The evil horde on the march - what defenses would they have?

[NewJeffCT]

I have posted a few threads on my evil horde the past few weeks and got a lot of great information. (Thanks to Loonook for the shadows idea and nymrohd for marrash on the air defenses... and thanks to a bunch of people on ideas of what the horde would do when they're encamped.)

Here is the air support thread:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...upport-would-evil-horde-have.html#post4777559

And, the thread about defenses while encamped:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...hat-protections-would-my-evil-horde-have.html

The game is a long-running 3.5E game. It is a big group of 7 players at level 14.

This is an army of thousands of humanoids - mostly gnolls - being led by a half-fiend blackguard, a large demon and a spellweaver. It is an army bred for one purpose: to destroy the world of men. They will be there by nightfall.

My initial intention was for the PCs to have a showdown with the leadership of the horde (and a few bodyguards...), after the small human army from the city being marched upon attacks the front lines of the evil horde and hopefully splits their forces. (The city forces are led by a powerful paladin, so chances are his forces will attract some attention)

The evil horde also have assorted lower level casters: shamen/adepts/sorcerers/clerics.

The army has air support, mainly in dire vultures and marrash (fiendish flying gnolls)

The players, however, think they can do a hit & run assault on the army via teleport in and teleport out, and take out one of the bigwigs in 2-3 rounds. They have also bandied about a few of them just fireballing the evil army from 800 feet in the air.

Now, as DM, I would think an evil horde would have some protections against hit & run attacks from mages and sorcerers on the good side, but what? The army will obviously have skirmishers and scouts to prevent conventional attacks, but what about magical ones? What would be some good protections while they are on the move?

Personally, I think it's suicide for them to take on an entire army like that when it can focus its defenses on stopping sneak attacks, but that is just me.

Thanks!

 

[Bungus]

Thanks!

perhaps a few casters mounted on the dire vultures to deal with possibly attacks from the air. A few dispel magics placed on flyers could be potentially devastating if they are 800 feet up like you say. maybe a marrash shamen/adept as well?

for protections, have some things cast onto items that the evil horde carries with them? i would have to look up which defensive spells can be used that way vs ones that stay stationary. maybe some mundane disguises of some major baddies to fake out True Seeing or similar spells?

good luck.

 

[Ulrick]

Do the Gnolls have engineers in their ranks?

If so, maybe they can do as the Romans did. They can build a wooden stockade every night before they encamp. Perhaps the spell casters can assist them. Maybe the stockade has wards in certain places for additional protection.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Do the Gnolls have engineers in their ranks?

If so, maybe they can do as the Romans did. They can build a wooden stockade every night before they encamp. Perhaps the spell casters can assist them. Maybe the stockade has wards in certain places for additional protection.

I'm not too worried about protections when they encamp. That was already taken care of in another thread I posted last week.

What I was concerned about was what is to prevent the PCs (or some wizards/sorcerers from the city), from just flying 800 feet above the army while they advance to siege the human city, and lobbing fireballs down on them until they're out of spells?

 

[Dausuul]

Okay, so you've really got two different challenges here to defend against - aerial assault by PC mages, and good old "scry-'n-die."

Regarding aerial assault - you said the army has air support with dire vultures and marrash, so why is this a problem? Can't the air support take out or at least challenge attempts by the PCs to bombard from on high? If the existing air support isn't enough, have the big demon gate in flying reinforcements (this may require giving it some extra abilities). 3.X demons are notorious for that sort of thing.

As for scry-'n-die (the teleport in, massacre one target, teleport out tactic), that's a trickier business; as a rule, scry-'n-die results in either complete success or the death of the entire attacking force. Presumably you don't want a TPK, but you also don't want to let the PCs knock off the leadership of the army one by one.

