Fight
#4 and its the battle of the half primate/ half ungulate!
The
idyllic woodlands contain centaurs, satyrs, dryads, pixies, sprites,
treants, etc. On this day a few centaurs are out being a “roving
band”.
NO.
APPEARING: 4-24
ARMOR
CLASS: 5 (4)
MOVE:
18”
HIT
DICE: 4
NO.
OF ATTACKS: 2 and 1
DAMAGE/
ATTACK: 1-6/1-6 and by weapon
SAVE:
Fighter 4
INTELLIGENCE:
Low-average
MORALE:
65%
ALIGNMENT:
Neutral to Chaotic good
SIZE:
L
Ok,
then. Roving bands always carry weapons. Rolling for numbers I get
14 centaurs. In such a group, half (7) will have oaken clubs equal
to morning stars, 1-8 or 1-6 points of damage. What to make of that?
Is it 1-8 vs S-M and 1-6 vs L? Looking at the PHB page 37, morning
stars do 2-8 vs S-M and 2-7 vs L. Lets see where the centaurs were
used in a module. S4 has them on page 24 and indicates they are just
using morning stars, so lets go with 2-7 damage vs size L minotaurs.
The
next group of 4 will be archers with composite long bows (24”
range, 1-6 hit points damage/attack). OK, that fits.
The
last three will be leaders with shield and lance. AC 4, 1-8 or 2-24
points of damage. Is this 1-8 vs S-M and 2-24 vs L? Is it 1-8
normal and 2-24 on a charge? No idea. S4 indicates the centaurs use
light lances, however, which do only 1-6 (vs S-M) or 1-8 damage (vs
L). This doesn't make a lot of sense. Heck, I'll just give them
heavy lances from the PHB. Its slightly less than the MM and a lot
more than the light lance from the S4 version.
So
we have:
7
with club (2-7), AC 5 hp 16, 18, 27, 16, 14, 13, 16 (C1 to C7)
4
with bow (24” range, 1-6), AC 5 hp 24, 12, 20, 15 (C8 to C11)
3
leaders with lance (3-18 or 6-36 double damage on charge), AC 4 hp
14, 19, 17 (C12 to C14)
A
4 HD centaur needs a 9 to hit an AC 6 centaur.
And
onto the minotaurs, those bovine terrors.
NO.
APPEARING: 1-8
ARMOR
CLASS: 6
MOVE:
12”
HIT
DICE: 6+3
NO.
OF ATTACKS: 2
DAMAGE/
ATTACK: 2-8 or 1-4/by weapon type
SPECIAL
DEFENSES: Surprised only on a 1
SAVE:
Fighter 7
INTELLIGENCE:
Low
MORALE:
78%
ALIGNMENT:
Chaotic evil
SIZE:
L
Rolling for
numbers, I get 7. Lets say that three have huge axes (halberds) that
do 2-12 vs a size L centaur. The others have footman's flails which
do 2-8 vs size L, but the MM indicates that we should add +2 to
damage, probably for minotaur great strength and probably applying to
both huge axes and flails. Furthermore, a minotaur can butt an
opponent 6' or taller for 2-8 damage.
So we have 3
minotaurs with huge axes (4-14), hp 26, 45, 42 (M1 to M3)
and 4 minotaurs
with flails (4-10), hp 30, 24, 27, 31 (M4 to M7)
A 6+3 HD
minotaur needs an 8 to hit an AC 5 centaur, or a 9 to hit an AC 4
centaur leader.
OK, now that all
of that is out of the way, lets start the combat. I am assuming that
the two groups are meeting in the forest wilderness, since centaurs
are not usually found underground and minotaurs can be found in
underground labryinths or above-ground wilderness. Lets roll for
surprise. The centaurs are surprised on a 1-2, but I roll a 6 and
are not surprised. The minotaurs are only surprised on a 1, and I
roll a 1, so they are surprised for 1 segment.
We have to
figure outdoor encounter distance, which is 6” to 24” (6d4, -1
for each die because of the forest and minus another 1 because of the
surprise. I get 11”.
