Basic battle tactics

[the Jester]

Sneaky characters' best friend is teamwork. They work best with an ally to take the heat off and help flank the enemy with. That way there's less of a chance to get hit yourself. They also benefit from mobility enhancements- a rogue who can move at a speed of 50' has a terrific advantage, and a rogue with spring attack and a tank friend can usually sneak attack once every round and avoid being attacked by the enemy he's attacking.

Spellcasters need to avoid being the ones hit first, to stack up their spells as quickly as possible, and to stay away from melee.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

More Tactics

Note and Use Terrain:
It helps alot to plan your battles out in advance. To that end, take a look at where your players are going to be having this fight. The most helpful thing to do is to take a look at the situational modifiers for combat. Things like cover, bonus to hit from high ground, movement penalties for water, climb DC's for surfaces that must be climbed. Pick a few to exploit, and then have your NPC's use them. Once you know where your fighting, you will have a better idea of what to do.

Outdoors:
If your in open terrain, open with missile fire. Use grass, bushes and the like to hide. In battle, use Tree's, Rocks, and changes in elevation to gain cover and concealment.

Indoors:
Make note of what doors and secret doors are in the area. Furniture is a nice secondary tool. A table can be tipped over for cover, or someone can stand on it for a high ground bonus.

Basic Tactics:

Draw them out - Players who use melee weapons love to chase down missle attackers. If you have a group of say, 10 Orcs, have 5 of them use bows at medium range and have the other 5 Hide. Hiding gets a bonus for distance from players, poor lighting, and other terrain features. Once the melee types run off after the archers, have the other 5 charge the non melee types.

Moving Targets - With low level humanoids using ranged weapons, have the fire, and then move away from their targets. Ideally in sepearate directions. This will give your archers more chances to attack your players.

Divide and Conquer - If you have spell casters with access to Web, or any wall spell, use the spells to split the party. Spell casters on the wrong side of a Wall of Ice cannot do much to help the barbarian who charged on ahead.

Obstacles - If you can place missile attackers on either the top of a small cliff or the far side of a chasm, go for it. This is especially brutal if the archers have good cover.

Prepared Traps - If your dungeon has Pit Traps, falling Rock traps, or Spear traps, have humanoids take positions so that the trap is between the players and the humanoids. With luck, the player will spring the trap when they try to close with the humanoids.

Use Alternative Attacks - If you have Bugbears using Great Axes, go for Sunder attacks. If you have a fighter with Improved Disarm, have the others hold their actions until after the Disarm. If the disarm works, have one of the humanoids pick up the fallen weapon instead. If someone is surrounded and you have a few to spare, have the first few to go try a Trip attack, followed by a 5 foot step to let another attacker in. If it works, you can get +6 to hit (+2 flanking, +4 prone).

Exploit Immunities - If you are using Fire Giants, have them fight in an area full of fire. The pc's will take fire damage, and giants take none. If your using Orcs underground or at night, apply the sight related penalties to those without light. Undead do not breath, so if they are fighting in water, you can Grapple and hold the PC's under water until they Drown.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[maddman75]

- Keeping a spellcaster alive. You have to protect yourself from melee, archers, and spellcasters. For melee, some good mooks to keep them busy is sufficient. Archers -- buff, buff, buff. Even a low level spellcaster can use mage armor and shield to get his AC pretty high. At higher levels, stoneskin and haste do even more. For other spellcasters, take em out.

- Rogues need to flank. Tumble around to flank across from the warriors. Not only does this give sneak attack, but the warrior gets a bonus as well.

- Monks should go to for the wizard. Tumble past his mooks, and probably save against whatever he is casting at you. Wrestle him to the ground (this will however result in a fondness for Still Spell after a bit )

- Get some post-it notes. These are invaluable for running combats with multiple adventurer types. Not only is it a handy place to keep track of hit points, but an easy way to note feat useage, buffs, and other spell effects.

