whats the rules for war and mass combat for dnd 5e
There aren’t any. The way many DMs address mass combat is to simply involve the PCs in a small portion of it and narrate the rest happening off camera. However, there is a fantastic company called MCDM Productions who has published a book titled Strongholds and Followers. They are Citi working on a follow up product titled Kingdoms and Warfare. It won’t be available until summer of next year, but it is available for preorder and you may still be interested in it by then.
If your PCs are taking part in a big war with thousands of soldiers on either side, just make the soldiers' battle part of the background and only have the PCs fight a few units that are not otherwise engaged.
I wanted to recommend Matt Colville's books first, but ImaSpotsa got there first.
I have given some thought to using these rules in Strongholds and Followers, and it requires the DM and the players to play two games at once; the dungeons and dragons game and the War game, because I think you will end up having to manage the war units at least from a big picture perspective.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I've used the following systems with my opinions notes:
Matt Colville's Warfare 1.0 - Good, fast abstraction, conveys a sense of warfare without being a wargame
Massed Combat UA - Basically normal D&D combat with the numbers representing number of monsters rather than hit points. Didn't really feel like warfare, but still felt wargamey
Simplified version of Warhammer Fantasy rules - Might as well just play warhammer
Because D&D isn't really about war, I found Matt Colville's system the best because it's got the narrative feel of war, but plays out quickly and simply. The ranks and order of actions works well for a bit of tactics. I'm looking forward to his 2.0 version because that seems to have simplified things that need simplifying (like attacking and ancestry traits) and developed things that need substance (such as adding positioning and better delineation between ancestries)
I just have the battles with all the soldiers and stuff in the background, and let the players dictate the fight by having their actions be the focal point of the combat. I once used a unit system for combat, and it was horrible to run and was hard to balance, resulting in players steamrolling through it.
I also think combat should be quite chaotic as that’s how it is, and I feel like a units system takes that away.
whats the rules for war and mass combat for dnd 5e
There aren’t any. The way many DMs address mass combat is to simply involve the PCs in a small portion of it and narrate the rest happening off camera. However, there is a fantastic company called MCDM Productions who has published a book titled Strongholds and Followers. They are Citi working on a follow up product titled Kingdoms and Warfare. It won’t be available until summer of next year, but it is available for preorder and you may still be interested in it by then.
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For 5e rules, handling mobs might be helpful: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/running-the-game#HandlingMobs
If your PCs are taking part in a big war with thousands of soldiers on either side, just make the soldiers' battle part of the background and only have the PCs fight a few units that are not otherwise engaged.
I wanted to recommend Matt Colville's books first, but ImaSpotsa got there first.
I have given some thought to using these rules in Strongholds and Followers, and it requires the DM and the players to play two games at once; the dungeons and dragons game and the War game, because I think you will end up having to manage the war units at least from a big picture perspective.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I've used the following systems with my opinions notes:
Because D&D isn't really about war, I found Matt Colville's system the best because it's got the narrative feel of war, but plays out quickly and simply. The ranks and order of actions works well for a bit of tactics. I'm looking forward to his 2.0 version because that seems to have simplified things that need simplifying (like attacking and ancestry traits) and developed things that need substance (such as adding positioning and better delineation between ancestries)
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I just have the battles with all the soldiers and stuff in the background, and let the players dictate the fight by having their actions be the focal point of the combat. I once used a unit system for combat, and it was horrible to run and was hard to balance, resulting in players steamrolling through it.
I also think combat should be quite chaotic as that’s how it is, and I feel like a units system takes that away.