People posting are ignoring disadvantage. A high AC that requires a 20 to hit from a soldier that includes disadvantage has a 1 in 400 chance to hit. The 1000 archers example is foiled by dropping prone and belly crawling to cover. 2-3 arrows would hit. The number of melee soldiers that can it is limited by space and reach. A high AC PC surrounded by 8 soldiers who need a 20 to hit might get hit once per turn by the opposing soldiers and sources of damage reduction or healing can be applied after.
I do think it's possible to build 5e characters capable of facing high numbers like that.
Edit: this poll should have been multi-select and also none as an option.
None would have been a good option. I personally would vote Wizard (dependent on a few things it’s difficult to control) but I’d hasten to add it’s not because they’re OP but because they (Arcane Casters) are the only ones with access to truly devastating AOE spell.
Don’t sorcerers have access to pretty much the same number of devastating AOE spell? Full admission I don’t play or care about Sorcerers in 5e, but I would have expected the polling to show an even split between those two classes.
Sorcerers only get access to about half the spells wizards do. And the total number of spells they know is less than the number of spells a wizard of the same level will have prepared (and significantly less than the total number of spells the wizard will know). That lack of flexibility hurts them badly.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
If the fight is both sides squaring off until one side is dead then as others have mentioned, statistically speaking, eventually the army would crit enough to damage and kill the pc. So you need a PC that can't die to combat this. The answer then is a raging Zealot Barbarian. Just rage, run in, and who cares if they bring your HP down to zero, as long as they can't stop your rage you will win. Eventually.
For the purposes of discussing class flexibility on soloing an army, why hasn’t any time been spent on improving other classes abilities there (AOE Damage), even if it’s something like giving the fighter whirlwind attack, or making some kind of charge with free weapon attacks every time he moves past an enemy? I understand people disliking aspects of 4e (I mostly disliked the way monster hit points and damage in general worked, by memory) but there were a lot of great ideas you could harvest from there while keeping the better part of 5e 5e
If the fight is both sides squaring off until one side is dead then as others have mentioned, statistically speaking, eventually the army would crit enough to damage and kill the pc. So you need a PC that can't die to combat this. The answer then is a raging Zealot Barbarian. Just rage, run in, and who cares if they bring your HP down to zero, as long as they can't stop your rage you will win. Eventually.
Zealots only stay up while they're raging, and rage only lasts for a minute. "Eventually" isn't really going to work.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
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Acromos - actually I’m not assuming the army has no preparations, I am assuming that the army is basically fighting like any non modern army ( and really even a modern army to some extent. It order for a sword/spear and shield army to be effective they have to be close together to support each other and that means they are prime targets for AoEs- the bigger the better.. if the army had any group that stood a decent chance of taking out the caster you wouldn’t need the army - that’s what the SEALs ( oops adventurers) are for. With your restrictions ( no night attacks, a single extended combat, etc) you are trying to present a worst possible scenario that no sane single PC should or would realistically take on. Instead they would fade back, find the bosses and most dangerous members and take them out one/two at a time until the army has no leadership and no good countermeasures then a few spectacular AoEs should set the remains grunts running back to where ever they came from. In addition is that 2000 man army, all fighters or are you including the support troops as well? As an example the Roman century consisted of 80 fighting men, 20 support troops plus officers for a total of about 110 men. The 2000 man army would then actually be 1600 grunts to deal with and about 200 leveled officers (L1-8). Unlike modern militaries that try to spread out camping and movements and concentrate only at the point of attack mideveal and ancient armies had to stay together just to avoid getting lost, as well as to get meals and supplies. While the camps almost certainly cover 3-4 times the space of the battle formations they are still small enough that selected meteor swarms on concentration should attrite the army significantly whether done during the day in formation, on the march or at night in camp. Personally I would be attacking mostly at night after using scrying or other spying techniques to locate commanders and take them out first - once the head is gone the body will die on the vine.
as you read in the title "which 5e class could fight a army solo"
I'm going to ignore the level restriction, and compare best in slot lvl 20 vs a mindless army of 10K CR 1/8 Town Guards, who have the illogical and suicidal idea to kill your character.
