How to foil single-target focus?

[Paul Strack]

Have the monsters use the same tactics against the PCs. While the PCs focus fire on one monster, have the remaining monsters focus fire on one of the PCs. This should force the PCs to engage more monster to prevent them from dog-piling on a PC (and incidentally letting the defenders in your group really shine).

 

[MortalPlague]

Thanks for the excellent suggestions. There are some very good ideas presented here. First off, I can't believe I forgot about enemies who mark... that's a pretty good way to spread the attacks around. Swarms are also a great suggestion, and fortunately I have some coming up soon.

Try inventing some monsters who, when bloodied, get less dangerous but tougher to kill.

This is a great suggestion... creative, yet simple. I'm definitely going to have to use that sort of creature in an upcoming session. I also liked the 'multiple images' idea.

Or a monster who inflicts bad things on every individual who attacks it.

Again, a great idea. I'm definitely going to borrow this for use in my game. Used sparingly, this could really spice up combat.

 

[NMcCoy]

Make an enemy that has a special attack that requires "concentration" and goes off if they haven't been damaged since their last turn. (minor; recharges if the creature hasn't been damaged since the end of its last turn) Make the cues strong enough and the hit nasty enough to get the players' attention.

 

[keterys]

Or an enemy that gathers energy as it's hit, perhaps building up a damaging aura as it does so... and the aura decreases on its turn, so if you hit it several times in a row it becomes extremely dangerous (perhaps even exploding in some excessive way if it dies after being attacked a bunch of times), but once per turn no harm done.

 

[Psikus]

Yet another option would be making monsters that gain an attack bonus (or other powerful effect, like imposing conditions on PCs) each turn they are not attacked. Just don't use stunning or immobilizing effects as punishment, or your players will enter a vicious circle.

And, of course, my favourite alternative: Get the party into a dungeon full of gnomes! Fade Away (consider giving it as an at-will) is the ultimate tool against focus fire. And, of course, you have advantage of getting to kill dozens of the little nuisances

As I typed the previous paragraph, I thought of an interesting (evil) way to houserule Goblin Tactics: Let them have the shift as an interrupt, but trigger the second time they are attacked each turn. This is close to the original and fits the theme of the race, but it should force your players to change their tactics.

As a final note, I don't think it's reasonable to use these kind of methods for every encounter - it will grow old soon. Something you can use much more frequently (as in, always) is having multiple marking soldiers in each monster group.

 

[Neubert]

(This uses an effect end condition I've used a few times now - "Save Continues" - which seems to work really well. I'll go into that in another post if anyone's interested.)

Hey Eric,
I'm interested in that mechanic, could you go into some more detail with it?
Thanks.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Immoblize or slow characters so they can't get where the primary victim is. (Of course, that victim has to move around occasionally.)
Make it a bad idea to bunch up around one foe.
Soldiers and Controllers can be of great help here.

Use Skirmishers or Lurkers that attack "non-bunched-up" party members that strike from range.

Brutes and Soldiers are common targets chosen by PCs. Add Artillery to make someone want to get over to them. (Artillery is really nasty if they can shoot their ranged and area bursts unmolested, but they can't take much punishment and are really pressed when a melee foe engages them.)

Use Minions. Focusing fire on a Minion is useless, of course, but if you don't take them out, their damage piles up and the party wonders where all those hit points went. (Famous Last Words: "They were just Minions!")

I remember the dreaded Irontooth encounter... The party's Paladin dropped when swarmed by several Minions, and Irontooth didn't have to do much to take him down. (Made me really appreciate Minions as a DM ). A similar encounter was with Skeleton Minions using bows.

 

[Trevelyan]

You can always punish the party for focusing on a single target.

Multiple melee fighters surrounding one guy suffer if you have any close burst powers to attack with. Cave Trolls are also pretty amusing in this respect - picking up one PC to smash into another is vastly amusing and often forces teh party to take a step or two back. Alternatively, any monster which can rapidly teleport or shift away can act as a good lure, drawing the melee PCs into a tight bunch then escaping and leaving them neatly bunched up for the AoE attacks of the artillary to pound hard.

Ranged PCs can find themselves easy prey for lurkers and skirmishers if the melee defender types are all busy elsewhere. Phasing is a particularly useful ability in this regard allowing monsters to bypass walls in order to reach the ranged attackers. Combine this with a little difficult terrain to prevent easy shifting (or just use two skirmishers to flank the ranged PC) and you can distract the ranged PC from his target of choice while also providing a reason for a melee type to rush back and help.

Once you start to use tactics like this a lot the party will begin to recongise the implications of a given encounter line up sooner and be less inclined to rush towards a single target and leave themselves open.

 

[ChristopherA]

If you want to try some hard-core rules against focus fire in general, you can try the two I've been using:

Game Design Fanatic: Endurance Rule

Game Design Fanatic: Combat Fatigue Rule

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Two options come to mind that I hadn't seen above yet:

A> spread 'X resistant' critters out front, AoE X blaster in back. When the PCs dogpile, they all get into the nice blast template for the AoE..... replace 'X' with whatever element/attack form is best.
Entertaining option, Blaster NPC is using a ritual/ability that allows them to cast close blasts through an ally that was part of the ritual. Or it could be a magic item

B> Have a locked door {or something}, behind which is a really nasty monster. The goal of the NPC's is to unlock the door and bring the nasty monster into *this* encounter, so the group has to delay/stop *all* of them in order to rest before dealing with the big bad nasty.
Replace door with alarms that alert the rest of the dungeon, traps that divert the PC's route into more hazardous areas, ... etc..