2nd-level characters with Fireball

[takyris]

Well, flavor-textually, that "divind behind a wall" thing is the Reflex save. I plan to start having the AIs stand just outside of grenade range and ready actions to do a full-move forward if someone steps up and throws one.

The idea of making grenades go off just before the next person's turn limits them a bit too much, in my opinion. If I were going to bring up some sort of rule like that, I wouldn't make it a full round -- I'd make it a 10-beat-tick on the Initiative count or something.

Again, just my opinion -- and that's the opinion of someone who's seeing his melee guards wiped out over and over again. Once I stop charging the PCs in the open in cluster-formation, grenades are gonna get a lot weaker.

 

[iwatt]

Actually, the full round action rule was proposed by the players themselves. They're very good at noticing that whatever they can di I can do as well. Since I'm the most experienced d20 player/DM in the group, this would lead to more PC casualties. I'm not sure about the initiative count because, my players use alot of ready and delay actions, and everybody ends up bunched around the same "number". For me Initiative number is relative, not absolute.

 

[ledded]

Well, flavor-textually, that "divind behind a wall" thing is the Reflex save. I plan to start having the AIs stand just outside of grenade range and ready actions to do a full-move forward if someone steps up and throws one.

The idea of making grenades go off just before the next person's turn limits them a bit too much, in my opinion. If I were going to bring up some sort of rule like that, I wouldn't make it a full round -- I'd make it a 10-beat-tick on the Initiative count or something.
<snip>

I agree on the 'diving behind a wall' thing. One thing I'd like to add is something I adopted (I think from the V for Victory polyhedron thing) is a simple rule for the 'throw the grenade back' situation; in WWII the fuses for grenades were often hand cut, leading to a little variation. If the player rolls an even number on his to hit, it explodes on his action. If he rolls an odd, it explodes on the same initiative count (his action) the next round. It's not perfect, but it's simple, and gives people/mooks a chance to do something to avoid the grenade or toss it back (require a dex check to pick it up and toss it on their action, I think, right now I can't remember). Modern grenades, I've heard, are more precise, though the mechanic could work just the same.

Otherwise I think from your comments that you are handling it right, though it is a tricky situation. Oh, another thing you can do is to simply limit the number of grenades available the next time they 'requisition' some; just because they can make the check doesnt mean that they are always available, you can decide that they only get 3 more grenades, forcing them to save them for the best situation (or waste them prematurely).

 

[Von Ether]

To sum up:

Look over the encumberance rules, you can carry only so much on you. And if you strap a whole bandalier of grenades on your body, that makes you a walking target.

More ranged attacks and with open ground in between is nice. Make them do the walking, not the NPCs.

Perhaps my definiton of A.I. is different than yours. Having a machine that only notices targets and marches up to them is not really intellegent. You can train a dog to do that. My idea of A.I. is that the machine learns and communicates. i.e. Acts like a intellegent being, and thus the NPC would start to do ambushes.