Alternatives to Melee Combat

[Spibb]

I run a group of four 16th level characters. I have a controlling focused bard, a dps warlock, a dps barbarian, and a defender-controller (slowing and sliding) fighter. I have an important plot point for the campaign I run coming up wherein the players encounter a black fire dracolich. This monster has a heavy focus on stunning the players, especially those who fight in melee because of it's ability "mesmerizing glare" which reads as follows:

Mesmerizing Glare (immediate interrupt, when an enemy makes a melee attack against the dracolich; at-will) ! Fear
Close blast 3; +26 vs. Will; the target is stunned until the end of the blackfire dracolich’s next turn. Miss: The target takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls against the blackfire dracolich until the end of the blackfire dracolich’s next turn. ​

This fight could turn out to either be a fun challenge or an annoying bother per consequence of the stunning. I'm thinking it might become the latter as the main damager for the group is the barbarian. If he's only able to do his turn every other round, it may get boring and drawn out for the group. Furthermore, this would also prevent the defender from doing his job of marking and defending which may lead to the party just get destroyed by the dracolich.

I figure if the players have an alternate way of damaging the dracolich that they'd have to figure out, this fight could end up being a memorable and fun challenge. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for any help you can offer

 

[Ahrimon]

Well, it's an interupt, so it's only usable once per round. After that, as long as they spread out, only one person will have to bite the bullet each round. And there's always ways of eliminating stunning.

As long as your players are open to dynamic combats then you should be fine. If they're the type that just run up and bash things until they're dead then it might now go so well.

 

[Unwise]

If it is messing with melee DPS that you want, why not consider making the Dracolich insubstantial after being hit with a melee attack? Or everyone who hits it in melee is weakened? Or a weakening aura 2?

All of these options will pretty much halve melee DPS, but at least the players still have something to do. Being stunned is not fun for anybody. This also allows the defender to do his job somewhat properly, rather than invalidating his role.

Even using the above options, the Dracolich may as well just ignore the melee, provoke from them and fly over to chomp down on the squishy targets. If it could stun the melee guys, then it would be even more likely to do so.

I'm all for messing with PCs, but not in ways that will make the players bored.

I once had a monster that turned insubstantial every time it was damaged by something outside of its reach 3. This meant that the ranged guys would have to come in way too close, or use non-damaging attacks from range. It was a lot more interesting than my original idea to stun them with psychic feedback if they attacked from outside range.

 

[Piratecat]

It's always a great idea to make monster defenses hurt the pcs, not extend combat.

How about this, though? When the PCs are stunned their mind is in a unique place -- a planar prison of some sort, perhaps. There's a vital chunk of knowledge there that they can only get through a skill challenge. Problem is, they can only complete that skill challenge while one of them is stunned! So the player doesn't miss their turn, but they don't get to attack the monster that round in exchange for trying to get important information. That might do the trick.

 

[wlmartin]

I run a group of four 16th level characters. I have a controlling focused bard, a dps warlock, a dps barbarian, and a defender-controller (slowing and sliding) fighter. I have an important plot point for the campaign I run coming up wherein the players encounter a black fire dracolich. This monster has a heavy focus on stunning the players, especially those who fight in melee because of it's ability "mesmerizing glare" which reads as follows:
<snip>
I figure if the players have an alternate way of damaging the dracolich that they'd have to figure out, this fight could end up being a memorable and fun challenge. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for any help you can offer

Melee players often hate using Ranged Weapons over Melee because
a) They have spent their PC Career building an Arsenal of Melee not Missile weaponary
b) Some people prefer Melee over Ranged

You have 2 real ways to induce players to do what you want. Remembering that this as much their game as it is yours and creating avenues to allow them to be creative whilst still keep control is hard.

1 : Make it harder for them to use Melee Weapons
2 : Make it easier for them to use Ranged Weapons

or a combination of the 2. The Vinegar approach, reducing the effectiveness of Melee Weapons can be done in one of many creative ways. One being that the monster has a damaging effect on Metal Weapons that hit its skin, players have to roll a cumulative D12 each time they hit, (starts at 1, then 1-2 etc) and if their weapon becomes damaged it permanently loses +1 and if the players fight with it they get a -5 to attack with it

The Sugar approach gets them to use Ranged Weapons instead. Have them find a ritual (useable in this area alone) that lets them convert their favorite Melee Weapon into a Ghost Bow that performs with the same benefits (such as fire damage) and the same pluses..

Remember - it is your World, if you want to make something work simply make it harder to do something the players do already or easier if they adopt a new method. You will always get people that don't get the hint and are convinced to do it their way... however when the entire team is perched on a ledge throwing ghost arrows at the beast and the Melee Champion is getting cut down with his weapon turned into mulch, perhaps he will get the hint next time