First off, any melee class will loose. Thanks to the always hit on a 20 rule. Sure it might take forever, and sure 1 maxed out level 20 (fighter, Barbarian, rogue, and Monk) could take out a few hundred maybe even a few thousand, in the end, they will fall, due to taking days or weeks to fight, not having enough AOE, not being able to rest, or just taking 1 HP damage too many times.
So we look to casters. I would remove half casters, as they don't have access to enough high level Crowd Control to be effective, same with multiclass characters. Sorry Coffee Locks, you can't continue forever, and you can't take a 30minute break with 10k soldiers gunning for you.
So maxed out single class full casters.
Bards, Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers and Wizards
Each of these classes could potentially do it, depending on subclass chosen. With Wizards and Sorcerers being the ones that can do it easiest. (Note a Genie Lock at 20 can as well, as Wish is that strong)
1st you will need to be able to keep yourself safe so you can rest 8 hours after every major engagement. Spells like Magnificent Mansion (Bard & Wizard) will allow you to rest. Being able to summon an Army to protect you is also key, as some of the best spells to fight an Army are rituals and take time to cast. A single Fiend, Draconic spirit, or elemental can do a decent job if you do the big rituals inside a safe space ie Tiny Hut (Bard & Wizard) Awesome tool for this, and it's 3rd level.
Then you use spells like Ravenous Void, Storm of Vengeance, Weird, or even wish (although your DM has to agree your idea is in the scope of what is possible.) My suggestion Maddening Darkness or a Summons, while inside a tiny hut, using a Familiar to cast Touch Spells until you are tired (out of spell slots), jump into the mansion rest, shower, eat well, then repeat.
Required:
1 7th level slot for full rest 1minute ritual cast Magnificent Mansion (Bard & Wizard)
1 3rd level spell for protection while fighting 1 minute ritual cast Tiny Hut (Bard or Wizard)
1 Concentration spell for Damage Maddening Darkness 8th level (Warlock or Wizard), any Damage dealing Summons, to keep enemies at a distance.
1 Find Familiar to cast damaging touch spellsthrough.
Both the familiar and summons can be done in the mansion, and can leave the door to clear room so you can place the tiny hut.
Note: Recommended Summons Summon Fiend as a 9th level Yugoloth.
AC 21, 105HP, 4 attacks per round, melee (Spell attack mod
In order for a sword/spear and shield army to be effective they have to be close together to support each other
That's obviously not true. At all. By even the wildest stretch of the imagination.
It is true vs. cavalry, and it's the only way to fight other packed infantry.
But for any situation featuring effective AoE, you obviously don't want to pack your self together - only to maximise the effectiveness of the enemy AoE. And we have to assume word has gotten round, over the countless millennia of the existance of the fireball spell, that you want to spread out, not pack together. Either that, or the assumption is that the wizard is highly intelligent (a reasonable assumption) but that the army are mindless ants. Which is not.
I have no idea what restrictions you're talking about. Or why you assume there would be any levelled characters in the army. 2000 mooks of no levels what so ever - but decent military training, as represented by relevant stats - will absolutely murder any sinhle pc of any level you wish to present, presumably in one round, in any scenario except where the wizard has had time to leisurely prepare a battlefield with endless traps, endless lines of sight, and so on.
So ... in reality, possibly it becomes a stand-off. If the wizard ever allows himself to be locked down in any sort of unfavourable situation, he will die all but instantly. But he doesn't have to. He can stay in his extradimensional mansion forever - but he cannot enter the city to buy a fancy hat.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
as you read in the title "which 5e class could fight a army solo"
I'm going to ignore the level restriction, and compare best in slot lvl 20 vs a mindless army of 10K CR 1/8 Town Guards, who have the illogical and suicidal idea to kill your character.
First off, any melee class will loose. Thanks to the always hit on a 20 rule.
This is still incorrect. A condition that applies disadvantage to all attackers means the attacker needs to roll two twenties or somehow cancel that disadvantage. So a 14th level EK fighter using blur, for example, and HAM, can cast blur 5 times and carry a lot of healing potions.
A guard (spear and shield) who has a 1 in 400 chance of rolling two 20's would crit for 5 damage after the damage reduction. Flanking is an optional rule, and fighters can avoid flanking with positioning a choke point or backed into a corner. That fighter with a 16 CON has 130 hp, and they are attacking him 3 times per round with decent positioning by the fighter. Statistically, those guards would be lucky to hit once in those 50 rounds of blur. That fighter will drop approximately 100 of those guards (2/turn with 3 attacks) and take 5 damage maybe.
