What does a guard force look like when it has to cope with high-level spellcasting and magical monsters?
This is a question which has become gradually more and more relevant through my campaign.
As regular readers will know, my current campaign is based in the city of Akorros, on the shore of Lake Amsorak in the Republic of Darokin. The characters are 5th level (well, they will be once they get round to doing the training), and I’m making it clear to them it’s a world with some very high-level characters.
There are also some seriously heavy-weight monsters out there, and plenty of access to magical portals to other realms.
So, although most of the city guard are your usual low-level fighters (the stat block in the back of the Monster Manual would suggest second level), I reckon they would have a specialist unit for more serious threats.
In fact, a couple of years ago, for WorldAnvil Summer Camp 2022, I threw together some thoughts on the Toney City Guard, guard stations, and (most pertinent to this post), the Storm Guards.
Here’s how I described them there:
The constables of the The Toney Guard are well trained and well equipped, but there are some things which are too much for them to handle. A runaway wyvern escaped from a family collection. A renegade wizard with a wand of fireballs. Even a major breakdown in law and order like The Night of the Gangs .
When they come across a problem like one of these, a runner is sent post-haste to the Storm Guards barracks.
The Storm Guards are a division of the Toney Guard who are all trained in magic use, in particular the sort of magic useful for quelling or containing a conflict.They also have a store of magical tools and weapons they can call on, from wands and staffs to censers of stun gas.
When they march in, crimson capes swirling, their boots thundering in time, they make an awesome sight, and the citizens know something serious is afoot so they will make themselves scarce.
They will attempt to quell the trouble without causing harm – choosing to stun or contain rather than kill where possible, but they are also capable of devastating magical attack, including their signature lightning bolt. They also work weather, calling rain, sleet and ice storms to dampen the ardour of troublemakers. Other tactics include surrounding the troublemakers in walls of air, or putting walls of air across streets to separate rival attackers factions.
In fact, their logo is the City Guard logo crossed with a lightning bolt.
The Storm Guards’ job is to contain the trouble and stop it. They don’t get involved in arresting the trouble-makers, so they are always followed by a corps of normal Toney Guard constables who will move in once the trouble has been snuffed out and any remaining living trouble-makers are cowed or unconscious to actually perform the arrests.
How the party is involved with the Storm Guards
Since the party has had a knack of being in the area when demonic portals are opened and creatures come through, they and the Storm Guards have come to see quite a bit of each other, particularly as the creatures coming through the portals have got nastier.
To start with, the Storm Guards were distinctly sceptical of the party, and the first time they came together, the party was taken back to the guard house for interrogation (the Storm Guards arrived just as the party had finished mopping up the demons).
Since then, they have started to recognise that the party is stepping in to deal with the demons, and recently the captain gave one of the party members a sending stone which he can use to let the captain know about future portals opening up.
The storyline over the past few sessions has centred around the annual Harvest Festival to Djaea, and plans to disrupt it with portal bombs which have recently been developed (a hand-sized ball in red leather scribed with arcane symbols, which when thrown opens a random portal on landing). They have encountered the portal bombs a few times now, and I decided randomly that an urchin would deliver one to one of the characters in a case of mistaken identity.
Well, they thought this through better than I did, and realised the intended target must be nearby, and must look sufficiently similar to the PC for the mistake to happen. So I ran with that, they found the intended recipient, kidnapped her and took her for interrogation. At which point, fortunately, the session ended, so I had a couple of weeks to work out her back story, and why their assumption that she was a cult member was wrong – she had just been paid to throw the portal bomb, being told it was “a firework” and part of the celebrations.
So they interrogated her, found this out and that several of her friends/acquaintances had also been commissioned to throw these “fireworks”. They persuaded her that these were not innocent, and to try to get her friends to hand in the “fireworks” to the guards. Gareth used his sending stone to warn the Storm Guards there was a plan afoot.
The party then assassinated a rooftop assassin, using an ever-smoking bottle in the street to hide what was happening…which also drew the attention of the Storm Guards, and they bumped into the captain (literally). Gareth showed him the portal bomb they had taken off the mark, and he said he’d been handed a couple others, and was able to sense the conjuration magic in them.
But they knew there were still some portal bombs out there, and that there were plans afoot, so everything was set up for another incursion. But the Storm Guards were already in the area, so they would be expected to join in dealing with it. So I had to be ready with some idea of how they would get involved. Which meant starting to stat them up.
Storm Guards Captain – Take One
To keep things simple, I decided the only Storm Guard member who would be around them would be the captain – I reckoned the others would be further down the boulevard dealing with other incursions. I didn’t have a huge amount of time for preparation, so I looked up some demons (Rattok, Barlgura, a demon from the Creature Codex which was invisible underwater, plus one other I didn’t use so won’t mention in case they read this), and then, looking for a stat block for the captain and flicking through the stat blocks at the back of the Monster Manual, I saw the Archmage. It felt like a good starting point for the overall leader of the Storm Guards. I started off the battle running him, but then decided to hand him over to a player to run while I concentrated on the foes.
