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Rasman
2010-08-08, 01:32 AM
So, in this Pathfinder campaign that I just recently started a previous character MAY have helped in releasing the Tarrasque, which is resulting in, on a grander scale, the end of the world. Grayhawk has been destroyed and the Council of Eight have disappeared. The survivors who have taken charge in their absence have called out for new heros to step forward to try and right some of this wrong. Did I mention that they'll take anybody? Even a sad little level 1 druid? Yeah, it gets worse. Mr. Druid has been sent to the Duchy of Ulek to defend a town from a Goblin Invasion...by himself.

I'm just glad the campaign didn't start in a Tavern considering this is my DMs first campaign.

I choose Druid because at least SOME of this campaign will be done solo and Druids are a little Batman, but not as broken or squishy as a Wizard. Considering this campaign is supposed to be on Death Mode, I was told that it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring multiple characters so that when I died that I could just pick up further along in the story *note: Not IF, but WHEN*. And fearful as I am, I'm going to go at least Druid 5/Planar Shepherd 10/Druid 5 with this character. ...I know...Planar Shepherd. Being level 1, I have some time for this, but being well planned out isn't a bad thing. At the moment, the only feats I know I want are Greensinger Initiate at 1st level and Natural Spell at 5th level. Other than that, I'm totally clueless since this is such a Hybrid character. Any suggestions for feat progression would be ridiculously appreciated.

*Note: I'm also not going to go with the whole "Fire Plane-Efreet-Wish All The Bad Away" because, 1. I don't want to "I win" this and 2. MUCH more HORRIBLE things will happen to me if I do. So I'm looking at planes that are strong, but aren't IWIN buttons that maybe just do something kinda cool or give me enough of an edge to make a difference.*

Another "problem" is that I also have to prepare these people to fight off a goblin army. In this small town there are only about 300 fighting men, but I only have 100 Swords, 100 Crossbows and there is only 1 smith in the town who isn't experienced in making weapons. The town itself isn't walled, I walked in with no difficulty, but there is an old, abandoned castle that was left by a noble family that died out several years ago. It's also still the harvest season and the current "mayor" won't allow me to begin training any of the men for at least until the crops come in; considering the fact that we wouldn't last though a long siege without a decent food supply. I'm at a loss as to what my actual options are at this point. The only thing accomplished thus far is the purification of a water supply in the castle that was being tainted by some sort of cursed item. I could really use a small guiding light here. I'm not exactly a pro when it comes to castle siege defenses.

So if you have any input on EITHER of these issues, your opinion is greatly appreciated.

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-08, 01:51 AM
...So I assume it was some kind of houseruled Tarrasque that was actually badass, rather than simply a puzzle creature with a fairly basic solution?

And I've given a lot of thought to what a low level druid can do. Two words:

Mule Platoon. Start training ANIMALS if you can't train people. And train anyone who isn't actively taking part of the harvest. And see if you can START fortifying this ruined keep, getting it useful for a siege. See if you can get ANYONE to help you with this. Use Omen of Peril as broadly as you can to figure things out, and SKILLS SKILLS SKILLS. Look at the handle animal guides. And as for training MILITIA, equip them as close to this as you can:

Leather Armor, Spiked Gauntlet, Longspear, Sling. The idea is to make these people useful on the CHEAP. Stockpile sling bullets and rocks of appropriate size. Get people to drill going into the prepared fortress when an alarm sounds. These folk aren't going to be good on the offensive, try to make them into a hard nut to crack by preparing a defensive battlefield with traps and killzones.

BTW, here's the Handle Animal guide:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871522/The_Handle_Animal_Guide

Things you want to do with skills to prepare the keep: construction, figuring out battlements, getting supplies, equipment, and food there, figuring out things like boiling oil and dropping rocks, preparing a lot of traps that the peasants wont, THEMSELVES set off, but that will make the invading army's day really bad (look at various poison options combined with lots and lots of boobytrap, pitfalls sorts of thing -- tons of cr 1/2 traps, basically, in the area where the bad guys are going to be and your guys won't be). Drill them in formation fighting, aid another for being able to hit, hitting targets with a hail of slingfire, skirmishing tactics, not wetting themselves and running, mutually supportive phalanx sorts of things, etc. etc. Also, see if the DM can, if they get good at volley fire, let the actual damage be "Xd6 damage in a ##-foot radius, reflex half" rather than require to hit rolls.

