Massive elven city is under siege by a large goblinoid force. They have been under this seige for months.
Not a Helms Deep style thing, more of an encircled army starving the populous out.
How would you work this, any ideas?
I'm thinking increased military presence on patrol. Martial Law/curfew, rations etc. A tavern that's always packed so the people forget their troubles. Civil unrest could be a dynamic.
There would definitely be food strife. You could play that as an underground black market / thieves guild selling food to the starving masses, peasants rallying to overthrow the King who had been withholding food to feed his own etc.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
One thing to consider is how common people with class levels are. Goodberry and create food and water, among other things, can seriously warp how a siege will work.
So can teleportation magic: you may wish to consider if the defenders have access to it and whether or not the attackers have done anything to block it.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Assuming the city doesn't just have the magical resources to render the problem moot (as people up-threat mention), your big problems are a shortage of food and a large number of people who are out of work (either because their work normally occurs outside of the city, or because it depends on trade), which will tend to result in a large amount of crime and unrest.
Also, it's very hard to maintain a true blockade around something city-sized, it's just that smuggling and blockade running (most major cities are port cities, so a naval blockade might also be needed) is expensive and low capacity so there won't be enough of anything, and what there is will be very expensive.
It's a high magic setting, but average people don't have such magics. The city is by the shore. Naval blockade on one end, ground military on the other.
Teleportation magic is possibly a factor for sabotage on both sides. Average populace wouldn't have it however.
No, but if there are mages of sufficient level inside the city they could use Teleportation Circles to move goods and people into and out of the city. Would get expensive, given the material components of the spell, but I suspect that between nobles paying to get their families out of the city and the city government trying to get help in, it would probably be easy to cover it.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Teleportation magic is possibly a factor for sabotage on both sides. Average populace wouldn't have it however.
No, but if there are mages of sufficient level inside the city they could use Teleportation Circles to move goods and people into and out of the city. Would get expensive, given the material components of the spell, but I suspect that between nobles paying to get their families out of the city and the city government trying to get help in, it would probably be easy to cover it.
I mean, those resources aren't bottomless, particularly on the scale of feeding a large non-productive population for weeks or months. But at the same time, sieges themselves are massive resource sinks because you need to maintain a similarly sized nonproductive force. How far are the aggressors from their home territory, and what sort of route is their supply line going through? The longer the line is, the less tenable a protracted siege is because it's more expensive and more at risk of being cut off in turn.
Massive elven city is under siege by a large goblinoid force. They have been under this seige for months.
Not a Helms Deep style thing, more of an encircled army starving the populous out.
How would you work this, any ideas?
I'm thinking increased military presence on patrol. Martial Law/curfew, rations etc. A tavern that's always packed so the people forget their troubles. Civil unrest could be a dynamic.
Your thoughts, please and thank you
If we just hand wave the problem of practicalities of maintaining a siege in a world where invisibility, flight, polymorph, sending and teleportation are easily available magic. Then in a siege, businesses will be closed because of a lack of goods - including taverns. The populace will be generally depressed / hostile. Theft and smuggling will be rampant and the police will be too busy keeping angry crowds under control & distributing rations to do anything about it. There will be a lack of animals you'd normally see in a city as the populace will be killing & eating their pets, as well as rats, pigeons, and any other animals they can catch. The streets will be less busy than normal except those leading to where rations are being handed out, as nobody has anywhere to go, nor anything to do, and no energy to do anything either. The party with their obvious wealth will be harassed by a crowd of the poor & starving immediately upon being noticed.
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Ok so without going into crazy detail.
Massive elven city is under siege by a large goblinoid force. They have been under this seige for months.
Not a Helms Deep style thing, more of an encircled army starving the populous out.
How would you work this, any ideas?
I'm thinking increased military presence on patrol. Martial Law/curfew, rations etc. A tavern that's always packed so the people forget their troubles. Civil unrest could be a dynamic.
Your thoughts, please and thank you
There would definitely be food strife. You could play that as an underground black market / thieves guild selling food to the starving masses, peasants rallying to overthrow the King who had been withholding food to feed his own etc.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
One thing to consider is how common people with class levels are. Goodberry and create food and water, among other things, can seriously warp how a siege will work.
So can teleportation magic: you may wish to consider if the defenders have access to it and whether or not the attackers have done anything to block it.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Assuming the city doesn't just have the magical resources to render the problem moot (as people up-threat mention), your big problems are a shortage of food and a large number of people who are out of work (either because their work normally occurs outside of the city, or because it depends on trade), which will tend to result in a large amount of crime and unrest.
Also, it's very hard to maintain a true blockade around something city-sized, it's just that smuggling and blockade running (most major cities are port cities, so a naval blockade might also be needed) is expensive and low capacity so there won't be enough of anything, and what there is will be very expensive.
It's a high magic setting, but average people don't have such magics. The city is by the shore. Naval blockade on one end, ground military on the other.
Teleportation magic is possibly a factor for sabotage on both sides. Average populace wouldn't have it however.
The way I run it, such spells are not enough to sustain populations. Getting u er technical, perhaps some magic blockers of some kind
No, but if there are mages of sufficient level inside the city they could use Teleportation Circles to move goods and people into and out of the city. Would get expensive, given the material components of the spell, but I suspect that between nobles paying to get their families out of the city and the city government trying to get help in, it would probably be easy to cover it.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I mean, those resources aren't bottomless, particularly on the scale of feeding a large non-productive population for weeks or months. But at the same time, sieges themselves are massive resource sinks because you need to maintain a similarly sized nonproductive force. How far are the aggressors from their home territory, and what sort of route is their supply line going through? The longer the line is, the less tenable a protracted siege is because it's more expensive and more at risk of being cut off in turn.
If we just hand wave the problem of practicalities of maintaining a siege in a world where invisibility, flight, polymorph, sending and teleportation are easily available magic. Then in a siege, businesses will be closed because of a lack of goods - including taverns. The populace will be generally depressed / hostile. Theft and smuggling will be rampant and the police will be too busy keeping angry crowds under control & distributing rations to do anything about it. There will be a lack of animals you'd normally see in a city as the populace will be killing & eating their pets, as well as rats, pigeons, and any other animals they can catch. The streets will be less busy than normal except those leading to where rations are being handed out, as nobody has anywhere to go, nor anything to do, and no energy to do anything either. The party with their obvious wealth will be harassed by a crowd of the poor & starving immediately upon being noticed.