[NobleNick]

Originally posted by AThousandYoung: ...2)Traps are around, or suspected - I use the "careful" scouting pair to leapfrog scout as I described above...

A Thousand Young,

I like your scouting method. I added Ranger (Ranger[12]/Cleric) and a second Thief (Fighter[9]/Thief) to my party to allow use of tactics like these. I find this one particularly effective; but I never let my traps Thief get ahead of the invisible one.

...5) Alternate tactic - Sometimes if I have room and am facing one or a few melee enemies I'll do a group kiting tactic, in which all people use missiles and whoever the enemies goes after will run away while the others shoot it. If it changes targets the new target will run while the old one starts shooting.

I call this the Red Herring technique. Don't use it often; but it can be very effective. It saved my bacon in the big "battle of the gazongas" with Yux, after I had dispatched all her minions. I used all close range weapons in that fight --so it was a bit trickier to pull off-- but it's the same idea.

...6) Supplementary tactic - Cleric summons undead to be cannon fodder tanks and supplementary damage for any of the other tactics I use.

Aerich, it seems uses this "tankless" technique to the max, not just as a supplement; and it intrigues me. This is definitely a different paradigm; and I admire someone who has the skill to pull it off. Everyone knows how to summon cannon fodder; and I (like you, I presume) use it defensively (e.g., tanking and pluging chokepoints) from time to time. But it seems that this technique could easily implode in the face of a dispell; and some opponents are immune to the attacks of virtually all summons.

...the Invisible Invulnerable Tank Trick (IITT)...Halflings find a powerful melee enemy or enemies without him/them seeing the scouting pair. The party positions itself so there's a narrow choke point that the enemy will have to cross to get to them. The female bow pulls the enemies and the pair run back to the party. The still stealthed male Halfling stands in the choke point as an obstacle. Since the enemies can't see him, they can't attack him, and since he's there, they can't advance past him, so he's just an invisible wall that I can then fire arrows and spells past. It's really cheap but it works. All you need is an invisible character(s), opponents who only melee, a choke point and the ability to do ranged damage.

Wooot!! REALLY cheap! I don't think I have ever heard of this before, nor of Aerich's version using Sanctuary. I'm thinking of at least 2 places in Dragon's Eye, 2 in HoW, and 1 in TotLM where this would be a riot to use! This belongs in the "Unfair tricks" thread (though I think the term that you use: "Extremely Cheap Tricks" is a better description).

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