Goblin Hordes

[mmadsen]

Imagine if the majority of the "combatative"-style Goblins didn't have levels in Warrior or Fighter, but in Rogue instead (or Rogue-skill-focussed Experts), and if their concept of war was more one of massive-scale commando operations than the human style of regiments and concentration of force?

Exactly. Imagine dozens of stealthy Rog2 Goblins ambushing the PCs, raining down arrows as the PCs traverse a gorge.

That could explain why the humans and the goblins have a relatively stable border despite mutual antagonism -- they can't effectively face each other. Humans crush goblins on the field, while goblins make any kind of human occupation of their territory prohibitively expensive by continuous and brutal guerilla operations conducted by huge portions of the populace.

This comes up a bit in the thread I cited. The Goblins occupy a different niche than the humans, and they're not worth exterminating as long as they don't become too great a menace.

 

[Kyramus]

have a splinter group wanting war with the humans. They are going to frame the pc's and make the goblins take notice and make them engage in war with the humans.

why would they want to do that? Probably because they were the former ruling body and wants to make it as chaotic as possible before regaining their power.

when the new leaders are dead, and the old ones proclaim their ascendance, who's going to question them?

Especially in the middle of a war.

politics can be sooooo cruel.

----------------
humans cross goblin lands. finds a side trak that's underground, accidentally releases underground creatures that vie for land space with goblins, goblin shaman finds out who's at fault, wants them to go back and fix the problem.
hehehehe
--------------
mark one of the humans. let there be a prophecy that a tattooed human of a specific tattoo will one day show up in their lands. eating his/her flesh will grant the goblins the strength of ogres. since there's only 1 human and a whole bunch of goblins... i guess there's going to be a lot of competition for lunch. lol.
-------------

thats it for now.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Well, if I were a hobgoblin warlord, my basic war strategy for my full army would be to put my goblin shock troop infantry (Warrior 1s) up front in the middle. They would carry spears and basically be there to take a lot of casualties from enemy archers, and to suck up the enemy arrows and bolts. They would be expected to rout/break and run away before reaching the main enemy force. If they did not break, they would then die quickly on the enemy swords and spears (or, run away after a few died on the enemy swords…)

The flanks of my army would be made up of elite goblin warriors trained to ride wargs. Give them a level of fighter instead of warrior. They are there to harass the enemy front lines, take down any enemy missile troops or spellcasters, or maybe even flank the enemy. They are trained and disciplined and have a much better morale than the goblin shock troops.

Behind the goblin cannon fodder, I mean, shock troops, I would have my elite hobgoblin infantry – armored with pikes if facing cavalry, swords if not. On each side of the elite hobgoblin troops would be groups of bugbears as heavy infantry. Once the hobgoblin warriors engage the main enemy troops, the bugbears then try to rush around the sides of the enemy forces to enclose them - the heavy axes and greatswords that the bugbears use will then smash into the enemy troops as their shields are forward fending off the hobgoblins (think of the hobgoblins as the horizontal line in a capital H, with the bugbears moving from the bottom to the top) They will also engage any second line of defense behind the initial row of defenders and try to create havoc in the lines.

The worg riders either continue to harass enemy missile troops, or else try their own flanking maneuvers to try and completely box in the enemy. They also stand ready to run down any opponents that straggle away/rout/break.

Behind the wargs on the flanks, I would have specialty hobgoblins – archers and skirmishing type troops. Some skirmishers to try and take down a spellcaster with a well placed javelin. Some might be mounted on horses to try and make lightning strikes on enemy commanders or spellcasters.

Behind the elite hobgoblins and bugbears would come any sort of hobgoblin heavy cavalry as the biggest hitters of all. They are probably right behind the bugbears.

 

[Voadam]

The halfling who received the map from her uncle speaks goblin. Too bad. It might be fun to bring Gupta along. Especially when he started whining about there not being any yummy rats out in the forest. Squirrels just don't taste the same, you know, even if you marinate them.

A guide is still not a bad idea even if one PC speaks goblin. If they ask anyone about going there, maybe someone would suggest they find themselves a guide who speaks goblin and can guide them through goblin society/lands.

 

[Conaill]

A good weapon for the little guys is... the Net! Especially if you let the penalties for being entangled stack. It's a ranged touch attack to hit, and a hit reduces AC and thus improves the likelyhood of further hits. If you stack the entanglement penalties, you can immobilize PCs using 3-4 nets each.

 

[bwgwl]

A good weapon for the little guys is... the Net!

ouch! that's a good trick. never thought of that one...

 

[Conaill]

Any feedback from other DMs on whether they would allow penalties from nets to stack?

"An entangled creature suffers -2 on attack rolls and a -4 penalty on effective Dexterity." 3 nets on the same victim could potentially give a -6 to attack, -12 to Dex (!) and consequently a -6 to AC as well. These are unnamed penalties, so they should stack in principle. However, you could argue that they're really circumstance penalties caused by similar circumstances, and thus do not stack. (Either way, you'd have to untangle from each net individually...)

Hm... Under the Skills Overview of the SRD, it states "All penalties stack, regardless of their descriptors." I'm pretty sure that's not a general rule though...

 

[Conaill]

Guess I'll just answer my own question then.

The -2 to attack and -4 to Dex etc. seem to be just an effect of the Entangled condition. Guess they shouldn't stack then. Bummer.

Still a good tactic though! At least it evens out the AC and attack bonuses a bit, plus it slows them down and imposes Concentration checks on spellcasting. Hammer a spike in the ground, and they're immobilized as well.

Multiple nets should still be useful to resist the Escape Artist or STR checks though (let's say... +5 DC for each additional net, or spend a FRA to escape from each separately).