Military Games, Act 1 the Stand of 300!

[liquidformat]

Stand of the 300! A Front-line, Heavy Infantry challenge!

They may not be the most celebrated military unit but they are the backbone!

Limitations

In honor of the discussion in the Army Building Competition? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?593577-Army-Building-Competition) thread we will be designing for a heavy infantry to hold a mountain pass.

The terrain is rough and provides a lot of places to hide as such ranged combat more than 50’ out is improbable.

There is only enough room in the pass for 10 men to stand abreast.

Expect for the Enemy to be approximately 3000 men with no specifics on troop breakdown.

Goal is to last 3 days.



All units must have heavy armor proficiency.

PC classes are allowed, this unit is considered a standing army

Army Battalion have the following requirements:

- 300 level 1 (Privates, may change name as you like)
- 30 level 2 (Corporals, may change name as you like)
- 6 level 3 (Sergeants, may change name as you like)
- 1 level 4 (Lieutenant, may change name as you like)

Only one main race for all units, multiple subraces allowed.





Contestants:

You will need to present a write-up of your Army Battalion highlighting how they function and what tactics they use. For each unit type you may split them up into two different builds (ie private: 250 level 1 fighters… & 250 level 1 Rangers…).


Barracks:

Competitors will be free to use any official 1st party (WotC) 3.5 rulebook in constructing their units. Dragon Compendium is allowed, but Dragon magazine is disallowed. Unearthed Arcana is allowed. Unupdated 3.0 materials, as well as web exclusives by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere, as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion. Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt or Generic Classes are not allowed, as they create a different playing field. Item Familiars and Taint are also banned from the competition. Leadership and all similar abilities are banned for sanity reasons.

For Level 1 units use 200gp regardless of class, for all others use PC WBL.
No Sharing of Wealth Between units.

Elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) is the assumed ability score generation method.




Deadlines:

Contestants will have until 23:59 MST Saturday August 10th to create their Army Battalions and PM them to the Liquidformat. Army Battalions will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 23:59 MST Saturday September 7th to judge the builds and submit their scores. If no judges have scored by that point, only the scores of the first judge to submit will be counted. Deadlines are subject to extension as/if required.



Judging:

Judging will be based on the following criteria, with each army Battalion rated on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (exemplary) in each area: Originality, Build Elegance, Competence and Power. Since this is the first competition feel free to suggest additional judging criteria.

Keep these questions in mind when judging each category:

Originality - Is it unexpected?

Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?

Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built Army Battalion?

Unearthed Arcana can be penalized for elegance if the specific feature seems unnecessary or makes the playing field unfair (In this case, you can give a 1 if it makes the field unfair.)

Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. As the Iron Chef competition states, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.

You may not judge if you entered the contest, unless you withdraw your submission.


Unit Type:
Class/Level:
HD/HP:
Initiative:
Speed:
AC:
Base Attack/Grapple:
Attacks:
Full Attack:
Space/Reach:
Special Qualities and Class Features:
Saves:
Ability Scores:
Skills:
Feats:
Equipment:
Spells:




Presentation:

Army Battalion will be posted anonymously, in order to avoid the potential of bias towards a particular competitor. For this reason, please don't put your name in the build, as I'm likely to miss it when reviewing the entries!

For the time being we will use a modified creature stat block.



Speculation:

Please don’t post or speculate on possible builds until the reveal, in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines.

Once builds are revealed, please do not comment on errors or rules issues on entries unless you are a judge. If you have such a comment, wait until the final reveal to post it.

We will award 1st through 3rd places, and a possible Honorable Mention.

So, start your tactical planning!



Submission:

To standardize Entries, please use this format when sending it in:


PM: Liquidformat

Subject: Army Competition 1, Name of your Entry

For Revisions and disputes, do the same thing. It makes it easier for me finding the entries in my mail box.

More questions? PM me with Army Competition 1 Questions in the header.

As always: let's keep it nice.

[liquidformat]

Holding for questions

Each Rank's Level is ECL:
300 ECL 1 (Privates, may change name as you like)
- 30 ECL 2 (Corporals, may change name as you like)
- 6 ECL 3 (Sergeants, may change name as you like)
- 1 ECL 4 (Lieutenant, may change name as you like)

Flaws from UA are allowed but subject to judge's judging...

Each Rank may only have two 'unit types'/builds; IE you could have a Sword and Board Fighter and a two-handed fighter for privates.

[Falontani]

The level breakdowns are for ECL 1 level 1 characters such as Humans, and not ECL X level 1 characters such as (ECL 3) Drow Elves level 1, correct?

[liquidformat]

The level breakdowns are for ECL 1 level 1 characters such as Humans, and not ECL X level 1 characters such as (ECL 3) Drow Elves level 1, correct?

Yep the levels given are ECL, so you should have the following in your 'army':
300 ECL 1 (Privates, may change name as you like)
- 30 ECL 2 (Corporals, may change name as you like)
- 6 ECL 3 (Sergeants, may change name as you like)
- 1 ECL 4 (Lieutenant, may change name as you like)

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Hmm... I've got some ideas.

[White Blade]

Are flaws in or out?

[liquidformat]

Are flaws in or out?

Hmm, I think I will go with this the same way I have seen other competition threads and allow it but give the caveat that Judges are free to take off build elegance points for it as they see fit.

[White Blade]

On an unrelated note, there's no HD in the template. Do you want us to put that in?

[ben-zayb]

To clarify: For a particular rank, I can only have two different builds. Hypothetically, if I already have Ranger 1, can I have two types of Fighter, each with two different feats: let's say, Skill Focus (Craft: Basket weaving), and Skill Focus (Profession: Basket Weaver), or am I limited to just one of those fighters?

[liquidformat]

On an unrelated note, there's no HD in the template. Do you want us to put that in?

HD/HP row added


To clarify: For a particular rank, I can only have two different builds. Hypothetically, if I already have Ranger 1, can I have two types of Fighter, each with two different feats: let's say, Skill Focus (Craft: Basket weaving), and Skill Focus (Profession: Basket Weaver), or am I limited to just one of those fighters?

Just the 1 range and 1 fighter. I wanted to put a hard limit on how many different units you can have inside a group so we don't risk having 30 distinct level 2 'Corporals' or 6 distinct level 3 'Sergeants'. After seeing how this round goes we can talk about whether that should be opened up and adjusted, but for now lets go with just two different unit types for each rank.

[heavyfuel]

This seems interesting. I think I can cook something up until the 10th

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I like the idea of flaws for this competition. Since all members of the army are both low-level and mostly uniform, flaws are a lot more significant than they normally would be.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

You will need to present a write-up of your Army Battalion highlighting how they function and what tactics they use. For each unit type you may split them up into two different builds (ie private: 250 level 1 fighters… & 250 level 1 Rangers…).

Does the split have to be even? For instance, could we have 3 of the sergeants (is that right? The one we get 4 of) using one build, and the fourth using a different one?

[liquidformat]

Does the split have to be even? For instance, could we have 3 of the sergeants (is that right? The one we get 4 of) using one build, and the fourth using a different one?

nope doesn't need to be even

[ekarney]

By "10 men can stand abreast" so you mean it's a 50ft space? or is it 10 flat? Can I have 10 (hypothetically ECL 1) huge creatures? or can I not have more than 10 diminutive creatures?

Edit: one of the feats I plan on using got updated quite weirdly, and as such I have two different builds I could use depending on how that works? Would I be able to get a ruling on it, or submit two builds in case one isn't rules legal?

[liquidformat]

By "10 men can stand abreast" so you mean it's a 50ft space? or is it 10 flat? Can I have 10 (hypothetically ECL 1) huge creatures? or can I not have more than 10 diminutive creatures?

Edit: one of the feats I plan on using got updated quite weirdly, and as such I have two different builds I could use depending on how that works? Would I be able to get a ruling on it, or submit two builds in case one isn't rules legal?

When I put that in there I was thinking closer to 25-30', 10 mean abreast is typically people being shoulder to shoulder which is much narrower that the typical 5' spacing. When I put that in I was thinking about the shield wall rules, let me take a look at those rules again before making a final call on this one.

[HouseRules]

When I put that in there I was thinking closer to 25-30', 10 mean abreast is typically people being shoulder to shoulder which is much narrower that the typical 5' spacing. When I put that in I was thinking about the shield wall rules, let me take a look at those rules again before making a final call on this one.

For Phalanx, soldiers typically take 3 feet of frontage and 3 or 6 feet of depth under normal combat.
Under shield walls, when they exchange exhausted soldiers with fresh soldiers, the fresh soldiers from the back rows move forward, and so the frontage is reduce to 1 cubit (18 inches) per soldier.
For normal marches or against volleys of ammunition, loose formation gives 6 feet of frontage per soldier.

None of these values have anything to do with the arbitrary 5 feet (of 3rd edition) or 10 feet (of older edition).

Old Edition (AD&D 1E and 2E) have rules on how many could hold the frontage of a 10 foot square. Modified by by house rules as:

2 if wield two-handed swinging type weapons, usually great swords
3 if wield one-handed swinging type weapons, usually long swords, or if wield two-handed stabbing weapons, usually pole arms with both hands
4 if wield one-handed stabbing type weapons, usually spears or pole arms with one hand, though at times daggers


We, given that spears have 1 foot frontage requirement, players could have 10 spearsman in the same 10 foot square. Then they have 6 spots for heal bots.

[Anthrowhale]

... let me take a look at those rules again before making a final call on this one.
You may want to just not answer. Armies are not generally made for defending a pass of a certain width---they are much more general purpose, then get used in specific ways with only modest time to adjust.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

My heart is broken, for I have realized that I cannot create an army of Warbeast Chickens to fulfill the heavy armor proficiency requirement. Not only do chickens not exist, I can't even refluff an existing fractional HD animal/vermin because Warbeast requires at least medium size.

Maybe for Act II...

[ekarney]

You may want to just not answer. Armies are not generally made for defending a pass of a certain width---they are much more general purpose, then get used in specific ways with only modest time to adjust.

When it comes to actually building an army though, it very much helps knowing how many people I can cram into that width however

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I may be slightly late (hopefully not more than half an hour). Formatting this thing is shaping up to be an enormous pain in the posterior.

[liquidformat]

We only got three this round here they are in particular order:

The Cult Of Afflux
Race: Human
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Unit Type: Lieutenant
Class/Level: Rogue 1 / Cleric of Afflux(Undeath, Evil) 3
HD/HP: 1d6+3d8+3 (22)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft.
AC: 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+2
Attacks: None
Space/Reach: 5ft. / None
SQ/Class Features: Rebuke Undead 9/day
Saves: Fort +3 Ref +3 Will +5
Ability Scores: Str 8 Dex 12 Con 10 Int 14 Wis 15 Cha 14
Skills: Knowledge:Religion +10, Use Magic Device +10 (Scrolls +14), Spellcraft +6, Bluff +8, Climb +3, Hide +4, Move Silently +5, Disguise +6, Decipher Script +7
Feats: Favored (Cult of Afflux, Bluff), Primary Contact (K: Religion), Fell Conspiracy, Evil Devotion
Equipment (5400gp):
Masterwork Tools (UMD) 50
Scroll of Extended Widened Control Winds 2625
Scroll of Invisibility x2 300
Scroll of Alter Self x2 300
Hat of Disguise 1800
Rations and Adventuring Gear
Unholy Symbol
Spells: 4/3+1/2+1
0: Cure Minor Wounds x3, Resistance
1: Omen of Peril x3, Detect Undead*
2: Divine Insight, Guidance of the Avatar, Desecrate*

Unit Type: Sergeant
Class/Level: Cleric of Afflux (Undeath, Deathbound) 3
HD/HP: 3d8+3 (20)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 ft.
AC: 19 (+7 Armor, +2 Shield)
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+2
Attacks: Morningstar +1 (1d8-1) or Longspear +1 (1d8-1)
Space/Reach: 5ft. / 5ft or 10ft. (Longspear)
SQ/Class Features: Rebuke Undead 9/day, Max Undead Controlled: 9HD
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +5
Ability Scores: Str 8 Dex 10 Con 13 Int 12 Wis 15 Cha 14
Skills: Concentration +7, K(Religion) +7, Heal +8
Feats: Fell Animate, Divine Metamagic: Fell Animate, Travel Devotion, Extra Turning*
Equipment (2700gp):
Chronocharm of the Uncaring Archmage 500
Scroll of Black Sand x4 600
Scroll of Entangle x4 100
Half Plate 600
Heavy Shield 7
Wand of Faith Healing 750
Masterwork Tools (Concentration, Heal) 100
Unholy Symbol x3 3
Morningstar 12
Longspear 5
Rations and Adventuring Gear
Spells: 4/3+1/2+1
0: Cure Minor Wounds x3, Resistance
1: Obscuring Mist x3, Omen of Peril, Chill of the Grave*
2: Dance of Ruin x2, Desecrate*

Unit Type: Corporal
Class/Level: Dragonfire Adept 1 / Fighter 1
HD/HP: 1d8+1d10+4 (16)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 20ft.
AC: 19 (+5 Armor, +2 Shield +2 Dex)
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+0
Attacks: Breath Weapon 1d6/DC 12, Glaive +0 (1d10-1), Crossbow +3 (1d10),Thrown +3
Space/Reach: 5ft. / 10ft.
SQ/Class Features: Dragontouched
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +2
Ability Scores: Str 8 Dex 14 Con 15 Int 13 Wis 10 Cha 12
Skills: Spot +5 Listen +5 UMD +7(Scrolls+11) Decipher Script +6 Spellcraft +6 Hide +4
Feats: Entangling Exhalation, Enlarge Breath, Improved Initiative
Equipment (900gp):
Chainmail 150
Heavy Shield 7
Oil x30 3
Glaive 8
Heavy Crossbow 50
100 Bolts 10
Scroll of Faith Healing (Afflux) x10 250
Scroll of Launch Item x10 125
10 vials Aboleth Oil 200
Masterwork Tools (UMD) 50
Adventuring gear, trail rations
Invocation Known: Breath of the Night

Unit Type: Private
Class/Level: Crusader 1
HD/HP: 1d10+2 (12)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20ft.
AC: 18 (+5 Armor, +2 Shield +1 Dex)
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+3
Attacks: Longsword +3 (1d8+2)
Space/Reach: 5ft. / 10ft.
SQ/Class Features: Delayed Damage 5, Furious Counterstrike
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +0
Ability Scores: Str 14 Dex 12 Con 15 Int 13 Wis 10 Cha 8
Skills: Heal +2, K(Religion) +5, Spot +2, Listen +2
Feats: Tomb-Tainted Soul, White Raven Defense
Equipment (200gp):
Chainmail 150
Heavy Shield 7
Longsword 15
Adventuring gear, trail rations

Maneuvers Known:
Crusader's Strike
Charging Minotaur
Vanguard Strike
Douse the Flames
Stone Bones

Stance Known:
Iron Guard's Glare

Breath of the Night protects against ranged attacks. Black Sand is put down when the first enemies arrive, turning them into sand and finishing off anyone who is disabled. They crumble into sand, allowing for Black Sand to remain present after the conjured sand's duration expires. This allows for persistent healing of the frontline through Tomb Tainted Soul. The frontline is difficult to attack at range due to the darkness projected by the Black Sand and the fog clouds from the dragonfire adepts. In melee, Iron Guard's Glare puts the privates at AC 22 before penalties for vision problems.