Talk to the DM, see if you can get them statted at AT LEAST Warrior 1. You might want some folk that are good at DEFENSE -- put them in Brigandine (the cheapest 4 ac armor, 30 gp each, from A&EG, it's 3.0e but balanced for 4e), give them heavy wooden shields, and a cheap 1h weapon. I would say, make the combatants into three units of ~100 each, trained to support each other as three maniples. One of them is the "good armor, good shield, longsword". Another unit is your lighter armored, no shield, longspear guys. Another unit is your ranged guys and skirmishers, with the crossbows, trained for volley supporting fire, and MAYBE skirmishing too. EVERYONE has a sling and at least some rocks. EVERYONE needs to be able to function in melee or at range.

Spearman equipment:
Leather Armor, Sling/Javelins, Longspear, Spiked Gauntlet

Heavy Infantry equipment:
Brigandine (or cheapest 4 ac armor, or cheapest 3 ac armor, maybe hide?), Heavy Wooden Shield, Sling/Javelins, Longsword.

Crossbowmen
Leather Armor, Crossbow, Morningstar/Club/Mace, Sling (backup), Light Wooden Shield

remember, one goblin can potentially be attacked by SIX folk in formation as I mentioned, and a good number of those folk will be able to aid another, and lots of them will get attacks of opportunity, etc. etc.


.g
LLL
LLL

Also, remember what CASTLES are. KILLING MACHINES. That is their purpose -- to be a position where people can kill anything that tries to get close. Every part of a castle's design is for defense and to kill things that are trying to take it, from pouring oil, to the design of absolutely everything in the castle (the courtyard, the entrance hallway, the portcullis, the keep, the walls, the battlements, etc. etc. -- all designed to KILL). Make sure it is all USABLE for its purpose...

Rasman
2010-08-08, 02:11 AM
...So I assume it was some kind of houseruled Tarrasque that was actually badass, rather than simply a puzzle creature with a fairly basic solution?

And I've given a lot of thought to what a low level druid can do. Two words:

Mule Platoon.

it's a Tarrasque that is also being controlled, somewhat...

Basically Asmodeus, i.e. the Prince of Darkness or Satan basically, is trying to take FULL control of Rovagug, the god of Pure Chaos, and this Tarrasque is considered his Herald.

yeah...Druids before Wild Shape...yeah...

This, "Train Animals" thing isn't a bad idea actually. But doesn't it take a week to teach an animal a trick? Something to do in my spare time I guess.

I forgot to mention that the castle has a few working catapults and a potential moat with working crossbridge. I guess next level I'm taking up Profession: Trapmaking or getting some lackies from the village to do it.

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-08, 02:14 AM
See my very much edited reply...

The moat, is it water based or not? Most important of the castle is the things that actually let you KILL THINGS that are directly assaulting the castle walls, like murder holes, places to pour boiling things and drop rocks and such on them, arrowslits, is there a working bolthole, how well hidden is it?

In fact just read the wikipedia entry on "castle", and make sure that your character is inspecting all the defensive aspects of a castle, going into detail, getting them ready, specifically to remind the DM of how deadly a castle is..

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-08, 02:38 AM
I edited both replies again. Read up on castle defense and tactics and how castles were built, and go over with the DM the sorts of things that you are doing to prepare the PEOPLE to defend the castle, prepare the castle for defense, and prepare your character to defend the castle as well....

And READ THE WHOLE HANDLE ANIMAL GUIDE! You want to set up an animal boot camp for as many animals as possible, at once. For the WEEKS you are doing that, prepare "Talk with animals" as your only spells to help you along, make liberal use of handle animal, and liberal use of Wild Empathy, and actually try and coopt the help of most of the forest critters in the area to defend their home from evil green goblins that are going to burn the whole area down, if you can...

