Warbands: Making Low Level Creatures a Mid Level Threat

The difference is the challenge to our player. In Tale #1, Rygar is faced with a reasonable match: four Level 2 Goblins versus a single Level 3 Barbarian. It may not be a life-threatening challenge for our intrepid hero, but they’ll get in a few jabs and slashes before he defeats them. However, Rygar in Tale #2 is a Level 12 Barbarian who is about to wear the skins of four goblins like a hat for all the challenge they’re going to provide him. It’s likely his Encounter powers alone may kill two of them in one hit, and it’s nigh impossible for the goblins to hit him in return. You, the DM, went looking for some challenging Goblins, but while they’re interesting and fun creatures to play out they’re not exactly common at high levels.

Now, let’s take the second tale and change it up a bit. See if you catch the difference this time.

Tale 1: The stillness of the morning was short lived, Rygar knew, and a minute later he knew why. The long, drawn out blare of a warhorn echoed across the valley. With the wave of an invisible hand, the fog over the battlefield cleared suddenly. Across the grassy field, four goblins stood wielding scimitars and spears, shouting jests in their gutteral language. Gripping his battleaxe and drawing on his twelve ranks of Barbarian training, he charged across the field to answer their foul challenges.

Tale 2: The stillness of the morning was short lived, Rygar knew, and a minute later he knew why. The long, drawn out blare of a warhorn echoed across the valley. With the wave of an invisible hand, the fog over the battlefield cleared suddenly. Across the grassy field, four dozen goblins stood wielding scimitars and spears, shouting jests in their gutteral language. Gripping his battleaxe and drawing on his twelve ranks of Barbarian training, he charged across the field to answer their foul challenges.

Rygar may have laughed like a maniac through the first version of that tale, but he might be sweating a bit more this time with the second version. Four dozen goblins, even if they’re all individually weak, can wreck havoc on a single hero. Even a full party or a village is going to be challenged. And with their numbers, it becomes far more of a challenge than it appears at first. There is strength in numbers, and the weaker creatures in the world know this. When facing a foe more powerful than them, they will come together and form a warband to collectively increase their strength and defenses.

Mechnically, a Warband may look like a swarm creature and it does share similar characteristics, but they’re more than a swarm. The Warband is an Elite Template you apply to a lesser creature to increase their abilities to a level appropriate for the challenge they’ll be facing. This is a three-stage process, starting with leveling up the creature’s statistics to your chosen level. The follow rules are based on the version from page 174 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide:

• Add 1 to each Defense and each Attack Roll for every level increased.
• Add hit points based on the Monster’s Role: Skirmishers, Soldiers and Controllers gain 8 HP per level gained, Artillery and Lurkers gain 6 HP per level gained, and Brutes gain 10 HP per level gained.
• Add half the level increase (round down) to all ability checks, Initiative rolls and trained skills.

Next, let’s take your newly strengthened creature and copy him a few dozen times. To do that, apply the following Template:

Elite Warband

Defenses: +2 AC; -2 Reflex.
Saving Throws: +4 against Fear effects while not bloodied
Action Point: +1
Hit Points: x2 current hit points.
Size: Increase by 3 (Small becomes Huge, Medium becomes Gargantuan)
Resistance: Half damage from single target attacks
Vulnerable: 5 from Area Attacks (Increase to 10 at Level 11 and 15 at Level 21)

Powers:
[In the Thick of It]
Squares that the Warband occupies are considered Difficult Terrain. The Warband can occupy squares of any creature smaller than it. Creatures that start its turn within the Warband takes the damage equal to the Warband’s level.

[Eyes on Your Foe]
The Warband is immune to the Flanked condition.

[Crowded Fighting]
While not Bloodied, the Warband takes half damage from an Area attack that misses it and deals half damage when it misses with a melee attack.

[Weapons Free]
When making a Melee attack, the Warband may make that attack against all creatures in melee range.

The idea of a Warband is that it’s a raging mob of creatures cheering each other on and swarming over their foes to attack from all sides. Several of the effects are reduced or eliminated by the Bloodied condition as the mob is thinned out. The Warband has features similar to a Swarm, however it has extra features benefitting its intelligence and training. Several of its features become weaker or go away when becoming Bloodied, representing the Warband being thinned out by the continuing combat.

