Here's the story: Hobgobin warleader, residing in an old,

>>50593063
Evenly distribute everyone among all the rooms with absolutely no communication between them. Even if there are obvious sounds of battle, everyone stays in their room and pretends like nothing is wrong until their door gets kicked in.

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>>50594510
You joke, but sadly I think that's how the thing is balanced/ meant to be played?

He shouldnt stay in his castle. Just played through that, and while my party was in the abandoned villiage, the bard rolled a pair of 20s to convince the dragon the help us take the castle.

>>50594723
I hate to ask, but why would the dragon do this?

>>50594775
Because some people think that a natural 20 can accomplish anything at all.

I like the rules for applying social skills in the 5e DMG, if anyone would ever bother to use them. It's not like in 3.5 where a high enough check can instantly make anyone fanatically devoted to you. The upper limits of what you can achieve with a check are based on the NPC's attitude toward you - and a good check does not improve the NPC's attitude. A hostile character will not suddenly switch sides and fight for you under any circumstances, but he may be convinced to stand back and offer neither help nor harm. Changing an NPC's attitude is left to the DM's common sense.

>>50593063
Goblin-types and wolf take everything of value they can carry and move to a hidden campsite or cave complex. Set a few traps in the castle, and leave the grick and owlbear to fend for themselves.

If there's a relatively safe viewpoint near the castle, detail a goblin to camp out there and watch the show. Otherwise just come back in 2-3 weeks.

>>50594775
I can't remember the town name but the dragon resides in this shitty little crumbly tower.

>party enters dragons lair, dragon speaks to us, demands to know why we are bothering him. Not immediately hostile, but definitely annoyed
>random dragon priests we came with attack him. DM has us roll for initiative.
>bard: wtf, this dragon was just minding his own business. He was up first from our party. Attacks dragon priests.
>party kills dragon priests. DM let's us make peace with dragon
>dragon is even more irritate, doesnt trust us
>bard starts small talking about tower, hinting how small it is and cramped the dragon must be
>brings up cragmore castle, sells it as a much nicer place to be
> full salesman mode
>dm let's bard roll for it
>20
>dragon is convinced to move but doesn't see why he need party to take it
>more bardic flattering
>sure you can kill them easily, but its a big castle and a few might escape your wrath
> you don't want baddies poisoning your water or stealing treasure. We will clear out the stragglers
> DM let's bard roll Chrr vs dragons INT
>20

Table went nuts. It was a fun time

Do the players have something they value? Perhaps a treasured NPC left undefended back home, or McGuffin loot? The warlord finds out about it and the players either arrive to find the castle abandoned, or find that the warlord is holding said treasure hostage for their good behaviour. (Depends on how hard you enforce travel time in your campaign). In either case, the warlord forces the party to perform increasingly illegal tasks as he acts as their new boss.

Alternatively, he rigs up the entire first room to collapse into a spike pit, drops an owlbear on top of them, and has all his forces shoot the party until they die. But that's no fun.

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OP here.

Appreciated.

>>50594510
This pissess me off the most.

>>50595397
>Alternatively, he rigs up the entire first room to collapse into a spike pit, drops an owlbear on top of them, and has all his forces shoot the party until they die. But that's no fun.
I disagree. As a player I think the traps that are actually effective are the most fun to try to work around.

>>50595118
This is pretty good. Even just simple snares and the like can really fuck with a party of adventurers that are now suddenly facing an ambush from a horrifying tentacle-monster-lamprey, particularly if you advance it a bit to make it a more worthy solo threat.

>>50596039
It takes zero effort to make a trap to kill players. It's the mechanical equivilent of rocks fall everyone dies

>>50599228
And once they've died a few times they'll learn to think about there being traps.

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>mfw not playing a rogue because I'm not a shifty cunt, but still have more clever tools to detect traps than the rest of the party
>not a soul brought extra water or fluid to check for fall-away ground or illusory walkways covering pitfalls
>I'm the only guy with a foldable ladder and a ten foot pole
>only person with fucking rope and a grappling hook
>the entire party I joined boasting about being clever veterans but they're all laughably ill- prepared, never plan, never research their known enemy
>mfw

>>50593063
Your list leaves out the single most important thing the warleader has: a castle.

He'd be a fool not to cut down some trees or otherwise block off the holes in the wall, and simply fire arrows at anybody that gets close. That's the reason castles are built: they are the best way to defend yourself. He's a war leader, he would know this. In fact, unless he's only been there for a short period of time, he should have boarded the walls up already.

If the adventurers manage to make it close to the castle, release the owlbear so you can get another couple rounds of 15 goblins dumping arrows into the party. Remember that the goblins have 3/4 cover this whole time, too.

If the party makes it into the castle, the goblins will want to draw them into the center room, which will let the goblins surround the party. Fighting in a doorway just means the goblins have to line up to 1v1 the party's fighter. The goblins have the number advantage, so they better be using it.

About the time half the goblins are dead, if it doesn't look like he can win, the warlord will probably try to get away with (riding?) his wolf.

>>50599950
Oh, I don't know anything about gricks. If it can tank, release it like the owlbear. Otherwise, have it waiting inside to melee the party with the rest of the goblins. If it's fast, and the barrage of arrows causes the party to flee, maybe send the grick to finish them off.

