So you have to prepare...

[ReluctantDragon]

to defend a Village.

You are a party of 12th level adventurers with a Barbarian, a Battle Sorceror, a Druid, and a Cleric.

You have 1 week to set up defenses/plans to stave off the oncoming horde of bad guys. Primarily infantry with a few specialized units of cavalry and monsters. Flight will be available in a limited manner, only specific monsters/instances. There will be enemy spellcasting in a limited basis(highest level caster is 10, only one of those).

This is all of the scouting information you have. Village is surrounded by farmland, has 4 major sources of water scattered throughout its walls. Walls are stone, 5 feet thick, 20 feet high. 4 gates at the cardinal directions, each with double oak doors banded with iron. Portcullis at each. Food has been collected to last for the population(843 people) about 2 weeks.

A message has gone out to the nearest city. Help is 3 weeks out.

How do you prepare for the oncoming horde? How do defend?

This is primarily a thought exercise in preparation for what my pc's will eventually be seeing. I'm looking for anything and everything to react to.

Thanks in advance for the help!

RD

[Diarmuid]

Saturate the areas surrounding the wall with oil to ignite with flaming arrows or whatever once the enemy gets in close. Preferably in a ring ~50 feet away from the wall. This hurts anyone of the enemy caught in the fire, cuts off the attackers who've made it past the fire to be massacred by the townsfolk.

Buy/Gather as many crossbows and/or bows (along with matching ammunition) as possible to outfit the commoners with.

Stoneshape archer holes in the walls to shoot enemies with.

Walls of Stone to funnel enemies into unfavorable positions.

Move Earth to create pits/trenches/moats

Liveoak for treant guardians

Just a few off the top of my head.

[Telonius]

What sources/books are available?

Do we know the race of the oncoming horde? Approximate numbers?

What's the Sorcerer's spell selection looking like? Any Illusions?

Druid is probably going to be rocking the Area Effects. Wall of Thorns/Fire, Spike Stones.

Is it possible to infiltrate the enemy camp and slow/sabotage things that way? If they have supply wagons, expect these to be blown up first.

[Fouredged Sword]

Planer bind earth elementals to drag people underground. All they see are a pair of stone hands reach up, and their commander takes a dirt nap. Repeat for days/CL per spell slot each few rounds. I want to see an army keep fighting after that.

[Chronos]

Food has been collected to last for the population(843 people) about 2 weeks.

A message has gone out to the nearest city. Help is 3 weeks out.
This is the only real problem I see. Fix that, and the village can defend itself: If your only goal is to keep the besiegers outside, it's easy to fight them off.

So, we have to do one of three things: Either defeat the enemy army so thoroughly within two weeks that the town's economy can start up again uninterrupted, or speed up the reinforcements from the city by a week, or produce 800-some person-weeks worth of food in the span of two weeks.

The last looks most promising to me. If the cleric fills up all of his 3rd-level spell slots with Create Food and Water, that's probably five castings per day. At CL 12, that's 36 person-days worth of food per casting, or 180 person-days per day.

But that still leaves you fourth, fifth, and sixth spell slots. Some of those you'll want to use for military purposes, but if you really needed to, you could use those for Create Food and Water, too. You probably have a total of 11 of those slots, for another 396 person-days. That brings us up to 576 person-days conjured, out of 843 needed. So that's not enough to make us fully self-sufficient.

But we don't need to be fully self-sufficient. We have three weeks until the cavalry arrives, while we need only one week of food. That means that we can produce up to three times that amount, which is more than enough.

We can also stretch the food further, if the druid pitches in too. Goodberry doesn't produce as much food, but on the other hand, it's a lower-level spell slot. Each casting gets you, on average, five meals worth of food, and you've probably got 7 first-level slots per day. Assume two normal meals per person per day, and that means that the druid is feeding 17.5 people out of his first-level slots. You can get maybe 22 more castings out of your higher-level slots, for 55 more people fed. Note that you do need fresh-picked berries for this, so you'd better go out to gather some during your preparation week. They'll last for 12 days after casting, though. You can also get more efficient use out of your higher-level slots if you have the Maximize or Empower metamagic feat, which wouldn't work for the cleric because CF&W is nonrandom.

