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So my players opted out of Mass Combat and i'm down to creating some missions for them to play out instead.
Note: There are probably mistakes in the stats and i usually give the enemies higher if not full hp, and even then the party wipes the floor with them...
This is what i came up for the Fort Drelev attack (which will occur next week):
Fort Drelev Battle
The attacking armies will be the same as in the module. I've seen recommendation, i think in the GM thread for the below, and added one idea of mine:
- Trolls at the gate! - A troop (as in the subtype) of trolls lead by a troll fighter 7 will attack the gate with a battering ram.
Enemies:
TROLL HORD CR 13
NE Medium humanoid (troll, troop)
Init+2; Senses Perception +10
DEFENSE
AC 26, touch 12, flat-footed 22 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural, +2 shield)
hp 300(19d8+171=256), regeneration 5 (acid or fire)
Fort+16, Ref+8, Will+7
Defensive Abilities troop traits
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee troop (4d6+11)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
STATISTICS
Str 32, Dex 14, Con 28, Int 6, Wis 9, Cha 6
Base Atk +19; CMB +30; CMD 32
Feats Intimidating Prowess, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Perception)Troll Fighter
Male troll fighter 7
CE Large Humanoid (Giant)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +21
DEFENSE
AC 26, touch 13, flat-footed 22 (+8 armor, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +5 natural, -1 size)
hp 171 (6d8+7d10+7 favored class +100); Regeneration 5 (fire or acid)
Fort +18, Ref +7, Will +6; +1 vs. fear
Defensive Abilities Bravery +2, Fire Immunity 60
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +2 ranseur +22/+17/+12 (2d6+17) and bite +16 (1d6+4) or bite +18 (1d6+8) and 2 claws +18 (1d6+8)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with +2 ranseur)
Special Attacks rend (2 claws, 1d6+8), weapon training +1 (pole arms)
STATISTICS
Str 26, Dex 14, Con 23, Int 4, Wis 11, Cha 6
Base Atk +11; CMB +21; CMD 33 (34 vs. disarm and sunder)
Feats Combat Reflex, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Multiattack, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Perception), Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (ranseur), Weapon Specialization (ranseur)
Skills Climb +10, Perception +19
Languages Giant
SQ Armor Training 2
Gear +2 breastplate, +2 ranseur, Potion of protection from energy (1)
- Destroy the catapults - as the title says, but while being harassed by several troops of soldiers. After several rounds some Wyverns will sweep down on them
Enemies:
Catapults hardness 5, 50hp, 100 ft. apart
Wyverns I think 4 will swoop down after 1d4+2 rounds, and 4 more some 2 rounds later
INFANTRY TROOP CR 10
LN Medium humanoid (human, troop)
Init+6; Senses Perception +14
DEFENSE
AC 23, touch 12, flat-footed 22 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural, +2 shield)
hp 147 (14d8+70)
Fort+13, Ref+8, Will+7
Defensive Abilities troop traits
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee troop (4d6+7)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks crossbow volley (DC 21)
STATISTICS
Str 24, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 9
Base Atk +10; CMB +7; CMD 29
Feats Ability Focus (crossbow volley), Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception), Toughness
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Crossbow Volley (Ex) The infantry troop can fire a volley of crossbow bolts as a standard action. This attack strikes a 20-foot radius within 800 feet of the center of the troop’s space. All creatures in the radius take 5d8 points of piercing damage (Reflex DC 21 for half). The save DC is reduced by 1 for each 80-foot range increment beyond the first. The save DC is Dexterity-based and includes the bonus from the troop’s Ability Focus feat.
- Hydra from the lake - Since my players did not deal with the Hydra from KM4 (nor did they deal with almost anything in that area, having lost interest in exploration) they'll face her here. It was drawn to the city by another Pitaxian force which did not survive being the bait.
The hydra will be the 13 headed one from the 6 player conversion thread
- They might try to go after the general of the armies, Avinash(?), at some point. They can, but if he start to look like loosing he'll teleport away or something... I want him there at the end.
I also think all these encounters will be timed. Take too long and you might loose the fight.
I'd appreciate ideas and thoughts :)
Cheers,
-arnon
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Red Hand of Doom had a system based off another 3.5 era book (Heroes of Battle?) that had a different type of system for wars which I always thought was great. I plan on using the system for my next game.
I'll likely do similar in my game, so will be watching this for ideas.
Actually i ran Red Hand of Doom several years ago (fondly remembered by all). I'll take it out and give a look, but if memory serves it just tallied points of success...
Some refinements for the Fort Drelev attack. I want them grasping for breath by the end of the night...
1. Destroy the catapults (as i've written above) while being harassed by troops (2-3, haven't decided yet). Need to be completed in 10 rounds top.
