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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4034157" data-attributes="member: 58197">If they don't spread out, then they all get to fry in the pit fiend's fire aura and suffer the penalties of his fear aura, and have devils explode in their faces every round.  Clustering together is a bad plan against an enemy with area attacks.  Of course, spreading out is also a bad plan against a mobile enemy... kind of nasty, isn't it?The pit fiend will do best by moving from PC to PC, nailing them with sting and flaming mace so they're all taking damage over time.  And if your PCs don't move much, I can only assume you either have a group of all straight-up fighters, or some very dumb PCs, or you're not pushing them very hard.  I can tell you that in my games, when enemy melee troops pop up next to the party wizard with big toothy grins on their faces, that wizard does not just sit there.  Not to mention that many warrior-types have abilities that require them to move a certain distance (e.g., Skirmish), abilities that trigger on a charge (a lot of Bo9S maneuvers, Shock Trooper, Spirited Charge), et cetera.In any case, I suspect the main advantage to the pit fiend's ability to teleport its minions is that it offers supreme mobility.  It lets them move without being exposed to the "stickiness" that Defender classes in 4E normally possess, not to mention bypassing blockades set up by the Controller, and taking advantage of terrain.  The PCs think they have everything under control, the melee devils are all locked in combat with the fighter, the rogue is flanking, the cleric is buffing, and the wizard is casting from the back... and then suddenly the pit fiend is standing right on top of the wizard, and the legion devils are lined up to block the other PCs from getting through to him.That's tactics.I envision it as devils vanishing in a flash of smoke and fire and reappearing somewhere else in another flash.  Pyrotechnic, yes, but hardly unbelievable.  Or, if you prefer a more shadow-themed devil, they become one with the shifting shadows that cover the battlefield, only to emerge elsewhere.Of course it's a high-end combat encounter.  That's what a 4E stat block is for.  The rest is for the DM to fill in, with guidance from the fluff text and the ritual mechanics.  However, if you think you can just walk in and "swing until dead..."Yeah, somehow I don't think that'll work very well against a DM who plays the pit fiend intelligently.  It sure wouldn't against me.  You'd spend all your time struggling around trying to get past the fiend's minions, while the fiend teleported around the battlefield, picking off the squishier PCs one by one.  Or you'd huddle together in a group while the minions surrounded you and mobbed the casters, and the pit fiend stood with his arms folded, letting his aura roast you all alive and occasionally throwing an exploding devil at you.</blockquote>

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