Bandit Template

One of the things the Temple of Elemental Evil has in spades is human "monsters." Bandits, brigands, pirates, burglars, highwaymen, robbers, thugs - if it's a synonym for "group of men who try to rob you", they've got it. Heck, there's a whole town full of 'em.


That being the case, I thought it'd be useful to me (and perhaps to others) to have a baseline template the work off of. Yes, it's not hard to come up with, but having it done and in one place is still something. I give you:

The Bandit

ST: 12	HP: 12	Speed: 5.25
DX: 11	Will: 10	Move: 5, possibly down to 3 with encumbrance
IQ: 10	Per: 10
HT: 11	FP: 11	SM: 0
Dodge: 8	Parry: 10, but see below	DR: 2-4, see below

thr 1d-1, sw 1d+2

Weapon (14): Damage is by weapon. Other important things to consider are reach, number of hands, and weight (for breakage). Weapons are almost always cheap. Usually, if this is a ranged weapon, they'll have a Secondary Weapon; otherwise, it's a block.

Popular weapons include shortswords, maces, axes, spears, and polearms. Popular ranged weapons are crossbows, shortbows, and regular bows.

Secondary Weapon or Shield (12): If a shield, probably a small shield with DB 2 giving Block 11 and +2 to other defenses.


Skills: Weapon - 14, Secondary weapon or Shield - 12, Riding - 12, Stealth - 12, Survival (Terrain type) - 12

Traits: None, really. Maybe Social Stigma (Bandit). Many have Addiction, Cowardice, Bad Temper, and other such disadvantages.

Class: Mundane (Humanoid)

Notes: Just out to make a buck. Usually won't attack unless they think they can win (comes in numbers) or unless truly desperate. Also, usually won't fight to the death, either trying to parley or run away if the battle goes against them.

Gear: Weapons are almost exclusively Cheap. Most bandits will be in heavy leather, with some especially fortunate bandits getting chain shirts or hauberks, and a few having pot helms. Your average bandit will also have 1d copper in pocket change, and maybe 1d-2 silver.

Usually at least a few will also come with horses, so as to be able to actually chase down travellers. These will mostly be outriders, unless the bandit troupe is well-prepared

Okay, I agree, that's not all that exciting. Wow, a bandit. I could crib that up in thirty seconds myself. Thanks a lot. Why do I read this blog again?

You're right, of course. So let's talk a bit more about it.

First off, you can use this template for a number of other human "opponents" by shifting gear and motivations. The liege-men of a rogue petty fiefdom will be a little better equipped, but not much. The guardsmen of a town, or the local militia, will have Legal Enforcement Powers and probably Good-quality gear.

Second, the template above can easily be the subject of any of the prefixes (prefices?) in DF: Monsters 1. Especially likely, at least for me, are Berserker (with a 2-handed weapon instead of a shield, natch), Determined, Juggernaut, or Undead. To freak out your players, try Chaos or Distorted. (There's something weirder about distorted bandits than orcs. Maybe it's closer to home.)

There are also at least two other "levels" of bandits, which I'll call Sergeants and Lieutenants, based on the nomenclature in the Temple of Elemental Evil. For every five bandits or so, there'll be one Sergeant, and if there are at least ten there will be one Lieutenant (taking up a Sergeant slot). If there are around fifty or so, there will also be a Captain, but if you're throwing that many bandits at your PCs, they deserve to have the leader of that troupe statted up individually, so they know who you're killing them with.

Sergeant
Add Leadership - 10 and Tactics - 9. Also consider 1-2 levels of Hard to Kill, and bump the primary weapon skill up by 1. Furthermore, Sergeants will usually have the better gear - choose a mail hauberk and a pot-helm, and maybe a broadsword or flail.

Lieutenant
To the base template, add Leadership and Tactics - 12, and bump weapons to 16/14 Also, most of these guys have Combat Reflexes by now, and many have High Pain Threshold. Lieutenants, garnering the lion's share of the loot, almost always have better gear - a Good-quality weapon, armor on the higher end of the DR scale (maybe even a steel breastplate). Further, many of them have +1 IQ and a couple HP.

So it might look like this, for those of you who don't like lenses:


The Sergeant

ST: 12	HP: 12	Speed: 5.25
DX: 11	Will: 10	Move: 5, possibly down to 3 with encumbrance
IQ: 10	Per: 10
HT: 11	FP: 11	SM: 0
Dodge: 8	Parry: 10, but see below	DR: 4/2*

thr 1d-1, sw 1d+2

Weapon (15): Damage is by weapon. Other important things to consider are reach, number of hands, and weight (for breakage). Weapons are almost always cheap. Usually, if this is a ranged weapon, they'll have a Secondary Weapon; otherwise, it's a block.

Popular weapons include broadswords, shortswords, maces, axes, and flails. Sergeants usually don't use ranged weapons, lending their superior weight to the fight.

Secondary Weapon or Shield (12): If a shield, probably a small shield with DB 2 giving Block 11 and +2 to other defenses.


Skills: Weapon - 15, Secondary weapon or Shield - 12, Leadership - 10, Riding - 12, Stealth - 12, Survival (Terrain type) - 12, Tactics - 9

Traits: Social Stigma (Bandit). Many have Addiction, Bad Temper, Bully, and other such disadvantages.

Class: Mundane (Humanoid)

Notes: Just out to make a buck. Usually won't attack unless they think they can win (comes in numbers) or unless truly desperate. Also, usually won't fight to the death, either trying to parley or run away if the battle goes against them.

