D&D 5E 100 orcs

[cthulhu42]

What would be the CR of 100 orcs attacking as a group on an open battlefield?

 

[iserith]

Encounter Award: 10,000 XP. Adjusted XP Budget: 40,000 XP.

However, you might want to read the official rules for mass combat to see if that works better for you.

 

[PnPgamer]

Pfft, 100 orcs were a normal combat back in 2nd edition!

 

[Reynard]

Pfft, 100 orcs were a normal combat back in 2nd edition!

Normal or not, in any edition of D&D (and any game I can think of that isn't purely narrative) 100 orcs is an interminably boring combat. Any rule set that means you have to hit one more than once to kill it is even worse.

now, put the PCs in a monastery trying to stave off the horde long enough to get the monks to safety,or something similar, and you have a worthwhile scenario.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Normal or not, in any edition of D&D (and any game I can think of that isn't purely narrative) 100 orcs is an interminably boring combat. Any rule set that means you have to hit one more than once to kill it is even worse.

I'm not so sure about that. I've run large battles before (40-ish total combatants) and I don't think 100 orcs would be that different or even that long. In a scenario where all 100 orcs are NPCs I could see making some simplifying assumptions (every two hits kills an orc, don't bother rolling damage; every turn roll 6 attacks against a PC as long as at least 20 orcs are alive; orcs fight to the death) which would make it even quicker.

In fact, there's a decent chance I'll wind up running a combat almost like this tonight. (The scenario: PCs have acquired a vampire "ally" to help them fight the hobgoblin armies. They've been ignoring him and the whole war while they go dungeon crawling, so in order to bring them up to speed on the plot I think I'll have them play out two little one-shots at the beginning of the session. One of them is "Edgewalker kills a tent full of hobgoblins", and the second is "Edgewalker and a squad of animated hobgoblin skeletons kill a platoon of forty hobgoblins." Then when Edgewalker turns out, later on, to still be a bad guy with armies of hobgoblin vampire spawns, they will be properly scared in a way that wouldn't happen if I just informed them of events.)

As far as what CR they'd be: CR doesn't make sense for groups, but assuming you mean "what level would PCs have to be in order for this to be a fair challenge," officially 100 orcs would still be a Deadly challenge for 4 18th level PCs. In practice I think you could handle them at 8th level. In fact, since it's "open field", there are some groups of PCs who could handle the 100 orcs at 1st level...

 

[GMMichael]

As far as what CR they'd be: CR doesn't make sense for groups...

Yup. 100 orcs are a terrain or obstacle, not individual monsters that each have an XP award.

Really, 100 orcs is a TPK unless you're playing D&D or you're expecting Gandalf to arrive in the east.

 

[PnPgamer]

Normal or not, in any edition of D&D (and any game I can think of that isn't purely narrative) 100 orcs is an interminably boring combat. Any rule set that means you have to hit one more than once to kill it is even worse.

now, put the PCs in a monastery trying to stave off the horde long enough to get the monks to safety,or something similar, and you have a worthwhile scenario.

Never said that it was a genius idea by the developers of 2nd edition, was trying to be sarcastic (failed miserably it seems). What were they thinking... (for those who don't know, basic number of orcs appearing was 30-300)

 

[ExploderWizard]

100 orcs? A light day to be sure.

But I would fight five hundred orcs
And I would fight five hundred more
Just to be the man who fought a thousand orcs
To fall down at your door

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Yup. 100 orcs are a terrain or obstacle, not individual monsters that each have an XP award.

Really, 100 orcs is a TPK unless you're playing D&D or you're expecting Gandalf to arrive in the east.

Pfft, that's just if Gandalf has an army. His SOP when encountering damn near anything is to yell "Run you fools!". Orcs, goblins, worgs, treadmills...