Source
r/Pathfinder_RPG•
EntMoose

Trying to make a zombie horde encounter more interesting.

So in my homebrew campaign, Player 1(brand new to Pathfinder) controls an Elf Rogue, and will be controlling our wizard when he is introduced in this encounter. I (GMing our first campaign, 4-5 sessions of experience otherwise) control our fighter and cleric. After many indications of the undead coming from a nearby forest was getting worse, Player 1 decided against extinguishing this threat and now the abandoned fort - turned village is going to bear the brunt of an undead horde. If our APL is 4.5, what would you recommend I throw at them besides walls of zombie cannon fodder? The wizard is going to join the party mid battle as he abandons his inn to join the defense. I would like to include a few NPCs for Player 1 to control as well so I can up the CR a bit to make the battle a little more impressive.

Also, Ogres are rather common in the area, a creative undead ogre boss or mid boss would fit the flavor of the campaign.

Posted Jun 19, 2015, 12:49 AM UTC

516
GrenadierCrabs•

Just an idea but for how many zombies are part of the battle maybe start by rolling a d4 for the number of initial attackers, rolling to see zombies joining every few turns and then keep increasing the die to d6, d8, d10, etc as you see fit to build up the intensity of the battle over time.

3
P3ANUT92•

In my homebrew, I had a similar zombie horde assault a town. I had the players try to find civilians in buildings and shops and all. As for variety, I had human zombies, ogre zombies, and fast zombies. Remember zombies are a see and attack monster. They don't relent on fallen people and will swarm a single person on sight. You may need to up the HD on the zombies a bit. A zombie isn't dangerous, 50 zombies are terrifying. It was me and my players' favorite session so far. I had the shops and small houses they could go in already mapped out on pieces of paper I could just place on our mat. Depending on who they managed to save, the people could give them discounts or payment of some kind. It's all gonna depend on how much detail you want to put into it.

1
Sercos•

Just curious but do you still have the documentation for that? I have been working on a campaign where Orcs attack a town and was wondering what sort of NPCs you had and what discounts they would give.

1
P3ANUT92•

For NPCs, I had stats for adults, children, and guards. The guards had about the same Attack bonus and damage as the zombie, but not even half as many. Commoner adults would run and I gave a couple like daggers or improvised weapons from various things, but with very low attack/dam. Usually they hid or ran. Same for kids, but no weapons and a higher land speed. As for discounts, the apothecary offered a few clw potions or like 50% off 2 potions of their choice. One person held a plot device ring. One lady that was saved offered her husband's sword. Nothing too major other than the ring. However, this city was unsavable and the majority of its people died. So there weren't many discounts to be gotten. Hope that helped some, it's part of my first campaign and I'm still learning to document stuff properly. My players were also around level 5 or 6.

1
[deleted]•

Weather and diseases. They all have exp tied to them and complicate an otherwise simple fight.

1
EntMooseOP•

Weather will definitely come into play. If I can make disease clouds pop up in a 5ft square after each zombie dies, that would add another cool element. Especially if said cloud buffs the zombies.

1
Schnickness•

Push for them to set up traps, i find the most satisfying way to deal with a horde of Zs is to set an elaborate trap at a choke point and orchestrate it to perfection.

After all, zombies are predictable as fuck and killing then 1 by 1 is fun, but nothing compared to dropping a tonne of bricks etc onto 10 at once

Give them a heap of molotovs, maybe even let them perception to notice a spring loaded metal door, perfect for attached spikes.

Let them slaughter a heap before damage threat and if they aren't leading them through traps it'll be tough. That way its more fun

1
EntMooseOP•

I think I'll try to give them a few traps to work with. Maybe select 3, justify how they work in the town setting, and only denying ridiculously strong ones.

1
Captaincastle(V)(;,,;)(V)•

Flaming goblin zombies

1
DoTheMario•

APL 4.5 will likely make Zombies very unthreatening and maybe even boring to fight against. I ran an APL 3 game where zombies were so ineffective that I ruled that the party could simply eliminate them without needing to roll combat in most cases.

Some suggestions for Zombies:

  • Zombies don't use strategy BUT do swamp and overwhelm players over time. To give them a chance, I will often have zombies 'aid another' each other to make one attack successful. The fluff is that the other player had to parry or fend off one of the zombies just as the other rushed their blind side.

  • Use Combat Maneuvers! Zombies are boring right up until they start doing stuff that breaks Player action economy, moves them into vulnerable positions, or gives them impairments. I've had zombies 'Dirty Trick' and erupt a fountain of vomit into the PC's eyes, twist away and pull their sword out of their hand, or even crawl up and pull their legs out from under them. Zombies love grappling too as they swarm in. Sure, the PCs get AoOs but Zombies wouldn't care and it can also help speed up the resolution of combat (Each player could be killing 2+ zombies per round)

  • Give em some flair. I try to have a few zombies have little extra bits to make them memorable. A zombie impaled with a pitchfork can actually drive a PC onto the prongs while grappling to hurt them with a 'light weapon', the town constable that turned zombie actually has armor and is a little tougher than the rest of the rabble, or even just details to give some texture to what the PCs are up against. Try to have a rhythm between regular zombie cannon fodder and interesting details.

1
cr20net•

How about Mob rules, they work pretty well in this situation: http://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Mob_(3.5e_Template)

Another thing to really up the drama in a zombie attack is that you're not really focusing on the monsters themselves, but the collateral and emotional damage that they're doing. You have things like fires that they start that drive you from your safe perch, or walls that collapse from all the weight, or getting trapped between two large groups and having to climb your way out.

As stated, the zombies individually, are not threatening, but when combined with other elements and used as a kind of 'threat vice' to squeeze the pc's a certain direction, they can be really, really fun.

After watching some zombie movies or some Walking Dead you can see how this works to amp up the drama.

1
EntMooseOP•

I want to try and stick to Paizo material only, as we are using this campaign to get a feel for some of the deeper mechanics and rules.

1
GameDetective•

The first thing to address is what is CAUSING the undead? That's your real ticket because that's what is going to set this apart from a normal zombie horde. Are they the reanimated and mindless corpses of people who died long ago? Are they being controlled by a necromancer? Oh! Were they a lost city that was trapped without food due to a year long snow storm and are fueled by the anger and regret of the last survivor who realized that all he accomplished was dying alone?

Whatever the source of the undead, that's what's going to make your encounter more interesting. It will also give you a better framework for building the encounter.

I would suggest Mohrgs, because people that they kill raise as fast zombies. You can have the players have to balance fighting the zombie minions with stopping the Mohrg from killing the townspeople. Even if player 1 isn't particularly invested in the wellbeing of the town, he'll certainly care about more fast zombies coming after him.

1
EntMooseOP•

As of right now they are coming from a warlock sequestered in a forest tower, utilizing a "legendary" staff. His cult has been abducting people, making giant vermin, and experimenting on other humanoid types (orcs, ogres, goblins, etc.) In the end I think a greater demon will have been controlling him as a means to open a portal to our world, so other planar creatures could offer some sneaky foreshadowing as well.

1
lovesmasherSummoner/Rogue•

The best way to make zombies threatening is to put very weak NPCs in their paths that the PCs have to/want to save. There's almost no threat to PCs of that level from zombies, but a burning house accosted by tons of zombies (some of which can be on fire, making them more dangerous), and filled with a woodsman who is crying and holding off his now animated dead wife, stopping her from killing their four crying children is a WAY better encounter than 'You see 100 zombies coming at you through the forest'.

1
digitalpacman•

moar zombies

1