D&D 5E War

[Imaculata]

I think you are getting a lot of great advice here. First of all, victory should not be guaranteed, or there are no stakes. I really like the suggestion of ally-cards, and may use that for my own campaign. And I really like the idea of giving the players a mix of small fights (while the war is going on in the background) and minor objectives with difficult choices to make.

I also really like the example of the Dracolich. It is a perfect example of how a crucial decission on the part of the players could seriously affect the battle. The way I'm thinking of integrating these ideas into my own campaign, is by having such an event take ally cards away from the players (they lose a couple of allies by ignoring the Dracolich), or turning the cards over (the allies are temporarely unavailable).

What I think I'll do, is also create crisis-cards. I'll place some of these cards down on the map of the battle, to show where a situation is occuring that the players must either resolve or ignore. They can then choose to place one (or more) of their allies on that crisis, or go solve it themselves. The battlefield will be a large distant overview that shows all the strategic locations of the battle, and not a grid to place minis on.

I think it will be interesting for the players to be placed in the difficult position to choose how to commit their forces. It will also require the players to know the strengths and weaknesses of their allies, similar to Mass Effect's suicide mission. Who do you choose to do what?

 

[delphonso]

Well, I can tell you some things to not do:

I attempted to have my PCs participate in a large-scale battle and gave them battalions which would reflect their behavior. For example, our ranger (archer) had a group of about 50 archers. When he "attacked" he was rolling for the whole group. If he succeeded, then I'd describe the scene of him calling out the target, and arrows raining down on the enemies and roughly how many they saw die out (effectively their hitpoints.) This was just flavor and was in actuality, my 4 players fighting 5 npcs. It was a nice cover to a usual fight, but amplified some problems. Specifically, missing - since it meant 50 people all missed at the same time.

Another time, I tried to place the PCs in the middle of the field during a skirmish. This one went a bit better, since they were trying to keep enemies off them as they moved to a different location. However, this left two or three players without anything to do. Since the enemies were coming endlessly, the spell-caster didn't feel like it was worth it to cast on them, and our heavily armored cleric couldn't keep up with everyone else and fight at the same time. Perhaps at 9th level they have more abilities to get away from these problems.

My advice on some of these topics:
First, you may wish to look at the game Mount and Blade: Warband, since it gives a great feeling for what a siege would be like from the ground (of course, not completely realistically.)

Second, like everyone mentioned, make it smaller scale with important objectives. One way to get them involved in the ground battle is to have their first objective to be a side-entrance (think of the throwing Gimli scene at Helm's Deep). To get there, the PCs would need to rush through an ongoing battle. You might plan out a path and have the PCs rush through, slashing low-level enemies by the tens as they race to their goal. I have used mob-health in this before. Meaning multiple enemies share one health pool.

Finally, I'd suggest they get offered some reason to help the Magocracy, and be given several choices in the form of encounters. Perhaps they're promised riches if the mages can resist the siege. As they rush along the walls, still unsure of their allegiance, they see an oil cauldron which could be poured down on the invaders, or broken backwards to pour on the town's guard - both parties are pushing on the gate below. Some things along those lines would make it less of a giant military battle, and more of a series of decisions in this military setting.

 

[Gwarok]

Honestly, that sounds like an awesome idea, and one oddly enough I just did for my own campaign. If you'd like some inspiration for running it I'd read the "Black Company" books by Glen Cook, the first book especially is all about this type of thing. Great book(s), and fairly easy reading.

Second, I would look up the old basic DND "Companion Set". They have some very simple rules for mass combat and resolving it. Would need some tweeking to fit in 5E, but if you don't need total detail it would be a great way to figure out the overall outcome of battles while running an adventure in the middle of it, and then imagine the effect the PC's actions might have to tip the battle one way or the other. I rolled for the major fight before starting the PC part of it to get the general way I should describe the feel of the battle as the PC's did their thing, and then adjusted the final outcome to represent that.

As luck would have it it was already going to be a crushing victory for the side of Righteousness(I rolled a '01' on D100 and the PC's rolled a '90' for their side), and the PC's did an excellent job overcoming their little corner of it. Turned what I thought would be a deadly ambush by my NPC badguys hunting for them in the middle of the battle into a near full reverse, so overwhelming they almost located and killed the NPC's pulling the strings. Fun times. I wholly endorse your attempts and running this as an adventure and wish you much luck.

