Wizard + Dungeon Door = Invincible Wizard?

[Ibixat]

My solution is simple, a crossbow trap on the wall in the hallway on the opposite side of the door, triggered by stepping on the plate on the room side of the door. Everyone in the room is out of it's line of sight and closing the door blocks it entirely, but anyone left in the outside hallway... well they are good targets... or hell flank the door with 2 of them and put one on the far side of the door.. If anyone attacks one or tries to disarm it that triggers them to start... and the plate on the other side of the door.

That will get everyone into the room fast =)

 

[Eccles]

Creatures with phasing.

Ghsts. That's all I'm saying.

 

[Yurius]

A Wizard is Supposed to Be a Coward

I've been a bit annoyed with the party's wizard lately. I've been sending them through a sizeable dungeon, with doors and every combat, he simply sits behind the door and attacks from there, while the rest of the part moves in and actually engages the enemy. I know this is part of the wizard's job, but I was wondering if I'm missing something in my encounter design that could improve upon that might get the wizard to move into the actual encounter area.

Should I use more lurkers? I don't use many as it is. The entire party also has taken Improved Initiative, so the start of every combat usually goes like so:
1. Wizard: blow up everyone in the room.
2. Everyone in the party attacks the monsters and blocks the path to the wizard.
3. Monster go.

I like to go with some simulationism in my game, and some things to just make the game better. I use unrealistically large encounter areas, but not every room can have a 10-20 foot wide doorway. I also like to keep the encounters in theme, which kinda prohibits me from say, attaching say, vine horror to a gnoll encounter group.

Any suggestions?

I don't see the problem. My 3E Wizard, spent almost all of his time invisible, flying, with mirror image on. Now, I cannot do that in 4E, so I try to improvise by using cover and staying out of melee range and keeping the enemy at the maximum spell range.

 

[Appleseeth]

First of all thanks for all the great suggestions, I'll definitely try and integrate these ideas into my next dungeon, which I'm just about to begin designing.

By all rights the wizard should try and be as evasive as possible. When I do manage to get someone around to smack him, he definitely puts his thinking cap on to figure out how to get out of the situation. As is though, when he can get away with it like he has, it just seems too easy for him. While the rest of the party is working hard together coming up with the best battle tactics, which I encourage, and sometimes suggest, the wizard might as well be sitting in a lawn chair saying "I'm squishing your head". I think that is what may be mainly bothering me.

 

[Bagpuss]

Once your wizard is in position does he do the....

end of last turn
Free Action - Drop Prone +2 all defenses against ranged attacks from none adjacent opponents.

His turn
Move Action - Stand Up
Standard Action - ranged attack no penalty.
Free Action - Drop Prone

If not you haven't made in paranoid enough about archers yet.

Then once he starts doing that, have a Striker come out of a side corridor and take advantage of the combat advantage he grants.

Keep him on his toes.

 

[LightPhoenix]

By all rights the wizard should try and be as evasive as possible. When I do manage to get someone around to smack him, he definitely puts his thinking cap on to figure out how to get out of the situation.

The best evasion is not to get in a situation where you get smacked around in the first place.

As is though, when he can get away with it like he has, it just seems too easy for him. While the rest of the party is working hard together coming up with the best battle tactics, which I encourage, and sometimes suggest, the wizard might as well be sitting in a lawn chair saying "I'm squishing your head". I think that is what may be mainly bothering me.

Can you go into a little more detail with this? I guess I'm confused as to what the problem really is. Is it that the Wizard isn't in melee, and therefore it doesn't feel like he's really at risk? Or is it really a player issue, in that the player doesn't seem engaged in the game?

If it's a character risk issue, a lot of the suggestions already posted will work fine. If it's a player interest issue, then that requires more than encounter design.

 

[Caliban]

Sounds like you need to include some enemy controllers and ranged attackers in your fights.

Drop a zone or other effect on the wizard so that he doesn't want to stay there. (Enemy with the wizard template who drops flaming sphere, etc.)

Shadar-kai or other opponents that can teleport past the front line and start tearing things up from the back.

Have some fights in an open area (woods, on a boat in water, large cavern with stuff on the ceiling, etc.)

Just don't make it so that everything can always get to the wizard. That's no fun for the wizard player after awhile.

 

[Mengu]

Honestly, I don't know that it's a problem. If the wizard's healing surges aren't getting used, that's a fair bit of party resources that are essentially wasted, making the party that much more fragile. Find nice soft leaders or strikers to beat down hard instead. It's not like the wizard is that much softer, or that much more valuable, to make a big deal out of it.

QFT.

If the wizard is standing in the back and not taking some risks, the rest of the party will be worn down that much faster. It's important for party members to share the damage, so they can get through as many encounters as possible in a day. This can make the difference between success and failure in most time sensitive adventures.

 

[catsclaw227]

Or you can have a minion of the baddies escape and go back to the BBEG.

"Master, eet seemz that the weezard is hidink behind zee doors. We can send Keethra to him eenveezable and get heem good!"

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

Use LINE OF SIGHT against him.

Whenever a player stands in a threshold, he technically cannot attack diagonal squares 1 square in because you cannot attack around corners (nor move diagonally through a door until you're one square into the chamber).

The same goes for when he's standing one square or more behind the door; he cannot attack anything outside of his line of sight.

See attached for examples of how LOS works