[Cyrion]

How big of a horde? Three main-line casters can do an awful lot of damage in a hurry.

The sorcerer can get a lot of mileage out of cloudkill. It's good for warding off a frontal assault as well as for night raids.

The cleric can make liberal use of symbols of fear, sleep and persuasion to keep creatures off of the top of the walls/away from the doors.

A 12th level druid with control winds is probably going to be able to stop the enemy fliers. The fliers will be facing anything from windstorm winds to tornadoes depending on what the day was like originally.

As said before, with access to move earth, wall of stone and wall of thorns, you've got a lot of opportunity to shape the battlefield to your advantage.

[Story]

If it were me, I'd probably just try to take out the army directly. First priority would be divination to find out the actual strength of the army. Then hit and run attacks to try to kill all the spellcasters and dangerous monsters. After that, the rest of the army could just be slaughtered with little resistance.

In a pinch, the Druid could probably do it all himself, assuming the army isn't optimized.

[Telonius]

I could also see using one of those water sources as a weapon. Funnel all of the enemies into a choke-point, then drown them.

[ReluctantDragon]

Responses:

Type of army: Unknown at this point. I'm thinking a typical Hobgoblin horde, but it might go more monstrous. I'm looking at Kython's as well. (a la SilverClawShift's journal)

Amount: Enough to be overwhelming to 4 PC's. The village is meant as a babysitting task as well as a support to the PC's. This is not meant to be a gunfight between 2-3 casters and an army. The army will respond intelligently to obstacles and threats. Let's be moderate and call it a 5000 man(monster) army.

Sources: Assume all is available save for magazines/3rd party/homebrew.

Further divination would reveal light and heavy infantry. Skirmishers/fast cavalry/heavy cavalry. Specialized shock troops. Some of which are immune to divination. They will know nothing of the lead level 10 caster until confrontation.

[Ydaer Ca Noit]

The party should probably assassinate the enemy mages, sabotage siege engines, steal plans and things like that. It would make a nice quest to make the victory more possible/believable

[watchwood]

The party should probably assassinate the enemy mages, sabotage siege engines, steal plans and things like that. It would make a nice quest to make the victory more possible/believable

Second this. They can poison supplies and slit throats in the night, too. A small group of PCs doing a string of hit-and-run raids during the week long approach can do a ton of damage, and probably slow the enemy down by a lot as well.

While the party is out playing guerilla, the villagers can be gathering more supplies and reinforcing the fortifications. Pits with wooden spikes/water in them to slow approaches, a whole wood spikes at the base of the walls to ward attackers away, that kind of thing. Plus some earthwork fortifications, and some backup lines of defenses inside the village in case the main walls are breached.

[Red Fel]

Step 1: Watch Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai." Now imagine if a few of the protagonists were spellcasters.

Step 2: Fortify. Diarmuid's ideas are excellent. Now take it a step further. The best way to defend against an enemy attack is to foresee the direction of the attack. The best way to foresee the direction of the attack is to control it. The best way to control the direction of the attack is to exclude other options.

Consider the surrounding environment. Is it hilly? Marshy? Wooded? Use the terrain to your advantage. Where possible, have spellcasters and manual laborers modify the terrain.

If it's a heavily forested area: Move your villagers into the trees. Have combatants on the ground engaging the enemy using guerilla tactics. Have archers in the treetops ready to rain death upon the enemy when they enter the vacant village. Have booby traps ready to bring the village down upon them when they enter, then clean up the survivors by drawing them into the tree-laden killbox. If in doubt, remove the villagers to a secondary area, and burn it all down.

