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Battlecry!

Skirmish Units

Source Battlecry! pg. 159
A troop and a leader have some significant rules adjustments that enable them to work together efficiently as a unit. Skirmish warfare largely has creatures taking the same actions they can in normal encounters, but their actions, positioning, movement, and morale are all modified.

Shared Space and Movement

Source Battlecry! pg. 159
A leader and their troop combine into one unit as they battle together. Movement and space are abstracted a bit more than in a typical combat encounter to make the battle flow more smoothly.

Shared Space

Source Battlecry! pg. 159
A troop’s leader occupies every square of their troop’s space for the purpose of making attacks, determining range, and the like. A leader can attack a creature on one side of their troop, then attack on the far end. (Remember that a troop is only as tall as its component creatures, so determine vertical reach accordingly!) The leader has to choose which space they’re in each time they use an ability. For example, if a Medium leader uses an ability with a 5-foot emanation, they then need to choose one square to be in for that use of the ability.

A creature who makes use of an effect that can target only a single creature, such as a weapon Strike, chooses whether to attack the leader or the troop when they make the attack. The leader is in the reach, range, or area of the effect if any square of the troop is within an appropriate reach, range, or area.

Cover: A leader and troop use their full space for determining cover. Therefore, they don’t grant each other cover, nor do they block each other’s attacks when determining an enemy’s cover.

Flanking: Regardless of their positioning, a leader and their troop can’t flank with each other. However, if two allied troops are flanking an enemy (or a segment of an enemy troop), their leaders can benefit from this flanking.

Minions: If the leader has a minion, such as an animal companion or summoned creature, that minion typically occupies the troop’s space the same way the leader does. This can be dangerous for a weaker companion like a familiar, but the Troop Mascot skirmish bond can help.

Mounts: Sharing space with a mount or a troop works in a similar fashion, and you can ride a mount while sharing space with a troop. The mount’s movement is combined just like yours is, and it counts as being in any square of the troop’s space just like you do. You can use your mounted reach when attacking. You take the penalty to Reflex saves while mounted as normal, but you don’t gain lesser cover from your mount; this alteration falls under the cover rules for sharing space with a troop.

Combined Movement

Source Battlecry! pg. 159
Any move action a troop or leader takes moves the whole unit. For example, if the leader uses a Stride action, they move the troop. Use the acting creature’s Speed to determine how far the group moves. The GM determines whether the group can move together using a Speed they don’t both possess (such as if the leader has a fly Speed and the troop doesn’t).

Movement Limit: To prevent the combined unit from rocketing across the battlefield in the space of a single turn, the leader and troop combined can take no more than 3 actions worth of move actions and activities that include move actions in a turn. Any of these actions that include more than one move action or increase movement still apply, though. For instance, if an elf PC has the Elf Step feat, which lets them Step twice for 1 action, they can use it three times to let their troop Step a total of six times.

If an ability lets the troop and its leader move outside their turn, the unit can move only once. For example, if a commander tactic lets multiple squadmates Stride as a reaction, and the troop and leader are both squadmates, they can only collectively move one time. Only the leader or troop would need to spend a reaction, and the other could save their reaction for another purpose.

Five Actions

Source Battlecry! pg. 159
At the start of each of the leader’s turns, they regain actions for both themself and their troop instead of regaining their normal number of actions. The leader can choose to either grant themself 3 actions and their troop 2 actions or to grant themself 2 actions and their troop 3 actions. Either way, both the leader and troop each regain 1 reaction. The leader can choose whether they take their actions first or the troop takes their actions first, but the two can’t alternate taking actions in the same turn.

Gaining and Losing Actions: Conditions that adjust a creature’s number of actions, such as quickened and slowed, are tracked separately. For instance, if the leader and troop were both slowed 1 and the leader chose to give themself 2 actions and their troop 3, the leader would get 1 action after the deduction from slowed, and the troop would have 2. The leader still chooses how to distribute the actions if they’re unable to act. A troop that loses its leader can still take some actions, as described under Losing a Leader.

Boosted Morale

Source Battlecry! pg. 160
A leader’s presence inures their troop against terror and retreat. Troops in a skirmish encounter have a chance to become afraid or run away, as described under Routing Troops. When a troop with a leader attempts a rout roll, it gets a result one degree of success better than it rolled.

