- The renaissance guns of the DMG do indeed have the loading weapon property, just like a crossbow. And just like a crossbow, in a skirmish-level fight (like 99% of all D&D combats), you're supposed to shoot once, then drop the gun and instead draw a melee weapon (or flip the gun and use it as a cudgel).
- Variant and Optional Rules in 5th Edition D&D On 8 March, 2015 4 February, 2019 By iourn In D&D 5th Edition With about a month or so until the start of the my first ‘proper’ 5th edition campaign, I’d like to spend a moment hammering out the rules we’re going to use to play the game.
- For Player Characters. Along with being intended to be used by player characters, dungeon masters are encouraged to use this section to design and run playing sessions and to take improving, reviewing, or removing templates into consideration in their campaigns.
The 5e DMG has a short section on “handling mobs:” it has a chart for approximating, out of a group of attacking monsters, how many monsters hit.
While the aura lasts, you can use a bonus action on your turn to cause the shadows in the aura to attack one creature. Make a melee spell attack against the target. If the attack hits, the target takes necrotic damage equal to 3d10 + your Charisma modifier. After activating the aura, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest. The Basic Rules for Dungeons & Dragons is a PDF that covers the core of the tabletop game. The Basic Rules runs from levels 1 to 20 and covers the cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, presenting what we view as the essential subclass for each.
It’s pretty simple: subtract attacker’s hit bonus from the target’s AC. Cross-index that number on the chart. If the number is 1-5, all the attackers hit; if it’s 6-12, 1/2 of them hit; etc., up to 1 in 20 of the attackers hitting on a 20.
I ran a big set-piece battle yesterday: 8 mid-level PCs and 10 gnomes against 20+ drow and other assorted creatures, including a drow spider chariot and a sinister angel. With a wizard and a sorcerer PC and two drow wizards, all slinging fireballs, the mob attacks weren’t much of a factor. With all those fireballs, what I COULD have used was rules for mob saving throws.
If I’d thought about it, I’d have realized that the same chart can be used for saving throws. Instead of subtracting attack bonus from AC, subtract saving throw bonus from DC, and use the chart as normal. For instance, a fireball save DC of 15, minus the drow dex save (+2) is 13, which, according to the chart, means that 1/3 of the drow succeed on their saving throw (and probably survive with 1 or 2 HP left).
In fact, this same chart can be used for ability/skill checks (how many orcs managed to climb the wall? DC minus skill bonus) or any other d20 roll.
To me, it seems this is all you need to run fairly simple battles with dozens or hundreds of creatures per side. The amount of HP tracking is not excessive: for instance, in this unit of 50 ogres, 24 have 15 damage and the other 25 have 30 damage. (For ease of bookkeeping, assume that melee attacks always target the most-damaged creature.)
Dungeon Master Guide 3.5 Pdf
D&d Dmg 5e
You might also care about the base size of big units. I assumed that a close-packed formation of 10 Medium troops took up the size of one Large creature. I’d say that 25 troops are Huge and 50 are Gargantuan.
Dnd Dmg 5e Pdf
If we do any bigger-scale battles, I might find other rules that I need (after all, the Chain Mail rules are much longer than this blog post) but right now, this is looking pretty good for running big D&D skirmishes.