(animated) DnD Mob Combat Rules #NODICEROLLS!

This became very relevant when the party decided to clear out a roost of 40 imps. Basically took the Mob Combat rules, coupled with the notion that there were so many imps that each and every player shouldn't have to worry about moving into melee range manually, so essentially the entire fight played out like an early Final Fantasy video game.
Your turn, roll your attacks, good, you hit three imps, they all die. Next.
Acid breath? Sure that hits, I dunno, 5 imps. Roll damage... Yeah the saves don't matter they all take at least 10 and die. Next.

Whole fight was just fuck it, we do it as fast as conceivably possible.

This guys trying to get us to use THAC0 again turn back now!

wait so i basically sacrifice all my creatures possible hits to maby get just one? is there something i'm not getting here?
(ok so i read the page in the dmg that details this and i think it's just supposed to be a rough average in favour of the players and is just worded weirdly)

New cold road new cold road new cold road!

The thing with these rules that i dont get is, it blatantly makes mob enemies weaker

I'm going to make a zombie chase using this THAN I'M GOING TO MAKE A BOSS THAT THROWS ZOMBIES AT MY PLAYERS

Completely useless when any player decides to max out their character's AC.
Also super-important the second a group of 4 or 5 players get level 6 or higher in a world based in anything except common legendary dragons and gods everywhere where the only threat needs to be whole battle-groups, armies. No official simplified group monster stats? No? Anyone?
Ok, another massive, gaping, easily fixed hole, like metric stats.

3 Statisticians went hunting. The first shot a meter high. The second, a meter low. And then the third one showted: We hit it!!!

boo

Starting my game off with 20 to 30 orcs chasing the PCs.... Whats the number i need for them to roll??

Just like 40K

The first rule of mob combat it to dress sharp.

A campaign set in a metropolis featuring mafias, cartels, heists and other crimes sounds amazing. It seems to me like a fine opportunity for downtime and PC's having professions, you know, like being craftsmen or offering services to the common folk as a cover identity between bigger crimes and stuff. The goal is to mix Shadowrun's crime "simulation" with D&D and Pathfinder's more cozy medieval fantasy setting (and streamlined rules).

Heliopolis, the city of the sun, the city of gold, rises as if from the sea itself as your ship approaches it. The placement on the coast as well as at the mouth of a great river made Heliopolis into THE centre of commerce. Thousands of ships come through daily, bearing both food, items and people from all around the world (Think victorian London, ancient Alexandria and byzantine Constantinople blended into one, but medieval). The watersides are home to many warehouses, docks and shipyards, surrounded by the homes of workers and lowlifes alike. Markets dot this urban sprawl and the castles and mansions of the wealthiest trade barons rise high above. But the underbelly of the city has it's own barons as well, as mafias and smugglers run their fishy business.

And I'll stop there with the actual city. Look for historical inspiration in its actual layout as well as the legit & criminal activities, I can't stress how important that step is for immersion. As for the players, between a seedy underbelly and the high society, there should be plenty of opportunity for them to do every kind of job imaginable from extortion to assassination to heists and smuggling, underground fist fights and drunken pub brawls as well as legit work during downtime. I'm all for plausibility and if you are DM who doesn't really take rations/travel time and the like into account while the party is in the wilderness, then this kind of setting would probably be easier for you to handwave without breaking immersion.

Unrelated to my idea, but nice to know: institutionalised thievery exists (or rather existed) in TES Morrowind as a form of controlling and taxing crime. Just food for thought, next time one of us thinks about a thieves guild.

I wish I knew when is a good time to use this rule

So wait 5E HAS THACO?!?!?!?!

