Cannon Fodder (5e Variant Rule)

Cannon Fodder

Sometimes, just sometimes, you want to hurl a hoarde of creatures at your players with the intent that they will mow them all down. It makes them feel powerful, it makes for great storytelling, and most importantly it ties up player actions which you can use for the REAL DANGER in the room to prepare a spell, escape, or do whatever else it is that you plan for them to do.

Problem is... Using a full stat block for each creature in this hoard is tedious, keeping track of their hit points is tiresome, and the entire process slows combat down to a crawl.

To remedy this problem try this instead.

1. .Pick your base creature stat block you want to use for this cannon fodder.
2. .Change it to only have one hitpoint. and give it the trait that it can only be reduced to 0 hit points on a failed savings throw (vs spells) or when they suffer damage (as when they are physically attacked.
3. .Place 3 of these modified creatures for every 1 of the normal creature it says to use in your module or you had planned to use initially. keeping them clustered helps you keep track of when they are supposed to act. But spreading them out and mixing multiple groups can provide some strategic advantages for the DM.
4. .Account for these clusters of creatures during combat by having each cluster of 3 share initiative, attack rolls, and savings throws. but keep their attacks, AC, and movement individual. so in effect you only have to roll once to attack with all three, but each can move independent of one another, and each has to be targeted individually.

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