[3.5] Tips on running a low level undead horde adventure

[Thurbane]

Hi all,

In an upcoming campaign (as a lead in to the Return to Castle Ravenloft hardcover), I was toying with the idea of the groups first adventure (i.e. 5x 1st level PCs) being trapped in a small town, besieged by a horde of skeletons and zombies. The party would be fighting side-by-side with the townsfolk and militia. Basically, this would be how the party forms, fighting alongside each other for the first time.

Couple of questions: how many would be a fair number to represent a horde, without being too much for a small town/village to fight off? How would this horde descend on the town without being spotted well enough in advance for everyone to flee (I was thinking maybe a fogbank rolling in, covering their approach)? How would I make the PCs feel like they are making the difference when the town likely has higher level characters that will be joining the fight?

Any suggestions and ideas welcomed.

Cheers - T

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Zombies are CR .5 at their weakest. That means that the horde could be twice the size of the town before it got to less than a 50/50 shot of survival. If one of the PCs is a Bard or something, that number goes up. Of course, if you don't want the town to survive, you could just keep them coming until the PCs find an escape with as many townsfolk as are left.

Edit:This assumes the town is composed of mostly 1st level warriors, which I recommend. Give them primarily crossbows and cheap reach weapons, and the PCs will be the primary movers and shakers with it feeling like an unstoppable horde.

[Thurbane]

Cool. I'm hoping that the town (and PCs) previal, but the town will suffer enough losses for it to be a notable disaster.

It's to set the tone for a horror/apocalyptic based campaign.

[Deepblue706]

Hmm.

Crossbows and cheap reach weapon basically points to the town's warriors primarily doing Piercing damage. Skeletons have DR 5/Bludgeoning, and Zombies have DR 5/Slashing. While at higher levels this kind of DR is negligible, I think it'll be important for the troops to do the proper kind of damage. Otherwise, they'll probably do essentially nothing to contribute, and make the PCs feel bad as they die off.

Although, allowing the PCs opportunities to save aforementioned warriors might spring some interest. Or, at least, providing opportunities for the PCs to give direct orders to the town militia might spur those who like playing commanders.

Fogbanks making the approach unnoticed might be a useful device for having the undead roll in; although this suggests the town warriors will be disorganized. This can be good or bad, depending on how much you expect your players get involved, as compared to how they actually do. I would suggest not using overwhelming numbers. Three zombos to every able warrior might be good, since they're slow. But, I'd advise against significantly greater numbers.

You might want to reserve a few *special* undead among their ranks for the PCs to deal with, directly. Not only does variety help to spice things up, but your party members probably won't care if higher level folk are in the town, if they have to deal with some big-bads up-and-close. They'll be thinking about survival as the fight rages on; and having taken on some huge undead ogre, or whatever, will be noteworthy enough (even if there are a couple others that NPCs might take down).