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

[Mystery Man]

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

Should they really?

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.

So what do you do for new DM's?There is an immense amount of information in the core books and they need all the help they can get.

 

[Destan]

Whether this project is useful to everyone or not is irrelevant. I support it.

Me too. But then - I'm biased.

Even if this does become an "arms race" between DM's creating tactics and players countering them, I think the upside is much higher than any supposed drawbacks.

The aboleth example, for example, may give a DM a nudge one way or another to better use the creature's illusionary capabilities - he need not use the same illusions indicated in the write-up.

As of this moment, we've got two (2) creatures. Heh. Only about - what? - three hundred to go?

I'm not ready to give up yet.

D

 

[Technik4]

Cool Idea

I like the idea, but after a quick-flip through the MM 3.5 I couldnt find a monster to do round-by-round. Most of the monsters it would be good for seem to be high CRs (since they generally have abilities and combat tricks) and I dont have any experience running anything higher than CR 13 or so.

Another interesting project (one that I feel I could contribute to) would be to finish statting "unusual" versions of a given monster. I dont know if it deserves its own thread, but that could be an awesome project too. Half-Dragon Rust Monsters, Celsestial Pegasi, etc etc.

Technik

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

I'm all for it!

What I'd like to see:

Demons
Devils
Dragons
Beholders

 

[Destan]

Re: Cool Idea

Another interesting project (one that I feel I could contribute to) would be to finish statting "unusual" versions of a given monster.

Check out any thread by BLACKDIRGE in the Rogue's Gallery forum. He regularly, and expertly, applies templates to 'standard' creatures. Includes pretty solid backgrounds, too.

I'll try to bang out another monster or two tonight.

D

 

[SpuneDagr]

My players don't visit this site. I guess they're not as hardcore as I am. Anyway, it can be difficult to sort through all a creature's powers and spell-like abilities to come up with a smart way to use them. Most of the monsters that have all those abilities are way smarter than us; the only way to come close to replicating that degree of intelligence is extensive planning. If someone else comes up with that before I do, and it's good, more power to 'em!

This is a tactics thread. Let's see more tactics!

 

[sithramir]

This is a great idea. People who don't think it should be there because "players will read it" have some sorry excuses for players. The idea is to make them a worthwhile CR monster.

I play in a campaign where the DM is new and doesn't know rules nor do the others. I DM so I try to help them. However, he complains that the characters are too powerful but doesn't make full use of the abilities of the monsters.

Having a round by round tactic on a lot of them would help him make them not dumb. I mean the idea of what an Aboleth does is good. We'd slay it in 2 rounds because he doesn't know or understand all the spells nor does he have time to look them up. If he knows what its basically doing he'll look them up and be able to trick us with it instead of it just attacking.

It gets boring when the 7th level cleric charges and my ftr/rog and the other rogue just keep him flanked and give him the smack down. (He doesn't have buffs up or anything like he should because the DM doesn't do it well)

Think about if some of these things or "ideas" at least were there? It'd make it a lot better.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

This is a wonderful idea! I'll have to drill through my Monster Manual when I get home and see if I can contribute.

Kudos for putting forward the idea, good sir!

 

[Joshua Randall]

Ogre Mage

From the 3.5 SRD:

=====
Combat
Ogre mages rely on their spell-like abilities, resorting to physical combat only when necessary. When faced with obviously
superior forces, they prefer to retreat using gaseous form rather than fight a losing battle.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will—darkness, invisibility; 1/day— charm person (DC 14), cone of cold (DC 18), gaseous form, polymorph, sleep (DC 14). Caster level 9th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Flight (Su): An ogre mage can cease or resume flight as a free action. While using gaseous form it can fly at its normal speed
and has perfect maneuverability.
Regeneration (Ex): Fire and acid deal normal damage to an ogre mage.
=====

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.

Ogre Mage - Tactics Round by Round

Prior to combat: Target any obvious fighter-type with charm person and ask him to persuade his friends to seek adventure elsewhere.

Round 1: Begin flying as a free action. Become invisible as a standard action. Fly 40 ft. into the air.

Round 2: Cast sleep, centering the effect to catch as many opponents as possible.

Round 3: Target spellcasters or fighters (but not rogues or monks) with cone of cold.

Rounds 4+: If any opponents remain and seem weak, charge (flying) and chop them up with greatsword. Otherwise, if remaining opponents appear strong(*), become invisble or gaseous and flee at top speed.

(*) Anybody left standing after both sleep and cone of cold could be considered strong from the ogre mage's point of view.

Edit: the ogre mage should make better use of invisibility and darkness, but I couldn't think of anything brilliant.

 

[Dax Doomslayer]

I love this idea and fully support it. My only question would be - shouldn't this be done in some sort of MS Word document or something? That way one doesn't have to go "wading" through posts. What do you think?