- Plan out tactics in advance. I'm currently running RttToEE, and go through the adventure ahead of time. I note what spells they'll cast and what tactics each will use. But don't feel cast into stone, if the PCs don't come in as expected you'll have to roll with it.

 

[Gideon]

This isn't a general tactic but a more specific one. My DM once dropped a sphere of darkness on us and attacked with drow. The trick was that the drow took a five foot step(staying next to us) after every attack so we swung at air for a bunch of rounds before figuring out what was happening. Our fighter took blindfight at his next level.

 

[gariig]

Unfortunately this is a rule suggestion, but know what your spell like abilities are and how they work. I just found out Faerie Fire illuminates you in magical darkness..my drow in CoTSQ just got a lot deadlier and those level 1 mook guys are the ones who will be using their actions to toss out faerie fires and quarrels with darkness.

Gariig

 

[magnas_veritas]

Sneaky characters' best friend is teamwork. They work best with an ally to take the heat off and help flank the enemy with. That way there's less of a chance to get hit yourself. They also benefit from mobility enhancements- a rogue who can move at a speed of 50' has a terrific advantage, and a rogue with spring attack and a tank friend can usually sneak attack once every round and avoid being attacked by the enemy he's attacking.

That's very useful; I do that a lot in my game. A nice sneak full attack is lots, lots of fun.

Spellcasters need to avoid being the ones hit first, to stack up their spells as quickly as possible, and to stay away from melee.

To quote Shadowrun, "Geek the mage first*." That's almost always a useful suggestion. Monks are good at that; they have the mobility to get to the mage easiest, and can stun or paralyze them so the rogue can pop a few arrows into their neck. Alternately, they can just grapple or generally pound the mage to death.

Defenses include mobility, invisibility, and a lot of people in between you and the opponents. Note that while invisibility is easily countered by see invisibility, that's only medium range; the improved invisible caster can rain down long range spells with near impunity.

* - As the wizard/sorcerer can disable multiple people with the same spells, and just generally make life unpleasant for you. Sure, the enemy tank can, but slower, and that's why you have a tank, right?

Brad

 

[Number47]

Another thing you have to learn is how to design the battlefield. As long as the PC group are the attackers, the NPCs should be able to choose where they make a stand. Indoors especially, room design can make or break the NPCs defense. It all depends on the type of game you run, but try this one. After a long corridor, there is a ninety degree turn that opens out into a room with wide spaces and pillars. The front row of NPCs are fighter-types with tower shields. The shields are oriented toward the doorway, giving them full cover from any attacks or area spells, but allowing them to make AoO if someone tries to run past. A little further into the room are archers. The floor rises up a few feet so they can get a good line over the shields. These guys have shot on the run and hide behind pillars. On their initiative, they can move, shoot and move back under cover. All these guys are just a delaying tactic. At the back of the room, behind a partial wall is the enemy spellcaster. While the group is trying to deal with the chokepoint you created, the spellcaster is buffing himself up. When ready, he steps out and leads with his best spell. Because the party already softened them up and their value is much lower now, he does not try to avoid affecting his underling. Throw a fireball or blade barrier!

 

[Dremen]

Pick up a copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I have one that includes 3 different translations so you get a good feel for what he was really trying to say. The Book of 5 rings is also good. This is your theory. Others have already posted good specifics.

Here is how I set up a battle co-dming a Slaver module 1e converted to 3e. I can't remember the name right now. Anyway I was given the task of Building and running a 7th level wizard. There were various henchmen mostly 0 level orcs and mooks. and 1 Blind fighter with Blind sight 30'. The wizard was a chick named Markessa or some such.

Anyway here's what I did. I as feats I got extend spell and brew potions. I made a bunch of potions for the fighter to buff him, all extended. As soon as the alarm was set off I knew that a certain group of heros were invading. We had plenty of time to prepare. All I knew was some basics 2 or 3 spell casters and some tanks.

