What’s Wrong with D&D 4E Combat? How Does Enhanced 4E make it Better?

Combat in D&D 4E is Just Too Slow

So in Enhanced 4E we make DnD 4E combat faster. In our testing, the Combat in Motion ruleset increased the number of melee attacks per round by nearly 50%, meaning more opportunities to strike and do damage, and faster resolution of melee confrontations. Ranged attackers were also able to fire in circumstances where they would not have had opportunity to do so under the standard D&D 4E rules alone, making the shots they could take more effective.

Other actions documented in Combat in Motion empower entire forces to act at once. Multiple actions can be made in rapid succession on a single turn.

However, the rules of Combat in Motion have an even greater impact upon the perception of game speed. Much of player frustration in combat can be attributed to the impotence players feel while other players or monsters are taking turns. Even when a player is attacked directly in standard 4E, that player can do nothing. Each player simply waits passively (and too-often, inattentively) while time slowly drags on---until that brief moment arrives once again when he or she can take another turn.

Combat in Motion empowers all players to act at almost any time on any turn---not by adding any more immediate or opportunity actions to the game---but by giving players the flexibility to choose when to take the actions they already have.

When players are involved in the entire combat round, they perceive themselves as active participants at all times---no longer passively waiting through most of the game for their turns to arrive. The time between turns matters far less.

Enhanced4E: Combat in Motion for 4th Edition D&D---patience is no longer required.

Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion is available in print and eBook formats from Enhanced4E.com and is now also available from DriveThruRPG.

The Enhanced DnD4E Difference: Entry 3

Chases and Races in standard DnD4E vs. Enhanced DnD4E: Part III

The Scenario: A reminder

We began this essay series by examining a scene from the film, Jurassic Park, where the jeep in which Jeff Goldblum rides as a passenger is nearly swallowed by a running T-Rex. The dinosaur gives chase and threatens the jeep until the faster vehicle ultimately accelerates away. It was argued that this scene could not be reproduced in the DnD4E game world using the standard rules.

In Part I and Part II we learned that this is true. DnD4E, in its core form, lacks the tools needed to model this encounter (as we will learn in subsequent commentaries, this is only one of many classic, dramatic combat scenarios that will not work in standard DnD4E).

We have seen also that the Enhanced DnD4E toolset succeeds in this scenario in every place where the standard rules fail. The mechanics detailed in the book Combat in Motion were created for this very purpose: To model combat encounters where combatants do not stand still, and this includes races and chases.

However, we haven’t yet seen the original scene reproduced. One element remains missing: The vehicle.

Let’s put the vehicle into the scene.

Let’s restart the chase again on both the standard DnD4E table and on the Enhanced DnD4E table. This time, let’s make our Elf a driver of a wagon. We will then place the wagon on each the tables for our Ogre to chase.

The Recreation in Enhanced DnD4E

Let’s first have a look at how this chase sequence plays out on the Enhanced DnD4E game table.

Let’s position the Ogre---speed 6---just 12 squares away from our wagon. Dangerously close! And let’s do one thing more. Let’s go ahead and give the initiative to the Ogre. Our wagon---speed 10---sits at a stand-still.

What happens next?

The Ogre begins with a sprint toward the stationary wagon. It moves 8 squares---bringing its token or miniature within 4 squares of the wagon’s token or miniature when the first action of the Ogre’s turn completes. With another standard action, the Ogre will charge the still motionless vehicle before it even begins to move away.

But this doesn't happen.

Enhanced DnD4E empowers the Elf driver to act on the Ogre’s turn at precisely this point. She is able to borrow an action from her upcoming turn to move the wagon forward right as the Ogre’s charge commences.

The wagon has a top-speed of 10 but, in Enhanced DnD4E, vehicles do not reach their top speed on their first move action. Vehicles begin all movement slowed. The Elf can manage to move the wagon just 2 squares. However, she is able to complete this action with the wagon in motion and this makes a significant difference when, moments later, the Ogre’s charge slams into the rear of the cart. The Ogre makes this attack now at a -4 penalty (the Ogre receives a +1 for its charge but, in Enhanced DnD4E, attacks to the rear of a moving target are penalized with a -5 to the die roll).

The Ogre’s turn ends. The Elf’s turn begins.

The Elf has used one move action already. She now has just one move action or one standard action remaining on her turn and she must use this action to move the wagon. She is able now to accelerate the vehicle to a crawl: Half the wagon’s movement. She moves the wagon 5 squares. She ends her turn still in motion.

The first round has ended.

It is now the top of the second round. The Ogre is due to take its turn. However, in Enhanced DnD4E, creatures in motion may challenge one another for the opportunity to go first, and the Elf opts to challenge for the top position. If she can take the initiative, she just might escape.

