Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #348
Sneaky Tactics For Weak Monsters
Contents:
This Week's Tips Summarized
Sneaky Tactics For Weak Monsters
- Pin Down The PCs
- From Behind The Door
- Interrupt Spell Recovery
- Outwait Spells
- Gain Movement Advantage
- Craft Ambushes
- Fight, Flee, Victory
- Learn About PC Abilities
- Monsters Spend Money Too
- Use Ranged Attacks
- Fire Is Fun
- Don't Fear Free Hacks
- Concentrate Attacks On A Single Foe
- Find A Boss Monster
- Pick A Purpose First
- Use Trenches
- Even The Weakest Can Help
- Use Oil
- Give The Leader An Aide
- Shoot And Hide (D&D)
- Make Them Specialists (D&D)
- A Nice Team (D&D)
Readers' Tips Summarized
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Return to Contents
A Brief Word From Johnn
Got Tactics?
Whew, a long issue this week dedicated to giving the weak
critters of the world a fighting chance. Hopefully you'll
find a tactic or two you hadn't thought of before - or have
forgotten about - to use next session.
Do you use clever tactics not listed in today's tips? Drop
me an e-mail. Thanks!
D&D Tiles
I've been using the new D&D tile sets and they seem like a
great GM aid. I'm wondering about storage and access though.
With all the shapes and sizes, plus being double-sided, I'm
wondering how best to store them with the ability to find
the tile I'm looking for at any given moment, plus factoring
in they're double-sided. Do you use them? How are you
working with them?
Cheers,
Johnn Four,
johnn@roleplayingtips.com
Return to Contents
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Return to Contents
Sneaky Tactics For Weak Monsters
Combat encounters are better when you play monsters to
the best of their abilities. In numerous books, I've read
good advice encouraging GMs to play a certain monster
with cunning or a certain foe with intelligence. A pet peeve
is when that advice isn't followed up by examples. Often
you are left scratching your heading wondering just exactly
how you are supposed to GM a cunning or intelligent
encounter with the creature.
Following are a few tactics tips from the wise folks over at
the GMMastery group, plus a couple of my own, to help you
run smarter, more cunning combats that involve weaker
creatures.
Return to Contents
1. Pin Down The PCs
"Troops are somewhat expendable when you're the leader of a
group of monsters. So, sending in semi-sacrificial shock
troops to 'fix' the opponents in place, while your archers
target their casters, is a perfectly reasonable tactic. So
is a massed charge by mooks to suck up the opposing wizard's
area attacks before your second wave sets out."
- Telas
Telas makes a good point about pinning down PCs. Often,
players are happy to get into a toe-to-toe fighting rut, or
they are worried about free attacks from foes if they try to
break away from the current melee.
If you could pin the PCs to one area of the combat encounter
location, how could you use that to the monsters' advantage?
- Keep the PCs out in the open while you have ranged
attackers and spellcasters firing from cover.
- Surround the PCs. PCs often put the warriors to the fore
and rear, protecting the weaker party members. If monsters
can pin the PCs and surround them, they can reach these weak
members.
- Give slow-moving critters a chance. Some creatures aren't
fast. Rooting the PCs to a certain spot gives slowpokes a
chance to catch up and join the fun.
- Allow set-up time. The monsters might need to buy time
while they get organized, set-up slow attacks, and give
spellcasters time to buff them up. This is especially true
if the PCs have caught the creatures by surprise.
Good places to pin PCs are in narrow passageways and at
entrances. This keeps them from employing all of their
attacks, and will take them longer to plough through their
foes.
You can sometimes use description to draw PCs to a specific
group of creatures wanting to pin their foes down. If you
tell your players a group of critters over yonder are
painted in blood, look like fierce warriors, and have their
weapons set for a charge, many characters will attack
without hesitation. Having the creatures throw insults at
the PCs is also effective and makes for fun roleplaying.
Return to Contents
2. From Behind The Door
Doors open up many opportunities to unhinge the PCs.