Corporals have scrolls of Launch Item and vials of Aboleth Mucus to tag anything that's durable enough to fight its way through the frontline. Entangling Exhalation allows them to lock enemies down in the Black Sand every turn and keep the frontline protected. Faith Healing keeps the officers at full.

Sergeants can crack any big formations that might break through, using Travel Devotion to engage quickly and use Fell Animate Dance of Ruin to wipe out large areas. This also creates a big pile of undead who can act as a buffer, and who are healed by the Black Sand.

The Lieutenant uses his stealth skills and Alter Self into a humanoid with a burrow or fly speed and invisibility to sneak around the enemy position, cast his UMD boosting spells and the scroll of Control Winds to create a 1200ft radius tornado which lasts for five hours, which should thoroughly disrupt and/or obliterate a large portion of the enemy. To avoid being caught in the effect (since it only has 600ft range), I'd recommend the burrow speed.
The Primary Contact extra rank in K: Religion allows the Lieutenant to use the Conspirational Bond Fell Conspiracy, which with ~300 allies gives each member a +600 bonus on Spot and Listen checks, eliminating the chance of any enemies outflanking them. It also lets them all use Message at will through Common Cause for co-ordination purposes.

[liquidformat]

Hleid's Wings

Hleid's wings started with an experimental error leading to the release of an anthropomorphic bat from a mad wizard's dungeon. The bewildered anthrobat discovered itself in a cold, hostile environment unlike anything it had ever experienced. Determined to escape anyways, it flew on in the cold, and when it could go no further it stopped to rest on a glacier as hypothermia overtook it.

Luckily, a rimefire witch's alarms triggered. Upon finding the hapless thing, the rimefire witch healed it. Upon listening to it's story, the rimefire witch set in motion a plan to break the anthrobat's labmates free. When they succeeded a small colony of anthropomorphic bats was created in the frostfell.

A century later the colony has prospered with rapid growth. The focal point of the community is worship of Hleid with a lawful twist. The young constantly seek service amongst the rimefire witches. The colony overall keeps as low a profile as possible due to the many potent threats in the frostfell. Nevertheless, the broader community of rimefire witches and some dwarven allies are often best by these same potent frostfell enemies. To assist them, and to aid the community, a standing army was created from amongst the rimefire witch acolytes.

The basic trooper is a Harrier.
Unit Type: Lawful good Anthropomorphic Bat Monstrous Humanoid

Class Cleric[Winter, Animal] of Hleid (Frostfell deity) level 1

HD: 1 HP: 9

Initiative: +1
Speed: 5'/Fly 20'(Poor)
AC: 17/Touch 12/Flat-Footed 16
Base Attack: +0 Grapple: -4
Attacks:
+2 Small Light Crossbow 1d6
+1 Small Dagger 1d3
Full Attack: as attack
Space/Reach: 5'/5'
Special Attacks: Tumbling Bolt (1d6+2, 1/2 range), Cold Iron Bolt, Silver Bolt
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60'
Class Features: Turn Undead, Winter Domain, Animal Domain, Spells
Saves: Fort 3
Refl 1
Will 7
Ability Scores:
Str 11=15-4 Light: 28.5, Medium: 57, Heavy: 97.5
Dex 13
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 20=14+6
Cha 6=8-2

All Harriers are trained in concentration so they can reliably cast spells in combat, but each also specializes in one other skill.

Skills:
Concentration 5=4+1
+ one of:
Spellcraft 4
Heal 9=4+5
Diplomacy 2=4-2
Knowledge[Religion] 4
Knowledge[Arcana] 4
Knowledge[Nature] 4
Knowledge[The Planes] 4
Spot 7=2+5
Sense Motive 7=2+5
Survival 7=2+5

Feats:
1. Hover //Fly any direction or full round action

Equipment: Cost Lbs
Small Studded Leather 25 10
S. Buckler 15 2.5 //works with crossbow
S. Dastana 25 2.5 //adds to armor
S. Light Crossbow 35 2 //range 80', piercing, move action to load.
S. Sling - - //Used with Magic Stone Range 50', 1d6+1(enhancement) double vs. undead
S. Bolts(10)x8 8 4 //1d6 19-20/x2,
S. Cold Iron B.(10)x2 4 1 //bypass Cold Iron DR
S. Silver B.(10) 21 0.5 //bypass Silver DR, 1d6-1
S. Tumbling B.(1) 5 0.1 //Range 40', 1d6+2 x2 AEG
S. Dagger 2 0.5 //Light, 1d3 19-20/x2, Slashing or Piercing, range 10'
Razor Ice Powder 50 1 //5' square of razor ice (unlimited duration) -> 1d4+1d6(cold) for those that step on it
Holy Symbol, Wooden x2 2 - //for spells
Signal Whistle .8 - //for communication
S. Waterskin 1 1
S. Trail Rations x4 2 1
S. Bedroll .1 1.25
S. Backpack 2 .5
Fishhook .1 - //Just in case.
Total 198 27.85

Spells:
0: No Light x3 //Darkvision + No Light = you can see and they cannot
Domain 1: Snowsight //See through snow
1: Endure Elements //-50 to +140 is comfortable for 24 hours
1: Lesser Vigor //fast heal 11 hp at 1/round
1: Magic Stone //magic blunt damage

The Harrier's are all armed and armored by the dwarves while they cast Endure Elements daily for protection from extremes of the frostfell. Harriers have been trained and indoctrinated in the use of several powerful tactical advantages.


Harriers use a crossbow with several types of ammunition and over a hundred bolts in combination with their innate flight to be a potent threat against ground-based opponents. Harrier training emphasizes maneuverability (hover) and combat on the wing.
Harrier's are rarely surprised. Their high wisdom and darkvision gives them an excellent chance of detecting opponents.
Against ranged opponents, the combination of darkness or No Light with darkvision means that a Harrier can often attack while not being
visible to an enemy.
When Harriers are damaged in combat, they can of course heal themselves unlike most troops.
With forewarning, they can choose to prepare and use other key spells like Magic Weapon (against DR/Magic), the detect spells, or Protection from Evil (against charm/compulsion, summoned creatures, and also giving AC+2(deflect)).


Harriers are usually not intentionally deployed in singletons, although sometimes that happens of course. In such situations, Harriers have the resources to survive on their own and fight off many opponents.

The basic unit of the army is a 'wing' which consists of 10 Harriers and one Master Harrier.
Unit Type: Lawful good Anthropomorphic Bat Monstrous Humanoid

Class Cleric[Winter, Animal] of Hleid (Frostfell deity) level 2

HD: 2 HP: 14

Initiative: +1
Speed: 5'/Fly 20'(Poor)
AC: 18/Touch 12/Flat-Footed 17
Base Attack: +1 Grapple: -3
Attacks:
+4 Small Masterwork Light Crossbow 1d6
+2 Small Dagger 1d3
Full Attack: as attack
Space/Reach: 5'/5'
Special Attacks: Tumbling Bolt (1d6+2, 1/2 range), Cold Iron Bolt, Silver Bolt
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60'
Class Features: Turn Undead, Winter Domain, Animal Domain, Spells
Saves: Fort 4
Refl 1
Will 8
Ability Scores:
Str 11=15-4 Light: 28.5, Medium: 57, Heavy: 97.5
Dex 13
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 20=14+6

Cha 6=8-2

All Master Harriers are trained in concentration so they can reliably cast spells in combat, but each also specializes in one other skill.

Skills:
Concentration 6=5+1
+ one of:
Spellcraft 5
Heal 10=5+5
Diplomacy 3=5-2
Knowledge[Religion] 5
Knowledge[Arcana] 5
Knowledge[Nature] 5
Knowledge[The Planes] 5
Spot 7=2+5
Sense Motive 7=2+5
Survival 7=2+5

Feats:
1. Hover //Fly any direction or full round action

Equipment: Cost Lbs
Small Chain Shirt 100 12.5
S. Buckler 15 2.5 //works with crossbow
S. Dastana 25 2.5 //adds to armor
S. Mwk Dkwood L. XB. 355 1 //range 80', piercing move action to load.
S. Sling - - //Used with Magic Stone Range 50', 1d6+1(enhancement) double vs. undead
S. Bolts(10)x6 6 3 //1d6 19-20/x2
S. Cold Iron B.(10)x2 4 1 //bypass Cold Iron DR
S. Silver B.(10) 21 0.5 //bypass Silver DR, 1d6-1
S. Tumbling B.(10) 51 1 //Range 40', 1d6+2 x2 AEG
S. Dagger 2 0.5 //Light, 1d3 19-20/x2, Slashing or Piercing, range 10'
Razor Ice Powder 50 1 //5' square of razor ice (unlimited duration) -> 1d4+1d6(cold) for those that step on it
Holy Symbol, Wooden x2 2 - //for spells
Signal Whistle .8 - //Communication over distance
Scrolls:
Magic Weapon 25 //in case of DR/magic enemies
Protection from Evil 25 //In case of charmers
Eyes of the Avoral 25 //for an emergency scouting mission
//basic necessities
S. Trail Rations x4 2 1
S. Bedroll .1 1.25
S. Backpack 2 .5
Fishhook .1 - //Just in case.
Total 759 28.25

Spells:
0: No Light x3 //Darkvision + No Light = you can see and they cannot
0: Create Water
Domain 1: Snowsight //See through snow
1: Endure Elements //-50 to +140 is comfortable for 24 hours
1: Lesser Vigor //fast heal 11 hp at 1/round
1: Magic Stone //magic blunt damage
1: Bless

Master Harriers are modestly better equipped and have a few emergency scrolls, but more importantly are taught how to use a wing to accomplish new tactics.


The diverse second skill of member Harriers provides a range of expertise that the Master Harrier can call on in dealing with varied situations. For examples, wings can negotiate, survive in the wild, and have the skills to understand magic and enemies.
Repeat casting of No Light can be used to create tunnels of darkness either on approach or retreat from an enemy.
The entire wing can be used to create sustained volley fire for area effect damage against far-off opponents as per HoB pages 68-70.
The wing can be used in scouting tactics where signaling whistles are relayed over significant distances to increase awareness.


The wing is the basic fighting unit of the army, capable of dealing with most mundane and many supernatural frostfell threats using the above tactics.

A flock consists of 5 wings commanded by an Acolyte (56 in total).
Unit Type: Lawful good Anthropomorphic Bat Monstrous Humanoid

Class Cleric[Winter, Animal] of Hleid (Frostfell deity) level 3

HD: 3 HP: 20

Initiative: +1
Speed: 5'/Fly 20'(Poor)
AC: 18/Touch 12/Flat-Footed 17
Base Attack: +2 Grapple: -2
Attacks:
+5 Small Masterwork Light Crossbow 1d6
+3 Small Dagger 1d3
Full Attack: as attack
Space/Reach: 5'/5'
Special Attacks: Tumbling Bolt (1d6+2, 1/2 range), Cold Iron Bolt, Silver Bolt
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60'
Class Features: Turn Undead, Winter Domain, Animal Domain, Spells
Saves: Fort 4
Refl 2
Will 8
Ability Scores:
Str 11=15-4 Light: 28.5, Medium: 57, Heavy: 97.5
Dex 13
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 20=14+6
Cha 6=8-2

All Acolytes are trained in concentration so they can reliably cast spells in combat, but each also specializes in one other skill.

Skills:
Concentration 7=6+1
+ one of:
Spellcraft 6
Heal 11=6+5
Diplomacy 4=6-2
Knowledge[Religion] 6
Knowledge[Arcana] 6
Knowledge[Nature] 6
Knowledge[The Planes] 6
Spot 8=3+5
Sense Motive 8=3+5
Survival 8=3+5

Feats:
1. Hover //Fly any direction or full round action
3. Arcane Mastery //Take 10 on level checks, qualification via Animal Domain SLA.

Equipment: Cost Lbs
Small Chain Shirt 100 12.5
S. Buckler 15 2.5 //works with crossbow
S. Dastana 25 2.5 //adds to armor
S. Mwk Dkwood L. XB. 355 1 //range 80', piercing move action to load.
S. Sling - - //Used with Magic Stone Range 50', 1d6+1(enhancement) double vs. undead
S. Bolts(10)x6 6 3 //1d6 19-20/x2
S. Cold Iron B.(10)x2 4 1 //bypass Cold Iron DR
S. Silver B.(10) 21 0.5 //bypass Silver DR, 1d6-1
S. Tumbling B.(10) 51 1 //Range 40', 1d6+2 x2 AEG
S. Dagger 2 0.5 //Light, 1d3 19-20/x2, Slashing or Piercing, range 10'
Razor Ice Powder 50 1 //5' square of razor ice (unlimited duration) -> 1d4+1d6(cold) for those that step on it
Holy Symbol, Wooden x2 2 - //for spells
Signal Whistle .8 - //Communication over distance
Scrolls:
Magic Weapon 25 //in case of DR/magic enemies
Protection from Evil 25 //In case of charmers
Eyes of the Avoral 25 //for an emergency scouting mission
L6 Caster level 12 1800
One of:
Flash Frost Blizzard 1200' radius spread 880' range, 10 Cold damage + 1d6 nonlethal Cold fort neg + DC 10 balance or fall if move + round/level 1 foot of snow
Energy Substitution[[Fire] Flash Frost Blizzard 1200' radius spread 880' range, 10 Fire damage + 1d6 nonlethal Fire fort neg + DC 10 balance or fall if move + round/level 1 foot of snow
Energy Substitution[[Acid] Flash Frost Blizzard 1200' radius spread 880' range, 10 Acid damage + 1d6 nonlethal Acid fort neg + DC 10 balance or fall if move + round/level 1 foot of snow
Sculpt Spell Wall of Stone 220' range, 12x 5'x5'x3" stone sections or via Sculpt Spell (48x 10'x10'x10' cubes?)
Flash Frost Call Avalanche 120' radius spread 880' range, 10 cold + DC 10 balance or fall if move + 8d6 crush Refl/2 + Bury Huge- Refl Neg
2xControl Temperature 240' radius, 12 hours, reduce temperature by 2 bands.

