The Army

[Burn_Boy]

As I may have let on in previous threads/posts I'm interested in doing mass combat and such in my campaigns. Now everyone knows that PCs should not be up on the wall fighting like common foot soldiers, they should be sneaking out of the city and setting fire to siege weapons and attacking the enemy commanders, doing all those bad-ass things PCs do.

However, sometimes you need your players to be in the thick of it, commanding the common foot soldiers, and sometimes having to know how they'll do in a fight. And, as humans don't have an entry in the Bestiary, for some reason, we don't have example stats for any of them. I however tore the Rulebook apart going through things and I think I found a decent enough stat block for them. Please tell me what you think.

Human Foot Soldier
Warrior CR 1
STR - 12
DEX - 10
CON - 12
INT - 10
WIS - 10
CHA - 10

Base Attack Bonus +1
Fortitude +3
Reflex +0
Will +0
CMB +2
CMD - 16

HP 11
AC 15
Touch 10
FlatFooted 15

Intimidate +4
Ride +4

Attacks:
Longsword; +2; 19-20 x2; 1d8+1
Longbow; +1; x3; 1d8

Equipment: Longsword, Longbow (20 arrows), Chain shirt, Light Steel Shield

I give them a 12 in Strength and Constitution because I figure that basic training would toughen up those areas, it might to Dexterity too. I've never been in the military so I can't exactly know. As for the skills, I put ranks in Intimidate and Ride because I'd figure battle cries and such would work for Intimidate and Ride because... well these could be cavalry troops. All you'd have to do for that is tweak their equipment to give them lances or spears.

I didn't put a free +2 anywhere for being human or any feats since their NPCs and I'm not sure if they still lend themselves to them, like I said, no entry in the Bestiary. Your thoughts?

 

[kinem]

d20pfsrd.com is a good resource.

NPCs - Pathfinder_OGC
Foot Soldier (Human Warrior 1) - Pathfinder_OGC

 

[Donal Graeme]

I have done a couple of different "mass-combat" experiences for my players, in several different campaigns, the latest being Kingmaker. I'll offer some of my thoughts and ideas gleaned from experience, but first let me help you out with your "soldiers."

The standard, non-elite array is 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8. For a human NPC , that would be the array that they would use, along with a +2 to a any stat. For a NPC Level 1 human Warrior, I would do something like the following:


Warrior CR 1/3
STR - 15
DEX - 11
CON - 12
INT - 10
WIS - 9
CHA - 8

Base Attack Bonus +1
Fortitude +3
Reflex +0
Will -1
CMB +3
CMD - 17

HP 11
AC 15
Touch 10
FlatFooted 15

Intimidate +3
Ride +4

Attacks:
Longsword; +3; 19-20 x2; 1d8+2
Longbow; +1; x3; 1d8


Ok, now for mass combat.

Don't be afraid to have your PCs on the walls, as long as you don't bore them with fights there. Having the PCs guard an especially vulnerable or important part of the wall can be meaningful, and can provide a change of pace for them. After all, it is usually they who are on the attack, not the NPCs. Just don't do more than one of the same kind of Wall Fight, mix it up.

You could start with a standard "hold off the hordes of enemies" wall defense, and then later have the PCs get called to defend a breach somewhere else in the walls. Then you can have them get pulled back to deal with enemy infiltrators inside the walls. This is especially easy to do against enemies with access to flight or illusion magic. Then you can have several options: have the PCs sneak out of the town/fortress/castle to kill enemy leaders, or have them cripple enemy supply lines or destroy morale, or have them face off against the leader of the enemy army, either by challenging him/her in their own camp, or in a last ditch defense of the town, perhaps near the keep or gates or somewhere especially important.

 

[Burn_Boy]

*is very embarrassed for this rather simple oversight*

Why is it that I keep finding hard rules for stuff I want to make up and want rules for the stuff I should be making up?