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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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Battlecry! / Skirmish Units

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.

Commanders and Troops

A commander can choose a troop as a squadmate, treating them as one ally. They can choose troops led by allies as squadmates, too, if the ally allows it. The Under Command skirmish bond can make commanders more effective in skirmish warfare.

Commanders should note the movement limit for units off their turn, as described under Combined Movement . Tactics that can grant movement to multiple squadmates don’t get to double up for combined units. There might be some overlap between your tactics and the options you have for skirmish bonds. Check carefully to make sure you’re choosing combinations that actually work well together. For most commanders, the best choice of skirmish bond is Under Command.

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.

Playing at a Different Scale

Troops take up a lot of space on the battlefield. This can be a fun twist if you’re using a digital tabletop that lets you zoom in and out or if you have plenty of space and gaming miniatures to indicate the scale. In other situations, it might work better for your playing space to change the scale of your map for a troop skirmish. You might want to play using a 10-foot scale, with each segment of a troop filling one square. If you do, you’ll need to take care of two main tasks.

Rounding Movement and Size: It’s usually best to round up movement and sizes to the nearest 10 feet. This makes a 25-foot speed travel 3 squares, has a Medium or Small creature fill 1 square, and has a Huge creature fill a 2 × 2 space. You can still place up to four Medium or Small creatures in a single square if necessary, though usually you want to play out skirmishes on a large enough scale that such fine positioning isn’t important.

Track Troops and Individual Creatures: It can be tricky to differentiate between a troop and their leader at this scale. To represent a leader and troop on the battlefield, it’s best to put a miniature for the leader in one square and three miniatures for the troops in the other squares. This way, you can remove one miniature each time the troop drops below an HP threshold, then remove the final troop mini when the troop is defeated, leaving just the leader on the battlefield.

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.