D&D 5E Two vs. thousands

[Lanliss]

In a world where resurrection is a thing, I wonder if the hostages will be angry on you for first killing them by a meteor and then resurrecting them. Like, would they be ok with that?

Death+resurrection sounds (marginally) better than Orc enslavement, IMO. I would probably petition for the Adventurers to be paid half their normal reward, on the grounds that they technically did not save the hostages.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

Mastermind rogue! Social skills and 24-7 access to all their tricks - without having to rely on magic, allowing them to be super sneaky and stabby!

 

[schnee]

How about... avoiding combat

Land Druid with Grassland circle - Invisibility, Pass Without Trace, Locate Creature, shapeshifting

Cleric 3-4, Wizard 9-10 - Silence, Teleport Circle

Feats: Lucky, War Caster / Resilient Con, Alert, Observant,

Skills: Stealth nice, but not necessary

--

Druid as a Giant Eagle concentrating on Invisibility, with the Wizard on it's back casting Locate Creature to find the hostages, then Scrying to see the area

Wizard/Cleric casts Silence, and they bomb in to hostage area

If they get in undetected and the hostages are unsupervised, then Wizard casts Teleportation Circle, then pushes the hostages through one by one

If there is any resistance, Druid holds off the outside world with Wall of Thorns while they Teleport Circle the hostages out

--

Other tactics as necessary:

Control Weather to create lots of fog or low visibility and miserable conditions

Programmed Illusion to create a diversion to give the casters some cover to cast spells with Vocal components

If there's a tree nearby, then Pass Without Trace and Transport via Plants works too

 

[Shiroiken]

Just FYI, this wouldn't work without a Simulacrum.

Spells with casting times of more than 1 Action (Teleportation Circle) require Concentration to cast during that time, which would drop the Wall of Force. Better off using Demiplane or Mords Mag Mansion then work from there.

I hadn't noticed that rule before. It still works with another Wizard or a Sorcerer, but not a Warlock, since they don't get Teleportation Circle.

Also, I thought about it more, and you'd have to use the hemi-sphere option, which reduces your Wall size down to a 10' radius. Otherwise the orcs could drop ranged attacks over the wall, potentially killing the hostages (or ruining the caster's concentration). Depending on the number of hostages and how they are held, this becomes trickier.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Peaceful solution? Might as well just cast suggestion and suggest you give them 5000gp for the hostages. You don't know what to do with all that money at level 18 anyway.

 

[Flamestrike]

[video=youtube;5zDM8XakVpU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zDM8XakVpU[/video]

I'll have Conan. 'All that matters is that two stood against many...'

Although this was pretty good evidence of Conans poor math skills.

There were actually three of them at that battle.

 

[Eltab]

Lore Bard and Arcane Trickster - to go the sneaky-er 007 route

Ancients Paladin and Fighter - to kick down the front door and barge in

 

[Jester David]

A halfling or wood elf sorcerer with a decent Dexterity and a rogue.
Twin spell invisibility and then sneak in past most of the thousand orcs. Swicth to greater invisibility for the last few and let the rogue go to town. Then use teleportation circle to GTFO.

 

[merwins]

Death+resurrection sounds (marginally) better than Orc enslavement, IMO. I would probably petition for the Adventurers to be paid half their normal reward, on the grounds that they technically did not save the hostages.

In my world, life is precious, and resurrection rare. And even if you could be resurrected, who wants the experience of death?

Also, the PCs are paying for this service, not the other way around. They may still need or want to help, but they felt they hadn't the skill or smarts to do this on their own. They're giving up a pretty big prize to ensure the safety of the prisoners/victims, who are mostly women and children, suffering -- well, the worst you can imagine, given the number of higher-level orcs and Oni hangers-on. The few captured men are simply slaves, for the most part.

I'm actually kind of pleased the PCs went the extra mile. They didn't have to.

 

[thethain]

Keep in mind you have Very powerful spells at that level. You could cast Antipathy (Orcs) on your robe.

Antipathy. The enchantment causes creatures of the kind you designated to feel an intense urge to leave the area and avoid the target. When such a creature can see the target or comes within 60 feet of it, the creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened. The creature remains frightened while it can see the target or is within 60 feet of it. While frightened by the target, the creature must use its movement to move to the nearest safe spot from which it can't see the target. If the creature moves more than 60 feet from the target and can't see it, the creature is no longer frightened, but the creature becomes frightened again if it regains sight of the target or moves within 60 feet of it.

Ending the Effect. If an affected creature ends its turn while not within 60 feet of the target or able to see it, the creature makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, the creature is no longer affected by the target and recognizes the feeling of repugnance or attraction as magical. In addition, a creature affected by the spell is allowed another Wisdom saving throw every 24 hours while the spell persists.

A creature that successfully saves against this effect is immune to it for 1 minute, after which time it can be affected again.

You could stroll up to the place while the 1/20 or so orcs that don't flee in terror are easily dispatched.


You could also alternately cast it as sympathy on a fighter who has polearm master and tunnel fighter from that silly UA. And watch him literally stab a hundred orcs a turn

You could have 2 druids infiltrate the base as a common spiders climbing on the ceilings then when at the targets, cast plane shift to teleport away in an instant with 2 dozen people.

If you had a wizard they could setup a nice little camp in another plane, gate the boss to them and go from there. Simply giving a mass suggestion to return all the hostages and return the boss to his camp to work out the details.

High level magic has no real counter from low level mooks. And with thousands orcs they likely wouldn't have any high level caster (It really isn't a large group when compared to say even a small town wouldn't have a chance of a high level wizard).