Troops in Skirmishes

Source Battlecry! pg. 160
Skirmish encounters rely heavily on the special creature type called troops. You can find troop stat blocks here. In skirmish encounters, a troop can be routed, making it flee from the battlefield. This applies to any troop in the encounter, even if it doesn’t have a leader. This section also includes rules for a troop that has a leader but loses them during the battle.

Routing Troops

Source Battlecry! pg. 160
A troop is held together by strong leadership and confidence in their battle skill. A troop must attempt a rout check each time something happens that could massively damage their morale. This happens in two situations:
  • The troop is reduced from one HP threshold to another.
  • The troop has a leader, and that leader is knocked unconscious.
If both happen at the same time, the troop rolls only one rout check. To attempt its rout check, the troop rolls a Will save against the standard DC for the level of the enemy that damaged it. This is an emotion, fear, and mental effect.
Critical Success The troop is unaffected.
Success The troop is frightened 1.
Failure The troop is frightened 2.
Critical Failure The members of the troop break formation and run away, removing the troop from the battle.

The result of a rout check applies only to the troop, not its leader. If the troop is led by a PC or NPC, the degree of success increases by one step, as noted in Boosted Morale.

Loosing a Troop

Source Battlecry! pg. 161
When a leader’s troop is defeated, the leader remains on the battlefield and can place themself anywhere within the space their troop occupied. If the troop is forced to retreat in some way, such as after gaining the fleeing condition, the leader can usually choose to stay behind, abandoning their troop. If they exercise this option, they can’t become the leader of that troop again in the same encounter.

Losing a Leader

Source Battlecry! pg. 161
All the benefits a troop gets from having a leader are lost if the leader is knocked out, leaves the battlefield, can’t act, or is otherwise unable to command the troop. Their troop can still act, but not as effectively.

A troop in a skirmish that has lost its leader regains 2 actions and 1 reaction each round, taking its turn at the same point in initiative as its former leader. If the troop had a skirmish bond, it loses those benefits since they’re closely tied to the leader. Also, remember that without a leader, the troop is also subject to the full effects of rout checks! If the leader was a PC who’s been knocked out, the GM can usually have that PC run and roleplay the troop while their character is unconscious. In other situations, the GM should run the troop.

Back-Up Plans

Source Battlecry! pg. 161
A leader can usually preemptively issue an order their troop will attempt to follow if the leader is knocked out or otherwise removed from the battle. This could include taking the leader to safety, assisting another troop, or simply retreating. If a troop is under such an order, the GM should determine what happens when the leader is lost. Typically, the troop will try to follow the back-up plan, but circumstances might render that difficult or even impossible.

Establishing a New Command

Source Battlecry! pg. 161
When a troop loses its leader, one of its allies (another PC or allied NPC, typically) can attempt to become its new leader—even during an active battle. This isn’t easy to do! The potential leader must use the following activity to do so.

Take the Lead [two-actions] (auditory, concentrate, linguistic) Requirements You aren’t leading a troop, and you’re adjacent to an allied troop that had a leader at the start of the encounter but has since lost its leader; Effect You try to become the leader of the troop. Attempt a Diplomacy check against the easy DC for the troop’s level.
Success You become the leader of the troop until the end of this combat and immediately Step into its space. The troop doesn’t gain any special skirmish actions or bonds, even if it had one with its former leader or if you had one for a troop you’ve since lost.
Failure You fail to lead the troop.
Critical Failure You fail to lead the troop, and the troop must immediately attempt a rout check.

Return of the Leader

Source Battlecry! pg. 161
If a leader is knocked out and then revived, they regain leadership of their troop. This includes all benefits they set up when they took leadership of the troop. If someone else has established command in the time between the leader being knocked out and coming back, they can voluntarily cede leadership to the original leader. If the original leader is revived but no longer within the troop’s space, they must enter the troop’s space before regaining leadership. If the original leader doesn’t wish to regain leadership of the troop when they’re revived despite being revived within the troop’s space, they’re moved to a space of their choosing adjacent to the troop.

Building Skirmish Encounters

Source Battlecry! pg. 163
Because skirmish encounters require more from the players and GM, they need to be set up with more care than a typical combat encounter. Build your skirmish encounter deliberately, following these steps.
1. Set objectives and victory and defeat conditions.
2. Pick the battlefield.
3. Choose a difficulty.
4. Add the right enemies.

