Another strategy thread.

[alsih2o]

My players roleplay well. They are a ball to hang out with. They have created full characters who respond realistically.

And they need help in combat.

Can I ask for everyone to contribute all the tactics help they can?

Everythign from "Geek the mage!" Up through advanced screening.

Thanks.

 

[Voadam]

Flank when you can.

If you have a rogue have him maneuver to flank when he is in melee.

If they have a rogue, try to stick together so it is difficult for them to flank you.

Heavy armor high hit point warriors in front, artillery (archers and spellcasters) behind.

Tell others if you plan to do things that will interfere with them or that they could screw up ("I'm charming the minotaur, don't attack him yet.")

Hit things hard and fast. A quick offense is better than a slow defense.

Big things are nasty grapplers, develop tactics for avoiding their grapples or fighting when grappled (spike armor or gauntlets are good).

five foot step is your friend, use it wisely, avoid AoOs.

When you are low level there is no difference between move and attack and no move full attack, use your mobility.

Spell casters can move and cast in the same round, do so if movement will help.

Focus on one opponent at a time and take him out rather than damaging multiple ones a little. Dropping an opponent is worth more than hurting multiple opponents.

 

[Rel]

All good advice from Voadam.

It'd help if you could tell us the party composition and any specific encounters they've had lots of trouble with.

 

[ghettognome]

Don't let the mage/sorcerer get hit!! One of many many things that are super important. They can actually be good in combat if they don't die. Also try to disuade you players from really weak combos. While it is cool in flavor and fun to do, our mage decided to do his first level as a rogue, and has an 8 strength. He has hindered our party much more than he has helped, and he goes down a lot.

 

[RangerWickett]

Read The Adventurer's Guide to Surviving Anything. Pay attention to the basics, such as:

* Always have a spare weapon handy.
* Tell your allies what your tactics are.
* Make use of cover whenever possible.
* The battlefield is a weapon.
* Protect your allies, but don't cluster. Unless you have a very defensible position, you don't want to all be in the same spot, because it makes it easier for your foes to gang up on you.
* Gang up on your foes.
* Have a pre-arranged signal to let your friends know when you're bluffing. If you run at them with a sword and you make the signal, they can react differently than when you're dominated and being forced to kill them.

As for more specific tactics, it depends on where you fight, and who's in your party.

 

[arwink]

Good tactics are like beer - the stuff that everyone knows is good, the unique stuff that you find for yourself is better.

Know your characters, pick their strong and weak points, and work out how to play with them.

I've seen parties that had no front-line work brilliantly because the group learned to work in pairs rather than an entire team - keep your buddy safe, double up on an opponent. While there was no-one to keep the wizards and archers safe, they knew it was their job to keep themselves out of harms way (Spiderclimb and Entropic Sheild became a wildly popular tactic).

I've seen the same people fall over and die when playing a more balanced party, because the same tactics didn't work as well when the party was more evently spread along the fighter-theif-cleric-wizard line.

But at high levels, always make a point of enchanting and electrifying the armor spikes on the fighters armor. It can make things more difficult when you want to give him a victory hug, but it's worth it the first time a giant tries to pick him up and takes a butt-load of damage.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Power Attack more when you're only going to get one swing; use it less if you're going to get iterative attacks, as the loss of a potential hit on your second swing isn't always worth the big bonus on one hit.

Concentrate your fire - take out each opponent quickly, and do everything you can to remove your opponents attacks from the equation - daze, hold person, even just slow to drop a 2-Attack monster to a 1-Attack monster.

 

[Macbeth]

Pair up. Everybody should have a buddy. In BardStephenFox's campaign, my Psychic/Samurai often works together with the Martial Artist (basically a variant monk). We often flank the same opponent, letting the other front liner (a barbarian) choose his own target. This can also extend into roleplay. the Martial Artist and my Samurai are fairly good friends in general, so it makes sense that we work together in combat.

Talk Startegy before hand. If the PCs have any idea that combat is coming, they should define what everbody is expected to do. Before one of our bigger combats, against a gang of bandits, we all took roles. My Samurai, The Amrtial Artist and the Barbarian all went in to melee, with the Samurai and Martial artist working more or less together. The Ranger was responsible for taking out any runners. The magic-users (a Cleric and a Shaman, which is a spotaneous divine caster) were mostly to provide backup and healing. The Wanderer (Super skilled guy) did a little hit and run. We all knew what to do, it made the combat faster, and the group more coherent. We won, with nobody dropping below 0 hp, and only one bandit escaping.

