Roleplaying is at the heart of Dungeons and Dragons. The immersion and creativity needed to play is what make tabletop games like D&D so unique. There are opportunities for roleplaying throughout the game that deepens our bonds with our character, fellow adventurers, and the narrative itself. However, there is one aspect of Dungeons and Dragons that is often overlooked for its roleplay potential. In my experience, combat is the largest area where roleplay and narrative engagement fall off. Whether combat encounters are frequent at your table or not, combat’s narrative opportunities are inescapable. Even in pure dungeon delve campaigns we can’t help but create stories. There is almost no table that is made worse from genuine roleplay. Let’s take a look at some ways we can use combat as more than just a challenge of skills and dice rolls and also an avenue for character interaction and growth.
When trying to use combat as a means for roleplay, we first need to look at when and how roleplay can take a backseat during combat encounters.
The Combat Mindset
A lot of times I see a shift in mindset when combat starts. Players and the dungeon master can forget to roleplay as the game switches to a more “game-like” context. When we enter combat, there are now measurable ways to tell what winning combat looks like, and without realizing it, roleplay can fall to the wayside.
It is easy no longer to make decisions for the same reasons as before. Instead of making conclusions from our character’s perspective or personality, we might be thinking about how we can maximize damage or gain an advantage for rolling. In some respects, this makes sense; combat is a challenge and players will find an efficient solution to overcome it.
It can make sense from the character’s perspective too; this is a life or death (probably) situation so using all the tools available is the best way to survive. This is a good thing, while in combat, the possibility of loss creates tension. That tension is what makes victory feel like such an accomplishment and contextualizes the encounter as significant.
As players, that tension exists because we have a numerical system – the dice – in place to describe how events in combat play out. The dice account for our character’s ability to strike true as well as make mistakes – with some added randomness.
There isn’t anything inherently wrong with that numerical system – Dungeons and Dragons is a game that simulates things – combat, stealth, animal handling – but it can’t simulate everything, so the dice and stats help us define the boundaries of the simulation.
All of those stats and numbers can make it easier to view combat from the player’s perspective instead of the character’s. That’s not that interesting. Rolling to hit then rolling damage offers no real way for the character to engage with the action of rolling dice. All the good, bad, fearful, and cheerful emotions that we can create and use for roleplay aren’t represented.
This might sound like splitting hairs, but from the player’s point of view, looking at just the numbers, the player primarily wants to “win” but from the character’s perspective, there is any number of emotions and motives available to you – and if we are trying to roleplay, best we do that from the character’s perspective, not the player’s.
What is Winning?
I’ve used the word “win” a lot already, so I think we need to define it – or at least give some context to the term when used to describe combat.
The main question: is combat about winning? Maybe. What constitutes winning? Is it even a term we should use when thinking about roleplaying in combat?
First, the obvious. The term “win” can put us in that game-like mindset and that mindset can keep us from looking at the whole picture when trying to use combat as a medium for roleplay. Thinking with a game-like frame of reference doesn’t help much – or at least isn’t as useful as other ways to think about it.
Granted, we are playing a game and some days we need to play a game more than we need to roleplay, and that’s fine – for now let’s assume that we want to roleplay and we are having trouble getting into the right headspace for it.
So let’s try to put “winning” out of our minds and simply say combat is a challenge that a character must overcome on their journey. In this way, the goal of combat is something the character is aware of and has an investment in – it’s their challenge to overcome, not the players.
A lot of options on how we interact with combat open up to us once we view combat from outside the game-like lens.
For now, let’s continue by really diving into viewing combat from the point of view of the character.
Understand your Character’s Motivation
No doubt you have some idea of their motivations already, but let’s apply them within the context of combat. By doing this, we can better understand how a character might react when combat does arise.
If you don’t know the answers to these already, start with some questions about why your character would engage in combat. Do they fight for themselves? For honor or coin, for both, for neither?
Combat is a challenge – and often a deadly one – it has an inherent risk. So why would your character keep fighting? And to what ends? What would it take for them to lay down their sword or hold off a magic spell? Why put themselves in harm’s way and what is it they are willing to risk?
All well-written literary characters have these questions asked about them and their motivations. It is what characters do in times of stress that defines them – so they must be consistent in what they say and do and how they change.
For example, if my character is unphased by seeing their friends wounded or killed in front of them then I think that character seems kind of boring. No offense to Serius the Swordsman, but we play to establish those connections between characters. Those connections make a character respond to situations with emotion, which in turn gives weight to the narrative. To have a character so devoid of connection and emotional response isn’t a character.
Okay, I’ve been too harsh on our fighter here, they are an adventurer and danger comes with the territory, but even the most stalwart adventures will let their emotions get the better of them from time to time. Because of this, we should make sure we are accounting for our character’s motivations, ideals, and emotional responses.
Depending on your character, seeing an ally fall in battle might renew their resolve to fight on, or they might make for a retreat while attempting to preserve that which has yet to be lost. In either case, the context of combat should always be compared to your character’s judgment and motives.
Unfortunately, it can be hard to harness or play on emotions that you pull out of thin air and there isn’t any magical right answer – every character is different and how each of them tackles challenges and displays emotion will vary.
Understanding your characters’ motives makes this process quicker and more consistent allowing us to follow the path and apply it to the roleplaying or situation at hand.
