Topic: Consume Mass Quantities...

[Spectre771]

...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.

[Hurin]

D&D 4e did try to address these sorts of situations with 'minions': they had only 1 hit point but attacked as full combatants. The idea was to provide a more heroic, narrative style of combat where mooks were going to be easily slain by the heroes, but could still present a challenge even to high level parties when they came in numbers. It was pretty fun.

You might be doing something a bit different, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

[Majyk]

I liked the multiple cutting through of the chaff, too, and would keep the attack rolls of PCs but reduce it by 30 for every “next follow-through” of one’s blade into surrounding foes.  This especially for hero(10th) level PCs with outrageous OBs vs weaklings with numbers - especially when Frenzied and you want that cinematic action sequence of bodies flying!

Nice for fear/terror(SD) saves, too - swarms/mobs are terrifying in their own right.
Even adding Con RRs for holding one’s breath against Tiny attacks as they get into every nook and cranny of air-breathing folks!
“I’ll just bash ‘em with a lit torch!”
Watch eyes go wide at the table when you start asking for holding one’s breath after the first round of being swarmed by teeny-tinies!
“Wait…what?!”

Also, there used to be something in the rules where more numbers meant a rise in the size of the attack one could achieve, so Tiny into Small into Medium on the attack charts, etc.

For Humanoids, ramp up a single attack their group puts forward by +5-+10(or even total ranks they have in a weapon, only) for every one of ‘em Assisting.
Don’t forget to add the best modifier for Position they get from flanking then rear flanking then “rearing”, heh, as they Feint and draw a hero’s attention away from the real threat of the final creep going for the backstabber title!

[Spectre771]

If I reduce the OB by 30 for each target beyond the first, I have to take the time to reference the attack chart to see what the next amount of hits is, then reference again and so on.  Don't get me wrong, it makes perfect sense and is probably 100% the correct thing to do as there is arguably some resistance caused by the blade passing through each enemy, but I want to streamline the combat rounds.

I liken it to breaking boards in Martial Arts. I use the same amount of force and speed if I'm breaking 2, 4, 6 boards. (7 was my max).  When you break through all boards, you don't feel the resistance or the impact or the slow down of your strike, you pass through all the boards.  However... if you don't break all the boards... then you feel it.  A lot.

[Majyk]

I totally get the flow you mention.

For workflow of what I wrote above, I just kept the attack chart open and looked up each result before flipping to the crit page.
“Ok, so the first Gobbo takes an ‘18CPunc’, second gets a ‘12B’ and the 3rd ends up with a slice on their ribcage for 9HP.  Let’s see if you can take the first two out with the crits, now.”

[EltonJ]

This reminds me of Tucker's Kobolds.