 

[BSF]

Macbeth is correct. Working together will increase your effectiveness manfold. So far, his roup has come through some relatively difficult encounters. Things will continue to become harder for them and if they don't work together effectively, people are going to start feeling serious pain.

Know your capabilities. Learn the capabilities of your allies. Look for synergies that you can exploit. Do you have a monk & a rogue in the party? Let the monk use superior speed to get behind the opponent so the rogue can move forward and flank a round sooner. If things look bad, don't be afraid to drop a fireball where the rogue and monk are, they can both try to evade all the damage. It is risky, but sometimes desperate situations require desperate solutions.

Be aware of things like "full defense". If the opponent is not easy to defeat using melee attacks, then that tank has to shift gears to staying on her feet as long as possible while the rest of the party works on bringing the opponent down. Use "Aid another" to help get those hits in.

Use buffing spells if you have them and need them. But, don't be afraid to use spells other than buffing spells. You need to try out all of your spells to find good uses for them. Otherwise, you relegate spellcasters to combat enhancement only. As a group, you become a one-trick-pony. That is always bad news.

Consider anything that allows you to control movement on the battlefield. Whether it is a defensive position in a grove of trees, getting on a small hillock in a marsh, backing into a corner, using the various "wall" spells, solid fogs, or even grease to prevent a potential flank. You want to put the opponents where you want them, not where they want to be. Avoid being flanked. Even if it isn't a rogue, a fighter with power attack might turn that +2 to-hit into an extra +4 to damage instead. Those clumps that you joyously look for in your enemies (so the fireball hits a bunch of them) are something you do not want to do yourself. The game I play in has a resounding cautionary war cry when we find ourselves facing spellcasters "No clump!" Fireball is not a big deal because 3 of the 5 PC's have Evasion. But, the night when we were subjected to 4 Ice Storms hurt. We were only 11th level at the time and that many non-reflex save area-affect attacks hurt. We still won, but it did hurt. You want your opponents in places that serve you best, and you want to avoid placing yourselves in an advantageous position for your enemies.

As has been mentioned. There are times when it is much better to take your foes down one at a time. 4 Orcs = 4 attackers, 3 Orcs + 1 downed Orc = 3 attackers. DnD combat doesn't differentiate between the available attacks for a full-strength opponent vs a badly wounded opponent.

Know when to make exceptions to all the advice given here. It will happen. Play smart, play fun and don't ever get to the point where you always use the same tactic every time.

 

[The Souljourner]

Know your enemy. First thing we do when we encounter hostile humanoids is to ask what they're wearing - NPCs are just like PCs, they take equipment that plays to their strengths, so you can be pretty sure someone in fullplate is either a fighter or a cleric, someone without armor but a lot of wands is probably a wizard, etc. Most big "tough" monsters have good fortitude saves, but poor will saves.

Use the right spells against the right enemies. Fireball isn't going to do much to the rogue (who you figured out is just that because you asked what he was wearing and the DM said black leather and wielding a shortsword), but it'll tear up the fighter (full plate) and the wizard (robes, wands). Use spells with will and reflex saves against the fighters and big monsters, and the will saves and fort saves versus rogue types.

Know your spells... if you cast a spell that isn't dismissable (stinking cloud), make sure it's not going to screw you later in the fight.

I concentrate a lot on spells here because they're often the places where people have difficulty.. there's a lot to read and a lot to know.... but if you use them judiciously, you'll be a great help in any battle.

And sometimes you have to realize when you're just not going to be any help in a particular battle. Wizards in a battle against golems just aren't going to affect the creature much. If your character knows a kind of energy will slow the creature, then use that, but otherwise, just get out of the way.

When only one or two melee fighters is useful in a fight, due to high AC or damage reduction, if there are other melee guys standing around, don't just sit there like a bump on the log, give that guy all the help you can! One guy should flank, another should be using aid another... that's +4 to hit, that's a significant difference.

People often say don't clump, but it's just as true that you shouldn't spread yourselves too thin. Unless you greatly outmatch your enemies, it can hurt a lot if you run into the middle of the gang of enemies, and they all surround you and start pounding on you. Staying reasonably close together, like 5-10 feet between each person, assures that you can move to help each other without incurring too many attacks of opportunity, and that if anyone tries to surround you, they'll get surrounded in turn.

Always have ranged weapons!! I don't care if your fighter is greater weapon specialized in greatsword and has a +5 holy vorpal greatsword of flaming death, there's no excuse not to have a composite longbow hanging around. There are way too many flying baddies out there that just require arrows, not to mention when you get ambushed from across a chasm or something.

-The Souljourner