//basic necessities
S. Trail Rations x4 2 1
S. Bedroll .1 1.25
S. Backpack 2 .5
Fishhook .1 - //Just in case.
Total 2559 28.25

Spells:
0: No Light x3 //Darkvision + No Light = you can see and they cannot
0: Create Water
Domain 1: Snowsight //See through snow
1: Endure Elements //-50 to +140 is comfortable for 24 hours
1: Lesser Vigor //fast heal 11 hp at 1/round
1: Magic Stone //magic blunt damage
1: Bless
Domain 2: Hold Animal
2: Obscuring Snow //hour/level block sight, except snowsight
2: Resist Energy //to avoid self-kill

Acolyte's have been trained in the greater mysteries of the church of Hleid. Although they have not mastered these mysteries they have mastered the ability to reliably use them (via the Arcane Mastery feat). Each Acolyte is entrusted by the rimefire witches with a caster level 12 scroll that they can trigger 100% of the time through their training. The effects of these scrolls vary, but they are generally army-killing, as is appropriate for a threat requiring the attention of a flock.

Possibilities include:


Flash-frost Blizzard, which creates a 1200' radius spread (i.e. goes around corners) which knocks opponents down, does cold damage, does nonlethal cold damage, and delivers a foot of snow/round restricting movement.
Energy substitution[Fire,Acid] versions of the above provide other sources of damage which frostfell inhabitants may not be immune to.
Flash Frost Call Avalanche, which does even more damage in a more localized area.
Sculpt Spell Wall of Stone. Sculpt Spell can be ignored for conventional uses or used to create new stone shapes. One interpretation of Sculpt Spell is that it works for each area of a spell effect, implying (for example) that you can create 48 10x10x10 stone cubes. The tamer interpretation that you can only create 4 10x10x10 cubes is still quite potent.
Control Temperature can be used to freely lower the temperature to Extreme Cold in a large area which inflicts immense passive damage over time to the unprepared.


Acolytes can also routinely employ a new tactic: Obscuring Snow. With Snowsight (which every Harrier can cast), this sets up a situation where the Harriers can see their enemies and move but very few enemies can see them.

Flocks are additionally capable of all the tactics of a wing, but in a much greater extreme. Through massed fire alone, they inflict immense damage and break through defenses that would stymy a lone wing. Flocks are quite capable of breaking an enemy army despite heavy numerical disadvantages when used effectively.

A Wingforce consists of 6 Flocks led by a Master Acolyte.
Unit Type: Lawful good Anthropomorphic Bat Monstrous Humanoid

Class Cleric[Winter, Animal] of Hleid (Frostfell deity) level 4

HD: 4 HP: 25

Initiative: +1
Speed: 5'/Fly 20'(Poor)
AC: 18/Touch 12/Flat-Footed 17
Base Attack: +3 Grapple: -1
Attacks:
+6 Small Masterwork Light Crossbow 1d6
+4 Small Dagger 1d3
Full Attack: as attack
Space/Reach: 5'/5'
Special Attacks: Tumbling Bolt (1d6+2, 1/2 range), Cold Iron Bolt, Silver Bolt
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60'
Class Features: Turn Undead, Winter Domain, Animal Domain, Spells
Saves: Fort 5
Refl 2
Will 9
Ability Scores:
Str 11=15-4 Light: 28.5, Medium: 57, Heavy: 97.5
Dex 13
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 21=14+6+1
Cha 6=8-2

All Acolytes are trained in concentration so they can reliably cast spells in combat, but each also specializes in one other skill.

Skills:
Concentration 7=6+1
+ one of:
Spellcraft 6
Heal 11=6+5
Diplomacy 4=6-2
Knowledge[Religion] 6
Knowledge[Arcana] 6
Knowledge[Nature] 6
Knowledge[The Planes] 6
Spot 8=3+5
Sense Motive 8=3+5
Survival 8=3+5

Feats:
1. Hover //Fly any direction or full round action
3. Arcane Mastery //Take 10 on level checks, qualification via Animal Domain SLA.

Equipment: Cost Lbs
Small Chain Shirt 100 12.5
S. Buckler 15 2.5 //works with crossbow
S. Dastana 25 2.5 //adds to armor
S. Mwk Dkwood L. XB. 355 1 //range 80', piercing move action to load.
S. Sling - - //Used with Magic Stone Range 50', 1d6+1(enhancement) double vs. undead
S. Bolts(10)x6 6 3 //1d6 19-20/x2
S. Cold Iron B.(10)x2 4 1 //bypass Cold Iron DR
S. Silver B.(10) 21 0.5 //bypass Silver DR, 1d6-1
S. Tumbling B.(10) 51 1 //Range 40', 1d6+2 x2 AEG
S. Dagger 2 0.5 //Light, 1d3 19-20/x2, Slashing or Piercing, range 10'
Holy Symbol, Wooden x2 2 - //for spells
Signal Whistle .8 - //Communication over distance
Scrolls:
Forbiddance 4800 //caster level 12, permanent 60' cube of 6d6 will/2 to non-good or non-lawful. 12d6 will/2 to chaotic evil.

//basic necessities
S. Trail Rations x4 2 1
S. Bedroll .1 1.25
S. Backpack 2 .5
Fishhook .1 - //Just in case.
Total 5386 27.25

Spells:
0: No Light x3 //Darkvision + No Light = you can see and they cannot
0: Create Water
Domain 1: Snowsight //See through snow
1: Hand of the Faithful //Stun non-Hleid worshippers in 10' radius Fort DC 16 Negates for 1 hour/level
1: Endure Elements //-50 to +140 is comfortable for 24 hours
1: Lesser Vigor //fast heal 11 hp at 1/round
1: Bless
1: Protection from Evil
Domain 2: Hold Animal
2: 2x Obscuring Snow //hour/level block sight, except snowsight
2: Resist Energy //to avoid self-kill

Master Acolytes are entrusted with an even more powerful spell, typically 'Forbiddance', which is capable of inflicting heavy damage on a permanent basis over a substantial area leaving easy pickings for the massed flock of a wingforce. The acolytes of a flock in a wingforce are often entrusted with different spells so that the wingforce as a whole has a wide variety of potent spells available.

A wingforce is rarely used to deal with a problem. Usually, a wingforce level threat is divined in advance by the rimefire witches. Forewarned with knowledge of the threat, the witches only dispatch a flock with the right spells and tactics to defeat the threat with high probability. Nevertheless wingforces can be (and have been) dispatched against otherwise unknown or overwhelming threats on short notice. An wingforce has well over 30000 bolts and multiple army-crushing spells that can defeat very potent enemies.

For this particular challenge, this Hleid's Wings can succeed several ways.


The Master Acolyte can cast Forbiddance to seal the pass. Anything not LG will take 6d6 with a Will DC 21 save for half damage. Anything CE takes 12d6 Will DC 21 for half damage. Against an army of low-level mooks these are devastating. (And, since it's a will save even undead are affected.) Furthermore, Forbiddance has a special clause saying that caster level 13 dispel magic is required to end it.
The Acolytes with Blizzard variants can hit an entire opposing army with 10 + 1d6 nonlethal elemental damage and essentially make them unable to move. There are several of these which use several different elemental damage types so few armies could resist these castings. Remember that Snowsight allows seeing into a Blizzard, so the opposing army is potentially under fire during the Blizzard.
The Call Avalanche Acolyte can bury nearby enemies, then the wingforce can lay out a field of razor ice that shreds anyone on foot.
Control Temperature can be used to cause 1d6 cold damage to unprepared opponents every 10 minutes in a large area for a long time.
Wall of Stone can be used conventionally or via Sculpt Spell to create fortifications around which to defend or provide an alternate means to seal the pass. An army without siege weapons will have significant difficulty breaking though by conventional means.
There's enough Obscuring Snow to keep the army firing over a period of essentially unlimited duration. Using this from 80' up (where Gust of Wind cannot reach), there is no particular reason why the wingforce could not use all 30000+ bolts.
Similarly, against a force without darkvision, No Light or simple nightfall provides effective improved invisibility.

[liquidformat]

Knights of the Dragon

"Fear not, my fellow brave warriors! Though their numbers are great, we will fight with the strength of 10, because our hearts are pure! Remember to stand with your fellows, and we shall prevail! You have all proven your devotion to the cause of Law, Good and the Vix Tholm of Heironeous! We have also learned from the wisdom of the wise sage of swords, the Marlin, who while no longer with us in body, is in each of our hearts! I, Artus, say that we shall hold this field of battle, and win the day! Brave Lancella, Good Galahab, my sister Kay the Learned, Percivia the Pure-Hearted, Tristain the Bold, and Gilwain the Strong shall all be at your sides! Obey them as you would obey me, stay alert, and fight, and win!"

Ok, I am going with Crusasders (from Tome of Battle: the Book of Nine Swords), and my chosen race is Humans (Silverbrow). I couldn't resist a little Pendragon riff. :smallsmile:

Anyhow, while this is heavy infantry, they sadly can't afford heavy armour for the majority of troops (Kay is a bit of a bean-counter!). But they will have mobility as the chosen two feats (also from the Tome of Battle) will lead to a stance that both lets them ignore rough terrain and get a bonus against enemies that can't.

I gave them all diplomacy for no other reason than the courtly graces that Knights are meant to have. :smallsmile: But they are sharp of eye and ear and not easily fooled.

The abilities of these troops work best if they are adjacent to other troops, so they will try to stick together as much as possible.

Against ranged weapons, well they have tower shields and can hunker down and then move up. Eventually they will catch the enemy in melee.

Should their racial 1/day feather fall ability come in handy (maybe there are pits or bridges or cliffs around?), that is a bonus, but at least it gives me the image of them "parachuting" in from an air ship to get to this part of the battlefield first. But that ship is gone now so they must hold the area against the enemy for three days.

As an aside, I learned today that silver bludgeoning weapons do -1 damage, according to the SRD. Just when you think you know everything about an old game!

Anyhow, here are the first level troops. I will try to do the higher level ones later. Let me know if anything needs adding to or clarifying.

Unit Type: Heavy Infantry (300)
Class/Level: Crusader 1
HD/HP: 1d10 12
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20
AC: 19 (Scale, tower shield, dex)
Base Attack/Grapple: +1
Attacks: +1 cold iron long sword (or morningstar) (1d8 +2) or +1 silver light mace (1d6 + 2) or cold iron spiked guantlet (1d4 +2) or +0 javelin (1d6 +2).
Full Attack: See above.
Space/Reach: 5'/5'
Special Qualities and Class Features: Delay up to 5 hp damage by 1 rd, +1 attack/damage when delaying damage. Maneuvers (random - 2 out of 5 available in rd. 1, then 1 more each of rounds 2,3,4, then repeat 4 round series). Stances (2 known, only one active at a time, swift action to switch). Feather Fall, 1x/day. Can use Tower Shield as total cover.
Saves: Fort: 4, Reflex: 1, Will: 1
Ability Scores: Str 15, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Chr 8.
Skills: Sense Motive 5, cc Spot 3, cc Listen 3, Diplomacy 3.
Feats: Martial Study (gets Setting Sun Maneuver they likely won't use); Martial Stance (gets Setting Sun Stance they certainly *will* use!).
Equipment: Scale Mail, Tower Shield, Morningstar, Silver Light Mace, Cold Iron long sword, 10 Javelins, 3 days rations, 3 waterskins, backpack, 6 sun rods, Bedroll, Silk Rope 50', 3 tindertwigs. Probably into heavy encumbrance.
Maneuvers and Stances: Stance: a) Iron Guard's Glare (threatened enemies -4 to hit your allies) (see how having the Crusaders together helps here? If two threaten an enemy that enemy is -4 to hit either Crusader!) or b) Step of the Wind (ignore penalties to speed or skill checks from difficult terrain and +2 on attacks vs. enemies that can't ignore those penalties, also +4 to bull rush or trip them).
Maneuvers (well the readied ones for this battle - these are standard actions that combine with an attack - the special effect only happens if the attack hits): a) Crusader's Strike: Successful attack vs. enemy lets you heal self or ally 1d6 + 1 hp.
b) Vanguard Strike: Allies get +4 to attack an opponent you hit that round.
c) Stone Bones: If you hit an enemy, get DR 5/adamantine until next round.
d) Leading the Attack: Allies get +4 morale attack bonus vs. opponent you hit that round.
e) Douse the Flames: If you hit, enemy gets no attacks of opportunity that round.
They won't have Mighty Throw readied but if they get 5 minutes they can learn it and replace one of the other five maneuvers. It lets you throw people around. Could be useful if the terrain has pits, and the like.

On to the Corporals. These are fairly similar, except a) Their armour is better, b) Their main weapon is masterwork, c) They have a few oils of bless weapon, d) Their BAB, hp, skills, and fort save are better, and d) They have an extra stance. They will use this stance when necessary to help their group of 10 make their will saves, particularly against fear.

Unit Type: Corporals for Heavy Infantry (30)
Class/Level: Crusader 2
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20
AC: 21 (Banded, tower shield, dex)
Base Attack/Grapple: +2
Attacks: +3 mw cold iron long sword (or morningstar) (1d8 +2) or +2 silver light mace (1d6 + 2) or +2 cold iron spiked gauntlet (1d4 +2) or +1 javelin (1d6 +2).
Full Attack: See above.
Space/Reach: 5'/5'
Special Qualities and Class Features: Delay up to 5 hp damage by 1 rd, +1 attack/damage when delaying damage. Maneuvers (random - 2 out of 5 available in rd. 1, then 1 more each of rounds 2,3,4, then repeat 4 round series). Stances (3 known, only one active at a time, swift action to switch). Feather Fall, 1x/day. Can use Tower Shield as total cover.
Saves: Fort: 5, Reflex: 1, Will: 1
Ability Scores: Str 15, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Chr 8.
Skills: Sense Motive 6, cc Spot 3.5, cc Listen 3.5, Diplomacy 4.
Feats: Martial Study (gets Setting Sun Maneuver they likely won't use); Martial Stance (gets Setting Sun Stance they certainly *will* use!).
Equipment: Banded Mail, Tower Shield, Morningstar, Silver Light Mace, Cold Iron long sword, 10 Javelins, 3 days rations, 3 waterskins, backpack, 6 sun rods, Bedroll, Silk Rope 50', 3 tindertwigs, 2 oils of bless weapon. Definitely heavy encumbrance.
Maneuvers and Stances: Stance: a) Iron Guard's Glare (threatened enemies -4 to hit your allies) (see how having the Crusaders together helps here? If two threaten an enemy that enemy is -4 to hit either Crusader!) or b) Step of the Wind (ignore penalties to speed or skill checks from difficult terrain and +2 on attacks vs. enemies that can't ignore those penalties, also +4 to bull rush or trip them) or c) Bolstering Voice - all allies within 60' get +2 morale bonus on will saves (or +4 morale bonus if vs. fear).
Maneuvers (well the readied ones for this battle - these are standard actions that combine with an attack - the special effect only happens if the attack hits): a) Crusader's Strike: Successful attack vs. enemy lets you heal self or an ally 1d6 + 2 hp.
b) Vanguard Strike: Allies get +4 to attack an opponent you hit that round.
c) Stone Bones: If you hit an enemy, get DR 5/adamantine until next round.
d) Leading the Attack: Allies get +4 morale attack bonus vs. opponent you hit that round.
e) Douse the Flames: If you hit, enemy gets no attacks of opportunity that round.
They won't have Mighty Throw readied but if they get 5 minutes they can learn it and replace one of the other five maneuvers. It lets you throw people around. Could be useful if the terrain has pits and the like.

