Making an Army... Armies, actually.

[Jane_Smith]

Army Force 1 - Githyanki.

What is their ranking system? In large scale invasions, how many foot soldiers, casters, marshels, warmages, healers, leaders do they bring? Whats their overall levels? Lets say their trying to lay siege to a large human city - what kinda man power are we looking at here? Like 500ish+ with some slaves and beasts of burden and war machines?

Army Force 2 - Illithid's.

In their ranking system, your illithid or fodder. Easy enough for that : elder brains being the big moba's of all. But, how many slaves does a typical enslave have access to? And with their hive-mind like effect with the elder brain, how fast can reinforcements reach an area? Do they use zerg-tactics? (aka, thousands of useless slaves, 1-5 elites that REALLY cause the damage while the little ones hold you down?).

I would like to see a deceint "list" of units for such forces.

Also note - githyanki do not worship any gods, and their military force contains no druids, paladins, or clerics. I was considering for 'healers' they simply get warlocks with brew potion (imbue item class feature) or maybe artificers to mass craft healing objects?

I hardly see ANY githyanki being level 1 fodder. Though smaller in number then the illithid's slave fodder (by like, 1 to 10), they are trained at BIRTH to fight basically, by maturity they should be level 3 alone!

Any theory's?

Edit: Also, any idea's on prc's for 5th+ level characters? I was thinking Tactical Soldier (miniatures handbook) for high level githyanki fighters, Stone Thrower/etc for the high level slave brutes of the illithid, and Thrallmind or some psionic prc for the illithid themselves.

[Xefas]

I don't see Illithid as being big on 'armies' outside of the Underdark.

Sure, down in the depths, Drow, Beholders, Aboleths, and the other unsavory critters lurking in the dark know of the Illithid's treachery. They know how they operate, and are prepared to handle them.

Above ground? It's likely no one has ever heard of them, save from Ol' Jeb, that retired fighter who sits in the corner of the tavern yammering on about squid-headed monstrosities what-each'ya with their face tentacles.

I think it's far more likely an Illithid attack force would consist of a few covert heavily-magically-disguised Mind Flayer agents who infiltrate the target city, wait a few decades, slowly dominate the majority of the populace, lay down a Teleporation Circle, and then in a single day, mass riot, overthrow those who haven't been dominated yet, take them hostage, and everyone go through the circle down in the Underdark never to be seen again.

An entire city's population is wiped off the map in a matter of hours. Gone without a trace. Illithid empire feasts in celebration.

[Jane_Smith]

1: The 'war' is in the underdark.

2: Githyanki are specialized mind flayer hunters - their trickery will not be tolerated.

3: This is over a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity even for the mind flayers. They are both fighting over a resource (Cant say what). Problem is, the gith want it just as bad, and want to keep it out of illithid hands. The illithids, at the same time, do not want the gith to have it. So they do not have time to infiltrate/corrupt enemys from the within/etc.

[Yora]

For the gith, I think it's pretty simple: Lots of Gith with one or two red dragons thrown in. But they don't need any auxilaries, they do all the dirty work themselves.

As for the ilithids, I guess I would start with hordes of weak minded critters, like goblins. Umber Hulks and also Bugbears would make very powerful strike teams. All the ilithids should be slave herders or spellcasters and rain fire down on their enemies. And if they can accept even heavier loses, also on their own troops as well.

[GreatWyrmGold]

^She knows what she's saying.
(At least, I think she's a she. It's hard to tell with her avatar.)
Also, it's "Armies," not "Armys."

[Xefas]

1: The 'war' is in the underdark.

:smallredface:



2: Githyanki are specialized mind flayer hunters - their trickery will not be tolerated.

3: This is over a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity even for the mind flayers. They are both fighting over a resource (Cant say what). Problem is, the gith want it just as bad, and want to keep it out of illithid hands. The illithids, at the same time, do not want the gith to have it. So they do not have time to infiltrate/corrupt enemys from the within/etc.

Githyanki Warblades would make amazing non-caster anti-Mindflayer guys. Between the Diamond Mind "Moment of Perfect Mind" maneuver to beef up their Will saves to protect against Mindflayer mental shenanigans, and the Iron Heart's "Iron Heart Surge" to shrug off any shenanigans that get through, as well as some White Raven maneuvers to show off their tactical know-how and elite teamwork, it seems like a perfect fit. Just gotta get up close enough to do a full-power-attack Emerald Razor and cut the decrepit old bastards in half. Then the chain of command starts breaking down as the thralls get loose...

Speaking of Thralls getting loose, I can see the Illithids getting zerg-like in their approach, though on a smaller scale. Each Mindflayer in the army would be a precious resource, maintaining their control over the vast legion of enslaved folk doing their fighting for them. Githyanki would obviously target the Mindflayers instead of fighting through the thralls, and obviously the Mindflayers know this (they aren't stupid).

Solution? The Voidmind template from the Monster Manual 3. It produces creatures that look exactly like normal versions of itself. Except that they're Illithid slaves, bonded to three different Mindflayers each. And, the best part, Mindflayers can use their psionic powers *through* their bonded Voidmind creatures.

So, amidst the Horde of thralls, there could be Voidminds, who look exactly like thralls, but perform the necessary maintaining of control over the other thralls without being obvious targets with bullseyes on them.

I don't know if that's allowed by RAW, but I think it makes a good story.

[Jane_Smith]

Actually I found a off-source spell that I figured would be an incredible little 'toy' to pull with the mind flayers.

Their is a spell called Mind Link - basically, it allows the caster to merge the minds of itself and a target to where they act as the same, single creature. They both basically get the hivemind like trait - their both aware of whatever is going on with the other, etc. Best part of all? They can use their spell-like abilities and spells threw each other...

Their is no limit to this, and it works for hours a day per caster level (its a 9th level spell). So my theory? Before a battle - a Elder Brain uses Mind Link on four or so illithid allies and sends them on their way.

However - this can be used for subtlety to. The elder brain itself, and/or all those illithid commanders? Can link their minds with 5-6 brain-numbed slaves. These slaves act both as 'camera's for the battle so the illithids never even have to be on the battlefield, and cast spells threw them as well...

[Mando Knight]

If you want some low-level cannon fodder on the Gith side, I'd pull a page out of NWN2's book and recruit some Duergar and Bladelings...