 

[Ancalagon]

Imagine a city of geniuses who've had decades to plan and build magical defenses against an invasion. My question is: why do you think the attackers have a sliver of a chance?

Maybe the city is crippled by infighting between the geniuses? Or maybe they are arrogant? Or focused on complex arcane issues and not on defense? Int =/= wisdom.

On the other hand, if the wizards work somewhat well together and are somewhat concerned about town defenses... that could be pure hell.

 

[transtemporal]

Maybe the city is crippled by infighting between the geniuses? Or maybe they are arrogant? Or focused on complex arcane issues and not on defense? Int =/= wisdom.

On the other hand, if the wizards work somewhat well together and are somewhat concerned about town defenses... that could be pure hell.

Yeah you could explain it away like that but they were allied enough to create a city together in the first place and even enemies will (temporarily) put aside their differences to work together against a common foe. Especially wizards, who are generally looked upon with suspicion by regular folk and have good reason to protect themselves.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

My players just hit 9th level, and got news from one of the dwarven queens that she's going to attack the human capitol city in a few weeks. She's got dwarven, drow, and svirfneblin troops with her, and her goal is to overthrow the evil human wizard-kings who rule the land.

There's also an orcish army on its way, and word is they've got ogres, orcs, giants, and a powerful dragon with them.

The human city is home to the wizards' academy, a small horde of undead they control, the city guard and some army troops, and potentially some golems and other constructs. And, of course, several very high level (15-20) wizards.

It's going to be a pretty big fight.

So my questions are: What are some ways I can make it really epic? How can I get the PCs involved in crucial parts of the attack (they're allied with the attackers)? I'm planning for the attackers to succeed in taking the city, but I don't really know what happens next. How would you run something like this? Are there good modules, sourcebooks, etc I should dig into?

If you really want the PCs involved with the crucial parts of the attack, run it like a John Ringo novel: a huge disaster occurs (maybe the human wizard-kings send Invisible Stalkers which succeed in killing 90% of the dwarven/drow/svirfnebling generals and spellcasters) and the PCs have to step up and somehow do the work of a whole army by themselves. Either they die gloriously or they somehow triumph against the odds. It will be memorable either way.

 

[Oofta]

Lot's of great advice. As other have stated I'd find some small but critical missions for the PCs to accomplish - you can even figure out multiple scenarios. They are part of a special forces team and a runner finds them (or they are magically messaged) that they can either do a relatively safe mission that will have minimal impact or a much more dangerous mission that could have a bigger impact.

You can also set up some scenarios where if the group is smart, they can follow up on little things. They notice that the wizard on the wall is talking to someone. But it's odd, the wizard (who is obviously one of the leader types) is being subservient to what looks like a street urchin. What's going on?

I would also have some set pieces where you give brief overviews of the battles. You don't want to do more than a few sentences - the PCs are the center of attention not the NPCs - but describe the scene as dwarven siege engines are being attacked by ogres only to be rescued by the cavalry or some such. The LOTR and Hobbit movies had some scenes you could steal from.

Good luck!

 

[mflayermonk]

Introduce a new technology for war.

During the battle, the bad guys should roll out some new kind of war machine that turns the tide of battle. Everyone then has to figure out how to handle this unexpected form of attack.
This is a common trope in many fantasy stories to make the war exciting and not an easy win. For example, the devil battering ram in Lord of the Rings, the laser-shooting giant from Nausicaa, or the skyships with flamethrowers in Hawkmoon.

Have fun and design an original weapon of war for your bad guys.

 

[Eltab]

Pick up an LFR Battle Interactive adventure, but treat it as a commando mission. The PCs are doing some special ops that 'open doors' for the following army of the massed hordes.

I played one such BI - forget the title, it was an assault on a Netherese castle - with two tables total. We were Special Forces or James Bond instead of an overwhelming steamroller. And we nearly got caught!

 

[Henry]

The town Wizards should have a backup plan - ESPECIALLY if they are evilly-aligned. Some kind of "scorched earth" doom device that the PCs get wind of that, if activated, will mean a highly Pyrrhic victory for the attackers. Maybe an artifact powered by the violence itself somehow, or a prison seal for a Pit Fiend or Tarrasque that takes a lot of complex ritual to enact/break. The PCs have a chance to get wind of this and it is of utmost importance to gum up the plans for the doom device before it looks like te attackers are going to win. They're high enough level to pull something like that off, but low enough level that, if they ignore it or fail, they are powerless to stop the repercussions.