1. Set Objectives

Source Battlecry! pg. 163
Given the large number of creatures involved in a skirmish encounter, it’s best to avoid just playing out a fight until everybody is at 0 HP. A skirmish encounter should have a specific objective! You can set up any objective that makes sense, which is usually relevant to the PCs but can sometimes be a shared objective both sides are competing to attain. Once the objective is attained or becomes impossible to complete, the encounter ends. It’s vitally important to make the objective clear to the players at the start of the encounter, usually while they’re making preparations. The more details you can give them, the better they can plan for the encounter and measure their success.

Some of the basic types of objectives you might choose from while designing your skirmish encounters are defined in the Military section of NPC Core. They are: defend, eliminate, and seize.

Defend

Source Battlecry! pg. 164
The PCs must defend a place, people, or valuable asset against enemy forces. To keep a skirmish that features a defend objective from being a battle that carries on until an entire side is defeated, you can use a timer—the PCs need to defend for 3 rounds, for example. It’s also wise to define what counts as failing to defend the objective. Some examples could entail:
  • The PCs must protect a refugee caravan. They meet their objective if they defend the caravan for 3 rounds but lose it if the raiders destroy three or more wagons.
  • Fiends are attacking a holy site, and the PCs must keep them from desecrating it. Allied clerics can seal one of four doorways each round, and the PCs can choose the order in which they do it. If all four doors are sealed, the site is safe and the objective met!
  • Enemy troops are trying to reach a teleportation portal to join a siege of a major city. The PCs must block a narrow mountain pass to delay them until the portal has closed. Blocking any of the enemy troops is a partial success toward the objective, but the more they stop, the safer the city will be.

Eliminate

Source Battlecry! pg. 164
Destroying a target could swing the tide of battle. PCs might look for all sorts of ways to achieve this objective, taking a more proactive approach than they would if they were defending. These encounters usually work best if the PCs can clearly find and identify the target they need to destroy—uncertainty can be especially annoying in a skirmish encounter. If you do want to make finding the target part of the encounter, such as by finding a cowardly enemy spellcaster and incapacitating them to end a ritual, give the PCs a limited number of clear places to search. Examples of eliminate objectives include:
  • Troops are stationed at the estate of a powerful political figurehead. Get past the guards and assassinate this leader.
  • Multiple shipments of weapons have been transported to an isolated but centrally located fort before being sent out to arm several battalions. Destroy the stockpile!
  • Siege engines are laying waste to allied forces and keeping them holed up in a crumbling castle. Disable or destroy the siege engines to give your allies the chance to rush forward and take the fight to the enemy.

Seize

Source Battlecry! pg. 164
The PCs must claim a specific place or target. This is similar to an eliminate objective but has the aim of capturing rather than destroying. The most important factor for structuring this type of encounter is figuring out whether the PCs just need to seize the objective (essentially moving from one place to another) or also return it (moving from one place to another and then back again, or to a third location instead). In the first category, they’ll face all their opposition in one series before seizing the objective. In the second, it’s often best to stage part of the opposition far enough away from the objective that there might then be a second stage to the fight after the PCs seize it—otherwise, you can position some of the opposition directly on the objective so that they can try to keep the PCs from leaving with it. Examples of seize objectives are:
  • Enemy archers have an excellent position occupying high ground. There’s a narrow approach to this high ground, and the PCs must defeat the archers to claim the position for themselves, then signal their allies.
  • The army the PCs are aligned with is slowly starving, as their supplies have been cut off. The PCs must seize a wagon of food and escort it back to camp.
  • A team of allied spies with important information has been captured. The PCs must reach the prison where they’re being held, free them from their cells, and help them escape.

2. Pick the Battlefield

Source Battlecry! pg. 164
A skirmish encounter is massively dependent on the battlefield. You typically want every PC and their troop to have the option to venture into melee range, so locations that are large and mostly open are usually the best option. You’ll also need to consider the engagement range—how close the PCs and enemies are when you roll initiative and start the encounter. If you choose a distant engagement range, it’s easy for troops and characters with strong ranged attacks to pick off enemies effectively from far away. Usually, you’ll want to set the range far enough that ranged attackers aren’t useless, but close enough that melee attackers who are determined can get at least one attack (or offensive troop ability) off in the first round of combat.

If the battlefield is small, narrow, or has many impediments like walls in the way, it can be hard for troops to engage successfully in melee. Most combats call for something in the middle: a mostly open field that still provides some tactical depth through a couple pieces of terrain, which won’t completely block the path of the forces but must still be navigated around.

