Tactical Challenge #4

[Nhorianscum]

How do we best get into a position to deal with the BBEG and others in the ritual room?

Do all the party members use their first turn to ready move actions after the PC in front of them moves?
If the Warloc knows dispel magic works he should definitely cast it.

Or do you have a better plan for dealing with the Armor?



So let's assume round 1 is complete, the armor is dispelled and occupying one corner of the 10x10 landing at the top of the stairs. The door is shut. Now what? 3 PCs can stand on the landing, the others are stacked up on the stairs. Who opens the door, when. Where does everyone stand. Who acts, who readies, who moves etc.

Assuming we start at the landing...

Getting into the room is simple enough, just walk on in and take positions in your desired boss stompy meatwad and hold actions, take potshots, or cast silencewall as needed.

Wall pops all but BBEG out of the fight, shoves BBEG into our meatball (triggering held actions), reduces the room to the size of our meatball with a druid meat plug, and functionally denies lair actions.

It's a really dumb spell.

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Assuming we start in the hall.

Same but just dash instead of holding actions, barb will need to action surge for a shove on the thug and armor.

Then wall+silence goes up and movement stops mattering because we're yet again, in a functionally locked room where all that matters is a DPR race that is stacked "a lot" vs 1.

[MaxWilson]

How do we best get into a position to deal with the BBEG and others in the ritual room?

Do all the party members use their first turn to ready move actions after the PC in front of them moves?
If the Warloc knows dispel magic works he should definitely cast it.

Or do you have a better plan for dealing with the Armor?

So let's assume round 1 is complete, the armor is dispelled and occupying one corner of the 10x10 landing at the top of the stairs. The door is shut. Now what? 3 PCs can stand on the landing, the others are stacked up on the stairs. Who opens the door, when. Where does everyone stand. Who acts, who readies, who moves etc.

IMO Dispel Magic is a waste. Just shove it off the stairs and/or beat it to death before entering the room. It can't stand up to six PCs, and it was a tactical mistake for the witch to order it to fight the party alone. Waste of an animated armor.

Who opens the door, etc. depends on which plan you're going for. I am still going for the summons plan because, importantly, it does not rely on knowledge of the BBEG's weaknesses, it's just a generic kill plan with low risk. In order for this to work we need someone to Dodge and then open the door and trigger any reactions and then move back out of the way, then the warlock to cast Summon Greater Demon inside the room from the doorway and then move back out of the way, then the druid to cast Conjure Animals V and then move back out of the way. Therefore the warlock, druid, and door opener need to all be on the landing. I suggest having the Paladin do the door opening but it depends on initiative order (PHB initiative really interferes quite a lot with PC cooperation) and ultimately doesn't really matter anyway. Put the Rogue first in line at the head of the stairwell so they can pop in behind the summoned meatshields and start shooting at whatever is in the room. Cleric can pre-cast Bless on warlock/rogue/druid/door-opener, but be ready and willing to drop Bless (it's only a 2nd level slot) and switch to another defense if needed (Calm Emotions when it becomes clear that Charm is a problem). Druid is ready to recast Conjure Animals if needed (Dispel Magic) or Erupting Earth/Blight if not.