Dropping everything turn 1

[Teapot Salty]

Hey guys. I have a question about tactics. Lets say I have a power that creates a zone of pain, and a power that gimps movement, but neither last long enough to be used together, but when used together it wrecks shop. Is it wise (at level 1) to dump both my encounter, my daily, as well as an action point to set it all up? In general is it wise to dump all three turn one? Thanks, and as always, go nuts.

[tcrudisi]

Obviously, every circumstance is different, but in general: yes.

Round 1 is the most important round.

[NecroRebel]

You should consider what your allies can do to help you in every situation. If you've got a power that's very strong if the enemies are immobilized in it, and you've got a party member who can immobilize them between when you drop it and when the enemies go, letting them do the immobilizing is often going to be a better choice than using an action point to immobilize them yourself.

Ultimately, though, tcrudisi is right - round 1 is the most important round. Murdering or neutering things before they can act is a great idea.

[GPuzzle]

Which is why Switch Builds consist of giving attacks, bonuses to damage and to-hit and repositioning your allies. That way, when they drop their own bombs, they'll have some actions saved and a buttload of damage ready.

[Tegu8788]

You also have to consider if the bad guys are in position or not. Unless my players get a surprise round, they aren't going to find many bad guys standing next to each other. By round 2 or 3 they've used tactics to get a fair number clumped, and then they drop pain.

But if it's a good bet at round 1, go for it.

[Inevitability]

Note that some DM's have only half the encounter visible at the start of combat and make a couple more creatures (and possibly the big boss) enter halfway through.

Having expended all your encounter powers and daily powers while facing a solo of your level +2 is not nice.

[Kurald Galain]

Having expended all your encounter powers and daily powers while facing a solo of your level +2 is not nice.

Actually it is nice if you consider that if you hadn't spent those encounter powers, you'd be facing the solo and its mooks at the same time.

Of course, the key here is to not blow all your powers until you know what's coming. Nevertheless, it is sound advice that in most cases, if you want to use a daily or an action point, then you want to do so in the first round of combat.

[Inevitability]

Actually it is nice if you consider that if you hadn't spent those encounter powers, you'd be facing the solo and its mooks at the same time.

Actually, the solo is designed to be the same threat as 5 monsters, but only has the HP of 4. That means that they are a very good target to alpha strike.

Of course, this assumes you have a solo who actually is built well, as opposed to the MM ones.

[Kurald Galain]

Actually, the solo is designed to be the same threat as 5 monsters, but only has the HP of 4. That means that they are a very good target to alpha strike.

Yes, if you see a boss monster, you should probably alpha strike it. My point is, you shouldn't hold back all the time just because there might be a big monster coming up in round three. Because (1) there usually isn't, and (2) if there is, then having removed the first wave of troops is a pretty good deal anyway.