fikoantunes
2016-05-16, 10:05 AM
A warmage army, spread in small troops, is marching to the same destination of the PCs. It’s troops were ordered to attack them on sight, to halt their progress so the main villains can reach the destination before the PCs.
How can I build these recurrent encounters with the Warmage troops?
The player’s need to feel they are dealing with an very organized band. Usually the members of large group of enemies attack each on their own. But I want to make the opposite of that.: the warmages will improve performance due to their military training.
I’m familiar with the material of Heroes of Battle, were a constant training between members of a group (like an army) can lead to small bonuses in battles. The book even presents some sort of aura mechanics, to represent the boost the commanders can give to its soldiers in combat.
But I’m thinking more on the battle grid mechanics and (warmage) spell usage. How these enemies can improve their effectiveness against 4-5 PCs (15th level average)?
I was think something like this:
- Each “troop” (encounter) is 12-20 warmages (humans, elves and half-elves)
- The troop would have 1 Captain (13th level), 3-5 Sentinels (9th level) and the rest would be Soldiers (7th level).
First round of combate:
- The Captain uses Mass Fire/Chill Shield on its troops;
- The troops would position in 2-3 blocks in the battle grid, each leaded by a Sentinel, and each of its members spreading in the battle grid (to avoid losses for being clustered, say, if targeted by area spells).
- Than these 2-3 troops would each attack using area spells. Each troop would use a different element: one goes for lighting bolt, other for fireball and the others for a energy substitution (acid) fireball, for example. They are assessing the PC’s resistances / reflexes saves.
Second round:
- 1-2 troops would keep this mass energy attack, while the other one would focus on bringing down the biggest threat or PCs how proved superior to that kind of attack. Let’s say there’s a PC rogue how avoided most of the damage of the previous round: that warmage group would cast mass magic missile on him.
- the Warmage Captain would try some battlefield control using Wall of Fire for example, to split the PCs.
On the top of that…
…I was considering adding to each of theses encounters a “meat shield”. One troop would bring along a half-fiend minotaour barbarian; another one would have a cleric malconvoker who would spam summonables, etc. So each encounter will have a little bit of diversity.
Any thoughs on how to improve these encounters are welcomed. Consider this:
- They are not meant to kill the PCs, just to slow/hamper them;
- It needs to be clear for the player’s the encounter would be easier if those warmages were not so well organized;
- They don’t know the PCs weakness (they don’t have the “DM knowledge”), so it would not be fair for me attacking them exploiting this
- Focus on battlefield/grid improvement and warmage machanics.
How can I build these recurrent encounters with the Warmage troops?
The player’s need to feel they are dealing with an very organized band. Usually the members of large group of enemies attack each on their own. But I want to make the opposite of that.: the warmages will improve performance due to their military training.
I’m familiar with the material of Heroes of Battle, were a constant training between members of a group (like an army) can lead to small bonuses in battles. The book even presents some sort of aura mechanics, to represent the boost the commanders can give to its soldiers in combat.
But I’m thinking more on the battle grid mechanics and (warmage) spell usage. How these enemies can improve their effectiveness against 4-5 PCs (15th level average)?
I was think something like this:
- Each “troop” (encounter) is 12-20 warmages (humans, elves and half-elves)
- The troop would have 1 Captain (13th level), 3-5 Sentinels (9th level) and the rest would be Soldiers (7th level).
First round of combate:
- The Captain uses Mass Fire/Chill Shield on its troops;
- The troops would position in 2-3 blocks in the battle grid, each leaded by a Sentinel, and each of its members spreading in the battle grid (to avoid losses for being clustered, say, if targeted by area spells).
- Than these 2-3 troops would each attack using area spells. Each troop would use a different element: one goes for lighting bolt, other for fireball and the others for a energy substitution (acid) fireball, for example. They are assessing the PC’s resistances / reflexes saves.
Second round:
- 1-2 troops would keep this mass energy attack, while the other one would focus on bringing down the biggest threat or PCs how proved superior to that kind of attack. Let’s say there’s a PC rogue how avoided most of the damage of the previous round: that warmage group would cast mass magic missile on him.
- the Warmage Captain would try some battlefield control using Wall of Fire for example, to split the PCs.
On the top of that…
…I was considering adding to each of theses encounters a “meat shield”. One troop would bring along a half-fiend minotaour barbarian; another one would have a cleric malconvoker who would spam summonables, etc. So each encounter will have a little bit of diversity.
Any thoughs on how to improve these encounters are welcomed. Consider this:
- They are not meant to kill the PCs, just to slow/hamper them;
- It needs to be clear for the player’s the encounter would be easier if those warmages were not so well organized;
- They don’t know the PCs weakness (they don’t have the “DM knowledge”), so it would not be fair for me attacking them exploiting this
- Focus on battlefield/grid improvement and warmage machanics.