If it's a marshland: Create sinkholes. It's not hard. As Fouredged suggested, you can bind Earth Elementals, or as Diarmuid suggested, otherwise use spells, to hollow out the ground under various patches of water. The result will be that the ground gives out, burying any troops who travel over it. Marshland is extremely defensible in this way - enemies cannot move quickly, rendering them easy targets for archers and other ranged combatants. Further, by fortifying the village with stone walls and such, you can prevent entrance almost entirely - watery marshes prevent the transportation of siege engines and the like.

If it's hilly: Is there a river nearby? Redirect the water with deep trenches laden with sharp rocks. Make sure the slopes are steep enough to create rushing streams. Do so on three sides of the village, rendering them impassible. This leaves only one avenue of attack for your enemies. In the absence of water, scar the terrain, leaving it unstable. Smash the stones, leaving unsteady rocks piled upon unsteady rocks, unsuitable for cavalry, heavy siege weapons, or fast movement. Using the available stones, create disguised deep trenches, also laden with sharp stones and sticks at the bottom, to drop and kill the unwary. Use additional stones to fortify walls. Use more stones to drop on any troops who approach. Again, this method will slow the advance of enemies, allowing you to take a "rocks fall, invaders die" approach to siege defense.

Step 3: Assembly line defense. Villagers aren't trained soldiers; very few of them will be able to learn how to effectively fight an invading force in so short a time. What they can do, however, is perform simple tasks. They will be very useful in creating fortifications, as described above. They can create supplies, such as defensive siege weapons, booby traps, and hot oil for dropping on people.

You can also teach them basic combat defense. Give them slings and rocks, bows and arrows. You don't need them to be sharp-shooters, but when a hundred people fire in the same direction, something will be injured. Have them operate any manual booby-traps, using levers and pulleys and the like. Teach them basic tactics, such as what to drop and how to drop it, and the signals to let them know when to do their jobs.

You now have three things. From your local environment and hard work, you have focused the enemy's assault into coming from a single direction, in which you can focus your fire. From the villagers, you have created an efficient, if simple, defensive machine. And from Kurosawa's cinematic masterpiece, you have cultivated an air of fatalism and futility.

Have fun being stormed.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

to defend a Village.

You are a party of 12th level adventurers with a Barbarian, a Battle Sorceror, a Druid, and a Cleric.

You have 1 week to set up defenses/plans to stave off the oncoming horde of bad guys. Primarily infantry with a few specialized units of cavalry and monsters. Flight will be available in a limited manner, only specific monsters/instances. There will be enemy spellcasting in a limited basis(highest level caster is 10, only one of those).

What skills does the Barbarian have? Can he be of any use?

What spells does the Battle Sorcerer know? Is he using this trick (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=267805#4)?

What domains does the Cleric have?

Do any of them have any item creation feats, or does anyone in town have any?

Here's what I would do:
Cleric uses Planar Ally (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/planarAlly.htm): Ghaele (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ghaele.htm) as many times as the party can afford, using the day-per-caster-level price of 10,000 gp for each one. The party as a whole should be able to get at least three.

Someone had better have something that allows the entire party to fly for extended periods of time (Phantom Steed). Get as many Lesser Rods of Extend and 1st level Pearls of Power as humanly possible. Prepare as many area-effect slow-death crowd controls (Call Avalanche + Blood Snow, Web or Wall of Thorns + Fell Drain Kelgore's Grave Mist, etc.) as humanly possible. Keep in mind that each Ghaele should have at least one CL 14 Holy Word prepared!

The party heads out toward the enemy horde as soon as possible, and reaches them as soon as possible (Teleport?). Prior to engaging, the Druid casts (Extended) Snowsight on everyone, and everyone who's capable of doing so casts (Extended) Obscuring Snow. Everybody buffs up (Greater Magic Weapon, Greater Luminous Armor, Polymorph the Barbarian into a 12-headed hydra or War Troll, etc.) and engage the enemy hoard head-on. Bring a few of the strongest warriors from the village if there are enough Snowsights to go around. None of the enemy horde will be able to see their assailants due to Obscuring Snow, and the spell output from the party and their allies will severely diminish the threat. Once the party thinks they've dealt sufficient damage (at least half of the opponents, or before the enemy can regroup and counter-attack) the party should Teleport and/or Word of Recall away with as many allies as possible.

