Greg Benage
Legend
Oh boy, I hope the mean old dragon doesn't attack the lumberjacks while they're harvesting the wood for ~2,400 longbows!Or a couple of town bowyers who have time to make them for free from the plentiful wood to be found.
Oh boy, I hope the mean old dragon doesn't attack the lumberjacks while they're harvesting the wood for ~2,400 longbows!Or a couple of town bowyers who have time to make them for free from the plentiful wood to be found.
Ancient red dragon. AC 22. HP 546. Peasant with a longbow has a +0 to-hit, so needs a natural 20, which crits and deals double damage. Using the average, doubled, is 9 damage. For every 20 peasants one will hit and deal 9 damage. So it would take 61 hits to kill the dragon which would take 1220 shots to accomplish. Which means one round of attacks from 1220 peasants, two rounds of attacks from 660 peasants, three rounds of attacks from 440 peasants, etc. According to the DMG, a village is up to 1000 people. So yeah, a village of armed peasants can literally shoot an ancient red dragon out of the sky in about two rounds. That matches everyone’s fantasy, right?It's a problem because it shouldn't be possible. These are ancient dragons. It should take a city to have a chance. Anything smaller than a city should just kiss itself goodbye. 5e changed that. Accuracy was bounded too much.
I've a friend who wants to do that, only it would be a celestial pact. So he could say he made a deal with the deva.I feel bad for these warlocks who entered such bad deals. My infernal warlock, Johnny the folk-hero, won his warlock powers from a fiend in a fiddle playing contest. The fiend lost and had no choice but to give Johnny a sliver of power.
Assume max HP for a wizard, 6 every level +5 CON mod, gives you 220 HP. The same peasants shooting the dragon out of the sky would have less than 1/2 the trouble with a wizard. Only 25 hits at 9 damage apiece. That’s only 500 shots. A full village could do it in less than a round.Peasants could also kill a 20th level wizard that lays down and exposes her neck too.
Are they all packed together at short range? Or are they spread out with most taking disadvantage?Ancient red dragon. AC 22. HP 546. Peasant with a longbow has a +0 to-hit, so needs a natural 20, which crits and deals double damage. Using the average, doubled, is 9 damage. For every 20 peasants one will hit and deal 9 damage. So it would take 61 hits to kill the dragon which would take 1220 shots to accomplish. Which means one round of attacks from 1220 peasants, two rounds of attacks from 660 peasants, three rounds of attacks from 440 peasants, etc. According to the DMG, a village is up to 1000 people. So yeah, a village of armed peasants can literally shoot an ancient red dragon out of the sky in about two rounds. That matches everyone’s fantasy, right?
Fetchez la vache!Are they all packed together at short range? Or are they spread out with most taking disadvantage?
If they're guarding the village can it be picking up cows from the pasture to drop in them from a range of 601? Or if they're guarding the field can it be picking up rooftops to drop on them?
By the rules the outcome is in doubt, though. Enough commoners will hit X number of times a round. Sure the DM can homebrew the odds away, but then he's creating inconsistencies in the fiction unless he just declares that the PCs lose when they need 20's to hit.Also... couldn't the GM just decide "the outcome is not in doubt" and declare that the dragon has annihilated the commoners?
I agree, it is totally silly.
Fetchez la vache!
You do realize the longbow has a longer short range than anything the dragon can do, right? Frightful Presence is 120ft, darkvision is 120ft, breath is 90ft, fly speed is 80ft, wing attack is 15ft, everything else is thrown or melee. To do anything to the villagers it would have to be within their short range. Ready action, fire when within range. Dead dragon.