After that, there's a 1 in 20 chance to roll a 20 to hit with a crit for 5 damage. With the same positioning the fighter would take a hit around once every 7 rounds dropping 14 for every 5 points of damage taken. That would drop another 224 guards for 324 guards total over 164 rounds before the fighter runs out of hit point before factoring in second wind and healing potions. Each healing potion heals an average 7 hp to offset the 5 damage every 7 rounds so 12 healing potions (84 hp) plus second wind (19 hp) is another 140 rounds of combat for 280 more guards with a new total of 604.
Let's make the EK a dwarf. A 14th level fighter has 5 feats/ASI's and can include dwarven fortitude in that build at that point to spend hit dice in combat for 119 more hp of healing. That dwarf would have 18 CON instead of 16 and 14 more hp from dwarven toughness for 137 more hp of fighting and would last through another 392 guards and gets to 996 guards in the wave.
Change the character from an EK and go champion as 18th level for the survivor ability (and more hit points). Leaving the safety of the location so that 8 attackers can crit once every 2 rounds when survivor is going to grant 10 hp of healing at that point and the fighter doesn't even need disadvantage from attackers in melee and can crawl prone to give disadvantage to masses of archers. High AC, some DR, and hp recovery below 50% is going to make those guards unable to inflict damage faster than the healing rate.
If we use a 1 CR monster army such as bugbears we are looking at a crit for 17 damage once every 2 rounds and healing 10 every round. The 18th level dwarf in question would have 20 CON, 220 hp, 3 DR, 10 regen < 110hp, and the ability to spend hit dice in combat if really necessary. Plus the option to carry potions. That dwarf champion build would be capable of taking down a 2000 bugbear army in about 3 1/2 hours because by then they are pretty much impervious to trash mob damage.
Imagine for a moment a character protected by Blur - but surrounded by ... let's just say 400 melee mooks. The eight spaces around him are all filled. Now, all those eight take a step forward. Everyone crowding into one space (or as tight as the limitations of physical matter allow). That's disadvantage for everyone, but that doesn't matter, because we simply pile on mooks until our lone hero dies from suffocation.
No melee class can win this. Also, I'm convinced, no caster class. Strength in numbers wins, even against the most horrifying AoE, if even a smidgen of intelligence is applied.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Imagine for a moment a character protected by Blur - but surrounded by ... let's just say 400 melee mooks. The eight spaces around him are all filled. Now, all those eight take a step forward. Everyone crowding into one space (or as tight as the limitations of physical matter allow). That's disadvantage for everyone, but that doesn't matter, because we simply pile on mooks until our lone hero dies from suffocation.
No melee class can win this. Also, I'm convinced, no caster class. Strength in numbers wins, even against the most horrifying AoE, if even a smidgen of intelligence is applied.
Your point here is actually what made me change my vote to Druid. The reason? I realized the power in antilife shell.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
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That's a decent trick. I'd say pikes and archers still defeat it - or rear ranks tossing greek fires. Or just wait it out. Or dispell it. While my cardinal point is classless mooks, I'm not ruling out that the king or general in command couldn't find someone able to counterspell or dispell.
Also, the druid isn't relevant for the melee discussion. Not sure if that's your point or not, but antilife shell ends if you force it against anyone.
Really, I should sit down and count squares.
The range of a longbow is 150. Meaning in range of our caster are 22.499 squares that would hold an archer to shoot at the caster. Or melee, for that matter. But that's not what we want, we want to spread out our 2000 mooks enough that any AoE spell will kill just a few of them. I'm terrible at math, right, but still: Advancing from max range, we have 13 archers on each side, moving forward their move, shooting - repeat until they're too close for comfort. Each round, another 52 archers join, following the same tactics. They'll press together too close as they near, but we'll have to live with that. Or die, as the case may be. Regardless, I'd say the caster has zero chance to win. No matter the class. Unless, as mentioned, the caster has unlimited time to pick and prepare the battlefield. Even then ... use well trained monkeys to set off all the traps, then move in. I'm not certain a prepared battlefield makes any difference at all.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Technically any PC of any level can "fight" an army, they might die quickly but they did fight them.
