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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JiffyPopTart" data-source="post: 6709229" data-attributes="member: 4881">Re-envision your combats using 3d space.  Make sure to include tactics in the encounter if the enemies are intelligent.    If combats usually consist of the paladin wading up to the biggest bad guy and blasting it with the crazy smite bonus damage (which seems a bit broken to me as a GM, but not unmanageable) mix it up and throw in other style encounters.  Smart (high WIS or INT) opponents shouldn't just wade in to be sliced up and fireballed.In the current adventure I am running I have had the following encounters, not all of which the party actually found...1.  A pack of wolves threatening the camp at night.  Skittish and unwilling to engage in direct melee, the paladin charging out into the darkness netting him nothing as the wolves ran away.  Ranged combat/spells won the day, forcing the wolves to retreat after enough were wounded.2. An attack by a swarm of stirges as the party is mountain climbing.  Attacking only those on the cliff-face, many athletics or acrobatics checks ensured those more skilled and less brute-force had a chance to shine.3.  An ambush from githyanki.  Using mage hand they created a diversion that the paladin, monk, and cleric went charging after.   Once they had left the rogue and wizard "behind" the hidden githyanki used misty step to surround the wizard instantly and demand "surrender or die".  The hidden githyanki  captain watched from afar still hidden and stepped in to repel any counter trickery by the PCs.4.  A roc notices the parties campfire and dives to grab one of their horses for lunch.  It grabbed the paladins "fake" horse first and when it disappeared in its claws it circled for a second go around.  The paladin decided to protect the horses while everyone else hid or ran.  After a few attempts at getting a horse and being foiled by spells, the roc finally lowers its standards and grabbed the paladin as it swooped by.  Does the paladin burn a super-smite attack when being carried 100' in the air?5.  A hermit stone giant ram-herder.  Missing some sheep eaten by a remorhaz(sp?) in the snowy caps of the mountains.  The party can parlay, trade, and even gain an ally if they detour to deal with his annoyance.Once this "travelling through the mountains" section of the adventure is over and the paladin arrives at the hidden mountain fortress of the vampire they are searching for I am sure he is going to once again return to his best-in-melee form.  Everyone should have an opportunity to be "the best" and its up to a good GM to provide all his players situations where they can be that best.  My outlook of the mountain section is that the HEAVY ARMOR guys are going to take a back seat for a bit.*My party: Vengeance Cleric, Fisticuffs Monk, Arcane Trickster, Abjuration Wizard, Healing Cleric</blockquote>

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