Real Combat???

Greetings! This week I did something a bit different: I have made a new friend who actually spars on a fairly regular basis, and he invited me to one of his sessions. Now when I say sparring, I mean we use Nerf swords, maces, axes, glaives, and shields to hit each other until the other person is “dead”. Basically, if you get hit in the arm or the leg, you lose that leg/arm. If you lose both arms or both legs, or if you get hit in the torso, you are out. This was really fun since we got to mess with all the different weapon combinations like dual wielding short swords, using a shield and mace, or going all out with a two handed glaive.

While this was definitely not real combat (although there are a few scrapes and bruises), it was about as close to the experience as you can get.  Either way, it was different, it was interesting, and it was fun.  I would encourage you to try it at least once so that you at least know what it is like to be in combat for real (sort of anyway).

Until Next Week!

Raz

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Player Tip of the Week

Find synergy with your teammates. While not always possible to plan this extensively before a campaign, you should try and find some synergy with you and at least one other member of your party.  Your effectiveness both in and out of combat will increase significantly if you have good synergy. 

For instance, in a short campaign that Endos and I participated in, Endos was a neutral evil Halfling rogue and I was a neutral evil, Gnomic Wizard with a specialization in Illusions. This combination worked incredibly well because I was able to cast reduce person on Endos which would have made him a tiny creature increasing his attack rolls and AC.  What was beautiful about this though was that he still hit for full sneak attack damage.  So basically I distracted an enemy with illusions while Endos stabbed them in the kidneys over and over and there was nothing they could do about it.

DM Tip of the Week

Have your battles roughly prepared ahead of time.  Perhaps I’m too used to having a DM with all encounters prepared ahead of time, but in all seriousness, the campaign goes so much smoother if you have them prepared. 

            For instance, in the past we had a DM who had not one encounter prepared for traveling and it took him 10 minutes to set up every encounter.  While improvisation certainly should happen, encounters take long enough as it is without waiting on your DM to come up with them in session.