Originally Posted by
SirTheta
You're correct; I misread. However, your suggestion does not fix the problem. I've already given you two situations where DL doesn't really work--giant spiders have the same DL as DE Wiz, and tarantulas have a greater DL, as well as having the same DL as DE priestess. Both silver and dire wolves have the same DL as werewolf. I'm sure I could find more examples if I wanted to look, but it's kind of beside the point. You could simply give summoner higher priority to switch in, but that would kind of defeat the whole idea behind summoners, as well as not solving some of the other problems (why should a large gnoll switch in for a gnoll when we're engaged in heated combat?). I couldn't care less how monsters were switched except for the tile beside the PC. If the PC has damaged the creature in the last turn, it should not be eligible to be switched out, that's all. It's simple, straightforward, and solves any issues (well, there is the case of missing, but I don't think that will wind up being a huge deal). This works equally well for summoners, vaults, tension rooms, hallways, everything--even something like @&W in ToEF. ACW is eligible to switch in if I'm using fire demon as a meatshield (perhaps spamming stun ray), but as long as I'm actually fighting the fire demon, he can wait his turn. I don't really care if this makes "sense," or what have you, it's simply far more straightforward and less annoying.
I think I've got the perfect solution, then.
Melee attacks prevent switching. If you attack a foe on a turn by melee, it cannot then be switched (by another foe) for the remainder of that turn. I would extend that restriction to also apply to any other damaging effect that applies only to an adjacent enemy, such as Burning Hands. Note that failure to damage isn't the restriction - if you attack, the foe is forced to defend itself, and it's that defense that prevents switching.
It prevents using a monster as a meatshield for long-distance attacks, but also prevents the switching problem from making others too powerful. Making it "if the foe was damaged" is unfair, because a miss allows a switch, while attacking with magic bolts or ball spells that can hit foes beyond the adjacent one will trigger the restriction in that case.
Also, if summoners can summon monsters beyond their DL, it doesn't make much sense, beyond perhaps Black Wizards, since they can summon almost anything (and thus should only be restricted by the DL of the level they summon on). But then, there's a simple adjustment to the rule I gave - summoned foes don't get priority over unsummoned foes. Since summoned beings are tagged as such, just as uniques are marked as unique, including them in the switching restriction should be easy.
To summarise my full suggestion to this point:
1. Monsters with higher DL should get priority in switching - the bigger the difference in DL, the easier it is for the higher DL monster to switch, and the harder it is for the lower DL monster to switch.
2. Uniques should always get priority over non-uniques.
3. Non-summoned should always get priority over summoned. Uncertain as to whether this should be extended to bred monsters.
4. Monsters should not be able to be switched for the duration of a foe's turn attacking it by melee or touch attack. This includes cases where the attacking foe is the PC, and thus foes cannot be switched if the PC is attacking them.
Note that 4 doesn't restrict the attacked monster from switching, only from being switched. This allows it to flee.