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Hello,
In anticipation of the GM guide I decided to try my hand in converting the troop rules to PF2, with the main goal of converting Ironfang Invasion, but I believe troops have been used in several other adventures as well.
I should thank tqomins for his stellar work in compiling a spreadsheet with the bestiary stats.
I decided to do something in between an ooze and a swarm as far as the troop abilities go, meaning that troops are big HP sponges in my version. So, here goes the attempt:
There are 3 types of troops: a Squad (5-10 creatures), a Platoon (10-20 creatures) or a Horde (20-40 creatures). Troops are typically composed of individual Small to Large creatures with similar combat abilities and a capacity for organized teamwork (either on their own or when controlled by an outside force).
Troop template:
Size: If the base creature is small or medium: Large (Squad), Huge (Platoon), or Gargantuan (Horde). A Squad of Large creatures has a Gargantuan size, larger troops are not supported. The area of the troop is shapeable but must remain contiguous with a minimum dimension equal to one base creature.
AC: As the base creature, adjusted for the new Dex score.
Speed: As the base creature.
Level: base creature +5 (Squad), +6 (Platoon) or + 7 (Horde).
HP: base creature * ((troop level +2) / (base level +2) +1)
Ability modifiers: Str, Con +1 per added size category; Dex, Int, Wis, Cha -1 per added size category.
Skills/Saves/DC: as base creature adjusted for level and ability modifiers.
Attack: Melee attacks target everyone within reach. Ranged attacks target an area equal to the troop area within range. Affected creatures must make a basic Reflex save vs damage.
Damage: As the base creature, adjusted for ability modifiers. Precision damage does not apply but may be factored into the special abilities.
Resistances: As the base creature plus Troop Discipline (Squad).
Troop Discipline: when a Squad is hit with any spell or effect that targets a specific number of creatures, it treats the result as one category better. A Platoon or a Horde is immune to such effects.
Immunities: Critical hits, Precision damage, Troop Discipline (Platoon or Horde).
Weaknesses: As base creature plus Splash damage, Area damage equal to Level/2 (Squad), Level (Platoon) or Level *1.5 (Horde). This does not stack with existing base creature weaknesses.
Special Abilities: Surround (1 action): Trigger the troop is adjacent to a creature. Effect The troop Strides up to its speed and can move through the spaces of any creatures in its path. Whenever the troop attempts a melee attack on the creature whose space is completely occupied by the troop, the creature must roll its save twice and take the worst result.
Modify the base creature special abilities to account for area-based attacks.
Example troops:
Zombie Shambler Horde Creature 6
NE Gargantuan Mindless Undead Zombie Troop
Perception +3; darkvision
Skills Athletics +15
Str +6, Dex -5, Con +5, Int -5, Wis -3, Cha -5
Slow A Zombie horde is permanently slowed 1 and can't use reactions.
AC 9; Fort +16; Ref +4; Will +6
HP 180; negative healing; Immunities critical hits; death effects; disease; mental; paralyzed; poison; precision damage; troop discipline; unconscious; Weaknesses area damage 9; positive 5; slashing 5; splash damage 9
Speed 25 feet
Melee (1 action) wall of fists DC 22, Damage 1d6+6 bludgeoning plus Grab
sea of jaws (1 action, attack); Requirement: The zombie horde has a creature grabbed, restrained or surrounded. Effect The zombie horde tears into the grabbed, restrained or surrounded creatures with their jaws, inflicting 1d8+6 piercing damage (DC 22 basic Reflex save).
Surround (1 action)
Hobgoblin Archer Platoon Creature 10
LE Huge Goblin Humanoid Troop
Perception +14; darkvision
Languages Common, Goblin
Skills Acrobatics +12; Athletics +16; Stealth +14
Str +4, Dex +2, Con +4, Int -2, Wis +0, Cha -3
AC 22; Fort +19; Ref +17 (+18 vs area effects); Will +13
HP 150;
Formation The effects are considered permanent and factored into the troop stat block.
Immunities critical hits; precision damage; troop discipline; Weaknesses area damage 10; splash damage 10
Speed 25 feet
Melee (1 action) wall of blades (versatile S) DC 24, Damage1d6+6 piercing
Ranged (1 action) Crossbow volley (range increment 120 feet, reload 1, DC 24) Damage 1d8+4 piercing
Crossbow precision the DC of the hobgoblin archer troop's ranged attack gets a bonus equal to its size category adjustment.
Perfect aim The hobgoblin archer troop's ranged attack ignores lesser or standard cover. The hobgoblin archer troop can target any area that is not fully covered from the direction of the attack by an impenetrable barrier as long as it has line of sight to at least one corner of that area.
Running Reload (1 action) The archer troop Strikes, Steps or Sneaks then Interacts to reload their crossbows.
