I was thinking of giving the PC's an opportunity to assist a local army in the defense of a town that has come under siege from a wight. This will be broken up into unread raids during the space of a few days giving the PC's the chance to decided what defenses to repair and where to focus the fighting. Due to the wights ability to control dead humanoids after they die they will need to be careful how they approach fight.
This is only a quick idea at the moment and I plan to dive deeper into but as I have yet to DM not sure on if you think it would mechanically.
It shouldn't be an issue. Just set up a few choice points along the way and make those choices mean something. Does the Wight have an army of appreciable size already? If so imagine a scenario like this:
There is an undead army rolling towards the town. It's a bit slow and will take a while to get there. The local army mustered what it could, but we're only talking about 40ish actual soldiers and maybe 100 townsfolk militia. The army they are facing is big. Say, 400 zombies, 20ish skeletons, and 3 large undead creatures (ogres, owlbears, direwolves, whatever) and the wight leader. There is no way the soldiers and militia can attack this army straight on, so they choose to hole up in the town and fight the undead on the walls. The commander asks the party to employ some hit and run tactics on the undead to whittle away their numbers before they reach town.
The party leaves town and finds the undead army a few day's ride away. The army moves in a loose group, herded by the wight. The party can cause a distraction on the side of the undead horde to maybe draw some of them away. This would be something of a fight in a few waves with the party getting the opportunity to leave and retreat back to the village after each wave.
Wave 1 - 3 Zombies.
Wave 2 - 4 Zombies and 1 Skeleton Archer
Wave 3 - 8 Zombies and 2 Skeleton Archers
Wave 4 - 13 Zombies, 1 Skeleton Archer, and 1 large undead creature
Wave 5 - 20 Zombies, 5 Skeleton Archers, the other two large undead monsters, and the Wight. (It is unlikely the party will stick around for this wave.)
The Wight has an added power to redirect any attack onto a nearby undead minion as a reaction. If the Wight is killed somehow, the undead army continues with its last known orders to march on the town. If the part retreats at the end of any wave or during any wave, subtract the number and types of undead they killed from the undead army's totals.
Now that the party is back in town with their report, the army captain needs help getting the town ready for a siege.
The walls need warded with holy rituals. Characters with Religion can help in an 8 hour ritual to ward he walls from lesser undead. Success will keep zombies and skeletons from attacking the walls directly.
The Captain needs runners to ferry messages between different parts of the defenses. Diplomacy checks might help convince some townsfolk to help out. Success means the party is always kept informed of breaches in the defenses so they can help out in time.
The townsfolk are terrified. Someone needs to go around and boost morale a bit. Any skill the players can justify will work here. Success means the defenders fight more effectively and are less likely to break and run during hard times.
The Captain is sure there are still not enough people to defend the town and needs someone to go round up more conscripts from the young and elderly. However, parents and caregivers are very resistant to letting kids and grandparents do the fighting. Some social roll will be needed to get them to change their minds. Success will add another 50 people to the militia's numbers.
Now for the siege itself. Most of the fighting will be in the background with the party rushing to various "hot spots" and their work will determine the fate of the battle. The undead horde attacks during the night in four stages.
Stage 1 - Gatecrashing: While the bulk of the undead contend with the walls (or try to anyway if they are warded), two of the large undead monsters bust down the main gate in an attempt to let the undead horde spill into the city. If the party previously killed on of the large undead, only one of those monsters is here for this fight. The monsters the party must deal with at the two (or one) large undead monster and a few zombies. The soldiers and militia on the walls keep more undead from rushing the party. If the adventurers fail, the town gets flooded with undead. Otherwise, they dive back the monsters long enough for the soldiers to re-close the gate, holding off the undead for a bit longer.
Stage 2 - Another of the large undead breaches the walls elsewhere. If the party is quickly informed, they can get there in time to deal with it before more waved of monsters flood in with it.
Stage 3 - Waves of undead swarm the gap as the defenders try to seal it up.
Wave 1 - 5 Zombies and 2 Skeleton Archers
Wave 2 - 3 zombies, 1 Skeleton Archer, and a random Specter that wasn't accounted for before
Wave 3 - 3 Zombies, 1 Skeleton Archer, and another unaccounted for large undead monster.
