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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ydars" data-source="post: 4573114" data-attributes="member: 62992">Jack7; I agree with you that mundane tactics are far more reliable than magic (my comments are 3.5E specific at present) with two caveats. The first is that for tactics to work well you have to have; a) a high degree of tactical skill amongst ALL the players because if one screws up in combat it can mess up a well rehearsed retreat or manever very quickly. This is less true of gaming-tables where the DM is lenient about player-player communication during combat. I have been in a number of games where no player was allowed to help another player during combat; we could only exchange information that we could have done as our PCs. This is a big problem for many groups because of that lurker guy who has been coming to the game for 2 years but still doesn't know what the hell is going on. He is fun to play with and all but tactically a nightmare.  b) lots of different tactics to use in the same situation because DMs are human and if you keep using the same tactic for situation X then they are going to develop a counter-tactic that could lead to the party ending up on their backsides. So I like using LOW-LEVEL magic to annoy and counter the enemy. Don't get me wrong, we use tactics as well but we use magic as part of that. It has to be low-level because then the enemy can't be bothered countering it because it seems a tactically better option to attack the fighter with his +3 sword of stabbing than it is to dispel me, casting benign transposition and saving someone who is prone from getting 5 attacks of opportunity when they stand up. I like it when, it is only after the battle that people realise how pivotal some of my little spells have been in saving people's bacon. But spells run out right? Not if you have an everwand (Magic item compendium). For the paltry sum of 840 gold you can cast almost any first level spell an infinite number of times. Since the caster level is one, this is not a good choice for attack spells. as they don't deal any damage, but with an everwand of benign transposition, nerveskitter, backbiter etc they are a brilliant tool and can allow you to defeat the nastiest monsters with a bit of battlefield skullduggery. Oh and this is a great thread by the way; I look forward to seeing what tactics that incorporate magic and formations you advocate.</blockquote>

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