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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hejdun" data-source="post: 4098328" data-attributes="member: 839">Obviously a party of 7th level can't take out a hobgoblin army in one day.  But the party has a lot of advantages.1)  They have time on their side.  Who cares if it takes them 2 months to kill them all?  The hobgoblins are just sitting there waiting for you to attack them.2)  They're more mobile.  The hobgoblins are trying to defend something, so they're stuck at or near that something.  The PCs are on the offensive, and thus can go wherever they please.  They can go back to down and sleep behind walls if they want to.3)  The hobgoblins can't very well protect themselves from attrition.Obviously the makeup of the party is rather important, but I don't see why a 7th level party can't kill a handful of hobgoblins (i.e. a patrol) each day for several weeks and whittle it down to nothing.  Rogues can sneak up on sentries and sneak attack them to death in one round.  Wizards at 7th level can fly and fireball, which could wipe out a handful of vanilla hobs in seconds.  They can also cast illusions or invisibility (heck, even improved invisibility).  (If said wizard has access to the spell Vortex of Teeth from the Spell Compendium, things get very nasty very quickly).Druids can wildshape into an eagle and summon hordes of dire wolves and bears to shred the hobgoblins to pieces.Fighters can... well... they can fire arrows and stuff.  If they're proficient at mounted combat, they can pull off some nasty charges.  They can shred small numbers of hobs, so long as they don't get swarmed.The same problem always plagues hit-and-run missions.  You have to be sure of your ability to retreat, otherwise it turns into a hit-and-die-horribly mission.  That means that the first thing the players have to do is take out everything faster than they are.  That means attacking anything mounted or with wings.Personally as a player, these are the sorts of adventures that I just love.  You have a goal and a worthy opponent and everything else is up to you.  If you're smart and you plan things out, it's possible.  On the other hand, if you make mistakes or get too aggressive or fall for traps, there will be severe consequences.For DM tips, make sure you come up with logical ways to counter the strategies I just outlined.  A hobgoblin army that big will have access to some resources.  Maybe they swiped some baby hippogriffs and raised them as aeriel mounts.  They are fast enough to track down anyone who tries to run away, and they can reach flying opponents.Learn from what historical armies did to counter air power.  They used props and decoys and camoflague.  There's no reason the hobgoblins wouldn't do the same.  Once the hobs realize what's going on, they can lay bait with illusions, or they can use magic to conceal their camp, etc.  Look for ways to prevent the PCs from running away, such as entangle, tanglefoot bags, or tripping.  Have a strong contingent of mounter warriors ready to react to any threats, and make sure sentries have some way of signalling for help (horns maybe?).One thing that works surprisingly well is to just give every single regular hobgoblin extra hit points.  Something with 5 hit points dies very, very quickly to 7th level characters.  But something with 15-20 hit points can survive a fireball (with luck or a friendly cleric), can perhaps stand up to a hit from the party fighter, or live long enough to raise the alarm.</blockquote>

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