Small Party Tactics and Strategies

[crunchykoolaid]

Hey guys,I've been lurking here quite a while and finally decided to join in on all this tomfoolery!

As summer is approaching, me and my friends are getting together once more for some good old-fashioned 3.5 DnD. However, many of us cannot make it or will only be able to attend semi-regularly, so we will mostly be restricted to three regular players, myself included. As our DM is known for difficult campaigns, and the two other players are not quite what you would call "powergamers", I need some help in how our group should go about combat, preparation, and general adventuring.

The Regulars
I am a Whisper Gnome Wizard with the Conjuration Domain ACF, Abrupt Jaunt ACF, and a spell book full of battlefield control and buffing spells.
My friend is playing a Psychic Warrior, but he hasn't decided on much other than that, so any general suggestions would be appreciated (he wants to go more towards the Glass Cannon route).
My girlfriend is relatively new to DnD, and is playing a Paladin to be our tank/healer with feats like the Power Attack line mixed with Divine Might/Shield, Awesome Smite, etc.

The Irregulars
One of my friends will play a Monk (I know, I know) in his attempt to role play as Batman. He's probably the best besides me at optimizing, so I hope he can make it work.
Finally, we have one player who hasn't decided anything about their character yet, so if you see any gaping holes in our party structure feel free to let me know.

As this isn't listed under Optimization, I'm not really looking for what the best build for each of these characters would be, just how to use them effectively in and out of combat and how my wizard (the tactician, of course) should advise their actions. By the way, all books are allowed (within reason) and homebrew is reviewed on a case by case basis, but most likely will be denied.

Thanks, and keep up the great work of being an awesome community!

[daremetoidareyo]

Advice point 1: Control the senses of your opponent and you control his knowledge. Look into cloudy conjuration for yourself. Poof, not only do you have 1d3 fiendish riding dogs flanking for the paladin, but now you have cover for your next full round spell. 1 word: Glitterdust....and most spell-like things that pertain to fog. They can't see you, they can't kill you so good. Illusions allow you to control the narrative with your opponent. Finally, use divinations so that you have more knowledge of what spells to prepare, giving you an additional sense that most opponents don't use.


advice point 2: Never forget that you can talk to most of the enemies in the game. So many encounters can go dramatically differently with a more diplomatic approach. You spy a party of goblins in the woods on the way to the cave, rather than starting with an attack, you always have the option of being like, "look, we are going over there to handle our own business. You have swords and we have swords but no-one needs to make enemies this early in the day. Why don't we just do whatever it was that we were doing without getting any of our friends killed, and the way It's looking, knowing what I know about the people I travel with, our team will have many more survivors." Roll something plus cha. Then you defeated a CR 1 encounter, you have all of your spells and hp, and the xp.

[crunchykoolaid]

Thanks for the advice! I never really considered Cloudy Conjuration, since I'm not a specialist (Domain Wizards don't count according to the DM) I always thought the two feat requirement was too much for basically a free 1st level spell. Still, I could sacrifice some of my metamagic feats for the requisite space.

I agree on Glitterdust being an awesome spell, I plan on starting many encounters with that.

Talking is always a good strategy, in fact that was my paladin's (previous campaign) tactic of choice! At lest until they refused, and he brought the holy retribution.

[Karl Aegis]

You can't hit what you can't see: Don't stand out in the open where enemies can attack you. Stand or crouch behind stalagmites, trees, stumps or rocks. A defensive mist can work, but it interferes with your attacks as well. If you can't see your enemies where they are, try to lure them away from their defensive position so you can at least count them.

Don't let your enemy bring superior numbers to bear: Running into the open and getting surrounded is a good way to die. If you can set up a choke point between two trees or two rocks, where only one enemy can engage you at a time do so. If the enemy starts effectively using more actions than you can, you're bound to lose eventually from sheer weight of numbers.

Identify the conditions for victory: Figure out how you can end the battle immediately and how the enemy can end the battle immediately. Some enemies lose if you can take flight and use ranged attacks. Some enemies instantly kill you if they can get close enough. Some enemies rout as soon as you kill their leader. Some enemies you can find some sort of agreement with and pass by them with both parties unscathed. Some enemies you can just go around and ignore them (oozes mostly; beware of fiendish oozes with monk levels). At least one enemy dances for a few rounds and declares victory. Figure what you can do to win and what you can do to prevent them from winning.

Watch your surroundings: It really sucks when you don't notice a large group of enemies approaching from another direction. If you had a bigger party you could have someone dedicated to warning you when more enemies are incoming, but in a smaller party you should make try to notice pincer movements and flanking attacks.