Both the Elf and the Ogre roll a d20 and each adds the appropriate dexterity bonus.

The Elf loses. The Ogre will go first once more.

To avoid attacking its moving target from the rear, the Ogre sprints its full 8 squares and completes the action running alongside the speeding wagon. With a standard action, the Ogre readies an attack. The Elf, accelerating alongside the Ogre glances to her left and sees the monster raise its enormous club.

As the Elf’s turn arrives, she is finally able to move the wagon its full speed of 10. The wagon token or miniature must enter first the square directly ahead as it moves past the Ogre’s token or miniature. This triggers the Ogre’s readied action.

The massive club slams into the side of the vehicle, rocking it back and forth on its axels. (The attack from the side is not penalized by the wagon’s motion but is still subject to a -2 penalty for the Ogre’s motion.)

Speeding onward, the wagon token or miniature is positioned 8 squares ahead of the Ogre when the Elf completes the first action of her turn. Once again, before she can take the second move of her turn, Enhanced DnD4E empowers the Ogre to move right along with her.

With a sprint action, the Ogre is able to sprint 9 squares, losing just a single square in relation to the vehicle. However this loss will prove just enough to allow the wagon to sprint away as the Elf completes the final move of her turn.

The Recreation in Standard DnD4E

On the standard DnD4E table, the Ogre, having won the initiative roll, advances 6 squares then charges another 6 to hit the stationary wagon with a +1 to its attack roll. The Elf now takes her turn and moves the wagon away from the Ogre (vehicles in DnD4E never trigger opportunity attacks for exiting squares adjacent to attackers). The vehicle “runs” 24 squares---well beyond any hope the Ogre might have of catching it.

The “chase” is over.

Sheer excitement.


Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion is available in print and eBook formats from Enhanced4E.com and is now also available from DriveThruRPG.

The Enhanced DnD4E Difference: Entry 2

Chases and Races in Standard DnD4E vs. Enhanced DnD4E: Part II

Making the Attack

Now what happens when a running Ogre catches up to and attacks a fleeing Elf?

In the standard DnD4E game, assuming the Ogre was somehow able to intercept the Elf, the Ogre makes its attack with a +3 to its attack roll; the Ogre gains a +1 for charging the target and gains another +2 from the combat advantage granted it by the running Elf (in DnD4E, a running target grants combat advantage to all adjacent attackers).

The only effect of the Elf's motion is to advantage its attacker. But is this a proper reflection of the dynamic between the Ogre and the Elf?

The situation looks quite different over on the Enhanced DnD4E table.

Here, the sprinting Elf’s forward motion grants her cover from all melee, close and area attacks originating to the rear. This subtracts 5 points from all those bonuses the Ogre enjoys. The monster makes its attack with a penalty to the die roll, not a bonus: A penalty of -2.  In the Enhanced DnD4E game, the Elf is moving away from the point of attack. This makes her an inherently more difficult target to strike from behind. This motion away from the Ogre more than compensates for the energy the Ogre has put into its charging motion toward the fleeing target.

Escaping the Attacker

The differences between the standard DnD4E table and the Enhanced DnD4E table do not end there.

If the Elf is struck by the Ogre in the Enhanced DnD4E game, she has a number of defensive and counter-offensive actions at her disposal, which she can use to respond to the attack or mitigate the damage she receives. The fleeing Elf in the standard game can take none of these actions; she can do nothing to impact the game until her turn arrives.

When her turn does arrive, she will find that the Ogre’s presence behind her has brought her to a virtual stand-still. So far as the game world is concerned, she is no longer moving. Once two combatants arrive in squares adjacent to one another, the standard rules of DnD4E conspire to lock them together. The Elf must turn and engage the Ogre or she must trigger an opportunity attack from the Ogre if she attempts to speed away.

Her only other option is to shift a single square and then restart her run once again. However, this guarantees the Ogre will once again catch her on its subsequent turn.

She can’t escape.

How different is the situation on the Enhanced DnD4E table!

Here the Elf has never stopped moving. She remains in motion and, because she does, she may continue her movement away from the Ogre unimpeded by its presence behind her. She doesn't trigger an opportunity attack when she moves. Her sprint isn't even slowed.

Not only is the Elf free to keep moving without interference, the Enhanced DnD4E game is designed to penalize her if she does not keep moving. Because her momentum is carrying her away from the Ogre, any attack she makes against the monster before the end of its next turn is made at a -5 to the attack roll. Moreover, her pursuer also retains combat advantage against her until its turn ends.