- Illusion. If the critters have a shaman or other
spellcaster capable of casting minor illusions, have them
create an illusory door. While the PCs stand before it to
chat and prepare themselves for entry, and while poor rogues
step forward to pick the lock or check for traps, the
critters take advantage of this delay to launch an ambush.
- Door traps. A door creates a bottleneck, increasing the
ability of critters to predict intruders' actions. For
example, most intruders will need to step up to a door and
then use the opening mechanism.
Perhaps there's a pit in front of the door (classic!) or
contact poison on the door handle. A peep hole in the door
is a good way to deliver blow darts or sprays of acid. Most
people don't look up often - a ceiling trap would complement
a door trap nicely.
- An abstract observation is that doors create a sense of
the unknown. What's behind the door? The creatures know but
the PCs don't, and smart creatures will take advantage of
this.
For example, critters might put a Large Shiny Object(tm) at
one side of the room so that, when the PCs burst through the
door, they hopefully focus on that thing right away. This
would let the critters ambush the PCs, wait for a particular
target to wander within range, or wait for strong foes to
wander far enough away so it will take them extra moments to
come to the aid of their weaker friends.
Another example is ye old wicker dragon. The creatures
create a fake dragon (or creature of your choice) and launch
it at any intruders who come through the door. This will
hopefully create a knee jerk reaction. Spellcasters might
waste a spell or two. Warriors might charge forward without
checking for pit or wire traps. Ammunition might be wasted.
An aggressive attack combined with some illusion or sleight
of hand might cause foes to retreat or hesitate. For
example, putting helmets on spears that poke up from behind
cover to make it appear like an area is swarming with
critters might send opponents in the wrong direction, cause
them to slam the door shut right away, or pause to get a
better idea of what they're facing.
- Defense. Doors are good for defense as well. They
compartmentalize area effects. If the critters are spread
out in small rooms with doors, a critter could stand by each
door and be ready to close it when it looks like a grenade
or fireball is about to be deployed.
Doors also slow pursuers down. Imagine a hallway with a
series of doors left open that fleeing critters slam shut
behind them. An even better improvement is self-locking or
self-barring doors.
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3. Interrupt Spell Recovery
Critters with spell-like abilities don't need eight or nine
hours to do their thing, and PC clerics often get their
spells at dawn, so a couple of midnight skirmishes followed
by a dawn attack would be particularly effective against
caster-heavy parties.
If the monsters have spellcasters, they don't have to take
part in the night raids. While they rest and recoup magic
stores, PC spellcasters are being interrupted. Ranged
attacks targeting sleeping casters work well to rouse those
who refuse to join in the skirmishes.
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4. Outwait Spells
In some game systems, many buffs and magic effects only last
for a few seconds or minutes. Some monsters might know this,
or at least understand that magic is often temporary.
Shamans or spell-slinging allies would be able to inform the
critters of this if they aren't able to figure it out for
themselves.
Therefore, the monsters might make an attack, or a feint,
and then withdraw. After a couple of minutes they return to
clean up on what might otherwise be a tough fight.
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5. Gain Movement Advantage
Monsters who can outmaneuver their foes have a great
advantage.
Size is a factor. Small monsters can attack from or retreat
to places the PCs can't reach or must suffer penalties to
squeeze into. Large creatures might have faster movement
rates.
Monsters who can climb, swim, or fly will pick locations
that work to this strength. Ropes, vines, shelves,
platforms, ledges, nets, and ceiling hooks let climbers gain
a height advantage. If intruders climb up after them, they
can climb to another location, leaving their slower-climbing
or less skilled foe behind.
Flying creatures will employ cover and safe spots only
reachable from the air. They can attack from above, often
resulting in an attack bonus. They can see the whole battle
from a high perch and issue directives and warnings to
improve the ground forces' tactics and attacks.
