JiffyPopTart
Bree-Yark
Thanks for the suggestions all. Please feel free to add more!
It is certainly odd for us to end up with 7 players. In mid-spring our regular group had dwindled down to 2.5 (.5 because the third guy shows up really late every week) players and a GM, not enough to to even continue role-playing. We began an active campaign to find a 4th player by hittting up the local meetups and public gaming groups. Public groups really aren't our forte because most of us like to inbibe the adult beverages and have low tolerence for poor-player shenanigans. We were able to find a 4th via internet message boards (can't recall which one) and that carried us over through most of spring an summer in which we played 13th Age.
When 5e was going to drop and we decided to switch to that system with a new campaign I put out the word to some older players who had dropped out of the group. One of them said he wanted to join back in as he was finishing up getting his degree. That took us to 5, what I consider the sweet spot. About two weeks ago we decided to add a 6th (who one of the players is friends with through playing the Ingress smartphone game) and literally as I was typing the welcome email with all the campaign info to add the 6th guy another older player texted me with "Are you guys still playing on Wednesday?" looking to get back in. Thus....7.
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According to the suggestions for a MEDIUM encounter (likely to use up some resources but unlikely to result in major damage) my creature group included
4 Orcs, one of which I gave a longbow in place of a javelin.
1 Guard, which I still considered an Orc but an older noncombatant beastmaster
4 Mastiffs, which the beastmaster would unleash on the party
To make things a bit more difficult for the party I gave the Orcs a good ambush setup. In my campaign Orcs are guerilla fighers, kind of based on the Viet Cong. The orcs knew the PCs were coming due to scouting. The PCs were all on horseback. The longbow using orc was on the roof of a small church/shrine using the steeple as cover. A second orc was at the base of the stairs leading to the steeple, crouched behind a flipped pew with a javeling at the ready. The shrine doors were flung open ahead of time.
Once in range (600' for a longbow) the orc began shooting arrows at the party. I gave him a 1-in-6 chance of hitting the horse instead of the PC and as the horses charged at the shrine he was able to kill the Paladins horse. The PC wizard severly injured the sniper with a magic missle causing the sniper to retreat to full cover (the orcs are trying to hit and run, not fight to the death). The cleric charges into the shrine to attack the orc behind the table guarding the stairs.
This is when the cunning orc plan comes into play. Seeded in the entryway amongst the debris were caltrops. The cleric fails his save, takes 1 point of damage, and stops short of the table. The two HIDDEN orcs on either side of the door who have been waiting all this time to spring their trap run from the shadows and flank the poor cleric standing spike footed in the doorway. They also both miss. 19 is hard to hit! The cleric uses his action to crush one into smithereens. The bard uses some sort of bard spell to severly damage the orc hiding behind the table forcing him to flee to safetly, which is up the stairs to the roof.
The druid wildshapes into a lion, makes his perception check to see the caltrops, uses the lions special leap ability to jump over the caltops and cleric, avoids the Opportunity attacks of the doorway orc and pounces on the orc running up the stairs ripping him to shreds. The rogue looks in the side window of the church and sees the orc fighting the cleric, throws a sneak attack dagger in his back killing him. The monk jumps off a moving horse up to the roof and gets in melee with the sniper.
Finally....the bad guys get to go again. The beastmaster who has been hiding behind a different building to flank with his attack dogs after the party gets hung up in the shrine door releases the dogs who charge the nearest two combatants (the paladin and wizard) but can't attack this turn since they moved twice. All the other orcs are dead except the sniper, who swings at the monk and misses.
The paladin kills two dogs with his first actual round of fighting (he had been behind because of the killed horse). We call the fight at this point because its now the PCs turns to finish off 2 dogs, 1 noncombatant, and 1 injured orc stuck on a roof.
The STATS:
Total number of rounds this combat took: 5 (3 of which were rounds where the only thing that happened was the sniper shooting an arrow at the horse charging PCs.
Total damage dealt by the orcs: 15 points to a horse (two 1-in-6 chances to hit the horse instead of the paladin by the sniper) and 1 point to the cleric (caltrops!).
Total number of attack rolls made by the orcs during the battle: 3 sniper shots, 3 axe attacks.
Total resources used by the party for this combat: 1 horse, 1 1st level bard spell, 1 HP from the cleric.
So, based on this ONE DATA POINT, this was most definitely NOT a medium challenge. I actually gave the bad guys a few extra XP worth of creatures and gave them an amazing setup that SHOULD have ended up with the KO of whichever PC was unfortunate enough to set off the caltrop/hidden orc trap.
