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Let’s face it, sometimes combat in dnd can feel like a never ending series of “roll dice, hit, repeat.” Sure, annihilating goblins with no abandon is fun, but after a while, even the fiercest dragon fight can start to feel a bit… predictable. If you and your players are starting to zone out during your encounters that you researched for hours and making your battles more “meh” than “Hell Yeah!” Then I have some ways to spice them up a bit! Whether you’re a DM trying to keep things spicy in Dungeon Room or a player who is concerned for their DM, then this list of my Top Ten spicy combat ideas will liven up your session like a wild magic surge at level 1. Battle in weird places, encounter strange environmental hazards, and experience unexpected twists, because who said combat has to be boring? Now roll initiative!

Environmental Hazards

Hot As Hell Hazards:

Have a battle near or on a volcano! Fight around lava flows or fissures in the ground.

Use dexterity saving throws to prevent them from falling into the lava. Be careful with this idea however as falling into lava can deal an extreme amount of damage(Officially, completely submerged is 18d10 DAMAGE). One way you could mitigate this is to lessen the damage; Perhaps the fail for the roll determines how they fall. For example, fail the roll by one or two: their foot slips into the lava flow and takes 3d10 damage and slows their movement by half. take lava damage or less if your nice)

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Battle during a wildfire!

Call this what it is, punishing your wizard for always using Fireball in fights. When your players are fighting in some prairie or wooded area, fire damage should always pose as a possible danger, especially during the dry season. So, when fire damage is applied to the environment, such as an AOE spell or a missed fire themed spell that that crit misses like fire bolt(if your into that sort of thing), have the extra damage be applied to the affected spot behind or around where the spell hits. This will cause a fire start and spread at every top of the round dealing 1d8 fire damage for anyone caught in it at the end of their turn. (I’m using 1d8 fire damage because of the Bonfire Spell that deals that amount of damage). This will force your players to adapt to their fuckups! Also, if your feeling especially cruel, add wind and spread the fire even quicker, either by spreading it exponentially at the top of the round or have it spread twice per round, once at the top of the round and again mid-round.

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Warning: Steam Is Hot

Steam Vents! Either indoors at some gnomish underground ruins with all those inventions or naturally occurring way out in the wilderness, Steam can definitely surprise a group. Mechanically speaking, at initiative 10 in random 5 ft squares (or where you want them) blasts superheated steam. Players must make a Con save or take 2d8 fire damage and be blinded until their next turn.

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Gas goes boom

So you might be wondering, where the hell does gas come from that would build up so much that it just EXPLODES? Plenty of places! Mines, volcanic areas, or even landfills can build up a lethal amount of methane and explode, or even cause asphyxiation and death! For explosion purposes, use a fire trigger (such as a torch, fire arrow, fire spell) to cause fire damage to everyone in a 10 ft area(or larger if your feeling dramatic). Have the players make a succeed a dex save or take 4d6 fire damage and be pushed back 10 ft and be prone.

As for asphyxiation, if you wanna go that route, have the players walk in to the area, unbeknownst the them and then suddenly start taking 1d4 damage. No Con saves or anything. Just straight 1d4 damage every minute. Don’t let them know straight off the bat, let them figure it out and watch them freak out. Leaving the area should be a standard way of escaping the gas.

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Heavy metal turns into death metal real quick

Having combat near someplace especially hot? Turn your paladin into an oven by forcing your heavily armed (anyone who is wearing heavy metal armor) to take an automatic 1d8 fire damage at the start of their turn every round that they are still wearing it (It takes about 5 minutes for a player to take off heavy armor, so if you feel like being a generous DM, let them take it off in like two turns taking up their entire turn to do so), while also adding a level of exhaustion if they fail a Con save (DC13).

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Its Fucking Freezing Cold Hazards:

Thin Ice

Fight on a frozen lake, whether or not they know its there! This can cause your players to think twice about using heavy hitting damage that damages the ground around them, or even falling prone on the ice can cause them to fall in! Mechanically speaking, the ice breaks when it is damaged or a player falls onto the ground. The freezing cold waters will cause status and damage effects.

If your are feeling particularly fancy, have any player that is medium sized or larger make a DC 13 Dex save or acrobatics check. Failure means cracking the ice and falling into the water. The water itself will cause 1d10 cold damage and cause 1 level of exhaustion. It will take a DC 15 Str check to climb out on their next turn if no one helps them out. If they receive help, I would allow them to get out automatically.

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this frost bites

When the temperature is zero degrees Fahrenheit or below, it takes about 30 minutes for exposed skin to get frostbite. At 15 degrees below zero with even a little bit of wind, frostbite is possible within 15 minutes. You can see that frostbite is no joke, so lets torture our players with it! At initiative 10, players must make a DC 12 Con save or take 1d8 cold damage and disadvantage on weapon attacks until the start of their next turn. By magical or nonmagical fire, or by heat based spell or item, a player can avoid such damage or status effects.

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Ice is Slippery

Lets just state the obvious here. Ice is slippery. So why not use this simple concept to make it more fun during combat? Simply have the players make an acrobatics check to stay on their feet or fall prone on the ice. Try to combine this with an enemy who is unaffected by the ice, or perhaps have it be an encounter where the players are running away or toward something.

