So I'm dm-ing and I was wondering how an actual enemy formation

>>54910606
There's couple Feats for that in one of the splats.

>>54910606
It's damned rare for splats to cover this but the nuts and bolts are that they give bonuses to the people next to them.

A basic shield wall, for example, gives a defense bonus to the man on your left side. A phalanx gives the second and third lines attacks of opportunity on anyone attack the first rank. A turtle formation (the roman version is called Testudo) gives a big defense bonus to everybody. Almost all formations give bonuses to moral.


When you move a formation, move them all on the same initiative step. Coordinating this many people is difficult so expect an officer to be giving commands.

It's interesting to think about how magic on the battlefield might affect formations. A full testudo might give advantage to save against fireballs (the downside being that you've still got a shitload of men being hit by a single burst,) but against cloud spells and such it seems like a straight-up liability.

Treat any large formation as a mob. There are various templates, at least in 3.5 and pathfinder.

Mobs are treated as 1 unit and are vastly more dangerous than a single person, but might take more damage from AoE effects. Implement some basic morale system or just base it off HP to determine when they panic and break up due to combat losses and other effects.

If they got a shield wall, just slap on resistance to physical damage.

>>54910606
You could treat them as a single creature. I have rules to post if you want.

Historically, >>54910801 has it.

>>54910861
A 3.5 edition suplement dealt with this. I remember it saying that all infantry becoming skirmishers and fortresses being underground would happen much before modern times.

But fire seems like a great tactic against a testudo, fireball or not. If we count the psychological effect and heat, going by rules alone doesn't relate.

>>54910972
Non-magical fire would work just fine. Just toss a brasier of hot coals at their feet and see if they can keep up the formation.

>>54910972
The rules would be great. Thanks man

>>54911050
You can get the same effect from caltrops. They can change course or keep the formation at a slower pace.

Use hot sand. It would get inside armor and clothes.

>>54911145
I forgot to ask, are you using which edition? I have rules for 3.5, but I would say they're easily adaptable.

>>54911174
Yea I'm running 3.5 right now

>>54911174
I know OP is running 3.5, but how would you adapt it to 5e? I would love to surprise my players with a phalanx or testudo.

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>>54911199
"Unit"
This template represents something like 10 to 20 warriors/soldiers working together. It doesn't scale very well above that.

Level: +4 for effects that depend on level.

CR: +4

Size: increases in one category. This applies to hiding and combat manuevers, but not attack or AC.

Hit points: Multiply the original creature's hp by five.

Attack: original creature +10.

Damage: what happens is that the military unit deals one extra damage for every 3 points its attack roll exceeds the enemy AC. Say a bunch of spearmen (1d6) attacks a enemy with 15 AC, and they roll 18. This means their damage is 2d6. It's hard to fight multiple coordinated enemies.

Special abilities:

-A unit is immune to effects which don't cause damage and target just one creature, like charm person. But sleep, which affects an area, affects an unit just fine. Acid arrow, which targets one creature but causes damage, also works.

-An unit suffers an extra 50% damage with area attacks. The cleave feat allows someone to make an extra attack, improved cleave allows an extra two.

All other stats remain the same as the original creature.

>>54911279
I think the attack bonus increase should be smaller, because 5E AC's are smaller in general. Perhaps +5 only. I think the rest remains as is.

>>54911763
Awesome! Thanks, Anon!

>>54911763
Fucking GOAT man. Gonna fuck with my players so hard

>>54911279
The mob rules tucked somewhere in the DMG might be useful here.

>>54911796
>>54911838
You're welcome anons

>>54910606
I actually had enemies use a sort of pike and shot formation.
It was one of the few times I've actually seen my players think outside the box.