Strength of Xycon's army?

[krossbow]

At this point, how strong do you think his army is?


Before you answer, actually think about it for a second. I'm wondering in regards to the effect their attack on Azure city had to their manpower. Now, we saw hundred, upon HUNDREDS of goblins being killed in the battle, with an assumed large amount happening off screen. Normal logic would make one think that their combat readiness had been significantly decreased.

However, they also gained the services of an extremely talented necromancer, and, being evil, likely raise all their dead that they can. Due to this, they could concievably be more powerful than before.








Do you think that the army is weakened at all, and if so to what extent? Asking this due to the possibility of their attempts to take the next gate running into opposing forces.

[Kato]

Hm... I dunno :P
Ypu're roght, they probably ressed a lot of fallen soldiers from both sides, but I don't know to what extent this is possible... otherwise they can hardly have recruited new ones, can they? And fighting guerillas isn't really good for morals and man power either... I think they lost some man power in the end but are overall as strong as before...But mostly guessing here.

[Ninja]

actulay about 10000 goblins were killed. that's a third. now about them getting rezzed, it's probably they raise them as zombies. who ocasionly eat the brains of the other hobbos (but when i think of it, they do have the humans around)... but i'd say about what//18k - 20 k hobbos plus 3-4k undead.... + Xukon, RC and Tsukiko (sp?), so it's still very strong... but i don't think they will take the army with them to Girard's Gate.... since RC is trying to establish some trade routs (sp?)....

[Innis Cabal]

i don't know, have they introduced Xycon yet?

[holywhippet]

It's spelled Xykon.

I'm thinking their numbers will be weakened - but one of the main reasons for this is because Redcloak won't want to take all of the hogoblin soldiers with him. They've taken Azure City and they won't want to lose it.

[Mercenary Pen]

As far as I can judge, their numbers have been weakened a fair bit (10k dead at battle of Azure City), and some of those casualties cannot be turned into undead- mostly because they were already undead...

On the other hand, subsequent to Tsukiko's defection, and Redcloak's decision against racism, the general caliber of Xykon's forces appears to have improved a little (as evidenced by the shift in variety of undead from Ghouls and Ghasts to Wights...)

[King of Nowhere]

I definitely believe Xykon and Redcloak won't take the army with them at Girard's gate; An army is useful to conquer a city, but against illusions and magical wards it has no use.
I'm not sure how it works, but I seem to remember that undead needed someone to control them, so with the departure of team evil the hobbos would be deprived of most of their undead strengt (except those few undead that are under the control of their low and mid level clerics).
Actually, I also seem to remember there is a limited number of undead hit dice a spellcaster can animate and control. If that's the case, they didn't gain much undead power after the battle. Probably it's not the case, since they had 300+ ghouls before the attack, and I don't see Xykon and Redcloak controlling them all.
I don't see them animate 10000+ zombies after the battle, so they're probably lower in basic troops, but they gained wights and Tsukiko, so they improved their mid and high level troops.
It's also to consider that many of the hobbos are likely to have leveled after the battle, so they could be stronger.

[Logalmier]

Well, I think that Redcloak (and Tsukiko) will most likely make the dead hobos ghouls rather than zombies (see this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0300.html) comic, he made the offending hobgoblins ghouls, not zombies.) Now there will definitely be some hobgoblin corpses that will be beyond repair, in fact there will be a lot of them. And so thats one way their forces will be depleted. However, knowing Reddie I'm sure that he'll find someway to get more troops... or maybe he'll improve the ones he has! Goblin training camps? Ghouls to Ghasts anyone? Who knows what team evil will do to seize control of the world.

[EvilElitest]

weakened. Remember, apart from losing 1/3 of the hobgoblins, they also lost a lot of undead. Now they have a limited amount of necromancers, so they have limits on what they can raise (some hundreds i imagine, through a lot of clerics were killed) they also lost three major undead, the dragon and the hob general. So while thye are still powerful, they are weakned, more so because of the three resistance groups picking them off one by one (through at high personal losses).
from
EE

[Chronos]

In practical D&D terms, Xykon's army has grown by 50%, from 2 to 3. With spellcasters on the level of Xykon, Redcloak, or Tsukiko around, the rest of the army serves little purpose beyond scenery.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Xykon's army is really, really big. He's the Big Bad; there is no other size for a Big Bad's army.

