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Make Bandits Formidable in Your TTRPG Campaign! | Grim Hollow | D&D 5e | DnD | Ben Byrne
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ส.ค. 2024
- There is no creature more terrifying or dangerous than humankind. Learn to make bandits and raiders more formidable than any monster in your dark fantasy TTRPG campaign.
Discover Grim Hollow: Valikan Clans - ghostfiregamin...
Topics:
00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Reimagining bandits
04:16 - Traps, raids, and bandit encounters
06:27 - Morality in a dark fantasy world
08:43 - Formidable bandit stat blocks
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Edited by @ZsDante
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100% agree. Running a game that starts in a bandit infested land. My players were expecting all the bandits to be involved with the bandit lord in the territory. The recently found a group who were resorting to banditry due to political issues with the surrounding towns and they just wanted to eat. The party got to talking to them and made deals with them to gain knowledge of the surrounding area in return for forgiving their crimes and helping them settle in this region of the world. It lead to some great RP and morality questions.
That’s an incredible story! It sounds like a fantastic campaign.
Worth noting: Bandits are often actually mercenaries who don't have active contracts, or soldiers who deserted their post.
In a fantasy setting, you could very well justify them being groups of adventurers that have grown restless and have no monsters they have found to slay.
Murder Hobos Murder Hobos everywhere... Hehe....
To tack onto that, you also have issues where Mercenaries who go unpaid might take their previous contract holder hostage until it is paid. In the Italian City-States it was not uncommon for mercenaries that were hired and the city went bankrupt or were financially ruined, they might remain and effectively terrorize the populace until an absurd ransom was paid to make them go away (which sometimes they didn't even leave), had their contract purchased, or a sufficiently powerful force showed up to intimidate them.
Deserters are the most common, especially if an army was defeated. The remnants of a major battle creates brigands quite commonly where soldiers find that they have no pay and can't return home or a person is suddenly thrust into a position of power and either use that newfound influence to try and set up something better for them or on their morally gray attempt to head back home. For example, in the Hundred Years War and during the Crusades, the cost of a channel or sea crossing increased exponentially when word of the army returning (damn those pesky merchants). If you couldn't afford it and your Lord was dead, you might turn to banditry in an attempt to raise enough through the only means readily available. It's not always because they're evil and want to kill people, sometimes it's the only thing they can think of in an attempt to go home or they're starving.
Finally, and probably the most common, the bandits represent a larger warhost. The Danish invasions of England where a tribute was paid for protection on top of a levy tax of troops. While this is a more advanced form of raiding, and typically represents more of a reflection to the modern "Privateer" or Pirate.
Fun facts for use:
Bandits which are forest prone or effectively patrol roads are more commonly called Brigands.
Bandits which travel the rivers can be called Reivers. Though this is predominantly an Anglican term.
Bandits which are coastal bound can be referred to as Corsairs, Pirates, or Privateers. The interesting part here is that Corsair can actually mean either a Pirate or Privateer and is primarily a Mediterranean term. Pirates are more universal and broad. Privateers are the former who are under contract by another state entity to act on their behalf, typically as a way to protect ones own commercial interests by paying them off such as what was done in the Caribbean by the French, English, and Spanish.
@@ordwinrahl6655 thank you for all this flavor!
Even incorporate some degree of racism by having them attack monster villages.
Or as Sir Kino tells in KDC "Someone's mercenary is another's bandit". Your bandits might be mercenaries working for someone that wanted armed men to pillage/scavange/destabilize the region.
Ghostfire doesn’t brag enough just how HUGE their monster grimoire is. It’s been my favorite book to flip through and brainstorm encounters with with.
Thanks so much! 😄 We’re utterly thrilled it’s your favorite monster book.
Had a blast art directing them all. It was a GARGANTUAN task.
@@helmighsGreat Job! Seriously well done
I really like the bandits from "Darkest Dungeon" a lot, the sortof viking visual vibe combined with the use of cannons and muskets to brutal effect was enough to keep them toe-to-toe with the other horrors of that setting. And the story of the Sergeant showing just how brutal and chaotic coming under artillery fire is, even for a seasoned soldier such as himself, really drove home their horror.
9:46 The town guard statblock is also very useful for brigands-bands of mercenaries that have either been outlawed, turned to banditry to make a profit, or unleashed on a region by a foreign lord. With a knight as a captain, your bandits are suddenly a formidable small army that easily walks over village militias and could challenge the local lord’s army if they came to blows.
and the other way around, too. you can use the thug stat block for a stronger guard or just general peacekeeper. you literally just ignore the alignment lol
Historically, brigands could have even been knights and not just mercenaries. Professional soldiers becoming bandits was a thing that happened during times of peace, or when a knight was a scumbag who was willing to abuse his position of authority. I remember one story of a nobleman who was a leader of a brigand group, and they would use the noble's castle as their hideout.
A thing that I normally do in my games is that most bandits are demobolised soldiers who either found a taste to fighting or unable to return home due to their homes being destroyed.
Basic idea is that they can be deserters with some level of discipline.
The idea of a raid on a settlement being a sort of dungeon is such a cool idea, and something I've experienced!
It wasn't bandits, but evil dragonoids (campaign is set in the Dragonlance setting.) Rather than fighting them off, the goal of our characters was instead to hold off the invaders long enough for the citizens to evacuate via boat. It was extremely suspenseful, our Warlock almost died, it was awesome.
