D&D 4E 4e Battle Tactic: Murder by Pinball

[Maxus]

It's pretty simple, actually. Embarrassingly simple, in fact.

Throw up a zone conjuration. Wall of Fire or Blade Barrier works best, though Cloud of Daggers will certainly work in a pinch.

Now just have your party use forced movement on your foes through the conjurations. You'd be able to do a lot more damage than you would normally.

For example, say your wizard threw up Freezing Cloud. Your ranger then uses, say, Thundertusk Boar strike and pushes them through 4 squares of Freezing cloud, That can add up to quite a bit more damage if your friends use their pushing powers, too.

 

[Tale]

If you forced the Boar through 4 squares, he'd still only take damage once from the forced movement (the another for starting the turn). He only entered the cloud once. To continue getting this effect, your teammates would have to waste a turn moving it out before they could move it in again.

 

[Vayden]

Point 1: All 3 GMs I play with, including myself, rule that it's only the first time entering the zone per turn, not each square that you move through, that deals the damage.

Point 2: Even with that, it's still awesome. My wizard threw up a wall of fire last week and kept thunder-waving skeletons back into it, all the while screaming "Back into the fire, you undead abominations! Burn, burn, BUUURRN!!!"

 

[Maxus]

It's not so much the moving through the squares--it's turning them in a pinball with the help of your friends.

 

[Obryn]

Whenever a creature may be forced into damaging terrain - including a spell zone - they get an immediate save to resist the movement. Success means they fall prone before entering the zone.

It may not work as well as you want it to.

-O

 

[LokiDR]

There are several 3rd edition versions of the same tactic, my favorite being blade barrier and telekinesis. They just happen to be available at lower levels.

 

[Bluewyrm]

My group had been considering a similar notion using "forced teleportation". There are a few Warlock powers that, if I recall, let you forcefully teleport an enemy. Is there any reason you couldn't forecfully teleport them off a cliff/into a Wall of Fire/etc? As far as I could tell, this doesn't count as a Forced Movement (as it's not a push/pull/slide), and so they wouldn't get a save either. Even if they did, what would happen? Would they simply not be teleported at all, but merely lay prone where they were? What if they were teleported to such a place where there was no place to catch one's self (the middle of a 3x3 pit, for instance?

 

[Hypersmurf]

If you forced the Boar through 4 squares, he'd still only take damage once from the forced movement (the another for starting the turn). He only entered the cloud once. To continue getting this effect, your teammates would have to waste a turn moving it out before they could move it in again.

Not necessarily - if you push him zig-zag fashion, you can have him enter, leave, enter, leave, potentially dealing damage for every two squares. He will, of course, get a saving throw every time he's about to enter...

-Hyp.

 

[Tale]

Not necessarily - if you push him zig-zag fashion, you can have him enter, leave, enter, leave, potentially dealing damage for every two squares. He will, of course, get a saving throw every time he's about to enter...

-Hyp.

I thought there was a rule against zig-zagging forced movement.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I thought there was a rule against zig-zagging forced movement.

If you're pulling, each square must move them closer to you.

If you're pushing, each square must move them further from you.

If you're sliding, there is no restriction on the direction of movement.

If I push you NE-NW-NE-NW-NE, each square has moved you further from me; the restriction of the push has been met.

-Hyp.