How Would You Defend A Mountain Fortress?

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Ah, indeed. The situation is rather desperate for the defenders! Isn't it always like that though? Hmmm...in the Battle of Britain, the British were outnumbered and outclassed, and yet, they emerged victorious. In Staligrad, the Russiand were outnumbered and outclassed, and yet, they too emerged victorious. In Caesar's siege at Alesia, he too was outnumbered and outclassed, and yet, when the smoke and fire of battle has dissipitated, it was the determined Romans that emerged victorious. So, in both ancient and modern times, the defender can stave off defeat and win the battle. It is just very, very difficult, and it requires no small bit of luck, and masterful strategy and maximized exploitation of every resource. In addition, unlike the advancing attacker, the defender in such circumstances has little or no room for error. Nearly all of his plans and deployments must be executed with ruthless efficiency and the utmost in boldness and creativity.

I believe such a moment is here, with this situation.

Certainly, the Werewolves and the Vampires both have the ability to spread their wicked natures through any of the mass of humanity that they can get their hands on.

I'm also thinking that a creative use of the Manticores, with invisibility cast on them, and then have them swoop in to a large cluster of the legionnaires, fire off a powerful assault with their tail-spikes, make a few claw and bite attacks, and then fly away. Once they fly away, have them return to a closely guraded redoubt nearby, heal them up, and have them return to the assault. Do this three times, and then move the redoubts to an entirely different location, and start over again.

Combine this potentially lethal nuissance assault with an invisible, teleported assault group of *ALL* of the evil giants. have the giants outfitted with the best possible equipment--(Using the Player Character Treasure By Level Guidelines, not the weak "NPC" table." That should supply the giants with some great equipment. That's at least 760,000 GP for each Giant. Be creative gang! Write some stuff up--keep in mind that some of this exploration of item-creation and spell menus may prove useful in your own campaigns!--imagine all the giants wearing +5 Hasted Full Plate Armor, and equipped with

Mighty Composite Longbows (STR+4)
(1) +2
(2) Unholy
(3) Bane: Humans
(4) Speed
Quiver:
(50) Arrows
(1) +5
(2) Flaming
(3) Fiery Burst

Imagine them all sweeping in, with such bows, they would get what, 5 arrows off per round, each inflicting 2d8+5d6+11 points of damage, with the chance for more from criticals? Damn! That's a lot of damage! They can fire off a few barrages of arrows, and they can endure the fire put up against them by the surprised Valloreans, and then, before heavier forces are brought up to kill them, the gianst can leave via flight or teleport.

Just some ideas!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Crowe9107]

Forces:

Commander: 50th level. (You)

