Common High-Level Tactics

[Piratecat]

I think they read EN World selectively. They missed this thread.

What kind of saves did he have?

The DC was 34. Remember, the non-dispelled Fly spell meant that Agar didn't shoot upwards -- but we rolled saves anyways, just 'cause it's fun. His will save is out the roof, and he would have made every single will save in the high 30's and low 40's. He made three of the four fort saves, just barely, but would have flubbed the one that meant death. And he flubbed his reflex saves horribly, failing all but one, sometimes with rolls in the mid-20's. I think he has elemental protection that would have helped with some of that 200 points of damage, but it still would have been nasty.

Much fun.

Of course, they were on the mindflayer home world, also being attacked by a 400' tall colossus made out of tens of thousands of illithid skeletons at the time, so they had multiple things to worry about. "In scale, compared to our miniatures, that thing is SEVEN FEET TALL!"

 

[TarionzCousin]

Of course, they were on the mindflayer home world, also being attacked by a 400' tall colossus made out of tens of thousands of illithid skeletons at the time, so they had multiple things to worry about. "In scale, compared to our miniatures, that thing is SEVEN FEET TALL!"

So, for the mini you hired Olowakandi to stand on your dining room table wearing a Cthulhu mask, right?

 

[Qualidar]

A PC was being chased through a portal on Sigil. He went through, spun around, and cast a gate to the negative material plane directly on the other side of the portal. He then dismissed the gate as soon as he saw that the pursuer had accidentally passed through it. Poor bad guy never had a chance!

Nice! How long is it going to take before he pops up as a more powerful undead version of his former self?

~Qualidar~

 

[lukelightning]

Cloudkill? Yawn, when did we eat the Heroes Feast? Yep, I'm immune to poison. Damage spells? Am I still wearing the ring of evasion?

My black tentacles + cloudkill tactics isn't for fighting epic level PCs. It's a high level tactic as per this thread (depends on your definition of high level); so far my 11th level character hasn't fought any 24th level heroes-feasted-ring-of-evasioned-half-dragon-barbarians. But if you're attacked by a half dozen medusas or other "tough mooks" I think it's a pretty good tactic.

 

[Piratecat]

Nice! How long is it going to take before he pops up as a more powerful undead version of his former self?

It was the next game. The NPC was a runty black dragon assassin that I stole from Rich Burlew. After they tricked him onto the negative material plane, though, the heroes were pretty upset to figure out he had turned into undead. So the next day they went to him, and lured him out another gate -- and being sneaky enough that it wasn't a foreseeable repeat of the last trick, they got him into the positive material plane instead. He didn't last long after that.

Other good high level tactics: if a mid-level force of archers is well trained, have them ALL attack the same high-lvl hero at once. It can be devastatingly effective.

 

[Eridanis]

Can't wait to try some of these out. (We're playing Bloodstone converted to 3.5, and if my wizard survives tomorrow's game, he'll level and gain ninth-level spells...) It's obvious that I'll have to spend some time thinking about how to synergize with time stop.

Looking at his current spellbook, these jump out at me right away:
Arcana Form (from Book of Eldritch Might: turn incorporeal, fly, and use hit points to power your spells rather than casting them)
Prismatic Wall/Wall of Force/Warpwall/other crowd control
Delayed Blast Fireball (assuming you can time it correctly)
Mordenkainen's Sword (have it ready to attack foe when time stop drops off)
Antimagic Field
True Seeing/See Invisible

Of course, they were on the mindflayer home world, also being attacked by a 400' tall colossus made out of tens of thousands of illithid skeletons at the time, so they had multiple things to worry about. "In scale, compared to our miniatures, that thing is SEVEN FEET TALL!"

Thanks for my new sig!

 

[paradox42]

It's obvious that I'll have to spend some time thinking about how to synergize with time stop.
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Delayed Blast Fireball (assuming you can time it correctly)

There you go. Who needs timing when you can make your own time?

 

[Joshua Randall]

The key to high level play is to make the enemies proactive. It's not like the low levels where the monsters can just sit there in the dungeon waiting for the PCs to come along. If the "monsters" just sit around at high levels, the PCs will come along with 38 buffs up and some finely honed attack routine that kills everything in 1 round.

Let the enemies proactively go after the PCs. Make the players sweat. Make them paranoid about resting anywhere but in a magnificent mansion, and make them even think twice about that. Etc.

It makes for a much more interesting game.

 

[Reynard]

The key to high level play is to make the enemies proactive. It's not like the low levels where the monsters can just sit there in the dungeon waiting for the PCs to come along. If the "monsters" just sit around at high levels, the PCs will come along with 38 buffs up and some finely honed attack routine that kills everything in 1 round.

Let the enemies proactively go after the PCs. Make the players sweat. Make them paranoid about resting anywhere but in a magnificent mansion, and make them even think twice about that. Etc.

It makes for a much more interesting game.

I learned this lesson while running a 13th-ish level Eberron game with evil PCs (going up against worse evils, not the good guys).

I also learned that some players, used to being the proactive ones, get really upset when the high level enemies use the same tactics against the PCs.

 

[Joshua Randall]

A high-ish level tactic I have used with some success:

* Anti-Life Shell + spell barrage + undead bodyguards

Why doesn't anti-life shell get more love? It completely keeps those pesky enemy fighters from getting all up in your face and grappling you. But your undead minions are free to move in and out of the shell as necessary. Meanwhile, you can sit back and rain down flame strike or firestorm or implosion or whatever.

You'll want to kill the enemy spellcasters, then archers, first. But that goes for every fight.