What are your party's combat tactics?

[Seule]

I'm in a couple groups, and run another, but only one group has interesting tactics. The rest all work well togetherm trying to maximize all our abilities and things like that, but in this one game we have:

1/2 Orc Paladin 10
Gnome Druid 11
1/2 Elf Cleric/Wizard 8/2
Elf Rogue 10
Human Evoker/Elemental Savant (Air) (Me) 5/5

With only one real front line fighter, our efforts go in large part to shoring her up in combat. The Druid and Cleric buff her with spells and heal her as she takes damage (Bull's Strength, Endurance, stuff like that), I also buff her (Polymorph Other into a Troll, Stoneskin) and then rain down the damage spells like Magic Missile, Lightning Bolt, Elemental Cascade and Ball Lightning, and the Rogue tumbles around mostly using missile fire, or occasionally providing flaniking for the paladin. We also use the Druid's ex-Companion, an advanced, Awakened tiger to great effect with things like Pounce attacks. Basically, we all support or revolve around the Paladin. She gets to shine, but we all know that without all of us, it wouldn't be possible, so we are all assisting. Oh, and we typically have 5+ Dispel Magics in the party, to deal with spells on her that we don't want.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Re: Tactics

Needless to say that 6 fireballs/flamestrikes per round destroy most opposition in an incredibly short amount of time. Therefore we consider to ban 'haste' from our campaign. It gives spellcasters too much advantage over non-spellcasters.

The real weak point of Hasting is you are burning a very large number of spells in a very short period of time. While that is a great way to overwhelm the opposition for a single combat, it works rather poorly if you have 3 or 4 fights in a single day.

If the DM does not make it obvious when The Big Fight is about to happen, deciding when to use those Hastes becomes pretty tricky. An illusionist or someone who fogs/walls an area and retreats can cause you guys a lot of problems.

 

[Rashak Mani]

The only reliable tactic has been the shooting from Horseback and retreating away from a slower enemy... even then once in a while someone miscalculates distance or thinks the monster is about to die anyway and gets overcozy...

In general thank ye Old gods... the fighters did (they died recently) follow my lead... I basically blinded / greased/ ColorSprayed the Minions and the Boss... the Barbarian would go straight to the dizzy/slipping/unconsc Bad Boss and whack him dead very fast.

Usually the fighter would help him out of course...while the cleric would keep away some minions with the help of the Rogue... the sorceror would take awful long time to cast something and I (Wizard) would keep on using incapacitating or damaging spells.

This straight to the main enemy thing worked very well in lower levels (2nd-3rd) against a Troll... the orcs around him were still alive when he died... so fast did we bypass the minions.

Against bigger stuff we tend to surround it and whack it to death... using missile weapons before hand of course.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Right now in the game I'm DMing, one player is a fighter (3), barbarian (1), rogue (1) and another player a rogue (5), in addition to other characters. These two are horribly effective as the fighter has mobility and moves through squares, taking attacks of opportunity like nothing, and setting up the rogue for terrible sneak attack damage. Oh, the agony... Lots of tumbling going on too. So much so that I may start using the rules in Arcana Unearthed.

Still, it's bad when the conjurerer (5) uses his dire badgers to allow the rogue to get his flanking bonus. I mean it's one thing to knock around one or two of 'em, but the guy ususually summons three of 'em at a crack. The agony I tell ya.

 

[shilsen]

Right now in the game I'm DMing, one player is a fighter (3), barbarian (1), rogue (1) and another player a rogue (5)...

Wow! There's a quartet with "ask me to make a Will save" floating above their heads

 

[Hypersmurf]

Right now in the game I'm DMing...

I give up... have you got the forum set to display threads in chronological order, ascending instead of descending?

Or are you just on a crusade to see how many two-year-old threads you can resurrect in one day?

-Hyp.

 

[Rashak Mani]

I give up... have you got the forum set to display threads in chronological order, ascending instead of descending?

Or are you just on a crusade to see how many two-year-old threads you can resurrect in one day?

-Hyp.

Two of them are old threads I started too... I was wondering about the same thing...

 

[Greybar]

What's the plan?
Get 'em!
That's the plan? Get 'em?

Yup, pretty much. My players generally go with the get 'em plan. However, this did change significantly after a PC death. Then they go a plan together, smacked down the big bad guy in a hurry, a proceded to foul up the easier follow-up scene resulting in two PC (+NPC) deaths. They they got a plan together again and whalloped the next bad guy.

They're on hiatus now, so we'll see if the cycle of plan-noplan returns when the game restarts.

john

 

[Norfleet]

Wow. No Altalazar. I'm disappointed in you, Altalazar. Somebody's trying to lay claim to your necromantic throne, and you have nothing to say?

 

[Mytholder]

Remind me not to show this thread to my players - they'll be far too pleased with themselves, as they've consistently used strong tactics. They're chewing up the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil at a great rate - we're about half-way through, and they've only really been overstretched three or four times. The key is having a strong leader and lots of in-character discussion of tactics.

The party is currently something like:
Human Pal9 - their main front-line fighter. Melee machine.
Dwarf Ftr5/Clr3/Divine Hammer1 - equipped with a cloak of arachnida and lots of hit points, focussing on axe and shield-fighting.
Fey (Elven) Ftr4/Rog4/Assassin 1 - archer, scout and occasional sneak attacker.
Human Clr8/Divine Exorcist 1: Healing and buffs, mostly.
Human Wiz6/sun-based PrC I can't remember right now 3 - blasting and more buffs.

Before a battle, everyone gets hasted and blessed. The Rogue is usually put under improved invisibility. The paladin is enlarged and liberally buffed, including bless weapon. The wizard is usually using flying. Then, the paladin and the dwarf charge in (in narrow conditions) or everyone stands off and fires bows or spiritual weapons. Both the dwarf and the rogue have spider climbing gear, so the narrow confines of the tunnel are used to great effect. The cleric backs up the paladin, healing him when he drops into the danger zone. The wizard throws area effect spells like confusion and lots of fireballs at any important targets.

Any fleeing foes are cut down with magic missiles.

They use message to stay in contact and share info on new threats. They're very good at keeping lines of retreat clear, and almost always pull out if they don't feel they can handle another fight.

Oh, and in emergencies, they've got the paladin's horse. It's nothing special in terms of the rules, but has twice shown up at exactly the right time to save them from Certain Doom.