Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana - The 5E "Battlesystem" Mass Combat Rules Are Here!

The mass combat rules have been posted in the latest Unearthed Arcana. "The D&D combat rules in the Player’s Handbook are designed to model conflict between small groups—an adventuring party of perhaps three to six characters against monster groups that rarely exceed a dozen creatures. Combat on this scale keeps the focus squarely on the adventurers. In some D&D campaigns, though, the story might hinge on battles involving dozens or hundreds of monsters and warriors. In this second installment of Unearthed Arcana, we build on the standard combat rules to model conflict on a much larger scale, allowing players and DMs to control whole armies. At the same time, these rules for mass combat allow individual adventurers to lead an army’s charge against an enemy regiment, rally dispirited soldiers to rejoin the fray, or defeat powerful enemy monsters or leaders."

Find it here! It's a 9-page PDF by Mike Mearls.

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[Prism]

Is it just me, or is initiative in this article pretty much useless? Everyone involved rolls it, but all fights are handled as though they're simultaneous, and combatants rendered a casualty are specifically called out as being able to perform actions, including an attack.

If participants are only ever removed at the end of the round, what difference does it make as to the order attacks are made?

When you remove the importance of initiative on attack order it becomes about movement. Moving into advantageous terrain or moving a unit to block another unit from attacking their desired opponent. So for example you could move a unit of tough highly armoured dwarves into melee with a unit of barbarian skirmishers which were trying to flank your wizards - if you win initiative. I reckon initiative will be very important in the first few rounds while you push for an advantage.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I'm likeing what I see so far. I have to take some time to go more in detail... will be back later...

 

[AverageCitizen]

I am confused. It seems like according to these rules, if a PC can fight an Orc, he can fight 10 Orcs. Am I wrong here?

 

[Minigiant]

Reach is useless until it is 10ft or more. Then it gives a bonus attack if it is... what? what?
Am I reading this right?

 

[Zaran]

I am confused. It seems like according to these rules, if a PC can fight an Orc, he can fight 10 Orcs. Am I wrong here?

If the solo is isolated, the 10 orcs will have advantage and deal double damage.

 

[MerricB]

The rules treat major solo figures as more heroic than they'd otherwise be. I'm fine with this; it's often hard to otherwise make them significant enough on the battlefield (especially in the cases of high-level fighters).

I've been playing a lot of hex'n'counter wargames of late, especially those that model medieval or earlier battles. It'll be interesting to see how this runs in comparison.

Cheers!

 

[Psikerlord#]

I am confused. It seems like according to these rules, if a PC can fight an Orc, he can fight 10 Orcs. Am I wrong here?

You are correct

 

[Queer Venger]

For a play test/draft this is excellent. Looking forward to testing these rules at some point

 

[Li Shenron]

It seems an interesting system to me, although I wish it was simpler. There is always time to add optional rules to make it more complicated later.

I would also like it to work gridless.

The PDF doesn't actually explain this at all, but from what I gather, as soon as you involve solos you need to return to regular combat rounds of 6 seconds, and just play out 10 of them for each battle round.

My impression was that solos still use 1-minutes rounds, even when fighting solo vs solo. The wasted time representing just taking more care at doing actions while in the middle of a larger battle.

But I don't think it would be wrong to pause the main battle and let one player take the spotlight for a one-on-one match against an NPC, if the group likes the idea.

 

[wedgeski]

Hmm, looks good, and is about what I expected in terms of complexity.

Next stop: a streamed battle between Mearls and one of his designer minions? It seems to me that mass combat rules lend themselves to a demonstration more than other playtest material.