It is certainly odd for us to end up with 7 players. In mid-spring our regular group had dwindled down to 2.5 (.5 because the third guy shows up really late every week) players and a GM, not enough to to even continue role-playing. We began an active campaign to find a 4th player by hittting up the local meetups and public gaming groups. Public groups really aren't our forte because most of us like to inbibe the adult beverages and have low tolerence for poor-player shenanigans. We were able to find a 4th via internet message boards (can't recall which one) and that carried us over through most of spring an summer in which we played 13th Age.
When 5e was going to drop and we decided to switch to that system with a new campaign I put out the word to some older players who had dropped out of the group. One of them said he wanted to join back in as he was finishing up getting his degree. That took us to 5, what I consider the sweet spot. About two weeks ago we decided to add a 6th (who one of the players is friends with through playing the Ingress smartphone game) and literally as I was typing the welcome email with all the campaign info to add the 6th guy another older player texted me with "Are you guys still playing on Wednesday?" looking to get back in. Thus....7.
********
According to the suggestions for a MEDIUM encounter (likely to use up some resources but unlikely to result in major damage) my creature group included
4 Orcs, one of which I gave a longbow in place of a javelin.
1 Guard, which I still considered an Orc but an older noncombatant beastmaster
4 Mastiffs, which the beastmaster would unleash on the party
To make things a bit more difficult for the party I gave the Orcs a good ambush setup. In my campaign Orcs are guerilla fighers, kind of based on the Viet Cong. The orcs knew the PCs were coming due to scouting. The PCs were all on horseback. The longbow using orc was on the roof of a small church/shrine using the steeple as cover. A second orc was at the base of the stairs leading to the steeple, crouched behind a flipped pew with a javeling at the ready. The shrine doors were flung open ahead of time.
Once in range (600' for a longbow) the orc began shooting arrows at the party. I gave him a 1-in-6 chance of hitting the horse instead of the PC and as the horses charged at the shrine he was able to kill the Paladins horse. The PC wizard severly injured the sniper with a magic missle causing the sniper to retreat to full cover (the orcs are trying to hit and run, not fight to the death). The cleric charges into the shrine to attack the orc behind the table guarding the stairs.
This is when the cunning orc plan comes into play. Seeded in the entryway amongst the debris were caltrops. The cleric fails his save, takes 1 point of damage, and stops short of the table. The two HIDDEN orcs on either side of the door who have been waiting all this time to spring their trap run from the shadows and flank the poor cleric standing spike footed in the doorway. They also both miss. 19 is hard to hit! The cleric uses his action to crush one into smithereens. The bard uses some sort of bard spell to severly damage the orc hiding behind the table forcing him to flee to safetly, which is up the stairs to the roof.
The druid wildshapes into a lion, makes his perception check to see the caltrops, uses the lions special leap ability to jump over the caltops and cleric, avoids the Opportunity attacks of the doorway orc and pounces on the orc running up the stairs ripping him to shreds. The rogue looks in the side window of the church and sees the orc fighting the cleric, throws a sneak attack dagger in his back killing him. The monk jumps off a moving horse up to the roof and gets in melee with the sniper.
Finally....the bad guys get to go again. The beastmaster who has been hiding behind a different building to flank with his attack dogs after the party gets hung up in the shrine door releases the dogs who charge the nearest two combatants (the paladin and wizard) but can't attack this turn since they moved twice. All the other orcs are dead except the sniper, who swings at the monk and misses.
The paladin kills two dogs with his first actual round of fighting (he had been behind because of the killed horse). We call the fight at this point because its now the PCs turns to finish off 2 dogs, 1 noncombatant, and 1 injured orc stuck on a roof.
The STATS:
Total number of rounds this combat took: 5 (3 of which were rounds where the only thing that happened was the sniper shooting an arrow at the horse charging PCs.
Total damage dealt by the orcs: 15 points to a horse (two 1-in-6 chances to hit the horse instead of the paladin by the sniper) and 1 point to the cleric (caltrops!).
Total number of attack rolls made by the orcs during the battle: 3 sniper shots, 3 axe attacks.
Total resources used by the party for this combat: 1 horse, 1 1st level bard spell, 1 HP from the cleric.
So, based on this ONE DATA POINT, this was most definitely NOT a medium challenge. I actually gave the bad guys a few extra XP worth of creatures and gave them an amazing setup that SHOULD have ended up with the KO of whichever PC was unfortunate enough to set off the caltrop/hidden orc trap.
