Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 8933184" data-attributes="member: 50987">The best offense is a good defense, amirite?I'd go with enemy wizards...preferably abjuration wizards.  An upcast Counterspell is the solution to all of the bigger problems you mentioned: shield, spirit guardians, darkness, and so forth.  And when that fails, there's always an upcast dispel magic.  The best part is that Abjuration wizards get temporary hit points each time they cast these spells, which makes them harder to kill.   Upcast magic missile to avoid attack rolls altogether, using your highest-level spell slots to maximize damage and focus fire on the highest AC.  When the enemy wizards finally run out of spell slots, they flee and return a few hours later.Heat metal is another favorite to use against heavily-armored opponents.  Send in a troop of enemy druids, mounted on rust monsters...they're armed with nets, two of them have summoned swarms of poisonous spiders, and the rest have all cast call lightning one round ago when they saw the party enter their grove.Burrowing monsters like ankhegs and purple worms are pretty fun too, because if they need to get away from the spirit guardians and Devil's Sight sniper, they can just burrow out of danger and still be able to "see" their targets...and as cool as it is, Devil's Sight can't see through dirt and rock.But really, the problem here is just bad enemy tactics.  If the party casts spirit guardians, don't have the bad guys just stand in the AOE taking damage from it as if they have no choice in the matter.  Have them move out of the area!  Or better yet, have them flee from combat until the spell wears off, then return with active buffs.   Same thing for the darkness + Devil's Sight combo: if someone in the party casts that, the enemy should either dispel it or flee until the duration ends.Basically, think of it like this:  to make combat challenging for optimized characters, don't focus on "beat the armor class and remove their hit points."  Instead, focus on "take away their resources until they're forced to rest...and that's when I strike."  Forget about hit points--every time you cause them to cast shield guardians, think of it as "one point of damage."  Every time you force them to cast shield, every potion they drink, every limited-use class feature they use, think of it as "points" of "damage."  Eventually they will need to stop and rest, and that's when they're vulnerable...especially if they take off their armor to sleep.  (And if they don't, enforce the exhaustion rules.)</blockquote>

Verification