Running Large Combats Pathfinder

[QuackParker]

So my usual preference is not to crowd the battlefield with too many enemies and stick to a handful of interesting opponents.

However, the PCs in my game are remarkably good at dealing with powerful single enemies, even in solo combat. They only experience a challenge when there is a high number of opponents against them.

My problem is running a battle with 10-20+ enemies is very time consuming and can become repetitive. Its also a challenge even keeping track of that many npcs attacks, hp, etc.

Any advice?

[Zsaber0]

Heroes of Battle has rules for large combats, but those might be larger in scale then you want.

[Dr. Cliché]

Well, this is what I tend to do when running encounters with lots of enemies:

1) Group them for purposes of initiative. If you already have groups by class/type, you could just use those (e.g. roll 1 initiative for all the fighters, 1 initiative for all the mages, 1 initiative for all the clerics etc.). Or, if they're more of a mix (or all identical), maybe group them arbitrary squads for initiative purposes.

Basically, if you're using say 20 minions, you only want to be rolling 4-5 initiatives for them (rather than rolling separately for each individual).

Aside from fewer initiative rolls, this means that you can usually roll a bunch of identical attacks at the same time (since e.g. all the fighters will be acting at the same time).

2) I tend to be lenient in terms of the damage required to kill a minion. Lets say that have 10hp. If a player does 5 damage to one, I'll mark that down. However, if they do 8 or 9, I'll probably just say that minion is dead. Feel free to attribute this entirely to laziness on my part, but when I have ~20 minions I just can't be bothered keeping one alive on 1 or 2 hp.

Of course, I probably wouldn't do this with a sergeant (or other leader), or if the almost-dead minion is involved in some sort of tense fight (maybe a party member is running out of life too). But, usually, I find it easier to just chalk off almost-dead minions.

3) Bear in mind that the party may not need to kill all the minions to win the battle. e.g. If the party kills the majority of the minions or their leader (if applicable), then the rest may attempt to flee or surrender. Similarly, if there are just a few minions left which are unlikely to accomplish anything meaningful (and can't/won't surrender or flee), I'd probably just say that the party finishes them off - rather than prolonging the battle.