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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6747744" data-attributes="member: 4937">Mob's - like any large group - are extremely difficult to handle.  Attempts to handle this as single creatures usually break because they overestimate the power of a mob.  Attempts to handle them as a mass tends to result in crushingly slow and repetitive gameplay.If you are going to handle a mob as a single creature, take particular care to work out your math to make the results correspond to roughly what the finer resolution game state implies.  One important thing to note is that how dangerous a mob is depends on the number of squares adjacent to you occupied by the mob.  This is why formations are so effective against mobs.  Resolve the mob as a single relatively weak attack that gains a +1 bonus for each square beyond the first adjacent to the attacker occupied by the 'mob' plus any flanking bonus involved.  This represents that most members of the mob are basically taking an 'assist other' action.  I find that giving the attack exploding dice for damage as a special effect or giving the mob a bonus attack if the target is flanked by the mob works better for the sort of damage curve you'd expect for a mob attack than giving the mob a big single attack.  In 5e, you might give the mob advantage on damage inflicted.  But it's perfectly fine to resolve the entire mob as a single attack on each adjacent target doing 1d3 or 1d4 damage.The biggest danger of a mob is their ability to use their mass to trample down something.  A mob that hits should get an additional trip (to knock the target down) or bulrush attack (to move the target where it can be more easily surrounded).  Also, a mob should get either improved critical threat range or a bonus attack against a prone target, representing the danger of trampling.  I prefer the critical threat range to bonus attacks because you end up with less die rolling, but which is better will depend on the rules set you have and what it allows.Instead of hit points, track the mob by the number of squares it occupies, where each attack doing 3 or more damage (for example) eliminates a square.  Area of effect attacks eliminate a number of squares according to the area that it effects.Using these simplifications, you get a reasonable compromise between treating it as a single attacker (with implied massive hit dice, see the Swarm template for where this can go wrong) and treating it as individuals that each have actions to track.An alternative approach is to use a mass combat system of some sort, but I've never seen one of these I can really recommend.</blockquote>

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