Swimming creatures will want the same thing as flying
creatures - cover, hiding spots, exclusive access points -
but from an underwater perspective. They also benefit from
the finite lung capacity of air breathers. If a swimmer can
lure a foe down too far, they can let the water make the
kill. If a swimmer can survive long enough, an air-breathing
foe will eventually have to retreat to the surface, letting
the swimmer become the pursuer for awhile.
Creatures who can ride will employ mounts to gain speed
advantages, additional attacks, height, or new movement
types.
Look at creatures' size, skills, and abilities and create an
environment where they gain a speed or maneuverability
advantage. At the minimum, this gives them a retreat
benefit.
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6. Craft Ambushes
The ambush is a good tactic for creatures of any
intelligence level, especially when the purpose is to
skirmish and harass the opponent. Get the party to waste
their resources without wasting your own. Even a barely-
intelligent opponent will use the environment to the fullest
in an ambush, employing slopes, terrain, cover, light, and
darkness to maximize their effectiveness.
Location is important for ambushes. While the critters get
to pick the location, the PCs are still required to move
through that spot. Unless the ambush is placed directly in
the PCs' path, bait or a hook is required to divert the
characters. Cautious and experienced opponents won't be
fooled easily, but here are a few things to consider:
- A cry for help.
- Critters pretending to be dead.
- A blocked path, such as a fallen tree or rockfall.
- Traitor. A brave critter becomes a party member, possibly
far in advance, and influences the PCs' pathfinder or
becomes the guide.
- Path of lesser resistance. The route to the ambush seems
like the best way, because the other routes are blocked,
boring, or riskier.
- Freed prisoner. An escaped prisoner tells the PCs how to
retrace his steps, or the PCs can track his route back.
- Trail of coins, blood, ruined equipment.
- Switched road sign, or craft a (mis)direction signal.
- Send a few troops to attack and then flee back to the
ambush location.
If the PCs investigate, they'll send a scout ahead, or
they'll approach to the outer limits of their senses. A
scout needs to be dealt with quickly and quietly. A
concentrated attack or poison (unconscious, sleep,
paralysis), for example, could knock a scout out and leave
the rest of the enemy without any knowledge and one missing
comrade.
As soon as something worth investigating is sensed ahead,
most foes will stop immediately and assess. They'll try to
pick up as much information at the outer limits of their
senses before risking further movement. Smart ambushers will
place their point of attack at this rough location, not at
the site of the blockage, hook, or bait.
Successful ambushes buy a few advantages:
- First in initiative order
- One or more free attacks
- Ranged attacks before melee starts
- Opponents exposed to traps (e.g., pits, rockfalls, trip
wires)
- Opponents have difficult terrain while the ambushers don't
- Ambushers are harder to hit, more difficult to spot, or
harder to reach because of cover or position
- Ambushers are prepared (e.g. multiple heavy crossbows
loaded and ready to fire, torches or candles lit for
ignition, defensive spells cast, buffs prepared)
- Situation tweaked for maximum benefit from special
attacks, such as bull rushing or charging.
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7. Fight, Flee, Victory
A rational opponent isn't going to fight to the death over
something petty. He will waste his sword-fodder, to be sure,
but he won't engage directly unless he knows it's something
worth risking death for, or unless he is pretty certain he
can win.
Ponder escape routes and conditions before running the
encounter. Critters won't trap themselves easily - they'll
pick another day and place to fight if possible.
Experienced monsters won't wait until they are nearly dead
to flee, knowing that as soon as they turn their back they
risk getting attacked again.
It's not enough to merely escape the field of battle. For
creatures to survive, they must be able to dodge pursuers
and retreat to a secure location. Leaders and important
creatures will ensure they can retreat first and that troops
will cover their escape or slow down pursuers.
Traps and hazards are effective against foes moving
recklessly at top speed. Misdirection also works. For
example, while some red shirts are ordered to keep moving
down the passage, the rest of the monsters take a hidden
side-tunnel, or climb up to a hidden ledge. Multiple choice
also causes foes to hesitate. If presented with three closed
doors and no obvious flight path, pursuers must guess or
take time to investigate.