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Giant Icicles

Planning combat in a frozen cave? Introduce icicles as part of the hazardous environment! Icicles can pose as interesting obstacle, as the players will need to stay quiet or else incur the wrath of the giant icicles of doom. Mechanically speaking, any character that speaks will have a chance that an icicle from above will break and fall upon them or on everybody if loud enough. This will of course cause your spellcasters to actually worry about spells that have a verbal component to them! This will be at the DM’s discretion of course, when it comes to whether or not how loud a sound needs to be to cause trouble.

I will be using the spell “Ice Knife” as a baseline for damage. Have the player(s) roll a Dex save to avoid being hit. If the player fails, the Icicle will deal 1d4 piercing damage with an additional 1d4 cold damage. If the icicle is a giant icicle, do 1d10 piercing damage with and additional 1d6 cold damage.

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Deep Snow is hard to move in

Lets state the obvious again. Moving in snow will slow you down. Moving in deep snow is even harder. Lets add that to the encounter! Great to use during snowy conditions, simply lower the speed of all players. If the snow is somewhat shallow, lower their speed by 5-10 ft. If the snow is deep, half their speed.

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Water Is Wet Hazards:

Water tends to Flood

Water is easily a common yet underutilized factor in combat. Lets use it to force the players to adept to. So each round, the water rises 1–2 feet. When it reaches waist height (say 3 or 4 rounds in), movement is halved and non-aquatic creatures must make Concentration checks to cast their spells. Once the combat area is underwater, normal water fighting conditions apply.

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Ring around the Whirlpool

Nothing can be more alarming to a party of adventurers than to be in the water and being sucked into a giant whirpool. Perhaps even make it into a larger encounter? If you have your players sailing across the ocean blue, creating a giant whirpool sucking in the ship could cause quite a ruckus. Bonus points if its in the middle of combat with several other ships crashing into each other causing even more obstacles, which is perfect because that leads into out next thing!

How it works: At initiative 0, all creatures within 15 feet are pulled 10 feet toward the center of the whirlpool. Failure to swim out (DC 15 Athletics) results in being restrained and pulled under. Once a player us under water, normal suffocation rules would apply.

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Rock the Boat

Inserting the perfect segue here, keeping yourself upright on ship on troubled waters, is no easy feat. Especially if the consequences of failing to keep yourself on your toes is falling off the ship into shark infested waters or giant whirlpools that suck you under. Have the players roll a DC save depending on the what is happening in the environment or situation in combat. I would set the DC at a low 10 Acrobatics Check for a simple “ship is rocking” encounter. However, I would raise the DC to 15 Acrobatics Check or even higher if the player is fighting an enemy and then the ship suddenly hits another ship while being sucked into a giant whirlpool.

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Just…RAIN

Rain is one of the easiest and most underutilized hindrance in combat. Rain can cause so many problems for the battle field such as: Ranged weapon attacks are made with disadvantage, perception checks relying on sight or sound would have disadvantage, fire spells become underpowered unless the caster makes a Concentration check (DC 12 + spell level) or perhaps half the damage of the spell itself if you are feeling nasty. Really, you can get pretty creative with it, even in terms of how powerful the rain is getting. Shit, it might even effect their weapons!

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Wet Equipment

Damn my transitions are good! Going off of the rain idea (or coming straight out of the water), think about using your waterlogged equipment in the middle of combat. Heavily soaked bows and crossbows would need to dry their weapons off somehow or the weapon misfires (automatically fails), or if you are a generous DM, have a CHANCE at a misfire. (players rolls a d20, 10 or higher the weapons works. 9 or lower it misfires.) This could also extend to spell components being soaked in water. Certain spells with certain material components may cause the spell to fail if the component itself withers away.

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Earthen Hazards:

Falling rocks!

Have a combat encounter in the slopes of a mountain? Falling rocks! You could lump this idea with those other encounters that require the players to be more aware of their surroundings. Don’t be too loud, or don’t cast an explosive spell that could cause large rocks to fall onto your soft skull. Creatures must make a Dex save (DC 14) or take 3d6 bludgeoning damage and be restrained and trapped under the rubble. (DC 15 Strength to escape)

MUDSLIDE!

A mudslide is just a slower earthy watery version of an avalanche right? So let’s make your players sweat a bit! Have the mudslide be a slow moving hazard that spreads at the end of each round about 5–10 feet. Creatures caught within the sliding mud have their speed reduced by half and must make a Dex save or be knocked prone and pulled 10 feet downhill. You could choose to have just a small part of the battlefield be affected or the entire field begin to be covered by the deep mud.

(technically speaking, mudslides carry A LOT of debris with it which you can use as well to…muddy up… the situation, and they can also travel quite fast but doing so in a dnd game seems like a TPK waiting to happen so I would focus more on the creeping slowness coming down to engulf them all.)

Sinkhole!

Nothing is more terrifying to a child than falling into a sinkhole or quicksand. So lets use that childhood fear to our advantage! If you don’t know, a Sinkhole “is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer.” Basically there’s a hole under the ground, when the strip of land on top of the hidden hole collapses, everyone and everything falls into it causing a crater in the ground.

Think of this like a trap waiting for a trigger to happen. When a creature move into a certain area, and then the ground is disturbed somehow (wither by explosion, something very heavy falling onto it, or some earth spell being cast onto it), the sinkhole collapses. have the creatures make a DC 15 DEX save or fall into 10-30 ft pit (up to you how big). On a fail, they take fall damage and become prone. Climbing out would require a DC 13 Athletics check. Bonus points to the DM if you have falling debris collapse onto the player causing extra damage, and a chance of becoming stuck underneath.