Depending on how arrogant the warlord is, he might send all of his goblins to finish them off, too...

>>50593063

First off he should clear the area around his castle, make sure he has a hundred yards or so between his walls and the woods.. A killing ground is an important part of the defense of a castle. He should set sentries, and establish a patrol. There shouldn't neccisarily be a plan for if they get in because the whole point is o get them out. In the event they get on his men should be trained to raise the alarm given a chance. He should sit back with a reserve force ready to reinforce any area that is struggling. But to be honest you don't have the men to defend that position all that well from a larger assualt. You need to do some recruiting. I mean you could deal with a small party, but if your goblin is acting as he should the pcs are not his only concern and the idea a rival warbands could come to take his fort should worry him and he should prepare accordingly.

>>50600358
Sentries obviously, but I disagree with the patrol. The "castle" is only like 100 ft across. No need to risk loosing people by having them wander around outside the defences when you can see just fine from inside.

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>>50595178
That's a good argument.

>>50600549

Point. He doesn't really have the men for it anyway.

>>50593063
What program was used to make that picture? I need to design a fortress for something. A good bit bigger than that, though.

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>>50604535
Ask WizKids. It's about the one thing they consistently get right.

>>50605159
This looks perfect for my purposes. Hopefully its something with a lot of assets to position, I'm terrible at drawing.

Thanks.

>>50605159
There is a program for making that fortress!?

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>>50605304

>>50595178
>dragon...not immediately hostile, but definitely annoyed
>Party member atks
goodness one of my groups told me a similiar story. They fight/run away from dragon and end session early, still near the dragon. party's Dragonborn wasn't there for the session
Next session, party's Dragonborn comes and tries to talk to the dragon.
Dead

of course idk if they told him the dragon is pissed.

>>50593063
The only enemies in that castle who aren't supposed to care unless the alarm is tripped are the hobgoblins.

For a good time, hope the party doesn't encounter them, and then have them release the owlbear into the leader's chamber once they finish with him and try to long rest there.

You should also have the fake drow book it as soon as the fight turns south, running through that wandering hunting party if chased, so there's 3 more hobgoblins and 2 more wolves joining the fight midway through.

>>50593063
suppose the broken walls (or at least the outside) are barricaded/fixed so the players can't go through there normally. also idk if those weird doors are suppose to be curtains, metal doors, or metal grates

1-2 at the main door as a sentry

Another 2 gobs with a (optional) hob-gob in lobby either simply guarding or waiting in ambush (either in the lobby or other rooms over). my reason for the Hob is that he's there/going around to make sure sentries are doing their job

a Sentry at southwest bunks

the Grick at either the dining room or at what I think is the shrine (at the north), because since Wargob was able to deal with it, He may have given it a nicer room. in addition, it will be isolated from the other goblins, and Players may stumble upon it in a somewhat large room.

a group of gobs in center room (the one with the unlit fire) eating/sleeping/whatever. you could put another Hob there to instruct/watch over them.

Gob and 2 hob gobs in the next room, with the gob closer to the door to the outside.

in the area where I imagine the hobgobs sleep, you can have 2-3 Hobgobs relaxing/standing guard. with a gob there to open the south door to release the Owlbear, and serve the hobs (if that's a thing).

Wargob gets the nicest room with his wolf. you can have a hob just outside his door.

>>50593063
I HATE how the walls of that place are falling in. nobody in his right mind would try defending all of that with such flank gaps.nightmarish.

It's unlikely that his forces will be on high alert to start, they're not disciplined enough and doubtlessly cuts on business. So this needs to be taken into account in accords to their disposition. Instead, early warning and accurate information are very important. The goblins are not effective scouts, and the hobgoblins are hardly ever while being priceless to lose early. His wolf is an excellent early warning system, but I doubt he'd be comfortable leaving it off in the woods for a prolonged period rather far away either. Headaches.

One goblin hidden in a tree along the south footpath.Instructed to hide and suitably camouflaged, but given crossbows for scout purposes. They will run back to warn if possible One goblin similarly along the north path.

Wolf and the hobgoblins guard, which has been boarded up substantially to be a sort of bunker with slit viewing ports. Their orders are to fire off crossbows at distance when the wolf stirs and then retreat deeper into the complex. They will fall back on a second lines of wooden defenses to snipe with the crossbows from- this is a bait to draw the foe in


The gobbos will be in a pack doing something productive under watchful eye nearby- they can't be trusted to be the first line of defense but when the fighting starts can be mustered to bolster defense. Their chief task is to ready the second line of traps and defenses for the hobgoblins to retreat past to, and in the decisive stand off harass the party from afar or sally forth

The owlbear awill be hidden in ambush positions that the hobgoblins are meant to drive the party toward. when it's cage opens and it melees the party in the midst of a trapped beaten ground of crossbow fire, the decisive stand is on. The grick may follow up should the owlbear die to bide for time. The warlord will watch

>>50593063
>He has ATM at his disposal
So just bribe the heroes to make them go away.

>>50599710
Bag of flour is a fantastic item with lots of potential