Combat - Tactics
By now you will have encountered a number of monsters, some of which were easy to kill, and others that may well have been more difficult. As your party progresses, it will encounter more monsters and, as your characters progress, you should find that ones that were a real challenge at first will become little more than troublesome pests. Here are some tips on how to deal with them:
Monsters have a great many aspects. How good they are at fighting, and how much damage they generally inflict are usually considered the two most important. How quickly they move and how quick they attack are two other areas that should be gauged. Finally what armour and unusual abilities they have should be considered before charging into combat with them. There are two ways of going about this. One is to re-equip your party before setting out to attack a chosen monster, thus gearing up especially for the specific monsters. This, however, is time consuming and should be avoided if possible. Anything above a few orders and it may be better to go for option two. This is to specialise your party so that it is able to proficiently fight a certain range of monsters while avoiding others. Even if you choose the latter option, as your party becomes more experienced, you will find that the range you can fight with your chosen equipment increases.
Causing critical hits is not something you can do much to plan for in your tactics but you can plan to some extent with regards to your opponents.
Typical weak monsters such as Goblins, Orcs and other Humanoids appearing in small groups, are best dealt with using missile weapons. The missile using troops have time to cut the monster numbers down before mêlée begins. By this time your party may well have a distinct advantage. This is an excellent tactic when you are not especially outnumbered and each monster is not particularly powerful. Weak monsters tend to have low chances of causing criticals and avoiding them.
Monsters such as Centaurs are fast on the ground; they will charge your party, trampling and kicking in all directions while your characters are still spanning their crossbows. Against fast and powerful creatures that only appear in small groups, it may be best to avoid using missile weapons - unless your characters are really proficient in their use. Long reach weapons may be your best choice. Spears and other pole arms are recommended, although a one-handed weapon and a large shield are also a very wise choice. These sorts of monsters tend to have average chances of causing criticals and avoiding them.
Other monsters form large packs. Hordes of Goblins will surround each character slicing away with weapons ranging from daggers to spears. This can be a particular problem for spell and missile users. Against these types of monster groups, fast weapons that inflict small amounts of damage are excellent. Larger weapons may well do excess, wasted damage, and you may find your characters are losing valuable time in recovery. As these monsters rarely do much damage, wearing light armour that does not hamper much is likely worthwhile using.
Powerful monsters such as Dragons have thick scaly hides against which small weapons are often ineffectual. As these monsters can sometimes kill most people in a single strike, heavy armour is a must for all characters close to the front. Even those at the back may be in danger due to the sheer size of the creatures. Weapons with good reach and weight are usually the preferred types, unless your characters have very powerful magical weapons of a smaller calibre. Doing large amounts of damage in a single blow is the best way of defeating them. A character may well spend the entire combat bouncing sling stones off a Dragon's hide without so much as leaving a scratch. Powerful monsters tend to have average to high chances of causing criticals and avoiding them
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