Earthquakes!

Earthquakes can be a really fun way to muck up a battlefield or even introduce at a BBEG into the fight. Mechanically speaking, at the bottom of each round, all creatures on the ground must succeed a Dex saving throw of a DC 13 or fall prone. Now narratively speaking, having a giant BBEG or monster arrive onto the scene a few or several rounds later after the battle starts which is accompanied by earthquakes every round until his arrival, can be an unforgettable experience for your players.

Magically Magical Magic Hazards:

Wild Magic Zone!

Every time a spell is cast, roll on the wild magic surge table. It’s as simple as that! Now you could be more selective with how it’s done, such as only having certain areas be effected (hence the ZONE) or perhaps have the player roll for it to see if they are affected (Roll a d20, 10 or higher is a success and is unaffected, fail and roll on the table) or have the the DM roll at the top of each round onto the magic surge table to see what affect happens on the battlefield.

Weak Ass Magic!

This is where the Martial class could really shine, or spell complete doom for your party depending on the enemy. Have all the magic on the battlefield be nerfed. Basically what I am saying here is that all effects, durations of spells, damage, etc., are halved for the duration of the battle. Having a Wizards fireball spell go from 8d6 to 4d6 will certainly cause a commotion.

Anti Magic magic pulses:

Nerfing magic not punishing enough for you? Fuck it, lets cancel it out completely then! Similar to the ideas from the Wild Magic Zone, you could go several different routes on how to do this, such as only having certain areas be effected (hence the ZONE) or perhaps have the player roll for it to see if they are affected (Roll a d20, 10 or higher is a success and is unaffected, fail and the spell fails) or have the the DM roll at the top of each round to see if magic is negated on the battlefield for that round. I would use this sparingly and only in smaller fights. There’s nothing worse for a player to be completely helpless during a battle, especially if the battle is important.

Mana Draining Fields:

A fun little bump in the road: When a spell is cast, the caster must make a DC 10 Con save or the spell costs one additional spell slot level. You could also simplify it and have all spells use twice as many spell slots when casting a spell.

Im tired boss:

Spellcasters who cast 3 or more spells in one combat encounter must make a DC 15 Con save or gain 1 level of exhaustion from magical burnout. Or, if your feeling especially cruel, have your players gain a level of exhaustion after every spell they cast. Or, if your feeling chaotically cruel, have your players gain a level of exhaustion determined by their level of spell, IE., casting a level three spell causes three levels of exhaustion. Of course, all exhaustion will disappear after a long rest unless you decide otherwise.

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Tactical Objectives

Looking for something more tactical to entice your players? Worry not forever DM! Add some tactical Objectives to your combat, because what’s the point of fighting if you don’t have something to fight FOR?

Defend a Location!

Every warrior dreams of sacrificing themselves during some impossible last stand, so let’s give it to them! It doesn’t have to be impossible of course you sicko! It just has to feel like it. Whether it be trying to defend the castle from some siege, protecting the temple from the undead in a graveyard, or defending a small quaint country village from a clan of raging barbarians, having the players defend something that is deemed important can help give some important meaning to any combat. Or perhaps add some more importance to that location by adding something specific to protect such as a ritual, a siege engine reloading, or defending a legendary item from being taken.

Disable the Device!

Need your players to feel a bit more rushed during combat? Have the players race against time to disable a bomb that is about to go off, or disable some magical device that can screw up the party’s plans. The point is, is that there is something that needs to be shut off and the enemy is in the way.

Stop the Ritual!

Somewhat similar to “Disable the Device” from above, where the players need to stop something however the something is a ritual that seems to be summoning something, and their are grunts in the way! This is a fun way to use a combat encounter as either part of a larger combat or just simply something to spice up combat that introduces a certain theme to your campaign. That theme could be the classic cultists summoning hell bent demons upon the populace of a city, or perhaps a group of druids summoning animals or man eating plants upon civilization. Of course you can’t forget the BBEG fight, Its basically the normal encounter except on heavy steroids. It could involve summon the BBEG themselves or perhaps several cultists summoning the END TIMES. (Or just more and more enemies to the fight) Do what works for you!

Rescue the Hostages!

This is pretty straightforward. There are hostages taken by the bad guys. Figure out a way to save them, or not! This simple premise can absolutely throw any party for a loop as the characters have far more to lose than gain when losing a hostage to the enemy, whether that be losing someone important that could have valuable information, or perhaps just losing their hard earned reputation if they allow the worst to happen.

Get Them!

This is the chase scene that everyone wants in you combat right now. Picture this: The party is chasing down this important criminal who is vital to finding out where the BBEG is hiding. However, this guy isn’t alone. AND HE’S GETTING AWAY! The party will need to figure out how to navigate how to handle those goons while also chasing down that petty criminal through alleyways, into busy streets crowded with horse drawn carriages, on the rooftops of the city, and through the markets during the busiest part of the day!

Get Down Mr. President!

There will always be a time and a place where one of the most important people in the land will be in danger. Be that a king, the royal family, or someone just insanely important to characters backstory, there will be a VIP to protect. You could play with idea as a sort of defend encounter where the players have to defend them in a certain location, or you could be attempting to fight your way out while also protecting the VIP from certain death!