Rasman
2010-08-08, 02:56 AM
See my very much edited reply...

lol...I actually watched it grow...thus it amused me...

I completely forgot to mention that the castle does have some old catapults that still function and a LARGE number of casks of Wine, which it has been hinted at as being flammable. What are the rules on creating a Molotov Cocktail? lol

I may ACTUALLY spend an entire day or so hunting for animals to train because of this. This new threat is something that endangers everything and the forest, for a druid, is their weapon. This could get a LOT more interesting.

The battle is actually going to be done with rules from a specific book, of which the name escapes me, that its focus is large scale battles. But specific parts will be done on a normal grid, so things like formation and such will be HUGELY useful. Especially the 6block formation

As much as my druid might not like it, there will probably be MANY a Quarterstaff made from the local forest. Clubs will be enmass as well since you can basically take a tree limb and call it a club. As for Armor, I'll have to figure out if they have a large number of herd animals or something to supply that, otherwise there will be a lot of hunting parties as well.


See my very much edited reply...

The moat, is it water based or not? Most important of the castle is the things that actually let you KILL THINGS that are directly assaulting the castle walls, like murder holes, places to pour boiling things and drop rocks and such on them, arrowslits, is there a working bolthole, how well hidden is it?

In fact just read the wikipedia entry on "castle", and make sure that your character is inspecting all the defensive aspects of a castle, going into detail, getting them ready, specifically to remind the DM of how deadly a castle is..

the moat is dry at the moment, but considering that under the castle there is a underground river, it shouldn't be hard to fill...I've only noticed the relatively obvious things about the castle so far since my character has only been in it for a few hours thus far...I'm probably going to "sit down" with the Mayor in the near future for a "tactical" meeting of some sort

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-08, 03:19 AM
Wine's not high enough proof to be flammable in any useful way. You get a little, quickly extinguished flame. You need higher proof spirits for BIG FLAME, like distilled spirits. Anyway, alchemist's fire, and many many variants, aren't all that hard to make...

Anyway, "Goblin horde" means, generally:

Goblin
Hobgoblin
Bugbear

irl, look at the stats. In character, goblinoids are HUMANOIDS, and are covered by Knowledge Local. So... find someone who knows as much about goblinoids in general, and get as much intel as you possibly can about these tribes of goblins, and these goblins in particular, and use that to do things like conduct psychological warfare operations on them, and fake them out and stuff.

And the cheapest "you can get large quantities of this and it can be more useful than smaller quantities of real alchemist's fire in some situations" item is OIL. Yes that's right, OIL FLASKS. Use *that* to make molotov's and set large numbers of traps!

Just tell the DM straight up that brewed and fermented spirits generally don't burn too well; yes they will techincally burn, but if you want something to be useful as an alcohol based weapon, it should be, ohhhh at least 100 proof, ie 50% alcohol, ie well well well beyond wine and beer. But glass shards can be useful as traps?

Also there is nothing WRONG with a dry moat. Fill it with spikes and stuff!

Rasman
2010-08-08, 03:30 AM
Wine's not high enough proof to be flammable. Need distilled spirits for that... Anyway, alchemist's fire, and many many variants, aren't all that hard to make...

well, he wasn't very clear as to what it was EXACTLY, but it was made clear that I needed to be careful with my torch around it...could be used as a fuel for flaming hay bales though...hmm...on my checklist of things to research about the castle I guess

I ACTUALLY had an idea much like the Knowledge Local thing, but it requires a Wizard that knows Fly and Explosive Runes that can speak and write in Goblin. Propaganda Explosion. Then again...how many Goblins do you know that can read? ...might get a few Chiefs or something maybe...

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-08, 03:33 AM
And have you read that Handle Animal guide yet?? Seriously... :D

Also, another thing that might be useful for a low level power use is gratuitous use of poison. Read the poison guide.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=4854.0

What did you think of the idea for the "three centuries"?

