Need hyper-optimized characters for overwhelming odds

[aboyd]

I'm planning a one-off game featuring 4 to 6 3rd/4th-level characters against 100+ goblins/hobgoblins/bugbears. According to the DMG, such a party can typically handle about 40 goblins before becoming dangerously low on healing/hp/spells/etc. So this is the fun of it -- how to make characters that can withstand more than double their daily maximum?

Things that are in the RAW but are considered broken/overpowered are in desperate need for this battle. No cheating, no munchkinism, but min/maxing is A-OK. I'm providing pre-gen characters to the players, so they can be perfectly tuned to overcoming this battle. The one restriction is that the characters cannot pool their money to buy one single uber-weapon. Each character gets standard resources as per the DMG.

I'm allowing in the core, Spell Compendium, PHB 2, and the Complete books. So I think a wizard with the Abrupt Jaunt special ability will help keep that wizard alive far longer than a normal wizard. And I was thinking a warlock with the summon swarm invocation could eldritch blast for hours, and throw in rat swarms to overwhelm 4 enemies at a time for extra crowd control. I've heard spiked chain fighters can be brokenly badass, too?

What builds can you suggest that might help to make a very optimized team that could do the impossible?

 

[Nifft]

Four Crusaders. Not broken or cheesy, but very durable.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nadaka]

indeed, 4 crusaders would be the absolute most survivable party composition.

As long as they can make melee attacks, they can heal via strikes and martial stance. This is a biggie.

However, they and virtually every other character would be wiped off the floor if each of your enemies was equipped with a bow or crossbow.

 

[aboyd]

The Crusader character class isn't in the books I'm allowing in, is it? I can't find it. Of course, I'm allowing in a lot of books, so perhaps I just haven't flipped through enough pages to find it yet.

 

[Nadaka]

The Crusader character class isn't in the books I'm allowing in, is it? I can't find it. Of course, I'm allowing in a lot of books, so perhaps I just haven't flipped through enough pages to find it yet.

oops, I missed that part. Crusaders are in Tome of Battle: Book of 9 Swords.

I think we need to know more about this group of enemies and the terrain. do they use tight formations, making them susceptible to area attacks? Do they spread out, making it easier to gang up on them in melee? Do they have long range ranged weapons like bows that allow all of them to attack at once? Is there terrain that can be used to an advantage, providing cover against ranged attack or choke points to funnel melee attackers?

Otherwise its going to come down to using a metric ton of scrolls/wands.

Barring that: here is what you might do if you assume an open battlefield.
4 wizards: each casts alter self to gain wings for flight. Each casts protection from arrows. They each have a reserve feat and 1 elemental spell remaining uncast. They fly over the army, killing or maiming 1 enemy per round using reserve feats or crossbows.

The melee attackers can not reach them, the ranged attackers are ineffective. And the shortest duration spell lasts for 40 minutes at level 4. They could only be countered by magical ranged attacks or spellcasting foes.

 

[aboyd]

However, they and virtually every other character would be wiped off the floor if each of your enemies was equipped with a bow or crossbow.

5 squads of 20 enemies each. 2 will be archer squads. This is why I'm thinking that the wizard with Abrupt Jaunt will be effective. If I have an entire squad fire upon the wizard, he should be able to interrupt their action to teleport away. Thus, he completely wastes the actions of 20 archers, and he can do that a few times.

Also, I'm hoping there are at least 2 characters with AC of 20+ which should provide decent protection.

 

[Nadaka]

5 squads of 20 enemies each. 2 will be archer squads. This is why I'm thinking that the wizard with Abrupt Jaunt will be effective. If I have an entire squad fire upon the wizard, he should be able to interrupt their action to teleport away. Thus, he completely wastes the actions of 20 archers, and he can do that a few times.

Also, I'm hoping there are at least 2 characters with AC of 20+ which should provide decent protection.

A relatively normal party could fight this group off, on the condition that they fight in a tunnel no more than 10ft wide, with a roof over their head and a corner to protect them from the massed archers. They might go through a wand of cure light wounds, but it would not be that horrible.

On an open field, it would be very difficult.
40 archers will get an average of 2 hits and per round at up to 1000 feet irregardless of defense. Thats an average of 9 damage. That would require continuous use of 1 to 2 wands of cure light wounds to mitigate damage. Keeping distance is suicide in the long run.

You could also engage at 400ft. THe archers are still likely to only have a 1 in 20 hit chance. But you could use a wand of fireball as artillery to deny them their ranged advantage. This violates your principal of combining wealth, as a fully charged wand of fireball is twice the value of the equipment of a character at that level.

The other option is to close to melee as fast as possible. Then your melee guys can engage their melee guys and get swamped and killed. While your ranged guys engage their ranged guys and are outgunned.

A standard party is going to need a terrain advantage. They will need a way to take cover from the archers, and a way to avoid being surrounded by the melee combatants.

 

[Nadaka]

In any case a wizard with alter self and protection from arrows will generally be more effective at distracting than one with sudden jaunt even in a standard party.

He can fly over the enemy force, provide them with an "easy" target, and engage them at moderate range with spells, reserve feats or crossbow with little chance of being killed. With a decent dex, mage armor, and a wand of shield he can keep a defense in the low 20's with little difficulty. of the 40 or so ranged attackers targeting him, about 8 will score 20's, if we also assume that it takes a 20 to confirm (it is more likely to be 18 or 19 unfortunately) he will take an average of about 0.875 damage per round.

If said wizard was thoughtful enough to also bring scrolls of protection from arrows for the rest of his party, they be able to neutralize the archers for the most part. With a duration of 1 hour per caster level, even the scrolls should last long enough for the party to use them in pre encounter prep time.

 

[Nifft]

The Crusader character class isn't in the books I'm allowing in

As the DM, you are fully empowered to correct that oversight.

Seriously, Crusaders (and ToB classes in general) seem like they were made for this stuff.

Cheers, -- N

 

[aboyd]

I think you're right, Nifft. However, I don't own Bo9S, and this is my first time DMing with most of the Complete books (I've used the books as a player for a long time, though, and love Complete Adventurer). It's an exercise in discovering what I'd allow as a DM in a "normal" campaign. This is why I'm trying to create characters that are abnormally powerful, staying within the rules but exploiting them to the fullest. I want to see how "broken" all the bits are that people say, "that's broken, if you let in Complete _____, you have to exclude that part or houserule it."

I'll get to Bo9S after I'm clear on what I already have. Maybe that's for the next 150-monster battle involving level 8 characters.