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The Wannabe BBEG: The Miniboss

Let’s face it. We’ve all tried to use some sort of “boss” to help fight the party as some sort “test” or something and have it completely blow up in our faces when the fight is over in three rounds, or your boss is just simply too boring and forgettable. Worry not Dungeon Master, for I have a solution to help humiliate your ungrateful players.

Give them legendary actions

Yes. Give your boss man some legendary actions. If you’ve read any of the truly dangerous creatures in the several monster style manuals written by the multitude of third party books or the official manuals from Wizards of the Coast, you will see somewhere between the Challenge Rating of 15 and up, a section called LEGENDARY ACTIONS underneath their regular actions. These special actions can be made at the end of another creatures turn and only 1 of 3 (3 being the total amount of legendary actions you can use after a someone’s turn EACH ROUND. That’s right! it resets every round!) legendary actions can be used at that time.

For reference, look at this Ancient Green Dragon’s stat block, or the Mummy Lord. Of course these are extreme cases, as we are supposed to be talking about mini bosses not the whole enchilada! if your looking for a quick and easy way to add legendary actions, simply copy one of their attacks and allow them to use that as that legendary action, or get creative with it! Have a pirate miniboss? Captain Ahabian Blackstache can have a basic attack, throw a grenade, and the ability to dodge attacks for that round as all three legendary actions. Maybe not the most exciting but it will definitely make the fight a challenging experience. I mean, the Unicorn is only a CR 5 but it still has a legendary action, go ham!

Unique reactions or traits

Maybe Legendary Actions aren’t your speed. That’s fine, we got more ideas! Consider giving you big boss a unique reaction or trait that will give the players an interesting challenge. Now adding a trait or reaction depends on the encounter and theme you are rolling with in your campaign. For example: The Black Pudding creature, as a reaction for getting its ass kicked, can split into two seperate Black Puddings! (technically more nuanced than that but you get the premise). Or for a more interesting trait look at the Flameskull as good example: They have Magic Resistance where the Flameskull has advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects, and the Undead Restoration trait which allows it to regain all its hit points in one hour after being destroyed unless holy water is sprinkled on it or the spell dispel evil and good has been cast upon it.

Pretty cool huh? Be creative!

Change of tactics when under half health

Still not good enough? Trying having them change their tactics when under a certain amount of health. Imagine the pirate captain again. He’s using his ranged attacks to stay out of the fight while also controlling his pirate lackeys to attack the players in melee combat. The players somehow do enough damage to the captain that it enrages him, and he completely switches from tactician to full on captain barbarian as he swings his swords madly at the heroes. You could even switch his stat block completely to give them a total surprise! (Perhaps even go the opposite route, captain foes balls to the wall but gets hit with enough damage, he retreats to fight from afar, using new ranged attacks like grenades or cannons or whatnot.)

Evolution

The Half Health thing wasn’t for you? Well, were you a fan of science class? Let’s have the boss man EVOLVE. Somewhat similar premise to the idea above where they change once enough damage as been done to them, instead, however, the creature changes PHYSICALLY. There are three such examples that come to mind, (Arasta, Hythonia, and Tromokratis) and it was first introduced in the book “Mythic Odysseys of Theros” where you can buy it here on dndbeyond.com (I highly recommend the book!)

The idea is once the creature has fallen to 0 HP, their “Mythic Trait” activates which gives them a sort of second tier of abilities and health. (JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WAS DEAD) For example: Arasta is this giant half lady, half spider thing and when she is reduced to 0 HP, she regains 200 HP, and her little spider buddies come to her aid, covering her body, giving her an additional 100 temporary HP. (Keep in mind this is a very high level creature at CR 21). This “Mythic Trait” replaces her old Legendary action with her new “Mythic Actions” which empowers her even more!

So think of this idea, in the context of of challenging your players without killing them with a CR 21 creature. Just dumb it down to their level!

intelligence!

Maybe science class wasn’t for you. Instead let’s make the your little boss more intelligent! Forget making him the toughest dude in the crew and focus on how they can change the battlefield to their advantage. Have the them shift the terrain by perhaps blowing up the ship they are on as a way to sink them while the little boss gets away, or how they can set traps in certain strategic areas like a bridge or specific small openings that can do the most damage to the heroes. Perhaps have the little boss dude more competently control their minions. For example, don’t you hate having to “play the minion” and attack the Paladin with an AC of 90 because “he’s closest?” Well not this time! While little boss man is around, maybe we should take out the wizard and sorcerer flinging fireballs everywhere first, then focus on forcing the Paladin to make Dexterity Saving throws with spells of our own!

Of course, without his leadership should he fall, the minions would fall apart, panic, and act like…minions I suppose. (Another idea is to allow him to summon reinforcements if needed. Remember, be the smart person here. What would an actual intelligent leader do when prepared?)

ITS A TRAP: The miniboss fakes being stunned or dead, triggering a trap or surprise round when approached.

Maybe being too intelligent ends up TPKing your heroes? No biggie. Lets focus on fighting dirty instead! Not every boss fight has to be an epic showdown. Instead, lets focus on ending the mini boss fight on a memorable note.