And your militia doesn't need to be just MEN. Basically, "Anyone in this area who can theoretically attack effectively with a weapon" is fair game.

And don't discount diplomacy, ie, "getting everyone who is in a large radius to come help." How far to the next heavily defendible location or castle? Consider that, ooohhhh, all the towns and villages and farms that are halfway between that location and THIS *CASTLE* OF YOURS and closer, and who might be inconvenienced by a gigantic goblin army, JUST VERY WELL MIGHT consider sending help...? Send out messengers to everything that is close pleading for help and promising as much as you can in return.

Rasman
2010-08-08, 03:37 AM
And have you read that Handle Animal guide yet?? Seriously... :D

Also, another thing that might be useful for a low level power use is gratuitous use of poison. Read the poison guide.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=4854.0

What did you think of the idea for the "three centuries"?

And you don't need just MEN. Basically, "Anyone in this area who can theoretically attack effectively with a weapon" is fair game.

being a Greensinger Initiate, I do get Charm Person, so I could probably find an isolated Goblin or two and Charm them into telling me things, heck, maybe "convert" them into fighting for me or being spies...but Goblins are stupid...so...probably not the best route, but it's a route


And don't discount diplomacy, ie, "getting everyone who is in a large radius to come help." How far to the next heavily defendible location or castle? Consider that, ooohhhh, all the towns and villages and farms that are halfway between that location and THIS *CASTLE* OF YOURS and closer, and who might be inconvenienced by a gigantic goblin army, JUST VERY WELL MIGHT consider sending help...? Send out messengers to everything that is close pleading for help and promising as much as you can in return.

this is PROBABLY not going to happen considering things like this are happening all over the world...the Mayor has been doing things like that since before I got there, everyone is stretched pretty thin, but it's worth a shot

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-08, 03:39 AM
Well, psychological warfare at this level... is generally messing with their religion, pitting them against each other, causing fear and havoc and mistrust amongst their leaders, etc. etc. Remember, Bugbears are generally the chaotic ones, goblins are the smaller, often pushed around ones, and hobgoblins are the lawful, planning ones. Think of Goblins as this: Hobgoblins are Samurai, Goblins are Yakuza, and Bugbears are Ninja.

Also, GOBLINS, BUGBEARS, and HOBGOBLINS are just as smart as humans. Seriously. NONE of these creatures have ANY penalties versus civilized races in areas of intelligence. Just Charisma, and Hobgoblins don't even have that. If you are estimating these creatures as "stupid" than you are doomed to failure from the start! Don't make that mistake!

Remember, Charm Person lasts like, an hour at your level, and it makes someone friendly to you for that hour. Basically you can go up to someone and be like, *charm person*, "Hi there, you really like me and are really motivated to help me solve my problems for the next hour. So let's do that."

Rasman
2010-08-08, 03:48 AM
Well, psychological warfare at this level... is generally messing with their religion, pitting them against each other, causing fear and havoc and mistrust amongst their leaders, etc. etc.

Also, GOBLINS, BUGBEARS, and HOBGOBLINS are just as smart as humans. Seriously. NONE of these creatures have ANY penalties versus civilized races in areas of intelligence. Just Charisma, and Hobgoblins don't even have that. If you are estimating these creatures as "stupid" than you are doomed to failure from the start! Don't make that mistake!

probably true...then again, most of what I've dealt with have been lackies and the like, not exactly the brains...Hobgoblins are the ones I'm worried about...they're the leadership on the battlefield

what section is the "three centuries" part? I've only got to skim though it since I'm at work and been doing paper work at the same time

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-08, 03:49 AM
probably true...then again, most of what I've dealt with have been lackies and the like, not exactly the brains...Hobgoblins are the ones I'm worried about...they're the leadership on the battlefield

what section is the "three centuries" part? I've only got to skim though it since I'm at work and been doing paper work at the same time

300 people. 100 of them as heavy infantry. 100 of them as crossbowmen/light infantry. 100 of them as spearmen. 100 people or so to a century, ie your basic combat unit that functions as a cohesive group of fighters. So 3 centuries. If you can get another unit of handlers and animals, that'd be great too...

