Puzzle Combat

Instead of fighting it out, plates have to plan and find ways around obstacles in order to “defeat” the enemy. Good for large boss battles where you don’t want to do a drawn out blow-by-blow fight.

The enemy will have several “traits” that make them dangerous and have to be overcome or negated by the players.

Such as a giant dragon

• It can fly
• It can breath fire
• It has tough armour-like scales
• Territorial

But it can also have some weaknesses

• It loves treasure
• Thinks of itself as the apex-predator
• Vulnerable to cold damage

Some enemy traits might have multiple ranks to it because of how dangerous it is.

Such as an army of 200 goblins that are coming to destroy a town. They might have the trait: “strength in numbers” with 4 ranks on it. So the players will have to find multiple ways to negate or overcome that trait.

Such as

• Getting the townsfolk and nearby farmers to form a militia
• Building barricades on the roads into town
• Having a wizard in the watchtower shooting fireballs down at the goblins
• The rest of the players are going to hide until the army passes them and then attack from behind as the goblins siege the town.

Discovering the traits is done by the players either investigating the enemy itself. Such as scouting out the dragon’s lair. Or by talking to NPCs and hearing stories from others who have encountered the enemy. Though the GM can include a fake or inaccurate trait. Such as hearing that the army of goblins is only 100 strong when it is actually larger. But if the players do enough research they should find the truth.