Azurukin

Male Demi-Lich Cleric 27/Dreadmaster 10/Hierophant 5 of Bane

Hit Dice: 42d12
Hit Points: 294
Initiative: +1
Size: Diminutive
Speed: Fly 180ft. (perfect)
AC: 60 (+4 Size, +1 Dex, +5 Natural Armor, +8 Bracers of Armor, +42 Insight)
Attacks: Touch +42 melee
Damage: Touch 10d6+20 plus paralyzing touch
Face/Reach: 1ft. by 1ft./0ft.
Special Attacks: Trap the soul, fear aura 60’, dominating aura 60’, paralyzing touch, 42nd level Divine Caster, Perfect Automatic Still Spell, spell-like abilities, Rebuke Undead 11/day
Special Qualities: Magic Immunity, phylactery transference, turn resistance +20, damage resistance 30/-, undead traits, acid resistance 20, fire resistance 20, sonic resistance 20, immune to cold, electricity, polymorph, and mind-affecting attacks, hierophant special abilities, dreadmaster special abilities.
Saves: Fort +23, Reflex +18, Will +35
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con ---, Int 26, Wis 35, Cha 30
Skills: Bluff +10, Concentration +45, Diplomancy +45, Gather Information +10, Hide +20, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (Arcana) +40, Knowledge (Geography) +10, Knowledge (History) +10, Knowledge (Local) +10, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) +10, Knowledge (Religion) +45, Listen +20, Move Silent +20, Search +20, Sense Motive +35, Scry +41, Spellcraft +45, Spot +20
Feats: Craft Rod, Empower Spell, Eschew Material Component, Leadership, Maximize Spell, Persistant Spell, Quicken Spell, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Skill Focus (Sense Motive), Spell Focus (Enchantment), Still Spell
Epic Feats: Automatic Quicken Spell, Blinding Speed, Epic Leadership, Epic Spellcasting, Improved Metamagic x3, Improved Spell Capacity (10th), Improved Spell Capacity (11th), Improved Spell Capacity (12th), Legendary Commander, Multi-Spell, Tenacious Magic (any)
Challenge Rating: 50
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Hierophant Special Abilities: Blast Infidel, Divine Reach 60’, Metamagic Feat (Empower), Metamagic Feat (Maximize)
Dreadmaster Special Abilities: Enhanced Leadership +6, Insidious Insight (+2 bonus to Sense Motive and Gather Information), Favored Enemy (Human), Fanatical Loyalty (All followers and cohorts automatically Fanatical), 2 Extra Special Cohorts
Leadership Score: 58
Followers: 28,000 1st, 2,800 2nd, 1,400 3rd, 700 4th, 350 5th, 170 7th, 90 8th, 50 9th, 30 10th, 20 11th, 10 12th , 5 13th, 3 14th, 2 15th, 1 16th.
Cohorts: 3 CR34 Cohorts
Languages Spoken: Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Elven, Goblin, Giant, Infernal, Undercommon.

Possessions (Phylactery): Bracers of Armor +8, Ring of Evasion, Ring of Freedom of Movement, Hand of Glory with a Ring of Three Wishes (also functions as a Greater Holy Symbol), Robe of Eyes, Cloak of Major Displacement and Etherealness, Helm of Teleport and Telepathy.
Possessions (Lair): Mirror of Mental Prowess, Iron Bands of Bilarro, 8 Iron Golems
Phylactery Location: Entombed within a living vault on "safeguard" mode.
Cleric Domains: Tyranny, Evil
Cleric Spells Per Day: 6/8+1/8+1/8+1/8+1/7+1/6+1/6+1/6+1/6+1/3/3/3.
Base DC for Spells: 22 + Spell Level, 23 + Spell Level for Evil Spells, 24 + Spell Level for Enchantment or Compulsion Spells, 26 + Spell Level for Enchantment and Compulsion Spells.
Epic Spells Per Day: 4

Is this monstrosity worthy of leading the forces of darkness? Ideas, suggestions, and tweaks, welcome.

Re,

Carl W. Rowe

 

[Crowe9107]

Speaking of Fire Giants, what if we had one of more Fire Giant Glassblowers, that made giant hollow glass spheres...I am sure loaded in a catapult, it would make a wonderful AP round.

Re,

Carl Rowe

 

[Crowe9107]

Each Squad is composed of three detachments, totaling 13 men, commanded by a Sergeant.

The Marine in you is showing through, SHARK, but it is hard to argue with the 13 man squad, it is a superior infantry formation for modern warfare. I don't know how well it would work in ancient warfare, but given the power level of your troops, they should be able to operate effectively on the squad level.

Re,

Carl Rowe

 

[CRG]

Well, someone tell me what a Wang-Liang is. I must not have that book.

For druids, Call Lightning is a great spell to get stacking. A few of those cast quickly turns a "once every ten minutes" into a rolicking bit of fun for a mid-afternoon thunderstorm. Get a few of those going at once (or, say, a hundred) and you're in business. Heck, a control weather can probably keep their flying units effectively grounded.

 

[mmadsen]

Well, someone tell me what a Wang-Liang is. I must not have that book.

