What's your favorite evil horde-like monster-race? [Archive] - Wizards Community

What's your favorite evil horde-like monster-race? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
VampyresThrenody
03-25-07, 06:03 PM Every campaign setting has some type of barbarous monster-race that occasionally swarms up and attacks...well..everything. Goblins, orcs, minotaurs, I've seen different campaign settings use different monsters for this purpose.
I've been thinking of making something like this in my campaign and would rather not use goblins for historical reasons relating to the setting. So let's hear what your favorite monsters are for horde-like tactics and seething masses of weak enemies.

P.S. Feel free to use homebrew races but please either post a link to where they are held or put a minor descriptor up here.
epifreak
03-25-07, 06:12 PM Personally, I'm fond of the hordes of undead approach, with skeletons and/or zombies occupying the majority of the weak masses pool.
Dead_Weasel
03-25-07, 08:41 PM I use gnolls for everything. Well, not everything. But gnolls are really good for a lot of NPC rolls with a minimum of justification.
Return of the Flumph
03-25-07, 08:59 PM Gnolls aren't exactly weak, as races go, but I usually use them as The Horde. Goblinoids I see as being more militarily organized than just a big savage mob, and orcs I interpret as having small numbers, but a high percentage of powerful characters (on account of their limited resources and tough living conditions). Kobalds have the neccesary birthrate for a horde, but their fluff has them prefering to fight defensively...no swarms of kobalds wearing down the castle, they prefer guerrilla tactics.

So yeah, gnolls.
Maraxus
03-25-07, 09:25 PM What about classic Orcs?

And remember, nobody trusts Reptilians:
Lizardfolk often have an evil reputation, no matter what the alignment sais. Big teeth = villigers scared.
Kobolds ... sure they are evil, but probably not in a plot-scale kind of way.
Troglodytes: Now we get somewhere. They make great evil hordes.

Kua-Tao and Sahuhagin make great enemies from the sea, with a slightly higher CR (and Int).

If you want scum, you can either take Skum or ... Were Dire-Rats. I like Were-Dire Rat Goblins for the most dirty life-form ever, but anything small works good and even medium races work okay.

Tribes of Ogres would be tought but fitting.

And when you say no Goblins ... there are still Hobgoblins and Bugbears, ready to go pillage, are there?
calronmoonflower
03-25-07, 09:25 PM Kobolds.

Not only do they attack in massive numbers with little regard for their personal safety. They also love traps and are adept in sorcery.
retillin
03-25-07, 10:20 PM I have to agree with Return of the Flumph. Gnolls. They just rock, strong, chaotic and totaly savage. I would fear a gnoll over an orc just on looks alone.
Thomar_of_Uointer
03-25-07, 10:25 PM Hobgoblins. Weak enough to throw at the party at level 1, yet powerful, interesting, and organized enough to be a major threat all the way to epic level. Plus they should have access to goblins and bugbears, and bugbears can be lots of fun after magical experimentation (read: "half-dragon and various other templates").
Climhazzard
03-25-07, 11:27 PM Definitely not your classical evil monster, I nominate Warforged.

Think about it, Warforged have several advantages for that young rising warlord on the go. First, if you are playing a non-Eberron campaign, get your hands on a creation forge and you can produce dozens of already-human sized, durable, obedient servants. Second, it takes only 1d4 to make a platoon of Warforged wizards and artificers. Finally, compared to gnolls, goblinoids, and all those other cliches (orcs? again?), you don't need to pay for food... or lose soldiers through cannibalism.

How are the horde like? Go all capitalist and mass produce them. How are they evil? Don't hug them enough.
calronmoonflower
03-26-07, 01:55 AM You have to train warforged. if you had a couple of years and some patence you could train a couple and have them train the new ones.
Draxo
03-26-07, 04:56 AM I want Gibberlings :D
Naderion
03-26-07, 07:07 AM Completely chaotic fighting senseless battles and destroying everything everywhere they go, and they go almost everywhere?

