Biggest combat/encounter you've run?

[NewJeffCT]

Just wondering how big a battle people have run? We used to run gigantic battles back in 2E days (60+ lizardmen, plus their clerics/shaman, plus several swampy-type allies (crocs, giant dragonflies, giant snakes, a summoned water elemental etc) vs 10 PCs and 20 caravan guards, so a total of 80-90 bad guys vs 30 or so good guys).

but 3E doesn't seem as friendly to massive encounters like that

However, I've got a big one coming up this Friday night. it will be in a clearing in a forest.

I think I may have bitten off a lot for my early campaign climax in terms of encounter size - hopefully it won't be more than I can chew:

the bad guys:
one evil cleric, Level 7
two low level cleric minions
1 hill giant
15 human soldiers, under the cleric's command
about 20 orc mercenaries, including 3 orc barbarians (two at level 1, one at level 3)
a few goblin warg-riders
and, oh yes, a drow elf duskblade and two low level drow fighters

The good guys:
6 PCs, all 4th level... the ranger has a wolf companion
1 unicorn, 1 giant owl
4 NPCs, all 3rd level.
1 dryad that is also a cleric.

so, 45 or so bad guys, versus 13 good guys.

I was also planning on having some low level good guys in the mix as well - some human warriors, and maybe a cleric, to help offset the orcs & human soldiers on the other side, but I have not decided on their mix yet. At least one PC may be mounted, and the dryad may be mounted on the unicorn. Maybe it will end up being 20-25 good guys.

Yes, the battle will take several hours in game, and will also have several moments for role-playing as well.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

I've run a fight in 3.5 with approx. 240 participants. It did take pretty much the entire game session; the PCs were defending their fortified village in the jungle against a horde of cannibal savages.

I did adopt some simplifying conventions. The mooks (1st level warriors) were all identical, and since they only had 1 HD , rather than keeping track of damage they had taken I adopted the convention that when one was damaged (but not killed) his tile (I used construction paper squares for minis) got a damage counter, and anytime a mook with a damage counter took more damage he automatically went down.

With the tougher bad guys, when they took damage I wrote it on their counter.

I grouped bad guys into 'squads' based on their relative positions on the board (which covered a 4 x 8 foot table) , and tracked initiative separately (with an initiative card) for each squad.

There were a few high level leaders that I tracked initiative for individually.

It was really fun. I'm very fast at running 3.5 combat though; you'd definitely want to be at the top of your game for this. Also, it's very important to think about organization for running the battle. I definitely thought that the colored construction paper counters were better than minis since I could write damage and other effects on them.

The players loved it as a change of pace, plus the campaign had been building up to this fight for several adventures. But I wouldn't want to do it all the time.

Ken

 

[Crothian]

3.5 rules running the Hill Giant module from 1e

Basically 3 dozen hill giants, a few stone and fire giants, and 50+ of goblin slaves verse the 5 PCs and their 150+ kobold allies.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

The biggest fight I have run in terms of the number of combatants was this one:

PCs:
1 Cleric, 1 Fighter, 1 Ftr / Ranger, 1 Sorcerer. All level 8 (Ftr/Ranger was 2/6)

Opponents:
10 Hobgoblin Regulars (2 HD)
10 Baaz Draconians
2 Hobgoblin Bladebearers (4th level Fighters using dual weilded shortswords)
2 Bozak Draconians (cast as 4th level Sorcerers, some Spell Resistance)
1 Minotaur

No shortcut elements were used, everything was played straight. I expected the fight to be pretty trivial for the players, and I was proven right. The only bit that gave them any trouble was one of the Bozaks who managed to avoid being hit for nearly the entire fight and managed to spam Scorching Ray spells until he ran out.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[paradox42]

I've twice run combats that could only be described as wars, involving armies with hundreds or thousands of soldiers. Obviously I used shortcut methods extensively, and used the techniques (ironically without even having read them in advance) recommended by Heroes of Battle and other similar sourcebooks about war campaigns. To wit, you focus everything on the PCs, and only talk about portions of the battle they can see and directly deal with.

The first time was a battle fought in a secluded valley hidden from the outside world for centuries and ruled by a lich; the party got tribes of humanoids (including a race of mutant humans) living in the valley to band together and attack the lich and his armies, the idea being that they'd take advantage of the distraction of the battle to have half the party assault his fortress. However, the battle started about two hours earlier than they'd originally anticipated, so their day began with the party (of six PCs roughly level 15) and several native tribe groups, numbering in total roughly 400, against an assault force of undead numbering about 1000 altogether consisting mostly of skeletons & zombies, but with a few vampires, wraiths, wights, and other assorted nasties as officers and shock troops.

That battle took us about one and a half six-hour sessions to resolve; the party side was victorious thanks to having several spellcasters with lots of area-effect attack spells. I basically used averages with attacks and general notions of "events" to let them know how the tribal units were doing away from the party, while they concentrated on taking out the more dangerous undead; their lucky break early on was in starting the battle near the location of the main enemy spellcaster (a vampire archmage) and finding him in the first couple of rounds. He didn't last long with the party concentrating their full might on bringing him down. After that it was mostly mop-up from their perspective, though it did take about two minutes of game time (20 rounds) to get enough of the enemy re-dead to where the party felt okay leaving for the fortress.

