The Path to Victory: Defend

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The Alamo, the Great Wall of China, Stalingrad – there’s nothing like a stalwart last-ditch “you shall not pass” heroic defense to inspire courage and stimulate the imagination.  Defend is probably the least often seen Victory condition in D&D which is why it’s my personal favorite.  In a Defend situation, you don’t necessarily need to win – you just need to not lose…  usually.  There are three main variations of Defend:

Rourke’s Drift or Koan Defense

This is the classic Defense option.  All the PCs have to do is stand there and take it for a certain number of rounds, at which point something awesome will happen.

In the historical battle of Rourke’s Drift, a couple hundred British regulars in South Africa came under siege by over ten thousand Zulu warriors.  They repelled several waves of attack over the course of several days due to superior weaponry (the Zulus had primarily spears and similar low-tech weapons compared to the British firearms), and good fortification but soon ran low on ammunition and food.   The soldiers in the fort expected a final wave of Zulu to overrun them, but instead received an emissary from the natives saying that it would be against their ways to kill such noble warriors by simply outnumbering them.  Similarly, the Mongol invasion of Japan at the Battle of Koan was ultimately thwarted not by the Japanese defense, but by the kamikaze (“divine winds”) or storms that arose and trashed the Mongol fleet.

Base your own heroic stand on one of these models.  The enemy force is inferior man-to-man (i.e. lots of minions or significantly lower-level non-minions) but outnumbers the PCs many, many times over.  Conversely, the enemies are of equal skill and ability but have some strategic disadvantage, like being downhill, across difficult terrain or on water.  After a certain number of rounds, the opposing forces will recognize the PCs superior spirit and simply give up, someone else will intervene to save them or the villain will miss his big chance.  This version is particularly fun since the DM can bring in wave after wave after wave of enemies  (usually minions) to either completely panic the players or make them feel like the baddest dudes ever.   Err on the side of having too many melee-based enemies vs. ranged-based enemies so that the PCs don’t feel too helpless. Again, there’s a sort of deus ex machine effect here since the PCs aren’t actually the heroes.  Be sure the players are OK with that in some way and really buy in to the fact that every once in a while, they need some help.

Thermopylae Defense or Custer’s Last Stand

A very unique take on the Defense idea – the PCs are going to die.  It’s planned in advance out of game (by both GM and players!) and destined in the narrative.  These characters will not see the break of dawn tomorrow.   Their only goal is to hold off the enemy for as long as possible in the hopes that someone else can either prepare their own defense or escape.    Ideally, the longer the PCs hold off the enemy, the greater benefit (either mechanically or narratively) to the next group of PCs that the players create or use.  Doing so creates a sense of continuity and reinforces that the first group of PCs did not die in vain.  This scenario is best run with Epic-level characters about to complete their destiny, but lower-level “throwaway” characters are alright too.  Consider using this end if the players decide they don’t like their current PCs and want to make radical changes.

Anyone who has seen the movie 300 knows the story of Thermopylae Pass – 300 Spartan warriors held off a chokepoint at Thermopylae against a vastly superior Persian force so that Athens could prepare to defend itself.  Custer’s Last Stand, while actually a badly planned offense as opposed to a heroic defense, is a well-known “everyone died” scenario and so while not historically accurate to the victory condition still describes the idea well.

If you’re planning on running a Thermopylae Defense on an open field without much terrain, it should start with a handful of quickly dispatched enemies and then get progressively difficult as the rounds pass.  Start with Skirmishers and maybe some Artillery, but that’s it – you want the first wave or first couple rounds to be low-powered, simple adjudication, not requiring the PCs to expend Action Points (of which they should have at least 2 each), daily item uses, or many encounter/daily powers.  This is an attrition battle, so you want the PCs to feel like they fought long and hard, rising to the challenge, rather than blowing all their big guns up front and then being shot like fish in a barrel.  In successive waves, bring in Brutes first and then Soldiers and Controllers last.  Figure out where the “front line” is – that is, the first area where PCs can be seriously injured – and then slowly force it backward on the PCs using longer-range attacks and more durable opponents.

Status afflictions should increase as the PCs burn through their resources.  Remember, this is a heroic death scene and everyone has already bought into it – a character who dies while slowed, dazed, taking ongoing 15 fire and -4 to all defenses in this scenario feels heroic because they brought to bear every last ounce of strength they had before finally succumbing to effects that would have “felled a lesser man much quicker.”  The one condition to avoid – dominate.  Do not dominate your PCs; this is their last scene – having them fall to each other’s attacks only works if you’re doing a supernatural horror thing.   Otherwise your players may feel cheated out of a heroic end.  Also, set a definite endpoint in your own mind.  For instance, you know that if the PCs make it 10 rounds, the next wave is completely undefeatable.  Thermopylae Defenses can run extremely long so know in advance when you’re going to drop the hammer.

If you decided to use terrain, you can bring out most or all the enemies at once rather than in waves and give the PCs strong tactical position that they can use to minimize the enemy army’s ability to attack them.    Other than that, most of the same guidelines apply.  Eventually, the enemies must breach those positions so foes in the back ranks should have teleports, pushes, slides or terrain-destroying abilities that they pull out after some set number of rounds.

The Frodo Defense

The Frodo Defense is perhaps the simplest Defense variant, but it comes last in this list because it’s not a Defense in the truest sense.  In a Frodo Defense, the PCs must Rout the enemy, but must due so while keeping them away from a certain square or NPC.  In this way, the Frodo Defense is the opposite of an Arrive and the step-cousin of an Escort.  The PCs have their own King or Key that must survive in order to truly win the battle.  Setting up this fight is relatively simple; follow the standard encounter design rules given in the DMGs for a normal Rout  but take some cues from the Escort win condition as to how to have the enemies behave.  You may want to allow more ranged attackers for exactly the same reason that the Escort scenario discourages ranged attackers.

Similar Posts:

•      The Path to Victory: Checkmate
•      The Path to Victory: Alternate Victory Conditions in 4e
•      The Path to Victory: Arrive