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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

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Battlecry!

Designing Troops

Source Battlecry! pg. 170
While swarms work well for creatures that are particularly small or not especially intelligent, troops are an ideal way to portray tactical groupings of foes sized similarly to most PCs. In addition to the creature creation guidelines from GM Core, consider the following elements when building troops for your campaign.

Conceptualizing a Troop: When conceptualizing a troop that’s made of combat-capable creatures, it’s often useful to start by considering how an individual’s abilities could scale up when many of that creature fight together. What weapons, spells, and special abilities would the individuals have, and how could those abilities interact with each other? Could an ability that one creature can use against a single target transform into an area effect when done by many of those creatures simultaneously? If a creature has abilities that seem difficult to use in a coordinated fashion, consider omitting them from the troop. A troop need not be based on an existing creature, but looking at it through the lens of its component creatures can guide you.

Troops can also be far more than the sum of their parts, allowing creatures that wouldn’t be strong enough to pose a threat on their own to gather together and challenge PCs. With troop mechanics, creatures weaker than level –1 can appear in combat, in much the same way that swarms allow rats, spiders, and other animals to form an interesting encounter. Troops can also allow for more unusual situations, like an army of people who aren’t physically durable on their own but are skilled at wielding siege weaponry.

Troop Level: A troop consisting of many individuals is always significantly higher level than one of its members. Around 5 to 6 levels higher than a single component creature is a useful benchmark, meaning a troop of level –1 creatures would be a level 4 or 5 troop. Troops with particularly poor or good coordination may be higher or lower level than the standard.

Movement, Senses, and Languages: Troops have the same movement types, senses, and languages as their component creatures. However, they are restricted to moving together as a group, as described in troop movement.

Skills: When giving skills to a troop, consider how sensible it is for a large group to work together at various tasks that the skill represents. A large group of people is likely to do well at skills that represent knowledge, as they can pool their experiences. However, large groups are unlikely to be particularly good at Stealth, unless they have powerful magic or other extenuating circumstances, such as a troop that has trained to work together as assassins.

Armor Class, Hit Points, and Thresholds: Troops use the standard rules for determining Armor Class and Hit Points here. After accounting for their default weaknesses to area and splash damage, a typical troop has high AC and moderate Hit Points, or moderate AC and moderate to high Hit Points. Troops with additional defenses and resistances should have lower AC or fewer Hit Points to compensate.

As a troop takes damage, it eventually shrinks to take up fewer squares. At the first threshold, after taking an amount of damage equal to one-third of its maximum Hit Points, the troop is reduced to 12 squares (or three segments, each 10 feet on a side). At the second threshold, after taking an amount of damage equal to two-thirds of its maximum Hit Points, the troop is reduced to 8 squares (or two segments).

Immunities, Resistances, and Weaknesses: All troops have troop defenses and gain any immunities, resistances, and weaknesses that their component creatures have. For example, a troop of elementals has the standard elemental immunities. A troop is typically weak to both area and splash damage. Use the average values for weaknesses for both. If it makes sense for a troop to not have these weaknesses, consider lowering its Hit Points since you’re removing one of the main tactics the PCs have for dealing with troops.

Troop Damage: Most troops have an offensive ability that’s themed like coordinated melee attacks and can be activated by spending the troop’s choice of one, two, or three actions. Using the table, the damage for the one-action version should be roughly half of the low Strike damage, the damage for the two-action version should be roughly three-quarters of the high Strike damage, and the damage for the three-action version should be roughly equal to the high Strike damage.

If the offensive ability has a ranged counterpart—an area burst offensive ability—it’s typically always two actions. The ranged ability’s damage should be lower than the troop’s 2-action melee ability, typically threequarters of the moderate Strike damage. If a troop is dedicated to ranged attacks, this might be a bit higher, but the troop should have a weaker melee offensive ability and lower defenses and Hit Points.

Troop ability DCs tend to use moderate spell DCs. If a troop has multiple offensive abilities, you might make one’s DC a bit lower if it suits the troop’s theme. For example, a troop of barbarians might have a DC 2 lower for a ranged offensive ability. Similarly, you might use a lower DC for an ability that inflicts conditions or otherwise shakes up the battlefield.

Spells: Troops composed of creatures with spells often have spellcasting abilities. Troops can cast spells with a single target on themselves; this represents each member of the troop casting the spell. To represent the effects of many creatures casting an offensive spell at the same time, consider using a version of the spell heightened up to a higher rank as appropriate for their level. For example, if level 5 pyromancers that can cast 3rd-rank fireball gather together into a level 11 troop, consider giving the troop 6th-rank fireball.

As usual for creature design, spells that deal damage or have the incapacitation trait are most useful when they are of the highest rank the creature could use, and rapidly diminish in value at lower ranks.