The location of retreat can be tricky. Fleeing creatures
can't run forever. If retreat occurred at the right moment,
the critters should have plenty of reserves left. Have them
retreat to a location of ambush where things are already
locked and loaded for them. Beyond this location, have more
retreat rallying points planned.
The end of the line should be a defensible location. Perhaps
the entrance is secure, such as a huge, barred, stone door.
Maybe there is only once entrance/exit, and it leads to a
shooting gallery or through a nest of hungry pets. This is
the where the creatures will make their last stand -
hopefully their foes have been sufficiently weakened so they
either die here or choose to flee themselves.
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8. Learn About PC Abilities
Wise foes will scout out their opponents. Long-range
observers, spies, and scouts should report back to leaders
regarding opponents' equipment, abilities, tactics,
strengths, and weaknesses.
In a recent encounter I ran, a black dragon lured the PCs
into battle with a minion and watched from cover. It now
knows a lot about the PCs. Unfortunately, the PCs have
gained a level or two since that encounter, so the party
will have a few surprises yet for it.
Information-gathering on behalf of critters creates
interesting GMing opportunities. Encounters with scouts are
possible now, giving you more game material to run that's
logical and realistic.
If the PCs detect the spies, they can, in turn, learn about
their foes. Spying tactics should also encourage teamwork
and better character tactics. The world will also feel like
a bigger space, full of danger.
Successful spy attempts give foes time to tweak their
attacks and defenses in a believable manner. Players get
frustrated when every foe seems to have abilities
constructed just to match or counter their own. If the
characters are spotted using magic fire, perhaps the foes
can gain immunity or resistance to fire. If the spies report
use of mounts, then perhaps terrain can be modified to make
riding difficult.
Scouting also lets leaders coordinate and prioritize their
attacks. They might decide top priority is eliminating
fireballs, magic entanglements, and blessings.
Alternatively, they might figure removing the armed threat
quickly leaves the spellcasters vulnerable.
Another consideration is disrupting spellslingers. Ranged
attacks are effective. Charges by disposable troops also
help by keeping spells focused on those attacks rather than
on larger units or the battlefield in general.
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9. Monsters Spend Money Too
Smart leaders will spend spoils and loot on better equipping
themselves and their forces. They will craft what they can,
but they should be free with their money to not only
increase chances of survival, but possibly even expand and
grow in power.
Monsters would try to buy magic. Underground agencies would
not be scrupulous about their customer base. Monster leaders
would hoard wealth and try to trade for potions (temporary
magic for minions) and permanent magic for themselves.
Shamans would want scrolls. Invisible critter rogues with
sneak attack and invisibility potions could steal more stuff
and ambush better, increasing hauls. Leaders would want
magic power to stay in power as well.
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10. Use Ranged Attacks
Perhaps obvious to most GMs, monsters should try to soften
foes up as much as possible before melee. Ranged attacks
such as thrown items, bows, poisoned missiles, acid, and
fire are good for this.
In D&D, some ranged attacks, such as acid, can be targeted
at an area and provide splash damage. Hitting an area is
easier than hitting an armoured foe, and concentrated
attacks build up splash damage pretty quickly.
This bring up a good point. Archers are more effective when
given the order to concentrate their fire. It's better to
knock out a single, tough opponent than to spread damage
across many foes. Who knows, a fallen foe at the start of
the battle might cause a hasty retreat.
Warriors have a limited range of effect at any given time,
and they can be pinned or swarmed. Ranged attackers should
concentrate on spellcasters first.
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11. Fire Is Fun
Fire is fun, especially when attacking far from the lair or
home base (where there's little danger of burning down the
homestead). Walls or areas on fire can be used to deter
flight (of one's opponents or one's own troops), and funnel
foes where you want.
