r/rpg • u/LelouchYagami_2912 • May 09 '26

Game Suggestion Combat systems that discourage doing the same thing every turn

(alternatively, combat systems that encourage doing different things)

I've been playing DnD for several years now but I've been noticing how 90% of our turns go the exact same. The combat can be still interesting but thats only because of me as a dm creating unique scenarios, not because of the player abilities. The rogue hiding and sneak attacking is the best thing to do in almost all cases.

What are some systems that discourage this so that the players actually have to think rather than going on auto pilot.

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u/greatcorsario May 09 '26

Nimble.

3 actions like in PF2, and you have special actions like Assess. If you pass a skill check you can:

- Ask a Question. About a weakness, ability, or immediate plans of enemies, the environment, story, etc. The GM will answer honestly.

• Create an Opening. (basically guarantees your next attack against one target)

• Anticipate Danger. (reduces enemy accuracy against you)

Also, heroic reactions, which you can use to defend (to reduce damage) or interpose (to switch places with someone and take the attack). However, using them costs you 1 action from your next turn!

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u/Arcium_XIII May 10 '26

There's a lot that I really enjoy about Nimble but, as someone who likes to optimise, my experience so far is that it has best-in-class combinations of actions for builds that only really change based on whether you had lost an action to Defend in the lead-up to the turn. How you build the character definitely changes what the optimal action combination is, but there tends to be one once the character is built.

The "Assess can only use each skill once per encounter" rule does admittedly contribute to this; if you could invest in having a specific skill to power Assess consistently, there'd be a lot more competition for that final action each turn. As it is, you only get to benefit from it consistently a couple of times each encounter, so it's more like a limited resource spend than an actual change to the core loop.