When it comes to survival, sometimes playing dirty is the only trick left up your sleeve. (Or the only one!). So you have this Pirate Captain right? He’s known for doing whatever it takes to get what he wants. Cue Bad Reputation music. During the fight, he get’s knocked down and it looks like the battle is over. EZPZ right? Not so my fine friend. The Pirate Captain is faking his injuries or his own death to get a cheap shot with a poisoned blade to the nearest hero, causing big time damage with cool poison effects!

Don’t be afraid to play dirty with your heroes. We both know they’d do it in a heart beat if they could! Other ideas to consider are traps, pocket sand or glass shards to blind the heroes, ambushes, guerrilla warfare without ever fighting directly, or add some maneuvers from the fighter class like disarming/tripping/and feinting. As always, have some fun with it!

Post Death Twist: a magical explosion, curse, prophecy trigger

Not enough for you? Fuck it, mini bosses are overrated anyway! Let your mini boss go down in a blaze of glory, but not before giving the heroes one last middle finger. If they are going out, let them do it on their own terms. Have your little sacrificial lamb of a mini boss draw them in with their begging (“Please don’t kill me! I’ll tell you everything!”), then when they are close enough, KABOOM! Be it a magical explosion, unleashing a curse upon a hero, or straight up triggers a prophecy, don’t let those goody two shoe heroes win! (Just kidding, this is supposed to be fun! Right?)

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Combat With Consequences

Lets face it, dnd just isn’t fun without any consequences. If there’s nothing on the line then ultimately your just going through the motions until your session is done. So here’s and idea that you could try…

The Moral Dilemma

Pull at your players heartstrings (if they have any), and use those innocent bystanders as fuel to spice up your combat encounters! Oh no! those innocent bystanders are being used as human shields/possessed by evil spirits/are being attacked by enemy soldiers or monsters! There are so many routes you can go with this idea, get creative for what works in the moment. Don’t be afraid to add choices with consequences.

A few other ideas that come to mind:

• During combat, a crisis happens. A fire starts, a building is beginning to collapse, or a wild monster is set loose upon the citizens. Would your heroes help the innocent or fight the baddies?
• I never like to bring children into dnd, but if you and your friends are comfortable with that sort of narrative, you could add the idea of child soldiers. Would your heroes be confident enough to fight children to the death or could they possibly subdue them peacefully? Bonus points if you have the children brainwashed or having complete faith in their mission.
• The enemy is revealed as an important beloved character in one of your heroes backstory
• The enemy retreats into a crowded area like a busy temple, marketplace, or a fucking orphanage! Be careful though, AOE spells will murder those darling orphans!

Key leader dies, minions flee

As exactly the title suggests, when you kill the enemy leader, the rest of the minions under their command should falter. Whether that be that they simply flee for their lives, or the minions become weaker as they flounder without their fearless leader, it should become a much easier fight for your players.

I need them alive!

This idea is a bit more homebrew in that the players need to defeat the villain but keep them alive by not reducing them to 0 HP. Officially, your players can do non-lethal damage in order to not simply kill them outright. But what’s the fun in that? My idea is to simply challenge your players to be more strategic in their attempt to subdue the villain who is being extremely uncooperative.

Mechanically speaking, the players need to reduce the villains health to an extremely weakened state (In which you need to provide with your narrative abilities in combat. “They look tired” to “Sweat and blood drip from their brow,” to “They seem to be standing entirely by willpower at this point.”), say about 20 HP is less depending on how much health the villain started combat with. We don’t want to completely punish the players with accidental crits when they are obviously trying, but we shouldn’t reward them for using a 5th level spell that deal 10d10 damage when the villain is nearly down either. Of course, in the end its up to you, the Master of Dungeons, to decide their fate.

Now the consequences of failure depends on the context of the situation. Failure may result in a lowered reputation with the town, guild, mayor, or king who were depending on the villain being alive for either personal (family member?) or political (need information out of them) means. Or perhaps it was for a bounty and they offered more money for them being alive rather than dead.

Dead Tired

This idea might not happen in most fights, but if you are planning a bigger fight, consider adding this as a consequence. The longer the fight, the more exhausted the heroes should feel. Add 1 level of exhaustion every 5 rounds starting at round 10. This should really add to the panic for your PC’s during combat! If you really want to go the extra mile, after so many rounds, add a level of exhaustion when using a high level spell or ability.

Be a ninja

This was supposed to be a stealth mission! Now the players have to deal with the consequences of their failure. How? Lets say that the players needed to stealth into a dangerous area for some important plot related reason and now the noisy Cleric with their loud as hell plate armor alarms some nearby goons. A fight naturally happens. From this point, the players will need to be more aware of their situation in combat. They haven’t necessarily be found out yet, they just need to silence them before things get worse. Now using spells that cause a loud explosion or really any verbal component to that spell could cause more trouble as more reinforcements can arrive when they hear the commotion. Same for if one of the goons escapes, or raises their voice for help.

Now I would treat this as a domino effect in order to give the players a chance to redeem themselves and count it as a minor hiccup rather than entire fuckup. However sometimes the dice decides the fate of the adventure and that ok. As for the domino effect, i would start with:

1. The fight begins with a small amount of enemies who were merely patrolling.
2. Small amount of reinforcements arrive of the same lower type of enemy.
3. Larger amount of reinforcements arrive with a possibly stronger enemy unit to bolster them.
4. Well now the Big Boss is getting involved and now the stealth mission turns into an extermination.