Now on to the Sergeants! These are similar to lower-level crusaders but they get two new maneuvers, one that lets them give a +8 AC bonus to an adjacent buddy under attack as an immediate action and one which lets them teleport 50' as a standard action. This lets these knights move around the table (one might even call them 'Round Table Knights!). They can use the latter to get to where they are needed most. They also can reroll a saving throw 1/day. Their bad saves and BAB go up. They have +1 swords. The morningstars are cold iron but not the swords. If it is not too cheesy, the swords all glow with light.

Unit Type: Sergeants for Heavy Infantry (6)
Class/Level: Crusader 3
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20
AC: 21 (Banded, tower shield, dex)
Base Attack/Grapple: +3
Attacks: +4 (+1 long sword) (1d8 +3) or or +3 cold iron morningstar (1d8 + 3) or +3 silver light mace (1d6 + 2) or +3 cold iron spiked gauntlet (1d4 +2) or +1 javelin (1d6 +2).
Full Attack: See above.
Space/Reach: 5'/5'
Special Qualities and Class Features: Delay up to 5 hp damage by 1 rd, +1 attack/damage when delaying damage. Maneuvers (random - 2 out of 5 available in rd. 1, then 1 more each of rounds 2,3,4, then repeat 4 round series). Stances (3 known, only one active at a time, swift action to switch). Feather Fall, 1x/day. Can use Tower Shield as total cover.
Saves: Fort: 5, Reflex: 2, Will: 2
Ability Scores: Str 15, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Chr 8.
Skills: Sense Motive 7, cc Spot 4, cc Listen 4, Diplomacy 5.
Feats: Martial Study (gets Setting Sun Maneuver they likely won't use); Martial Study (gets Shadow Jaunt); Martial Stance (gets Setting Sun Stance they certainly *will* use!).
Equipment: Banded Mail, Tower Shield, Cold Iron Morningstar, Silver Light Mace, +1 long sword, 10 Javelins, 3 days rations, 3 waterskins, backpack, 6 sun rods, Bedroll, Silk Rope 50', 3 tindertwigs. Definitely heavy encumbrance.
Maneuvers and Stances: Stance: a) Iron Guard's Glare (threatened enemies -4 to hit your allies) (see how having the Crusaders together helps here? If two threaten an enemy that enemy is -4 to hit either Crusader!) or b) Step of the Wind (ignore penalties to speed or skill checks from difficult terrain and +2 on attacks vs. enemies that can't ignore those penalties, also +4 to bull rush or trip them) or c) Bolstering Voice - all allies within 60' get +2 morale bonus on will saves (or +4 morale bonus if vs. fear).
Maneuvers (well the readied ones for this battle - these are usually standard actions that combine with an attack - the special effect only happens if the attack hits): a) Crusader's Strike: Successful attack vs. enemy lets you heal self or an ally 1d6 + 3 hp.
b) Vanguard Strike: Allies get +4 to attack an opponent you hit that round.
c) Shadow Jaunt: Teleport 50' as a standard action (need line of sight and line of effect) to an unoccupied square. Not attached to an attack.
d) Leading the Attack: Allies get +4 morale attack bonus vs. opponent you hit that round.
e) Shield Block: As an immediate action (not attached to your attack) add +8 AC to adjacent ally after a ranged or melee attack roll is made (but before success or failure of attack is determined).
They won't have Douse the Flames, Stone Bones, or Mighty Throw readied but if they get 5 minutes they can learn one and replace one of the other five maneuvers. The last one lets you throw people around. Could be useful if the terrain has pits, and the like.


Finally, the Lieutenant! While Artus talks a good game to inspire the troops, he prays in his heart that the Silver Dragon will come in three days as promised. Otherwise, this may be their last stand. He hopes he will see his beloved wive Gwendolyne again.

Too much? Ok. :smallbiggrin:

The Lieutenant gets to upgrade his delay damage pool to 10 hp, and if it hits 10 hp, then his bonus to attack and damage increases to +2 that round. He also gets another maneuver, and replaces Leading the Attack with Mountain Hammer, which ignores DR and Hardness! His Str goes up to 16. He has +1 Tower Shield (and thus can protect a buddy slightly better with the Shield Block maneuver!) and 3 oils of bless weapon. Yes his magic sword glows. It is of excellent caliber. :smallbiggrin: I changed out one of his stances to Lead the Charge. Sadly he can't benefit from it himself as if he is in this stance he won't be able to be in the stance that lets him charge on rough terrain!

Unit Type: Captain for Heavy Infantry (1)
Class/Level: Crusader 3
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20
AC: 24 (Full Plate, +1 tower shield, dex)
Base Attack/Grapple: +4
Attacks: +6 (+1 long sword) (1d8 +4) or or +5 cold iron morningstar (1d8 + 3) or +5 silver light mace (1d6 + 3) or +5 cold iron spiked gauntlet (1d4 +3) or +3 javelin (1d6 +3).
Full Attack: See above.
Space/Reach: 5'/5'
Special Qualities and Class Features: Delay up to 10 hp damage by 1 rd, +1 attack/damage when delaying damage by 1 - 9 hp, +2 attack/defense when delaying damage by 10 hp. Maneuvers (random - 2 out of 5 available in rd. 1, then 1 more each of rounds 2,3,4, then repeat 4 round series). Stances (3 known, only one active at a time, swift action to switch). Feather Fall, 1x/day. Can use Tower Shield as total cover.
Saves: Fort: 6, Reflex: 2, Will: 2
Ability Scores: Str 16, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Chr 8.
Skills: Sense Motive 8, cc Spot 4, cc Listen 4, Diplomacy 6. 2 skill points on bonus language: Draconic.
Feats: Martial Study (gets Setting Sun Maneuver they likely won't use); Martial Study (gets Shadow Jaunt); Martial Stance (gets Setting Sun Stance they certainly *will* use!).
Equipment: Full Plate Mail, +1 Tower Shield, Cold Iron Morningstar, Silver Light Mace, +1 long sword, 10 Javelins, 3 days rations, 3 waterskins, backpack, 6 sun rods, Bedroll, Silk Rope 50', 3 tindertwigs. Definitely heavy encumbrance, three oils of bless weapon.
Maneuvers and Stances: Stance: a) Iron Guard's Glare (threatened enemies -4 to hit your allies) (see how having the Crusaders together helps here? If two threaten an enemy that enemy is -4 to hit either Crusader!) or b) Step of the Wind (ignore penalties to speed or skill checks from difficult terrain and +2 on attacks vs. enemies that can't ignore those penalties, also +4 to bull rush or trip them) or c) Leading the Charge (all allies within 60' who hear me and charge get +4 to damage).
Maneuvers (well the readied ones for this battle - these are usually standard actions that combine with an attack - the special effect only happens if the attack hits): a) Crusader's Strike: Successful attack vs. enemy lets you heal self or an ally 1d6 + 4 hp.
b) Vanguard Strike: Allies get +4 to attack an opponent you hit that round.
c) Shadow Jaunt: Teleport 50' as a standard action (need line of sight and line of effect) to an unoccupied square. Not attached to an attack.
d) Mountain Hammer. If attack hits, do extra +2d6 damage and ignore DR and Hardness.
e) Shield Block: As an immediate action (not attached to your attack) add +9 AC to adjacent ally after a ranged or melee attack roll is made (but before success or failure of attack is determined).
Artus won't have Douse the Flames, Stone Bones, or Mighty Throw readied but if he gets 5 minutes they can learn one and replace one of the other five maneuvers. The last one lets you throw people around. Could be useful if the terrain has pits and the like.

Whew! Well that is the Knights of the Dragon, a defensive army and hopefully a very tough nut to crack due to their stances, maneuvers, delay damage pools, bonuses from said pools, and tower shields. With their use of 5' steps in rough terrain, they can move unwounded people to the front as needed and their high command can teleport, which hopefully gets around one problem with heavy infantry. Anyhow, I apologize for any errors or omissions. This is my first army. They have a tiny amount of cash left over if I have left out something cheap yet obviously necessary. Otherwise, I guess the survivors of the 3000 enemy troops get a bit of extra loot if they win! :smalleek:

[liquidformat]

And one last minute entry as I was posting:


Lasciel's Army of the Dragon
http://bit.ly/2H0PwwA
Picture from https://www.artstation.com/artwork/KwADB, all credit to him


150 Tough Scales (Crusader 1), 150 Scary Scales (Crusader 1), 15 Claws (Crusader 1/ Dragon Shaman 1), 15 Roars (Bard 1/ Crusader 1), 4 Fangs (Bard 1/ Crusader 1/ Bard +1), and Lasciel, the Heart of the Dragon (Bard 3/ Crusader 1).


By Pelor’s ever-shining beard. A lot has happened, so hold onto your belt pouches, and pay attention.

As my report two months ago detailed, the orcs have a habit of hunting down, killing, and ritualistically drinking the blood of white dragons. And if you read that report, you also surely remember that they recently found a little one to do it to. At least I hope you remember that, else why in the Nine Hells am I freezing my ass off out here to write the blasted things?

Anyhaps. Turns out that that little white dragon had a much bigger mother, father, sister, or third cousin twice removed or some such. Point is, this bigger dragon took exception to the little tyke’s death… and decided to retaliate. Descended out of the sky like the very wrath of the gods’. I have never seen anything so terrifying, nor so majestic. Rent the chief of the tribe I were observin’ limb from bloody limb, and then froze his warriors into some particularly disgustin’ novelty statues. Fit right in at the next palace ball. And then the biggun’ did flew off and did the same thing to the next tribe. And the next. And the next. And the next. And then the next fifteen tribes after those. And once there were no more tribes, it started hunting the survivors, too! Damn thing seemed determined to wipe the orcish buggers off the face of the tundra completely, and more power to it as far as I was concerned.

But then… well, hold up, you remember that shaman, singer gal I wrote about three or four reports back? The one who’s basic’ly a joke, cause all she does is preach mercy and kindness in a most unorcly manner? Turns out, she’s one touch customer. Who’d a thunk it, right? Rounded up as many survivors as she could, armed ‘em with a few bows and a lotta spears. Then she and her students lured that big mean white dragon out into the open and… well, I weren’t there for this part, and the best the orcs could do to describe it was to say she “called down dragon’s fire to bless us and smite the beast”. Sounds to me like a fanciful way of saying “and then we shot that sonuva punk with so many arrows and spears, ‘e looked like some mage had cast magnetism on a porcupine in a pin factory”. Mebe she used some o’ that bardic courage chant adventurers are so fond of to help them hit.

Point is, them orcs are weak. They’re all concentrated in one place, ‘stead of scattered across the tundra like normal, and they’ve got just a handful of warriors and a lotta half-trained teens to defend them. You wanna deal with them, you ain’t gonna get a better time.

Kiss my frostbitten ass Effervescently yours,
Bearclaw


Agent Bearclaw’s continuing bad attitude and insistence on writing each report in a different absurd dialect aside, this is actually actionable intelligence. The northern orcs are at lower numbers than they’ve ever been or likely ever will be, are concentrated into a single location, and if this Lasciel tries to enforce her oh so enlightened attitude on her troops, morale is bound to be incredibly low. While the northern reaches are lacking most forms of traditional resource value, they are prime adventuring real estate. We should be able to leverage that into a boost for the Oligarchy’s economy that would far outweigh the cost of crushing its current occupants. I recommend we do so.
– The Spider
I am done. Done! I’ve been trying to convince my people for years that cooperation and kindness are better virtues than killing and rage, convince them through words and example, and all its done is made me a laughingstock. No more.

Pretty much everyone important is dead. The chieftans, their warriors, and anyone brave and stupid enough to stand and fight without a plan. This is the fruit of our disorganized, violent, stupid lifestyle, and I’m no less complicit for failing to change things quickly enough. Well now we’re doing things differently. This generation of orcs will grow up with no role model but me and mine. Their frenzied rage will be channeled into patriotic fervor instead of suicidal berserker tactics, and on the battlefield their virtues will be cooperation and loyalty. As for me, no more leading by kind words and deeds. If anyone insists on adhering to the broken old ways, I’ll beat it out of them myself. Our culture of respecting the strongest most has always been the greatest thorn in my side, but now that I’m the strongest left standing, it’s going to work for me. Someday I’ll change even that, or my successor will, but until then I’ll use what I’m given.

A new summer is dawning for the Frostblood Orcs.


Frustration has become my life. Most of the surviving orcs may be half-trained whelps, but that training has centered around heedless charges straight into the teeth of the enemy, and they refuse to accept any other way. I’ve given each of my apprentices command over a section of the army, and responsibility for training it, but no matter how often or how hard we hammer formation fighting into the grunts’ thick skulls, the second it comes to actual fighting the dissolve into an undisciplined scrum. Oddly enough, it’s Grul who’s having the best luck. Though he holds me on a pedestal, I know he doesn’t share my ideals, so it’s surprising that out of my four apprentices, he’d do best at changing the whelps away from the old ways. I must ask him about it tomorrow.


Speaking to Grul was… instructive. He says its all in how you phrase it. Orcs are raised for battle and bred for war, so telling them that fighting together is safer actually discourages them, and appealing to their desire to help one another offends their belief in putting themselves first to claim the most glory. But Grul’s been having good luck by describing those same tactics as a matter of endurance, staying alive so that you can fight longer and kill more foes, and of helping each other both so they’ll help you later and so your group will do better and win more glory than the other groups. I passed that on to my other apprentices, and have been using it myself. I’ve also started taking care to praise and reward only groups for success in combat, praising individual whelps only for helping their comrades; hopefully healing will come to be viewed as worth glory just like fighting.
The basic unit of the army is Scales. 50% (150) have Martial Spirt as their stance and Diehard as their feat (designated “tough”), and 50% (150) have Iron Guard’s Glare as their stance and Shield Specialization (buckler) for their feat (designated “scary”). Both types of Scale carry the same gear, but utilize different loadouts depending on whether they are in the front rank or the second rank (which can vary throughout the battle), so for ease of reading I have created four tables to represent each type and position combination. The second rank configuration can also be used to represent reserve Wings using their bows to contribute to the fight.
Scales are divided into Clumps of four (two toughs and two scaries), one of whom is chosen by his fellows to lead the Clump (a “Shiny Scale”). There are 5 Clumps in a Limb (20 Scales); they pair up to train for Team Shield Maneuver, and the leftover clump (the “First Clump”, headed by the “First Scale”) trains with the Limb’s Claw and Roar (more on them later).
Side Note: if you want to detach a Clump or two from its Limb, Shiny Scales have a commander rating of 1, and radiate the Opportunistic Commander aura, granting all ordinary Scales within 30ft +1d6 damage to opportunity attacks. You don’t need to keep track of this normally, because it doesn’t stack with the commander aura radiated by the Limb’s Roar.