[drengnikrafe]

In practical D&D terms, Xykon's army has grown by 50%, from 2 to 3. With spellcasters on the level of Xykon, Redcloak, or Tsukiko around, the rest of the army serves little purpose beyond scenery.

You have a reasonable point there, but you also have to acknowledge that if the battle had been between The Order and those 3, it would've been more of a stalemate, or in the Order's favor.

Sure, 1000 goblins are mostly scenery, but has your 15th (for example) level character ever tried fighting 1000 goblins? Especially if you run out of spells before they're gone, you'll have a lot of trouble on your hands. As was pointed out in the comic, a 20 will hit, so 5% of the time, you'll take a bit of damage. Let's say you have a hit die of 8 at 15th level, and you rolled 6's on every roll. Now 5% of 1000 goblins hit you for all of 2 damage. That's about 100 damage every round, if they all get to attack. All those guys are worth at least a little bit.

[Kato]

I'd like to add about the 'taking the goblin's to Girard's gate' subtopic...
Of course RC will leave the main force to defend Azure City, probably even Tsukiko, because just a huge amount of brainless goblin's is no opponent to a good party. BUT they will still take like... one or two companies with them because sacrificing minion's: Is there any problem it CAN'T solve? (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0192.html)

So... I think X, RC and some hundred or maybe almost thousand hobo's will leave for the next gate, probably soon.

[Stormpax]

Didn't Redcloak say at the end of the battle that they had lost a third of there army? And I don't play DnD but isn't there a an amount of time before a dead creature that can be raised as a zombie (such as natural effects like rotting?)? The battle field had been huge, and I say there was about 20-40 clerics of being able to create a zombie. And if there's a spell called "Mass Zombie Raise" or something, it would have taken quite a while to get a lot of the Zombies up. And since they lost about 10000 hobgoblins in there army, assuming there is an amount of time before the body is unable to be raised as a zombie, I'm think they got about half raised.

I think that if it was really plot relevant, the Order plus The Azure City Army (Does it have a name?) would be able to take back the city, with help from the resistance, if that hasn't already broken down...
how very verbose of me

[Querzis]

Sure, 1000 goblins are mostly scenery, but has your 15th (for example) level character ever tried fighting 1000 goblins? Especially if you run out of spells before they're gone, you'll have a lot of trouble on your hands. As was pointed out in the comic, a 20 will hit, so 5% of the time, you'll take a bit of damage. Let's say you have a hit die of 8 at 15th level, and you rolled 6's on every roll. Now 5% of 1000 goblins hit you for all of 2 damage. That's about 100 damage every round, if they all get to attack. All those guys are worth at least a little bit.

The hobgobelins got bows and longswords so if they hit you on a critical strike, they are going to do a lot more then just 2 damage, more like 10 damage at least. Hell, hobgobelin got +1 str and bows do triple damage on a critical so the minimum damage they can do on a critical is 3 damage.

You also forget an important point: the one-shot kill. We know, thanks to the bonus strip in paladins blues, that you can do one-shot kill in the OOTS world. So if you really go fight a thousand goblins, one of them is almost bound to kill you in one shot. The only one who is really a gamebreaker and who could really defeat his entire army (even Tsukiko and Redcloak) is Xykon since hes immune to critical hit and got damage reduction. Most of his army propably wont even be able to hurt him, even if they hit him.

Anyway, the army is weakened, thats for sure. They cant have too much zombies or ghouls because they woudnt be able to feed them all. Beside, the three resistance group have been killing a lot of hobgobelins in the past three months. But the army is still really big anyway and I'm sure they would have no problem conquering another nation. But, as its already been said, they will probably just take their elite troops with them and leave the city to the hobgobelins.

[Radar]

You have a reasonable point there, but you also have to acknowledge that if the battle had been between The Order and those 3, it would've been more of a stalemate, or in the Order's favor.

Sure, 1000 goblins are mostly scenery, but has your 15th (for example) level character ever tried fighting 1000 goblins? Especially if you run out of spells before they're gone, you'll have a lot of trouble on your hands. As was pointed out in the comic, a 20 will hit, so 5% of the time, you'll take a bit of damage. Let's say you have a hit die of 8 at 15th level, and you rolled 6's on every roll. Now 5% of 1000 goblins hit you for all of 2 damage. That's about 100 damage every round, if they all get to attack. All those guys are worth at least a little bit.
Hmm... Great Cleave + Power Strike + Improved Initiative (optional) would make one far more difficult to hit in meele (especially while wielding a reach weapon) Combat Reflexes would be a nice touch too. Ranged attacks are harder to counter (and greater in number at a time), so it would require some damage reduction after all. Instant kill probability would require extra protection as well.
Still i think it is doable with a 15th lvl character with proper equipment, which not necessarily is easy to get tough.

