Tweaking Pathfinder: Tweaking the Mob rules

If you have played NeoExodus Legacies, chances are that you are familiar with our mob rules. Mobs are used as a creature where putting a horde of minion-level characters would be appropriate, but would be just too unwieldy.

Thus far, mobs have appeared as a terrifying element - which is what I think a mob should be. So I came up with mob rules and we have been using them occasionally in products since 2012.

This week, one of my players (shout-out to James-S) pointed out to me that when you are in a mob, you should be heavily distracted, something that was NOT in there. However, after some thinking, I must say that he was right. So I will be adding the following to the mob rules.

Why entangle? I hear you asking. Because, like the mob rules themselves, I want something that is easy, simple and that already is well-defined. The entangled condition provides a DC for concentration, makes the mob difficult terrain, lowers a target's Dex and attacks, etc. Although I considered mobs to get a free grapple, I thought it would be too powerful and not keep with the theme of disordered, unruly assault mobs do.

Note that this is entangled condition, not the entangle spell.

Mob Rules Sometime it is more convenient (and quicker) to represent a group of low-level combatants by have them swarm or form into a mob. Such a group usually contains individuals with similar abilities, such as a mob of peasants or an enuka tribe. A mob obeys mob mentality and surges forward striking with whatever weapon it has handy. This creates a “creature” that resembles a swarm in many aspects.     1. Except where mentioned below, a mob is considered to be a single creature.     2. A mob can move without penalty into any area that its member could fit through.     3. Mobs never use spells or special abilities requiring activation (but a mob of rangers would gain bonuses from the favored enemy ability and a mob of p’tan does additional damage to creatures with the First Ones subtype).     4. Although not immune to weapon damage, any attack that targets only a single creature cannot deal more than 10% of the mob’s starting hit point in damage.     5. A mob is vulnerable to area of effect attacks the same way a swarm is. Any area of effect attack deals half again its damage to the mob.     6. Deals damage like a swarm.     7. A mob is immune to any spell that targets a finite number of creatures with the exception of those dealing damage, those spells act like weapons (deal a maximum of 10% of the mob’s starting hit point).     8. Anyone inside a mob is entangled. The mob also provides cover to anyone inside it. A mob that reaches zero hit points is dispersed, leaving one third for dead, one third injured or unconscious and one third still alive. However the creatures have lost the will to fight and flee as fast as they can.

JP