Troop subtype?

[pennywit]

I'm planning to run a siege scenario soon. I don't want to get into the mass combat rules (yet), but I also want to avoid rolling a fistful of d20s every round.

To this end, I'm looking at the "troop" subtype for mooks. My question is ... how would it work, exactly? I'm looking at creating a troop of mites. How would the troop work in terms of :

DR? Mites have DR 2/cold iron. If the PCs attack the troop with ordinary weapons, how much do I subtract from the damage?

SA? Mites can use a Doom effect once per day. Does the entire troop Doom-ify one person?

Ranged attacks? If my troop has arrows, darts, or ranged rubber chickens, can it do a ranged attack in place of ordinary troop (swarm) damage? I'm thinking of doing it as an area attack with a potential Reflex saving throw for half damage.

Stat stats? How would one stat up the troop's total hit points and damage? Do I add up the hp of all the mites? And does the amount of troop damage vary depending on whether they wield spears, swords, or daggers?

[Brandon Hodge]

pennywit wrote:

I'm planning to run a siege scenario soon. I don't want to get into the mass combat rules (yet), but I also want to avoid rolling a fistful of d20s every round.

To this end, I'm looking at the "troop" subtype for mooks. My question is ... how would it work, exactly?

Hey, Pennywit! In some cases here, you're just going to have to make a call, but, lucky for you, you're the GM! =-)

If this were me trying to come up with something on the fly (rather than turning in a freelancing assignment--BIG distinction), I would keep DR the same or increase it by 2 if I was feeling ornery, and for the doom effect, I'd allow it to go off once every 1d4 rounds as a move action or something. Keep in mind that the DC will need to be adjusted based on the troop's hit dice/ability scores.

The sample troop from Rasputin Must Die! has the fusillade special attack, which represents their rifles' range attack, so I'd emulate that here and assign the adjusted DC based on their stats/hit dice.

For stats and damage dice, don't let the subtype or the concept of an amassed group get to you--troops are built just like any other creature, using Table: Monster Statistics by CR from the PRD. Pick your CR and build up to that, and think of it conceptually as more of a single giant mite monster at first, and don't worry so much about the conglomerate nature. This is a simulation for ease of play, so don't get too caught up in how the statblock might accurately reflect, say, 30 actual mites. Treat it as its own thing. It own, big-headed, tiny-bodied, scurrying, buck-toothed, chicken-throwing thing. =-)

Does that help?

[pennywit]

This does help. I think that overall, I'm going to up the little guys' DR to account for there being so many of them, but I'm also going to make them extra-vulnerable to area attacks. Also, I think I'm going to replace their darts with random debris. They have to treat it as an improvised weapon, but there's a lot of it, so it goes off like an evasionable area attack that does 1d3 points of damage.

The mite troop is actually the sideshow. The REAL action will be a separately statted mite air force.