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WinterSoldier7
July 29th, 2020, 11:43
Moderator: Moved to the 5e forum since it isn't a specific issue with Unity

Hello all,

I don't have Strongholds & Followers, or anything which would solve this for me with minimal effort, but I have a session coming up where I need to make use of Followers and large scale battles.

For the large scale battles, they will be separate to the main party but directed by them. I'll treat the apposing groups as NPCs with a pool of health etc. I think I have this covered.

Where I'm not so sure is the Followers; are these better created as NPCs? Assuming I will need their inventory, they may need to be PCs owned by me, as the DM. Would others agree? Would I control them as I would NPCs or is there a difference?
Zacchaeus
July 29th, 2020, 13:46
Either way is fine. If you want your players to control the followers create them as NPCs and then share the NPCs with the players - see here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?43513-Video-Giving-player-control-of-an-NPC&p=387176#post387176. If that isn't needed then you can control them yourself. Not sure why you would need an inventory but if you do they'd have to be PCs since NPCs don''t have one.
WinterSoldier7
July 29th, 2020, 13:49
Ah, I actually didn't know that players could control NPCs - thank you for the link!

Unfortunately, players tend to use followers as an extended pack-horse. It's a hard life following adventurers around.
Zacchaeus
July 29th, 2020, 16:27
Ah, I actually didn't know that players could control NPCs - thank you for the link!

Unfortunately, players tend to use followers as an extended pack-horse. It's a hard life following adventurers around.

You can use the Pack mule thing in the player inventory. Just assign the items carried by the follower to the follower name or whatever and make the item not carried.
WinterSoldier7
July 29th, 2020, 16:32
Oooohhh, yes! I totally forgot I can do that.

Appreciate the help!
GavinRuneblade
July 30th, 2020, 06:44
If you don't have rules for mass combat already, my recommendation is don't use any. Using a rule system, regardless of which system, has the big drawback of being cumbersome and since usually only the DM reads the rules the players mostly watch the DM do everything and ask a ton of questions and it's more of a drag than exciting. My recommendation is that you just narrate the battle. You know what is realistic for your world and your campaign, so you can figure out how the battle will resolve. Make it believable for your players.

If you want to incorporate player actions, then you can run them as individual encounters or skill challenges and determine how each one changes the battle outcome.