I'm a new DM looking for some advice or links on fighting a horde of monsters. My players just reached level 4, and our next session will most likely be the end of act 1 of our campaign, before we switch over to another DM's campaign for a few months. I really want the PCs to have an epic memorable battle to keep them excited to come back to this campaign a few months from now. I was thinking of having the main villain make an appearance, and summon a hoard of low level monsters as well as a tougher monster at the end. I want it to be borderline deadly. So two questions.
1. Are my PCs to low level to handle something like this? The party consists of a Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Palladin, and a Rogue. They each have low level magic weapons so they can fight demons and undead. They do tend to destroy my combat encounters, so I feel like they could handle it.
2. Does anyone have any advice on how to run horde fighting or mass combat? Or maybe some links to mass combat guides. Does anyone have a system they use for situations like this? I've been having trouble finding anything relevant to the encounter I wish to run. Ive found a couple resources but I was hoping to get some advice from the community.
1. Are my PCs to low level to handle something like this? The party consists of a Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Palladin, and a Rogue. They each have low level magic weapons so they can fight demons and undead. They do tend to destroy my combat encounters, so I feel like they could handle it.
Tossing a hoard of monsters at the party can be a lot of fun, and no matter how you set it up it can be deadly with enough creatures. I would actually suggest borrowing from 4e here and really make this a fight for the ages. There is a "minion" creature type that you can use where the creatures retain their statblocks but only have 1 HP. With this you can toss a couple dozen Orcs at the party and let them wade through the mass like the heroes that they are, but there is the inherent risk of being overwhelmed for a short time. Then you toss out a few regular Orcs so that they have a tougher fight, and finally a couple generals where the party has to really try to fight. This scaling will allow you to adapt the fight as it goes to not kill them outright. When all of that is said and done you drop the BBEG in front of them and have the final showdown. It'll be a tough and brutal fight but if you handle it well you can make it feel like the climactic battle you want.
2. Does anyone have any advice on how to run horde fighting or mass combat? Or maybe some links to mass combat guides. Does anyone have a system they use for situations like this? I've been having trouble finding anything relevant to the encounter I wish to run. Ive found a couple resources but I was hoping to get some advice from the community.
I just saw a post from another person on the boards that can make this easier on you:
I saw a supplement in the DMGuild website about bar room brawls. Instead of having dozens of enemy creatures in the brawl to keep track of, the supplement turned the entire brawl into a single monster stat block. Then the players fought the "bar brawl" creature with a variety of skill checks and combat, depending on what your character was most skilled at.
My way of dealing with large groups has always been to try to lump them into 3-5 monsters per "creature" on the field. So, if there were 35 goblins, I'd have 7 "creatures" on the field each representing 5 goblins. I then treat each one the same way you would a Swarm: shared HP pool and AC, I do the average damage of a goblin but add a damage die per 2 creatures in the group rounded up. As they take damage, a Goblin dies so the attacks get weaker and the group gets smaller. So, a group of 5 goblins would have a stat block like this:
This is great advice. Seems pretty simple for the most part which is what I was hoping for. I didn't want to bog down the game with too many unique mechanics. Most of the players are as new to the game as I am. Thanks I appreciate the help.
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I'm a new DM looking for some advice or links on fighting a horde of monsters. My players just reached level 4, and our next session will most likely be the end of act 1 of our campaign, before we switch over to another DM's campaign for a few months. I really want the PCs to have an epic memorable battle to keep them excited to come back to this campaign a few months from now. I was thinking of having the main villain make an appearance, and summon a hoard of low level monsters as well as a tougher monster at the end. I want it to be borderline deadly. So two questions.
1. Are my PCs to low level to handle something like this? The party consists of a Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Palladin, and a Rogue. They each have low level magic weapons so they can fight demons and undead. They do tend to destroy my combat encounters, so I feel like they could handle it.
2. Does anyone have any advice on how to run horde fighting or mass combat? Or maybe some links to mass combat guides. Does anyone have a system they use for situations like this? I've been having trouble finding anything relevant to the encounter I wish to run. Ive found a couple resources but I was hoping to get some advice from the community.
Tossing a hoard of monsters at the party can be a lot of fun, and no matter how you set it up it can be deadly with enough creatures. I would actually suggest borrowing from 4e here and really make this a fight for the ages. There is a "minion" creature type that you can use where the creatures retain their statblocks but only have 1 HP. With this you can toss a couple dozen Orcs at the party and let them wade through the mass like the heroes that they are, but there is the inherent risk of being overwhelmed for a short time. Then you toss out a few regular Orcs so that they have a tougher fight, and finally a couple generals where the party has to really try to fight. This scaling will allow you to adapt the fight as it goes to not kill them outright. When all of that is said and done you drop the BBEG in front of them and have the final showdown. It'll be a tough and brutal fight but if you handle it well you can make it feel like the climactic battle you want.
I just saw a post from another person on the boards that can make this easier on you:
My way of dealing with large groups has always been to try to lump them into 3-5 monsters per "creature" on the field. So, if there were 35 goblins, I'd have 7 "creatures" on the field each representing 5 goblins. I then treat each one the same way you would a Swarm: shared HP pool and AC, I do the average damage of a goblin but add a damage die per 2 creatures in the group rounded up. As they take damage, a Goblin dies so the attacks get weaker and the group gets smaller. So, a group of 5 goblins would have a stat block like this:
Goblins (5)
HP: 35
AC: 15
Scimitar: 3d6 +6
Shortbow: 3d6 +6
This is great advice. Seems pretty simple for the most part which is what I was hoping for. I didn't want to bog down the game with too many unique mechanics. Most of the players are as new to the game as I am. Thanks I appreciate the help.