what is a challenging combat

I wrote another GM Corner titled “Challenging Encounters” back in 2023. The blog talked about balancing an encounter so as not to be run over by your players, or accidentally cause a TPK (total party kill). However, it didn’t really go into what it actually means to be challenging.

I know several GMs out there think a challenging combat is one that has high risk with strong tension, the characters could actually die. That can be a thrilling combat, but it is not necessarily challenging. If you encounter this at every session, it becomes exhausting to your players. Taking that on week after week (session after session), and expecting them to be okay with it, is asking a lot of your group.

The challenge in my combat does not put them in a life or death situation. It could happen that way, but that is not my goal. I do not set out to knock them down to one hit point and watch them crawl away from the battlefield licking their wounds. I want to challenge them intellectually, as characters and as players.

When I set up a combat, I start by asking myself “What do I want to accomplish?” Do I want them to work together? What would they do if they couldn’t work together? Will they back down and run away? How would they handle one of their own suddenly getting pulled into another dimension? Setting up a combat to find out these answers is my challenge. Learning the answers is a challenge to my players.

The players need time to think about what is happening in the battle in order for their character to react. As GMs, we have to remember that the players are NOT the characters, they are simply portraying them. The player does not have the character’s instant reflexes or combat training (usually). The monsters they face cannot hit them so hard that they don’t have time to think up a good solution (unless I want them to run away). I want to inspire my players to think outside the box, not feel trapped to always use their most powerful attack because if they don’t, they could die.