Edited for more clarity.

[Lamech]

If Xykon has wights, he should be able to kill off a bunch of slaves when ever he needs and create a huge army of wights, due to their pesky spawn undead ability, so I don't think the strength of his army when it would matter has gone down any, and has probably increased quite a bit. Although he may have lost troops, and counting the number of right now undead and hobgoblins, may be less than 30,000.

[hamishspence]

Lost 10000, thats one third of his forces, suggests he had 20000 as of Battle of Azure City.

He may have recruited more forces or "upgraded" his existing ones, but its not clear how much his forces have increased since the Battle. Did he bring all the hobgoblins down to AC with him, or are there reserves in the Hobgoblin City?

[EvilElitest]

Lost 10000, thats one third of his forces, suggests he had 20000 as of Battle of Azure City.

He may have recruited more forces or "upgraded" his existing ones, but its not clear how much his forces have increased since the Battle. Did he bring all the hobgoblins down to AC with him, or are there reserves in the Hobgoblin City?

lets assume that is all he had, and he hasn't recruited anyboyd else other than the blue, and so we have 20000. Now he lost 10000, and some of that must have been risen as undead, but no more than a few hundred, maybe a few thousand, necromancers have limits. Now some hobs have been killed by the reisistance, but then again, resistance people have been raised so...
from
EE

[Falconer]

So ol' Redcloak has about 20000 soldiers (living and undead) in the immediate aftermath of Azure City. I imagine he, Xykon, Tsukiko, as well as the many hobgoblin clerics would have raised quite a few undead by now from dead soldiers and human POW's, my estimate would be roughly 1000, give or take a few.

Now the Azure City guerillas have undoubtedly killed soldiers, but keep in mind that if a typical raid inflicts the casualties that we saw in the comic, it's only going to be maybe 8 or 9 hobgonlins dead per raid, with maybe 1 or 2 guerrillas killed each time (they can't ALL be PC's, ya know). If these have been going on for about 3 and a half months, I'd estimate about 60 or 70 hobgoblins dead; not that many in the grand scheme of things, and even less so if they're reanimated as wights or ghouls or something.

I'm hardly an expert on guerilla warfare or anything, and I don't think I took everything into account here (like, say, one of the rebel groups focusing more on attrition and massacring the hobos than supply runs, or RC recruiting more goblins), but...by my estimate Redcloak's army has stayed pretty much the same in terms of numbers since he first took Azure City. So........now you know.....

[krossbow]

He may have lost a bunch of cr ones, but he gained a new high level necromancer, one that at least level 12 if she was able to defeat haley after she got hopped up on potions.

That means he gained access to new undead as well, so while he may have lost some living forces, he presumably gained access to a high cr Caster, and a very high number of undead.







for the point of the army, i'm musing over it as its highly possible that he'll be forced to contend with another state or armed force in the future. Should the next gate elude him, then its highly possible he'll have to mount an incursion into other lands, possibly leading him into conflict with the dwarves of Durkon's homeland, or nowhere, somewhere, ect., possibly even into Tyrannia.

[Theodoriph]

You have a reasonable point there, but you also have to acknowledge that if the battle had been between The Order and those 3, it would've been more of a stalemate, or in the Order's favor.

Sure, 1000 goblins are mostly scenery, but has your 15th (for example) level character ever tried fighting 1000 goblins? Especially if you run out of spells before they're gone, you'll have a lot of trouble on your hands. As was pointed out in the comic, a 20 will hit, so 5% of the time, you'll take a bit of damage. Let's say you have a hit die of 8 at 15th level, and you rolled 6's on every roll. Now 5% of 1000 goblins hit you for all of 2 damage. That's about 100 damage every round, if they all get to attack. All those guys are worth at least a little bit.


