Satisfied Seal

When my group gets into particularly tricky battles, I tend to step up as a sort of commander, suggesting actions the other players can take to deal the most damage or rescue allies while trying to maneuver myself into positions that defend downed PCs. Seeing an insane rescue plan for a downed player get agreed apon, then actually work, before rallying the remaining players in a final charge to win the battle, is an amazing feeling.

Yeah. A couple weeks after I wrote this meme, a plan I made worked out well. It started really crappily at the start, with all of our stealth attackers failing their stealths, but in the end the reinforcements we had gathered dealt with 30 spine devils we would have otherwise had to deal with after killing the boss and low on health.

Long story incoming! TL:DR at the end.

My party had just survived a difficult battle against Harpies in a temple surrounded by a wild magic field. Several players including our cleric were downed, and most of the rest were in no fighting shape. Only me, the Rogue/Fighter multiclass, and the dedicated fighter, was in any fighting shape, as through a combination of luck and decent positioning we managed to avoid the worst of the damage. We all agreed that it would be best to find a somewhat-fortified spot to long rest, and we found an old stone ruin that could probably be barricaded for some form of defense.

However, we were ambushed by four "Jackal-weres"- think a Jackal version of werewolves, but from animal to human form, instead of the normal vice versa. Slightly less dangerous as bites against humanoids aren't infectious, but with the party's state we weren't in a proper condition to fight.

After a week of thinking and plenty of deliberation, we came up with a plan- The most wounded among us would run the 30ft to the ruined building, forcefeed the cleric a health potion, and start healing the remainder of the party. Meanwhile, the Fighter and I would stand outside as essentially a distraction, using the dodge action while taunting them into focusing on us.

The encounter began, and as planned the Jackal-weres focused on Fighter and I while the rest of the party rushed into cover. The Cleric got the health potion and starting healing everyone else, while I dodged just about every blow. In addition to the dodge action, I used an ability the Fighter multiclass gave me- When holding a shield, I could use my reaction to block a blow against an ally next to me, giving that particular attack disadvantage. Unfortunately, the Fighter got hit by a large amount of the attacks, and though my blocking prevented him from outright getting knocked down he too was no longer in fighting shape. I urged him to pull out and he did, managing to make it back to the ruin where he got healed.

Now surrounded by all four jackal-weres and with my party now in a better position, I made preparations to fall back to our makeshift fortress myself, but just then the bard's dog got loose and ran up to join the battle. I decided to focus on defending the dog, getting it to pull back to the fort, before retreating myself.

The Jackal-weres continued their onslaught as I continued to somehow dodge every attack. Getting fed up by their inability to land a blow against my Dexterity (cont

cont) dodging, they began some sort of illusion trick, moving their heads in a sort of hypnosis. This caught me off-guard and it worked, forcing me to sleep.

I did, however, delay any attack against the dog, which fell back to base. The Fighter rushed out, burning through some of his abilities, to pick me up, dodge a reaction attack, and drag me back home all within a turn, where I was awakened again.

Now in the ruin, the party got into defensive positions. Everyone who could still fight was shuffled around the doorway, armed with magic weapons to ensure we could actually hit the jackal-weres. I remained prone positioned just behind the frontline, aiming my crossbow with +1 magic bolts.
The Jackal-weres pressed their apparent advantage, charging headfirst into the doorway. exactly what we wanted as it was a chokepoint only one could enter at a time. The party began to clobber the first enemy with their weapons, but either missed or did very little damage. My luck with the Crossbow was better, scoring a devastating hit and forcing the 1st jackal-were into retreat. The next filtered into the doorway, where I proceeded to roll a nat-20, sending a bolt through its head. Though not outright fatal, the damage was severe enough that the entire remaining pack lost all semblance of morale and fled from the battle.

After the battle, the Cleric came up to me and offered me healing, believing that my at times one-man-stand outside the ruin would have seen me seriously beat up. At that point, I realized that I actually took no damage in the battle itself- I had somehow managed to evade every damaging attack, and still had almost all my health remaining. After refusing the aid, we took a long rest. The jackal-were patrols didn't return despite, as the DM described it, an insanely high chance to face them again that only a rare sequence of rolls would have avoided.

I like to imagine the Jackal-weres retreated to their friends, telling the tale of the crippled party of wounded adventurers, blood streaming from tattered clothing and hands and faces covered in soot and ash, effortlessly organizing a near-unbreakable two-person defense and, when they finally broke through not from damage but from trickery, found themselves ambushed and nearly killed anyways.

TLDR:
Party too damaged to fight in encounter, organized last stand outside ruin so they could heal. Survived, dragged into ruin, dealt two serious blows against enemies that forced them into routing.

omgg. I love strategizing

neat! I also just watched the D&D movie which featured a strategist as the main character!