Through their adventures in Chult, my three PCs have collected a ridiculous number of hangers-on. In total, they've got Artus Cimber (thankfully, Dragonbait was turned to stone by the medusa at Nangalore), the Shield Guardian Vorn, Ord Firebeard, and 8 generic veterans and 11generic guards from the Order of the Gauntlet. Also the ranger has a pteradon beast companion. Now, I know that as DM, I have ultimate authority to alloy or disallow the players from recruiting so many NPCs, but genuinely I thought their attempts at persuading them to join were pretty convincing and their dice rolls backed it up. They are on the way to Omu and have at least another 8-10 game days to get there. Any advice on how to handle this going forward? This weekend's session was the first one where they had the Order of the Gauntlet NPCs with them, and it went well, but I don't like the prospect of running more combat with that many combatants. And I am especially concerned about what to do when they get to Omu and then the actual Tomb of Annihilation.
My current goal for next session is to plan out three encounters that will hopefully help "eliminate" some of the NPC bloat. First one will be straight combat hard enough to get some of the "red shirts" eliminated for sure. Next two encounters I want to think of something more cerebral, give them some roll play ops. Maybe the Order is split with one faction wanting to head after a giant undead army with only a few willing to continue to Omu.
You could say that additional NPCs wouldn't want to join due to the size of the party. This would forgo the necessity of rolling no matter how good the arguments are. Further, the size of the party would require substantial stores for goods and foodstuffs. If I had been recruited by a group, I'd expect that cost to be covered by them, either directly or through wages. Figure out what each NPCs desired lifestyle would be and have problems crop up if that lifestyle isn't being met. Or have a chunk of the followers guard the caravan of supplies or camp while the PCs and a few NPCs trailblaze or otherwise secure the route. If there are areas that would necessitate the entire party going at the same time, some of the NPCs might be lost there to accentuate the danger of the situation.
Finally, remember that NPCs only stay with the party as long as it makes sense for them. Similar to the wages mentioned above, there may be reasons why some of the NPCs might want to leave because remaining with the party doesn't make sense.
Along with what Jhfffan said, I would also recommend just having some of them leave because... people a flakey (trust me, I teach). Half of those camp followers are likely to leave for a multitude of reasons, none of which really need to be explained beyond, "something drew them away." If your players whine about not having their umpteen followers, let them know that wages need to be commensurate to the level of danger they are facing. Despite this, followers will still likely leave.
Finally, as an out of character discussion, I would casually mention that the more followers, the more the experience points get split (I have always played that rule). Suddenly, combat where xp gets split 25 ways startles them into realization.
Someone might say that the "rules" dictate that NPCs don't get xp. My retort, "I wonder how that NPC ever got to 4th level without ever earning xp. Nope, if you get help, then you are not learning as much as if you had done it yourself. Otherwise, hire 1000 NPCs to take out a god and gain 15 levels for yourself while the NPC who finally felled the diety still is as ignorant as the moment he woke up that morning."
Just some comments ... since I just finished ToA a couple of weeks ago as a player.
1) No matter how convincing, I can't see the Order of the Gauntlet forces from Camp Vengeance joining the party to traipse around the jungle. The Order of the Gauntlet is poorly led and is in the jungle for specific reasons. In fact, if I recall correctly, there is a very good chance that the party gets delayed at Camp Vengeance and forced into servitude to help the OG since they aren't doing that well. Heading south into the jungle to an unknown destination no matter how pressing the apparent reason (and the death curse is pretty pressing) isn't likely to convince them. (In your case, you somehow have the whole garrison with them that really doesn't make much sense since they are there to fight the undead threat and there is more than enough of that at Camp Vengeance ... considering Camp Righteous was already wiped out by undead ... these guys just aren't strong enough to wander off looking for bigger threats).
2) Also, where are they getting the food for their entourage? This requires a lot of hunting and cooking the food (which is difficult since with all the rain it is hard to build fires ... all of this slows down travel). Unless the ranger is burning a bunch of spell slots for goodberries to keep them fed but that doesn't help with water.
3) Jungle menaces: Insects - did they buy enough insect repellent for all of them? (ToA p32)
Do they have enough raincatchers for fresh water see Dehydration ToA p38? There is no fresh water that has touched the ground in Chult. Do they have canoes or are they trudging through the jungle? If they are walking do they get lost?
"Artus is being hunted by the forces of evil. Frost giants, the Zhentarim, Xandala (see appendix D), Valindra Shadowmantle (see "Heart ofUbtao" later in this chapter) , and the Red Wizards of Thay can appear at any time and try to capture Artus. If Artus believes that his presence is endanger ing the characters, he will leave the party and take Dragonbait with him."