Also, you are a divine caster that uses holly and mistletoe to be able to cast your spells. You don't need to do much more than have that stuff on your person, and maybe say some words in order to cast, say, Charm Person. Not like a wizard, for sure, it's much more subtle. Make sure that the actual words that you use to cast charm person sound vaguely like something you can put into a sentence in common, and the effect of the spell going off is as subtle as is feasible. That way, assuming someone doesn't have a high spellcraft, they might not even know that a spell was being cast, let alone that someone got charm personed. And then liberally use that spell on the people in the town to get them to help! But only ask for about an hour of help at each time -- you want them to be already done helping you by the time the spell stops.

Also, another thing that doesn't massively deplete your supply of animals, that is armor basically as good as leather armor, and 2 gp cheaper? Cord armor. it's 3.0e, though, A&E guide. Hide and/or Brigandine for everyone that you can manage to get it for cord or leather for everyone else. But in GENERAL, if you can manage it, get everyone in the absolute heaviest armor you can afford--Period.

Rasman
2010-08-08, 04:01 AM
300 people. 100 of them as heavy infantry. 100 of them as crossbowmen/light infantry. 100 of them as spearmen. 100 people or so to a century, ie your basic combat unit that functions as a cohesive group of fighters. So 3 centuries.

Also, you are a divine caster that uses holly and mistletoe to be able to cast your spells. You don't need to do much more than have that stuff on your person, and maybe say some words in order to cast, say, Charm Person. Not like a wizard, for sure, it's much more subtle. Make sure that the actual words that you use to cast charm person sound vaguely like something you can put into a sentence in common, and the effect of the spell going off is as subtle as is feasible. That way, assuming someone doesn't have a high spellcraft, they might not even know that a spell was being cast, let alone that someone got charm personed. And then liberally use that spell on the people in the town to get them to help! But only ask for about an hour of help at each time -- you want them to be already done helping you by the time the spell stops.

well, now that you mention it, my Druid tends to use lots of hand motions when talking, so something like "my good man, how are you doing this fine day?" wouldn't stand out much other than the fact that I was being nice. I could probably pull that off with a Goblin as well...makes me kinda wish I hadn't killed those two in the Underground River......

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-08, 04:05 AM
So the verbal components for charm person for your character sound something vaguely like the phrase "my good man" in Common or Halfling (the root language for common, natch)? And remember, divine caster. No need for hand motions in casting.

...God I've edited practically every post in this thread. Consider rereading them, lol... or at least the last half of most of them!

Also, only ONE day hunting for animals to train? There's a lot of area to cover, you have Wild Empathy, presumably a decent Handle Animal, and Speak with Animals, and TIME when you can't get help from the actual people -- use that to get a mighty host of wild creatures!

Oh, if you are going to use "An animal to make armor", just make Hide armor from that creature, if you have a choice between making it hide and making it leather. Hide's just basically "heavier leather that uses a different treatment process" anyway.

Oh, btw:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/oa_gallery/Brigandine.jpg
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/oa_gallery/Cord_armor.jpg

Rasman
2010-08-08, 04:20 AM
So the verbal components for charm person for your character sound something vaguely like the phrase "my good man" in Common or Halfling (the root language for common, natch)? And remember, divine caster. No need for hand motions in casting.

...God I've edited practically every post in this thread. Consider rereading them, lol... or at least the last half of most of them!

Also, only ONE day hunting for animals to train? There's a lot of area to cover, you have Wild Empathy, presumably a decent Handle Animal, and Speak with Animals, and TIME when you can't get help from the actual people -- use that to get a mighty host of wild creatures!

Oh, if you are going to use "An animal to make armor", just make Hide armor from that creature, if you have a choice between making it hide and making it leather. Hide's just basically "heavier leather that uses a different treatment process" anyway.

Oh, btw:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/oa_gallery/Brigandine.jpg
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/oa_gallery/Cord_armor.jpg

true...I can use that week and a half just gaining an animal army...

