Dire Boar how to make it an exciting combat

[soulnafein]

Hello guys,

I'm planning an start adventure in low-magic setting where the player's will investigates a series of recent deaths that the local village folks attributes to some sort of monster.

They will discover that the deaths are caused by a very large wild boar.

I envision hunting the boar as a combination of tracking, chasing, fighting, chasing again etc.

Given the following stats for a wilboard:

Dire Boar

ST: 27 HP: 27 Speed: 5.75
DX: 10 Will: 12 Move: 6
IQ: 5 Per: 11
HT: 13 FP: 13 SM: +2
Dodge: 8 Parry: N/A DR: 3
Tusks (12): 4d+1 cut.
Traits: Cutting Striker (Tusks); Discriminatory Smell; Hard to Subdue 2; Night Vision 5; Quadruped; Sharp Claws; Sharp Teeth; Wild Animal.
Skills: Brawling-12.
Class: Animal.

Will 4 characters built with 100 points each of which 3, of those are more combat oriented, be able to capture/kill the Dire Boar?

What type of strategy will the Wild Board use? E.g. charges, fleeing, etc.
What rule I should be aware of? E.g. trampling, horse riding, etc?

[Bruno]

Traditionally, wild boar are regarded as Berserk, or at least Bad Tempered and having a High Pain Threshold. They're legendary for climbing up spear-shafts after being impaled to try and get at their attacker (whether this ever happens IRL I don't know, but you've got a dire boar anyways - be willing to play with slightly fantastic behaviour).

I would also add Stealth. Yes, it's huge - but elephants are huge and notoriously quiet. Boar are willy, and are also reputed to circle around hunters and start stalking them; that takes Stealth.

Technically it can Parry with those tusks, since they're strikers. For the boars survival, you might want to consider that.

If the boar gets wind of the hunters, it may try to ambush them. In combat, with only a skill of 12 and a -2 penalty to hit SM 0 human-sized characters, it will have to take combat options like All Out Attack Determined (for +4) and/or Telegraphic Attack (for +4, but giving the prey +2 to defend). Because those are risky, have the boar charge out of concealment in an ambush to use them with Surprise on stunned PCs, or from behind (no active defence) or from the side (-2 penalty cancels out the +2 from Telegraphic). If it knocks someone down, and with that damage it probably will, it might overrun them and charge off into the bush to try and sneak up on them again. With no Parry this is probably its best tactics, although with only a Move of 6 it's not going to be much faster than PCs on foot.

Mounted PCs might be able to keep up with it, except that the boar could totally destroy a horse on the first charge out of cover. It may be inclined to go straight for a horse as looking like more of a serious "threat" than a mere human; a horse with a broken leg is flat out useless of course.

What kind of weapons, armor, and weapon skill do the PCs have?

With HT 13 +2 Hard to Subdue it's not going to pass out any time soon. This is going to be a looong slog of a fight.

[mlangsdorf]

The boar's advantages are strength; it's disadvantages are large size, low skill, low speed, and a lack of ranged attacks.

A not particularly excellent 100 point archer can probably afford Bow-14 and enough strength to get a 1d+2 attack (Str 11, Strongbow perk, and a long bow). If he can get up on some kind of platform out of the boar's reach, he can rain 1d+2 (2) piercing attacks to the vitals, rolling against skill-13 less any range penalties, every other round. It would take an average of 3 such shots to put the boar at 0 HP; it collapses 10 seconds later.

Against human-sized melee fighters, the boar hits on a 10-. Assuming axe and medium shield fighters with skill-14, the melee fighters can expect to be hit once every 12 rounds or so (effective defense of 13+ with retreats). 4d+1 cu will put a normal human on the ground, pretty much regardless of armor. ST13 melee fighters with axes do 2d+1 cu per strike and will hit with ~3 out of 4 strikes, so two of these guys would average 42 injury every 4 seconds.

Honestly, I wouldn't expect this to be to much of a fight, though the scare factor is pretty high. A single hit from the boar, unlikely as it is, will take out the melee fighters, but the combination of three combatants should see the boar off in a few seconds.

