Schools+of+Fu

Schools of D&D Fu: Deep Theory for Geekheads
In the year 2006, there came a time when some had evolved an understanding of the D&D system that was advanced enough that they identified two schools of combat strategy within the game, one of which had dominated since the game's founding. Fundamentally, the two stood on level footing, but because the beginner's mind could easily grasp one, while the other required a greater understanding of the game in practice and theory. The School of Doing Damage The Enlightened Victory

Each character has a given amount of resources available to accomplish a given end: survival and victory. Different individuals approach these objectives with different strategies, allocating their resources of feats, class levels, and spells known to the task at hand. Similarities in these approaches can be viewed through the lens of archetypes, which we will refer to as 'Schools of Fu,' as they are especially relevant to a character's fighting style.
 * The Concept of 'Schools'**

Survival and Victory in combat, and in the world at large, are the goals of every D&D character. Traditionally, Victory and Survival are understood to be two fused entities; when the party is victorious, one can conclude they also surived. However, at higher levels, an opponent's actions in one round can cause character death even in CR equal encounters, where the party's victory is nearly given. Players also work under the assumption that the encounters they face are winnable, when in fact, the DMG explicitly states that 5% of encounters should have a challenge level of 'overwhelming,' where the objective should be survival, not victory.
 * The Ends**

Characters have two sets of resources: static and dynamic. Static resources are feats, save bonuses, class features, and BAB. These resources can (and should) serve as a guide for how easily one can accomplish the goals of survival and victory. Over time, a character makes a commitment to these resources. Dynamic resources are Spells Known (or memorized), magic items, and combat options (like Expertise, fight defensively). The relative dynamism of these resources is dictated by the amount of commitment made to given paths of character development.
 * Kinds of Resources**

Highly dynamic classes are wizard, cleric, druid, and the family of memorization spellcasters, and arguably the swordsage. These classes trade the static resources of BAB, save bonuses, and class features for the dynamic resource of being able to memorize the spells appropriate to the challenges they anticipate facing. Highly static classes are the Barbarian, Fighter, and Rogue. These classes have few dynamic resources native to their person, notably the ability to fight defensively, ready actions, delay, and power attack/expertise for discretionary amounts.

Every character has one dynamic resource that is eminently equal: his wealth. Characters posess ideally equal amounts of wealth, which they can use to buy and sell towards accomplishing their goals. Items can also provide more dynamic options through wands and activated items.

Once characters enter the realm of combat, they express the resources they have allocated through the use of their initiative actions: Standard, Move, and swift/immediate, one each round. These provide a vocabulary for attack and defense, a channel through which resources can be used. Some resources can be expressed in actions; others cannot: these are 'passive resources,' like bonuses to hit, armor class, and non-activated items the character posesses. Resources that require actions in combat are 'active resources.'

Survival
To survive a combat, a character must consider several dangers, each of which is distillable into a given amount of resources. First, the character must avoid dropping to -10 HP from physical attacks. Typically, players address this concern by increasing their AC, to reduce the damage they take, or by evading physical attacks, through speed, flight, or guile. The level of success in surviving this danger is easily evaluated by the player, as he constantly recieves feedback in the form of the amount of damage he takes. Static resources allocated to this issue are feats like dodge and armor optimization, class features like the dragon shaman's scales and the swashbuckler's grace. Dynamic Resources include healing spells, invisibility and flight castings, or applications of combat expertise, and items purchased to increase armor class or heal.
 * Physical Damage**

Passive resources to this end are castings of mage armor and other hour-duration spells, Items invested to AC, and so on. Active resources are 'fight defensively' actions, 'total defense' actions, healing-potion comsumption, healing castings, and immediate spells like Deflect, Zephyr dance, and so on.

The second danger a character must consider is magic. This is an extensive category, ranging from supernatural abilities, which typically take the form of energy damage, to spells like Disintigrate and Destruction, that have dire consequences upon the recipient. Even 'easy' dragons have powerful breath weapons that can do enough damage to kill d4 and d6 hit die classes. The nature of this danger is more difficult to evaluate; players face an array of magical attacks, and categorizing which resources are useful against them is hard, as often they never identify what, exactly, they were attacked with. Thus, the resources allocated to survive magic are typically passive.
 * Magic**

Static resources to defend against magic are class levels with good saves, ability scores related to those saves, and feats like Lightning Reflexes. Dynamic resources to defend against magic are long duration spells like Resist Energy, Items with energy resistances.

