Favorite combat tactics? (2nd attempt)

[cignus_pfaccari]

Go through the back door. Not every location will have an open back door, but your resources may make an opportunity that fits the condition.

Be aware of time pressure. Strategic hurries are not always tactical hurries. Tomb complexes, for example, you can typically take your time with.

Geek the mage first. This doesn't necessarily mean that you always kill the arcane caster first, but go for the largest point source of damage that's the easiest to take out, which often is the wizard. It helps if you have intel on what you're facing.

Brad

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Geek the mage first. This doesn't necessarily mean that you always kill the arcane caster first, but go for the largest point source of damage that's the easiest to take out, which often is the wizard. It helps if you have intel on what you're facing.

One of the things that you need to consider is that not all combatants are subject to the same dangers. Greatest threat is relative.

Consider a fight against a Barbarian and a Wizard. The party you control consists of a Dwarven fighter and a Rogue.

The dwarven fighter will have a strong AC and high HP. The Barbarian is not as immediate a threat to him as the mage.

But the Rogue probably has a bit more to fear from the Barbarian then he does from the Mage. The Rogue will have uncanny dodge, and probably a decent dex based AC, so he does not need to be as afraid of the Mage, since he is well defended against touch based spells and spells requireing a reflex save. The Barbarian has uncanny dodge, so he wont be as subject to sneak attack damage.

Also, sometimes there is no mage. If your up against 5 or 6 hill giants, there is no obvious target to focus on.


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[Hussar]

I do every day at work, when I get out of the elevator. Except we don't actually huddle together, unless we're all real friendly. Granted, a typical elevator is not exactly 5x5 (more like 6x6 or thereabouts), but it's certainly not appreciably bigger than a square.

Note that, in Real Life, SWAT teams do not each occupy their own 5' square when they're getting ready to pile through a door.

Brad

Thankees sah.

A tactic that makes any group is synergy. This is the one failing I see in group after group. Everyone wants to be the hero and do the most damage. While there's nothing wrong with that, a party which is willing to forego the spotlight in order to be more effective is just that - more effective.

Sure, it's great to do massive damage with power attack. But, instead, why not fight defensively and try to trip? Everyone else stands back and lobs whatever on the prone target. Get your second rank to carry longspears. Sure, the rogue that wants to be that leet knife thrower might balk but, again, sacrificing a bit of style for pragmatics works.

Sacrifice charging for backing up a single move and throwing spears. Sure, it's not sexy, but, hey, it's much nicer to whack that troll with half a dozen spears and arrows before he gets into melee range. Remember, you can carry a single handed weapon and two handed weapon at the same time. Lob the spear and take a two handed grip on your reach weapon to tag them on the way in.

Ready an enlarge spell in case someone gets grappled. (A tactic I saw recently) Sure, it's not going to win you any sagas, but, the guy who gets snatched by the grell is going to love you.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Great thread! I wish I had seen the original, I am taking notes!

 

[shilsen]

A tactic that makes any group is synergy. This is the one failing I see in group after group.

That's an excellent point. The importance of teaming up (beyond the basic issue of flanking) and supporting each other's strengths and masking each other's weaknesses is lost on most groups.

Everyone wants to be the hero and do the most damage. While there's nothing wrong with that, a party which is willing to forego the spotlight in order to be more effective is just that - more effective.

True. In my experience, the least effective method of taking enemies down in 3e is via their hit points. The most effective tactics are invariably those that allow one to take out enemies some other way, and one of the nice things about 3e is that there are just as many options for it if you're a non-spellcaster (using trip, sunder, disarm, grapple, etc) as there are for spellcasters.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

The previous post makes a very important point. It is often much easier to render an opponent ineffective than it is to deplete their HP. The game provides a number of ways to render an opponent ineffective.

- Reduce HP to zero, forcing unconciousness.
- Inflict ability damage to render opponent unconcious (spells or poisons)
- Grapple and pin an opponent
- Render them helpless with a spell (sleep, hold person)
- Render them helpless with poisons
- Make them unable to attack you and your allies (wall spells between you and them, sealing a door, Invisibility, Gaseous form)
- Send them far away (Banishment, Teleport)
- Render them Harmless (Polymorph them into a small rodent, Disarm them)

As a character increases in level, their HP and their saving throws scale upwards. But they still have one weapon (or at least one magical weapon), are still subject to wall spells, and can still be pinned. And their abilities do not scale nearly as quickly as their HP.

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[Hussar]

Battlefield control spells are among the most powerful tactic in the game. If you can limit the movement of opponents, you can decimate them. For example, in a large room with multiple entrances, instead of allowing reinforcements to arrive, drop a wall of something spell in front of the doors, trapping whatever you are fighting in the room and preventing additional forces from arriving.

Again, it gets to the idea that doing the most damage is not the best tactic all the time.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Battlefield control without spells

Acheiving battlefield control is always a fine thing to do. But there are plenty of ways to acheive it that dont require magic. Unfortunately, without magic, they usually require alot of advance preparation. So this post is more relevant to DMs then to players.

Battlefield control in dungeons is easy. You have walls, corridors, and doorways. Doors can be sealed, either with a grated portculis or barred door, to allow ranged attacks, or with solid doors to just isolate people. You can also have the dungeon suited for the residents. Kobolds and Goblins dont need much head room. Minotaurs or Ogres can have doors that consist of massivly heavy stone blocks that they can lift on a take 10 Str check, but that weaker races cannot easily lift. But the cornerstone to dungeon battlefield control is the use of traps and hazards. The residents know where not to step, but the PC's dont.

Battlefield control outside of the confines of a dungeon is very difficult to acheive without magic though. While total control may not be possible, you can give yourself a huge edge with some preparation. High ground, and the use of cover and concealment are the starting points. The use of traps is still possible as well. You can set up trip cords, rope traps, rock slides, and punjii pits to leverage whats already in place. Forcing your opponent to approach you through knee deep mud will work quite well, as an example.

Essentially, if you know the ground your fighting on, you can exploit what is already present. Its not the same as battle field control, but it is leverage.

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[Hussar]

Something to remember about outdoor battles is mounts. With a couple of feats, a level 1 goblin worg rider with a lance can dump massive damage. Double damage on the charge and he can negate the first hit against his mount sometimes since people want to take out the mount. Spirited charge is great, but it leaves you open to counter attack. It's better to soften things up a bit first with ride by attack. Just make sure that after each attack you put some hard cover between you and whatever you just tagged so that there is no return charge. If you keep moving far enough to force the double moves, you can make several attacks before your opponent gets a single one in.

This tactic works best if the party is willing to forego attacks from round to round in order to keep spacing with the opponent.

I look at it this way - I'd much rather do a little damage once in a while and take NO damage than do massive damage and invite retaliation. DM's, over a long enough period WILL roll critical hits.

 

[Dei]

Just remembered one we developed a while ago. Our party cleric had been polymorphed into a Lizard but made the will save to keep his mind/spells. However, since no-one in the party could remove the spell and we were in the middle of the High Forest he stayed that way for several sessions. During that time we almost universally had him perched on the party tank's backpack or taking cover in his extensive armour meaning that and enemies could never figure out where the hell all the healing our tank was getting was coming from. He used to just wade in, take all the hits and get healed up as he fought with no AOOs or readied actions to interrupt the spells since they were coming from inside his armour. We were almost disappointed when we finally came across a scroll of break enchantment that could turn him back .