Stage 4 - The final fight: The party gets word from the Captain that the Wight is out in the open, cutting down his troops. The party needs to show up and fight it. Add any amount of remaining undead to the fight you feel is appropriate. When the Wight dies, the undead army looses focus and the remaining forces are picked off by the defenders. Victory!
It shouldn't be an issue. Just set up a few choice points along the way and make those choices mean something. Does the Wight have an army of appreciable size already? If so imagine a scenario like this:
There is an undead army rolling towards the town. It's a bit slow and will take a while to get there. The local army mustered what it could, but we're only talking about 40ish actual soldiers and maybe 100 townsfolk militia. The army they are facing is big. Say, 400 zombies, 20ish skeletons, and 3 large undead creatures (ogres, owlbears, direwolves, whatever) and the wight leader. There is no way the soldiers and militia can attack this army straight on, so they choose to hole up in the town and fight the undead on the walls. The commander asks the party to employ some hit and run tactics on the undead to whittle away their numbers before they reach town.
The party leaves town and finds the undead army a few day's ride away. The army moves in a loose group, herded by the wight. The party can cause a distraction on the side of the undead horde to maybe draw some of them away. This would be something of a fight in a few waves with the party getting the opportunity to leave and retreat back to the village after each wave.
Wave 1 - 3 Zombies.
Wave 2 - 4 Zombies and 1 Skeleton Archer
Wave 3 - 8 Zombies and 2 Skeleton Archers
Wave 4 - 13 Zombies, 1 Skeleton Archer, and 1 large undead creature
Wave 5 - 20 Zombies, 5 Skeleton Archers, the other two large undead monsters, and the Wight. (It is unlikely the party will stick around for this wave.)
The Wight has an added power to redirect any attack onto a nearby undead minion as a reaction. If the Wight is killed somehow, the undead army continues with its last known orders to march on the town. If the part retreats at the end of any wave or during any wave, subtract the number and types of undead they killed from the undead army's totals.
Now that the party is back in town with their report, the army captain needs help getting the town ready for a siege.
The walls need warded with holy rituals. Characters with Religion can help in an 8 hour ritual to ward he walls from lesser undead. Success will keep zombies and skeletons from attacking the walls directly.
The Captain needs runners to ferry messages between different parts of the defenses. Diplomacy checks might help convince some townsfolk to help out. Success means the party is always kept informed of breaches in the defenses so they can help out in time.
The townsfolk are terrified. Someone needs to go around and boost morale a bit. Any skill the players can justify will work here. Success means the defenders fight more effectively and are less likely to break and run during hard times.
The Captain is sure there are still not enough people to defend the town and needs someone to go round up more conscripts from the young and elderly. However, parents and caregivers are very resistant to letting kids and grandparents do the fighting. Some social roll will be needed to get them to change their minds. Success will add another 50 people to the militia's numbers.
Now for the siege itself. Most of the fighting will be in the background with the party rushing to various "hot spots" and their work will determine the fate of the battle. The undead horde attacks during the night in four stages.
Stage 1 - Gatecrashing: While the bulk of the undead contend with the walls (or try to anyway if they are warded), two of the large undead monsters bust down the main gate in an attempt to let the undead horde spill into the city. If the party previously killed on of the large undead, only one of those monsters is here for this fight. The monsters the party must deal with at the two (or one) large undead monster and a few zombies. The soldiers and militia on the walls keep more undead from rushing the party. If the adventurers fail, the town gets flooded with undead. Otherwise, they dive back the monsters long enough for the soldiers to re-close the gate, holding off the undead for a bit longer.
Stage 2 - Another of the large undead breaches the walls elsewhere. If the party is quickly informed, they can get there in time to deal with it before more waved of monsters flood in with it.
Stage 3 - Waves of undead swarm the gap as the defenders try to seal it up.
Wave 1 - 5 Zombies and 2 Skeleton Archers
Wave 2 - 3 zombies, 1 Skeleton Archer, and a random Specter that wasn't accounted for before
Wave 3 - 3 Zombies, 1 Skeleton Archer, and another unaccounted for large undead monster.
