deception before engagement.
Other victory condition advice can be found at:
http://at-will.omnivangelist.net/?s=victory
http://critical-hits.com/2011/04/11/critical-hits-podcast-27-the-out/
http://slyflourish.com/three_examples_for_ending_a_battle_early.html