That got their attention! They now have a very healthy respect for the abilities of the captain – particularly the 9th level spell slot (which the Archmage stat block assigns to Time Stop).
We finished the session, and pretty much the battle (though there was a Barlgura still banished, and one of the invisible demons attacking them in the fountain), and I had another couple of weeks to think things through.
Storm Guards – Take Two
I found myself thinking about the captain, and about the Storm Guards in general, and I thought about the Archmage stat block and how it had worked in practice. And I thought it had some positives, but that some of the emphasis was wrong. So I had a free half hour and revised it. And also thought about the lower levels.
The first point which occurred to me is that these characters would have come out of the ranks of the guards, and so would all be expected to have a level or two of fighter. Which gives them armour proficiency, so they wear chain shirts. They are also a sort of elite troop, so even the lowliest will have several levels of spellcasting.
So here’s what I’ve come up with for now.
I stuck with the Archmage as the starting point for the captain, but dropped one level of wizard and added two of fighter. This gives a final character level of 19, for a +6 proficiency bonus.
The Mage stat block looked like a good starting point for a Lieutenant – it’s clearly a 9th level wizard. In this case I decided to leave it at nine, and just add two levels of fighter (they’d probably have had a bit more training if they’ve made it to officer), making them a final character level of 11, for a +4 proficiency bonus.
So finally the basic Storm Guard. They will still have a non-trivial number of wizard levels. From the description, they are all taught lightning bolt (or at least that’s their signature), so that means they need to be at least level 5. That sounds reasonable. Plus a level of fighter gives them a final character level of 6, for a +3 proficiency bonus.
The rapier is the Darokin weapon of choice, but in this case I feel the quarterstaff fits better, so I’ve decided they tend to carry quarterstaves and daggers.
I think there is probably the captain, plus 3-4 squads of lieutenant + 5-6 guards.
Spell selection
Now, what spells would they know. Their signature is the lightning bolt, though I feel some at least might learn fireball instead (partly because I forgot about that page and just went with the mage, so I have now established that at least one of the guards knows fireball. And doesn’t know how to use it in a crowd…).
Beyond that, certainly spells useful for non-lethal containment, and some defence. Particular spells which stand out here:
Basic guard
- Sleep, web, hypnotic pattern – non-lethal ways of restraining targets
- Knock – always useful for an investigative force to be able to get past locked doors…
- Detect magic – appropriate for the sort of investigation this sort of force might be involved in
Lieutenant:
- Ice storm, cone of cold – as mentioned, they work the weather
- Wind wall, wall of fire – the closest thing to a wall of air until you get to wall of force; again, containment
Captain:
- Wall of force – as mentioned above
- See invisibility, Detect thoughts, True seeing – useful for investigation and interrogation
- Sleet storm – a more nuanced weather control
- Forcecage – containment
- Banishment – useful for extra-planar invasion
So for the basic Storm Guard, I have gone for:
- Cantrips: fire bolt, light, mage hand, message
- #1 (4): detect magic, magic missile, sleep, shield
- #2 (3): knock, web
- #3 (2): fireball or lightning bolt, hypnotic pattern
The lieutenant adds:
- #3 (3): + wind wall
- #4 (3): ice storm, wall of fire
- #5 (1): cone of cold
Finally, Quirze Moncada, the captain, has:
- Cantrips: fire bolt, light, mage hand, message, prestidigitation
- #1 (4): detect magic, identify, magic missile, sleep
- #2 (3): detect thoughts, hold person, see invisibility
- #3 (3): counterspell, fly, lightning bolt, sleet storm
- #4 (3): banishment, fire shield, ice storm, stoneskin
- #5 (2): cone of cold, scrying, wall of force
- #6 (1): true seeing
- #7 (1): forcecage
- #8 (1): mind blank
- #9 (1): time stop
Storm Guard Healer Corps
As well as the wizards who deal with the threat, I imagine there is a small corps of religious healers. Since this is Darokin, they will almost certainly be clerics of Asterius. I imagine half a dozen healers, plus a leader.
Similar to the Storm Guards, the basic healer will have a level of fighter plus five levels of (light) cleric, and the lieutenant will have two levels of fighter plus nine levels of cleric. Their spells will be chosen for healing, defence and non-lethal conflict resolution.
Storm Guard Healer:
- Cantrips: light, sacred flame, spare the dying
- #1 (4): bless*, cure wounds*, detect evil and good, guiding bolt, command
- #2 (3): calm emotions, hold person, lesser restoration*, spiritual weapon*, zone of truth
- #3 (3): beacon of hope*, remove curse, revivify*, spirit guardians
The lieutenant adds:
- Cantrips: +thaumaturgy
- #3 (3): +magic circle, +tongues
- #4 (3): banishment, death ward*, guardian of faith*
- #5 (1): dispel evil and good, mass cure wounds*, raise dead*
* = light domain spells, always prepared
Next step – special equipment. But that’s a story for another day…
