So flanking (barring oddities), as it stands now is a flat +2. It doesn't matter how many people are around, it is +2.
So lets think about that. If an entire town of commoners were to attack someone with an AC of around 32, that would still mean each of them would have a 5% chance of hitting. Because there are no offensive penalties to being flanked, this also means that the character (for this purpose, a level 9 fighter) can cut down all 8 of the attackers (60% of the time) (with great cleave) each round.
While this makes sense for a round or two, a mob of hundreds really should be able to take down a single person in not too much time. So how can we buff big groups of characters? I don't have a specific idea, but these are the things I can think of...
Flank bonus increases for each additional character (+2,+3,+4...+8). Only 2 "Flankers" must be trully opposing.
Penalty to attack bonus of someone being flanked?
Create a set of Mob/Stampede rules that work like Swarm rules for Small, Medium and Large creatures (I kinda like this idea... Goblin Stampede....)
I agree there should be something to reflect the situations where a whole mass of enemies overwhelm the big hero (or not, although in most pop culture representations, they do). The PF1 way of doing this, combining flanking + aid another, never felt satisfactory.
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PF1 would represent this mob as the troop subtype. Better to have a bestiary entry for “mob” than make the flanking rules four times as complicated.
Luckily, changes to the flanking rules are easily implemented as House Rules.
For instance, you could say +2 per ally adjacent to the target. Its quick and easy to count up. If +2 isn't strong enough for what you're want to represent, then use +4, which is going to create a strong incentive for the target to get out of there and probably leads to a better 2 on 1, or 3 or 1, flavor of fight.
Or you could say +2 per ally who is not threatened by another opponent but is adjacent to the target. This kind of rule promotes forming lines or shield walls.
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PF1 would represent this mob as the troop subtype. Better to have a bestiary entry for “mob” than make the flanking rules four times as complicated.
This. There is a thread on the troop sub-type that can get you to what you want. Otherwise, many folks are not fond of the bounded accuracy philosophy around these parts.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Here I was thinking this thread might cover the rules for swarms, which could probably use a touch up.
All too often at level 1:
It's some kind of insect swarm!
Who actually bought acid or alchemist's fire with their low starting money? Maybe 1-2 PCs have 1-2 vials each.
Both vials of splash damage are thrown at the swarm. One misses because attack rolls at level 1 are terrible, and the other hits for 1d6. The swarm has now taken 4 points of damage and the party has no further way to damage it.
Either way most of the party has no good way to participate.