Cannon Fodder Casters

[Lord Zardoz]

When throwing together an encounter with classed NPC's, the typical approach is to have a handfull of low level cannon fodder types to back up the primary threat. Most of the time, cannon fodder is easy, just open up the monsterous manual to the page marked Kobolds, Goblins, Orcs, Hobgoblins, Bugbrears, Gnolls. Or you can just throw together a few low level Warrior types. By tweaking equipment, you can give them some staying power to keep them a nuisance, or with the right situational buffs, you can give them a chance at hitting once in a while.

However, having spell casters as the cannon fodder is not quite so simple. There is more to keep track of, for one. With Warrior types, you only need to track Hit points. With casters, there are spells to track, and to select for that matter.

Also, as fodder, Wizard / Sorcerer spell casters are troublesome since they have really crappy HP and AC. At least if your using Bugbears you can be pretty sure of eating more than one hit reasonably often.

So, what character levels and spells do you suggest for spell casting cannon fodder? Magic Missile is obvious, it always hits. For cleric type fodder, healing spells are nice since you can keep your primary caster in the fight longer. What else works?

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[drothgery]

So, what character levels and spells do you suggest for spell casting cannon fodder? Magic Missile is obvious, it always hits. For cleric type fodder, healing spells are nice since you can keep your primary caster in the fight longer. What else works?

Warlocks (Complete Arcane), drafonfire adepts (Dragon Magic), characters with reserve feats (Complete Mage / Complete Champion), and characters with wands?

If you want to use slot-based casters as unimportant enemies, then beguilers (PHB2), warmages (Complete Arcane/Mini's Handbook), and dread necromancers (Heroes of Horror) are your friends; no fussing with spell lists, and lots of slots. And d6 hit points, and some ability to cast in armor.

 

[kaomera]

Also, as fodder, Wizard / Sorcerer spell casters are troublesome since they have really crappy HP and AC. At least if your using Bugbears you can be pretty sure of eating more than one hit reasonably often.

So, what character levels and spells do you suggest for spell casting cannon fodder? Magic Missile is obvious, it always hits. For cleric type fodder, healing spells are nice since you can keep your primary caster in the fight longer. What else works?

I don't want to come off as being a jerk here, but IMHO Magic Missile is a sucker bet, and cures aren't much better. First of all, goon casters should each only have one (or possibly two) "in-combat" spells. They aren't going to last that long anyway, and it keeps your record-keeping down. Otherwise they should have spells that can be cats immediately pre-combat. Note that this also rewards the PCs if they can sneak up on the bad guys unannounced. (You may need to make two differing copies of their stats if these spells are buffs, but that's really easy enough, IMHO.) Also, any combat spells they cast are probably better off as "support" spells, such as Flare, Touch of Fatigue, Grease, Color Spray, or Ray of Enfeeblement. Also don't discount the fun that can be had when 4 or 5 casters use Disguise Self to appear as the main villain, especially if backed up with Mirror Image!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I second the themed casters. (Warmages, Beguilers, Dread Necromancers). No need to pick spells from a list, they just use them all. That's quite useful if you want to prepare quickly. Is the alternate expanded knowledge rule where warmages can get any sor/wiz spell (but treat it as one level higher) to get some defensive spell (like mirror image) in, and let the other classes do the same.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I don't want to come off as being a jerk here, but IMHO Magic Missile is a sucker bet

Why? It can actually be quite devastating. Imagine you had 32 level 1 Archer mooks who all fire at the level 10 PC. That's probably 1 or 2 hits for 1d8 damage each (they can't afford Composite Mighty), so like 9 at most unless they get particularly lucky. If they are all Warmages with Magic Missile and maybe 14 Int, that's 32d4+96, so 176 Damage.

 

[Rawhide]

i do fine with sorcerers, often sorcerer/fighters. yeah they can;t do a whole lot, but they can do things pcs dont expect. a level or two of fighter makes them more survivable and keeps the higher level save-or-die spells off their list which is a good thing since they annoy pcs to be killed by lawn trash.

i generally just pick a few useful combat spells and a trick or two (invisibility, mirror image) and then let them run rampant.

 

[Particle_Man]

I second Warlocks. They are a DM's best friend.

