D&D 5E Two vs. thousands
Oofta
Legend
Are you going stealth or frontal assault?
Because the issue I see with wizards/ranged fighters and so on is that wizards will run out of spells, ranged fighters will run out of ammo or be overrun. Yes, they can kill a lot of orcs, but once you get a dozen or so orcs grappling/dog-piling you're over.
Meteor storm could take out a bunch of orcs, but how are you going to find the remains of the captives under all the other burned corpses?
I'd go the stealthy/enchantment route. An enchanter could polymorph himself and dominate/charm to get the hostages. Probably take a trickster rogue along for support in case you need to remove anyone inconvenient.
Or just have a high level wizard. Turn invisible, fly in. Get to where the hostages are, wall of fire/force/stone around the location. Cast teleportation circle handy to get away. If there are orcs with the hostages, bring a bard to charm them.
Because the issue I see with wizards/ranged fighters and so on is that wizards will run out of spells, ranged fighters will run out of ammo or be overrun. Yes, they can kill a lot of orcs, but once you get a dozen or so orcs grappling/dog-piling you're over.
Meteor storm could take out a bunch of orcs, but how are you going to find the remains of the captives under all the other burned corpses?
I'd go the stealthy/enchantment route. An enchanter could polymorph himself and dominate/charm to get the hostages. Probably take a trickster rogue along for support in case you need to remove anyone inconvenient.
Or just have a high level wizard. Turn invisible, fly in. Get to where the hostages are, wall of fire/force/stone around the location. Cast teleportation circle handy to get away. If there are orcs with the hostages, bring a bard to charm them.
Greenstone.Walker
Adventurer
A couple of wizards (and maybe some simlacrums) sneak in to the hostages, either astrally or etherally or in cloud form or similar.
They teleport themselves and all the hostages out.
They open a planar gate and rush all the hostages through it.
They polymorph all the hostages into mice and carry them away.
They polymorph all the hostages into velociraptors and tell them to fight their own dam way out.
They teleport themselves and all the hostages out.
They open a planar gate and rush all the hostages through it.
They polymorph all the hostages into mice and carry them away.
They polymorph all the hostages into velociraptors and tell them to fight their own dam way out.
merwins
Explorer
Good question, hinted at earlier.
The story would support either approach, so for the moment I'm flexible. The PC party leans toward stealth, except for one armored, slow member.
If the high level NPCs went in loud, the PCs could go stealth, or vice versa.
The terrain is light forest and low rolling hills.
And as far as the hostages, they are expressly helpless noncombatants. The orcs are alert for teleport circles, and casting time may present a complication. .
I'mmmmmm gonna say...hmmm...if we're talking let's just arbitrarily say 15th level...
Gonna need a rogue...I'm going to say an Arcane Trickster because a little extra distractionary/disguisey/disappeary magic certainly can't hurt...
...annnnnd...I'm gonna go with land druid. Large scale terrain and crowd control as necessary. Shapeshifting for scouting and/or packing a punch if needed.
Mostly, it's going to be an "infiltration." Fight/kill-to-keep quiet when necessary. Obviously the guards will need to be dealt with. But generally speaking, other than where the hostages actually are being held and the escape should be where all of your fighting needs to happen.
This is, of course, assuming you're talking about a thousand orcs in an established base/habitat (for 1,000 of them, I would assume so).
If it's 1,000 orc warriors in an army holding a bunch of people in a camp somewhere...probably keep the druid...but, well, actually, slipping in and out with minimum interactions is probably best. So, yeah. Same team.
If what you WANT (and your players understand) is going to be a toe-to-toe slaughter fest through ranks of fighters to get to the hostages and then, "YAY they're free [when all of the orcs are dead or fled]!" Probably need some serious heavy hitting...maybe a paladin...I don't think a barbarian could really stand their ground for too long...maybe a Champion Fighter...or, really, just use two druids or a druid and a cleric...druid and a wizard....just take out whole swathes of the enemy at a time, while maintaining protective spells or generating additional combatants (woodland beings comes to mind).