Terrain and Hazards

Source Battlecry! pg. 165
Difficult terrain, hazardous terrain, and mechanical or magical hazards can add more considerations to the battle. This isn’t always a good thing! Skirmish encounters are already complex, with players and the GM already needing to run troops in addition to their normal characters. If you incorporate these features, look for ones that either add to creativity or that grant certain combat participants advantages. For instance, if one of the PCs has a flying troop, you might place some terrain that makes them the best troop to go take out a ranged enemy troop. Alternatively, you might put a fortification of spikes or flaming coals down along the most direct path to the enemy but provide a slightly longer side path, so the PCs need to decide whether to rush through and take damage or get fewer attacks in by taking the long way. Either way, use special terrain and hazards sparingly!

3D Terrain

Source Battlecry! pg. 165
Skirmishes can occur across three dimensions if you make use of multiple floors in a castle turret, a bridge above a bigger battlefield, or similar areas. This can make the best use of your space but can be hard to play out in the game, so these scenarios work best if you’re playing with 3D gaming terrain. In other situations, you might need to build out a map that has segments for each floor and arrows or colored zones to show how they’re linked. If you want to use this technique, it’s best to start small, such as by making a gatehouse that has small turrets to the side, so you don’t need to stack one layer on top of another.

3. Choose a Difficulty

Source Battlecry! pg. 165
Designing a skirmish encounter starts the same way as designing a regular encounter. Choose a threat and XP budget appropriate for your group. Then, add the troops you want the PCs to have to their <%RULES%####%%>side and increase the XP budget by the troops’ XP value. For example, if you were designing a low-threat skirmish encounter for a 7th-level group of four PCs, you’d start with 60 XP for the budget If each PC had a 7th-level troop, you’d add 160 XP to the encounter budget since that’s the XP for four 7th-level creatures. You would then have a total budget of 220 XP. This still counts as a low encounter, though if you later decide you want a moderate encounter, you can adjust the budget to 240 XP and add more adversaries or increase the level of the ones you have.

4. Add the Right Enemies

Source Battlecry! pg. 165
Now you have your encounter budget, but you need to pick the troops and other adversaries. The normal encounter-building guidelines still apply in a skirmish encounter! Most of the budget should be for troops and opposing leaders within 1 or 2 levels of the party. Of course, choosing enemies for a skirmish is about more than just the numbers. Consider the following factors in the structure of your battle to pick the best options.

Troop Variety

Source Battlecry! pg. 165
A skirmish encounter is large enough that some variety between troops is essential for keeping the encounter interesting. Try to include mostly melee-focused troops with a few ranged or spellcasting ones. You can include multiples of the same troop, and often should, just like how you might use multiples of the same individual monster. This lets the players learn how best to battle those specific enemies.

Leaders

Source Battlecry! pg. 166
A variety in leaders can be just as important as a variety of troops. Even two of the same troop can play differently if they have two different leaders or one has a leader and the other doesn’t. Usually, you’ll want to choose leaders out of the base XP budget before adjusting for troops. If you want to focus the narrative on one significant leader, spend much of your budget on one NPC who’s 2 levels higher than the PCs. If you want a more even battle, choose leaders of the PCs’ level or 1 lower.

Including troops with no leaders lets you bring the full set of skirmish rules into play. Troops who can be routed can simplify the battlefield quickly and make the PCs feel powerful. Usually, you’ll want at least one or two leaderless troops in a skirmish encounter.

Wild Cards

Source Battlecry! pg. 166
Despite all the focus on troops versus troops, non-troop monsters still work in skirmish encounters, so you might throw in a manticore, dragon, or other creature for more variety. They can add surprise tactics and shake up the expected style of the encounter, and they don’t have the same weaknesses to troops’ offensive abilities that other troops do. Creatures that can Fly, Burrow, or use other movement modes are especially useful. Individual humanoids, especially Medium or smaller creatures, are usually a poor addition to the encounter unless they’re leading a troop.

Special Considerations

Source Battlecry! pg. 166
The advice in this section addresses certain issues that might arise when planning or running skirmish warfare.

Lone Wolf PCs

Source Battlecry! pg. 166
So, you have a PC in your group who doesn’t play well with others. They might not be at all interested in leading a group because of their character’s personality or abilities. Usually, your best course of action as GM is to reduce the number of troops the PCs can command by one when building your encounter, which adjusts the XP budget accordingly.

