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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mad_Jack" data-source="post: 6990460" data-attributes="member: 6750306">In a large encounter, divide the monsters up into smaller groups that all act on the same initiative - all the archers go on one count, all the spearmen on another, etc... When designing the encounter, plan out ahead of time who'll be in which groups. Or if that's not possible, you can always split them up into groups during the fight based on their location in the battle or their particular task they're trying to accomplish.Unless you're fielding a couple dozen enemies against the party, it shouldn't be hard to keep track of four or five small groups...Also, as mentioned above, effective battle tactics need to be taught through training or  learned by experience. Even if a monster is clever enough to decide to  ambush an opponent, it doesn't necessarily follow that they'll know how  to (or be able to) do so in the most effective fashion.And there's a reason that officers in all modern armies are dressed and equipped exactly like the rest of the men when in combat... Unless the party is facing intelligent battle-hardened opponents, in the heat of combat it's not always going to be possible for those opponents to figure out (particularly in a useful amount of time) which character in the party is the healer or the spellcaster, or to know to target them specifically (nevermind focus-fire on them as a group). For example, how does one distinguish between a cleric and a paladin just by looking at them - they're both wearing platemail and a holy symbol and either could be carrying a sword or a mace or wearing a robe over their armor. Does a specific enemy know enough to even identify the holy symbol as such? If not, either one of them could be just another heavily-armored melee combatant until such time as they start chucking spells or smiting someone.From the opposite perspective, how does one assign target priority when the target that by all visual appearances is merely another melee combatant turns out to be an eldritch knight or arcane trickster?By the time these things are sorted out by clear evidence provided by the party's actions, chances are that at least some of the opposing force's ability to effectively utilize that knowledge has been neutralized/killed. And if the party has any tactical ability of their own, chances are good that they'll have taken steps to neutralize the enemy's ability to capitalize on that knowledge - if the bad guys are focus-firing on the squishies, they're not targeting the melee guys who will be taking that opportunity to get up in their faces.</blockquote>

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