Lord Zardoz
Explorer
There are so many things you can do its scary
If you just want to anihilate your players, thats easy. "As you round the bend, you see a large mass of Hobgoblins, about 12 000. Roll for initiative." (Note: If you have the balls to pull this on your players and stick it out to the end, I bow to you).
Now, if you want to dial it down to the realm of not quite insane, there are still things you can work with. Unless otherwise noted, consider these notes to apply to standard 1 HD Hobgoblins.
- Customize a few templates / roles. Dont just take whats in the MM. Your scouts should be using studded leather, carry bows, and have a sword and a buckler. Your front liners should have chain mail, and a heavy sheild. Feel free to give your front liners 14 Str, or to give your scouts an extra bit of Dex. Feel free to have a few of your hobgoblins use reach weapons to harrass from the back ranks.
- Re-enforce and retreat. Have at least 2 people in the patrol carry horns. If the fight goes badly, he sounds his horn, to summon re-enforcements, and they scatter. Have them regroup and come back with greater numbers.
- Use spotters. When I am using humanoids, I will have one or more of them hang back (say, long range for a short bow depending on terrain), hide, and just watch how the fight goes. If his side loses or sounds the horn, he stays put until the players leave, then goes and tells the rest what the players did. This gives you an in game reason to let the hobgoblins customize their tactics to the party. On the next fight, they will know who threw that fireball.
- Play the endurance card. Start a fight, let the players buff up, and then cut and run, only to return a half hour later. Make them expend limited use resources.
- Use squad initiative. Mostly a game logistics issue. If your going to throw 40 hobgoblins at the party, use groups of 5 that share initiative.
- Use effective archery. Have 2 squads of 5 archers share the same target. They fire once, and move away in opposite directions. Keep it going as long as you can, splitting the squad if need be, and using Run actions. Start with the lowest AC target and move up.
- Use effective melee. If they must enter melee, try to find a way to disarm the target first. If you do manage to surround a player, have 6 of the 8 nearest use Aid Another actions to improve the chance to hit. If applied to a single attacker, 6 aid actions is +12 to hit, and add another +2 for flanking. But against 12th level warriors, this is still a losing strategy.
- Barrier Pit: I like putting archers behind a large log with spikes that they use as cover. Players tend to try to charge into melee against archers. Thats why just in front of the cover is a pit trap. Player falls in, and the hobgoblins push the spiked log forward, which traps the player in the pit and inflicts yet more damage.
- Water Pit: In dungeon environments, I like having 10 foot deep pits filled with 9 feet of water and with a heavy grate that slams shut and at about 8.5 feet when the player falls past it. This means the players are over their heads in water and have no leverage to just lift the grate out. Drowning is fun. And since the lid is a grate, someone with a spear can stab at the poor bastard trying to lift the grate.
- Use your 'hero's effectively. Nothing wrong with haveing a few heros who can go toe to toe with the players. But your not sending them to HobgoblinLand to fight 12th level npc's. Your sending them there to get spanked by masses of 1 HD opponents. If you want to put your fodder into melee, lead off with your hero, but dont fight toe to toe. First, try to disarm the player, then dogpile. Or score with a trip followed by a tangle foot bag / net. Once the PC is vulnerable, then let the fodder get in and score hits.
- Choose your spell support wisely. For supporting fodder, you want battle field control. Direct damage calls for higher level casters to be effective. Buffs arent so good unless they can affect a large number at once. But battle field control scales nicely. Underground you want wall spells. A wall of Ice will buy you some time to isolate one PC from the party, or allow your caster a chance to retreat. Above ground, you can pretty much nullify PC ranged attacks with a fog spell. Also keep in mind that you can put 5th and 6th level spells on scrolls that a 1st level caster can use. Low level casters with decent scrolls or wands can give you a decent magic punch without having to explain away dozens of high level wizards.
- Use obstacles that force skill checks. Put your archers on the far side of a river with cover. Or on a cliff face that calls for a difficult climb check. Or across a bridge that requires a hard balance check. Do everything you can to make just getting into combat with your Hobgoblins difficult.
- Use terrain to your advantage. This means account in advance for cover and concealment bonuses for your archers. Try to get that +1 to hit for high ground every chance you get. Use arrow slits. And as with my pit trap suggestions, put traps between the hobgoblins and your players.
- Play them to win. You are probably not looking for an excuse to pull a TPK here. But if your PCs are anywhere near reasonably equiped, you could throw them up against 100 hobgoblins at a time and have the players win simply due to the fighters dropping 5 or 6 a round between cleave attacks and iterative attacks. You do not need to cut them much slack in this case. If you get to a point where you can drop a player, do it. If you do score the TPK, just continue from the afterlife and let them do some adventuring in the land of the dead to try to get back to life.