Passive resources to defend against magic are Reisist Energy, Ability enhancers for save stats, resistance items, Active resources to defend against magic are walking behind cover, fighting defensively to increase touch AC vs. Rays, spells like Energy Aegis, Stifle Spell, Deflect, readied Dispel Magic (wand or mem'd), and so on.

This is the most neglected of the elements of survival. A party that can stay in a secure shelter can arrive with more time to explore an undead cave before nightfall. Claivoyance can allow the party to prepare passive defenses against the magical attacks of a creature behind a wall. A Divination can reveal the nature of an enemy. A skilled spotter can notice the signs of an ambush.
 * Intelligence/Support**

Static Resources of Intelligence are ranks in spot, feats like quick reconnoiter, ranks in knowledge skills. Dynamic Resources of Intelligence are soulmelds like Blink Shirt, Spells like scrying and see invisibility. Static Resources of Support are ranks in survival. Dynamic Resources of Support are spells like Secure Shelter, inter-combat healing, enhancements to overland speed, and so on.

It should be noted that recursive abilities like Eldritch Blast, spells that attack in successive rounds, talented melee/ranged fighting, and meldshaping, can also seen through the lens of support. By eliminating low-priority targets and blasting through obstacles, these abilities preserve resources for later incidents.

Victory
To achieve victory, a character must vanquish or bypass the foe while surviving until his demise. Victory is not so much a synergy of concerns as survival, but an end that one seeks to the utmost. As long as a foe persists, he remains a threat to survival. There are several methods to victory.

This refers to the use of spellcasting resources to eliminate the foe. Petrification, Bansishment, and destruction are the chief examples of (Poof!). (Poof!) is highly dependent upon the saving throw of the monster, and the resources used have no (or little) secondary effect if they fail to eliminate the monster. The flaws of (Poof!) are emphasized by the fact that most (Poof!) spells are fortitude-save associated, and thus have little chance of success against high-con/good fort opponents, who are also the toughest to kill with HP-assault methods.
 * (Poof!)**

The Virtue of (Poof!) is that it eliminates a threat quickly, before it can threaten survival. It often consumes far fewer resources than other attack methods, as well. This is one of the most universally applicable methods of victory. Every foe has an HP total, and can thus have his HP assaulted. Most approaches to this use a synergy of sneak attack and spellcasting, and are highly resource-consumptive. This method will be very troubled against spellcasting opponents, who will use their active defenses to mitigate or eliminate the damage. One example of a 'massive damage' implementation would be an arcane trickster, using improved invisibility while firing scorching ray. This consumes a 4th-level spell slot, a second-level spell slot, and requires the foe be within 30ft, placing the character at great danger. It will be similarly ineffective against critical-immune creature types of ooze, undead, construct, and elemental.
 * Massive Damage**

High touch ACs will also beguile this strategy as it usually depends upon ray spells to deliver the damage, as they are more efficient per-die. This method emphasizes either sustained physical damage in the form of physical attacks, or persistent use of damaging spells. It is especially effective against the low-HP humanoids, and applicable against all foes. It simply takes time, putting the character's survival in question. This method seeks to damage the foe, or distract him, while damage wears him down. Monster summoning is an ideal example of this method, as it distracts the foe, damages him, and limits his actions. A spell like burning blood also approaches combat in this fashion, wearing away the opponent while limiting the threat he poses. Stinking Cloud, and even Cloudkill, are immortal examples of this school's uses. Beguiling is also a viable strategy for rougue characters, who can sneak unseen, and work toward's the foe's end. A feat like hamstring is an excellent choice for a nonspellcaster approaching this method.
 * The Grinder**
 * Beguiling**

The limitations of beguilement are primarily budgetary. With a limited number of spells per day, a spellcaster cannot memorize beguiling conditions for all the situations he may encounter. Ideally, this method uses the least resources while ensuring survival. It is also only usable by those of keen mind.