If a critter has immunity to fire, it can light a bonfire
and throw hot rocks and flaming logs, and attack from
inside.
Flaming arrows not only do a bit of extra damage, but they
are useful for setting areas on fire or igniting explosive
traps.
Characters can be distracted by flaming buildings filled
with innocents, protecting forests, and saving fragile
treasure.
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12. Don't Fear Free Hacks
In D&D and other systems, fleeing and maneuvering critters
often make themselves vulnerable to a free attack from their
foes. Unless these free attacks are unlimited, smart
monsters will willingly suffer these for potential, greater
gains. In other words, don't freeze critters in place out of
fear for free hacks. Sometimes you need to take a hack to
deliver two hits back.
For example, if a path to a spellcaster opens up, several
critters should rush over to make an attack. A free hack
from the PCs might fell a creature or two, but interrupting
or killing the spellcaster could save the lives of many.
Organized critters will let damage sponges move first, as
well. If they get hit a couple of times, chances are better
they'll still survive and get their attacks.
In D&D 3.x, most PCs only get one attack of opportunity per
round, so after each is triggered, all other foes can move
around freely. If a PC has combat reflexes, foes will note
this and avoid that particular PC. This realization has
given my critters greater freedom of movement, and I stress
less about triggering AoO during rounds.
Summoned creatures and pets are also good at getting players
to expend their limited free attacks before the other
monsters move.
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13. Concentrate Attacks On A Single Foe
This tactic was mentioned earlier, but bears repeating.
Weaker critters are better off eliminating the frequency and
quantity of attacks as much as possible. It's far better
removing the source of an attack every few hacks than
distributing damage done across all opponents and facing the
same onslaught throughout the battle.
Capable leaders will coordinate their forces so that ranged
attackers, spellslingers, and ground troops concentrate on a
single foe until that foe falls or another command is
issued.
In addition, surrounding or flanking a foe often provides
attackers additional boons and bonuses.
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14. Find A Boss Monster
If faced with extinction, weaker creatures will seek out
strong allies. In the critter world, however, allies aren't
usually friends, but tyrants and villains.
Critter leaders might not subjugate themselves, but their
underlings will, and leaders will either be overthrown or
accept the inevitable - for a time.
Imagine a campaign where the PCs slay a tribe of orcs. How
would other, nearby orc tribes react? They might suffer from
denial and hope the PCs don't come back, or be overconfident
and eagerly await their return.
Alternatively, they might unite under the toughest orc
leader, or plead to a powerful monster to defend them in
exchange for servitude. These two options are more
interesting campaign-wise, and players will enjoy seeing the
world react to their actions.
Some bosses are better than others. A boss with a defensible
lair is preferred. A boss with abilities that synergize with
the critters' will be petitioned first. For example, a black
dragon in my game is supplying acid with which his orc and
lizardfolk servants are crafting a huge supply of acid
flasks.
When planning out your campaign, add a few potential boss
monsters to the region as possible future leaders and
villains. Worst case is those monsters become side-plot
challenges, which is great as well.
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15. Pick A Purpose First
From: bobby.catdragon
What is your purpose in the encounter?
Is it to:
- Show the characters they are not the top dog, and even
lowly goblins can take them on with a better than average
chance of success?
- The place (forest, hills, whatever) is dangerous. Be
careful.
- The players are overconfident and need to be challenged.
- The PCs have an enemy that has set them up and pushed
this encounter on them.
- Just random chance.
Based on your objectives, you can then determine just how
cunning and well-trained the creatures are.
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16. Use Trenches
From: John Blair
Have knee deep trenches with punji sticks in them. This
gives creatures a couple of rounds of missile fire to use.
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17. Even The Weakest Can Help
From: John Blair
If there are weaker creatures present, such as females and
offspring, put them to use reloading crossbows, handing out
ammunition, or administering potions so the critters can
keep up a steady rate of fire.
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18. Use Oil
From: Tim H.
