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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doctor Proctor" data-source="post: 4518214" data-attributes="member: 78547">You know, I actually have to disagree with you on that.  For first level characters, this is true.  But think about it, if you have a party that's been through a few tussles before, they know what they're doing.  Even the Cleric will understand what it means to be part of a fighting unit and what kind of tactics need to be used.  When you're level 28 and fighting some Gargantuan Ancient White Dragon everyone in the party is an experienced vet and knows not to do stupid things.To an extent, this is already handled without RPing it because you all play together and learn each other's styles and combat capabilities.  If you want to RP it though, the whole "not understanding complex tactics" will go away within the first couple levels.  If the systems is designed such that approximately 10 encounters = 1 level, then at level 3 (at the end of Keep on the Shadowfell, for example) your character has been through 30 or so encounters now.  Some will be skill challenges, that's true, but even conservatively that's at least 20 encounters.   While this is true to an extent, it's also a byproduct of fighting together for awhile.  If you were stricly RPing everything, eventually your characters would become concerned about action economy.  You don't want to be stuck halfway down in a dungeon with no dailies and the big baddy still ahead, do you?Now myself, I'm a Fighter, so I'm supposed to tactically mindful of the way the battle is going.  I often try to work with our Rogue to get him combat advantage, and I'm constantly looking for the most opportune time to use my powers such as my Dragon Breath.  Even still though, I'm not economizing every single action, that would be taking it a bit too far.  But simply looking at what you're doing and thinking "Is this action worth spending my standard action and giving up my attack?  If so, is it worth spending my action point to get another standard action so that I can attack this round?"KarinsDad:  I don't understand how you can argue that point, and then question the decisions of a DM that's opening himself to AoO's.  If it makes more sense for the NPC's to swarm single targets, and the Fighter isn't a good choice always, then it's perfectly understandable why they might be willing to risk AoO's to get the Leader.  As you yourself said, it's much more costly to heal the Leader when they fall than for the Leader to heal, say, the Fighter.For example, one of the Fighter's class skills is Heal.  Since Fighters often had decent Wisdom scores, it's a good skill to have.  If the NPC's knock down the Leader then the Fighter might end up being the one trying to get back to them to heal them.  This would mean that now the Fighter would most likely be provoking AoO's, which would even the odds considering the AoO's that the NPC's had to take to get past him, and then he would be blowing a standard action to use Heal on the Leader.  If he failed the check, then he might even have to blow another standard action to try again!  This is great action economy because the Fighter is now hurt, the Leader is down and the Fighter is blowing standard actions to heal the Leader rather than fighting and marking enemies.Zombies and Goblins might not go this route, but it's perfectly justifiable for a more intelligent enemy like a Hobgoblin (or Goblins led by a Hobgoblin) to do something like this.  So it might not happen every encounter but it's bound to come up when dealing with more intelligent enemies that would be more versed in battlefield tactics.</blockquote>

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