I'll say the one basic and most important strategy to me has always been focus fire a single target. Reducing the amount of actions a group of enemies has relative to your party's and reducing the amount of damage capacity that can be put on by 1 creature each turn is much better than taking out 4 creatures on turn 4.
Wizards are better are crowd control than dealing damage (blasting). Sorcerers can make decent blasters with their greater number of spells per day, and with the right feats they make their preferred spell nigh unstoppable.
I'll take a slow, spiked pit, or stinking cloud anyday over fireball under most (70%) or circumstances.
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Read. Research. PAy attention. There is an absolute wealth of information available here to any and all who put the effort in to look it over.
I'm writing another companion article to go with the forge of combat and even I'll tell you that it's impossible to cover absolutely all bases. The best any guide can do (as I'm attempting) is break it down it's very core and explain it. Beyond that is entirely on the part of the reader.
1 Use terrain to your advantage, and keep the enemies from doing the same.
1a. Use magic to accomplish this
1b. Be prepared for your opponent to use magic to accomplish this.
2 Always have a ranged weapon and a melee weapon, no matter what class or build you are. Being able to fire off a 10% chance to hit sling stone is more useful that delaying until the next round.
3. Do not rush into melee unaided. Even the highest AC will get hit 1 in 20 times.
4. Running away from enemies is a fine solutions, so always have supplies to aid a quick retreat.
5. Gather as much information as possible before a fight begins. Information is power.
6. Actions can be considered in terms of combat currency (i.e. HP).
6a. Sometimes helping other people do more damage is more effective than attacking yourself.
6b. If you and your opponent trade blows, and they deal more damage/total HP than you do, you will die before them if unaided. Do not get into a situation where you will die one-on-one
6c. It is much better to kill off one enemy first. Dealing 4 damage to 5 enemies is worse than dealing 20 damage to one if dealing 20 damage kills the opponent.
6d. Healing (raising your own teams HP) is less efficient that dealing damage, but sometimes it is necessary. If you find one character only healing, see if there are other problems with your group's strategy.
7. Not all encounters need to end as fights.
6d. Healing (raising your own teams HP) is less efficient that dealing damage, but sometimes it is necessary. If you find one character only healing, see if there are other problems with your group's strategy.
Ah yes, this is a big one. Typically your enemies will inflict more damage per round, than can be healed per round. This means a net loss of resources versus simply killing the enemy and reducing the amount of damage they can possibly deal. Avoid healing in combat unless someone is near unconcious or dying.
As a corollary, wands of cure light wounds are the most efficient way to heal up (outside of healing spells cast by someone) because of exponential cost of magical items. Carry many wands of cure light wounds and have someone with a UMD score to use them. It may be a slow tedious process to use CLW to heal outside of battle, but it's still cheaper than anything else (short of actual spellcasting).
Cast silence on you animal companion and sent it off to attack the spell caster while the PC's deal with the mooks.
Cast silence on you animal companion and sent it off to attack the spell caster while the PC's deal with the mooks.
That sounds like a fun tactic, but the strategy would be neutralize enemy casters.
As a corollary, wands of cure light wounds are the most efficient way to heal up (outside of healing spells cast by someone) because of exponential cost of magical items. Carry many wands of cure light wounds and have someone with a UMD score to use them. It may be a slow tedious process to use CLW to heal outside of battle, but it's still cheaper than anything else (short of actual spellcasting).
Just going to correct - have multiple people able to use it. It isn't that hard to hit a DC 20 UMD check with some consistency.
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Like chess, combat in PF is different pieces working together to achieve a powerful position.
A beginner will see the Queen as the most powerful piece, but more advanced players are concerned with stacking pawns to cover each other and trying to undermine the structure of the enemy's defence.
So on the one hand, study the interaction between the PCs. What synergies do their powers have? Can one of them set up another PC to be more effective? This isn't restricted to the obvious stuff like buff spells. A conjuration wizard can use his Dimensional Steps power to taxi the fighter into position for a full attack from behind enemy lines, bypassing the goods the BBEG wizard hired to protect him. Time it right with initiative, and nobody gets to act between PC wizard and PC fighter.
And on the other hand, study the enemy. Are they working together? Can you break up that cooperation by focus-fire-curbstomping their key person? Do they have something that must be defended (a "king"), and by threatening it, can you force their tactics?
Can you outmaneuver their slow, armored warrior types? If you can stay out of charge/full attack range of their warriors and do useful stuff at the same time, it's as if those warriors didn't exist. Giving you time to take down their healer before turning around to take care of their warriors.
Try to see what they're trying to do, and don't let them. Are they staying close together so that you can't surround and slaughter one of them? Use area attacks. Spells that impede movement and vision will force them to walk out of it, and if you time initiative right (using delay/ready), you can try to pick them off one by one. But if they're trying to stay apart so you can't fireball all of them, surround them one by one.
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Delay if you can benefit from an ally's action before it is the bad guys' turn to act.
Do not delay if the bad guys act before your allies.
When you move, choose the square where you will end your move to maximize the benefits for your allies (not obstructing a line of charge, staying in Channel/spell range, providing flank) and minimize those of your opponents (block their line of attack to casters, force them to squeeze).
Be aware of the conditions affecting your opponents and allies and consider how to make best use of them. For example, if an opponent is confused it can be good tactical thinking to attack it and force it to attack you on its next action, especially if you are a distance fighter.
Use aid another to help your big gun get his Power Attack through. Or to help a grapple succeed.
Get armor spikes on your armor so you can always threaten. If an arcane caster, get a dagger or some such.
Always be aware of which enemy can get an AoO against you. Look out for enemies with reach. If your opponent already tried an AoO, assess how likely he is to have Combat reflexes. Because if he does not, you can do whatever you like within his reach and no AoO :-)
In social situations, if you have low social skills, SHUT UP.