WOTC, teach me some tactical skills

[marune]

I'm writing this in the rules forum, because tactics in D&D emerge largely from the rules themselves (even if 4E has cleaned itself of many of his ancestor’s futile simulatinonist artefacts).

The 4th chapter of the DMG does a basic job, but for a DM like me that has neither military background nor a deep experience in tactical boardgames, it's not enough.

Understand me correctly, I really want to embrace the tactical nature of 4E when I play D&D, if I wanted a different experience, I would go for one of many Indie RPG books sitting on my bookshelf.

That's why I'm asking WOTC to give me a tactical book written in the DM perspective.

 

[OSD]

Well, design your encounter first. Do you want to use the monster as it, straight out of the book? Or do you want to add some personality to a given monster? If you are going to be using it straight out of the book, rely on it for tactics. Let's break it down in 5 general groups.

Not-so-intelligent Pack Hunters
They will gang up on the nearest PC, who last dealt damage to them. Occasionally one strays and attack another PC.

Intelligent Pack Hunters
They will try to use their strongest brute to tank PCs while the others goes into a flanking position or go after the squishiest of the PCs that they can see. They usually target the weakest of the group. If they see someone's bloodied, the nearest one will probably jump in and try to finish that PC off. You shouldn't employ this until higher levels.

The Hit and Runners
These monsters will hit who they can before looking for cover. They usually avoid the defenders and focus on the strikers or controllers. If the battle is not in their favour, they are not afraid to run away, leaving their brutes behind.

The "wtf, where did you come from"s
These mobs tend to hide somewhere out of sight or behind walls and jump on the PC when they are the most vulnerable. Deathjump, chokers, etc... match this criteria. The tactic usually revolves around the monster attacking the most isolated PC, dragging them away from the PC group is possible.

Chargers
They will charge at you headon, looking to deal as much damage as possible. Berserkers will kill attacking with no regards for tactics hoping to deal as much damage as possible. The smarter of them will charge in and try to occupy favourable terrain.


Most combat encounters fits one of these or a combination of. If you want to be really tactical, use intelligent pack hunter mixing in range strikers and skirmisher. Have the brutes stick it to the PC's tanks and have the skirmishers help flank the tanks or focus attacks on one PC at a time along with their range strikers.

 

[marune]

Hmm.. what I was really talking about is the ability to create interesting taltical situations, i.e. coming up with the good mix of monsters, terrain features and a overall idea of how they work together.

 

[mlangsdorf]

Simple tactical principles for D&D4:

1. Attack the most vulnerable foe who does the most damage. If the Striker is away from the Defender, the Solo should try to kill him. If the Controller is exposed, the Minions should mob him. Artillery with weak attacks versus AC should not try to take down the Defender. Controllers with strong Will attacks should generally focus on the Fighter or Ranger.

2. Concentrate your attacks. PCs can generally take several successful attacks without going down. Try to give them all those successful attacks at once. That requires a lot of attacks. It's generally more worthwhile to pound 1 PC into the ground in a single round than to moderately damage all the PCs over 5 rounds.

3. Don't get flanked. A diagonal or straight line of monsters is harder to flank. Monsters have good defenses and are harder to kill without combat advantage.

4. Form a reserve. Hide a couple of monsters off the board or have them show up late after the PCs have used their Second Winds and Leader encounter Healing Powers. PCs can take enormous punishment with Leaders around to revive them. If they take that punishment after the Leaders have used their healing powers, the PCs will go down permanently.

 

[FreeXenon]

This may seem random and does not come with a whole lot of 4E DM experience so take this for what its worth. I am not sure if this is what you are looking for or not, but here goes....

Encounter Type or Feel and Difficulty
First you may want to figure out feel and difficulty you want.

Perhaps you want a light fun little skirmish or a knock-down, drag-out, knuckle-biting tactical slug fest. Both of those can be built similarly, but will have drastically different design considerations.

A light-hearted skirmish might have a fun little bit of terrain or an obvious trap that is there just for flavor or purely for the DM's amusement.

The later will most likely be a well thought out resource drainer, and the former quick and fun.

Monster Roles and Function
All of this section is predicated on having a good feel for what the monster roles are and how they affect an encounter. If you do not have a good feel for that you will want to take a close look a it. I think the next examples can kind of illustrate it.

Once you have the feel and difficulty decided you can take a look at the monsters and their roles. You may find ability synergies in there. Each creature now plays very differently.

An encounter with 4 artillery and one brute will feel and play drastically different than one with 1 Controller, 2 Soldiers, 4 minions, and a leader.

Perhaps you can have the Leader party level +3 and the 2 soldiers at level +1 and the minions at level. Not so easy and sweat worthy.