Yeah, bottom line, for 2 vs. 1,000 need to rely heavily on magic.
Gonna need a rogue...I'm going to say an Arcane Trickster because a little extra distractionary/disguisey/disappeary magic certainly can't hurt...
...annnnnd...I'm gonna go with land druid. Large scale terrain and crowd control as necessary. Shapeshifting for scouting and/or packing a punch if needed.
Mostly, it's going to be an "infiltration." Fight/kill-to-keep quiet when necessary. Obviously the guards will need to be dealt with. But generally speaking, other than where the hostages actually are being held and the escape should be where all of your fighting needs to happen.
This is, of course, assuming you're talking about a thousand orcs in an established base/habitat (for 1,000 of them, I would assume so).
If it's 1,000 orc warriors in an army holding a bunch of people in a camp somewhere...probably keep the druid...but, well, actually, slipping in and out with minimum interactions is probably best. So, yeah. Same team.
If what you WANT (and your players understand) is going to be a toe-to-toe slaughter fest through ranks of fighters to get to the hostages and then, "YAY they're free [when all of the orcs are dead or fled]!" Probably need some serious heavy hitting...maybe a paladin...I don't think a barbarian could really stand their ground for too long...maybe a Champion Fighter...or, really, just use two druids or a druid and a cleric...druid and a wizard....just take out whole swathes of the enemy at a time, while maintaining protective spells or generating additional combatants (woodland beings comes to mind).
Yeah, bottom line, for 2 vs. 1,000 need to rely heavily on magic.
A high level wizards with a warlock or sorcerer could do it pretty easily. Cast Scrying to find out where the hostages are, then cast Teleport to them. Wizard casts Wall of Force in a 20x30 rectangle around the hostages while the other starts killing any enemies that are within. The Wizard then begins casting Teleportation Circle to escape with the hostages. Optimally, this should be done while a diversion force attacks the orcs, ready to withdraw shortly after the orcs engage. After a Long Rest, the spellcasters should be able to drop flaming death to clean up the orcs
Lucas Blackstone
Explorer
Druid turns into a mosquito. Mosquito/druid flies into area with hostages. Mosquito/druid casts Animal Shapes and turns all the hostages into mosquitoes. Mosquitoes fly away. Hooray!
There's not enough details for me to know if this would not work, but if the hostages are near each other it should be fine.
There's not enough details for me to know if this would not work, but if the hostages are near each other it should be fine.
You only need 1 character if level 18 is the cap.
Level 18 Wizard of either Illusion (cheating) or Evocation (hilarious).
Several methods:
1. Evoker casts Arcane Eye/Scrying on the hostages. He can now see them, so he casts Meteor Swarm and Sculpts it around the hostages (both the Evocation ability and by MS placement). All Orcs dead and hostages just fine.
Could do same trick with a Simulacrum. Main Wizard casts Invisibility, Simmy casts Fly. Simmy moves to the hostages and drops a Meteor Swarm, or cast Wall of Force as main Wiz casts MS.
2. Illusion Wiz has waaaaay too many possibilities to list with their level 14 ability. Off the bat, I can think of using Hallucinatory Terrain or Mirage Arcana for a mountain with a pocket of air inside for the hostages to suddenly become real. MS the rest as the mountain protects them, then Dispel Magic the mountain to get to the hostages.
3. Use Etherealness. Walk to hostages. Do whatever Wizard stuff to get them out.
4. Why is everyone using Teleportation Circle? Use Mords Mag Mansion to party in style before teleporting everyone out via Plane Shift. Or better yet, use a prepared (food, water, etc) Demiplane to go to before heading elsewhere. Only takes 1 Action to cast and have your Simmy use Dispel Magic to remove the entrance after everyone runs in.
5. True Polymorph -> Demilich for you and your Simmy. Congrats, you're Immune to nonmagical weapons (assuming just thousands of basic orcs means they can't do crap to you) and can just go around Howling + Energy Draining every Orc to death. Or cast Sending to the hostages and tell them to cover their ears. Then True Polymorph into an Androsphinx (immune to nonmagical) and Roar 3 times. All orcs = dead.
