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Any D&D/D20

Shadowrun

World of Darkness

Palladium

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[NullForceOmega]

I asked it to be dropped, now it gets reported.  Cool down in effect.

[Toady One]

Please drop the topic or move it elsewhere whenever the thread reopens.

[NullForceOmega]

Thank you Toady, I apologize for taking up your time with this.

Thread is reopened, please respect the rules in the first post and the forum guidelines.

[Jimmy]

The samurai has a resolve ability that lets him roll twice and take the better result for any Will or Fort save. Reflex saves are generally just hp damage, without anything majorly debilitating tacked on.

[SOLDIER First]

The samurai has a resolve ability that lets him roll twice and take the better result for any Will or Fort save. Reflex saves are generally just hp damage, without anything majorly debilitating tacked on.

Then make it a toughie.

[GiglameshDespair]

Explode the planet he's standing on.

[SOLDIER First]

Gonna have to figure out a way to keep it challenging without risking wiping out the rest of the party.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Grappling?

[NJW2000]

A water level where strong armour inhibits movement? Only works if the samurai wears the most/heaviest armour in the party

[My Name is Immaterial]

Combat and non-combat encounters designed to allow the other characters to shine? Like traps for the rogue to disable, spellcasters for the wizard to duel, wounded for the cleric to heal, etc.

[Jimmy]

Already tried a grappling encounter, and it was good because it gave the Cleric a chance to do their stuff. The cleric's a dwarven follower of Desna with the Liberation and Travel domains. His 8th level domain power lets him automatically suppress the confused, grappled, frightened, panicked, paralyzed, pinned, or shaken conditions as a standard action.

Traps are fairly common, and I use a mix of both simple Disable Device check traps as well as puzzle traps that require thinking instead of dice to solve. I usually include them in an encounter with enemies, for example a hallway with an automatically resetting lightning based trap with a pair of bodaks inside who are immune to that energy type.

I think I might be overthinking things too much, but I guess I spend a fair amount of time prepping encounters, learning the monster's special abilities and crafting a list of loot for it, only for the samurai to come in and full attack it, taking it out in two to three rounds. Combat seems to be getting a bit formulaic in that respect. About the only thing I do have going for me is that nobody in the party has any AoE damage, so swarms of mooks with one or two big baddies is still a viable strategy.

Edit: Regarding water levels, the party treat anything involving travel through liquid like it's a death sentence. The current dungeon I created had both a sunken ship near a ruined dock at the very start, plus a secret entrance leading inside the necropolis that was through an underwater passage. They ignored both options and simply charged through the massed defenders at the front gate.

[My Name is Immaterial]

How about flying/ranged attackers to counter the Samurai's melee?

[inteuniso]

How about flying/ranged attackers to counter the Samurai's melee?

Definitely flying, or anything that can use phasing/flicker (stuff that can only be magically damaged, requiring enchanted weapons or spell-flinging)

[My Name is Immaterial]

How about flying/ranged attackers to counter the Samurai's melee?

Definitely flying, or anything that can use phasing/flicker (stuff that can only be magically damaged, requiring enchanted weapons or spell-flinging)

Ghosts also work.

[Jimmy]

Yep, the party definitely has trouble with ranged attackers. A pair of manticores that I threw at them as a random encounter was surprisingly effective for the CR, since they attacked with their tail spikes from 100 ft. range in the darkness while flying in the air. It took the kineticist using his gnomish magic to cast dancing lights to illuminate them, then blasting them out of the air with a pushing infusion kinetic blast before the samurai could close to melee and, you guessed it, finish them in one full attack.

The main entrance to the necropolis was similarly difficult for the group. I had two CR 8 lizardfolk skeletal champion archers with crystalline arrows that bypassed half of a target's armor bonus coated in shadow essence poison. Then I also threw in eight CR 1 kobold skeletal archers too, just firing regular arrows. One of the lizardfolk was in a belltower, and when the rogue and kineticist started climbing the wooden stairs, it cut the bell's rope (falling bell trap) and dropped it on them, smashing out the stairs beneath their feet if it hit. It was a good, tough encounter that nearly wiped the party, which was appropriate since they decided to assault the main gate instead of sneaking inside.

I do have ghosts, in fact a dread ghost lizardfolk that respawns every 1d4 hours at the entrance of the tunnel leading to the necropolis, plus two kobold ghosts that respawn every 1d4 days. It's basically there as a tax on leaving and resting after each tough fight, since it deals strength and constitution drain as an incorporeal touch attack. Not something you want to get hit with every day if you can help it, otherwise the restorations start getting expensive.