Table-top RPGs are not wargames. Wargames don’t work on a human scale. Humans–not to mention monsters–can move suddenly, change direction on a dime, leap out of the way, and so on–things that tanks and ships and troop units can’t do.

Worse, counting squares ruins the feel of the game. You’re supposed to be intrepid adventurers delving into ancient ruins, not the flatiron navigating a Monopoly board.

I see people fret over the cost of diagonal movement in D&D and Pathfinder combat, and I shake my head. 30 feet of movement in 6 seconds is only 3.4 mph, a normal walk. You can just move faster. One of the saddest phrases in modern gaming is “I use my ‘dash’…”

All of gridded combat is nonsense for this same reason. Just use minis on a grid for relative positioning or play theater-of-the-mind entirely.

For areas of effect, the GM can just say “Everybody nearby who saves leaped out of the way; everybody who didn’t was in the area of effect when it was cast.” This means:

• You don’t waste time trying to draw the perfect 20-foot diameter circle to catch the most opponents.
• Everybody actually moves when the room is suddenly filled with arcane fire.

(Likewise, reset initiative after an area-effect spell.)