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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KrazyHades" data-source="post: 3660785" data-attributes="member: 48492">--Castle Design--A great deal depends on how well-constructed the smaller forts and the large keep are. For example, attached is a very well-constructed castle's defenses. Note that there are ways to heal soldiers (clerics), inspire soldiers (bards), and deal with masses of troops (wizards, large crossbowman volleys, catapults, and ballistae. There are many layers of defense, many towers that can only be reached by descending to the ground from the nearby walls and then entering, etc...The walls of a castle like this would be magically reinforced, the towers would be the centers of permanent Consecrate spells, the whole area would be under a permanent forbidden spell, and other things to deal with magical problems. The areas where important officers (like generals) would be protected from magical spying (both audio and visual). Along all the walls would be pots of boiling pitch and ignited naphtha. High crenelations would protect the crossbowmen from ranged assault. People on the lowest floors of the castle would listen for diggers undermining a section of the walls, and deal with them, perhaps with summoned earth elementals.With a main castle like this, Pike would be able to hold off a huge army without a problem, for a great deal of time. Perhaps there are even enough clerics to feed part of the army, allowing it to hold out even longer under siege.--Unconventional Defensive Strategies--WEREBEAR DEFENSEI have used this in previous campaigns, and it's always fun. Have soldiers of Pike voluntarily contract lycanthropy from werebears (which are always LG) that are enlisted in the army, and subsequently trained by the original ones how to control it (giving them a +2 circumstance bonus on shapechange checks). Imagine the shock an invading force could feel upon pouncing on a fort that looks like an easy conquest only to be faced with a brigade of Werebears!!HIT AND RUN (with a twist!)Outnumbered and outgunned armies can still manage to slaughter their enemies. The typical version of this would be to have archers mounted on light horses to pick off stragglers, always pulling back with their superior speed if a serious force comes to face them, only to hit at the point said force abandoned. To make things exciting, you could have more interesting creatures doing the raiding. Perhaps a small circle of druids trains cheetahs, velociraptors, packs of wolves, or some such, and gets them to run out, kill stragglers, and retreat. To make it even more interesting, perhaps these particular animals actually have the ability to rage 1/day, turning their fur blood-red.MORE CLEVER USE OF DRUIDS!A major tactic for a defending battalion accompanied by a druid (which, due to the presence of a large elven population in Pike, there are probably many) would be to lead enemy solders on a chase into some woods/forest/jungle and then have animated plants kill them (or restrain them until they can be killed).WELL-PLANNED AMBUSHESPerhaps Pike generals are partial to leading enemy forces through gullies and then dropping boulders on them from a above. Opposing general too smart for that trick? Perhaps it's really just a setup so that when the Evil Empire officer sends his troop along the lip of the canyon (rather than through it), they get attacked by a set of ballistae hidden behind a rough wall of horizontal logs. Just because an enemy sees through the FIRST trick doesn't mean there isn't another.PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARERather than allowing it's own citizens and soldiers to succumb to a mind-numbing fear of the Evil Empire invaders, Pike should turn the tables. Assaults out of nowhere at random times during the day, illusion spells that create fake dragons and angels that seem to destroy other (illusionary) Evil Empire soldiers, trained engineers that can set up a quick simple catapult or ballista in an hour, to allow for even scarier ambushes. Loud ghost sound or occasional sound bursts to prevent enemy soldiers from sleeping. Maybe a ghost of an old general wants to do his share, and starts haunting Evil Empire camps. Spies or small groups of stealthy characters that destroy food and supplies, both in camps and in caravans on the way there could also help spread chaos and fear. Arrows painted black and fletched with red feathers (just for the scare value) and that are shot with the True Strike spell at Evil Empire officers or giants or other important things (perhaps the bowmen are the hippogriff-mounted elves you mentioned).</blockquote>

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