Hey Mike! Thanks for doing this! Q: As a DM/Game Designer how do you avoid situations where the player’s best option each round of combat is to just do the same thing over and over again? Especially at early levels before characters have built a larger bag of tricks there’s always this awkward stage where the optimal move for the fighter types is just attack and the casters to just slings their one spell over and over again.
mikemearls28 points19 days ago
This is one area where the bonus action can help. I like putting stuff into the combat area that encourages not-attacking or using a bonus action to do stuff in addition to attack.
For instance, last session I ran the players were fighting an albino, underdark squid. A number of demonic plinths were scattered around the squid’s pool. In addition to just attacking, the PCs could mess with the plinths and solve the puzzle of how to use them. Comment
from discussion AMA: Mike Mearls, D&D Creative Director.