How to hustle along numerically superior fights in Pathfinder? New DM needs help

Hello there, folks! Based on a few encounters that were ultimately...a flop, to be nice about it, I've deduced one underlying problem: how can you play an enemy force that, while weak by themselves are numerically superior? My players have had no trouble dealing with 3 minotaurs but had so much trouble fighting a lich who led an army of 12 level 4 skeletons. Of course there should be battles like such, given how heroes must often face insurmountable odds, but I've always found that the CR rating for the most parts works only for enemies that are fewer much less it is for enemies that come en masse. Also, the other problem I've had is just how long turn orders went, easily sapping the enthusiasm of my players in that run through. I really don't want to 'just' stop using numerically superior enemies (Given how I really look forward to planning a rather large skirmish as well) but at the same time, I'm rather stumped as to how I should go about these kinds of battles so as to not drain away the energies of my players. Any advice? Hints? Personal stories? Thanks! Note: I am playing Pathfinder and most of these batles are taking place around the levels of 1-7. I feel rather homely in low-level campaigns.

As far as I know D&D4 has something like a minion-system. A minion has the same states as the normal monster, but dies as soon as he got hit. So you could create something like a house rule around that? And battles with many enemys will always take long (My players will start to break a siege in a few hours, so I know the problems <___<). One way to make it a little easier to navigate in terms of initiative is to create battlegroups. Instead of having single initiative-rolls for every monster you just use groups of 4-6 monsters. Combined with something like a minion-system this could speed things up a little bit and you have still a numerically superior element.

Hi there, I've only just started Pathfinder recently so i'll stick to general advice :) If my group were in a situation which called for a lich and 12 buddies I would encourage some 'fighting talk'. As in the enemies would shout out something evil/witty and I would give the group a chance to respond while I moved a few more tokens around and take a few swings just to keep them engaged while waiting for their initiative to come around. Failing that I would set the encounter up in waves so that they may start the encounter with the lich and 4 buddies, but once 2 were dead the next 4 would come into play etc, so that they would remain outnumbered and challenged but not necessarily having to wait a long time to take a turn. I've also been known to say things like "ok, bandit #1,#2,#3 are taking a swing at x,y,z and just do one attack roll that represents many minions. Hope that helps :) *edit* Also, I house rule that once a monster is at 0 hp, it's dead. Unless it's a named monster or the group have made any indication that they want to capture it.

Use the Ultimate Campaign army rules, it'll speed up massive combats a lot. It helped turn a potentially dreary set of encounters into something manageable for both the party and myself. Also rather than making just one attack, consider that all your monsters are aiding a single unit and make a single aided attack to represent the fact that they are surrounded and should have a hard time dodging multiple attacks. An example is Joe the Wizard is confronted by 3 Skeletons, the Skeletons usually have a +4 to hit, instead they hit with a +8 or more if you move them into flank. You manage to hit, Joe the wizard gets scraped by the skeletons claws taking damage 1d4+2. Personally, I prefer the Aid another solution. -Jon