I'd like some advice for defending against a siege.
In the game I'm in, the town we live in (population a few thousand) has been surrounded by a goblin army led by necromancers. They have atleast one giant and a black dragon tucked away. Several of the goblins have been trained for a few levels of wizard and there is handful of human necromancers (cleric and wizard mix) amongst them. If a goblin falls, they tend to get resurrected.
Our group is has small mix 4th level, no 3rd level spells. My character is a monk who is good at making alchemical items. There are a few stone walls, but the other walls are mostly wooden palisades. It's about a week into the siege and the outside world has been cut off. Before the goblins really dug in, we succeeded in a small raid to destroy what we think is all of their catapults. Sometimes are standing guard on the wall and occasionally a fireball will hit the wall.
There might be large group of knights coming to break the siege but it's unknown how long it will be till they get to the town. What suggestions do you have for the defenders? Anything that an alchemist might be able to cook up that would be helpful?
Thanks in advance.
You'll need to provide more specific information about the capabilities of your party for advice. At this point, the only thing I can advise is that you lob fire bombs off the will until they're dead, or they kill you. Also, you said the goblins are being resurrected by necromancers. Did you mean animated by necromancers?
On a separate note, I get the sense that your GM has some specific way in mind for you to overcome this, and any other way will end in failure. Has he subtly suggested anything?
You'll need to provide more specific information about the capabilities of your party for advice. At this point, the only thing I can advise is that you lob fire bombs off the will until they're dead, or they kill you. Also, you said the goblins are being resurrected by necromancers. Did you mean animated by necromancers?
On a separate note, I get the sense that your GM has some specific way in mind for you to overcome this, and any other way will end in failure. Has he subtly suggested anything?
There's a sorcerer, a paladin, a rogue, and a monk. Yes, I meant raised, not resurrected. It takes a long time to produce even one fire bomb for a mundane alchemist like the monk.
You're probably right about a specific way of getting out of the siege. Atleast the GM has done a good job making the situation feel disparate.
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If it's a siege, you're not asking the right questions.
It's been a week so far and the necromancer(s), goblins, dragon, and giant(s?) haven't stormed the town yet. That means that they are either not confident of success if they attempt to storm the town, they believe that they will take unacceptable casualties trying to storm the town (which would indicate that their ability to animate dead goblins is limited--otherwise there wouldn't be "unacceptable" levels of casualties unless they have to worry about goblin morale).
Instead, it would appear that they have settled in for a siege. They are either trying to starve you out or fight a battle of engineering maneuvers where they think they can undermine or force the walls thus neutralizing your advantage without exposing themselves to risk, or they think that they can whittle down the number of the defenders by a series of less than decisive skirmish style attacks on the town. (If they're smart about it, they're probably trying to keep the town's most dangerous defenders busy with token forces while other forces inflict disproportionate losses on the less dangerous townsfolk at other locations). If that works, eventually, you won't have enough forces to defend the whole wall and they will simply climb or destroy it somewhere that the PCs are not able to defend.
I suppose it is also possible that they are expecting treachery to make the assault easier for them--a secret cult or sympathizer who will open the gates in the middle of the night, but if it's been a week and it hasn't happened yet, I would guess that they're going to move on to plan B soon if they haven't done so already.
So, the things you should be looking for are:
1. How long do you have in supplies? Is the town in danger of starving any time soon? How about the enemy? They still have a lot of living soldiers and they need to eat. Can you destroy their supplies or make it difficult for them to forage?
1B. Sooner or later, they will breach the walls. Plan a fallback location (keep, townhall, temple, whatever) and fortify it as best you can. (Clear a field of fire around it, make sure there are no nearby tall buildings that could serve as sniper posts, etc, block doors, reinforce walls, turn windows into arrow slits). Make sure it has access to water and stock as many food supplies there as you can afford to keep in one place. Make sure that you are able to destroy any other supplies in the town as you retreat. Ideally you want to make breaching the walls a pyrhic victory for the necromancers. You don't lose many supplies and they don't gain any. You fall back to equally effective fortifications and they are forced to start over but against a more concentrated foe.
2. Is there any sign that they are undermining the walls, building a siege ramp, or digging trenches to cover their approach? If so, you need to impede their efforts, build the relevant section of the wall higher, and/or establish a secondary wall/barricade behind the section they aim to breach so that when they finish they will only have found their way into a small deathtrap.
2B. Take precautions against treachery. See if you can arcane lock the gates so that a traitor can't open them. Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. Maybe things just didn't go right for the traitors yet or the pesky gate guard just keeps making his saves against dominate. Either way, take some steps to cover your bases there if you haven't done so yet.
3. What can you do to make the exchange of casualties in the skirmishes less favorable to them? Maybe you should consider if you can afford to split your forces so that when they distract your party in order to hit the militia somewhere else, they find that they're really hitting part of your party, not squishy militia and take heavier losses than they can afford. Expendables like wands or scrolls combined with a character who has UMD could help you be effective in two places at once. (Dimension Door could potentially let you move from one section to another quickly enough to defend two sections of the wall against simultaneous probing assaults). Maybe you can upgrade the militia's weapons, armor, or training if you have time or organize a more effective triage system (or even organize a militia rapid response reserve armed with some of your consumables in order to make the exchange less favorable for the enemy). If you are able to do so without exposing yourselves to too much danger, you could also make sure to destroy the corpses of the goblins you kill and teach the militia to do the same. No body=no animation of zombies or skeletons.
3B. Since occasional fireballs target your party, it would appear that may be part of their attrition tactics. (And it's not a bad one against the townsfolk--if they kill a few from long range every day, sooner or later the numbers will add up). Consider ways to neutralize it. If you disguise the monk and rogue and maybe pair them up with a tough guardsman who you protect with resist energy, you may be able to lure them into wasting their fireballs. Given a bit of bluff and regularly changing disguises, they might not even figure out what you're doing for a while.
3C. Do your best to not be visible or recognizable. If they know where you are, they can pin you down and then attack elsewhere. If they don't know where you are due to disguise or hiding, they have to wait until you reveal yourselves before they can decide which force is the diversion and which is the real attack. That takes much more coordination and limits how much force they can concentrate behind the real attack.
They're goblins. You can always try to exploit their culture. Get them to turn on the wizards and necromancers by playing on their fear of the written word.
Goblins are ravenous eaters. If you can sneak out and make raids against them target there food. The goblins are likely to engage in cannibalism rather that put in the effort to go hunting.
You might even be able to get the goblins to switch sides by somehow displaying great mastery of fire.
Or you know keep waiting until they get bored and walk away.
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Do the above things to defend, and to try to gain an advantage. Your goal is to NOT LOSE until help arrives. Try to contact the relieving army. There are ways, with only 2nd level spells.
You must be ready to sally quickly to support you allies, when they show up. Have a good plan for a rapid counterattack in place, once the relieving army draw off the goblins.