Pro Combat Tactics for Dungeons and Dragons 5e 

I just DM'd my first FG D&D game last night. It was awesome, but the interface was kinda wonky in FG, hopefully it will get better as they release it and I get more experience using it. We used a mix of FB messenger, Microsoft Teams and Fantasygrounds Unity.

it is not on sale, $149..

@@rapkush Sadly classic is the only one on sale. (from what i can find)

Agreed. There is a discount if you already own classic but nothing for new customers. Unless I'm missing something.

an easy combo would be to use minor illusion to make the floor look like the floor to hide traps or charm person dimension door with it 300 feet up in the air and then dimension door back down alone to give that one massive fall damage

As a fellow spinner of deadly yarn, your comment made chuckle.

As a fellow DM I can’t agree more. Evil laughter ensues*

U fucker

I was thinking on the same thing! Tho it should only work with smart enemies.

You're evil. My thoughts exactly.

Lol no it did not

I came to the comments right after he said that for this

trudat

Lol

2021 didn't make it age any better 😂

Tommy Martin I had that come up. We had the wizard hold a fireball until the Paladin and my fighter pushed two enemies in the AoE of the fireball

holding you action is underrated. it is amazing

Tommy Martin it’s just so great for teamwork and getting that feel of all contributing when it works

From the DM perspective, held actions are fine until the entire party is doing it. Now this easily-parsed initiative order is all over the place and the flow of combat rounds are completely disrupted.

while I can agree as it can get tiresome keeping track I as a dm never had a problem keeping up with held actions. I make the player keep up with it and continue on.

I played a barbarian who dealt about 80 damage on an average turn (plus a bonus attack if he killed someone or landed a crit, which he was doing regularly with 19+ crits and advantage on every swing). That, along with being virtually unkillable, was an amazing time.

@@brettcurry4265 I'm struggling to see how he could be dealing 80 before using a bonus action or crit? If you're including Action Surge, it's not an average turn.

​@@TheRABIDdude Might've been more like 70 actually, this was a few years ago. He was using a magic weapon that dealt a base damage of 2D8+2 (average of 13 per hit) plus strength (+5) plus rage bonus (+3) plus the GWM power attack (+10 damage in exchange for -5 to hit), plus the GWF ability to reroll 1s and 2s on damage die. He had +12 to hit usually, which was +7 when using power attacks (which he basically always did). So 2D8+20 damage per hit, rerolling 1s and 2s once. I was hitting most targets with most attacks, and the most common damage I dealt was 34 per hit. Including the bonus action attack, which he got to use on about half his turns from crits or killing enemies, he was fairly regularly dealing over 100 damage in a turn. With action surge he could (and sometimes did) break 150 damage in a round.

Double smite double intensifies

@@brettcurry4265 Thanks for the breakdown! That's pretty beastly. With a ~40% crit chance just from the first two attacks, and that massive damage output, I can see how your GWM bonus attack would be triggered pretty often! I also play a barbarian with GWM. I've gone Beserker path so the free bonus action from GWM basically never actually applies for me because I always get one from Frenzy. Average 52 damage before the free bonus attack, 78 with it :D

Agreed. There is something to be said for a true DPS wizard, but a C&C wizard will always outperform them. Just remember that without DPS party members up and attacking, all the C&C in the world won't save you. Someone has to be killing things too.

Wall of force for the enemies and have your party get the loot. Besides that mold earth can suffocate enemies and let you move downwards so as a wizard if I was in trouble and surrounded I would flee to the earth.

@@DampeS8N That's what the paladin and the rogue are there for.

@@WexMajor82 Those would be the DPS party members I mentioned.

This, always this.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! +1 Great tip and yes yes yes Use a brighly colored D6 or a bless die if you play in person.

@@Taking20 Thanks! I watch you all the time! I appreciate your in-depth topics and more mature tone of D&D in & above the table. Keep it up!

Giving out note cards out to affected players also works.

I got special mini d6s just so I could literally give my teammates bardic inspiration. While very cool, it did not keep them from hoarding it during our final battle with the BBEG. So that's another point: IF YOU HAVE INSPIRATION, _USE IT_! If you always wait for your most desperate moment; you won't use it at all, and then it will be too late *side-eyes our now-departed cleric*

When I played my halfling cleric, I kept telling my party that they are blessed and now we made and inside joke about that.