I'd recommend adding Combat Reflexes, Peripheral Vision, Extra Attack 1 (without multistrike, so the boar has to bit or claw to get in the extra attack) at a minimum. I'd also up the boar's brawling to 14 and/or probably add a Perk or Technique to reduce the penalty to hit SM0 targets. Adding more DR to the vitals and skull wouldn't hurt either and is probably realistic (hardening that DR is less justifiable but totally worthwhile).

Make sure to have some medical attention available for the PCs, since a single successful hit by the bore will average 12 injury to a guy in heavy steel plate armor (DR7), or 19 injury to some peasant mercenary in hard leather (DR2). PCs are notoriously persistent, and someone might try to keep fighting after taking a hit - which is likely to be fatal if they get hit again.

(Also, everything Bruno said, because she's smart and you should pay attention.)

[lexington]

If you have martial arts check out the rules for pushing yourself down a speak that you're impaled on. A monsters that keeps advancing after you skewer it is wonderfully intimidating.

Give it faux-Supernatural Durability (no shock penalties, only drops to 1/2 speed and dodge at 0HP, can only be killed by a hit to the vitals) if you're worried about it not being a challenge to a group of 100CP characters with combat skills. Mythic boars should remain dangerous right up until they D-E-D dead.

[Blind Mapmaker]

I would give a dire boar Enhanced Move (Ground) +1 (Costs Fatigue 1 FP/Min., -5%). That way it can pull off a hit and run and go to ground afterwards without being an absolute mobile terror in combat. It's not even that unrealistic for real boars, though Enhanced Move +0.5 is probably better there. They can be fast when they need to.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by lexington

Give it faux-Supernatural Durability (no shock penalties, only drops to 1/2 speed and dodge at 0HP, can only be killed by a hit to the vitals) if you're worried about it not being a challenge to a group of 100CP characters with combat skills. Mythic boars should remain dangerous right up until they D-E-D dead.

Berserk ought to do just fine for that purpose, I should think.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

Honestly, I wouldn't expect this to be to much of a fight, though the scare factor is pretty high. A single hit from the boar, unlikely as it is, will take out the melee fighters, but the combination of three combatants should see the boar off in a few seconds.

If the PCs are a typical DF home invasion squad, I second the above. If they're a bunch of fairly regular guys in a non-DF game, the boar as-written might totally stomp them if you use the surprise rules and good tactics like Bruno described and don't forget the Fright Checks (at a major penalty for anybody who finds himself on the wrong end of a charge up the spear he just shoved through its chest).

Also, definitely check out the rule for Multi-Hex Figures on 4e Campaigns p 392: The SM +2 boar can charge through the middle of the group and Slam all of them with a single Move and Attack that doesn't finish within their Reach, or do a tight-radius turn to Slam all of them with its hindquarters if they manage to surround it. With its high HP and the bonus from its Brawling, it should be able to pretty reliably knock humans over, at which point it can take out the last man standing or trample them while they spend two rounds getting up.

[Walrus]

I wouldn't bother with Vision-based advantages because boars have very poor sight. They have very keen hearing and smell instead (actually, vision is sense of carnivores primarily, while herbivores prefer smell and hearing).

Actually, the battle depends on PCs available time and preferred tactics. And it depends on necessity of "honorable" hunt (by Code of Honor or local laws) with special Boar Spear or even Boar Sword (there were ones at least in Germania and Lithuania), or maybe some of PCs or NPCs would like to collect a part of the boar undamaged (skin, head, tusks, meat, liver, heart or whatever). Otherwise, i'd just use stake pit and a lure (since it's stalking boar).

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

Berserk ought to do just fine for that purpose, I should think.

This is quite true.

[Varyon]

The Calydonian Boar from Greek Mythology might be of some use here. I seem to recall the hunt, while ultimately successful, going rather poorly for a good number of the hunters, due to the boar's ferocity. Naturally, this beast is unlikely to be quite as powerful as that monster was (and most Greek heroes would be built on more than 100 points).