Perhaps the 4 artillery will be at level and the brute will be an Elite Brute at level +1 or +2. Ouch!


Encounter Flava
Now, we have traps and terrain all of which can make things really interesting for your as DM and for the players as well.

You can select terrain that favors either one side of the encounter or the other, or perhaps one that hinders both if they are not careful.

Perhaps your creatures have a power that has bonus against cold vulnerable creatures. They you may want to add a trap or a terrain that bestows Cold Vulnerability to those caught in its wake.

Another facet of terrain fun are things like a cave riddled room or a room with ledges and ledges all around it, or a bunch or pits for people to fall or be pushed into. These will create a dynamic and potentially frustration encounter especially if one side or the other can take advantage of it.

You could just look through the laundry list of abilities from the creatures of the encounter and then just brainstorm a trap or terrain that could be used to take advantage of it. The DMG has some guidelines for creating or modifying them to suit your encounters needs, as well as examples for you to use.

Vice Versa
This could also be done the other way around as well.

If you have a terrain or trap that you want as the center piece of the encounter or will have a major influence on it you can start with that.

Perhaps your encounter take place in a cavern strewn lava flows and a small amount stalagmites. Start with that and then find some creatures that can push or can gain a bonus when in hot terrain, and then keep going...

 

[Mengu]

Just a word of caution. The DM knows all the weaknesses of the PC's and if he is trying to "win" he will. This is not Descent. The DM's job is not to defeat the characters, it's to challenge the characters. The DMG has a lot of excellent advice on how to challenge different party compositions, by using different compositions of monster roles.

As for actual terrain and tactics, there is some advice on that too. Instant death terrain pieces are not good for low level characters. A lava pit or a 1000 foot drop from a cliff have no place in a 1st level encounter. For tactics, as long as you stay away from gotcha's, it's all good.

 

[marune]

Just a word of caution. The DM knows all the weaknesses of the PC's and if he is trying to "win" he will. This is not Descent. The DM's job is not to defeat the characters, it's to challenge the characters. The DMG has a lot of excellent advice on how to challenge different party compositions, by using different compositions of monster roles.

I think the DMG give good bundaries on what the DM is expected do to challenges the PCs (xp budget + monster level criteria, etc.); that's not where is my problem.

I have more problems when the DMG says that the DM should pull his punches for fun's sake, but that's not the topic of this thread.

 

[marune]

That's my current "learn-the-game" campaign.

PCs :
Eladrin Wizard (wand)
Dwarf Fighter (t-h)
Half-Elf Warlord (inspiring)
Elven Ranger (bow)
Halfling Rogue (dodger)

Combat Encounter 1 (550 xp, Human Mage x1, Human Bandit x3)
Was setup near a wrecked caraven, the mage was on a riding horse. It was a very tought encounter (the fighter was dropped by the bandits). Nobody used the ruined wagons.

Combat Encounter 2 (550 xp, Kobold Minon x 4, Kobold Skirmisher x 2, Kobold Slinger x 2)

Classical attack around the PCs camp for the night. Without a brute/solider and with dim lightning (moonlight) it was a piece of cake for the PCs. At least, some boulders gave cover to the kobolds.

Combat Encounter 3 (Guard drake x1, Spiretop Drake x2, False-floor trap, Kobold Piker x1, Kobold Singler x1)

All the monsters where in a crumbling tower, I added many "difficult" squares that cost more or required a skill check and again, some boulders to get cover from.

That was better than the last, but still easier than the first one. The Piker failed to push a PC into the trap that the ranger spotted before anyone could walk on it.

Next encounter (4) will have the PCs in the tower fight a larger group of kobold that heard the alarm signal.

After (5), the PCs will probably hide to rest before going agaisnt the open mine where the slaves they want to rescue work for the kobolds. Plenty of rope bridges, ladders, and such...

 

[Tony Vargas]

Tactical skill is relative, and, while 4e definitely has it's tactical aspects, it also has it's dramatic aspects. If you and your players are on about the same level of tactical savvy, you have no worries. If one of you players is an armchair tactician, encourage him to play a Warlord. (If one of them is the real deal, just encourage him to relax and not worry about how silly such an abstract game is.)

 

[Duncan Haldane]

Just a word of caution. The DM knows all the weaknesses of the PC's and if he is trying to "win" he will. This is not Descent. The DM's job is not to defeat the characters, it's to challenge the characters. The DMG has a lot of excellent advice on how to challenge different party compositions, by using different compositions of monster roles.

This is important. I also think it's good to remember that the monsters aren't (usually) of a hive mind - they won't always do the best thing as a group. Of course, this will vary - if they have often killed as a team they would work better.

But encounters where the monsters have perfect knowledge and perfect tactics aren't usually a lot of fun.

Duncan