Dicefreaks d20 Community

Kain Darkwind wrote:I think we're defining battlefield control differently then. I've always defined it as the ability to channel your foes into the fight you want to fight, rather than the fight they want to fight. Not action control, but actual manipulation of the battlefield to put your foes where you want them.

Fair enough in that action control is an oversimplification. It might be more accurate to your conception to say that you're giving them the choice between fighting where you want them (such as behind a wind wall or in reversed gravity) or spending actions on getting out of where you want them to be, instead of on fighting. The point remains that if someone has two, three, four actions to move around and fight with, you aren't going to have nearly as much luck with battlefield control spells in keeping them where you want them, as if they had only one.

Well, like I've said, I think we're agreeing on this point, and not on what to call it.

Kain Darkwind wrote:Well, like I've said, I think we're agreeing on this point, and not on what to call it.

So, what spells would you see as particularly useful battlefield control against a power with multiple turns? Let's take Demogorgon again.

Because I do think things like prismatic wall, reverse gravity or forcecage when I think battlefield control (and when I think "much less useful against a power with five turns") but I'm not sure what spells you're thinking of that would be more useful.

I think of things like telekinesis, used to either move your foe into dangerous terrain. Resilient sphere, which works well on single targets, but poor on multi. Even blade barrier and prismatic wall, when used to provide dangerous terrain in the absence of existing such.

Using a force wall or such allows a gang to come at you around both ends, but a multiaction power can only come from one direction. So while you may be gaining more action economy over the gang, you also lose some of that actual control.

Ultimately, there are different strategies for fighting multiple foes compared to single foes, and neither is going to do well against the other.

The mechanical benefits are apparent enough... but how would this work thematically?

Would every deity be moving at superspeed?

Phaedros wrote:The mechanical benefits are apparent enough... but how would this work thematically?

Would every deity be moving at superspeed?

Minorly, yes, but really just more able to react to multiple threats. It would be on individual DMs to use the multiple actions to the use most fitting for the story. Would some use the action economy advantage to mechanically shutdown any PC tactic? Probably. For others, including myself, it simply gives more breathing room for the power to provide a combat that goes more than 2 rounds.