Artus is actually a dangerous character to have in their party. In addition, the route to Omu runs past the Heart of Ubtao (assuming you are coming from the North) so you could have Valindra kill off most and capture Artus. There are some very dangerous NPCs in the jungle.
Also, to be honest, I would think Artus might try to rescue Dragonbait if at all possible. It only requires a greater restoration spell that might be available in Port Nyanzaru if nowhere else. On the other hand, I could see him being convinced to help the characters destroy the Soul Monger too.
5) The above comments about XP are spot on. In our play through the experience from the jungle encounters was absolutely pitiful and we only had a couple of NPCs (plus a party of 6-7). With the 20 in their party the PCs will get almost no xp from each encounter since it will be divided 20 ways. The jungle is really only meant to take characters to level 4-5 and you need to work in other content to get them higher. They should be about level 7 for Omu and level 9 for the tomb. However, with a small party of 3 they probably need to be higher. Also, unless they want to use the soldiers as trap fodder, they won't be that much use in the tomb itself ... though they might contribute something if they survive to the end.
6) The yuan-ti will also slaughter most of them if they make it to Omu anyway.
7) The tomb has a lot of deadly traps. Ones that can not necessarily be found using character skills. One specific item that made the tomb much easier in our case was that we found a Set of Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments which can be used to bypass/escape or disable some of the traps in the tomb.
My solution:
Anyway, I think that most of your huge party size problems can be solved if Ord and the rest of the OG decide to head back to Camp Vengeance or wherever the OG is regrouping (since the only way I can imagine them joining in the first place is if you destroyed Camp Vengeance somehow and these are the survivors). They need to fight the undead and protect Port Nyanzaru .. no matter how important the PCs made their quest sound. Some sober reconsideration on the part of Ord after consulting with his troops might lead him to apologize to the PCs and leave to get on with his real mission in the jungle.
I'll second what MathemAddicts said about xp. Not only is it in the DMG to split xp, but encounters should also be scaled up to a higher difficulty. In the end it will be a lot of extra work for you. Maybe just explain to the players that all those extra NPCs are going to equal a lot more enemies, plus more supplies hassle, etc.
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Through their adventures in Chult, my three PCs have collected a ridiculous number of hangers-on. In total, they've got Artus Cimber (thankfully, Dragonbait was turned to stone by the medusa at Nangalore), the Shield Guardian Vorn, Ord Firebeard, and 8 generic veterans and 11generic guards from the Order of the Gauntlet. Also the ranger has a pteradon beast companion. Now, I know that as DM, I have ultimate authority to alloy or disallow the players from recruiting so many NPCs, but genuinely I thought their attempts at persuading them to join were pretty convincing and their dice rolls backed it up. They are on the way to Omu and have at least another 8-10 game days to get there. Any advice on how to handle this going forward? This weekend's session was the first one where they had the Order of the Gauntlet NPCs with them, and it went well, but I don't like the prospect of running more combat with that many combatants. And I am especially concerned about what to do when they get to Omu and then the actual Tomb of Annihilation.
My current goal for next session is to plan out three encounters that will hopefully help "eliminate" some of the NPC bloat. First one will be straight combat hard enough to get some of the "red shirts" eliminated for sure. Next two encounters I want to think of something more cerebral, give them some roll play ops. Maybe the Order is split with one faction wanting to head after a giant undead army with only a few willing to continue to Omu.
You could say that additional NPCs wouldn't want to join due to the size of the party. This would forgo the necessity of rolling no matter how good the arguments are. Further, the size of the party would require substantial stores for goods and foodstuffs. If I had been recruited by a group, I'd expect that cost to be covered by them, either directly or through wages. Figure out what each NPCs desired lifestyle would be and have problems crop up if that lifestyle isn't being met. Or have a chunk of the followers guard the caravan of supplies or camp while the PCs and a few NPCs trailblaze or otherwise secure the route. If there are areas that would necessitate the entire party going at the same time, some of the NPCs might be lost there to accentuate the danger of the situation.
Finally, remember that NPCs only stay with the party as long as it makes sense for them. Similar to the wages mentioned above, there may be reasons why some of the NPCs might want to leave because remaining with the party doesn't make sense.
Along with what Jhfffan said, I would also recommend just having some of them leave because... people a flakey (trust me, I teach). Half of those camp followers are likely to leave for a multitude of reasons, none of which really need to be explained beyond, "something drew them away." If your players whine about not having their umpteen followers, let them know that wages need to be commensurate to the level of danger they are facing. Despite this, followers will still likely leave.
