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View Full Version : Hit and Run tactics: Guerilla Style



Brock Samson
2009-05-20, 05:59 AM
What are some good ways/classes for this style of tactic? And furthermore does anyone EVER play this way? Either their PC playing this way, or a DM who plays NPCs harassing the PCs this way?

Potential ideas:
A Warlock: This seems like one of the easiest classes to do the deed. Their ability to endlessly harass their foe seems too good to pass up. Pick up Eldrich Spear for a fantastic range for your blast, make liberal use of hiding/invisibility/flight, and best of all dispelling any and all of their buffs! If you're stealthy enough/fast enough you can follow your opponents all day long, throwing blasts at them from random directions at random times, dispelling buffs, counterspelling divinations to find you, and utterly wearing them down to the point of exhaustion and, even better, FEAR! You can literallly terrorize them to the point that they throw their arms up and scream "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!" I'm not sure about class skills, spot and listen of course is going to need to be as high as possible, and hide/move silently (of course augmentable by various magics). I'm not familiar with their skill list, but a 1, 2, or 3 level dip in Rogue certainly can't hurt (plus Able Learner).

Straight Rogue: Obvious.

It's a race but: Pixie. Greater invisibility at will correct? 'Nuff said.

Horizon Walker: Now you don't even need to be hide-y. Get yourself a Cleric to cast Spell Immunity: Dimensional Anchor on you and go to town. Stand out in the open 200 feet away from them and begin the ranged pelting. As soon as they return fire or run toward you dimension door away and repeat.

I'd love to hear more ideas of races/class/skills/stories. What are your thoughts? And does anyone ever use this tactic in a D&D world?

AslanCross
2009-05-20, 06:25 AM
Scout was built for this. Its primary class feature is Skirmish. Doesn't deal as much damage as Sneak Attack, but since the class gets stealth skills and most of the Rogue acrobatic skills and fast movement, it's going to do the job pretty well. Multiclass with ranger and take the Swift Hunter feat for Skirmish and Favored Enemy level stacking.

In my Eberron Red Hand of Doom thread, Eldariel and a few others have been helping me rebuild the rather underwhelming goblin worg riders that appeared in the module. This might help illustrate how it works.

Eldariel
2009-05-20, 06:35 AM
What are some good ways/classes for this style of tactic? And furthermore does anyone EVER play this way? Either their PC playing this way, or a DM who plays NPCs harassing the PCs this way?

Potential ideas:
A Warlock: This seems like one of the easiest classes to do the deed. Their ability to endlessly harass their foe seems too good to pass up. Pick up Eldrich Spear for a fantastic range for your blast, make liberal use of hiding/invisibility/flight, and best of all dispelling any and all of their buffs! If you're stealthy enough/fast enough you can follow your opponents all day long, throwing blasts at them from random directions at random times, dispelling buffs, counterspelling divinations to find you, and utterly wearing them down to the point of exhaustion and, even better, FEAR! You can literallly terrorize them to the point that they throw their arms up and scream "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!" I'm not sure about class skills, spot and listen of course is going to need to be as high as possible, and hide/move silently (of course augmentable by various magics). I'm not familiar with their skill list, but a 1, 2, or 3 level dip in Rogue certainly can't hurt (plus Able Learner).

Straight Rogue: Obvious.

It's a race but: Pixie. Greater invisibility at will correct? 'Nuff said.

Horizon Walker: Now you don't even need to be hide-y. Get yourself a Cleric to cast Spell Immunity: Dimensional Anchor on you and go to town. Stand out in the open 200 feet away from them and begin the ranged pelting. As soon as they return fire or run toward you dimension door away and repeat.

I'd love to hear more ideas of races/class/skills/stories. What are your thoughts? And does anyone ever use this tactic in a D&D world?

For some reason I've been bringing it up a lot lately, but Chrono Legionnaire (http://web.archive.org/web/20071216030315/http://forums.gleemax.com/wotc_archive/index.php/t-626146) is pretty much the ultimate when it comes to this. Teleports in, hits a guy, Teleports out. Due to the range it can operate at, this is pretty amazingly efficient.

Of course, long range archers are great; find some high hill with good visibility, find something to shoot and let them wonder where the arrows are coming from (and die). At least one level of Cragtop Archer makes it possible.

Swordsage can operate very much in this manner, with the dimensional movement maneuvers along with standard mobility ones. Of course, they have the drawback of mostly being efficient at melee ranges and thus not getting very far, but still.

Dervish can also do this, especially against heavy, bulky melee-types.


And yeah, I use skirmishing opponents all the time. Basically, whenever an intelligent opponent is outmatched and it knows it, it won't engage unless absolutely necessary. Young Dragons with their breath weapons and Flyby Attack are perfect for this. Insane Fly-speed, highly powerful ranged attack, relatively squishy.

And yeah, it happens to me too. Or the DM tries anyways; as my characters are often of the incredibly mobile (or ranged) type, it tends to be hard to pull it off against them.

Brock Samson
2009-05-21, 12:22 AM
If you just want to have fun, another fun little trick might be stealing their stuff when they sleep, slowly but surely, maybe a small item every night. Tailing them without letting yourself be found out and eventually they'll get more and more paranoid "WHERE is my grappling hook?!?!"

lsfreak
2009-05-21, 12:57 AM
One of the prestige classes that gives Shadow Pounce. Teleport into the midst of the party, full attack, teleport out the next round. Use rogue for major sneak attack, or swordsage to pull it off in a single round.

Any spellcaster with Flyby Attack can pull this.

Any time you have the party and a bunch of little guys separated in a way that the only response can be ranged, they can pull something like this off, especially if they're smart enough to not be close enough that a fireball takes out more than 2 or 3. Little guy pops his head out, fires a crossbow at the party 60 feet below him in the small canyon, hides again. Or from behind a pillar, or abandoned building, or a tree. Only way to hit them back is area attacks or ready actions. Yes the party wins, and probably without much of a threat, but with 50 of the little bastards it either takes a long time or they use precious resources. Goal achieved, now they're too late or too weakened to stop the real threat as easily.

Also, traps are a standard for guerrilla warfare. If a group that's using hit-and-run knows where the PC's are going to travel, it should be trapped and not just an ambush site.