I had a bandi lord named Maurice, he was my d&d party's first really boss. He had 4 unique commanders who all operated seperatly. A raider, A mage, A thief and A soldier. These all had their own flaws, and the players had to beat at least two of the lords, since he kept his location a secret. and you needed an X and Y coördinate. One of the bandits (the thief) might help the players for a price, and later, it is discovered that the mage was also plotting against Maurice. Maurice himself would just constantly put them up against eachother. The thief, who was active in the city where the players lived, could react to anything the players did, in about one hour. He changed one players love interest with a doppelganger, sent mimics and nearly burned down their tavern. The players negotiated with the thief and eventually got his coördinate. They didn't even consider taking on the Soldier because he had by far the most troops, and also, a troll. Which they didn't feel like fighting. They heard scary things about the raider, so they eventually decided to take on the mage. A transmuter who is one of the few people who knows how to do plastic surgery. She was dangerous and her creations nearly killed the players. Luckily they had help from a local ranger and a monster hunter (gues players). The funny twist was, Maurice turned out to not be so bad. The player's love interest he kidnapped was treated really well, and he gave the commanders some big restrictions on civility. He himself couldn't fight that well ( a knight stat block). To top it all off, he had an adopted half elf daughter he saved in an event some years before the campaign where all elves in the country were thrown out of the cities or killed. Which made him more likeable for the two elven players. He also argued, that if he didn't play bandit lord, someone else will, and they might not give their commanders restrictions. Eventually he ran away though. Overall, a great villain in my opinion.
Another group of bandits the players met on session 1 was an elven militia that saved them from their prison cargo. These elves guarded the woods after they were kicked out of cities and had pretty much nowhere to go.
Another great way to make bandits memorable is with a starter town's destruction.
Picture this:
You and your party have just hit level 3 taking out a bandit camp, but there was something strange about this one... they were gearing up for something and there were less bandits that you would have expected for a camp of that size. And now you and your party are headed back to town only... Flames in the horizon. The town is ablaze... Sulphur in the air. You now know where the rest of the bandits went... The wolves are at the door! They were gearing up to hit home... your home. Everything burns. (Use a larger camp with a level appropriate number of bandits to simulate that, that was just the home guard, the ones left to keep an eye on the place while the main force heads out on a raid.)
I like using (lower-level) PC statblocks for my bandits (mostly fighter, rouge & ranger, maybe some warlocks & sorcerers) because at the end of the day, the only thing that sepeterates bandits from adventurers is perspective and circumstance.
I have some bandits that are the new police chief’s personal guards. He ended up “dealing with” the last police chief that everyone liked, but he went on a smear campaign against her once he figured she was dealt with. Mob and gang activity is large in that area, and the old police chief knew that she wasn’t going to be able to stop all of it, so just tried to keep things regulated. Well the New Police chief started cracking down on it, just so that he didn’t have any competition. Two players have been affected by this change, the Rogue/Warlock since he’s part of a gang in the area, and the Rogue, since she worked for a small family owned diner. Well the diner was basically the neutral ground for most of the gangs and the gang members didn’t want to do anything since they respected the old man who ran it. Well, as part of his “crusade against gang violence” he had the diner firebombed. To make it worse, the diner owner is roughly in his 80s and is slowly developing dementia, and the only thing he could remember was the diner, and he’s in the hospital since one of the New Police Chief’s personal guards got rough with him. That and the parties cinnamon roll npc got kidnapped too. So they’ve made it abundantly clear that they’re not leaving the area until they kill the New Police Chief.
I have a great interest in elf skirmishers, and the bit about being victims being smothered in honey and left to rot is a fantastic idea. Especially since I reskin my hags as the spiritual leaders of both elves and goblins. Do formidable kobolds next!
you just described scoia'tael from the witcher 3 lol
I have a neat bandit group that's written for sci-fi but could work in fantasy with some adjustments.
They're called the bone collectors, and their lore is that they went a little weird in space and started believing that the bones of their foes could give them power. So they affix bones and often full skeletons across their mechs, sometimes wearing a string of several skeletal victims on their front plate like a grizzly necklace.
Although it's quite opposite to an actual challenge, I once had an experience with a book that gave me an idea for a set of more humorous bandits.
Bandits are as they do, but instead of seeing as something they need to do for survival or simply out of villainy, It's more like a day job. They take it up front, they have set lines, and if anyone doesn't seem to get it then they're more than happy to explain. It's like a couple of actors to them, they don't mean any actual harm, they never seem to actually kill anybody, just scare them and get their pay.
They have quotas, pay days, allowances, bosses, overbosses, etc etc much like an actual business would. Sometimes they set up signs, warnings, or even just have someone posted down the road to say "hey, you're gonna get robbed a while up." But, in the end, it's a job. If nobody kills them, they don't kill anybody, and people more well acquainted with their style they just and them some money and leave.
I think it's quite a hilarious take, highwaymen posted up on roads that play it out like script, and get quite annoyed if you don't play along well enough. Even raids on villages and towns are little more than shakedowns and "kidnappings". Kidnappings, at least, in the vein of husband's and wives taking their significant others away from town on a vacation for a couple of days.
My idea for Bandits are former adventures who were caught extorting small villages. Usually, a bunch of low-level thieves being led by a group of who were once known to be upstanding members of the guild before they were framed for the murder of a lesser noble. That party would be early game bosses of a Druid(former court Mage who turned to herbalism after being stripped of his title and research), a Bard(the former court jester who was slated to be hanged after the incident), and a Fighter(the dead noble's former bodyguard and lover). Depending on how the group handles the situation they either slay them, only to find out they were innocent later down the line, or they accept pease talks to learn of something more devious going on.
I like your idea of travelers caught in roots and vines. Trapped in poses like they died fast. Something like a gibbet and statues of petrified men. Mummified in their gear, drained of fluid by the roots. Big items, like armor and weapons are pierced, broken or crushed by the roots. Some items can be salvaged if they fight the roots.
One of my favorite regular DMs actually took my PC and his love of Witcher and made them another campaign’s main villains. And I loved every second of it!
Context: My character came from the Viking inspired region of the world and had journeyed south to scout new raid locations since old ones were drying up. Over the course of the campaign my character engineered various situations with the aid of NPCs he’d bound to him by life-debts and granting them mercy instead of killing them. Eventually Party A took a break of about a year of downtime which I used to raid deeper into old raiding lands than had ever been raided before thanks to a gift given to my PC by an elven lord Party A had saved prior to the timeskip. Now meanwhile the other campaign (party B) were adventuring in the lands my pc’s people raided the coasts of. To save some writing, during that year of downtime my PC went home, gathered a warband together and used his Elven gift to make his ship “Sail on the Tides of the Wind” and launched a successful raid beyond a giant wall that had barred his people’s ability to raid further inland.
