The Campaign Builder's Guild

Never start a land war in Asia.

Mel Brooks playing table tennis

Hm, I agree with Ra-Tiel about Charm having the same problem as D&D Diplomacy.  However, if this is in a game you're running, you should be able to control it.  And adding conditions to what the skills can and can't do (as brainface pointed out) is a good idea too.

I usually don't have too many problems (in personal experience) with the Social skills (most of my players are hack/slash).  However, a few weeks ago the party bard almost turned a violent NPC (and I thought possibly minor returning protagonist) into a Helpful ally.  She only got Friendly, but it was still enough to avert the little encounter I had planned and basically remove the NPC as a recurring antagonist.  So, while I could have said "She [the NPC] is unmoved by your words and orders her bodyguard to beat the tar out of you guys," I really didn't want to rip off the group, especially since the Bard had such a good roll.

1) I started school on August 27th.
2) I'm a sophomore at Indiana University.
3) I am an English Major (who is not going to be a teacher)
4) I'm taking L295, American Film Culture; F250, French Language and Culture; P101, Introductory Psychology I; H211, Ideas and Experience I (Honors).

My favorite class has been my French one, but only because of a couple of the students in it with me. Really, the best class I'm taking would be the English class, American Film Culture.  My teacher is British, brilliant, and hilarious.  Hopefully the final isn't going to be too tough though...

Frankenstein's Monster

Windows Cement

The PCs know:

1. There are 10,000 enemy troops.
2. Most are Hobgoblins, with Goblins and Bugbears thrown in.
3. There are a number of Ogres working with them as well.
4. There are two Trolls.
5. They will arrive at the border in 6-9 days.
6. The opposing leader is powerful, unusual, and mysterious.

The enemy knows:
1. The kingdom's army is significantly smaller (but not precise numbers).
2. The capital is heavily fortified, but the rest of the kingdom is easy pickings.

They know nothing about any particular adventurers, though the leader is sure to be wary of small parties sent by the kingdom, but I think the PCs are more than a match for any particular supply wagon or three.  They are pretty tough after all.

Also, thanks for the link Tybalt, those are good ideas.  I've looked at a number of them, but I'm going to go back and look at more later.

Quote from: Holy Carp!Poison won't work.  It would be prohibitively expensive to buy enough doses of poison to successfully poison a 10,000 man army, and poison only strikes twice and then heals.  Unless it's Con damage poison that stands a reasonable chance of killing them, it would only be useful in delaying the advance or preceding an ambush - and it seems unlikely that you could ever afford enough poison to do any of these things.  I'm serious about the blinding sickness attack, here - disease is a far better way to take out a large force permanently.  Blind, strength-damaged hobgoblins won't pose much of a threat.  Disease is usually a pretty worthless attack because it takes so long to affect an enemy, but in this case it's just what the doctor ordered (so to speak).

Of course, that doesn't solve the problem of the ogres and trolls, but it seems unlikely that the heavies in the army would attack by themselves - and if they do, at least they won't have thousands of hobgoblins for support.

Sorry, yes.  Using Contagion to make the water diseased was what I meant.  I was just tired when I was writing that and thought saying poison was close enough.  x.

So far, it seems like the best plan is:

1. Evacuate the border town and nearby villages and hamlets to the kingdom.
2. Make a stand at the border town (with a small group of soldiers) and set off numerous traps and ruses to whittle down the first waves.
3. Contagion the town well and move around the army to try and deal with supply lines to force them to use the well water.
4. Try to slow down the army on its way to the capital while the defenders prepare for the attack.
5. Hope the Dwarves and Elves will send some aid, maybe even soldiers, or at the very least be prepared to take refugees.
6. Pray to Pelor.

Thanks guys, if anyone has any more ideas or wants to help critique this plan, feel free to keep posting.

- DX

Quote from: Sir VorpalQuestion #1: What sort of land is the kingdom they are defending be on?
Question #2: ~ What is the CR of the average hobgoblin in the army?
Question #3: Highest CR in t he army?
With those answered, I will have a strategy in no time.
Gah. Just realized only  real spellcasters are NPC's. Half of plans are gone.

1. The kingdom is mainly plains, with some low hills to the north and some forests to the south.  However the Hobgoblins are coming from the west, and those aren't likely to affect them.
2. Most of the Hobgoblins are level 1 Warriors, with a few level 2 Warriors as veterans and officers.  There are also some Ogres (CR 2) and two Trolls (CR 5).
3. The highest CR would be the opposing general, I'm not sure what level he is yet, but he's not planning on being directly involved in the fight anyway, so no need to consider him.  That being said, it looks like the toughest guys are the two Trolls.