The Order vs. Xycloak, Redcloak and Tsukiko would be a stalemate...or even in The Order's favour??? LOL

[AceOfFools]

You also forget an important point: the one-shot kill. We know, thanks to the bonus strip in paladins blues, that you can do one-shot kill in the OOTS world. So if you really go fight a thousand goblins, one of them is almost bound to kill you in one shot. The only one who is really a gamebreaker and who could really defeat his entire army (even Tsukiko and Redcloak) is Xykon since hes immune to critical hit and got damage reduction. Most of his army propably wont even be able to hurt him, even if they hit him.

Anyway, the army is weakened, thats for sure. They cant have too much zombies or ghouls because they woudnt be able to feed them all. Beside, the three resistance group have been killing a lot of hobgobelins in the past three months. But the army is still really big anyway and I'm sure they would have

I assume you refer to Shelby, who points out that it was x3 crit multiplier that did the beastie in, which is irrelevant to 1-shot kills. Also, given who was involved, it seems far more likely just to be a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GameplayAndStorySegregation).

[Chronos]

By the rules, Shelby's kill can be attributed to good stats on his part, lucky rolls, and the massive damage rule. It is actually possible, though highly unlikely, for a level 1 with a greataxe to one-shot a dragon.

[sasuke898]

Didn't Redcloak say at the end of the battle that they had lost a third of there army? And I don't play DnD but isn't there a an amount of time before a dead creature that can be raised as a zombie (such as natural effects like rotting?)? The battle field had been huge, and I say there was about 20-40 clerics of being able to create a zombie. And if there's a spell called "Mass Zombie Raise" or something, it would have taken quite a while to get a lot of the Zombies up. And since they lost about 10000 hobgoblins in there army, assuming there is an amount of time before the body is unable to be raised as a zombie, I'm think they got about half raised.

I think that if it was really plot relevant, the Order plus The Azure City Army (Does it have a name?) would be able to take back the city, with help from the resistance, if that hasn't already broken down...
how very verbose of me

ok if there were 20-40 hobgoblin clerics, they would have to be 5th level to cast animate dead. animate dead creates 2 HD (hit dice, or level) per caster level. if each cleric was 5th level, that would create 200-400 hobgoblin 1st level soldiers per day (assuming that they all prepared animate dead). now if the clerics all had a wisdom of 16 and up, they could prepare an extra 3rd level spell, which could be another animate dead. this would create 400-800 zombies per day, and if 1/3 of the army died, the clerics would have the dead army back as zombies in roughly 3 days. so i say that xykon's army is pretty powerful right now, even though most of them consist of 1 HD zombies hobgoblins,ect.
im such a d&d nerd :smallbiggrin:

edit: oh yes i forgot to put this, the army is called the sapphire guard. duh

[Chronos]

The Sapphire Guard is the order of paladins: They were the guys in the throne room, and there's estimated to be perhaps a hundred of them. Although some paladins were attached to the army, most of the soldiers (about ten thousand) were just warriors or fighters.

[Ariko]

edit: oh yes i forgot to put this, the army is called the sapphire guard. duh
Actually the Sapphire guard were the paladins and clerics who protected the Gate. the army was seperate.

[falterfire]

Well, regardless of strength it's at now, they have enough army to overrun just about anyone, and when they wait several years and the hobgoblins reproduce... We're talking enough power to overrun the world, if they don't already have that much. After all, time is really only relevant for Tsukiko

[Rincewind]

Xykon's army consists of OVER 9000 hobgoblins and OVER 9000 undead and any mercenaries the loot from Azure City city can get. So he probably has outsiders with class skills. :smallyuk:

[Ninja]

Xykon's army consists of OVER 9000 hobgoblins...

twice that much.... he had 20000 hobgoblins left after the battle... even if some got killed by the resistance, eaten bu undead and so.. still no less than 18k hobgoblins.... and as for the undead... there aren't as many... id say around 5k tops undead....

[Querzis]

twice that much.... he had 20000 hobgoblins left after the battle... even if some got killed by the resistance, eaten bu undead and so.. still no less than 18k hobgoblins.... and as for the undead... there aren't as many... id say around 5k tops undead....

You didnt get the reference at all.

Anyway, you are really exagerating when you say he could take over the world Falterfire. A single paladin ghost-martyr can beat Xykon and his right-hand while a single nation that he managed to take by surprise without any chance of preparing their defense can destroy a third of his army. There is no way they can take on the eight nations on the way to the gate of the north. They are going to take a few elite warriors with them and thats it.

[Keler]

Remember Xykon can make magic wepons, that can help if you only have a 5% chance to hit
:smalleek:

[EponymousKid]

Well... I mean, he had that Death Knight, that Eye of Fire and Fear 9or whatever those are called), and that other thing.

