Source Bestiary 6 pg. 265
Wherever there are battles to be fought or spoils to be claimed, troops march forward to do the dirty work of war. Whether they are hungry brigands eager to raid merchant caravans, frantic goblins scrambling to put a local settlement to the torch, or a cabal of drow spellcasters on a religious crusade for their demonic faith, troops heed the call and move as a single unit to accomplish what one lone mercenary, arsonist, or cabalist could not.
Of course, brigands, drow, and goblins aren’t the only types of troop that could exist—they’re merely the three presented on the following pages. The troop subtype provides rules for the creation of groups of like-minded individuals of all kinds, functioning in a way similar to how the swarm subtype allows for the modeling of a vast flight of creatures acting as a single whole. With a troop, running an encounter against a large number of lower-level foes becomes much more manageable, and allows for normally low-CR threats to band together and challenge more powerful PCs.
Troops can be created in innumerable variations, and you should feel free to use the three examples on the following pages as inspiration for the creation of troops of your own design. Troops are not as meant as exact simulations of tactical warfare, and when creating them you should not be overly concerned with trying to emulate the compounded abilities of the troop’s component individuals. Troops are created just like other creatures of their creature type, with basic elements such as Hit Dice and statistics assigned so the completed troop conforms to the approximate hit points, Armor Class, and other values for its desired Challenge Rating as found Appendix 9: Monsters by CR, which begins on page 313. Once that foundation is established, apply the subtype rules and use the examples and variations provided here to finetune it with flavorful abilities and feats that approximate how a homogenous group of creatures of this sort might fight. With troops at your command, PCs may think twice next time they encounter a seemingly outmatched group of opponents.MembersBarrier Breaker Troop (CR 7), Cultist Troop (CR 11), Goblin Troop (CR 5), Outlaw Troop (CR 7), Sodden Drauger Troop (CR 9)
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