 

[kaomera]

Why? It can actually be quite devastating. Imagine you had 32 level 1 Archer mooks who all fire at the level 10 PC. That's probably 1 or 2 hits for 1d8 damage each (they can't afford Composite Mighty), so like 9 at most unless they get particularly lucky. If they are all Warmages with Magic Missile and maybe 14 Int, that's 32d4+96, so 176 Damage.

First of all, from a DMing perspective, I think Magic Missile is a poor choice for exactly the reason you had pointed out. That's quite a lot of damage you just handed out, quite likely with no chance whatsoever for the players to avoid it. Admittedly, because of the limitations of low-level spells it's probably nearly the only effective thing those Warmages could actually do, but if there's an option that changes the battlefield situation (instead of "just" dealing damage) I'd prefer that. To me that's a lot more interesting. YMMV.

Looking through just the PHB I can only see Grease (possibly, with the correct setup, er nevermind: flying...), and Ray of Enfeeb. (depending on he target's touch AC) being of any use against 10th level characters... Actually RoE could even be worse then MM if you can expect to reliably hit... 16d6 Str damage? Wow... How fast can you get out of your armor?

I'll admit that I have a problem with the "blaster Sorcerer" archetype (including the Warmage and similar classes) in that I think there's almost always a better spell to learn than Magic Missile or Fireball. Not that those spells don't have their place, but a caster who forgoes Wizard Eye to get all of the Orb spells just makes me sad.

 

[Rystil Arden]

First of all, from a DMing perspective, I think Magic Missile is a poor choice for exactly the reason you had pointed out. That's quite a lot of damage you just handed out, quite likely with no chance whatsoever for the players to avoid it. Admittedly, because of the limitations of low-level spells it's probably nearly the only effective thing those Warmages could actually do, but if there's an option that changes the battlefield situation (instead of "just" dealing damage) I'd prefer that. To me that's a lot more interesting. YMMV.

Looking through just the PHB I can only see Grease (possibly, with the correct setup, er nevermind: flying...), and Ray of Enfeeb. (depending on he target's touch AC) being of any use against 10th level characters... Actually RoE could even be worse then MM if you can expect to reliably hit... 16d6 Str damage? Wow... How fast can you get out of your armor?

I'll admit that I have a problem with the "blaster Sorcerer" archetype (including the Warmage and similar classes) in that I think there's almost always a better spell to learn than Magic Missile or Fireball. Not that those spells don't have their place, but a caster who forgoes Wizard Eye to get all of the Orb spells just makes me sad.

Ray of Enfeeblement does not stack with itself. It's an enhancement penalty. As for learning an attack spell over Arcane Eye, well, enemies and PCs have different priorities. Assuming general mook conditions, the enemy mook isn't going to be around long enough to get use out of sending out eyes on a long scouting mission, while the PC will. The enemy could indeed get good use out of Magic Missile, though.

Admittedly, it's very strong to have mooks use Magic Missile. But I guess I may not understand what you meant by sucker bet. To me, it's a gamble where your expected return is significantly lower than your wager. I can't see that in the least here. Lame because without the Shield spell it may be an automatic KO? I can see that. But not a sucker bet.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

I am basically restricting my choices to PHB / Monsterous Manual for class. I do not have access to many alternate classes. And the Beguiler, while it does have the convenience of a hard set spell list, does not make for an ideal mook.

Spell list is a bit more open though. I do have the Complete Divine and the Book of Vile Darkness handy. Still, I do not expect to throw mooks with BoVD spells at my players any time soon.

What I am mostly interested in is what elements make for an effective caster mook. Buffing the master is just not very interesting, (and sounds like a creepy euphamism). In addition, I try to keep the mook count to less than 10. More than that becomes logistically irritating to manage. If the spells are all geared for pre combat, I do not need 10 casters doing it.

Finally, my players at present are 6th level. I am a long way from needing to go for the cheese factor of a swarm of low level Magic Missile casters. But I am interested in mixing things up a bit. So what I would like to know:

1) Are touch spells generally worth it?
2) What spells work well for mooks that PC's might not consider for themselves?
3) What spells grant the best bang for the buck?
4) What spells are best spot counters to things the players might use?
5) What spells are potentially overwhelmingly effective?

I simply do not use casters very often. With melee types, fodder and otherwise, I am very tactically effective. But spell casters I do not use too much, so I am not as up to date on all the best tricks. Having read the boards though, I have picked up on some of the more obvious tricks (such as the flying, improved invisibility blaster mage). But there are simply some things I am not used to.

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