D&D 4E 4E monster tactics

[evildmguy]

I haven't searched, I'm at work, so links to something like this are fine.

Has anyone compiled or found a way to track monsters that work well together?

Over the weekend, I had one set of monsters that really complemented each other well. It was Ice Archons and Frost Giants. What would happen is the Frost giants would attack and give a vulnerability to cold 10. Then the Ice Archons would use double ranged attacks with shurikens to do cold damage. I rolled well enough to hit three times, for an extra thirty points damage! Dropped a character in one round!

Are there other ones like this? I assume Fire Giants and Archons would be the same. Any other good combos like this?

Thanks!

edg

 

[Zaran]

The monster manual suggest encounter groupings with each monster entry.

 

[evildmguy]

I know but I haven't checked to see if they complement each other as well as this one. I guess if they suggest the giants and archons, as I set up, then they must.

Thanks!

edg

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Well, I don't know about EVERY suggested group being so complementary. Not all monsters have mechanically ideal complements like this for one thing. Some groups are more thematic than anything else.

There is also just general tactical concepts that work well together. A group of melee monsters holds the party back while artillery pounds on them. That kind of thing.

 

[lukelightning]

I planned to totally mess with my party by teaming up a cockatrice with an oni devourer... the oni can inflict a status that gives -5 on saves, so making it a lot more likely that the cockatrice will petrify someone. Meanwhile arbalests were shooting, and gnolls were attacking.

My players foiled by sinister plan by freezing the oni to the spot and smacking the cockatrice down in a two rounds; it never even hit anyone.

 

[Zaran]

My players foiled by sinister plan by freezing the oni to the spot and smacking the cockatrice down in a two rounds; it never even hit anyone.

Best laid encounters of mice and GMs...

 

[LostSoul]

Ghouls and ettercaps.

 

[UltimaGabe]

I don't think there were any attack combos involved in this fight, but on a couple occasions I've teamed up a couple Ettercaps with a few Deathjump Spiders. Both times the players hated me for the rest of the adventure.

 

[Turtlejay]

Oooh, I used Ettercaps and Deathjump Spiders. I almost killed the Cleric. It was pretty brutal for a technically on-level challenge.

So far my only attempt to deliberately stack the deck against players is here:
The Heroes of Fallcrest and other stories: 11/29 Game part 2

The goal was to have the main damage dealers be undead (skellies and a lich), and have some trolls block the party's way. The Dark Stalkers then use their darkness racial ability to block line of sight for everyone. They have darkvision, as does the undead. The party does not, and neither do the trolls. The party is stuck in the darkness flailing away at trolls (who are regenerating), while the lich bombs away.

It did not turn out that way. You can read the blog if you're curious, but as you can imagine, creative PC's kicked my ass.

Jay