Over time my pc gathered more and more of his people under his banner until eventually the DM asked me if he could use my pc as party B’s BBEG, I said yes and my pc was upgraded to the reincarnation of Odin after a plot by the gods killed his previous form but didn’t fully succeed in killing Odin. And thus the following exchange (paraphrased) occurred:
DM: As you all gather on the Great Shield (that’s the name of the wall around the country btw) you watch the rivers with sharp eyes. The sky’s thunder as a storm rolls in and pelts everyone on duty with heavy rain that chills your forms.
Party B Fighter: Can I roll a perception check to see if I can pick up any kind of movement?
DM: Go ahead
PC: *rolls and cheers* Nat 20 total 28!
DM: Fighter as you look out over the horizon scanning intently for any kind of movement, you SEE nothing
PC: Awwww
DM: HOWEVER you can hear the sounds of wood straining against wood and underneath the thunderclaps, the rhythmic beating of drums, what do you?
PC: Where’s the sound coming from?
DM: Above you
Party B Sorcerer: I cast Daylight above us!
DM: As you cast the spell Sorcerer you all watch and with dawning horror see the shapes of Aesinger Longships and oars sailing through the clouds OVER the wall and deep into undefended lands. A bolt of lightning further illuminates the skies beyond the bounds of your Daylight and once again the horrifying realization hits. There are dozens, No. Hundreds. Of ships flying over you and Past the wall. The Aesinger have done the unthinkable and almost entirely without notice. If it weren’t for you all’s actions just a minute ago, no one would be any the wiser that the Country’s greatest defense has been rendered useless and now invaders, pillagers and all manner of Aesinger brutes are deep inside country thought for millenia to be safe from all outside threats.
How about horselords? Very similar to the sea raiders, but instead of appearing on longships in bear pelts, iron helms, and wooden shields, they appear out of the deserts and plains with the thundering of hooves, clad in light armor with composite bows, scimitars, and hammers. They suddenly swoop through the city, slipping nooses over the necks of guards and dragging them away and strangling them at the same time. Rustling livestock, snatching up civilians, and engaging in Parthian tactics. But when the PCs come across their camp, they are greeted by outriders and escorted in as guests. They find the prisoners being treated fairly, and are offered meat from the hunt and fermented horse milk. Their warlord enters negotiations for the release of the prisoners for a ransom, and the possibility of future trade, so he can offer suitable tribute to his khan.
I only read the title and I already popped an idea: Make the early bandits a sort of rival-party, where your party is out to save the day, their party is out to exploit and raid the day. You might get fights here and there, kill some bandits, but maybe certain characters manage to escape and become established. That damn Jordis who seems to be hellbent on one-upping you, maybe you butt heads at a town but are unable to actually fight because it's neutral ground and the guards might not know about their banditry.
Great idea!! “anti-parties” make for great party rivals and can be made from a mix of colourful stat blocks for really engaging battles.
Inspiration tip for younger DM watch the 1954 film the Seven Samurai. Most of those bandits were soldiers from defeated armies. Anything you may find in an army can pop up in a group of bandits.
On the same note, Sharpe's Enemy
I'm mostly going with the "mob" variant for my setting. The early-game bandits are just goons squatting along a major trade road, who are *actually* employed by the corrupt mayor of the starting town, who ensures that they're well supplied with food, water, wine, etc as long as they keep bringing in good money. They're small-potatoes there for early conflict, and can't JUST be dislodged from their hideout, since they have numbers, fortification AND the support of the mayor and his cronies.
The late-game ones basically run the capital city and have a more subtle effect on the world, acting through various proxies, and are one of the actual creeping threats in the setting that needs addressing.
Other than that, bandits aren't so big of a thing I have planned. Mostly because banditry is often really stupid and shortsighted as more than just a side-gig for an expansionist town. Highwaymen don't exactly have long life-expectancies, nor do they have a lot of places to spend their stolen money. So the more common threats will be magical in nature (Goblins who literally feed on chaos and mischief, nasty wildlife, Fae who aggressively protect their domain and have a grudge against humanity, etc)
"The greatest evils come from humans themselves..." *-A Bandit*
You can combine any transformation and a bandit to create memorable encounters, you could also apply curses to them that fully activate at a point in the story that turns the bandit into a powerful monster that causes further chaos after transforming. The best part about these cursed bandits is that you can portray them in the light of a victim (who might have done evil things against their own will) of the final boss making for a beautiful plot hook to draw a normal short story campaign into a possible large-scale war to perhaps stop something like a lich from perfecting his curses that could harm the entire world. Just food for thought...
The city watch is a splinter cell of the bandits that look for the best and impressive loot from merchants and traders.
This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
A city watch is essentially a local militia that works for pay for the city to suppress crime and protect community safety. It is essentially a lower middle class job much akin to a deputy sheriff.
Bandits are social outcasts who reside in the wilderness and commit crimes of theft and violence to get by because they lack the ability to sustain themselves through more conventional means. They are not decentralised terrorist organisations so the don't have "cells".
A bandit who managed to get a job as a city guard would be making several steps up the socioeconomic ladder. Sure, a corrupt group in the city watch might tip off the bandits because of familial ties and a cut of the spoils, OR, a group of bandits that deserted from the military might become well organised and progress from banditry to protection racket to mercenary guard but they would no longer be "bandits" at that point.
@@SurmaSampo one of the defining characteristics of a militia is that they are unpaid, or “Irregular.” Paid soldiers, even on permanent guard duty, are not militia.
Small semantic quibble that hopefully helps you mentally frame the level of professionalism you should put into the characters acting as guards.
