Range and detection for monsters

[Balor01]

Hey guys

I'm DM-in g a short lvl 10 campaign and it is generally a story about a disgrunted druids picking upon some villagers ... PCs come by and ... well you know how it goes.

The thing that got my attention is the following:
Quite a few encounters are made of enemies like Tendriculuses, Treants or Dire boars. That is all nice and well up and untill PCs fly 30 feet up and bombard these enemies into oblivion. If something with ranged weapons comes along, they go invisible.

So, I ask you this:

- what are some good ranged attacks to give to monsters? (spells ofc, rockthrowing abiltiy from giants ... but there may be some other good ideas here)
- what are some good debuffing abilities to give to monsters? (especially versus invisibility)

I could just use Trueseeing and Disjunction but I think we all agree that is retarded at such lvls.

Thanks

[W3bDragon]

First off, if you want to challenge your flying PCs, don't let melee monsters use ranged attacks. Even the giant's rock throwing ability, for all its fame, pales in comparison to a giant's full melee attack, which is what its CR is based on.

Best low level methods to counter flying or invisible creatures are as follows:

Against invisibility: Glitterdust is your best bet here. Basically one 3rd level wizard with Detect invisibility and Glitterdust can shut down all invisibility shenanigans for a whole encounter.

Against flying or generally long range sniping attacks: Wind wall for mundane archery. Obscuring Mist for the rest. If they can't see you from more than 5 feet away, the benefit of flying quickly diminishes.

Since you mention druids, their spell list includes some pretty useful spells for these kinds of problems:

1st
Obscuring Mist
Entangle (if you catch em before they fly)

2nd
Gust of Wind
Fog Cloud

3rd
Sleet Storm
Wind Wall

4th
Air Walk

5th
Control Winds

Also, ALL of the Summon Nature's Ally line of spells can generate flying creatures to combat the flying PCs.

[weenie]

If they are really good at ranged then try adding some flying enemies, but if they are better at melee, but fight from a distance to avoid taking risks force them into melee.

As W3bdragon mentioned druids can summon flying creatures, so a treant druid would do the trick nicely. Have him summon as much flying enemies as possible every round, dispel their invisibility and give him some sort of protection from elements and ranged attacks. If they can't hurt him from a range, while he can hurt them just fine they'll try to close in and kill him as soon as possible.

You could also use the good old hit&run on them. Have a gang of archers protected by a meat shield ambush them. When they cast flight and invisibility on themselves disperse the archers, have them regroup and repeat the tactic in a few minutes. They'll run out of spells sooner or later.

At level 10 dire boars just don't do it anymore for an optimized party. :smallsmile:

[Elric VIII]

Faerie Fire (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/faerieFire.htm) is a great Druid spell for you. Ready an action to cast it as the players use Invisibility.

Downdraft is a 3rd level spell from SpC that makes the target fall 100ft (50ft with a successful save).

[Togo]

A thick forest canopy, maybe 20-25' up, should provide total cover. You can't cast through it, you can't see through it, you can't shoot through it.

Basically, just give your forest a cealing, and let the natural creatures retreat to the trees. If they fly under the canopy, they're in reach of the treants.

At very high levels, there are a number of druidic weather spells that prevent flight. A bad storm also prevents flight.

Plants and animals are generally very bad at ranged combat. This is intentional. They rely on ambush/grapple to get one or more foes trapped near them, and thus keep the party engaged. This is why so many aqautic creatures have grapple - so that the PCs don't just leave the water.

Exceptions include the naga, the bloodthorn, the shocker lizard, and most kinds of fey.

Alternatively, just use story reasons to keep the PCs on the ground. The villagers are being cut down by evil druids. As the PCs arrive they rally and become able to defend themselves until the end of the battle. If the PCs leave, then they panic and scatter, and start getting cut down again. Give the PCs a reason to be on the ground, and they'll adapt their tactics accordingly.