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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6927358" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Yes. Missile weapons and focus fire. Also stealth is good.My players' first encounter with drow was when they ventured into the caverns below the surface and ran into eight or nine drow (one Elite Warrior and eight regular drow IIRC) in the dark. The drow had 120' darkvision so advantage on all their attacks (which cancelled out disadvantage for being at long range on their crossbows) and the Necromancer's dozen or so skeletons had disadvantage to shoot back. The drow wound up knocking out both the Necromancer 9 and the Shadow Monk 6/Druid 3(ish) with their sleep poison and hand crossbows; they took enough casualties that they didn't stick around long enough to finish off the downed PCs in the face of skeleton archer counterfire, so the Necromancer lived (made enough death saves) while the monk died (failed three death saves).Other things that necromancers hate include bad terrain (have to jump this 15' canyon or take 4d6 falling damage? 4d6 is nothing to a PC, but 4d6 to each skeleton really hurts), infiltrating populated areas (trying to sneak 4 PCs into the Mind Flayer citadel is far easier than sneaking in 30 skeletons or 30 mercenaries), and monsters who are good at hit-and-run attacks (a white dragon who smashes 12 of your skeletons and then flies off to short rest and regain HP). Having skeletons means you're basically giving up the logistics of a PC Special Ops team in exchange for the logistics of a platoon or small company. If you as a DM design your adventures in such a way that a Special Ops team is the logical way to approach problems, necromancers and other minion-oriented PCs will self-limit. And you'll have a better game, because you'll finally have an answer to the question "Why is the King giving this quest to me instead of to his army?" This approach isn't really compatible with the "lots of easy encounters" Combat As Sport adventuring day meme, but it's perfectly compatible with the Combat As War paradigm.</blockquote>

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