@@demonzabrak In the early to high middle ages there wasn't much of a distinction between militia, military, police and guards. It was all much the same with regular professional military being the exception rather than the rule.
The semantics you are applying, are correct in the modern (post firearm) context.
The example I have was obviously (I hope) for a group of organised force of poorly trained but somewhat experienced volunteers by circumstances.
@@SurmaSampo … no.
You said a town watch is like a militia.
A town watchman is employed by a local lord and is a man at arms, and therefore not an untrained peasant. It is not a militia. They are trained. It is their job.
There was not a distinction between guard and soldiers like you said, which is in support of *my* point. The town watch are soldiers. Literal Men-at-arms.
Hey Ben, just wanted to say that I discovered your videos a few months ago and became a fan instantly. I'm about to run my first gothic horror campaign next week using a lot of the advise from your videos (including this one). I'm thrilled to finally dm these stories inspired in the books I love!.
Keep making awesome content!
Greetings from Argentina!
Thanks so much Joel! 😄 Hope the campaign goes well and thanks for tuning in.
I had a clan of raiders destroy a village and kidnap half the population because one of the players sided with an opposing clan during one of his travels. The village dungeon crawl was one of the many combat encounters during that part of the campaign and it ended with careful negotiation with the clan leader. (clan leader was based on Siggtrygr from Last Kingdom)
Some more bandit story concepts that came to mind for anyone who wants em
1: A pack of rabid wolves went through the area, attacking anyone they can. While there were almost no deaths, anyone bitten was cursed with a weaker version of lycanthropy. Transforming every night and giving a strong blood-lust that, with practice, can be controlled. Through fear, everyone cursed was chased away from their homes and are hunted as monsters. Now this groups of cursed citizens are forced to band together, stealing and looting the local area to survive and hopefully build their own town where they may live peacefully
2: A group of former soldier mercenaries were hired by a local noble to handle some threat (what that threat is might be related to the main story). Things went sideways and the mercenaries accidentally caused a lot of damage completing the job. The Noble decided that it was better to not pay the mercenaries and use the group as a scapegoat, calling them bandits and trying to get them killed before the deal is revealed to the public. The mercenaries enraged by this decided to take what was owed them by force and make the noble suffer while they did it
3: In a backwater area where there is little law enforcement from the local king or lords, the number of attacks on citizens from evil monsters became unbearable. In response, the most skilled citizens banned together to protect their neighbors from anything that would harm them. Over time this group grew in power, status, and wealth and this got to the groups heads. Acting as judge, jury, and executioner through out the entire area, these protectors became tyrants. They are now exploiting the villages in the area for gold while still keeping the more savage wildlife at bay
I ran Bandits once which was a group of deserters who felt left behind by their former Empire and the New Republic. Both loyalists and revolutionaries fought in this band realizing they had been used and thought that they were the only ones who understood the struggles of commoners. Many of them had just suffered so much in the 100-year war that the war never ended for them, I don't think I'll be able to write antagonists as well as the 7th Uzkulwyr Rifles again.
I'd probably make my bandits start out as the robin hood basic, but include more dynamic tactics, like having caches and hideouts strewn throughout the land. make them rove to greener pastures if there's too much overt attention on them, and have them use spies and serve a larger hierarchy, like merchant princes having a private war beneath the throne that gets so bad the monarch starts to notice.
could lead it into a coup attempt and civil war storyline if it's left to fester, or doesn't/can't get nipped in the bud.
Last time I ran bandits, they were a gang working for the Earth cult in Princes of the Apocalypse. The "mooks" were blooded soldiers from a semi-recent war, unable to find mercenary work in a period of relative peace; they were experienced, disciplined, and well-equipped, not half-drunk thugs in patchy armor and chipped short swords. The leadership consisted of a cleric to a dark god cooperating with the elemental cults; an evil wizard looking for something hidden in the old fort where the bandits had made their base; a satyr who was really just in it for vicious fun; and their commander, a werewolf ranger with a winter wolf companion. I inserted them because I felt I needed an extra sidequest to add a sense of severity to the campaign and to pad out my players' magic items and experience levels.
I like the idea of a bandit group of enchanters. They come unarmed, politely asking if they can try on the party's gear. And they seem so reasonable so why not. If successful they then blow a noisy flute-like thing and exclaim "That's the call of a particularly dangerous creature of these woods. Very hard to survive even if you were armed unless you know how to avoid them. Bye then and good luck. You might want to start running for your lives now".
Or, to keep more with generic bandits, your party has just won a truly difficult fight. Now they need to rest and recover. However, before the first hour of rest is up an arrow thuds into the camp. They run out to investigate, but whoever fired has run off into the night. They try to rest again, more on edge, but before they can complete their rest another arrow, this one striking a sleeper and wounding them further. This carries on through the night. No rest. No healing. No regaining abilities or spells. And when exhaustion sets in the well-rested bandits, minus a now resting harrier, close in.
I like the idea of escaped slaves that have become bandits and freedom fightere simply because they have no other way of providing for themselves in a place and time where they'll be captured and even killed if they try to assimilate into a society which rejects them. Really challenge players and help them find out who their characters are by presenting them with hard choices. You can't indiscriminately kill a group of people who are fighting to support their destitute families squatting in an abandoned mine if you're playing a good character, and if you're playing an evil one, it'll have you questioning how far you're willing to go down the path of evil. Using this idea is really circumstantial and depends on the party you're playing with though, which is typical for TTRPGs.
These sorts of morally grey senarios don't play well in DnD with its alignment system. The good character is basically caught between protecting their own community from the theft an and violence of the bandits, and the survival of the relatively innocent families in the mines. The evil character only has to decide where their own best advantage lies in relation to their personal goals. This usually ends in conflict between the party members rather than internal strife as the optimal good strategy is to give up adventuring to lead the outcasts to a more viable homestead while the evil characters either just want to get paid or use the outcasts to their own ends.
I personally like these sorts of scenarios as a GM or player but it tends to be a game killer in DnD.
