In page 250 of the dmg there's a section that's used for speeding up combat for a large group of characters. It's really neat and speeds up the game well, while being mostly fair. The part that confuses me is how it should work in game. For example I play on roll 20. So if I had a large mob of lets say 5 orcs should I make them One large token, or give each one it's own individual token. What if the group is 20 goblins? Each one having it's own token sounds very tedious to say the least. So I went with one large token, but now when a player cast an aoe spell I don't really know how many characters are going to be affected. Also if they cast a spell with a save do I roll a saving throw for each individual monster, or one for the whole horde. And then do I multiply the damage dealt by the total amount of monsters in the horde? Can someone clear this up for me?
I would do only one saving throw per 'group' for simplicity. Also one token per group.
I would also not multiply any damage from aoe. I would say that the hit points reflect the mob as a whole combined, so the fireball damage would effectively be split among them.
I think this is the best way to handle it in order to keep things expedient. I'm assuming these mobs are all individually weak creatures anyway, as if they were significantly powerful there'd be more reason to give them individual stats and turns. As the HP of the group dimisnihes you could flavor it as more and more of them dropping rather than each member being KOd or killed at the same time.
It might be slightly more reaslistic to try to multiply damage from aoes or do multiple saves, but if the point of this system is to expediate combat where a mob is concerned, I would lean in favor of expediating things rather than letting things drag and slow down for the sake of a little more realism.
I would probably treat a mob of creatures as vulnerable to AOE damage. 20 goblins is going to take a fireball a lot harder than one huge creature.
You know what, vulnerability to aoe damage is a great way to factor in extra damage to a group without having to make things complicated, that's a really good idea.
We were playing a game and could see a true horde of zombies (20+) shuffling toward us from several directions. The cleric held up his holy symbol and tried turning them. Rather than roll 20+ turn saves the DM rolled %dice to see how many were turned. We lucked out big time he rolled 100% 😁 but the idea is good - rather than roll a bunch of saves roll a % or a die for the number affected and go from there. Of course goblins and fireballs you may not need to worry too much the fireball covers roughly 12.5 5x5 blocks so your likely to get them all and they have so few HP it doesn’t matter if they save.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
In page 250 of the dmg there's a section that's used for speeding up combat for a large group of characters. It's really neat and speeds up the game well, while being mostly fair. The part that confuses me is how it should work in game. For example I play on roll 20. So if I had a large mob of lets say 5 orcs should I make them One large token, or give each one it's own individual token. What if the group is 20 goblins? Each one having it's own token sounds very tedious to say the least. So I went with one large token, but now when a player cast an aoe spell I don't really know how many characters are going to be affected. Also if they cast a spell with a save do I roll a saving throw for each individual monster, or one for the whole horde. And then do I multiply the damage dealt by the total amount of monsters in the horde? Can someone clear this up for me?
I would do only one saving throw per 'group' for simplicity. Also one token per group.
I would also not multiply any damage from aoe. I would say that the hit points reflect the mob as a whole combined, so the fireball damage would effectively be split among them.
I think this is the best way to handle it in order to keep things expedient. I'm assuming these mobs are all individually weak creatures anyway, as if they were significantly powerful there'd be more reason to give them individual stats and turns. As the HP of the group dimisnihes you could flavor it as more and more of them dropping rather than each member being KOd or killed at the same time.
It might be slightly more reaslistic to try to multiply damage from aoes or do multiple saves, but if the point of this system is to expediate combat where a mob is concerned, I would lean in favor of expediating things rather than letting things drag and slow down for the sake of a little more realism.
Thanks for your input! Means a lot.
I would probably treat a mob of creatures as vulnerable to AOE damage. 20 goblins is going to take a fireball a lot harder than one huge creature.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
You know what, vulnerability to aoe damage is a great way to factor in extra damage to a group without having to make things complicated, that's a really good idea.
We were playing a game and could see a true horde of zombies (20+) shuffling toward us from several directions. The cleric held up his holy symbol and tried turning them. Rather than roll 20+ turn saves the DM rolled %dice to see how many were turned. We lucked out big time he rolled 100% 😁 but the idea is good - rather than roll a bunch of saves roll a % or a die for the number affected and go from there. Of course goblins and fireballs you may not need to worry too much the fireball covers roughly 12.5 5x5 blocks so your likely to get them all and they have so few HP it doesn’t matter if they save.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.