Humans! :D

Hm, no. In fact my setting does not really have true horde-people. Orcs are showing some kind of herd-behaviour and fight each other until the it all comes to a stall where no remaining tribe can really wrestle any resources from other tribes. Then one tribe decides to raid someone else and all the other tribes do so, too. The tribes with dumb leaders get butchered, the ones with smarter chiefs turn back home with their ransom and for another few generations the mountains are relatively peaceful. But then the tribes start to grow again and split until a couple of generations later resources become scarce again and the whole things repeats itself. Usually there are 100 to 300 years of relative peace, 50 to 100 years of light raiding and then one or two years of heavy raiding.
Warforged Goblin
03-26-07, 07:17 AM You simply can't go wrong with goblinoids.

Many people think of only the 3 basic goblinoids (goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears) when they hear "goblinoid". However, the goblinoid subtype, and those who "hang out" with goblinoids, have a multitude of options to offer:

Blue Goblins (Expanded Psionics Handbook)
Decanter Goblins (Monster of Faerun)
Forestkith Goblins (Monster Manual III)
Snow Goblins (Frostburn)
Bhukas (Sandstorm)
Varags (Monster Manual IV)
Worghast (Dragon Magazine)
Barghest (Monster Manual)
Worgs (Monster Manual)
Bonedrinkers (Monster Manual III)

And, as stated earlier in the thread, goblinoids are ripe for experimentation and cross-breeding as needed per your setting. Swamp campaign? Use forestkith goblins and the reptilian bugbears from Savage Species. Arctic campaign? Snow goblin warchiefs with winter wolf, worg, and varag skirmishers. Desert campaign? Evil bhuka mercenaries with a half-blue dragon hobgoblin commader. The possibilities are endless with goblinoids.

Granted, a party of dwarves, especially a dwarven ranger, would throw a moneky-wrench into this arguement, but I digress.
Tekas_Tinkered_Dragon
03-26-07, 12:07 PM I personaly don't do "horde" types. I like to have my players face off against a large degree of various opposition and if the campaign has certain monster inclinations it is created through what the campaign is about.

Like, I had a Norse Mythology campaign focused on Ragnarok. The players had two sets of opponents, on one set they had a cartel of mostly Human and Elves led by The Sniper Maximus a human Ranger, Blossom, Master Assassin a Pixie and an Awakened Cat Sorcerer named Lunis. However parelled they had there fights that focused on the Giants making an ever present threat and especially became important near the end of the campaign.

Now however I'm doing a campaign where the world has been taken over by an Epic spellcaster and so aside from the typical town gaurd and milita opponents the main story opponents tend to be Constructs, Elementals and a few Undead when in the lands run by the Cabal.

Really, horde races should be kept to campaign specific guidelines. :D

Now that my rant is over I'll actually pick a race and I'll choose...elves. Damn evil elves.
ZiggZagg
03-26-07, 12:12 PM Lizardfolk are just awesome. Nothing says "Oh crap" like a lizard folk ambush, especially in the swamplands.

I'm also very partial to the new Spawn of Tiamat. I had them heavily in my most recent campaign, and they proved to be a lot of fun when the Spawn army showed up.

Of course, my favorite horde of evil creatures...Dragons.
"Wow, the clouds are looking strange today"
*Roar*
"...oh"
RobbyPants
03-26-07, 12:17 PM Hobgoblins. Weak enough to throw at the party at level 1, yet powerful, interesting, and organized enough to be a major threat all the way to epic level. Plus they should have access to goblins and bugbears, and bugbears can be lots of fun after magical experimentation (read: "half-dragon and various other templates").
Seconded.

Redcloak says it all right here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0148.html).
Garonak
03-26-07, 12:52 PM I've never liked orcs (they're extinct in my campaign, the pcs finished them of).