@@SurmaSampo That's the thing! It's hard to execute! I would say it can create party conflict but it depends on the party and how it's run. Only way for me to test out this idea is with a one-shot.
I'm currently running a city adventure in Abechland, City of Joy, where I'm running the ebon syndicate is a big antagonistic force.
😮 A formidable foe indeed!
I ran a campaign once where the 'bandits' were actually revolutionary soldiers ditching the colors of their movement to raid caravans in order to sustain the war effort and retain good will with the public.
Even better use for bandits? Destroying the "safe havens" that players may come to rely on. If they're away adventuring in a dungeon, they might assume that the quaint seaside town they've been staying in will be just the same when they get back - only to find that it's a smoking ruin and everyone's been killed off. If you really want to play up the viking theme, maybe the relics in the town temple which they were relying on to Raise Dead the fallen fighter are stolen - creating a plot hook. The dead fighter's next character could even be a survivor of the town bent on revenge, or an inquisitor sent by the order associated with the destroyed temple whose quest is to recover the lost treasures.
Preparing for a campaign. Decided to have a bandit organization. The leader does commit all the normal acts of banditry, but also runs a very effecient protection racket. The towns on the fringes of the empire that can't rely on the military to protect them from monsters or other bandit attacks, pay the leader for protection. The organization has been taking down rival bandit groups and bringing those that are willing into the fold, killing the rest.
I'm running 2 campaigns and I have ran bandits differently depending on the nation.
In the Sovereignty, bandits are outlanders who live in the wilderness and broke the pact against the Sovereign. They are warbands of goblins and humans who follow a volcano elemental, gnolls and shifters who follow a werehyena scion of Yeenoghu, and a heretical order of drow who have been exiled from the Drow Queendom
In the semi-Anti-magic Dwarven empire, the bandits are flavored as outcast family of dwarf nobles from a previous civil war, a jungle ranger conclave of Elves and Genasi, mountain protector druids of winged races, and a rebel cell of oppressed mages
And in the north tundra, the bandits are an outrider gang of goliaths led by a Oni.
Using bandits and reflavoring their themes and origins is fun
In one of my hexmaps I have what is called the Contested Coast. Several hexes along the coast that are war fields and fortresses from a prior war that half a dozen or so former mercenary troops that are now brigand factions fighting for control over the abandoned territories.
In a campaign I once ran, there was a very organized and militaristic band of bandits. I once had them set up what looked like to the players a caravan in distress. When the party came to help, the "victims" revealed themselves as bandits. They ambushed the party and signaled for their reinforcements to emerge and surround the party. They only retreated once the party killed their captain. Some bandits stayed behind with crossbows to cover the escape back to their fort, a fort which was well-maintained, and full of traps, so if the party wanted to chase they would still be fighting on the bandit's terms.
My usual solution is to make them use a lot of deadly traps and try to intimidate the players into giving up while faking they are more than they really are with visual tricks and crossbow traps
Another fun twist on bandits.... There is a bounty out for bandit scalps.... The players go off hunting bandits to collect the scalps for the bounty, they find a merchant caravan that has been attacked the gaurds the merchants everyone has been killed.... The merchandise they were transporting? Untouched.... But, everyone has had their scalps taken.... the more the players look the more they find that the bandits have been taking scalps.... Why? To turn in for the bounty on bandits. Turns out the bandits were hunted to extinction and now the bounty hunters are just killing anyone they find alone because they still want the bounty for clearing out bandits that are now in short supply due to the bounty...
I personally like to give bandits Mongolian tactics riding on horse back and wielding short bows and crossbows using their superior mobility to stay out of reach of their target whittling them down with arrows.
Similar to the Mongols they may not have a permanent base preferring to establish camps that are only up for a few days then moving miles away making it hard to pin them down and root them out.
I think an episode on making disease formidable would be great. Seeing as disease is usually brushed off by a paladin being in the general area or just straight up a 2nd level spell, it’s not much of a threat in D&D games.
Your Players could encounter a group of mercenaries that work escorting Caravans along a trade route that is plagued by bandits. Give them some flashy name, like "firebrand" and their members adorning their armor in a certain way, like, they all sport a red and white helm bush, wear their Insignia on their shields, cloaks and armor, or only wear a certain style of armor - something that makes them recognisable as members of that group.
Everyone advises the Players to either hire some firebrand members, or to join up with a larger Caravan, that employs them, as the firebrands have a long standing feud with those bandits and are very effective in driving them off. So much so, that many of the caravans, that don't employ them loose a substancial part of their wares.
In actuality, the firebrands _are_ the bandits, attacking those caravans they aren't hired to protect, so they basically win either way: If they get hired, they get paid, if they aren't, they rob the Caravan, stealing their "payment".
Or if you want to include a twist, you can go the Dragonheart way: the bandits and firebrands working together, sharing the spoils. Maybe they came to the conclusion, that neither group could survive without the other. If the bandits attacks on caravans stopped, the firebrands would be out of work, and if the firebrands left, either other, less understanding and merciful mercenaries would take their place, or the caravans would take another route, dooming commerce in the region.
That way, both sides get paid, and the bandits pretend attacking caravans protected by firebrands, to keep up the facade, while earnestly attacking caravans without firebrand protection. Maybe they even have a potent spell caster in their ranks, that uses their spells to let it look like they fought for real, while they are actually protected from the firebrand weapons, so the worst wound they get is a heavy bruise. Or all the firebrands wield weapons of mercy, that make it seem like a bandit is lethaly wounded or slain, while actually just unconciouse and/or under a spell that makes them appear dead.
Maybe the bandits are the local Population, that once was forced into a life of robbery to survive, and at some point something changed, so now they don't have to rely on robbery any more, but can't stop for some reason. Maybe they are forced by someone, maybe it's a scenario as detailed above, where there is a mutual reliance, so they'd hurt another party by stopping, or maybe something else entirely.
