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<blockquote data-quote="Prestidigitalis" data-source="post: 4404690" data-attributes="member: 74496">I suspect the orb-augmented control spells exist primarily to allow wizards to be effective against Solos, Elites and other BBEGs.&nbsp; So it's not &quot;Huh, no minions in this encounter.&nbsp; Hey DM, have my wizard cast Magic Missile every round while I call the pizza place.&quot;As for the AoE spells, they were probably thinking of the old tactical dichotomy: bunching is good some of the time, dispersal is good some of the time.&nbsp; If your AoE capability forces the monsters to disperse, it neutralizes some types of tactics.The problem is that 4e doesn't usually feature massed tank formations or pike squares, the most obvious &quot;real world&quot; cases where bunching is a good idea.&nbsp; (Note: that's &quot;most obvious&quot; to me.)&nbsp; Ignoring the trivial case where &quot;there are so many critters they pack into the room like sardines&quot;, there are only two cases where I can see bunching as an effective monster tactic:1. The monsters form a defensive perimeter around a powerful, soft target like the BBEG.&nbsp; Since the usual command of a BBEG is &quot;Kill them all&quot; and not &quot;Keep them off of me&quot;, I doubt if that would be very common.2. The monsters swamp a front-line fighter.&nbsp; Now this really will be quite common, but because the fighter is in the middle of the throng, it cuts down the practicality of laying an AoE into them.&nbsp; You might be able to slice away one edge, but that's about it.Am I missing a case?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Prestidigitalis, post: 4404690, member: 74496"] I suspect the orb-augmented control spells exist primarily to allow wizards to be effective against Solos, Elites and other BBEGs. So it's not "Huh, no minions in this encounter. Hey DM, have my wizard cast Magic Missile every round while I call the pizza place." As for the AoE spells, they were probably thinking of the old tactical dichotomy: bunching is good some of the time, dispersal is good some of the time. If your AoE capability forces the monsters to disperse, it neutralizes some types of tactics. The problem is that 4e doesn't usually feature massed tank formations or pike squares, the most obvious "real world" cases where bunching is a good idea. (Note: that's "most obvious" to [I]me[/I].) Ignoring the trivial case where "there are so many critters they pack into the room like sardines", there are only two cases where I can see bunching as an effective monster tactic: 1. The monsters form a defensive perimeter around a powerful, soft target like the BBEG. Since the usual command of a BBEG is "Kill them all" and not "Keep them off of me", I doubt if that would be very common. 2. The monsters swamp a front-line fighter. Now this really will be quite common, but because the fighter is in the middle of the throng, it cuts down the practicality of laying an AoE into them. You might be able to slice away one edge, but that's about it. Am I missing a case? [/QUOTE]

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