Surround (1 action)
Fire Giant Squad Creature 15
LE Gargantuan Fire Giant Humanoid Troop
Perception +21; low-light vision
Languages Common, Jotun
Skills Athletics +32; Crafting +25, Intimidation +26
Str +9, Dex -2, Con +7, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha -2
AC 29; Fort +30; Ref +19; Will +21
HP 300; Resistances troop discipline;
Immunities critical hits; fire; precision damage; Weaknesses area damage 7; cold 10; splash damage 7;
Speed 25 feet
Melee (1 action) wall of blades (magical, reach 10 feet, versatile P) DC 34, Damage 2d12+15 slashing
Ranged (1 action) Volcanic volley (brutal, range increment 120 feet) DC 24,Damage 2d8+15 bludgeoning + 1d6 fire
Erupt (2 actions, evocation, fire, primal) DC 32. The fire giant troop imbues its weapons with fire, increasing the melee reach to 15 feet and dealing additional 1d6 points of fire damage to all affected creatures.
Throw Rock (1 action, fire) The fire giant troop's ranged attacks deal additional 1d6 fire damage.
Surround (1 action)
Pretty good stuff! The Surround action seems kind of OP for PF2 math. The damage on their basic attacks also seems rather low... I guess those two could cancel each other out but I don't see why you couldn't just cut out the middleman at that point, ditching the Surround action and raising the damage makes for a simpler stat block. Swarms also surround people and don't need a specific action to do it.
I've been running a converted Ironfang since book 3 (well, in the playtest, we are only using PF2 now for book 4) and have fairly similar looking stat blocks for my troops. I did treat the ranged troop attacks as two action activities though and alluded to had them deal higher damage.
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So maybe I am not understanding the math for the hit points but they seem way high if I calculate them out
HP: base creature * ((troop level +2) / (base level +2) +1)
Zombie Shambler
base creature 20
Troop level 4 (-1+5)
base level -1
the calc looks like this I think?
20 *((4+2)/(-1+2)+1)
20 *(6/1+1)
20 *(6+1)
20 * 7
140
So should the Zombie Shambler have 140 not 180?
I do this for the Hob goblin Soldier
base creature 20
Troop level 6 (1+5)
base level 1
the calc looks like this I think?
20 *((6+2)/(1+2)+1)
20 *(8/3+1)
20 *(2.6+1)
20 * 3.6
73.....this does not seem right? What am I missing?
I decided to create troops of 3 different sizes with different level adjustment. So my example Zombie Horde is level 6 not level 4, which is why it has more HP. A level 4 Zombie Squad would indeed have 140 HP (and lower stats across the board). The benchmark for the level 6 Zombie Horde is that it should be a similar threat to the Zombie Hulk, longer to destroy but lower damage.
My example level 10 hobgoblin platoon troop is based on archers which are level 4 and have 50HP each, not soldiers. A level 6 squad of hobgoblin soldiers would indeed have 73HP. Interestingly enough it's less than the level 6 hobgoblin general, so this needs to be looked at closely.
@Captain Morgan - I decided to go for a separate surround action because I wanted to reflect that the troop has to break formation to do it, and to make it pay some cost to get the surround advantage. Especially seeing as they don't suffer MAP for multiple attacks.
I like your 2-action ranged attack idea, it makes sense to give it an AOE blast - like feel. Perhaps the surround could be converted into a 2-action "melee blast" too.
I don't currently like two things: that all troop attacks are against Reflex only, and that in some cases (like the Fire Giant) it's not clear if the base monster's attacks are supposed to be linked to their ability scores or not. To wit, the fire giant's melee and ranged attack modifiers are the same, despite a -7 difference in the ability modifiers. So maybe it would be better to base the DC on the base monster's attack roll + adjustment for level difference, rather than on the ability scores.
Okay so the problem is that the median and average HP per level in Bestiary 1 is not a linear function. It grows slowly between -1 and 2, from 3 to 15 it is almost linear but slightly speeds up, and after 15 it slows down and even reverses (and generally behaves weirdly because of the small sample size). The effect of that is that if we use linear extrapolation, then troops based on low-level monsters will have too few hitpoints, and ones based on high-level monsters will have too many hitpoints.
Maybe the easiest way would be to introduce a special case: for base levels of -1 to 2, add base monster's HP to the formula result one more time. This would move the Zombie Squad to 160HP, Zombie Horde to 200 HP, Hobgoblin Soldier Squad to 93HP. I don't think that the high-level troops need adjustment just yet because I don't think there will be many troops where individual creatures are levels 11+ and there is not enough data to set a clear benchmark for high levels. But probably subtracting 1/2 of the base monster's HP won't throw the results too much off in those cases.