1.1 Flight of Wyvern swoops in 1d3 rounds later, and a second wave 2 rounds later. This is mainly a nuisance, as the wyvern do not really have a chance to doing much damage to my insane high AC party (all but the wizard are above AC 30). I was thinking of maybe adding an advanced (+several HDs) of Manticores to lead the charge... but maybe not, let the party feel powerful and just blast through them
2. About midway during the Catapult phase, they will notice the troll charge on the gate (reinforced wood with iron, hardness 8, 120 hp). Each round they delay, 20 points of damage are dealt to the gate. They'll need to fight trough 2 troops and the leader to stop the damage (maybe i'll drop the leader). Destroying one troop will reduce the damage to the gate to 10 per round. The gate being destroyed might be catastrophic... but my players are quite smart in using their abilities and spells so who knows
2.1 1d4+2 rounds after they engage the troll, 2 troops of human soldier charge at the gate as well...
3. Let them take a short breath... a very short one; and then notice a charge starting to be formed by the General of the armies (humans & wyvern flight); the charge will occur all along the wall but the general will lead one of the charges. Soon after another report comes in of a Huge 13 headed Hydra attacking from the lake (no walls there).
3.1 The Hydra: While the Hydra killed its bait, there are several (2-3?) crack troops behind her hoping for a long enough distraction to attack the defenders from behind. If they party kills it within 6 rounds (not impossible i think) the troops will break in fear of these mighty beings.
3.2 The charge will be led by some regular human troops, then maybe some barbarian troops, and later the general with some troll fighters bodyguards. Wyverns will be flying around and picking off red-shirts, etc.. This they have to stop somehow. They have enough abilities to drop on the general's head if they wish, or they can blast through to him.
Charge contains:
1st wave: 3 Human Troops (if the walls and gates are still OK, then the defenders can deal with this)
2nd wave: 2 barbarian rampagers, wyverns start picking off the defenders on the walls
3rd wave: General, 3 troll bodyguards (fighter 7, maybe 5), 1 human troops
Timing: The last part is all about timing. Take too long to kill the Hydra and the charge of the general will be deadly. Take too long to deal with the general and his charge and the Hydra will do lots of damage + they'll need to deal with the crack troops inside their town. I'll have to ad lib it.
Consequences: not sure i need something in written to count points. Fail too much and you loose the town, succeed in all the you route the army (not destroy it), succeed in some is sort of a draw with heavy looses to Fort Drevel (and some to the enemy), if general escapes then the army routes.
CRACK TROOP CR 12
LN Medium humanoid (human, troop)
Init+6; Senses Perception +14
DEFENSE
AC 24, touch 13, flat-footed 22 (+5 armor, +3 Dex, +4 natural, +2 shield)
hp 163 (16d8+80)
Fort+14, Ref+9, Will+8 (+1 vs. fear)
Defensive Abilities troop traits
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee troop (4d6+9)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks crossbow volley (DC 23); alchemical fire barrage (DC 22; 3 times)
STATISTICS
Str 26, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 9
Base Atk +12; CMB +15; CMD 33
Feats Ability Focus (crossbow volley), Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception), Toughness
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Crossbow Volley (Ex) The crack troop can fire a volley of crossbow bolts as a standard action. This attack strikes a 20-foot radius within 800 feet of the center of the troop’s space. All creatures in the radius take 5d8 points of piercing damage (Reflex DC 23 for half). The save DC is reduced by 1 for each 80-foot range increment beyond the first.
Alchemical fire barrage (Ex): As a move action, a rifle troop can target a single square up to 20 feet away with a volley of alchemical fire. A volley deals 10d6 points of fire damage in a 10-foot-radius burst (Reflex DC 23 for half). The save DC is reduced by 1 for each 10-foot range increment beyond the first.
BARBARIAN RAMPAGERS CR 12 (while raging)
LN Medium humanoid (human, troop)
Init+6; Senses Perception +14
DEFENSE
AC 22, touch 14, flat-footed 20 (+6 armor, +3 Dex, +4 natural, +1 dodge, -2 rage)
hp 195 (16d8+102)
Fort+16, Ref+9, Will+9
Defensive Abilities troop traits
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee troop (4d8+12)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks hand-axe volley (DC 22)
STATISTICS
Str 30, Dex 16, Con 22, Int 9, Wis 11, Cha 9
Base Atk +12; CMB +22; CMD 25
Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness, power attack, dodge
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Axe Volley (Ex) The barbarian rampagers can throw their hand-axes as a standard action. This attack strikes a 10-foot radius within 20 feet of the center of the troop’s space. All creatures in the radius take 6d6 points of slashing damage (Reflex DC 22 for half). The save DC is reduced by 1 for each 10-foot range increment beyond the first.