I'll have to see what I can get away with with the armor though

I do have one other task that will get in the way in the mean time though...

...there is apparently a "witch" in the area that's established an "Obsidian Castle" that the Goblin's seem to be afraid of...I've considered a possible relocation, but I'm not sure what is there is a Witch, more or less afraid of the Goblin presence.

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-08, 04:32 AM
If there is something the goblins are afraid of, use the IMAGERY of that, the rumor of that, the help of that thing to conduct psychological warfare and deterrence on them, to make them not WANT to go near where you are, for fear of vengenace of this thing... crazy witches don't like their things stolen by goblin raiders, even if they might happen to be Chaotic Evil or something-- see if you can get her help.

Also!
Finding parts for a CR 1/2 trap is a DC 20 survival check that you can take 10 or take 20 on. The craft trapmaking check is a dc 20 craft trapmaking that you can take 10 on. So RENT some masterwork tools of craft trapmaking, get an assistant or two to aid another in the building on, figure out the best places to put as many of these things as possible, and use them to totally send a message to goblins that, "It's not worth it to come here, lots of you all are just going to step in punji stake holes smeared with salvo poison." Salvo being a dc 12 to CRAFT injury poison. And presumably you can actually go out and, uh, LOOK for the ingredients rather than buying them...

Rasman
2010-08-08, 05:12 AM
If there is something the goblins are afraid of, use the IMAGERY of that, the rumor of that, the help of that thing to conduct psychological warfare and deterrence on them, to make them not WANT to go near where you are, for fear of vengenace of this thing... crazy witches don't like their things stolen by goblin raiders, even if they might happen to be Chaotic Evil or something-- see if you can get her help.

Also!
Finding parts for a CR 1/2 trap is a DC 20 survival check that you can take 10 or take 20 on. The craft trapmaking check is a dc 20 craft trapmaking that you can take 10 on. So RENT some masterwork tools of craft trapmaking, get an assistant or two to aid another in the building on, figure out the best places to put as many of these things as possible, and use them to totally send a message to goblins that, "It's not worth it to come here, lots of you all are just going to step in punji stake holes smeared with salvo poison." Salvo being a dc 12 to CRAFT injury poison. And presumably you can actually go out and, uh, LOOK for the ingredients rather than buying them...

yeah, gonna have to do some recon on these goblins, although I doubt that I can prevent any of them from outright coming, but demoralizing them isn't a bad idea.

Traps are going to be about as simple as you're describing, mostly holes and pointy things. Maybe some bear traps if the "hunters" have got them. Worth checking. Some inhaled poisons won't be bad to have either. Just a little harder to use. God help them if I learn the spell that turns Acorns into Landmines.

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-08, 12:32 PM
What level do you think you'll be when you get there? And like I said, there *are* rules for boobytraps in D&D.

Craft Poisonmaking rules are mostly in Complete Adventurer. That REALLY EASY TO MAKE poison is in complete Scoundrel, some of the really cheap and thematic (it causes filth fever! Stuff that causes that is TOTALLY what you put on Punji stakes!) is Roach Paste from Drow of the Underdark... look at the handbool, and give the DM a list of poisons that you could reasonably find using Survival, as well as a list of creatures that you can milk for poison using Wild Empathy to enable you to be able to use handle animal skill in an appropriate way, and a list of low level creatures you could kill and then harvest poison from that you could reasonably find in this area. Using survival to harvest poisonmaking materials is in Dragon Magazine # 349.

The Booby trap rules are in DMG2, as are the rules for using survival to scrounge parts for a booby trap. Alternately, you could just look it up here:

http://chet.kindredcircle.org/

In fact, reading through the skill pdf on that for ideas of WHAT you can use skills for is probably a good idea...

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-09, 06:51 PM
Another thing. In a post apocolyptic setting with lots of rampaging bad things...

...than tons of people flee to the nearest Still Fortified Location.

