There is always one challenge when it come to combats with multiple opponents who are of the same type – goblins, wolves, zombies and what have you. It sometimes spoil immersion if you say, “Right, Goblin B is leaping at you with his spear!” So just for fun, while prepping for my first Dragon Age game I settle on some simple descriptions.
For example, here are how four wolves are described
Wolf #1: One-eyed
Wolf #2: Large
Wolf #3: Smallest
Wolf #4: Scarred
“The one-eyed wolf lunges at you” sound better than “Wolf A lunges at you”. The description helps the players to remember who have attacked them, and which opponent has been wounded, and so on and so forth.
Customizing humanoids could include facial expressions, different style of weapons (long sword vs. serrated blade vs. broken off two-handed sword; all works according to the same rules for sanity’s sake) and other accessories, which can include scarfs, armor plates, spiked shoulder plates and eye-patches.
Of course, this technique falls apart when the number of opponents approaches 10. However, in the heat of a melee, it is hard to really remember who’ve just tried to backstab you a moment again. Truth to be told, I would rather have less but more powerful mobs than to have a horde.
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