Defeat The Vile 5' Step

[Veander]

If your PC wizards are laughing when your NPCs fighters engage them in melee....you need new NPC fighters. Ask around...people here love to optimize builds.

Just one greatsword hit on a mage (particularly at levels 1-5) can make any mage wonder if running is the best option. My last group protected their mages and sorcs, so when one of them was in melee, it was usually temporary or terminal.

 

[atom crash]

Flank the wizard or archer. When they take a 5' step, they are still threatened (assuming all combatants are medium).

 

[Diirk]

This strategy falls apart at higher levels where you can ready and manage to get an AoO on the opposing archer, only to have them shoot you full of 6 arrows.

 

[youspoonybard]

Actually, I was thinking, "Have the casters in your party cast Wall of Stone right behind the opposing casters."

Yeah, but that relies on a caster, the very people who are most likely to abuse the 5' step in the first place!

Shame! : )

 

[Jdvn1]

Yeah, but that relies on a caster, the very people who are most likely to abuse the 5' step in the first place!

Shame! : )

... But D&D is a team effort!

 

[frankthedm]

Orc warriors in vicious spiked armor make for fun grappling

 

[kjenks]

This strategy falls apart at higher levels where you can ready and manage to get an AoO on the opposing archer, only to have them shoot you full of 6 arrows.

You can Sunder as an AoO (Main 3.5e FAQ, page 30.)

If you don't want to sunder the bow (because the archer most likely has a really good attack bonus and a big enhancement bonus on his bow so it will be hard to sunder), sunder the quiver.

Sundering a Carried or Worn Object: You don’t use an opposed attack roll to damage a carried or worn object. Instead, just make an attack roll against the object’s AC. A carried or worn object’s AC is equal to 10 + its size modifier + the Dexterity modifier of the carrying or wearing character. Attacking a carried or worn object provokes an attack of opportunity just as attacking a held object does. To attempt to snatch away an item worn by a defender rather than damage it, see Disarm. You can’t sunder armor worn by another character.

So a leather quiver has AC 10 + 0 + Dex, hardness 2, hit points 5 (or less).

That quiver is a whole lot easier to smack down than sundering a bow, with your sunder attack opposed by the archer's attack bonus (BAB+Dex+enhancement+Weapon Focus-Rapid Shot feats), and then you've gotta do damage against wood, base hardness 5, base HP 10, but then, "Each +1 of enhancement bonus adds 2 to a weapon’s or shield’s hardness and +10 to its hit points."

After you sunder a quiver, the archer won't have too many arrows left unless he wants to take a move action, provoking AoOs, to pick them up from the ground one at a time.

 

[Gaiden]

... But D&D is a team effort!

Nah, I like characters that can go solo.

 

[Jdvn1]

Nah, I like characters that can go solo.

Then UMD a Scroll of Wall of Stone.

 

[Crimson_Manticore]

Pressing Attack

This probably isn’t really what you are looking for, but I thought it was pretty neat anyway. In the DragonStar campaign setting, there is a feat called “Pressing Attack”, that allows you to immediately follow an adjacent opponent that takes a 5’ step away from you. Basically, you take a 5’step at the same time they do, remaining adjacent to them. Of course you don’t need to have the DragonStar book to use this. Just introduce a feat into your game that does this and give it to a few of your NPC fighters. It would be even better if you had a group or organization that trained its members in this technique, so when the wizard and archer PCs encountered members of this group, they would quickly learn to fear them.