What Status Effects at What Levels?

[ArcanistSupreme]

Throughout 3.5, certain tactics are most effective only in a certain range of levels. A great example of this is tripping. It's great at lower levels, but it becomes harder and harder to pull off as the percentage of larger monsters a party will face increases and as more encounters a creature using magical methods of flight. So my question is this: what are the most common tactics available to PCs and over what level range are these tactics most effective?

And once you've answered that, what are some important defenses for PCs to get (death ward effects, mind blank, fortification, etc.) and what level do they need them by for it to be most beneficial?

[Saintheart]

Grease isn't so much effective at one level as it is at one gaming session. After you use it once, every monster or NPC will have 10 ranks or so in Balance. :smallsmile:

[NNescio]

Anything with a HD limit.

Like Sleep and Color Spray.

[Runestar]

Fighters will want to buff their will saves to avoid getting charmed or stunned.

You definitely want freedom of movement, since even humble monsters can out-grapple PCs by virtue of their superior bab, size and str.

At higher lvs, more monsters rely on multiple attacks to maintain their high damage output. However, their will saves tend to lag behind, and there isn't really anything in the game to protect against the humble slow spell. When heightened (to increase the save dc), it can easily end many a melee encounter. A tarrasque or kraken isn't so scary when they are reduced to a single attack each round, unless they have some form of pounce.

Likewise, even a humble blind effect can inflict 50% miss chance and allow the rogue to SA with impunity.

Similarly, once the PCs acquire forcecage and maze, they can potentially trivalise any encounter involving a few foes of equivalent power (split them up by mazing one, dealing with the other, then dealing with the single mazed foe when he returns). Effectively halves the encounter's difficulty. Both have no save, and forcecage ignores sr, so it is not easy to ward against.:smallannoyed: