Gilraen, “A good bardic taunt might lure them out. But remember, we need to be out of site of the cave opening. Trolls throw rocks hard and far. Hejren might know of the best use of her spells. We seem to be more of a melee group than a ranged group.”
"We’d need to keep it short and simple. I thought of something like this.
Cold old troll quiver in his hole
Stony old troll sulk in his lair
Chicken chief Kreg cower on his seat
Trolls hide in fear in stinky cold hole
Ghan thanks the party (and Miregol) for their help.
He still likes his idea of a Cave checkpoint, but recognises that the party probably can’t take all the trolls at one go.
So here’s his refinement:
- Attack in daylight.
- Try and get as many of us as close as possible to the Cave mouth without being spotted by the single Guard Wolf .
- The four main fighters go ahead (possibly hitting the Guard Wolf on the way) giving cover to spell caster(s), who blat the 5 Wargs
- One or two spellcasters take out the Wargs with area spells, whilst the others take out the Guard Wolf :
- Now our Fighters block the exit from the first chamber leading into the complex
- When Trolls arrive, a spellcaster (or two?) casts a spell Wall behind them
- Once our Fighters have taken out the first line of Trolls, we all nip outside the Cave (possibly forming up to one side of the entrance - definitely out of direct line of sight to avoid rocks!
- Once the Trolls have broken through the Wall, our spellcasters taunt them into coming out into sunlight (having lost their Wargs and a couple of Trolls should help with this)
- We then either continue the fight or run away and come back the next day
“Ah, a siege! Well, that sounds interesting. I’m for it. Does it ease your concerns Bitur?”
Now with some measurements
Just a note that this time I will be going in w/ Mage Armor cast beforehand. I’ll pop a Fireball to soften the trolls up, then a Slow, then as many Magic Missiles as I can get off.
Felareth will follow the rush by the fighters, attacking wargs with Fire Bolt, or if in melee his rapier (since making a ranged attack when threatened in melee imposes disadvantage) or Thunderwave if he can do so without harming his companions or triggering a premature attack by trolls.
\once the Wargs are dead he will use his Bardic chant to goad th trolls into emerging and following to where we are prepared to fight them. He will will happily accept divine Guidance.
While waiting for the troll onslaught, he will give each of the front line fighters one Bardic Inspiration die, which the PC can use any time in the 10 minutes following it’s bestowal.
Once the battle is engaged, he will use spells to back up the fighters.
- Command can force a troll to flee. He will wait until a troll is engaged in melee, so the flight produces attacks of opportunity.
- Heat Metal on a troll in metal armour - the chief if at all possible.
- Magic Missile or Fire Bolt to attack a single troll.
Other actions will depend on the evolving battle.
So just to clear, we are ignoring the advice about creating an ice wall at on of the choke points to slow and damage the Trolls?
Gwaelur is fine with this as he is pretty sure he can take all the Trolls on by himself and be fine, but he worries for the rest of the party.
I don’t have control of the staff, and it’s up to the possessor to use it. Personally I think Ghan’s idea of using it to cut off the Trolls advance after the first arrivals, meaning the fighters have a chance to kill a small number of trolls before retreating is not bad, provided the wall can withstand punishment long enough to cover our withdrawl.
My issue was that I keep thinking of D&D trolls, and their susceptibility to fire…
Yes, my staff can cast said Wall of Ice.
“Yes, and I like the idea of using the Ice Wall to split the trolls while we retreat.”
I, too, like the addition of the Ice Wall – even if they do eventually break it down, well, we want to kill them sooner or later anyway. 
Sir Thoroncir nods. “It seems to me to be a sound and well-thought-out plan. I think we should proceed.”
Ghan appreciates the enthusiasm of the party, but somehow has a feeling 
that trying to eliminate all the Trolls in one combat is ‘biting off more than we can chew’.
So his final effort is to effectively break the attack into eight parts. 
He asks the spellcasters to ‘fill in the blanks’ by stating their spells in the overall plan below
- Sneak up to the Cave.
Ghan uses ‘Pass without Trace’.
- Our four Fighters rush in, aiming to:
- smack the Guard Wolf on their way past
- form an initial line to protect the party from the 5 Wargs
-
Spellcaster(s) with area effect spells hit the 5 Wargs. (If Guard Wolf still active, rest of party dispose of it.)
-
Once the Wargs are dealt with, the Fighters form a line at the chokepoint at the end of the first Cave chamber (to keep the oncoming Trolls from entering the chamber.)
-
As the Trolls arrive, Spellcaster(s) with Wall type spells choose their moment to separate the Trolls into two groups - the first is a small enough number that the Fighters can take them all out and the second is … all the rest!
-
Once the Fighters have slain all the Trolls in the first group, the party run away … errr retreat in good order.
-
The party hide some distance outside the Cave, just close enough some Spellcaster(s) with Charm effect spells can lure the Trolls outside into the sunlight.
-
The idea is to slay the Trolls that are subject to sunlight, whilst being far enough away to safely retreat (e.g. from thrown rocks
) and return later to finish the job.
Gwaelur likes this plan, even if in general he is not a fan of retreat.
My comments are interspersed between Ghan’s points.
Remembering that fighters can can take part of their move, attack then move again, the fighters should have no problem striking the Old Warg as they pass.
I have only one area effect spell. This requires me to be adjacent to the creatures, and anyone else next to me is also going to get it. Thus I will refrain from area spells. My best bet would be Firebolt or Vicious Mockery. The former does more damage, but the latter is likely to deal damage more often.
That would seem to be a job for Wall of Ice from the staff of Hejren. If the Wall is cast in the 22’ wide area it should be capable of forming three or four walls across the tunnel, and the trolls would have to take damage 4 times passing through the broken wall.
At this point I could give myself Flight. This would mean I could keep up with faster party members (ie everyone else).
I don’t have a Charm spell, and I believe that my taunt should occur whileI am in the cav.
The idea wa to eliminate as many ice trolls as possible in sunlight, plus possibly really stupid regular trolls, and fight the rest later.
At this point I will be using damaging cantrips, and possibly Magic Missile, except that if the chief is wearing metal armour I’ll subject him to Heat Metal.
So last question I think. Party is still planning a strategic withdrawal to lure the Ice trolls away from the sun-sensitive trolls.
Will the knights have their horses waiting outside?
Having the warhorses outside makes sense – even if Thoroncir and Ceol don’t have time to mount up, they’re pretty fierce combatants on their own. I’m in favor of it.
Prep:
Felareth
- Command can force a troll to flee. He will wait until a troll is engaged in melee, so the flight produces attacks of opportunity.
- Heat Metal on a troll in metal armour - the chief if at all possible.
- Magic Missile or Fire Bolt to attack a single troll.
- Flight during retreat from Mandolin
Felareth plans to taunt the Trolls outside with Ceol helping on performance (advantage) and Bitur providing Guidance (+d4) and a bonus for the prepared song.
Cold old troll quiver in his hole
Stony old troll sulk in his lair
Chicken chief Kreg cower on his seat
Trolls hide in fear in stinky cold hole
Ghân-buri-Ghân casts Pass without Trace for party to sneak in.
Hejren will have up Mage Armor for AC 17. Today’s Prescience rolls …19 & 13.
All have +8 Temp hit points from your inspiring leader, Thoroncir .
Round 1 Gilraen will start Estë Prayer song blessing all in the party. +d4 Attacks & Saves. Last 1 minute (10 rounds) after she stops singing.
Fighters rush the warg, strike until dead and form defensive wall, don’t action surge, save for trolls. Bitur is last as worst stealth and slow. May want to use Enhance Ability © for Dex next serious stealthing, cancels disadvantage from armor and advantage initiative which is nice to have.
There is no surprise the guard rolled well, but Thoroncir wins initiative and hits twice leaving it bloody, Bitur strikes twice more finishing it off.
Hejren blasts 5 wargs with Cone of Cold. It does 39 points of damage. dc16 Con saves: 4 or 5 fail and the survivor looks bad off.
Felareth ensures it dies with his Magic Missile spell that send 3 glowing darts that automatically hit.
The wargs are dead with only minimal barking.
Where does the party want to form up for the first trolls?
@glee @NAF1138 @kenobi_65 @Hoopy_Frood @John_DiFool @Elendil_s_Heir @MHaye
Yes, we’d definitely want to have the warhorses close at hand outside.
Want to form up across the tunnel, maybe just north of the Rubble pile? That way we can see what’s coming, but not have any trolls behind us. Dwarves in the middle, Ceol and Thoroncir on the flanks, magic-users just behind?