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ThinkMinty
2015-11-10, 09:11 PM
But then you've lost the main distinguishing point between them and the other two dozen small scale bandit races, if there's no Horde (or Sauronesque Dark Lords army) then why bother with orcs when gnolls, or goblins, or sahuagin, or human bandits etc can fill the same role just as well?

A post in a previous thread's got me wondering...just what are the various monster bandits out there...in things. So you've got Humans (kinda duh), Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, Sahaguin...and then what? I mean, everyone could be a bandit, but I'm lookin' for the ones who usually get played up that way.

erradin
2015-11-10, 09:30 PM
Kobolds do, sometimes. As do some mer-races if it's on the high seas. Those are the only ones that come to mind, really.

YossarianLives
2015-11-10, 10:11 PM
I see ogre bandits quite a lot.

MrZJunior
2015-11-10, 10:50 PM
Elves, for the irony.

Slipperychicken
2015-11-10, 11:18 PM
Trolls are infamous for their reputation as highwaymen.

For a different definition of monster, you have robber-barons and robber-knights. They charge unauthorized tolls and generally do as they wish with people passing through their zone of control. Of course, these villains can easily include monstrous races. It could be an interesting change to have an orc or giant in metal armor collecting tolls from travelers, or a castle-owning troll lord kidnapping and torturing people for amusement.

Talar
2015-11-11, 12:02 AM
You only have goblins up there, but all goblinoids (bugbears and hobbos too). Depending on the setting demons can fit the bill. But as for monsters that are normally played up as such we have already hit most of the highlights. Ettins and all flavors of giants are usually bandits.

snacksmoto
2015-11-11, 12:32 AM
Trolls are infamous for their reputation as highwaymen.

Why not have the troll be the entity that builds and maintains a solid, useful, though visually unappealing bridge in a generally inhospitable locale? Locals use the bridge, pay the toll in both coin and foodstuffs while warning random travellers to pay up and not to harm it. It is intelligent enough not to harm those who pay and kills off random dangerous monsters in the area. The locals benefit from the arrangement and it's cheaper in both cost and manpower because of the locale of the bridge. They would also know that the troll is the only dangerous creature in the area. Heck if it is intelligent enough, it might even do some trading with passing merchants.

Slipperychicken
2015-11-11, 01:01 AM
Why not have the troll be the entity that builds and maintains a solid, useful, though visually unappealing bridge in a generally inhospitable locale? Locals use the bridge, pay the toll in both coin and foodstuffs while warning random travellers to pay up and not to harm it. It is intelligent enough not to harm those who pay and kills off random dangerous monsters in the area. The locals benefit from the arrangement and it's cheaper in both cost and manpower because of the locale of the bridge. They would also know that the troll is the only dangerous creature in the area. Heck if it is intelligent enough, it might even do some trading with passing merchants.

That sounds like a fine idea. It could create some conflict, since it may be unclear who would maintain the bridge or fend off the other monsters if the troll was removed. Also see my suggestion about robber-barons and robber-knights. A successful bridge troll could even be upgraded to being a petty lord if he operated unchallenged for a long enough time, perhaps with a tiny palisade or fort around the bridge to dissuade would-be scofflaws.

daremetoidareyo
2015-11-11, 09:23 AM
Define bandits.

A band of hippogriffs could be aculturated to pick off cattle/horses on a certain road. a "Don't feed the bears" type phenomenon. Businesses near the road know about the problem and rent heavy barding for a certain section of the road (they can't lift it, they can't eat it) but locals dont feel compelled to necessarily share that. The PCs pass a checkpoint where other traders are dropping off their barding rental. That town probably also has a standing 15-25gp bounty per hippogriff head. And also pays 125% of market price for viable eggs (eggs?)

Milodiah
2015-11-11, 01:37 PM
I've had a lot of success with the various flying races. Not only do they have the mobility that entails in both the tactical and strategic scale (come in unexpectedly and be out again in a flash, as well as easily evade the posse after them because flight), but they also do very well in being able to spot and reconnoiter targets. A lot of situations you see in fantasy games is the bandits seem to have almost no way of knowing who they're about to jump, and usually end up being slaughtered to the man by high-level adventurer parties or whatever. If you can fly, however, a couple of flybys and/or a particularly stealthy flyer tailing them will give a chance of finding things out way ahead of time without them necessarily getting suspicious.

NovenFromTheSun
2015-11-11, 02:18 PM
Ooze bandit; that way they can be actually four blokes!