Hobgoblins and bugbears on the other hand...
fullmetal80110
03-27-07, 01:09 AM LOL in our game something like that happened, we killed off all of the lizardmen. Slaughtered them by the masses all by a war that I :incog: started :D
Zumarai
03-27-07, 07:27 AM -Xvarts
-Jermalaine
-Dusklings
-Humans
tetebetson
03-27-07, 07:40 AM Aboliths , Ilithids & Dark Elves :eek:
bring the puppys out to play
DwarfPcfan
03-27-07, 10:50 AM You can't go wrong with a multi-racial barbaric horde

Gnoll barbarians as shock troops, Giants and ogres as heavy artillery, lizardfolk druids and clerics for divine support (and wildshape terror of course), Kobold sorcerers, Human rangers

The perfect horde is a mixed horde that works with the strenghts of many barbaric races...
Rough_Trade
03-27-07, 11:05 AM Spartans?
TheCarrionCrawler
03-27-07, 11:24 AM I vote Bullywugs. Take that, Eric the Cavalier!
MCage
03-27-07, 02:46 PM Well it all depends on the level and magic level of your campaign, if you want to use undead and want a fast spreading horde the Houilithon (sp?) from the Feind Folio i belive is a fun one, it makes swarms of insects that turns their kills into feindish vampire spawns, tad hard but hey fun and fast spreading.

If your trying low magic the korobukuru (sp? i dont have my books with me at work), their like humans but more wild, from the Oriental Adventures easy to add class levels too for additional challenge.

Nothing says loving like a rash of ethereal villany from various ethereal threats that lead to the ethernaughts (either using the native ethereal creatures or expanding rapidly enough to make the ether kind want to leave to screw with your PC's realm), which is a race of godless wizard-esk people that live on the ethereal plane. Those guys remind me of the enemies from Marathon.

If your looking for classic threats Lizardmen are the least overused, plus you can lead that into spawns of Tiamat, and if you ahve the MM4 you can use the blackscale lizardmen, which isnt a template much to my shagrin but more an idea, advanced through alchemy, but it comes with a boss for the campign all stated out for you.

....or if you want something totaly off the wall, some sahuagin's who contracted some evil gnomes to make them deep inland exploration suits (imagine some old style scuba gear but water on the inside).

