Darklone
Registered User
Looks like we used so far pretty similar methods, shilsen... I will first give examples HOW I used the things you listed. For those doing similar things, this might be boring, but I hope some new DMs might like it.
Here are some things that work well for me (as well):
SHILSENS POINTS:
* Using classed and advanced creatures – The PC of Shelri in my campaign where the short story in my sig occured was as mentioned there a replacement char... the original char got killed by two ogres: One had 2 bbn levels, the other one had one or two fighter levels. For a group of 9 level 3-4 PCs who were able to start the battle on their terms, this should have been an easy ride... yet it was nearly a TPK. Another example is the often forgotten kobold warrior. You don't get that many HD for free somewhere else
Whoop the floor with your groups bbn5 with a kobold warrior level 6, you'll love it.
* Teamwork – This is a double edged blade. Too much teamwork can easily kill your group. In this regard: I love to use military fighting formations. Example?
Phalanx:
1st row: Alternating ftr with towershield and the Shieldmate feats, then a dude with a longspear and Combat Reflexes.
2nd row: Hobgoblin archers with comp bows. (only behind the tower shield dudes, you want free spaces between them!)
3rd row: Half-orc skirmishers with heavy weapons and good movement. Bbn/rogues or bbn/scouts rock in this regard! (Behind the free spaces in the 2nd row)
Last row: A few clerics for Bless spells, Healing and Bane/Doom. Two bards as standard bearers and possibly one marshal as commanding officer (if the real commander is a noble fop). Now this army is lots too tough CR wise for PCs of low levels... (1-6). That can be changed by putting the PCs into a bigger group of other NPCs. Now you have a huge battle where fireballs are your wizards best friend. Yet, the free spaces keep that formation from being a sitting duck for many AoE spells. I love to build such armies with D&D feats, other examples are Roman legionnaires, shieldless formations, mounted combatant formations... D&D is nice!
* Weaken first, kill later – Favorite tactic used by and against druids and other summoning specialists. Harassing players will teach them a lesson not to forget their wilderness skills. In one of the bought and buffed up adventures I used, there's a permanent Unhallow effect with Desecrate on a huge part of the land. Add normal armors and weapons to skeletons and zombies, add a few ghouls and wights and attack the PCs several times a day with small groups. I nearly killed my level 9 group consisting of 8-10 PCs that way with a few encounters that shouldn't have given XPs!
* Actions matter – See above. That huge army has a lot of actions. No way you win the encounter with one well placed spell on the boss. (Ok, you might, but that's cool to pull through!)
* Use your equipment – Funny you mentioned it. Necklace of fireballs and javelin of lightning have always been two of my favorites. Expendable magic items useable by anyone. Cuts the loot of the PCs while making small encounters tougher.
Darklones evil thoughts to the topic:
* Use the PCs abilities/tactics against them. Two things here: First, attack them with a similar team with their own tactic. Second, attack them with a team specialised in a promising countertactic. Both things can be easily justified in most campaigns... especially if you have PCs like mine who like to anger kings, harass queens, think loud what they might do with the princess instead of rescuing her, visit the local mafia boss in his headquarter to show him "who's da boss"...
* Vary your tactics. D&D is such a nice game with a workable polearm fighter, an archer, a sword&boarder, different mounted combatants, TWF dudes, THF dudes, ... sooo many options for each class, these were only fighters so far! I mentioned the bard assassin already here. He got away when the PCs nearly caught him, because they thought: hey, that's a bard, he can't be that uberassassin! Use old classes in new ways. Messageboards are great places to find such ideas.
Here is another example of a small PbP game I'm DMing right now: It's a caravan fleeing from a city that's going to be attacked by different armies soon... unrest and revolt have already taken it's toll and the cities administration broke apart (or got taken care of by assassins). The game is in German, otherwise I'd give a complete link for those interested in reading the whole thing. The situation is a wagon trek on a road through the swamp, the swamp people are most humans and humanoids (monks preferred) with scarcely any armor, a penchant for poison and chasing swamp beast on enemies. A huge snakelike thing (a modified bog salamander by MC) already smashed one of the wagons (the breach in the south)... now the swamp people are attacking.
picture of the battle
Since it's a PbP game, there are 4 (now 5) players with 4 PCs each on a rather short mission, making it possible to play the whole game in one or two months (though Easter disturbed my plans).
Now, in this situation, you have:
- Many NPC opponents and allies. This is pretty easy at lower levels (like in this case, the biggest NPC is level 6).
- Classed NPCs. Actually, there was only one monster, the rest are humanoids with class levels.
- A nice fighting stage. A not too bad defensive position for the PCs.
- Teamwork: Every PC has a team built to work together... not perfect, but fine in a PbP where the communication between players is not that excessive. Funnily, no bard nor marshal or other aura class dude is there
- Teamwork the other way: An important thing not mentioned: If you don't want to kill the PCs in your own game (in this hack&slash game it doesn't matter), varying the degree of teamwork between your NPCs allows you to change an encounter that develops too deadly in an easy way. Most PCs won't notice and you have a lever to adjust the deadliness - either higher or lower, as you wish.