4. The group only has a Cleric, and there are no decent Wizards/Sorcerers to speak of in the kingdom.  Maybe a few level 1 mages could be rounded up in the capital, but probably no one with sufficient firepower to deal with it.

EDIT: "If only we had a wheelbarrow!"  Nice.

The capital city is very well defended, but making a stand there would mean abandoning miles of land and numerous villages, not to mention the border town.

The border town has wooden pallisades, and a small town guard (20+ level 1 warriors) but nothing like enough defense to do anything other than provide a speed bump in the Hobgoblins road to the capital.

Okay, my current campaign has taken a little misstep, and now there's an army of 10,000 Hobgoblins advancing on the kingdom my PCs live in.  This was sort of the plan all along, but I expected the PCs to disobey the king's orders and go try to slow it down (after sending him some sort of magical message) when they found out how close the army was to the kingdom.  Instead, like good little citizens, they followed his orders to the letter and returned the capital and gave the king the bad news.

The news is this: in less than 9 days (I've decided on 7, but the PCs don't know that) the army will arrive at the kingdom's border.  It is approximately 10,000 warriors strong, and is composed mainly of well-trained Hobgoblin soldiers, with a few Goblin/Bugbear scouting parties, Ogre bruisers, and a couple of Trolls.  The kingdom has about 2500 trained soldiers that are spread across the land, the king has informed the PCs that he can get his troops to the capital city in 5 days and to the border in 7 days.

The kingdoms army is so small because it is bordered by two peaceful kingdoms (one of Dwarves to the north and one of Elves to the south) both of which rarely speak with the king, each thinking themselves above the human.  In any event, they can be reached by magical means, but there's no guarantee they'll send many (if any) troops, likely preferring to barricade themselves in and prepare their own defenses.

So, my question is this: how can a party of level 5 characters, with an army of 2500 lower-level soldiers, stop an army of 10,000 Hobgoblins with less than a week to prepare (it would take them time to return to the border).

Here are what I would consider their assets:

*One level 5 Human Knight (PC) One tough son of a gun.
*One level 5 Human Cleric (NPC party member) Good healer, great against undead.
*One level 5 Elven Rogue (PC) Fantastic stealth and alertness skills.
*One level 5 Human Bard (PC) Good diplomacy, a couple of illusion spells.
*One level 6 Human Cleric (NPC, Grand Priest)
*20+ level 1 Clerics (Lesser priests)
*One level 6 Fighter (NPC, General)
*2400+ level 1 warriors (Army Grunts)
*Less than 100 level 2 warriors (Officers)
*Various level-appropriate magic items (Mainly Potions and Wands)
*4 mid-level magical items to be given to the PCs by an Outside Force (Who will of course not be helping fight)

I think that's pretty much it, though if someone sees something obvious they should have and don't, I may have merely forgotten it.

I'm sure the players will have a couple of ideas, but I really need something for the General, Grand Priest, or King to suggest, just in case the players can't think of anything.

Thanks.

- DX

Well, somewhere I saw that they were dealing with the Deities and Pantheons.  At first, it seemed, they were going to make all the gods generic.  Pelor would become the Neutral Good Sun God, and they might give an example of using the name Pelor.  However, it seems that in the course of choosing which gods to use or not to use, they changed their minds back and have left up names.  However, they did considerably shrink the pantheon, ditching the dozens of Elven/Drow lesser deities from Faerun.  Now, no one's to say that they won't bring those guys right back if they reintroduce Faerun in 4e.

Anyway, I guess making the pantheon smaller could help, if you use the generic setting, which I do for plenty of campaigns.

Behold! The power of Wikipedia!
Google, however, has largely failed me.
 :rambo:  :google:  :axe:
Bad Google.


 :offtopic: We need a Wikipedia sign-guy.  :offtopic:

 :ontopic: As far as brain-snakes go, I think it'd be best to handle it as a disease, with a number of fortitude saves first, but then switch to will saves for things like insanity, gives the PC casters a chance if they get infected.
Maybe make them roll saves every week (or everyday, depending on how you run your campaigns) and hope they can figure out how to "cure" the brain-snakes.

Milliway's: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Dr. Strangelove