D&D 4E Should spellcasters still be priority targets in 4e?

[Mesh Hong]

Well, I have found that in 4E as a DM I change targets a lot more often than in 3E because the fights are much more dynamic. Often the tactical situation changes completely from one round to the next.

For reasonably intelligent foes, I typically adjust their priorities based on what the pcs actually did in the encounter. If a PC manages to land a lucky crit, they're likely to focus on him for a while.

At the beginning of a combat I typically picked pcs that exposed themselves (most often this would be the melee striker(s)). When they noticed a leader patching up a striker, they'd focus on the leader.

I find it amusing that my monsters quite often become confused or enraged by not being able to settle on which target to concentrate on. My party has 3 strikers, 2 leaders and 1 defender, and they can ALL do things that trigger a "that enemy must die!" response. All in all I find the cleric is often the most obvious choice for monsters as he has a lot of very big, very flashy burst attacks, as well as keeping the rest of the group bouncing off maximum HPs.

 

[Tony Vargas]

'Caster' doesn't really aply like it used to. A Warlord is as much a 'caster' now as a Cleric. The roles are what count. And the Controller - which is damn close to what we used to think of as a caster, with the iconic caster of the past, the Wizard, now the iconic Controller - is certainly a prime target. Everyone has pretty decent AC these days, but PC Controllers have fewer hps (and surges), if you can bring anyone down quickly, it's one of these guys. And, thier powers can screw you over from round 1. Strikers can concentrate damage and bring a monster down pretty quick, but a controller can potentially cancel the actions of multiple monsters with a single use of a power. Striker is the obvious second priority.

A problem with prioritizing the Controller or Striker, though, is that the Leader can just heal them. Of course, the Leader can just heal himself, too - it's terribly hard to bring down a PC before he gets to act, at all - so prioritizing him doesn't help, you still have to exhuast his healing power. You might as well have him exhaust it keeping the Controller - who has fewer and smaller surges - up. It's a less efficient use of the leader's healing than keeping himself up.

Once you've brought down one PC, chances are the Leader doesn't have much healing left, and his main source of annoyance is done. The only thing standing between your next victim and 0 hps is his Second Wind. Of course, a lot of monsters are probably dead, between the strikers' damage and the consequences of ignoring the Defender's marking.

 

[Akaiku]

If the monsters want to win, they just need to withdraw whenever the party starts using daily. Make the encounter long daily doom end and come back later. They have a healing surge, they can heal up 1/4th their hp, more if they are higher tier.

This will piss off players though.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I've played in 4 4ed ed campaings plus the big DnD Open at Gen-Con. I've been a leader in 3 of those, a defender in one, and a Warlock in the last (which is like a controller/striker hybrid).

I've also DM'd a 4th Ed campaign.

If you want to watch the party squirm, focus fire the healer. I can promise if my cleric is left alone, no one will die unless we are just vastly overpowered (EL+5 or higher). I'll just heal through the dpr of the bad guys and pop my daily early if things look tough (Beacon of Win, as I call it).

If I'm forced to heal myself the entire fight, I can't do much to help my party members, and things get desperate.

 

[keterys]

My warlord often has one of the better defenses in the party, and actually is multiclass paladin so frequently has a mark for part or all of a battle, so I'm happy enough when stuff targets me. I just heal myself as need be.

Course, I'm no healing focused cleric. My general experience is they're _too much_ healing. Slower combats, no real chance of danger, so the problem is actually with not getting enough done, rather than in chance of someone dropping.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

If the monsters want to win, they just need to withdraw whenever the party starts using daily. Make the encounter long daily doom end and come back later. They have a healing surge, they can heal up 1/4th their hp, more if they are higher tier.

I don't think that works. While monsters have 1 healing surge per tier, most do not have Second Wind, and few monsters (even leader types) have healing powers. In short, most monsters just can't heal.

If you've got, say, a tribe of orcs or gnolls and they have a couple of shaman leader-types with healing powers, that's fine, but I would expect the monsters to heal less efficiently than the PCs.

Of course, this works great for regenerators, especially those more intelligent than trolls

 

[Tony Vargas]

Anyone with a healing surge can heal if they can get a 5 minute 'short rest' in.

 

[AllisterH]

Take out the healer first.

Been true in D&D since forever.

Focus fire next on he controller.

Then put down the striker


and finally the defender.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Take out the healer first.

Been true in D&D since forever.

Focus fire next on he controller.

Then put down the striker


and finally the defender.

AllisterH; I don't think that was true in 3E. It was easy to kill a PC in one shot, and the leader could not do anything about it or heal you up afterwards. I think the guys with the save or die effects and fireball where still the first target to take down.

In 4E, I would say that anyone that creates zones, conjurations or similar longer-lasting effects is a priority target. These powers are usually game changers in the encounter they are used. If you take out the originator of them, you can often take out the zone or conjuration. You don't even have to kill the guy, just ensure that he's unconcious for a round and can't sustain it. Or stun him. That works fine, too.

I think a lot of target choice depends on the situation and can't be so easily generalized.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Take out the healer first.

Been true in D&D since forever.

Focus fire next on he controller.

Then put down the striker


and finally the defender.

I go with M_R on this one too. The edge case of very low levels excluded in old D&D you wanted the magic user dead, period. That was the guy that could wipe the floor with you as soon as he figured there was a chance the fighters couldn't handle it or the cleric was running low on heals. Most character death in those days was either SoD effects or just mass single round damage anyway. Healers were wonderful and all, but they could only cast one heal a round and a CLW dropped on a 10th level PCs hit points wasn't really adding much to the challenge. Plus if it was going to take several rounds to knock out the magic user, it would take that plus to knock out the cleric and he could heal himself as easily as he could anyone else.

Honestly the best tactics for a party of around name level or higher in older editions was to hide the healer someplace safe and just go in with a bunch of M.U.s wielding wands and staves. Direct spell damage/SoD/SoC was far more effective than anything else, most battles lasted 2-3 melee rounds, and all the cleric was for was topping your hit points after the fact.