Recently I was GMing a D&D 5e party with my friends online, and for the most part we were having a good time, but in a recent session we hit a rather large speed bump. I had an easy encounter setup for them so that they could roll through the story arc fairly quickly. To my surprise the group spent almost an hour of play time to try and think of ways to trick this enemy group with illusions. One person in particular seemed to think that they had to think their way out of the box instead of handling the encounter in front of them. Let's call him Tom (not his real name). Tom is a fighter and likes to be a strategist of a sort. He wants to out-maneuver the enemies 9 times out of 10 instead of actually fighting things.
It's a valid play style. But this encounter was set up with an easy difficulty because we've had a lot of deadly difficulty encounters before that and have since wanted quicker combat. The enemies in question were some fishmen and their high priest who had captured the captain of the ship they purchased passage on in order to reach a new town. I had thought the fear of the captain being harmed would propel them to take quick action which is why the combat was set to an easier difficulty. I wanted them to feel like combat would be quick since they had just gained levels and were using some new spells.
Tom wanted the bard to cast a spell Tom knew about because it had been used before (Phantasmal Force) in order to trick their high priest into making a pseudo-god. The bard (Let's call him Frank) refused because Frank was skeptical of the plan. So then a very long winded discussion between the Fighter(Tom), the Monk, and the Bard took place. Eventually Tom and the Monk started their own conversation about the plan leaving the rest of the party just standing around.
(They could have this lengthy conversation because combat hadn't started yet and the enemy wasn't aware of them: the party at the time were being stealthed by the Shadow Monk's ability. They had used Shadow Arts to cast Pass Without a Trace.)
Eventually Frank decided to take matters into his own hands and casted Hypnotic Pattern on the enemy group. This caused infighting among the players because the Fighter and the Monk wanted to come up with a super-clever plan that was way over the top and unnecessary to the encounter. The Bard was tired of being ignored by the two players who were the only ones having fun devising a stratagem. The Cleric and Druid were basically checking their phones in the meantime while they had nothing to do during this whole hour.
So to my question:
What could I have done differently to make this encounter more enjoyable for everyone instead of an hour of discussion / infighting?
Best Answer
First off, these things sometimes happen. If this is a one-off occurrence, I wouldn't be too concerned: people sometimes get it into their heads that they need to do something "weird" for no good reason. I was playing in an In Nomine game as an angel who could possess people/animals; I somehow decided that I needed a monkey, and we spent about as long planning a zoo heist (that never happened).
So, one-off: don't worry too much.
If this is a more common event, or if it looks like it might be (Tom sounds like he might encourage this kind of "weird strategy" thinking), there are a couple of things that have been helpful in my games:
talk to the "problem" player(s): remind them nicely (and privately) that there are other players who need to be included in the action and the planning. yes, this is the default answer to anything with the problem-players or problem-gm tags; it's the default answer for a reason.
remind the players that time is passing in-game. In this particular example, while Tom and Frank were discussing what to do with the interlopers, the captain could be struggling against his bonds, the captors could be rummaging around the cargo hold, a sailor could be whimpering behind a crate. As the planning session goes on, the captors might get more violent, roughing up a sailor who gets in their way. D&D does encourage some "free action" tactics talk among the players, but time does flow.
if they still don't get the hint, a brigand could actually accost the PCs: demanding money, ordering them around, etc.. Roll for initiative! And, remember that the brigands are totally getting a surprise round (are those still a thing in 5E? Sorry, my experience is almost all 3.5/PF). I'd encourage relaxing some of the rules about how long talking-type resolutions take (or, at least, suspend initiative if someone rolls well enough to warrant a brief cease-fire), but there comes a point where conflict is inevitable (this is a good thing: the whole point of RPGs is resolving conflict) and the PCs can't just talk amongst themselves any longer.
alternatively, poll the players to see if they want to continue with strategy or move into action. Tom and Frank can talk about tactics all they want, but if the cleric steps in to stop the pirates from harming their ship's captain, Tom and Frank will have to respond. This can backfire! Tom and Frank can be angered by the cleric acting "before they're ready"; therefore, I encourage mixing this in with #2: "Tom and Frank are whispering about what to do; Cleric: you see the brigands roughing up the sailor; Druid: they're dumping something unpleasant from the hold into the bay. What do you do?"
I'd personally be hesitant to actually use one, but I've seen suggestions to use a small hourglass (a 30-60 second timer) to let the players discuss how to respond to a new situation before in-game time resumes. The in-universe logic being that the PCs have been traveling together for long enough that they can quickly communicate how to respond to violence with a subtle gesture, where the players need to actually talk.
You'll have to be a little careful to not step on Tom's fun in planning intricate strategy, but that's relatively easy: make sure that there are plenty of encounters where the PCs know what's coming far enough ahead that they can talk for a few minutes in-game before the enemies know they're there.