Fight from your Character’s Perspective
Players and characters physically see combat differently – players see the battle from above, while characters see it from eye level (more or less). The ability to look over the battle from the top down lets the players see the bigger picture in action and plan around it.
Characters, on the other hand, may not be aware of the larger picture – and I’d wager they’re more focused on the hostile creature in front of them versus assessing the battlefield as a whole. Maybe it isn’t clear that new monsters have arrived from around the corner or that someone has been wounded.
There is also a skewing of time. For players, time is a luxury – we can spend a few minutes (or 10…) each combat round trying to find out what our characters should do when it is their turn in the initiative order. However, for the character, it’s been only a matter of seconds.
We can use this difference of information the character is aware of for roleplaying. Once we’ve looked at the top-down battlefield we should return to thinking from the character’s point of view and their understanding of all the quick events that are occurring around them.
If my paladin is engaged in combat with a handful of undead, she might not be aware that freshly risen ghouls are threatening her sibling – another party member could make her aware with a shout. Once she knows the danger to her kin, she could disengage from the monsters in front of her and run to her sibling’s aid.
This might not be the best tactical move – the undead that was probably preoccupied before are now free to target another party member, but we can’t say we didn’t roleplay from her perspective as well as taking her motives into account.
The same idea can be applied quickly to many situations. Consider what your character would do should they come face to face with an ancient horror, someone from their past, or just something they didn’t expect – when we mix that visual perspective with our character’s motivations and emotions roleplaying in combat is a lot easier.
The Options in Combat are Limitless
Motivations, perspectives, emotions – all of these things are used to inform the best tool we have to roleplay during combat. Limitless options.
Okay, options sound vague, I agree – but let’s look at it this way.
When you enter a tavern or court of nobles looking for information, there are so many paths available to you – and we know it. Diplomacy, bribery, intimidation, distraction… the list goes on. All of those options are valid and depending on your character, they’ll want to take the route suited for them.
Why should combat be any different? There are just as many paths to resolving combat as looking for that information from NPCs. The only difference is the game dangles XP and the idea of loot in front of our characters like a carrot on a stick – enticing us to bloodshed (*ominous music plays*).
The rules are written to value two basic things on your turn; move and attack. In some way, these two categories include everything you need to do. You can either attack, move into the fight, or move out of the fight. However, we should have more – and do have more actions – available to us.
Every so often I find myself out from behind the DM screen and I’m reminded of all the odd characters I’ve made over the years. One of my more recent characters was a pacifist monk. The character concept isn’t odd, but rather what I tried to do in combat was odd.
My monk would try everything in their power to never kill anything. Come to my turn in combat, I would grapple, attempt to knock-prone, or try to reason with the enemy. Rarely would he attack or if he did, he would pull his punches. For some enemies, it didn’t work, but that was the point of my monk.
Only as a last resort would he use force and attack to kill. This was my character’s view on death and violence, and I roleplayed that as often as I could. It led to some interesting conversations that helped define the relationship between the characters in the party.
Now you don’t need a character anywhere near as extreme as my monk – especially because that monk required a very specific table to play off of with set expectations. He does illustrate a good point though; it can be easy to forget that our characters are still capable of compassion and mercy in combat.
The same can be said for enemies in combat. For example, those bandits may just need to feed their family, and sending them to a fiery grave with a fireball isn’t the best option – certainly not the humane one.
Your character could attempt to apprehend them and take them to the local guard, or you could simply give them some food or coin. There are several ways to resolve combat without bloodshed. In this way, it is very clear how combat can be a vehicle for roleplay same as any other aspect of the game.
Granted, I know some combat is unavoidable, and justifiably so. Some enemies can’t be reasoned with and it should be clear when it’ll work or not. I’m not advocating for staying the blade or magic spell if that is how your character would react – but remember there are many ways to define characters in combat beyond what they will kill for.
If it matters in what situations you pick up the blade, it matters just as much in what situations you put it down.
Conclusion
Roleplaying in combat can be hard. It’s not immediately supported by the format of the game or the way combat plays out. It can be easy to get lost in lists of spells, feats, saves, and rolls but if we remember to view things as our characters, then combat becomes one of the most powerful avenues for roleplay.
The shift in mindset between the world and game can be jarring and often detaches us from our characters and their actions which then follow a more rigid game-driven motivation. If we can avoid thinking about combat as just an encounter to win, we can resume making decisions in the context of the world and all the mess of emotions and connections that come with that.
Combat is a situation where characters can be pushed to their limits in their attempts to survive and protect those around them. Our characters have a unique perspective on combat as it challenges them to decide what is most important to them and why. Our character’s actions must uphold their point of view and in doing so, their actions become emotionally significant.
These emotionally significant actions allow us to delve deeper into our characters and express the fear, honor, pain, and joy – to name a few – emotions they feel. These emotions will spark conversation between characters that have an opportunity to bond characters better than in almost any other situation the game can offer.
I can think of no better opportunity than combat to show your character’s true colors. Defining them based on what they’ve lost or gained through the challenge of combat.
When we signal to other players and the DM the willingness to use combat as more than a source of XP or loot the adventure opens up more. Combat encounters fall flat less often because it is no longer defined by winning or losing, but rather by how the party wishes to overcome the challenge – or the value of the narrative produced by the encounter.
Roleplay isn’t always easy – but if the goal is to enter a fantasy world and be the hero we wish we could be, we should look at all challenges – especially combat – as opportunities to prove the courage and fortitude of our character.