The Lieutenant

ST: 12	HP: 14	Speed: 5.25
DX: 11	Will: 11	Move: 5, 3 with encumbrance
IQ: 11	Per: 11
HT: 11	FP: 11	SM: 0
Dodge: 9	Parry: 12, but see below	DR: 2-4, see below

thr 1d-1, sw 1d+2

Weapon (16): Damage is by weapon. Other important things to consider are reach, number of hands, and weight (for breakage). Weapons are almost always Good quality; may occasionally be Fine.

Popular weapons include broadswords, bastard swords, maces, axes, and polearms. Popular ranged weapons are crossbows, regular bows, and longbows. Captains will usually only have a ranged weapon if using a polearm.

Secondary Weapon or Shield (12): If a shield, probably a small shield with DB 2 giving Block 12 and +2 to other defenses. However, some Lieutenants will have Shield-Wall Training, opening up the ability to carry a Medium Shield with DB 3

Skills: Weapon - 16, Secondary weapon or Shield - 14, Leadership - 12, Riding - 12, Stealth - 12, Survival (Terrain type) - 12, Tactics - 12

Traits: Combat Reflexes, Social Stigma (Bandit). Many have Addiction, Bad Temper, and other such disadvantages. Some have High Pain Threshold

Class: Mundane (Humanoid)

Notes: Just out to make a buck. Usually won't attack unless they think they can win (comes in numbers) or unless truly desperate. Also, usually won't fight to the death, either trying to parley or run away if the battle goes against them.

 Group composition

 

This is probably the least universally applicable section of this post, but there are some basic things that can be said.

As a rule of thumb, unless they're truly poor or just opportunistic serfs moonlighting as robbers, some number of bandits will have horses. Usually it's a small token portion of the band, about a fourth or so - just enough to be able to chase down and harrass travellers on foot. As the wealth of the band increases, so will the quality and number of their horses. However, only in very rare cases are they actually trained to fight from horseback.

There's a lot of discussion about the exact difference between bandits, robbers, highwaymen, etc. Here's how I slice it: bandits are your baseline "we're rough men who've decided that attacking travellers is easier than farming or serving in the military." Brigands are slightly nastier.

Highwaymen are specifically road-oriented, and more likely to do things like run tolls and have horses. Their big thing is mobility.

Thugs, and to a lesser extent robbers, are specifically town- or village-based. They usually won't have horses, because they don't need them. The same can be said for the city guard and pirates (who are water-based, where they have ships or boats instead).

As for size, that's all over the map. The only thing that can be said is that militia and pirates are likely to come in large groups. The others could be any size at all greater than two people.

The number of archers in a group of bandits will vary quite a lot, but for any group above four, they should have at least one. I usually try to make roughly a fourth of the group use bows or crossbows as their primary weapon, and roughly half the others should be able to fire and forget a crossbow if the group is rich enough.

 

Tactics

If they have their druthers and aren't crazy or desperate, bandits won't usually attack groups unless they have at least a 2:1 numeric advantage. There's no profit in dying.

For any engagement, have the person with the highest Tactics and Leadership skills roll both; if they succeed, have the bandits behave cohesively as a unit; otherwise, they'll stick together in groups of two or three and try to go after the weaker-looking targets, avoiding the stronger (or running away). All the advice below is for acting as a unit.

Broadly, there are two different tactical situations where bandits are concerned: those where the bandits choose the engagement, and those where they don't, because the party has found their lair or hideout or whatnot. The latter discussion will probably shade more into what makes a good bandit hideout.

Offense

First, remember the cardinal rule: bandits won't attack unless they're desperate or their target looks weak. This translates into waiting until nightfall when camp is being set up, or when the party's overladen with valuables, or when they're caring for wounded.

Since bandits will outnumber their opponents as a rule, they will usually attack somewhere open enough to bring their superior numbers to bear. If they must attack somewhere else, either they'll wait, or get creative. (For example, if the party is on a road cut between two bluffs, maybe the bandits will send a small number of their force to cut off the way out while the others roll rocks down or shoot from above.)

In any case, they'll go for the less-armored, squishy-looking people first, especially if they look likely to be dangerous. Specifically avoid dealing with Knights and Barbarians, who easily outclass bandits in combat. This can be either through sufficient mobility, or, if necessary, sending a trio of guys to go keep the main combatants tied up while the rest of the band strikes into the squishy middle.

Most of the time, they're much more interested in a smash-and-grab raid than "kill'em all and let St. Cuthbert sort'em out." Look for easily-spotted valuables; that wagon full of loot from the latest dungeon is a good candidate for grabbing some stuff and then setting on fire so the party has something else to worry about.

Defense

If attacked by surprise, bandits will usually just run away. That goes double for a well-armed or numerous party. (Any party with a Knight counts as well-armed.) The only real exceptions are where they can't, because they're cornered, or when their lair is being attacked - they'll stand and fight to protect their loot, at least usually. (Still, better alive and poor than dead.)

The advice here is pretty much the opposite of that for offense. Find some narrow place where the PCs can't get everyone crashing the party, and put guys with shields up front taking All-Out Defense and Defensive Attack actions until their buddies can grab the loot and skedaddle. For extra style points, put a rank of spearmen or halberdiers (because the word sounds cooler than "pole-armsmen") behind them to make the PCs at least a little endangered. Then, once the bandit cave is cleaned of all easily-transportable goods, beat a retreat, preferably with shields still facing the enemy. If cornered, they'll surrender, unless the party has a reputation or demonstration of taking no prisoners.

If the Tactics roll fails here, just turn it into a rout, with every man grabbing what he can and heading for the exit.