Directing Traffic

It's very helpful for one fighter in a party to act as tactical coordinator (that is, combat leader). In combat, he keeps his eye on the situation and issues orders to his allies.

The tactical coordinator should be the one to notice that one of his frontline friends is being chopped to pieces, and order that character rotated back behind the line. When one particular enemy is discovered to be more deadly than the rest, the tactical coordinator should order missilers and polearm fighters to concentrate their efforts on that one. When the fight goes against the heroes and can't be turned around, the tactical coordinator should order the retreat—and make sure, if possible, that it's an orderly one, with no one missing and fighting-ranks still maintained.

If no PC fighter volunteers or naturally evolves into the combat leader role, the DM can help "push things along" by determining, in his best opinion, which PC would be best in that role—and then having NPCs turn to that character for orders when combat situations come up.

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