Best horde attacks?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I DM a group of level 11/12 players and a couple of them have expressed interest in fighting a hoard of bad guys. Sometime over the next few sessions they will likely end up back at their home base or go seeking the aid of an elderly wizard who I can have holed up in a compound. Either location is likely to draw bad guys.

We haven't dealt much with outdoor battles in the elements so I was considering a naturally foggy night if in the compound or a very windy day or something.

What's my best bed for giving these mid tier players something to kill tons of AND challenging them?

Giants and drow are likely to come up in other future sessions so it could be a few dozen allosaurus or something driven to attack them by a Drow Druid or something but I prefer not to have an army of drow or giants themselves. Bonus if I can limit the bad guys to 3 or 4 different builds as that's easier for me to keep track of lol.

[bid]

A dragon's treasure is a hoard.
Genghis Khan's army was a horde.

Fixed, thanks.

[Spectrulus]

... We haven't dealt much with outdoor battles in the elements so I was considering a naturally foggy night if in the compound or a very windy day or something.

What's my best bed for giving these mid tier players something to kill tons of AND challenging them?

Giants and drow are likely to come up in other future sessions so it could be a few dozen allosaurus or something driven to attack them by a Drow Druid or something but I prefer not to have an army of drow or giants themselves. Bonus if I can limit the bad guys to 3 or 4 different builds as that's easier for me to keep track of lol.

In 4th edition, they came up with the minion mechanic, and that might help. You could have Sword and Shield guys with plate armor, Pole arm baddies, archers, and weak spell casters. That group, alongside a "lieutenant," of each group could make a fun encounter. The lieutenants are all CR appropriate npcs, with HP and saves, but the rest could be minions.

A minion has the same attack as a regular monster, same Armor class, but only 1hp. They also take no damage if they save on AoE spells.

This gives your party a fun challenge, just have the army copy a low CR monster, but have 1hp each. Your players would love it. Make sure they only get at most a +5 to hit, as with a lot of attacks minions can be dangerous.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Look for things with pack tactics or some bloodlust ability that gains advantage on injured foes. Are they near an ocean could use Sahuagin.

[loki_ragnarock]

Recently I ran a session where my level 10 players went up against 37 gnolls in waves.

I can recommend them because you've got a little variety in types between the monster manual and Volos, and because you can slap their racial ability on the many NPCs pretty easily. "I just cast fireball" becomes less meaningful when that one gnoll was an Infernal Warlock and the other is a War Priest.

And that racial ability? Whoa boy, it's a nasty one if it comes up. If they down someone, the can move and make an attack. No big deal, right? Unless the target of that attack is the person they just downed, netting an auto-crit and two instant failed death saves.

Yes, your PCs will cut through them like a scythe through wheat. But if they get sufficient return fire, things can get extremely dramatic very suddenly.

[DeadMech]

Depends what you're aiming for but to maximize the number of enemies on the field you want the terrain to favor the party. Defending a castle for instance or some other thing with defensible positions that are hard to reach and a chokepoint to exploit.

The tanky characters who are holding back the wave of enemies need to be able to do so without people just running past them, either by eating the one opportunity attack to let others through or just going around outside their reach. Maybe a hallway 5' wide, maybe a bridge, or a gate, maybe the castle wall if the enemy is scaling one section, a stairway. This not only means the squishier members won't be overrun instantly but it stops the situation from overwhelming the tank as well. This was true even in 3.5 but a crowd of weak enemies able to focus on a single PC will end poorly for the PC. Enough attacks coming in will eventually hit regardless of AC. You ideally don't want to be wading in the middle of a sea of weak enemies, even something like goblins. Best case scenario you have a second choke point you can retreat to along with something like a gate or other obstacle you can interpose for a couple rounds for a breather. Or perhaps eventually the bodies pile high enough and the oncoming attackers get demotivated enough to try to come around to a different direction. The tank will also want their choke points to be relatively sheltered from ranged fire. An L or S shaped gatehouse for instance gives them walls between them and any ranged attackers.

Raised positions like walls make good places for the squishier ranged characters to rain death and aoe's. Ideally the enemy horde should have a limited amount of ranged attack as well so that the PC's aren't untouchable but not so much as to invalidate the terrain advantage entirely.

I'd avoid enemies like sahugan. The tank is 100% going to take damage if you throw enough enemies at him and the advantage their ability gives massively influences their effectiveness. When in doubt run a a simplified test run. Find out the percentage chance to hit and multiply it by the average damage each round.

I don't know the exact makeup of your party but yeah to really throw a sea of enemies at a them they have to come in a manageable stream.

Maybe the place they are defending has it's own assets. A couple low level soldiers with reach weapons to back up the barbarian or fighter in the choke point from relative safety behind him for instance. They can also operate the lever to close the gate when it's time to fall back. A local priest(ess) who can do the in battle healing of dropped PC's so that the party cleric can take the choke point and be the blender with his spiritual guardians. You know get in on the fun and not babysit.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

A dragon's treasure is a hoard.
Genghis Khan's army was a horde.

Oops. Fixed it has been.

[bid]

Oops. Fixed it has been.
Tganks, although being attacked by a living treasure might make it interesting. :smallwink:

[Particle_Man]

If it is night time a horde of shadows could be interesting.

[Xetheral]

I DM a group of level 11/12 players and a couple of them have expressed interest in fighting a hoard of bad guys. Sometime over the next few sessions they will likely end up back at their home base or go seeking the aid of an elderly wizard who I can have holed up in a compound. Either location is likely to draw bad guys.

We haven't dealt much with outdoor battles in the elements so I was considering a naturally foggy night if in the compound or a very windy day or something.

What's my best bed for giving these mid tier players something to kill tons of AND challenging them?

Giants and drow are likely to come up in other future sessions so it could be a few dozen allosaurus or something driven to attack them by a Drow Druid or something but I prefer not to have an army of drow or giants themselves. Bonus if I can limit the bad guys to 3 or 4 different builds as that's easier for me to keep track of lol.

A trick to running a smooth mass battle is to not have the PCs be the only combatants on their side. That way the larger horde has something else to focus on off-screen, and you can focus the game on the immediate environment of the PCs. If the players enjoy larger tactical decisions, you can go a step further and give the PCs the choice of what part of the horde to engage.

Additionally, don't be afraid to use really weak creatures: the challenge isn't in killing them, it's in killing enough of them, quickly enough, to stop the horde from achieving some other goal. As long as that goal isn't campaign-ending, you can safely make the horde large enough to be difficult to stop in time, while also never actually risking a TPK. (Although if the PCs fail to stop the horde quickly enough, and choose to fight to the death, let them: suitably-epic TPKs can be fun as long as they are by choice.)

As a quick example, the wizard and residents of the settlement near his compound could be on the defense. The players can help optimize the wizard's flawed battle plan, and choose what chokepoint/strategic location to personally defend. If they defeat/drive off/weaken the assailants in their section fast enough, they can redeploy to help defend other sections. Otherwise the enemy breaks through and kills the wizard and/or massacres the residents. (Have the length of time before breakthrough depend on the quality of the PCs' improvements to the wizard's battle plan and make sure the players learn about the impact of their decisions through in-game reports from other sections.)