My issue with this is that... I don't like it (? I think is too meta. It would be great if a hurt foe did less damage or something like that, so it could be more real, but of course it makes it all SUPER complicated. In my table we just agree (the DM with the enemies and us with our PC's) to make it realistic taking into account feelings and strategy. For example, last session I could've hit a minotaur which was low on HP with a guiding bolt, killing it, but another PC had just been hit by a lot of damage and was far away from everyone else. I asked if I'd saw what had happened, the DM said yes, and without hesitation I cast my guiding bolt to the one hitting my friend, which was a puny minion. Roleplay is the most important

Focus damage, spread statuses. Monks, stun multiple enemies, that's why you got all that movement.

@@defeatstatistics7413 Monks have the potential to stun multiple targets... if they land all their hits... and none of the targets have a good con mod... and the monk doesn't focus fire. Monk isn't designed well enough to be a solid cc option, but there aren't many martials that get to do so, so they win by default.

do not like this as it has the perfect like count

@@zacgranne1754 AND it's gone :( You can like it now :)

@@aliince9372 in one vain I get mad every time I hear nothing but these two things from players. Then I remember that I did it too so who cares? Grade A comment btw

@@kaseybennett7415 I meant it as a parody of "those" people. That's totally not me.

A bard with a fireball fetish would actually be useful.

Anyone who has ever played any combat videogame should know this instinctively, it just makes sense as something to carry across to D&D combat.

This. People should really start doing this more. I've often purposely spread my damage around as a DM to not TPK the party.

People do this in EDH/Commander and it annoys me. KILL SOMEONE THREATENING FIRST.

@@Zulk_RS I think players copy us on that, not realizing we're doing it because it's a bad strategy. I actually like to lower the CR of what I am throwing at them and model these tactics, rather than chuck a giant at then and have to spread the attacks around.

@@RobKinneySouthpaw Huh. I did not see it like that. I think I will take your approach and start taking more optimal strategies with my players.

When formation fighting faced off against guerrillas, guerrillas were called cowards for not standing in traditional formation. It's only cowardly if you stop fighting and run away when it's not necessary.

Back in my day, we punched each other and used our smites that way! And we didn't use armor or shields, those are for cowards!

necogreendragon what is drop down tactic

Frankly, ranged attackers that aren't dropping prone are just being dumb. Even in real life, duck and cover is a completely valid strategy, so it isn't even an abuse of the mechanics.

@@alucardbunche4197 I was referring to going prone and standing up while ranged fighting.

Or move in range to set up yours, do so :)

Automatic field

😲

Wait, people Counterspell in these games?

This hand of mine burns with an awesome power!!

@@gamecavalier3230 My Sorceress has dipped into Wizard to kind of get this result. She drops a Fireball, ignores the damage with evocation feature and turns the spell into the GW1 spell Inferno. And on a sidenote, you are immune to fire, but your stuff is not, so be wary of rule lawyer DM's in your case XD

borntodie297 I dont think fire spells, like fireball, hit your gear IF you are wearing it. If your armor is beside you while you sleep and you get fireballed it would be destroyed, assuming its flamable

@@borntodie297 Actually, if you want to rules lawyer it up, fireball does not affect "objects being worn or carried" so even if you are some sort of plant creature that's vulnerable to fire damage, your spell book made of leaves a paper is completely unaffected by fire

@@borntodie297 If fireballs would melt equipment, spellbooks and whatever else could go up in flames they would be down ride OP.

Having fun is the most important, so even if it slows combat as long as everyone is still having a good time then it's all good

Not if they take 30 minutes to get to my turn...

The amount of times the last enemy has been on 1 hp and a player was like "hmmmm there are so many things I can do" for 10 minutes. Just hit the damn thing

a first level healing word is most likely not going to prevent them from going down again by the time it's your turn. But, you don't give the enemy the chance to add a bonus 2 death saves to it. Having the padding of needing an extra instance, can save lives.

merp yea it is. I had a new to my group player in game last Thursday who wanted to cast a spell on a Roc. I said you can ready it for when it’s in range so he did and his hold monster spell completely negated the 2 very devastating attacks the party was about to be hit with. Ready more interrupt spells/actions people!

