Best opening move...

[dj2145]

I'm putting this under characters as it is more of a character building exercise than a combat one per se. My question is this: what is the best opening attack/class/tactic you have ever come up with? Now this is obviously a very open question as each confrontation will change based on the enemy but in general, assuming a land based opponent in an arena style conflict what has worked best? Is there a magical trip/sunder/grapple/etc tactic that just seems to work best when used by a particular player class?

I love the tactics of 3.5 but have never been able to find a good arena style game to work out different 1 v 1 tactics yet. Any thoughts?

 

[Hypersmurf]

We had a fun opening tactic in a PbEM recently.

We'd arrived at the evil temple just as the ritual to summon an overfiend was coming to its conclusion. The girl was on the altar, surrounded by evil priests. Her wrists had already been slashed; as far as we could tell, when she died, the demon would appear. And there were lots of priests between us and her... trying to reach her before one of them stuck a knife in her heart would be a dubious proposition.

Our Psion manifested Time Hop on the girl.

That gave us thirteen rounds to take out the evil priests without worrying about collateral damage or overdemons...

-Hyp.

 

[Thanee]

Well... familiar imbued Cloudkill + Dimensional Lock + quickened Forcecage works quite well, I guess.
Never tried it, tho.

Bye
Thanee

 

[rowport]

Of the top of my head, the best melee options that I have considered (but never tried are):

Pounce/Full Attack with a Scout Two-Weapon fighter with Natural Attacks

or

Leaping Charge with a Barbarian Oversized-Greatsword wielder with Improved Critical, Reckless Rage, and Power Attack.

The first one jumps forward and whales on an opponent with lots and lots of attacks with Skirmish damage, while the second leaps up and lands a single devastating attack.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

What book is Leaping Charge in?

 

[Infiniti2000]

I love the tactics of 3.5 but have never been able to find a good arena style game to work out different 1 v 1 tactics yet. Any thoughts?

Have you seen the Battle of All Alignments?

 

[Coredump]

I am kinda partial to the old standby.... Battlemind and Enhance Ability.

Oh....um...did you mean DnD??

 

[Brain]

Well... familiar imbued Cloudkill + Dimensional Lock + quickened Forcecage works quite well, I guess.
Never tried it, tho.

Bye
Thanee

Along a similar vein, a familiar Imbued Mind Fog + Chained Tasha's Hideous Laughter was a lot of fun.

My high level War Mind's favorite is Psionic Lion's Charge with Heedless Charge (Combat Brute) pumped to the max, charging exactly 10' and sweeping striking two squares at once.

 

[Taloras]

Hmm....well, i dont know how well this will work in your game(as Im not quite sure where they got all these), but I always found with my half drow fighter(halberder with a few special abilities) charge in first round, whirlwind attack next. But then again, I was gone for 6 months while they kept my fighter in the game, they gave him the ability to use the halberd as a reach weapon(with WA hitting everything in reach) and a 2x whirlwind attack(I hit everyone twice). added in with knockdown and improved trip.....it got nasty. 1d10+17 points twice to everyone within 10 feet....(not to mention if i crit, which was likely, with makes it 3d10+61).....that got some reactions.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I am kinda partial to the old standby.... Battlemind and Enhance Ability.

Oh....um...did you mean DnD??

Bah! Move Object to yank their weapons from their hands! It's DC 10, which is trivial, for almost every weapon extant, and the Save DC is 10 + Force level!