How do you resolve a encounter between a party of 4 mid-level PCs vs. say 50 orcs in an open field? The players roll their respective initiatives and the DM rolls for the orcs as a whole, do you let all 50 orcs swarm in on the players? *shudders* Or do you let a number do nothing that round and just wait, observe, etc.? What if the 50 orcs have shortbows and all decided to fire?
Chunk 'em up. Even orcs aren't dumb enough to charge en masse, have them split up into smaller (manageable for you) groups and attempt to flank the PCs. Instead of rolling individually for the orcs, do Orc Group A, Orc Group B, etc. When it comes to actually attacks, again, group it. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches.
Don't forget morale checks - if the orcs see that the PCs are overpowering them, then make a check to see if they flee. :)
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The mooks get one initiative roll, while their leaders (if they have any) get individual initiatives. Swarm tactics makes perfect sense when the orcs outnumber the PCs, so let 'em roll in! If they have trouble hitting, just grab the PCs and pull them down. After all, that's how mere orcs and trolls defeated and captured Turin in The Silmarillion. As an added bonus, that might teach the PCs to respect foes that outnumber them...
Missile combat is actually easier - just go with a standard bell-curve distribution of rolls. Thus, most orcs will "roll" between 8 and 12, but some will roll very high as well. With 12 orcs per PC, they should be in trouble fairly fast.
I believe the Tome of Battle has some good suggestions for this. I don't have it near me now but I seem to remember both ways to treat ranged combat as groups that were simple at least. There might even be something that takes are of the up close stuff as well. Haven't looked at the book in some time <makes mental note to reread before next session>
Overseer,
I would go with a combination of what Lilith and Vattnisse suggest. Namely, split up the orcs into squads commanded by their respective sub-commanders, with one overall leader with an aid and bodyguard group. So, using a group of 50 orcs, I would most likely set up the following:
4 squads of 10 orcs each.
4 sub-commanders, 1 for each squad.
1 Leader with 1 Cleric or Adept and 4 bodyguards.
Then roll 5 initiatives, 1 for each squad and 1 for the leader and his staff.
Since you are asking for advice or recommendations on tactics, I presume that you have decided or know what the orcs objectives are for engaging in combat with the PCs. These objectives will help you decide when the orcs morale becomes questionable or outright breaks. They will also help you think of how the orcs will approach and engage the PCs in battle. Be certain to decide ahead of time under what criteria the leader and his staff will engage with the PCs. This too will dictate the tactics employed.
So presuming that the orcs’ objectives requires direct confrontation with the PCs in an open field, I suggest the following tactics:
Have some of the orcs (say 2 squads) employ missile fire for cover as the melee forces advance. Once melee is joined, shift the archer squads’ focus to the PCs back ranks, if any, or have one squad remain on hold with missile fire, while the other switches to melee weapons. Have this squad move into a reinforcement position to sub out wounded orcs that are forced to fall back. In the meanwhile, have the Adept or Cleric supply spell support as needed and deploy the bodyguards as a screen if the PCs maneuver to strike at the command element.
If things turn against the orcs, have the reserve archer squad provide cover fire for the withdraw/retreat while steadily falling back themselves. Once the leader and his staff are into cover, along with the majority of the surviving melee troops, have the archers discontinue cover fire and full retreat as well. From this point use hit and run tactics, with the orcs continuously falling back. Do not have them engage in another straight up fight unless the terrain, PCs actions, or the evolving situation leaves them no other choice. The object now should be on surviving to fight another day with as much of their forces salvaged as possible.
If things turn against the PCs evaluate the damage done to the orcs vs. their stomach to continue the fight. Keep a couple of options open for why the orcs may be inclined to parley, to take prisoners, or to let the PCs retire from the field. That way you can salvage a near TPK if it starts to come about.
When running the fight make liberal use of the Aid Another action or Grappling checks for the melee squads if they have trouble hitting the PCs (Personally, I would go with the Aid Another over the Grapple to help keep the fight moving along). If the PCs have too easy a time hitting the orcs, have the Aid Another action become shield wall tactics with success boosting the specific Armor Class values of the orcs’ main melee combatants. Obviously the number of orcs engaging each PC dictates how much of a bonus can be applied for any given combatant.
For the archers do a modified form of Aid Another where a successful aid attempt adds +1 to missile fire with 4 archers lending the bonus to every 5th one. So there would be two attack rolls for each missile fire squad, with up to a maximum of a +4 bonus provided if each of the 4 archers hit AC10. This will more readily simulate a rain of arrows falling amongst the party. Targets can be decided randomly (i.e. the PC group has yet to act or are huddled together) or specifically, depending on what the PCs do to single themselves out (i.e. a Fireball casting wizard or a Great Cleaving fighter).
To save on dice rolling, go ahead and review the orc squads basic capabilities along with the PCs hit points, armor classes, and normal SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) when engaging in combat. This may allow you to decide on an arbitrary number to add to the main orcish combatants, before commencing the fight. So for example, if the PCs all have high armor classes or hit points, each main archer squad will roll two attack rolls, each with a +2 bonus. Likewise, the orc melee fighters will strive for a 3 on one advantage resulting in 1 attack roll per three attackers, each with a +2 bonus to hit or a +2 to armor class. For damage, use the average results that could be generated (i.e. 4 or 5 points for a regular longbow and 5 or 6 points for a normal long sword presuming a +1 strength score). Of course, this all depends on your group and will need to evolve as the fight unfolds. However, it should serve when starting the fight to speed things along. For the leader and his staff, determine the results normally when they actually become involved.
I hope that the above is of some use and good luck with the encounter. I would be interested in hearing how things turn out.
Good gaming,
Mark
Easy. Refer to "Mob" combat rules in the complete adventurer I belive.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Ouch. I would recommend strongly against using the mob rules - the mechanics are just awful, and result in odd things like mobs taking much less damage from area damage than they would if they weren't a mob. And more annoying things than that, like being able to resist cloudkill and holy word.
Russ
I agree. The mob rules suck. It's a fine idea, but horribly implemented.