I understand less than I did before watching this video

I can see DM gerrymandering coming into play here. 15 creatures that do 1d8 damage and 5 creatures that do 1d12, well know you have 5 groups garaunted to hit that do 1d12 damage

Game mechanics ruin role playing. What I mean is...1st try to role play an encounter, persuade the NPC/Creature by trying to sway the DM. The player doesn't really have the stats of their character (most of the time) but try to role play it 1st anyway. If they come up with an interesting plan, a cool method to infiltrate the castle, a funny encounter, whatever, then give them 20 on it (or as I do; 2 is failure, 1 is critical failure, everything else is success as long as they came up with something really fun). If I'm on the fence about it and remain unconvinced then we break out the dice and resolve it with the roll. Also, if they role play it really badly that can lead to interesting fun too.
If the party is struggling to find the plot hooks (may be inadequate DM'ing), or they are just having a bad day with the Dice (inadequate dice training) then role playing the encounter can allow the DM to get the party back on track rather than rely on dice.

Well, if DnD combat was just a tiny bit realistic, you'd get dogpiled and killed by three or more foes attacking you at once. Even if they were only goblins.

Okay, next campaign I do, I'm going to have a mob run by a gang of orcs.

some would call them

mobster














ok plese lough

I’m using those dam hats so help me god

We're fighting 50 orcs and a giant tomorrow, with 25 level 1 fighters on our side. Thank you.

Wow this is….confusing

Just here to re-review some rules for a mob combat i have coming up in the future.

Note the mob combat rule is pretty much Thac0.

When you listen to fools the mob rules. -Black Sabbath

That is... complicated.

So your sacrificing the chance for 4 hits in exchange for one guaranteed hit?

I can never forget the hats.

Wow, that sounds incredibly complicated. It makes sense and is reasonable, but if I have 3 adventurers and have to determine the numbers of groupings of orcs based on the orcs To Hit and the adventurers' AC then there's a ton of numbers to keep track of, not to mention if they orcs aren't literally a solid mass and are individually effected by different levels of cover, etc.

Wait... this is easier? lol

you know what screw action econemy i absilutly rekt 50 buly wugs with a level2 wizard, paladin, rouge, druid they all died in 2 turns :) cough burning hands

At first I thought warcraft invented orcs. Few years later, I discovered d&d and thought orcs came from that. Nope. Lord of the rings. Idk just an anecdote

Mob? It’s a glorified crew!

So, what should i do if there are 4 attackers but they need 5 for one to hit the target (which means they need a 17 or 18 on the dice)? Do i consider that if the group get a 17/18 one of them hit?

What happens when all of those mob creatures have advantages?

I just roll a d6 for each attack and each roll of 6 hits, if there are multiple different attacks, I roll for each separately

I used this under the wrong circumstances and my player was basically invinsible. I realised that I had to make the minions attack individually to actually be able to hit him. Only then he actually received damage. In my defence, I am just starting out.

This causes fairness issues in my experience.

If PCs are always getting hit during mob combat they feel cheated.

My alternative is to have each group roll against that reduced AC once and pick which hits thematically.
Yes, it's less statistically accurate and such but it makes my life easier while keeping the game fun for the players. I suggest giving it a try!

seems handy

Wait so out of 4 orcs only 1 hit?
Im trying to run a campaign where a group of paladins need to clear out a sewer currently suffering from an infestation of kua toa, so 20vs3

Gonna be running a Mann vs Machine game for my friends this Saturday on my birthday, I’m gonna need this. Really badly.

I just used 7 quickling in a mob combat, and almost downed one of my players

Or when your 5 goblins all attack with there slings just roll 5d20s at once

Man I feel like I’ve watched this ten times and still don’t understand mob combat, what happens if there is a mob that doesn’t have the numbers to hit something, do they just not? I suppose they could attack other targets but I feel like there’s no rule for this when two individual goblins could still probably hit the paladin if they’re lucky enough

The mere concept of mob combat is an absolute blessing once you have level 2 characters with plate Mail (2e). I’m running a game for 10-12 year olds and battles are crucial since they are fighters and clerics but it gets super boring after several rounds. Allowing them to despatch 4 Orcs in a round just gets the game moving better 👌

If the mob has pack tactics, how do they benefit from it?

What if the mob attempts a skill check against a single target, how does it work?

I did not understand anything.

“Nice action economy you got here” my god