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What elements of fantasy combat are most important for your fun?

I don't write a lot of combat. Some of my hesitation is that I am less familiar with fighting in real life. (Then again, I guess I don't use any magic in real life either, lol)
But, I don't want to come off like a god-mode fighter, you know?

My character is not a trained athlete or combatant.
Not much of a small-time brawler or donnybrook participant...
She does have a magical weapon.
She is short and quick.
She is Feisty and would consider trying to make use of her environment.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received when it comes to writing combat, and something I have noticed all the best action writers generally do: Keep it short and snappy. Use sentence fragments. Inter space actions with brief descriptive moments of sensation and description, such as the pumping of blood through the ears, or the shock of pain from a heavy blow.

Most of us, thankfully, have not been in real combat in our lives, so it can for sure be a hard thing to write about. As so often we are told to 'write what we know'. Also, I found it helps to watch either real life, movie, or video game footage of the type of combat I'm trying to write. Watching martial artist demonstrations, or medieval combat LARPing, or watching gameplay clips, can give me a better idea of the sort of movement and actions my character might take in combat.

Also! Communication with your partner is key, particularly if you are fighting against another character. Its also good to give the other character a chance to retaliate, block, parry, etc etc, sometimes. Don't be scared to let your character sometimes get a little scraped up or make mistakes during a fight to keep it feeling more fair, more high stakes. Figure out what kind of battle you want to play out with your partner before hand, what kind of wounds might be sustained, the outcome etc etc, before jumping in, if youre not sure.

If I'm writing combat scenes in which my character is engaged with another PC and we're in a group RP, I prefer to do it over DMs, and then post the whole thing to the thread. This allows for some really fast-paced back and forth without "cluttering". Like this:

Whoever makes the public post is the non-stylized poster; the stylized bit belongs to their partner. I've also done scenes like this with three people!

I also find it useful to discuss the rough beats of the fight ahead of time. Like, who wins (dice rolling is a good way to find a resolution here!); what sacrifices/injuries come into play; and how does the fight end.

The only elements that are really important to me are consent and pacing - any fight can be interesting, so long as we agree on the parameters for it!