Bullgrit
Adventurer
Let's hear stories about terrible party combat tactics.
For instance:
D&D3
I was DMing, and the group consisted of six 5th-level PCs. They were going up against an evil treant with a small horde of twigblights, (think "wood kobolds" if you don't know twigblights).
The druid cast entangle in front of the treant to hinder the twigblights. The fighters charged into the entangle and engaged the treant in melee. The sorcerer hung back 20-30 feet, just inside the edge of the entangle. (He was confident of spellcasting in the entangle, and didn't have to worry about twigblights attacking him.)
More twigblights started showing up, so the druid threw out another entangle, partially overlapping the first. The treant animated a tree to attack the sorcerer.
Yes, during all of this, the twigblights were pretty much shut down. But the party fighters were effectively locked into their places, toe-to-toe with the treant. None of them could move to help the sorcerer who was grappled and being crushed. And none of them could retreat from the flailing treant.
In the end, the sorcerer was killed by the animated tree, the fighters were all beat to death, and the druid fled for his life.
Yes, the druid cast the two spells that ended up preventing the party from retreating, but when he cast the first one, the area of effect was clear of friendlies. The party charged into the entangled area willingly.
* * *
D&D3
I was playing a rogue in a party of six 9th-level PCs. (Completely different group from the above.) We were investigating a "ghost town". We easily took down the zombies that came out of the buildings, and then some kind of zombie master undead warrior thing came out and engaged us.
The party surrounded the undead warrior, but could only do nickle and dime damage. When the warrior started targeting the druid, she cast wall of fire in a 5'-diameter circle centered on herself. Unfortunately, the undead warrior seemed immune to the fire.
The rest of the party held their ground, within the damage area of the wall of fire to continue attacking the undead warrior. At one point, the warrior shifted 5', out of the melee range of the druid. So what did the druid do? She shifted 5', out of her safe circle, and within the damage area of the fire.
I immediately backed out of the fire area. I expected everyone to reposition outside the ring of damage, but no. I ended up hanging back doing virtually nothing, (my arrows did no damage), while the rest of the party stayed in the fire, taking damage from it, fighting the monster that was perfectly happy standing in the fire.
No PC died in this battle, but everyone was twice as hurt as they should have been, had they just moved away from the wall of fire. I was completely stunned at the shear stupidity of everyone just hanging out in the fire for the whole battle.
* * *
What are your tales of terrible party tactics?
Bullgrit
For instance:
D&D3
I was DMing, and the group consisted of six 5th-level PCs. They were going up against an evil treant with a small horde of twigblights, (think "wood kobolds" if you don't know twigblights).
The druid cast entangle in front of the treant to hinder the twigblights. The fighters charged into the entangle and engaged the treant in melee. The sorcerer hung back 20-30 feet, just inside the edge of the entangle. (He was confident of spellcasting in the entangle, and didn't have to worry about twigblights attacking him.)
More twigblights started showing up, so the druid threw out another entangle, partially overlapping the first. The treant animated a tree to attack the sorcerer.
Yes, during all of this, the twigblights were pretty much shut down. But the party fighters were effectively locked into their places, toe-to-toe with the treant. None of them could move to help the sorcerer who was grappled and being crushed. And none of them could retreat from the flailing treant.
In the end, the sorcerer was killed by the animated tree, the fighters were all beat to death, and the druid fled for his life.
Yes, the druid cast the two spells that ended up preventing the party from retreating, but when he cast the first one, the area of effect was clear of friendlies. The party charged into the entangled area willingly.
* * *
D&D3
I was playing a rogue in a party of six 9th-level PCs. (Completely different group from the above.) We were investigating a "ghost town". We easily took down the zombies that came out of the buildings, and then some kind of zombie master undead warrior thing came out and engaged us.
The party surrounded the undead warrior, but could only do nickle and dime damage. When the warrior started targeting the druid, she cast wall of fire in a 5'-diameter circle centered on herself. Unfortunately, the undead warrior seemed immune to the fire.
The rest of the party held their ground, within the damage area of the wall of fire to continue attacking the undead warrior. At one point, the warrior shifted 5', out of the melee range of the druid. So what did the druid do? She shifted 5', out of her safe circle, and within the damage area of the fire.
I immediately backed out of the fire area. I expected everyone to reposition outside the ring of damage, but no. I ended up hanging back doing virtually nothing, (my arrows did no damage), while the rest of the party stayed in the fire, taking damage from it, fighting the monster that was perfectly happy standing in the fire.
No PC died in this battle, but everyone was twice as hurt as they should have been, had they just moved away from the wall of fire. I was completely stunned at the shear stupidity of everyone just hanging out in the fire for the whole battle.
* * *
What are your tales of terrible party tactics?
Bullgrit