Mapping Paradigm Shifts in D&D Combat by Level

[Realms of Chaos]

Far too often, it is easy to forget what characters of a certain level are capable of, making it difficult to plan out encounters or what is needed to make a combat last longer than one round and be truly formidable. Though it is impossible to map out every possible contingency for a truly optimized party, I am trying to get a decent sense of what creatures of a certain CR need to be decent encounters against a party with average optimization.

For example:

At level 5, players can start flying. Creatures need a way to handle this.

At level 6, shock trooper becomes available and ubercharging is opened as a potential option. Creatures either need some way to contribute before being killed in one shot or need some way to prevent/survive the charge.

At 11th level, true seeing becomes available. Relying solely on illusions/transformation no longer cuts it.


Can anyone help me pin down more of these paradigm shifts?

[Darrin]

At level 5, players can start flying. Creatures need a way to handle this.


There are at least two ways to fly at ECL 1: Animal Devotion (limited duration) and Heneyokai: Sparrow/Crane (unlimited duration).



At level 6, shock trooper becomes available and ubercharging is opened as a potential option. Creatures either need some way to contribute before being killed in one shot or need some way to prevent/survive the charge.


Martial Study: Counter Charge, although that may look a little silly on naked animals with no reasonable access to the Spike channel.



At 11th level, true seeing becomes available. Relying solely on illusions/transformation no longer cuts it.


Pika--I mean, Beguilers have truesight at LA 0, although I'm not sure how many DMs would allow them to be used as an ECL 1 PC without some tweaking.



Can anyone help me pin down more of these paradigm shifts?

ECL 7, 4th level spells become available. This includes:

Freedom of movement, which means you can just chuck all the grappling rules headaches out the window. (Although Mini-FoM is available earlier via the Travel domain.)

Evard's black tentacles, which means you have to crawl back out the window to see where you through &*$%#%$!!! grappling rules, and after about half an hour of trying to make sense of them, you eventually realize that you might as well not bother rolling, 75% of the creatures in MM1-5 get torn apart like a bad hentai video.

Greater invisibility, creatures without see invisibility/scent/blindsense/tremorsense/etc. become residents of Whiffville.

ECL 11 also opens up planar binding -> Efreet -> wish abuse.

[Realms of Chaos]

There are at least two ways to fly at ECL 1: Animal Devotion (limited duration) and Heneyokai: Sparrow/Crane (unlimited duration).

To reiterate, I'm trying to plan for the average player here and, from what I've seen so far, neither of those options is all too popular. Also, I'm pretty certain that the Hengeyokai (from OA, right?) has a +1 LA, though the point would still stand.


Martial Study: Counter Charge, although that may look a little silly on naked animals with no reasonable access to the Spike channel.

That is a very good countermeasure to be certain. The purpose of the thread, however, is to pin down at what levels what countermeasures are necessary.


Pika--I mean, Beguilers have truesight at LA 0, although I'm not sure how many DMs would allow them to be used as an ECL 1 PC without some tweaking.

Beguiler the base class? What? I never even knew that this was possible. Seems pretty safe to say that the median player wouldn't use this in an average game.


ECL 7, 4th level spells become available. This includes:

Freedom of movement, which means you can just chuck all the grappling rules headaches out the window. (Although Mini-FoM is available earlier via the Travel domain.)

Evard's black tentacles, which means you have to crawl back out the window to see where you through &*$%#%$!!! grappling rules, and after about half an hour of trying to make sense of them, you eventually realize that you might as well not bother rolling, 75% of the creatures in MM1-5 get torn apart like a bad hentai video.

Greater invisibility, creatures without see invisibility/scent/blindsense/tremorsense/etc. become residents of Whiffville.

ECL 11 also opens up planar binding -> Efreet -> wish abuse.

All excellent points, though the last one, again, seems more like a tippyverse tactic than the average strategy of a wizard.

