sounds positively evil. I love it.
The evil horde on the march - what defenses would they have?
- Thread starter NewJeffCT
- Start date
sounds positively evil. I love it.
The_Warlock
Explorer
That is a good point, Fireball is the artillery of the magic world. But in a magic world, you never send a pure fighting force against a magic fighting force.
The leaders of the horde would utilize tactics and strategy based on their knowledge.
Pretty sure they have a fair amount of mid-level casters? Stop your army outside of easy magic artillery range, send in your airborne or magic resistant skirmishers.
Keep casters in reserve to counter inbound magic hurlers.
Once the skirmishers are engaged with their artillery, either picking it off, distracting, or forcing it to use it's attacks less effectively, only then does the melee force start moving in, preferably with it's own low level artillery and counter magicians. Also, it's initial rush will likely be in skirmish formation, spread out to prevent extreme casualty from AoE effects.
Fireball and such will get through on both sides, but as long as the horde isn't just sticking it's face in the proverbial sink of razor blades, it's not a foregone conclusion. It becomes test of numbers versus quality versus tactics and strategy.
Remember, your villains live in this magic world. They will use tactics that minimize their casualty rates based on the most prevalent attacks in this world. They won't simply resort to real world tactics assuming a vacuum of knowledge of their own world.
Should be fun, and great tableau to have multiple PC encounters to help handle the heavy hitters.
The leaders of the horde would utilize tactics and strategy based on their knowledge.
Pretty sure they have a fair amount of mid-level casters? Stop your army outside of easy magic artillery range, send in your airborne or magic resistant skirmishers.
Keep casters in reserve to counter inbound magic hurlers.
Once the skirmishers are engaged with their artillery, either picking it off, distracting, or forcing it to use it's attacks less effectively, only then does the melee force start moving in, preferably with it's own low level artillery and counter magicians. Also, it's initial rush will likely be in skirmish formation, spread out to prevent extreme casualty from AoE effects.
Fireball and such will get through on both sides, but as long as the horde isn't just sticking it's face in the proverbial sink of razor blades, it's not a foregone conclusion. It becomes test of numbers versus quality versus tactics and strategy.
Remember, your villains live in this magic world. They will use tactics that minimize their casualty rates based on the most prevalent attacks in this world. They won't simply resort to real world tactics assuming a vacuum of knowledge of their own world.
Should be fun, and great tableau to have multiple PC encounters to help handle the heavy hitters.
True, but while they are 800-900 feet in the air, they are not going to be able to "spot" individual targets to pick them out. In a chaotic gnoll horde, they are also likely not marching in perfect lockstep formation like groups of Macedonian pikemen, so they probably won't get full coverage with every fireball, either. Maybe you get 10-15 gnolls with each fireball from that distance? Then, even a level 14 party is going to have a limit to the number of fireballs cast - maybe 10-15? so, they knock off 100-150-250 gnolls out of 5,000?
Then, the casters have to retreat to rest for 8 hours to get their spells back, and that doesn't take into account the horde's minor casters and air support and the spellweaver. Plus, the blackguard is a half-fiend and can fly, if needed.
The thing is, a massive horde cannot move fast. Certainly it moves slower than a few spellcasting harriers. There are many ways for the characters to delay this army and slowly erode its numbers and not all of them depend on spells. The geography for one is extremely important.
And try this out: Energy Transformation Field Living Spell. It is a horrible, horrible creature.
And try this out: Energy Transformation Field Living Spell. It is a horrible, horrible creature.
Where is that spell from? Eberron?
I have access the main Eberron book, but none others.
Energy transformation field was a ridiculously OP spell from Magic of Faerun (which was choke full of OP spells) that survived relatively unchanged to Spell Compendium. It absorbs spells infinitely and uses their levels to cast a single spell. A living spell is a creature template from Eberron that changes a spell into a creature, whose main ability is being able to cast said spell or create that spell's effect. So a Living Energy Transformation Field Spell would be a creature that emanates a zone that absorbs all spells (also spell-like abilities, activated supernatural abilities or activated magic items) and then uses those spell levels to cast something else (feel free to be creative, I suggest a summon monster spell for more marrashi).
Thanks - just looked it up in the spell compendium and it is pretty powerful, since it is a permanent effect.
Heck, a few low level evil shaman/adept types can just hit it with some spells if the PCs are in the area of effect...
True - I already told the players that just because the majority of the Evil Horde is gnolls does not mean the main leadership is not intelligent and not prepared for sneak attacks. I specifically mentioned they will have guard patrols, skirmishers, scouts and air support... heck, even the gnoll leaders probably have a good amount of cunning, in addition to brute force.
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