#1 So here is the deal. My DM is playing a dragon and will not make it land on the ground. It is very high in the air and is using strafing attacks. We have a archer and a wizard. What Is or would be the best tactics to handle this now or in the future.
#2 How would you handle flying creatures and what tactics have or would use.
#3 Is their any spell out their that is best suited to use against flying creatures or a spell like dragon rend in skyrim.
What level is the party? What level is the dragon?
My party learned the hard way my last session that, just because you're a sword swinging muscle bound monster fighter, doesn't mean you shouldn't carry a backup ranged weapon. They have since visited town and remedied that.
The tactics for dealing with flying creatures are very much party and level dependent. The most basic rule is to have solid ranged attack capability. This is one of the most common limitations I see in players' character builds.
However, even solid ranged capabilities may not help much against such beasts as dragons, which have high ACs, lots of hit points and massive damage dealing abilities of their own.
If you can't take the fight to the dragon (with fly spells, for example) you will probably have to figure out how to make the dragon come to you. And that usually means figuring out how to get him on the ground.
Since archers and wizards both have excellent ranged abilities, I am assuming your problem is how to keep the dragon in range long enough to apply some real damage, while not being ripped to pieces or burned to a crisp.
What spells does your wizard have? Does your archer have, or can he attain, magic arrows? If so, what kind? Can your wizard purchase scrolls?
Is it really just you two?
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At level 5, a Wizard should know Fly and Lightning Bolt. At level 3, the Wizard should know Levitate. At level 11, a Wizard should know Sirocco. That should cover a nice range of Levels for the Wizard.
When I play a flying creature (A Wizard, oddly enough) I use ranged attacks like Magic Missle, Ray of Frost, and Lightning Bolt. If someone gets close, I hit them with a Shocking Grasp.
I had a GM do some nasty tricks with a flying chimera once... doesnt matter he was cheating a little the fact is the battle was kind of annoying.
having said that are you sure your supposed to fight the dragon now? many players assume that because there is an encounter they HAVE to fight right now.
back up ranged weapons, long range spells and utility spells like fly and hold monster are great options... its also possible to lure the dragon to a more favorable place to fight, or simply run away (which could be the point) the dragon may be a recurring villain that at this point is just a plot device. I mean how many great stories involve running from the big monster before defeating him at a later date.
Tanglefoot bags if it has wings.
Dragons out in the open are about as nasty as things can get. With their good saves, good AC, and usually good SR, they are a lot of trouble since they can engage at their discretion and leave as they will.
Without knowing the levels involved or the resources it's pretty hard to actually give advice. Heck, the terrain would help as well not to mention whether or not you actually have to kill the dragon.
I think I'll sum up with, I need more data before I can offer much.
So we have a total of five players in the group. 1 Rogue, 2 Fighters (sword and shield types), 1 Fighter that is the (Archer type), the Wizard who is a necromancer. The party average level is 10th it is a mid magic campaign. Most of us have enhanced melee weapons and armor we are a band of dungeon delvers. So you see where we got thrown off by this CR 11 Young Blue dragon fighting him in open terrain wasteland. (aka no mans land or better know as the capital wasteland (DM's big fallout fan).
Spam "hold monster." Throw a wall of force directly in front of him. Baleful polymorph into a puppy. Bestow curse to remove ability to fly. Sucker him down and black tentaclses... summon a flying badass to fight him. Ray of exhaust him.
If he is strafing you, just about any save-or-lose spell is a great option.
So we have a total of five players in the group. 1 Rogue, 2 Fighters (sword and shield types), 1 Fighter that is the (Archer type), the Wizard who is a necromancer. The party average level is 10th it is a mid magic campaign. Most of us have enhanced melee weapons and armor we are a band of dungeon delvers. So you see where we got thrown off by this CR 11 Young Blue dragon fighting him in open terrain wasteland. (aka no mans land or better know as the capital wasteland (DM's big fallout fan).
What size is the dragon? A young blue dragon is under the CR you describe, but a young adult is CR 12. The PRD has a juvenile listed at CR10. If the dragon is only large it could be juvenile or young, in which case tanglefoot bags will work on it to drop it from the air. However if it is huge, those no longer work (and the critter is likely much nastier).
With the huge dragon, it comes down to what spells the wizard happens to have available. Ray of exhaustion might be worth a shot, but the dragon will likely make the save (and you need to get past SR). If the wizard happens to have wall of force memorized, a readied action to cast it in front of the dragon if it swoops low enough could knock it out of the air and let you deal with it. That won't give him a save or SR.
The key here is finding a way to ground it since it's pretty clear that the fighters are your damage dealers, and if you can't get them involved, pecking away at it with spells through SR isn't a good bet.
A lot of those sound great. I am not sure what spells the wizard has. I would not be able to find out til friday (Game day).
- Get to cover.
- Use concealment with things like smoke or fog spells.
In other words, force the flyer to come to you.
Go in a cave.
Everyone should have a ranged weapon, and my general rule is you NEED a means of flight by 10th level if melee. It's just too easy to be made impotent otherwise, as Fly has been available for five levels now.
If the wizard is a necro, start hitting the dragon with enervations. Dragon touch AC is garbage, and arguably (since it's all HD-based), penalizing the dragon's effective HD will lower the damage and save DC of its breath weapon.
Preferably after casting Fly on at least one person.
Also if the dragon is not so big and strong as to be impossible to win a CMB check on, a flier or wizard w/ telekinesis could try bull rushing it DOWN. IMO, bull rushing down should give double movement since descending rules for flying work that way (working with gravity), though that's a houserule I use, not RAW.
Enter a building and wait?
I was surprised to find Pathfinder did not bring "earthbind" over from 3.5. That was my goto spell for bringing down flyers, or making sure they couldn't fly once down.
I'm not sure but I think the wording of "web" was changed too, I thought you used to be able to cast web on a creature and entangle it, but that is not the case in the PF description, so I guess web is out too.
I went through the wizard spell list looking for spells that could be used in this situation and there aren't a lot. "Hold monster" may well be the best spell to use if the creature has to be brought down to the ground.
One technique I have seen used is to summon a big-ass grappling flyer to grapple the flying creature so that both fall to the ground.
You could try to be cute and summon a couple walls of force and then ready an action to cast web to spread between them if you can predict exactly where the thing will fly.
Where would I find the spell earthbind at.