I know they're al lgone now, but there's probably more where that came from, since they had some to begin with...

Oh, and powerful Psions, too, apparently.

[Mercenary Pen]

It all depends how hard they're working IMO.

I mean, Xykon tends to create bizarre undead when he gets the inspiration (e.g. Zombie Ogres, Zombified creatures of good etc.) so he could pull almost anything out of the bag- ranging from a zombified Basilisk to a Skeletal chimera...

Redcloak tends to scour esoteric sourcebooks in a pinch- but tends to try and get the right undead for the job- meaning that, like Xykon, what he'll come out with will depend entirely on the situation at hand.

Tsukiko seems happy enough with Wights, but she tends to invest her efforts into enhancing the undead she creates, so they'll probably have something in the way of class levels by the time they see proper action.

I suspect that, for the time being- however- Redcloak isn't animating undead, simply because all his efforts are going into torturing O-Chul to buy time before the march to Girard's Gate.

This leaves the mass animation of undead to the lower-level hobgoblin clerics (who are themselves reduced in number since the battle of Azure City)...

[Falconer]

Tsukiko seems happy enough with Wights, but she tends to invest her efforts into enhancing the undead she creates, so they'll probably have something in the way of class levels by the time they see proper action.

That would actually be pretty interesting to see if Xykon and redcloak do bring them along, which they probably will. These guys are essentially supposed to be the spec ops of Redcloak's army, so it makes a good deal of sense.

[Kish]

Remember Xykon can make magic wepons, that can help if you only have a 5% chance to hit
:smalleek:
Yes, I'm certain Xykon wants to dump several times as much XP as he has into slightly enhancing an army of 1 hit die hobgoblins whom he considers completely expendable (and fun to expend). For that matter, a straight-from-the-MM hobgoblin with a +1 weapon would likely still need a natural 20 to hit any of the Order.

[AceOfFools]

Yes, I'm certain Xykon wants to dump several times as much XP as he has into slightly enhancing an army of 1 hit die hobgoblins whom he considers completely expendable (and fun to expend). For that matter, a straight-from-the-MM hobgoblin with a +1 weapon would likely still need a natural 20 to hit any of the Order.

That would be true if the OotS had even half-way decent builds. By taking conjuration as their forbidden school (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0340.html), V will have a hard time getting their AC that high.

Geekery:
Attack bonus =+3 (BaB +str +weapon) so V needs 23 to only get hit on a 20.

There are three items that can add to AC: a ring an amulet and bracers of armor. I peg V's dex somewhere between 14 and 17, meaning he's got about 13 before items.
Getting their AC higher by ten requires braces +5, amulet +3 and ring +2 costing a total of 61,000 gold. A level 11 character has an expected wealth of 66,000, which makes it possible, but implausible. 12th the WBL guidelines give 88,000. Dropping 3/4 of your money on you're AC generally isn't the best idea unless Really Heavy Armor is one of you're gimicks, as you also want to buff saves and offense. At 13th, WBL gives V 110,000, and this becomes an entirely reasonable investment.
That being said, I never bother to check how close any of my PCs or player's PCs were on WBL, so V could be pretty far off in either direction.


Once the splatbooks (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0518.html) become involved, Conjuration rapidly becomes the most broken school of magic, although you can do nasty things with all of them, even if Tsukiko does call a spell suspiciously similar to orb of electricity an evocation (but that's a whole 'nother geeky debate).

[Keler]

Yes, I'm certain Xykon wants to dump several times as much XP as he has into slightly enhancing an army of 1 hit die hobgoblins whom he considers completely expendable (and fun to expend). For that matter, a straight-from-the-MM hobgoblin with a +1 weapon would likely still need a natural 20 to hit any of the Order.

Well we know he is making magic item 8 hours a day and he has over 20 levels so he can afford the XP. Also magic items can include scrolls and wands for spellcasters.

[Suicide Junkie]

You also don't need magic weapons for all of them.

When the ones on the front line die, the ones behind them can grab the weapons off the ground when they get a chance.

[Querzis]

You also don't need magic weapons for all of them.

When the ones on the front line die, the ones behind them can grab the weapons off the ground when they get a chance.

...or their opponents can grab it off the ground when they have the chance. Xykon would only make magic items for him and possibly Redcloak and Tsukiko. MiTD doesnt need it.