There are a number of ways a 14th level PC could have a chance of defeating an army though most metohds would not be considered fighting them the approach would depend on their skills and probably would favour spell casters for example
Poison their supplies
Kidnap / Kill the General and disguise yourself as hm and order an assault on a more powerful army
A druid could cast [spel]mirage arcane[/spell] and locate themselves a mile offshore on a area that appears ot be a pennisular if the army are not familiar with the area they will hopefully approach you and before the archers get in range you dispel the mirage turn into a shark or something and swim away leaving them to drown.
To have a chance directly you might have a chance with access to 9th level spells / divine intervention, (while the later is available for a level 14 cleric the odds are not very good). Wish might work though is DM dependant. Another option might be Storm of Vengence though this depends on how packed the army are and how tough they are. If the army are 2000 commoners or possibly guards the initial 2d6 by anyone withing 360 ft of the centre (with a +3 moon sickle thay can not make the save) and even if they try to flee those within 300 ft will take another 1d6. A prolonged aproach against an army with more HP would be to get withing 1 mile of the army cast meteor swarm and then teleport to a safe location rinse and repeat every day until the army is a more managable size.
If the army are able to set up the battlefield as they want they win, even if a 1 mile square battle map is placesd down and the PC and army choose their starting positons the PC can not win (though flight or a form of teleportation might allow them to escape). My approach is the PC and the army both want he other defeated, and are only vaguely aware where the other is (though it is easier for the PC rto spot the army than vice versa).
A 14th level wizard with greater invisibility on them can cast [spell[freezing sphere[/spell] from 300 feet away without the army even knowing it's coming
It's got a 60-ft radius and does more than enough damage to take out common soldiers even if they pass the save
A 60-ft radius sphere covers over 450 squares on a 5x5 grid. If your 1000-strong army is marching in any kind of formation, about half of them just got wiped out before they even realize they're under attack... and the wizard's greater invisibility is still up
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
It's got a 60-ft radius and does more than enough damage to take out common soldiers even if they pass the save
A 60-ft radius sphere covers over 450 squares on a 5x5 grid. If your 1000-strong army is marching in any kind of formation, about half of them just got wiped out before they even realize they're under attack... and the wizard's greater invisibility is still up
Like, how is this even still a discussion
You reduced the 2000 man army in previous posts to 1000 and are assuming the army are marching in a strange and stupid formation. If an army is aware roughly where the enemy is they would tend to be in a very wide line (or several wide lides) with the aim of getting so they can attack all sides as many soldiers as possible have a clear view of the land ahead where the enemy is expected to be and to prevent the enemy escaping, the later might not apply if they know hte enemy is a wizard who can teleport away (though they might not know if he can teleport). Howewever if they know he is a poweful wizard with AOE attacks they would spread out. If they are unaware of the wizard are are just marching from one location to another they would probably be on some sort of road maybe 5 or 6 abreast. In any case if the army are in a more typical formation of being say 10 ft apart is retangular formations 5 deep or 5 wide that freezing sphere will be taking out less than 100.
What do you expect the army to do next they would have see the "frigid globe of cold energy streaking from your fingers" (though they would not have seen the fingers) but would probably suspect you would move after giving away your location so they spread out further to minimise the impact of another AOE and ready their long bows to fire the next time your location is revealed.
Lets assume the archers are scouts (+4 to hit 6 damage) and the wizard has +3 dex and mage armor (AC of 16 which will increase to 21 if they cast shield). The Archers shooting at disadvantage need a natural 17 to hit so 4% (0.25% will be crits). Even if only 500 remained as soon as the wizard reveal his location they can expect 20 arrows to hit causing 120 HP of damage more than enough to kill the wizard.
You reduced the 2000 man army in previous posts to 1000 and are assuming the army are marching in a strange and stupid formation.
No, I'm assuming they're just marching in regular lines. 25 x 40 or whatever
If an army is aware roughly where the enemy is
They're not, because the enemy is invisible and they're not expecting an attack
they would tend to be in a very wide line (or several wide lides)
Fine, spread them out more. The wizard can then just specifically target the archers with the first spell. That first attack is still taking out about 20 percent of them, which is going to cause absolute chaos and panic after it hits
with the aim of getting so they can attack all sides as many soldiers as possible have a clear view of the land ahead where the enemy is expected to be
Surprise! Their enemy isn't a standing army directly ahead of them, it's a single powerful caster who can be anywhere
In any case if the army are in a more typical formation of being say 10 ft apart is retangular formations 5 deep or 5 wide that freezing sphere will be taking out less than 100.