Aside from the leftover soldiers of a war or mercenaries, I once saw a documentary on how banditry worked in early medieval England. Yeah, it's basically organized crime. You're a local baron or a third son or something. So you decide to break bad and start abusing your authority or creatively engineering heists by knocking over other manors or estates. You use connections to case for things to steal then you go and do that. Or you're basically the local lord and can do pretty much whatever you want. Figures who could aptly be described as "robber barons/knights" were pretty common throughout history. Think of a crime lord in a medieval context. Oftentimes, it's even hard to call it corruption, because often there just isn't some federalized legal institution or king that actually cares enough to police them. Often times that robber knight is exactly that -- he serves in a time of a war. Legitimately, the king might not give a shit so long as he shows up to his wars.
When you think about it, it makes sense. Bandits are regular people that need infrastructure to exist. Just having rabid semi-feral randos camping out in the woods doesn't make much sense unless that group is just really desperate. Where do they get food? How do they repair their equipment? Is ambushing rando travelers for pocket change a sustainable career in a sparkly fairy tale kingdom with well-kept roads and civic order with high-level adventuring parties tromping about? And if you're camped out in low-traffic woods, just how many bent-pennies are you _really_ earning on a given day? If you're turning to crime, it's either your side-hustle, you're desperate, politically-motivated or you're medieval Gus Fring or Walter White.
Like the usual depictions of bandits sort of make sense if they're just scattered deserters trying not to die in the immediate aftermath of a war. Otherwise, they're usually just an excuse to have generic fantasy RPG enemy #478. It makes more sense if bandits, are for example, disgruntled and ungovernable villagers who don't want to pay taxes. They have farms and a place to stay and a means of shielding their more militaristic activities. And there you go: Bandits.
In my campaign, the elves were mostly killed off, left to survive in 3 druidic groves throughout the world. Until, they were attacked and massacred to finish off the elven populous, but one remains. In a dark swamp, they utilize its thick canopy, fog, and hostile monsters to trap anyone, foe or traveler, and kill them. All for the means to protect themselves.
This was the first of your videos I've watched and it had great advice even for experienced DMs. Thanks for a great video.
I did a story where one of the hostile factions was a group of rebels fighting for the independence of their nation after the empire conquered them some years prior. They started off as essentially bandits but steadily grew over time, some groups from this faction were just bandits who were sympathetic to the cause or just wanted to use the name to garner local support. But the legit groups would be a mishmash of militia and volunteers with an elite core formed out of deserters and remnants of the old army of their nation. The rebellion was centered around the local religion and had a number of clergy holding positions of power, but they were also driven by nationalist sentiment (Since they were subjugated by the empire) and cultural identity (The empire had outlawed many local customs and were attempting to wipe out the language by banning it's usage in public or the teaching of the language to others)
The players were mercenaries who joined the good guy faction in the empire, foiling plots and fighting cults and whatnot. But seemed to get upset when one of the rebel leaders explained that the only reason they were fighting was because "You came here."
I ran a group of bandits that were essentially disenfranchised farmers fucked over from a previous war and had nothing else left and the territory now belonged to the conquerors. They had taken their families into the forests and survived there, mostly as hunter/gatherers but resorted to banditry now and then.
Of course the new rulers wanted them dead and gone. But the party found it difficult to deal with (great roleplayers) because well, they didn't want to murder all of them as there were entire families there and their circumstance was not of their own doing. Some of the bandits absolutley deserved the gallows, but not all of them.
Players got the new lords to agree to giving the least worst offenders and their families mercy and land to work.
The reason they needed the party to deal with them was that all the bandits were all trained levies and were apt at both using crossbows and a long range of weapons and had training. So they weren't just your typical trash rabble bandits and going after them would've been costly in terms of manpower and resources.
I tend to nerf or buff values on the statblocks. With this methond for example I made a master assassin a recurring villain, first with nerfed stats and when the party had the final confrontation with him. I had to buff him but it worked like a charm in the end, even though it was a near tpk.
Once again we must retvrn to the classics to ensure the Bandit is a threat across ALL levels:
Bandits (Neutral): 20 - 200, % IN LAIR: 20% {80% informal camp, 10% cave complex)
They travel in groups, generally led by high level fighters, magic-users and clerics. Those encountered in dungeons will be far fewer in number and often cooperating with thieves. For every 20 bandits encountered there will be an additional 3rd level fighter, for every 30 there will be an additional 4th level fighter, for every 40 there will be an additional 5th level fighter, and for every 50 there will be an additional 6th level fighter. Bandits will always be led by an Bth, 9th, or 10th level fighter, with 6 guards of the 2nd level fighting ability and a lieutenant of 7th level. These 8 bandits are also in addition to the number indicated by the dice. To determine the level of the bandit leader use the following guide: if under 100 bandits are encountered the leader will be 8th level, if 100 to 150 the leader will be 9th level, and if 150 or more the leader will be 10th level.
For every 50 bandits there is a 25% chance that there will be a magic-user of 7th, 8th, 9th, or 10th level (roll a 4-sided die for level if one is with the
group) in addition, i.e. if there are 200 bandits there will always be a magic-user.
For every 50 bandits there is a 15% chance that there will be a cleric of 5th or 6th level, with an assistant of 3rd or 4th level (dice only for the former) in addition.
Bandit lairs will be informal camps 80% of the time, but 10% will be cave complexes with a secret entrance, and 10% will be regular castles with 1-4 light catapults for defense. Bandits will have from 2-20 important prisoners in their lair, as well as 5-30 camp followers/slaves.
The mounting, armor, and arms of a force of bandits are: medium horse, chainmail 8 shield, sword (10%), light horse, leather armor 8 shield, spear (10%), light horse, leather armor, light crossbow (10%), leather armor, pole arm (10%), leather armor, light crossbow (10%), leather armor, short bow (10%), leather armor & shield, sword 40%
Terrain will vary the percentage of mounted bandits. In hilly and mountainous terrain no more than 10% of the total would be horsed, while in open country 90% of the force would be horsed. They have normal chances for having psionically endowed leader-types with a party.