The Wang-Liang are detailed in Oriental Adventures -- no surprise there. As I said early on in the thread:

Our Wang-Liang are effectively Trolls that can turn invisible or disguise themselves. That is, they're big, strong, and immune to most attacks (except fire and acid). I'd love to be able to send Wang-Liang skirmishers against mundane heavy infantry. They can do some damage, withdraw -- with some dead foes for "rations" -- come back fresh, and so on. They can also ambush quite effectively, using their invisibility. Perhaps they can even disguise themselves and infiltrate a camp that doesn't have much magical support. We can't risk Fireballs and Flame Strikes though. Disguised as mundane Ogres, the Wang-Liang might not draw so much fire.

According to Oriental Adventures, "A wang-liang stands approximately 10 feet tall and weighs about 600 pounds. Its body is covered in a soft pelt of lustrous dark brown or black hair, including a wild tangle of hair atop its head and, in males, a long dark beard."

 

[CRG]

Gracias on the Wang-Liang. Nifty critters.

Technically, however, Vampire only applies to humanoids and monstrous humanoids. Hopefully they, like ogres, arenot classified as giants.

So, I like the 50th level character. Now, I'm not particularly up to speed on all the various classes in the splatbooks and frankly I don't own any of the FR specific books. What I DO know is that the Valloreans seem to have my number if I'm an outsider or undead.

I still find myself thinking of things that are hard to dispel, hard to banish and hard for their goody-goody natures to smite and I keep coming back to animals, beasts, etc. The more the merrier.

So....how about something like....

Druid 20, Verdant Lord 10, Loremaster 10...maybe some CR in lich (the old, dead tree) and additional epic levels somewhere else. Maybe King/Queen of the mountain/plains/air. Some mix of that. Oh yeah. Do I have to be evil? Can I be LN? Straight N?

What you do:

Command the weather and the environment around my fortress. The very ground will attack my enemies. The trees and grasses will hinder them, the animals and vermin will plague them. And, because I'm all into it, the ground will swallow them up (earthquake still is an instant kill if you can't get out in time).

Whats more, I'm not the evil fiendish thing they think.

Or maybe, I am. Maybe some of my CR comes from demonic heritage (making me NE possibly) and really, I love the environment...just on my home plane. There's no reason this world can't be like the one of my fiendish parent....it just takes a little time.

So what, the Valloreans stop to burn every tree and piece of grass? If they do, the weather (and my normal troops) can assail them. I can damn sure make sure their flying troops are useless with some tenacious spell (control weather) being thrown about.

 

[mmadsen]

Hopefully they, like ogres, are not classified as giants.

Ogres and Wang-Liang are both Giant races.

What I DO know is that the Valloreans seem to have my number if I'm an outsider or undead.

I guess the flip side is that Unholy Human-Bane weapons should kick some Vallorean tail!

 

[mmadsen]

Speaking of Fire Giants, what if we had one of more Fire Giant Glassblowers, that made giant hollow glass spheres...I am sure loaded in a catapult, it would make a wonderful AP round.

Who needs a catapult when you've already got Fire Giants?

 

[mmadsen]

I'm also thinking that a creative use of the Manticores, with invisibility cast on them, and then have them swoop in to a large cluster of the legionnaires, fire off a powerful assault with their tail-spikes, make a few claw and bite attacks, and then fly away. Once they fly away, have them return to a closely guraded redoubt nearby, heal them up, and have them return to the assault. Do this three times, and then move the redoubts to an entirely different location, and start over again.

I summarily dismissed invisible hit-and-run attacks, because I assumed that True-Seeing sentries would spot them, and some cadre of elite archers would shoot them down. Then the Champions would chase down any survivors and kill them.

Am I giving the Valloreans too much credit? If so, we've got all sorts of troops who can turn invisible or magically disguise themselves. They can hit and run every night that the Valloreans march on our Unhallowed Halls.