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Things Are Getting Weird

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Epic Weather (It’s Different! This is MORE EPIC!)

It may look like just a rehashing from the first idea I spewed out at you but you’d be wrong. This idea is way more epic!

Lightning Storms!

At the bottom of every round, every creature on the battlefield must make a DC 15 Dex save or take 4d10 lightning damage. (Feel free to lower the damage if your party is a lower level party. Start with 1d10 and increase the dice when they are a higher level) Wearing metal? Disadvantage on the save you fool!

SANDSTORM!

All creatures visibility is reduced to only 10 feet. All perception checks are at disadvantage. and creatures without face protection must succeed a Con save of DC13 or be blinded for 1 round. All ranged attacks are also at disadvantage.

Acid Rain!

Every uncovered creature takes 2d4 acid damage per round. Any and all metal begins to corrode! nonmagical weapons and armor take a permanent -1 penalty to their AC every 2 rounds. If the penalty drops to -5, the weapon is destroyed.

Tornado!

Super strong winds cause ranged attacks to have disadvantage. All creatures must make DC 14 Str save each of their turns (Group saving throws and damage for larger groups of enemies to save time) or be blown 1d10 × 5 ft in a random direction and take 1d6 damage for every 10 ft they are thrown. Creatures under 100 lbs. or is flying have disadvantage on the saving throw. Creatures must also make a DC 12 Dex save at the top of every round or else Loose debris becomes dangerous shrapnel causing 5d4 damage.

Flash Flood!

At the top of the round, a HUGE wave of water surges through the area. Creatures must make a Dex save DC 15 or fall prone and be pushed 30 ft. Terrain becomes difficult unless the creature has a swim speed. Flash floods also carry a large amount of debris with it. If the creature failed their saving throw, have them take an additional 4d6 damage bludgeoning damage as a nice cherry on top of this shit pie.

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Time is Running Out

Basically, your heroes have X amount of time before Y happens. This sort of idea can be crucial to establishing immediacy and panic within your setting and theme. Don’t be afraid to really stick it to them, even after a big battle and they are all on their last breath. Combat should be memorable, exciting, and above all else, FUN!

Building collapses

Remember when I mentioned that you shouldn’t be afraid to stick it to your players? Especially after a dangerous battle? Well this is that moment! If you are having your combat inside some sort of building, consider what happens within the battle. Were there big explosions? Tremors? Times where your barbarian was throwing the BBEG against the wall repeatedly like The Hulk?

If so, have that structure collapse! It doesnt have to be a normal house that falls apart. It could be anything! Also, it doesnt have to be at the end of combat either. Have the building collapse mid battle! This will really cause your players to scream!

Mechanically speaking, at the top of each round, collapse a piece of the building in a random area. You could use a d6, or choose a zone yourself, or simply have each creature to roll a Dex save. Anyone trapped in one those instances must roll a Dex save against a DC 12 or take 5d10 bludgeoning damage and become restrained and buried beneath rubble. I would set the DC for the Dex save to be about 12-14 depending on how high level the characters are. After all, too high a DC will most likely TPK your whole group. We want them to experience the danger, not traumatize them! Creatures can escape the fallen debris with a DC 14 Str check. After 5 rounds, the whole building collapses and any remaining creatures inside the area will be buried beneath the rubble.

A ritual ends

Another type of idea is attempting top stop a ritual. The ritual can be from different type of themes like nature based rituals from Druids, or the classic cult like ritual that summons some curse or hellish creature, or strictly magical based one from a group of wizards attempting to cancel out all magic in the world, or even just a totem ritual from a tribe of Barbarians who are attempting to physically strengthen their warriors in the fight tenfold. No matter the rhyme or reason, the combat style would stay the same: your players will have a set amount of time until the ritual is complete and then will have to suffer whatever those consequences are.

Now when it comes to how LONG it takes until the ritual ends differs from theme to theme, so you, the DM, will have to make that choice.

Talking mechanics, the ritual will count down from X amount of rounds using the bottom of the round as when it completes (When using a set amount of rounds left, you could have some sort of physical counter like dice or numbers on a card to indicate how many rounds are left until the ritual is complete. Or not. Fuck ’em. Let them figure it out!). When the players will no doubt attempt to stop the ritual, decide how that is done. If its a summoning type ritual withs several minions needed to keep it going, having the majority die will most likely stop the ritual, but having every single minion needed to die would work too. Also, you may want to have a device rather than a classic minion casting a ritual. In that case, a player would need to disarm that device. That device may require arcane checks or intelligence checks in order to disarm successfully. When it comes to disabling the device, make sure you only allow once chance per round to disarm it. Lets try to avoid the waterfall of , “Can I try?” that would inevitably follow.

The enemy will escape with the thing in 5 rounds

Sometimes the fight will just be a reason for the villain to escape with the important thing that the heroes desperately need. In this case, have the players attempt to stop them from leaving. This combat event is different from a chase scene, as they are simply not CHASING them. This is more of a “Preparing to leave” sort of escape, like starting up a train to leave, or hitching the horse to the cart to escape, or setting sail in their getaway ship, all of which will take time before they can actually LEAVE.