The centaurs
with bows have a range of 24” and fire them. Three out of four hit
and I randomly assign targets. M1 takes 6, M2 takes 2, and M7 takes
6. The other centaurs can choose to move up to 18' in one segment
and do so, advancing almost 2” towards the minotaurs.
Now that
surprise is over, we can determine intentions. The minotaurs advance
to combat, while the centaurs with lances charge while the club and
archer centaurs merely advance. Initiatitive is not rolled on the
end of charge movement, but instead the monster with longer reach
gets to attack first. This means that C12 to C14 get to attack
first. They roll 5, 15, 17. Two hits to M2 and M6 for double
damage. I roll a 16 and 31 and M6 is killed outright. Now the
minotaurs can counter-attack against AC 5 leaders (penalty for
charging). M1, M2, and M3 all try to hit C12 and C12 is hit once by a
halberd for 9 points. M4 strikes C14 for 8 points. M5 strikes C13
for 8 points and M7 strikes C13 for 4 points. I rule that in the
charge/counter-charge only weapons are used, not natural attacks
(hooves/butt).
New round and
time to declare intentions. The archer centaurs and club centaurs
enter melee. The archer centaurs could fire into the melee, but as
the centaurs outnumber the minotaurs and they are about the same
size, they would be as or more likely to hit their allies. The
leader centaurs and minotaurs are already in melee and they attack a
member of the opposing force.
Initiative is
now rolled. Minotaurs roll a 6 and centaurs roll a 5. I am going to
assume all of the combatants have entered the melee at this time, so
there are even chances for attacks to fall on any opponent as the
melee swirls around.
M1 aims for C1
and hits for 9 points with halberd and 6 with head butt
M2 aims for C9
and hits for 10 points with halberd and 4 with butt
M3 aims for C5
and hits for 9 points with halberd and 3 with butt
M4 aims for C1
and misses with flail and hits with butt for 5
M5 aims for C5
and misses twice
M7 aims for C1
and hits for 6 points with flail only
Poor C1 is
killed.
Now the centaurs
can strike back.
C2 aims for M4
and hits once with hooves for 4 points
C3 aims for M1
and hits three times for 13 points
C4 aims for M2
and hits twice for 7 points
C5 aims for M2
and hits three times for 11 points
C6 aims for M5
and hits twice for 5 points
C7 aims for M5
and hits once for 3 points
C8 aims for M5
and hits once for 2 points
C9 aims for M3
and hits twice for 11 points
C10 aims for M3
and misses both times
C11 aims for M5
and hits twice for 3 points
C12 aims for M5
and hits twice for 19 points
C13 aims for M1
and hits once for 5 points
C14 aims for M5
and hits twice for 7 points
Minotaur 5 is
killed.
New round and
all of the monsters keep melee-ing. Roll for initiative and the
minotaurs roll a 6, while the centaurs roll a 3. The minotaurs
strike first again.
M1 aims for C3
and misses twice
M2 aims for C14
and hits once for 6
M3 aims for C5
and hits twice for 15 points, killing him
M4 aims for C12
and hits twice for 9 points, killing him
M7 aims for C11
and hits twice for 11 points
The centaurs can
strike back!
C2 aims for M4
and hits twice for 8 points
C3 aims for M3
and hits once for 1 point
C4 aims for M1
and hits twice for 2 points, killing him
C6 aims for M4
and hits twice for 10 points
C7 aims for M7
and hits once for 2 points
C8 aims for M7
and hits once for 3 points
C9 aims for M2
and hits once for 1 point
C10 aims for M2
and hits twice for 6 points
C11 aims for M7
and hits once for 4 points
C13 aims for M1
and misses all three times, but centaur 4 already killed M1
C14 aims for M3
and misses all three times!
OK, here are the
hit point tallies
C1 is dead
C2 18 points
C3 27 points
C4 16 points
C5 is dead
C6 13 points
C7 16 points
C8 24 points
C9 2 points
C10 20 points
C11 4 points
C12 is dead
C13 7 points
C14 3 points
M1 is dead
M2 2 points
M3 30 points
M4 8 points
M5 is dead
M6 is dead
M7 16 points
It looks like
the centaurs are winning. We will finish tomorrow as my 8 year old
daughter asked to roll up a character.