Scale (tough, front rank)
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (dragonblood, orc)
Class/Level: Frostblood Orc Crusader 1
HD/HP: 1d10+1 (11 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20ft (30ft if Dragonscale Husk is shed)
AC: 22 (+6, +2 Dex, +4 tower shield), touch 12, flatfooted 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+5
Attacks: Trident +2 melee (1d8+4/x2)
Full Attack: Trident +2 melee (1d8+4/x2)
Space/Reach: 5ft / 5ft
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft, Endurance, Light Sensitivity (if not wearing Sundark Goggles), Opportunistic Commander (Shiny Scale only), Resistance to Cold 10, Team Shield Maneuver (member), Vulnerability to Fire
Class Features: Furious Counterstrike +1, Steely Resolve 5, five maneuvers known, five maneuvers readied (two initially granted), one stance known
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +2, Will -2
Ability Scores: Str 19, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 6, Cha 10
Skills: Balance +6, Climb +6, Intimidate +4
Feats: Diehard, EnduranceB
Alignment: often Chaotic Neutral
Equipment: a tower shield, a buckler, a longbow, a halberd, two tridents, a spiked gauntlet, 40 arrows, Sundark Goggles, a backpack, a tent, a bedroll, a winter blanket, two 2lb bags of caltrops, fishhook, flint and steel, a bullseye lantern, 10ft of hempen rope, 5 days trail rations, a shovel, a waterskin, and a whetstone
Maneuvers: Crusader’s Strike (strike), Douse the Flames (strike), Leading the Attack (strike), Martial Spirit (stance), Stone Bones (strike), Vanguard Strike (strike)
Spells: –


Scale (scary, front rank)
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (dragonblood, orc)
Class/Level: Frostblood Orc Crusader 1
HD/HP: 1d10+1 (11 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20ft (30ft if Dragonscale Husk is shed)
AC: 22 (+6, +2 Dex, +4 tower shield), touch 12, flatfooted 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+5
Attacks: Trident +2 melee (1d8+4/x2)
Full Attack: Trident +2 melee (1d8+4/x2)
Space/Reach: 5ft / 5ft
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft, Endurance, Light Sensitivity (if not wearing Sundark Goggles), Opportunistic Commander (Shiny Scale only), Resistance to Cold 10, Team Shield Maneuver (leader), Vulnerability to Fire
Class Features: Furious Counterstrike +1, Steely Resolve 5, five maneuvers known, five maneuvers readied (two initially granted), one stance known
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +2, Will -2
Ability Scores: Str 19, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 6, Cha 10
Skills: Balance +6, Climb +6, Intimidate +4
Feats: EnduranceB, Shield Specialization (buckler)
Alignment: often Chaotic Neutral
Equipment: a tower shield, a buckler, a longbow, a halberd, two tridents, a spiked gauntlet, 40 arrows, Sundark Goggles, a backpack, a tent, a bedroll, a winter blanket, two 2lb bags of caltrops, fishhook, flint and steel, a bullseye lantern, 10ft of hempen rope, 5 days trail rations, a shovel, a waterskin, and a whetstone
Maneuvers: Crusader’s Strike (strike), Douse the Flames (strike), Iron Guard’s Glare (stance) Leading the Attack (strike), Stone Bones (strike), Vanguard Strike (strike)
Spells: –


Scale (tough, second rank)
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (dragonblood, orc)
Class/Level: Frostblood Orc Crusader 1
HD/HP: 1d10+1 (11 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20ft (30ft if Dragonscale Husk is shed)
AC: 19 (+6, +2 Dex, +1 buckler), touch 12, flatfooted 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+5
Attacks: Halberd +4 melee (1d10+6/x3), spiked gauntlet +4 melee (1d4+4/x2), or longbow +2 ranged (1d8/x3, 100ft)
Full Attack: Halberd +4 melee (1d10+6/x3), spiked gauntlet +4 melee (1d4+4/x2), or longbow +2 ranged (1d8/x3, 100ft)
Space/Reach: 5ft / 10ft
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft, Endurance, Light Sensitivity (if not wearing Sundark Goggles), Opportunistic Commander (Shiny Scale only), Resistance to Cold 10, Team Shield Maneuver (member), Vulnerability to Fire
Class Features: Furious Counterstrike +1, Steely Resolve 5, five maneuvers known, five maneuvers readied (two initially granted), one stance known
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +2, Will -2
Ability Scores: Str 19, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 6, Cha 10
Skills: Balance +6, Climb +6, Intimidate +4
Feats: Diehard, EnduranceB
Alignment: often Chaotic Neutral
Equipment: a tower shield, a buckler, a longbow, a halberd, two tridents, a spiked gauntlet, 40 arrows, Sundark Goggles, a backpack, a tent, a bedroll, a winter blanket, two 2lb bags of caltrops, fishhook, flint and steel, a bullseye lantern, 10ft of hempen rope, 5 days trail rations, a shovel, a waterskin, and a whetstone
Maneuvers: Crusader’s Strike (strike), Douse the Flames (strike), Leading the Attack (strike), Martial Spirit (stance), Stone Bones (strike), Vanguard Strike (strike)
Spells: –


Scale (scary, second rank)
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (dragonblood, orc)
Class/Level: Frostblood Orc Crusader 1
HD/HP: 1d10+1 (11 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20ft (30ft if Dragonscale Husk is shed)
AC: 20 (+6, +2 Dex, +2 buckler), touch 12, flatfooted 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+5
Attacks: Halberd +4 melee (1d10+6/x3), spiked gauntlet +4 melee (1d4+4/x2), or longbow +2 ranged (1d8/x3, 100ft)
Full Attack: Halberd +4 melee (1d10+6/x3), spiked gauntlet +4 melee (1d4+4/x2), or longbow +2 ranged (1d8/x3, 100ft)
Space/Reach: 5ft / 10ft
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft, Endurance, Light Sensitivity (if not wearing Sundark Goggles), Opportunistic Commander (Shiny Scale only), Resistance to Cold 10, Team Shield Maneuver (member), Vulnerability to Fire
Class Features: Furious Counterstrike +1, Steely Resolve 5, five maneuvers known, five maneuvers readied (two initially granted), one stance known
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +2, Will -2
Ability Scores: Str 19, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 6, Cha 10
Skills: Balance +6, Climb +6, Intimidate +4
Feats: EnduranceB, Shield Specialization (buckler)
Alignment: often Chaotic Neutral
Equipment: a tower shield, a buckler, a longbow, a halberd, two tridents, a spiked gauntlet, 40 arrows, Sundark Goggles, a backpack, a tent, a bedroll, a winter blanket, two 2lb bags of caltrops, fishhook, flint and steel, a bullseye lantern, 10ft of hempen rope, 5 days trail rations, a shovel, a waterskin, and a whetstone
Maneuvers: Crusader’s Strike (strike), Douse the Flames (strike), Iron Guard’s Glare (stance), Leading the Attack (strike), Stone Bones (strike), Vanguard Strike (strike)
Spells: –



We need to start dividing this army a bit. I tried some large scale maneuvers today, and the five of us can’t direct them all with any kind of efficiency for the complex maneuvers I’ve read about. Or even the simple ones.

We’ve been keeping an eye out for whelps who seem especially suited for command. So far, we’ve got about fifteen candidates who look promising. I don’t know when the five of us are ever going to find the time to train them, though. For now we’ll keep them training with the others. Perhaps I’ll seek advice from the elders; it’s been too long since I’ve sought a second opinion from any but my four apprentices.

Well, I say four. Early in the maneuver training, Grul muttered something about “redundancy” and stalked off. I haven’t seen him since, but apparently instead of directing or training the troops under him, he’s been stealing individual whelps from all over the army for some god forsaken reason. I worry about that boy…

Okay. We need names for the subdivisions. Morale is low, so ideally I’ll come up with something to remind everyone of our greatest victory thanks to these new tactics, namely killing a bona fide dragon. So if how ‘bout we call the army the Army of the Dragon. Clearly the wings we’ve been dividing it into are too big (hey, Wings is a good dragon related name), so lets divide each… Wing into five smaller groups. Limb? Claw? Jaw? Hmm, I like the idea of naming each subdivision a Limb and calling the officer we appoint a Claw. Because the Claw is the head of the Limb, get it? And then… what’ll I call my apprentices? They’re going to need an official rank. What’s more important than a Claw? Maybe a Fang, because the fangs are a part of the head, and the bite is more dangerous than the claws? But that would imply that there are more Fangs than Claws, which isn’t the case…. Screw it, I’ll figure the rest of this out tomorrow. I need a freaking drink.


Wow, they really liked that dragon theme thing. Bonegnasher started calling the whelps Scales and it’s caught on like snow on a roof. Until we find some way to give specialized training to our… Claws, I went to go ahead and split the army even further so we can at least work on small scale coordination. Groups of four, each with two members trained to heal and inspire with each blow and two trained to keep enemy blades off the group. We’ll probably end up calling each group a Clump of Scales or something.

We let each Clump choose it’s own leader however they wanted. Most of them decided by slugging it out, as expected, but two Clumps actually voted on it, which really impressed me. Of course, they still slugged it out afterwards just for fun, but you know, baby steps.
At its most basic level, every formation in this army is based on a row two soldiers deep. Marching Scales have a tower shield on their left arm, a buckler on their right, and their trident in their right hand, giving them a total AC of 22. In battle, the front rank keeps that loadout, but the second rank switches to halberds. The bucklers on their right arms give both ranks a -1 to hit (-3 total for the front rank, with their tower shields), but ensure that every member of the Limb is capable of using the Team Shield Maneuver teamwork benefit to move their comrades to safety. If any member of the line falls or is brought dangerously far into the negatives (remember the Scales with Martial Spirit have Diehard), any adjacent member of their Clump or their partner Clump (or the officers for the First Clump) can slide them up to 10ft as an immediate action; plenty to get them behind the lines where Martial Spirit, Crusader’s Strike, and Aura of Vitality can get them rapidly back on their feet. In the Line Formation – if it was a member of the first rank that was shuffled back – one of the back rank Scales then drops their halberd as a free action, uses two move actions to equip their tower shield and trident, and 5ft steps forward to fill their comrade’s vacant place. In the Egg Cluster or Box Formations (or the modified Line Formation), one of the Scales from the Clumps in the second line simply use a readied move action to step forward into the vacant place immediately (unless the enemy is really trip-happy, then go with the first tactic).

(If the DM lets you wear the buckler on your left arm, under the tower shield, this reduces the penalty for the first rank.)

So, I created all these visual representations in Excel... and have no idea how to directly copy and paste them here, so have a link (https://emailarizona-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/elliotreid_email_arizona_edu/ES66V1IxBGNGueAUb4kPLlwBgzPE77zagi4ARfHGP-axjw?e=35ndhX) instead.
These are the 15 recruits among the Scales selected for their greater tactical acumen, diplomatic skills, and general leadership qualities. However, with the general training occupying their attention, Lasciel and her apprentices couldn’t spare the time to give them specialized leadership training. It was the village shamans who ended up stepping up and training them how to channel their draconic heritage towards the defense (and later mobility) of their comrades. While most of the elders revered red dragons for their brutal strength and dominance over the white dragons that are the traditional enemies of frostblood orcs, Lasciel has been pleased to note that this generation of Claws favors to a man the good brass dragons, for their skill with fire, endurance, and skill with persuasion.

Each Claw heads a Limb of 20 Scales, and trains with the First Clump to become a member of their Team Shield Maneuver. Claws carry tower shields for protection from arrows and spells like the rest of the army, but in battle almost exclusively use halberds and a buckler (with a spiked gauntlet for emergencies). Claws only step up to the front rank as a last resort; many of the standard formations don’t even have them in the second rank, though Claws can enter the second rank at their discretion to extend the length of the shield wall. Claws use the Resistance Aura if they suspect enemy casters (Fire Resistance 5 helps mitigate the racial vulnerability to that element); otherwise they open the fight with Energy Shield Aura to damage melee enemies. Either way, they switch to the Vitality Aura once battle starts wearing down their Limb. The Swiftness Aura was a late addition to their training, after Grul (more on him later) oh-so-subtly suggested its utility in offensive warfare, using its granted 5ft climb speed for scaling enemy fortifications. Neither the Claws nor the Scales have enough experience with climbing to be able to do that reliably against a well maintained wall or smooth natural cliff (DC 25) in their armor, but shedding their Dragonscale Husk will allow them to scale most any wall (remember the Claws have climber’s kits).

Claw
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (dragonblood, orc)
Class/Level: Frostblood Orc Crusader 1/ Dragon Shaman (brass) 1
HD/HP: 2d10 (15 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20ft (30ft if Dragonscale Husk is shed)
AC: 18 (+6, +1 Dex, +1 buckler) (21 with tower shield), touch 11, flatfooted 16 (20 with tower shield)
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+5
Attacks: Halberd +4 melee (1d10+6/x3), spiked gauntlet +4 melee (1d4+4/x2), trident +4 melee (1d8+4/x2), or longbow +1 ranged (1d8/x3)
Full Attack: Halberd +4 melee (1d10+6/x3), spiked gauntlet +4 melee (1d4+4/x2), trident +4 melee (1d8+4/x2), or longbow +1 ranged (1d8/x3)
Space/Reach: 5ft / 10ft
Special Qualities: Commander Rating 3 (Healing Commander), Darkvision 60ft, Endurance, Light Sensitivity (if not wearing Sundark Goggles), Resistance to Cold 10, Team Shield Maneuver (member), Vulnerability to Fire
Class Features: Furious Counterstrike +1, Steely Resolve 5, five maneuvers known, five maneuvers readied (two initially granted), one stance known, Draconic Aura +1 (Energy Shield, Swiftness, Vigor), Dragon Totem (brass)
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +0
Ability Scores: Str 19, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 6, Cha 11
Skills: Balance +3, (Climb +4), Diplomacy +5, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (history) +2, Knowledge (religion) +2
Feats: Draconic Aura (Resistance), EnduranceB
Alignment: usually Chaotic Good
Equipment: a tower shield, a buckler, a longbow, a halberd, two tridents, a spiked gauntlet, 40 arrows, Sundark Goggles, a climber’s kit, a backpack, a tent, a bedroll, a winter blanket, two 2lb bags of caltrops, fishhook, flint and steel, a bullseye lantern, 10ft of hempen rope, 5 days trail rations, a shovel, a waterskin, and a whetstone
Maneuvers: Crusader’s Strike (strike), Douse the Flames (strike), Leading the Attack (strike), Martial Spirit (stance), Stone Bones (strike), Vanguard Strike (strike)
Spells: –

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I hope everyone has a fun read I know I am still working my way through the entries and lets see if we can drum up some judges!

