Stalker0's Guide to Anti-Grind

[samursus]

Very nice guide.... appears extremely well thought out and useful. Thank you for your effort.

 

[Nameless1]

Nice advice. Always quality stuff from you.

 

[Felon]

This is perhaps the only point of yours where I am not in total agreement. As long as you stay far far away from solo soldiers, it is not an issue I believe, although solo controllers can cause the same issues at times.

The ability to stay far, far away from a monster is a lot to take for granted. Dungeons can be small, monsters can move, and many classes simply have no worthwhile ranged capabilities so playing keep away means doing nothing (and doing nothing leads right into grind).

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

The ability to stay far, far away from a monster is a lot to take for granted. Dungeons can be small, monsters can move, and many classes simply have no worthwhile ranged capabilities so playing keep away means doing nothing (and doing nothing leads right into grind).

I don't think it was a literal "far, far away" in the distance and game sense. I believe it was in the "don't use them" sense.

 

[Jack99]

The ability to stay far, far away from a monster is a lot to take for granted. Dungeons can be small, monsters can move, and many classes simply have no worthwhile ranged capabilities so playing keep away means doing nothing (and doing nothing leads right into grind).

I don't think it was a literal "far, far away" in the distance and game sense. I believe it was in the "don't use them" sense.

Indeed.

 

[Felon]

I hope the guide was of use, good luck in your games!

I think you did a fine job. A couple of thing I wnat to comment on:

1) Brutes vs. Soldiers: The guide mentions that soldiers have high defenses and brutes have low defenses. I think it's more like soldiers have high AC's while brutes have low AC's, with their non-AC defenses staying more or less in line with creatures of that type and level.

2) Minions: Man, the only thing to love about minions is the free XP shower. There is an overproliferation of multi-target auto-damaging attacks (rain of steel, armor of agathys, flaming sphere, consecrated ground, etc.) that will auto-kill minions while simultaneously damaging other threats that accompany (typically, brutes, soldiers, and some skirmishers fall into the same front lines as the minions). So, the minion doesn't even cost the player the action it took to kill it--and ithat's supposedly the entire point of minions, to divert actions. As a result, they don't seem to affect grind one way or the other.

 

[Nifft]

There is an overproliferation of multi-target auto-damaging attacks (rain of steel, armor of agathys, flaming sphere, consecrated ground, etc.) that will auto-kill minions while simultaneously damaging other threats that accompany (typically, brutes, soldiers, and some skirmishers fall into the same front lines as the minions). So, the minion doesn't even cost the player the action it took to kill it--and ithat's supposedly the entire point of minions, to divert actions. As a result, they don't seem to affect grind one way or the other.

The effects you mention are all Daily powers. So yeah, if Daily powers are free, so are dead minions.

Minions eat resources. Actions or Daily powers.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Felon]

The effects you mention are all Daily powers. So yeah, if Daily powers are free, so are dead minions.

Minions eat resources. Actions or Daily powers.

Everything eats resources. You don't take down many monsters just using at-wills, but you have an easier time doing so with four minions than one standard monster. And more to the point, you can kill the minions with the same attack you're using to damage other creatures, so the minions don't accomplish anything in terms of consuming actions or resources.

It doesn't have to be dailies by any means. My group's radiant servant blows up with Solar Wrath. He hits everything in a 17x17" area, targeting Will (not a minion's strongest suit). The party barbarian unleashes Blade Sweep. He kills the odd minion that got missed by the cleric, and damages some other critter in the process. In such a scenario, the minions were just gravy, and that's using encounter powers.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Great guide thanks, I have been lopping off 15% of HP ('cos I am running modules) and am going to try minions are 2 hit kills tonight (1 to bloodied then dead) cos minions have been less than effective against my party... but I like the aid another idea. Never even thought of it d'oh

have some XP, if I have any!

 

[Monkey King]

Great article, thanks! Have you considered writing for a magazine?