As always, suggestions and comments are more than welcome.
-arnon
Stupid players with their stupid 12th level PCs and their stupid Greater Invisibility!
So this was played last night, the party arriving via teleport (leaving an entourage behind, need to think what to do with these) at Fort Drelev just as the catapults start harassing the walls, and a charge of Trolls with battering ram starts running towards the town with wyverns coming in as well... important to note that the town has walls and a moat.
The wizard (invisible) and fighter (with greater invis.) fly over to the catapults: one disintegrate and three rounds later (1 full round to destroy catapult and one to move into new position to destroy the next catapult)...
Meanwhile on the walls: the party starts to shot at wyverns and prepares for the trolls. They hear commotion from the gatehouse and suddenly the drawbridge over the moat falls down and the way to the gate is clear... the cleric cohort does not hesitate and places a Stone Wall sealing the gate completely. The Paladin goes down to investigate the commotion and finds 5 dead, 2 injured and 3 more soldiers (all wearing kingdom uniform); one of the survivors tells that a fight broke out as 3 traitors attacked and poured acid on the drawbridge mechanism to lower it. As he heads back to the wall a boy runs up to him telling of huge monster with many heads attacking people from the lake.
The trolls run on the bridge trying to clamber over the wall but the magus raises a wall of fire the trolls scatter away from it, leaving the battering ram and the drawbridge on fire.
The fighter, having finished the catapults and still invisible, decides to go after the trolls and single-handed slaughters the lot of them (2 troll hordes troops and a troll fighter 7).
The Paladin and the wizard make their way to the 13-headed Hydra. The hydra manages to attack the paladin with 4 heads and do a little damage. The wizard arrives, hold monster and the next two round the hydra looses four heads and fails a Fort to resist coup de grace (Fort save to survive would need a natural 20).
With that a respite from fighting is given... The party heals up a bit, reinforces what needs reinforcing and fly over (invisible again) to scout the rest of the army. At some point they notice a ogre like being surrounded by trolls, some tiger lords, and some Pitaxian soldier given orders to prepare for attack with dusk. They go back to Fort Drelev to decide what to do and wish to take out this ogre commander. But as they make their way back they cannot find him (he changed shape to scout for a bit), so they settle on destroying the Tiger Lord leader and wreaking havoc in the camp: mass slaughter ensues with fireballs flying, circle of deaths being formed, and generaly people dying all over without anybody finding the source of the problem (all are invisible or greater invis). The army scatters and the General teleports away...
After that the party heads over to sleep with a Nap Stack and prepare to what comes next.
I have no idea what should come next: nothing? regrouping the army?
My plan was that during the dusk attack the party would receive an urgent message from their capital that the castle was under attack, maybe it'll still happen, but i'm not sure about it.
==============================
All in all, the guys had a good time and fun all around. So the session was a success, but as always I find it hard to challenge my party without critically overpowering them.
I think that for the Mass Combat section of the game, the party should be lower levels, 5 or 6. Otherwise, as it is, these superheroes have no problem defeating whole armies which general consist of low level peons.
Cheers
-arnon
I'm beginning to think the best way to do this is to have multiple events. That is, at the same time players lay siege to Fort Drelev, an army of troll barbarians attacks the Temple of the Elk, a horde of hill giant attorneys lays siege to Varnhold, and an ancient black dragon menaces the capital.It would take some complicated logistics, but the idea is that the players (as higher-level superheroes) can be incredibly effective, but they also don't want to leave their home cities undefended.
I believe you are correct. I tried to do that on a smaller scale, i.e. just in Fort Drelev; divide the PCs attention among several points of interest...
As it stands, the party is still on edge and expecting some sort of an attack at dusk, and dusk is a great way to "time an attack" across several different groups in diverse locations with no way to communicate.
So my thinking is:
The attack planed for dusk on fort drelev is sitll in effect. Two forces were in position to carry it out (see next paragraph), the only force missing will be the Tiger Lords barbarians (which were dealt with when the party attack their camp in the army), and the general which will be trying to re-group his routed army.
Giants: Giants on Mastodon, and some giants on foot. They are related to the Tusker's Riders army of giants near Pitax.
Crack Troops: the Pitaxian force the party saw taking orders form the general already left the army when it was attack by the party. These are some crack troops which will infiltrate the town (from the lake perhaps). Some of them will cause havoc by starting to burn building, while others will attack the northern gate from within the town.
Giants: This could be 1 Jotunblood Hill Giant, 9 Hill Giants, and 3-4 Mastodons (for a CR15). I want to keep the Jotunblood giant large-ish instead of huge, but leave all other stats as is, the party will still notice he's bigger and badder.