Enhanced DnD4E models a chase sequence such as this as a fluid encounter. The combat itself is moving. There is no start and stop and start again for the combatants. They are carried along with the flow of the encounter. Forward motion is never penalized by the swinging of a sword (except where specified as the effect of a power). In Enhanced DnD4E, once you begin to run away, it’s difficult to stop – certainly when you've got a charging Ogre hot on your heels!

Movement and Motion

DnD4E has been characterized as a game that emphasizes tactical movement. But movement is not the same as motion. For example, chess is another game in which there is a lot of movement; a game where movement defines the essence of each piece. Yet in chess there is not a lot of motion. Neither is there much in standard DnD4E.

Motion, and its importance to combat, is barely modeled at all in standard DnD4E. Combatants only move as they move from one point of attack to another. Each clash occurs between fixed points. The confrontation is always motionless. While actions like “charge” (and some other powers held by certain creatures) combine movement and attack, the context of each attack is established by the fixed points of attacker and target.

Of course DnD4E is not alone in this oversight. To the author’s knowledge, moving clashes are not modeled in any miniature’s based table-top RPG or Wargame. But the universality of the oversight does not make it any less glaring. Motion is a very large part of melee combat and is a very large part of what makes cinematic melee action compelling.

Players of Enhanced DnD4E assume table-top roleplaying games should endeavor to model the dynamics and the drama of fantasy, medieval combat: Not just create a more complicated chess game. Enhanced DnD4E puts that neglected dynamic and missing drama back into the DnD4E game.

Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion is available in print and eBook formats from Enhanced4E.com and is now also available from DriveThruRPG.

The Enhanced DnD4E Difference: Entry 1

Chases and Races in standard DnD4E vs. Enhanced DnD4E: Part I

The Scenario

There is a scene in the film, Jurassic Park, where the jeep in which Jeff Goldblum rides as a passenger is nearly swallowed by a running T-Rex. The dinosaur snaps at the jeep, giving chase until the faster vehicle finally accelerates away.

That sequence is impossible to model with the combat rules of standard DnD4E.

To see why, let’s recreate the sequence on the battle-map using both the standard DnD4E and Enhanced DnD4E rules.

For the T-Rex we will substitute a more thematically appropriate Ogre. For the jeep, we might place a wagon but the Enhanced DnD4E rules for vehicles add another interesting dimension to the scenario best considered separately. For now, let’s keep the Ogre but have it chase an Elf.

Our Ogre has a top speed of 6. Our fleet-footed Elf has a speed of 7. Our scene begins with both creatures at a stand-still and separated by 4 squares.

Running the Chase

In both the standard DnD4E game and the Enhanced DnD4E game, the Ogre and Elf roll for initiative with the winner taking the first action in the first round. In both games there will be no chase if the Ogre wins, as it will immediately close the 4 square gap to engage the Elf.

Yet in the standard DnD4E game, there will be no chase regardless of who wins the initiative roll. For if the Elf wins the initiative roll, she will immediately escape; she will run 18 squares across the board, ending her turn 22 squares distant, and the Ogre, when its turn arrives, will see it has no hope of catching her.

But over in our Enhanced DnD4E game, things look very different.

Here, the Elf has won the initiative roll and, at the end of the first round (after 6 seconds of game time), she and the Ogre have raced across the battle-grid, averaging 18 squares between them, with the Ogre now 6 squares behind. The Elf is still getting away but the Ogre is in hot pursuit. Why has the Ogre even bothered to chase the Elf when, even in the Enhanced 4E game, the Elf clearly moves faster?

The reason is this; at the top of each round, Enhanced 4E grants the Ogre the chance to turn the tables. Each running creature may make an opposed Dexterity check (much like the initiative roll) with the winner going first.

As the second round begins, the Ogre challenges the Elf for the top spot in the turn order.

Because the 6 square gap between the two creatures exactly matches the Ogre’s movement rate, the Ogre will be able to strike the Elf with a charge action should it win the opposed Dexterity check. Should the Elf win the opposed check, the chase will continue – and it will continue until the distance between the two creatures is so wide that it exceeds the Ogre’s maximum sprinting speed of nine squares. Only then will the faster Elf have truly managed to escape.

Enhanced 4E is available in print and eBook formats from Enhanced4E.com.

Before I Buy it, I Have Some Questions About Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion

Part Two: Why Does D&D 4E Need Enhancing?

Isn't D&D 4E just fine as it is?

Sure! Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion contributes to the success of an already great game. The book adds features that simply aren't present in the standard game, but takes nothing away. You’re still playing D&D 4E even when you’re using the Enhanced 4E system.

Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion aims to improve D&D 4E by…

• Rationalizing grid-based geometry without tossing the grid away. 
• Providing players and monsters with more out-of-the box combat options, all of which are intuitive and simple to adjudicate.
• Making one on one duels not only possible but exciting, cinematic and tactically rich; the game becomes playable by even a single player (with a DM). 
• Speeding up play with more attacks per round.
• Making it possible to intuitively model races and chases on the battle-grid.
• Affording rich but simple-to-use models of flight and vehicular motion.
• Giving players the flexibility to take move and standard actions even when it isn’t their turn.
• Empowering players to actively respond when attacked without adding additional die-roles or bloating the round with more actions.
• Bringing drama and narrative back into combat and in a way never-before-seen in any RPG.

There are experiences you can have in combat, using Enhanced 4E, that you simply can't experience with the unmodified game; the very limited, standard rule structure is not able to cope with those experiences. Yet Combat in Motion does more than just broaden the model. It enhances combat encounters with real drama and a tangible narrative structure. These "narrative" features are today not yet present in any RPG. You can only see it happen in the world of Enhanced 4E.

Enhanced 4E is available in print and eBook formats from Enhanced4E.com.

Before I Buy it, I Have Some Questions About Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion

Part One: Complexity and Ease-of-Use

Is Enhanced 4E more complicated than standard D&D 4E?

The pursuit of simplicity is the primary reason Combat in Motion took four years to complete.

The basic outlines of the system had been developed within the first 12 months of the project. The remaining three years were devoted to beta-testing, and refining and honing the rules to their barest essentials. Some early ideas were dropped or compressed when they proved complicating. It was imperative to all involved that the finished system be clear, simple to learn, and easily committed to memory by players. We are convinced the finished product succeeds in being just that.

Enhanced 4E has greater depth than standard D&D 4E alone. Enhanced 4E has a richer tactical landscape, a broader range of combat actions, a far-less restricted turn-order, and a structure that encourages greater player-involvement. It’s more complex than standard D&D but not any more complicated.

Is Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion easy to learn?

Yes. It is!

Combat in Motion is designed to be incorporated into your D&D 4E game chapter by chapter. You can start using part of the system after reading the first chapter and add additional features, layer-by-layer, when you and your gaming group are ready to try them. You will notice that each new layer builds on the one before—working in concert to create the final, complete system.

Enhanced 4E is also modular. That means that you have the freedom to drop any aspect of the system you don’t like—or swap it for a variation of your own devising.

1 New D&D 4E Motion State

A Revolutionary Concept in Miniature/Token-Based Tabletop War-Gaming

Combat in Motion for D&D 4E is a book chock full of innovation. One feature stands out as perhaps the most revolutionary concept the book contains: The mechanisms for modeling the uninterrupted movement of creatures through multiple turns using only stationary miniatures.

In table-top, melee combat games, miniatures or tokens mark the locations of creatures in combat. Generally speaking, each creature moves in space only when its token is physically moved by a player. The constraints of turn order would appear to make it impossible to model seamless, uninterrupted motion. Instead, each creature may move from one spot to another on its turn---stop there while other creatures take their turns---and then move again if the player so chooses when its next turn arrives. Each move begins at a stop and ends at a stop.

Now it is true that players may still imagine a creature represented by a motionless token to be moving furiously toward some farther destination; rules are no limitation on the imaginations of players. However, absent rules to model its movement, this imagined motion has no impact on the creature. It may as well be standing still.

Now some tabletop games are explicitly dedicated to modeling constant motion. In a game like Wings of War, the miniatures always represent moving aircraft engaged in swirling three dimensional dogfights, even when these miniatures are apparently stationary.

However, Enhanced 4E is unique in that its stationary miniatures or tokens sometimes represent creatures that are motionless and sometimes represent creatures that are still moving. Creatures alternate between these motion states depending on circumstance. When a creature’s motion state changes from motionless to in-motion, the way in which the creature interacts with its surroundings also changes.

In Enhanced 4E, a miniature “in-motion” marks the approximate location of the corresponding creature, as that creature moves rapidly toward an intended destination. Enemy’s giving chase find that target more difficult to hit with close and melee attacks and the creature also may escape the explosive effects of area attacks positioned to its rear. Most attacks made by the creature itself are far less accurate.

Most interesting, the creature is subject to momentum that carries over from one action into another and from one turn into the next. A creature completing an action in motion begins its next action in the same state, subject to the same penalties and the same benefits (including increased potential speed). The effect, however, is to blur the lines between turns. Chases and races can be much more easily and intuitively simulated with pursuers following hot on the heels of fleeing adventurers, or adversaries racing furiously to grab the golden idol.

To purchase your copy of Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion, visit Enhanced4E.com. Available in both print and eBook editions!