So, ask the DM to give you a map of all the nearest places that have working castles, keeps, forts, strongholds, defensible towers, or ANYTHING like that in the area AT ALL... have the character go looking for that info... seriously, that is going to be a BIG DEAL, as people from all over are going to be pouring into each and every one of those! If your castle is the only one in a large radius, you are going to be getting a WHOLE TON of refugees! Talk to the DM about that, remind him that! Yes, it does mean you have to feed him, but yes, it ALSO means that you will have more people for the militia... figure out a map that has all the nearby strongholds... if there aren't any nearby, than zoom the map out until the one that IS near is also on the map. Basically remind the DM that all of the hamlets, villages, farms, and etc. in the area are probably going to be streaming to your castle and that nearest one... if there are only two, than ALL the people in that area are going to be wanting to go to just those two! That is probably going to be a lot of people!

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-11, 08:21 PM
So you can't just leave us! Tell us how it went, what the DM thought of the various ideas? Oh by the way, if you can only train commoners in ONE simple weapon, than it should probably be 'shortspear'. That gives them something that can be thrown and that can be used in melee. MAYBE train them in 'longspear' for reach, or 'sling' for ranged. Maybe. But if Commoner 1's fight, than there really isn't anything that can be done to allow them to survive, well, anything.... Warrior 1's are sooo much better. Consider asking the DM if they can be switched to classes that are crappy melee classes but still better than Warrior (because their first hit dice is MAXXED rather than halved! and is a d10!), like Fighter or CW Samurai, for example. Does the DM know about the tier system for classes?

Gavinfoxx
2010-08-14, 11:21 PM
Any news? I REALLY wanna hear about this...

Rasman
2010-09-22, 02:03 AM
So you can't just leave us! Tell us how it went, what the DM thought of the various ideas? Oh by the way, if you can only train commoners in ONE simple weapon, than it should probably be 'shortspear'. That gives them something that can be thrown and that can be used in melee. MAYBE train them in 'longspear' for reach, or 'sling' for ranged. Maybe. But if Commoner 1's fight, than there really isn't anything that can be done to allow them to survive, well, anything.... Warrior 1's are sooo much better. Consider asking the DM if they can be switched to classes that are crappy melee classes but still better than Warrior (because their first hit dice is MAXXED rather than halved! and is a d10!), like Fighter or CW Samurai, for example. Does the DM know about the tier system for classes?

at the moment I'm the the process of training around 200 of the men to use Short Swords and Bows, 100 train one day and 100 train the next while on their "off days" they work on making repairs to the castle walls, which come in 3 layers, each with a Portcullis, which are fairly rusted, but we're going to work on reinforcing them. I also have the men gathering materials to repair the catapults. I, at the moment, still have around 100 men that don't have weapons, so what is probably going to happen is that I'm going to take a day or two and gather Quarterstaffs and Clubs for them to use since they're practically free. I've also managed to get 2 other players into the campaign and one is a Weaponsmith, so he should be able to craft some simple weapons at the very least. I've taken up Trapsmithing, so I'll be working on building some simple traps and the like.

My current problem is that I just took out a Goblin Alchemist that has planted explosives in a cave that was created naturally on the backside of the mountain that the castle uses as a safe side, I have to either find a way to disable them or to prevent them from doing damage to the mountain that would give the enemy army and alternate route to attack from.

Angelmaker
2010-09-22, 06:05 AM
My current problem is that I just took out a Goblin Alchemist that has planted explosives in a cave that was created naturally on the backside of the mountain that the castle uses as a safe side, I have to either find a way to disable them or to prevent them from doing damage to the mountain that would give the enemy army and alternate route to attack from.

If you took out the alchemist, where is the problem to remove the explosives from the cave and use it for yourself? Collaps the cave afterwards, so it canīt be used gain without excessiveearthworks.

Psyx
2010-09-22, 06:19 AM
Farmers have been turning farm implements into polearms for centuries for good reasons. You should have no shortage of weapons. Heck: Give them reach weaponry, because that AOO might double each commoner's number of attacks before death! It also makes it easier to fight over a defensive obstacle.

Get the peasants to sew themselves up in their winter clothing: Padded armour!

Can you speed up the harvest? As a druid you may be able to come up with something that will help, or offer some good farming advice.