Here are some things that work well for me (as well):
SHILSENS POINTS:
* Using classed and advanced creatures – The PC of Shelri in my campaign where the short story in my sig occured was as mentioned there a replacement char... the original char got killed by two ogres: One had 2 bbn levels, the other one had one or two fighter levels. For a group of 9 level 3-4 PCs who were able to start the battle on their terms, this should have been an easy ride... yet it was nearly a TPK. Another example is the often forgotten kobold warrior. You don't get that many HD for free somewhere else
Whoop the floor with your groups bbn5 with a kobold warrior level 6, you'll love it.* Teamwork – This is a double edged blade. Too much teamwork can easily kill your group. In this regard: I love to use military fighting formations. Example?
Phalanx:
1st row: Alternating ftr with towershield and the Shieldmate feats, then a dude with a longspear and Combat Reflexes.
2nd row: Hobgoblin archers with comp bows. (only behind the tower shield dudes, you want free spaces between them!)
3rd row: Half-orc skirmishers with heavy weapons and good movement. Bbn/rogues or bbn/scouts rock in this regard! (Behind the free spaces in the 2nd row)
Last row: A few clerics for Bless spells, Healing and Bane/Doom. Two bards as standard bearers and possibly one marshal as commanding officer (if the real commander is a noble fop). Now this army is lots too tough CR wise for PCs of low levels... (1-6). That can be changed by putting the PCs into a bigger group of other NPCs. Now you have a huge battle where fireballs are your wizards best friend. Yet, the free spaces keep that formation from being a sitting duck for many AoE spells. I love to build such armies with D&D feats, other examples are Roman legionnaires, shieldless formations, mounted combatant formations... D&D is nice!
* Weaken first, kill later – Favorite tactic used by and against druids and other summoning specialists. Harassing players will teach them a lesson not to forget their wilderness skills. In one of the bought and buffed up adventures I used, there's a permanent Unhallow effect with Desecrate on a huge part of the land. Add normal armors and weapons to skeletons and zombies, add a few ghouls and wights and attack the PCs several times a day with small groups. I nearly killed my level 9 group consisting of 8-10 PCs that way with a few encounters that shouldn't have given XPs!
* Actions matter – See above. That huge army has a lot of actions. No way you win the encounter with one well placed spell on the boss. (Ok, you might, but that's cool to pull through!)
* Use your equipment – Funny you mentioned it. Necklace of fireballs and javelin of lightning have always been two of my favorites. Expendable magic items useable by anyone. Cuts the loot of the PCs while making small encounters tougher.
Darklones evil thoughts to the topic:
* Use the PCs abilities/tactics against them. Two things here: First, attack them with a similar team with their own tactic. Second, attack them with a team specialised in a promising countertactic. Both things can be easily justified in most campaigns... especially if you have PCs like mine who like to anger kings, harass queens, think loud what they might do with the princess instead of rescuing her, visit the local mafia boss in his headquarter to show him "who's da boss"...
* Vary your tactics. D&D is such a nice game with a workable polearm fighter, an archer, a sword&boarder, different mounted combatants, TWF dudes, THF dudes, ... sooo many options for each class, these were only fighters so far! I mentioned the bard assassin already here. He got away when the PCs nearly caught him, because they thought: hey, that's a bard, he can't be that uberassassin! Use old classes in new ways. Messageboards are great places to find such ideas.
Here is another example of a small PbP game I'm DMing right now: It's a caravan fleeing from a city that's going to be attacked by different armies soon... unrest and revolt have already taken it's toll and the cities administration broke apart (or got taken care of by assassins). The game is in German, otherwise I'd give a complete link for those interested in reading the whole thing. The situation is a wagon trek on a road through the swamp, the swamp people are most humans and humanoids (monks preferred) with scarcely any armor, a penchant for poison and chasing swamp beast on enemies. A huge snakelike thing (a modified bog salamander by MC) already smashed one of the wagons (the breach in the south)... now the swamp people are attacking.
picture of the battle
Since it's a PbP game, there are 4 (now 5) players with 4 PCs each on a rather short mission, making it possible to play the whole game in one or two months (though Easter disturbed my plans).
Now, in this situation, you have:
- Many NPC opponents and allies. This is pretty easy at lower levels (like in this case, the biggest NPC is level 6).
- Classed NPCs. Actually, there was only one monster, the rest are humanoids with class levels.
- A nice fighting stage. A not too bad defensive position for the PCs.
- Teamwork: Every PC has a team built to work together... not perfect, but fine in a PbP where the communication between players is not that excessive. Funnily, no bard nor marshal or other aura class dude is there
- Teamwork the other way: An important thing not mentioned: If you don't want to kill the PCs in your own game (in this hack&slash game it doesn't matter
), varying the degree of teamwork between your NPCs allows you to change an encounter that develops too deadly in an easy way. Most PCs won't notice and you have a lever to adjust the deadliness - either higher or lower, as you wish.
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The improvement to will saves doesn't hurt, either! Furthermore, the racial HD are greater than the class HD, so 4 sorcerer levels only costs 2 CR (since the sorcerer class does not stack with anything that a giant normally has, ogre mages aside.)
