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#1 dunamin Apr 21, 2006 9:47:28

“Huh? But mooks are just speedbumbs for player characters!” you're thinking. “It would be a waste of time to optimize them, and since they don’t have a repertoire of fancy feats/abilities/spells like PCs, there isn’t much to optimize.” Let me explain how level 1 warriors can kick PC butt. Usually you find that your meager War1 prowling around only hits PCs on a natural 20, and are best off with ranged weapons while tougher allies engage the party. With a big enough group, one arrow might fly true every other round, dealing a whopping 4 damage. Maybe. DM'ing Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, I started thinking more deeply about mook tactics because I had foreshadowed one NPC as a masterful strategist, and wanted to impress my PCs with tactics rather than might. Flanking, charging and the aid another action are obvious, but I wanted something more, if not only for the sake of variety. It turned into a quest to make the most of a War1 on a minimum budget. These builds are for mooks who know they are at the bottom of the food chain in their immediate surroundings. They know a single attack from most aggressors probably is going to hit and kill them, and an attack at the aggressor won’t hit. They won’t scratch the PCs, just leave them vulnerable (disarmer) or delay them (turtle), so mightier allies have an easier time. Here's what I came up with, when they’re forced into combat: The Disarmer Mook Build Arm the warrior with a guisarme in a locket gauntlet and choose Weapon Focus (guisarme) for him. With similarly trained buddies his standard action should be to disarm a foe that isn't armed with a two-handed weapon. First of all, since the foe doesn't have reach, the War1 will avoid the attack of opportunity (no one-handed weapons have reach, except for the whip and it doesn't threaten). Now, his disarm attempt will probably be at +11! (+1 Base, +1 Str, +4 two-handed weapon, +2 guisarme, +1 weapon focus, +2 flanking). Though a mid-level PC might have a +20 bonus, there’s still a fair chance he’s going to drop his sword when attacked by 5 of these guys in 1 round. Better yet, if at least one guy still has his turn, at the DM’s discretion he might have a fair chance of prodding the dropped sword some distance away, preferably over a cliff (perhaps he might even pull it to him or prod it towards an ally, but that would probably be a far more difficult task). This would most definitely provoke an attack of opportunity, but again, he’ll be out of reach. Let the smart human sergeant with Int 13 have Combat Expertise and Improved Disarm. Compare this to your standard War1 build with a shield, a longsword and Toughness and/or Weapon Focus depending on whether he’s a human. He might have a +5 attack bonus (+1 base, +1 Str, +1 weapon focus, +2 flanking). If he had 4 others like him and they all aided him, he might get a total attack bonus of +11. That’s a small chance to hit a mid-level PC combatant… for an average of 5 damage. Besides, Toughness is like turning him from pitiful to frail. He’ll probably die of most attacks regardless. The Turtle Mook Build You’ve probably can guess this build. Tower shields and Toughness. Form a wall, use total cover and let those behind take care of foes with ranged attacks. The not so obvious part is to wear light armor. If they don’t use total cover, they’re going to be hit by the enemy regardless of (affordable) armor, might as well be more mobile. Great when serving spellcasters, archers or anybody with reach. The PCs will probably be able to bull rush successfully through, but at least they’d waste turns doing so. Just be carefully of flying foes and leaping monks. And naturally, this is a suicidal tactic against spellcasters – they’re not going to want to fight through and you’re a sitting duck for a fireball. Best to use a move action to approach and a ready action to disperse (move away from the center of the group). Toughness gives the warrior a chance to survive a spell. Why Care? So why does all this matter, when the PCs probably will be fighting enemies with CRs closer to their level most of the time? Well, besides the arguments above, showing that puny War1s can be a threat to even mid-level PCs with the right gear and tactics, there are plenty of reasons. The world is littered with War1s. After commoners, warriors are the single biggest class in the prime material plane. At some point some players will likely be leading groups, battalions or entire armies of War1s. If they take an interest in warfare, they’ll want to know the best way to utilize their warriors. I’d say it’s pretty vital to give thought to these matters if the campaign revolves around the players leading troops in battle during a war. As an example for a large battlefield, for a great defense against sword-wielding melee attackers I’d suggest a line of turtles with a line of warriors armed with halberds behind. The turtles should ready to take total cover and the halberdmen to set for charge (don’t put shields up in advance, to lure attackers into thinking they can penetrate). When elites are incoming (like PC fighters), switch halberdmen with disarmers. I hope these considerations are of use to players and DMs alike.