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A Clash of Swords

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Suggested Price $5.00

When the armies march, all the earth trembles.

D&D has a long history on troops and massive combat and warfare adventures, but 5th edition is the first one to achieve that armies keep being relevant even when heroes achieve high levels. The beauty of this edition is that numbers matter: high quantities of low level mooks can stand a chance to overpower a group of adventurers, and smart PCs will pay for hirelings to improve their combat capabilities

This book is born from that line of thought. Here you will find buttloads of relatively low level NPC stat blocks, adapted to any race to stay true to their iconic identities. This NPCs are warfare-oriented, and fit perfectly in a low or high magic world. They are perfect to rank your armies if you build a war-centered campaign, to populate your castles and cities, or even to give your players a good fight.

Here you will also find tactic and strategic advice for every race troops to feel more distinctive and unique. I’ve tried to avoid names like “duskblood evilblade of the dragonlord” and such and favor the more intuitive real world names (like the dwarven ritter or the dragonborn legionary), although a bit of it is present, especially in the orc and tiefling chapters.

This work has been very time consuming and difficult, so I hope you appreciate it and donate to the cause. Future updates of this work will include some excluded races, as goblinoids and lizardfolk, and an improved grammar. 

This project is still in a Beta stage, so make sure to keep visiting this post for updates. My main concerns are a proper English grammar (as I'm not a native English speaker and the it is a very long work) and the CR calculations, specially in the Human and Dwarven chapters.

>>The Lizard Update:

  • Reptilian Hordes chapter added.
  • Template issues corrected (Multiattack, Leadership and Brave descriptions now match to the NPC name)
  • Several grammar issues corrected (Sergeant instead of Sargent and such)
  • Gnome header paragraph modified (thanks to the feedback)

>>The Big Cleaning Up: 

  • Spanglish edited
  • New images and chapter beginnings
  • New units (gnome gunman, bomber, etc)
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Reviews (2)
Discussions (8)
Customer avatar
Zachery C April 08, 2017 8:48 am UTC
PURCHASER
Seriously brilliant. I wish there were stats for more army types. Perhaps there'll be more in the future, but this is just what I was looking for.
Customer avatar
Esteban R November 25, 2016 3:02 pm UTC
CREATOR
Check out the new booklet! It has a lot of NPC stat blocks
http://www.dmsguild.com/product/199091/A-Simple-Life-a-collection-of-commoner-NPCs
Customer avatar
Federico G November 15, 2016 9:44 am UTC
PURCHASER
I'm writing a supplement on massed combat myself (actually, it is already finished xD), so I am surely going to study yours, because it promises to be very interesting, and put it into the bibliography
Customer avatar
Adrian F October 04, 2016 7:28 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is one of my favorite pdfs for 5e! Great asset to any DM!
Customer avatar
Alexander D September 24, 2016 3:58 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Excellent addition for a GM that wants to add massive combat to his or her campaign. I especially enjoyed the Orcs and the focus on their bloodlust. Nice work.
Customer avatar
Nicasio O September 24, 2016 3:31 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Great book. Keep up the good work!
Customer avatar
Thomas W September 23, 2016 7:41 pm UTC
PURCHASER
First off, great job on this useful product. I would like to suggest two things to add to it if you don't mind. One would be a printer friendly version with a white background. The other would be a list of changes between versions as you add things or make changes, so those printing it out can just print the changes or additions.
Neither of these things would hurt the rating of five stars if they can't be added, but they would be nice. Great job. Let me know if I can help in any way with the language usage. As noted in the review I left, they are not an issue at all, but I'd be happy to proofread it as a way to thank you for a useful product.
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Customer avatar
Thomas W September 23, 2016 8:09 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Wow, less than fifteen minutes later you have a printer-friendly version up. Great minds think alike. Thank you.
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Customer avatar
Esteban R September 23, 2016 9:56 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thank you a lot for the review!
Actually I've uploaded the printer friendly version because I've read the request in the review . I want to be as receptive to feedback as posible, at least if I want to appeal to a wider audience and make enough money to at least support my hobby (I don't believe that I could make a living of this, but I want to be able to sustain my hobbyism at least).
Again, thank you a lot!
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Customer avatar
Thomas W September 23, 2016 10:08 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks for the quick response to feedback. I just noticed that the Gnome Units section refers to halflings rather than a Gnome write up. The individual Gnome entries are fine, just the main starting chapter entry seems to have the Halfling information instead. For those other than the author reading this, I can't stress how many great ideas this work generates for wars in reading it.
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Customer avatar
Esteban R September 23, 2016 11:41 pm UTC
CREATOR
Crap. I forget that. I've using a self developed template, and the halfling and gnomes were among the less revised of the document (I had a bit of a problem, because I've to write the gnome stuff twice, because my 1year-old son likes to touch the keyboard of the PC, and erased it). In a few days I will upload an updated version of the file with lizardfolk entries. For now, this is what it has to be there:

"Gnomes usually don’t have any sort of standing army. Nevertheless, some of them may be included on another races’ armies and when the need arises some gnomes may take arms against their enemies. There is no real military tradition among them, but the rock gnomes rely on technological advancement, fine equipment and creative thinking, and forest gnomes rely more on stealth and illusion. The rare forest gnomes war parties may use ambushes and hide from their enemies before attacking, and the rock gnomes use heavy artillery like Ballistae and Trebuchets along with tinker armors and magic."...See more
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Customer avatar
Thomas W September 24, 2016 1:49 am UTC
PURCHASER
Sounds good. The Lizardfolk sound great too. Your son is starting his gaming years early by removing an entire Gnome Army. He'll make a great gamer.
Customer avatar
Frank W September 23, 2016 11:46 am UTC
PURCHASER
From the description I am not sure what this product is. Is it just a book of stat blocks or are there rules for mass combat, or something else.

Also the language you use is a little off putting as you seem more concerned about taking shots at other editions than talking about your product.

That said, I am interested in seeing what this book is and will probably download it.
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Customer avatar
Esteban R September 23, 2016 4:58 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hello, Frank! I'm not giving actual rules for mass combat per se in this work, as there is already an unearthed arcana article covering that. This project contains a buttload of stat blocks of NPC soldiers, knights and warfare units, and many of them have traits that are best used in massive combat situations (E.G. the Weak Morale trait of most commoners and peasants, or the orcs' Blood Frenzy). Almost every unit here is designed to be used in larger groups (specialized or diverse), like a squad of halberdiers, instead of solo fights.
There is also some tactical and strategic advice by race and unit. Further updates will include also full encounters, with entire squads or troops. Thanks for the interest!
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File Last Updated:
August 24, 2019
This title was added to our catalog on September 22, 2016.