Dwarf vs Zombies: A Series of Contrived Fights (Now with orcs!)

[FireLance]

Okay, so I statted up a Hill Dwarf Survivor Specialty Soldier Background Slayer Fighter with the standard ability score array, using the default equipment except for swapping a greataxe for the Slayer Fighter's greatsword.

His key stats look something like this:
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 10.
AC 16, HP 18, Hit Dice 1d12 + 1d8 (for now, I am erring on the conservative side and assuming that Dwarven Toughness does not increase the Hit Dice from Toughness)
Greataxe: +6 vs. AC, Damage 3d6+3 (including 1d6 Expertise Dice)

I ran a series of four straight-up fights against a single zombie each time. At the end of the four fights, he would have earned enough XP to gain a level. The zombies are 200 XP each, so four zombies would give 800 XP, more than the 675 XP needed to reach 2nd level. An average fight for a 1st-level character is supposed to be worth about 165 XP, so this should be interesting, right?

The zombies didn't stand a chance. Between rolling a d6 for initiative on top of a -2 to initiative checks against the dwarf's d20+2, the zombies lost initiative every time. With an AC of 8, the dwarf would only miss on a 1. With 9 hit points, the dwarf had a 96.76% chance to drop a zombie with a single hit.

A very short while later, the dwarf had earned 800 XP, made it to 2nd level, and decided to call it a day without losing a single hit point. Zombie [URL=http://www.enworld.org/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3]#3 [/URL] actually managed to make one attack roll against the dwarf because the dwarf rolled 4 on 3d6 and failed to kill it with one blow, but his attack roll of 6 (d20 roll of 4 plus attack bonus of +2) failed to get past the dwarf's AC of 16.

It's late in my part of the world, so maybe I'll try this again tomorrow with two zombies at a time vs. a level 2 dwarf (the "average" encounter for a level 2 character has a 295 XP budget). The dwarf needs 1,825 XP to hit level 3, so it will be a series of three fights against two zombies each.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Interesting. In general D&D tends to break down when played with one character, however I imagine that 4 PCs fighting 4 zombies will have similar results.

 

[the Jester]

I'd love to hear the results of any future playtesting you do.

I might roll up a party and run them through an old skool adventure using the bestiary to fill in the monsters as best I can.

 

[slobo777]

On those results I'd be thinking there's some basic numbers wrong on the dwarf or zombie. I'd expect the dwarf to need some recovery/rest on his way to 2nd level - i.e. there should be a good chance of him burning through his hit points if he tried to advance a level without rest/healing.

The most obvious thing to alter would be the xp cost of a zombie. On your results I'd suggest closer to 75xp per zombie would be more accurate representation of threat level.

Although a mixed party might not destroy an equal number of zombies, and some party members might need to use daily resources in order to destroy them quickly.

 

[Yora]

The guidelines for encounter building confuse me. I think I have an idea what they are trying to do, but it doesn't seem to work well.

Again, assuming I have my party of 4 PCs and want them to fight against zombies. What's the appropriate number I should use?

Lvl   Dif    #
1st   Tough  6
2nd   Avg.   6
3rd   Easy   5
4th   Easy   7
5th   Easy   16
6th   Easy   20

I understand that 1st level characters are in greater danger from the zombies hits, and it's a bit more difficult to hit it. But with the flat math, that difference is not very great. But why should I have them fight 6 of the zombies? Why not 3 and makes things easier on them.
This needs to be thought out better.

 

[Pickles JG]

On those results I'd be thinking there's some basic numbers wrong on the dwarf or zombie. I'd expect the dwarf to need some recovery/rest on his way to 2nd level - i.e. there should be a good chance of him burning through his hit points if he tried to advance a level without rest/healing.

The most obvious thing to alter would be the xp cost of a zombie. On your results I'd suggest closer to 75xp per zombie would be more accurate representation of threat level.

Although a mixed party might not destroy an equal number of zombies, and some party members might need to use daily resources in order to destroy them quickly.

The XP costs are all over the place based on my eyeballing. The most obviously wrong are the two kobold "elites". The dragonshield has worse stats than the bomber one but is twice the XP & that is not made up for by having a defender ability vs the AOE attacks of the "bomber".

 

[FireLance]

On those results I'd be thinking there's some basic numbers wrong on the dwarf or zombie. I'd expect the dwarf to need some recovery/rest on his way to 2nd level - i.e. there should be a good chance of him burning through his hit points if he tried to advance a level without rest/healing.

I think that the monsters generally need to have higher attack bonuses. Unlike the PCs, right now it seems that most monsters do not get any additional bonus to attack rolls apart from their ability score bonuses. The zombie's AC of 8 is probably also too low, as it is trivially easy to hit for even a 1st-level character.

 

[renau1g]

Well, I have no problem with Zombie's being easy to hit, but I would think something like damage reduction would work better for them.

 

[FireLance]

At 2nd level, the dwarf's key stats are as follows:
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 10.
AC 16, HP 27, Hit Dice 2d12 + 1d8
Greataxe: +6 vs. AC, Damage 3d6+3 (including 1d6 Expertise Dice)

The dwarf was eventually triumphant in the next three fights against two zombies each, although the zombies got quite lucky and managed to bring him down to 13 hp first.

In the first fight, the dwarf won initiative and killed one zombie with his first attack. The second zombie missed its attack and was killed by the dwarf's second attack.

The second fight went pretty much like the first, except that the second zombie hit and did 3 points of damage to the dwarf before it was killed.

In the third fight, the dwarf rolled a natural 1 on his attack roll, and so both the zombies managed to counter-attack. One of them hit him for 5 points of damage. The dwarf then killed the zombies over the next two rounds, but the second zombie managed to hit him again for another 6 points of damage.

As mentioned, the zombies were actually quite lucky as:

1. They managed to hit three times out of five attacks even though they needed a roll of 14+ on a d20 each time.

2. The dwarf actually rolled a natural 1 on his first attack in the third fight, or the zombies would only have been able to attack a total of three times.

If the dwarf hadn't rolled any natural 1s, and if the zombies' hit success rate had been closer to the expected value, the zombies would have only hit once out of three attacks, and the dwarf would only have lost around 5 hit points. Given that the dwarf had actually gone through three slightly tougher than "average" fights and earned enough XP to gain a level, it seems that "average" difficulty might not actually be very difficult.

So, after killing another six zombies and losing about half his hit points (14) in the process, the dwarf returns to civilization, takes a long rest, and levels up. When he returns, he will face three fights of three zombies each: 600 XP, again slightly tougher than the average 425 XP budget for an "average" fight for a 3rd-level character.

 

[jrowland]

I am guessing the results would be very different if you used a wizard. Although I think the wizard would win, as long as he didn't get hit.