I could go for days with that idea but its all yours cheif.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
VampyresThrenody 03-25-07, 06:03 PM	Every campaign setting has some type of barbarous monster-race that occasionally swarms up and attacks...well..everything. Goblins, orcs, minotaurs, I've seen different campaign settings use different monsters for this purpose. I've been thinking of making something like this in my campaign and would rather not use goblins for historical reasons relating to the setting. So let's hear what your favorite monsters are for horde-like tactics and seething masses of weak enemies. P.S. Feel free to use homebrew races but please either post a link to where they are held or put a minor descriptor up here.
epifreak 03-25-07, 06:12 PM	Personally, I'm fond of the hordes of undead approach, with skeletons and/or zombies occupying the majority of the weak masses pool.
Dead_Weasel 03-25-07, 08:41 PM	I use gnolls for everything. Well, not everything. But gnolls are really good for a lot of NPC rolls with a minimum of justification.
Return of the Flumph 03-25-07, 08:59 PM	Gnolls aren't exactly weak, as races go, but I usually use them as The Horde. Goblinoids I see as being more militarily organized than just a big savage mob, and orcs I interpret as having small numbers, but a high percentage of powerful characters (on account of their limited resources and tough living conditions). Kobalds have the neccesary birthrate for a horde, but their fluff has them prefering to fight defensively...no swarms of kobalds wearing down the castle, they prefer guerrilla tactics. So yeah, gnolls.
Maraxus 03-25-07, 09:25 PM	What about classic Orcs? And remember, nobody trusts Reptilians: Lizardfolk often have an evil reputation, no matter what the alignment sais. Big teeth = villigers scared. Kobolds ... sure they are evil, but probably not in a plot-scale kind of way. Troglodytes: Now we get somewhere. They make great evil hordes. Kua-Tao and Sahuhagin make great enemies from the sea, with a slightly higher CR (and Int). If you want scum, you can either take Skum or ... Were Dire-Rats. I like Were-Dire Rat Goblins for the most dirty life-form ever, but anything small works good and even medium races work okay. Tribes of Ogres would be tought but fitting. And when you say no Goblins ... there are still Hobgoblins and Bugbears, ready to go pillage, are there?
calronmoonflower 03-25-07, 09:25 PM	Kobolds. Not only do they attack in massive numbers with little regard for their personal safety. They also love traps and are adept in sorcery.
retillin 03-25-07, 10:20 PM	I have to agree with Return of the Flumph. Gnolls. They just rock, strong, chaotic and totaly savage. I would fear a gnoll over an orc just on looks alone.
Thomar_of_Uointer 03-25-07, 10:25 PM	Hobgoblins. Weak enough to throw at the party at level 1, yet powerful, interesting, and organized enough to be a major threat all the way to epic level. Plus they should have access to goblins and bugbears, and bugbears can be lots of fun after magical experimentation (read: "half-dragon and various other templates").
Climhazzard 03-25-07, 11:27 PM	Definitely not your classical evil monster, I nominate Warforged. Think about it, Warforged have several advantages for that young rising warlord on the go. First, if you are playing a non-Eberron campaign, get your hands on a creation forge and you can produce dozens of already-human sized, durable, obedient servants. Second, it takes only 1d4 to make a platoon of Warforged wizards and artificers. Finally, compared to gnolls, goblinoids, and all those other cliches (orcs? again?), you don't need to pay for food... or lose soldiers through cannibalism. How are the horde like? Go all capitalist and mass produce them. How are they evil? Don't hug them enough.
calronmoonflower 03-26-07, 01:55 AM	You have to train warforged. if you had a couple of years and some patence you could train a couple and have them train the new ones.
Draxo 03-26-07, 04:56 AM	I want Gibberlings :D
Naderion 03-26-07, 07:07 AM	Completely chaotic fighting senseless battles and destroying everything everywhere they go, and they go almost everywhere? Humans! :D Hm, no. In fact my setting does not really have true horde-people. Orcs are showing some kind of herd-behaviour and fight each other until the it all comes to a stall where no remaining tribe can really wrestle any resources from other tribes. Then one tribe decides to raid someone else and all the other tribes do so, too. The tribes with dumb leaders get butchered, the ones with smarter chiefs turn back home with their ransom and for another few generations the mountains are relatively peaceful. But then the tribes start to grow again and split until a couple of generations later resources become scarce again and the whole things repeats itself. Usually there are 100 to 300 years of relative peace, 50 to 100 years of light raiding and then one or two years of heavy raiding.
