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13 months ago ::
May 27, 2012 - 8:09PM
#31
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Date Joined:
May 18, 2009
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I'd just group together a bunch of the kobolds and treat them as a single monster (one attack, move as a single monster, one bag of hit points). Probably 10 kobolds or so in each group, each one of which can rain down spears in an AoE or just drag you into itself to do autodamage. We all know something like this won't make it into the final rules because it's simple, elegant, and was in 4e (Swarm monsters), but there's no reason to let that stop you at your table.
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13 months ago ::
May 27, 2012 - 8:23PM
#32
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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Suggestion from Mike Mearls on Tweeter 6 mintues ago:
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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13 months ago ::
May 27, 2012 - 8:24PM
#33
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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I wouldn't object to making advantage/ disadvantage into a PC-only mechanic with NPCs using static modifiers to their rolls.
That would solve the 'too many rolls' issue since the PCs (normally) only ever have to roll for one character.
Carl
This also means when the NPCs get "advantage" they get a +2 bonus, but when PCs get "advantage" they get an effective +5 bonus.
Sure, you can do that. Your players will probably love you while you try to figure out ways to scale encounters to adjust for this massive PC bias. But you can do it.
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13 months ago ::
May 27, 2012 - 8:30PM
#34
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Date Joined:
Oct 25, 2009
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2) Another idea, since the second die only matters when the first misses, roll the number of attacks then reroll missed attacks once. This will decrease crits, since the crit after hit never gets rolled, but that seems acceptable to decrease the dice rolled.
This is what I've been doing, but I do realize that crit reduction is going to be an issue. Clearly the roll two dice mechanic is breaking down with large numbers of combatants so there's going to have to be a system put in place to abstract these numbers or provide a damage boost.
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The current edition is BECMI, the most popular form of Basic D&D and the adventure is the classic Red Box quest to kill Bargle the evil magic user. Check it out, learn about the games roots, and enjoy the story as it unfolds.
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13 months ago ::
May 27, 2012 - 8:34PM
#35
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Date Joined:
Apr 13, 2011
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You could just also roll percentile to see how many hit. Then use average damage per hit. Unless you get only a small number of hits, then, by all means, roll all the dice.
This could also be used for mass combat.
Lets say you have two armies. 1 has 1,000 soldiers, with 15 hit points each, and deal 5 points of damage on average.
The other is a smaller group of seasoned veterans. They have 200 soldiers, with 30 hit points each, and deal 7 points of damage on average.
The larger force moves to swarm the veteran contingent. Lets assume the larger force hits with 50% of it's attacks, while the vets hit with 55%. The larger force deals 2500 points of damage. This wipes out 83 of the vets. The vets on the other hand dish out a combined 700 points of damage, which takes out 140 of the larger army.
That warm fuzzy feeling you get when you a forum thread you're subscribed to has a new comment.
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13 months ago ::
May 27, 2012 - 8:41PM
#36
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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In every version of D&D since the original version, whenever I have attacks in numbers of NPCs greater than a dozen, I throw out the basic rules and implement a percentage-based model so that I can roll hits and damage quickly. With 40 kobolds I'd quickly caclulate the percentage chance for a kobold to hit, multiply that by the number of kobolds and multiply that by the average damage. I MIGHT, if I'm feeling like the party needs some sense of urgency, also calculate in the chance of critical hits, but usually not.
I usually have a calculator with me so this is something I can do on the fly in seconds. I don't even bother with dice.
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13 months ago ::
May 27, 2012 - 8:54PM
#37
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Date Joined:
Apr 13, 2011
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Oops, I meant the vets hit 70% of the time. Lol
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13 months ago ::
May 27, 2012 - 9:07PM
#38
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Date Joined:
Nov 10, 2008
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I wouldn't object to making advantage/ disadvantage into a PC-only mechanic with NPCs using static modifiers to their rolls.
That would solve the 'too many rolls' issue since the PCs (normally) only ever have to roll for one character.
Carl
This also means when the NPCs get "advantage" they get a +2 bonus, but when PCs get "advantage" they get an effective +5 bonus.
Sure, you can do that. Your players will probably love you while you try to figure out ways to scale encounters to adjust for this massive PC bias. But you can do it.
Or, just give the NPCs a +5 bonus instead. The system seems to be focused on having the PCs and monsters be in that middle ground of to-hit numbers anyway, so it would work out to around the same thing. [apart from not giving the NPCs an increased chance to crit].
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13 months ago ::
May 28, 2012 - 3:09AM
#39
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Date Joined:
Mar 20, 2001
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I didn't experience this until the 18 rats. Fortunately the wizard used burning hands after round one.
In my game, they chased the fighter into the pit trap. The fighter then climbed out and the rogue threw burning oil in the pit. I was so proud.
Why didn't the rats climb after him? They don't even need to make a check and they move at full speed unlike the fighter.
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13 months ago ::
May 28, 2012 - 6:04AM
#40
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Date Joined:
Apr 26, 2012
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Not that it matters, but if I were running the Kobolds I would have had them all do something other than attack. Realistically, in a group of 40 to 1, not everyone is going to do the same thing. Some might try to get the Whelps out of the way, while the others form up into a defensive position, while some others rush forward to stop the intruder from advancing. Also, if they're all just sitting around in the common room, chances are good that they're not really going to be "battle-ready" out of the gate. But, I don't suppose there's one "right" or "wrong" way to run a group of monsters.
Just remember, also, that Advantage/Disadvantage cancel each other out. So, while the Kobolds have advantage against a foe that they outnumber, they also have Disadvantage if they fall within a torch's (or any other light giving effect's) "bright light" radius. In that case, they only roll 1d20 as normal.
I wonder, though, if the Advantage/Disadvantage rule is the problem or if it's that there were just too many enemies to keep track of. IMO, 40 attack rolls would be just too many to make at once with or without Advantage/Disadvantage.
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Mike Mearls 
