You’re in charge of defending a small tribe (which the characters in the campaign are part of) There’s about ten non-combatants (women and children) and 4 warriors. You have a week to prepare a defense against at least 40 kobolds and at least 10 winged kobolds, along with their king (a human) (I’ll be grouping them in gangs so as to not bog down combat). You’re in southern Utah desert-ish terrain, so you have sandstone, granite, and some wood (cedars and such) that you can find. You’ll also have a couple teepes made from animal hides, plus 24 medium sided hides (from deer and such) as well. If a character only focuses on making ammunition (arrows and such) you can make a survival check’s worth per day. You could also have the NPC’s do this. 

Also, I’ll have a skill test to find a defensible position.

The name of the chief of the small tribe is Griffle Smiffle, a cross between a human and a halfling. After talking with you four, he and you’d have decided that it’s best to find a defensible position and make a stand, rather than running…let the fun begin. 

Oh, one more side note: large-scale warfare is not much of a thing yet, so you’ll be pioneering into the field of defending against large forces for the first time in history. 

Ok, so our best bet would be to know of a box canyon with elevated cliff-side “caves”. Think Anasazi cliff dwellings. Perhaps our tribe had already secured one for grain storage and built crude stone-stacked walls to shield the grains from flying predators. Even better would be a single difficult approach that could only be done single file utilizing carved foot holds, easy enough for a child to navigate but impossible to “storm”.

The cliff side ideally would be overhanging above the dwelling, primarily for rain protection but, in this case, to mitigate vectors of attack from winged raiders.

A siege against this could be defeated by outlasting the inhabitants due to shortages of food and water. However, two castings of Goodberry per day (20 people fed) and someone else with “Create/Destroy Water” pretty much puts the strategy back on the DM.

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention: this tribe is nomadic, hasn’t yet figured out farming and such, so you don’t already have an already set up position. However, it’s not impossible to find a good one. You’re in desert terrain, largely flatter, not as much cliffs, but with enough luck you can find a cave or something similar. Once everyone is here I’ll require a skill test for that. 

Love the thought that you’re putting into the strategy, though!

Here’s hoping for very high skill check rolls. Fighting on the plains, i.e. 360 degree defense, is sus. We don’t even have wagons to circle. There’s a reason the pack runs, they hope the fall of the old, weak or injured will satiate the predators.

How would a mother bear and her cubs defend themselves against waves of starving coyotes? Thinking…thinking…

BTW, just the considerations of possible solutions is a blast. Looking forward to others’ input.

Me too!

Tun is a basic medic, and not very crafty in terms of making arrows, etc.  I like the idea of defending Mesa Verde, but I it seems our best hope is a cave. 

If we cannot add to the surroundings, we can pre-modify it. we should do pits and spikes to move the predators to certain entrances that we can defend. I mean, a castle with a moat can only be breached from the entrances. plus we don't exactly have high damaging weapons due to the ban on swords etc. Do we have shovels and the like?

I am playing a fey wanderer ranger. A fighter ranger can attack more but not at low levels anyways.

You could probably make a crude shovel, yeah. 

Tun is proficient with thieves tools.  Can he make traps/snares/pitfalls?

Yep!

Alright, so let’s get going!

Ashen can Mold Earth to excavate and move 5' cubes of loose dirt every 6 seconds. It will be very dependent on DM giving us a sandier dirt instead of caliche (hard clay) or solid sedimentary rock. With 7 days of work, he could create a lot of 5' deep pits. We could use those 24 skins to cover the pits, 2 per pit? This would lock one of my Druid cantrips. In combat, I could create one 5' square of difficult terrain per action that would last an hour each, so pretty limited utility, unless the enemy is really really funneled.

Mending is another Druid cantrip that could be chosen. Great for aiding in creation of ammo. Not sure how valuable in battle. Once again, if this cantrip is chosen, I can't change it later on.

Ashen only has 2 Druid cantrips and I really like the idea of Magic Stone for its ability to supply 3 warriors with 60' range as a bonus action. Though their own stats for javelins might be "good enough".

If you all want to peruse the Druid cantrips for creative uses and suggestions, I'd appreciate it. Just remember, I only get 2.

While looking at cantrips, maybe review the Warlock ones. Ashen gets two of those as well. I'm pretty set on Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast. But if you can convince me to go in a different direction, go for it.

Tun will sharpen sticks/stakes to place at the bottom of pit traps (the pits created by Ashen).

wooden spike palisade walls as well? I will help making them too. 

Ok-first I’ll need a survival or Perception check from each of you to see how good of a defensive position you get. 

And yeah, is sandy soft dirt. Be grateful I didn’t give you Arizona terrain, which is literally rocks and caliche and cactus and that’s it. 

 Joruk started helping in creating wooden stakes that will be used to make criscrossed palisades to keep enemies from coming from the south.

Hang on everyone, let’s be sure of the terrain before we hunker down. Maybe there’ll be a cliff-side cavern, elevated and limiting access. That or a Narrows type canyon where we could face them in a line of only one or two across.

Ashen’s perception and survival skills are both +4 (perception disadvantaged if in direct sunlight). I will try survival with No Guidance, would normally be a given cantrip but figure I only get two and one of the others listed earlier are probably better for this play test.

Survival: 5

Total of 26 so far. Let’s see what the other two get. 

Quote from Smoke_and_Oakum >>

Total of 26 so far. Let’s see what the other two get. 

 I'm gonna kick myself if we miss some tier of protection by 1d4. LOL.

Yeah, for sure!