DMs, do you use the different combat options?

[hong]

This has been SOP since early 2E.

Lots of silly stuff was SOP in early 2E.

 

[diaglo]

yes i'd use them, but the key is not to use metagame knowledge. just b/c the DM knows the party's weaknesses doesn't mean the monsters do.

 

[shilsen]

I use them a good deal. I find that not only does it create variation in combat, but it encourages the players to think of doing more than simply standing there and swinging till someone drops.

 

[el-remmen]

First of all having the opponents use them will teacg the PCs how useful they are.

Secondly, intelligent opponents will certainly use them if they seem like it is a good choice for the situation - and clever animalistic/monstrous/beastial creatures will use them because of natural cunning as well.

An example, was when the party I am DMing now was climbing down a steppe towards a valley and an umber hulk came rumbling out of the steppe wall while the party was still half up and half down and bullrushed the party paladin off the side - further separarting the party.

Trip is great for multiple opponents as the others will gain +4 to hit until the PC gets up.

I would say introduced opponents that do these kinds of things sparingly until the players get the idea that these tactics could work for them as well.

 

[hong]

The others see periodic use, but it seems like they come in spurts.

.........

 

[Henry]

As a DM I don't use Sunder much (though I probably need to once or twice just for the heck of it), but Grapples, overruns, and bull rushes are typically used by larger creatures, and aid another is used a lot by creatures that are smaller and weaker than the party. Typically, a "goblin dog-pile" is a good tactic to use when the barbarian is laying about to and fro with his great cleave, because if you are 3' tall, and a giant is hewing you like cordwood, you've GOT to either take him down - which they try first with aid another - or run away, which is what the survivors do.

 

[maddman75]

I've found that NOTHING ticks off a player like trying to sunder their magic sword. They'll all pull out the stops when you start that nonsense. Some memorable tactics I recall

- Cleric casts a blade barrier, druid's awakened panther companion bullrushes them back into it as they run out.
- Group attacked by a wraith, only one of us has magic weapons. Whole group uses Aid Another to make sure he can hit it.
- Monk tripping everything in sight, including a stone golem.
- After the archer got cocky with 'well I'll just take the AoO, I introduced them to Sunder rules.
- My shifter changing into a Grey Render to get Improved Grab to shut down the high level cleric. Unfortunately she managed to get her Talisman of Ultimate Darkness out before we killed her, but I drug her down to hell with me (Coolest. Death. Evar.)

 

[MarauderX]

You gotta employ them to keep the fight more even and to let the players know what's fair for the goose is fair for the... NPC goose/gander.

 

[Mercule]

Whilst I don't consider them advanced techniques, they do raise the interest and difficulty of a combat. I do wonder however if the PCs will get owned by a group of NPCs that employ such techniques to artifically raise their ACs or Attack Bonuses, sunder weapons or trip fighters to get to the spellcasters. Especially if the PCs don't employ such tactics.

Well, maybe the PCs will start doing it, then.

That's how my group learned about defensive casting. The bad-guy Cleric cast defensively and the Fighter (soon to be Held) said, "Cool, an AoO." When I said "No," they were a bit stunned.

We then had a discussion about how it's not my job as DM to point out every little option available to them (especially when there is a feat and skill that deal primarily with the option). This is doubly true when everyone has their own PH and we've been playing the campaign for 6 months.

 

[dagger]

I created an evil improved sunder, two weapon fighting, improved shield bashing fighter that really pissed the PC's off. By they time they finished him off they were down to grappling him.