Patrol Problems

In today’s Dungeon Delve Wandering Monster table installment, let’s don some old-school heavy plate armor and go on a patrol of sorts together!

Inadvertently bumping into armed guards is more of a “when” encounter rather than an “if” encounter…especially when it comes to dungeon crawling. It’s not like your adventuring party is ransacking an empty underground lair. There’s juicy treasure down there somewhere, and the big boss has roving patrols to ensure its safety (as well as his).

We printed up this plate mail patrol for a high AC battle of the unfun kind. We’re fairly certain these shiny swordsmen are by Brite Minis, but don’t quote us on that. Our printed library is rather immense these days, and at times, it’s not the easiest file search to recall exactly where these guys hail from…so apologies if our minis citation is inadvertently incorrect.

DM Ben knows he wants these dungeon guards to be tougher, but some intriguing monster stat options exist, including the Guard, a Knight, a Soldier, a Man-at-Arms, or a Veteran. Some really great online supplements are also out there, so this was a tough choice. Let’s spice things up and do a mish-mash patrol.

Using our CR encounter builder, let’s break these bruisers out like so:

• Man at Arms (AC 20, HP 45, +8/1d8+3)
• Soldier x2 (AC 18, HP 16, +6/1d10+2)
• Guard x2 (AC 16, HP 11, +5, 1d6+1)

This turns out to be a CR 5 or medium encounter for our six-character, fourth-level party, but we think that difficulty creeps up a bit for a resting party. DM Ben tweaked their attack bonuses a tad due to some higher-than-normal party ACs to ensure the fight was balanced.

They all get two melee multi-attacks, which definitely makes them formidable opponents. Our Man at Arms (the patrol leader) is using a war hammer, and we’re adding a potion of greater healing (4d4+4) and Talisman Boon (reroll a 1 or 2 | but just 3 charges) to his inventory.

We’re adding these clanking damage bringers to both the Dungeon Delve and Wilderness Trek Wandering Monster tables. Traversing through the forest, the group could easily come across these armed men via an encampment or simply scouting ahead for their traveling boss. If the game group is close to a map objective, they could also be a wayward guard or perimeter patrolling unit.

Lastly, you can certainly make this a potential encounter by seeing if the player(s) on watch can attempt a successful stealth check as the marching patrol draws near their rest spot. DM’s call, of course.