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pmurray@bigpond.com 12-14-07, 10:37 AM

We are doing Age of Worms in Eberron. My players (5 ECL 8 characters) are up against 3 CR 5 Dolgaunt monks. Cool. Dolgrims are also in-flavour, but they are quite low level. I wanted some dolgrims, but I wanted them to actually be of some use - not just mown down by the half-ogre having accomplished nothing. What to do? I threw in 5 dolgrim Warrior 3s, using the standard array. Their feats were Monkey Grip from complete warrior and Distracting Combatant (or whatever it is called) from the miniatures handbook. They were each equipped with a pair of longspears. I call 'em "dolgrim spear wall". Position them in a line or in depth 2 or 3 squares apart (so that a single fireball won't get 'em all). Distracting combatant gives a +1 circumstance bonus to all allies each attack you make on a foe - whether or not you hit. Note that circumstance bonuses stack. The longspears allow them to stand behind the dolgaunts and, incidentally, to not have to move through the half-ogre war hulk's threatened area. And dolgrims, of course, can make 1 off-hand attack with no penalty. So they did no damage (I think one of them hit), but they gave their allies considerable bonuses to hit, and all from the relative safety of two squares back. The half ogre took them all down, eventually, with a single great cleave. But it was great tactics, great support for the main fighters, and all with non-elite NPC warriors. Very fine. And at the end of the day, the characters will only be getting 400xp off each of them. Now, that's economy. You could do the same with fighter1 dolgrims ... but the NPC class is correct flavour for these critters IMO.