L13E4: Roc 

Yeah, I really like the maps that have dynamic elements that present other options and hazards.

Can't Shove the Roc, it's too big. This also doesn't work if the Grappler has more than 10ft of reach with the attack that grapples.

Yeah, that "Speed of 0" part is rough. The Roc's going to make it because it's like 90 damage at most, but the griffons probably aren't looking so good.

Also, positioning was so key in this fight. Really useful for us that play martials.

1. Consider what happens when you stop flying. If you can lose flight, where are you going to land? 2. If you are going use flight to keep away from melee combatants, keep well out of range, they can usually jump further than you expect. 3. I didn't show it in this fight, but depending on the terrain and the size of the monsters, you can sometimes stack creatures on top of each other for more efficient use of space. If that's helpful, do it. If you are facing a fireball, don't. 4. Always ask your DM how high the ceiling is, they love that question

Easy. Get a super High AC and other defenses and then just plow into the enemies and hold them up while your party shoots them down with arrows and cantrips. Or...you could be normal and just grab some ranged weapons. Boring! But effective! Pew pew pew! Move. Pew Pew pew! Move! Or...or...if you have great Athletics and are flying, grapple the big baddie if you want it earthbound. Grapple reduces speed to zero, zero speed without magical assistance means you fall and your grappler unless the grappler is also holding you up. We've had our Barbarian grapple dragons before just to keep them grounded. If you are a Sorcerer with Quicken spell, you can bonus action cast and still have your action to dash in and out of range to attack and with flight, that's giving you 120 ft movement. You won't outrun dragons but you can run circles around a lot of other flying creatures. Distance Spell would also work and be a little less expensive. There's all kind of ariel strategies.

Actually, I meant to say shove flying creatures. You could grapple them but it's not as useful. Shoving a flying creature causes them to go prone and fall unless they are held up magically.

@@007ohboy Be careful with the Grapple/Shove tactic, there are a couple of cases where it doesn't work. You can't Grapple or Shove a creature that is more than one size category larger than you, so Huge creatures are immune to this from Medium sized creatures. There are ways around this, like the Enlarge/Reduce spell, or the Potion of Growth, but those don't work on Gargantuan creatures. The other thing to keep in mind is creatures with Hover in their Flying speed don't drop when this happens, as well as other creatures immune to Prone and Grapple.

I cover this in the intro to the first encounter in the dungeon, but I don't repeat it each time. You can find it at 2:50 in L13E1. My goal is to get as many adventurers down as possible, and the Fighter went down. If the goal were something else, that could change the tactics used, and in turn change the efficacy of the Fighter's choices. In this case, the party was able to succeed regardless of whether the monsters progressed in their goals. If the monster's goal was to specifically kill the wizard, the Fighter's tactic might not have been successful at preventing that.

@d20tactics You know you are a frontliner when the party constantly shoves you up to the front to take most the pain while they sit back and fire away. "Tank Rank" achieved! 😀 It's said in your intros. I remember. It's more DM optimized moves than relying on lore depicting creature bahaviors. So if your using low int/wis monsters, they will still take the most optimal moves/targets. Most tables dont run like that. So creature behavior, like "dumb" oozes will attack the first thing they sense and aren't normally known for their optimized strategic planning. Or another example was my Armored Clocklock holding off a Devas attacks by aggroing it with the fact that the Clocklock is a Devil Worshipper. Even then, with smart enemies and/or DMs who purely tactically optimize, defensive fighting still works. I've played in 4 campaigns with the Mystical Monk and she works exactly as intended/theorized. I'm running two versions of her, one at 8th level in Tyranny of Dragons and another at level 20 in the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Not getting hurt and sucking up healing resources is always a plus. Also, If I don't die, the party will live. Why? Aid, baby. Yes, the Mystical Monk can in fact bring up three dying allies with a bonus action if need be (quicken) and still continue batting away at the enemies. I regularly get out ahead of the party so I'm likely to be the only feasible target in immediate range a lot of times. I can't lock down the whole map with my sword and I don't know any melee build that can do that. That doesn't mean that some characters running toward the monsters as opposed to retreating and firing won't create a frontline of sorts. Frontline can be broken through, that's basically any military tactic ever and is also replicated on a football field. That doesn't mean you don't put the biggest baddest defensively build guys on the frontline. There are usually chokepoints that can be exploited which favors defensive fighting tactics. Even when enemies just run past you, that only means you don't have to waste any actions being defensive and can just go even more offensive. Booming Blade also seems to make enemies think twice about moving. Do you really want to move for two rounds taking AN EXTRA 2d8 thunder each time? Please do. That also feeds into her tactic. 9th level nova attack from the Mystical Monk would be a total of 3d8 slashing + 4d8 thunder + 4 magical for the +2 longsword. Not bad. Just because I describe the Mystical Monk as a specialized defensive melee build, it doesn't mean she can't put some major damage on the board that competes with normie fighters. With green flame blade I easily did 116 damage on one round by criting once and hitting the second target with two flame strikes after doing damage to the original enemy. That's not horrible. That works in a fight. The equation shouldn't be - the less damage you take = the less effective of a frontliner you are. That only leads to: You're not a good melee character if you can't go down in two rounds. ??? I would say having good defense is a plus as a frontliner. It's not everything. Barbs can eat damage and deal it out in turn. Fighters who don't specialize in defensive fighting should think about skirmishing when they can and flanking. They can still do alright as frontliners but if they just go all alone and do it themselves, they will probably get trampled on. I don't think being more easy to go down is the most optimal thing. Higher AC characters will have to factor in their high defenses when enemies get frustrating trying to wail on them and go for another target. Which is good because now I get to just sit back and wail away and not waste any actions defending. And if I dont die, I can just keep bringing up the Cleric and two others with a measly 2nd level slot. And then I also have control spells myself on top of all that. Thunderwave for instance. Blindness/Deafness and Tashas Hideous laughter for instance. This Monk is very versatile. Even then, any frontliner with better AC who isn't a Barb is going to enjoy life a lot more. AC isn't everything but it's certainly good to have.

@@d20tactics I literally saved my whole party when we battled a half dragon named Rezmir and her goons by simply not dying and picking them up with potions we had in the bag. That's why I carry the bag, because I'm the least likely to go down. She has gone down a few times, but waaaaay far less than the rest of both her parties. There's different advantages/disadvantages for sure, but overall, a defensive minded melee character with average damage....not no damage as with a flying mage that does nothing else, but an active defensive fighter that can also deal out damage that no creature really wants. My Monk isn't a flying mage that doesn't even bother to fire off Firebolt, my Monk is a high AC well/balanced saves character that definitely stings her opponents in combat. Remember that I can take the dodge action as either a Bonus Action (Monk step of the wind) or an Action. Even if I do use my Action to Dodge, I still have a Hasted Action along with my UA Strike. Or I can even Dodge with my Action and then use my Hasted action to attack and then follow up with a bonus action Booming/Greenflame Blade with Quicken. I'm not even covering her ability to stun her opponents which she regularly does at higher levels or adding in Flurry of Blows. I wasn't kidding when I said this character is SUPER VERSATILE and can switch up her actions/Bonus actions for a lot of different things. And yes, I have plenty of Reasources to pull it off if I'm not getting hurt or better yet, being ignored. I don't have to recharge my Bastion of Law, I can instead charge up my Quicken attacks. I always start off defensive and conservative until I need to ramp it up. A lot of times I can just coast by doing two attacks and dodging while keeping my reaction ready for a counterspell, Shield or Absorb elements.