Finally, as an out of character discussion, I would casually mention that the more followers, the more the experience points get split (I have always played that rule). Suddenly, combat where xp gets split 25 ways startles them into realization.
Someone might say that the "rules" dictate that NPCs don't get xp. My retort, "I wonder how that NPC ever got to 4th level without ever earning xp. Nope, if you get help, then you are not learning as much as if you had done it yourself. Otherwise, hire 1000 NPCs to take out a god and gain 15 levels for yourself while the NPC who finally felled the diety still is as ignorant as the moment he woke up that morning."
Just some comments ... since I just finished ToA a couple of weeks ago as a player.
1) No matter how convincing, I can't see the Order of the Gauntlet forces from Camp Vengeance joining the party to traipse around the jungle. The Order of the Gauntlet is poorly led and is in the jungle for specific reasons. In fact, if I recall correctly, there is a very good chance that the party gets delayed at Camp Vengeance and forced into servitude to help the OG since they aren't doing that well. Heading south into the jungle to an unknown destination no matter how pressing the apparent reason (and the death curse is pretty pressing) isn't likely to convince them. (In your case, you somehow have the whole garrison with them that really doesn't make much sense since they are there to fight the undead threat and there is more than enough of that at Camp Vengeance ... considering Camp Righteous was already wiped out by undead ... these guys just aren't strong enough to wander off looking for bigger threats).
2) Also, where are they getting the food for their entourage? This requires a lot of hunting and cooking the food (which is difficult since with all the rain it is hard to build fires ... all of this slows down travel). Unless the ranger is burning a bunch of spell slots for goodberries to keep them fed but that doesn't help with water.
3) Jungle menaces: Insects - did they buy enough insect repellent for all of them? (ToA p32)
Do they have enough raincatchers for fresh water see Dehydration ToA p38? There is no fresh water that has touched the ground in Chult. Do they have canoes or are they trudging through the jungle? If they are walking do they get lost?
Diseases: Mad Monkey Fever, Shivering Sickness, Throat Leaches (ToA p40)
4) As for Artus - lots of options:
"Artus is being hunted by the forces of evil. Frost giants, the Zhentarim, Xandala (see appendix D), Valindra Shadowmantle (see "Heart ofUbtao" later in this chapter) , and the Red Wizards of Thay can appear at any time and try to capture Artus. If Artus believes that his presence is endanger ing the characters, he will leave the party and take Dragonbait with him."
Artus is actually a dangerous character to have in their party. In addition, the route to Omu runs past the Heart of Ubtao (assuming you are coming from the North) so you could have Valindra kill off most and capture Artus. There are some very dangerous NPCs in the jungle.
Also, to be honest, I would think Artus might try to rescue Dragonbait if at all possible. It only requires a greater restoration spell that might be available in Port Nyanzaru if nowhere else. On the other hand, I could see him being convinced to help the characters destroy the Soul Monger too.
5) The above comments about XP are spot on. In our play through the experience from the jungle encounters was absolutely pitiful and we only had a couple of NPCs (plus a party of 6-7). With the 20 in their party the PCs will get almost no xp from each encounter since it will be divided 20 ways. The jungle is really only meant to take characters to level 4-5 and you need to work in other content to get them higher. They should be about level 7 for Omu and level 9 for the tomb. However, with a small party of 3 they probably need to be higher. Also, unless they want to use the soldiers as trap fodder, they won't be that much use in the tomb itself ... though they might contribute something if they survive to the end.
6) The yuan-ti will also slaughter most of them if they make it to Omu anyway.
7) The tomb has a lot of deadly traps. Ones that can not necessarily be found using character skills. One specific item that made the tomb much easier in our case was that we found a Set of Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments which can be used to bypass/escape or disable some of the traps in the tomb.
My solution:
Anyway, I think that most of your huge party size problems can be solved if Ord and the rest of the OG decide to head back to Camp Vengeance or wherever the OG is regrouping (since the only way I can imagine them joining in the first place is if you destroyed Camp Vengeance somehow and these are the survivors). They need to fight the undead and protect Port Nyanzaru .. no matter how important the PCs made their quest sound. Some sober reconsideration on the part of Ord after consulting with his troops might lead him to apologize to the PCs and leave to get on with his real mission in the jungle.
I'll second what MathemAddicts said about xp. Not only is it in the DMG to split xp, but encounters should also be scaled up to a higher difficulty. In the end it will be a lot of extra work for you. Maybe just explain to the players that all those extra NPCs are going to equal a lot more enemies, plus more supplies hassle, etc.