Start training the local housecats to attack goblins. Two of them should be able to massacre a gobbo! Obviously mules are going to be out of the equation, as a town this size will be relying on the few draft creatures that it has for economic reasons.

Treating traps and weapons with faeces is a classic for a reason.

Local hunters can probably help with traps... not that traps are going to make a significant difference.

That harvest is going to create a lot of chaff and hay. Dry hay burns. You can use this by perhaps placing bales where they can be ignited to impede attackers, by throwing burning burning bales at them, by rolling round burning bales down hills at them, or by simply using burning hay to create a thick cloud of smoke that chokes and makes any attack through it a difficult and uncoordinated prospect. With the wind in the right direction and your foes caught half-way up ladders or climbing the walls, a dozen large sacks of chaff dropped on foes could temporarily blind them, or at least hamper vision.

If a wall is breached and an attack due, simply drop a few dozen bales of hay in the gap and ignite it. It will give you temporary breathing space, at least.

Oh: And think of fire prevention, too. Buckets of water everywhere and dampen down wooden buildings. Maybe pull thatch off roofs before anything happens to it.

Prepare for a siege war, and get provisions and water in.

Plan how to destroy any siege machines the foe has. Maybe train rats to chew the main torsion ropes of their catapults at night, or something!

Defensive ditches are also a classic, if you have the man-power or spell-power to dig them.

Decapitation tactics are also solid when facing disorganised foes with poor structure and morale. Simply kill the important people, and watch the chaos spread.

Rasman
2010-09-22, 02:45 PM
If you took out the alchemist, where is the problem to remove the explosives from the cave and use it for yourself? Collaps the cave afterwards, so it canīt be used gain without excessiveearthworks.

the problem is that I'm not sure if it has a timer yet...I do recall a LOT of Alchemist's Fire though...


Farmers have been turning farm implements into polearms for centuries for good reasons. You should have no shortage of weapons. Heck: Give them reach weaponry, because that AOO might double each commoner's number of attacks before death! It also makes it easier to fight over a defensive obstacle.

Get the peasants to sew themselves up in their winter clothing: Padded armour!

Can you speed up the harvest? As a druid you may be able to come up with something that will help, or offer some good farming advice.

Start training the local housecats to attack goblins. Two of them should be able to massacre a gobbo! Obviously mules are going to be out of the equation, as a town this size will be relying on the few draft creatures that it has for economic reasons.

Treating traps and weapons with faeces is a classic for a reason.

Local hunters can probably help with traps... not that traps are going to make a significant difference.

That harvest is going to create a lot of chaff and hay. Dry hay burns. You can use this by perhaps placing bales where they can be ignited to impede attackers, by throwing burning burning bales at them, by rolling round burning bales down hills at them, or by simply using burning hay to create a thick cloud of smoke that chokes and makes any attack through it a difficult and uncoordinated prospect. With the wind in the right direction and your foes caught half-way up ladders or climbing the walls, a dozen large sacks of chaff dropped on foes could temporarily blind them, or at least hamper vision.

If a wall is breached and an attack due, simply drop a few dozen bales of hay in the gap and ignite it. It will give you temporary breathing space, at least.

Oh: And think of fire prevention, too. Buckets of water everywhere and dampen down wooden buildings. Maybe pull thatch off roofs before anything happens to it.

Prepare for a siege war, and get provisions and water in.

Plan how to destroy any siege machines the foe has. Maybe train rats to chew the main torsion ropes of their catapults at night, or something!

Defensive ditches are also a classic, if you have the man-power or spell-power to dig them.

Decapitation tactics are also solid when facing disorganised foes with poor structure and morale. Simply kill the important people, and watch the chaos spread.

lol...I'm gonna have to take some notes...although I already planned on that last part, tbh

Gavinfoxx
2010-09-22, 02:58 PM
Here's how you remove explosives. You pull the leads or whatever that would ignite them out, or scuffle or remove the powder trail, and then you carefully pick them up, pack them for transport, and then MOVE THEM.