Soldiers do not generally march 10 feet apart -- how wide do you think this road is, anyway? -- and I don't think you realize how big an area a 60-foot sphere actually covers
What do you expect the army to do next they would have see the "frigid globe of cold energy streaking from your fingers" (though they would not have seen the fingers) but would probably suspect you would move after giving away your location so they spread out further to minimise the impact of another AOE and ready their long bows to fire the next time your location is revealed.
Anybody with obvious ranged weapons would be the first to die
Lets assume the archers are scouts (+4 to hit 6 damage) and the wizard has +3 dex and mage armor (AC of 16 which will increase to 21 if they cast shield). The Archers shooting at disadvantage need a natural 17 to hit so 4% (0.25% will be crits). Even if only 500 remained as soon as the wizard reveal his location they can expect 20 arrows to hit causing 120 HP of damage more than enough to kill the wizard.
Shooting at disadvantage doesn't matter if you don't even know where you're aiming. If the wizard moves up to 30 feet from where the first cast came from, that is again a massive area the archers have to cover with their shots -- 169 possible squares, if I'm not mistaken
So let's say 500 archers did survive, and are so incredibly well trained that none of them flee after seeing the massive immediate casualties. If they divide their shots evenly among all the possible spots the wizard could be, that's only about three shots per square that even have that 4 percent chance of hitting. The rest are landing in empty space -- and that's assuming the wizard doesn't have some boost to movement that takes them out of that 30-foot area (say, if they cast longstrider on themselves before attacking)
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Paladin is pretty bad donkey.
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People posting are ignoring disadvantage. A high AC that requires a 20 to hit from a soldier that includes disadvantage has a 1 in 400 chance to hit. The 1000 archers example is foiled by dropping prone and belly crawling to cover. 2-3 arrows would hit. The number of melee soldiers that can it is limited by space and reach. A high AC PC surrounded by 8 soldiers who need a 20 to hit might get hit once per turn by the opposing soldiers and sources of damage reduction or healing can be applied after.
I do think it's possible to build 5e characters capable of facing high numbers like that.
Edit: this poll should have been multi-select and also none as an option.
now that i think about that
mmmmmmm
i agree
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None would have been a good option. I personally would vote Wizard (dependent on a few things it’s difficult to control) but I’d hasten to add it’s not because they’re OP but because they (Arcane Casters) are the only ones with access to truly devastating AOE spell.
Don’t sorcerers have access to pretty much the same number of devastating AOE spell? Full admission I don’t play or care about Sorcerers in 5e, but I would have expected the polling to show an even split between those two classes.
Sorcerers only get access to about half the spells wizards do. And the total number of spells they know is less than the number of spells a wizard of the same level will have prepared (and significantly less than the total number of spells the wizard will know). That lack of flexibility hurts them badly.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
If the fight is both sides squaring off until one side is dead then as others have mentioned, statistically speaking, eventually the army would crit enough to damage and kill the pc. So you need a PC that can't die to combat this. The answer then is a raging Zealot Barbarian. Just rage, run in, and who cares if they bring your HP down to zero, as long as they can't stop your rage you will win. Eventually.