The party should Rope Trick and rest and regain spells, then go back out there and attack from a different direction with all the same tricks, plus others to compensate for the opponents' defenses. Repeat every day until the Ghaeles go back home, then head back to the town to make a final stand, if it's even necessary. All of the cold/snow-themed spells I mentioned are in Frostburn, Kelgore's Grave Mist is in Ph2, Fell Drain Spell is in LM.

[Zweisteine]

Try training the people in the town. No, seriously. It's been done before, and it led to what has been hailed as one of the greatest campaigns of all time (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116836).

Though at your level, it might not work as well, especially if you have an unforgiving DM.

[Karoht]

Druid spends the week scouting and harassing the enemy army, while building the walls higher and stronger every day.

Walls-Every day blow castings of Wall of Stone (6th level spell, Druid has access). Build the walls higher and stronger. Build secondary walls. Build a maze of tertiary walls.

Scouting
Scouting is simple. Eagle Aerie if you want 3 eagles to fly high enough that the enemies can't reach them, scout things out, and report back. Yes, it's a 6th level spell, there are other options as well that are all cheaper. Wild Shape into something small and innocuous. Like a Mouse. Bring a Scroll of Invisibility or two with you. Make one's self invisible, shapeshift into mouse. Good luck the army has making that kind of spot check.

Harassment
Oh my, where to begin. In addition to flying over the camp and casting Insect Plague (range 400ft +40ft/level) and causing a ruccus, or awakening trees with Liveoak to go and constantly bother the army, or sitting at the edge of the camp with Call Lightning Storm, Ice Storm, Giant Vermin, Spike Stones (cast it around the latrines and food stores and water supplies, that's my favorite), Ice Spears, Rain of Frogs, and Sleet Storm.

Don't like being to open about it? Okay, show up at night, use Aqueous Orb cast directly onto a tent full of dudes, roll them and their supplies up and out of the camp into the middle of no where. Roll them into a pre-dug pit or ditch, or into the waiting arms of your Treant buddy who then turns them into paste (maybe with that Barbarian's help). Repeat for as long as you want.

Want to be less open about it than that? Okay, at night summon all the birds and wolves and bats and Giant Vermin you can possibly muster. Then just leave and let the summons sort themselves out. Or as I like to say, drop a Zoo on them. If you throw an elephant/mammoth at them, in the middle of the night when all their men are NOT sleeping in their armor (unless they all somehow have the Endurance feat) most of them are going to crap themselves and run.

After a few days of this nonsense (especially if you ensure to continue disrupting sleep patterns), combo'd with some diseases running through the camps (Contation and Epidemic), you can go around and use cantrips (create water and spark) to snuff out campfires (their are pentalties for sleeping in a 'cold camp') while setting tents and supplies on fire. Especially gunpowder or oil or alchemical supplies.

This is before you do silly things like turning the ground under the siege weapons into mud pits with Transmute Stone to Mud combo'd with Soften Earth and Stone. Follow it with Mud to Stone and they're pretty solidly stuck for a while, but I personally enjoy turning as much of the camp to mud with nasty Spike Stones sticking out of it (the mud makes it harder to detect the spikes, even if they have Rogues with Trapfinding) as possible. Every night.

Control Winds. Drop Hurricane force winds on them. Their tents are gone. Their supplies scattered. And that's just one casting, never mind several scattered across the whole camp, with things like muddy + spikey ground to deal with. Honestly, that camp is so very screwed

Focus on destroying supplies and siege weapons early on, then start crippling morale and hurting the soldiers. After the first night of this they should be fatigued, the second they are exhausted, after that it just gets worse for them.

And remember. This is just the Druid. There are 3 other party members to help back this up. A cloudkill from the Sorcerer, and some well placed fireballs as cover once the Druid starts mucking things up (literally), and some support from the Cleric? There is no reason you can't take on the entire army all week long, and then if and when they choose to attack you, they're going to be so hamstrung as to be a joke. The barbarian alone should be able to take them all after you soften them up that harshly.