My players used this and great positioning to overwhelming effect a few sessions ago. Warlock dropped Hunger of Hadar on a spread out group of enemies. Apparently not spread out enough as he managed to get all of them, even ones he didn't see (not placed on the map) and then he and the ranger readied actions to fire on anybody who escaped the Eldritch nightmare while the fighter and Bard both used a cape of the mountebank to first teleport to a hostage and the bard used their own cape to teleport away with the hostage and readied actions with the other 2 They turned what was going to be a difficult battle with numbers not on their side into outright slaughter

Replying one week like to remind you that advantage and disadvantage doesn't stack.

@@OrangeGills indeed it does not but sanctuary makes anybody that attacks you have make a will save or redirect their attack. That combined with disadvantage on attack rolls made against you by taking the dodge actions stacks up to 3 succsesful rolls for an enemy to make an attack. The only downside is if you attack back you lose sanctuary.

Recently made an abjuration wizard that had armor of agathys, with prep they can go into battle with a 15 AC, 30 temp hp, and while they have that temp hp if they are hit with a melee attack, the attacker takes 15 damage, and can have mirror image, making the opponent only hit every 1 in 4, 1 in 3 then 1 in 2 attacks, they can also hold concentration on a spell like flaming sphere and then take the dodge action. And so the opponent with the shield spell their ac is 20, when the opponent attacks they have at the most a 50% chance of hitting, and if they get through that have to roll a 20, with disadv, and then even if they do that, probably won't hurt the wizard, meaning there are no conc checks, and may even take damage for doing all of that. Keep in mind this is level 5 lol

Did this as a Devo pally cast sanctuary and took the dodge action as I walked into 100+ werewolf pack to try and talk to their elders

Doing this combo as an artificer in my current campaign. Extra benefit being i can command my homonculus servant to attack without breaking sanctuary since im not attacking. Considering grabbing the Fey-Touched feat and Bane for that extra hurt on the wisdom save.

you sr are the real MVP

IRL battle master.

Who did you make the deal with?

@@TheRABIDdude My dm likes homebrew monsters, so this was the combination of a Chimera and an Elder Brain, said if I didnt hurt it, I could walk away unharmed if my group failed to kill it

Two of my players got psychic immunity through a blessing and now they keep bombing the party with synaptic static whenever they are surrounded by lots of enemies. I find it quite fun

Meta Magic, Careful Spell

Evocation wizards get a pass though, I love Sculpt Spells

Friendly fire can be totally OK at times. A Bear Totem Barbarian, an Oath of Ancients paladin, and or a Rogue with Uncanny Dodge and/or Evasion should be OK with it if it ends up doing markedly more damage to the enemies.

The Wizard in one of my campaigns has done more damage to allies (including herself) than to enemies.

Re: #1 I would say that players should familiarise themselves with the actions available on pp. 192-3 of the PHB generally. So many players overlook things like the Help action, fail to consider the difference between the Attack action and the Cast a Spell action (ie. just because a spell requires an attack roll doesn't make it an Attack action), fail to consider that Use an Object is a full action (looking at you, nerdy-ass voice actors) or don't know how Readying an action works. And, as you say, Shove. Quite apart from tactical considerations, these rules describe how the world works in D&D when stuff gets rough. If you don't know them, it's going to be really hard to roleplay your character as an actual person.

I aimed high on a shatter spell... right into the cave ceiling above an ogre. Dropped a ton of rocks right on it’s head. I also hit it with the spell since it was a kinda low ceiling(for a cave with an ogre in it). Did around 30 damage in one action at level 3.