For the purposes of discussing class flexibility on soloing an army, why hasn’t any time been spent on improving other classes abilities there (AOE Damage), even if it’s something like giving the fighter whirlwind attack, or making some kind of charge with free weapon attacks every time he moves past an enemy? I understand people disliking aspects of 4e (I mostly disliked the way monster hit points and damage in general worked, by memory) but there were a lot of great ideas you could harvest from there while keeping the better part of 5e 5e
Zealots only stay up while they're raging, and rage only lasts for a minute. "Eventually" isn't really going to work.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Acromos - actually I’m not assuming the army has no preparations, I am assuming that the army is basically fighting like any non modern army ( and really even a modern army to some extent. It order for a sword/spear and shield army to be effective they have to be close together to support each other and that means they are prime targets for AoEs- the bigger the better.. if the army had any group that stood a decent chance of taking out the caster you wouldn’t need the army - that’s what the SEALs ( oops adventurers) are for. With your restrictions ( no night attacks, a single extended combat, etc) you are trying to present a worst possible scenario that no sane single PC should or would realistically take on. Instead they would fade back, find the bosses and most dangerous members and take them out one/two at a time until the army has no leadership and no good countermeasures then a few spectacular AoEs should set the remains grunts running back to where ever they came from. In addition is that 2000 man army, all fighters or are you including the support troops as well? As an example the Roman century consisted of 80 fighting men, 20 support troops plus officers for a total of about 110 men. The 2000 man army would then actually be 1600 grunts to deal with and about 200 leveled officers (L1-8). Unlike modern militaries that try to spread out camping and movements and concentrate only at the point of attack mideveal and ancient armies had to stay together just to avoid getting lost, as well as to get meals and supplies. While the camps almost certainly cover 3-4 times the space of the battle formations they are still small enough that selected meteor swarms on concentration should attrite the army significantly whether done during the day in formation, on the march or at night in camp. Personally I would be attacking mostly at night after using scrying or other spying techniques to locate commanders and take them out first - once the head is gone the body will die on the vine.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I'm going to ignore the level restriction, and compare best in slot lvl 20 vs a mindless army of 10K CR 1/8 Town Guards, who have the illogical and suicidal idea to kill your character.
First off, any melee class will loose. Thanks to the always hit on a 20 rule. Sure it might take forever, and sure 1 maxed out level 20 (fighter, Barbarian, rogue, and Monk) could take out a few hundred maybe even a few thousand, in the end, they will fall, due to taking days or weeks to fight, not having enough AOE, not being able to rest, or just taking 1 HP damage too many times.
So we look to casters. I would remove half casters, as they don't have access to enough high level Crowd Control to be effective, same with multiclass characters. Sorry Coffee Locks, you can't continue forever, and you can't take a 30minute break with 10k soldiers gunning for you.
So maxed out single class full casters.
Bards, Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers and Wizards
Each of these classes could potentially do it, depending on subclass chosen. With Wizards and Sorcerers being the ones that can do it easiest. (Note a Genie Lock at 20 can as well, as Wish is that strong)
1st you will need to be able to keep yourself safe so you can rest 8 hours after every major engagement. Spells like Magnificent Mansion (Bard & Wizard) will allow you to rest. Being able to summon an Army to protect you is also key, as some of the best spells to fight an Army are rituals and take time to cast. A single Fiend, Draconic spirit, or elemental can do a decent job if you do the big rituals inside a safe space ie Tiny Hut (Bard & Wizard) Awesome tool for this, and it's 3rd level.
Then you use spells like Ravenous Void, Storm of Vengeance, Weird, or even wish (although your DM has to agree your idea is in the scope of what is possible.) My suggestion Maddening Darkness or a Summons, while inside a tiny hut, using a Familiar to cast Touch Spells until you are tired (out of spell slots), jump into the mansion rest, shower, eat well, then repeat.
Required:
1 7th level slot for full rest 1minute ritual cast Magnificent Mansion (Bard & Wizard)
1 3rd level spell for protection while fighting 1 minute ritual cast Tiny Hut (Bard or Wizard)
1 Concentration spell for Damage Maddening Darkness 8th level (Warlock or Wizard), any Damage dealing Summons, to keep enemies at a distance.
1 Find Familiar to cast damaging touch spells through.
Both the familiar and summons can be done in the mansion, and can leave the door to clear room so you can place the tiny hut.
Note: Recommended Summons Summon Fiend as a 9th level Yugoloth.
AC 21, 105HP, 4 attacks per round, melee (Spell attack mod
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/103796951
That's obviously not true. At all. By even the wildest stretch of the imagination.
It is true vs. cavalry, and it's the only way to fight other packed infantry.
But for any situation featuring effective AoE, you obviously don't want to pack your self together - only to maximise the effectiveness of the enemy AoE. And we have to assume word has gotten round, over the countless millennia of the existance of the fireball spell, that you want to spread out, not pack together. Either that, or the assumption is that the wizard is highly intelligent (a reasonable assumption) but that the army are mindless ants. Which is not.
