magic and warfare

Falchen

I am starting a war time campaign using the Pathfinder system (very similar to AD&D 3.5) and I want to truly integrate magic into warfare, not just a mage becomes a weapons platform (which i will still use) but shift warfare to seem like it is being done by a society that has evolved while being steeped in magic. These are what I have thought of so far, but I would love others ideas as well:

Animated soldiers: (clay warriors) Everyone has seen the terracotta soldiers from Asia, with magic they are real soldiers in my game, not the entire army, but a solid chunk of soulless, fearless shock troops. They come in 2 sizes, medium and large, but in general act like lesser golems.

Magic ammunition for siege weapons: Now this is a 2 part, one being exploding with magic energy normal ammunition, the other is a way to break a siege, fire ammunition over the wall that casts a modified summons spell, making elemental, or anything else show up right around the ammunition. This can place troops inside a besieged castle or town without having to scale the walls or crash the gate first.

Undead soldiers: the army that keeps on growing

Unit level buff spells: Mass enlarge, Mass magic weapon

Terrain altering spells, Fog bank, wall of stone, move earth, wind walls

Any other ideas anyone has on the true integration of magic into warfare I would love to hear.

Mike

kenurion

That's a great list. I would spend some thought on defensive magic. Stuff that improves the resistance of units to magical attacks, contingency triggered dispell magic devices, nullification zones that void all magic, parasitic magical organisms that preferentially attack magic users through a different plane. Also, throw in some spells that allow instantaneous communications across long distances, spying, and bluffing (create army of illusory warriors to divert the enemy's main force).

Alatheon

I'd look at some of the Eberron materials from WotC -that setting is very much about magic as a surrogate for real-world technology, and the main continent of the setting (Khorvaire) has only recently ended a long, major war.

Obviously, every unit would have a bard.
What if one faction trains whole units in Use Magic Device? Suddenly ranged support is using Acid Arrow and Magic Missile en masse, like an Arcane Rifle Unit.
Libris Mortis (i think) mentioned the idea of using Ballista Bolts enchanted with Negative Energy AoE's -Fire them into close combat between undead and living troops and you heal your own guys while damaging the enemy.

Kenurion's suggestion for illusory combatants is a great one, and I think terrain altering spells are a must as well -Walls, Glitterdust, Stinking Cloud, Entangle, Hallucinatory Terrain. Your summoning arrows idea is excellent -I've used something similar, and it can make for tense moments of combat (and pretty cool loot if there are any summoning arrows left over).

I'd suggest looking at Miniature Wargames for inspiration -Warmachine has some cool stuff, and you could figure out how to translate it into Pathfinder terms.

gnunn

I agree with the unit wide buff spells and having a bard or 2 embedded in each combat unit to provide buffs with their music. Spells that create walls of force or fire could be used to funnel enemy units into killzones, or to protect friendly troops from volleys of arrows. I only know 3.5 specific spells, so forgive me if Pathfinder doesn't have an equivalent, but here are some other ideas:

medics using tenser's floating disc to float the wounded away from the front.
medics using sanctuary to protect themselves while healing the wounded during combat
using haste spells just before closing with the enemy
using stone to mud or similar spells to bring down castle walls
Units launching ambushes from pocket dimensions
using summoned creatures to take the first wave of a charge
hold spells to breakup a charging foe
entangling spells to slow enemy advances in order to let archers pick them off
Cloud spells used like WWI style gas attacks to flush enemies from fortified positions, or to obscure troop movements

If magic is REALLY pervasive in your world, you might consider that cities and the like might be transitioning away from things like city walls due to their ineffectiveness against magic attack, just as real world cities began to do away with walls as artillery became powerful enough to knock them out quickly.

I think in general, pick a couple tactics that strike you as interesting to add a flavor of magic without making the management its effects too burdensome on yourself. A few distinct tactics is better than a big magical mess.
The 3.5 book, Heroes of Battle has some great suggestions for incorporating magic into battlefield encounters.

arsheesh

Well I was just about to suggest checking out "Heroes of Battle":http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Fantasy-Roleplaying-Supplement/dp/078693686X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290449173&sr=1-1 but looks like Grunn beat me to it. By the way everyone, these are some fantastic suggestions, I'm taking notes!

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Duskreign

Gnunn... wow. I needed that. Seriously, where I am in Wyrmshadow, just about to get into the "War" part of "War is Hell," I really needed this inspiration. Thanks, and also thanks Falchen, Kenurion, and Alatheon for your inspiring ideas!

RaseCidraen

Going from the Hell part to the War part, eh? I look forward to reading about it!

I think there were a couple feats somewhere in some random sourcebook (3.5e has way too many books for me to keep track of..) that allowed for, essentially, changed flavor text. Wanted a dark mage? Fine. His fireballs now are swirling vortexes of negative energy. Lightning bolts not doing it for you? How about necrotic spears? (Granted, there is a Bone Spear spell somewhere, but...) For the characters involved, things seem much scarier when even spells that do the same damage have a different descriptor - because it's unknown.

A bit from campaigns past: I've seen were-troops be very effectively utilized as shock troops. Werewolves that can change at will? The charging army seems a heck of a lot more imposing when their front line suddenly transforms, mid run, into a snarling wolf creature. (Taking the summoning idea to a bit of ridiculous level - a single archer that has a quiver of summoning arrows: that is, arrows that summon other arrows mid-flight. Suddenly, the small archery group seems a whole lot bigger/more dangerous...)

Also, I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, but Mass Invisibility for Ambushes? Additionally, how about Mass Suggestion to turn the tide of battle? (Not sure if the rules allow it or not...)

Falchen

Thanks guys, I am getting a ton of ideas, like self propelled battering rams and balista golems.

Poutine_Paladin

I'm loving the "arrows that summon" concept. Not even just for warfare, I don't know how I've never thought of that. Hooray for OP community participation!