Honestly one high level Wizard has so much at their disposal it really isn't fair. A Moon Druid could accomplish it on their own as well depending on the circumstance (Earth Elemental to earth glide until you find hostages, then use Tree Stride or something I guess?), but a Wizard can do it under really any circumstance.
*edit*
New favorite idea. Illusion Wizard uses Mirage Arcana to make a hole 60+ feet deep and 70+feet in diameter near the encampment. Then use Antipathy/Sympathy on a rock floating above the pit (high enough so that it can be seen from all directions out to several miles), specifying Orcs as the creature type. Within 10 days, every Orc is dead from the fall damage. Or just use the Antipathy and after 10 days every Orc has fled the area so just stroll in.
Level 18 Wizard of either Illusion (cheating) or Evocation (hilarious).
Several methods:
1. Evoker casts Arcane Eye/Scrying on the hostages. He can now see them, so he casts Meteor Swarm and Sculpts it around the hostages (both the Evocation ability and by MS placement). All Orcs dead and hostages just fine.
Could do same trick with a Simulacrum. Main Wizard casts Invisibility, Simmy casts Fly. Simmy moves to the hostages and drops a Meteor Swarm, or cast Wall of Force as main Wiz casts MS.
2. Illusion Wiz has waaaaay too many possibilities to list with their level 14 ability. Off the bat, I can think of using Hallucinatory Terrain or Mirage Arcana for a mountain with a pocket of air inside for the hostages to suddenly become real. MS the rest as the mountain protects them, then Dispel Magic the mountain to get to the hostages.
3. Use Etherealness. Walk to hostages. Do whatever Wizard stuff to get them out.
4. Why is everyone using Teleportation Circle? Use Mords Mag Mansion to party in style before teleporting everyone out via Plane Shift. Or better yet, use a prepared (food, water, etc) Demiplane to go to before heading elsewhere. Only takes 1 Action to cast and have your Simmy use Dispel Magic to remove the entrance after everyone runs in.
5. True Polymorph -> Demilich for you and your Simmy. Congrats, you're Immune to nonmagical weapons (assuming just thousands of basic orcs means they can't do crap to you) and can just go around Howling + Energy Draining every Orc to death. Or cast Sending to the hostages and tell them to cover their ears. Then True Polymorph into an Androsphinx (immune to nonmagical) and Roar 3 times. All orcs = dead.
Honestly one high level Wizard has so much at their disposal it really isn't fair. A Moon Druid could accomplish it on their own as well depending on the circumstance (Earth Elemental to earth glide until you find hostages, then use Tree Stride or something I guess?), but a Wizard can do it under really any circumstance.
*edit*
New favorite idea. Illusion Wizard uses Mirage Arcana to make a hole 60+ feet deep and 70+feet in diameter near the encampment. Then use Antipathy/Sympathy on a rock floating above the pit (high enough so that it can be seen from all directions out to several miles), specifying Orcs as the creature type. Within 10 days, every Orc is dead from the fall damage. Or just use the Antipathy and after 10 days every Orc has fled the area so just stroll in.
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A high level wizards with a warlock or sorcerer could do it pretty easily. Cast Scrying to find out where the hostages are, then cast Teleport to them. Wizard casts Wall of Force in a 20x30 rectangle around the hostages while the other starts killing any enemies that are within. The Wizard then begins casting Teleportation Circle to escape with the hostages. Optimally, this should be done while a diversion force attacks the orcs, ready to withdraw shortly after the orcs engage. After a Long Rest, the spellcasters should be able to drop flaming death to clean up the orcs
Just FYI, this wouldn't work without a Simulacrum.
Spells with casting times of more than 1 Action (Teleportation Circle) require Concentration to cast during that time, which would drop the Wall of Force. Better off using Demiplane or Mords Mag Mansion then work from there.
Rya.Reisender
Explorer
In a world where resurrection is a thing, I wonder if the hostages will be angry on you for first killing them by a meteor and then resurrecting them. Like, would they be ok with that?That's where the cleric with resurrection comes in!
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