How to foil single-target focus?

[Pale Jackal]

Some good ideas in this thread, such as:

Try inventing some monsters who, when bloodied, get less dangerous but tougher to kill. Maybe an undead type - embodied and deadly, at first, but when bloodied their body crumbles into dust, leaving a wraithlike form... their attacks diminish (maybe they lose their savage melee basic, resorting instead to their lower-damage gaze ranged), but they simultaneously gain intangible, bump up their AC, and gain a damaging aura.

When bloodied, the target gains insubstantial and weakened. Sweet. Nice flavor for the ability, too.

 

[Nail]

I hope all the players out there are reading this thread. 'Cause once you know of a tactic, the tactic becomes less dangerous to you....

 

[MortalPlague]

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.

Also a good idea. That something I'll need to use. The dungeon I'm running right now lends itself to this sort of play. Stringing encounters together can be lots of fun.

 

[Hjorimir]

Start to focus fire back (I suggest you start with the creme-filled squishies that like to hide in the back) and force the players to take a more defensive posture. One good way to do this is not reveal all opponents in the first round (or two) of combat.

Players tend to get tunnel vision very easily and have a hard time switching targets. Learn 'em the hard way. (I suggest skirmishers n' lurkers).

 

[Ryujin]

Creatures that force movement; Split 'em up, move 'em out. When each PC has his own personal punching bag, they tend to forget to concentrate on one.

 

[On Puget Sound]

One of the monsters in the encounter (perhaps a statue or other mindless foe) curses everyone who attacks it. Once you are cursed, there is no disadvantage to being cursed again. The party knows about this, or can find out with an Arcana/ Nature/ Heal check. There is now a reason for one and only one party member to deal with that monster, so that only one ends up cursed.

For added fun, have several monsters, each with a different curse... one gives -1 attack, one gives -1 defenses, one is -1 speed, etc. And they reinforce each other, so if you have two curses they both last through 2 extended rests/ milestones, if you get 3 then all 3 last through 3 rests. Now each player wants to solo one and only one monster, and does NOT want to pick up a second curse by helping against a second.

 

[Rechan]

Creatures that force movement; Split 'em up, move 'em out. When each PC has his own personal punching bag, they tend to forget to concentrate on one.

MM2 has quite a few monsters who are about shifting or moving their movement while dragging PCs away.

I think it's the influence of the Avenger.

 

[Malicea]

It can really be as simple as having monsters with a variety of resistances and defences. It's rare for the whole party to attack the same defence or use the same element to attack, so there'll always be certain monsters who are much less worthwhile for certain party members to attack. It's quite unlikely that whole-party focus fire is always the most effective tactic actually.

 

[Rechan]

Here's a simple one: use monsters that can bring up a short amount of resistance.

Look at the Goliath, who once a round can bring up resist 5 until the start of its next turn. Use that as an example.

Perhaps a kind of monster that has an Immediate Reaction (Takes damage, encounter): Gain resist 5 until the end of next turn.

 

[msherman]

It can really be as simple as having monsters with a variety of resistances and defences. It's rare for the whole party to attack the same defence or use the same element to attack, so there'll always be certain monsters who are much less worthwhile for certain party members to attack. It's quite unlikely that whole-party focus fire is always the most effective tactic actually.

Demons, with their variable resistance, are a good example of a group with (potentially) different resistances that are likely to be found together.