This is a highly variable type of concept that would need the DM’s input depending on the situation. However, i can give you a standard sort of example to get the ball rolling here. Lets say the train is beginning to take off, buts its slow going, as all medieval fantasy steampunk train engines tend to do. It will depart in 4 rounds, every round the villain gets closer and closer to getting away. Add some sort of difficult terrain such as the station crumbling after some sabotaging effects from the enemy making it tougher to get to the bad guy. Other ways to make it more difficult would be to add additional reinforcements, or spells that specifically slows down the heroes.

survive until reinforcements come

This concept is basically a survive-as-long-as-you-can type of combat event. Think Helms Deep from Lord of the Rings where the heroes along with a ragtag group of an army, is defending themselves to the very end until reinforcements arrive led by Gandalf the White.

Have yourself a place to defend for your heroes. Then come up with “waves” that you will use to attack your Player’s characters. After every round, more enemy reinforcements, or “waves,” will arrive in the attempts to annihilate the PCs. Each wave should be subsequently harder from the last, be it more lower level enemies to a few smaller enemies accompanied by a ‘medium’ challenge creature, to perhaps towards the end where there is a miniboss to fight. make sure you determine how many rounds it will take before the heroes reinforcements will arrive, this will help organize the combat event. Once the good guys arrive, it should be an instant win for the heroes. Remember, its a survive UNTIL the reinforcements arrive, not a last stand.

Its important to note that if you are looking at a longer battle, say about 10+ rounds, it would be best not to throw too hard of enemies at them as it will quickly overwhelm them as the players will be sapped of most of their resources by at least 2/3rds of the way through.

If you want an example, lets see if i can help out. This will be based off of 4 level 5 players, taking 7 rounds of waves with the theme of Goblins and their ilk before help arrives to save their asses.(Meaning on the 8th round, the good guys arrive to save the day)(This is also somewhat educated guesswork as it would depend on what the party’s composition is. This combat encounter would not work if everyone was a wizard for example. However, I created this to be on the easier side using the Encounter Builder from Dndbeyond.com)

1. 5 Goblin Warriors begin their attack on the heroes
2. 7 more Goblin Warriors arrive to reinforce
3. 9 more Goblin Warriors arrive
4. 1 Goblin Boss and 3 Goblin Warriors arrive, the Boss uses their reaction to use the Gobin Warriors to switch places when attacked.
5. 4 Goblin Warriors arrive
6. 1 Ogre Howdah with 4 Goblin Warriors upon its back.(the goblins use a sort of fort on its back to attack from above)
7. 10 Goblin Warriors arrive
8. Good guys come and annihilate what’s left

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Split The Party. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Youve no doubt heard the popular warning of “Never Split the Party.” It’s very sound advice for any adventuring party. However, you are the DM, and keeping things safe is boring as hell. Split them all I say!

Magical walls that split them per room

When the hero party is out and about adventuring doing god knows what, consider this idea for splitting up the party during combat. Use use physical or magical walls to split the the party up. During combat, use physical walls as a sort of trap that spring up, enclosing each hero or splitting them up by group. By using physical walls, it makes it a challenge to figure out how to escape and rejoin each other. During combat however, consider using an enemy that fights each hero as they are all split to add to the tension. Nothing terrifies a wizard more than 1 on 1 combat! Just make sure that the heroes have a way to escape the confines of the physical walls, such as a trigger that defeating that enemy will force the walls to crumble or vanish, helping the heroes rejoin one another.

On the other hand, use magical spells to separate one another or in groups. You could use Wall of Force, Blade Barrier, Wall of Fire, or you could even flavor spells to work as walls such as Spike Growth, Evard’s Black Tentacles, or Mental Prison (That is nerfed depending on your heroes level).

Puzzles to solve

Have the heroes figure out a puzzle whilst in the middle of battling for their lives. What’s more terrifying to a group of heroes than solving a puzzle with a limited amount of time? So I propose that you force a puzzle on them during combat and watch them squirm!

If you are looking for specific examples, i suggest looking at Ch.5 of the official adventure, “Tomb of Annihilation” by Wizards of the Coast. A More Specific moment would be from Papazotl’s Tomb.

Hold a door or ritual keeps going during battle

This might require a bit more creativity when using this concept during a combat encounter as it requires some ingenuity. The basic premise is that a group of heroes are trapped within a room in a dungeon. One idea is that there is a large heavy door or portcullis that needs opened, however it needs a total strength of 20 to open (Meaning the total strength between characters needs to be or exceed 20). While these characters are attempting to open the door, some monster or group of enemies are fast approaching to kill them. They need to figure out how much strength it takes to open the door, with an attempt to open it takes an entire action to do so.

Another idea within the same premise is to force the a hero or multiple heroes to perform a ritual that would take several turns to complete in order to escape the dungeon or the room itself while the bad guys are hellbent on stopping you. Now this ritual could change depending on how you see it, perhaps its a dance ritual that requires a certain amount or successful performance/acrobatics checks to complete, or the classic arcane checks for magic users to complete, or perhaps someone must sing a song successfully in another language in order to proceed?

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The Battlefield is Alive!

Sometimes you find yourself in a place that you never meant to be. Perhaps that place is the wrong grocery store, down a one way street, or in the middle of a stop secret druidish cult that is hell bent on transforming the world back to its uncivilized roots. You know, regular bad day stuff. This is how your heroes will feel the instant one of them is caught and restrained by man eating plants in the midst of a battle.

Lets start a riot!