The second occasion was rather crazier on my part, and more a case of letting the PCs show off; this was seven 21st-level PCs against an orc horde led by a 19th-level Barbarian general and several evil Cleric advisers (I based the demographics on the random town/city rules). The party of seven PCs basically waded into an army of more than 2000 orcs and wiped out all opposition; the army had nobody that could touch them after they took out the leaders (which happened within the first five rounds of the combat since every party member was capable of flight and/or teleportation). They routed the remaining enemy soldiers, saved the prisoners, and had them all resting with the party in the Outlands via Gate within an hour of the start of combat. After an eight-hour rest for the recharging of spell slots and psionic power points, they sent the prisoners back to their homes with more Gates, and then adjourned to an NPC ally's extraplanar mansion. Sure the combat wasn't a big challenge to them, but a good time was had by all, and that's ultimately what's important. It's helpful sometimes, in high-level and epic games, to remind the PCs of how far they've come from their humble beginnings.

 

[demiurge1138]

The biggest encounter I ever ran was a combat between four PCs and 100 manes demons and 10 rutterkin. This... was a mistake. And deadly, deadly tedious. Did not go well.

The largest combat I ran that went successfully was 6 9th level PCs and two cohorts (a unicorn and a giant moth) versus:
8 ogres
8 ogre skeletons
2 ogre fighter 5
2 Corpsecrafted ogre zombies
2 Corpsecrafted five-headed hydras
1 Corpsecrafted rune giant (from Pathfinder #6) skeleton
2 green hags riding inside the rune giant's rib-cage
1 witchflame (Pathfinder #5) riding inside the rune giant's rib-cage
1 winterspawn (Frostburn) riding inside the rune giant's rib-cage to guard the hags
1 stone giant
1 stone giant, necromancer 7

Took 16 rounds. The fight against

Spoiler

Dragotha in Age of Worms

only took 8.

Demiurge out.

 

[QuaziquestGM]

I've run major battles on several occasions for a "all comers welcome" 3.x game run for my university Sci-Fi club.

My methods vary depending on room set up (subject to what is available at the university)

In all cases, for mass combat I use a D100 initiative roll: (initiative mod x 5)+ 1d100...This provides 200 or so initiative slots so not everybody is bunched at 17 and 5, and if somehow 2 pcs or groups get the same score you can bump them a bit without people getting too whiny.

If I have a good table, then I use either a battle mat and/or hero scape tiles. I just count the heroscape tiles as 5 ft hexes. when using stacking 3d terrain I count verticals as if they were horizontal movement. Intersections between squares and grids I just sorta fake. Sometimes I'll use shoe boxes to build castles and such, but that really depends on how good the set up for the module is. Monkey God Games' Blood Plateau series i can recommend that comes with good battle setups.

When using table top minis, like most people, i don't have 40 orcs, much less 40 hill giants. I use a mix of mageknight, heroclicks, dnd minis, zombies, and toys from various places. I use this to my advantage by dividing the unit initiative counts by the type of critter used to represent the orks. so i have zombi orcs, little green army men orcs, ork orks, stormtrooper orks.....and at the point of setting up the minis the module gets "spiced up a bit" as somehow i have to use mounted minies...so i make up new badguys to fit the larger figures. Often my wolf and dog minis are used as "battle hounds" and replace some of the orks. Of course sometimes you have too many of one module type to use as convenient sized units, so i'll have one unit of kobold orks near the front, and one near the back. If in the chaos they get mixed up, then they go with what ever group of kobolds they are with, or if the units end up combined i just use the higher initiative and abandon the lower one. For all units, the guy "nearest the door" goes first, though sometimes, the most wounded guy goes first. Sometimes as units get decimated, I will replace the standing figures with ones similar to nearby comrades and thus consolidate units.

If I don't have a good table, but have a chalk board, then I will sometimes use "Sector" initiatives. I use this often when there are guards around a building, or if the battle goes around a lake or something. I divide the "ring" around the building/lake/battlement into convenient areas, and all of the badguys of the same type have an initiative count within that sector. What ever sector they are in at the beginning of the round, is the sector they move with. Badguy initiative goes around the circle starting at the point on the loop that first noticed the pcs, descending in units of 5-20 counts depending on the number of sectors. pcs and unique npc follow standard initiative rules, and the base initiative for the first sector is determined by roll vrs pcs at the start of combat.

If I have a magnetic white board, then the ABC magnets come out. I use larger magnets for larger bad guys, have a 24 inch metal ruler, and abandon the grid in favor of movement and reach determined by the ruler. this results in circles instead of squares, actual cones, as many mooks in reach as can actually fit, and much more of a "hectic raging melee, furball knifefight with swords, bazookas, grenades and flamethrowers" feeling when I start asking the mages "where do you want to center that fireball, choose in 5,4,3,2,...and then draw out the blast radius with the ruler....
I get 2 sets of what ever magnets I'm using. One set represents location, the other is placed on the initiative line with the critters name and current damage written next to it so I'll know what magnet is which hill giant going when. smaller magnets form magnetic travel games are used for generic mooks. I ran G1:Hill Giants this way with 11 pcs.

