Fight and Flight.

[Feralventas]

Heya folks.

I'm looking to prepare a combat encounter for my party that will introduce them to the new Elite Mob styled foes for this particular arch of the story. However, two of my players tend to be at a significant distance from the rest of the party when engaging. I'd like to force them to move around a bit more rather than safely firing away at a distance, so I'm looking for ways that grant a humanoid character flight with a decent speed along with them via Feat or Bloodline; their class levels are spoken for and their equipment must be kept mundane and minimal.

They are currently quite capable in Melee, and can deal a decent amount of damage both in proximity and at range via bows if needed. Should I consider simply buffing their ranged damage/utility or is increasing their mobility enough to threaten whoever they're facing the way to go?

Party is a pair of Fighter/Warblades, Ranged-combat Binder, and Gunslinger. PF and 3.5 content allowed.

[Bearlock]

Okay, but what are the class levels that are spoken for exactly? By not having gear to do anything their abilities will have to come from race or class.

[Greenish]

Animal Devotion (C.Champ.) allows you to sprout wings and fly, for 1/min day, plus more for burning TU attempts (if you have those).

Winged (S.Species) template gives you flight speed and some stat boosts.

[Edit]: Also, if you're worried about the PCs looting them, potions of fly can hardly be harvested from their stomachs. :smalltongue:

[Feralventas]

I'm porting Fantasycraft's Soldier class; a Fighter of sorts. They gain additional bonuses in dealing with their armor and weapons as PF's Fighter does, don't have a critical failure on a natural 1 for attacks, and I've given them a mix of FC and PF feats so far; mostly Martial Study, Martial Stance, and a Chance feat that gives them a no-save 1/session debuff that their target's error range (automatic failure range) increases by two (critical failure on 1 through 3).

I've applied the benefits of Vow of Poverty, shifting the Armor Bonus into the DR/evil for a total of DR20 and replaced it with the Defense Bonus from the Soldier class (+12).


Winged might work, and I'll look into it. Potions might violate VoP though, so I'm not sure about that.

[andromax]

Give the monsters Beetle bucklers (deflect arrows) or some method of returning the arrow back at them. This should motivate them to engage in melee.

[Greenish]

Wait, you've introduced critical failures, and then deliberately excluded your NPCs from it, and then made them increase the critical failure chance of your PCs?

That's Evil, and not in a good way. :smallyuk:

[Feralventas]

Give the monsters Beetle bucklers (deflect arrows) or some method of returning the arrow back at them. This should motivate them to engage in melee.

The ones that avoid confrontation or are otherwise removed from danger are a Ranged Binder and a Gunslinger. The latter has the capacity to apply themself to melee but has spent most of their feats on archery. The Gunslinger might be able to melee, but has little reason to do so if they can avoid it, and locking down range by making it completely useless is not my goal nor is it fair to the players who've elected to play that style.

I'm looking to force them to react, not shut down their means.

[Feralventas]

Wait, you've introduced critical failures, and then deliberately excluded your NPCs from it, and then made them increase the critical failure chance of your PCs?

That's Evil, and not in a good way. :smallyuk:

Natural 1 rolls are automatic failures on Attacks and Saves already.
The Soldiers are removed from the only on Attacks.
The characters who are likely to be the target of these also have increased their critical Threat range. I don't require confirmation rolls, so the things that grant bonuses to Confirmation instead increase threat range by a diminished amount.

[Story]

If the races aren't spoken for, you can port Raptoran from 3.5.

[Greenish]

Natural 1 rolls are automatic failures on Attacks and Saves already.Oh, that. That's not what most people mean by "critical fails", but yeah, nothing wrong with that. Not sure if the "1 is not auto-fail" is going to make any difference, though. I mean, if it did, it means the guys are auto-hitting on every attack…

[Story]

You could also make them Strix (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/humanoids/strix).

[Bakkan]

Probably more limited than what you're looking for, but the Airstep Sandals from Magic of Incarnum offer limited flight and can be accessed with a feat. You'll probably want to burn a feat on Bonus Essentia and (if they're at least level 12) another [Essentia] feat.

[Psyren]

You could just change the battlefield. Say, make them fight in an underground chamber with little room to spread out, or in a narrow passageway where the PCs' own allies will foul up their ranged attacks.

Not sure what ranged capabilities the PCs have, but Wind Wall will shut down arrows in a hurry.

[Feralventas]

Probably more limited than what you're looking for, but the Airstep Sandals from Magic of Incarnum offer limited flight and can be accessed with a feat. You'll probably want to burn a feat on Bonus Essentia and (if they're at least level 12) another [Essentia] feat.

Thank you for reminding me that Magic of Incarnum exists. This might work perfectly.



You could just change the battlefield. Say, make them fight in an underground chamber with little room to spread out, or in a narrow passageway where the PCs' own allies will foul up their ranged attacks.

Not sure what ranged capabilities the PCs have, but Wind Wall will shut down arrows in a hurry.

I don't operate in-doors nearly often enough for the games, I'll have to check in on that. The archer and gunslinger just picked up some Falling Star (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10707) techniques, including a couple to deal with miss-chances and wind-walls.