Eldariel
2010-10-20, 06:55 PM
It is a major tactical deal, however. If the camp were fortified, they'd easily outnumber the wolves and deal with them ~couple at a time. Now they are instead fighting a bunch of split up skirmishes across the area with no advantage even though they are the defenders; since the question was "how to avoid TPK", well, that's a good starting point.
How do fortifications help against wolves? The only races I can think of who are OCD enough to build walls around their camp good enough to keep out a pack of determined wolves every time they stop are dwarves and dragonborn.
Even digging a spike filled trench is unfeasible for a one night stay. Do you have any idea how hard it is to dig a trench around an area a dozen people could sleep in?
ALL pcs should be that OCD. We are talking about the D&D world here, and even more specifically we are talking about an apocalyptic world chock-full of horrible monsters. The D&D world is a place where supremely powerful wizards never leave safety, and any creature in the woods might just decide to eat you. There is no such thing as too paranoid in a world like this, and as such I would expect that all people would use any strategy available to tip the scales to their advantage.
How fortifications help is simple:
Create a choke point, and fight monsters one or two at a time rather than get surrounded. It is a simple strategy that even untrained settlers used while traveling across the USA when the settlement of the west was underway.
Since all people have tactical knowledge and the common sense to utilize it. :smallsigh:
Not to mention the fact that it's still not feasible because of the work involved.
You don't need to keep them all away, you just need to make other paths of approach difficult enough to force them to the entrance point where you can use your superior reach and area control magic to crush them. It's an extremely simple concept, really. Honestly, a wolf jumps in, 4 guys immediately attack it. It's not gonna last long. And there's no room for many wolves to enter.
Wolves are effective when they get to flank and attack in numbers, not when they get slaughtered one-by-one. Tripping isn't terribly terrifying either when there's no other wolf to hit the tripped target.
Yes, having served in military, I do have a rather good idea of how long it would take to dig a trench around a camp. However, do you really need a trench? Even just splintering caltrops and using blocks of wood (you'll have firewood anyways; might as well carry blocks big enough to use defensively, or cut from the surrounding forest) to block entry points around the camp would make defending it a whole lot easier as approaching from anywhere but the designed path. Not to mention rising the ground a bit.
They had like 20 men to work with. It should be very possible to create at least some makeshift walls and splinter caltrops or whatever around the camp. Yes, it'll take an hour or two before the sleep and undoing the camp will take about the same time, but it also stops you from dying in your sleep which seems convenient, and gives you tactically advantageous defensive positions (which can also utilize natural elements like rocks, trees, particularly large roots or ground elevation variation to minimize the work involved). So...yeah, I don't really see the issue here.
How do fortifications help against wolves? The only races I can think of who are OCD enough to build walls around their camp good enough to keep out a pack of determined wolves every time they stop are dwarves and dragonborn.
Even digging a spike filled trench is unfeasible for a one night stay. Do you have any idea how hard it is to dig a trench around an area a dozen people could sleep in?
ALL pcs should be that OCD. We are talking about the D&D world here, and even more specifically we are talking about an apocalyptic world chock-full of horrible monsters. The D&D world is a place where supremely powerful wizards never leave safety, and any creature in the woods might just decide to eat you. There is no such thing as too paranoid in a world like this, and as such I would expect that all people would use any strategy available to tip the scales to their advantage.
How fortifications help is simple:
Create a choke point, and fight monsters one or two at a time rather than get surrounded. It is a simple strategy that even untrained settlers used while traveling across the USA when the settlement of the west was underway.
Since all people have tactical knowledge and the common sense to utilize it. :smallsigh:
Not to mention the fact that it's still not feasible because of the work involved.
You don't need to keep them all away, you just need to make other paths of approach difficult enough to force them to the entrance point where you can use your superior reach and area control magic to crush them. It's an extremely simple concept, really. Honestly, a wolf jumps in, 4 guys immediately attack it. It's not gonna last long. And there's no room for many wolves to enter.
Wolves are effective when they get to flank and attack in numbers, not when they get slaughtered one-by-one. Tripping isn't terribly terrifying either when there's no other wolf to hit the tripped target.
Yes, having served in military, I do have a rather good idea of how long it would take to dig a trench around a camp. However, do you really need a trench? Even just splintering caltrops and using blocks of wood (you'll have firewood anyways; might as well carry blocks big enough to use defensively, or cut from the surrounding forest) to block entry points around the camp would make defending it a whole lot easier as approaching from anywhere but the designed path. Not to mention rising the ground a bit.
They had like 20 men to work with. It should be very possible to create at least some makeshift walls and splinter caltrops or whatever around the camp. Yes, it'll take an hour or two before the sleep and undoing the camp will take about the same time, but it also stops you from dying in your sleep which seems convenient, and gives you tactically advantageous defensive positions (which can also utilize natural elements like rocks, trees, particularly large roots or ground elevation variation to minimize the work involved). So...yeah, I don't really see the issue here.