**This is an old revision of the document!**
Table of Contents
War Pigs & The Mob Rules
The Mob Rules can scale up and War Pigs can scale down so there is some overlap but there are also situations where it's really clear which of the two systems to use.
The Mob Rules
From 5e DMG, these are great for quickly handling groups attacking.
"Handling Mobs", from the 5e DMG, can handle smaller groups like five, eight, something like that up to mabe a hundred. It's great for when like ten goblins attack you! It can also be used for henches and skirmish groups on your side, too.
A huge upside is that The Mob Rules mixes very well with normal heroes and monsters! It's just a way to group some creatures together into mobs while others can still be handled as normal.
It works best when the creatures in the mob have pretty much the same attack bonus.
Throughout the fight keep track of the numbers we calculate out because they can be reused for future rounds making the rest of the fight even faster♥
When that mob attacks, take their target's AC minus the mob's attack bonus, look that number up in this table to find the "attackers needed" number.
d20 Roll Needed | Attackers Needed for One to Hit -|- 1–5|1 6–12|2 13–14|3 15–16|4 17–18|5 19|10 20|20
Let's say it's goblins (+4) vs guards (AC 16) so (12) we find a 2! That means that for every two goblins in the mob, one hits! So a mob of six or seven goblins would land three hits!
That's right! The mob doesn't even need to roll to hit, they are just that good! (The downside is that they can't crit. They trade precision for brutality.)
If the creatures in the mob deal different damage, the most brutal people are definitely among the ones that hit! (And if they have multiattack, all of their attacks hit!)
For defense, the individual creatures in the mob defend and die like normal.
When the "Attackers Needed" number is larger than the amount of people in the mob, it's time to split the mob up and handle them as individuals.
War Pigs
Here is my own spin on the "War Machine", from the classic D&D Rules Cyclopedia, for when armies clash! Down to 10 v 10 but can handle millions upon utter millions! And, the armies can be completely diverse too♥
Both armies just roll a d100 and add their Battle Ratings to that and the result with the highest number wins. Easy peasy! See this table for detailed results:
Diff|Losses (w)|(l)|Exhaustion (w)|(l)|Location (w)|(l) -|-|-|-|-|-|- 1–8|0|10%|0|0|Holds the field|Must retreat one 9–15|0|20%|0|0|Holds the field|Must retreat one 16–24|10%|20%|0|+2|Holds the field|Must retreat one 25–30|10%|30%|0|+2|Holds the field|Must retreat two 31–38|20%|40%|+2|+4|Must retreat one|Must retreat one 39–50|0%|30%|0|+4|Holds the field|Must retreat three 51–63|20%|50%|+2|+4|May advance one|Must retreat four 64–80|30%|60%|+2|+4|May advance one|Must retreat four 81–90|10%|50%|0|+4|May advance three|Must retreat three 91–100|0%|30%|0|Routed|May advance three|Routed 101–120|20%|70%|0|Routed|May advance three|Routed 121–150|10%|70%|0|Routed|May advance three|Routed 151+|10%|100%|0|—|May advance five|—
Routed means that the survivors scatter and migth make it home in 1d10 weeks.
This kind of fighting has a cap of four exhaustion levels and they are removed normally, by resting. They don't effect the army's movement etc, but the Battle Rating decreases by -10 for two levels of exhaustion or -30 for four.
Optional Tactics Rules
Each side secretly chooses and commits to one of these six tactics (for example by hiding a six sided die):
- Overwhelm (forceful attack to overrun)
- Attack (close and combat)
- Envelop (attempt to encircle foe)
- Trap (lure foe to an ambush)
- Hold (stand fast at all costs)
- Withdraw (retreat rather than fight)
|Overwhelm|Attack|Envelop|Trap|Hold|Withdraw -|-|-|-|-|-|- Overwhelm|C2/C2|-20/C2|C1/+10|+20/C2|-25/C2|C3/+2O Attack|C2/-20+|C1/C1|-10/C1|+10/C1|C-1/—|C2/+10 Envelop|+10/C1|C1/-10|NE|-20/C-1|C2/+20|C-1/+10 Trap|C2/+20|C1/+10|C-1/-20|NE|C-1/-20|C-1/C-1 Hold|C2/-25|—/C-1|+20/C2|-20/C1|NC|NC Withdraw|+20/C3|+10/C2|+10/C-1|C-1/C-1|NC|NC
C1, C2 etc : Casualties increase by 10%, 20% etc
-20, +10 etc : Battle Rating changed by -20, +10 etc.
NE : No effect, fight as normal
NC : Fight cancelled!