@@nickwilliams8302 actually, about Use an object, the phb clearly states that you've got a free action to use a normal object (for example opening a door during your movement costs no action). However, it says that it you want to use two items or use an item that's hard to use (for example if the door in question's locked) you'll need to take the Use and object action to do so. So you clearly can use one object by turn without needing to burn your action on it, it's becoming a twist when you're at two

@Deus 3x Excellent point about the spell shaping. You can cast a sphere high and it will affect targets at ground level as though it were a smaller sphere. You can cast a cone high and it will affect targets as if it were a narrower cone of the same length (possibly even a longer length if you rule your cones as being flat-topped). You can cast wall of stone like a pyramid out of the ground, it doesn't say you need to angle it along the grid-lines. (incidentally this means that by tripling up the walls of your wall of stone you can encase yourself in a stone barrier with around 600hp). I'd like to add my own tip too: ALWAYS have a ranged damage option. This goes for everyone, even you, honour-bound barbarian/samurai/paladin. If you want to be effective, bring a ranged weapon/cantrip. Thrown weapons for strengthies are worthwhile, everyone else please bring at least a sling. It should be perfectly fine for you to hold your big weapon with one hand whilst throwing your dagger at a baddie without impacting your action economy. Upside is you can pull off a manoeuvre known as the fighting withdrawal, where you move back and shoot. You might deny your opponents an entire turn of swinging at you by moving back, choose terrain you'd prefer to fight on and force them to come towards an area you already know they don't have traps set up to complicate things.

@@jeohranalfhir8366 It's things like picking locks that I was thinking of.

The barbarian probably wouldn't care too much, since they could just Reckless, but the paladin will love ya.

@@SkarmoryThePG as with all things D&D, there's no single perfect strategy. There's an ebb and flow to combat and players need to be ready to adapt. This goes for the rogue who's target has been knocked prone, as well as the fighter that usually knocks enemies prone to give melee combatants advantage

If I’m a Goliath barbarian I grapple the BG I my teammates slaughter them

it's an extra attack not an action the only way you will be able to do that is with action surge

Shoving can be made with an attack.

I had never thought of using it that way, that's a really good use of it Although if your group gained a reputation, and folks knew you were coming after them, some mages would start preparing they're teleport spells. Still that sucks up at least a level 2 spell slot for most people

Great advice! I'm playing a half-orc monk (way of the four elements (reborn) homebrew it's much better than the current!) playing him more like a shaman/brawler but my last game I was in a grappling fight with a goblin and I didn't think to shove him prone. I'll def. remember this!

Remember, you don't need two weapon fighting or a weapon in your offhand to take an attack with it. With this bonus action attack you can attempt to grapple, trip, disarm, even without training.

Jeremiah Webb Their*

If you want to be a real jerk, do this as a monk. Step of the wind to jump 10 ft in the air, and no falling damage. This bypasses the need to shove prone, and RAW does not end your grapple.

I might be missing something, what is special about march? I would guess February 20th to be the day to do it

He needs to release one on the 20th of every month this year. THAT would make it awesome.

Man who would have known of the disaster this year would be

Welp I mean if you might as well use rules as written if it’s gonna help you in the end 😂

@@allthingsgood6345 It'll teach "rules as written" DMs to make actual rulings and create homebrew rules on things instead of blindly adhering to the rules as written.

@@NotMyRealName6 It can also lead to groups that want to play rules as written to find systems that support that, rather than expecting the DM to fill in blanks, which is also a good outcome.

Proof that rules in d&d make perfect yet very confusing sense.

Yeah...it's called being a Dungeon Master

This! I'm a nee player and most combats have been in a dungeon, so I haven't had many opportunities to try this. However, I DID get to throw a kobold down the stairs, he failed the dex save, and went prone.

Yep. It can also function as a way of teaching newer players. I ran this combat to introduce the Dodge action and show grappling: In a flooded hallway/sewer, 6 kobolds with shields and 2 crocodiles. The kobolds only ever take the Dodge action, and opportunity attacks (sometimes with advantage). The crocodiles are trained to grab one enemy at a time and drag them behind the shield wall, drowning, prone and grappled. Vs a 2nd level party it was a good fight, dividing and frustrating the players until they use something out of the ordinary to thwart this tactic

@@Covertfun That's a really fun concept! I'm definitely borrowing this idea! Curious what your group came up with to overcome the situation!

@@stephenburley4581 the warlock used Beast Speech and Persuasion to convince one of the crocs to snack on a Kobold instead. She's a Dragonborn, so she began her Persuasion with "egg brothers! Turn on your captors and be free!"

