Ignoring a flanker

[Hypersmurf]

I see it happening the other way. The defender will ignore the fighter (who probably would have hit him anyway) and concentrate on the rogue to prevent nasty surprise sneak attack damage.

Absolutely, and if there's a rogue, it's your best call (if ignoring is allowed). But when there's a fighter and a wizard attacking you in melee, you probably want to deny the fighter his attack bonuses to limit his Power Attack...

-Hyp.

 

[the Jester]

The ignoring a flanker idea horribly nerfs the rogue and severely limits the dm's ability to use hard to hit monsters in combat.

The epic party I dm for often runs into monsters that they can barely hit. That +2 is sometimes absolutely essential. If my big bad monsters can overcome the flanking bonus that easily, then they become that much tougher.

 

[tensen]

I'd say you provoke an AoO on the ignored party on your turn in combat each round you are ignoring him. The ignored fellow gets the normal +2 flank bonus on his attacks and you give up your Dex (and dodge) bonus(es) to that target (alllowing nasty suprise sneak attack damage to happen).

Thoughts?

Well. they'd already get the nasty sneak attack damage from the flank anyway.
But I do agree, that makes sense.
On thing I'd probably do is require a Will Save though.. People flinch even when they know things won't hurt them. Make it a reasonable save, but still have the chance that you can't ignore the person.


In most cases this seems like a valid change.
However, consider the situation where a swarm of Mooks attack you.
Common idea would be none of them are really a threat to you, and you can deal with them one at a time. But then you invalidate the whole idea of what flanking is. Not just an extra ability for the Rogue, but it is the whole concept of a mob ganing up on you like that and somewhere along the line, one of those weaklings gets in a good shot on you. Without making it so they need to roll a natural 20 for the result.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Not just an extra ability for the Rogue, but it is the whole concept of a mob ganing up on you like that and somewhere along the line, one of those weaklings gets in a good shot on you. Without making it so they need to roll a natural 20 for the result.

It's one reason I like the idea of using the Gaze Attack rules to pull it off. You can only ever deny the bonus to half the creatures attacking you... and the half you're ignoring get a nett plus four to their attack rolls (because they still get flanking bonuses, and they're striking as invisible attackers).

So the mob is still potentially dangerous. It might be that even with a +2, they'd still need a 20... but with a +4, they don't. Perhaps.

And the half you aren't ignoring don't try to hit you... they use Aid Another on the attacks of the other half, bringing the bonus up to +6...

-Hyp.

 

[Len]

But when there's a fighter and a wizard attacking you in melee, you probably want to deny the fighter his attack bonuses to limit his Power Attack...

I generally find that if there's a wizard attacking you in melee, it's not a wizard.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I generally find that if there's a wizard attacking you in melee, it's not a wizard.

Well, someone designed all those Range: Touch spells

-Hyp.

 

[Len]

People use those? I thought they were there because the guy who invented Cure X Wounds got bored of making divine spells.

 

[Hypersmurf]

People use those? I thought they were there because the guy who invented Cure X Wounds got bored of making divine spells.

Sure! Just the other day, the wizard in our game used a touch spell in melee...

... no, wait - my mistake. It was the barbarian using a greataxe in melee. The wizard was throwing Scorching Rays.

(Edit - although the wizard did cast a Lightning Bolt in melee. She was in a narrow corridor at the back of the party, and the Bearded Devil teleported in behind her...)

-Hyp.

 

[Nifft]

We used to have a Sorcerer who used his pseudo-dragon Improved Familiar to deliver Shocking Grasps... but he died.

-- N

 

[Darklone]

People use those? I thought they were there because the guy who invented Cure X Wounds got bored of making divine spells.

Well, in 3.0 I saw a hasted sorcerer with Vampiric Touch... he took lots of damage, but usually kept healing himself quite nicely...

But he needed a lot of buffs to pull that off.