DM's perspective: How to deal with the flaming sphere

[Orcus Porkus]

I find the flaming sphere to be quite challenging as DM, when my players use it.
So far, I've found only three strategies that work:
1) ignore it, and live with the damage
2) move the monsters so PC's are hopefully affected as well when the wizards wants to move the sphere
3) go after the wizard and kill him, which would end the sphere

This challenge also exists for other encounter long area effects.

Any ideas?

 

[Eldorian]

Use more ranged attackers.

 

[Orcus Porkus]

Yeah, but that doesn't solve the problem. I don't want to kill the wizard every encounter (read, focus all attacks on him) just to get rid of those area effects. It would be better to have a way to end the effect, without killing him.
Stunning him would work, because without being able to act, the wizard couldn't sustain the effect, right?

 

[Solodan]

It depends on the intelligence of the monsters.

Smart monsters: "Hey, that wiz just made this fire that's attacking me and my allies, it looks like he's controlling it still. Lets take him out because he's clearly a very dangerous threat"

Dumb Monsters: "Ack Fire!!!! Can't hurt it. Ooh, Tasty Defender!!!"

I don't think you'll kill the wizard every time, since it takes a smarter monster to want to kill the wiz. However, if it proves to be an effective use of a daily, then it'll be an interesting challenge for your players to defend the wizard while mr. wizard does his flamy thing.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Yeah, but that doesn't solve the problem. I don't want to kill the wizard every encounter (read, focus all attacks on him) just to get rid of those area effects. It would be better to have a way to end the effect, without killing him.
Stunning him would work, because without being able to act, the wizard couldn't sustain the effect, right?

Stunning works, as does unconciousness, dazing at least forces the wizard to do nothing but sustain the effect, which may make it much harder for him to do other things that might be important (move, if he's in a bad spot, or take his second wind, etc).

Also, depending on the terrain feature, it will often require more a move action to get it into position, so if you daze the wizard and move away, it can't get to you until the wizard is no longer dazed. Also, depending on the wizards ability to move the zone/conjuration/etc, you may be able to get away from it although it may involve taking a double move and giving up the attack for that turn.

Ultimately though, unless the wizard is doing considerably more with the flaming sphere than the other PCs are doing with their daily powers, it may make the wizard player feel a bit cheated if you are trying to make his daily as ineffective as possible, while doing very little to make say ... the warlord's Lead the Attack [or even how to "beat" the Wizard's sleep].

Now, giving the monsters a good strategy against zones and such is fine, as long as you aren't actually looking for a way to make your wizard player stop preparing those powers altogether and swapping them out when they level as they find them no longer worth using.

 

[Milambus]

Dispel?

 

[Bagpuss]

1st it is a daily so it isn't going to be every encounter (although saying that, there is always Stinking Cloud for the next encounter and more zones later on), it is also meant to be pretty effective.

Admittedly if the encounter goes on for a large number of rounds or the enemy is effectively grouped it can do way more damage than any other daily at 1st level. On those occasions, feel free to target the wizard for death.

On other occasions either suck up the damage (it's his daily after all), keep mobile, spread out, get in among his allies (they won't appreciate the damage). Use stunning or dazing attacks on the wizard (although this isn't always an option depending on the monsters).

My problem with it is how does it move? Can it move through allies or enemies squares?

 

[PeelSeel2]

In my group if the party met a monster that did that, their would be about three to four of them gang up on it to take it down.

When I DM, that is how I play a lot of the monsters to. They are going to take down the greatest threats.

I do not think it is unfair. It creates interesting dynamics and situations.

 

[Bagpuss]

I do not think it is unfair. It creates interesting dynamics and situations.

It makes the defenders actually earn their keep.

 

[Orcus Porkus]

I think spells like Flaming Sphere and Stinking Cloud create a sense of despair among the monsters.
First of all, it's horrible to be burned, or suffer from the cloud. Second, there is no way to escape it unless the terrain allows you to put the PC's between you and the cloud/sphere whatever. Whenever the monster ends its movement, the cloud will be there, waiting for the monster to start his turn, and burn.
I think it's unrealistic to not try everything to take down the source of this misery.
That's why I asked the question originally. I don't want to turn almost every encounter into "kill the wizard". But I also don't want the monsters to just suck it up.
What I did yesterday with stinking cloud, the BBEG managed to shove the defender into the cloud. The wizard then rolled the damage for his friend, and reduced him to zero. That was very satisfying, but not every monster has powers with forced movement. Too bad it didn't work with the wizard. He would have been killed by his own stinks! Also, the wizard ended up with zero healing surges and 2 failed death saving throws.
I noticed in general, monsters tend to have more powers that create status effects and ongoing damage, while PC's tend to have more powers that push, slide, or pull. For battle tactics, the PC's are usually in an advantage.
Bull rushing a PC with low Fort might be an idea. The idea is to make PC's understand that this area effect is not just a toy to move around, it can also harm themselves easily.