The final change that needs to be done is to modify the powers of the original creature. First off, the damage of the attack powers need to be increased, representing the fact that it’s not a single creature attacking but a mob of them. The DMG’s rule is to increase the damage by 1 for every two levels increased. If that doesn’t work for you, an easy guideline would be to use the Damage by Level chart in the Essentials Dungeon Master’s Guide (page 108), using the level of the Warband. Adjust the damage modifier higher or lower as you feel would be appropriate for the power, but the guideline is that the creatures will be using their normal weapon or natural attacks and at least two to three will hit a single target.

Take note that certain types of powers will not function the same way in a crowded setting:

• Close Burst powers originate from one square of the Warband, not the center.
• Close Blast powers function normally.
• Increase the size of a multiple target Burst or Blast effect (whether Close or Ranged) by 1.
• Powers that cause the Warband to shift as a reaction are not appropriate most of the time for the mechanics, since they typically represent just one creature reacting to an attack.

The above rules creates an Elite Warband, capable of doing serious damage on its own but may be paired with a few individual creatures who are standouts. An example would be an Orcish Warband plus a Orc Commander (consider demoralizing the Warband if the Commander can be killed separately).

For a real challenge, though, recruit a few more creatures into your Warband and grow it to a unstoppable sea of swords and claws. To create a Solo Warband, use the following template (differences from the Elite Warband are italicized):

Solo Warband

Defenses: +3 AC; -3 Reflex
Saving Throws: +4 against Fear effects while not bloodied
Action Point: +2
Hit Points: x4 Current Hitpoints
Size: Increase by 4 (Small becomes Gargantuan, Medium becomes 5×5)
Resistance: Half damage from single target attacks
Vulnerable: 5 from Area Attacks (Increase to 10 at Level 11 and 15 at Level 21)

Powers:
[In the Thick of It]
Squares that the Warband occupies are considered Difficult Terrain. The Warband can occupy squares of any creature smaller than it. Creatures that start its turn within the Warband takes the damage equal to the Warband’s level.

[Eyes on Your Foe]
The Warband is immune to the Flanked condition.

[Crowded Fighting]
While not Bloodied, the Warband takes half damage from an Area attack that misses it and deals half damage when it misses with a melee attack.

[Weapons Free]
When making a Melee attack, the Warband may make that attack against all creatures in melee range.

Additionally, select one of the following powers as appropriate for the creatures in use:

[Press the Attack]
At-Will, Minor Action (2/round, 1/round while Bloodied): Melee 0; Level + 3 vs. Reflex; Hit: The target is slid 1 square or pushed 2 squares.

[Mob Grab]
At-Will, Minor Action (1/round). Requirement: Must have less than two targets grabbed (one target if Bloodied). Melee 1; Level +2 vs. Reflex; Hit: The target is grabbed. (Escape with Acrobatics, Medium DC of Warband’s level.) While grabbed, the target moves with the Warband as a free action.

[Instill Fear]
Encounter, Standard Action (Fear). Close Burst 5 (targets enemies in area); Level +3 vs. Fortitude; Hit: The target takes a -2 to attack rolls, defenses and saving throws (save ends all).

[Protect the Flank]
When making a ranged or area attack, the Warband does not provoke an opportunity attack for adjacent enemies. Instead, the front line shields the rest of the Warband, dealing 5 less damage (10 less at Level 11 and 15 less at Level 21) when making a ranged or area attack while an enemy is adjacent to the warband.

[Shield Line]
Requirement: The Warband must have a Melee attack of 2 or higher. At the beginning of its turn, the Warband can choose to take a -2 to hit with Melee attacks and the range is reduced to 1. In exchange, the Warband’s AC increases by 3.

[Coordinated Attacks]
The Warband has a second Initiative that is 10 higher than its normal one. During this second Initiative, the Warband may take one Standard Action and one Minor Action.

With these extra abilities, your Warband has become a veritable tsunami of destruction, powerful enough to stand on its own. The next time your Level 10 party sees 4 kobolds standing in the middle of a road taunting them, they may think twice about charging them when 46 of their friends come out of hiding as soon as they make their move!