Did Troops Just Get More Complicated?

[Ravingdork]

It seems NPC Core has changed how Troops work. Seems like it covers more grey areas, which is good, but will be trickier to run, which is bad.

Overall, it seems more complicated to me.

What do you think?

[thenobledrake]

It seems to me like the changes can be summarized as:

Specific shaping and spacing instead of vaguely implying 16 spaces on the map could be occupied and effectively sharing stats.

Removal of the clause that damage from particular sources be treated differently.

Altered details for non-damaging effects so that there is not the extreme case of needing to affect every creature in the area and only a special clause for an effect that has a non-action/fleeing/non-participant kind of effect.

So I fail to see what "trickier" or "complicated" you're talking about. I see removing the rule that's easy to forget (the "yes, you crit and rolled awesome, but this creature type gets to ignore part of that" single-target damage clause), and covering a lot of the weirdness that Form Up used to imply was possible, which are both just improvements in ease of use. And alongside those is effects the players have being made more likely to be able to have some use since they no longer operate on an all-or-nothing basis, which makes facing a troop less onerous for the players.

Looks like improvements across the board to me.

[Perses13]

I had the opposite opinion that overall the troop changes made things easier to run. The new way they move together and are split into segments seems to take inspiration from wargaming, which seems appropriate.

It also doesn't stop troops being pushovers in combat, but that's not something the general troop rules would fix.

thenobledrake wrote:

I see removing the rule that's easy to forget (the "yes, you crit and rolled awesome, but this creature type gets to ignore part of that" single-target damage clause).

Its also easy to forget because it almost never comes up. Maybe if you have a level 1 fighter or barb with runic weapon fighting a troop, but by higher levels HP inflates enough that I have yet to see it come up at a table.

[thenobledrake]

Perses13 wrote:

thenobledrake wrote:

I see removing the rule that's easy to forget (the "yes, you crit and rolled awesome, but this creature type gets to ignore part of that" single-target damage clause).

Its also easy to forget because it almost never comes up. Maybe if you have a level 1 fighter or barb with runic weapon fighting a troop, but by higher levels HP inflates enough that I have yet to see it come up at a table.

That's also true.

The one time I've seen it come up in the past was a giant instinct barbarian landing a high-rolled crit on a shambler troop and the slashing weakness pushed the damage total over 60 which would have taken it from full HP to the 8 square threshold if not for the rule.

[Squark]

It came up once or twice in a PFS scenario recently, but it also features quite a few troops even before scaling came into play (I think we had 4, but one might have been added due to a disastrous infiltration).

[Old_Man_Robot]

Did the new rules make any reference to how Troops work for things like the Create Undead ritual, or is that still technically possible?

[Ravingdork]

Old_Man_Robot wrote:

Did the new rules make any reference to how Troops work for things like the Create Undead ritual, or is that still technically possible?

I didn't see anything, though as a GM I allow it. I like to interpret the rituals' "one creature" verbiage as being synonymous with "one statblock." It's more fun that way.

[Old_Man_Robot]

I've always allowed it as well. I was just curious if it has been refined at all.

Thanks for letting me know!