The fighter drank potions of: Bulls Strenth, Cats grace, and Endurance, and Owls Wisdom (to help with will saves.) He also had a 2 potions of haste and 2 of blinking. And he had a few pebles with darkness cast on them covered by baked clay to be thrown down breaking the clay creating darkness.

I also set up a narrow passage way about 80ft long. It was already dark. I laid out some pebles with darkness on them and a few other pebles just to confuse things. I hung bags at various hieghts filled with alchemist fire with a smoke stick tied on, and tanglefoot bags. The floor was littered with caltrops. I had 8 archers 0 level orcs 2 abreast in 4 rows. With heavy x-bows. 1 row would fire then duck untill the other 3 fired. They were also equiped with numerous alchemist fire and tangle foot bags as well as smoke stick and thunder stones. With alarm spells set at every 10 feet.

The magic I had was a cloak of arachnidia and already drank all the buff potions sam as fighter + intellegence, mage armour and shield and improved invis. Haste when the party came down. and a blinking for if things got tight. I also had a ring that let me see in magical darkness.

When the Pc's first get into the passage way and alarm spell went off and 2 minitours charged the PC's from the rear (Invisibility potions). Then the archers started fireing blindly through the darkness beyond.

The minitours softened up some of the weaker members of the party staying back behind the fighters. The fighters spend a few rounds moving to the back of the party. The weaker members started into the darkness. There were roughly 10 pebles with darkness every 20 feet. They couldn't dispell the darkness and went in. 2nd alarm goes off. I use the cast WEB from the cloak and back off The web is about 10 feet from the party's spell casters and they are steping on caltrops and whacked a alchemist fire bag not knowing what it was.

They finally finish off the minitours and the figther move back to the front using a staff to sweep caltrops. Then they encounter the WEB. They start hacking at it (Remember there are tangle foot bags, alchemist fire and smoke sticks now susspended in the webbing they are hacking, not to mention caltrops. After the webs go up in flames (setting off some more alchemist fire, ) The blind fighter charges in from behind. dropping darkness pebles. He drops the wizard in the first round and the party tries to switch possitions. Many of the other spell casters couldn't target spells but sent a lighting bolt down the corridor (takes out all my archers).

The PC's had a heck of a time with the blind fighter. Their attacks were ineffective with the darkness and the hasted blinking fighter. He wore down the parties damage dealers VERY well before dying. In the mean time I cast a few more web spells in the trapped corridor and fled, sending a bunch of mooks to soften them up more and prepare for the final battle.

I only got 1 PC down to 0hp, but a 7th level Wizard 7th level fighter 2 minitours and 8 x-bow men and 10 orcs put on some major hurt to a group of 8 12-15th level PC's. I wasn't there for the final battle with this character so I don't know how it ended. But the PC's were weakened VERY badly from something that if they were in the open or had prep time, could have easilly walked right through.

It was over a year ago and there may be some details I forgot. But I used none of my memorised spells used up a bunch of potions and a couple scrolls and used 1 magic item, and a few henchmen.

She was at full strength for the final confrontation. Which I did not prep or run.

Anyway basically I made it difficult for the spell casters to do ANYTHING other than get whacked. I neutralized the fighters. Blink + Darkness = VERY HARD TO HIT. Espeacially when you can "see" and the PC's cannot. The smoke and fire + webs every 10 feet and caltrops used up allot of party resources. For very little money. The cleric had to burn up nearly all of his healing magic. The archers were very ineffective. So were the mooks.

Anyway know 1 or 2 strengths each monster/npc's have. I prefer to be more indirect in assults if I have time to prep.

Hope you liked it.

-D

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Others have covered a lot of good tactics already. I'll cover a few NPC construction tactics.

1. PCs and NPCs should be constructed differently. Most NPCs will only live for one fight. They'll never see the next level. Which means they don't have to worry about long-term viability.

This makes a big difference in terms of their construction.

