Advice on tactics

[Ranger REG]

Translation into D&D (IMHO):

- Do not make your roles obvious; the spellcasters should not be easy to identify. Do not make your weaknesses obvious.

Kinda easy to spot a wizard by what he wears. If he's wearing absolutely no armor ... *snaps fingers and point* ... that's a wizard.

 

[EP]

Do you find that the players try and chop the head of all the BBEG's now? Because if I was in your campaign that's exactly what I would be doing. You may have opened a barrel of worms there, depending on what your players are like.

Olaf the Stout

Nope, they haven't tried it again since. If they were the type to "cheat," (in the sense that it grants them absolute victory without trying too hard) then I probably wouldn't have done it. Combat gets dull when you constantly beat your opponents in one round, so they mix it up a bit. In this one case, he just did it to see if it would work and what I would do about it as DM.

It's also good to remind them that what works for the PCs is also good for the NPCs. I took a swipe at his character's neck the following game and the "oh-crap-we're-using-that-rule" look on his face said enough.

 

[Drowbane]

Kinda easy to spot a wizard by what he wears. If he's wearing absolutely no armor ... *snaps fingers and point* ... that's a wizard.

or anybody with a 1-level dip in Monk (or battledancer)... including a wizard.

 

[IceFractal]

Kinda easy to spot a wizard by what he wears. If he's wearing absolutely no armor ... *snaps fingers and point* ... that's a wizard.

That's all the more reason to confuse the issue. Glamer your armor to look like robes. If possible, get some spellcaster-friendly armor (Twilight mithral shirt, for instance) and Glamer it to look like heavier armor. Have the spellcaster wear a monk's robes and carry a sai or nunchucks. Have the monk wear mage's robes and stick a gem on the end of their quarterstaff. If you're a Psion, wave your hands and incant random sayings whenever it's convenient, so people think they're necessary for your powers. Alternately, hide your power displays and pretend to be a hireling cowering in the back.

Plus, illusions.

 

[RFisher]

• Pick the battlefield...the place & time
• Know your strengths & weaknesses
• Play to your strengths
• Know thy enemy
• Divide & conquer

If your GM has read Sun Tzu... you might want to read it as well..heck, even if he hasn't

Yeah. Don't bother asking us. Go straight to the experts who taught us the little we know.

 

[dougmander]

Every party of PCs I've DM'd for seems to evolve its own set of tactics. What works for them currently:

1. Cleric applies buffs to party members.
2. Sorcerer with invisibility and fly scouts out the enemy, then switches to air support mode once the enemy is engaged by the fighter/tank and the paladin.
3. Cleric on standby to heal, while rogue looks for sneak attack opportunities.

 

[Nifft]

That's all the more reason to confuse the issue. Glamer your armor to look like robes. If possible, get some spellcaster-friendly armor (Twilight mithral shirt, for instance) and Glamer it to look like heavier armor. Have the spellcaster wear a monk's robes and carry a sai or nunchucks. Have the monk wear mage's robes and stick a gem on the end of their quarterstaff. If you're a Psion, wave your hands and incant random sayings whenever it's convenient, so people think they're necessary for your powers. Alternately, hide your power displays and pretend to be a hireling cowering in the back.

Plus, illusions.

Bingo. Make your Monk look like a Mage, and your Mage look like a Monk, or dagger-wielding Rogue. Mages have the most flexibility thanks to Illusions, but Glammered armor is very flexible in this regard. Rogues can Use Magic Devices to appear quite mage-like, and still keep a dagger in their main hand.

When your foes come to expect this, nystul's magic aura to make it look like you are covered in illusions when you are not.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Angerland]

My last wizard (Dwarven) went many levels wearing masterwork leather armor. Since he also had a light crossbow and an owl most enemies assumed he was perhaps a Ranger. Later I added a +1 Mithril buckelr to the "look".


Remember there is ALWAYS something for your character to do. If you can't think of something else, aid another. Sometimes any little bit helps.

Be proactive rather than reactive. Make the DM react to you and not the other way around. This can be tough since the DM is running things but it still happens. Get to the enemies before they are ready, taking a different route, etc....

My last game was the wrap up of the Eberron module with White Hearth in it. I play a shifter druid. Since we won over the wolves/dire wolf in he forge we used them as scouts while waiting for Garrow to come find us. They were able to give us enough of a warning that we rope tricked just outside the entrance of the caves and waited for the enemy group to enter them. Then we came in behind them, incidentally right at Garrow, killing him in less than one round.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Powell Doctrine both considers the options prior to combat with a focus on specific questions such as 'do we have to', 'what is the end goal of combat', and 'how do we get out of this'..
Its also called the doctrine of Overwhelming Force... or as my old group used to say "Over-kill? Whats that?"

Back when we were playing Shadowrun, where combat is incredibly deadly and there are no resurrection spells, our GM posted on rec.games.frp.dnd looking for ideas on how to get us into combat, as we either avoided fights entirely, or when we did go into them it was with heavy ordnance and everything blazing in sick overkill, just to get it over with and make sure we were still breathing at the end. He eventually wound up ambushing us, a lot, which was a touch annoying.

The same applies in D&D, to a lesser extent (in that it's a lot harder to one-shot disable someone for most players). Dying with your high-level spell slots or expendable abilities unused is pointless, though. Ending the fight fast is good. If you can do it without fighting, so much the better.

Specifically useful tactics...target firepower to drop people (Victim wins!), try and control the battlefield to your advantage as much as possible, and don't be afraid to retreat if things are going against you.

Brad

 

[Zaruthustran]

Kinda easy to spot a wizard by what he wears. If he's wearing absolutely no armor ... *snaps fingers and point* ... that's a wizard.

Well, that's why if you're a wizard, you should wear leather clothing, carry a sickle, and have a sprig of holly on a thong around you're neck. Now you're a druid, and won't automatically draw fort spells (everyone knows druids have good fort saves) or melee opponents (everyone knows druids can turn into big scary bears).

Or buy a noble's outfit and wear a rapier at your hip. Now you're a deadly duelist or rogue. They won't toss Reflex spells at you, but they will hit you with Will spells.

Or wear a Disguise Self spell. Now you've got full plate, and those archers won't even bother trying to shoot at you.

I tell you, after my fighter kept getting hit by Charms and Hold Persons I just had him start wearing a big fat holy symbol (of a god of war) and carrying a few obvious spell component pouches. Solved the problem right away.