Don't forget about oil. Oil isn't just for burning - it can
make an uphill charge by PCs turn into a Keystone Cops
routine with all the reflex saves for the non-magical Grease
spell. Anyone who falls down is instantly coated.
People who don't fall need to save each round they aren't
paying complete attention to their footing (and with
crossbow fire, who can do that?). On top of that, their rate
of movement is cut by 1/3 or 1/2.
Once this happens to two or three of the enemy, _that_ is
the time for the torches to get tossed toward the oil.
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19. Give The Leader An Aide
From: Tim H.
It's good to have the leader designate an aide. They can go
around and slap critters awake after a Sleep spell, throw
water on the Burning Hands survivors, throw water on someone
hit by an Acid Arrow spell, etc.
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20. Shoot And Hide (D&D)
From: Steve
Place individual creatures all over a densely forested area,
with little hide covers camouflaged to look like ground.
They take 20 to Hide initially, then take a shot, drop
prone, and try to roll into hiding again using the sniping
rules. If successful, pop out and do it again.
The creatures should have all sort of traps set up around
their hides, as well as a small tunnel that will take them
perhaps 15 feet to another hide - just enough distance to
hop out and get a flat footed attack on a surprised PC, or
somewhere to hide if the attack goes wrong.
Go the other way and put lots of ropes in the trees, with
creatures swinging from tree to tree to stay away, whilst
raining arrows down. One huge old tree is completely hollow
and they're shooting out the knot holes as well.
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21. Make Them Specialists (D&D)
From: Trav
For creatures of the wild, give them the ranger class,
chosen enemy human (or elf, if a tribe lives nearby, or
dwarf, if they live in caves...) and watch how dangerous
they suddenly become.
Make half the critters two-weapon specialists, doubling
their chances of hitting. Two short swords, poisoned, with
Improved Critical means on natural rolls of 17-20, someone
is hit with a nasty attack. That's a 5% chance per swing of
connecting, no matter what the AC. Remember, a critical
threat always hits, even if it isn't confirmed for the extra
damage.
For the other half, make them bow specialists. Poison their
weapons as above, and make full use of the feats the ranger
class gives.
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22. A Nice Team (D&D)
From: Telas
Give crossbowmen high Dex and Rapid Reload, so they can move
and shoot. If levels allow, give them Point Blank and
Precise Shot.
One or two of the crossbowmen per spellcaster should ready
an action to shoot as soon as the caster begins casting. The
others will choose targets in this order: spellcasters,
anyone not in melee, and lightly armored foes. Regardless,
one will call the target, and all of the non-readied
crossbowmen will attack him.
The melee fighters will be divided up into two teams. A
higher-level A team will have high Dex, Swarmfighting,
Weapon Finesse (depending on weapons), and possibly some
mild poison. The B team will have a decent Str, and will
Power Attack with longspears. To the extent possible, both
teams will combine attacks on one target.
The leader of the gang might have Spring Attack (and all the
prerequisites) and a longspear. If the terrain prevents 5'
steps, that's a devastating combination. He may bark out
orders and spring in to identify the target.
A couple of sorcerers make for nice field artillery. Web and
Summon Swarm have a nice synergy, and Ray of Enfeeblement
can keep someone in a Web for possibly the rest of their
life. A cleric can also help (maybe with a Bull's Strength
on the leader).
Environment is the great equalizer, and creatures will pick
one that's to their advantage. If every square is 2x
movement cost, it's difficult to get in a full attack
action, or to move decently and attack. Any armored fighter
can tell you a steep climb is literally a killer in an
ambush. If this is underground, consider a low roof or
unstable footing. Outdoors might mean underbrush, scree
slopes, or snipers in the treetops.
Assuming the creatures get to pick the battlefield, they
will prepare it for an ambush and a retreat guarded by
traps. A decent interval of preparation time should allow a
significant Hide bonus for the ambushers. Focus on one
character at a time. When (if) the attack starts going
poorly, they will withdraw along the predetermined retreat
paths, letting the traps slow their pursuit.
