...of dead NPCs!
Hello all,
This is an idea I have been trying to fine tune for a bit and I'd like to know if anyone has a similar method or any pitfalls they can foresee with my proposed method. I like the idea of the PCs wading into a warren of goblins or being overwhelmed by rats or even attacked by murder crows. (all of which I have done to the party) but I want A) a more streamlined approach to handling overwhelming numbers and B) keeping the realistic feel and high tension of being overcome by mass quantities of NPCs.
When I did the rats, I had D5 rats attack a single player and the rest of the swarm were inconsequential for that round. I had the murder of murder crows break off to harass PCs. I rolled D10 and that amount went after one PC and the remainder went after the other. Now, they are wading into a goblin warren and they are going to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
I have War Law, but I'm not looking at that scale of numbers, but the idea came to me while playing Diablo III. One swing of the PC takes out several baddies, while injuring 1 or more surrounding baddies.
Here's my thinking for simulating the battle.
- All goblins will be generic and have same AT, DB, HP.
- Player makes an attack
- If the result is more hits than a single goblin has, the remainder hits go to the next target, and so on until the result is just an injured goblin
Attack result yields = 35 and B-Slash. 10-10-10-5... 3 goblins dead, 1 at half HP
- if there is a crit, it is resolved on the last damaged goblin. In this case, the goblin that took 5 hits gets the crit.
On the defensive side for the PC:
- PC can only parry/block one attack due to the sheer press of numbers against him.
- Roll 1 attack for the NPC group
- Resolve attack on the PC as normal
- Multiply the same goblin attack OB by (total numbers of NPC - 1) / 2
- Resolve the attack on the PC
My rationale is the first goblin attack is blocked, hence the -1 for the remaining attacks. Given the sheer volume of the attackers trying to land a blow, they are only half as effective as they can't move or aim at a weak point and may not even have a chance of seeing an opening. For a few goblins, the only opening it may have is a stab at an exposed portion of breastplate, but 3 others may have a chance at stabbing into a gap in the armour.