Some DMing advice?

[halfdragon62]

I am currently running a campaign with the pcs based in a frontier outpost doing odd jobs and freelance work exploring the wilderness, old ruins, etc. Currently, I'm steering the campaign towards a "Seven Samurai" style scenario in which the pcs must train and defend villagers against an invading force. The problem I'm having is this: while the pcs (who are level 4, just about to level to 5) do have some very capabable npc backup, most of the villagers are mooks, and would only get slightly better with training, and would therefore be vulnerable to casters with Area of Effect spells. The key thing here is I want to give the pcs a chance to shine as field commanders fighting alongside troops they have personally trained and bonded with, but that image tends to shatter when an enemy wizard lobs a fireball and decimates a whole squad.

What can I do to provide a challenge but not wreck up all of the villagers?
Should I make them tougher? remove casters from the enemy force? Or is there any "advice" that the other, more experienced npcs can give to the players. What can the players do to protect their troops against AOE?

Your help is greatly appreciated :)

[Gotterdammerung]

The 7 sams didn't have to worry about fire balls... boy that movie would of been completely different if they did lol

I would say one way is to remove mages from the attacking force.

Then the party just has to predict the most likely areas of attack.

Create terrain advantages.

Equip the villagers with ranged weapons and reach melee weapons.

As far as beefing up the commoners

I would just use the volley rules when they fire arrows.

And then add a mechanic similar to swarmfighting for them. Example: For every villager threatening a target after the first add +1 to hit. 9 villagers all attack one guy... they all get +8 to hit.


The other possibility is to keep wizards.

Then the party has to do all the stuff above
AND
the responsibility of stopping the spell caster/s falls on the party. As the elite they have to find a way to infiltrate enemy defenses and kill spellcasters b4 they cause too much damage.




IMO i would just remove spellcasters from the invasion.

[Azoth]

A few things spring to mind immediately.

1) Terrain is your friend so use it. The PCs can have the NPCs make a Hot Gate scenario where the enemies can only easily come in through one path. The provides some degree of safety from all around circle of death. They can also build simple traps. Pit falls, collapsing bridges, swinging spiked logs, rope traps. Hell even rigging a repeating crosbow in a tree with a line of candle whick as a trip line works wonders for stalling and occassional injury.

2) Guerilla warfare. The peasants shouldn't charge head on in british marching formation. They aren't a seasoned military platoon in heavy armor. They are settlers/hunters/farmers. Have them skulk in the forests and take pop shots with bows, crossbows, throwing knives, throwing axes, spears, alchemical items.

2A) Have small groups lie in waiting for the archers to lead stray enemies to them so they can gang up on them and stab them to death 3-4 v 1.

3) Sabotage. If the enemy has to set up camp to continue fighting have small groups go in and steal food, supplies, weapons/armor. Have other groups firing signal arrows and the like near/into the tents that look important. Keep generals and spell casters up all night worrying about a night attack so they are tired/can't properly prepair spells.

4) Spread them thin. Don't make your NPC forces too small to accomplish anything, but keep them small and scattered about so it makes launching AoEs less appealing. If you can only throw 3-4 fireballs in day you want to get as many enemies as you can. So targeting a large group is ideal. If you can only ever catch 2-3 people in it then it is a waste...at least to me.

5) Use women to your advantage. Soldiers don't care if a woman over hears them, and will even drop their guard after sleep starts to take them. Women are great spies and tactical assassins. Use them to get close to key figures and learn/kill what you can. It is unsavory work, but women are better at it than men...and have been the greatest spies in history for a reason.

[Crossblade]

Don't use wizards?


If a wizard attacks the village, he's going to worry about stopping the biggest threat against him/herself; the PCs. Typically invading armies are also made up of mooks.

[jackattack]

The enemy wizards know the villagers are mooks, so they won't waste a highly effective spell like that on them. Instead, they'll save it for when two or more PCs are in range/area.

But it's a good question. So good that one of the villagers should ask the PCs about it, so the PCs have a chance to come up with counter-tactics.

[Godskook]

Don't use wizards?

Very much this. Don't use AoE heavy anything if you want this to go smoothly.

For instance, have the enemy forces led by:

A Warlock
A Necromancer Cleric(favors undead creations and cure/inflict spells)
A Warblade, Crusader or Swordsage

All fairly classic fluff-wise, and no AoE.

Alternatively, Mass Resist Energy is a 3rd level divine spell, so any Druid or Cleric in your group's party can use that to create an anti-fireball squad to rush the caster with. This can hinted at by leaving a scroll of it for the party to find or via rumors within the village.

[Kelb_Panthera]

AoE spells shouldn't be too big of a problem unless your villiagers are foolish enough to try lining up in formation to be slaughtered. If they're played well, they'll be hiding in the villiage's buildings until the enemy is in the streets. At that point AoE's are just a fancy way of saying friendly fire.

I'm assuming that the enemy force wants something more than the simple destruction of the villiage, much like the bandits from 7 samurai. If that's not the case, and all the enemy wants is a razed villiage, then that villiage is screwed from the first fire-ball. That spell sets crap on fire, ya know. :smallamused:

[rot42]

You could try using the Mob template from Cityscape DMG II in addition to the volley rules. For a large combat, you are most likely going to want some way to make play more efficient.

edit: My bad, the template itself is in DMG II, Cityscape just has a couple examples. Thanks, Kelb_Panthera.

[Kelb_Panthera]

You could try using the Mob template from Cityscape in addition to the volley rules. For a large combat, you are most likely going to want some way to make play more efficient.

Was that reprinted in cityscape? I thought the mob template was only in DMG2.

It's a good idea regardless.

[Occasional Sage]

Don't use wizards?


If a wizard attacks the village, he's going to worry about stopping the biggest threat against him/herself; the PCs. Typically invading armies are also made up of mooks.

Right, so the enemy wizard can go after the PCs; perhaps he's CL-appropriate on his own? That leaves mooks vs mooks off stage mostly, the outcome determined by how smart the PCs were in advance.