Help with formation fighting

[Meat Shield]

I know that somewhere out there are rules for formation fighting, but can't recall or find them anywhere. My PCs are chewing up the grunts from the other army, and I want to make it more interesting for them. The bad guys in the campaign are much like Roman centurions - trained, highly disciplined heavy infantry.

What are your ideas, and how should I implement them? The PCs are currently fighting in a city that is besieged by the bad guys if that helps. Thank you everyone.

[Crow]

Well there is that feat that gives you an opportunity attack against enemies that *enter* your threatened area. A cohort of those guys could be devastating.

[Sallera]

Miniatures Handbook has lots of rules for mass combat, you might take a look there.

[Meat Shield]

Crow, do you happen to know the name and book for that feat?

Sorry Sallera, I should have said something earlier - I don't have the Mini Handbook. Do you have specific ideas from there I could incorporate?

[Crow]

It's not as good as I remember it. Only works against charging opponents. Hold the Line.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Some of the troops in a formation could be using "Aid Another" to buff the other troops.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialAttacks.htm

[Hunter Noventa]

I think Complete Warrior has a tactical feat for eitehr formation or phalanx style fighting. There's more information in Heroes of Battle as well, if you can get a hold of it.

You could always consult with your DM to see if you can come up with your own appropriate bonuses.

[The Mentalist]

I have some undead that require more than the legal amount of feats but they work with the skill based corpse crafting that someone did here.

[Epinephrine]

There are definitely some nice feats for it. I used a polearm feat against the PCs a while back, it was pretty nice.

Complete Warrior offers :

Formation Expert [Tactical, Fighter] (CWar p110) (needs +5 BAB)

• Lock Shield - benefit if you and your adjacent companions have shields
• Step Into the Breach - if an ally falls, you can immediate action to take his place in the line
• Wall of Polearms - bonus when fighting in a line with polearms

Phalanx Fighting [General, Fighter] (CWar p103) (needs +1 BAB)

• Bonus with light weapon and shield
• Additional bonuses if in a line of similarly equipped folks.

Other feats that can work well with these?
Shieldmate and Improved Shieldmate (miniatures handbook) (requires +1 and +4 BAB, respectively)

Lunging Strike [General, Fighter] (PH2 p80) - lets you make a single attack at +5' reach, enabling more ranks of guys to attack. (needs +6 BAB)

Short Haft [General, Fighter] (PH2 p82)- lets you use a reach weapon at 5'. (needs +3 BAB, weapon focus with a reach weapon)

Mixing and matching these can get some really decent walls of opponents.

A first level fighter can have Shieldmate and Phalanx Fighting, and thus have +4 AC when in a line of similarly trained folks with Heavy Shields and light weapons. If Human, they could take Shield Specialization as well, gaining another +1 AC (or they could use Tower Shields, and gain another one that way via the Shieldmate).

At 2nd level, a human fighter could have Shieldmate, Phalanx Fighting, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Tower Shield), and Shield Specialization; they now have +4 AC from the tower shield, with another +2 from their shieldmates, +3 more from Phalanx fighting, and +1 from shield specialization. That's AC 20 with no armour and no dex.

For 6th level human fighters (granted, this is pretty insane - these are *eilte* legions) you could have Shieldmate (1st), Exotic Shield (Tower) (human), Phalanx fighting (1st bonus), Shield Specialization (Tower) (2nd bonus), Shield Ward (3rd), Improved Shieldmate (4th bonus), Formation Expert (6th) and Lunging Strike (6th bonus).

They get +4AC from the tower shield (which counts toward their touch AC now that they have Shield Ward), +3 AC from their shieldmates, +3 AC from phalanx fighting, +1 AC from shield specialization, and +1 AC from Formation Expert for 22 AC (and I believe a 22 touch AC, since they are counting their shield bonus to their touch AC) without using armour or dex (or enhancements, for that matter). Now just give them some weapons and they'll hold the line churning out damage. Banded mail is good bang for your buck, and with a 12 dex gives them a sold 29 AC, touch AC 23.

They can also have two ranks of them attacking, thanks to lunging strike, and if needed you can even have a third rank behind them with longspears (also lunging to get 15' reach with their spear). If any of them falls in combat, another can take an immediate action to move and take his place, preventing gaps in the line.

[ericgrau]

If they have tower shields they could set them down for total cover from ranged attacks. That means they can't be affected by arrows or area spells at all, only ray spells (which target the creature if the shield is targeted). The shield gains a location when they do this, essentially becoming like a wall, and they lose the +4 shield AC from other directions. Though it's common for the front row of troops to angle their shields back while the second row puts them above their heads, so getting at them from another direction may be difficult.

Since they're in a D&D world and not the real world, their extensive training could teach them other D&D specific mob tactics. Archers could ready actions to disrupt spellcasters. Since they have a large number of troops, they can easily spare a couple men or so for this tactic. The front line could kneel while their own archers unleash a volley, giving the archers a +4 cover bonus to AC from what's essentially a low wall. In close quarters they can disarm or sunder weapons (hard), bows (med.) holy symbols (easy) and spell component pouches (easy). A flail and a feat would help. Again worth it thanks to higher numbers, since they can spare a couple men for it. A tripper or grappler or someone with a net, bolas or tanglefoot bag can immobilize a target to help the formation close in on it. Again, worth it for the same reason. See sig ("Normal Rules") for an easy rules reference for most of these .