Warforged Goblin 03-26-07, 07:17 AM	You simply can't go wrong with goblinoids. Many people think of only the 3 basic goblinoids (goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears) when they hear "goblinoid". However, the goblinoid subtype, and those who "hang out" with goblinoids, have a multitude of options to offer: Blue Goblins (Expanded Psionics Handbook) Decanter Goblins (Monster of Faerun) Forestkith Goblins (Monster Manual III) Snow Goblins (Frostburn) Bhukas (Sandstorm) Varags (Monster Manual IV) Worghast (Dragon Magazine) Barghest (Monster Manual) Worgs (Monster Manual) Bonedrinkers (Monster Manual III) And, as stated earlier in the thread, goblinoids are ripe for experimentation and cross-breeding as needed per your setting. Swamp campaign? Use forestkith goblins and the reptilian bugbears from Savage Species. Arctic campaign? Snow goblin warchiefs with winter wolf, worg, and varag skirmishers. Desert campaign? Evil bhuka mercenaries with a half-blue dragon hobgoblin commader. The possibilities are endless with goblinoids. Granted, a party of dwarves, especially a dwarven ranger, would throw a moneky-wrench into this arguement, but I digress.
Tekas_Tinkered_Dragon 03-26-07, 12:07 PM	I personaly don't do "horde" types. I like to have my players face off against a large degree of various opposition and if the campaign has certain monster inclinations it is created through what the campaign is about. Like, I had a Norse Mythology campaign focused on Ragnarok. The players had two sets of opponents, on one set they had a cartel of mostly Human and Elves led by The Sniper Maximus a human Ranger, Blossom, Master Assassin a Pixie and an Awakened Cat Sorcerer named Lunis. However parelled they had there fights that focused on the Giants making an ever present threat and especially became important near the end of the campaign. Now however I'm doing a campaign where the world has been taken over by an Epic spellcaster and so aside from the typical town gaurd and milita opponents the main story opponents tend to be Constructs, Elementals and a few Undead when in the lands run by the Cabal. Really, horde races should be kept to campaign specific guidelines. :D Now that my rant is over I'll actually pick a race and I'll choose...elves. Damn evil elves.
ZiggZagg 03-26-07, 12:12 PM	Lizardfolk are just awesome. Nothing says "Oh crap" like a lizard folk ambush, especially in the swamplands. I'm also very partial to the new Spawn of Tiamat. I had them heavily in my most recent campaign, and they proved to be a lot of fun when the Spawn army showed up. Of course, my favorite horde of evil creatures...Dragons. "Wow, the clouds are looking strange today" Roar "...oh"
RobbyPants 03-26-07, 12:17 PM	Hobgoblins. Weak enough to throw at the party at level 1, yet powerful, interesting, and organized enough to be a major threat all the way to epic level. Plus they should have access to goblins and bugbears, and bugbears can be lots of fun after magical experimentation (read: "half-dragon and various other templates"). Seconded. Redcloak says it all right here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0148.html).
Garonak 03-26-07, 12:52 PM	I've never liked orcs (they're extinct in my campaign, the pcs finished them of). Hobgoblins and bugbears on the other hand...
fullmetal80110 03-27-07, 01:09 AM	LOL in our game something like that happened, we killed off all of the lizardmen. Slaughtered them by the masses all by a war that I :incog: started :D
Zumarai 03-27-07, 07:27 AM	-Xvarts -Jermalaine -Dusklings -Humans
tetebetson 03-27-07, 07:40 AM	Aboliths , Ilithids & Dark Elves :eek: bring the puppys out to play
DwarfPcfan 03-27-07, 10:50 AM	You can't go wrong with a multi-racial barbaric horde Gnoll barbarians as shock troops, Giants and ogres as heavy artillery, lizardfolk druids and clerics for divine support (and wildshape terror of course), Kobold sorcerers, Human rangers The perfect horde is a mixed horde that works with the strenghts of many barbaric races...
Rough_Trade 03-27-07, 11:05 AM	Spartans?
TheCarrionCrawler 03-27-07, 11:24 AM	I vote Bullywugs. Take that, Eric the Cavalier!
MCage 03-27-07, 02:46 PM	Well it all depends on the level and magic level of your campaign, if you want to use undead and want a fast spreading horde the Houilithon (sp?) from the Feind Folio i belive is a fun one, it makes swarms of insects that turns their kills into feindish vampire spawns, tad hard but hey fun and fast spreading. If your trying low magic the korobukuru (sp? i dont have my books with me at work), their like humans but more wild, from the Oriental Adventures easy to add class levels too for additional challenge. Nothing says loving like a rash of ethereal villany from various ethereal threats that lead to the ethernaughts (either using the native ethereal creatures or expanding rapidly enough to make the ether kind want to leave to screw with your PC's realm), which is a race of godless wizard-esk people that live on the ethereal plane. Those guys remind me of the enemies from Marathon. If your looking for classic threats Lizardmen are the least overused, plus you can lead that into spawns of Tiamat, and if you ahve the MM4 you can use the blackscale lizardmen, which isnt a template much to my shagrin but more an idea, advanced through alchemy, but it comes with a boss for the campign all stated out for you. ....or if you want something totaly off the wall, some sahuagin's who contracted some evil gnomes to make them deep inland exploration suits (imagine some old style scuba gear but water on the inside). I could go for days with that idea but its all yours cheif.