I have no idea what restrictions you're talking about. Or why you assume there would be any levelled characters in the army. 2000 mooks of no levels what so ever - but decent military training, as represented by relevant stats - will absolutely murder any sinhle pc of any level you wish to present, presumably in one round, in any scenario except where the wizard has had time to leisurely prepare a battlefield with endless traps, endless lines of sight, and so on.
So ... in reality, possibly it becomes a stand-off. If the wizard ever allows himself to be locked down in any sort of unfavourable situation, he will die all but instantly. But he doesn't have to. He can stay in his extradimensional mansion forever - but he cannot enter the city to buy a fancy hat.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
This is still incorrect. A condition that applies disadvantage to all attackers means the attacker needs to roll two twenties or somehow cancel that disadvantage. So a 14th level EK fighter using blur, for example, and HAM, can cast blur 5 times and carry a lot of healing potions.
A guard (spear and shield) who has a 1 in 400 chance of rolling two 20's would crit for 5 damage after the damage reduction. Flanking is an optional rule, and fighters can avoid flanking with positioning a choke point or backed into a corner. That fighter with a 16 CON has 130 hp, and they are attacking him 3 times per round with decent positioning by the fighter. Statistically, those guards would be lucky to hit once in those 50 rounds of blur. That fighter will drop approximately 100 of those guards (2/turn with 3 attacks) and take 5 damage maybe.
After that, there's a 1 in 20 chance to roll a 20 to hit with a crit for 5 damage. With the same positioning the fighter would take a hit around once every 7 rounds dropping 14 for every 5 points of damage taken. That would drop another 224 guards for 324 guards total over 164 rounds before the fighter runs out of hit point before factoring in second wind and healing potions. Each healing potion heals an average 7 hp to offset the 5 damage every 7 rounds so 12 healing potions (84 hp) plus second wind (19 hp) is another 140 rounds of combat for 280 more guards with a new total of 604.
Let's make the EK a dwarf. A 14th level fighter has 5 feats/ASI's and can include dwarven fortitude in that build at that point to spend hit dice in combat for 119 more hp of healing. That dwarf would have 18 CON instead of 16 and 14 more hp from dwarven toughness for 137 more hp of fighting and would last through another 392 guards and gets to 996 guards in the wave.
Change the character from an EK and go champion as 18th level for the survivor ability (and more hit points). Leaving the safety of the location so that 8 attackers can crit once every 2 rounds when survivor is going to grant 10 hp of healing at that point and the fighter doesn't even need disadvantage from attackers in melee and can crawl prone to give disadvantage to masses of archers. High AC, some DR, and hp recovery below 50% is going to make those guards unable to inflict damage faster than the healing rate.
If we use a 1 CR monster army such as bugbears we are looking at a crit for 17 damage once every 2 rounds and healing 10 every round. The 18th level dwarf in question would have 20 CON, 220 hp, 3 DR, 10 regen < 110hp, and the ability to spend hit dice in combat if really necessary. Plus the option to carry potions. That dwarf champion build would be capable of taking down a 2000 bugbear army in about 3 1/2 hours because by then they are pretty much impervious to trash mob damage.
Imagine for a moment a character protected by Blur - but surrounded by ... let's just say 400 melee mooks. The eight spaces around him are all filled. Now, all those eight take a step forward. Everyone crowding into one space (or as tight as the limitations of physical matter allow). That's disadvantage for everyone, but that doesn't matter, because we simply pile on mooks until our lone hero dies from suffocation.
No melee class can win this. Also, I'm convinced, no caster class. Strength in numbers wins, even against the most horrifying AoE, if even a smidgen of intelligence is applied.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Your point here is actually what made me change my vote to Druid. The reason? I realized the power in antilife shell.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
That's a decent trick. I'd say pikes and archers still defeat it - or rear ranks tossing greek fires. Or just wait it out. Or dispell it. While my cardinal point is classless mooks, I'm not ruling out that the king or general in command couldn't find someone able to counterspell or dispell.
Also, the druid isn't relevant for the melee discussion. Not sure if that's your point or not, but antilife shell ends if you force it against anyone.
Really, I should sit down and count squares.
