Hello there.
The one weak point I have in being a DM is combat. If it’s anything non-magical, I’m alright at it. But the moment magic is thrown in, with non magic combat, and you have a party of 6 players with multiple enemies, and players with character abilities that are all over the place, it gets overwhelming to the point where I’m intimidated.
I’ve read guides, watched videos, read the official 5e DM book, and it’s still not clicking for me.
Please give me your tips on how to tackle this!
I write down the top two rounds of strategy on the stat block sheets. If TMK says a caster novas and then tries to bail, that’s what I write.
Sounds a bit like Matt Colville’s concept of “action-oriented monsters” which are all about scripting an encounter in terms of what happens each round in order for the combat to have a sort of narrative arc
It’s more that I forget what critters are supposed to do. I try to have a mix of baddies in my encounters, so I forget synergies and tactics.
I’ve used action-oriented monsters for bosses or BBEG fights. It’s a great approach that mitigates 5e’s repetitive combat.