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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BiggusGeekus" data-source="post: 2312814" data-attributes="member: 1014">Random thoughts:Personally, I've felt for some time now that the best way to handle mass combat in D&D is to not handle it as an abstract at all.  Get a large patch of floor with 1" counters marked "orc", "human", or whatever.  Then roll initiative.  This has the disadvantage of taking a very long time but you won't have to worry about abstractions causing problems.I agree that the dreadnaught is the key player on the battlefield with the exception of high level (13+) casters.  A DR of 5 lets you plow through enemy formations with a good chance of being OK.  The key would be to get rid of High Value Units (HVU) as soon as possible.  Mopping up the troopers can be done any old time.  But you need to get rid of the teleporters and the dudes who can only be hit by adamantium or whatever.This would not invalidate the concept of a large army.  You still need boots on the ground to control the civilian population, build fortifications, and slow down the enemy's HVUs.  The multiple layers of defense makes sense.  But that would be complimented by dredaught/HVUs that were suited for gurrilla style attacks.  Haste,Improved Invisibility, then Dimension Door or Teleport in.  Blast the crap out of whatever you can in two rounds, then get out.A key defense issue, it would seem, would be to keep the enemy out of spellcasting range.  Say a 500' buffer.In high magic battles, Knowledge (Planes) would be a vital skill as spellcasters would retreat to dimensions where 1 Prime Material hour would equate with 8 alternate-dimension hours.  I don't think there's any getting around the fact that a moderate-to-high magic war would be exceptionally deadly.  One solution would be to have all your high level casters generate magic items for the low-level casters to employ.  So your archmage loses some exp, but it's the 1st level apprentice with a wand of fireballs or wand of wall of force that takes the heat in the field.... just some thoughts.</blockquote>

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