Mob of rock throwers?

[Tiew]

Hey, my PCs are 8th level and they might end up in a situation where a mob of lower level (2-4 NPC class) people are throwing rocks at them. I'm thinking 50-100 and maybe more. The crowd would be closer to 500 but I didn't think more than 50-100 people would be throwing rocks at one time.

Does anybody know a good way to handle this? I've been thinking about it for a while and I'm stuck. I don't want the PCs to feel like they're immune to hundreds of angry people, but I don't want to be unfair and make their heroic skills and gear worthless either.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[UltimaGabe]

In a group of 20 people, at least one of them is bound to hit. In a group of 400 people, at least one is bound to go critical. And if there's 8,000... well, one of the PCs is going to die. At least.

Basically, the PCs should always fear the commoners. How would they know that the commoners aren't 15th level?

 

[James McMurray]

I would roll 1d8+4 x10 for the number of rocks each round. For every twenty rocks, one hits a random PC for 1d3 damage.

 

[Gort]

Treat the mob as one monster, and give the PCs reflex saves to dodge the rocks or take a bunch of damage, determined by you.

One thing to remember is that by the rules, any high level barbarian would be immune to all the rocks, though.

 

[CombatWombat51]

Call it 1d6/10 people. Then I'd take a note from 1E: Effectively subtract 10 people from the mob for every point of flat-footed AC a character has. Then a Reflex save for half (DC 15 or so).

So the fighter in plate +1 only takes 2d6/round (Ref half) from 100 angry villagers, but the wizard with only mage armor takes 6d6/round (Ref half)

I'd also reduce the damage by 1d6 for every 10 feet of distance between the PC's and the mob, which would encourage the heroes to turn tail and run

 

[FCWesel]

You could also roll 1/4 the attacks that are actually happening and simply add +2 to +6 to each attack rolled for the "mass of people", basicaly like a improved "helping thing".

You could also make the damage non-lethal. Yes a rock CAN kill you obviously, but for someone in any decent armour or magical protection it likely wont.

Plus it is far worse knowing you just went unconcious with a bunch of freaked townies then dead...

 

[mmu1]

1. Figure out the average AC of your party.

2. Figure out the chance a member of the mob has of hitting that AC. (remember that, depending on how thick the mob is, there's likely going to be some cover involved also - unless it's only the front row of the mob throwing stuff)

3. Multiply the number of rock throwers by the percentage - you have your base number of hits per round. Then divide it by at least half, because in a mob of hundreds of people everyone who wants to throw a rock is not going to have LOS all the time, and people have to spend time to find rocks to throw, reducing the actual rate of fire. (unless these commoners carry bags of rocks with them)

4. Randomly distribute the hits between the party members.

 

[Targos]

For a simple mechanic I'd consider it like a hail storm. Now hail in the DMG (pg94) is hardly lethal, but many people in ancient cultures were killed by stoning. The ice storm spell deals 3d6 in bludgeoning damage per round. Considering theres about a 100 stones being thrown a round it would be much like a hail. Feel free to pick how much damage is dealt per round, but treating the thrown stones as individual attacks would be a nightmare.

 

[andargor]

[OT] Is there a sorceress in your party?

"She's a witch! She's a witch, I say!"
"Burn her!!"

Sorry, couldn't help it...

Andargor

 

[dcollins]

I would roll 1d8+4 x10 for the number of rocks each round. For every twenty rocks, one hits a random PC for 1d3 damage.

I like this one best so far. It has a random element (how many rocks are being thrown), but otherwise hews closely to the core combat mechanic (assuming mob members need a natural 20 to hit any PC).

Alternatively, you can roll on the following table for each 20 mob members that throw a rock at any given PC. This assumes they each need a natural 20 to hit any PC. (Table produced from 10,000 simulations in a C++ computer program.)

Table: Hits from 20 Mob members

d20 Hits
--- ----
1-7 0
8-15 1
16-19 2
20 3