Crack troops: Crack Troops as posted above somewhere
First the fires would start, then the giants will charge with the Jotunblood using his Eath-shaking bellow to crack the walls while his followes hurl rocks, then the troops will join the attack on the northern gate (If the army would not have been routed, then a large charge would have been led on the western gate).
As this attack gets started one of them will receive a sending from a cleric in the capital (PC turned NPC): "You should realy hurry up there! This thing is enormous..." and the transmission is cut.
:
This is the capital city of the kingdom. The main abode of the ruler is there... along with his one year old boy. The wife (rulers cohort) went with the ruler to the Rushlight Tournament and is now in Fort Drelev with the rest.
(This is probably the place to also note that while the party has eradicated almost completely the Cult of Gyrona from their kingdom, they did not kill the head priestess... That's Goody Niska from book 2, my party dealt with this on after VV and i decided to make her by then a level 11 cleric when they uncovered her. They later fought her again in Armag's Tomb from where she escaped again only to leave a warning in the babys' room in the form of Gyrona's symbol. I think now she want's to extract her revenge, and she'll be advanced to level 13 probably.)
Niska has heard through he grape-vine of the attack planed by King Irovetti and decided to take advantage of the mayhem. So while the castle is under attack, she will steal into the royal nursery and add 3 more half-elven babies of about 1 year old and all looking with the same color hair and eyes and skin as the royal baby. After all, she was the midwife in his birthing, the fear she took/replace the baby was there. The plan is to have her caught red-handed and to have a final showdown!
Other forces?: One option i thought of is for Irovetti to have bargained with the great wyvern Minognos-Ushad (KM5, area F). along with her entourage of regular wyverns. I'll be using the 6 player conversion of Eater of Kings which will make her a CR17 Gargantuan monstrosity.
The Attack: Niska waits for the wyverns to start attacking the city and then makes here way into the royal nursery (doesn't matter how she does it. She could have the babies some distance from the castle then wind-walk back and forth to bring them all, she's high level cleric, she'll do fine).
During the fight with Minognos-Ushad and her cohort of smaller wyverns, one of the wyverns will swoop into the castle with it's head in the royal nursery (my PCs have so high perception i'm not worried of them missing it).
============
Thoughts?
Cheers,
-arnon
a horde of hill giant attorneys
*sneeeeeeerrrrrrrrrk* Well played. So glad I wasn't drinking anything there.
So last night the session went more or less as planned: The combined attack on Fort Drelev by the Giants and crack troops occupied the party for about 7 rounds. Again the fighter had Greater Invs. cast on him so he quite easily beat the crap out of the giants.
4 rounds in they get the emergency sending from their Capital about wyverns attacking. They finish off the giants and troop, heal up, and head there. At the capital they fight Minognos-Ushad who manages to almost kill the Magus (plus to failed FORT save from poison reducing his CON by 6), and do some damage to the Fighter (who looses 2 CON as well). This time around the paladin had greater invs. on him thanks to his bard cohort/wife, who ran of to check on their 1 year old baby.
While fighting the great wyvern the Wizard noticed a smaller wyvern trying to enter the nursery window and immediately zaps it with disintegrate, but even when they kill of Minognos-Ushad, they don't go to the nursery, they decide to head out and kill the rest of the wyverns flying about he capital (these were just window dressing and i did not have they party roll dice to kill 'em).
Only the fighter's cohort (a cleric of Desna) went to the nursery via fly to check out if everything is OK. This is the final part of the session summary i wrote in our journal:
Meanwhile Vera went to the check on the nursery as well, flying to the window where the wyvern tried to enter, there, she found a wall of blades blocking the rest of the room. She passed with a dimension hop and on the other side found three babies sleeping on a blanket: one of them was Edric's heir, and the other two were very similar in looks (hair, eyes, complexion, etc..). She decided to stay there with the babies.As the wyvern were killed the rest of the party went into the castle, and on the way to the nursery found Valariel (Paladin/ruler's wife) unconscious in a hallway. They revived her and she started to blabber hysterically about the witch, the midwife, moving from hysteria, to calm, to hitting attacking others, to hitting herself....
Valerial was running to the room when she encountered Niska (Gyrona's Cleric) with her companions strolling away from the nursery, and got a dose of Insanity (as per the spell) on her, where-upon Niska had the poor woman held down and whispered to Valerial how her husband cheated on her and "has several bastard sons, two of which are now in the nursery". Then she went away.
I actually wanted there to be a showdown between Niska and the party, but they decided to deal with the wyverns attacking the town and i decided that Niska would walk away after doing her part. Her running into the wife was a bonus.
I'm not sure were to place Niska now, i don't want to branch to far out from the AP as i don't have all that much time to develop these threads, maybe have them track down some old Gyrona holy place in Thousand Voices...?
Cheers,
-arnon