Stage 4 - The final fight: The party gets word from the Captain that the Wight is out in the open, cutting down his troops. The party needs to show up and fight it. Add any amount of remaining undead to the fight you feel is appropriate. When the Wight dies, the undead army looses focus and the remaining forces are picked off by the defenders. Victory!
Give me a second to grab my jaw. This is some amazing stuff!
When I get home from work I plan to flesh something out more detailed and I will certainly be borrowing from this!
One thing I need to keep in mind is that the party will only be lvl 2 - 3 at this stage so I think focusing them on Guerrilla tactics and using the larger army as a whole will be paramount to making them feel like they are participating but also due to the odds make it a fun adaption.
For lower level players you can just scale back the monsters they need to fight. With the large undead monsters, cut the HP of what you would have used in half or say the army and militia help to overcome the threat along with the players.
I was thinking of giving the PC's an opportunity to assist a local army in the defense of a town that has come under siege from a wight. This will be broken up into unread raids during the space of a few days giving the PC's the chance to decided what defenses to repair and where to focus the fighting. Due to the wights ability to control dead humanoids after they die they will need to be careful how they approach fight.
This is only a quick idea at the moment and I plan to dive deeper into but as I have yet to DM not sure on if you think it would mechanically.
It shouldn't be an issue. Just set up a few choice points along the way and make those choices mean something. Does the Wight have an army of appreciable size already? If so imagine a scenario like this:
There is an undead army rolling towards the town. It's a bit slow and will take a while to get there. The local army mustered what it could, but we're only talking about 40ish actual soldiers and maybe 100 townsfolk militia. The army they are facing is big. Say, 400 zombies, 20ish skeletons, and 3 large undead creatures (ogres, owlbears, direwolves, whatever) and the wight leader. There is no way the soldiers and militia can attack this army straight on, so they choose to hole up in the town and fight the undead on the walls. The commander asks the party to employ some hit and run tactics on the undead to whittle away their numbers before they reach town.
The party leaves town and finds the undead army a few day's ride away. The army moves in a loose group, herded by the wight. The party can cause a distraction on the side of the undead horde to maybe draw some of them away. This would be something of a fight in a few waves with the party getting the opportunity to leave and retreat back to the village after each wave.
The Wight has an added power to redirect any attack onto a nearby undead minion as a reaction. If the Wight is killed somehow, the undead army continues with its last known orders to march on the town. If the part retreats at the end of any wave or during any wave, subtract the number and types of undead they killed from the undead army's totals.
Now that the party is back in town with their report, the army captain needs help getting the town ready for a siege.
Now for the siege itself. Most of the fighting will be in the background with the party rushing to various "hot spots" and their work will determine the fate of the battle. The undead horde attacks during the night in four stages.
Stage 1 - Gatecrashing: While the bulk of the undead contend with the walls (or try to anyway if they are warded), two of the large undead monsters bust down the main gate in an attempt to let the undead horde spill into the city. If the party previously killed on of the large undead, only one of those monsters is here for this fight. The monsters the party must deal with at the two (or one) large undead monster and a few zombies. The soldiers and militia on the walls keep more undead from rushing the party. If the adventurers fail, the town gets flooded with undead. Otherwise, they dive back the monsters long enough for the soldiers to re-close the gate, holding off the undead for a bit longer.
Stage 2 - Another of the large undead breaches the walls elsewhere. If the party is quickly informed, they can get there in time to deal with it before more waved of monsters flood in with it.
Stage 3 - Waves of undead swarm the gap as the defenders try to seal it up.
Stage 4 - The final fight: The party gets word from the Captain that the Wight is out in the open, cutting down his troops. The party needs to show up and fight it. Add any amount of remaining undead to the fight you feel is appropriate. When the Wight dies, the undead army looses focus and the remaining forces are picked off by the defenders. Victory!
For lower level players you can just scale back the monsters they need to fight. With the large undead monsters, cut the HP of what you would have used in half or say the army and militia help to overcome the threat along with the players.