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the Army of the Dragon (part 2)

I don’t always understand my species. The Scales have been modifying the spears I issued them, adding more spikes. No I don’t know why they want more spikes. Whatever, heck, maybe these new aesthetics will cause them to form an emotional connection with the weapons and stop throwing the bloody things. I did not trade for all those longbows because I enjoy having less dragon treasure on hand, nor because I wanted my army to literally throw away their main melee weapons for a fleeting tactical advantage.


Well what do you know. I’ve spent the last few weeks cursing Grul’s name for slacking off and forcing me to completely restructure the Wings to accommodate his absence. Fortunately I only did it inside my own head, or I’d be eating a lot more snow crow than I am now.

Turns out he noticed that having all of us bards in the same general place doing the same general thing was highly redundant, and got it into his head to fix the problem. Let it never be said that that boy does anything by half measures; he discovered and trained himself in an entirely different way of using music for magic, apparently based off the fear that dragons inspire. And then he went and trained fifteen musically talented recruits in how to do it too. Now that we’ve got the Claws and the Limbs mostly up and running, I’m going to attach one of these “Roars” to each one.
The Roars are Grul’s special project. Selected from the troops that showed musical talent early in the training process, they were trained to use music to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies, thwart enemy casters, and inspire a proper bloodlust in the troops under them. After this, they were integrated back into the standard units’ training. Noteworthily, they have been trained to Grul’s standards of morality and conduct rather than the more progressive policies of Lasciel and her other apprentices. One day, that will cause problems, but for now they exist in (occasionally uneasy) accord with the rest of the army.

Roars are proficient in whips, and use them in tandem with tower shields in most combats. The whips won’t deal damage to most opponents, and the tower shields are a major hindrance to spellcasting, but the Roar’s purpose is to demoralize enemies with Inspire Awe or hinder enemy casters with Spellbreaker Song (and they can’t cast while singing), and their damage comes from the Dragonfire Inspiration of Lasciel and her apprentices (the Fangs), not the whip’s weak 1d3 nonlethal, anyway. Roars are second in command of a Limb, under that Limb’s Claw (third in the chain of succession is the First Scale, incidentally). They have a commander rating of 3, and radiate the Orc Commander aura (all lower-ranked allies within 30ft deal +1d6 damage on melee attacks). They train with the First Clump, and are a member of that Team Shield Maneuver team benefit, along with the Claw. Extra Music, their selection of spells (mostly message for battlefield communication), their 15ft reach, and the ability of characters with +1 BAB to remove a shield as part of a movement allow for a surprising degree of tactical adaptability. Note that while they often perform the role of officers, Roars can also be used as an auxiliary unit to layer a section of the battlefield with overlapping music effects, greatly reducing the odds that enemy soldiers will make their save versus all of the Inspire Awes.

Roar
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (dragonblood, orc)
Class/Level: Frostblood Orc Savage Bard 1/ Crusader 1
HD/HP: 1d6+1d10 (11 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20ft (30ft if Dragonscale Husk is shed)
AC: 22 (+6, +2 Dex, +4 tower shield), touch 12, flatfooted 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+4
Attacks: Whip +2 (1d3+3/x2, nonlethal), spiked gauntlet +2 melee (1d4+3/x2), or longbow +3 ranged (1d8/x3)
Full Attack: Whip +2 (1d3+3/x2, nonlethal), spiked gauntlet +2 melee (1d4+3/x2), or longbow +3 ranged (1d8/x3)
Space/Reach: 5ft / 15ft
Special Qualities: Commander Rating 3 (Orc Commander), Darkvision 60ft, Endurance, Light Sensitivity (if not wearing Sundark Goggles), Resistance to Cold 10, Team Shield Maneuver (member), Vulnerability to Fire
Class Features: Bardic Music (4/day), Bardic Knowledge, Healing Hymn, Inspire Awe, Spellbreaker Song, Furious Counterstrike +1, Steely Resolve 5, five maneuvers known, five maneuvers readied (two initially granted), one stance known
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +0
Ability Scores: Str 17, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 6, Cha 13
Skills: Balance +5, Climb +4, Diplomacy +3, Knowledge (arcana) +4, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +3, Knowledge (geography) +3, Knowledge (history) +5, Knowledge (religion) +1, Perform (song) +4, Use Magic Device +4
Feats: EnduranceB, Extra Music
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Equipment: a tower shield, a longbow, two whips, a spiked gauntlet, 40 arrows, Sundark Goggles, a climber’s kit, a backpack, a tent, a bedroll, a winter blanket, two 2lb bags of caltrops, fishhook, flint and steel, a bullseye lantern, 10ft of hempen rope, 5 days trail rations, a shovel, a waterskin, and a whetstone
Maneuvers: Crusader’s Strike (strike), Douse the Flames (strike), Leading the Attack (strike), Martial Spirit (stance), Stone Bones (strike), Vanguard Strike (strike)
Spells: 2/day – detect magic, mending, message, prestidigitation


Lasciel did not rise to power alone. Each of her four apprentices hold leadership position within the Army of the Dragon. Three of them (Bartholomew, Bonegnasher, and Frank) head each of the three Wings of the army. A Wing consists of 5 Limbs, and thus 100 Scales, 5 Claws, and 5 Roars.

The Fangs’ main roles are maintaining morale, increasing the damage of their troops, and of course directing the army on a more macro level. Their commander aura grants an extra attack to anyone who rolls a nat 20 within 30ft, and Inspire Courage of course gives a +1 to just about everything. For morale, the Team Rally teamwork benefit, the Natural Leader feat, their high commander rating, and the synergies from their ranks in Intimidate and Diplomacy (these two may not stack) add up to a very large bonus on rally checks. The Bolstering Voice stance gives their soldiers actual bonuses on Will saves (!), and bigger ones on saves against fear (which probably includes morale checks).

Note:
Depending on how the rulings for hearing the Fangs (and Lasciel for that matter) over the din of battle work, it may be a good idea to forgo weapons entirely and give them enormous drums that can be heard across the battlefield. This would be accomplished via summon instrument, though it would require transferring those ranks from Perform (song) to Perform (percussion).

Bartholomew, Bonegnasher, and Frank, the Dragon’s Fangs
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (dragonblood, orc)
Class/Level: Frostblood Orc Savage Bard 1/ Crusader 1/ Bard +1
HD/HP: 2d6+1d10 (15 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20ft (30ft if Dragonscale Husk is shed)
AC: 22 (+6, +2 Dex, +4 tower shield), touch 12, flatfooted 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+5
Attacks: Whip +3 (1d3+3/x2, nonlethal), spiked gauntlet +3 melee (1d4+3/x2), or longbow +4 ranged (1d8/x3)
Full Attack: Whip +3 (1d3+3/x2, nonlethal), spiked gauntlet +3 melee (1d4+3/x2), or longbow +4 ranged (1d8/x3)
Space/Reach: 5ft / 15ft
Special Qualities: Commander Rating 5 (Doublestrike Commander), Darkvision 60ft, Endurance, Light Sensitivity (if not wearing Sundark Goggles), Resistance to Cold 10, Team Rally, Vulnerability to Fire
Class Features: Bardic Music (2/day), Bardic Knowledge, Healing Hymn, Inspire Courage +1, Spellbreaker Song, Furious Counterstrike +1, Steely Resolve 5, five maneuvers known, five maneuvers readied (two initially granted), one stance known
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +0
Ability Scores: Str 16, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 11, Wis 6, Cha 13
Skills: Diplomacy +6, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (arcana) +2, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +1, Knowledge (geography) +1, Knowledge (history) +5, Knowledge (local) +1, Knowledge (religion) +1, Perform (song) +5, Use Magic Device +7
Feats: Dragonfire Inspiration, EnduranceB, Natural Leader
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Equipment: a tower shield, a longbow, two whips, a spiked gauntlet, 40 arrows, Sundark Goggles, a climber’s kit, a backpack, a tent, a bedroll, a winter blanket, two 2lb bags of caltrops, fishhook, flint and steel, a bullseye lantern, 10ft of hempen rope, 5 days trail rations, a shovel, a waterskin, a whetstone, and a wand of cure light wounds
Maneuvers: Bolstering Voice (stance), Crusader’s Strike (strike), Douse the Flames (strike), Leading the Attack (strike), Stone Bones (strike), Vanguard Strike (strike)
Spells: 3/day – detect magic, mending, message, prestidigitation, summon instrument; 1/day – cure light wounds, inspirational boost

Grul, the Fang
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (dragonblood, orc)
Class/Level: Frostblood Orc Savage Bard 1/ Crusader 1/ Bard +1
HD/HP: 2d6+1d10 (15 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20ft (30ft if Dragonscale Husk is shed)
AC: 21 (+6, +1 Dex, +4 tower shield), touch 11, flatfooted 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+5
Attacks: Whip +3 (1d3+3/x2, nonlethal), spiked gauntlet +3 melee (1d4+3/x2), or longbow +3 ranged (1d8/x3)
Full Attack: Whip +3 (1d3+3/x2, nonlethal), spiked gauntlet +3 melee (1d4+3/x2), or longbow +3 ranged (1d8/x3)
Space/Reach: 5ft / 15ft
Special Qualities: Commander Rating 4 (Orc Commander), Darkvision 60ft, Endurance, Light Sensitivity (if not wearing Sundark Goggles), Resistance to Cold 10, Team Rally, Vulnerability to Fire
Class Features: Bardic Music (2/day), Bardic Knowledge, Healing Hymn, Inspire Awe, Spellbreaker Song, Furious Counterstrike +1, Steely Resolve 5, five maneuvers known, five maneuvers readied (two initially granted), one stance known
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +0
Ability Scores: Str 16, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 6, Cha 13
Skills: Bluff +6, Diplomacy +6, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (arcana) +3, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +2, Knowledge (geography) +2, Knowledge (history) +6, Knowledge (local) +2, Knowledge (nature) +2, Knowledge (religion) +2, Perform (song) +5, Use Magic Device +7
Feats: EnduranceB, Natural Leader, Veteran Knowledge
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Equipment: a tower shield, a longbow, two whips, a spiked gauntlet, 40 arrows, Sundark Goggles, a climber’s kit, a backpack, a tent, a bedroll, a winter blanket, two 2lb bags of caltrops, fishhook, flint and steel, a bullseye lantern, 10ft of hempen rope, 5 days trail rations, a shovel, a waterskin, a whetstone, and a wand of cure light wounds
Maneuvers: Crusader’s Strike (strike), Douse the Flames (strike), Leading the Attack (strike), Leading the Charge (stance), Stone Bones (strike), Vanguard Strike (strike)
Spells: 3/day – detect magic, mending, message, prestidigitation, summon instrument; 1/day – cure light wounds, silent image

If Lasciel and her apprentices are like a family, then Grul is its proverbial black sheep. The others worry about his loyalty and ultimate motives, and they are right to. While he feels great personal loyalty to Lasciel (and to a lesser extent the other apprentices) for being a great leader and warrior, unlike her other apprentices, he doesn’t share her ideals at all, believing her to be strong in spite of her propensity for mercy and compassion rather than because of it. It is only a matter of time before he starts taking actions “for her own good” that Lasciel would never condone, were she aware of them. Assassinations, midnight raids, culling of dissidents, execution of prisoners, provocations leading to war… these are all things Grul will likely believe necessary for his vision of a strong Orcish Empire, fueled by conquest.

Mechanically, he grants a +2 bonus on charge damage to anyone who can hear him, +1d6 damage to melee attacks within 30ft (doesn’t stack with the Roars’ aura, but they can benefit from it), and brings a lot of Knowledge skills to the table (even more than the other Fangs, with pretty good bonuses thanks to Veteran Knowledge) for acquiring Strategic Advantage. He also has most of the tricks the other Fangs do for improving morale, with additional trick that he can Bluff troops to improve their confidence.


The woman, the myth, the legend. Well, as much as anyone can be at level 4. With Dragonfire Inspiration and a tripled Inspire Courage bonus (inspirational boost and Song of the Heart), she’s well on her way to being a classic Bardsader; she can also pull off most of the tricks discussed under the Fangs. In the meantime, she’s determined to keep her people alive. If she can sway them towards the side of good in the process, so much the better. Should she survive to grow to her full potential, she will be formidable.

Note that most of Lasciel’s WBL is assumed to be going towards the logistical needs of the army. This will vary greatly depending many factors, most significantly distance/anticipated distance from their tribal home, and has no impact on her personal fighting/leading capability, so I have not specified it.

Lasciel, the Heart of the Dragon
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (dragonblood, orc)
Class/Level: Frostblood Orc Bard 3/ Crusader 1
HD/HP: 3d6+1d10 (18 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20ft (30ft if Dragonscale Husk is shed)
AC: 21 (+6, +1 Dex, +4 tower shield), touch 11, flatfooted 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+6
Attacks: Whip +4 (1d3+3/x2, nonlethal), spiked gauntlet +4 melee (1d4+3/x2), or longbow +4 ranged (1d8/x3)
Full Attack: Whip +4 (1d3+3/x2, nonlethal), spiked gauntlet +4 melee (1d4+3/x2), or longbow +4 ranged (1d8/x3)
Space/Reach: 5ft / 15ft
Special Qualities: Commander Rating 5 (Doublestrike Commander), Darkvision 60ft, Endurance, Light Sensitivity (if not wearing Sundark Goggles), Resistance to Cold 10, Team Rally, Vulnerability to Fire
Class Features: Bardic Music (3/day), Bardic Knowledge, Healing Hymn, Inspire Courage +1, Inspire Competence +2, Spellbreaker Song, Furious Counterstrike +1, Steely Resolve 5, five maneuvers known, five maneuvers readied (two initially granted), one stance known
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +0
Ability Scores: Str 17, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 6, Cha 14
Skills: Bluff +8, Diplomacy +9, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (arcana) +3, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +2, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +2, Knowledge (geography), +2, Knowledge (history) +6, Knowledge (local) +2, Knowledge (nature) +2, Knowledge (religion) +2, Perform (song) +8, Use Magic Device +9
Feats: Dragonfire Inspiration, EnduranceB, Song of the Heart
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Equipment: a tower shield, a longbow, two whips, a spiked gauntlet, 40 arrows, Sundark Goggles, a climber’s kit, a backpack, a tent, a bedroll, a winter blanket, two 2lb bags of caltrops, fishhook, flint and steel, a bullseye lantern, 10ft of hempen rope, 5 days trail rations, a shovel, a waterskin, a whetstone, and a wand of cure light wounds
Maneuvers: Crusader’s Strike (strike), Douse the Flames (strike), Leading the Attack (strike), Leading the Charge (stance), Stone Bones (strike), Vanguard Strike (strike)
Spells: 4/day – detect magic, mending, message, prestidigitation, songbird, summon instrument; 2/day – cure light wounds, inspirational boost, silent image


Let’s get this out of the way. Technically this army is illegal for this competition, because not a single member has Heavy Armor Proficiency. However, that’s because they’ve traded it away for the Dragonscale Husk ACF, which is very much in line with the spirit of heavy infantry. This is because even if the entire army pooled their expected WBL, they could only afford to armor a fraction of the troops with full plate or even half plate. Dragonscale Husk is superior to the heavy armor they could actually afford if they ate up all the officers’ wealth and greatly superior to the medium armor the Scales could afford on their own. Dragonscale Husk is weightless, allows the army to take the run action at full speed, has an arcane spell failure chance of zero, and has a relatively low armor check penalty (-4). This not only allows carrying larger amounts of other equipment, at a greater maximum short-term speed than would be possible in true heavy armor, it allows the spellcasters in the army to work magic while fully armored (though they’ll want to take off their shields first). Finally, the soldiers can sleep in their ‘armor’ without penalty.