Not to be confused with
Brigands (Chaotic Evil): They conform to the characteristics of bandits in general. The brigands will have a cave complex lair 20% of the time and a castle 30% of the time. They will have only 1-10 important prisoners, but there will be 20-50 camp followers/slaves. They have high morale in combat, so they get a + 1 on reaction morale dice.
"Or even a priest?"
General Butt-Naked would be a real world example of a bandit warlord priest engaging in ritualistic murder and cannibalism.
I tailor my encounters to fight the players in certain ways, my last bandits wore ghillie suits and acted like rogues
Your scenario with the bandits attacking a caravan headed for a village in need is almost how I opened my campaign. Except in my case, the caravan was led by a disgraced minor noble and intentionally left with inadequate protection. The bandits were tipped off by the ruling family of the duchy and all of the cargo was actually intended for them to put pressure on remote parts of the duchy who had been growing rebellious. Of course the players traveling with the caravan were a wildcard the nobles hadn't accounted for, but the bandits still made off with most of the loot. Now the players are hunting them down and slowly uncovering the conspiracy
Haven't watched the video yet but I hope you bring up Brigand Vulf form Darkest Dungeon as an example of how you can make a bandit leader terrifying and memorable.
I haven’t played Darkest Dungeon, but you’re the 4th person to recommend it to me in TH-cam comments the past few days. 😅
I think I have to pick it up.
@@benbyrne2429 Simply put... his event is the source of the song town in chaos.
Maybe a strange question to ask but, is there a video how to finish a dark fantasy campaign?
Im struggling to find a way to leave the world grim and dark because d&d tends to make people super heroes and finish off everything.
Is there a video like that ? Love your content! Really look forward to it every time
Hey, appreciate you tuning in!
It’s a great question, something we could formulate a video around! The main thing is dark fantasy tales can end in triumph, but usually not complete victory.
The end of Arcane on Netflix is a good example. Villain is defeated, though even he we’ve come to sympathise with, yet despite the victory none of the relationships between characters are repaired.
@@GhostfireGaming a thank u for the advice , thats something i can work with
One note: ancient Germanic warriors painted their faces and body black and used all wood weapons that didn't reflect light for night raids. And they picked the blackest nights for their attacks. You wouldn't even see them until they were right on you. Your bandits could do the same. Regardless of race.
I like mixing bandits and thugs with some low-level enemy DMPCs and a couple gnolls, orcs or similiar humanoid monsters. Tho I make sure to make these enemy DMPCs lower level than players, so that it's not unfairly challenging.
I know what my party would do.....go murder hobo. I wrote up a cool crime syndicate and when they approached my party the mage lit him up with scorched rays. Had names and backstories for all the bandits too.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ like we said, humans are sometimes the worst monsters. 😅
With moral ambiguity it may be possible to recruit bandits.
Great video, I'm starting my first campaign in a week and starting it off with a bandit raid encounter, You definitely helped me wrap my head around arranging the the bandit group.
My favorite encounter I ran was that the bandits where actually the town militia retrieving a shipment of medicine that was stolen from them by a neighboring lord.
One way to spice up bandits is researching the tactics used by real life insurgent groups, like WW2-era resistance fighters, the IRA, Vietcong or Taliban and having your bandits use those same or at least similar tactics. The line beween insurgency and banditry can be rather blurry, with the former having or at least claiming to have some sort of higher cause beyond just taking people's shit often being the only real difference.
In fact, the word "bandit" was historically often used to mean "insugent that I don't like" before people started using the word "terrorist" instead.
Had a buddy set out in a Salt march game to make the players use the 1 minute charge time town return item.
He did this by making Halfling guerilla warriors, and then having them employ viet cong ambush tactics. He amazingly didn't kill a single player... No instead one player who was chaotic evil, and really really dumb, crossed another player who was Neutral evil and hired 30 thugs. Thugs have pack tactics... After mercing the other evil player, NE used his thugs to chase off the Halfling commandos from the weapons shipment they waylaid that the party was supposed to guard... He then stole it, and sold it.... To the nation that hired the Halfling commandos in the first place, and returned to base, to open a bank. Everyone none the wiser. Naturally the Chaotic Evil player was not happy. But the console of DMs and the head dm pointed out there was no rule against it.
And I can't understate how chaotic stupid this person was. Rest of the Merc company (Players) didn't really care outside of the golden rule was broken and trust issues where cropping up. CE left the server and then turned around and made false claims against it, which discord being discord didn't investigate and just nuked the whole thing from orbit, we tried to rebuild, but that took the wind out of the sails... Had the last rp, at the tavern, one last round poured out for Middle Mire.
Fist of the North Star could provide great inspiration for bandits.
3:23 wasn’t ready for the 13th Warrior to show up in this video
Keep in mind that raiding and looting always have been and unfortunatly still are part of regular warfare so you can "level up" the bandits almost endlessly.
Are they deserters or soldiers left behind? perhaps (former) Paladins that have sunk to a all time low?
Or is what they do not just accepted by there commanders but active part of the strategy in a bigger conflict?
What prevents this people from just living peacefully with the people they raid? Perhaps its not actually as one sided as it looks ar first glance.
low-tier play can arguably even more complex and dramatic then high-tier.
I have a couple of questions and cross my fingers in hope you will read this.
1) Pretext: Baldur's Gate 3 came out not too long ago and is still developing... haven’t followed up on it recently but it did have a lot of traction.
There is also Paizo's Pathfinder which in recent years have received two (popular) games, the second having mystic levels, which mechanically similar to the GH transformations.
So my question is, is a video game based on Grim Hollow a thought you have entertained?
(I know you being a third partyb and copy rights might be an issue)
2] There is a subreddit r/unearthedarcana, where homebrew content is shared and the community helps balancing things out.
There was some content made called the Player's Guide to the Dark Arts, which I personally find fitting well into the GH setting.