Enjoy.

Seriously, if the Druid can't break this army by day 5 of harassment, via a combo of severe casualties (from a large collection of sources), fatigue/exhaustion and cold camp and diseases and starvation and dehydration, destruction of supplies, destruction of siege weapons, MUD everywhere making progress incredibly slow going and in most cases outright dangerous, with trees and animals and targeted attacks every night picking people off, then this Druid isn't trying hard enough. And backed up with a Sorcerer, a Barbarian, and a Cleric? Oh the options. The many many options.

[Anthrowhale]

The druid alone could stop a field army pretty effectively.

Every day, the druid goes on a scouting mission as a bird. Any enemy concentrations get 'Call Avalanche' hitting a 120' radius followed up by 'Boreal Wind' against anything that escapes. Both of these operate at long range.

Call Avalanche outright kills weak monsters en masse. A 120' radius is about 1800 5x5 squares. Boreal Wind is good for knocking out survivors since few things have a good reflex save and a good fort save.

The bird can't be seen or heard at an 850' range so counterattack is limited to informed flyers at best.

This tactic can be executed at least 3 times per day.

[Melayl]

Cleric:

Forbidance on each gate.
Symbols all along the outer walls.
Wall of Stone all around the outer wall, leaving only one path in and a hallway all the way around (during the week of prep).
Move Earth to create trenches/moat around the new outer wall during the prep week. Make it as deep as possible and as wide as possible. Including in front of the new (solitary) opening at the new outer wall.
Use lower-level spells for Create Food and Water during the prep week to help conserve food for the (potential) long siege.
During combat, cast Giant Vermin on some vermin in the path (as the attackers are getting into the path).
During combat, cast Repel Vermin on the 4 gates.
During combat, cast Summon line to help with combat.
Healing magic as needed during the siege.


Druid:

Wall of Stone all around the outer wall, leaving only one path in and a hallway all the way around (during the week of prep).
Liveoak on trees the last day or 2 of the prep week (outside the walls).
Ironwood on the gates on the last day or 2 of the prep week (and as needed throughout the siege).
Move Earth to create trenches/moat around the new outer wall during the prep week. Make it as deep as possible and as wide as possible. Including in front of the new (solitary) opening at the new outer wall.
Wall of Thorns in the trench. You can light it on fire if you need to later, and it makes it very painful/dangerous to try to climb down into the trench to get through.
Fire Seeds during the siege.
Spike Stones in the path during the siege (once the attackers get that far).
Call Lightning Storm during the siege. Daily. At least.
Fog Cloud in the path during the siege. Then have villagers drop oil/wood/lit torches on the unfortunate souls they had marked the locations of...
Goodberry with lower-level spells during the prep week to help conserve food for the (potential) long siege.
During combat, castSummon line to help with combat.
Weather and wind control spells to lock down fliers.


If the barbarian and battle sorcerer have ranged abilities, sit them on the original wall and have them pick off attackers as they are able. If they get bored, put them in the path to take on any attackers that make it that far. Keep them by a gate so they have a quick avenue of retreat.

If the villagers have bows/other ranged weapons, sit them on the original wall and have them pick off attackers as they are able. Use vials of oil/acid if you have them and sling them into the fray.

IF any attackers make it through to the village (and I find it highly doubtful that they will), the battle sorcerer and barbarian get to take them on.

I'd be able to give more advice with the sorcerer's spell list, but I think this will suffice.

Maybe have the villagers look for more food during the prep week (just to be on the safe side).

[Sith_Happens]

As elaborated already, the Druid is going to be the MVP here. A moat is a classic defensive mechanism, and anyone with Move Earth can create one in a hurry (fill it by diverting a water source). Reinforce any choke points you leave with Wall of Stone.

Then go on the offensive. You say "11+ level Druid vs. army," my money's on the Druid any day.

[Deophaun]

Druid wild shapes into a bird, flies over army, casts blizzard. Army suffocates under 12 feet of snow.