Hello everyone,
Quick question, I'm running a mage in my current campaign and a bit of an illusionist/aoe shooting guy. As much as I can try to coordinate moves to avoid teammates, sometimes they just get so .. "mucked in" I feel its hard to use my moves to assit, as I dont want to consistantly hurt my own team. I seem to recall that there was SOME feat that was like "Choose X squares IN your blast effect to not happen" or somthing in that spirit.
If that dosent exist or I need to explain further, please let me know! Thanks!
I know that this type of feat does not exist in 3.5e but maybe it does in 4e. Worst case, talk to your DM about house ruling/creating a new feat that is more selective targeting of AOE spells. To this end, I would suggest that the feat be spell specific; if it is universal it would be overpowered.
War Wizardry will help by giving you a penalty to hit your allies and deals only half damage to them.
You can also look for armor or magic items for your front-liners that give them resistances to the types of damage or save bonuses to the types of debuffs that you like to hand out.
If you're still in heroic tier, look for spells that only affect enemies in the area of effect - at-wills like Winged Horde or Beguiling Strands, for example.
Honestly, though, you're playing a wizard - friendly fire is an inevitable part of your job, and your teammates ought to be working with you to mitigate the negative effects. Another feat I'd recommend, by the way, is Coordinated Explosion - it makes friendly fire work for you, not against you. It works especially well when combined with an AoE that doesn't affect allies.
E11EEEE
E11FBEE
E2233EE
E2233WE
EEEEEEE
E= Empty Space
F = Fighter
B = Barbarian
W = Warlord
1,2,3= 3 Large sized skeletons.
In the situation the Warlord wanted to dragonsbreath all of the skeletons, but didn't want to hit allies with it. This was easily accomplished. All the Warlord has to do, is choose a sqaure up and infront of him as his blast 3 (The square directly between F and W occupied by 3). Then the blast goes out from there as a 3x3x3 block firing up. It hits 1, 2 and 3 but doesn't hit F or B. Since it is firing above out heads.
Since a lot of paragon is fighting large sized creatures you can take advantage of this fairly frequently.
Allies standing in the melee and you have an area burst 1? If the enemies are all large, just originate the blast high enough up (for a AB1 that means 3 squares up is the origin) so it hits the heads of your enemies and none of your allies.
You need to sit down with the other players and talk about your tactics and how you can continue to be expected to contribute if the other players are going to place themselves in your AOEs.
Do they need to hold actions until you can drop your control bombs? Are there feats for your front line that will let them shrug off the effects and damage of your powers? How do you prioritize your targets -- is there someone you should be pointing your wand at, instead of the creature that your front line has engaged? Is there a certain degree to which your front line can tolerate damage or effects (ie, a player willing to suck it up and take one for the team as he gets caught in your AoE)?
The problem is nastier at low levels where you have fewer power selections. My personal observations from the Encounter program seemed to fall along the lines of blaster-casters never being able to use something like Burning Hands, because no one was willing to either wait or take damage... Or, with enchanters (especially the orb ones who had extra push on some of their powers) who got bitched out when they pushed the enemies clear of melee/AoO/reach range.
YMMV, but this always seems to me like it boils down to a party strategy and synergy problem, where the players at the table don't act like a team, but just four guys who like to kill monsters on the same map. Talk with your people and see if you can nail down some synergies and strategies to make your AoEs more effective, which will make a front line's job easier.
One thing that is also important to remember is that you are playing in 3D. That can save some people more often than you think. Consider this situation that happened last night:
Just to emphasise, airbursting and airblasting is one of the msot important tricks for unfriendly area-attackers are paragon-plus. Large things can easily be caught by blasts and bursts whilst missing your friends, as long as you can aim over the heads of your friends. Cieling heights start to become a problem for bigger area bursts, but that's life.
And yeah, War Wizardry andf Nusenmee's Atonement (the latter's great for blasters, but control wizards less so, as the damage is the least important part of your attacks...)
Hello everyone,
Quick question, I'm running a mage in my current campaign and a bit of an illusionist/aoe shooting guy. As much as I can try to coordinate moves to avoid teammates, sometimes they just get so .. "mucked in" I feel its hard to use my moves to assit, as I dont want to consistantly hurt my own team. I seem to recall that there was SOME feat that was like "Choose X squares IN your blast effect to not happen" or somthing in that spirit.
If that dosent exist or I need to explain further, please let me know! Thanks!
As others have pointed out, coordination is key. You'd think after the first few times they'd be the ones looking for a solution. They're the ones getting hit
Or maybe the DM can offer more encounters that play to the wizard's strengths, with groups of artillery and minions, and terrain that keeps the frontliner's back.
"Nusemnee's Atonement" is your friend. Use it when you are about to hit an ally, the attack instead hits YOU and you gain resistance to that damage. You may do this even if you are dominated. Combine this feat with coordinated explosion and war wizardry. Also look into feats and powers that say "when you get hit if X damage time, you may do Y in response", so you may set up combo powers.
You might also invest in a resistance item for the defender you have been abusing. Resist "X" is a lifesaver.