Dragonscale Husk does have a couple of quirks, though, and this is a good place to talk about them. It provides a typeless bonus to AC, which is weird. Arguably, this means it applies to touch AC as well, though I’ve written the tables with the more conservative assumption that this is not the case. It also means that technically whips are capable of harming the orcs, since the bonus is neither natural armor nor armor. Finally, it obviates any of the more traditional attempts to increase AC through natural armor, class features or feats; the Army of the Dragon gets around this by penalizing enemy attack rolls instead (up to -6 between Iron Guard’s Glare and Inspire Awe) and otherwise increasing their tanking ability with healing, damage resistance, and the Crusader delayed damage pool (Steely Resolve). Note that Dragonscale Husk does stack with magic items that increase AC, such as a Necklace of Natural Armor or Bracers of Armor.



This combination of class features, feats, and teamwork benefits is frankly almost unfair.

Half the Scales have Iron Guard’s Glare, and no matter what row they’re in they threaten any enemies without reach weapons trying to close with members of their Clump (and some members of adjacent Clumps). There’re two in every Clump of four, so eliminating one is not enough to shut off this effect, and each of the scary Scales is also covered by the other scary Scale in their Clump. This gives the front rank of Scales an effective AC of 26 (26!) and the second rank an effective AC of 22 (23-24 if they didn’t attack that round and thus benefit from their buckler). And that’s assuming their opponents made their save against Inspire Awe, which imposes an additional -2 to attack rolls. Against arrows and spells, their tower shields can provide total cover.

Should any attacks actually land, first of all the orc hit actually gets a bonus to attack and damage thanks to Furious Counterstrike. Steely Resolve, occasionally DR 5 from Stone Bones, and for half the Scales the Diehard Feat mean that it is exceptionally unlikely any Scale will die in one hit even if already almost to zero HP (or even below). Should a Scale, Claw, or Roar fall (or be reduced to dangerously low negatives in the case of tough Scales), the Team Shield Maneuver teamwork benefit shuffles them off the front line and to safety, where the army’s many healing abilities will get them quickly healthy again. If no one’s falling, these healing abilities (Aura of Vitality, Crusader’s Strike, Martial Spirit) help keep it that way. If the army has time to prepare, earthworks don’t require any skill checks to set up, just Strength, stamina, and a shovel; every member of the Army of the Dragon has all three of these (Endurance as a bonus feat, baby!).

The army only has two real weaknesses (I’m not counting the Light Sensitivity that can be countered with 10gp sunglasses). The first is fire damage, with their racial vulnerability to that element. That’s why the first Aura any frostblood orc dragon shaman learns grants Fire Resistance 5. Additionally, who would attack them with fire? They wield flaming weapons, worship fire dragons, and are often covered in a fire shield that deals fire damage to anyone who touches them. Who looks at that and says “Let’s try some fire powers on these guys”? Even if they make their Knowledge check to learn the weakness, enemies are very likely to second-guess this knowledge. The second weakness is an abysmally low Will save, and by extension morale checks. This is countered partially by the commander aura of the Claws, which lets them make a rally check as a free action every time they heal (which is at least once a turn with Aura of Vitality), partially by the Fangs with their Inspire Courage and bonuses to rally checks, and partially by the Bolstering Voice stance that will hopefully be affecting every soldier in the army.

That’s defenses out of the way, so let’s talk offensive power. First and most obvious, Dragonfire Inspiration gives the Scales damage output far beyond their ECL. If Lasciel is the one providing Dragonfire Inspiration, then by using inspirational boost and Song of the Heart she grants a total of 3d6 fire damage to every attack (as long as the troops can hear her; Inspire Courage has no range limit beyond this). Typically one of the Fangs will also be providing Inspire Courage for a +1 to hit and +1 to damage, although that +1 damage won’t stack with the +1d6 to melee attacks from Scales within 30ft of a Roar. That’s a total of +1 to hit and +4d6 damage on most attacks, before even taking into account the Scales’ own stats (orcs are quite strong). The Scales’ shields provide a noticeable penalty to attack (especially the first rank), but their high strength makes up for this, and odds decent that an adjacent Scale will have hit an enemy in range with either Vanguard Strike or Leading the Attack for an additional +4 to hit (Note: Vanguard Strike doesn’t stack with Inspire Courage because both are morale bonuses). Both ranks of Scales can set their weapon against a charge (yep, tridents are the only one-handed martial weapon that can do that) for double damage. The Roars are capable of constantly radiating Inspire Awe to give enemies a -2 to just about everything, including attack and damage. And if the enemy refuses to engage, all that money we saved on armor let us purchase a lovely longbow for every single soldier, which also benefits from Dragonfire Inspiration and Inspire Courage.

I think that’s everything for offensive power that hadn’t already been covered in the individual entries for each unit. Now let’s discuss mobility. Firstly, because Dragonscale Husk counts as medium armor despite offering protection like heavy armor, the army can run at 4x their hustling speed instead of 3x; a slight but very real advantage for moving across the battlefield. Secondly, every frostblood orc receives Endurance as a bonus feat, meaning they can march/sprint longer, work harder, and sing longer than any human army. Last, and most significant, is the Aura of Swiftness the Claws can radiate. This gives their entire Limb (and any other allies within 30ft) a 5ft climb speed, including the +8 to all Climb checks. Grul convinced them to learn this to make the army into a better offensive weapon, scaling enemy fortifications and invading their cities… but in the canyon scenario they find themselves in, it offers some pretty sweet tactical options. Under the cover of darkness, a few Limbs can scale the cliff wall (shedding their Dragonscale Husk if necessary) and rain arrows down upon the enemy army, raid their supply train, or flank/counter flank a force attempting to flank them (this last one probably would have saved the actual Spartans at Thermopylae). These may require spending a night above the cliffs to regrow their Dragonscale Husks.

So on the whole, we’ve got an army with truly exceptional defenses, good mobility, and exceptional offense. Sounds like an exceptional army to me.

Okay people, this is important. You need to call off this invasion. The intel you doubtless based it own is woefully out of date.

My last report was sent when the orcs were disorganized, demoralized, and untrained. Lasciel has done a frankly scary job of fixing the first and last of those, whipping what is now called the Army of the Dragon into shape impressively enough that, frankly, they massively outclass the grunts of our own armies in durability, cohesion, and offensive power. Turns out that “calling down dragonfire” was the opposite of metaphorical; go figure.

You’ve sent the Army of the North, three thousand strong, with the goal of crushing these people, but the Army of the Dragon will eat them alive if you meet in direct battle. The only advantage they had was one of morale; the orcs have been chafing severely under Lasciel’s do-gooder tendencies, and when she insisted on going to negotiate peacefully with your general, morale was at an all time low.

But then you went and screwed even that up somehow. When she returned from the parley, she was absolutely livid, and when Frank (one of her generals) asked if they were going to retreat, here’s how she responded:

“No! We stand our ground. We fight. And we make those stupid, pathetic, self-righteous hypocrites regret the day they ever decided destroy us while we were weak! We make them regret it more than they’ve ever regretted anything, in the brief seconds before their violent, painful, excruciating deaths!”

These words have been circulating the camp since, and along with the knowledge that they will be facing down a far superior force instead of sensibly retreating, have resulted in a remarkable restoration of morale. So now we have no advantages. You need to retreat and come back with more mages, better mages, more artillery, air units if you

“I take it that this is what you were writing when my boys found you?” Grul asked rhetorically. “Rather frantic work, looks like.”

“You need to let me go.”

The five Roars laughed, and Grul raised his eyebrows. “Strong words from a woman in your position. Why should I let you live beyond the next few seconds?”

Agent Bearclaw was currently swaying back and forth, suspended by her feet from a scraggly tree. Nonetheless, she rolled her eyes confidently. “Don’t bluff. No one kills a captured spy before extracting every scrap of information from them. Besides, you’re an intelligent man. You can see as clearly as I that the best bet for ending this war before it starts is me, taking that letter, and putting it into the hands of my superior officer. That’s what you want, that’s what I want, that’s what everyone wants. Cut me down, let me go on my merry way, and everyone ends up happy.”

Grul considered, then apparently made up his mind. “Smart woman,” he said, drawing a small knife. Then, quickly and efficiently, he cut her throat.

“But mistaken,” he told her thrashing body as she stared at him with disbelieving eyes, already dimming as death approached. “Lash wants peace, out of a misguided faith in the value of lives that are not orc. I am of the opinion that the best thing for our long term prospects is for the world to see us crush your oh-so-powerful army into naught but splinters and corpses. With the fear and respect that engenders, we will be able to negotiate from a more even footing or continue our conquest with momentum on our side, whichever is more advantageous.”




Dragon Magic -- Frostblood Orcs, Dragonscale Husk, Inspire Awe, Draconic Aura, Dragonfire Inspiration, additional draconic auras, Sundark Goggles
Eberron Campaign Setting -- Extra Music, Song of the Heart
Heroes of Battle -- Natural Leader, Veteran Knowledge, Commander Ratings, Commander Auras, Morale/Rally Checks, Team Rally
Player's Handbook II -- Dragon Shaman, Shield Specialization, Team Shield Maneuver
Spell Compendium -- inspirational boost, songbird
SRD -- Orcs, Bard, Savage Bard, Diehard, Endurance, cure light wounds, detect magic, mending, message, prestidigitation, silent image, summon instrument, all equipment except Sundark Goggles
Tome of Battle -- Crusader, Bolstering Voice, Crusader's Strike, Douse the Flames, Iron Guard's Glare, Leading the Attack, Leading the Charge, Martial Spirit, Stone Bones, Vanguard Strike

[Yahzi Coyote]

For Phalanx, soldiers typically take 3 feet of frontage and 3 or 6 feet of depth under normal combat....
I did a lot of work on this; a mass battle system that doesn't abstract the rules of D&D but embraces them: Generals of Prime on DriveThruRPG. (It's free but I can't post a link yet.)

[WhamBamSam]

I was going to do a Lesser Mechanatrix self-healing army, but a few things didn't quite work the way I wanted and I got a little frustrated by the armor proficiency requirements.

Probably would have ended up with the level 1 troops being 90% crusaders with EWP (Spinning Sword) doing (spinning) sword-and-board. 50% of the 90 would have Martial Spirit while 40% would have had Iron Guard's Glare. The last 10% would be Duskblades wielding longspears with Shape Soulmeld (Lightning Gauntlets) and Color Spray and Stand as their first level spells known. Crusader's Strike and Martial Spirit would do most of the in-combat healing. If a soldier did fall, then they probably wouldn't die, since that 0 to -10 buffer accounts for a bunch of HP in low level combat, and could likely be healed back to a positive total, whereupon the Duskblade could pick them back up with Stand. Out of combat, Mechanatrix Electricity Healing allowed the Duskblades could do unlimited healing with their Lightning Gauntlets soulmeld.

I had wanted to do out of combat healing with DFA 2 corporals instead of Lightning Gauntlets. They could also do BFC in combat with Entangling Exhalation with no threat even on the rounds where they had to use fire instead of Electricity, since half of a d6 wouldn't get through Mechanatrix fire resistance, but they lack the armor proficiency. I had also wanted Dragon Shamans in the mix of the level 1 troops, but they lacked heavy armor proficiency, and while the Vigor aura worked fine, I had been hoping to extend the Energy Shield aura to enemies to work with Electricity Healing, and that turned out not to work as they only heal 1/3 of the electricity damage they'd otherwise take, which rounds down to 0 on the 2 damage from a +1 aura. Death Masters for low level Animate Dead and automatically getting fresh Undead Minions every 24 hours seemed like fun, but also ran up against the heavy armor requirement.

So I wasn't sure what to do with my higher level troops. With unlimited out of combat healing and at the low levels we're talking about, Vigor to auto-stabilize anyone that drops to negatives is probably a big enough deal that Crusader 1/Dragon Shaman 1 or somesuch, maybe with Bolstering Voice for their stance and some support feat that seemed helpful. Seargents and Lieutenant would probably have been Clerics like pretty much everyone else, though that's boring. I guess I could've done something like Death Master 3/Heavy Armor Class 1 for the latter, and he could've produced undead for the Clerics to command and scrolls of Animate Dead for the Cleric Seargants to fill the ranks with.



Since I didn't get an entry in, I'll judge. The smaller number of entries and nature of the competition should make it easier than judging for Iron Chef.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Any progress on judging? (I keep wanting to say "passing judgment", but it feels just a little too dramatic).

EDIT: And does anyone have any brilliant ideas for the next round? A cavalry army sounds fun, as does an army designed for a siege.

[Snowbluff]

This both sounds like a huge pain to build but an interesting watch to see who comes up with what, so I'll consider judging. :smallcool:

[TinyMushroom]

I'm not sure how judging works. Can I just post this here?


Originality: Is it unexpected?
Elegance: Is it mechanically pretty?
Competence and power: Can it do what the concept asks of it?



Originality: 4.5/5
Fell conspiracy to massively boost the perceptiveness and communication of the troops freaking rocks!

I think this build really has a lot of fun with magic items. Noteworthy inclusions are the battle-ending scroll of extended widened control winds (useful as a panic button or a high chance to just prevent the battle altogether), and the Black Sand healing the frontline troops and undead lackeys while hurting the enemies is very fun.

I think each level of your army has all kinds of fun tricks up its sleeve, with the only exception being the crusader force which is rather standard for this contest. I’m very impressed.

Elegance: 4/5
I’ll have to dock some points for your Lieutenant having 2 useless feats. It enables a cool ability, but it feels very clunky. Otherwise nothing stands out as extraordinarily cheesy.

