Battle with the floating Brains Tactical Discussio

[Hussar]

From the cover of a ridge you spy the creatures floating about above what appears to be some sort of nest. As you watch, you count 5 of the grell floating lazily about at a height of about 50 feet. Closer to the ground, you can see that 2 of the grell are hovering just over the nest. The group is about 400 or so feet from you. The dead grell that you saw had no eyes or ears, so you are not sure how far they can see. They have not reacted to your presence yet.


Note, this map is not from the point of view of 400 feet, the grell are not that big. However, it should give you a pretty good idea.

[Kelly]

Proposed Battle Plan

Kelly proposes the following battle plan for the floating brains:

1. CHARACTERS WITHOUT RANGED WEAPONS OR WHO EXCELL AT MELEE - Characters without ranged weapons or without long range magic spells should go down to the nest and attack the Grell using melee tactics. They can also burn the nest as well and use their short range spells at this close distance. This small group directly attacking the nest should sneak into position and surprise the two Grell close to the ground, while the bulk of the party deals with the five airborne Grell.

Immediately before this groups leaves to sneak into place, I will cast the following spells on them: (1) 4 Resistance Spells - adds +1 to all saving throws for up to one minute, and (2) 3 Shield of Faith Spells - grants the character +3 to Armor Class for 6 minutes.

I could also cast silence on a stone that they could carry if they feel that would be beneficial, then when in position they can throw the stone away. It would last for 6 minutes.

2. BULK OF TROOPS - The bulk of the troops should use their crossbows from a distance focusing on the Grell that are airborne. The attack should be concentrated on one or two Grell to bring them down fast. If possible, these troops should attack from 80' or less due to the range of a light crossbow. However, the attacks should be at no more than 160'. These troops should stay within 50' of Kelly during the attack to gain the bonus from his Bless Spell.

Cast Bless Spell - all allies within 50' gain +1 to their attack rolls for 6 minutes.

3. CHARACTERS WITH RANGED WEAPONS AND LONG-RANGE SPELLS - These characters should focus their attacks on floating Grell other than the ones being attacked by the troops with their crossbows.

Here are the spells that I will use. 1st round after casting the Bless Spell - Spiritual Weapon on a Grell (range 160 feet - duration 6 rounds - 1d8), 2nd round - Spiritual Weapon on a different Grell, 3rd round - Searing Light Spell on whichever Grell seems the most dangerous or least damaged (range 160 feet - 3d8 damage), and 4th round Searing Light Spell on another Grell.

I will also have either one or two Remove Paralysis Spells for use (one if we use silence as discussed above, and two if we do not use silence).

After the 4th round, I will use my long bow to attack the remaining Grell, if any are left.


Timing: (1) Kelly casts Silence Spell on a Stone to be carried by the Melee Party as they sneak into position, (2) Kelly casts Shield of Faith Spell on 3 people in the Melee Party, (3) Kelly casts Resistance Spell on 4 people in the Melee Party, (4) Kelly casts Bless Spell and Melee Party sneaks into position, (5) Troops attack signalling for the Melee Party to attack and all other PCs to attack - this round Kelly casts Spiritual Weapon Spell on an airborne Grell, (6) All groups attacking and Kelly casts a second Spiritual Weapon Spell on an airborne Grell, (7) All groups attacking and Kelly casts Searing Light Spell on the most dangerous Grell, (8) All groups attacking and Kelly casts a second Searing Light Spell on the most dangerous Grell, and (9) All groups attacking if any Grell are remaining.

Please post your thoughts regarding this battle plan, including additional ideas and spells and other tactics that could be used.

Thanks, Kelly

[CosmicHorror]

Sounds good, i like the silence spell, maybe i'll actually get to do some sneak attack damage. also remember that grells are immune to lightning so that rules out turjan's LB.

[SleepingDragon]

The silence tactic won't work - grell have 60 ft blindsight which operates through scent and vibration, so our presence will be noiticed regardless. It may be of use in concealing us when we are beyond their blindsight, however, as they can still hear.

Personally, I favour a ranged assault by all characters capable of it. As grells' blindsight is only 60 feet, it might be difficult for them to be able to tell with any certainty where their attackers are if they're beyond that range. This task will be even more difficult if we keep moving away from the grell as we fire, which will also draw them away from their nest and any nasty surprises they may have for us there. True, we'll likely incur some range penalties, but a bless and a few magic weapon spells will help minimise that. Also, I think we should focus our fire on a few of the grell rather than spreading it out a lot, and send in a melee party only after three or four of them are down. This will minimse the chance of large numbers of our meleers getting paralysed all at once while separated from the rest of the group, a recipe for coup de graces if I've ever heard one.

The other ideas you've presented are good, Kelly. Certainly you should prepare a number of resistance and remove paralysis spells. As there are just shy of 20 of us, we will likely be able to take out a large number of the grell in only a small number of rounds, so you'll be able to cast resistance on the meleers beforehand and still have them be effective when it comes time for the hand-to-hand combat to commence.

[Kelly]

Sounds good to me. We may want to use the tactic to have ranged attacks and then fall back and attack again if the Grell come at us.

I can only have a maximum of 2 remove paralysis spells and that assumes we forgo the silence spell (which seems unnecessary at that point).

[Shadowdragon]

OK, I've got about 5 Burning hands (180 degree arc so don't out flank me) and 6 ray of frost spells I can use.