Hey there.
To make a long story short, because of a temporary absence, my group is taking a break from our regularly scheduled plotline to do a little mini-adventure. They are now four 10th level Dwarves leading an expedition to establish lumber camps in an ancient forest which used to be the heart of the now-fallen wood elf empire. Hijinks ensue.
Unfortunately they have gotten the attention of the local denizens.
I need help building a strikeforce around a Treant with 5 druid levels (CR 10.) The climax of the adventure will be the Treant leading the strikeforce against the Dwarven lumber camp, so it will be an Epic difficulty encounter.
As I said before the force will be built around the Treant. Total XP budget for a CR 14 encounter is 38400, of which the Treant takes up 9600.
Ideally, I would like to keep the creature types to Plant, Fey, and Animal, although I was considering making a couple Wood Giant rangers as overwatch.
The basic idea is for Treant & Co. to Soften Earth and Stone, and entangle as needed to give the melee grunts time to move in and mix it up. Ranged support holds at the top of a nearby hill, protected by Plant Growth/Entangle in case the Dwarves approach.
Once the Dwarves are engaged and the support spells expended, the Treant will wade into the melee utilizing his Feather Step spell, or run interference for the overwatch group by using his Woodland Stride through the overgrowth. Rinse/repeat until the defilers of the land are defeated (or the axes of the Dwarves prevail.)
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This brings me to what I need help with. I need to create a balanced strikeforce that has sturdy melee, some ranged support, and buffs/debuffs. I am generally unfamiliar with how to effectively use Fey, especially.
If you have used Fey effectively, please suggest specific creatures and tactics.
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A couple final notes. This forest is supposed to be brutal. As this is a mini-adventure and not the main characters, I am less worried about potentially destroying them, but I want to adhere to the CR guidelines of it being a very difficult, but winnable, fight. While it would be epic if the Dwarves overcame this assault, it is also perfectly acceptable for them to perish. It would work well to establish the mood for when the main characters enter the forest, a sort of "Balin's Tomb" moment if you will.
For all the player supremacy activists out there; don't worry. I am making sure they have a jolly time cutting through swathes of enemies before this event.
Thanks for any feedback!
A Nymph could pack some oomph for 3.200 Xp. Blinding Beauty only affects humanoids, then she can summon some axe-fodder with SNA IV, then hang back and focus on Call Lightning.
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Korreds are pretty cool. They have abilities targeting both Fort and Ref. they can throw rocks and they can melee although with attack bonuses of just +8 they may struggle to hit your dwarves. Pair well with satyrs.
For a slightly different flavour consider using a young imperial forest dragon (cr10).
Tigers, apes and bears are appropriate melee brutes.
For a flexible strike force add Druid levels to assorted fey and make some of the animals Awakened with class levels.
For your melee types, redcaps are CR6.
The write up is brutal sadistic killers who would jump at the chance to attack a loggers camp.
60' move (making a literal jump of +27), stealth of +19 (meaning a double 1/2 move of 60' with full stealth could work).
AC is somewhat low at 20, but fast heal of three and dr10/cold iron can help.
Switch feats from cleave to furious focus and they will hit hard, but not too hard with scythes (one attack)and a secondary kick.
High AC could be a problem for them (with an as written +10 with scythes), but the built in spring attack could mess with casters.
Switch weapons to say long spears (for pole vaulting over walls and reach) with, say, punch daggers (to keep with the high crit multiple theme) or go cestus for higher crit range.
The irreligious ability makes them not too tough, needing an 8+ on the die or be frightened away.
They're 2400 xps each, so fairly cheap for your army.
Also, attacking dwarves with even smaller bearded men just sounds cool, especially when you compare movement rates.
Throw in advanced template or class levels to add to individuals like leaders or slingers and they might make your treant led army very dangerous.
I could even see a roleplay moment when the treant realizes what kind of monsters he's brought to the battle.