@@stephenburley4581 glad you like it by the way. Of course using a Giant Crocodile (CR 5) and some tougher humanoids would amp it up. (Lizardmen, maybe?)

Action economy is the key. I run a huge party (6 pcs) and I they've had far more trouble with many low CR monsters than a few high CR ones, even though the encounter difficulty is considered lower with many monsters.

The key is to have your DM give better tactics and similar class attributes to your opponents.

If the DM uses no tactics and treats every sentient creature as a "speed bump" a party can punch way above its level of CR.

@@peterwhitcomb8315 Also, more encounters a day more make days last longer. A fully rested party can easily burn through a deadly encounter, a worn out one will definitly have trouble. Also, don't let your party long rest in a dungeon thats not designed for that.

I mean CR won't do much for thing like Shadows..... which can wipe my party last session if my DM want to (Tho he did drop False Hydra on us afterward).

It drops a 1 in 20 chance to a 1 in 400 chance

along the same point not standing them up as soon as they go down can be the right move. Aka if the foe takes it turn right after the and is standing over the downed PC healing them so they can just get knocked down again would be a waste.

You: well nothing can shoot me Dm: you begin to hear a rumble beneath you

little did you know, the "All Hungry Earth God" the goblins were worshipping was a Bulette, and the little bastards led you right into it's favorite feeding spot...

Alternatively the opponents can hold their actions until you come up again.

Or just use the reverse gravity spell.

@@evannibbe9375 But then you lay prone to avoid getting shot. And no one takes initiative... Days pass

So, I can't use explosive weapons to kill my targets without ticking off my scientist? :)

Assume any action with a 90% chance to succeed has a 50% chance to fail?

Just like in my friends campaign, I wanted to play a Wizard, so he let me with the condition that I start at level 1, while the rest of the party is level 4, going into one of the biggest fights of the campaign. With proper positioning, not... one... point... of... damage... did my Wizard take. He is still alive and kicking (and has catched up to the party in levels)

That is amazing! 😂

Thank you for the tip! I had never thought of that before. What an excellent idea! >83c

iiirc, you can't grapple more than 1 enemy at once

@@Thunder-bw9xm nope. You just need a free hand

Dude. That's not classy. Why not something like "you hear heavy scraping of wood on wood from the other side of the door. Nobody has exited in a good while now." "I open the door" "Make a dex check" As you open the door, you and all those directly behind you are hit by a ballistic, dealing 2d10+3 piercing, and pinning them to the wall. Remaining bandits rush them.

Thats what my characters 's use to feel like. Now I powerbuild to overcome my consistently bad luck, then become a god in combat when my rolls happen to be good for a day.

@@cybermage99 i got bad stats for in game reasons xp you see.... my turtle knight.... is a raging drunk.

@@theHedgex1 🤣 That sounds like a riot! (Though a pain in combat, lol)

i had a barbarian once. In the two in game years he lived he did 50 damage

@@elijahturner6910 xp lol damn

lucky you... meanwhile me and a friend is caught in the middle of about 15 cultists, a first mate (ship related) with a magic sword), harpies... oh, and a ship at sea, firing ballistas at us... last session ended with me being on an outcrop on a cliffside, cultists below, and the sound of three ballistas firing xD

The best advice I can offer is to add more environment around them. Thunder wave is a great spell for damage alone, but people feel clever when thunderwave is used to knock a wall full of barrels down on someone or to hurl people into pits. Combat in a 10x10 room will almost always be simple, but if you put a 2x2 pit in the middle of it with spikes at the bottom then you're going to see people naturally gravitate towards trying to hurl enemies into it.

And the three worst spells

And three random spells. And don't tell us which are which. Just make a video about 9 spells.

God, level 3 would be such a tough one. Counterspell, dispel magic, fireball, lightning bolt, haste, fly, mass healing word, REVIVIFY and slow to name but a few

On this note, just make sure you know how your DM reacts to illusion magic ahead of time, so that everyone is aware of what is and is not allowed, and the most likely outcome of a certain casting.

