Tactics for a four-person party (Tallarn out!)

[randomling]

I'm gaming tomorrow. I'm the only player, but I have a party of four characters. Love playing them all, but my downfall is battle tactics.... I have no idea what Tallarn (my DM) is going to throw at me, but could I have some generic ideas? I quite often do incurably dumb things, I'd like to avoid getting my characters killed.

The characters are:

Nate: An 8th level human fighter who specializes in the greatsword. Exciting feats: Great Cleave, Mobility, Combat Reflexes. Nate prides himself on being first to the charge and last to the retreat, he's brave, but reckless.

Enid: A 9th level dwarven fighter who lives and breathes the dwarven waraxe. She's rather more measured and sensible, but loves to charge too (she has Rhino Hide). Exciting Feats: Great Cleave, Improved Disarm, Expertise.

Carmel: An 8th level cleric of a gentle, wandering god, Carmel is a gentle, wandering soul herself. She is therefore not very battle-oriented, but has a nice line in dismissal spells (this proved useful against some slaadi). Cool spells: Lesser planar ally, fly, divination.

Edriel: A 4th level sorcerer/4th level rogue, and an elf. She's a cool character concept, I think, and one of her favourite things is to cast true strike and then sneak attack. Spells: True strike, charm person, change self, invisibility.

Is there any hope?

 

[Kaji]

Lots of Hope

Sure, lots of fun things you can do.

1. The Sorcerer/Rogue has invisibility, so she should be able to move into flanking positions with ease. Flank means sneak attack damage, of course.

2. I saw your cleric has Fly. Fantastic. The second the fighters go charging off, she cast fly. This should allow here to quickly catch up and cast buff spells while hovering over the melee, largely out of harms way.

3. Disarm is a great tactic to use. While other creatures are busy picking up their weapons, your busy smacking on them. I'd use this one a lot. It also prevent creatures without Quickdraw from getting a Full Attack.

And that's just off the cuff. Send more details on spells and other magic items and I'm sure I can think of more...

 

[Pielorinho]

Given the four PCs you're playing, you've got an ideal situation for buffing tactics. That cleric could easily pump most or all of her spells into making the frontline fighters strong and scary. Bull's strength, endurance, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, shield other are all great choices.

If your sorcerer has fly, consider casting it on some or all of the party. High mobility absolutely rocks in a battle. If you have haste, consider using it.

The sorcerer in our game tends to get very hurt because she thinks running into the midst of the action is a fine idea. DON'T DO THAT! Resist the temptation to join the battle just so that you can flank and sneak-attack. If you must use that tactic, cast invisibility on yourself and use ranged attacks. Ray of Frost is great for this.

Here's how I'd handle things:
The rogue should scout 60' ahead of the others, preferably invisible and flying. Report danger back to the group. The group should buff and prepare for the danger ahead, and then they should go in, fighters first, spellcasters hanging back a bit. The cleric should take healing duty on the back line of the fight while the sorcerer runs interference, either buffing the fighters or sneak-attacking vulnerable enemies or using disabling spells like Web to shut off groups of enemies.

Remember to use the delay and readied actions liberally: the fighter can yell out, "Cleric! Slap a heal spell on me!" and then delay; based on how well the spell heals him, he can stay in battle or double-move away. You want to time your actions carefully.

Have fun!
Daniel