K I S S. Keep It Simple Silly.
Absolutely. This Mass Combat approach is actually just an alternative, but I want to get it right.
Basically in the adventure I say you can handle it two ways: Mass Combat D&D style, 13th Age style, or this custom style. I want to flesh out each option and make sure it makes sense though.
The custom style is heavily based on Red Hand of Doom's approach. The PCs have their radios and are responding to the NPC's urgent pleas. The abominations are knocking down the gates! The skeletons are taking out our archers! They've breached the walls, hold them until reinforcements can arrive!
It'll be fun!
Oh! You are absolutely right.
I'm sure they had it at one point during the playtest, and I just never went to check if it was gone. Armies of skeletons would be better than zombies, that being the case. With some unstoppable zombie units who just keep getting up (making their saves). Especially if they have the gate assault.
I like the aesthetic of zombies more though. I'd rather nerf the zombie ability than turn them into skellies.
I know in 3.5 skellies had DR/bludgeoning so you may be right about earlier playtests. Looks like they were toned down a whole step.
Undead fortitude should be fine since it will be at the level of the stand. Some of those 10 zombies have fallen down, gotten back up, and other stayed down during the battle, and this is represented on an abstract level by whether undead fortitude keeps the whole stand up when it hits zero hp. Generally, it just means the stand needs one more good hit to put it down.
As for a quick guess on battle difficulty, since stands are basically 1 mini each and solos are almost as good as stands in straight combat, I would start looking at CR of the creatures. Try adding up the CR of the two sides and determine what is left (My guess is part of the undead horde) and compare the remaining creatures' CR to encounter building against the PCs. The defenses may be enough to make this not a very difficult encounter.
The following is back of the napkin shenanigans. Feel free to ignore it.
So 3 guards, 2 thugs, 3 scouts, 10 commoners, a priest, and an acolyte would be one possible configuration of the town.
3 * 1/8 + 2 * 1/2 + 3 * 1/2 + 10 * 0 + 2 + 1/4 = 5 1/8 CR
Bad Guys
60 zombies, 2 skeletons, 3 ogre zombies, 1 cult fanatic
60 * 1/4 + 2 * 1/4 + 3 * 2 + 2 = 23 1/2 CR
Yeah, I know comparing CR doesn't really work this way. Anyway, the priest cancels out the cult fanatic. 2 skeletons and 11 zombies cancel out the guards, thugs, scouts, and acolyte. This leaves the PCs to deal with 49 zombies and 3 ogre zombies.
My encounter builder puts this at 10 times a deadly encounter. Better be lots of defenses.
Okay. Random musings about encounter difficulty are done.
With regards to walls and gates, check the DMG for rules for damaging objects. In general objects still have an AC. The AC in this case represents not whether it is hit but whether the hit does any damage. Walls also sometimes have damage reduction.
I really like this scenario, although it seems like it may be a death trap for the good guys. How large is the town? 60 stands of zombies could easily encircle a square town 12 squares (240 feet) to a side. Will the PCs learn about the necromancer ahead of time? If so, another mission may be for a couple of the PCs to sneak out with a couple stands of skirmishers and sneak around behind to try to take out the necromancer from behind while the bulk of the zombies are assaulting the town. If the necromancer goes down, all the zombies either fall over or start wandering aimlessly in confusion.
Thanks for the math! And the suggestions. Very helpful!
I dropped it down to 400 zombies. Could go lower maybe?
Yeah, they'll know about the necromancer from the refugees. If they lose the battle they can retreat to the Chapel or Armory and fortify there. I'll give them plenty of outs.
Look for excuses for the cavalry to arrive if the PCs are getting overwhelmed. Did they send runners to nearby villages? Did they give the runners their own horses? Of course, it's totally badass for the cavalry to arrive just after the PCs' victory.
With a force that size against them, I think you should prepare for the PCs to not hold the village but fight a series of delaying actions - even luring the zombies into the village and torching the place. After all, the village has got a wall around it and a moat and the choke points can just as easily hold the zombies in as out.
Lowered it to 400 zombies and yeah, I'll have the NPCs recommend retreating to the armory/chapel if they're overrun, or anything else the PCs think of.
Undead fortitude is not a question of thematics, it's a question of how incredibly powerful of a force multiplier it is in a large scale combat situation, especially considering the attackers outnumber the defenders by a factor of 6. Remember, the 10 zombies only collectively need 1 hp to be at full killing capacity, and they don't suffer from morale penalties.
Fortunately, if you use victory points, you can work around that. Kill off the ogre zombies (one point each), the cultist (one or two points), and defend the gates and rear for a few turns (one point each per turn), and that should give them enough points (10) to win in a relatively short amount of table time (but still potentially hours in game). If cultist is still alive then, they could fall back with the remains of the zombie horde to plan a better route of attack for a later day. Alternatively, if the cultist is dead, the zombies could mindlessly scatter with their threat still looming in the shadows, or simply reanimate depending on how brutal you want to be.
Once they hit 10 VP the day is won and the rest of the zombies are mopped up / scattered.
I've tuned the encounter based on feedback:
Village Fortifications:
- moat circling the village, 10 feet wide, shallow water
- 20ft tall wall, units can walk on top, 300hp (? no idea what the HP should be)
- 20ft wide gate, wood reinforced with steel, 200hp (? no idea)
- any make-shift barricades, auto-hit, 50-100hp (? also no idea)
Village Side:
- PCs = each a solo, can be commanders
- 30 guards = 3 stands of guards, work as regiments
- 2 thugs = 2 solos, can be commanders
- 3 scouts = 3 solos? Or do I let the PCs find 7 more scouts and they become a stand? Work as skirmishers
- 100 commoners = 10 stands of commoners
- 1 priest + 10 clergy = 1 solo and 1 stand
Zombie Horde side:
- 400 zombies = 40 stands
- 20 skeleton archers = 2 stands
- 3 ogre zombies = 3 solos, deals triple damage to structures, can't be commanders
- 1 cult fanatic = 1 solo, can be commander
- undead are fearless in battle, auto-succeed morale checks
- zombies have nerfed undead fortitude, it only works once
Village Objectives:
- destroy a ogre zombie = 1 VP, max 3
- destroy all skeleton archers = 2 VP
- destroy 100 zombies = 1 VP, max 6
- defeat the cult fanatic = 5 VP
Horde Objectives:
- destroy a wall = 5 VP
- destroy the gates = 5 VP
- defeat a PC = 1 VP
- defeat 4 stands = 1 VP
- defeat 3 non-PC solos = 1 VP
Village Tactics:
- follow PC commands
- PCs given rings that permit telepathic communication amongst them and the other solos/commanders
Horde Tactics:
- the main unit comprised of 2 ogre zombie solos and 33 stands of zombies heads for the gate
- a unit of skeletal archers (2 stands) moves behind the main unit to fire at defenders on the walls
- a secondary unit of 1 ogre zombie solo and 5 stands of zombies heads for a back wall, regiment
- the cult fanatic commands her own unit of 2 zombie stands and hangs back until the Villagers gain 5 VP, and then she moves into combat
Though it would make sense for the horde to attack at night, which further penalizes the defenders. Maybe.. I won't do that.