In one instance, I ran what was supposed to be an infiltration and room by room elimination in a multi story fortress on a ravine. I knew better. I had 14 pcs ranging in playing experience from 3 months to 1st ed veterans, ranging in age from 15 to 40, 4 of whom had flying pcs, and an SNA spam happy druid. 4 battle mats for the main floors, and 3 sections of the approach, towers, and roof tops on the blackboard. something like 100 gnolls, (UK:2 The Gauntlet). We were in initiative for nearly 2 hours of in game time, and played for 8 hours. Buff spells wore off and summoned creatures timed out. I had pcs on all 7 blueprint areas, at once; a group on the lower floor fighting while a group in a mid level was sneaking, while a group in a tower was looting, gnolls shooting down out of windows at the guys in the courtyard and in the air, while another group was in a spiral stair case....and of course large sections of fighting that amounted to 20 gnolls in 1 room, 8 pcs in another, all bottlenecked in a doorway.

As for your upcoming game....Save yourself a headache and have the dyad follow the standard druid/fey playbook and cast entangle on round one at extreme range. The more powerful/interesting badguys will save or power though it and engage the pcs. As they start to falter have the weaker bad guys "hack their way out" and charge in in dramatically appropriate numbers and moments. It will still feel like a big fight, but you will have more control over badguy flow.

 

[billd91]

For me, it was the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief run under 3.5 rules. It was 7 PCs, 4 cohorts, 1 animal companion, and 1 shadow companion against 1 cloud giant, 3 stone giants, 2 fire giants, a couple dozen dire wolves, a dozen ogres, several bugbears, a dire bear, and a couple dozen hill giants or so. The giants attacked in waves, never giving the PCs a breather.

It took us 3-4 weeks of 3 hour sessions to finish it. But when it was done... that was one quiet steading.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Largest battle (unique NPC-wise) that I ran from start to finish was for my campaign's finale, it took us 3 sessions to run;

BBEG Side (NE):
"The Saint", CR 35 Positive Energy Construct Ur Priest
Eli Shadowson, Ghost Sorcerer 21 (CR 23)
The Fallen Prince, Death Knight Ex-Paladin 10/Blackguard 10 (CR 23)
Lady Avelion, Half-Fiend Telepath 20 (CR 22)
3 Furies, 18-HD Erinyes Sorcerer 12 (CR 19)
Advanced Ephemeral Hangman (CR 18)
Half-Demon Cleric 15 (CR 17)

Other Badguy Side (LN):
Advanced Anaxim (CR 28)
Solar with a Chosen template (CR 26)
Transmuter 15/Master of the Unseen Hand 5 w/ 2 major artifacts (CR 22)
Pit Fiend (CR 20)
Human Marshal 18 (CR 18)
4 Advanced Justicar (CR 16)
4 Cleric 14 (CR 14)

Wildcards (CN):
Nessus, Demigod (CR 32 but limit on abilities)
Advanced Gynosphinx (CR 20)

Demons (CE):
Aspect of Grazz't (CR 24)
Half-Elf Swashbuckler/Duelist (CR 21)
Marillith
3 Advanced Hezrou (CR 13)

PCs:
Werewolf Ranger/King of the Wild (ECL 22)
Vow of Poverty Monk 20 w/ "Chosen" template (ECL 22)
Fey'ri Bard 20 with temporary Divine Rank 1 (ECL 24)
2 Animal Companions
1 Cleric cohort (CR 18)
1 Astral Deva consort

SUGGESTIONS:
-Group together badguys and run them on the same initiative-this helps keeps your motivations and targets straight along with who's on who's side. If you're running multiple factions, just give them their leader's initiative. Work from one end of a map to another instead of any particular character's order. Maybe make the BBEGs of the group on their own.
-Print out everyone's stats in advance in a format you're very familiar with and next to their factions. Keep book-referencing to a minimum.
-Play stupid characters stupidly, don't worry about the best of tactics except for flanking and/or pursuing a foe.
-Don't rely on anything to happen, with so many factors it turned out the 2nd biggest guy on the field turned to dust due to an unlucky roll of '2' vs. a save or die spell. I had the mass combat semi-mapped out in my head, strategy wise and this really turned the tables on me. I thought my players would die for sure but their ingenuity and luck saved them.

 

[rossik]

when DMing, we had some army battles playing dragonlance "war of the lance" time.
but there was no actual "roll all the 500 d20 for your men", of course.

i would say that my bigest battle (as in "though"), was when my long time friend Dmed the party all way to abyss, to fight tiamat.

back then, we had no such thing as oficial books, aside from the 3 revised 2ed. so the magazines did the job (sometimes a good job, but other times...), and we fought tiamat with about 12 old characters, from long time campaings.

man, there was a lot of dead pcs that day, but we did our job