Let's Talk Player Tactics

[payn]

This is absolutely true, and one of the things that can be a pain in genres where its not what you normally see happen, because its very hard to make it not the winning way.

The devil is in the question of what translates into "the biggest threat" though. As an example, people playing Fragged Empire have to usually learn that a group of Henchmen is actually more dangerous than a Nemesis, and also more brittle, so you really want to put them down first; this can be true with some other games with mook rules too.

Absolutely. Understanding the action economy is important too. In my example, folks will often attack the nearest enemy because they can do so. The idea of spending a round to get into place to attack another foe feels wasted to them. It is not until too late they find out that one enemy was much more effective against them than the other.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Absolutely. Understanding the action economy is important too. In my example, folks will often attack the nearest enemy because they can do so. The idea of spending a round to get into place to attack another foe feels wasted to them. It is not until too late they find out that one enemy was much more effective against them than the other.

Certainly true. And how much you lose by changing targets matters too. I've been playing PF2e lately, and the fact you have at least one action that's likely not super-useful for an attack, and the fact only a limited set of opponents has attacks of opportunity means you'll see tactics you'd never see in D&D3 or PF1e.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I swear, every time. I don't know if it's something about the initiative structure or what, but sometimes it feels like the party's plan always falls apart the moment one little thing isn't exactly right. If the plan is PC 1 - throw a flask of oil, PC 2 - cast fireball, if PC 3 goes before 2, they're inevitably going to just charge into melee.

Tactic: spend 3/4 of the session planning. Spend the first round of combat not following the plan.

For player tactics, I'd start with a simple phalanx. Rather everyone going wherever, wait for the enemies to come to you. I've seen so many instances where a PC has gone to making death saves because the cleric wasn't close enough to heal, or where the wizard was left open to melee because the tank took the battle to the enemies. Just use the ready action and stay in place. You might not get extra attack, but sometimes you have to sacrifice offense for defense.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I swear, every time. I don't know if it's something about the initiative structure or what, but sometimes it feels like the party's plan always falls apart the moment one little thing isn't exactly right. If the plan is PC 1 - throw a flask of oil, PC 2 - cast fireball, if PC 3 goes before 2, they're inevitably going to just charge into melee.



For player tactics, I'd start with a simple phalanx. Rather everyone going wherever, wait for the enemies to come to you. I've seen so many instances where a PC has gone to making death saves because the cleric wasn't close enough to heal, or where the wizard was left open to melee because the tank took the battle to the enemies. Just use the ready action and stay in place. You might not get extra attack, but sometimes you have to sacrifice offense for defense.

Yeah. I’ve seen the same thing with pursuing fleeing enemies. A character runs after two fleeing enemies, finds themselves alone with no allies and the two enemies suddenly decide they like these odds.

 

[John Dallman]

A character runs after two fleeing enemies, finds themselves alone with no allies and the two enemies suddenly decide they like these odds.

I presume everyone has their parties gang up on the last few opponents at the end of large fights?

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I presume everyone has their parties gang up on the last few opponents at the end of large fights?

Not in my experience. I’ve seen enemies flee and some of the party wants to let them go while others are ambivalent and a last one is filled with blood lust and runs out in to the woods to cut the enemy down…and never comes back.

 

[Blue]

Identify the biggest threat and focus fire is usually a good go to tactic. Every one for themselves and just attacking whatever is nearest is usually bad.

Focus fire damage is a great idea. A small variant on the targeting though - identify the most reward for your attacks.

The biggest threat may also be the hardest to take down, so going after lesser but easier threats might help more. Especially if the game still allows opponents full offensive capability even when wounded up until the point they are taken out. Then beign able to shut down some foes quickly is better than going after the biggest threat even if they have the same ratio of offense to defense.

Another aspect in targeting is making sure you can do that focus fire. If going aginst some ground forces and some flying forces, do you focus fire on the ground where everyone can hit or split ranged against the flying and melee vs. ground? There's no right answer. Perhaps splitting is the right idea if the flying force is more to take down and if you focus fire on ground then there will be more actions wasted by your side as your melee combatants have no effective action late in the combat. Or focus fire is the way to go to eliminate offense ASAP.