Damaging Allies in Combat - Is it acceptable?

[ricardo440]

I play a sorceror and am very much against hitting allies.

Main reason is the HP of allies are so much lower than your enemies and the damage of the enemies is lower than your attacks.

So you do a disproportionate amount of damage to your allies.

Especially as I am at paragon tier and would find it a lot easier to hit my alies than enemies.

 

[Mr. Teapot]

You're asking the wrong people. The right people to ask are your other party members.

With my Invoker for a while I would attack my ally quite frequently, in order to it adjacent enemies. But I would always ask permission before doing so. Because even if he's okay with friendly fire in general, I need to make sure he has enough HPs on hand to deal with the attack, and that he agrees that hitting that many enemies is worth his lost HPs.

In one combat with a bunch of skirmishers, repeated Grasping Shards that hit the party Warden and multiple enemies worked really well: when slowed, the enemies couldn't use their mobility powers, and GS's low damage didn't hurt the warden too much. But I still asked permission each time to be sure.

 

[keterys]

No guts no glory. I welcome my indiscriminately aiming amigos to include me in their fun.

At least, most of my characters - I mean, my fighter might yell at them to avoid hitting his hair by aiming low, my warlord would want it to be in the pursuit of triumph over evil, and my paladin demand recompense in liquor later, but hey. My invoker might be okay with it if he was resistant or didn't think they were competent enough to hit him, but mostly he'd chide them for failure to execute a plan and allow him to set the battlefield up to aid them. My artificer would be okay with it if it were fire. He likes fire. Less so for lots of other stuff. My barbarian would be okay with it if it made things more exciting and dangerous. I mean, if he's allowed to leap off fifty foot walls to knock prone dragons, what's so scary about your magic. Meh. And I think he asked to be hit with a thunderwave once so he could get help leaping a chasm.

 

[babinro]

You're asking the wrong people. The right people to ask are your other party members.

Don't get me wrong, my party is the first to hear about my opinion on the matter...but that's all it is, an opinion. There's nothing in favor or against the rules about friendly fire...it just seems to me something the party would avoid. Also, if there were any out of character complaints about it then I would be sure to act on it.

I'm surprised how many people posted in favor of this occurring. Considering my party tends to avoid it except under highly beneficial circumstances, it sounds like we might be playing it safer than most. Its good to get feedback though, thanks!

 

[Holy Bovine]

I'm curious on people's takes on this. Is it justified to attack your allies as part of an attack in order to maximize effectiveness of powers?

If so, would the ally ever consider this attack an act of aggression against them?

My party almost entirely avoids friendly fire whenever possible. However, there are times when the paladin mass sanctions and lures creatures in. At which point the AOE powers are highly tempting to hit 3+ enemies even if one of the targets is the PC's Defender. Naturally the cleric follows this action up with immediate healing on the Defender...but does this make the actions right? Personally, as a DM and a player, I can see no justification to attack my party members.

Do people do this in your groups? Is it just considered good tactics?

As my party's defender (paladin) I call down fire on my position on a regular basis. As long as they can hit an enemy (preferably 2 or more of course) the defender can man up and take it.

And yes I've been critted by a fellow PC.

And taken ongoing damage.

For 5 rounds.

While fighting a Red Dragon.

I love this game!

 

[surfarcher]

LMAO! Classic!

 

[Kwalish Kid]

As the DM for that game, I can attest that it was only a matter of time before that player hit another PC with his attacks. And we still talk about it, every game session.

 

[Larrin]

My experience:

Hitting the tank; not a problem, you don't even need an excuse.
hitting the mage: you'd better have a good reason, and be willing to give them your healing potion;
Hitting the striker or leader: ask permission, and have some reason, and maybe offer some aid afterwards.

To be honest i'm betting if a player had a problem with taking damage from friendly fire, i doubt our group would do it. I've always sense a perverse pleasure from it though, its funny in a weird way. It makes for great stories.

 

[Vael]

Our Defenders have routinely called down AoEs on their position because they'd pulled the enemy to them for this tactic to work. That said, it's been dependent on the party makeup. Our blaster wizard would routinely use Scorching Burst to nuke as many foes as possible, even hitting allies. But the Illusionist wizard in another party avoids it ... the control effects are not worth inflicting upon allies, but pure damage is okay.

 

[Skallgrim]

My dwarf fighter deliberately encouraged this in a recent fight, because I was almost surrounded by bloodied Troglodytes. The wizard hit them all, hit me, and I used a utilty that let me shift when damaged by an attack, so I got out of the flank and escaped even more damage.

Of course, the last time the wizard did it before that, he critted on the dwarf, and missed every single enemy. So, it's not really an ideal tactic.

Encourage him to take War Wizardry and the feat that gives you a bonus to hit when your allies are in the area of effect, and start calling everyone "Spotter".