Dealing with bounded accuracy

[MrStabby]

5th ed works well and bounded accuracy is fantastic. Letting low level threats in sufficient numbers remain a threat is a real improvement.

I have run a couple of encounters based on this premise, and whilst solid mathematically they have been a massive headache to DM for. 30 orcs ARE still a threat but tracking HP, position initiative etc. really bogs the game down.

I have managed to accelerate things by treating them as a unit, rolling attacks damage etc. all together and just counting off the bodies. It is simplistic but works well as long as people don't need to apply status effects to particular enemies. I even put in rules such as putting an enemy prone meant everyone got advantage in close combat against the unit till their next initiative.

Even with all this the encounters were a bit of a drag and didn't feel so great. 3 units of 10 orcs, a unit of 10 orc elite warriors and a level 6 orc cleric just didn't feel as fun a fight as it should. More involved tactics like caltrops, nets and so on just became impractical.

How do people use bigger mobs of enemies? Do you sacrifice the detail or roll it up in one unit action? Do you just accept you have a soft limit on the number of combatants before you are playing a different game?

[Zman]

I've had encounters with dozens of enemies and it went well enough. I grouped the like enemies in groups of four for initiative, moved them all individually and did their actions. Most mod enemies are so simple, groups don't make them that much easier and move and roll them all as you see fit. Move all four, takes attacks etc, if they are mobbed up on someone, then just roll attacks simultaneously and only break it up for special occasions i.e. Shoves. Groups get the benefit of the doubt when needed for position adjustments etc.

I was just mulling over how to do hordes of zombies and my idea was to group them by fives taking up effectively a 2x2 area using grid, triple or quad hex on hex map. Each mob would have Hp thresholds for each member and would reduce their number of attacks at each threshold, they can also split attacks. AoEs are tougher, I'd make one save for the mob, a fail is 3x damage, a success is 1.5x damage, status effects would be all or none if they effect an area. Single target save or suck spells would simply ignore the status effect.

[Erys]

My current method of tracking mass combat seems to work very well, but with all things YMMV.

I use group initiatives for like units. 30 orcs have the same initiative, the orc chief and other VIP enemies get their own. I move them all and proceed to attack in group. So, if a group of 5 swarm the Paladin I roll for 5 attacks (using 5 twenties). Then roll damage based on hits.

The hardest part of mass combat is Hitpoint tracking of the army, especially if they are higher HP mooks. For this I use a counter system (red is 75% damaged, blue is 50% and white is 25%); when a player hits and rolls damage I approximate what percentage it is to the nearest 25%. So if the mooks are something with about 30 HP each and the PC fighter hits one for 30, one for 17 and one for 7- the one dies, the second gets a blue chip under his base and the last gets a white marker.

Later in the round a fireball hits the two wounded orcs I roll their saves at the same time, if one makes it and one misses I usually let position dictate who is more logically to have made the save, then apply the damage based on where their damage track is. So 'blue' orc saves and take another 15 while 'white' orc misses his save at takes 30- both are nor marked with red markers.

The markers serve a secondary purpose as well, players can see who is battle worn verse who is fresh and can act according. Win-win in my book. :smallbiggrin:

[ATHATH]

There are rules for a way to run large numbers of creatures without bogging your game down in the DMG. I can't remember what page it's on, though.

You could also try using the Two Orcs method, presented by The Angry DM in one article and expanded upon in two more.

[Baptor]

The aforementioned suggestions are all good. Let me throw my 2cp in.

I've tried a lot of methods, but personally the one that works for me is basically winging it. If we have, say 30 orcs, and lets say they all have 20hp (I don't have my MM).

I'll write the orcs down 1-30. If they get hit for less than 20, I circle the number. If a circled number gets hit again, he's dead. If a single attack to an un-circled orc deals 20+, he's dead. I don't track individual hp.

But I rarely run encounters like this one. My group is only 2 people who run a single character each. I usually plan encounters of around, at MOST, 4-6 creatures at a time. Six CR 4's would be quite the challenge for even two level 20 characters.