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Up till last night, I've pretty much been going with whatever the other players suggested on the grounds that they have been playing pathfinder society longer. As a result we wound up facing a large elemental with every member of the party toe to toe with it within it's reach.
I'm thinking I am going to have to start asking people to adopt staggered formations while we are moving. Do any of you have good suggestions for what formations you use? The ideal would be a formation that prevents any single opponent from engaging more than two party members toe to toe, with small area attacks like burning hands. It also should prevent line attacks from hitting too many people, while also allowing ranged attackers to stay close enough to be relevant.
For starters, I am thinking about a knights move formation, where each pathfinder is one diagonal + 1 horizontal/vertical square from the person in front of them. Healers should go to the middle of the line to be able to reach the front line fast.
I remember when I first started GMing, some players when I asked for marching order would put their characters in single file. I jokingly called this lighting bolt formation. They learned quickly. Then they got the idea to stack on doorways for quick breach tactics. I dubbed that one cone formation. They quickly learned. Now they maintain 10 foot separation and a staggered formation if at all possible. If in tight halls at least part of the party is behind cover (around a corner) and only the meat shields stack on doors. They also have creative means to breach so there isn't only one point of entry.
I still get them occasionally, they can tell when its going to happen by the smug expression on my face when they manage to bunch up too much with no enemies in the AoE. Best one recently was when they jumped into melee with a witch. Or so they thought, it was actually an illusion and they all got stinking cloud on them. Nothing like fighting dretches (summon monster, one that makes more stinking cloud) in a cloud effect while nauseated. Anybody who excaped the effect got nailed by hexes and spells from the actual witch. All because they broke formation discipline.
http://callsignboxer1.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tactics&action=prin t&thread=204
A nice page about small unit tactics and when to use them. Of course it focuses on ranged combat, but honestly it can be adapted for a couple of melee characters. Put melee on the front that is likely to make contact with the enemy, and secondary melee and ranged on flanks. Full casters should be in the command position, as should primary healer/buffers.
Most important aspect is maintaining distance. Two melee guys fighting the same target sounds good, but what happens if their opponent drops and another enemy decides to drop AoE on their position? If melee combatants are teaming up in CQC (close quarters combat) one of them should be a high reflex save character (a fighter rogue style combo)to avoid such factors.
If we have the room we stagger about 10' apart vertically and about 5' apart horizontally. If in a hallway or tight passages, we might be in a checker pattern in 2 columns.
As long as a line, or fireball area type doesn't hit most of us, we're good. Also, we will have the scout type or a heavy bruiser with good defenses in front. If outside or open areas our scout will be way ahead of the rest of the party. If indoors or where traps might be commonplace, the scout/trapper will take point with a bruiser far away enough to have a readied action to possibly do something.