Concealment, not cover. If the enemy saw you cast it and knows its an illusion, it won't do a thing to protect you.

Shadowscall775 if all the enemies saw was looks like 3 stone walls pop out of the ground then they likely won’t know it’s an illusion right off the bat. And even if they do, unless they have true sight they still can’t see you so they can’t target you with anything

@@drailvarr_r2q5 If they know its an illusion, they can see through it. "If a creature discerns the Illusion for what it is, the Illusion becomes faint to the creature. "

Shadowscall775 ok, fair. They still need to discerned is an illusion. if you make something that is relatively reasonable. They will still have to burn an action to do it and then you can just throw up another one by the RAW

Yep, which means even Reach weapons would be included.

if a weapon has the finesse propriety, you can actually use dexterity to throw it!

If you are throwing a weapon it is considered a ranged weapon for that attack

That is exactly what I do. Not only disadvantage to their attack, but enemies also have advantage on attacks vs them. This rarely has to happen twice. I also include book diving into this distracted pc stuff.

The Face of Many Characters. I would recommend checking out the ‘Angry Gm’s’ combat urgency article. I’m sure once you apply what he says there you won’t see another phone in combat again

Do it, call it a distraction mechanic. Also, if you notice that a lot of your players have their noses in the phone, talk to them to see if you can make the sessions more captivating. Maybe your players have changed their minds from when you had your session 0, or it didn't work out the way they imagined then. Don't be afraid to try to improve. They should give you their attention, but you should give them a reason to give it to you.

I use dnd companion app on my phone for my character sheet, and tracking. Makes the game far easier and faster to keep track of.

Also, might I suggest simply asking them to put it down first? I've had a few incidents in which there were players on their phones that had no ill intent and actually did have a good reason to be on their phone (friend needed to be calmed down, family issues that didn't seem urgent enough to need a "get up and go" reaction) but got punished by the DM for it. Don't get me wrong, the player should have said something or excused themselves, but things could have been handles better by both parties

Considering that ancient dragons are quite intelligent, you may not have meant to kill the characters, but you did it by actually playing the monster correctly, so that falls partially on them for not fighting it as though it were more than meat with eyes. ☺

Killed two of your _players?_ That's hardcore, man. Hardly anyone uses those optional rules anymore.

@@nickwilliams8302 you don't ritualistically sacrifice a player when their character dies?

@@justanotherglorpsdaymornin5097 Well, it's just so hard on the carpeting ...

dang. a shadow dragon too, which means that when/if they get revived, they're without a shadow. thats kinda cool tho

It's a very useful tip, indeed: sometimes overwhelming offense is the best defense. Also, I like the idea of a Turian defeating in close combat a Krogan, even if it sounds strange, so accustomed to Garrus and his sniping skills I am ^^. As for the game, I've found it searching on Internet for a scifi rpg with a good setting (and I adore the ME setting, so that game is a serious contendant), but I haven't tried it yet. Does it run smoothly? Is there anything unbalanced? Is it playable at all levels or (like it happens with some rpg) only at low levels? Is there any extra material beyond the one you can find on the official site?