Competence and power: 3.5/5
I have some problems with your leader character. 11AC and 22HP is very fragile and does not exactly strike me as the leader of a heavy infantry force. I do think a high bluff has interesting implications (“no guys, really, a relief force is coming any minute now, just hold on a bit longer”), but overall I don’t exactly see this guy inspiring the troops. Aside from his 2 (very powerful) gimmicks, being the Control Winds spell and the Fell Conspiracy feat, this guy feels kind of lacklustre. With that AC his Evil Devotion aura doesn’t seem to be that useful if he can’t get to the front line safely. The low level of his Alter Self and Invisibility scrolls means the duration is 3 minutes, which doesn’t allow for that much time for scouting or supporting, and I don’t know if the leader of your army should be on scouting duty anyway.

The buff he delivers to the army through Fell Conspiracy is huge though. +600 to spot and listen? Spot won’t do you much good with all the magical darkness and fog you’re spraying around, but your troops will pretty much be able to pinpoint the location of enemy troops that make any kind of sound, so it is pretty useful for positioning your Dragonfire exhalations or your Dances of Ruin. The crusaders won’t really benefit as much but at least they’ll hear the enemy coming.

You suggested your corporals use Aboleth oil on specific targets that break through the line, however, Aboleth oil takes quite a while to actually deal its damage (1d4 minutes for the transformation, then 1d12 every 10 minutes) which I think is pretty slow in the middle of a battle and doesn’t even deal it’s damage if it’s raining because the poison works by dehydrating the victim’s skin. I think you were better off getting a wand of Launch Object and a nice, huge bag of Acid or Alchemist’s Fire.

Also, I think your Privates aren’t really that notable. They’re crusaders, they’re in a group, it works. The synergy they have with negative energy healing them and the black sand is kinda fun, but it also forces them into an area where they can’t see.



Originality: 4/5
Bat clerics on a glacier using environmental effects to rain icy doom on their enemies! Anthro animals from Savage Species is are a bit cheesy, but it’s important for your concept and it’s awesome.

Elegance: 3/5
I do think there’s very little mechanical variety among the different tiers of your army. Every higher tier is just a higher-level version of the previous, which makes the group feel more like a mob of monsters rather than an organised military unit.

Additionally I discovered many of your tricks around scrolls just do not work or aren’t as reliable as you think they are. These are the ones that don’t work:
-You mention scrolls of Blizzard with Flash Frost and Energy Substitution. Flash Frost only works with [Cold] spells and Energy Substitution replaces this descriptor on the spell.
-Call avalanche is not on the Cleric list. Due to this, the Acolytes will have to Use Magic Device to cast this spell, which they have no skill ranks for. They can’t cast this spell.
-Similarly, Control temperature is not on the Cleric list.

A simple fix for this could be to make your level 3 units Druids instead. Druids can also cast Obscuring Snow and Snowsight, allowing you to still have that trick, and on top of that they have Call Avalanche and Control Temperature on their list.

Competence and power: 2/5
Razor Ice Powder is very powerful, and I can’t see an easy in-rules way in which the enemy army could remove it (it’s magical terrain, so I assume it needs some weird special magic to be removed instead of just melting or breaking it), on top of the difficult Survival check to even spot its presence. However, it’s also very dependent on being in an Icy environment. The other armies presented are able to be deployed in other kinds of environments, so I think I’ll have to penalise that.

Furthermore, in the prompt it explicitly says: “The terrain is rough and provides a lot of places to hide as such ranged combat more than 50’ out is improbable.” I have no idea how this is supposed to work with the bats’ ability to fly, but I assume the difficulty with ranged combat still holds (due to overhanging rocks for enemies to hide under?). If the terrain has these kinds of overhanging rocks, I think your bats might suffer flying through it due to their Poor Maneuverability, which keeps them from making sharp turns. I’d like to ask future contest organisers to make more descriptive prompts so these calls are easier to make/.

Part of your strategy depends on darkvision + No Light. In a generic 3000 person army that will certainly bother some people but plenty of races do have darkvision, so don’t rely too much on that. Luckily you also have the really strong Snowsight + Obscuring Snow combo as a backup. The one problem is that only 7 units in the army can cast Obscuring Snow, so if the bats want to make full use of the snow cloud they are going to need to huddle, which makes flying in the cramped space of the mountain pass worse.

Forbiddance is actually really juicy, though the chance that you get to cast it straight from the scroll is pretty low due to your low relative caster level. It may take a few tries, but it wins fights against armies that aren’t lawful good unless they can dispel at a really high level (minor correction: level 6 spells become available at level 11, not 13 as you said). Its Permanent duration ensures you can prepare it far before the actual battle takes place. Wall of stone is similar to this spell in that it’s difficult to cast in the moment, but it’s also possible to just place a big wall in front of the enemy army far beforehand.

Blizzard has really explicit wording that specifying it only damages creatures unprotected from the cold. I am taking this to mean that creatures must not have clothes or defenses against the cold, whereas I think an army besieging a glacier certainly would be clothed appropriately. Therefore I don’t think flash frost blizzard is the AoE bomb you think it is, though it is still really annoying and difficult terrain, and there’s plenty opportunities for sniping as the enemies dig themselves out of the snow.

Last of all, I’m really sorry, but I just don’t think your solution complies to the theme of this contest. Your clerics technically comply with the condition of “needs heavy armor proficiency”, but practically, they don’t occupy the “heavy infantry” role at all.



Originality: 1/5
Crusaders are very popular in this contest, and this army doesn’t really do much else.

Elegance: 3/5
The diversity in this army is very low, with higher-level units being levelled versions of lower-level units and not really bringing much to the table aside from short-range teleports. I also find it a shame that the dragonblood subtype, which is the main interesting feature of the Silverbrow Humans, goes entirely unused. They’re mostly Silverbrow for flavor and that 1/day feather fall.

Additionally, If you were going to make the crusaders diplomatic, I wish you’d at least have given them decent Charisma scores and not just throw in a few skill points for flavor. Especially because the Crusader class actually benefits from having a decent charisma score. No glaring technical problems, I just think the build is a bit bland.

Competence and power: 3/5
This army certainly has the “heavy infantry” theme on lock, but the low diversity means they have some glaring weaknesses. The dumped Charisma means the Crusader’s Indomitable Soul ability goes unused. That leaves this crusader army with a very high AC, but with a very lacking Will and Reflex save. (Though bolstering voice helps a bit with that Will save). I think these crusaders may have serious problems dealing with an army that can stay just out of reach and bully them with longer-ranged options or AoE effects.




Originality: 4.5/5
I would dock points for the heavily crusader-based build which is very popular in this competition, but also I’ll have to immediately give points back for:
-The detailed excel sheet with different battle formations.
-The “bluff that we aren’t weak to fire by using ALL THE FIRE POWERS” technique
-Finding a way to achieve a high AC without spending too much

Elegance: 4/5
Here I will actually have to give a lower score because of the lack of Heavy Armor, since that was an explicit requirement. However, I do agree that it still fulfills the spirit of the contest so honestly, I’m fine with it. You have a nice spread of units with different roles to play in the army, and nothing struck me as really wrong.

Competence and Power: 4/5
Unlike the other dragon knights, this army seems a lot more prepared for casters throwing wrenches in the works. Casters can be interrupted or bluffed out of casting that fireball in the first place.

“Leading the charge” + “Dragonfire Inspiration” is going to add up to some mighty damage, and the army can easily stand its ground or catch up with the enemy if it needs to. A leader bard adding +3d6 damage to her entire army is definitely gonna leave an impact. Let’s hope all the anti-fear auras keep them from falling victim to their abysmal will saves…

[liquidformat]

thanks for judging and posting inside the thread for judging works perfectly. For any responses to the judging from competitors send them my way and I will post them here for the judge to address.

[thethird]

My idea was going to be lots of warforged using adamantine body as a way of getting heavy armor prof. (checked with liquid to make sure it was okay with him) but I eventually stopped the build because Lvl 1, warforged crusader with adamantine body didn't sound all that original.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I did a lot of work on this; a mass battle system that doesn't abstract the rules of D&D but embraces them: Generals of Prime on DriveThruRPG. (It's free but I can't post a link yet.)

This seems pretty sweet. If I had to voice a criticism, it's that it doesn't play well with more elaborate tricks like Teamwork Benefits (specifically the Team Shield Maneuver present in this competition; maybe the others work well) or maneuvers from ToB, but honestly those are probably better suited to PCs and elite NPCs that will be tangling with the players directly (and thus most likely in smaller numbers).

I'll ask my DM if I can use it for my crew in the pirate campaign I'm part of.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Are there any more judges waiting in the wings, or should we call it here?

[WhamBamSam]

Are there any more judges waiting in the wings, or should we call it here?I had been working on it but appear to have failed to save when my computer restarted. The auto-recover file lost basically everything too, so I don't think I'll be getting my judgments in.

[Yahzi Coyote]

it doesn't play well with more elaborate tricks like Teamwork Benefits
I was trying to stick to the most basic D&D rules as much as possible. Hope it helps! For naval combat you should assume a square is 2.5 ft instead of 5 (ships are really small!).

[liquidformat]

Here is the only comment I have gotten, I will give things until saturday and we can call it then.


I have a slight caveat with Tiny Mushroom’s rationale. He said my troops would be in trouble if the enemy can keep out of reach, but the way the battlefield is set up by you that likely won’t happen as you said that ranged combat beyond 50’ is impossible. My guys can ignore the rough terrain and just charge or double move up to the enemy if necessary. Higher ranks can teleport up.

Other than that, well I knew I would take a hit with other similarly themes armies out there. I don’t mind coming in last my first time out.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I had been working on it but appear to have failed to save when my computer restarted. The auto-recover file lost basically everything too, so I don't think I'll be getting my judgments in.

Ouch. That's always rough.

[liquidformat]

A response to TinyMushroom:

Thanks for taking the time to judge things.

W.r.t. Call Avalanche and Control Temperature, you are correct that they are not valid (oops!). Let's just swap those over to more Blizzard variants and Wall of Stone.

With respect to competency, I believe you are ignoring all feats which makes a huge difference. I think it's only fair if you include the feats in consideration or ignore the feats in the other builds as well.

Hover (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm#hover) means you can always employ flight effectively no matter how irregular the terrain. As a consequence, poor maneuverability + tight confines or staying inside an obscuring snow is not an obstacle.
Arcane Mastery (which normally a cleric cannot use, but which these can via the animal domain SLA) means that every high level scroll is cast 100% of the time since they can take 10 on the caster level check.


W.r.t. Blizzard:

For Energy Substitution[Fire] and Flash Frost, I don't see anything in the rules that imply you can't impose metamagic in whichever order you want (except for Empower and Maximize of course which has special text). Hence, Energy Substitution[Fire] on a Flash Frost Blizzard, although unintuitive, should work. Also note that using Energy Substitution[Fire] and Blistering Spell applied in the other order achieve a similar effect.
W.r.t. the text of Blizzard interacting with Flash Frost

I don't see anything in the challenge suggesting that it's taking place in a supercold place and generic opponents in a generic place presumably aren't protected.
Blizzard's wording is:
Creatures unprotected from the cold must make a Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of nonlethal cold damage. which doesn't seem to say anything about Flash Frost imposed damage
A flash frost spell deals an extra 2 points of cold damage per level of the spell to all targets in the area. which is not nonlethal. Even if you had a spell like Cold Snap which imposes no damage whatsoever, a Flash Frost Cold Snap should impose damage.



It also seems like you are looking at a menu of options and penalizing because not all options are always valid. This is counterintuitive to me---usually options are good things. For example:

Razor Ice Powder may indeed not be a valid option in some environments (although do not the ability of Blizzard to deliver snow). That seems ok---you just don't use that option where it's not appropriate.
No Light may indeed not work against an army with darkvision units (2/4 armies presented here). Again, this seems fine---you just switch to Obscuring Snow + Snowsight.

My thinking here is that the armies are not typically made for just one combat---they are made for many different kinds of combat and happen to experience particular forms of combat.

You mentioned something about caster level 13 and level 6 spells that I did not follow. The only reference to caster level 13 is in the discussion of dispelling forbiddance? And there is not discussion of level 6 spells there?

Taking the missing feats into account:

Forbiddance creates a death trap for all non LG armies as a standard action (with _no_ chance of scroll cast failure!). Notably, this wipes out at least 2 of the 3 other proposed armies, even magnified by a factor of 10.
Blizzard variants cast in rapid succession Freeze/Fry/Bury an army as a sequence of standard actions.
Sculpt Spell Wall of Stone creates a serious obstacle as a standard action.
Obscuring Snow + Snowsight + Hover means the Anthrobats have total concealment during combat, even in tight confines, providing an enormous combat advantage.


W.r.t elegance, I was imagining that an army where people can move up the ranks is more elegant than one where they cannot, but obviously standards differ.

W.r.t. theme, I did find it confusing so I'm plausibly guilty here. Heavy armor proficiency is required but you only have 200gp? So, I just went with flat out destroying the opposing army of 3000.

On a side note on the heavy armor prof, realizing that most units wouldn't be able to actually wear heavy armor due to cost, I just required having proficiency in order to narrow allowed classes.

[Gauntlet]

Any plans for the next challenge? The 'multiple low level characters' format is an interesting one to play with, although I'm not sure how many variations on it there are that don't end up using similar stuff each round.

A few possibilities:

- Terrain requirements - underground, underwater, desert, snow, etc
- Limit to a single race, or a single monster type
- Limit the amount of time available for preparation? So you can't have any buffs that require setup or rituals already running.

[Particle_Man]

Or a theme one, like “you faithfully serve the temple of the sapphire hierarch and are defending it against those that would plunder it’s hard won treasures”.

Thanks to the judge for this contest!

[liquidformat]

Yah, I have been milling through ideas we have a few different ways we could go. Doing things like armies for specific terrain can be interesting, also things like archer core, scout/light infantry, cavalry. Also we could go crazy and do the army for an entire kingdom, I was thinking about a fully spec'ed Drow army.

Interestingly once we have a few of these under our belts we can also use armies that have won past competitions as the enemies for future competitions or things like that too.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

What's the word?

[liquidformat]

What's the word?

I will announce winners after work today when I have some time, any votes on what to do for another round?

[liquidformat]

Winner Lasciel's Army of the Dragon: 12.5/15 PoeticallyPsyco
2nd place The Cult of Afflux: 12/15 Anthrowhale
3rd place Hleid’s Wings: 9/15 Anthrowhale
4th place Knights of the Dragon: 7/15 Particle_Man

[Anthrowhale]

I suspect I did not do two entries :smile:

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Special thanks to our judge, TinyMushroom!

[Particle_Man]

Indeed thanks to the judge. Without you there is no contest.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

What are the odds on an Act II? For that matter, would people be interested in another one of these? (I certainly would)

[Particle_Man]

Sure, though I don't think my army building skills are up to what some of you can come up with. :smallsmile:

An 'underwater army' idea might be kinda different.