VoxRationis
2015-11-11, 03:30 PM
Why not have the troll be the entity that builds and maintains a solid, useful, though visually unappealing bridge in a generally inhospitable locale? Locals use the bridge, pay the toll in both coin and foodstuffs while warning random travellers to pay up and not to harm it. It is intelligent enough not to harm those who pay and kills off random dangerous monsters in the area. The locals benefit from the arrangement and it's cheaper in both cost and manpower because of the locale of the bridge. They would also know that the troll is the only dangerous creature in the area. Heck if it is intelligent enough, it might even do some trading with passing merchants.

One of my (unused) settings had trolls as the creations of the god of travel, specifically to create and guard bridges and roads.

Slipperychicken
2015-11-11, 03:59 PM
I've had a lot of success with the various flying races. Not only do they have the mobility that entails in both the tactical and strategic scale (come in unexpectedly and be out again in a flash, as well as easily evade the posse after them because flight), but they also do very well in being able to spot and reconnoiter targets. A lot of situations you see in fantasy games is the bandits seem to have almost no way of knowing who they're about to jump, and usually end up being slaughtered to the man by high-level adventurer parties or whatever. If you can fly, however, a couple of flybys and/or a particularly stealthy flyer tailing them will give a chance of finding things out way ahead of time without them necessarily getting suspicious.

That situation can be avoided with even the most rudimentary scouting and decision-making capability. A lookout might observe that the travelers seem well-armed, then send a message to the main group, to back off and let them pass.

Douche
2015-11-11, 04:32 PM
A bunch of gnome bandits who aren't the least bit intimidating, but turn out to be really powerful

noob
2015-11-11, 04:34 PM
Bandits bandits who use crossbows crossbows are the norm for some people.

Milodiah
2015-11-11, 04:37 PM
That situation can be avoided with even the most rudimentary scouting and decision-making capability. A lookout might observe that the travelers seem well-armed, then send a message to the main group, to back off and let them pass.

The issue, however, is that they never seem to do so in the hands of a less thoughtful GM. It should be remembered that not only should bandits not attack people more dangerous than them, they also usually wouldn't attack someone AS dangerous as them, or maybe even only a little bit less dangerous than them. Why even risk death if you could just hold off this time and wait for the next bunch of peasants bringing their goods to market?

BRC
2015-11-11, 04:45 PM
One should remember that, of all the things that could be called "Bandits", only a small number would necessarily be Bandits.


Bandits, like Pirates, are primarily interested in profit. This means that, if it does not look like they are going to profit from attacking a caravan, they will not. A visibly heavily armed band of adventurers is likely to massacre a group of bandits, so the Bandits will stay away.

You have to think of your encounters as inhabitants of a living world, not as videogame style enemies who pop out when you wander around the tall grass. Bandits won't attack if you look like you can defend yourselves, or if you don't look like you have anything worth taking. They're also less likely to open with an attack. Their ideal goal is to intimidate you into giving up your wealth without a fight.


But that's just your standard "Your money or your life" Highwayman. Imagine instead, lets say, Hobgoblins who have declared a section of the forest the property of their warlord. Merchants they'll let off with a tribute, but heavily armed adventurers they see as an invasion force, and will attack them. From the perspective of the locals, the hobgoblins are basically bandits, but their behavior is distinct.

Keltest
2015-11-11, 06:09 PM
One should remember that, of all the things that could be called "Bandits", only a small number would necessarily be Bandits.


Bandits, like Pirates, are primarily interested in profit. This means that, if it does not look like they are going to profit from attacking a caravan, they will not. A visibly heavily armed band of adventurers is likely to massacre a group of bandits, so the Bandits will stay away.

You have to think of your encounters as inhabitants of a living world, not as videogame style enemies who pop out when you wander around the tall grass. Bandits won't attack if you look like you can defend yourselves, or if you don't look like you have anything worth taking. They're also less likely to open with an attack. Their ideal goal is to intimidate you into giving up your wealth without a fight.


But that's just your standard "Your money or your life" Highwayman. Imagine instead, lets say, Hobgoblins who have declared a section of the forest the property of their warlord. Merchants they'll let off with a tribute, but heavily armed adventurers they see as an invasion force, and will attack them. From the perspective of the locals, the hobgoblins are basically bandits, but their behavior is distinct.

Adding to this, you generally need to have an understanding of where these bandits and marauders would and would not be able to operate. Those hobgoblins are probably a nice distance away from any civilized area and probably have non-combatants who are hunting or something for food, but proper highwaymen need something or some one to be able to buy and sell things from, since banditry is generally not a reliable source of food and supplies. They also have to be wary of reprisals from the legitimate forces in the area who are coming after them for harassing traders. You also cant have too many bandits in an area or nobody will go there and the bandits will starve.

Slipperychicken
2015-11-12, 12:56 PM
You also cant have too many bandits in an area or nobody will go there and the bandits will starve.