[r23r5]

More then you can carry!
Seriously very strong, Xykon being epic level and Redcloack being around 13th level. Plus thousands of zombies and hobgoblins (He had 30 000 befor the war)

[Logalmier]

Well we know he is making magic item 8 hours a day and he has over 20 levels so he can afford the XP. Also magic items can include scrolls and wands for spellcasters.

I don't think he has the feat necessary to make magic weapons. He only said he has eight hours a day to make magic items. He didn't say what type of magic items. Besides, unless Rich isn't using this rule then Xycon would need a CWI feat to earn lichdom. Methinks thats the feat he's using to make make magic happen 8/7.

Just my two copper pieces.

[AceOfFools]

The number of undead is limited by how many can be controlled. Most of the (low level) hobgoblin clerics are only going to be able to control one or two, and it increases directly with cleric level.

He can probably have more intelligent undead because of their ability to be reasoned with, but they hunger for the flesh and souls of the living. I believe the vast majority of the army is the 20,000 hobgoblins, at least in terms of numbers.

What I think might be a better way of phrasing this question, is how strong is Xycon's army relative to his neighbors. How big is an army of 20,000 warriors? How much of threat is he to his neighbors, discounting the god killing abomination he's trying to control?

[David Argall]

It is a reasonable [but far from certain] bet that Xykon has the strongest army in the world. However, there is a lot of world and it is nowhere near strong enough to take over the world. Otherwise he would not need the gate, and our whole story is out.

[Chronos]

Besides, unless Rich isn't using this rule then Xycon would need a CWI feat to earn lichdom.Yes and no... Start of Darkness spoilers:
Under the D&D rules, a phylactery is a type of magic item, and two or more characters can collaborate to create a magic item, each providing some of the prerequisites. The prereqs for a phylactery are Craft Wondrous Item and a caster level of 11. Xykon certainly had the caster level, which means that he could have collaborated with some other caster who has CWI to make his phylactery.

From SoD, it appears that this is exactly what happened. Xykon didn't even know of the existence of such things as phylacteries, until Redcloak helped him make one. This way, Xykon can still become a lich, since he can count as the phylactery's creator, but he doesn't necessarily need the feat himself.
That said, Craft Wondrous Item is probably the most useful of the item creation feats, and it's possible that he picked it up since that time. In any event, there's no guarantee that he has Craft Magic Arms and Armor.

[AceOfFools]

It is a reasonable [but far from certain] bet that Xykon has the strongest army in the world. However, there is a lot of world and it is nowhere near strong enough to take over the world. Otherwise he would not need the gate, and our whole story is out.

So the largest army in the world was a bunch of LE hobgoblins in scattered throughout some relatively unfertile mountains? That seems odd considering all that's said about humanoids, goblinoids and gods in SoD.

Also consider that Azure City is a single city-state. Assorted large nations and alliances of city states (do we have any evidence to support the existence of these) might be able to top it. That's saying nothing about mobilization time and all that jazz.

Although it does put forward a question about the hobgoblin homeland for another thread...

[David Argall]

It is not certain Xykon has the strongest army in the world, but he was able to conquor one of the largest cities with it. He had a number of lucky breaks, but he did it, so that puts him in the running.

For our purposes, we need merely know he has a very strong army, but not enough for his goals.

[Kami2awa]

Didn't Redcloak say at the end of the battle that they had lost a third of there army? And I don't play DnD but isn't there a an amount of time before a dead creature that can be raised as a zombie (such as natural effects like rotting?)? The battle field had been huge, and I say there was about 20-40 clerics of being able to create a zombie. And if there's a spell called "Mass Zombie Raise" or something, it would have taken quite a while to get a lot of the Zombies up. And since they lost about 10000 hobgoblins in there army, assuming there is an amount of time before the body is unable to be raised as a zombie, I'm think they got about half raised.


It'll be quite a while before a body decomposes enough to prevent zombification, and when it does, Animate Dead makes a skeleton instead.

[Kami2awa]

Well we know he is making magic item 8 hours a day and he has over 20 levels so he can afford the XP. Also magic items can include scrolls and wands for spellcasters.

Those scrolls and wands could contain buff spells which would improve his regular troops (e.g. Mass Bull's Strength/Bear's Endurance etc.), possibly more efficiently (and certainly cheaper) than making a magic sword for every single one.