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Actually I don't know the current adventure path. I've barely looked beyond Core Rulebook and bestiary for 2e.
And what did they accomplish that I was unable to refute? He's not dead,he's not trapped,all they accomplished was to take him out for 1d10 days, and deprive him of a weapon he generally avoided using.
Well if we don't count some of his highest ranking lieutenant dying and his loot getting destroyed, there was that having five uses of 5 mile radius nukes would have allowed him to destroy few more cities or countries. Plus you know, avoiding him nuking cathedral and stealing starstone to become a god and quote developers "pretty much turn whole planet into ustalav"(or something like that)
Like maybe in cosmic grand scheme of things Tar-Babhon the god wouldn't be that big deal more than any other new god, but Golarion's living population would be doomed
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Actually I don't know the current adventure path. I've barely looked beyond Core Rulebook and bestiary for 2e.
And what did they accomplish that I was unable to refute? He's not dead,he's not trapped,all they accomplished was to take him out for 1d10 days, and deprive him of a weapon he generally avoided using.
Well if we don't count some of his highest ranking lieutenant dying and his loot getting destroyed, there was that having five uses of 5 mile radius nukes would have allowed him to destroy few more cities or countries. Plus you know, avoiding him nuking cathedral and stealing starstone to become a god and quote developers "pretty much turn whole planet into ustalav"(or something like that)
Like maybe in cosmic grand scheme of things Tar-Babhon the god wouldn't be that big deal more than any other new god, but Golarion's living population would be doomed
The PCs also stop Tar-Baphon and his armies from slaughtering everyone in Absalom.
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And what is stopping Tar-baphon from the Starstone? He isn't being kept from it by anything except space. All the pcs stopped was a flashy entrance.
Because Tar-Babhon doesn't want to enter building trapped by his divine archnemesis :p
Like, Starstone test is two fold: The building created by god to prevent everyone reaching the real test easily and real test which happens when you touch the rock
On sidenote, if Tar-Babhon nuked the cathedral and destroyed Absalom, that would also crash the whole inner sea region's economy. There are lot of bad things resulting from having biggest trade center of region destroyed assuming they live long enough to suffer from his inevitable godhood in this scenario
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And how many died when he went off in the middle of the Absalom forces?
Vastly less because armies fielded by a city are a tiny fraction of the population of that city. Kinda definitionally.
If a large percentage of the city was gonna die, then the death of even the whole army was a much smaller number of people, and, assuming a volunteer army, of people who volunteered to die if necessary to keep the city safe.
That's just how populations and armies work.
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And how many died when he went off in the middle of the Absalom forces?Vastly less because armies fielded by a city are a tiny fraction of the population of that city. Kinda definitionally.
If a large percentage of the city was gonna die, then the death of even the whole army was a much smaller number of people, and, assuming a volunteer army, of people who volunteered to die if necessary to keep the city safe.
That's just how populations and armies work.
The book calls them a cohort, so I'm guessing around 500 soldiers.
That's bit smaller than 300,000.
They also split off into three to head off different attacks (If I'm reading that part right) so it's entirely likely the number is even less than that.
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Vastly less because armies fielded by a city are a tiny fraction of the population of that city. Kinda definitionally.
If a large percentage of the city was gonna die, then the death of even the whole army was a much smaller number of people, and, assuming a volunteer army, of people who volunteered to die if necessary to keep the city safe.
That's just how populations and armies work.
But if it's a significant proportion of Absalom's trained professional military and its reserve, then that would be a very serious dent in the city's military capabilities. Armies don't just appear out of nowhere. You need an infrastructure, both human and physical and time to produce them.
Think of the importance of the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk in 1940, and how its destruction would have greatly weakened the UK.
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But if it's a significant proportion of Absalom's trained professional military and its reserve, then that would be a very serious dent in the city's military capabilities. Armies don't just appear out of nowhere. You need an infrastructure, both human and physical and time to produce them.Vastly less because armies fielded by a city are a tiny fraction of the population of that city. Kinda definitionally.
If a large percentage of the city was gonna die, then the death of even the whole army was a much smaller number of people, and, assuming a volunteer army, of people who volunteered to die if necessary to keep the city safe.
That's just how populations and armies work.
Well yeah, it would make island more vulnerable to stuff like subterranean dinosaur invasion :p
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But if it's a significant proportion of Absalom's trained professional military and its reserve, then that would be a very serious dent in the city's military capabilities. Armies don't just appear out of nowhere. You need an infrastructure, both human and physical and time to produce them.
Think of the importance of the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk in 1940, and how its destruction would have greatly weakened the UK.
Sure. Though as Rysky notes, the number killed is probably significantly lower (the size of the force actually mentioned in proximity to this in the AP is 1,100 soldiers).
And as awful as the destruction of an army is, it's still preferable to the death of a city (or even a large portion of one).
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Because I'm into military and security stuff, I think I'll try to do a close reading of the AP material and anything else from Paizo that looks relevant when I get home this evening.
My Moonscar players would probably rather I do this than spend the time thinking new and improved tactics for the various bosses they're going to face on Sunday.
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I agree on the standard way battles should be conducted in settings with fireball, but from what I've seen of massed battle in Pathfinder and the editions of D&D I've played, it's usually done as if just medieval tech was available, no spells. By rights, Pathfinder cultures should have developed beyond armies, instead going for squad based skirmish warfare.
They do for the most part, sometimes though squads are really big.
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I agree on the standard way battles should be conducted in settings with fireball, but from what I've seen of massed battle in Pathfinder and the editions of D&D I've played, it's usually done as if just medieval tech was available, no spells. By rights, Pathfinder cultures should have developed beyond armies, instead going for squad based skirmish warfare.
I mean...are you sure they haven't? The Ironfang Invasion is the closest to a 'War' AP we've had and involves a lot more skirmish style stuff with small units than it does big open-field battles.
Some of that you can chalk up to it being Nirmathas, but only some of it, and the battle on Triaxius in Reign of Winter does much the same. On a meta level this is obviously also because it's easier for PCs to interact with such things, but all the evidence we actually have of war in Golarion supports squad based skirmishing as very much the norm.
In fact, all the larger battles I can think of in any Golarion adventure are specifically attacks on fortified positions, which you can't leave behind you regardless of your tactical preferences.
So...what are you basing this assumption on, exactly?
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The fact that armies are being fielded. Squads are not really big, at biggest they MIGHT make 2 dozen.
We field armies now, despite mostly relying on squad tactics to do a lot of things. We fielded large armies in World War 2, despite artillery, bombers, and similar things being available.
Really, I'm not sure what train of logic you're following, here.
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It doesn't mention more soldiers coming in during part 3, and 5 miles is nearby enough that they could feasibly join up if alerted.
The cohort the PCs meet actually split up to head off a possible pincer maneuver. The rest of the Guard was most likely staying actually within Absalom to prepare for a siege.
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I'd like to know what logic y'all are following that says the 1100 who were part of this specific mission were the only forces within 5 miles of the staging point for a direct assault on the Whispering Tyrant.
I actually didn't assume that, though Rysky's point just above is a possibility as to why there wouldn't be.
What I noted that those were the only ones explicitly mentioned, and thinking about it, it seems unlikely given the nature of combat displayed in Golarion that they'd be too bunched up. It might be more than the 1100, but I'd be shocked if it's the whole army (since at least a large percentage is certainly in the city).
And losing part of an army is much better than losing a large percentage of a whole city, which was the initial point I was making.