There is a term called Mob Mentality that describes the behavior of a large group of people that conform to the majority, meaning that when there is riot going on, people are gonna act crazy because everyone else is. So have your players have a fight in the middle of this chaos! Be it a riot or a rebellion, the average citizen will be acting far more violently than is socially acceptable. So simply put, during battle, there will be random people that may think that you are the enemy and attack you. After all, your heroes will most likely be dressed like soldiers or warriors with those weapons and armor. Mechanically speaking, at the top of every round roll a 1d6 and see how many people will be attacking someone at random, whether that be the enemy or the heroes.

the hungry grove

It’s not only the civilized world the heroes should fear. They should also fear mother nature and her little shit boys the Druids. If the heroes find themselves in a fight in some druidic grove or other nature hotspots (Feywild would be great for this), Consider using the power of nature against the PCs. At the top of each round use these effects as an example:

• Vines: Vines from the trees attempt to grapple creatures nearby it. When a creature is within 10 feet from a tree, the vines make an attempt to restrain them. DC 13 Dex Save or be restrained. DC 14 Str check to escape or fire can repel it. Vines will have an HP of 10 and an AC of 10.
• TREES: The trees angry. At the top of the round, a tree will animate and slam nearby targets that are within 10 feet of them. +6 to hit, 14 (3d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage. You could also awaken the tree and use the Awakened Tree stat block for that entity.
• Man eating plants!: Nature can be quite hungry, especially if it craves FLESH. Use the stat block for this homebrewed Man-Eating Plant.
• Awaken Nature: If you want to go this route, awaken nature itself and use them as summoned creatures such as The Bodytaker Plant, Awakened Shrub, Gas Spore Fungus, or even the Gulthias Blight if you wanna go hogwild.

Never fight in a graveyard

Similar to nature, except for it all being completely dead, The battlefield would “come alive” and attack the heroes. You knew this was coming didn’t you? Undead is such overdid theme, yet I cant help but fucking love it! At the top of each round, use these effects as an example:

• The Dead Rise: Roll a 1d6, and use that amount rolled to send zombies toward your players. Roll a 1d4 and send that amount rolled to send Skeletons toward your players. You could extend this idea even further by sending any other undead as well! Here is a list you can use from the Forgotten Realms Wiki.
• Whispers from the Dead: The battlefield whispers from beyond the grave and its…unnerving. Have the players roll for a DC 14 Wis saving throw or be Frightened (For this effect I would ignore the “The creature can’t willingly move closer to the source of its fear” part of the effect as the entire battlefield is technically the source of the fear. Just stick with the disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls.) Have the player roll a Wis save after each other turn in subsequent rounds to get over the Frightened condition.
• HANDS: Undead hands burst from the ground in an attempt to restrain the heroes. DC 12 Dex saving throw to dodge the hands, roll at disadvantage of locked into combat (within 5 ft) with an enemy. DC 12 Str check to release the player from the Undead Hands if they failed the roll previously.
• Gravestone Mimics: The Gravestones awaken and attack any player within 5 ft of them. Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) acid damage. You could also use the Mimic monster as the creature in its entirety (which is where i got the attack stat from).
• The Rotting Stench of the Dead: Use this idea if you want to be particularly vile towards your players. For each zombied creature that is killed on the battlefield, that creature releases a horrible stench. Use the spell Stinking Cloud to affect the area.

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Fighting in Weird Places

Lets face it, sometimes it gets old fighting in the same sort of battlefield over and over again. The Forest clearing, the Arena, a Graveyard, a cleared street, the list goes on and on. And on the surface, its not a terrible thing. After all, sometimes the story warrants it, after all the players fight where they want to. But if you are looking for something DIFFERENT, then give these ideas a try.

Floating away

The battlefield is splitting apart and your heroes need to stay on their toes or risk fucking up royally. Think, floating land breaking apart in the sky, icebergs floating adrift after too many fireball spells from the wizard, maybe the players are literally fighting in the air as they are falling off a cliff or perhaps the gravity was turned off, the heroes are fighting on top of the roof and fighting is causing the roof to collapse so they fight from spot to spot? Use that as a simple inspiration you could use almost anywhere!

to the sky, we fly!

Not all battles have to be on the ground. Battle on top of a flying dragon, a sky ship from Spelljammer, a flying Roc, a Skywhale, a floating island in the sky! Movement is can be limiting in smaller areas make AOE spells particularly dangerous, and falling off is always a constant threat. Perhaps the “battlefield” tilts forcing the players to stay on their feet or risk also falling off. Perhaps attempting to regain control of the “mount” or the ship can be part of the combat encounter?

London bridge is falling down!

A simple but fun place to fight. The bridge is collapsing as large cracks and chunks fall away into the void or raging river below. The players must navigate this deathtrap before it completely gives away forcing everyone to fall into whatever you have planned at the bottom. What do they do? Fight or Flee? Have them roll DC 12 Dex saves or fall into the hole. Instead of actually falling however, they should be grasping onto the edge looking for help. Have the player roll a DC 12 Str check to climb back up, disadvantage if at less than half health. If a player helps, then it should be an automatic save.

Im really not into vore

Fuck it, have your players get eaten and fight in some giant monster’s belly. I’m tired of writing, Here’s some examples:

• Fight inside a Terrasque
• Flesh Monster
• An Astral Dreadnought
• Giant Snail
• SPIDER
• Snake Boy
• Some Unspecific Belly of the Beast