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 and I have named them after fictional or historical battles, more or less.  I’m not going to explain them all right now (that’s what Wikipedia is for) but look them up later if you’re interested.

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.

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 gets to either completely panic the players or make them feel like the baddest dudes ever.    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 –  Yes, I know Custer’s Last Stand was not a defense, but just go with it.  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.

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.  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.    Status afflictions should increase as the PCs burn through their resources.  but 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. 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.

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 – just defeat them all – but must do 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 battle 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, that is, cover for the King or Key.<