Shardstone
Hero
I want to talk about what I think is the absolute best variant rule so far published for 5E and 5R: the 2024 DMG's Mob rules.
I won't copy/paste them, but I will explain them here, then I'll explain why I like them.
So, mobs are simple. You have a huge number of creatures but don't want to spend years going through their turns. The DMG provides two tools meant to be used together to tackle this issue, and they not only work well, they also are fun! At least, for me.
Procedural advice is the first tool. The book states that when using Mobs, damage is average damage, monsters die if they are left with just a handful of hit points, and the Mobs themselves are divided into groups of 5-10 (suggest 5-8 but the table goes to 10) and interwoven between player turns. This is all pretty simple stuff, and this Mobs would be "just ok" if this was it.
But now we get to the Mob Table. I love this table. It works like this:
This makes combat with a lot of creatures a cinch. You immediately know how many creatures succeed, you know how much damage to output, you don't have to go turn by turn on dozens of creatures. And because the Mobs are essentially moving together, you already know how much space they take up and you can move them as one "unit." This is convenient for saving throws and ability checks too. If I cast fireball on 7 creatures, my DC is the Target Number and their Save bonus their Monster Bonus. I can now see that I annihilate 5/8 Undead Boogies with my Fireball, and if the others are dropped low enough, I might wipe out all 8. No rolling needed, I just state my intention, the GM tells me what happened. Well, need to roll damage, but yeah.
While I love these rules, they aren't perfect. At least, not for my tastes. So what else would I do? I'd make the following changes:
Ultimately, I think Mobs are really nifty. Combat, for me, is best when there are 2-6 creatures on the field. Mobs now let me narratively turn those 2-6 to 20-60 without bogging down combat and making things feel fair and possible to overcome by the players. IMO, the use of Mobs also brings back a certain Old School feeling of running into 100 Orcs while exploring the map, and also better activates scenarios like the Goblin Camp from BG3.
Have you used Mobs? Do you hate the idea? Do you have any alternatives? Let me know!
I won't copy/paste them, but I will explain them here, then I'll explain why I like them.
So, mobs are simple. You have a huge number of creatures but don't want to spend years going through their turns. The DMG provides two tools meant to be used together to tackle this issue, and they not only work well, they also are fun! At least, for me.
Procedural advice is the first tool. The book states that when using Mobs, damage is average damage, monsters die if they are left with just a handful of hit points, and the Mobs themselves are divided into groups of 5-10 (suggest 5-8 but the table goes to 10) and interwoven between player turns. This is all pretty simple stuff, and this Mobs would be "just ok" if this was it.
But now we get to the Mob Table. I love this table. It works like this:
- For your Mob, figure out the base number it needs to succeed on a D20 test. Roll Needed = Target Number - Monster Bonuses. So if you want to hit the full plate AC 18 Fighter with a Mob that has +5 to attack, the Roll Needed is 13.
- You then get to the Mob table which is really two tables combined. The first three column lists your generated Roll Needed number. The second and third columns list those numbers as if the Mob had Advantage or Disadvantage on the attack.
- Once you find your Roll Needed number in the appropriate column (Normal, Advantage, Disadvantage), you read over to another column based off how many monsters are in the Mob. These are "Out of 4" "Out of 5" etc etc. What's listed in that column is a fraction, and that fraction represents how many creatures in the Mob succeeded.
- So, back to our example. Our Roll Needed is 13. Let's say there are 10 creatures in this Mob. On a Normal 13, 4/10 creatures hit. If the Mob had Advantage, however, 7/10 would hit. Ouch! And if the Mob had Disadvantage, only 2/10 would hit.
This makes combat with a lot of creatures a cinch. You immediately know how many creatures succeed, you know how much damage to output, you don't have to go turn by turn on dozens of creatures. And because the Mobs are essentially moving together, you already know how much space they take up and you can move them as one "unit." This is convenient for saving throws and ability checks too. If I cast fireball on 7 creatures, my DC is the Target Number and their Save bonus their Monster Bonus. I can now see that I annihilate 5/8 Undead Boogies with my Fireball, and if the others are dropped low enough, I might wipe out all 8. No rolling needed, I just state my intention, the GM tells me what happened. Well, need to roll damage, but yeah.
While I love these rules, they aren't perfect. At least, not for my tastes. So what else would I do? I'd make the following changes:
- If using creatures with more than 40 HP, I instead use the Con mod bonus HP the creatures get. So if I have a Mob of Red Dragon Wyrmlings, they have 30 HP a piece instead of 75 a piece.
- You might also make it so that members of the Mob instead just take raw "Hits" instead of damage. Damaging a Mob Creature deals 1 Hit to it. You can keep damage rolls by saying if you roll above average damage, you deal 2 hits to it. If the creature is vulnerable to your damage type, you deal another +1.
- You can combine creatures of different types but that have the same Attack Bonuses, such as Weretigers and Wereboars (both +5), and create Raiding Parties.
- You can give the Mob special Legendary Actions, acquired from training and thus making Mobs into Legions or Death Squads and so on.
- You can make it so that creatures moved away from the Mob, such as using a Push weapon to knock a wereboar away from its comrades, leaves the pushed away creature Incapacitated or Dazed, shrinking the Mob and lowering its damage output for a turn.
- You can give Mobs Morale Checks to see if they break and scatter when half their members are killed or when they suffer a high damaging AoE effect, making Mobs even faster combats.
Ultimately, I think Mobs are really nifty. Combat, for me, is best when there are 2-6 creatures on the field. Mobs now let me narratively turn those 2-6 to 20-60 without bogging down combat and making things feel fair and possible to overcome by the players. IMO, the use of Mobs also brings back a certain Old School feeling of running into 100 Orcs while exploring the map, and also better activates scenarios like the Goblin Camp from BG3.
Have you used Mobs? Do you hate the idea? Do you have any alternatives? Let me know!
