Scenario: PCs are on the side of andoran. Chelax is going to do some posturing and attempt to "rightfully reclaim" some land they say is there's from Andoran. The two armies will clash on the field of battle.
PCs are a synthesist, vanilla summoner, and a Dragon Disciple. There's also a high level DMPC wizard to which the pcs are apprentices of sorts.
Basically I'm going to have the battle ensuing all around the PCs while they do ...something. That's the part I need help with. The DMPC wizard will be doing big magic in the background to counter/sway the battle, which otherwise leaves the PCs to their own devices.
How should I play this out and what should I have the PCs do exactly? I thought about giving them a target to fight their way through the throng of mooks to. Let it otherwise play out as an extended fight. I think we can do better though. Any ideas?
Pcs are all level 6
Depends on their level, if level 6-10, probably just have them fight troops. See the troops template for more details from bestiary 6.
Then go "capture" something. Maybe they need a tower for archer to go position themselves and it is full of enemy soldiers.
Thanks for the troops template. I didn't know about that.
Having them take some sort of mobile artillery would work.
I've had hero PCs "defend" a caster who is tied down to a location in order to conduct an important magic ritual. You could do something similar to that by having the DMPC caster be stationary and the heroes need to defend them.
This allows for them to fight a number of opponents in various waves as the battle rages around them.
Depending on how many encounters you want to take up with it...
1. Squads of mooks (CR appropriate), basically low-level soldiers possibly commanded by a higher-level NCO.
2. Hit squad, skilled enemy combatants (possibly including some CR-appropriate devils) targeting the caster.
3. Champion and minions (could be humanoid with class levels or a higher-CR devil or summoned outsider) sent specifically to eliminate the high-threat PC targets and their caster ally.
Sounds fun. I've run similar encounters and given the skirmish-y nature it creates drama since the PCs don't have much time to rest or regroup between encounters. Good luck!