@@mrmaster9801 I won't pretend it's perfect, but I really like the system. It's very closely connected to the 5e system, and I'd say it runs rather smoothly. There are some blindspots in the rules from time to time, but these can often be quickly resolved by either looking for precedent in 5e, or with a reasonable on the spot adjudication. For example, the Engineer's ability to deploy a drone doesn't actually list the range at which it can do this. With no precedent in 5e, I ended up looking at similar gadget deployment abilities, and placed the range at 10m (each grid-square is 2m). The whole thing took about a minute to resolve, and we were back on track. One big shift from 5e is that there's a lot more bookkeeping. It doesn't suffer (and I use that word subjectively because I know some people love this aspect) Pathfinder's flood of temporary pluses and minuses (though Cover is far more relevant here than it will be in most 5e games), and classes themselves aren't much more complicated than standard 5e, however the equipment system is significantly more complex. Shield Points and Heat (essentially ammo) aren't difficult to track, but they are things you need to keep in mind. The complexity comes from the emphasis on customization. There's a lot of options, varying from simple flat or circumstantial bonuses to serious functional alterations. This is a good thing, on the whole, but it can make it a bit daunting when first trying to wrap your head around it. As for balance and levels of play, I think it's pretty well-built. I haven't actually played into tier three, but I'm seeing nothing on paper indicating it would be an issue. At the higher end of Tier 2 and thereafter, the DM's workload will have to shift a bit, either placing more focus on objectives, running a greater number of enemies, or brewing more dangerous ones. Classes are relatively balanced, but not entirely around combat. All classes are more than viable combatants, and I don't want to insinuate otherwise, but the combat-centric classes seem to have the edge on might expect. The Biotic and Engineer are both key participants in combat, but it is the Turian Soldier that stands as the team's clear backbone. That said, I think this is very well-balanced by the importance of utility in the game. This isn't the fantasy dark ages- tech is ubiquitous, and so too is the need to engage with it. Security systems, communications, vehicles, equipment management, and a lot more all fall into the portfolio of the tech classes, and that gives them plenty of opportunity to display their ability and value. Biotic classes vary in role, but they're no less valuable, bringing in options for utility, support, control, damage, and even durability depending on how you choose to approach them. I haven't seen much content support outside of the official site, but I haven't really gone looking for it. Even so, I'm not too concerned. The complexity of the gear system gives you loads of options for implementing items or effects, and I've personally brewed several enemies by fiddling with the statistics and equipment of those provided. It's also important to remember the value of re-skinning. A Blue Suns Legionnaire minus the grenades can just as easily be a nightclub bouncer in a seedy part of town. A Reaper Brute can be the alpha of some form of aggressive endemic life, or a Cerberus Phantom can be a Drell assassin. So long as you make the appropriate tweak here and there, and don't run around sharing the Stat block, your players will never know the difference. As for content, you've got 3 games (4, if you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel), a few books, and an entire genre to pull from. My party is currently a bunch of mercs working for the Blue Suns, but they could just as easily be a Council Task Force, independent vigilantes, and running their own little version of Firefly. The options are pretty much as limitless as the setting, and it's pretty manageable once you get the groundwork in place. I really suggest giving the system a go. I've had a blast with it, and my players have too.

A level 11 party I was running killed an ancient blue dragon with a combination of ready actions, superpowerful spells early on, flanking, summoning quite a few creatures to manipulate action economy, etc. They did this before it even could attack. Lucky feat on initiative is very undervalued.

Yeah like, 30ft one turn then 30 ft next turn and you still get to attack. Meanwhile everyone else actually got nothing done one their turn. Good move op

Just keep in mind if you’re doing such a good job not taking any hits, the rest of the party is being relatively focused down. Being at full hp with multiple party members down is less helpful than having taken some hits and your allies still up. Let the high ac guys take most of the early attacks, but as they start to falter you need to get in there.

@@jmass4207 well we beat them but the problem is if i had gotten in the middle of it i would have been a one hit kill i have only got 18 hit point's and on average the paladins and there judge was doing 26 to 28 hit points in damage every attack and that was to the heavy hitters and meat shealds of our party now if i had played with my Minotaur champion then yes i would have gotten in the thick of it but i have a Dragon born assassin/shadow sorcerer that was hitting almost every 3rd or 4th round with critical hits and doing 28 to 36 points of damage with my arrows. And 2nd reason i didn't get in the middle of the fight is i didn't start the fight by doing something stupid like 2 members of my party did they opened the window and used mold water and dumped a bunch of water on the paladins becouse they felt that the paladins were being dicks and they in fact were but that's paladins for you i am playing with nubbs that seem to think just becouse you can do something that it is a good idea to do it

Good tactics is not metagame. Its how that character survived to be where they are today and not dead. Metagaming is when your character uses info that they have no access to know. Communicating to another character that you are about to use a lightning bolt down the corridor, and warning them to duck and get out of the way is tactical and brilliant.

Why don't people know what metagaming actually is

Join Roll20, find a game, and start playing!

@@energyscholar, thank you, I'll check it out.

Exactly! Lol, yhe whole time I was watching this video, I was thinking: "...so basically, work as a team, instead of trying to draw blood yourself on every turn"