My players recently made it to 5th level...Every character bought a 300gp diamond(the material component for the Life cleric to cast Revivify).
I haven't even killed anyone yet, but I do knock them out a lot. I think they are scared of me, lol.
I don't play the mobs like robots, however I do usually roll randomly to see which PC each monster targets first, then it is fairly organic from there. I tend to use HP modifiers and weapon upgrades rather than adding a lot of extra guys, because they dont have AE damage to kill minion swarms. Also, the combat rounds go faster with less enemies. I do also admit to giving strong hints about whether or not the monsters look like they are going to follow up with a deathblow etc...tactically it is vastly superior to KILL the 1 adventurer, but it also feels a little mean, heh.
imaginaryfriend wrote:
Hey, I think it’s smart of the players to each get their own diamond for revivify. I’d hate to lose a character for lack of a single spell component. In my campaign, the cleric has one diamond (because that's all he could afford), so if multiple people were to get taken down, well, there’s only one lucky soul that's getting brought back.
What Kalani and imagenaryfriend is particuarly true, specially with spellcaster. As a spell caster you know that it's easier to mind control the stupid brute (fighter/barbarian) then the intellectual class (cleric, wizards)
As a fighter you know your chance to grapple the giant are slim to none, and yor chance to keep that grapple are next to 0, but you could easily grapple wizard witha single hand.
Yes for sure the wizard happen to have 14 strenght well DANG that wizard train to counter his weakness, but he probably created other weakness doing so (lesser Dex, lesser consitution, lesser wisdom?)
yes it might be difficult to differenciate a full plate paladin from a full plate fighter (specially if both use a shield with there god symbol on it, or the paladin got a new shield and didn't had time to inscribe his holy symbole on it yet) but you know they both have good strenght so don't try to grapple them, and once you see one of them imbue his sword with holy energy, you now know which one is the paladin.
I didnt mean i do it totally random.
The crushing wave reavers like to maim the unarmored etc. once spells start getting cast they adjust tactics. But the paladin and barbarian and cleric do a good job of screening for the druid, warlock, and ranger.
aah okay 
Sorry for misunderstanding then.
I tend to play my creatures to their stats. This will also mean that if the monsters speak common, sometimes (when it has the option of being fun ) they will totally use the players tactical discussions against them.
Example: Players at the gate of a gnoll complex, directly behind the door , unbeknownst to the players, 3 gnoll guards listening at the peephole. The players huddle up and decide 1 character will knock, the rest will hide to the side, wait for a gnoll to show themselves, grab the gnoll and close the gate.. So players hide, victim knocks.. gnoll 1 opens the door, gnoll 2 grabs the victim and pulls him inside, gnoll 3 yells in broken common "thanks it be good idea!" and closes the gate.
I of course then gave the players a chance to react and not have the gate close all the way....but it was a good time.
This came up in AL just recently when one of the players at the table (not the player being targeted asked why the NPC's are doing what they are doing.
- Raging naked Barbarian is a threat to everyone, Wizard is threat to everyone (mostly in melee, burning hands/thunderwave)
- Barbarian and Wizard are naked
- We have sharktooth swords that do an extra die against non-armored opponents
- Swarm them with sharktooth swords at advantage and extra damage to drop people as soon as possible
The heavilly armored dwarf and dragonborn fighters were wondering why they weren't targeted.
"It is not in their best interest to waste their time on you right now. Bad guys are not (generally) that stupid."
The Sharktooth thing also came up in my game recently: The Wizard was freaking out and then realised that Mage Armor IS Armor and thus makes their wizard not drawing the extra damage. I also had players wondering why the Monk and Sorc not wearing armor were targeted.
My players are pretty good at parsing my verbal descriptions for clues about when special things like bonus damage dice or resistances are getting used. They watch my die rolls closely to quickly calculate how 'dangerous' the opponents are, and in general they are a bit meta-gamey with their group strategy. In the normal way...'No you do this, I'm gonna do that on my turn.' sort of thing.
I make most of my rolls in the open, but things like enemy stealth rolls and initiative and whatnot I keep secret. Also random encounter rolls...because most of my random encounters aren't all that random.
I just thought it is funny that the party all bought several healing potions for each character which they are loath to use because they have 5 healers in the party, and now they spent almost 2 grand on diamonds just in case.
Last week they stormed the Sacred Stone Monastery and retreated with an unconscious Hellenrae. I was thinking the Prophet might not like his lieutenant being kidnapped, so he might send out a emmisarry to offer a prisoner exchange, her in exchange for the captive delegate. He hates weakness, so he wants to make sure she is punished properly for her failure. But that would let her still be alive to fight again in the temple.
I was considering just sending the duergar and one of the burrowsharks after them since it will be dark before they can finish a long rest...But that feels a little deadly since they are all very beaten up and nearly out of spells.
Tyranthraxus wrote:
If the Mage Armor spell was armor, it would invalidate itself in a loop, as it requires you to not be wearing armor for it to have any effect.
If anyone was curious what I went with, i ended up having the earth cult send out a negotiator that offered to free the prisoners and the delegate in exchange for Hellenrae. Both because Marlos wants to make sure she is properly punished for her failure, and also to buy the remaining cultists some time to move down into the mines and prepare for the PCs return.
The PCs returned a week later to find the first floor abandoned except for the minotaurs. Which they killed very easily. The last room they went to was the Lich room. At first they thought it was just a old mage and they were about to attack, so I clarified my description by showing them the picture in the MM. i could tell at least half of the players were actually surprised. They were like Ohhh ****! They passed the idiot test and balked at their initial plan to attack him, and they started talking. someone made a history check to recognize his name from the Troll Wars. They chatted a bit and he offered the rewards for clearing out the rest of the monastery, as well as agree not to disturb him furthur.
I am pretty sure the PCs plan to assault the Earth Temple as their first temple, so they need enough XP to be at least 6th level. That is still under the intended level for that temple, so if they proceed it will be a tough lift.
I have a Human (variant) Fighter with the Magic Initiate feat. He took Mage Armor as his 1st level spell to use once per day. So, he uses it once per day. He uses a rapier (with the duelist bonus to damage) or he uses one of his cantrips (Shocking Grasp or Firebolt). He *looks* like a Wizard, except for the rapier, to someone who isn't metagaming and looking at my character sheet.
Second Wind comes in handy when things keep doing damage to you thinking they can "drop that wizard" in one hit. Lol
What's really cool is that he is the second Human (Variant) Fighter I took with the Magic Initiate feat. The other one is strongly Druid-flavored, took Goodberry with Shillelagh and Thorn Whip and uses a shield and splint armor. So, "druid" except for the metal armor stuff. The party healer (usually a Druid in our group) doesn't mind the extra Goodberry to pass around to the party members.