END COMMUNICATION
If you just want to anihilate your players, thats easy. "As you round the bend, you see a large mass of Hobgoblins, about 12 000. Roll for initiative." (Note: If you have the balls to pull this on your players and stick it out to the end, I bow to you).
Now, if you want to dial it down to the realm of not quite insane, there are still things you can work with. Unless otherwise noted, consider these notes to apply to standard 1 HD Hobgoblins.
- Customize a few templates / roles. Dont just take whats in the MM. Your scouts should be using studded leather, carry bows, and have a sword and a buckler. Your front liners should have chain mail, and a heavy sheild. Feel free to give your front liners 14 Str, or to give your scouts an extra bit of Dex. Feel free to have a few of your hobgoblins use reach weapons to harrass from the back ranks.
- Re-enforce and retreat. Have at least 2 people in the patrol carry horns. If the fight goes badly, he sounds his horn, to summon re-enforcements, and they scatter. Have them regroup and come back with greater numbers.
- Use spotters. When I am using humanoids, I will have one or more of them hang back (say, long range for a short bow depending on terrain), hide, and just watch how the fight goes. If his side loses or sounds the horn, he stays put until the players leave, then goes and tells the rest what the players did. This gives you an in game reason to let the hobgoblins customize their tactics to the party. On the next fight, they will know who threw that fireball.
- Play the endurance card. Start a fight, let the players buff up, and then cut and run, only to return a half hour later. Make them expend limited use resources.
- Use squad initiative. Mostly a game logistics issue. If your going to throw 40 hobgoblins at the party, use groups of 5 that share initiative.
- Use effective archery. Have 2 squads of 5 archers share the same target. They fire once, and move away in opposite directions. Keep it going as long as you can, splitting the squad if need be, and using Run actions. Start with the lowest AC target and move up.
- Use effective melee. If they must enter melee, try to find a way to disarm the target first. If you do manage to surround a player, have 6 of the 8 nearest use Aid Another actions to improve the chance to hit. If applied to a single attacker, 6 aid actions is +12 to hit, and add another +2 for flanking. But against 12th level warriors, this is still a losing strategy.
- Barrier Pit: I like putting archers behind a large log with spikes that they use as cover. Players tend to try to charge into melee against archers. Thats why just in front of the cover is a pit trap. Player falls in, and the hobgoblins push the spiked log forward, which traps the player in the pit and inflicts yet more damage.
- Water Pit: In dungeon environments, I like having 10 foot deep pits filled with 9 feet of water and with a heavy grate that slams shut and at about 8.5 feet when the player falls past it. This means the players are over their heads in water and have no leverage to just lift the grate out. Drowning is fun. And since the lid is a grate, someone with a spear can stab at the poor bastard trying to lift the grate.
- Use your 'hero's effectively. Nothing wrong with haveing a few heros who can go toe to toe with the players. But your not sending them to HobgoblinLand to fight 12th level npc's. Your sending them there to get spanked by masses of 1 HD opponents. If you want to put your fodder into melee, lead off with your hero, but dont fight toe to toe. First, try to disarm the player, then dogpile. Or score with a trip followed by a tangle foot bag / net. Once the PC is vulnerable, then let the fodder get in and score hits.
- Choose your spell support wisely. For supporting fodder, you want battle field control. Direct damage calls for higher level casters to be effective. Buffs arent so good unless they can affect a large number at once. But battle field control scales nicely. Underground you want wall spells. A wall of Ice will buy you some time to isolate one PC from the party, or allow your caster a chance to retreat. Above ground, you can pretty much nullify PC ranged attacks with a fog spell. Also keep in mind that you can put 5th and 6th level spells on scrolls that a 1st level caster can use. Low level casters with decent scrolls or wands can give you a decent magic punch without having to explain away dozens of high level wizards.
- Use obstacles that force skill checks. Put your archers on the far side of a river with cover. Or on a cliff face that calls for a difficult climb check. Or across a bridge that requires a hard balance check. Do everything you can to make just getting into combat with your Hobgoblins difficult.
- Use terrain to your advantage. This means account in advance for cover and concealment bonuses for your archers. Try to get that +1 to hit for high ground every chance you get. Use arrow slits. And as with my pit trap suggestions, put traps between the hobgoblins and your players.
- Play them to win. You are probably not looking for an excuse to pull a TPK here. But if your PCs are anywhere near reasonably equiped, you could throw them up against 100 hobgoblins at a time and have the players win simply due to the fighters dropping 5 or 6 a round between cleave attacks and iterative attacks. You do not need to cut them much slack in this case. If you get to a point where you can drop a player, do it. If you do score the TPK, just continue from the afterlife and let them do some adventuring in the land of the dead to try to get back to life.
END COMMUNICATION
