Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Any D&D/D20

Shadowrun

World of Darkness

Palladium

Other (feel free to post about it)

[Loud Whispers]

That's an interesting point. Presumably, the Monster Manual's entries teach us enough about how a monster hunts (i.e., by inslaving you, going by 90% of monsters). It'd be awesome if Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma gave us some sort of formula for how different monsters would interact in a conflict.

A hill giant, two goblins, and a gnoll have teamed up to wreck havoc on the country-side. Perhaps the giant is the presumed leader, but is actually being controlled and coaxed by the goblins, while the gnoll is only loyal until a fight looks to be going south.

Have you seen this blog?
It goes into detail how Int & Wis affect monster behaviour. How they use their abilities, whether they have target prioritisation / who to prioritise, whether they choose to fight at all and if they retreat e.t.c.

The general rule of thumb is high int = better threat identification, planning, strategy
high wis = better threat analysis, instincts, tactics

So a high int low wis creature may have an excellent ambush planned, but they are prone to retreating too early or too late. A high wis low int creature may just attack the weakest looking party member, but recognise opportunities or when to retreat very well. The blog writer also takes into account the lore of the creatures in addition to stats, so for example a Death Knight will recognise when it is hopelessly outmatched but will fight to the end anyways because it's a an ex-Paladin. He also stresses the important point that critters should only act on the information they have, not what information the DM has.

E.g. a cultist leader is going to target the person that looks like a spellcaster first. If that spellcaster is just a barbarian wearing loose robes, that's working exactly as intended. If a neothelid confuses a sorcerer for a wizard, working exactly as intended. If a lich spies on the party as they venture through the dungeon, it makes sense if the lich takes active countermeasures on tactics the party has used

[Egan_BW]

Yo, now I want to play as a barbarian all dressed up in wizard robes, with a greataxe disguised as an arcane focus.

[Loud Whispers]

Yo, now I want to play as a barbarian all dressed up in wizard robes, with a greataxe disguised as an arcane focus.

And take the mage initiate and ritual caster feats so they can cast loadsa magic and make a name for themselves as a magic user

[scriver]

Yo, now I want to play as a barbarian all dressed up in wizard robes, with a greataxe disguised as an arcane focus.

Just go the Gandalf quarterstaff route and whack headsamole

[Superdorf]

Yo, now I want to play as a barbarian all dressed up in wizard robes, with a greataxe disguised as an arcane focus.

I'll just leave this here.

[Egan_BW]

Given the earlier discussion of fighting dirty and combat-as-war, I was more thinking of a sneaky bastard clever barbarian rather than your typical deluded Lethal Joke character. They know full well that they're a marial warrior, not a spellcaster. They just disguise themselves as a spellcaster for a tactical advantage.

[Loud Whispers]

Given the earlier discussion of fighting dirty and combat-as-war, I was more thinking of a sneaky bastard clever barbarian rather than your typical deluded Lethal Joke character. They know full well that they're a marial warrior, not a spellcaster. They just disguise themselves as a spellcaster for a tactical advantage.

Wild Soul barbarian would be very convincing as a wizard, given the sheer potential to throw out loads of wild magic and pretend it was all intentional. Otherwise I think ritual caster / mage initiate are the ways to go, or even just proficiency in using arcana to utilise magic tools and scrolls to provide enough convincing evidence that your barbarian, is in fact a squishy wizard. Wizard robes and hat won't discount unarmoured defence, so it all works out exceptionally well. As for weapons, warhammer, club, sword, spear - I think all of these things could be wizardly weapons

*EDIT
Completely forgot some racial backgrounds would allow for a casting of a few cantrips too. Elf barbarian would be neato for example

[delphonso]

How many times does a wizard have to get specifically targetted first before they start wearing plastic armor and illusion their wand into a sword?

[Cthulhu]

Re: enemies using guerilla tactics.

There's theory on whether combat in roleplaying games should be run by the philosophy of sport or of war.

Combat-as-sport is the self-contained room with set number of level-appropriate monsters that might sometimes fight intelligently, but never "unfairly". The player characters are expected to return the favour with kick-in-the-door tactics and direct combat. Kill the one healing the others first. Have the paladin force the tough one into a duel while the rest of the party deals with the flunkies. Cast your own Fly spell to negate the enemy's advantage from the same.

Combat-as-war is the dungeon as a whole built as a defensible fortress designed to kill intruders with maximal efficiency and minimal defender casualties. If faced in direct combat, the player characters are extremely likely to fall. Instead, they are expected to play just as dirty. Build a huge bonfire and flood the dungeon with smoke, choke the kobolds out. Poison the trees with Agent Orange to leave the drop bears with nowhere to hide. Ambush the enemy's camp and destroy their food supply with a long-range Fireball, then get out before they can react.

There isn't a right or wrong way to play a roleplaying game, but it's essential to have everyone on the same page about what sort of combat is expected in the campaign. The philosophies are tools: combat-as-sport easily creates a classic fantasy story of good and evil in honourable direct conflict, while combat-as-war leaves things ambiguous in its verisimilitude. How can you be sure your opponent is evil if all you know of them is artillery targeting data?

I prefer combat as war, though it doesn't always imply a heavily defended and organized occupation, monster zoos can work with it fine as well, just using random encounter tables to simulate roaming enemies instead of moving them around the map on your side of the screen.  But yes, I like when my players use unconventional tactics against monsters.  It's awkward in modern games where all the XP comes from killing shit; is using one illusion spell to lure the enemy into a trap and killing him really worth his full XP?  Hmmm?  I dunno?  But in old school 90% of the XP comes from treasure recovered, so it perfectly supports and even encourages being unconventional.

[delphonso]

I take monster XP for defeat rather than kill.

If they scare them off, trick them into a pit, or get them a part time job and a new lease on life, they've earned the XP.

[Jimmy]

Yeah, XP isn't some magic energy that pops out of dead creatures. It's a representation of your group's tactics succeeding and thereby becoming more experienced at their roles.

In my current game, I've done away with XP for kills completely. Instead, my players gain 1 XP per successful mission. Every 3 XP they gain a level. And instead of loot defining their character wealth, they receive a set amount of gold per mission equal to 1/3 WBL. However, any loot found during a mission can be used for the duration before they turn it in as part of their success.

I've found this creates a happy balance, where all characters get equal shares of the rewards, and there's no arguments over whether an encounter should reward XP or not. It also avoids situations where only a few people in the group get XP, meaning some might be over-leveled.

[Persus13]

I take monster XP for defeat rather than kill.

If they scare them off, trick them into a pit, or get them a part time job and a new lease on life, they've earned the XP.

This is the default for 5e. Not sure about other other systems though.

[Kagus]

Yeah, XP isn't some magic energy that pops out of dead creatures.

[Stares in Minecraft]

[scriver]

monster zoo

When you think you've found a secret back entrance to the wizard's dwelling but all you found was the backmost fire escape door to his monster zoo

[delphonso]

I gotta add a monster zoo to a new campaign...