Here's a suggestion: Have a bunch of specialized gnoll shamans whose job is to counter enemy wizard tactics. Let the PCs teleport in and nuke their first target - no reason you can't allow them a bit of initial success. During the couple of rounds in which they're laying the smack down, however, a bunch of these gnoll shamans gather in a circle around them, chanting.

Then they try to teleport out - and the spell fails. The wizard can't even complete the casting (i.e., it doesn't disappear from the wizard's prepared spells). The wizard can immediately tell that the chanting gnolls are the ones preventing the party's escape.

The party then gets swarmed by gnolls and mid-grade demons and beaten within an inch of their lives. If they have the brains God gave a tuna fish, they'll concentrate on killing the gnoll shamans so they can get the hell out. Let them escape in the end, but it should be clear that trying a stunt like that again could very easily result in a TPK.

This way, the PCs get the satisfaction of succeeding with their plan, you establish that this plan cannot be repeated indefinitely, and if it plays out right, you can bask in a couple rounds of sheer terror as the PCs realize they're trapped in the middle of an entire hostile army.

Alternatively, if you don't want to get that tricky, just give the shamans magic items that block teleportation within a given radius, and have them spread throughout the army. The PCs try to teleport in and the spell fizzles. This is an obvious and elementary precaution in a world containing folks who can teleport.

 

[NewJeffCT]

This way, the PCs get the satisfaction of succeeding with their plan, you establish that this plan cannot be repeated indefinitely, and if it plays out right, you can bask in a couple rounds of sheer terror as the PCs realize they're trapped in the middle of an entire hostile army.

Alternatively, if you don't want to get that tricky, just give the shamans magic items that block teleportation within a given radius, and have them spread throughout the army. The PCs try to teleport in and the spell fizzles. This is an obvious and elementary precaution in a world containing folks who can teleport.

Thanks

When the evil horde encamps, there will be "Anticipate Teleport" spells set up, as well as other spells, like simple Alarm spells and other warning type spells.... Anticipate Teleport, though, gives the evil horde a round (or three for the advanced version.) to prepare. Even one round is a huge difference, as it gets rid of surprise and allows the bad guys to ready an action.

And, they do have other flying creatures besides dire vultures and marrash (flying gnolls)...I could have them leading the high altitude flyers, as opposed to others that fly at lower altitudes for scouting and skirmishing.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

New Monster:

Dispelling swarm.


Go with something thematic...maybe bring in some vulturelike weirdness from whereever the spellweaver is from in your game (far realm).

Swarms are autohit, and they are a way to challenge high level pcs with en masse lower cr guys.

If the swarm also dispels magic (a very reasonable adaptation if evolving in a place with spellweavers), they can take out the flying hit and run guys.



Maybe electric clouds? There was a dispelling will o'wisp that ate magic in second edition (had a different name). A bunch of these of tiny or diminutive size would be reasonable.

EDIT: I think I was thinking of either Nishruu or Nyth from Monsters of Faerun (3rd ed).

I'd just take another swarm and give it electrical instead of physical damage and also allow for dispel magics when in contact.

 

[Nymrohd]

The spell that protects you from scry-teleporters while encamped does the job perfectly well on the march. Anticipate Teleportation is an emanation not a fixed point spell so your villain carries it with him.

The marrashi are reasonably fast and a wizard who tries to fireball an army that has a group of shades flying over it for support will die fast. And ofc you have to have a few wands of dispel magic lying around to ground flying spellcasters.

Your villain is closing in on http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrazyPrepared status!

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Other interesting options:

Check out Deadborn vultures in MM 5

Tempest and windghost from MM 2


and, ARRGH! I can't find it. There is a cloud creature that is thematic with illithids/mindflayers in SOME wotc product that flies way above the ground and I think can rain acid. If I'm remembering correctly, it would be perfect for your horde, but I can't find it right now.

I'll get back to you if I do, or maybe someone else knows what I'm talking about?

 

[Nymrohd]

Not with mindflayers, with kaorti. Fiend Folio skybleeder right?