[3.5/3.0] Collaborative Effort: Collection of Round-by-Round Monster Tactics

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Re: Ogre Mage

Kraken

This assumes the players are on a ship. A kraken is too big to come close to shore (IMO).

Round 0: Cast Resist Electricity. (By being in the water, it is difficult to injure with fire spells.)

Round 1: Cast Control Winds from underwater. This makes sailing difficult or impossible and greatly reduces the effectiveness of ranged attacks - even if the weather was perfectly calm before. Opponents suffer at least a -4 penalty to ranged attacks, and may not be able to use regular ranged attacks at all. In addition, opponents will have a hard time flying, keeping them on the ship and perhaps within your reach.

Round 2: Keep most of your body underwater:

You gain the following benefits - improved cover (+8 AC, +4 Reflex saves) against opponents, except for those in melee who are also using freedom of movement.

Approach the ship (if necessary) and reach up (60 ft. reach with tentacles) and grab an opponent from the ship, preferably a spellcaster. If the opponent is wearing armor (unlikely, but possible) release them. Otherwise constrict them and keep them under the water.

Round 3: Constrict your grappled opponent - if they die, you can try again.
If an opponent has an aquatic animal with them (eg a druid's shark companion) use your dominate animal spell on them.

If any opponents are freely swimming and don't look like they're holding their breath, use your jet (while stilll grappling your previous victim). Do not allow the freely-swimming opponent near you (you can't grapple them).

Round 4: Grapple another opponent, if possible. If overmatched, use ink cloud to escape - preferably using jet (if you haven't used it already) and holding your victim.

Note: the kraken does not have Power Attack, so it will have a hard time damaging a big ship.

PS I haven't used one yet, but this looks like it's higher than CR 12! At the very least the players will have to use up resources casting multiple freedom of movement and water breathing spells.

Dragons

This is a mini-tactic mentioned at the WotC boards. Use anti-life shell and stay out of melee. This prevents flying fighters from doing anything to you should they catch you, while you're free to use your breath weapon.

If you ask me most dragon's "unique" abilities aren't that special. A blue dragon's voice imitation has wonderful tactical uses, but even if I saw a write-up for the dragon I probably wouldn't use it.

Note: figuring out what the Ogre Mage could change into with polymorph would require an entire post of its own, so these tactics do not use that spell-like ability.

Dang! At only 5 Hit Dice, ogre mages can't change into anything worthwhile, as far as I can tell.

I would use invisibility and flight right away I wouldn't ever use sleep since it's so unreliable.

I'm not sure how useful this would be, but a flying ogre mage could use darkness on it's armor, giving opponents a 20% miss chance against it, while still dishing out cone of cold. Unfortunately, it has precisely one good offensive spell-like ability, and it can only use it once per day. This could also interfere with it's invisible and maybe gaseous form escape clasue.

I don't think the ogre mage is a CR 8 creature - more like a 6.

 

[SpuneDagr]

Ooh. I just BUMPed my head. That'll leave a mark.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Anyone want to do nightwings?

I'm guessing they work in pairs and always have see invisibility up. One could start with confusion while the other gets close and ... drains magic items? That is both frustrating for the players and probably too slow to be an efficient combat tactic.

Suggestions?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Enthusiam disappearing?

 

[Destan]

I'm still here. Was out last night. Will get something up today hopefully.

 

[Maggan]

Loved this thread

Are there any more tactics coming in before i save this to my hard drive?

Cheers!

Maggan

 

[Zappo]

A constructive bump.

Ettercap

Prior to combat: create a large vertical sheet of webbing, anchoring it to the trees or cave walls. Hide on the top of one of the trees adjacent to the web, or near the top of the cave, and wait for the enemy to stumble in the web.
Round 1: from the higher position, shoot a web at any target that escaped the trap; target obvious spellcasters first, then flyers and ranged attackers.
Round 2 and subsequent: shoot webs and keep moving on the trees or walls to get close to one of the trapped characters. When adjacent to a trapped character, poison him at least twice and move on to the next.

 

[d20fool]

Let not fear of what could be stop your endeavors

Consider this... As soon as you come up with a standard round-by-round monster tactics guide for DMs, you will shortly have standard round-by-round anti-monster tactics guides for players.

Combats could become exceedingly dull.

Y'know, living in very, very rural Missouri I get this all the time. "We should not do X because it MIGHT get abused in some, rare circumstance." Damned hillbillies (there, I said it.)

I certainly don't let my players have a Monster Manual at the table, much less a computer with web access. If I used such tactics, I wouldn't advertise it anyway.

I think these tactics things are brillant. They allow us (the DMs) to use monsters more effectively. Even if we decide not to use the tactics suggested, it gives us ideas of the monsters strengths and weaknesses. There are already tactical guides to players fighting certain monsters in Dragon, and I have yet to see it make the game "exceedingly dull." When my players spend time and effort preparing to fight a monster I think it's great and gets my blood pumping.

 

[Liolel]

Round by Round Combat Tactics for Dretchs(weakest type of demons in mm) CR2

Notes about dretchs tactics: Two facts in the mm. Dretchs are not very smart and they fear their greater kin more then they fear death

Round 1: Try to summon another dretch. Any dretch succesfully summoned will start with round two combat tactics, move foward 20 feet (dretchs are not very smart and rush towards combat at every chance to not anger their greater kin)
Round 2: If engaged in combat make a full attack on the biggest most threatening (biggest weapons and heaviest armor) person engage with it. If not engage cast scare on the most threating(same critera) person among the enemy and move 20 more feet to try to engage
Round 3 and on: Make a full attack on the person who dealt it the most damage last round if engaged. If no one dealt it any damage attack the most threating. If not engaged charge the nearest enemy. The dretchs fear of its greater kin means it fights to the death.

One final note: I couldn't come up with a good way to use the dretch's other spell like ability stinking cloud that would fit with an int of 5. Any suggestions would be nice.

 

[shilsen]

One final note: I couldn't come up with a good way to use the dretch's other spell like ability stinking cloud that would fit with an in of 5. Any suggestions would be nice.

I had been about to suggest that dretches use the stinking cloud as a defense mechanism, casting it around themselves as soon as successfully attacked by another. Then I noticed that a dretch isn't immune to the spell itself (immunity to poison, which it does have, doesn't help). So I would see the ability as something that a dretch or group of dretches under the control of a more intelligent leader could be commanded to use, but which will not be used often otherwise.