Tactics
Okay, you've got your cannon fodder. Now, how do you keep them alive? Be making sure they're organised, that's how. Make sure they have their tactics sorted out, and be sure to have them use their terrain to their advantage. Here are a few hints and tips to help them make the heroes' lives a misery.
Get on parade!
Positioning the troops correctly is important. You may wish to organise your mêlée grunts into a rank that occupies the entire width of the corridor or hall. This serves two purposes: firstly, it helps convey an important message - the only way past them is through them. More importantly, however, any character moving in to fight one of them ends up facing up to three at once. If this were not bad enough, it also means that the squares they threaten overlap, so it's possible that if a character closes for mêlée he ends up facing three attacks of opportunity at once. Ouch!
C'mon, c'mon, let's stick together.
Regular troops are usually be encountered in teams and should almost never be alone. As a consequence it's a good idea to use the aid another action -- a +2 bonus to AC or attack rolls can make a lot of difference if your life expectancy is only a couple of rounds.
Hit critically
We have a rough guide to equipping grunts already - namely that their primary weapons should be martial - although it is worth noting that weapons behave differently on critical hits. Do you want to score threats more frequently, even if it means using smaller damage dice? Or do you want to stick with the normal 1 in 20 chance of a threat but deal enormous amounts of damage? The list of martial weapons below should help:
- 18-20/×2
- Rapier, scimitar, falchion, kukri
- 19-20/×2
- Greatsword, longsword, short sword, dagger, heavy flail
- ×3
- Handaxe, battleaxe, greataxe, glaive, guisarme, halberd, ranseur, shortbow, longbow
- ×4
- Light pick, heavy pick, scythe
To paraphrase Jonathon Tweet, randomness favours the underdog; since grunts are not expected to last long, you might want them to go out with a bang - weapons with high crit multipliers are more random.
Charge!
Charging penalises AC by -2 for a round, and grants a +2 bonus to attack rolls. If they're going to hit you anyway, you might as well hit them if you can! Furthermore, it doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity. Go out in style.
I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot barge pole.
Reach is good. A character on the end of a stick is less dangerous than a character in your face, and it might just be worth giving up the use of a shield. A line of pikemen can be pretty effective, provided there is the space to wield them. A human with a glaive threatens the squares within ten feet of himself as opposed to the swordsman who can only make attacks of opportunity against adjacent foes.
Simple and Martial Reach Weapons: Glaive, guisarme, longspear, ranseur.
Drop that gun!
Just because the grunt is never likely to get Improved Disarm doesn't mean he can't try a disarming manoeuvre now and again. He may risk being disarmed himself, but if he fails his attack, losing his weapon is the least of his worries!
That said, there are weapons out there that can tilt the odds slightly in his favour. Such weapons give a +2 bonus to the opposed attack rolls when attempting to disarm and avoid being disarmed in the event of a failed attempt.
Martial Disarming Weapons: Heavy flail, light flail, ranseur.
Trip 'em up!
Tripping doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity, although if the attempt fails, the attacker does run the risk of being tripped himself. If an opponent is tripped (and therefore prone) attackers receive a +4 bonus to mêlée attacks against him. Since grunts aren't terrific at fighting, they need to get their bonuses where they can!
Make sure the grunt uses the right weapon, however - equip him with something that can be dropped just in case a trip attempt fails and it looks like the hero might succeed in tripping the grunt instead.
Martial Tripping Weapons: Guisarme, halberd, heavy flail, light flail.
Get under cover!
The problem with using a bow is that the only shield that can be used at the same time is a buckler. As you'll see from the ranged grunt statblock, they're pretty easy to hit in combat. How, then, can they launch attacks while protected?
Well, just because they can't use shields doesn't mean that other characters can't use shields for them. Add more grunts - or maybe some real cannon fodder - 1st-level commoners with the Tower Shield Proficiency feat. Equip them with a dagger and a tower shield and have them line up, providing cover for the archers.
When employed in this way, the commoner should ideally stay completely behind the tower shield, taking no offensive action and gaining total cover from the shield. The grunt fires his bow as normal and then retreats behind the tower shield. Of course, if your troops are crossbowmen, they can use this covered area to reload in relative safety.
Shieldman, male human Com1: CR ½; Medium Humanoid (Human); HD 1d4+1; hp 3; Init +0; Spd 30 ft.; AC 14 (+4 shield), touch 10, flat-footed 14; Base Atk +0; Grp -1; Atk -3 melee (1d4-1/19-20, dagger) or -2 ranged (1d4-1/19-20, dagger); Full Atk -3 melee (1d4-1/19-20, dagger) or -2 ranged (1d4-1/19-20, dagger); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; AL N; SV Fort +1, Ref +0, Will +1; Str 8, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 9, Wis 13, Cha 11.
Languages: Common.
Skills and Feats: Profession (any one) +5; Shield Proficiency, Tower Shield Proficiency.
Possessions: Dagger, tower shield, peasant's outfit.
Total Equipment Cost: 32 gp, 1 sp
Put the frighteners on.
Intimidate is a class skill for the warrior and the fighter. See Gimme Yer Beer Money! for more details. Intimidation comes in very handy in combat, and it can really make a difference at low levels since the matter is resolved by an Intimidate check opposed by a level check (modified by the opponent's Wisdom score). Show me your war face, Private Joker!
Don't let 'em kill you.
Of course, just because the grunt is cannon fodder doesn't mean he has to act like it. Having some fighting experience, they'll know when they're outclassed. The grunt can do lots of other things that minimise their chances of being killed. Have them fight defensively (-4 to attacks, +2 dodge bonus to AC) or take total defence actions (no attacks, +4 dodge bonus to AC). Taking total defence actions when withdrawing is a very good idea since moving out of threatened areas provokes attacks of opportunity.
In addition to this, they can try surrendering or running away as fast as their little legs will carry them. If the PCs are particularly bloodthirsty, they can always try to bullshit their way out of trouble (Kill me and you'll never learn where Zonko's Marvellous Underpants really are!
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