How Would You Defend A Mountain Fortress?

[mmadsen]

summon some half fiendish giant spiders with monster summoning and cast fly on them.

I think we've just crossed the line from "creative" to "surreal" right there. Flying giant spiders. Yeesh!

 

[hong]

I think we've just crossed the line from "creative" to "surreal" right there. Flying giant spiders. Yeesh!

Yeah. I mean, half-fiend monstrous spiders already have a 50% chance to have wings. Who needs to cast fly on them? Yeesh!

 

[mmadsen]

Overload the switchboard.

You make a good point, Vurt. By analogy, we can also overload other Vallorean magical resources, not just their communications. For instance, the legions undoubtably have sentries who can see invisible foes and see illusions. An ambush by a few invisible Wang-Liang might just get spotted. On the other hand, invisible foes and illusions en masse might overwhelm the limited number of magical sentries. They'll know they're under attack, but they won't be able to direct mundane troops against dozens or hundreds of attackers.

 

[Leopold]

Yeah. I mean, half-fiend monstrous spiders already have a 50% chance to have wings. Who needs to cast fly on them? Yeesh!

exactly! If they got wings and can fly already who needs anything more...

 

[Leopold]

I took the epic spell Origin of Speci
es: Achaierai and juggled the numbers around to come up with my version of the Galleran Beastie---the Blue Steelhorn. It is smaller, but more rideable, I found that a true Half-Dragon/Bullette was a bit overpowered.

Why'd you think it was too powerful? I whipped one up in pcgen and here is what I got:

M Bulette Beast9 CR 9; Size:H Type Beast|DRAGON; HD (9d10)+54; hp 104; Init +2 (+2 Dex, +0 Misc); Spd Walk 40', Burrow 10', Fly 40'; AC 26 (flatfooted 24, touch 12), Bite (Natural/Primary) +16 0'/BPS (2d8+12 20/x2 Neither H ) or Claw (Natural/Secondary) +11/+11 0'/PS (2d6+6 20/x2 Neither H ) or ; SA: 60 foot Line of Lightning 6d8(18) 1/day (2), Immune to Paralysis (2),Dragon Wings (2),Immune to Electricity (2),Immune to Sleep (2),Leap(Ex),Scent(Ex),Tremorsense(Ex); Vision: Darkvision (60'),Normal,Tremorsense (60') AL: LE; Sv: Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +4; Str 35, Dex 14, Con 23, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 8

Skills and Feats: ;
Possessions: 1 Bite (Natural/Primary), 1 Claw (Natural/Secondary),

They are only a CR of 9 so why would they be hard to make?


Just for reference I added in the fiendish tempate to it and it changed a tad bit:

M Bulette Beast9 CR 11; Size:H Type Beast|DRAGON; HD (9d10)+54; hp 104; Init +2 (+2 Dex, +0 Misc); Spd Walk 40', Burrow 10', Fly 40'; AC 26 (flatfooted 24 , touch 12), Bite (Natural/Primary) +16 0'/BPS (2d8+12 20/x2 Neither H ) or Claw (Natural/Secondary) +11/+11 0'/PS (2d6+6 20/x2 Neither H ) or ; SA: 60 foot Line of Lightning 6d8(18) 1/day (2), Immune to Paralysis (2),Cold,Fire Resistance 15 (2),Dragon Wings (2),Immune to Electricity (2),Immune to Sleep (2),Leap(Ex),Scent(Ex),Tremorsense(Ex); Vision: Darkvision (60'),Normal,Tremorsense (60') AL: LE; Sv: Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +4; Str 35, Dex 14, Con 23, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 8

Skills and Feats: ;
Possessions: 1 Bite (Natural/Primary), 1 Claw (Natural/Secondary),



I am curious to see what you have for your version of this creature before and after you thought it was too powerful..

 

[mmadsen]

Nothing like fighting the enemy with the enemy!

That Mirror of Opposition idea is just the kind of thing we need to fight super-commandos -- use their own strengths against them!

Are there any similar tactics? Obviously if we can play one hero against the others, or the legions against the specialists, we can achieve roughly the same thing. Seems hard though...

 

[CRG]

Well one thing is obvious - there are alot more of the legions than there are the mountain-forces.