* * *
Have fun with your game and group. Don't abuse players with
optimized tactics, but remember that the monsters have done
this before, and did well enough to make it to where they
are now.
If you are poor at tactics, pick foes that have a lot of
troops so you can practice up plenty before the battles with
stage bosses and villains occur.
Players show up to have fun. If they enjoy being challenged
with superb tactics, exploit your weak creatures using the
tips in this issue and any others you can find. Not all
groups like this style though, so use the tips to increase
the challenge and drama, and to create believable opponents,
but go easy on killer tactics, such as targeting single PCs
until they fall, poison use, and so on.
For roleplaying and storytelling, be sure to add personality
to opponents. Have them surrender, talk during battle, offer
peace or parley, take prisoners or threaten allies or the
innocent for leverage to avoid battle altogether.
Thanks to the folks at the GMMastery group for permission to
post and paraphrase their great advice.
For more monster tactics tips, try these links out:
8 Deadly Combat Tips:
Roleplaying Tips Issue #53
6 Tips For Making Monsters Meaner: Roleplaying Tips Issue #113
Return to Contents
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Readers' Tips Of The Week:
This issue is running long, so I'm going to switch the
format for this week and just publish all the dice roller
links sent in as per my request in Issue 346. Thanks to
everyone who responded!
From: Eric
Hi Johnn,
I use the d20srd.org's built-in dice roller: they have a
dedicated place, plus almost anywhere in the rules that
mentions a fixed die roll has a nice little javascript link
that throws an alert with the die roll upon clicking. I use
it primarily outside of the session, when rolling up
treasure and hit points ahead of time.
From: Kate Manchester
From: Marty
I use Irony Games Dice Roller. You can use it roll any die,
up to 100 times, and it prints the results in usable
format.
From: Kate Manchester
I like Irony Games Dice Roller because you have the option
of e-mailing the roll to someone else.
From: Wolf
I feel the urge to advertise my own dice roller.
You can choose the type of dice, the amount of dice, and the
number of rolls. It also supports sending the result to your
GM as an e-mail. Last, but not least, it uses true random
numbers from www.random.org so no pseudo-randomness
here!
From: Ruth
I've just finished a dice roller project. It uses javascript
so make sure you're enabled.
From: Robert E.
I use Omnihedron
It has easy to set dice combinations, and allows for user
defined random lists (like random encounter distance and
direction, NPC personalities, random alchemical items, etc.)
From: Parker M.
Stat creation tool, initially for the Star Wars RPG, that
can be used for any d20 system/
Wizards dice roller.
From: Joe
I like SmallRoller. Tons of features and easy to use.
From: Freaky Timmyboy
DiceMageā¢
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The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor
The robed bureaucrat looks up from the table and gazes on
all of you before proceeding. "Ah, I see you decided to
accept this mission. In your search for the bandit leader
Cragen you need to be aware of a few things." Pointing to a
mountain on the map, he says, "Here is a particularly nasty
little cult worshipping some dead god." He pauses, then
continues, "Angall is the god's name, I believe. Also be
aware that we have reports that there is a raiding party of
amazons. I believe their leader is looking for her mother
who disappeared in the area twenty years ago."
The bureaucrat rolls up the map and hands it to you, then
turns to open an old book. "I don't know if this is of any
relevance, but it appears that there are ancient accounts of
a Great Wyrm from the days of the First Men." Slamming the
book shut he looks at all of you. "I would be careful in
poking around in any caves or dungeons. You have your
mission. Find Cragen and the reward is yours. That is all."
Do your heroes dare to enter Fortress Badabaskor? Deadly
brigands, vicious cultists, and the dusty treasures of the
Dragon Kings await those with muscle, wit, and luck. Defeat
these challenges to uncover the dark secret of Badabaskor -
a secret that will challenge even the most experienced of
adventurers...
The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor at RPG Shop