While feats like toughness and dirty fighting are suboptimal for PCs, they're great for NPCs. If the NPC is entitled to a feat and you don't see any particular use for it, an extra 3 hp never hurt. It's not as if he'll wish it were Spell Focus when he hits level 12--he'll never hit level 12. Similarly, dirty fighting gives extra damage until a character gets iterative attacks and then it's useless (since using it requires giving up the iterative attacks). So it's not a good long term feat for a PC. However, low level NPCs don't have a hope of ever getting multiple attacks. If they'd fight dirty, give them dirty fighting and they'll do more damage to the PCs. Sunder (and especially improved Sunder) is another feat that's better for NPCs. If PCs use Sunder, they destroy their loot. If NPCs use it, they inflict lasting damage on the PCs. (Of couse, you don't want to destroy all the PCs gear--that's no fun for players but Sunder can make combats interesting if used judiciously).

Some feats are easier for NPCs to use than for PCs. The Dual Strike feat from Sword and Fist, for instance, makes the flanking bonus effectively +4 to hit--as long as both flankers have the feat. Not too useful for a PC because he needs another PC with the feat if it's to be useful. Great for a group of disciplined, coordinated NPCs because you can give it to all of them.

Other feats are good for PCs but not good for NPCs. Item creation feats fit into this category. If a villain needs to be a craftsman for plot reasons, give them the feat. Otherwise, there's no point in a villain having it--it won't effect combat and could be something that would (such as toughness, spell focus, or skill focus: concentration). Cleave is another such feat. It's great for PCs who often face down 6 orcs at a time. On the other hand, NPCs don't often down PCs. So, they will rarely get to use cleave. Weapon focus might be a better feat for them--it will help them damage the PC faster: even if they never take the PC down.

Other points of interest: Always remember you can rearrange a creature's stats or equipment. Most outsiders, for instance, have pretty anemic hit points--rarely more than a fighter of their CR and often less. However, if you boost their con or strength, they become much more scary. Similarly, a hound archon is not really terrifying to the forces of evil. Their 19 AC is fairly anemic but, if you give them a breastplate as well, they will have an AC of 24 which is much more impressive.

And two other points:

1. Keeping a fighter alive (for long enough to scare PCs). There are three elements to this equation:
a. Iron Will and high wisdom (and a cloak of resistance at high levels). Will save is a fighter's achille's heel. Do what you can to boost it.
b. Armor--full plate and a shield are a base AC of 20. If the fighter has a dex 12 and 6000 gp to spend on equipment, +1 fullplate, +1 shield, +1 ring of deflection, and a +1 amulet of natural armor fetches him AC 24. That's thinking like a PC however (long term). Since the fighter will probably only see one fight, he can think like an NPC. Potion of Haste (750 gp), Potion of Barkskin (300 gp), Potion of Shield of Faith or Prot from Good (50 gp). Total AC for 5 rounds (all he really needs to last) 29. And for less than 1000 gp.
Note that armor class works better the higher it is. If your PCs have attack bonusses of +10, going from AC 10 to AC 20 will only cut their damage capacity in half. However to cut it in half again, you only need five points of AC. So five points of AC is worth as much to an AC 20 character as ten points is to an AC 10 character. (And an AC 25 character gets almost as much milage out of two points of AC as the AC 20 character got out of 5 points).
c. Healing. The best way to keep a fighter alive is to have a cleric standing next to (or behind) him with a bunch of cure spells. If the cleric is a bad guy, you'll need to remember to prepare healing spells (1/3 to 1/2 of available spells is a good rule of thumb--if he decides later it's too much and he'd rather hurt the PCs, he can always convert them to inflicts). However, a potion or three of Cure Light Wounds (1st and 2nd level fighters), Cure Moderate Wounds (3rd-4th level fighters), or Cure Serious Wounds (level 5+ villains) will go a long way. Just remember to take a five foot step back before recovering and drinking the potion so you don't provoke an AoO.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I just found out Faerie Fire illuminates you in magical darkness..

Wanna explain the reasoning on that one?

-Hyp.