Hey there, i am going to use mass combat rules for my campaign, i want to introduce it gradually, so i will give the PC's 2 tiny armies (25 people)
so they can use in a city battle.
the question is, how does ACR functions for tiny (CR 1 or CR 1/2) armies, does it go negative? and if that's the case, does it influence in OM rolls and in DV?
*for example, their ACR is -3, so basically in all OM rolls, this is substracted from the d20? (d20-3?)
i would like someone to explain me how things work with tiny armies, please.
No, it doesn't go negative. ACR is a number, and follows the normal rounding rules when converted into OM, so ACR 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8 all give an OM of +0.
No, I don't have a specific citation for this, but it's the only sensible conclusion.
thank you very much, it makes a lot of sense.
wait so for example a tiny army of Goblins, because is tiny it's ACR is CR of creature -4, it's OM would still be 0?
Not quite. A tiny army of goblins isn't even an army, since the ACR would be less than 1/8. The smallest goblin (warrior 1) army you can stat up is a small army at ACR 1/6, which would have 1hp, OM +0 and DV 10.
Remember this is an abstraction and isn't meant to be perfectly representative, but a 1hp DV 10 army is barely a blip in the road to any reasonable force.
For a more detailed treatment, see Legendary Games' Ultimate Battle.
i need to get Ultimate battle, because i just don't find it convincing enough, that limit they put, also it gets ambigous with some resources like cure wounds potions, they heal for double the ACR, but what if the ACR is very little, do potions just not heal enough just because the size of the army is little? bad mechanic there.
you know what i actually solved it, added 10 to ACR of all armies, and voila, it's fixed.
Not really sure what you mean, there.
Adding 10 to the ACR of an army means that its OM is (up to) 10 points higher, its DV is 10 points higher, its consumption is 10 points higher, and (perhaps worst) it is now worth 32 times as many XP.
I suppose it doesn't make too much difference, since if all armies are modified the same way, the stats are ultimately proportionate, but it hasn't eliminated the problem since a fine army of CR 1/8 creatures ends up at ACR 1/4 (excellent! A single bat is worth twice as many XP as an army than it is as a combat-encounter!).