The Art of Combat - Strategy and Tactics for Intelligent and/or Organized Enemies

[MaxWilson]

Before I forget: the organization should definitely invest in poison. Essence of Ether is pricey, but buying a hundred doses of it is still less than the price to operate a battalion of soldiers for a month, so fairly cheap by organizational standards, and a lot cheaper than replacing said battalion. You can't damage them without waking them up but you can grapple, prone, manacle, gag, disarm, drag, or even drown them. And even if someone shakes them awake they're still poisoned: disadvantaged on attack rolls and ability checks for 8 hours.

Inhaled poisons, caltrops, and oil jars + flame all work better in the action economy hordes of NPCs (or zombies) than for individual PCs because they don't require attack rolls and they scale better out than up.