The best strategy I've seen for the slaad is the "grappling into the main room" strategy. It wasn't going to be a great fit against this particular party, but I've used a similar tactic at times.
Against this particular party? It's not great. The front-line fighter is sitting at a +9 Athletics check, and the artificer has a reaction he can use (several times a day) to give him an additional +5 to an ability check. I suppose that the artificer could give it to the slaad to make things fair... fat chance!
In general, I like making things challenging for the party. Add terrain features or monster abilities that mean they can't rely on tried and true tactics. These things are great!
But five-foot-wide corridors often make it so some players can't play. It's not an interesting challenge for the players to solve - it's just frustration after frustration. It's very easy to come up with situations where the monsters can damage the party with little threat to themselves. (Just put the party in a 5-foot-wide corridor with a wizard-locked door at the end with a small hole that the monster can cast lightning bolt through). Does this lead to enjoyable play for everyone? No.
And five-foot-wide corridors are tremendously overused. Especially by Paizo, but it's been growing at Wizards as well. And given that Wizards don't seem to understand what size monster are, you now get the opposite situation to the usual frustration for players.
Cheers,
Merric
Against this particular party? It's not great. The front-line fighter is sitting at a +9 Athletics check, and the artificer has a reaction he can use (several times a day) to give him an additional +5 to an ability check. I suppose that the artificer could give it to the slaad to make things fair... fat chance!
In general, I like making things challenging for the party. Add terrain features or monster abilities that mean they can't rely on tried and true tactics. These things are great!
But five-foot-wide corridors often make it so some players can't play. It's not an interesting challenge for the players to solve - it's just frustration after frustration. It's very easy to come up with situations where the monsters can damage the party with little threat to themselves. (Just put the party in a 5-foot-wide corridor with a wizard-locked door at the end with a small hole that the monster can cast lightning bolt through). Does this lead to enjoyable play for everyone? No.
And five-foot-wide corridors are tremendously overused. Especially by Paizo, but it's been growing at Wizards as well. And given that Wizards don't seem to understand what size monster are, you now get the opposite situation to the usual frustration for players.
Cheers,
Merric