Earthbound party

[Stealthscout]

Due to an accident in party creation, we are a party of 3 melee characters and 1 Warlock that didn't pick up the Eldritch blast invocation.

We are bound to come up against a flying or ranged creature someday and that will be a problem. We can't count on the DM building encounters specifically for our party, so that's out.

How do we overcome this party fatal flaw? Note we are a vanilla campaign- no Elemental Evil or other books. Just the player's handbook.

[DeTess]

What classes are you? If you're a mix of fighters and paladins or whatever, just make sure that everyone has a back-up ranged weapon.

[smcmike]

You will probably have to run away.

[Theoboldi]

First of all, carry ranged weapons with you. There's no reason not to. Even if you're not built for it, most melee classes can still fall back on them without losing too much effectiveness. If you're strength-based, buy some javelins or throwing axes alongside a bow, so you can use your good attribute bonus on ranged rolls at least sometimes.

Second, use the terrain to your advantage. Get into cover, hide inside tunnels and corridors, anything to deny the advantage a flying enemy has over you. If your enemies are using flying mounts, try to pull them off when they're close to you and keep them grappled on the ground. Or just kill the mounts first if they're particularly weak. Also, make sure your warlock takes Dispel Magic to deal with any pesky flying mages.

Be careful about trying to run away. Most flying enemies have a higher speed than you do.


Also, and this is just an aside, Eldritch Blast is not an invocation, but a cantrip. Dunno if that was just a typo, or maybe a rule-change in your campaign, but if it's at all possible for your warlock to still take it I would highly recommend it.
Did anybody else think this was going to be about how to represent the cast of Earthbound as D&D characters?

[lunaticfringe]

Thrown Weapons? You can use Strength, the range isn't great. A Dex Warrior can use bows & whatnot just fine.

There is still time for the Lock to grab EB and I would suggest the grasp? pull towards you Invocation from the UA.

Ready Action is your friend, flying monsters generally still have to get in your face to hit you. Bam! Reaction Grapple or Attack Bitch!

Magic Items, a simple idea is a Wand of Earthbind. Rings of Jumping, Winged boots, etc.

[Stealthscout]

Party consists of a paladin, fighter, and Ranger. Only the ranger is Dex based.

The Eldritch blast issue is just character choice. He didn't want to take the invocation that adds Charisma to damage.

I do like the idea of grapple checks. If we run against flying mounts with ranged attacks though, we are really screwed.

Strengths-based ranged attacks have a limitation of range too. If someone is in a good sniping position you will have five or six rounds movement to before you have a chance to fight back. I just don't like those odds.

[lunaticfringe]

Yeah ok so don't take Agonizing Blast. With the pull Invocation you can ground things at higher for your teammates to wail on. You don't have to take an Invocation, I usually don't on Bladelock. I still take EB because is a Ranged Attack that scales wonderfully.

[CursedRhubarb]

The warlock might want to keep spells like Earthbind and Hypnotic Pattern in mind as well. A failed save vs those by a flying enemy can result in a lot of damage when it hits the ground, and then if it lives it has to deal with the melee.

Spears/javelins/grappling hooks with rope can also be used to strike when they get in range and be used to pull things down.

It might be harder against enemies that can fly, but it actually sounds like it will be fun with the unintended challenges it can bring.

[Naanomi]

Earthbound party? That would be... two mystics (one Gish who uses clubs; and one blasty); an Artificer, and a Monk?