What would the cr be on.

[jason_gosse]

I am looking to make a . . . well . . . I do not know quite what to call it. I have this plan to have a group of 380 soldiers (level 1 fighters). As the soldiers are killed their strength adds to those still living. When the number drops to 190 they increase to level 2. No rest needed, no down time. Then when there are 63 left they hit level 3. Then when there is 31 left they get level 4. Down to 19, they hit level 5. At 12, level 6. At 9, level 7. At 6, level 8. At 5, level 9. Four left, level 10. Three left, level 11. Two left, level 14. The last soldier would be level 20.
I got these numbers by dividing 190000 the exp needed to reach level 20. By the exp needed to reach each of these other levels.

So what I am wondering what kind of CR should I put on this horde. Also I would like to hear what people think about this.


This may belong to the house rulls but I was not sure.

 

[blargney the second]

If all 380 at 1st take 5 damage then half die, how many hps do the remaining ones get when they go up to 2nd?

 

[Vorput]

Will they gain new magical equipment as they level appropriate to their level? Will their hit points replenish?

If the answers to the two above are yes, I'd say make it CR 20 or 21. A group of characters capable of taking on lvl 15+s will have no problem wiping out huge amounts of the horde early on, and as they start to get harder- it'll even itself out pretty well.

That's my guess on it anyway.

Vorp

 

[jason_gosse]

Will they gain new magical equipment as they level appropriate to their level? Will their hit points replenish?

If the answers to the two above are yes, I'd say make it CR 20 or 21. A group of characters capable of taking on lvl 15+s will have no problem wiping out huge amounts of the horde early on, and as they start to get harder- it'll even itself out pretty well.

That's my guess on it anyway.

Vorp

The answer is yes they gain more hit points, but any lost hp is still lost.
no they will not gain more powerful armor or wepons. I may give them better then normal gear. posibly all master work but that be about it. maybe I will give them bonus ability points to level that off. posibly an ABP per level they go up or maybe even two. this will level out the no magic items but only if I do not go with a magic light game as I am planing.

If all 380 at 1st take 5 damage then half die, how many hps do the remaining ones get when they go up to 2nd?

they get 1d10 + con. I may give them d12 but i'm not sure.
but they would not heal alredy lost hp. so if 1 member was down to 3 hp and then leveld up he would only have max 3 + die + con.

 

[blargney the second]

A couple of thoughts:
1) You'd need a simpler mechanic to keep track of their hps - 380 individual sets is a nightmare. I think a single common hp pool would solve a lot of problems. (Sort of like a mass shield other effect.)
2) If their gear doesn't improve, they will be *massively* less effective at the higher levels. Seriously, fighters without level-appropriate gear are really lousy.

-blarg

 

[jason_gosse]

A couple of thoughts:
1) You'd need a simpler mechanic to keep track of their hps - 380 individual sets is a nightmare. I think a single common hp pool would solve a lot of problems. (Sort of like a mass shield other effect.)
2) If their gear doesn't improve, they will be *massively* less effective at the higher levels. Seriously, fighters without level-appropriate gear are really lousy.

-blarg

Well it is true that 380 individual sets of hp would be a pain. If i had the party at a minimum of level 15 when they took this on then for the first while one hit should kill these in one hit. even when the horde hits level 5.

I am not sure how I could getaway with the wepon and armor power up unless I just have the whole thing evaporate and have there armor strengthen the same way as they do.

 

[blargney the second]

A couple more thoughts:
1) Set an hp threshold to outright kill a given member, as well as drop the communal hps. If you did it ahead of time for each level, it'd just be a boolean whether any single attack kills one right off.
2) There are some level-based equipment equivalents that you could use. For instance, I believe the Dragonscale Husk variant in Dragon Magic gives 6 AC +1 per 3 levels. It would automatically improve as the collective levelled up. The Arcane Archer can automatically increase the enhancement bonus of their projectiles as they increase in level - you could probably kitbash something together for these guys based on that model.

-blarg

 

[darthkilmor]

I may give them better then normal gear. posibly all master work but that be about it.

so say, approx. 500 gp worth of gear per fighter..
380 * 500 = 190kgp of gear, assuming the PC's can move it all. Unless the gear goes poof.

Alternatively, you could poof them on death / 0 hp and have the gear adjust appropriately for each level. So that each level fighter is decked out appropriately. If you sold whatever effect this was as a cloning of say, one fighter at different stages of his life, it would even make sense. So every fighter looked the same, and as they die off and the others become higher level, they become older, better geared, all say the same thing at once, etc.
Then again, maybe at the end the one CR 20 fighter simply says "thank you from saving me from that curse!" and walks off / befriends the PC's.

 

[Amitiel]

There was a alchemy built creature in a Dragon way way way back in the day. They were limited to 8 but they shared the same 'life energy' so they had a group HD and the HP THAC0 and other bonuses were spread amoung them, when one died the energy of that one flowed to the rest and the influx healed them and you redid the split.

An updated version of these things is easy to CR as they had a single HD with some funky SA so they'd be CR 9.

Your horde, I'd take Encounter Calc put 1 in at the final CR of the last member alone, divide the 380 by how many you have to kill to make the rest level, but that number in the second slot as CR 1, calculate with party level. Use the displayed encounter level+2 (for the leveling effect) as CR. ( I hope great cleave and large area effect spells are common in this party.)

 

[jensun]

If their equipment doesnt improve then I really dount this would be that much of a challenge for any group beyond about level 9 or 10.

PC's with the ability to fly or otherwise outmanouver them combined with a single Control Winds spell will destroy most of the Horde.

As they get fewer in number you essentially are just fighting higher HD animals but with really poor damage output.