By that point, the bandits most likely supplanted the local government and rule the area.

Drynwyn
2015-11-12, 03:04 PM
Elves, for the irony.

You laugh, but in Dark Sun, elves are very, very effective bandits. Of course, Dark Sun elves are also probably the least "elfy" elves in any work I know of.


Related: Any race with Darkvision or Low-Light vision can be very dangerous as bandits. Dark Sun Elves, for example, can combine their racial longbow proficiency, low light vision, and ability to dictate the time of engagement (as the attackers) to devastating effect.

In standard 3.5, Low-Light vision is actually better for bandits than Darkvision, because of the longer range- with 60 foot darkvision, you are probably within the radius of the target's lights if you can see them. With "double normal distance" low-light vision, you can shoot at your opponents while having total concealment with even greater ease if the target has a torch.

Broken Crown
2015-11-12, 06:49 PM
Bandits, like Pirates, are primarily interested in profit. This means that, if it does not look like they are going to profit from attacking a caravan, they will not. A visibly heavily armed band of adventurers is likely to massacre a group of bandits, so the Bandits will stay away.

Consider when the hobbits are returning home at the end of "The Lord of the Rings"; Butterbur the innkeeper is bemoaning all the highwaymen that have been making trouble for travellers since the hobbits last came that way. Merry(?) is surprised, remarking that they haven't had any trouble. Butterbur responds, essentially, "Well, of course they left you alone; you're all armed to the teeth."

Speaking of Middle-Earth, "The Hobbit" has some more troll bandits. Also, if you stretch the definition of bandits to include "waylayers of travellers" in general, there are also wargs, undead warlords, and malicious trees. But I think the latter two fall into a different category.

Honest Tiefling
2015-11-12, 07:49 PM
Elves, for the irony.

I thought they were bandits in Dark Sun, un-ironically. Ratfolk and Gnolls probably fall into this territory quite a lot.

Drynwyn
2015-11-13, 10:45 AM
I thought they were bandits in Dark Sun.

They are, but as I mentioned, essentially the only thing they have in common with standard elves is stat modifiers and pointy ears.

Honest Tiefling
2015-11-13, 01:01 PM
They are, but as I mentioned, essentially the only thing they have in common with standard elves is stat modifiers and pointy ears.

As opposed to the 50 other types of elf?

Wardog
2015-11-15, 02:08 PM
Bandits could also be rebels or geurillas.

The term originally literally meant someone what had been banned or banished from civilized society.

Under such circumstances, you could legitimately have bandits attacking patrols and other agents of authority, rather than profitable targets. (They'd still make sure they chose easy targets though).

Depending on whether they're "good" bandots of "bad" bandits, that could also mean either cooperating with the peasants Robin Hood style, or be a legitimate excuse for CE-style raiding/killing/burning for the sake of it.

Drynwyn
2015-11-15, 08:46 PM
As opposed to the 50 other types of elf?

The other 50 types of elves (excepting dark elves) generally have some things in common with each other: They live in a forest or magical city, are haughty, live for hundreds of years, had civilization before humans but stagnated, etc, etc, etc.

Dark sun elves:

-Are nomadic, and not just within a single area- an elf tribe might traverse the world from one end to the other over the course of a generation.

-Live just barely (~10 years) longer than humans.

-Have a number of other unusual elements (running as a unifying and meditative act, refusal to use mounts, ability to run at a dead sprint for days at at a time, blatant banditry and criminal activity as socially acceptable activities.)

DuxAstrorum
2015-11-15, 08:58 PM
Pixie/fairy bandits are a hilarious thing to fling at a party, even outside of D&D. In fact in RIFTS they can be very formidable.

Trickquestion
2015-11-16, 01:39 AM
I always try to put minor variations on the patterns and tactics of different bit part bandit groups based on the fluff behind the group's racial majority. Bear in mind I am going of Pathfinder lore:

Goblins are manic, destructive little cowards who surge out onto the weakest caravan or homestead they can find and cause tons of damage in the fight, then haul off everything that catches their immediate attention (for shine or flavor) regardless of actual value or repair. Locations pillaged by goblins tend to be burnt, broken messes but they occasionally usually accidentally leave behind some valuables.

Ogres are interested in stealing flesh, not gold. They brute force targets and carry off humans present, live animals and food supplies to satisfy their perverse hungers. Towns hit by Ogres are ghost towns that seem unaffected from a distance.

Hobgoblins are more interested in enslaving regions and imposing harsh laws on the region. They're robber barons and slave drivers who are perfectly willing to let people go unhurt if they meet all their demands. They're the Caesar's Legion to the more chaotic bandit's Fiends.