how would I do an encounter with prone snipers?

[darjr]

I ran an encounter where one of the monsters charged the ranged striker and knocked on is but. The fighter and wizard then locked that monster down and the other melee monsters, but the ranged striker decided to stay prone, I can't remember why now, and managed to do well against the other monster snipers. He rolled around on the ground the whole encounter.

I now have a player that likes to knock things prone, I want to recreate the above on the monsters side. Any recommendations? Have a handy encounter around where the monsters could do this?

 

[mneme]

For monster snipers that were intended to be prone, I'd probably give them some equivalent to the Rope of Slave Fighting -- otherwise they're taking a -2 penalty to attack rolls all fight.

 

[Legildur]

For monster snipers that were intended to be prone, I'd probably give them some equivalent to the Rope of Slave Fighting -- otherwise they're taking a -2 penalty to attack rolls all fight.

No books at work, but in 3xED you used to be able to fire a crossbow from prone with no penalty. Did they remove that in 4E? (I know that most 'monsters' won't be using a crossbow)

 

[Joshua Randall]

I've seen some encounters with "monster" snipers on a raised platform with a low wall. Assuming they start prone behind the wall (full cover, can't be targeted), their turn is...

Stand Up from prone (move action)
Attack with ranged weapon (standard action)
Reload weapon (minor action)
Drop Prone (free action)

Lather, rinse, repeat. Very annoying for the PCs until they can get up on the platform and stop this nonsense.

Or did Drop Prone get changed to a minor action? Can't remember. If it did, the monsters would need some way to free action reload, or to be using ranged powers that don't require a reload.

 

[P1NBACK]

I usually just house-rule that creatures do not suffer the -2 penalty to attack while prone if they are using a crossbow (you'd think they'd be more accurate, not less...).

You can also do all kinds of stuff with murder holes.

 

[Mengu]

No books at work, but in 3xED you used to be able to fire a crossbow from prone with no penalty. Did they remove that in 4E? (I know that most 'monsters' won't be using a crossbow)

In 4e, if you're prone, you take a -2 penalty to attacks. There is no exception for crossbow.

As for making monsters that fight prone, go crazy. Say they don't take penalty to attack due to being prone prone, they don't grant combat advantage against melee attacks due to being prone, they can shift while prone. That ought to do it. So for one encounter, the PC's will have a bit of a surprise dealing with the dirt mob.