[Amnestic]

To reiterate, I'm trying to plan for the average player here and, from what I've seen so far, neither of those options is all too popular. Also, I'm pretty certain that the Hengeyokai (from OA, right?) has a +1 LA, though the point would still stand.

Hengeyokai were updated in Dragon Magazine #318 and lost their level adjustment, their type changing from Shapechanger to Humanoid (Shapechanger).

And I'm assuming he's referring to the Beguiler Race, rather than the Beguiler Class.

[Darrin]

To reiterate, I'm trying to plan for the average player here and, from what I've seen so far, neither of those options is all too popular. Also, I'm pretty certain that the Hengeyokai (from OA, right?) has a +1 LA, though the point would still stand.


Depends. The OA Web Errata on the WotC website didn't change the LA, but the Official 3.5 Errata printed in Dragon #318 did.

If you don't allow the errata in Dragon #318, then the Vanara become the ubercaster race (+2 Int, +2 Wis, -2 Str, LA +0), and certain magic item prices remain as fantastic bargains (notably, the Wondrous Writing Set and Kimono of Storing).



Beguiler the base class? What? I never even knew that this was possible. Seems pretty safe to say that the median player wouldn't use this in an average game.


Shining South p. 60. It has the (cohort) tag on LA 0, but that's not the only red flag. There's the truesight thing, which even as a cohort you'd think would have some LA, and it's a 1 HD magical beast, a creature type that's generally a no-no for PCs.



All excellent points, though the last one, again, seems more like a tippyverse tactic than the average strategy of a wizard.

As the ECL gets higher, it becomes extremely difficult to predict the "average strategy of a wizard", because the number of spell-related issues a DM has to issue a ruling on gets exponentially more complicated.

A couple other thresholds to look out for:

"15 minute adventuring day", i.e. when the entire party can camp out in rope trick between encounters. Hard to nail down the ECL, though, since the spell is available at ECL 3, it's extendable to 10 hours at ECL 5, but doesn't last 8 hours without metamagic until ECL 8.

Teleport at ECL 9. Keeping track of mounts, travel provisions, transportation costs, finding an inn, haggling over food/lodging costs, fetching the treehugger that refuses to sleep inside cities or man-made structures with strict "no pets" policies in the morning, random encounters by terrain tables, weather effects on travel, forced marches and/or fatigue rolls, trying to convert movement speeds into mp/h into hexes/day, etc... that all kinda goes out the window. NPCs also need to put some thought into thwarting "skip the carefully designed dungeon, teleport to the last room" or "teleport into the BBEG's private sanctum while he's sleeping" kind of tactics.

[gorfnab]

Shining South p. 60. It has the (cohort) tag on LA 0, but that's not the only red flag. There's the truesight thing, which even as a cohort you'd think would have some LA, and it's a 1 HD magical beast, a creature type that's generally a no-no for PCs.

I've played one in a campaign from level one up. It really wasn't that powerful. If you try to stay away from Wizards or other Tier 1 casters than the Beguiler can actually work well in most groups without being over powering. By the time True Seeing becomes relevant, you either have access to it as a spell or you have other divinations that can do similar things. Also when playing one you have to remember that you're not humanoid, which from a roleplaying aspect can be entertaining but awkward.

[Nohwl]

there was a similar thread on brilliantgameologists. you might want to take a look at it.

link (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11445.0)

[ffone]

Evard's black tentacles, which means you have to crawl back out the window to see where you through &*$%#%$!!! grappling rules, and after about half an hour of trying to make sense of them, you eventually realize that you might as well not bother rolling, 75% of the creatures in MM1-5 get torn apart like a bad hentai video.


LOL you win an internet. I've always wondered about Black Tentacles that way!

[Gnaeus]

To reiterate, I'm trying to plan for the average player here and, from what I've seen so far, neither of those options is all too popular. Also, I'm pretty certain that the Hengeyokai (from OA, right?) has a +1 LA, though the point would still stand.

Are druids popular? Because a gnome druid on a dire bat (core) can fly at level 4.