We used to have a saying that "Even a thousand pixies can bring down the biggest giant. Since we've just started playing, I'm stuck with finding a way for an angry mob (or its equivalent) to bring down a single party member.
I'm not talking a 5 or 10 beasties or villagers, which should be played out in normal combat. I'm talking "You see a hoard of skeletons rushing you from all directions, with the words 'Bring them to me alive, my children!' echoing from the darkness beyond." Also think every zombie movie you ever saw where some poor twit gets dragged off screen screaming because he's outnumbered 20 to 1.
And, yes, size does matter here. A swarm of goblins might want to take you home to meet mother, who likes her food really fresh. Again, 20 to 1 (or more) is a lot of little hands to bring you down, but they won't have as easy a time as 20 villagers.
I really don't want to deus ex machina this one. Suggestions, please???
We used to have a saying that "Even a thousand pixies can bring down the biggest giant. Since we've just started playing, I'm stuck with finding a way for an angry mob (or its equivalent) to bring down a single party member.
I'm not talking a 5 or 10 beasties or villagers, which should be played out in normal combat. I'm talking "You see a hoard of skeletons rushing you from all directions, with the words 'Bring them to me alive, my children!' echoing from the darkness beyond." Also think every zombie movie you ever saw where some poor twit gets dragged off screen screaming because he's outnumbered 20 to 1.
And, yes, size does matter here. A swarm of goblins might want to take you home to meet mother, who likes her food really fresh. Again, 20 to 1 (or more) is a lot of little hands to bring you down, but they won't have as easy a time as 20 villagers.
I really don't want to deus ex machina this one. Suggestions, please???
Grapple, with the multiple creatures rule (it's under the grapple rules), plus, once they've got him defenseless, one of the free ones can coup de grace (if killing him is what you wanna do).
Tarrasques.
the Dungeon Masters Guide II 3.5 book has a mob template which allows you to basically make a swarm type monster out of small or medium sized creatures, you could always look at adapting that to your game.
Hordes of screaming (forum troll) rules?
the Dungeon Masters Guide II 3.5 book has a mob template which allows you to basically make a swarm type monster out of small or medium sized creatures, you could always look at adapting that to your game.
I'd also suggest the mob template (used to good effect in the Shackled City and Savage Tide adventure paths, for example).
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the Dungeon Masters Guide II 3.5 book has a mob template which allows you to basically make a swarm type monster out of small or medium sized creatures, you could always look at adapting that to your game.I'd also suggest the mob template (used to good effect in the Shackled City and Savage Tide adventure paths, for example).
Yeah, that would prolly be the best bet, otherwise a good fighter with greater cleave could take the whole horde out (it would be reather funny though)
Thanks, everyone. I'll pull out the old DMG2 and pull out the Mob template!!!
OH, they ain't gonna like this one... --<<evil grin>>--
I don't have a link handy, as I'm too lazy to look it up, but there's an Order of the Stick that addresses this: statistically, one in twenty rolls is a hit, no matter what. They get so many rolls, they are bound to hit eventually. And enough hits will bring anything down.
You can make hundreds of die rolls if your players really want you to roll every single swing by that zombie horde...or you can let you can give your players a fair swing at a creative escape and play it out cinematically if they don't manage it. That's how I would do it.
I don't have a link handy, as I'm too lazy to look it up, but there's an Order of the Stick that addresses this: statistically, one in twenty rolls is a hit, no matter what. They get so many rolls, they are bound to hit eventually. And enough hits will bring anything down.
You can make hundreds of die rolls if your players really want you to roll every single swing by that zombie horde...or you can let you can give your players a fair swing at a creative escape and play it out cinematically if they don't manage it. That's how I would do it.
Ok, I lied: I'm not too lazy to find it
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0417.html
I don't have a link handy, as I'm too lazy to look it up, but there's an Order of the Stick that addresses this: statistically, one in twenty rolls is a hit, no matter what. They get so many rolls, they are bound to hit eventually. And enough hits will bring anything down.
Unless some form of DR is involved...
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So one very easy cheat is to group them into groups of 10 or even 20. Roll the attacks normally and any hit does 10 or 20 times damage. This generally means that each group has a 5% chance of doing damage. The law of averages means they are doing the same damage but it's lumpier. There are also the effects of DR to deal with. You can do it either way