What Are Your Best Battle Tactics?

[CuRoi]

Ooops - I just noticed the 5th level Sorceress remark...sorry I need to read more carefully...so make it plain 'ol Darkness, not Deeper Darkness (my version had a cleric : )

So for your Sorcerer version the combo is Darkness along with summoning / henchmen Lemures, or Monstrous Spiders (tremorsense).

Or use Pyrotechnics. People often overlook this one, so its often a surprise. You can blind people in a massive line of sight -or- create a cloud of blinding / ability damaging smoke with that spell. You just need a fire source handy. Then sick the Spiders on them. Sure the spiders might fail the save if you made the cloud, but heck they're just minions afterall and this is the big bad evil guy...worst case their tremorsense overrides any sort of blindness and their str/dex is slightly gimped while they munch on and -poison- effectively blind PCs.

You mention henchman, you're the DM, maybe this sorcerer has some pet spiders, heh. Maybe the sorcerer has sold their soul and has some Lemure buddies. At any rate, that combo should produce a dynamic fight. I prefer terrifying PCs / shock and awe as opposed to rinse and repeat with the same 'ol bag of tricks.

Oh, and just revising my thoughts on it - if you have an inexperienced group, this could definitely seriously mess them up. So play nice : )

 

[Scorponox]

^ Oh, they are definitely not an inexperienced group. In fact, the reason why I'm asking is because some of them have 10+ years playing and I have....8 months.

 

[Dandu]

Here's the question: did they adopt the paradigm shift, or are they oldschool gamers who think Fireball is the end all, be all of third level spells?

 

[Scorponox]

^ Well, we have two sorcerers in our party, and none of them have taken/used Fireball yet.

Also, what can THEY do to combat my invisibility? (Besides have a pet with tremorsense.) Is there a way to combat an invisible, floating mage that keeps summoning creatures?

 

[Dandu]

Yes, Glitterdust.

 

[Veven1290]

Glitterdust is broken, grease isn't as powerful as some people seem to think (i.e., it didn't give the rogue sneak attack to anybody standing in the area, because "balancing" is a function of making a skill check, not a defined game condition), and web is unlikely to work in an arena context.

The SRD says those with less than 5 ranks in the balance skill are considered flat footed while balancing. It's not the balancing that allows sneak attacks, it's the flat-footedness.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

The SRD says those with less than 5 ranks in the balance skill are considered flat footed while balancing. It's not the balancing that allows sneak attacks, it's the flat-footedness.

Yes, the SRD is quite confusing (and confused) on this issue.

What it should say is that you lose your Dex bonus to AC while balancing, but never mind.

The point is that while in the area of a grease spell, you are not required to roll Balance checks unless you move. You are not "balancing," except when you're rolling a Balance check, which is not necessary just from being attacked. Balance checks are made, per the SRD, as part of an action (usually moving) or in response to a situation. (FWIW -- IMO, not much, as a rule, though they got this one right -- I did write CustServ with this question, and that was the response I got.)

What is missing is a "Balancing" condition (like "Grappled" or "Stunned" or other conditions that similarly deny Dex bonus. You could argue that it exists by implication, and I see that as a decent logical argument; however, I choose not to accept that implication specifically because it makes grease too powerful, and it isn't necessary to make the Balance skill work. (Nor is it necessary to make grease a very useful first-level spell.)

If you do choose to accept an implicit "Balancing" condition, I suggest you exempt grease from it. (There's a reason power-gamers love grease when it carries auto-sneak attack around with it.)

BTW, if I were to write a Balancing condition, it would be something to the effect of, "You are considered to be balancing, and denied your Dex bonus to armor class, if movement would require you to make a Balance check."

EDIT: Weird. I lost a decent number off my post count.

 

[BENINHB]

So if standing on a greased floor do you think you would be able to dip, duck or dodge to avoid an attack AKA use your DEX to AC?? Unless you were say... above averagely skilled at balancing??

 

[Dandu]

If you do choose to accept an implicit "Balancing" condition, I suggest you exempt grease from it. (There's a reason power-gamers love grease when it carries auto-sneak attack around with it.)

It also makes golems cry.

 

[Fajita McJones]

Ray of Enfeeblement on the Cleric and Fighter. That'll weaken them and make them less useful against your minions (spiders or whatever you decide to use). Slow down your rogue and swashbuckler with traps around the arena floor. Remember the scene in Gladiator when it starts off as just a brutal one-on-one fight and becomes more epic because they're surrounded by tigers? That's how you need to step this up for them. Your sorceress isn't a newbie to this arena and your party needs to realize that quickly and know they're in over their heads and think fast. the spells everyone else has recommended are great, too.

I'd go with Scorching Ray and Summon Swarm (spiders) for 2nd level spells. Swarms are really hard for melee types to counter (your rogue, fighter, swashbuckler and maybe even the cleric depending on how he's played) so that'll help lock up the sorcerer to deal your swarms and Scorching Ray is just awesome at that level.

If you want to get evil, have a cleric (3rd level) or bard (4th level) henchman who casts silence on arrows and fires them into your spellcaster to make them useless for a bit. If you do use a henchman, I really would recommend a 4th level Bard over a 3rd level Cleric. You'll only get one 2nd level spell out of them (again, I recommend Silence cast on an arrow shot into the party sorcerer), but they can use Hideous Laughter, Sleep and Cause Fear (all devastating spells against 4th level and lower) and it's still unlikely that they'll whine about having to go up against a Bard (nobody ever suspects them of being dangerous). Daze is also a powerful 0 level spell that the bard can use as often as he still has an unused spell slot. Also, Mage Hand being used to throw dirt in someone's face is a fun magical twist you might want to put on an iconic Arena tactic.