Mobility: The ability to move freely is an asset that is often under appreciated.
Creatures that are free to move or make ranged attacks can concentrate their
offensive power where they wish, provided they are more mobile than the enemy. Freedom
of movement also allows for some tactical flexibility, especially when dealing
with the unexpected or fleeing from a bad situation.
Superior mobility can bring all manner of advantages. Simply running around a
slower opponent’s front line and attacking a weak spot can have tremendous
impact.
A foe does not necessarily have to be faster than the player characters to
have superior mobility. If the heroes are attacked from two or three directions at
once, the party is faced with staying put or risking leaving someone behind if
they move. Spells such as the various walls, slow, entangle, and transmute rock to mud can hinder or even stop a party dead in its tracks. Spells such as darkness, stinking cloud, and fog cloud can disrupt and confuse a party at least temporarily.
Creatures do not willingly give up natural mobility advantages unless they are
exceedingly stupid or have been cleverly tricked. A tribe of lizard men, for
example, is probably not going to emerge from a river or swamp to attack player
characters on a paved road. Likewise, a dragon is not going to make it’s lair
in a cavern too small to allow it to fly.
Mobility is not always a function of an opponent’s movement rate. As noted
above, the ability to fire missiles is a great enhancement to mobility. Superior
numbers also enhance mobility, especially when a small group—such as a party of
adventurers—faces a single creature. The group is inherently more mobile than
their lone opponent because the task of concentrating their attacks is already
done for them (there is only one enemy to fight), and any single form of attack
does not immobilize the whole group.
A lone creature facing an adventuring company is at a severe disadvantage
unless it can stay out of the party’s reach, isolate individual characters, or
deliver attacks that affect all the characters at once. A monster engaged in melee
with the party’s lead fighter has very few movement options. The fighter’s
movement is restricted, too, but the rest of the characters are under no such
limitations.
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