If you find that all or most of your group feels the same way, skirmish encounters are probably a bad fit for your campaign or adventure. You might look at ways to turn warfare into background or set dressing rather than making it an active part of combat that needs to be played out using these rules.

One Tough Enemy

Source Battlecry! pg. 167
You can add troops to the PCs’ side of a combat against a big monster to even the odds and turn what would be an extreme encounter into a moderate encounter. It’s still extremely challenging to go above party level + 4 for an adversary. For such an encounter, giving every PC a troop will likely make the encounter too easy, so it’s usually better to start with the intended enemy and add troops until you have your desired encounter budget balance. For example, you could add a boss of party level + 4, worth 160 XP, and add 80 XP worth of troops to the PCs’ side to make it effectively a moderate encounter. Note that if you have an enemy who can frequently dish out effects that deal damage in an area, the troops will likely be less effective because the enemy can easily exploit their weaknesses.

Customizing Troops

Source Battlecry! pg. 169
Choosing the right troops for your group can be challenging since the number of troops in the game is limited compared to the number of creatures overall. The Troops trait troops options and can be especially useful as a reference.

When choosing troops, first remember that you can stretch a level up or down fairly easily. Second, you can use the elite and weak adjustments for a quick and dirty adjustment to statistics. Third, you can freely “reskin” troops to change their theme, such as making a boggard scouting party human rogues who use grappling hooks instead of tongues to pull in enemies. Fourth, you can mix and match abilities from different troops of similar levels—if one has an emanation offensive ability you like and another's ranged ability works for the theme you like, swap them in as needed!

Quick Skirmish Groups

Source Battlecry! pg. 169
If you want to have a skirmish encounter that’s ready to go, here are some skirmish encounters pre-built for certain levels. They include one troop per PC for a four-person party, but you can remove troops or add duplicate troops to each side to adjust. Creatures come from the troop trait.

Undead Soldiers (Level 4)

Source Battlecry! pg. 169
Threat Low (60 XP)
PC Troops apprentice magician clique (60 XP), 2 goblin rabbles (40 XP each), orc raiding party (60 XP)
Enemy Commanders 2 wights (30 XP each) ; Enemy Troops skeleton mob (80 XP), 3 shambler troops (40 XP each)

Clash of Steel (Level 6)

Source Battlecry! pg. 169
Threat Moderate (70 XP)
Player Troops 2 dwarf battalions 40 XP each), heavy cavalry (60 XP), line infantry (40 XP)
Enemy Commanders hobgoblin archer (20 XP), 2 hobgoblin generals MC (40 XP each);
Enemy Troops goblin get gang (30 XP), 2 hobgoblin battalions NPCC (40 XP each), Qadiran camel corps (40 XP)

Abominable Armies (Level 8)

Source Battlecry! pg. 169
Threat Moderate (80 XP)
PC Troops animated army (40 XP), 2 hobgoblin veteran regiments (60 XP each), woodland scouts (40 XP)
Enemy Commanders 2 jah-tohls (40 XP each);
Enemy Troops 2 fleshwarp amalgams (40 XP each), 2 sinswarms (60 XP each)

Open the Gates of Hell (Level 9)

Source Battlecry! pg. 169
Threat Severe (110 XP)
PC Troops mercenary band (40 XP), watchmage squadron (60 XP), 2 woodland scouts (30 XP each)
Enemy Commanders greater hell hound (40 XP), 2 phistophiluses (60 XP each) ; Enemy Troops hell hound pack (30 XP), Hellknight cavalry brigade (30 XP), vordine legion (60 XP)

Glorious Death! (Level 11)

Source Battlecry! pg. 169
Threat Moderate (80 XP)
PC Troops angelic chorus (60 XP), weak vanth guardian flock (60 XP), 2 viking guards (40 XP each)
Enemy Commanders 2 graveknights (30 XP each), lich (60 XP); Enemy Troops 2 rancorous priesthoods (40 XP each), 2 skeleton infantries (40 XP each)

Nature Versus Nature (Level 13)

Source Battlecry! pg. 169
Threat Moderate (90 XP)
PC Troops dezullon thicket (60 XP), druid circle (30 XP), 2 first-class infantries (40 XP each);
Enemy Commanders crag linnorm (60 XP), 2 dryad queens (40 XP each) Enemy Troops drake flight (40 XP), 2 xulgath dinosaur cavalries (40 XP each)