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Help me design a ship encounter (4E)

   
Good suggestions! Thanks.

Okay, here is an anticipated problem: the wizard is a big fan of fly/blur combo. I am anticipating that he will cast fly and blur, fly toward the enemy ship, and nuke it, thus making the encounter less than fun. Any ideas about how to neutralize this tactic without making it seem super cheesy?

Easy, just have a storm pop up. If he flies, he's going to be contending with hurricane force winds blowing him too far away to be in range of his target, and taking damage every round from being battered by wind and lightning. In general, having a storm raging around the battle lets you do lots of neat little things that'll make the encounter more than a stand up fight (sliding combatants around randomly, damage all over the place, poor visibility, etc)

I'm pretty sure true seeing cancels out blur's influence. And that's one of those things I'd have all over my archers.

The other alternative is to sparse out attacks- a smart enemy with resources will send an attacking force in waves in order to trick a mage to burn up is buffers like fly and bulls strength and the like. Wait an hour or so. Then send another wave. It won't take long at all before pavlovian conditioning sets in and your mage hesitates to use that strategy anymore.

MINE certainly are.

Because, seriously, as strategies go- it's easy, it's obvious, it's something any low level mook can do. And I'm pretty sure it's as well known tactic in a D&D world as "ambush" tactics are in the real world. It doesn't take a tactical mastermind to think of that method- everyone should know of it, at least. The question is about doing it right.

It has the OOC advantage of giving fighters and other classes more value in battle. It forces the wizards to think in the "at most, 10% of my caster power per battle unless I know I'm up against the final enemy".

Or at least encourages the investment in magic items.

Also, if a wizard starts flying near my ship all blury, he gets a volley of arrows. One of them will hit and disrupt his concentration and knock him from the sky.

That will be the last time he tries that.

Oooh... that gives me another strategy that D&D residents would have thought of long ago: flack cannons.

Basically like shotgun spreadshot... except made of sharp pointy metal... and fired from a cannon.

They'd have crap for range, be half worthless in terms of impact on armored soldiers/shields.... but they would shred a mage and the eight of his mage buddies standing around him.

Invisibility and its lesser cousins don't do crap against AoE.

Quote:
Originally Posted by World of L_Tiene View Post
Also, if a wizard starts flying near my ship all blury, he gets a volley of arrows. One of them will hit and disrupt his concentration and knock him from the sky.

That will be the last time he tries that.
In 4E, a blurred wizard is invisible from more than 5 squares away, and damage does not disrupt concentration.

That wizard can't fly indefinitely can he? His ship is moving, and the enemy ship is moving. If he misjudges where he is flying as the ships move out from under him, that will land him in the water real fast...and even his allies won't be able to see him to fish him out unless they're within 5 squares.

** Then it's back to that eye of true sight. Put it in the captain's scope (normally used for seeing through harsh weather conditions, etc.) and have him analyze the scene as the other ships come in. Once visible from a distance the ship wizard then gives true sight to the archers and then release the volleys.

Little bit of creativity, same exact plan.




 

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