And the legions are all alive and therefor need to eat.

Again, I fall back on poison, plague, supply issues.

My general plan would be
(1) Find ways to deal with commandos
(2) Find ways to delay the bulk of their army
(3) Find ways to bleed their army dry

Undead, outsiders, summoned creatures, etc. None of these things require much food or support. I'd exploit that to the best of my capabilities.

For the commandos, I like the mirror of opposition idea.

Another idea which is extremely cheesy is the .... wait for it .... monster generator.

I know, I know, Gauntlet-esque. Sure! Why the heck not? Start spewing forth summoned creatures when someone gets near. Maybe on a timed delay. Maybe stealthily planted in the Legion's camps.

If they monster generators were powerful enough, you could use them to fight the uber-commandos.

If your PCs are uber-commandos, you could make a session or two out of it which they might enjoy - sure, they'd be playing a Gauntlet-clone but it would be fun. Everyone would be running around saying "Arg" "Wizard needs food...badly" and "Elf now has reflecting shots!". It would be a blast. While the PCs are on that adventure, work out how much damage similar things do to the legions. Maybe base it on how well the PCs do, maybe not.

 

[mmadsen]

Well one thing is obvious - there are alot more of the legions than there are the mountain-forces.

Very true. Those 350,000 medium-level Human Fighters of the Vallorean Legions are only facing 100,000 low-level Human Fighters and 26,000 medium-level Hobgoblin Fighters plus monstrous auxiliaries. It looks bad for Evil if it comes down to a square fight.

Again, I fall back on poison, plague, supply issues.

Will poison and plague ever take hold in an army full of high-level Clerics (and Paladins)? And I wish we knew more about their supply lines.

Undead, outsiders, summoned creatures, etc. None of these things require much food or support. I'd exploit that to the best of my capabilities.

Vampires need "food". And they have short range; they have to get back to their crypts by sunrise. On the other hand, they're fairly powerful and easy to crank out on short notice. You can have new spawn in a few days.

 

[CRG]

Like I said... they don't need *much* food.


Supply lines are the key. 350,000 people need to eat. I hope it doesn't get contagioned. Nope, check that. I hope it DOES.

I'm thinking monster generators. I like that more and more every second. Mirror of opposition is 92000 gp for an 8th level spell, 15th level caster that is triggered by someone looking into the mirror (an easily bypassable trigger once someone figures it out). It's multiplier is 766 or so for that ability.

DMG, item creation. Break-it-down (wonky wonky whicha music)

Monster Generator
This pile of skulls or strange stone device is triggered by some event and spews forth monsters, rabid and angry. Common implementations include a time or event-based device or perhaps keyed a creature with a particular racial type / alignment passing within 60'.

Use activated = caster level * spell level * 2000 typically (although as I mentioned above, its approx *766 for the mirror of opposition - maybe 1000 would be appropriate).

Caster Level (varies); Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, summon monster / natures ally / greater planar binding / lesser planar binding. Weight - varies.


There you go. Bury them on the approaches with a time-delay or event delay. Hurl them from seige engines at the approaching legions. Got legions? Don't worry, we got your monster.

Incidentally, not that it does alot of good but you could use 'create undead' instead, but my thoughts are undead will just get wiped up by the good guys. Best bet on monsters, etc. would be as neutral as you can get them, hell maybe even celestial-bison, etc. As long as they attack the legions, you're golden.



It's been a long day at work.

 

[mmadsen]

My general plan would be
(1) Find ways to deal with commandos
(2) Find ways to delay the bulk of their army
(3) Find ways to bleed their army dry

I think we can expect commando raids by the Champions of Vallorea. We need to render an assault on the Mountain Citadel suicidal. We can expect teleporting commando parties, invisible Rogues, etc.

If we can't lure them to their deaths in the Mountain Citadel, we need to lure them to their deaths somewhere else. In remote Vampire Crypts? In our fortified cities?

Even if we don't take out the Champions, we need to take out the specialists who keep our Vampires in check. Without them, the legions are vulnerable. Ideally we'd also take out all their means of seeing our invisible (and illusioned) soldiers. Then we can take them apart at our leisure.