The range of a longbow is 150. Meaning in range of our caster are 22.499 squares that would hold an archer to shoot at the caster. Or melee, for that matter. But that's not what we want, we want to spread out our 2000 mooks enough that any AoE spell will kill just a few of them. I'm terrible at math, right, but still: Advancing from max range, we have 13 archers on each side, moving forward their move, shooting - repeat until they're too close for comfort. Each round, another 52 archers join, following the same tactics. They'll press together too close as they near, but we'll have to live with that. Or die, as the case may be. Regardless, I'd say the caster has zero chance to win. No matter the class. Unless, as mentioned, the caster has unlimited time to pick and prepare the battlefield. Even then ... use well trained monkeys to set off all the traps, then move in. I'm not certain a prepared battlefield makes any difference at all.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Technically any PC of any level can "fight" an army, they might die quickly but they did fight them.
There are a number of ways a 14th level PC could have a chance of defeating an army though most metohds would not be considered fighting them the approach would depend on their skills and probably would favour spell casters for example
To have a chance directly you might have a chance with access to 9th level spells / divine intervention, (while the later is available for a level 14 cleric the odds are not very good). Wish might work though is DM dependant. Another option might be Storm of Vengence though this depends on how packed the army are and how tough they are. If the army are 2000 commoners or possibly guards the initial 2d6 by anyone withing 360 ft of the centre (with a +3 moon sickle thay can not make the save) and even if they try to flee those within 300 ft will take another 1d6. A prolonged aproach against an army with more HP would be to get withing 1 mile of the army cast meteor swarm and then teleport to a safe location rinse and repeat every day until the army is a more managable size.
If the army are able to set up the battlefield as they want they win, even if a 1 mile square battle map is placesd down and the PC and army choose their starting positons the PC can not win (though flight or a form of teleportation might allow them to escape). My approach is the PC and the army both want he other defeated, and are only vaguely aware where the other is (though it is easier for the PC rto spot the army than vice versa).
A 14th level wizard with greater invisibility on them can cast [spell[freezing sphere[/spell] from 300 feet away without the army even knowing it's coming
It's got a 60-ft radius and does more than enough damage to take out common soldiers even if they pass the save
A 60-ft radius sphere covers over 450 squares on a 5x5 grid. If your 1000-strong army is marching in any kind of formation, about half of them just got wiped out before they even realize they're under attack... and the wizard's greater invisibility is still up
Like, how is this even still a discussion
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You reduced the 2000 man army in previous posts to 1000 and are assuming the army are marching in a strange and stupid formation.
If an army is aware roughly where the enemy is they would tend to be in a very wide line (or several wide lides) with the aim of getting so they can attack all sides as many soldiers as possible have a clear view of the land ahead where the enemy is expected to be and to prevent the enemy escaping, the later might not apply if they know hte enemy is a wizard who can teleport away (though they might not know if he can teleport). Howewever if they know he is a poweful wizard with AOE attacks they would spread out. If they are unaware of the wizard are are just marching from one location to another they would probably be on some sort of road maybe 5 or 6 abreast. In any case if the army are in a more typical formation of being say 10 ft apart is retangular formations 5 deep or 5 wide that freezing sphere will be taking out less than 100.
What do you expect the army to do next they would have see the "frigid globe of cold energy streaking from your fingers" (though they would not have seen the fingers) but would probably suspect you would move after giving away your location so they spread out further to minimise the impact of another AOE and ready their long bows to fire the next time your location is revealed.
Lets assume the archers are scouts (+4 to hit 6 damage) and the wizard has +3 dex and mage armor (AC of 16 which will increase to 21 if they cast shield). The Archers shooting at disadvantage need a natural 17 to hit so 4% (0.25% will be crits). Even if only 500 remained as soon as the wizard reveal his location they can expect 20 arrows to hit causing 120 HP of damage more than enough to kill the wizard.
Anybody with obvious ranged weapons would be the first to die
Shooting at disadvantage doesn't matter if you don't even know where you're aiming. If the wizard moves up to 30 feet from where the first cast came from, that is again a massive area the archers have to cover with their shots -- 169 possible squares, if I'm not mistaken
So let's say 500 archers did survive, and are so incredibly well trained that none of them flee after seeing the massive immediate casualties. If they divide their shots evenly among all the possible spots the wizard could be, that's only about three shots per square that even have that 4 percent chance of hitting. The rest are landing in empty space -- and that's assuming the wizard doesn't have some boost to movement that takes them out of that 30-foot area (say, if they cast longstrider on themselves before attacking)
Active characters:
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Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)