How Would You Defend A Mountain Fortress?

[mmadsen]

Why'd you think it was too powerful? I whipped one up in pcgen and here is what I got:

M Bulette Beast9 CR 9; Size:H...

For comparison, a war Elephant is CR 8, with 11d8+55 hp, and some nasty attacks: Slam (+16, 2d6+10), and two Stamps (+11, 2d6+5). And the Elephant can advance up to 22 Hit Dice. Niiiiccceee Elephant...

 

[CRG]

Dire Tiger and Dire Bear are also nice.

CR 8 Dire Tiger
16d8 + 48 hit dice, reach, a bit better to-hit than the elephant but for less damage each (unless it pounces or lands its improved grab).

I do think that some way to bolster the mountain fortresses forces with a mess of non-evil, non-undead is proabaly the only way to get past the cleric/paladin Vallorean masses...animals, vermin, neutral beings, etc. Anything summoned will likely meet with stiff protection circles (preventing them from touching the target). The sheer biomass of the attackers is going to be difficult enough to deal with.

So, strike teams.

Hmm...

 

[Leopold]

For comparison, a war Elephant is CR 8, with 11d8+55 hp, and some nasty attacks: Slam (+16, 2d6+10), and two Stamps (+11, 2d6+5). And the Elephant can advance up to 22 Hit Dice. Niiiiccceee Elephant...

yeah but can your elephant fly and breathe cones of acid or fire? Is it immune to paralyzing attacks and basic elements that spell casters will throw at them.

 

[CRG]

Can you really make a spider a half-fiend though? I thought there was some sort of intelligence or other requirement involved. I mean, I know they are fiends but do they really mate with spiders?

The biggest drawback is the 'fiend' label. All those goody-goody paladins and clerics will be able to smite, holy word, dispel evil, etc. on them, making them bait for the rapid response teams. Animals and the like may be harder for them to handle (and frankly, they are probably expecting alot of outsiders and undead).

 

[mmadsen]

The biggest drawback is the 'fiend' label. All those goody-goody paladins and clerics will be able to smite, holy word, dispel evil, etc. on them, making them bait for the rapid response teams. Animals and the like may be harder for them to handle (and frankly, they are probably expecting alot of outsiders and undead).

I've been thinking the same thing. Against a force of Lawful Good Clerics and Paladins, do you want to be Chaotic Evil? They're surely armed to the teeth with Holy weapons, and their strongpoints are surely protected against Evil with numerous spells. After all, we're trying to keep them out of our Mountain Citadel with Forbiddance. That may work on some of their Champions, but that questionable Rogue guy might slip right through our Anti-Law, Anti-Good defenses.

 

[CRG]

Constructs, animals, vermin and mercenaries. Beasts. Aberrations. Magical beasts.

Not-outsiders.
Not-targetted by alignment.
Not-undead.

 

[mmadsen]

Constructs, animals, vermin and mercenaries. Beasts. Aberrations. Magical beasts.

Our Vampires and Werewolves can send in wolves, bats, rats, etc. By themselves, they're dogmeat. How can we best use them?

 

[Vurt]

Hmmm... Someone's comment about taking care of the sheer biomass of good-guy troops got me thinking, never a good thing.

If I was a great evil wanting to defend this mountain stronghold, early in its construction phase I would have figured out some way to dam off one of the river's tributaries to build up enough water to flood the valley and drown them all like the pathetic vermin that they are, at the flick of my practically dripping with evil fingers.

Forget boiling oil. Think: tsunami...

Let's see 350k troops deal with that!

 

[Sodalis]

Lemme take the opposite side- how to invade and break a fortress.

The easiest way is to cut off its supply route. If both are evenly matched, then the offensive army will have the upper hand. They have unlimited supply whereas the fort has to ration

 

[mmadsen]

Lemme take the opposite side- how to invade and break a fortress.

Good idea, Sodalis.

The easiest way is to cut off its supply route. If both are evenly matched, then the offensive army will have the upper hand. They have unlimited supply whereas the fort has to ration

Presumably our Mountain Citadel is well provisioned. Further, we can probably teleport in enough supplies for our elite cadre of troops if we have to.

Further, our job here is to slow down the Vallorean advance so our great Vampire King Mallenar can "gather new, powerful armies to sweep the Valloreans in a storm of blood and fire!" If we force the Valloreans to wait us out in a costly siege, we can wait for reinforcements.