Using Ally Actions for Big D&D Battles

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Stop slowing down climactic mass combat

Sometimes the fiction of our game demands that we run combat with lots of allied NPCs. The battle might be the conclusion of our campaign. Characters might be facing the enemy that they had been chasing for multiple levels. In the story, it makes sense that the characters gather the friends they’ve made in previous adventures to aid them in the final battle. But how do we run mass combat without grinding the game to a halt with all of the NPCs as part of the initiative? While there are many ideas about this topic out there, a fresh solution to combat with lots of allied NPCs is a new type of action: Ally Actions.

Ally Actions are an additional action that player characters can take when they are aided in combat by many friendly NPCs. Each player can choose from three Ally Action options every round. We narrate the effect of these actions as helpful maneuvers of the NPCs. This allows us to keep the focus on the characters. We create the feeling of big battles of epic scale without slowing down the flow of the game.

Reward players for gathering their allies

When the characters know an important battle is coming up, it is a smart move for them to gather their allies. And it fits the fiction. Harry, Ron, and Hermione don’t fight the battle of Hogwarts by themselves. They bring all of their allies into the school to face their arch nemesis. Aragorn doesn’t ride to the Black Gate alone. He gathers the armies of Gondor for the last stand against Sauron. In our game, we want to create room for these kinds of stories. Ally Actions allow us to do so without running into the pacing problem of a crowded initiative order.

In addition, the players might have spend hours of game time moving around the campaign world to recruit allies for the upcoming battle. We don’t want to invalidate their effort by hand-waving the impact of the allied NPCs. It’s true that not everything in D&D needs a mechanic. Therefore, it is tempting to simply describe the NPCs’ heroic stance during the battle without any mechanical expression.

To stop combat from slowing down, we might come up with narrative reasons why the gathered allies aren’t part of the big battle. They might be distracted by minions of the boss monster. The boss might imprison the characters’ allies before they can interfere. While these solutions help us keep the pacing of the battle going, they might also leave a bitter aftertaste for our players. They had invested in-game resources as well as gaming time to gather these allies. And now it feels like we the DM invalidate all of that hard work.

Ally Actions satisfy both needs: they make the investment of the players and their characters worthwhile, and they don’t interfere with the pace of a climactic combat.

How do Ally Actions work?

Here’s how Ally Actions work:

Each player character can take a special action called an Ally Action once on each of their turns. They can choose from the following three options on each of their turns: ….

Only player characters get to take Ally Actions. Generally, there are offensive and defensive Ally Actions (see examples below). We take all of the NPCs out of the initiative order, and instead express their contribution to the battle in the form of Ally Actions.

When a character takes an Ally Action, we narrate the effect of that action as the NPCs aiding the characters. An Ally Action might grant protection to a character. We can describe how an NPC shields the character with their own body from incoming attacks. Another Ally Action might grant an offensive buff to a character’s attack. In this case, we narrate how a particular NPC distracts the monster to give the character a better chance to hit.

Ally Actions impact combat mechanics and difficulty

There are two main mechanical considerations when we use Ally Actions to represent allied NPCs. What happens to the NPCs on the battlefield? And how does the encounter difficulty change?

If we’re not running combat in pure theater of the mind, we need a way to track NPC positioning during the fight. Instead of running NPCs as individual combatants, we can move them around the battlefield in response to the characters taking an Ally Action. A character uses a defensive Ally Action? Move an NPC in front of them. A character takes an offensive Ally Action? Put an NPC closer to the monster as the NPC distracts it. This method keeps the battle dynamic, it keeps the characters in the spotlight, and it makes the NPCs’ impact noticeable to everyone at the table.

We can track the hit points of individual NPCs but we can also forego that verisimilitude in favor of a faster paced combat. Enemy monsters can still attack NPCs on the battle field but it should be clear to everyone that the player characters are the targets to focus on. Generally, NPCs interfere with the damage that the enemies deal only in the form of Ally Actions.