Is that something which may peak yiur curiosity?
me watching your channel for the first time: Oh, nice way to shoehorn your book into this. NOW TELL ME HOW TO BUY IT! lol
Haha, we try to make it a good mix of advice anyone can use in their game right now and also highlighting what we think is awesome in the Grim Hollow setting books and how they can help.
Everything can be found on our website. I'll link you to the Monster Grimoire which I mentioned a few times this video; ghostfiregaming.com/product/grim-hollow-the-monster-grimoire-book/
@@GhostfireGaming thank you thank you!
I think the ~"wood elves lashing victims to trees and smearing them with honey" was an event in Thronebreaker the Witcher game.
Wow! Great quality video. Not only are the ideas really good, but the production is really well put together.
Love the music used in the intro; reminds me of Nier Ost. Anybody know what song it is? Can be more clearly heard @40s th-cam.com/video/jD57IH0fHvI/w-d-xo.html
I really like your idea of elf raiders in this video. I think it would be really interesting if the elves' leader is a warlock who has made a pact with a fiend to protect the elves' fey grove.
Very fitting you used scenes from the show Vikings to depict fantasy bandits because just about everything from that show is fantasy. Lol
you deserve more subs. Very well structured and engaging narration.
My bandits aren't ever just 1/8th CR with basic stuff. They are leveled in classes. Fighter/rogue/warlock/whatever with the same abilities/spells/etc as PCs. They aren't the same level as the PCs. I might have 4 level 2 fighters and 2 level 2 rogues or I might use 6 level 2 rangers instead as an encounter for a group of level 8 characters, I play the bandits as intelligent. They know who casts spells and how to deal with it. I mean magic exists and while not commonplace...it's common knowledge. They know that they should probably slow the guy with the heavy armor by using a scroll of Grease/web or a rope/net trap across a walkway. They know to trap a bridge so that it collapses. Your basic stuff that anyone in that world would know to so to prepare a battlefield. And it'd just be to drain resources from the party. The real BBEG might be a level 9 abjuration wizard.
Monster Grimoire is absolutely amazing I hope we get a second one some time down the line
I've reskinned a lot of things to fit better to a particular story. I like some fiendish features, but I don't use them in my game, so I either take the feature or retype the creature.
Holy shit was that 13th Warrior? Great freaking movie.
Really glad I found this page. Loved the video; definitely followed!
Thanks! 😄 We’re glad you’re here, too.
Here's another idea for Bandits. The Bandit is a rogue nobleman who has decided that he and his trusty band of mercenaries will rob any common folk who attempt to cross his lands. Because of the Feudal system of government he can claim he has a LEGAL RIGHT TO DO THIS.
His claims may rest on shaky ground, but who's going to stop him? What other Nobleman is going to risk his Knights and Men at Arms to protect some lowly serfs? This can work wonders for re-enforcing the chaos that can reign when a realm has a weak King.
where was this 2 sessions ago when I had bandits? ;-;
So make your bandits lead by an evil Robin Hood. Make them characters that grow in levels and personality, so they eventually make quite a network of thieves, rangers, bards, spies, assassins, and merchants. Until eventually they set up a coup and take over the government…
High quality content as ever
Great video my dude! Really like the inspiration
Thanks! Glad you like it. 🙂
@@GhostfireGaming it was very well done! I truly enjoy all of your improvement series and I'm about to use some of the advice for my elemental encounter this Sunday!
Best bandits I’ve ever ran against my players: A bunch of unpaid soldiers. In this scenario the king had been kidnapped in battle. Previously the king had been paying for his own standing army so he wouldn’t need to rely of levied citizens. But now with him gone the regency council that rules in the king’s place is refusing to pay the soldiers because they lost the king. That and they want to disband that army because it gave the king more power over the nobles and other land owners.
So until they are satisfied they raid and extort their wages, justifying it by the fact that they are fighting instead of the citizens who would have had to fill these ranks.
The problem I have found with a lot of RPG "Heroes" is that they treat all combat encounters as loot boxes. No matter how powerful or frightful a foe, they just charge in to claim those sweet sweet XP. I often got ridiculled for playing a character with mortal fears and mortal ambitions, who'd rather flee a small group of skeletons than risk getting cursed by the proximity of undead because I play a role, not a stat block.
Too many players, by my observation, get more excited over a fight that is a close call due to dice luck than over the terror of what they are facing would present if it was real.
This video was SO inspiring!
amazing video as always king
Lots of ideas here.
2:45 I'm sorry but I heard "a cave filled with Greeks" and I'm crying rn from laughing about it
Bandits? You mean fresh alternative living (aka undead) servants. In one group i play, as soon as we hit lv 5, both wizard and cleric go for animate dead. With it,you can control up to 4 zombies/skeletons. So we find bandits, kill them, raise one by one, and voila, we now have 4 skeletons and 4 zombies as extra meat. Go to bigger camp, kill more bandits for replacement material (aka fresh corpses). Rinse and repeat as needed. Later, just swap rise dead with create undead. Bandits are prime targets cause nobody cares about them. And those that do care, well, who in the right mind wan'ts to go against a group of murderous necromancers with decent band of undead minions.
Good job!
Hate to tell you this, but whatever you describe in this video, I've already beat. Firat time I ran an encounter, I-not knowing how CRs work-sicked seven bandits and one bandit captain on a party of two level 3s and reduced them both to pulp.
This is some good content
Sick ideas!
I like this! In my campaigns, I kinda run under the idea that humans are the real assholes.
What about a force of magic slinging researchers who would go to any length for knowledge, who have no qualls about morally questionable situations always picking a logical answer without a care for the cost.
A "no" to the trolly problem
Lovely
2:47 "a cave that's filled with greeks." That's just being cruel to the party.
Everybody's cool until the trees start speaking elvish
what about bandit knights following oath of conquest paladin for a chance to become the new leader
Part of the issue is that 5th Ed has made enemy encounters very weak compared to the player-character power curve. Used to not be this way. Now I see people constantly scrambling to construct meaningful and challenging encounters.