Yenrak
Explorer
Tomorrow my players are going to experience a big battle.
This is actually a version of the Goldenfields battle from Storm King's Thunder. But in my campaign it takes place in the dwarven city of Hundlestone. There are about 440 dwarven scouts, 60 guards, the PCs plus the NPCs from STK preparing to defend the city from 480 goblins, 90 ogres, 90 bug bears, and 48 hill giants.
I'm not enamored of any of the official attempts at making rules for mass combat. And my players may not do it at all. If they prefer, they can just play their characters taking a particular hill or defending a particular part of the wall. But I thought it would be fun to at least give them the opportunity to fight the battle too.
My homebrew battle system is pretty easy. There is no initiative. The goblins, bugbears and even ogres get divided up into units of 10, so do the dwarven scouts and guards. Each unit has all the hit points of hits members and their AC. A successful to hit roll does the average damage of the unit times the number of members of the unit. When a unit loses 10% of its original hit points, it loses a member.
So a unit of 10 goblins (70 hp, AC 7) attacks a unit of 10 dwarven scouts (160 hp, AC 16). Goblins get +4 to hit and do 50 hit points on the first attack (effectively killing 3 dwarves). The dwarf scouts get +4 and do 50 hit points on the first attack (killing 7 goblins). Assuming both hit, the next round the goblins would do just 15 points and the dwarves would do 35 points.
That's not pretty for the goblins. So imagine the bugbears instead. A unit of 10 bugbears (270 hp, AC 16) goes up against those dwarf scouts. Bugbears get +4 to hit and do 110 point of damage (killing 8 on their first successful hit). The dwarf scout gets +4 and does 50 points (killing 3). Dwarves are gonna get pummeled. Fortunately, they have 3/4 cover behind their wall.
It's pretty simple. I wanted to not have to create new stats so I just used existing AC, hp, etc. I guess we'll see how it works tomorrow.
This is actually a version of the Goldenfields battle from Storm King's Thunder. But in my campaign it takes place in the dwarven city of Hundlestone. There are about 440 dwarven scouts, 60 guards, the PCs plus the NPCs from STK preparing to defend the city from 480 goblins, 90 ogres, 90 bug bears, and 48 hill giants.
I'm not enamored of any of the official attempts at making rules for mass combat. And my players may not do it at all. If they prefer, they can just play their characters taking a particular hill or defending a particular part of the wall. But I thought it would be fun to at least give them the opportunity to fight the battle too.
My homebrew battle system is pretty easy. There is no initiative. The goblins, bugbears and even ogres get divided up into units of 10, so do the dwarven scouts and guards. Each unit has all the hit points of hits members and their AC. A successful to hit roll does the average damage of the unit times the number of members of the unit. When a unit loses 10% of its original hit points, it loses a member.
So a unit of 10 goblins (70 hp, AC 7) attacks a unit of 10 dwarven scouts (160 hp, AC 16). Goblins get +4 to hit and do 50 hit points on the first attack (effectively killing 3 dwarves). The dwarf scouts get +4 and do 50 hit points on the first attack (killing 7 goblins). Assuming both hit, the next round the goblins would do just 15 points and the dwarves would do 35 points.
That's not pretty for the goblins. So imagine the bugbears instead. A unit of 10 bugbears (270 hp, AC 16) goes up against those dwarf scouts. Bugbears get +4 to hit and do 110 point of damage (killing 8 on their first successful hit). The dwarf scout gets +4 and does 50 points (killing 3). Dwarves are gonna get pummeled. Fortunately, they have 3/4 cover behind their wall.
It's pretty simple. I wanted to not have to create new stats so I just used existing AC, hp, etc. I guess we'll see how it works tomorrow.
