D&D: Five Ways To End An Encounter Without One Side Completely Wiped Out
Encounters turning into slog fests? Here are some ways to end a fight without one side having to reduce the other to 0 hp.
If you have played D&D long, you know well how a fight can go from a dynamic, exciting thing to a slogfest as the fight dwindles down to a few stubborn enemies who refuse to lose their last hit points. But, not every fight has to be to the death!
In fact, there are lots of ways to end and encounter without anyone hitting 0 hp. These techniques work well on either side – PCs and NPCs might both make use of these. Only you might have to demonstrate through your NPCs first, because again, we tend to be used to fights going into one side is destroyed.
Surrender
The first way is the most obvious. Surrender. It’s a good way to end a fight without having to “hand-wave” those last three goblins with 6 hit points between them. After seeing their comrades go down, they could drop their weapons and surrender, rather than be slain themselves.
But you don’t even have to wait until then. Most creatures in D&D would probably have some kind of self-preservation instinct. You could decide that an opponent might surrender if reduced to 40% hit points or 20% or whatever feels right. Or really, any time the odds don’t seem to be in their favor. Then there’s a chance for roleplay as the fight comes to an end with one side the victor.
Escape/Chase
A close second to surrender is fleeing. Now, this one’s a little trickier if one side or the other has ranged weapons or spells or whatever, because people will often just say, “well how far do they run, I can keep pelting them as they flee?”
But, D&D has chase rules for this reason. Suddenly, the encounter ends – and the scene shifts from a fight to ba chase. Over rooftops, through marketplaces. Or maybe the party just lets the NPCs run away because they know that it’s not worth it to run down a couple of fleeing bandits who have thrown down their crossbows and are running, unarmed into the woods. The key thing here is, if you want people to know that, “you can run away” then the people doing the running away have to not always come back to hose the party later. Otherwise, you’ll end up with murderhobos who leave no witnesses.
Mission Accomplished
My favorite technique is to have an encounter whose outcome doesn’t depend on one side or the other being wiped out. Sometimes it’s just enough for one side to have a goal. The cultists have a ritual and if they can do it for four rounds, they summon a creature (and have no reason to stick around).
Or all the player characters have to do is rescue the ogre from the princess by getting to the carriage. Maybe it’s just that the goblins are attacking to keep the town occupied fighting them for five rounds while their loot team makes off with the merchant caravan’s treasure. Setting a time limit, or having a specific concrete trigger for “and then you accomplish your objective and win the encounter” is a great way to keep up the pacing and the challenge.
Another, More Immediate Threat
Sometimes, though, the fight is over because circumstances change. The caldera of the volcano you’ve been fighting in shifts because the volcano is soon to erupt. Or a necromantic mist starts to fill the tomb, pulling numberless dead from its walls as an undead horde starts attacking everyone in the tomb – villain and PC alike. The dragon whose hoard you’ve been fighting the villain’s henchmen in returns, and is not amused to find two different groups of intruders. Etc. etc.
I like this because then both PCs and NPCs have the same goal – either deal with the new threat or try and escape it. Usually the latter if the fight has been going on for a while and hit points are low. This is a great way to introduce a bigger, badder villain, or can be a way to remind everyone that the world is igger and more dangerous than just the stuff you see “on screen” at any given time.
Truce
Or both sides can try to find a compromise. An offer of parlay can open up a temporary truce – maybe there’s a way for everyone to go home happy. I love to pull this out if the opponents in an encounter are potentially aligned with the PCs – or just know them enough to know better. A great way to show an “honorable” opponent, if you’re looking for one.
Happy Adventuring!
