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MY PLAYERS STAY OUT OR I WILL FEED YOUR FEET TO THE CHUDS DOWNTOWN.
DON'T THINK I WON'T.
There's a roving band of three ogres and about 100-ish goblins(and one barghest) that have been tearing across the countryside and wiping small hamlets off the map. They're making their way to a small village right now, travelling through a forest at the moment.
The head ogre stumbled upon some ioun stones in some Thassilonian ruins that made him "think gooder", and this along with his domineering, bullying nature has put him in the leader position for the moment. The other ogres are loyal only because he's family, the barghest because it's convenient, and the goblins because they're terrified not to along with the promise of opportunities for arson.
The party is comprised of six level 9 adventurers(fighter, cleric, rogue, sorcerer, alchemist, druid) and one level 7 cohort(paladin). A ton of followers are staying back at the endangered village to fortify and protect it should worse come to worse.
The party is planning on proactively attacking the small horde at daylight, when they'll be the least active.
My question is this:
What kind of things do you think should be present at a camp made of a few ogres, a barghest, and a ton of goblins who have slaughtered, burned, and looted their way through a few hamlets already? What preparations would you figure they would have?
The map I'm putting together for this battle is the size of a ping-pong table, literally, because that's what the map is going to be on. My party wants to launch a full-scale assault, complete with the alchemist doing an aerial bombing run with the flying druid and the fighter riding a damned elephant(LONG STORY) and dammit I'm going to give them the big battle they want.
The camp will be found in a clearing surrounded by large pines. The ogres and goblins will not have been there long, though they're not travelling in a hurry either after their recent sacking of another village.
I was planning on having the battle take place amongst some old Thassilonian ruins which would provide plenty of cover and defensive positions both for the party and the enemy, but I'm not entirely convinced it wouldn't seem too artificial even with the fact that such ruins are numerous all about Varisia. I might just run with it. Worked for climax of Fellowship of the Rings after all.
The lead ogre is going to be a barbarian, the others a flight-capable caster and one more barbarian. The goblin shaman is going to be a summoner. There should be a couple of lesser goblin casters as well. Multiple goblins will be riding goblin dogs or wargs as "cavalry".
Let the big bads retreat to a small church or temple, and have the barghest defile it.
Have a family hiding in a crawlspace help the party somehow, to humanize the victims.
Have the goblins take hostages, prompting a few precision shots to kill them before they can slit throats.
Perhaps the woodsmen and farmers from the next town that would fall send a team of scouts that can see the party rip the humanoids apart, and invite them and the survivors for a heroes welcome, letting the party off the hook from having to care for civilians.
Have a little kid spontaneously cast magic missile, as a first step on the road to sorcery, and have a bit of a role play opportunity for an arcane caster in the party.
If you want to be vicious, have a green or black dragon come to scavenge the corpses while the battle is on. The party will assume it is an ally of their enemies.
The goblins have started fires, so let the bombing run deal with concealment from the smoke.
That is my brainstorm for the day.
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Oops, need to clarify.
The goblins/ogres have already destroyed the closest village other than the one the PCs are now protecting, and are currently en route to the latter. The druid flew out to check on the just-destroyed village. The ogres and goblins had had all their fun already at that time.
The PCs were originally going to set up at their current location and set up the village they were protecting against a siege, but after taking stock they decided to hit the enemy first and let the fighter's followers take care of the perimeter, just in case.
I'm a big fan of adding some trolls to big fights, because they have a tendency to be overlooked after they go down the first time.
A camp that size may have also attracted some Otyughs.
If they've already sacked one city, the Barghest may be on the verge of becoming a Greater Barghest. You could have that happen mid-battle, immediately followed by it trying out its new Mass Enlarge Person ability.
If you do set it in ruins, some angry spirits showing up part way through would not go amiss.
That's all I've got for now.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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I'd create some altitude gradations on the map. Maybe the goblins bivouacked in a little hollow, with high ground on 3 sides. Even goblins are smart enough to post sentries on that high ground, so it gives PCs a chance to do some sneaky "sentry removal" to gain that high ground surprise advantage. You don't have to make it sheer cliffs, either. Even slowed movement up a slope can give ranged/caster PCs time enough to rain death upon the goblin warband.
The ruins are a good idea, for cover for both sides. Put out a couple big boulders, too, that take up 2x2 or 3x3 areas. A low fence makes for interesting cover.
Include vegetation. High grass could allow goblins or other small creatures to move undetected, while it wouldn't allow concealment for, say, the ogres. Have areas of difficult terrain, probably rocky or shrub-covered. Throw in a few small trees. They sit in a square and provide cover to anybody in the square, but don't prevent movement through it. But if you have trees, make sure you know what radius and how high the branches will block line of sight from higher ground.
Of course, the goblins are going to have a big bonfire going. They're likely to be eating horses or doing some sort of tribal goblin dance, something noisy. The PCs probably aren't going to have any trouble finding the camp. The big bonfire will be a good light source in its radius. It'd be complex, but it might be worthwhile to know where big shadows are (on the lee side of objects from the bonfire) for good hiding places. The goblins might have cut some logs around the bonfire for benches. The bad guys might have captured some villagers from the last town as playthings for the ogres--could make for an interesting hostage situation, or serious puppy-kicking nightmare fuel if the hostages are killed gruesomely as soon as the attack begins.
Lastly, they'll probably camp near water. A small pond or creek with high banks can be an interesting obstacle, or potentially an avenue of approach for sneaky PCs. Imagine the party coming up out of the water a la Apocalypse Now.
For 100 goblins, I suggest that they attack in waves rather than en masse. That limits the number of attack rolls you need to make in a round. If you are making 100 attack rolls in a round that round is going to take an hour to resolve. For archer goblins, have them concentrate area fire rather than target individuals; iirc there are rules in the PHBII that work well for that. It's something like everything within in 10' square takes arrow damage, Reflex save for half, evasion helps. Don't worry if the goblin archers take out a few melee goblins as well; that's particularly goblinish. Have a good idea beforehand what will cause a rout among the goblins, for example: being reduced to 50% of their original numbers, all the ogres and the barghest getting killed, etc. Finally, just for kicks, have a few goblins each round take actions that are really stupid, funny, and tactically worthless. Like trying to climb a tree and falling out, running around on fire, doing a ritual goblin dance of mockery, etc.
EDIT: spoilerized.