Combat encounters become easier when the characters gain a flexible buff or bonus each turn. As a rule of thumb, when calculating the difficulty of a combat with Ally Actions, consider the characters to be one or two levels higher than they actually are. This isn’t a perfect measure of the impact of Ally Actions but it’s close enough. Depending on party composition and player competence, the degree to which Ally Actions improve the resilience of characters will vary. Trust your instincts when using Ally Actions, and use Mike Shea’s dials of monster difficulty to adjust on the fly.

Example Ally Actions by tier of play

We give characters three Ally Actions to choose from. When designing Ally Actions, keep in mind that the characters should remain in the spotlight. An Ally Action shouldn’t be more powerful than anything the characters can do. But it should be impactful enough to make the contribution of the allied NPCs noticeable.

Here are a few examples of Ally Actions to use for your epic scale combats, split up by tier of play. Use these as written, modify them, or take them as inspiration to come up with your own Ally Actions. Any Ally Action can be useful in any tier of play. Simply adjust the numbers up or down accordingly. First and foremost, Ally Actions should be cinematic, and represent the kinds of allies the characters are bringing to the fight.

Tier 1 (levels 1-4) Ally Actions

Heal. The allies tend to the character’s injuries. The character regains 5 (1d4+3) hit points.
Embolden. The allies rush into battle alongside the character. The character gains a d6 Emboldening Die which they can add to an attack, an ability check, or a damage roll they make before the end of their current turn.
Protect. The allies put themselves in front of the characters to hinder incoming attacks. The character gains a +1 to their AC and saving throws until the start of their next turn.

Tier 2 (levels 5-10) Ally Actions

Shield. The allies deflect some of the damage dealt by the enemy. The character gains 5 temporary hit points.
Empower. The allies bolster the next attack of the character. The character gains advantage on the first weapon attack they make before the end of their current turn.
Maneuver. The allies help the character move about the battlefield. The character’s movement does not provoke opportunity attacks until the end of their current turn.

Tier 3 (levels 11-16) Ally Actions

Deceive. The allies distract the enemy to protect the character. Enemy creatures have disadvantage on attacks against the character until the character takes damage or until the start of their next turn.
Distract. The allies pile onto the enemy, weakening their defenses momentarily. A creature of the character’s choice has disadvantage on the next saving throw they make before the end of the character’s current turn.
Fly. The allies grant the character supernatural movement. The character gains a flying speed equal to their walking speed and does not provoke opportunity attacks. Both benefits last until the end of the character’s current turn.

Tier 4 (levels 17-20) Ally Actions

Assault. The allies charge the enemy. The player rolls an attack (+9 to hit) against a creature of their choice. On a hit the target takes 22 (4d10) nonmagical damage of a damage type appropriate to the allied NPCs.
Channel. The allies grant arcane regeneration to the character. The character regains a spell slot of 3rd level or lower.
Infuse. The allies synchronize their attacks with the character. The character’s weapon attacks deal an extra 5 (1d10) damage until the end of their current turn.

Ally Actions: another method of running epic combat with many allies

There are already many great ideas on how to run mass combat out there. For the greatest verisimilitude, we can run the NPCs as individual combatants. The easiest solution is to simply narrate the allied NPCs’ contribution to the fight without any attached mechanics. Ally Actions present a middle way. They honor the characters’ (and the players’) effort in gathering their allies by giving them access to mechanical effects that are cinematic, fun, and impactful. At the same time, they keep the initiative order lean and they don’t slow down the flow of combat.

Links & Resources

Mike Shea: “Running Wars, Big Battles, and Massive Combat in D&D” – https://slyflourish.com/running_wars.html
Matt Colville has produced a 5e supplement that is focused on creating powerful organizations with lots of followers for the PCs. MCDM: Strongholds & Followers – https://shop.mcdmproductions.com/collections/strongholds-followers-books
Mike Shea: “The Dials of Monster Difficulty” – https://slyflourish.com/dials_of_monster_difficulty.html

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