should I tailor enemies to defeat wind walk.

[wordelo]

OK bit of back story I am converting a 4E campaign into pathfinder. in the book there is a large and dangerous open area with a few landmarks. In between these landmarks are chock full of baddies.

The book gives so much detail about how to travel on foot between these locations (in the form of dreaded skill challenges) and several scripted encounters. They also have flying enemies roaming around so PCs can't use fly however 4E does not have wind walk. Those scripted encounters could easily be bypassed.

the real question is
should I make the enemies prepare for an assault by wind walk?

Meaning should I give enemies magic bows to fire at the clouds whizzing by? the place is in the abyss where there is never a cloud in the sky so they will be spotted by somebody eventually. and wind walk/gas form drops your AC a lot so they can be damaged in gas form.

This is both an in game question and an out of game question.

in game: would the BBEG (the king of the realm the PCs are in) think to fight against wind walking enemies.(and arm his roaming minions) (he has 26 int and 28 wis)

out of game: I read in DMG (or other advice threads) never to undermine the PCs' abilities. if a spellcaster uses fire all the time never throw too many monsters immune to fire. Let PCs use their abilities don't tailor enemies to destroy the PCs etc etc.

Overall I think he should. PCs would have used wind walk a lot by now it's nigh time they met an enemy smart enough to fight it.

[Ascalaphus]

At level 11+ (when they get Wind Walk)? Yes, enemies should be ready for airborne PCs.

Also, Teleport comes online at level 9, so enemies shouldn't be relying too heavily on catching PCs during overland travel anyway.

[Pizza Lord]

Yes, that is not undermining an ability, that is merely taking it into account and still keeping the game interesting and exciting.

For instance, adding a couple extra archers to an encounter (of trivial CR increase) because you know the Monk loves to Deflect Arrows is not undermining his ability, it's taking it into account. Undermining it would be changing their weapons to things he couldn't deflect or just removing the archer enemy altogether so he doesn't get to use or benefit from it.

[Anguish]

It depends. Part of why d20 has wind walk and things like it is that by the time you get them, you've already gone through a lengthy phase of the game that involves walking and horseback. For storytelling purposes, the idea is that by mid/high level, you're able to bypass the mundane and get into more heroic situations. To adapt a 4e adventure, where the whole system was designed to throttle back magic availability may be a} very work-intensive and b} rewinding back to low-level. Which may or may not be what your players want.

[CannibalKitten]

You could just say, since your in the abyss that there are already clouds of some smog like substance that they can't fly through because it's bad to breathe in? Kinda cheesy i guess but it could work.

[GM Rednal]

Quote:

I read in DMG (or other advice threads) never to undermine the PCs' abilities. if a spellcaster uses fire all the time never throw too many monsters immune to fire. Let PCs use their abilities don't tailor enemies to destroy the PCs etc etc.

This is correct. Few things are more uncomfortable for the players than feeling like their choices don't matter because you're just going to take them away. Of course, anything outright abusive (like "we teleport past the entire dungeon you prepared") should be discouraged. XD

In general, enemies should plan based on two things - what they can actually do and what they believe their enemies to be capable of. That usually means the strongest spellcasting available to them, either in their city or that they can hire. For example, maybe he's made a contract with air elementals to patrol the skies above his city and attack anyone who isn't authorized, so while the PCs can Wind Walk to get to the city, they should land and walk once they actually arrive. (A good way to communicate this is through rumors when the PCs gather information, so it doesn't seem like it's coming out of nowhere. That way, instead of being a random block on what they can do, it's presented as an obstacle for them to overcome or avoid.)

[Boomerang Nebula]

I prefer partial success in situations like this. For instance, allow the PCs to bypass one or two encounters with that spell so it isn't a waste but don't make it so effective that they bypass the whole adventure.

[Frost890]

You said they have flying enemies right? So you already have a unit that can investigate anything trying to cloud walk. Some of the flyers could take pleasure in removing the ability to fly and watching them plummet to the ground.

[Valandil Ancalime]

You could just houserule out any spells (Wind Walk or Teleport) you don't want. Tell the players, "These spells weren't available in the original system, let's just say they aren't available for now." I think the players should understand. Just be sure to do this at the beginning so you don't blindside your players.